It's a gas

Other things to occupy your mind with other than COVID-19 - Radon seeping from the ground, through foundations, and into homes may be causing lung cancer in as many as 20,000 people every year.

This invisible, odorless and tasteless gas is present at unsafe levels in over 21% of all US households.


Passover starts tonight - please bone up on those four questions.







Remember you will not be graded on a curve!


(If you're reading this in Japan and I'm sure I have many readers there) ACME would like to wish you "Amituofo" - Happy Birthday Siddhartha Gautama.

Otherwise, just calculate the first full moon day of the sixth month of the Buddhist lunar calendar, which would be the fourth month of the Chinese calendar, except in years in which there's an extra full moon, and then Buddha's birthday falls in the seventh month. Well, except where it starts a week earlier.

And in Tibet it's usually a month later.


April 8, 1968 -
The TV special Petula airs on NBC on this date. Most people would not remember this special except at one point in the show, host Petula Clark grabs hold of Harry Belafonte's arm while they are singing a duet.





As bizarre as this may seem, the show marked the first time a man and a woman of different races had physical contact on American television.


April 8, 1975 -
Aerosmith released their third album  Toys In The Attic,  on this date.



The album is their most commercially successful studio LP in the US, selling over eight million copies.


April 8, 1979 -
The 204th and final episode of All in the Family, Too Good Edith, aired on this date.



The series would come back in the fall in the less successful offering, Archie's Place.


April 8, 1990 -
It wasn't a very good day for Laura Palmer - The cult series Twin Peaks, the series about cherry pie and Damn fine cup o' coffee!, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



The series was originally to be titled Northwest Passage. The character of Josie Packard (played by Joan Chen) was originally named Giovanna "Jo" Pasqualini Packard, and was intended to be played by Isabella Rossellini, who was dating David Lynch at the time.


April 8, 2000-
In a Saturday Night Live skit where Blue Öyster Cult is recording "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," Christopher Walken demands more cowbell from Will Ferrell, who complies.



A catch phrase is born


Another failed ACME product


Today in History:
Some days, it's NOT good to be the king -
April 8, 217 -
The very hygienically minded Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoniius) Roman emperor (188 – 217) was murdered by one of his guards with a single sword stroke while defecating.



Not a pleasant way to go . . but don’t feel too sorry for him. He shared the empire with brother Geta until he had Geta’s throat cut as he lay in their mother’s arms.


April 8, 1143 -
John II Comnenus Emperor of Byzantium (1118-43), died when he was accidentally infected by a poisoned arrow while out hunting.

I hate when that happens


April 8, 1364 -
John II the Good, King of France (1350-64), died at 44 after a night of heavy drinking in London.

You may ask what the King of France was doing, drinking in London - well, that's another story.


April 8, 1498 -
Charles VIII the Affable, King of France (1483-98), died in a freak tennis accident -

striking himself on the head while passing through a doorway, leaving the tennis court. A few hours later, he fell into a sudden coma and died.

Tennis - it's an extreme sport.


April 8, 1820 -
The famous marble sculpture, the Venus de Milo, was discovered on the island of Milos by Yorgos Kentrotas and a French naval officer, Jules Dumont d'Urville on this date.



The Marquis de Rivière presented it to Louis XVIII, who donated it to the Louvre the following year. The complete arms were never found.


April 8, 1832 -
Some 300 American troops of the 6th Infantry, lead by Brigadier General Henry Atkinson left Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, to confront the Sauk Indians in what would become known as the Black Hawk War, on this date.



This is one of history's funny coincidences, in which Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis led troops on the same side - Lincoln as a captain of militia, Davis as a lieutenant of Regulars.

Impress the habitués of your local tavern.


April 8, 1904 -
Mayor George B. McClellan signed the resolution on this date, changing the name of Long Acre Square in Manhattan, New York, to Times Square.

New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs was preparing to move the newspaper's operations to a new  skyscraper on 42nd Street at Longacre Square, hence Times Square.


April 8, 1950 -
Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky, one of the most gifted male dancers in history - celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations, died on this date, in a psychiatric hospital in London.



No film exists of Nijinsky dancing. Sergei Diaghilev never allowed his ballet company, the Ballets Russes, to be filmed. He felt that the quality of film at the time could never capture the artistry of his dancers and that the reputation of the company would suffer if people saw it only in short jerky films.


April 8, 1973 -
...Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more....



Pablo Ruiz Picasso, one of the most recognized figures in twentieth-century art, he is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the wide variety of styles embodied in his work and sleeping with almost anything that moved, died on this date.


April 8, 1974 -
The largest crowd in Atlanta Braves history (53,775) on this date, watched Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth's home run record on this date with a hit in the 4th inning off Los Angeles pitcher Al Downing. The ball landed in the Braves bullpen where reliever Tom House caught it.



While cannons were firing in celebration and Aaron rounded the bases, two college students appeared and ran alongside of him before security stepped in.


April 8 1994 -
Kurt Colbain's body was found three days after committing suicide with a shotgun.



That was probably not a pretty sight (I won't even mention the smell - definitely not teen spirit.)



And so it goes.


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