You may have to bring up the war

Other things to occupy your mind with other than COVID-19 - More that 70 years after World War II, Germany still uncovers more than 2,000 tons of unexploded bombs every year.



Over the course of the war, the Allied armies dropped roughly 2.7 million tons of bombs over Nazi-occupied Europe. Half of that which landed on Germany. Before any construction work can begin in Germany, the ground must undergo extensive surveys to look for unexploded ordinance. In May of 2016, some 20,000 people were cleared from an area of Cologne while authorities removed a one-ton bomb that had been discovered during construction work.


Today is National Tequila Day. Tequila originated from Mexico in the 1800s and is now one of the most popular alcohols worldwide, especially in America.



While I am not a tequila man myself, I would not turn a Frozen Margarita down on a hot and humid day.


July 24, 1939 -
Paramount Pictures' William Wellman's action adventure film, Beau Geste, starring Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, and Susan Hayward premiered in the US on this date.



Even though both of his parents were British, Gary Cooper's impersonation of an Englishman was widely ridiculed.


July 24, 1946 -
Paramount Studios released the film-noir classic, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott and Kirk Douglas (his film debut,) on this date.



Kirk Douglas earned this, his debut role, with the help of his old drama school friend, Lauren Bacall. Bacall knew that producer Hal B. Wallis was looking for fresh talent and she suggested Douglas to him. She encouraged Wallis to watch a play featuring Douglas. When he did, Wallis was so impressed by the performance that he cast Douglas in this film.


July 24, 1948 -
... Crumbly Crunchies are the best
Look delicious on your vest
Serve them to unwanted guests
Stuff the mattress with the rest....



A great Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Chuck Jones, Haredevil Hare, was released on this date. (It was the first appearance of Marvin the Martian, though he wasn't named until decades later.)



Look for a photo of then freshman California Congressman Richard M. Nixon who appears in the faux newspaper The Daily Snooze under the headline "Heroic Rabbit Volunteers As First Passenger."


July 24, 1952 -
Fred Zinnemann's classic western, High Noon, starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, and Thomas Mitchell, premiered in New York City, on this date.



The film was intended as an allegory for the failure by some of the Hollywood community to stand up to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAAC) during senator Joseph McCarthy's Communist inquiries. Writer Carl Foreman himself was summoned to appear before the committee due to prior membership of the American Communist Party, and was subsequently blacklisted when he refused to name other members.


July 24, 1974 -
The controversial film Death Wish, based on the novel by Brian Garfield, directed by Michael Winner and starring Charles Bronson was released in the US on this date.



Director Michael Winner was anxious before production because he was waiting for Charles Bronson to tell him he wanted Jill Ireland to play his wife in the movie, despite Winner's feeling she was unsuitable for the part. Finally he said to Bronson, "Charlie, do you want Jill to play your wife in 'Death Wish'?" Bronson replied, "No. I don't want her humiliated and messed around by these actors who play muggers. You know the sort of person we want? Someone who looks like Hope Lange."  Winner said, "Well, Charlie, the person who looks most like Hope Lange is Hope Lange. So I'll get her." And he did.


July 24, 1976 -
The Manhattans' song Kiss And Say Goodbye hits #1 in the US on this date.



Columbia issued two different singles: the full version aimed toward the R&B market, which included a mid-song rap and an edited "pop" edition without the spoken part. Lovett said: "Pop stations didn't like the rap the way I was talking, like Barry White, Isaac Hayes or Lou Rawls. They didn't like that talking in the beginning. They felt it would sell better, if it was without the rap. I was fine with that. Whatever would sell records that was fine."


July 24, 1978 -
The truly execrable Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band starring the Brothers Gibbs was released upon an unsuspecting public on this date.



Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr both attended the premiere, and subsequently shunned the film. John Lennon and George Harrison refused to see it.


July 24, 1998 -
The unflinchingly gritty Steven Spielberg war flick, Saving Private Ryan premiered on this date.



The Omaha Beach scene cost $11 million to shoot, and involved up to 1,000 extras, some of whom were members of the Irish Army Reserve. Of those extras, 20-30 of them were amputees, issued with prosthetic limbs, to play soldiers who had their limbs blown off.


A little entertainment during your 5 pm.


Today in History:
July 24, 1567 -
Mary of Guise, the French wife of Scotland's King James V, gave birth to a daughter named Mary in 1542. A week later King James died and the very young Mary became the Queen of Scotland.

Prince Edward of England proposed marriage to the Queen immediately and his proposal is therefore known as the Rough Wooing. While the pedophile Prince waited for the Queen to acquire enough verbal skills to reply, the Scottish parliament annulled the engagement.

Edward's father, the English King Henry VIII, considered this an insult and declared war. Following an especially nasty Scottish defeat in 1547, Mary was sent to France. It was hoped she would learn to read and write there, and perhaps reach puberty.

She was raised in the court of Henry II, which ought to have taught her some manners, but instead inspired her to marry a dolphin. Eventually the dolphin became king and died, leaving Mary the dowager queen of France. She was 18. Her mother had meanwhile died in Scotland, which caused the Protestants to rebel. They imported the Reformation and banned the Pope. Mary, being Catholic, returned to Scotland to work out a compromise: the country could be Protestant as long as she was allowed to be Catholic.

Four years later she married her cousin, Lord Darnley, a Two-Door Steward. Unfortunately he turned out to be disgusting, and even the birth of a son could not induce Lord Darnley to behave. He was therefore struck by an explosion the following year and subsequently died of strangulation. She was then kidnapped by one of the men suspected of strangling Lord Darnley, a certain Earl of Bothwell, whom she therefore made a Duke and married.

This angered the Protestants, who rose up against her and, on this very day in 1567, made her abdicate in favor of her son, who was immediately crowned as James VI.



She then escaped, raised an army, and was promptly defeated. She became a guest (or, in English, "prisoner") of Queen Elizabeth, until she was caught writing letters asking friends to support (or, in Scottish, "kill") the English Queen.



She was therefore beheaded, and remains dead to this day.


319 years ago today, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded a trading post at Fort Ponchartrain for France on the future site of the city of Detroit, Michigan, in an attempt to halt the advance of the English into the western Great Lakes region.

Mr Cadillac himself thereby came to be known as "the Rolls Royce of settlers."  M. Cadillac would be happy to see the improvements going on in Detroit today.


July 24, 1883 -
Captain Matthew Webb wasn't having a great day today. Webb, the first person to swim the English Channel in 1875, was attempting to swim across the Niagara River just below the falls.



The Captain was looking to collect a £12,000.00 fortune, when he jumped from his small boat into the raging torrent. He hit his head on jagged rocks and drowned while trying to swim across the Niagara River. His last words were (apparently,) "If I die, they will do something for my wife?"


July 24, 1915 -
Almost 850 Western Electric employees and their family members perish when the chartered steamer SS Eastland rolled over in Chicago harbor on this date. History blames the top-heaviness of the ship, exacerbated (ironically) by the recent addition of lifeboats.



Moral: Avoid company picnics.


July 24, 1959 -
While visiting a model kitchen in a U.S. exhibition in Moscow, Vice President Richard M. Nixon debated with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at a U.S. exhibition in the famous 'Kitchen' debate, on the merits of capitalism and communism



Nixon correctly said that the $100-a-month mortgage for the model ranch house was well within the reach of a typical American steelworker. (Stop dreaming about a $100-a-month mortgage.)



And so it goes.


Before you go - not to bum you out but, another season while we're all in quaratine, Autumn, will begin in 60 days.



Soon enough the days will grow longer and we may still be in our homes.


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