Wednesday, January 5, 2022

It's finally over - the 12th day of Christmas

The final gift tally (365 gifts): you would have received 12 drummers drumming,

22 flutist, 30 members from the house of Lords, hopping and bopping to the Crocodile Rock, 36 Fan dancers, 40 angry dairy workers, on permanent coffee break, 42 Swans, trying to mate in your dining room (avert the children's eyes) , 42 geese a' laying, 40 golden rings, 36 calling birds, 30 French hens, 22 turtledoves and 12 partridges in their respective pear trees.



Free the birds, take the rings, set fire to the house and start a new life. And finally, the twelve drummers drumming represent the twelve points of belief in the Apostle’s Creed.



It's the eve of the Epiphany (Twelfth Night)





You still have to wait on more day before you can take down your Christmas decorations.

Did you come up with any New Year's Resolutions?:







The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.


January 5, 1944 -
Another great movie from Preston Sturges, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, premiered on this date.



Although Preston Sturges was working at an unusually frantic pace, he still kept tight reins on the production, ensuring that neither Eddie Bracken nor anyone else became the main attraction. Sturges favored ensemble pieces, and even the smallest parts were given some choice bits.


January 5, 1948 -
Warner Brothers-Pathe showed the very first color newsreel on this date.



The footage was of the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl football classic.


January 5, 1961 -
Mister Ed, the talking horse (with a daily diet was twenty pounds of hay, washed down with a gallon of sweet tea.,) debuted on CBS-TV on this date.



The horse wouldn't respond to any of his co-stars, just his trainer, Lester Hilton. This meant that Hilton had to be on the set at all times, calling out commands or giving them with hand signals.


January 5, 1973 -
Produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, Bruce Springsteen’s debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., was released on this date, but sold just 25,000 copies in its first year.



After eight years playing in bars where audiences usually didn't listen to or couldn't hear the words, Springsteen used his first album to unload a ton of lyrics. All these lyrics helped earn Springsteen the tag "The New Dylan." Singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Kris Kristofferson also shared the comparison, and Bruce went out of his way to shed the tag by making his next album a true rock record.


January 5, 1980 -
The Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight, was the first hip-hop song to made it to the Top 40 on this date.



The Fatback Band used an original beat on their song Kim Tim III, making Rapper's Delight the first rap song to use a sample, which of course was done without permission because no precedent existed for clearing a sample. The beat that plays throughout was taken from Good Times by Chic, a song that was in the crates of every DJ who played at the block parties where rap got its start. The Good Times groove was easy to loop, creating a breakbeat that was perfect for MCs. The Sugarhill Gang wasn't the first to borrow it - Queen used the bassline in their song Another One Bites The Dust.


January 5, 1980
KC and the Sunshine Band song Please Don’t Go because their fifth and final No. 1 hit on the Billboard Charts on this date. Harry Wayne Casey parted ways with KC and The Sunshine Band soon after this was released.



This was KC & The Sunshine Band's first love ballad, and the last of their incredible five #1 hits in the United States. Like all their hits, it was written by their bass player/producer Rick Finch and frontman Harry Wayne Casey.


Do you have high bills from overspending during the holidays?


Today in History:
January 5, 1477 -
Swiss troops, led by René II, Duke of Lorraine, defeated the forces under Charles the Bold of Burgundy at the Battle of Nancy.

René's forces won the battle, and Charles' mutilated body was found three days later.

But what the hell do you care about European history.


January 5, 1757 -
Mad man Robert Damiens attempted to kill King Louis XV of France on this date. The king survived the attack.



Damiens did not survive his execution.


January 5, 1914 -
Henry Ford surprised the business world as he announced that he would limited the workday of his employees to 8 hours a day, and almost doubled their salary with a minimum wage of $5 dollars.



At the time, such measures were almost unheard of, and Ford's actions were one of the first to put the spotlight on the need for fair working conditions.


January 5, 1919 -
The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei was founded by Anton Drexler and others at the Furstenfelder Hof tavern in Munich on this date.

Why does so much of early Nazi history seems to center around beer halls? It must have been something in those Bavarian Beer Purity laws.


January 5, 1925 -
Nellie Tayloe Ross, became the first female governor in the US when she was elected the governor of Wyoming, after her husband William B. Ross, the previous governor, died in office on October 2, 1924.



Wyoming was also the first state to grant suffrage to women — nearly 40 years before the rest of the US.


January 5, 1933 -
Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began on the Marin County side, which spans the deep channel at the entrance to San Francisco Bay on this date.



People had to line up for more than four years before suicides can begin (The Golden Gate Bridge is the most prevalent place in the USA to commit suicide.)


January 5, 1941 -
Amy Johnson CBE, pioneering English aviatrix, drowned after bailing out into the Thames Estuary on this date. Although she was seen alive in the water, a rescue attempt failed and her body was never recovered.



In 1999, it was reported that she was accidentally shot down by British forces when she twice failed to give the correct identification code during the flight.

Oops.


January 5, 1969 -
Brian Hugh Warner was born on this date.



He was always kind to his mother.


January 5, 1995 -
On Eye to Eye, Connie Chung's interview with House Speaker Newt Gingrich's mother, Kathleen, aired on CBS, on this date, complete with the whispered comment from Kathleen that Newt thought first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was a 'bitch'.



I wonder if Newt knows what people thinks of him?


January 5, 1998 -
Congressman Sonny Bono finally meets something that ends his bizarrely successful career - a pine tree at Heavenly Valley Ski Area on this date.



I guess the beat doesn't go on for him.

Before I let you go:

What were the gifts of the Magi (what were the names of the Magi?) Bonus question: There was a fourth gift - what was it and who was it from?



And so it goes

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

always kind to his mother indeed