Clear your schedule

Since it's the third Thursday in November, it's that time of the year

Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé !


Many sites have noted that today is "Have a Party with Your Bear Day" but can't quite figure out the source:

(No it's not this reason.)

In 1902 while on a hunting trip with Mississippi Gov. Andrew H. Longino, President Teddy Roosevelt was offered the opportunity to shoot a bear tied to a tree.  Seeing this as extremely unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear. News spread quickly (or as quickly as it could in 1902), that the great huntsman Roosevelt has refused to shoot the animal.

A political cartoonist, Clifford Berryman read about the incident and decided to comment on the president's refusal to shoot the bear. Berryman's cartoon appeared in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902.


November 16, 1969 -
BJ Thomas released his hit, Hooked on a Feeling on this date.



Please don't click on this version unless you want the Ooga Chuka ear worm for rest of the week.


November 16, 1973 -
David Bowie appeared in his first TV special, 1980 Floor Show, broadcast on NBC's Midnight Special, on this date.



The show was a spectacular stage production that was filmed over three days, mostly at The Marquee Club, in Soho, London.  It would be Bowie’s last performance as the Ziggy Stardust persona with The Spiders From Mars.


November 16, 1974 –
John Lennon's song Whatever Gets You Thru the Night hits #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



Elton John sang backing vocals and also played piano on this. He famously wagered John Lennon that this song would become a #1 hit. When it did, Lennon made good on the wager by making a guest appearance at an Elton John concert on Thanksgiving night 1974 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It turned out to be Lennon's last live rock performance.


November 16, 1977 -
Steven Spielberg's sci-fi classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, opened on this date.



Director Steven Spielberg stated that nothing in his life had been more difficult than editing the final 35 minutes of this film.


November 16, 1994 -
The Peter Jackson film, Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, in their film debuts, opened in the U.S. on this date.



Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet were so strongly into their roles that they would interact with each other as their characters off screen.


November 16, 2001 -
Christ Columbus' masterful adaptation of the first instillation of J.K. Rowling's meg-hit novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, starring, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and just about every living British actor at the time, went into general release in the U.K. and U.S. on this date.



Warner Brothers originally considered making the entire Harry Potter film franchise as a set of computer animated films, or attempting to combine several of the novels into a single movie. The studio's reasoning mainly had to do with concern over the rapid aging of child actors and actresses, if production ran too long on any of the films, or if production was delayed between sequels, the leading actors and actresses might have to be re-cast. Author J.K. Rowling vetoed both of the ideas of combining books, and an animated film, so the studio decided instead to produce all eight films back to back, so the same actors and actresses could play their roles in every film.


Why don't you make your intentions clear


Today in History:
November 16, 42 BC -

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus was born on this date. He was the Emperor of Rome from 14 to 37 AD.



John the Baptist and Jesus were put to death during his reign, as well as many others whose deaths didn't result in the creation of a religion.


November 16, 1906 -
Opera star Enrico Caruso was charged with an indecent act committed in the monkey house of New York's Central Park Zoo on this date. He pinched the bottom of a woman described as "pretty and plump", causing outrage amongst New York high society. Caruso claimed a monkey pinched the lady's bottom.

You know what I think - Caruso pinched the monkey's bottom and the fat lady was jealous. And you don't even want to know what the monkey was doing to himself at the time.


November 16, 1913 -
Whatever you do, don't disparage M. Proust.




Unable to find a publisher willing to publish the first part of his ambitious three-volume novel, Marcel Proust paid the cost of publication himself of Du Côté de Chez Swann (Swann's Way,) the first volume of what turns out to become the seven-part novel À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past,) on this date.


November 16, 1952 -
Lucy holds a football for Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoon strip for the first time on this date.

What was often left out of the cartoon strip by newspaper editors was the last panel where Charlie Brown has the living daylights beaten out of Lucy by angry fans for pulling that stunt.


November 16, 1960 -
Working on the film, The Misfits was a trying experience for all involved. Marilyn Monroe's marriage was unraveling before the cast and crews eyes. Clark Gable, became bored while waiting for Monroe to turn up on the set. Gable, 59 (but a long-time smoker and drinker was in poor health) opted to do his own stunts, which included being dragged by a truck traveling at 30 mph. On the last day of filming, Gable said, "Christ, I'm glad this picture's finished. She (Monroe) damn near gave me a heart attack."



On the next day, Gable suffered a severe coronary thrombosis. He died at the hospital from a heart attack several days later, on this date. Marylin Monroe died of an alleged drug overdose (murder) a year later. Montgomery Clift, lingered around another six years, committing "the longest suicide in Hollywood," - heaving drinking and drug taking.


November 16, 1971 -
Her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls...

Edie Sedgwick, actress and one of Andy Warhol's 'Superstars', died in California from a barbiturate overdose on this date.



Allegedly when learning of Sedgwick's death, Andy Warhol responded with "Edie who?" She was 28 years old.


November 16, 1981 -
Actor William Holden died after a fall, hitting his head on a table probably on November 12, 1981. He was too drunk to telephone for assistance; instead he died alone, bleeding to death trying to treat his wound with Kleenex. After failing to answer telephone calls from concerned friends, his body was found on this date. If it wasn't so sad, it would sound like the end of a classic film-noir.



Years later, Suzanne Vega refers to his ignominious death in her song, Tom's Diner.



And so it goes


Fun fact of the day:

Instead of coal, naughty children in Belarus get reindeer poop in their stocking.



1163