Happy National S’mores Day

The most popular campfire treat is recognized each year on August 10th. In 1927, Girl Scouts troop leader Loretta Scott Crew wrote a recipe for "Some Mores," and published it in Tramping and Trailing With the Girl Scouts, an official Girl Scouts publication, though the exact origin of S'mores is unknown.

This delicious, gooey treat is loved by millions across the United States.

Speaking of roasting something over an open fire; Today is the feast of St. Lawrence. St. Lawrence was said to have been martyred on an iron outdoor stove on this date in 258 AD. During his torture, Lawrence cried out "I' m already done on this side and it is time to turn me over."

He is, of course, the patron saint of comedians and chefs.



Interesting aside: the Perseid Meteor Shower has been known for years as the Tears of Saint Lawrence because they usually occur every year in mid-August, on or near Saint Lawrence's feast day.



This year the event peaks on the night of August 12th/13th.


August 10, 1950 -
Billy Wilder's caustic, black-hearted masterpiece, Sunset Boulevard premiered in New York City, on this date.



When Gloria Swanson finished Norma's final scene, the mad staircase descent, she burst into tears and the crew applauded. Even though it wasn't the last scene filmed, Billy Wilder threw a party for her as soon as the shot was finished.


August 10, 1960 -
The Rat Pack's summer vacation home movie, Ocean's Eleven, premiered on this date.



Significant portions of the movie interactions between major characters were ad-libbed. The actors playing the leading roles all knew each other well and improvised dialogue as well as or better than the script.


August 10, 1962 -
While not the worst film ever made - it is the sickest. The Brain That Wouldn't Die, premiered on this date. (Watch it now.)



This was the first movie watched by Michael J. Nelson after Joel Hodgson had left in the previous episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.


August 10, 1962 -
Comic book hero Spider-Man made his debut in issue 15 of Marvel Comics’ Amazing Fantasy on this date.

Stan Lee had the original idea for Spider Man but Steve Ditko came up with his 'spider-sense' of danger and created villains including the Green Goblin and Sandman.


August 10, 1970 -
Frank Perry's proto-independent film, Diary of a Mad Housewife, written by Eleanor Perry and starring Carrie Snodgrass, Frank Langella, and Richard Benjamin premiered on this date.



The scene in which Alice Cooper tore open pillows and threw the feathers (in addition to bottles of champagne and fire extinguishers) all over the crowd was not spur of the moment or intended just for the film. This was the band's famous gimmick at the beginning, whatever objects they found, they used on each other and the audience. This gimmick was one that earned them the infamous reputation not too long before as "chicken killers".


August 10, 1982 -
Frank and Moon Zappa appear on Late Night with David Letterman and discuss their recent release Valley Girl on this date.



Moon was an inspiration for the lyrics, as she would come home from bar mitzvahs repeating the Valley Girl talk she heard and covering topics like a grody English teacher and a place to get her toenails done. She got a co-writing credit on the song for coming up with many of the lines. Moon didn't consider herself a Valley Girl, but learned how to talk like one.


August 10, 1984 -
United Artists released John Milius jingoistic war film Red Dawn, starring Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, and Jennifer Grey, on this date. It's was the first film to be released in the US with a Motion Picture Association of America PG-13 rating.



The plot, a Soviet and Cuban invasion from Mexico, was based on C.I.A. and War College studies of U.S. weaknesses at the time.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
August 10, 1628 -
The 228-foot Swedish warship Vasa, built by Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus to assist in his war with Poland, capsized and sank in Stockholm harbor on her maiden voyage because the ballast was insufficient to counterweight the 64 guns. The Vasa was the most expensive and richly ornamented warship of its time in Sweden. Twenty-five men and women drowned when the ship sank.



The ship remains submerged until it is raised in 1961 to become a tourist attraction.



Please note that the ABBA museum is across the street from the Vasa museum in Stockholm. I can think of no finer outing.


August 10, 1846 -
In 1826, James Smithson, a British scientist, drew up his last will and testament, naming his nephew as beneficiary. Smithson stipulated that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he did in 1835), the estate should go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.”



The motivation behind Smithson’s bequest remain mysterious. He had never traveled to the U.S. and seems to have had no correspondence with anyone there. An Act of Congress signed by President James K. Polk established The Smithsonian Institution, on this date, as a trust to administer the generous bequest of James Smithson in an amount over $500,000.


August 10, 1921 -
Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello, New Brunswick on this date. Mrs. Roosevelt acted as her partially paralyzed husband’s eyes and ears by traveling, observing and reporting her observations to him.



As First Lady, an author and newspaper columnist and, later, a delegate to the United Nations, Eleanor Roosevelt labored tirelessly for the poor and disadvantaged. In the words of historian John Kenneth Galbraith, she showed "more than any other person of her time, that an American could truly be a world citizen."


August 10, 1937 -
The world's first electric guitar patent #2,089,171 was awarded to Electro String Corporation on this date.

Inventor G.D. Beauchamp, who teamed up with Adolph Rickenbacher from the Electro String Instrument Corporation in Los Angeles, was awarded the patent for his guitar, the Rickenbacker Frying Pan.


August 10, 1966 -
Last words of James French, sent to the Electric Chair by the state of Oklahoma: "How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? FRENCH FRIES."

There is nothing quite like a dying man who gives good copy.


August 10, 1968 -
According to the strip below, Snoopy's birthday is August 10.

There had, however, been no reference to this in previous years and it did not become an annual feature of the strip, (in fact, there are some references to Snoopy's birthday being August 28.)


August 10, 1969 -
Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were brutally murdered in their Los Feliz, California home by followers of Charles Manson.



Some of the victims' blood was used to smear the words 'HELTER SKELTER' on the refrigerator door.


August 10, 1977 -
Postal employee and avid dog listener David Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, N.Y. on this date, accused of being the "Son of Sam" gunman responsible for six random slayings and seven woundings. Berkowitz is currently serving six consecutive terms of 25 years to life in state prison.



So much for the rantings of the neighbor's dog.


August 10, 1996 -
Heated by the sun, power lines began to sag in Oregon. Somehow this triggered a series of failures which cascaded throughout the Western states. Over seven million people lost electrical service in Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Montana and Texas.

It was probably the worst power outage in US history.



And so it goes.