There's an actual reason why you may have the day off

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.



Besides being a sales day at department stores, it's Martin Luther King Day.



To celebrate the day and the man, I'd like you to once again opine these words:

... Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Hopefully your life will be filled with many moments to make the right choice. 


January 18, 1904 -
When people tell you how young you look, they are telling you how old you are.



Archibald Leach, noted actor, acrobat and over the top orgy participant, was born on this date.


January 18, 1913 (or 1911) -
I wasn't born a fool. It took work to get this way.



David Daniel Kaminsky, UNICEF ambassador, comedian, actor, was born in Brooklyn on this date.


January 18, 1973 -
The third season finale of Monty Python, Grandstand, aired on this date



This is one of the only episode of the series that does not feature the opening credits. It is also the last episode John Cleese appeared in.


January 18, 1974 -
The sci-fi series, The Six Million Dollar Man, starring Lee Majors, premiered on the ABC-TV on this date.




Early episodes of the series had Steve Austin killing villains on occasion. As it became clear that Austin was becoming a role model for kids, the level of violence in the series decreased, with Austin rarely (if ever) actually killing anyone.


January 18, 1975 -
The Jeffersons, a spin-off of All In The Family premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



CBS never gave The Jeffersons a proper series finale. The cast, bitter that they never got a chance to say goodbye, reunited years later for a stage play based on the sitcom. Sherman Hemsley said he found out the show was canceled by reading it in the paper.


Today in History:
January 18, 1836 -

Knife aficionado Jim Bowie arrived at the Alamo to assist its Texas defenders on this date.


On January 18, 1871, while Prussian guns blasted all hell out of Paris, William I was proclaimed Emperor of a united Germany in nearby Versailles.

For this reason, the Germans have always had a soft spot for France, and have returned often.


January 18, 1882 -
You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.



Alan Alexander Milne was born on this date.


January 18, 1892 -
That's another fine mess you've gotten me into.



Oliver Hardy, American comedian, actor and the other half the the world's greatest comedy duo, was born on this date.


January 18, 1903 -
President Theodore Roosevelt sent a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.

Unfortunately, once again, the ill-chosen "Prince Albert in the can" joke is used - and 'Bertie', the King had already heard the joke ad nauseum (Prince Albert was his father and penis ring wearing enthusiast) and was not amused.


January 18, 1911 -
The first landing of an aircraft onto a ship took place on this date. Pilot Eugene Ely was the first person to land a plane onto a ship,  the USS Pennsylvania (less than ten years after the airplane was invented.)

The technique would later become commonplace as aircraft carriers became major wartime assets.


January 18, 1912 -
Explorer Robert F. Scott reached the South Pole - only to discover that Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by almost a month.



The Norwegian Amundsen's expedition beat that of the British Scott's by a little more than a month, which Scott discovered upon reading a letter that Amundsen had left at the site.

As my girls would say (and I'm paraphrasing - it must have sucked to be him.)


January 18, 1990 -
Rusty Hamer, the actor who played Danny Thomas' son on Make Room For Daddy, shot himself in the head with a .357 Magnum in DeRidder, Louisiana on this date. Rusty was 42 years old.

Uncle Tonoose made him do it.


January 18, 1990 -
Washington DC mayor Marion Barry was arrested on cocaine possession charges at the Vista International Hotel, as he tokes on a glass crack pipe while being videotaped with his mistress Rasheeda on this date.



Kids remember, while being videotaped, say NO to drugs.



And so it goes