Things change ... including the time

Did you remember to set all of the clocks back



- the DVD player (I finally threw out the VCR last year,) the microwave, the automatic coffee pot in the kitchen?



If you've already done so, you can watch this; we'll wait for the others.


Do you have friend running the Marathon today?



Don't forget to remind them that the first guy who ran one died at the finish line.


Once again it's time to celebrate National Chicken Lady Day.  I lost control of bodily functions - thoughts of the KITH Chicken Lady flooded my mind.



But it was not to be. The real Chicken Lady honored today is Dr. Marthenia "Tina" Dupree.

Dr. Dupree, who was formerly the Community Relations and Training Director for a large chicken restaurant, helps people learn public speaking through her not-for-profit organization - The Professional Speakers Network.


November 4, 1948,
The controversial (for the time) film about life inside a mental institution, The Snake Pit, starring  Olivia de Havilland premiered on this date.



Director Anatole Litvak insisted that the cast and crew spend three months visiting mental institutions and attending psychiatric lectures to prepare themselves for the film. Olivia de Havilland willingly threw herself into the research. She attended patient treatments at the institutions, and observed electric shock therapy and hydrotherapy first-hand. When permitted, she sat in on doctor-patient therapy sessions. She also attended social events for patients at the institutions.


November 4, 1960 -
The Daniel Mann’s adaptation of John O’Hara’s 1935 novel, Butterfield 8, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, and Eddie Fisher premiered on this date.



Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, Mike Todd, had planned for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  to be her final film, as she intended to retire from the screen. Todd had made a verbal agreement about this with MGM, but after his death, MGM forced Taylor to make this film in order to fulfill the terms of her studio contract. As a result, Taylor refused to speak to the director for the entire production, and hated the film.


November 4, 1967 -
Motown released the Smokey Robinson and The Miracles hit, I Second That Emotion, on this date.



This was the first Top-10 hit for the group after their 1967 name change from The Miracles.


November 4, 1978 -
Let the warm feeling wash over you, even though the skinny white boy is singing,  -  place one hand on your monitor and the other hand upon the afflicted area. He is channeling the healing powers of Rev. Al Green. Feel his power emanate and pulsate through your loins.



The Talking Heads released their version of the Al Green classic Take Me To The River, on this date. (Someone fetch me a cold compress - I need a moment to compose myself.)


November 4, 2005 -
Walt Disney Pictures released Chicken Little on this date. It was the first in-house Disney film completely created with computer animation.



This was Don Knotts' last theatrically released film, released a few months before his death.


Yes, I did read this book.


Today in History:
November 4, 1922 -
It was on this day that a British man named Howard Carter made one of the greatest archeological discoveries of all time by discovering the tomb of King Tutankhamen (Boris Karloff).



Tut has been making his tour and putting a curse on those damn limeys who disturbed his eternal rest for more than 90 years.


November 4, 1928 -
Arnold Rothstein, mobster and the man who fixed the 1919 World Series, was having a bit of bad luck. Rothstein had just finished playing a marathon three day game of poker with some 'business associates'.

Realizing that his losses totaled a staggering $320,000.00, Rothstein quit the game and refused to pay his debt. The Brain, as he was known by his associated suspected the game might not be on the up and up. His associates took umbrage at the accusation and 'arranged' to have Rothstein have an allergic reaction to some bullets at the Park Central Hotel in NYC on this date.

The gangster, a man of honor, refused to identify his killers on his deathbed. Had he only thought things might not be on the up and up playing cards with men named George "Hump" McManus and Titanic Thompson, things may have gone differently for him.


November 4, 1952 -
The US established the National Security Agency (NSA) on this date.

The NSA (is supposed to) serve as an intelligence agency of the US, gathering and analyzing foreign intelligence documentation and other forms of communication, usually involving encrypted information that requires decoding. (Just lift the receiver up off the phone and whisper, 'Happy Birthday', they'll hear you.)


November 4, 1963 -
At a Beatles command performance (present: Queen Elizabeth; the Queen Mother; Princess Margaret), John Lennon utters the remark: "Will the people in the cheaper seats clap their hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry."



If you look very closely behind the Queen Mother, I believe Princess Margaret flipped John off.


November 4, 1979 -
The US Embassy in Tehran was stormed by "students", holding 52 hostages for 444 days.



The incident propels Ted Koppel and his magnificent hair onto the national scene with a long series of repetitive Nightline: America Held Hostage specials.


November 4, 1995 -
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, 73 years old, was killed by a right-wing, 27 year old Israeli law student, Yigal Amir, at a Tel Aviv peace rally.



Shimon Peres assumed the post of acting Prime Minister.


November 4, 2008 -

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was elected the 44th president of the United States, the first African American to hold that position, on this date.



And so it goes


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