Monday, November 16, 2020

I'm watching this from the safety of the studio

Other things to occupy your mind with other than COVID-19 - An eagle can hunt down a young deer and fly away with it.



Bald eagles are opportunistic hunters, and often hunt for fish that swim near the surface of lakes or rivers. They’ve been known to take down full-sized deer in some parts of the world. The eagle returned in the following days to feast on its kill.


Many sites have noted that today is "Have a Party with Your Bear Day" but can't quite figure out the source:

(No it's not this reason.)

In 1902 while on a hunting trip with Mississippi Gov. Andrew H. Longino, President Teddy Roosevelt was offered the opportunity to shoot a bear tied to a tree. Seeing this as extremely unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear. News spread quickly (or as quickly as it could in 1902), that the great huntsman Roosevelt has refused to shoot the animal.

A political cartoonist, Clifford Berryman read about the incident and decided to comment on the president's refusal to shoot the bear. Berryman's cartoon appeared in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902.


November 16, 1969 -
BJ Thomas released his hit, Hooked on a Feeling on this date.



Please don't click on this version unless you want the Ooga Chuka ear worm for rest of the week.


November 16, 1973 -
David Bowie appeared in his first TV special, 1980 Floor Show, broadcast on NBC's Midnight Special, on this date.



The show was a spectacular stage production that was filmed over three days, mostly at The Marquee Club, in Soho, London. It would be Bowie’s last performance as the Ziggy Stardust persona with The Spiders From Mars. (For those with prurient minds, look for a brief flash of Marianne Faithfull's bare behind at the end.)


November 16, 1974
John Lennon's song Whatever Gets You Thru the Night hits #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



With this song, John Lennon became the last of the Beatles to hit #1 US in their respective post-Beatles careers. By this time Paul McCartney had hit #1 three times, and George Harrison and Ringo Starr twice each.


November 16, 1977 -
Steven Spielberg's sci-fi classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, opened on this date.



During the Neary dinner scene, just before Roy piles on the mashed potatoes, the little girl Silvia (Adrienne Campbell) says: "There's a dead fly in my potatoes." This was unscripted and almost caused the rest of the cast to laugh. The scene was kept as-is.


November 16, 1994 -
The Peter Jackson film, Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, in their film debuts, opened in the U.S. on this date.



Almost all locations used for filming were the genuine locations where the events occurred. The tea shop where Honorah Parker ate her last meal was knocked down a few days after the shoot ended. According to director Peter Jackson, when they got to the location of the murder on the dirt path, it was eerily quiet; the birds stopped singing, and it didn't seem right. So they moved along a couple of hundred yards.


November 16, 2001 -
Christ Columbus' masterful adaptation of the first instillation of J.K. Rowling's meg-hit novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, starring, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and just about every living British actor at the time, went into general release in the U.K. and U.S. on this date.



The filmmakers originally wanted to use Canterbury Cathedral as a filming location for some of the Hogwarts scenes, but the Dean of Canterbury refused to allow it, saying that it was unfitting for a Christian church to be used to promote pagan imagery. Gloucester Cathedral agreed to take its place; the Dean of Gloucester, the Very Reverend Nicholas Bury, admitted to being a fan of the books. Nonetheless, there was a huge media outcry in Gloucester when it was decided to use the local Cathedral as a filming location. Protesters wrote letters by the sack load to local newspapers, claiming it was blasphemy, and promising to block the film crew's access. In the end, only one protester turned up.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
November 16, 42 BC -

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus was born on this date. He was the Emperor of Rome from 14 to 37 AD.



John the Baptist and Jesus were put to death during his reign, as well as many others whose deaths didn't result in the creation of a religion.


November 16, 1906 -
Opera star Enrico Caruso was charged with an indecent act committed in the monkey house of New York's Central Park Zoo on this date. He pinched the bottom of a woman described as "pretty and plump", causing outrage amongst New York high society. Caruso claimed a monkey pinched the lady's bottom.

You know what I think - Caruso pinched the monkey's bottom and the fat lady was jealous. And you don't even want to know what the monkey was doing to himself at the time.


November 16, 1913 - Whatever you do, don't disparage M. Proust.



Unable to find a publisher willing to publish the first part of his ambitious three-volume novel, Marcel Proust paid the cost of publication himself of Du Côté de Chez Swann (Swann's Way,) the first volume of what turns out to become the seven-part novel À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past,) on this date.


November 16, 1938 -
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was first made by Albert Hofmann, a Swiss chemist, on this date from ergotamine, a chemical from the fungus, ergot.



Lysergic acid diethylamide causes people who take it to witness illusions. It is often referred to by the slang name acid.


November 16, 1949 -
On this date, students in the Belgian city of Ghent stormed the Gravensteen castle, lowered the portcullis (the gate at the entrance of medieval castles) and threw fruit from the walls at the police to protest a new tax on beer.

The event is still commemorated yearly by the city as the greatest student prank in its history. Don't mess the with price of beer in a college town.


November 16, 1952 -
Lucy holds a football for Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoon strip for the first time on this date.

What was often left out of the cartoon strip by newspaper editors was the last panel where Charlie Brown has the living daylights beaten out of Lucy by angry fans for pulling that stunt.


November 16, 1960 -
Working on the film, The Misfits was a trying experience for all involved. Marilyn Monroe's marriage was unraveling before the cast and crews eyes. Clark Gable, became bored while waiting for Monroe to turn up on the set. Gable, 59 (but a long-time smoker and drinker was in poor health) opted to do his own stunts, which included being dragged by a truck traveling at 30 mph. On the last day of filming, Gable said, "Christ, I'm glad this picture's finished. She (Monroe) damn near gave me a heart attack."



On the next day, Gable suffered a severe coronary thrombosis. He died at the hospital from a heart attack several days later, on this date. Marylin Monroe died of an alleged drug overdose (murder) a year later. Montgomery Clift, lingered around another six years, committing "the longest suicide in Hollywood," - heaving drinking and drug taking.


November 16, 1971 -
Her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls...

Edie Sedgwick, actress and one of Andy Warhol's 'Superstars', died in California from a barbiturate overdose on this date.



Allegedly when learning of Sedgwick's death, Andy Warhol responded with "Edie who?" She was 28 years old.


November 16, 1981 -
Actor William Holden died after a fall, hitting his head on a table probably on November 12, 1981. He was too drunk to telephone for assistance; instead he died alone, bleeding to death trying to treat his wound with Kleenex. After failing to answer telephone calls from concerned friends, his body was found on this date. If it wasn't so sad, it would sound like the end of a classic film-noir.



Years later, Suzanne Vega refers to his ignominious death in her song, Tom's Diner.



Before you go - The English department store chain, John Lewis and Partners released their annual holiday advert, (apparently this is one of the more highly anticipated commercials.)



Instead of their usual tear jerking commercial, this year ad is more heart-warming, up beat ad.

And so it goes




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