More tips for the upcoming holidays

Other things to occupy your mind with other than COVID-19 - Staying safe this holiday season



Tip No. 857 - Sea monsters love waterways and snatching small children from local beaches. Avoid the shorlines this holiday!


Today is America Recycles Day. (Its also known as national clean out the refrigerator day.)

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, today's a good day to make some room in the frig (I should start looking through the freezer for a few 'frozen corpse' meals in there for this week.).



While the country may be torn apart by political divisions, please don't let your relationship be torn asunder by an unnatural attachment to a kitchen appliance.


I could not let the day pass without recognizing that it is also National Bundt Cake Day.



We are rolling around the floor in our house at the mention of this (Many of our friends look at My Big Fat Greek Wedding as a documentary about their lives.)


November 15, 1935 -
... And now, on with the opera. Let joy be unconfined. Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor.

The Marx Brother's first film made without Zeppo, A Night at the Opera, premiered on this date.



Sam Wood's stuffiness made him the perfect target for The Marx Brothers. The director had an ulcer, so he started each day with a big glass of milk. The brothers began to have it delivered to him in a baby bottle - a joke Wood never got. He also imposed a fine for being late to the set, which Groucho was in favor of at first. But Chico and Harpo nailed their brother's garage door shut, making him the first to pay the $50 penalty. Then the three turned the penalty into a game, betting on who would be the next to be fined. Wood eventually abandoned the idea.


November 15, 1940 -
The film that introduced Abbott and Costello to movie audiences, One Night in the Tropics, opened on this date.



Although billed as Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's debut film, it was actually their debut as a team; Costello had appeared, unbilled, in bit parts and worked as a stuntman on several films in the mid- and late 1920s. It was, however, Abbott's film debut.


November 15, 1945 -
The beautifully lyrical, Les Enfants du Paradis, opened in the US on this date.



This involved building the largest studio set in the then history of French cinema - the quarter mile of street frontage, reproduced in scrupulous detail, representing the Boulevard du Crime, the theater district of Paris in the 1830s and 40s. This would have been a daunting prospect at the best of times but in Vichy France, when all artisans, transport, materials, costumes and film stock were all in short supply, it was a miraculous achievement.


November 15, 1948 -
Carol Reed's adaptation of Graham Greene screenplay (based on his own story,) The Fallen Idol, starring Ralph Richardson, Michele Morgan, and Bobby Henrey premiered in NYC on this date.



Although Producer and Director Carol Reed had an outstanding record of working with young actors and actresses, he found Bobby Henrey's short attention span very difficult with which to cope. Many of his scenes were played with the young man looking at his favorite grip or electrician, and his performance was pieced together in the editing room.


November 15, 1950 -
The third installment of John Ford's 'cavalry trilogy', Rio Grande, starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, premiered in the US on this date.



J. Carroll Naish plays General Sheridan in Rio Grande. During his 225 film career, this was the only time he played an Irishman. Both his parents were from Limerick in Ireland, and he was very proud of his Irish heritage.


November 15, 1956 -
Elvis Presley's first movie, Love Me Tender, premiered at New York's Paramount Theater on this date.



When the film played in theaters, Elvis Presley's fans were screaming so loud that audiences couldn't hear any of his lines.


Some early Thanksgiving advice


Today in History:
November 15, 1539 -
The Bishop of Glastonbury, Richard Whiting, was hung, drawn and quartered on this date, at Glastonbury Tor after being convicted of treason (on a trumped up charge) of remaining loyal to Rome.

The Abbot's head was stuck on a spike above his abbey gateway for all to see, and his quarters, boiled in pitch, were displayed at neighboring monasteries.

Here's a fact to impress your friends with:



One interpretation of the children's nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner relates it to Jack Horner, steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Richard Whiting. Supposedly, the abbot sent Horner to London to present a pie to Henry VIII with the deeds to 12 manors inside. During the journey, Horner opened the pie and took the deed to Mells (it being the real 'plum' of the twelve manors), which was indeed acquired by the family at that time, although they claim that it was purchased legitimately.


November 15, 1660 -
Asser Levy (one of the first Jewish citizens to come to New Amsterdam) became the first kosher butcher licensed in NYC (New Amsterdam) on this date.

Later that day, a Mrs.Yetta Abromowicz is the first customer to ask how fresh the chicken was.


Today in 1864 -
In Atlanta, Captain Rhett Butler rescues Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton, her sister-in-law Melanie Wilkes and her sister-in-law's brand new baby from Aunt Pittypat's Peachtree Street home before the Union army advances on the city.



Rhett declared his love for Scarlett but she rebuffed him.



But that's not why we're here ...



Meanwhile in another part of Atlanta, Union General William T. Sherman began his March to the Sea and burnt Atlanta on this date.


November 15, 1887 -
American artist Georgia O'Keeffe was born on this date.



Ms. O'Keeffe is best known for her colorful paintings of desert flowers -



that don't look like vaginas.


November 15, 1904 -
A patent (US patent No. 775,134) was granted to King C. Gillette for a safety 'razor' on this date.

Production on the razors began in 1903 when he sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades. The following year, 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades were sold, thanks in part to Gillette's low prices, automated manufacturing techniques, and good advertising


November 15, 1922 -
The 1912 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, Dr. Alexis Carrel announced his discovered of white corpuscles in the blood on this date.



Remember, there is constant warfare between the red and white corpuscles.


November 15, 1939 -
Perhaps because it was the depth of the Great Depression, the perversion of Washington D.C., knew no bounds -

President Roosevelt, slowly but deliberately rose from his wheelchair and laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., in front a group of horrified dignitaries, on this date


November 15, 1940 -
The Queens Midtown Tunnel linking Manhattan and Queens opened to traffic on this date.

Some of those first drivers have just made it out to Orient Point by now.


November 15, 1959 -
In Holcomb, Kansas, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith brutally killed four members of the Herbert Clutter Family on this date.



This crime was memorably recounted by Truman Capote in his famous non-fiction story, In Cold Blood.


November 15, 1968 -
Russia has long been known for distillation of vodka. Soviet Premier Krushchev had only recently boasted about the superiority of Russia's Vodka. However, the USSR had turned to the U.S., requesting the importation of their 'inferior' alcohol to cover a shortage in the country, on this date.

The reason that Russia ran out of vodka had to do with a shortage of grain and potatoes which had to be diverted to the production of food.


November 15, 1969 -
The first Wendy's fast-food restaurant was opened by Dave Thomas in Columbus, Ohio on this date.



Today, the restaurant has locations around the globe and is one of the largest hamburger fast food chains in the world.


And so it goes.


Before you go - (This is news to me,) Multinational corporations join in the fun, releasing Christmas Adverts for their British audience. Coca Cola released their annual holiday advert.



Oops, I should have warned you to have your tissues handy.

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