Listen to the words that you say

While working on a post for my blog; I looked up whatever happened to Alison Moyet (of Yazoo fame.) I discovered that she is still singing and has been discussing her  mental and health issues over the years.



Since has a very kick ass voice.


According to the American Dialect Society the 2016 WORD OF THE YEAR is: Dumpster Fire. The society defined the phrase as “an exceedingly disastrous or chaotic situation,” the term dumpster fire was selected as best representing the public discourse and preoccupations of the past year. As a metaphor for a situation that is out of control or poorly handled, dumpster fire came into prominence in 2016, very frequently in the context of the U.S. presidential campaign.



“As 2016 unfolded, many people latched on to dumpster fire as a colorful, evocative expression to verbalize their feelings that the year was shaping up to be a catastrophic one,” said Ben Zimmer, a sociolinguist who presided over the vote. It is a term the people apparently turn to, he added, “in pessimistic times.”


It's Friday the 13th. In most large cities in the United States, many building don't have 13th floors. In Japan, they don't have 4th floors, because the word for four sounds similar to the word for DEATH! Some say that the modern basis for Friday the 13th phobia dates back to Friday, October 13, 1307.

On this date, the Pope Clement in conjunction with the King Philip of France secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France. The Templars were terminated with extreme prejudice (burned to a crisp) for apostasy, idolatry, heresy, "obscene rituals" and homosexuality, corruption and fraud, and secrecy, never again to hold the power that they had held for so long.

Those wacky Knights were such party animals.

Not to freak you out but the Olson twins were born on a Friday the 13th (Satan's Spawns?)

Also on this date on October 13, 1066, King Harold II was not having a really good day. William of Normandy (who was so important as not to need a last name, just an address) gave him the opportunity to relinquish his crown, and therefore England. Harold refused, which was not a good choice for him. The next day William took it by force at the Battle of Hastings, causing Harold’s demise.

Somehow this also led to today being unlucky for everyone else, who is not a monarch of an island nation.


Valentine's Day is 32 days away. Mardi Gras is 46 days away. Chinese New Years is 15 days away. And today is Old New Years Eve (Old Style Calendar.)



Enjoy the day!


January 13, 1945 -
One of the 'banned' World War II Looney Tunes cartoons, Herr meets Hare, premiered on this date. This cartoon marks the first appearance of Bugs' classic "left turn at Albuquerque" joke.



The cartoon was  finally broadcast in its entirety in July, 2001, on a special episode of the Cartoon Network's program Toonheads focusing on World War II cartoons. 


January 13, 1968 -
Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, and Carl Perkins and the Statler Brothers, performed for a second time at Folsom Prison in the prison cafeteria on this date.



Cash released the concert as an album, At Folsom Prison, a few months later. The album was a hit and it transformed Cash into a nationally popular musician. At Folsom Prison stayed in country music charts for 90 weeks and in the Billboard Top 200 for 122 weeks.


Today in History:
January 13, 1832 -
Horatio Alger, Jr., minister, American children's author (Ragged Dick, Tattered Tom and Julius, the Street Boy out West ) and noted pederast was born, on this date.

Some novels, uncompleted at Alger's death, include The Fortune Made Upon My Knees, Nelson, the Randy Pegboy, Impudent Dick and the Lonely Sea Men, Lance, the Brawny Farmhand Boy (who wore no undergarments under his britches), From the Gutter to Fortune (with nothing but bacon grease) and Jack, the Ruggedly Handsome Raw Meat Delivery Boy (who wore a posing strap under his britches).

(Stop snickering.)


January 13, 1862 -
President Lincoln names Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War on this date. He vigorously pursued the apprehension and prosecution of the conspirators involved in Lincoln's assassination. These proceedings were not handled by the civil courts, but by a military tribunal, and therefore under Stanton's supervision.

Stanton was appointed by President Grant to the Supreme Court, but he died four days after he was confirmed by the Senate, and taking the oath of office on his deathbed, set the record for shortest tenure on the Court.


January 13, 1900 -
To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary decrees German the official language of the Imperial Army on this date.

This causes all of the Esperanto schools in Austria-Hungarian Empire to close.


January 13, 1910 -
Lee De Forest, the American inventor of the vacuum tube, demonstrates the first radio broadcast, a live performance of Cavalleria Rusticana with Enrico Caruso from the Metropolitan Opera, on this date.

The broadcast over a telephone transmitter could be heard only by the small number of electronics hobbyists who had radio receivers or could squeeze into telephone booths. De Forest started regular nightly concerts in 1915, increasing interest in radio receivers, which at the time depended on the vacuum tubes manufactured by De Forest's company.

How convenient.


January 13, 1919 -
California voted to ratify the prohibition amendment on this date.

Much heavy drinking ensued.


January 13, 1957 -
Back in the 1920s, Yale students invented a game of catch by tossing around metal pie tins from the Frisbee Baking Company in nearby Bridgeport, Connecticut. Building inspector Fred Morrison puttered with and refined a plastic flying disc that he sold to WHAM-O (for $1 million, which bought a lot of pies back then) in 1955. The Wham-O Company produced the first Pluto Platter on this date.

Wham-O changed the name to Frisbee in 1958, upon hearing the Yale pie-tin story. (Mattel now owns the rights to Frisbee, which has become an American icon.)


January 13, 1962 -
Nothing in moderation

Ernie Kovacs was killed in an automobile accident when he lost control of his Chevrolet Corvair station wagon while turning fast. Crashing into a power pole at the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Boulevards, he was thrown halfway out the passenger side, dying almost instantly from chest and head injuries.



Kovacs may have lost control of the car while trying to light a cigar. A photographer managed to arrive moments later, and morbid images of Kovacs in death appeared in newspapers across the United States. An unlit cigar lay on the pavement, inches from his outstretched arm. (I'm not posting the photo - you Google it.)

Kids - smoking kills.



And so it goes.