Monday, October 8, 2018

I also want to murder everyone after a long and crowded commute

Happy Columbus Never Met An Indigenous Person He Didn't Kill or Enslave Day! Let's celebrate the day by breaking into your neighbor's house and telling them you live there now.



It was discovered that Columbus' ships really landed on the October  13, 1492, he was persuaded by Dutch sailor Piet de Stuini (or DeStynie) to change it to the 12th in the logs because he said that the number 13 might frighten sailors and future investors away. An Italian study group  called the Colombiani detected this change.



And for all of this has nothing to do with the fact that it's Canadian Thanksgiving.


Today is also Fluffernutter day. Celebrate by bringing fresh white bread, peanut butter, and marshmallow cream together.



While this may be a childhood favorite for some - it's causing me to gag to even think about.


Every year from the 8th to the 12th of October, International Cephalopod Awareness Days come around to teach the world about cephalopods.

This event is all about celebrating and sharing how fascinating and incredible they are!




Today is Octopus Day, celebrating all the eight-armed fellows. And every year I never seem to remember it until about the midway point.


October 8, 1925 -
One of the most expensive movie made, at the time (at $3.9 million,) Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ premiered on this date.



The troubled Italian set was eventually torn down and a new one built in Culver City, California. The famed chariot race was shot with 42 cameras, which consumed 50,000 feet of film. Second-unit director B. Reeves Eason offered a bonus to the winning driver who won the race. The final pile-up was filmed later; the stuntmen for the chariot race scene were not seriously injured, but several horses were killed during production.


October 8, 1977 -
The final masterpiece of Luis Buñuel, That Obscure Object of Desire premiered on this date.



The film has been filmed four times previously, most famously in 1935 by Josef Von Sternberg with Marlene Dietrich as The Devil is a Woman.



October 8, 1966 -
The first Doctor Who episode to feature the Cybermen (the first episode of the Doctor Who serial The Tenth Planet) aired on this date.



The episode is the last episode to star William Hartnell as the First Doctor (and Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor).


October 8, 1980 -
Today is the 38th anniversary of Talking Heads' fourth studio Remain in Light was released on this date



Well, it has come to pass that Facts don't do what I want them to do Facts just twist the truth around.


Word of the day


Today in History:
October 8, 1582 -
Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day (and the four previous days) does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.



This leads to mass confusion and most of the populace just go back to bed and wait for tomorrow.


October 8, 1869 -
Franklin Pierce, an American politician and the fourteenth President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857 is to date the only president from New Hampshire and was the first president born in the nineteenth century.



His good looks and inoffensive personality caused him to make many friends, but he suffered tragedy in his personal life (all three of his children died in childhood - don't ask how his third child died) and as president subsequently made decisions which were widely criticized and divisive in their effects, thus giving him the reputation as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.



After losing the Democratic nomination for a second term, Pierce reportedly quipped "there's nothing left to do but get drunk" (quoted also as "after the White House what is there to do but drink?") which he apparently did frequently. He once ran over an elderly woman while driving a carriage drunk. Franklin Pierce died in Concord, New Hampshire on this date at 64 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver, thus ending his miserable life.


October 8, 1871 -
Mrs O'Leary's cow started The Great Chicago Fire that destroyed more than 17,000 buildings, killed more than 300 people and left 90,000 homeless, on this date.



Bad cow.

Catherine O'Leary seemed the perfect scapegoat: she was a woman, immigrant, and Catholic - a combination which did not fare well in the political climate of the time in Chicago. This story was circulating in Chicago even before the flames had died out and was noted in the Chicago Tribune's first post-fire issue. Michael Ahern, the reporter that came with the story would retract it in 1893, admitting that it was fabricated.

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In 1997, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution exonerating Mrs. O'Leary - and her cow - from all blame.



Occurring the same day as the Great Chicago fire, a forest fire broke out at Peshtigo, Wisconsin, eventually killing about 2,500 people while burning some 850 square miles including, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan (making it the largest lost of life by fire in the United States.)


October 8, 1918 -
Sgt. Alvin York (Gary Cooper) of Tennessee became a World War I hero by single-handedly capturing a hill in the Argonne Forest of France, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and capturing 132 others on this date.



What makes this feat all the more amazing is that York original applied and was denied Conscientious Objector status because of his religious beliefs.


October 8, 1919 -
The first U.S. transcontinental air race began with 63 planes competing in the round-trip aerial derby between California and New York. Each way took about three days.


Seven men lost their lives during the race - flying was extremely hazardous at the time. Even the winner, Lieutenant Belvin W. Maynard, would meet his death three years later, while stunt flying at a county fair in Rutland, Vermont, on September 7, 1922.


October 8, 1928 -
Police raid 20 speakeasies in New York City in an effort to crack down on illegal liquor sales on this date.


New York City Police remain blind drunk, wandering the streets for three days afterward.


October 8, 1945 -     
A patent for microwave oven was filed (US patent No. 2,495,429) by Percy LeBaron Spencer, who accidentally discovered that microwaves melted a chocolate bar in his pocket (the first item to be intentionally cooked in a microwave was popcorn.)



Spencer, an eighth-grade dropout and electronic wizard, worked for the Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation of Massachusetts developing a radar machine using microwave radiation. The first commercial microwave was produced nine years later and sold for $2,000.


October 8, 1948 -
As far as my favorite songs to perform live, most of the songs we did live were my favorite. If they weren't, I would have gotten rid of them.



Johnny Ramone (nee John William Cummings) the lead guitarist for The Ramones was born on this date.


October 8, 1956 -
New York Yankees pitcher Donald James Larsen pitches the first perfect game in a World Series - no walks, no hits, no runs.



His perfect game was the only no-hitter of any type ever pitched in postseason play until Doc Halladay pitched one on October 6th, 2010.


October 8, 1993 -
Ted Danson appeared in black face at a Friars Club roast for Whoopi Goldberg on this date.


His offensive comments amused Whoopi Goldberg but the incident becomes a great embarrassment.



And so it goes


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