The Lunar New Year starts today, and it's the Year of the Rat, but which one?
In Chinese astrology, each year is associated with a Chinese zodiac animal sign and one the Five Elements: Gold (Metal), Water, Wood, Fire, or Earth. Both the sign and element of your birth year are said to affect your personality and destiny. This year’s elemental sign is Metal - so we are celebrating Golden Rat.
(Please be aware that once again, Mr. Teeny and I will be celebrating Chinese New Year recklessly this Year of the Rat - it's our birth year, by shooting firecrackers in public locations for the next two weeks.
Please also remember that people in China don't call it Chinese New Year, it's Lunar New Year; other countries celebrate Lunar New Year as well.)
Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on the Lunar New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. The Rat tricked the Ox into giving him a ride. Then, just as they arrived at the finish line, Rat jumped down and landed ahead of Ox, becoming first. He announced that the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality.
People born under the ‘Metal Rat’ tend to be reliable and live a stable life. They may Those born under the sign of the rat tend to hold some power and are able to turn unlucky events into fortune. 2020 is considered a year of new beginnings and renewals. Famous people born in the year of rat, are Katy Perry, Antonio Banderas, Avril Lavigne, Cameron Diaz, Churchill, Colin Firth, President Jimmy Carter, Kathy Bates, Kenny Loggins, Marlon Brando, Mozart, Pedro Armendáriz, President George Washington, Samuel J Jackson, Sean Penn, Shakespeare, Timothy Hutton, Mark Zuckerberg, Scarlett Johansson.
People born in the year of Rat have pretty good fortune in wealth and career. Their salary may increase and they might get promoted and pass some qualification exams and get the certificates. In the aspect of health, they may have some respiratory system disease and heart problem.
It is also believed that the Rat is most compatible with the Ox, the Dragon, and the Monkey, but least compatible with the Horse, the Goat and the Snake.
The world’s largest annual human migration is now well underway as 2.8 billion trips are made across China in what is known as Chunyun, when students, migrant workers and office employees living away from home will make the journey back to celebrate with their families. Complicating matters, of course is the potential pandemic of the deadly Coronavirus.
Reason to be cheerful - There are 54 days until spring begins.
If that doesn't float your boat, it's National Irish Coffee Day
January 25, 1921 -
The play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Capek premieres at the National Theater in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on this date. The play marks the first use of the term “robot,” which Capek coined from the Czech word “robota,” which is the word for the labor serfs were required to perform on their masters’ land.
To celebrate the anniversary, a robot in a factory in Flint, Michigan, in this date in 1979, killed an employee, Robert Williams. Mr Williams was struck in the head by a mechanical arm, trying to speed up retrievals from a storage space, became the first human ever killed by a robot.
January 25, 1949 -
The first Emmy Awards, which were devoted solely to local Los Angeles programming, were held on this date, at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
The very first Emmy, for Outstanding Personality, went to Shirley Dinsdale, a 20-year-old ventriloquist from UCLA, star of the children's show Judy Splinters—named after her talking puppet and broadcast on local station KTLA.
January 25, 1961 -
Walt Disney's 101 Dalmatians, premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on this date.
The company was in debt following the flop of Sleeping Beauty and desperately needed a hit. There was even talk of closing down the animation division as the company was refocusing on live action films, television and theme parks. The film went on to become the highest grossing movie of 1961 in the US.
January 25, 1970 -
Robert Altman's Oscar winning film starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, M*A*S*H, premiered in NYC on this date.
The operating scenes were almost cut out due to their graphic nature. However, two women who were visiting the set told the producers that the operating scenes were what made the movie, and should be kept in.
January 25, 1985 -
John Schlesinger's spy drama, The Falcon and the Snowman, starring, Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn, premiered on this date.
In 1986, this movie became associated with one of the most famous hacking incidents in television history. On the night of April 27, 1986, a Florida satellite TV dealer named John MacDougall was working late at Central Florida Teleport which up-links pay cable services to satellites. Before his shift ended, he pointed the dish directly upwards toward the location of HBO's Galaxy 1 satellite and for four and a half minutes, East Coast subscribers who has been watching The Falcon and the Snowman saw a message on a colored test pattern which read: GOOD EVENING HBO FROM CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT $12.95/MONTH? NO WAY! [SHOWTIME/MOVIE CHANNEL BEWARE!]. MacDougall had performed the stunt as a protest of satellite subscribers being forced to pay higher fees than regular cable subscribers. He turned himself in, was charged a $5,000 fine and placed on one year probation.
Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today
Today in History:
January 25, 1759 -
It's Robert Burns' birthday and people will be celebrating with a Burns Supper.
The Burns Supper is eaten all across Scotland each year on the anniversary of the national poet's birth. It consists of haggis and whiskey. It is customary for the host to read Burns' Ode to a Haggis at the dinner table, presumably as a diversionary tactic.
January 25, 1924 -
The first Winter Olympics opened on this date in Chamonix, France.
Prior to this event, figure skating and ice hockey had been events at the Summer Olympics. Few, if any, of the athletes survived those winter sports during the Summer Olympics, as the rinks continually melted. And you don't want to know about the injuries sustained during nude hockey games.
January 25, 1927 -
Benjamin Kubelsky married Sadye Marks (Marcowitz) on this day.
Sadye changed her name to Mary Livingstone and joined her new husband's act. Back in 1921, Kubelsky had once again changed his name from Ben K. Benny to Jack Benny.
January 25, 1927 -
Antonio Carlos Jobim, composer and primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, was born on this date.
If you are in your 50's, you probably wouldn't have been born without the help of this guy - go ask your parents.
January 25, 1938 -
Etta James, blues, soul, R&B, rock 'n roll, gospel and jazz singer and songwriter, was born on this date
Pour yourself a stiff double and remember this great singer.
January 25, 1947 -
Anita Pallenberg, model, actress, fashion designer,
bathtub companion to Mick Jagger and bed mate companion to Keith Richards, was born on this date.
January 25, 1947 -
Mobster Al Capone died in Florida on this date, having only recently been released from Alcatraz, due to his declining health (his mind gone from long untreated syphilis.)
For the wages of sin is death
January 25, 1960 -
Actress Diana Barrymore, Drew's aunt, committed suicide by taking a combination of sleeping pills and alcohol on this date.
Go out and rent The Bad and the Beautiful (the Lana Turner character is based on Diana.)
January 25, 1961 –
President Kennedy held the first live presidential press conference on this date. It was viewed by an estimated 65 million people.
By the time of his death in November 1963, Kennedy had held 64 news conferences, an average of one every 16 days.
January 25, 1964 -
Echo 2, a big balloon satellite designed for collaborative communications experiments with the Soviet Union, was launched on this day. The 13-story satellite was positioned about 800 miles above South Africa. Echo 2 was the second busiest and the heaviest of all satellites created up until this time.
It was constructed of mostly plastic with an aluminum foil skin and weight about 535 pounds. Echo 2 would be spotted every so often, as announced by NASA, who encouraged people to look out for it.
January 25, 1971 -
Charles Manson and three of his followers were convicted in Los Angeles of the Tate and LaBianca murders on this date.
All were sentenced to the gas chamber, with sentences commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was temporarily abolished.
January 25, 1971 -
Idi Amin Dada, everybody's favorite tyrant, comes to power in Uganda on this date.
Forest Whitaker won a Golden Globe award, a BAFTA, the Screen Actors' Guild award for Best Actor (Drama), and the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of this cannibal.
January 25, 1980 -
Ex-Beatle and pothead, Paul McCartney, after being detained for smuggling approximately 8 ounces (200 g) of pot into Japan, was released from Tokyo jail and deported without charge, on this date.
Kids let this be a lesson to you all - Pot is bad and you should never be carrying your stash on you if you are that wealthy.
January 25, 1990 -
Avianca Flight 52 ran out of fuel and crashed in Cove Neck, N.Y. on this date.
73 of the 161 people aboard were killed.
January 25, 1995 -
Hey, the world almost ended on this date and you probably didn't even know it:
Russia almost launched a nuclear missile at a Norwegian research rocket after mistaking it for a US missile.
The event, known as the Norwegian Rocket Incident, highlighted remaining Cold War tensions, despite the fact that the war had officially ended four years earlier.
January 25, 2017 -
I think I can take responsibility for that in that I was the audience. I was the voice of sanity around whom all these crazies did their dance. And I reacted in the same way that a member of the audience would have reacted.
Mary Tyler Moore, TV icon passed away on this date.
And so it goes.
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