Think outside the trash ... Recycle!

Today is America Recycles Day. (Its also known as national clean out the refrigerator day.)

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, today's a good day to make some room in the frig ( I should start looking through the freezer for a few 'frozen corpse' meals in there this weekend.).



While the country may be torn apart by political divisions, it comforts me to know that there is no requirement about what meat you have to store within your meat drawer.


I could not let the day pass without recognizing that it is also National Bundt Cake Day.



We are rolling around the floor in our house at the mention of this (Many of our friends look at My Big Fat Greek Wedding as a documentary about their lives.)


November 15, 1935 -
...  You're willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of Minnie the Moocher for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie.

The Marx Brother's first film made without Zeppo, A Night at the Opera, premiered on this date.



The famous "stateroom scene" was originally conceived as a way of getting a cheap laugh by having Groucho Marx, crowded out of his room, changing his pants in the corridor. After this was not liked by test audiences, the scene was improvised on the spot. A total of 15 people were in the scene: Driftwood (1); the stowaways Fiorello, Tomasso and Riccardo [who were in the trunk] (2-4); two chambermaids (5-6); an engineer who comes to turn off the heat (7); a manicurist (8); the engineer's burly assistant (9); a young woman looking for her Aunt Minnie and asking to use the phone (10); a cleaning woman (11); and four staff stewards bearing trays of food (12-15). They all tumble out when Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) opens the door.


November 15, 1940 -
The film that introduced Abbott and Costello to movie audiences, One Night in the Tropics, opened on this date.



The film was a flop but Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were so popular that Universal offered the team a two-picture deal with the option to extend the contract. Also, they would receive 10% of the films' profits.


November 15, 1945 -
The beautifully lyrical, Les Enfants du Paradis, opened in the US on this date.



Filming was completed a short time before D-Day and the director, having planned to distribute the film after the liberation of France, had three copies printed and concealed in three different places: a cellar of the Banque de France, a strongbox of Pathe Studios and a Provence country house.


November 15, 1948 -
Carol Reed's adaptation of Graham Greene screenplay (based on his own story,) The Fallen Idol, starring Ralph Richardson, Michele Morgan, and Bobby Henrey premiered in NYC on this date.



The biggest challenge was getting such an amazing central performance out of Bobby Henrey, who had no experience, or much acting ability, yet was on-screen almost the entire movie. Assistant Director Guy Hamilton noted that the boy "couldn't act his way out of a paper bag" and had "the attention span of a demented flea." He also remarked that things got more difficult when Bobby got bored after twelve to fourteen weeks of shooting.


November 15, 1950 -
The third installment of John Ford's 'cavalry trilogy', Rio Grande, starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, premiered in the US on this date.



John Ford was especially irritated when producer Herbert J. Yates showed up on location with fellow Republic executive Rudy Ralston. Pointing out the time (it was ten in the morning), Yates asked when Ford intended to start shooting; "Just as soon as you get the hell off my set", Ford supposedly replied. The director later played a practical joke on the two producers at dinnertime. He hired one of his actors, Alberto Morin, to masquerade as a French waiter with poor English skills. During their meal, Morin managed to spill soup on the men, break several plates, and create a general ruckus in the dining room but Yates and Ralston never seemed to catch on to the joke.


November 15, 1956 -
Elvis Presley's first movie, Love Me Tender, premiered at New York's Paramount Theater on this date.



Of all the movies starring Elvis Presley, this is the only one in which he didn't get top billing. He was billed third, after Richard Egan and Debra Paget.


Some early Thanksgiving advice


Today in History:
November 15, 1539 -
The Bishop of Glastonbury, Richard Whiting, was hung, drawn and quartered on this date, at Glastonbury Tor after being convicted of treason (on a trumped up charge) of remaining loyal to Rome.

The Abbot's head was stuck on a spike above his abbey gateway for all to see, and his quarters, boiled in pitch, were displayed at neighboring monasteries.

Here's a fact to impress your friends with:

One interpretation of the children's nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner relates it to Jack Horner, steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Richard Whiting. Supposedly, the abbot sent Horner to London to present a pie to Henry VIII with the deeds to 12 manors inside. During the journey, Horner opened the pie and took the deed to Mells (it being the real 'plum' of the twelve manors), which was indeed acquired by the family at that time, although they claim that it was purchased legitimately.


November 15, 1660 -
Asser Levy (one of the first Jewish citizens to come to New Amsterdam) became the first kosher butcher licensed in NYC (New Amsterdam) on this date.

Later that day, a Mrs.Yetta Abromowicz is the first customer to ask how fresh the chicken was.


Today in 1864 -
Union General William T. Sherman began his March to the Sea and burnt Atlanta on this date.



Meanwhile in another part of Atlanta, Rhett rescues Scarlett, Melanie and her brand new baby from Aunt Pittypat's Peachtree Street home before the conflagration began.



Rhett declared his love for Scarlett but she rebuffed him.



But that's a another story.


November 15, 1887 -
American artist Georgia O'Keeffe was born on this date.



Ms. O'Keeffe is best known for her colorful paintings of desert flowers -



that don't look like vaginas.


November 15, 1904 -
A patent (US patent No. 775,134) was granted to King C. Gillette for a safety 'razor' on this date.

Production on the razors began in 1903 when he sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades. The following year, 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades were sold, thanks in part to Gillette's low prices, automated manufacturing techniques, and good advertising


November 15, 1922 -
The 1912 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, Dr. Alexis Carrel announced his discovered of white corpuscles in the blood on this date.



Remember, there is constant warfare between the red and white corpuscles.


November 15, 1939 -
Perhaps because it was the depth of the Great Depression, the perversion of Washington D.C., knew no bounds -

President Roosevelt, slowly but deliberately rose from his wheelchair and laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., in front a group of horrified dignitaries, on this date


November 15, 1940 -
The Queens Midtown Tunnel linking Manhattan and Queens opened to traffic on this date.

Some of those first drivers have just made it out to Orient Point by now.


November 15, 1959 -
In Holcomb, Kansas, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith brutally killed four members of the Herbert Clutter Family on this date.



This crime was memorably recounted by Truman Capote in his famous non-fiction story, In Cold Blood.


November 15, 1968 -
Russia has long been known for distillation of vodka. Soviet Premier Krushchev had only recently boasted about the superiority of Russia's Vodka. However, the USSR had turned to the U.S., requesting the importation of their 'inferior' alcohol to cover a shortage in the country, on this date.

The reason that Russia ran out of vodka had to do with a shortage of grain and potatoes which had to be diverted to the production of food.


November 15, 1969 -
The first Wendy's fast-food restaurant was opened by Dave Thomas in Columbus, Ohio on this date.



Today, the restaurant has locations around the globe and is one of the largest hamburger fast food chains in the world.


And so it goes.

Before you go - The English department store chain, John Lewis and Partners released their annual holiday advert, (apparently this is one of the more highly anticipated commercials.)



Oops, I should have warned you to have your tissues handy.

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