... autumn leaves start to fall

Today is the first full day of Autumn (some call it Fall.)

Take advantage of the day (there are only 99 more of the left this year.)


Today is National Punctuation Day (!,?.)



It's a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the every mysterious ellipsis.

(The exclamation comma is a combination of both and exclamation point and a comma, used thusly:  “I’d love to use a new punctuation mark [insert exclamation comma. Unfortunately, the exclamation comma isn’t standard in font sets and can’t easily be used in typing.]  yet the others might get jealous. ” )


September 24, 1046 -
You might know that today is the feast day of St. Gerard Sagredo of Hungary and he was not having a great day today.

During mass, hordes of heathens, stormed his church, bundled him up and wheeled him to the top of Gellert Hill, in Hungary (but you don't care.)  Those heathen hordes shoved the cart down the hill, then beat him to death on this date

(but I'm sure this is all meaningless to you because there's no Feast of St. Gerald Sagredo festival in your neighborhood.)


September 24, 1938 -
One of the craziest cartoons Looney Tunes ever produced, Porky in Wackyland was released on this date.  You need to watch it a few times to really get everything that's going on in this one.



This cartoon set the bar for outlandishness in animation.


September 24, 1945 -
Michael Curtiz' tense film noir, Mildred Pierce, starring Joan Crawford and her enormous shoulder pads, was released on this date.



Michael Curtiz was initially less than keen at working with "has-been" star Joan Crawford as she had a reputation for being difficult. Curtiz was soon won over by Crawford's dedication and hard work.


September 24, 1958 -
Ladies (and some men), don't you always wears heels, pearls and chic frocks to do the housework? The Donna Reed Show premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



Of the numerous family oriented situation comedies of the 1950s and early 60s, The Donna Reed Show was the first series to feature the mother as the focal point.


September 24, 1961 -
Students of Great Comedy lined up around the block to enroll in Whatsamatta U when The Bullwinkle Show moved to primetime on NBC TV on this date.



This is the first story arc that Boris and Natasha do not appear in the story.


September 24, 1964 -
We all visited 1313 Mockingbird Lane for the first time when The Munsters premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



Beverley Owen played the part of Marilyn for the first 13 episodes. She was in love with her fiancée in New York and agreed to do the show thinking it would be a flop from the outlandish premise. When it became a hit, she was constantly crying from having to be in LA while her boyfriend Jon Stone was in New York. The other cast members asked the producers to release her from her contract so she could get married and they did. She was replaced by Pat Priest, who looked so much like Beverly Owen, viewers never knew the difference. Ironically, Beverley Owen would get divorced from Jon Stone 10 years later and would never appear on screen again after those initial 13 episodes.


September 24, 1968 -
The TV show Mod Squad premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



Series creator Buddy Ruskin, a former Los Angeles police officer, used his experiences with a special L.A.P.D. youth squad as the basis for this show.


September 24, 1977 -
Everyone got to order their first drink from Isaac when The Love Boat set sail for the first time on ABC-TV on this date.



This series was based upon Jeraldine Saunders novel titled, The Love Boats. She wrote the book from her personal observations while serving as a hostess on a cruise ship.


September 24, 1991 -
Nirvana's album Nevermind was released 28 years today on this date.



Within a year of the album's release, much of the hair metal and hard rock that had commanded the airwaves was being phased out in favor of the “grunge” style often attached to Nirvana.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
September 24, 1896 -
... Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.

On this date in 1896, a young Minnesota woman gave birth to a depressive, witty young alcoholic named Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. The boy did badly in school and went to train for war in 1918. While training at Camp Sheridan in Alabama, he fell in love with Zelda Sayre, the mentally unstable daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge.



The war ended before Fitzgerald could be sent overseas and shot, however, so he went to New York to become rich and famous. He became neither, so Zelda broke off their engagement.

Fitzgerald then moved back to Minnesota. A year later he became a famous writer. He moved to Connecticut, Zelda married him, and they became drunken celebrity wrecks.



They spent a lot of time in Europe. This lasted until Zelda went mad and Fitzgerald died.



Fitzgerald is best remembered for having said the rich were different, even though Hemingway kept telling him to act like a man and strip down, grease himself up and get into a boxing ring.



Oh yeah, he also wrote several books.

... Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat......


September 24, 1947 -
Majestic 12, a secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, was allegedly established by a secret executive order issued by President Harry Truman (who may or may not have been sober at the time) to investigate UFO activity in the aftermath of the Roswell incident.



Conspiracy theorists consider the Majestic 12 major evidence supporting the government-cover-up theories. The FBI has since attempted to debunk any documents associated with the committee. Debate continues to this day about whether or not the committee existed.  (And remember, you didn't read any of this here.)


September 24, 1964 -
The Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, (which had occurred on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas,) was presented to President Lyndon B. Johnson on this date.



The report did little to quiet conspiracy theories, but it documented that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone and that the Secret Service had made poor preparations for JFK’s visit to Dallas, had failed to sufficiently protect him, and was not part of a larger-scale plot.

President Johnson never slept another full nights' sleep again.


September 24, 1969 -
The trial of the "Chicago Eight" (later seven) began on this date. Demonstrations began outside the court house, with the Weatherman group proclaiming the "Days of Rage" in protest of the trial. The Chicago Eight staged demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to protest the Vietnam War and its support by the top Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. These anti-Vietnam War protests were some of the most violent in American history as the police and national guardsmen beat antiwar protesters, innocent bystanders and members of the press.



Five defendants (Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger and Rennie Davis) were convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention; the convictions were ultimately overturned.


September 24, 1970 -
Luna 16 was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample to Earth. An automatic drilling rig was deployed and 101 grams of lunar soil was collected.

The samples were returned to Earth on this date and marked the first time lunar sampled were recovered by an unmanned spacecraft.


September 24, 1991 -
Theodor Seuss Geisel, an American writer and cartoonist best known for his classic children's books under the pen name Dr. Seuss, including The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, died on this date.



No greater tribute was given to the Doctor than when the Reverend Jesse Jackson appeared on SNL following his death.



And so it goes


484