Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Today is the first day of Autumn.



By happy coincidence, it's also the first day of Fall.



Many people in the northern hemisphere are disturbed by the changes they see around them at about this time each year. It gets darker earlier, temperatures drop, leaves change color and die and the Red Sox tend to drop out of playoff contention.

There have been myths about the changing of the seasons as long as there have been children to lie to. Some primitive peoples believed that leaves changed color because Nature was pining for her abducted daughter; others blamed it on the seasonal absence of sunlight-fed chlorophyll, allowing xanthophyll, carotene, and antocyanin to determine leaf color. We may never know the truth.



The first day of Autumn is sometimes also referred to as the Autumnal Equinox (the autumnal equinox is when the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator from north to south.) The autumnal equinox brings the fall season to the Northern Hemisphere on: September 22 at 4:02 PM ET. Don't be alarmed by the title. It's just Fall.



With courage and some heavy drinking, we can get through this thing.


September 22, 1957 -
The comedy-western series Maverick, premiered on ABC-TV on this date .



Producer Roy Huggins stated the writers' guiding principle for the Maverick series was his belief that, "In the traditional Western, the situation was always serious, but never hopeless. In a 'Maverick' story, the situation is always hopeless, but never serious."


September 22, 1958 -
The Private Eye series, Peter Gunn, starring Craig Stevens premiered on this date



The pianist who played the well known piano portion of the Peter Gunn Theme was future film composer John Williams.


September 22, 1964 -
Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, who kept the world safe on The Man from U.N.C.L.E, made their first appearance on NBC-TV on this date.



U.N.C.L.E. stands for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. The meaning of the acronym THRUSH was never spelled out in the series, though a meaning was created for one of the UNCLE novels published at the time (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity).


September 22, 1990 -
The Coen Brothers' take on the classic gangsters film, Miller's Crossing,  premiered in NYC on this date.



The Coen Brothers reportedly turned down the 1989 version of Batman because it would have interfered with this film.


September 22, 1994 -
You could get a cup of coffee at Central Perk for the first time when Friends, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



During the first season of the show the main cast were paid $22,500 per episode, but during the second season, only Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer were given a pay raise, to $40,000 an episode. For the third season and onward, the cast decided to conduct all salary negotiations in unison to ensure equal pay, an unusual practice at the time. By the final two seasons the main cast were making $1 million per episode. Lisa Kudrow, who according to an Entertainment Weekly profile was "the group leader", stated, "The six of us are far stronger than just one person."


Sometimes, it seems, like it takes forever


Today in History:
September 22, 1761 -
George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz were crowned King and Queen of the Great Britain. Which is funny because George was not British. He was German. He had been Elector of Hanover. (Although he was the first King of England in a very long time that spoke English as his first language, if at all.)



But he ended his days, completely blind, increasingly deaf and totally insane locked up in Windsor Castle, with his son acting as Regent for the remainder of George III's life.

I've said it before - sometimes it's not so good to be King.


September 22, 1776 -
An American Captain was hanged as a spy with no trial by the British, under the orders of General William Howe, in New York City during the Revolutionary War on this date. He was considered as one of the incendiaries of the burning of NYC.

Moments before his execution, he expressed regret that he couldn't be hanged more than once. This remark catapulted him to posthumous fame (but only after his death), and Nathan Hale is revered to this day.


September 22, 1869 -
Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold premieres in Munich on this date.



Beer drinkers around the world rejoice!!!


September 22, 1960  (or 1958) -
Joan Marie Larkin, singer/ musician extraordinaire was born on this date.



If you love Rock and Roll, you love Joan


September 22, 1961 -
President John Kennedy took a break from hanging out with Frank Sinatra, shooting speed and having sex with Marilyn Monroe to sign a congressional act establishing the Peace Corps on this date.

The government-funded volunteer organization was created to fight hunger, disease, illiteracy, poverty, and lack of opportunity around the world.

Sometimes it good to be the President (and sometimes it sucks, as Mr. Kennedy would eventually find out.)


September 22, 1966  -
In between inviting the press to watch him use the bathroom and calling a tailor to order pants with extra long zippers, President Lyndon B. Johnson designated Columbus Day a federal public holiday to be celebrated on October 12.

In 1968, he moved it to the 2nd Monday of October.  In 2004, President George W. Bush set it to October 11. Columbus Day in 2017 is on Monday, the 9th of October.


September 22, 1980 -
In a stunning blow to America's feminine hygiene, consumer products manufacturer Procter and Gamble initiates the largest tampon recall in history, pulling Rely Tampons from store shelves, starting on this date.



The action results from the ongoing Toxic Shock Syndrome controversy.

No comment.



And so it goes.


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