Je me demande pourquoi

November 30, 1858 -
The Mason Jar was invented and patented (U.S. patent #22,186) by Philadelphia tinsmith John Landis Mason.

I wonder if he knew his jar would be used as a cocktail glass.


November 30, 1934 -
W.C. Fields was very busy in 1934 - his fifth film of the year, It's a Gift, co-starring Baby LeRoy, premiered on this date.



The $5,000 that W.C. Fields' character pays for the "orange grove" in California would be equal to $89,000 in 2015.


November 30, 1971 -
The TV movie that makes 'real men' weep unabashedly, Brian's Song debuted on ABC-TV on this date.



In real life, James Caan, who had been a football player in high school, was a much better athlete than Billy Dee Williams. In the movie, Gale Sayers, was supposed to surpass Brian Piccolo, in speed and playing ability. When Caan raced Williams on film, Caan was forced to slow down considerably so Williams could beat him.


November 30, 1979 -
Pink Floyd released its album The Wall on this date.



Syd Barrett had a great influence on the other band members even after he left.  In the movie The Wall, several scenes are inspired from actual events involving Syd. In the movie, the character Pink shaves off all his facial hair, including his eyebrows - something Syd once arrived to the studio having done himself.


November 30, 1982 -
Michael Jackson’s second solo album, Thriller, produced by Quincy Jones, was released on this date.



Unfortunately for the Jackson estate, The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), which was originally released in 1976, surpassed Thriller as the best-selling album of all-time in the US, with the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) reporting sales of 38 million copies, nationwide. Thriller, meanwhile, is five million behind at a measly 33 million copies. How will they ever make ends meet.


November 30, 1990 -
Rob Reiner's adaptation of Stephen King's thriller, Misery, premiered on this date.



James Caan once showed up to the set hungover, and all of the scenes he shot that day were unuseable. Rob Reiner told Caan he had to do the scenes again because there was "a problem at the lab". When Caan learned it had nothing to do with labs, he offered to cover the money he lost the studio.


The holidays during wartime


The focus of Today in History on this date should be used as a guide to help you realize the blessings you should find in life:



On November 30, 1935, the German government proclaimed a failure to accept the tenets of Nazism as grounds for divorce.



Be grateful you never married a Nazi.


Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667,



and Mark Twain was born exactly 170 years later, in 1835.



Be grateful that not everyone is taking everything so goddamn seriously.


Winston Churchill (one of my favorite American who became British Prime Minister) was also born on November 30, in 1874, in a coat closet of his family home (really).



Be grateful that not everyone was so grateful for Peas In Our Time.


Otherwise, here are some other events that occurred on this date

November 30, 1900 -
Celebrated Irish author and noted card carrying sodomite Oscar Wilde, died in Paris of meningitis on this date. Wilde had been charged three times with indecency, specifically "the seduction and corruption of young men." Evidence admitted against him included testimony about fecal stains on his sheets.



Be thankful that we obviously have better cleaning detergents than the French did in 1900.


November 30, 1929 -
Dick Clark, the American Bandstander, was born on this date.



Be thankful the few of us are faced with bargaining with Satan for our careers.


November 30, 1936 -
The Crystal Palace, originally built by Sir Joseph Paxton in London's Hyde Park for the 1851 Great Exhibition, burns to the ground on this date.



It was said that over 75,000 people came to watch the blaze, among them Winston Churchill, who said, "This is the end of an age". The glow was visible across eight counties.

Be thankful that you weren't down wind from this one.


November 30, 1954 -
At 1 pm, an 8.5 pound stone meteorite fell from the sky and struck Ann Elizabeth Hodges from Sylacauga, Alabama.  She was the first reported person in modern times to be struck by an object from outer space.

The housewife was seriously bruised but survived, although the meteorite destroyed her radio.

Oh the humanity!



And so it goes!

785

When you can't be bothered to send an actual card

Today is Electronic Greetings Day. So sending your greetings are now just a click away.

The day celebrates the fact that you can send  someone a card from one office bathroom to another.


November 29, 1940 -
W.C. Fields at his peak - The Bank Dick, premiered on this date.



Universal's censors initially objected to W.C. Fields' script and demanded many changes. Director Edward F. Cline suggested that Fields should go ahead and film it their way, ignoring the censors' changes, and that the front office wouldn't notice the difference. They didn't.


November 29, 1945 -
Remarkable for it frank portrayal of alcoholism (for it's day), The Lost Weekend, opened in Los Angeles on this date.



Billy Wilder claimed the liquor industry offered Paramount $5 million to not release the film; he also suggested that he would have accepted, had they offered it to him.


November 29, 1950 -
Jean Cocteau's beautifully lyrical, Orphee, opened in the US on this date.



Orphee's obsession with deciphering hidden messages contained in random radio noise is a direct nod to the coded messages that the BBC concealed in their wartime transmissions for the French Resistance.


November 29, 1992 -
U2's first TV special, called U2's Zoo TV Outside Broadcast, aired on Fox-TV on this date.



The show contains footage from their concerts at Yankee Stadium in New York and the Houston Astrodome, earlier that year.


This year's first guest programmer.


Today in History:
November 29, 1777 -
José Joaquín Moraga proved that he knew the way to San Jose on this date,

when he established, for Spain, el Pueblo de San Jose de Guadelupe, the first civil settlement in California.


November 29, 1864 -
The Sand Creek Massacre occurred, on this date, when Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington, in retaliation for an Indian attack on a party of immigrants near Denver, massacred at least 400 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants (mostly children, women, physically- and mentally-challenged, and elders) inside Colorado Territory.



It also generated two Congressional investigations into the actions of Chivington and his men. The House Committee on the Conduct of the War concluded that Chivington had "deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly massacre which would have disgraced the varied and savage among those who were the victims of his cruelty."

The American Government has so much to be proud of with their dealings with the Native Americans.


November 29, 1924 -
Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels before he could complete his opera Turandot. Franco Alfano finished it.



His death marked the end of a 300-year tradition of Italian opera.


November 29, 1929 -
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd (on a break from his experiments with frozen vegetables) radioed that he'd made the first airplane flight with pilot Floyd Bennett, over the South Pole: "My calculations indicate that we have reached vicinity of South Pole."



After briefly loitering around the Pole, Byrd and his crew headed back to their home base, Little America and more intense testing of frozen zucchini.


November 29, 1935 –
Once the cat is in the box, do you know if it really alive, or dead?



Physicist Erwin Schrödinger published his famous thought experiment ‘Schrödinger’s cat’, a paradox that illustrates the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.


November 29, 1951 -
The United States set off the first underground nuclear explosion named "Uncle" at Frenchman Flats in Nevada on this date.



It was a great success, except for the giant spiders, ants, grasshoppers and other insects left in the aftermath.


November 29, 1961 -
The US sent the chimpanzee Enos into space, aboard the Mercury Atlas 5 capsule from Cape Canaveral on this date.



Enos returns to earth safely but died less than a year later before he could sign with the William Morris Agency.


November 29, 1972 -
Pong, the first commercially successful video game, was released on this date by Nolan Bushnell (who was also the co-founder of the video game company, Atari.)



Pong is similar to digital tennis or ping-pong, and its great success was a big part of the early beginnings of the video game industry.


November 29, 1986 -
I do not think Cary Grant was a homosexual or bisexual. He just got carried away at those orgies - US congressman Bob Dornan, spoken on the House floor  (I love that quote.)



82 year old Archibald Leach, better known as Cary Grant, died on this date.


November 29, 2001 -
The Beatles will exist without us.



The "quiet" Beatle George Harrison was silenced by cancer on this date.


November 29, 2004 -
Godzilla received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on this date.



In honor of the event, the Toho star was allowed to run rampant through Little Tokyo that afternoon.


And on a personal note:
Oh yeah, millions of years ago (or at least more than half a century ago) the earth cooled and formed a hard crust, huge dinosaurs ruled the land and John was there to see it all. Happy Birthday John.

About a decade later, vast plains with wildflowers sprung up and Mary skipped along them all. Happy Birthday Mary.

And so it goes

786

Expect Delays -

Avoid Midtown Manhattan today -

they're lighting the Rockefeller Christmas tree tonight.


It's National French Toast Day



Eating as much French Toast (Pan Perdu) as you can helps defeat the terrorist.

Enjoy


November 28, 1943 -
Randall Stuart Newman, singer/songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist was born on this date.



Newman has been nominated for twenty Academy Awards, winning twice. He has also won three Emmys, five Grammy Awards, and the Governor's Award from the Recording Academy.


November 28, 1944 -
Vincente Minnelli's gift to his future wife, Judy Garland, the musical film Meet Me In St. Louis, opened in NYC on this date.



Judy Garland scoffed at the idea of portraying yet another teenager (she was 21 when filming began) and wanted nothing to do with the film. Her mother even went to MGM chief Louis B. Mayer on her behalf. However, Vincente Minnelli convinced her to play the part of Esther Smith, and Judy later fell in love with the story. In her later years she considered it one of her favorite roles.


November 28, 1951 -
The British film Scrooge (aka A Christmas Carol,) starring Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, George Cole, Hermione Baddeley, Mervyn Johns, Jack Warner, and Patrick Macnee, premiered in NYC on this date.



Michael Hordern was not on set when the Marley's Ghost segment was filmed; he was added in later through the use of an optical printer. He only appears together with Alastair Sim in the two scenes at the end of the Ghost of Christmas Past sequence, the latter of the two being the scene where Jacob Marley dies. This was also true of Michael Dolan, who played the Spirit of Christmas Past; he never actually played any scenes on the set with Sim.


November 28, 1969 -
The Rolling Stones released their eighth British album Let It Bleed on this date.



It is the follow-up to 1968's Beggars Banquet and the last album by the band to feature Brian Jones as well as the first to feature Mick Taylor.


The holiday season is once again upon us and with Hanukkah starting this Sunday, I'm gearing up for the long haul. We're proud to bring you the Eleventh Annual Holiday Video Festival.


Today in History -
Sorry boys and girls but it's not a pleasant day in history today -

November 28, 1942 -
A fire at the overcrowded and sleazy Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, killed 491 people on this date. Flammable artificial palm trees aided the spread of the fire.



The numerous dead were crushed, burnt, and asphyxiated, all within minutes.

There's a lesson here boys and girl - sleazy nightclubs kill!!!


November 28, 1953 -
Frank Olson, government scientist, has a particularly bad dream and jumped to his death from the Statler Hotel in New York City on this date.

https://static.iris.net.co/semana/upload/images/2012/12/8/317976_181856_1.jpg
It was later revealed in 1975 that Olson had been administered LSD by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb in a CIA experiment.

That really must have been one bad trip.


November 28, 1962 -
Politicians [do] what they need to do to retain power. When you see a monkey throwing poop, you go, ‘that’s what monkeys do.’ But what I wish the media would do more frequently is say, ‘bad monkey.’



Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, comedian, television host, political satirist and formerly, America's most trusted newscaster, was born on this date.


November 28, 1981 -
A drunken Natalie Wood toppled off her yacht near Catalina Island and drowned. Her husband Robert Wagner and melodramatic friend Christopher Walken, were on board and unaware of her predicament, apparently having some sort of argument in the cabin -



possibly about whether or not a drunken Natalie Wood could float (you know that's still an awful joke.)


November 28, 1994 -
Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten to death with a broomstick by inmate Christopher Scarver while cleaning the prison bathroom.

(Bunkies, here's a tip from your old pal - don't go poking around for photos about Jeffrey Dahmer, there are some sick pixs out there. I'm going to disinfect my eye balls.)

Dahmer's brain was to be preserved in formaldehyde at the request of Mom, but a court ordered its destruction in late 1995.

There's yet another lesson here boys and girls, dirty prison bathrooms kill!!!



And so it goes

787

Charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others

Today is the Seventh Annual Giving Tuesday. Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and standing in stark contrast of the shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday is a movement to create an international day of giving as a response to commercialization and consumerism.



#GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.


November 27 is the Feast of St. Josaphat, a Middle Age prince who renounced his wealth to do charitable work.

Well, St. Josephat, turns out to be a Christianized version of a legend about Buddha (yeah Siddhārtha Gautama.)

The years slip swiftly by and I can remember some things clearly, others only dimly; I don't remember them telling me about this back at St. John's.

Oh, that wacky Catholic Church!


November 27, 1920 -
United Artists released the silent film The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks on this date. The film will go on to be extremely influential in the world of comics.



Douglas Fairbanks was looking to try something new from the normal boy-meets-girl romance movies he had been making for the previous few years. This is when the actor came across the story of Zorro - originally published in the magazine All-Story Weekly. Previous to Fairbanks' portrayal, practically nobody had ever heard of the Robin Hood-like hero Zorro.


November 27, 1948 -
You see what some ducks will do for money!



Another (less familiar) Daffy & Porky pairing, Riff Raffy Daffy, premiered on this date.


November 27, 1967 -
The Beatles released Magical Mystery Tour album the US on this date.



Paul McCartney wrote Hello Goodbye, (John Lennon hated the song.)  His friend Alistair Taylor, who was visiting McCartney, asked Paul one day how he wrote his many songs, and how he came up with his ideas. Paul took him into his dining room to give him a demonstration of his hand-carved harmonium. As an experiment, Paul asked Taylor to shout out the opposite of whatever he sang, such as black and white, yes and no, hello and goodbye, etc. From this, the song was born.


November 27, 1979 -
For those so inclined, you could start spending time in the boys locker room of Carrver High School when the White Shadow premiered on this date.



Of the actors playing the Carver players, Nathan Cook was the oldest (28) when the show debuted, only seven years younger than Ken Howard. Timothy Van Patten was the youngest at 19.


November 27, 1980 -
The sitcom Bosom Buddies, staring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



(Yes, I know, this is not the original theme song - the production company lost the rights to the song.) In the summer of 1984 as Tom Hanks was becoming a household name thanks to the movie Splash, NBC bought the rights to the ABC sitcom and re-aired selected episodes to lead off their Saturday night line-up.


November 27, 2013 –
The Walt Disney's film, Frozen, the highest-grossing animated film of all time, starring Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell, went into general release in the US on this date.



The characters of Hans, Kristoff, Anna and Sven are a reference to Hans Christian Andersen, the author of The Snow Queen. Say the names quickly in sequence and hear the similarity.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
November 27, 1852 -
Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, was bled to death to cure her uterine cancer on this date. (In a strange coincidence, her father was also bled to death to cure a fever.)



She is often thought of as the world's first computer programmer, due to her interest in mathematics and her work on Charles Babbage's analytical engine.


Alfred Nobel signed his last will, which established the Nobel Prize on this date in 1895. (Yes, this is the second reference to Alfred in the same week.)

Mr Nobel is interesting because his fortune was founded in large part on the commercial success of something he invented in 1866: dynamite. Dynamite proved so lucrative for Mr Nobel that he was able to spend most of the rest of his life blowing things up in the interests of world peace. World peace was not achieved in his lifetime, however, and he therefore endowed a foundation with millions of dollars to give prizes to the men and women of future generations who helped bring the world closer to peace by blowing things up.



Sadly, in recent years the foundation appears to have forgotten its roots and has begun awarding prizes to men and women whose work for peace has resulted in things blowing up.



I encourage you all to write the Nobel Committee to take immediate corrective action, lest they continue to mislead people into thinking that Peace can be achieved by anything other than the blowing up of Evil Bastards.


November 27, 1910 -
Although Pennsylvania Station had already begun service for the Long Island Rail Road several months earlier (September 8th); it was on this date that trains from the Pennsylvania Railroad entered Manhattan for the first time by way of tunnels under the Hudson River.

The famed station was demolished in 1963, which sparked the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which has preserved thousands of historic buildings in New York City and across the country.


November 27, 1924 -
Macy's sponsored its first Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (called Macy's Christmas Parade) in New York City on this date. The three-hour parade is held annually and is the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade along with Detroit's "America's Thanksgiving Parade," which began on the same day.



Three floats (pulled by horses), four bands and zoo animals from the Central Park Zoo - camels, donkeys, elephants and goats - starred in the parade (balloons didn't show up until 1927.)

Santa Claus was last in the lineup, a tradition that continues to this day.

(Yes, yes, I know the parade in Philadelphia is older.)


November 27, 1934 -
Notorious US murderer and bank robber Baby Face Nelson was killed in a gun battle with the FBI on this date.  Known as the Battle of Barrington, the shootout occurred in Barrington, Illinois. Two FBI officers also were killed.



During his criminal career, Nelson, whose real name was Lester Joseph Gillis, killed more FBI agents than any other US citizen in history.


November 27, 1978 -
City Supervisor Dan White entered San Francisco City Hall through an open basement window (avoiding metal detectors), walked into the office of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and shot him dead. Then White went on to kill Supervisor Harvey Milk on this date.



Apparently, Mr. White consumed too many Twinkies.  (Given there has been no noticeable increases in incidents of Twinkie induced rages, the Hostess Company may have changed the formula since their resuscitation.)



And so it goes

788

Don't forget:

Only at Dr. Caligari's Cupboard

News Flash - News on the March!

This just in -We have just been notified that it is Cyborg Monday, oh no, run for your lives.

Wait - an update - it's Cyber Monday. Continue to run for your lives!!!


November 26, 1922 -
The Toll of the Sea, starring Anna Mae Wong, the second two-strip Technicolor feature (it was the first one able to be projected through a normal movie projector and consequently the first to be given a wide release) was released on this date.



The film's story is a variation of Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, which premiered in 1904; except, the film takes place in China and the opera is set in Japan.


November 26, 1934 -
John M. Stahl's adaptation of  Fannie Hurst's novel, Imitation of Life, starring  Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson, Louise Beavers, and Fredi Washington, premiered on this date.



Although cast as the daughter of Louise Beavers (Delilah), Fredi Washington (Peola,) was in reality less than two years younger than her onscreen mother. She was, however, considerably slimmer than the matronly Beavers, which enabled the pair to "pass" as mother and daughter.


November 26, 1938 -
Michael Curtiz's crime drama, Angels with Dirty Faces, starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and The Dead End Kids, premiered on this date.



To play Rocky, James Cagney drew on his memories of growing up in New York's Yorkville, a tough ethnic neighborhood on the upper east side, just south of Spanish Harlem.. His main inspiration was a drug-addicted pimp who stood on a street corner all day hitching his trousers, twitching his neck, and repeating, "Whadda ya hear! Whadda ya say!" 


November 26, 1942 -
It's the 76th anniversary of one of the classic films of the 40s - Casablanca premiered in NYC on this date.



Because the film was made during WWII the production was not allowed to film at an airport after dark for security reasons. Instead, it used a sound stage with a small cardboard cutout airplane and forced perspective. To give the illusion that the plane was full-sized, they used little people to portray the crew preparing the plane for take-off.


November 26, 1952 -
In Thrilling Color!

The first modern 3-D movie Bwana Devil, viewed with special glasses, premiered in Hollywood (you will need more that special glasses to see the trailer in color; I could only find a black and white version.)



The film was based on the 1898 Tsavo Lion attacks during the construction of the Kenya-Uganda Railway that were also the basis of the 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness.


November 26, 1953 -
MGM released the first musical in 3-D, Kiss Me Kate on this date.



Chorographer Hermes Pan makes an appearance as a sailor in the number Always True to You in My Fashion.  Even though Hermes Pan is the credited choreographer on the film, the steamy duet between Bob Fosse and Carol Haney in From This Moment On (which includes Fosse doing a complete back-flip) was choreographed by Fosse himself, and lasts only 66 seconds. But it is the sequence that made critics take notice of the future award-winning choreographer and director.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
November 26, 1789 -
The first national Thanksgiving Day was observed in the United States in 1789, when recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress on this date, but we spoke all about this the other day.

The holiday wouldn't become an annual event until 1863 and wouldn't be signed into law until 1941 when US President Franklin D. Roosevelt made it an official, national holiday.


November 26, 1865 -



Oxford Don and nude child photographer, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, sends the manuscript for the psychedelic novel Alice in Wonderland to his 12 year old special friend Alice Liddell as an early Christmas present.



For some reason her parents did not notify the authorities.


November 26, 1965 –
Arlo Guthrie was arrested in Stockbridge, Mass., for dumping some trash following a Thanksgiving feast at a restaurant run by Alice Brock, on this date.



He wrote a song about the event that became a folk classic and was turned into a movie in 1969.



Yes kids, it really happened.


November 26, 1976 -
Anarchy in the UK, (as a single) by the Sex Pistols is released.



This was the Sex Pistols' first single, and it caused quite a stir in England with its lyrics advocating violence against the government. Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols was not released until a year later, partly because of distribution concerns: after hearing Anarchy In The UK, some organizations refused to ship the album.



And so it goes

789

Orange the World

Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women Day. The day was established in 1999. The United Nations designated the day partly in reverence to the anniversary of the murder of three sisters in the Dominican Republic.

A report issued from the World Bank a few years earlier stated that about one in four women in the world would be, or had been, raped and that violence against women is as prevalent a cause of death as cancer.

(Let's take a moment and change gears)


November 25, 1933 -
An almost forgotten horror film, The Ghoul, starring Boris Karolff , Cedric Hardwicke, and Ralph Richardson (in his film debut) opened in the U.S. on this date.



For years this was regarded as a "lost film" with no prints or elements known to exist. A nitrate release print was discovered in the Czech National Archives in Prague. This print was a subtitled edited version that was in poor condition and contained numerous splices. Years later, a print of the uncut British version was finally discovered.


November 25, 1937 -
William A. Wellman's wonderful screwball comedy, Nothing Sacred, starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March, premiered in NYC on this date.



Carole Lombard said that this was one of her favorite of her own films. It was also her only Technicolor feature.


November 25, 1940 -
Walter Lantz's introduced Woody Woodpecker with the release of Knock Knock on this date.



Although Woody made his first appearance in this film, he doesn't have a name until his next film, Woody Woodpecker.


November 25, 1942
Raoul Walsh's bio-pix about the boxer, James Corbett,  Gentleman Jim, starring Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, William Frawley, and Ward Bond, went into general release in the U.S. on this date.



Errol Flynn did all of his own boxing stunts in the film, and although production was shut down for a time after Flynn suffered a mild heart attack, he came back and finished the picture without ever using a double.


November 25, 1987 -
The now classic John Hughes' Thanksgiving film, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, starring Steve Martin and John Candy, premiered in the US on this date.



No transportation company wanted to appear inept or deficient in any way, so crews had to rent twenty miles of train track and refurbish old railroad cars, construct a set that looked like an airline terminal, design a rent-a-car company logo and uniforms, and rent two hundred fifty cars for the infamous Rent-a-Car sequence.


November 25, 1992 -
Neil Jordan's controversial (for the time) thriller, The Crying Game, starring Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson, and Forest Whitaker, went into limited release in the US on this date.



At the request of Channel 4, who were originally backing the film, Neil Jordan had to write and shoot a different ending for the film, because it was felt that with the original ending the film would be unreleasable. Jordan wrote and filmed this "fake ending" as he refers to it without love or conviction. However, when the film was cut with the fake ending in place, all agreed that it didn't work and the production received the funding to film the ending Jordan had originally written and with which the film was released.


I did not read this one -


Today in History:
November 25, 2348 BC -
According to Biblical scholars, a powerful rain storm began on this date. It rained an inch every ten seconds. Imagine that. An inch every ten seconds. The sheer volume and velocity of the deluge, comparable to rapid-fire artillery, ought to have been enough to kill every living thing on the planet in seconds, and yet it reportedly continued at this rate for a full 960 hours.

The only human survivors were a crotchety six-hundred-year-old man and his family. Fortunately, these sturdy souls had had the foresight to gather up two to seven specimens of every species on the planet (excepting, one assumes, the undaunted creatures of the sea) and load them onto a wooden boat before the storm began.



It may not sound like much, put like that, but considering the far-flung distribution of all the various creatures of the earth, and the difficulty of tracking down, say, all the varieties of paramecium without the benefit of a microscope, or sustaining desert flora on a water-logged ship, it was a considerable accomplishment.



I applaud the foresight, initiative, and ambition displayed by Noah and his family, but remain a little wary of the person or persons behind all that rain.


November 25, 1867 -
I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize - George Bernard Shaw



A patent was granted to Alfred Nobel for dynamite on this date.

To quote Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok, "May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up real good!!!"


November 25, 1914 -
Joe DiMaggio was born on this date. In addition to leading the New York Yankees to ten World Series championships.  Joe DiMaggio also got to marry Marilyn Monroe.



Be grateful for role models.


November 25, 1920  -
Contrary to popular belief, Macy's didn't host the first Thanksgiving Day parade (Macy's held their first parade in 1924, tied for second in the nation with the J.L. Hudson's Dept. store Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit)  - that honor goes to their longtime (and now defunct) rival Gimbel Brothers (Gimbels), in Philadelphia, which started the tradition on this date.



The first parade featured 50 costumed store employees leading a fireman dressed as Santa to the store on Eighth and Market Streets. Santa Claus, upon reaching Gimbels, would scale a fire truck ladder to the store’s eighth floor, conveniently the home of Gimbels Toyland themed dept.


November 25, 1963 -
The flag draped coffin containing the purported remains of the man, many Americans believed to have been John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. And on November 29, President Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren the head of a commission to investigate the alleged assassination of the person believed to have been John F. Kennedy.



Be grateful the CIA, the Cuban exile community, the Rosicrucians, extraterrestrials, and the Children's Television Workshop don't give a damn about you.


November 25, 1970 -
Japanese playwright, poet, novelist, nationalist, body building enthusiast and patron of transvestite bars, Yukio Mishima (Kimitake Hiraoka) committed seppuku (self disembowelment) after an aborted coup attempt in Japan on this date.

He had authored over 100 works and was deemed by Life magazine the "Japanese Hemmingway".



One has to ask themselves - why is perfect purity only possible when you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood. (I don't know, maybe you don't ask yourself these type of questions.)


On November 25, 1977, Greece announced the discovery of the tomb of King Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great.

On November 26, 1922, archaeologists Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter opened the tomb of Egypt’s King Tutankhamen.

Be grateful that the high point of your job isn’t digging up people who’ve been dead for thousands of years.


November 25, 1987 -
Fawn Hall, Oliver North's assistant, removes documents from sealed National Security Council offices inside the White House by hiding them inside her skirt, causing President Ronald Reagan to form a task force which eventually put both North and Hall on trial.

Another true American Patriot



And so it goes

790

It's Small Business Saturday once again -

Small Business Saturday has become an established event – the first one was in Roslindale Village, Massachusetts in 2010 as a counterpart to Black Friday (which features big box retailers, and its anti-consumerist counterpart, Buy Nothing Day targets big business).

American Express used to give their customers discounts or incentives to support small businesses across America. Since AMEX isn't featuring me, you'll need to figure out if your favorite local business is covered.


November 24, 1958 -
A precursor episode to the science fiction television series The Twilight Zone, The Time Element aired on this date as part of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse anthology series on the CBS-TV.



Though not the pilot episode of Rod Serling's series, The Twilight Zone, it was Rod Serling's production that lead to The Twilight Zone TV series. Because TV viewers at the time were not used to the kind of surprise, twist endings that for which the show ultimately became noted (and which this episode featured), Desi Arnaz appeared on-screen after the episode was finished and offered his "explanation" of what "really happened."


November 24, 1966 -
Captain Pike has an illusion, and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant.

The Star Trek episode The Menagerie, Part II first aired.



(The whole episode, unaltered episode is now behind various pay walls.)

This episode incorporate most of the unseen (at the time) pilot episode of Star Trek, The Cage, featuring Jeffrey Hunter, as Christopher Pike, captain of the USS Enterprise.


Don't forget to tune into The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today


Today in History:
November 24, 1740 -
William Duell was hanged for rape and murder on this date. A few hours later, whilst being prepared for dissection by medical students, he awakened.

The authorities took pity on him and commuted his sentence to one of transportation to Australia.

Wow that must have freaked him out.


November 24, 1835 -
The provisional government of Texas authorized the creation of the Texas Rangers (Corps of Rangers) police force.

While it's nice to think so, there's no truth to the rumor that Chuck Norris was there at the beginning.


November 24, 1859 -

Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species 159 years ago today.



And depending on your point of view, either this is a seminal work in scientific literature and arguably the pivotal work in evolutionary biology or,



you're a monkey's uncle.


November 24, 1874  -
Joseph Glidden was granted a patent (US patent no 157,124) for barbed wire on this date.

Glidden designed a simple wire barb that attached to a double-strand wire, as well as a machine to mass-produce the wire.


November 24, 1947 -
The House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt against 10 Hollywood writers, directors, and producers. These men had refused to cooperate at hearings dealing with communism in the movie industry held by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).



The Hollywood 10, as the men were known, are sentenced to one year in jail. The Supreme Court later upheld the contempt charges. The fallout resulted in the famous Hollywood "blacklist," which was a list of movie industry professionals suspected of either being communists themselves or supporting communist activities.


November 24, 1963 -
Extra-terrestrials used mass-hypnosis to persuade the world that someone resembling Jack Ruby had fatally shot someone resembling the person alleged to have been Lee Harvey Oswald on this date. This also became the first actual murder captured on live TV.



The next day, November 25, the flag draped coffin containing the purported remains of the man, many Americans believed to have been John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. And on November 29, President Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren the head of a commission to investigate the alleged assassination of the person believed to have been John F. Kennedy.



Be grateful the CIA, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, extraterrestrials, and the Children's Television Workshop don't give a damn about you.


November 24, 1966 -
The smoggiest day in the history of New York City occurred on this date, killing about 400 people.



The thick smog settled into the city, causing deaths from heart attacks and respiratory failure.


November 24, 1971 -
On Thanksgiving eve, DB Cooper boarded Flight 305 in Portland, Oregon, and demanded $200,000 with the threat of a bomb. He parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 with the money over the Cascade Mountains near Ariel, Washington, and was never seen again.



A packet containing $5,880 of the ransom money was found in 1980 on the north shore of the Columbia River, just west of the Washington city of Vancouver, but he's still is missing.


November 24th, 1991 -
Freddie Mercury (45) the lead singer of Queen died, just one day after he publicly announced he was HIV positive.



In 2013, Gigwise readers named Mercury the best frontman ever.



And so it goes

791

Do just what you please

While you are still digesting last nights meal, you may have to start getting ready for Friendsgiving.



As most of you know, the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year in the US.



I'm not quite sure you're going to get the best deals in the world today,

so why not sleep in (after you finish reading the blog of course.)

Happy Fibonacci day.

Once again, I suggest celebrating by eating Fibanachos!


Today is the birthday of both Boris Karloff (1887)



and Harpo Marx (1888).



And that makes this a good day.


November 23, 1959 -
American International Pictures released one of the Classic 'B' movies of the late 50s, The Angry Red Planet, in the US on this date.



The 40-foot alien monster was actually a marionette about 15 inches high. It was essentially a combination of a rat, bat, spider, and crab.


November 23, 1963 -
The first episode of Doctor Who, The Unearthly Child, premiered on the BBC, on this date.



When this episode was first aired, parts of Britain were suffering a power failure. It was also the day after President Kennedy was assassinated. Both of these factors meant the program was only seen by a disappointing 4.4 million people. When repeated a week later, it was watched by 6 million.


November 23, 1969 –
The Rolling Stones made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which aired on this date, singing  - Gimme Shelter, Love In Vain, and Honky Tonk Woman. They were promoting their latest album Let It Bleed.



This was their sixth and final appearance on the show.


November 23, 1983 -
James L. Brooks adaptation of Larry McMurty's novel, Terms of Endearment, starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Danny Devito, Jeff Daniels and John Lithgow, opened in limited release on this date.



Debra Winger behaved erratically on the set of this film because she was trying to get over a severe cocaine addiction. At one point, she and Shirley MacLaine got into a shoving match.


Today, I feel like it's 5 pm just for me


Today in History:
November 23, 1499 -
A young man claiming to be the son of Edward IV landed in Cornwall, England, and declared himself King Richard IV. Unfortunately England already a king, the young man wasn't really the son of Edward IV, and his name wasn't Richard.

He was in fact Perkin Warbeck, and was therefore hanged to death on this date (as opposed to having been well hung.)


November 23, 1910 -
English murderer Hawley Crippen an American physician was hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, England, after he was caught aboard the SS Montrose attempting to escape to Britain, on this date.

It was the first use of wireless radio for the apprehension of a criminal.


November 23, 1936 -
The first edition of Life, the picture magazine created by Henry R. Luce, was published on this date.

It was an immediate sellout.


November 23, 1976 -
Jerry Lee Lewis had been a bad boy again. On this date, he was arrested in front of Graceland in Memphis for public drunkenness, and carrying a chrome plated .38.



Looking to touch Elvis, I bet.


November 23, 1990 -
MTV banned Madonna's video Justify My Love due to its sexually-explicit content on this date.



Oh, do you remember when television was this quaint,



or Madonna was this relevant?



And so it goes

792

Drink and be thankful to the host!

Remember, it's about 20 minutes per pound for a frozen turkey and 15 minute for a fresh one.



While you're sitting around the table with your family this Thanksgiving, opine this - You might consume up to 229 grams fat during tonight's dinner; that's about 3 to 4 times the amount of fat you should eat in a day. It will take you almost 11 hours to work off the 4500 calories you've probably consumed.


Today is Go For A Ride Day. The day is supposed to encourages you to get out into the world – hop on your bike, into your car, or simply get your walking boots out of storage and go on a trip.  Don’t worry too much about where you’re going, just enjoy the journey.



If you're planning to have Thanksgiving dinner at your home this week, you should be planning to take a trip to your local supermarket.


To sing is to pray twice.

Today is the feast day of St. Cecilia. According to legend, Cecilia was a young Christian of high rank betrothed to a Roman named Valerian. Through her influence, Valerian was converted, and was promptly martyred along with his brother, Tiburtius. The legend about Cecilia’s death first involved an insufficiently heated scalding bath. When that didn't work, Cecilia was struck three times on the neck with a sword (obviously not honed correctly,) she lived for three days, and asked the pope to convert her home into a church. St. Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians, singers and music.


November 22, 1940 -
The Letter, starring Bette Davis (at her best) premiered in NYC on this date.



Davis fought several times with Wyler over the interpretation of her character, but later concluded, "I did it his way.... Yes, I lost a battle, but I lost it to a genius.... So many directors were such weak sisters that I would have to take over. Uncreative, unsure of themselves, frightened to fight back, they offered me none of the security that this tyrant did." She did not mind his customary calls for many multiple takes of scene after scene because she felt it matched her own perfectionism.


November 22, 1968 -
The Beatles released their long-awaited double album, simply called The Beatles, but better known as The White Album.



The album was the first the Beatles undertook following the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, and the first released by their own record label, Apple.


November 22, 1975 –
KC and the Sunshine Band song, That’s the Way (I Like It), hit No #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



A 1975 Time magazine article cited this song as an example of "sex rock," naming it, along with Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby as part of a new wave of sexually suggestive songs that were all the rage, but drawing opposition from conservative groups.


November 22, 1991 -
Barry Sonnenfeld take on Charles Addams New Yorker Cartoons, The Addams Family, starring Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci, premiered on this date.



Bruno Kirby offered his fat suit from The Godfather: Part II to Christopher Lloyd, in order to play Uncle Fester.


November 22, 1995 -
Toy Story was released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.



Sid Phillips is said to be inspired by a former Pixar employee of the same last name who was known to disassemble toys and use the parts to build bizarre creations.


Thanksgiving: when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty


Today in History:
November 22, 1888 -
According to the Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel,



Tarzan of the Apes (Lord Greystoke) was born on this date.


November 22, 1928 -
Maurice Ravel composition Boléro has it's first public performance in Paris on this date.



Boléro became Ravel's most famous composition, much to the surprise of the composer, who had predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it


November 22, 1963 -
We, in this country, in this generation, are - by destiny rather than choice - the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. - from the address that President John F. Kennedy never got to deliver in Dallas on this date.



A covert CIA operation privately funded by a plutocratic cabal of multinational industrial interests acting in conjunction with extraterrestrial forces and the Knights Templar succeeded in making it appear that Lee Harvey Oswald had assassinated President Kennedy, on this date.



Or if this is too much for you, you can always believe in the MAGIC BULLET.


November 22, 1963 -
The Steam Ferry Cornelius G. Kolff vanished without a trace, on this date. On its way with nearly 400 hundred people, mostly on their way to work, the disappearance of the Cornelius G. Kolff remains both one of New York’s most horrific maritime tragedies and perhaps its most intriguing mystery.



You probable think that you never heard about this event because it was overshadowed by the assassination of JFK that same day - but you never heard about it because it never happened.  Artist Joe Reginella created the elaborate hoax using slick brochures, a web site and even a statue are luring hapless tourists to a far corner of Staten Island in search of a museum devoted to the made-up tragedy.


November 22, 1968 -
Many a KKK member and Daughter of the Civil War were given the vapors on this date in history.



Capt. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) share the first interracial kiss in TV history on Star Trek on this date.


November 22, 1975 -
Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias was proclaimed King of Spain after he confirms with advisers that Francisco Franco planned to be dead for a while.



Juan Carlos is related to both Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (and as you know they are related to each other.) To confuse matters even more, his wife Queen Sofia, is related to all three of them. King Juan Carlos had to abdicate in favor of his son, Felipe VI (who is so related to Prince Charles though all four of the above mentioned people that they are practically first cousins,) proving once again, sometimes it's not good to be the king who spends too much money.

Oh, love among the royals.

And so it goes

793