Some people can ruin it for everybody

Other things to occupy your mind with other than COVID-19 - winning the lottery in ancient Rome wasn't all fun and prizes.



Elagabalus was a teen-age Roman Emperor and a bit of a wild child (think Miley Cyrus just after she left Hannah Montana,) who reigned between 218 - 222 AD. Elagabalus wasn't very interested in governing. Instead he immersed himself in self-worship (very rigorous sodomy - it is rumored that he had engaged in a sexual act ever hour he was awake for the entire four years he was Emperor - think about it - he had sex over 23,000 times in four years), and heavy drinking. Legend has it that he and his friends had gotten so drunk that when Elagabalus had a shower of rose pedals dropped on his dinner guest, many of them had suffocated under the weigh of the flowers.

Elagabalus was known for his cruel running of the lottery. At first, his lottery was pretty brilliant and had prizes such as slaves or houses. However, not long into his reign, he started having lottery tickets catapulted into crowds of gathered plebs. He also catapulted live venomous snakes into the crowd along with the lottery tickets. He became bored with that and started offering prizes like dead animals, death sentences, wasps and bees.

So, it should come as no surprise that he made for a pretty nasty emperor and was assassinated after four years at the age of 18.


Happy National Vinyl Day (and not Record Store Day which was moved to August 29th this year.) National Vinyl Record Day is celebrated every year on August 12 (commemorating the day Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877) to remember the culture, art, the very sound of the vinyl record.



Don't forget, whatever you do today, don't forget to pull out your big 10 inch and listen to it.


August 12, 1927 -
The only silent film to win an Oscar for best picture, Wings, opened in NYC on this date.



The film was lost for decades until a copy was discovered languishing in the Cinematheque Francaise film archive in Paris, France.


August 12, 1939 -
The Bugs Bunny everyone knows takes another step forward when Hare-um Scare-um premiered on this date.



It was during production of this cartoon that Bugs Bunny's name originated. Designer Charles Thorson redesigned the rabbit character and labeled the model sheet "Bug's Bunny," after co-director Ben Hardaway's nickname, Bugs. It's also the first time Bugs cross dresses in a cartoon.


August 12, 1939 -
Considered one of the highlights of the Golden Age of Hollywood, The Wizard of Oz premiered on this date in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.



Judy Garland had to wear a painful corset-style device around her torso so that she would appear younger and flat-chested, as she was 16 years old at the time of filming, playing the role of a pre-adolescent child. ?"


August 12, 1941 -
MGM premiered their version of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, starring Spencer Tracy, in NYC on this date.



The film was a notorious critical failure when released, although it eventually made a profit of $2 million around the world. Spencer Tracy later said it was by far the least favorite of the films he had starred in, and that his performance was "awful". The New York Times famously described it as "not so much evil incarnate as ham rampant ... more ludicrous than dreadful."


August 12, 1988 -
Universal Pictures released Martin Scorsese's controversial film The Last Temptation of Christ, starting Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel and Barbara Hershey on this date.



Martin Scorsese banned smoking from the set, both because he's a severe asthmatic, and to avoid any photographs being taken of actors and actresses playing Biblical characters, primarily Willem Dafoe, who smoked at the time, with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.


Another failed ACME product


Today in History:
August 12, 30 BC (Given how the Romans were keeping track of time at this point and were drinking a huge amount of wine from lead cups - this date is fluid at best.) -

O, break! O, break!



Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, former wife of Julius Caesar and mistress of Marc Anthony, committed suicide by means of the unusual practice of nursing a venomous snake.


August 12, 3 AD -
A planetary conjunction (possibly Venus-Jupiter) was visible from the Earth with the naked eye on this date.



Many astronomers will later speculate that this may have been the mentioned Star of Bethlehem in the New Testament of the Bible.


August 12, 1676 -
Wampanoag chieftain Metacom (or Philip) was killed in a swamp near Mount Hope, PA on this date. Thus ends King Philip's War, the first war between Indians and European settlers.

Unfortunately, the Indians (or Native American, for the PC of you in the crowd) have been on the losing side, for the most part, ever since.


August 12, 1813 -
Austria declared war against Napoleon on this date.

An outraged England rushed to Austria's defense by declaring war against France,

exactly 101 years later when England officially declared war on Austria-Hungary on August 12, 1914.


August 12, 1865 -
After studying Louis Pasteur’s germ theory of disease which suggests that infections are caused by bacteria, Dr. Joseph Lister became the first surgeon to use disinfectants during an operation.



Lister also introduced Phenol (carbolic acid) as a form of disinfectant into his surgery. His heightened standards of hygiene will reduce his surgical death rate from 45% to 15%.


August 12, 1869 -
In San Francisco on this date, Emperor Norton I issued a stern edict outlawing both the Republican and Democratic political parties.

Violators face a prison term of five-to-ten years. Oh, for that wise man today!



Not familiar with Norton I ?  Read the amazing tale of Emperor Joshua Norton.  (Also, please check out The Emperor Norton Trust website dedicated to renaming the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge after our beloved majesty, Emperor Norton.)


August 12, 1898 -
The Spanish-American War ended on this date. Spain released Cuba and gave Puerto Rico to the United States. Americans rushed to Puerto Rico in gleeful droves, only to discover that everyone spoke Spanish and there were no luaus or volcanoes.



Their disappointment was profound.



They took Hawaii as a consolation prize (Hawaii was formally annexed by the U.S. - officially stolen) later that same day.


August 12, 1948 -
Russian schoolteacher Oksana Kasenkina was injured when she jumps out the window of the Soviet Consulate in New York City on this date.



Soviet officials claim they had rescued her from "White Russian" kidnappers, but Kosenkina says she was trying to escape from the Soviets. The US later expelled the consul general and the Soviets closed their consulate.


August 12, 1953 -
In Siberia, the Soviet Union successfully tests its first thermonuclear device, based on Andrei Sakharov's fission-fusion "Layer Cake" design: alternating layers of uranium and hydrogen fuel sandwiched together and wrapped around a conventional Atomic Bomb. The fission explosion compresses the hydrogen, causing a fusion reaction.



Hopefully this is no longer a state secret or boy, am I in deep trouble.


August 12, 1981 –
IBM introduces its Personal Computer (PC) also known as the IBM Model 5150. Developed in less than a year, using existing off-the-shelf components, it proved a runaway success in the small business market, and launched the era of the personal computer.



IBM's first PC ran with a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor and used Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system.



And so it goes.


And on a personal note:
I'd like to wish my mom a very Happy Birthday.

We're hoping to see her later today (we haven't seen her in several months due to quarantine but we think she's coming because the casinos are closed.)  Godzilla is baking her a cake.


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