Thursday, June 6, 2019

... you had me dangling, like a yo-yo on a string

Today is National Yo-Yo Day, falling on what is believed to have been Donald Duncan Sr.'s birthday (even the Duncan Company wasn't too sure if June 6 is the right date).



I'm sure you have one (I've now found a fifth one in the back of a book case around the house.) Go into the desk drawer, dig around and pull your old yo-yo out - I'll give you a moment.



Please celebrate responsibly - don't drink and go Around the World .


June 6, 1933
-
The first drive-in movie theater is opened on a ten acre site off Wilson Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey by garage owner Richard Hollingshead on this date. (The first film shown was Wives Beware.)



The theater features a 40 foot by 30 foot screen and a four hundred car capacity arranged in semi-circular rows. The original slogan of the Park-In Theater was “The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.


June 6, 1972 -
David Bowie
released The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on this date.



Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Marc Bolan, Gene Vincent and Jimi Hendrix ("He played it left hand, but made it too far" - Hendrix was left-handed), were all likely influences on the character Ziggy Stardust, but the only musician Bowie admits was a direct influence was Vince Taylor, an English singer who took the "rock star" persona to the extreme, calling himself Mateus and declaring himself the son of God. Taylor was popular in France in the early '60s, and Bowie met him in 1966, after his popularity had faded.


June 6, 1997 –
Farrah Fawcett
made a bizarre appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman.



She went on long tirades and story-telling sprees that made little to no sense and was distracted by blinking lights in the studio.


June 6, 1998
The highly successful series, Sex and The City premiered on HBO on this date.



The medicine cabinet in Carrie's apartment was first spied by Sarah Jessica Parker at a flea market shortly before filming began on the series. She and Matthew Broderick didn't buy it, but reconsidered. When they went back, the cabinet was already sold to "some television show". When she showed up for filming, the medicine cabinet was there.


Just another day


Today in History:
June 6, 1755
-
A boy was born in Coventry, Connecticut on this date. He grew up, went to Yale, and became a teacher. He never distinguished himself in any way. He never wrote or said anything of note, never committed any famous or infamous deeds, never married or had children. He seemed destined to be swallowed whole by the omnivorous mouth of obscurity. He was therefore recruited by the United States Military as an intelligence agent, dispatched behind enemy lines in British-occupied Manhattan, and captured.

He was hanged by the British on September 22, 1776.



Moments before his execution, he expressed regret that he couldn't be hanged more than once. This remark catapulted him to posthumous fame (but only after his death), and Nathan Hale is revered to this day.


June 6, 1844 -
 ... You can get yourself clean. You can have a good meal. You can do whatever you feel ...



That 'fun' place to stay, The Young Men's Christian Association was founded in London, England by George Williams and a group of Evangelical Christians on this date. (If you find yourself dancing around while watching the video clip above, maybe you may have swam in the nude at the Y as a child, or maybe even as an adult.)


June 6, 1935 -
Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso
(born Lhamo Dondrub), the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet's Lamaistic Buddhists was born on this date.



Once again, I'm pissing off the Chinese gov't. At this rate, I believe during the oncoming cyber war, I will be given over to the Chinese, as part of the reparations.


June 6, 1944 -
75 years ago today, the largest seaborne invasion in history began - the allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord.) The date is also commonly known as D-Day. The military calls the date of every major operation D-Day, probably to confuse the enemy.



This would have been especially confusing in Normandy, which is in France, where Day begins with a J. German spies were probably waiting to hear something about J-Jour.


June 6, 1955 -
At some point, the pride has to be a part of the whole day-to-day oeuvre. It's part of who you are and doesn't need to be discussed anymore.



Sandra Bernhard, comedian/actress was also born on this day.


June 6, 1968 -
Senator Robert F. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles on this date.



The Democratic lawmaker had been campaigning for his party's Presidential nomination when he was shot three times by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan a day earlier.


Jun 6 1976 -
American expatriate J. Paul Getty, named the richest man in the world in 1957, died in London at age 83.



According to the oil baron, "If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars."


June 6, 1985 -
Authorities in Embu, Brazil exhume the grave of one Wolfgang Gerhard in order to determine its true identity. The remains are later proven to be those of Dr. Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's notorious Angel of Death.

Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in the ocean in February 1979.


June 6, 1989 -
During the Tehran funeral of the Ayatollah Khomeini, frenzied mourners accidentally tipped his corpse out of its coffin and onto the ground.



Three million horrified followers beared witness to the desecration.

Oops!


June 6, 1990 -
US district court judge Jose Gonzalez ruled that the rap album by 2 Live Crew violated Florida's obscenity law.



Gonzalez declared that the predominant subject matter of the record is "directed to the 'dirty' thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind."

I've scoured the internet, they were not offering 'Interpreting dirty thoughts and the loins' when I was a freshman at Columbia.


On a personal note - Happy Birthday Joseph.




And so it goes.


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