Visiting the infirmed

(On the actual date,) Visitors started coming - my mom was the first. She travelled in a rain storm and made her way to my room by herself (she has some health issues herself and gets around with a cane - the better to hit you with.) I have abused my mom in this pages for many a year, but I was not going to be the death of her looking sickly. I washed, shaved and put on a fresh hospital gown for her.

I made light of the nose tube. We joked about family things. She promised to make me some family favorites, once I could eat again. We took a lap around the hospital ward. I could see that she was able to relax, seeing I was not at death's door. The rain seems to let up a bit and I urged her to head to Stew Leonard's get get some of the lobsters that were on sale, for a Mother's Day feast for her and my stepdad. She left and I slept for the rest of the day

(More later.)


May 7, 1937 -
Leo McCarey's forgotten tearjerker, Make Way for Tomorrow, starring Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, and Thomas Mitchell premiered in Hollywood on this date.



Leo McCarey spent almost a year making the film. He worked for a greatly reduced salary, refused to cast any stars. Paramount boss Adolph Zukor reportedly pressured Leo McCarey to alter the film's downbeat ending, but the director resisted, and his contract with the studio was not renewed.


May 7, 1966 –
The Mamas and the Papas song Monday, Monday reached no. #1 on the Billboard charts (their only no. #1 hit) on this date.



This was the first Hot 100 chart-topper with a day in the week in the title, and the only one with "Monday." (Manic Monday by the Bangles and Rainy Days And Mondays by the Carpenters both stalled at #2.


May 7, 1977 -
Hotel California topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on this date.



Written by Don Felder, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, this song is about materialism and excess. California is used as the setting, but it could relate to anywhere in America. Don Henley in the London Daily Mail November 9, 2007 said: "Some of the wilder interpretations of that song have been amazing. It was really about the excesses of American culture and certain girls we knew. But it was also about the uneasy balance between art and commerce."


May 7, 1987 -
Shelly Long made her last appearance as a regular on the NBC series Cheers, on this date.



To keep Shelley Long's departure from the series under wraps, three endings were shot. The aired ending, which had Diane leaving and promising to return in six months, and two additional endings. One had Sam and Diane getting married, and a third ending that the producers have not disclosed to this date.


May 7, 1988 –
Terence Trent D’Arby second single from his album Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby, Wishing Well reached no. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



Terence Trent D’Arby caught on right away in England with his first single, If You Let Me Stay. As a 25-year-old American (he's from New York) with a very distinctive look, he played very well on British music showcases like The Tube.


May 7, 2005 –
Gwen Stefani third single from her debut album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby, Hollaback Girl reached No. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date. (When my daughters were younger, they thought it hysterical to run around the house singing, 'My shit is bananas'.)



A "hollaback girl" is one of the lesser cheerleaders who yells in the background. Gwen Stefani is asserting that she is the queen bee on this squad, leading the cheers with the hollaback girls in her service. She was 35 years old when the song was released, but had no trouble playing a high school cheerleader in the video.

Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today


Today in History:
May 7, 399 BC (according to Plato) -
... Socrates, what is truth?' 'Socrates, what is beauty?' Never once did any of you guys say 'Socrates, hemlock is poisonous.' Thanks a lot, you guys ...



Greek authorities forced philosopher Socrates to end his life by drinking a potion containing hemlock for his teaching methods which aroused skepticism and impiety in his students.



Those must have been some parties, if you get condemned to death afterward.


May 7, 1895 -
In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrated to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the first in the world radio receiver.

Unfortunately, since no one had invented regularly scheduled broadcasts, the demonstration was a confusing affair.


May 7, 1901 -
I looked it at like this way. To get folks to like you, as a screen player I mean, I figured you had to sort of be their ideal. I don't mean a handsome knight riding a white horse, but a fella who answered the description of a right guy..



Gary Cooper, one of Hollywood's original boytoy, iconic actor and womanizer, was born on this date.


May 7, 1915 -
A very minor league Archduck and his wife got themselves killed in the Balkans. Before you you say conflagration, half the world was at war. On February 4, 1915, Germany declared the seas around the British Isles a war zone and any Allied ships in the area would be sunk without warning. King George V's government chose to ignore the warnings, as they were written in German. This seems odd, as George spoke German, his grandfather was German (Prince Albert) and his first cousin was Kaiser Wilhelm II.



Anyway, a German submarine, U-20, sank the Lusitania, killing 1,200, on this date. There were no star-crossed young lovers aboard, however, so instead of making a movie about it, the U.S. had to enter World War I.


May 7, 1920 -
With much fanfare the Treaty of Moscow was signed on this date. Soviet Russia recognized the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

No one bothered to tell Lenin and the Soviets invade the country six months later.


May 7, 1937 -
The Hindenburg wreckage still lies smoldering having crashed and burned in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing thirty-six yesterday.



The good news was, it provided a really cool cover for Led Zeppelin's first album and a fairly good basis for a novel by E. L. Doctorow.


May 7, 1954 -
In what was seen as a shocking turn of events in the West, French forces were overrun at Dien Bien Phu, on this date. Many in the West had considered the Viet Cong as a minor threat.



This marked the end of French involvement in Vietnam, and the beginning of serious US involvement in the war.

In some sort of bizarre irony, On May 7, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford officially announced that the Vietnam Era had ended.


May 7, 2000 -
Vladimir Putin became the president of Russia (for the first time) on this date.



Putin served eight years as president, and is credited with bringing Russia back from the brink of economic collapse. Now that Putin's American presidency has ended, I wonder how history will treat him.



And so it goes.