Use as much hot water as you'd like

Other things to occupy your mind with other than COVID-19 - rather than just washing your hands, why not take a shower?



Showering bombards us with hundreds of thousands of droplets of water; each droplet of water contains hundred of thousands of bacteria.


Cash is the gift that shows you care, (even bagfuls of change seem OK by me.)

My 60th birthday is in just three days. The correlation between those two statements is for you to make.


July 9, 1966 -
The Beatles song Paperback Writer, topped the charts on this date.



The B-side to this single was John Lennon's Rain. Paul and John would always compete for the A-side of The Beatles singles.


July 9, 1983 -
The Police song Every Breath You Take topped the charts on this date.



This is one of the most misinterpreted songs ever. It is about an obsessive stalker, but it sounds like a love song. Some people even used it as their wedding song.


July 9, 1995 -
The Grateful Dead, who had been performing for 30 years, gave their last performance on this day, when they performed at Soldier Field in Chicago. During their 30 years, they performed more than 2,300 live concerts.



The lead guitarist and backbone of the band, Jerry Garcia, died one month after the final show.


July 9, 1999 -
Universal Pictures finally shined a light on the world of pastriality when American Pie, starring Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy, and Shannon Elizabeth was released in the US on this date.



When submitting his script to studios, screenwriter Adam Herz titled it Untitled Teenage Sex Comedy That Can Be Made For Under $10 Million Which Studio Readers Will Likely Hate But I Think You Will Love. It was later changed to East Great Falls High, then Great Falls, and finally, American Pie.


July 9, 2010 -
The world was introduced to Minions, when Universal Pictures released Despicable Me, voiced by Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Will Arnett, and Julie Andrews, on this date.



Steve Carell describes Gru's accent as a cross between Ricardo Montalban and Bela Lugosi.


Another court-ordered PSA from ACME


Today in History:
July 9, 1776  -
New York finally got around to ratifying the Declaration of Independence on this date, making it the 13th colony to do so. The document was read aloud to Gen. George Washington's troops stationed in New York City.

Later that night, American troops destroyed a bronze-lead statue of Great Britain's King George III that stood at the foot of Broadway on the Bowling Green. Most of the statue pieces were sent to Connecticut where munitions makers turned them into 42,000 bullets.


On the Fourth of July in 1850, President Zachary Taylor snacked on cherries and milk while attending a ceremony at the Washington Monument. It was a hot day, and the heat made him sick.

He got sicker and sicker and died on July 9.

He remains the only U.S. president to have died from indigestion (with the possible exception of Warren G Harding, who may or may not have been poisoned by his wife - which could be considered death by extreme indigestion - but that's another story.)



His last words were, "I regret nothing, but I am sorry to leave my friends."

I firmly believe he actually regretted eating the cherries-and-milk that caused his fatal indigestion, but I'm not going to quibble with a man's dying words. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore, possibly one of the worse president.


July 9, 1918 -
Two passenger trains crossing the Dutchman's Curve in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, collided at speeds of 50 to 60 miles per hour killing 101 people and leaving 171 injured, on this date.



The great wreck of 1918 is still considered the worst rail disaster in US history.


July 9, 1926  -
Mathilde Krim, geneticist, founder of the AIDS foundation, was born on this date.



Just want to remind folks that one of America's most famous women doctors was in the Israeli military.


July 9, 1933  -
I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.



Oliver Sacks, neurologist, was born on this date.


July 9, 1945 -
... dirty money always brings sorrow and sadness and misery and disgrace. Said by a man who never took a bribe.



During a newspaper strike, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia read the daily comic strips aloud on WNYC radio on this date.

Co-incidentally or not, yesterday was the 96th anniversary of WNYC, which began as an AM radio station, 570 AM.


July 9, 1956 -
America's favorite actor, Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born on this date.



Let's hope someday, Tom finds himself and successes in a career.


July 9, 1958 -
A tsunami wave struck Lituya Bay in southeast Alaska on this date. The tsunami wave was 1,719 feet high - taller than the Empire State Building (1,470 feet tall). It was caused by an earthquake and descriptions by witnesses as moving at 600 miles per hour. It was later determined that this was the largest wave to ever strike land in history.



The wave destroyed 6-foot trees and stripped the shore down to bedrock. It killed two people when it sank their boat, while two other boats rode it out with all passengers surviving.


July 9, 1964 -
My number one thing to work on is not being reactive - but appropriateness doesn't come easily to me sometimes.



Courtney Michelle Love, rock musician and actress, was born on this date.


July 9, 1982 -
Michael Fagan, dressed in jeans and a dirty t-shirt, and bleeding from a fresh cut on his hand, walks into the private bedroom of Queen Elizabeth II while she was asleep and her personal guard out walking her dogs. Fagan had scaled the wall surrounding Buckingham Palace and gained entry without triggering any alarms. The two carried on a 12-minute conversation, while the intruder holds a jagged broken ashtray, before somebody finally apprehended him.



Who knew that the Queen could carry on a 12 minute conversation with one of her subjects?


July 9, 2005 -
Danny Way, a daredevil skateboarder, rolled down a large ramp and jumped across the Great Wall of China on this date.



He was the first person to clear the wall without motorized aid.



Before you go - Bunkies, I know you've been waiting for this:



Puddles Pity Party covers the theme to Gilligan's Island ala Stairway to Heaven. You may sleep easier having heard it!



And so it goes.


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