I am not a paid spokesperson (yet)

Today is National Caviar Day. Although it is high in sodium and cholesterol, caviar is rich in calcium and phosphorus, as well as protein, selenium, iron, magnesium, and Vitamins B12 and B6.

While it's normal to wash down the briny fish roe with champagne or iced vodka;

why not down shots of iced Bombay Sapphire.  (Bacardi Limited, owner of the brand, know how to reach me.)


July 18, 1970 -
Mama Told Me (Not to Come) by Three Dog Night (written by Randy Newman) topped the charts on this date.



This was written by Randy Newman. He had yet to release any solo material. When he started recording his own material many of the songs had already been recorded by others. Mama Told Me Not to Come was included on his second album, 12 Songs, which came out around the same time Three Dog Night issued it. Newman had little chart success as an artist in these early years, but Three Dog Night did, and their lively version was the one listeners preferred. Newman at first dismissed them as a "teeny-bopper" band, but later rescinded that statement, saying he liked their version a great deal.


July 18, 2008 -
Warner Bros. released the Christopher Nolan superhero film The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Heath Ledger, in US theaters, on this date.



While filming a chase scene on Lake Street, the Chicago Police Department received several calls from concerned citizens stating that the police were involved in a vehicle pursuit with a dark vehicle of unknown make or model.


July 18, 2008 -
Universal Pictures finally released it much planned ABBA jukebox musical, Mamma Mia! starring  Christine Baranski, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgård, Meryl Streep and Julie Walters in the US on this date.



Pierce Brosnan had no idea what the project was about when he signed on. The producers told him it was being filmed in Greece, and Meryl Streep was starring. Brosnan said he would've signed on for anything involving Streep, describing her as "that gorgeous blonde I fancied terribly in Drama School."


If you're in need in Los Angeles ...


Today in History:
July 18, 64 -
Most of imperial Rome was burned to the ground because Emperor Nero had been playing the fiddle. This resulted in the persecution of Christians, many of whom were believed to have encouraged him.



You know how those early Christians love their city burning, fiddle playing, crazed Emperors.



Yes, I'm aware that Nero wasn't even in Rome at the time of the fire. At this time, I do not believe even the stringent libel laws in England cover this.


July 18, 1870 -
At the end of Vatican I, Catholic popes are proclaimed infallible by chapter four of the papal bull Pastor Aeternus. The pope's declarations on matters of faith are protected from error by the Holy Spirit. In a nutshell: whatever he says about the scripture, goes.



This is an interesting doctrine, considering how often St. Peter is himself contradicted by the Gospels.


July 18, 1913 -
Richard "Red" Skelton, was born in Vincennes, Ind., on this date. During a career that stretched through medicine shows, vaudeville, motion pictures, radio and television, the gentle Skelton created a host of characters from the silent tramp Freddie the Freeloader to the Mean Widdle Kid, who coined the catch phrase, "I dood it!"



In a People Magazine interview late in his life, Skelton admitted that he fudged his officially accepted birth year, but did not elaborate. The year 1910 is sometimes given instead of 1913, but Skelton's biographer Arthur Marx claims that the comedian told close associates he was really born in 1906.



July18, 1918 -
After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one's person.



Today is the 101st anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela.


July 18, 1925 -
Today marks the 94th anniversary of the publication of Adolf Hitler's best-selling political memoir, Mein Kampf (or, in English, "I'm Crazy and I'm Gonna Kill You"). The book remains extremely popular with genocidal sociopaths and is therefore experiencing a renaissance of sales.

The book's original title was Four-and-a-Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice.



Taking him at his word and assuming the little lance-corporal really had struggled against lies, stupidity, and cowardice for 54 months, one has to ask, in light of his later activities, if maybe lies, stupidity, and cowardice aren't so bad.


July 18, 1929 -
It's Screamin' Jay Hawkins Birthday.



Remember, get naked and dance around the house, just do it.


July 18, 1936 -
The first Oscar Meyer Wienermobile rolled out of General Body Company’s factory in Chicago (when Carl Mayer approached his uncle Oscar with the idea of driving a giant hot dog through Chicago streets.) on this date.



The Wienermobile started as a smallish 13-foot affair (Carl Mayer drove around with his head sticking through a hole in the roof)


July 18, 1939 -
Hunter S. Thompson's birthday is today.



He was once considered, armed, and dangerous. Now he is no more than soot on the window sills of his and his neighbors homes. Dr. Thompson founded the Gonzo school of journalism in the 1970s; graduates from that school can today be seen every night on cable news.

Dr. Thompson inspired the character "Uncle Duke" in the comic strip Doonesbury, by former Canadian Prime Minister Gary Trudeau.

(Uncle Duke first appeared in Doonesbury was on July 8, 1974.) Several movies have been made about Dr. Thompson's life and work and psychotic episodes. He is perhaps the only American journalist to have been played on-screen by both



Bill Murray



and Johnny Depp.


July 18, 1947 -
British seized the Exodus 1947 ship of Jewish immigrants to Palestine on this date. The British Royal Navy intercepted the ship President Warfield, which had been renamed Exodus by its passengers, forcing the 4,000 Jewish would-be immigrants aboard back to Displaced Person camps in Germany.



Britain was still the ruling power in Palestine, which was being wracked by conflict resulting from Jewish national aspirations. The return of the Jewish immigrants, many of them survivors of Nazi persecution, heightened anti-British sentiment among Jews in Palestine and elsewhere.


On July 18, 1947, President Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act.  The original act of 1792 had placed the Senate president pro tempore and Speaker of the House in the line of succession, but in 1886 Congress had removed them.



The 1947 law reinserted those officials, but placed the Speaker ahead of the president pro tempore.

So now you now.


July 18, 1950 -
You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.



While it's good to be kind, it doesn't suck to be Richard Branson.  British music entrepreneur Richard Branson was born on this date.


July 18, 1966 -
In Los Angeles, the beaten corpse of Bobby Fuller was found sprawled across the front seat  of his mother's Oldsmobile. Fuller, whose band The Bobby Fuller Four released the hit I  Fought The Law, was found to have died from "forced inhalation of gasoline."



Technically, Fuller died from huffing... although circumstances point to murder.


July 18, 1969 -
Driving home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy's car goes over the  side of Dike Bridge and flips over into a pond. Kennedy manages to free himself from the  automobile, but his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.

(Once again - don't hitch a ride with a Kennedy.)



For some reason, Kennedy told no one about the accident for at least an hour, and waited until the following morning to notify local police.


July 18, 1976 -
Romanian Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast to receive a perfect-ten score in 1976 Olympic competition.



In 2000, Comaneci was named as one of the athletes of the century by the Laureus World Sports Academy.


July 18, 1988 -
I have a habit of leaving places at the wrong time, just when something big may have happened for me.



Rock and Roll performer/ heroin addict Nico wiped out on her bicycle on Ibiza and died from  a brain hemorrhage on this day - that, combined with a lack of medical treatment.



And so it goes.



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