Be happy for this moment.

Today is I Want You to be Happy Day. I can think of nothing else that will make you more happy than to continue reading, or perhaps find me a new job that pays something.



I know that would make me very happy.


March 3, 1933 -
W.C. Fields classic short, The Fatal Glass of Beer, premiered on this date.



In Fields' first sound film, The Golf Specialist there is a wanted poster of Fields which shows him in his Fatal Glass of Beer costume. It evidently was taken from an earlier stage presentation of the classic Fields sketch.


March 3, 1985 -
ABC-TV unleashed Bruce Willis, Cybill Shepherd and the crew from the Blue Moon Detective Agency onto an unsuspecting world, when it premiered the pilot episode of Moonlighting on this date.



Bruce Willis was the very last of about 3,000 actors to audition for the role of David Addison, Jr.


March 3, 2008 -
Chumbawamba break the record for longest album title with their 160-word release The Boy Bands Have Won...

Using efficient typography, the British band get the full title on the cover:

The record of longest album title was established in 1999 with Fiona Apple's 90-word title for her second album, When The Pawn... 

The Belgian group Soulwax broke it with a 103-word title for a compilation album in 2007 before Chumbawamba claimed it.


March 3, 2010 -
Tim Burton fanciful retelling of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, starring Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, and Mia Wasikowska is released



Tim Burton and Johnny Depp worked hard to give the Mad Hatter more depth and presence than in past portrayals. In fact, the pair swapped sketches and themes for the character prior to creating this new version. This movie marks the seventh time Johnny Depp has worked under the direction of Tim Burton, and the sixth time for Helena Bonham Carter.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History -
March 3, 1861 -
Russian Tsar, Tzar, Czar Alexander II issued a manifest and ends feudal control of serfs as part of a program of westernization.

The Russian serf lived a hopeless life of back-breaking labor and desperate poverty. Their oppression, which continued even after their liberation, caused riots, assassinations, and literature. Finally they had the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 to make the serfs equal to everyone else, and it worked.

From that point forward, everyone lived a hopeless life of back-breaking labor and desperate poverty.



The American surfdom can only be blamed for the Beach Boys and Annette Funicello.


March 3, 1863 -
The National Conscription Act was signed, forcing all men between 20 and 45 years of age into the draft lotteries. Except for rich bastards, who could buy their way out for $300, or hire another man to serve in his place.

The inevitable result is the week long New York Draft Riots.


March 3, 1875 -
The opera Carmen, composed by Georges Bizet, opened in Paris at the Opera-Comique, despite intense controversy surrounding its opening. The story was considered too salacious for the general public, and Bizet had trouble getting even one actress to agree to play the title role.



This was Bizet's only hit opera, as he died suddenly at the age of 37, three months later.


March 3, 1887 -
Anne Mansfield Sullivan arrived at the Alabama home of Capt. and Mrs. Arthur H. Keller to become the teacher of Helen, their blind and deaf 6 year old daughter on this date.

Anne Sullivan was legally blind and Helen Keller was blind and deaf. They accomplished more in their lives than most able-bodied people.


March 3, 1923 -
The first issue of Time magazine, created by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce (the first weekly news magazine in the United States), was published on this date. It featured on its cover, Joseph G. Cannon, the retired Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

It has been suggested that TIME is an acronym, for The International Magazine of Events.


March 3, 1931 -
An English beer drinking song became the National Anthem of the United States on this date. The lyrics to said drink song are -



To Anacreon in heaven where he sat in full glee,
A few sons of harmony sent a petition,
That he their inspirer and patron would be,
When this answer arrived from the jolly old Grecian:
Voice, fiddle aud flute, no longer be mute,
I'll lend you my name and inspire you to boot!
And besides I'll instruct you like me to entwine
The myrtle of Venus and Bacchus's vine.
I believe drinking heavily is the key here.





Perhaps we can hand out laminated cards before each game.


March 3, 1931 -
...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....

On the same day President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional act adopting The Star-Spangled Banner, as the national anthem, Cab Calloway recorded the classic Minnie The Moocher.



It became the first million-selling jazz album.


March 3, 1934 -
John Dillinger escaped from an escapeproof jail in Crown Point Indiana, using a wooden pistol he carved himself. It's his second escape.



Remember, J. Edger was just months away from slicing up the corpse of Dillinger for his own personal collection.


March 3, 1959 -
An embittered and confused Lou Costello roused himself from his hospital bed to mutter, Fuck you Abbott, Who's on first now, coughs up bloody phlegm and died on this date.



Bud Abbott, ten years older than Lou, smiled to himself, lit a cigars and lived another 15 years to spite his former partner.


March 3, 1969 -
Apollo 9, the third manned mission in the United States Apollo space program, blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the lunar module.



It carried astronauts James McDivitt, Russell Schweickart and David Scott and made 151 Earth orbits over 10 days. The mission was the second manned launch of a Saturn V rocket.


March 3, 1991 -
Los Angles Police officers were filmed beating black motorist Rodney King with nightsticks. Television news stations repeatedly aired the film nationwide.



Four whites were charged with the beating on March 15, and when they were found not guilty, Los Angeles erupted in riots.


And so it goes.


323


On a personal note:  Happy Birthday Cara 

Hope you enjoy the day