The Fifth Day of Christmas

Today's gift tally (37 gifts): you currently have five golden rings, eight calling birds, nine French hens, ten turtledoves and five partridges in their respective pear trees (begin thinking preserves.) The five golden rings represent the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.

Speaking of poultry - we've all been misinterpreting the song all these years. The song's seemingly bizarre switch from four birds, to five pieces of jewelry, and back to six birds actually makes perfect sense: The "five golden rings" is more likely a reference to ring-necked pheasants. So the five golden rings in this stanza refer to five ring-necked pheasants, a dish that was sure to be served at some of the king or queen's Twelfth Night feasts during their Twelve Days of Christmas celebrations.



Let's hope your true love does not know this, you do not need to add avian flu into the mix at this time.


Tonight is the Fourth night of Kwanzaa.

Ujamaa (oo-jah-MAH) is a commitment to the practice of shared social wealth and the work needed to achieve it.


December 29, 1933 -
One of their best remembered films, Laurel and Hardy's Sons of the Desert, premiered on this date.



The film's comic take on marital discord mirrored the far more serious and stressful domestic problems that Laurel & Hardy were experiencing at the time. Director William A. Seiter was also in the process of splitting from his first wife, Laura La Plante. Charley Chase also had numerous difficulties at home because of his drinking.


December 29, 1939 -
Charles Laughton's masterful turn as Quasimodo in William Dieterle's remake of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, co-starring Maureen O'Hara, premiered in the US on this date.



To turn Charles Laughton into the deformed bell ringer, Perc Westmore covered half his face with sponge rubber, adding a protruding eyeball lower than the average. Laughton's other eye was covered with a milky contact lens. The hump consisted of an aluminum framework stuffed with four pounds of foam rubber, and the rest of Laughton's torso was padded with rubber to create a sense of the muscles developed from pulling on the bell ropes.


December 29, 1939 -
The classic Western comedy, Destry Rides Again, premiered on this date.



The role of Tom Destry was originally intended for Gary Cooper, but he wanted more money than the producers were willing to pay him. It was then offered to Jimmy Stewart, who took it.


December 29, 1940 -
Carol Reed's nearly forgotten wartime drama Night Train to Munich, starring Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, and Paul Henreid premiered in the US on this date.



Generally thought of as the first theatrical film where an actor portrayed Adolf Hitler. English music-hall star Billy Russell portrayed the German dictator in an uncredited role.


December 29, 1965 -
Thunderball - the best James Bond title - premiered in US on this date.



In the underwater scenes, where Bond encounters sharks, Sean Connery was supposed to be protected by clear plastic panels shielding him from sharks in close-ups. However, the panels only extended about three feet in height and sharks could swim over them. As a result, in some scenes (notably during the pool fight at Largo's mansion), Connery got much closer to the real sharks than he wanted. Director Terence Young said in an interview that scenes used in this movie where Bond reacts in fright at the approach of a shark were miscues, in which Connery was reacting with genuine terror as a shark approached unobstructed by plastic shielding.


December 29, 1967 -

Star Trek first aired The Trouble with Tribbles episode - arguably one of their most famous episodes - on this date.



To create the one tribble moving on its own, the prop supervisor bought a battery powered toy dog and stripped it down to the mechanical works. Once recovered with fur including the toy legs, the prop moved on camera along the railing on the Enterprise bridge without wires or external assistance. The toy was so noisy all the dialogue in the scene had to be looped with ADR (re-recorded after shooting).


December 29, 1967 -
Sergio Leone's iconic Spaghetti Western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach, premiered in the US on this date. The term originated in the 1960s, when it was cheaper to make movies in Italy than the United States. Moviemakers made their westerns there and had English dubbed in for the Italian actors. Ironically. many of them were actually filmed in Spain, so they probably should have been referred to as Paella Westerns.



As an Italian-made movie, the sound would not have been recorded live. This means that the actors and actresses would have spoken whatever they wanted, and the dialogue would have been dubbed in post-production. This was the traditional way of making movies in Italy and was because of the poor soundproofing in Italian studios. All of the actors and actresses in this movie spoke in their native languages, and were dubbed into other languages in post-production (Italian, German, Spanish, English, et cetera).


Another failed ACME Product


Today in History:
December 29, 1170 -
Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was slashed to death by four of King Henry II's knights at the altar of the Virgin Mary. "Is there no one who will rid me from this turbulent priest", cried Henry in frustration earlier that month.



It was apparently not a serious demand for Becket's death, but that did not stop his brains from being splattered in Canterbury Cathedral.



Henry II was forced to walk to Becket's grave while being flogged by eighty monks as penance for his death.

So kids remember, don't ask for things that you don't really want (the whole tears in heaven/ answered prayers thing.)


December 29, 1848 -
James Polk became the first president to install gas lighting in the White House on this date, though it had been used sporadically around the country since 1816.

Incidentally, Polk was also the first president to have his inauguration speech broadcast by telegraph, and the first president to have his photograph taken.


December 29, 1851 -
It's fun to stay at the YMCA.

The formation of the first YMCA in the United States in Boston, happened on this date.

No, I'm not going to play that song.


December 29, 1852 -
Emma Snodgrass, referred to by East Coast newspapers as "the girl who has recently been visiting parts of New England in pants" was "again" arrested in Boston on a charge of vagrancy. Since Emma was regularly employed as a clerk, and paid her bills, the vagrancy charge didn't hold.

She was released after the judge had given her some "wholesome advice about her eccentricities," to which she "responded with becoming grace and promised reformation." The next day, however, Emma was back on the street in her "male attire."

I tremble to think what would have happened if the judge had seen what was going on at the Boston YMCA.


December 29, 1876 -
Today's lesson: taking your job too seriously, can get you seriously killed.

On a cold and wintry night, the Pacific Express #5, carrying some 159 passengers and crew, was traveling over a bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio. Only the first engine of the train made it to the other side at 7:28 p.m. as the bridge began to collapse. The rest of the train broke away and plummeted to the bottom of the ravine below. Approximately 92 men, women and children were killed, not from the fall itself, but from the ensuing fire while they were trapped inside the crushed cars.



The bridge was owned by the Lake Shore and Michigan railroad, and was the joint creation of Charles Collins, Engineer, and Amasa Stone, Chief Architect and Designer. After testifying before an investigative jury, Charles Collins quietly went home and shot himself in the head. Amasa Stone committed suicide approximately 7 years later. Stone was held partly responsible for the disaster by the same investigative jury before which Collins had testified, and was publicly scorned for many years. Please remember that YOU are not your job (unless you feel personally responsible from the horrible death of about 100 men, women and children.)


December 29, 1890 -
The Wounded Knee Massacre took place at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on this date, as over 200 Sioux were killed by US troops, led by Colonel James Forsyth, who was sent to disarm them.



Forsyth was later charged with killing the unarmed men women and children, but later exonerated.

Another proud moment in American history.


December 29, 1946 -
Baroness Sacher-Masoch (Marianne Evelyn Faithfull), English singer, songwriter, actress







and inventor of the Mars bar tampon, was born on this date.


December 29, 1959 -
Paula Poundstone, comedian, was born on this date.



Don't forget to catch Paula's podcast Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone.


December 29, 1972 -
Life ended the weekly publication of their magazine with the issue titled Year in Pictures, on this date. From 1936 it had produced over 1,860 issues.

The magazine was resurrected as a monthly in 1978 and ended again in 2000. From 2004 to 2007 Life appeared as a weekly newspaper supplement. In 2009, the archives were made available electronically.


December 29, 1993 -
Former child star Todd Bridges (who played Willis on Different Strokes) arrested for transportation of methamphetamine.

What the hell were they smoking on that set? Oh, wait a minute ...



And so it goes.