So what are you having for lunch?

Other things to occupy your mind with other than COVID-19 - Do you like peanut butter?

Each year, Americans consume enough peanut butter to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon – 500 million pounds to be exact! (Once again, some people need a new hobby.)


Once Again Today is Bonza Bottler Day. This happens every month when the day and the date are the same number. (May 5, June 6, July 7, etc.).

The holiday was invented by Elaine Fremont in 1985 (who died in a car accident in 1995.) Her friends and family have been keeping her holiday alive by posting announcements of the holiday every year (I didn't know Ms. Fremont but I like the idea.)


It's Father-Daughter take a walk together day,

(Once again, two teams of high priced (non-ACME) lawyers have confirmed that this is the picture I can use.  I have been legally barred from saying if I am related to the people in this photograph and was not allowed to be in the photograph (I was permitted to snap the photo.) Such is life with young ladies.)


Today is also Chocolate Day (If you're a chocoholic, then you have two more chocolate days to celebrate! World Chocolate Day is on September 4 and National Chocolate Day is on October 28.)



Remember kids, chocolate is actually the seed pod of the fruit of the cocoa tree - so it must be healthy for you, eat up.

And National Strawberry Sundae Day -

Remember it's Richard Starkey birthday today. And all he has to show for it is a photograph.



And I believe he still won't sign it for you.


July 7, 1939 -
Jean Renior's prescient masterpiece, Rules of the Game, starring Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, and Paulette Dubost, premiered in Paris, France on this date (because of World War II, the film did not officially open in the US until 1950.)



The fact the movie was almost lost during the war is a myth: actually, the EXTENDED version was almost lost. The original movie shown in 1939 was 113 minutes, or maybe more. It was a relative failure, so Renoir cut it down to approx. 100 minutes and then again to 90 minutes (and even 85 minutes for theatres showing two movies). It was these 23 minutes that were thought to be lost during a WWII bombing. The situation remained unchanged until as late as 1958, when most of the original rushes were discovered and the long version reconstituted to 110 minutes, which is still the version showed nowadays. The parts that have been definitively lost correspond to two scenes for which sound exists, but not images. 


July 7, 1944 -
Universal Pictures releases the sequel to The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Lon Chaney, Jr. and John Carradine, in U.S. theaters on this date.



Lon Chaney Jr. often said that being made up as the Mummy character was his least favourite make-up. There is a photo of the actor on set during production of The Mummy's Ghost where he is pinching his own nose in disgust.


July 7, 1960 -
Universal Pictures releases the horror film The Brides of Dracula, directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing, in the UK on this date.



For the film's climax, Peter Cushing and director Terence Fisher had a difference of opinion over how the climax should be done. The actor wasn't happy about the idea of Van Helsing using powers of black magic in order to destroy Baron Meinster. Cushing explained that that went against everything his character represented.


July 7, 1977 -
The 10th film in the James Bond oeuvre, The Spy Who Loved Me, directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Roger Moore in his third outing as James Bond, (Barbara Bach and Richard Kiel co-starred), was released in the UK on this date.



A representative from the Egyptian government was on-set throughout the shoot in Cairo and Giza, to make sure that the country was not portrayed in an unflattering light. For that reason, when the scaffolding collapses on Jaws, and Bond quips "Egyptian builders", Roger Moore merely mouthed the line, dubbing it in later. It went unnoticed by the official Egyptian minder, and ironically, got a great laugh from Egyptian audiences.


July 7, 1984 -
The single Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood became Britain's all-time best-selling single (at the time) on this date.



In America, any sexual innuendo contained in this song got little attention, but it caused plenty of controversy in the UK. The song entered the UK singles chart at #77 on November 12, 1983, and was at #35 when Frankie Goes To Hollywood performed it on Top Of The Pops January 5, 1984. The song jumped to #6, and on January 11, 1984, BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read announced on air that he refused to air Relax because of the single's controversial artwork and lyrics. He didn't know it at the time, but the BBC was planning to ban the single, and do so soon afterward.


July 7, 1984,
Prince's song from his upcoming movie Purple Rain, When Doves Cry goes to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, giving his first #1 hit, on this date.



There is no bass on this song. Prince took out the bass track at the last minute to get a different sound, though he hated to see it go. "Sometimes your brain kind of splits in two - your ego tells you one thing, and the rest of you says something else. You have to go with what you know is right," he told Bass Player magazine.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
July 7, 1456 -
Pope Callixtus III retried Joan of Arc on this date; the trial acquitted her of heresy 25 years after her death.

The pile of ashes that was Joan was unsurprisingly silent upon hearing the news.


July 7, 1865 -
Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt, convicted co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on this date.



Unfortunately, the conspirators dropped about five or six feet, which proved insufficient to break their necks. They were allowed to hang for 25 minutes to ensue the job, if not done well, was at least completed. Mary Surratt became the first woman executed by the United States.


July 7, 1928 –
Wonder no more where the expression came from -

Sliced bread was sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri, on this date.



It is described as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped".

And Betty White is older and still with us!


July 7. 1946 -
Our favorite, germophobe, bisexual billionaire, Howard Hughes was pulled out, barely alive, from the fiery wreckage of an XF-11 reconnaissance plane that Hughes was testing over Beverly Hills, by, William Durkin, a US Master Sergeant, who happened to be in the area, on this date.



Hughes' injuries were extensive;including a crushed collar bone, 24 broken ribs and numerous third-degree burns. Miraculously, he survives, although he is never quite the same. It's believed that Hughes' long-term addiction to codeine was a result of his convalescence from this near fatal accident.


On July 7, 1947, the US Army sends a team of men to a reported crash site near Roswell, New Mexico. This 'recovery' has become the subject of intense speculation, rumor and questioning. There are widely divergent views on what actually happened and passionate debate about what evidence can be believed. The United States military maintains that what was recovered was a top-secret research balloon that had crashed.



Many UFO proponents believe the wreckage was of a crashed alien craft and that the military covered up the craft's recovery. The incident has turned into a widely-recognized and referred to pop culture phenomenon, and for some, Roswell is synonymous with UFOs. It likely ranks as the most famous alleged UFO incident.

Remember, the Truth is out there.


July 7, 1952 -
During her first Atlantic crossing, the SS United States crossed the finish line in the great race for the fastest Atlantic crossing ever.



To this day, no other liner has ever come close to her speed record in that maiden crossing - in a record 82 hours, 40 minutes.


July 7, 2005 -
15 years ago on this date, four bomb explosions struck London's transport system during the morning rush. Three Underground trains were hit within half an hour, and a double-decker bus joined the toll, thirty minutes later.



A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" posted a claim of responsibility, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over fifty people were killed and more than 700 injured.


July 7, 2006 -
The Western Black Rhinocero, one of the rarest of the Black Rhinoceros species, was hunted to extinction, on this date. Its extinction can be attributed to the illegal poaching of the animal.

One group, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), continues to list it as "Critically Endangered" in the hopes that someone will discover a small isolated population somewhere.



And so it goes.


197