Another page from the Lives of the Saints

May 11, 12 and 13 are the feast days of Saints Mamertus, Pancras and Servais (or Servatuis or Gervatuis.) These three are known as the The Icy Saints not because they were cold during their lifetimes, but because these days are traditionally the coldest of the month. English and French folklore (and later American) held that these days would bring a late frost. In Germany, they were called the Icemanner, or Icemen Days, and people believed it was never safe to plant until the Icemen were gone.

Another bit of folklore claimed, "Who shears his sheep before St. Servatius's Day loves more his wool than his sheep."



Allow you mind to wander to think of all the dirty jokes you can now tell yourself.


May 11, 1931 -
Fritz Lang's first sound film, M (Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder), starring Peter Lorre, premiered in Berlin on this date.



Contrary to popular belief, Fritz Lang did not change the title from The Murderers are Among Us to M due to fear of persecution by the Nazis. He changed the title during filming, influenced by the scene where one of the criminals writes the letter on his hand. Lang thought M was a more interesting title.


May 11, 1936 -
Universal Pictures' semi-sequel of the 1931 film Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, starring Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden and Edward Van Sloan, premiered in the US on this date.



Originally, Universal wanted to make a sequel based on Bram Stoker's short story Dracula's Guest and negotiated with Stoker's widow Florence. During the talks between the two, it was discovered that Bram Stoker had not complied with one requirement of the U.S Copyright office with his novel Dracula, which rendered it public domain in the United States. Because Florence wanted more creative control over the sequel, and Bela Lugosi wanted more money to reprise the role of Count Dracula, Universal instead hired John L. Balderston to write a new story.


May 11, 1965 -
The Byrds made their TV debut on NBC's Hullabaloo, performing Mr. Tambourine Man, on this date.



Bob Dylan wrote Mr. Tambourine Man, which was originally released on his fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home, on March 22, 1965. His version wasn't released as a single, but when The Byrds released their cover on April 12, 1965, it was a transatlantic hit, topping the charts in both the US (on June 26) and UK (on July 22). It's the only song Dylan ever wrote that went to #1 in America (in the UK, Manfred Mann's cover of Quinn The Eskimo also went to #1).


May 11, 1969 -
It's ... the day the Monty Python comedy troupe was formed.



John Cleese and Graham Chapman were introduced to Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin on the set of their British TV series, Do Not Adjust Your Set.


May 11, 1972 -
In an effort to shed his teenybopper image, David Cassidy appears shirtless (and pantless) on the cover of Rolling Stone.

The story is headlined "Naked Lunch Box," a reference to how many kids have his likeness on their school lunch boxes. He comes off as a free spirit, and admits to taking drugs. It's a (literally) revealing look at Cassidy, who provides Rolling Stone with one of their most memorable cover stories.


May 11, 1974 -
ABC Records released Steely Dan's Rikki Don't Lose that Number, on this date, (Any Major Dude Will Tell You was the B-side.)



The Rikki of the title is Rikki Ducornet, a New York writer and artist. Steely Dan co-front Donald Fagen met her while both were attending Bard College, a small liberal arts school located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Ducornet said they met at a college party, and even though she was both pregnant and married at the time, he gave her his number, although not in the same context as the song. Ducornet was intrigued by Fagen and tempted to call him, but she decided against it.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
May 11, 1310 -
For you fans of the Da Vinci Code, 54 members of the Knights Templar were burned at the stake in France for being heretics on this date.

Established during the Crusades to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, this military order came into increasing conflict with Rome until Clement V officially dissolves it at the Council of Vienna in 1312.


May 11, 1812 -
Spencer Perceval was a British statesman and Prime Minister. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated. On this date in 1812, Perceval was on his way to attend a session of Parliament when he was shot through the heart in the lobby of the House of Commons by a mentally unsound man, John Bellingham, who blamed his financial instability on a casual suggestion of Perceval.



He died almost instantly, uttering the words "I am murdered", and Bellingham gave himself up to officers. He was found guilty and hanged a week later. It is often thought to be illegal to die in the Palace of Westminster, and the place of his actual death and the place of his recorded death are unknown.


May 11, 1888 -
Israel Isidore Beilin was a Russian-born naturalized American composer and lyricist, and one of the most prolific American songwriters in history. Irving Berlin was one of the few Tin Pan Alley/ Broadway songwriters who wrote both lyrics and music for his songs.









Although he never learned to read music beyond a rudimentary level, with the help of various uncredited musical assistants or collaborators, he eventually composed over 3,000 songs, many of which (e.g. God Bless America, White Christmas, Anything You Can Do, There's No Business Like Show Business) left an indelible mark on American music and culture. He composed 17 film scores and 21 Broadway scores.


May 11, 1907 -
A derailment outside Lompoc, California killed 32 Shriners, when their chartered train jumps off the tracks at a switch near Surf Depot on this date.

Many of them were scalded to death when the steam boiler ruptured. I bet no one in Lompoc was celebrating National Train Day this past weekend.



No word on the fate of their groovy fezzes.


May 11, 1949 -
Siam changed its name to Thailand on this date, because everyone was getting tired of those jokes where one guy would say, "Are you familiar with this place?" and the other guy would go "Yeah, Siam," and the first guy would go, "You gonna tell me where we are?" and the other guy would be like, "Yes: Siam." and it would go on and on and they'd never give it a rest.



Had anyone foreseen the glut of restaurants trading on the new name, however - Beau Thai, Thai Me Up, Thai One On, etc—the nation might still be called Siam. (The country had been known as Siam until 1939, when it changed its name to Thailand for nationalistic reasons. It reverted back to Siam in 1945, but when the political scene changed again, it was once again named Thailand.) I'm not going to mention that Constantinople, previously the town of Byzantium and later to be known as Istanbul, was founded in 330 AD.


May 11, 1960 -
Four Mossad agents on this date, abducted factory foreman, junior water engineer and professional rabbit farmer Ricardo Klement



(and, oh yeah, he was also know as fugitive Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann) from a bus stop in Buenos Aires.


May 11, 1981 -
Jamaican music legend and U.N. Peace Medal recipient Bob Marley died of brain cancer in a Miami hospital at the age of 36 on this date.



Marley had quietly begun a course of radiation therapy at Sloan-Kettering a few months prior, but abandoned it just two days later after word leaked out.


And so it goes.