Don't worry about spelling it wrong; you basically can't.

Tonight is the Seventh night of Hanukkah.



Tonight is known as the Festival of the Daughters (Chag haBanot.)  In parts of Northern Africa countries, such as Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco, tonight is celebrated as commemoration of Judith's beheading of the General Holofernes,

(impress your friends with that fact.)


December 18, 1957 -
David Lean's epic glimpse into the insanity of war, The Bridge on the River Kwai, premiered in the US on this date.



Col. Saito was inspired by Maj. Risaburo Saito, who unlike the character portrayed in the film was said by some to be one of the most reasonable and humane of all of the Japanese officers, usually willing to negotiate with the POWs in return for their labor. Such was the respect between Saito and Lt. Col. Toosey (upon whom Col. Nicholson was based) that Toosey spoke up on Saito's behalf at the war-crimes tribunal after the war, saving him from the gallows. Ten years after Toosey's 1975 death, Saito made a pilgrimage to England to visit his grave.


December 18, 1966 -
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas aired for the first time on CBS on this date.



Thurl Ravenscroft, who sang the song, is best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger in numerous Frosted Flakes' TV commercials. Thurl was picked to sing these songs, because his voice was like an extremely deep bass or baritone voice.


December 18, 1966 -
The Pink Panther cartoon series premiered with the episode titled The Pink Blueprint on this date



The Pink Panther character, created for the animated opening credits of The Pink Panther movie, was so popular that this short was produced as a starring vehicle for the character. The short marks the only time a studio has won an Oscar with its first cartoon release.


December 18, 1969 –
The sixth film in the James Bond film series, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, starring George Lazenby, Telly Savalis, and Diana Riggs, premiered in the US on this date.



During the filming at Piz Gloria, the cast and crew received their per diems in cash. Upon seeing George Lazenby with a suitcase stuffed full of cash, Telly Savalas invited him to a late-night poker game that he regularly held with crew members, and promptly relieved Lazenby of having to carry so much extra weight. Upon hearing of this, Harry Saltzman visited the location, joined the game over Savalas's protests, and won back Lazenby's money. He then informed Savalas in no uncertain terms that he was not to victimize his "boy" (Lazenby) again.


December 18, 1970-
The cult classic western, El Topo (The Mole), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, and Mara Lorenzio premiered in the US on this date.



The film was released as an underground film, it was thanks to John Lennon that the film acquired a worldwide distribution. He was so impressed by this movie that he urged a close friend of his to buy the rights and take charge of distribution.


December 18, 1987 –
The sleeper hit romantic comedy, Moonstruck, directed by Norman Jewison, written by John Patrick Shanley, and starring Danny Aiello, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis and, oh yea, Cher, premiered in the US on this date.



Nicolas Cage's screen test didn't impress the studio, and they wanted to get someone else to play Ronny. But Cher insisted that Cage was the one to play that role, and threatened to quit unless he was hired. After a few days, the studio relented.


December 18, 1989 -
An I Love Lucy Christmas episode, nicknamed "The Lost Episode" because it was not included in the syndication package, was shown for first time in over 30 years on this date.



The Christmas episode was not included in the usual syndication package because of its holiday theme and because it mostly consists of flashbacks to previous episodes.



CBS aired a colorized version (as you may know, I'm not a fan of colorized versions.)


December 18, 1998 -
Warner Brothers releases the romantic film You’ve Got Mail (A remake of  the 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner,) directed by Nora Ephron and starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, on this date.



The location of Fox Books in the movie is actually the location of a real-life Barnes and Noble, on Broadway and 83rd Street on the Upper West Side. The Barnes and Noble generated considerable neighborhood opposition when it opened in the early 1990s, as many feared it would drive a local bookseller, Shakespeare and Co. on 81st Street, out of business. This is exactly what happened.


December 18, 2009 -
Twentieth Century Fox began printing money when James Cameron's Avatar, starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, was released on this date.



James Cameron originally planned to have the film completed for release in 1999. At the time, the special effects he wanted increased the budget to $400 million. No studio would fund the film, and it was shelved for eight years.


Word of the Day -


Today in History:
December 18, 1626 -
Christina (Kristina), Queen of Sweden , later known as Maria Christina Alexandra, Minerva of the North, Protectress of the Jews at Rome and sometimes Count Dohna, was born on this date. Like most royalty and some presidents, Christina did not have to carry money, a passport or consistently spell her name the same way.

Kristina's father, King Gustav II Adolf, wanted a boy and decreed she be given the best education possible. Christina's mother, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, an early proponent of Jewish guilt as a tool for childhood rearing, repeatedly told Kristina about the 'horrors' of sex and childbirth. These factors may have prejudiced Christina against the prospect of having to produce an heir to the throne and convinced her to adopt the dress and manner of a man.

True story: in the winter of 1650 the magnificent Queen Kristina of Sweden summoned Rene Descartes to Stockholm to tutor her in philosophy. With his trademark optimism ("I think warm, therefore I am not cold"), he accepted the invitation and hurried up from Paris. Not long after his arrival, he died of pneumonia. But I digress ...



Queen Kristina, or the Girl King as she liked to be known, (as opposed to King Ludwig of Bavaria the Boy Queen, but that's another story) chose the rather shockingly ungodly motto (probably sarcastically) that "Wisdom is the Prop of the Realm." She abdicated in 1654 converted to Catholicism and dashed around Europe on a white horse, wearing men's clothing and studying philosophy and sleeping with men and women. She is one of the only few women buried within St. Peter's Basilica.



In the 1930s, she was portrayed by Greta Garbo in the film Queen Christina. Garbo basically modeled her later life on this character except for the converting thing.


Liberty and Prosperity

New Jersey was the third state admitted to the Union, on this date in 1787. It was the first state to sign the Bill of Rights to the Constitution.  It derives its name from the isle of Jersey, just off England's shore (and also near Britain).

The official state bird of New Jersey is the American Goldfinch.

The state bug is the honey bee (apis mellifera).



The state tree is the red oak (Quercus borealis maxima). The state flower is the common meadow violet (Viola sororia). The state shell is the knobbed whelk, also known as the conch shell (Busycon carica gmelin). The state fish is the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), the state animal is the horse (Equus caballus),

and the state dinosaur is the Hadrosaurus (Hadrosaurus foulkii).

The eggplant is not the official vegetable of New Jersey because it's not a vegetable. It's a fruit - berry, actually - and New Jersey claims to produce two-thirds of all the eggplant in the world. (It's a bogus claim, and one that leaves me wondering not so much about the world eggplant situation, but the mindset of whoever thought it would enhance New Jersey's reputation if people thought it was the world's leading producer of eggplant. I mean, eggplant?)

Blueberries became the official berry of New Jersey in 2004. Before that, many thought it was almost certainly the eggplant, which would predictably cause great confusion among persons accustomed to putting berries in their cereal.

New Jersey has a population of 8.48 million on 7,417 square miles of land. It's the fifth smallest state in the country. With 1,134 people per square mile, it's the densest state in the nation. The relative density of New Jersey should come as no surprise to anyone who's ever driven behind a car with Jersey plates.

And for the last time, we can kick the governor around.


December 18, 1839 -
In New York City, John Draper makes a daguerreotype of the Moon,

becoming the first person in the U.S. to photograph a celestial body.


December 18, 1892 -
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite publicly premiered in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the Maryinsky Theater on this date.



The first performance of The Nutcracker was not deemed a success. The reaction to the dancers themselves was ambivalent. Reception was better for Tchaikovsky's score.


December 18, 1965 -
Gemini VII splashes down in the western Atlantic Ocean with command pilot Frank Borman and pilot Jim Lovell Jr. on board.



The mission was launched on December 4 for the purpose of physiological testing and spacecraft performance evaluations.


Quick pop quiz -
On December 18, 1940, Adolf Hitler issued his plans for…

a. The Volkswagen
b. An extremely white Christmas
c. The bombing of Britain
d. The invasion of Russia
e. The conquest of Cyprus
f. Recovery of the lost Ark of the Covenant

And so it goes


Before you go - Jame Corden posted another funny Crosswalk video the Musical on Broadway:



Mr. Corden and his wife are having the most wonderful Christmas with the early birth of their third child last week.

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