A whole lot of stuff going on

Today is the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, the co-patron saint of Italy. The Renaissance was tough on women, Catherine's older sister and younger sisters died in 1463 (she had 22 other siblings, although, at that point, who could tell who was alive or died or the neighbor's cat.) Catherine's father did what any other father would do - tried to make the teenage Catherine marry her sister's widow.

It didn't matter to anyone, save Catherine, that her brother-in-law was a filthy, lascivious old man. Catherine fasted until her father relented and let her enter a nunnery. While fasting, she, like our old pal Teresa of Avila, was pierced by God's shaft of 'pure love,', (is this what comes from anorexia in the Middle Ages?).

Though, supposedly illiterate, Catherine famously corresponded with the leading church figures (both men and women) of her day. In fact, Catherine is one of the few women Saints who are thought of, as holding doctorates. She is one of the church most famous bulimics, disgorging everything she ate for the next 17 years, except the Eucharist she received every day.



She, of course, is the patron saint of bulimics and anorexics, the sick (in general), nurses, firemen and sexual temptation (there is a connection between the two, but I'm not going there.)

As is always the case, when saints die, people clamor after their body parts. She is scattered over most of Italy; her head and one of her fingers are resting in Siena and a major part of her is beneath the main altar at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva Church in Rome.


When the music and dance create with accord...their magic captivates both the heart and the mind.

Today is also International Dance Day. The date was chosen in commemoration of the death of the greatly influential dancer, choreographer and innovator Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810).







The goals of Dance Day are to increase the awareness of the importance of dance among the general public, as well as to persuade governments all over the world to provide a proper place for dance in all systems of education.


One last thing, But wait, today is also National Shrimp Scampi Day



Don't forget to add a few red pepper flakes (we had shrimp last night; maybe we'll have to wait a few days to have our scampi.)


April 29, 1953 –
In the first 3D television broadcast, an episode of Space Patrol was shown on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.

Viewers needed special 3D glasses for proper viewing. Of course most viewers didn't have 3D glasses handy, so "while the show aired, it appeared to be a blurry mess."


April 29, 1964 -
The Toho Studios released their first cross-over monster movie Mosura tai Gojira (Godzilla vs. the Thing (Mothra)) in Japan on this date. This is the first Godzilla film without newly-shot American footage added for the American release.





1964 was the only year when Toho released two Godzilla movies in the same year. Right after this film, Toho began working on Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, which premiered that December.


April 29, 1979 -
ABC TV cancelled the series Battlestar Galactica earlier in the month, making the episode that aired on this date, The Hand of God, the last episode of the series.



Apollo reveals that the Galactica was launched "over 500 yahren ago." According to BattlestarWiki, fans have established a "yahren" (equivalent to a Colonial year) as being equivalent to approximately 250 Earth days, or a little more than 2/3 of an Earth year. That still makes Galactica an extremely old ship at over 340 Earth years old. In terms of Earth history, it would be like continuing to use a warship from about 1680 A.D.


April 29, 1983 -
Martha Coolidge's Rom-Com about a girl from the valley, Valley Girl, starring Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Michelle Meyrink, Elizabeth Daily, Cameron Dye and Michael Bowen premiered in the US on this date.



The producers of this film approached Frank Zappa about making a film based on his hit single Valley Girl (released May 1982), but he refused, leading the producers to make the film without his involvement. Zappa later sued them but lost the case.


April 29, 2005 –
Buena Vista releases a somewhat confusing (for the uninformed) but amusing version of Douglas Adams classic sci-fi classic, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, starring Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel and the voices of Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman on this date.



This was the ninth version of the Hitchhiker's Guide. It has previously appeared as a radio series, two record albums, novels, a television series, a computer game, a stage show, a comic book, a video game and a towel.


April 29, 2016 -
Jimmy Fallon and Paul Rudd do a shot-for-shot remake of the Styx video for Too Much Time On My Hands on this date.



The video has special memories for many in Generation X, as it was in heavy rotation when MTV went on the air in 1981. Rock revisionists have questioned the coolness of the band, but to those who grew up watching them on MTV, they will always be undeniably awesome.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
April 29, 1852 -
The first edition of Roget’s Thesaurus was published (distributed, circulated, printed) on this date.



Dr. Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869) was a London physician of French-Swiss ancestry who began to collect and organize English words to improve his public speaking.


April 29, 1901 -
Train robber and one of the last of the Old West outlaws, Thomas "Black Jack" Ketchum was unsuccessfully hanged in Clayton, New Mexico on this date.

The executioner's poor choice of rope and Ketchum's recent increase in weight combine to produce a gruesome decapitation in the gallows.

Thomas "Black Jack" Ketchum was the only person ever hanged in Clayton, New Mexico. He was also the only man ever hanged for train robbery in the entire state, a law that was later found to be unconstitutional. But, a little too late for poor Black Jack.


April 29, 1939 -
The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge connecting the Bronx and Queens opened for traffic on this date.



The primary reason for its construction was to provide access to the 1939-40 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows.


April 29, 1945 -
Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun on this date (the Allies sent the Fuhrer a wedding gift via liberating Dachau.) The very next day she killed herself. So did he. This demonstrates the importance of not rushing into marriage. You've got to take your time, get to know the other person, and really think it through. Especially if the other person happens to be an Evil Bastard at the head of a hellish genocidal war machine on the brink of defeat.

But it's not enough just making sure your intended isn't a war-criminal-in-training. The sad truth is that if you plan to marry a human being you're in for a pretty bumpy road no matter what—which isn't to say it would be all roses if you married something other than a human.



So maybe Adolf and Eva were doomed anyway. Who knows? I'm only saying they should have given it a little more thought. Bunker marriages have a notorious failure rate.


April 29, 1961 -
ABC's Wide World of Sports, debuted on this date. Rather than focus on one sport, it presented a variety of athletic events in one show. Each week, Wide World of Sports transported the viewer across the United States and around the world.



In addition to presenting races, bouts, and meets (often live via satellite), Wide World of Sports revolutionized sports coverage by including "up close and personal" features on athletes. The show's rallying cry, "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," not only became one of the most familiar catchphrases on TV but captured the essence of athletic competition.


April 29, 1968 -
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, the rock musical opened on this date. Hair tells the story of the "Tribe", a group of politically active, long-haired "Hippies of the Age of Aquarius" fighting against conscription to the Vietnam War and living a bohemian life together in New York City. They struggle to balance their young lives, loves and the sexual revolution with their pacifist rebellion against the war and the conservative impulses of their parents and society.



It was also a way for middle class America to see nudity on the stage without going to a strip club or porno house.


April 29, 1976 –
After a gig in Memphis, Bruce Springsteen took a cab to Graceland and proceeds to climb over the wall in an attempt to meet Elvis.

He is apprehended and escorted off the premises by guards who inform him that Elvis is not in the building, anyway. Even the Boss needed the healing powers of The King.


April 29, 1992 -
Rioting erupts in after Rodney King's assailants are acquitted by a jury. The looting and destruction began in South Central L.A. and quickly radiates outward.



By the time things are under control, 51 people were dead, 1093 buildings were damaged or destroyed (764 retail stores were owned by Koreans) and the city has sustained $1.5 billion in property damage.


It's the 13th anniversary for His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis of Wales, Duke of Cambridge, the once and future king of England and Catherine, (nee Katherine Middleton), Duchess of Cambridge. The couple are probably going to be spending home with their kids, just like any other millionaire future monarch and his consort would be.

Remember, lace gifts,

the tradition gifts for an 13th anniversary. (Let's have a good thought, whether or not you're a monarchist, for Kate, and for Charles, for that matter.)



And so it goes.

Safety doesn’t happen by accident.

Today is International Workers' Memorial Day. The day is a day set aside to remember all of those people who have been injured or killed on the job.



Each year, more than two million women and men die as a result of work-related accidents and diseases. So remember, there was a good chance; an accident brought you into this world. Don’t let one take you out.


April 28, 1939 -
Cecil B. DeMille brought the Western into a new realm when Union Pacific, premiered in Omaha, Nebraska on this date.



Robert Preston, who appeared in several Cecil B. DeMille productions, not only disliked the director personally but felt he was inept at directing actors. The scene where Preston, Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea are trapped in the boxcar took two weeks to film and, according to Preston, DeMille had nothing but "Action," "Cut," and "Print" to say to the actors. He didn't seem to care about scenes that did not include action or spectacle. When Preston became a bigger star, he turned down offers to appear in other DeMille films and avoided any relationship or contact with him.


April 28, 1965 -
Barbra Streisand's first television special, My Name is Barbra, premiered on CBS-TV, on this date.



The audience segments were filmed in a small TV studio in New York City just down the street from where Barbra Streisand was performing in Funny Girl. The audience consisted of about 200 members of Streisand's fan club.


April 28, 1975 –
Former Beatle Ringo Starr appeared NBC-TV’s The Smothers Brothers Show performing his No No Song with hosts Tom and Dick Smothers, on this date.



Later that evening, Tom Snyder interviewed ex-Beatle John Lennon on The Tomorrow Show on April 8, 1975. The show was broadcast on this date



At the time, no one knew then that John Lennon would be taking an extended hiatus from public life, taking time to raise his son and live a less public life. The interview Lennon gave Tom Snyder in 1975 revealed he had tremendous humility and an affecting sense of humor.


April 28, 1978 -
John A. Alonzo's film about a radio station with a motley collection of DJs, FM, starring Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan, Alex Karras, Cleavon Little, Martin Mull and Cassie Yates went into general release in the US on this date. The film is often believed to be the inspiration for the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, but in fact the pilot for that sitcom was filmed before this film's release.



The theme song from the movie, Steely Dan's FM (No Static at All) won engineers Al Schmitt and Roger Nichols the 1979 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording.


April 28, 1979 -
The first of their four chart-toppers, Blondie's Heart Of Glass hits #1 in the U.S. on this date.



According to Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Songs, Harry and Stein wrote the song in their dingy New York apartment and keyboardist Jimmy Destri provided the synthesizer hook. The result brought punk and disco together on the dance floor. Said Destri, "Chris always wanted to do disco. We used to do 'Heart Of Glass' to upset people."


April 28, 1985 -
The first single from Bryan Ferry's album Boys and Girls, Slave To Love, was released on this date.



The album, Boys and Girls, featured many brilliant guitarists, including Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bryan Adams' guitarist Keith Scott.


April 28, 1994 -
30 years ago the Fox network aired the 100th episode of The Simpsons - Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song, on this date. I wonder what ever happened to that series?



When this episode first aired, stars appeared during the commercial breaks to celebrate the 100th episode.

Luke Perry: (referring to his animated appearance) You know, I've been shot out of a lot of cannons, but there's nothing like the first time. Congratulations to the show on their 100th episode.
Leonard Nimoy: To everyone in the sleepy town of Springfield...may you live long and prosper.
Kelsey Grammer: Hello, Kelsey Grammer here. Felicitations to the people who bring The Simpsons to life. May you make 100 more.


April 28, 2009 -
A TV commercial for the UK car insurance company, Swiftcover featuring Iggy Pop was ruled as misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority. In the ad, Iggy was seen exclaiming that he had an insurance policy with Swiftcover but the company did not cover musicians at the time of the ad being shown.



Swiftcover had since started to offer policies to musicians, and Mr Osterberg, Jr. has continued to increase his retirement fund, I mean, endorse the company ever since.


April 28, 2011 -
Universal Pictures mega-hit comedy Bridesmaids, starring Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph. Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Rebel Wilson, Matt Lucas, Michael Hitchcock, Jon Hamm, and Jill Clayburgh, premiered in the US on this date. (This film is my daughters' favorite comedy.)



It was originally intended that Chris O'Dowd's cop would be American, but everyone was so enamored with O'Dowd's native Irish accent that it was decided that he keep it.


April 28, 2012 –
The Gotye song (featuring Kimbra), Somebody That I Used to Know hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart on this date.



The song features New Zealand singer-songwriter Kimbra, who won her country's Critics' Choice awards in 2011; the award is intended to recognize and nurture up-coming talent. Gotye didn't begin writing this song as a duet, but after he finished the first verse, he realized he had nowhere to go with the character he was writing about, and needed to introduce another voice.

Another book froom the back shelf of The ACME Library


Today in History:
April 28, 1789 -
In the middle of the South Pacific, the crew of the HMS Bounty, led by either Clark Gable, Marlon Brando or Mel Gibson mutinied, setting Charles Laughton, Trevor Howard or Anthony Hopkins and 18 other crewmen adrift in an open boat, so they can hang out with topless Tahitian teens.



Sometimes history is very confusing.


April 28, 1881 -
Billy the Kid escaped from a New Mexico jail, killing jailer Bob Ollinger and a fellow prisoner in the process. Billy survived for another three months before Pat Garrett finally killed him.

Somehow Bob Dylan, Paul Newman, Dracula and Jane Russell's Howard Hughes engineered bosom are involved in this story



Once again, history is exceedingly confusing.


April 28, 1910 -
In England, Claude Grahame-White became the first person to pilot a plane at night on this date.

The landmark flight came during the 1910 London to Manchester air race.


April 28, 1941 -
... I always think that age is a natural progression, and I'm ready for it. Whatever. I'm going to be the best 85-year-old that I can be if I'm still around.





Ann-Margret Olsson, actress, singer and dancer, was born on this date.


April 28, 1945 -
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by partisan fighters and executed (castrated and hung upside down on a meat hook - well, Mussolini had his junk removed - Clara, well, she just got hung.)



Just because you can get the trains to run on time does not mean that the voters love you (it should be a motto every politician has tattooed to their ass.) One of our bunkies had a relative who was involved in his arrest.


April 28, 1947 -
Sailing from Peru on the balsa-raft Kon Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl began his six-man, 101-day expedition across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia.



Heyerdahl's expeditions were spectacular and caught the public imagination. Although much of his work remains unaccepted within the scientific community, Heyerdahl increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology.


April 28, 1967 -
Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the army because of religious reasons on this date, and was stripped of his boxing titles and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for draft evasion.



The conviction was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court


April 28, 2001 -
Millionaire Dennis Tito, cut a $20 million check to Russia, (proving there is such a thing as 'stupid money',) and became the world's first space tourist, flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. For his money, he spent a week aboard the International Space Station (ISS).



Tito, and his wife Akiko, have both recently made a deal to travel on a one-week journey aboard SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, along with up to 10 other paying passengers, to the moon. Apparently he has made a lot more stupid money in the intervening years.



And so it goes.

Thanks for the "Heads Up'

On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science.



Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets.


April 27, 1922 -
Fritz Lang's Dr Mabuse, der Spieler (some have called it the first film-noir,) premiered in Berlin, Germany on this date.



Fritz Lang originally wanted the actress portraying Venus to be completely nude. When the first take was completed, he didn't like how the woman's pubic hair looked, and ordered her to shave it off. The actress indignantly refused, sending Lang into a tantrum. Eventually, a compromise was reached when a small strip of cloth was draped over the offending hair. .


April 27, 1948 -
Alexander Korda's lavish remake of Anna Karenina directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Vivien Leigh and Ralph Richarson premiered in NYC on this date.



Vivien Leigh's costumes were made in Paris by Barbara Karinska to Cecil Beaton's designs. She was in such pain wearing them that she even went to her doctor fearing she had broken her ribs. It was subsequently discovered that the dresser had been putting the corsets on upside down.


April 27, 1969 -
Joe Cocker made his first U.S. TV appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, on this date. Together with the Grease Band, Cocker performed a cover of Dave Mason's Feelin' Alright.



The song would end up being a two-time charting hit for Cocker — in 1969 and again in 1972. Cocker included a version of the song on his 1970 double album, Mad Dogs & Englishmen.


April 27, 1971 -
CBS executives finally sobered up and the last episode of Green Acres aired on this date.



This was to have been the pilot for a proposed spin off featuring Elaine Joyce as Carol. Oliver and Lisa only appear briefly in the beginning as an excuse to introduce Carol and the pilot. Oliver appears later talking to Carol on the phone.


April 27, 1990 -
The British film based on the lives and crimes of the English gangster twins Ronald and Reginald Kray, The Krays, starring Gary Kemp (of Spandau Ballet) and Martin Kemp, premiered in the UK on this date.



Roger Daltrey had originally intended to produce a film about the Kray twins life after acquiring the rights to John Pearson's book The Profession Of Violence. The idea was abandoned however once the Peter Medak version was announced.


April 27, 2001 -
I can think of younger days when living for my life ...



The Bee Gees performed audience and viewer requests for tunes from their long career in a concert at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom on the A&E series, Live By Request, on this date.

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


(Just getting back home after a long business trip; sorry, but it's an extremely abbreviated posting today.) Today in History:
April 27, 1509 -
The entire state of Venice was excommunicated by Pope Julius II for an entirely secular reason:



the refusal to place parts of Romagna under the Pope's control.

Oh, those wacky Pre-counterreformation Popes.


April 27, 1521 -
In an hour long battle with Philippine Islanders, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his men were repeatedly jabbed with sharpened bamboo spears. After Magellan finally succumbs to his wounds, the natives hacked him to pieces with their swords, barbecued and consumed him on this date.



They were surprised that they were not hungry an hour after eating him as they had been after eating some Asian explorers previously.


April 27, 1822 -
Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War hero and 18th President of the United States, would have been 202 today.




And if the rumors are true, he is still buried in Grant's Tomb, which was dedicated on this date in 1897.


April 27, 1861 -
In a blatantly unconstitutional act, President Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus inside a zone between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The government could detain citizens indefinitely without ever filing charges. A year and a half later, Lincoln expanded the scope of his order to the entire nation.



I will grant you that President Obama might have read a little too much, but thank God that the previous resident of the White House didn't read much at all.


April 27, 1865 -
The worst steamship disaster in the history of the United States occurs on this date. The SS Sultana, carrying over 2,000 passengers, the majority being freed Union POWs from the notorious Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons, exploded on the Mississippi River, while en route to Cairo, Illinois.



Neither the cause of the explosion nor the final count of the dead (estimated at between 1,450 and 2,000) was ever determined. Today, the Sultana disaster remains the worst of its kind.

Talk about bad luck.


April 27, 1871 -
The American Museum of Natural History opened to the public in New York City, on this date. With a series of exhibits, the Museum’s collection went on view for the first time in the Central Park Arsenal, the Museum’s original home, on the eastern side of Central Park.

The museum began from the efforts of Albert Smith Bickmore, one-time student of Harvard zoologist Louis Agassiz, who was successful in his proposal to create a natural history museum in New York City with the support of William E. Dodge, Junior, Theodore Roosevelt, Senior, Joseph Choate and J. Pierpont Morgan. The Governor of New York, John Thompson Hoffman, signed a bill officially creating the American Museum of Natural History on April 6, 1869.


April 27, 1932 -
Writer Hart Crane was racked with self-doubt about his ability to write good poetry and agonizing over his sexuality, had been mentally unstable for some time. Crane stood on the railing of the ship Orizaba in his pajamas (en route to the United States from Mexico,) shouted, "Goodbye Everyone," to the other stunned passengers and jumped over the side of the ship on this date.



Life preservers were thrown to him, but he makes no effort to reach them and drowned. The ship halted in the water, ten miles off the Florida coast, but never recovers his body.


April 27, 1986 -
Someone interrupted the HBO satellite feed during the movie The Falcon and The Snowman on this date. For five minutes, two-thirds of their customer base receives the message: Good evening HBO from Captain Midnight. $12.95 a month?



(Showtime-Movie Channel Beware.) Captain Midnight turned out to be John R. MacDougall of Florida. After media pressure forces the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to act, MacDougall was charged and sentenced, per a plea bargain, to a $5,000 fine and one year’s probation.


April 27, 1987 -
After determining that Kurt Waldheim had "assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of persons" during his Nazi years, the Department of Justice places him on a watch list of undesirable aliens on this date. As such, the sitting President of Austria was disallowed entry into the U.S. It is the first time that a foreign head of state is legally forbidden from visiting America.



I suppose that he suffered from Waldheimer's Disease - it's having difficulty recalling that you're a Nazi



And so it goes.

Chew before you swallow!

National Pretzel Day celebrates pretzels of all shapes and sizes. Pretzels are believed to be the world's oldest snack. (This appears to be a legitimate celebration, there are many stores giving away free pretzels today.)



Wake me up when it's Very Dry Martini, straight up with Olives Day. And no that's not every day at my house, smarty pants.


Today is also Arbor Day. The holiday is celebrated on the last Friday of April  -

The first Arbor Day took place on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. It was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902), a Nebraska journalist and politician originally from Michigan.  Throughout his long and productive career, Morton worked to improve agricultural techniques in his adopted state and throughout the United States when he served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture.



But unless you plan on hugging or planting a tree, what do you care?


April 26, 1935 -
The Tod Browning MGM comedy-horror film Mark of the Vampire, starring Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt, premiered in the US on this date.



Throughout the film, Count Mora (Bela Lugosi) has an unexplained bullet wound on his temple. In the original script Mora was supposed to have had an incestuous relationship with his daughter Luna, and to have committed suicide. After filming began, however, MGM deleted references to the crime (and any remaining references may have been deleted when 20 minutes of footage was removed after the film's preview).


April 26, 1945 -
United Artists wartime drama, Blood On The Sun, starring James Cagney and Sylvia Sidney, premiered in the US on this date.



The movie is based on the history behind Japan's alleged Tanaka Plan, aka the Tanaka Memorial document (it was made public after his death in 1929). This allegedly was Prime Minister Baron Gi-ichi Tanaka's militarist strategic plan for world domination prepared for Emperor Hirohito. It was first printed in China by the Chinese communists and in the US by a communist periodical, leading some to think that it was a forgery. No Japanese version has ever been found.


April 26, 1950 -
Twentieth Century-Fox released the Cold War drama, shot on location in Berlin, The Big Lift, starring, Montgomery Clift, and Paul Douglas, on this date.



When shooting at the Brandenburg Gate, which was inside the Russian zone of occupation, authorities there erected a large loudspeaker that blared communist propaganda. The scenes were shot without sound and voices were dubbed in later.


April 26, 1954 -
70 years ago, one of the greatest films in world cinema, Akira Kurosawa's iconic Seven Samurai, starring Toshiro Mifune, was released in Japan on this date. A technical and creative marvel, it became Japan’s highest-grossing movie but also was highly influential among Hollywood filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and George Lucas.



This was the first film on which Akira Kurosawa used multiple cameras, so he wouldn't interrupt the flow of the scenes and could edit the film as he pleased in post-production. He used the multiple-camera set-up on every subsequent film.


April 26, 1956 -
Godzilla debuted in America on this date. (Gojira premiered in Japan on November 3, 1954.)



The American version of the film had 40 minutes of the original excised (mostly the content dealing with World War II or the anti-nuclear message,) and had 20 minutes of the masterful deadpan stylings of Raymond Burr. The American version was released in Japan with Japanese subtitles and did very well.


April 26, 1967 -
CBS broadcast the documentary, Inside Pop - The Rock Revolution, with the host Leonard Bernstein, on this date.



The program marked the first time that television presented pop music as a legitimate art form.


April 26, 1975 -
B. J. Thomas' song, (Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, was No. 1 on the charts on this date. It is the longest-titled #1 charting song to date.



(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song was B. J. Thomas' second #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, his other being Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. I really apologize for this song being stuck in your head for the rest of the day.


April 26, 1978 -
The concert billed as The Band's "farewell concert appearance", was held on November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The concert film, The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring members of the band and many of their friends, premiered in the US on this date.



The Band's management had overbooked the show. Two days before the show, they tried to have Muddy Waters taken off the bill. Levon Helm, The Band's drummer, threatened not to play the show if Muddy Waters was asked to leave. Muddy Waters is in the final cut of the film. Every camera but one ran out of film during his performance of Mannish Boy. It resulted in the longest shot of the film, while Martin Scorsese scrambled to get the film cans reloaded.


April 26, 1978 –
NBC aired a a musical version of The Prince and the Pauper, Ringo, starring Ringo, Art Carney, Angie Dickinson, Carrie Fisher, Vincent Price, John Ritter, and George Harrison narrating, on this date.



Really, don't feel you have to watch the whole thing (it's not very good.)


April 26, 1988 -
We were back in Nam (again) when the pilot episode of China Beach, starring Dana Delaney, Nan Woods, Michael Boatman, and Marg Helgenberger, premiered on ABC TV on this date. (For some reason this series has almost faded into obscurity.)



Several of the storylines, and even some of the dialogue were taken directly from the experiences and recollections of actual Vietnam era military nurses.


April 26, 1991 -
For some reason ABC TV fulfilled Jim Henson dying wish of creating a TV series about puppet anthropomorphic dinosaurs when Dinosaurs aired on this date.



Jim Henson originally got the idea of a live-action show featuring animatronic dinosaurs after he was impressed by the technology his Creature Shop was developing for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When this show went into production, the same technology was used to create the Dinosaurs. Many of the Ninja Turtle suit actors worked as various Dinosaur suit actors for the series.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
April 26, 1865 -
Discovered hiding in a farmer's tobacco shed, John Wilkes Booth was shot in the neck by a complete lunatic. Dying and paralyzed from the neck down, he whispers: Tell my mother I did it for my country.



As his hands are held up to his face, Booth mutters "useless...useless..."



They were his last words.


On April 26, 1923 (almost 89 years previously to the date of his great-grandson's nuptials,) the Duke of York married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in Westminster Abbey.



This wedding might have slipped into the ephemera of time had the Duke's brother not wanted to marry a woman reported so ugly, many thought her a man in drag. And calling a woman ugly in England is really saying something, as many of the British upper crust often marry their horses out of confusion.

That's British royalty.

Count Basie died on April 26, 1984; Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1899; Ella Fitzgerald, the "First Lady of Song," was born on April 25, 1917.

That's American royalty.


April 26, 1933 -
Hermann Goering founded the Geheime Staatspolizei, otherwise known as the Gestapo on this date.



The original purpose of this "Secret State Police" is to disrupt and harass opponents of National Socialism, but it will later come to adopt many additional responsibilities.


April 26, 1933 -
I'm glad I was born when I was. My time was the golden age of variety. If I were starting out again now, maybe things would happen for me, but it certainly would not be on a variety show with 28 musicians, 12 dancers, two major guest stars, 50 costumes a week by Bob Mackie. The networks just wouldn't spend the money today.





Carol Creighton Burnett, the funniest woman in America was born on this day - don't argue with me, I will come to your home and hurt you. I was forced to watch The Carol Burnett Show in my bedroom and not with my family because I laughed so loudly and so hard, no one could hear it.


April 26, 1937 -
It was a beautiful Monday afternoon in Guernica, Spain on this date. At about 3:30 pm the day took a tragic turn. For over three hours, twenty-five or more of Germany's best-equipped bombers, accompanied by at least 20 more Messerschmitt and Fiat Fighters, dumped one hundred thousand pounds of high-explosive and incendiary bombs on the village, slowly and systematically pounding it to rubble.



Guernica had served as the testing ground for a new Nazi military tactic - blanket-bombing a civilian population to demoralize the enemy. It was wanton, man-made holocaust.



The bombing was the subject of a famous anti-war painting by Pablo Picasso.


April 26, 1937 -
Due to a publishing error, LIFE magazine was printed without the word "LIFE" on the cover on this date.

It was the only time that LIFE was nameless.


April 26, 1962 -
The NASA Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon after sixty-four hours of flight, on this date.



The probe’s mission was to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study the radar reflectivity of the lunar surface, and to continue testing the Ranger program for development of lunar and interplanetary spacecraft.

So now you know, (this may be on the test.)


April 26, 1977 -
Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager open Studio 54 the world famous New York nightclub, renowned for being extremely difficult to get in unless you were famous / well known or considered one of the beautiful people over the years.



Studio 54 closed with a final party on February 4, 1980.


April 26, 1986 -
44 seconds into a late-night experiment at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, reactor number four sustains two large explosions. The exploded at Chernobyl burned for 10 days. About 70% of the fallout fell in Belarus. Damage was estimated to be up to $130 billion. The Soviet news agency TASS held off reporting the incident for almost 48 hours.



A 300-hundred-square-mile area was evacuated and 31 people died as unknown thousands were exposed to radioactive material that spread in the atmosphere throughout the world. By 1998, 10,000 Russian liquidators involved in the cleanup had died and thousands more became invalids. It was later estimated that the released radioactivity was 200 times the combined bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was later found that Soviet scientists were authorized to carry out experiments that required the reactor to be pushed to or beyond its limits, with safety features disabled.

Oops.



And so it goes.

Baseball and malaria keep coming back.

Today is Malaria Awareness Day. Malaria Awareness Day was designated on this date by President George W. Bush in 2007, to remind people that Malaria kills 3,000 children a day. He asked the world to join the fight to wipe out malaria on the African continent.



So I encourage all Americans to begin heavily drinking Gin and Tonics to honor the day



(While I'm sure you know, I'm a Bombay Sapphire man, I am not affiliated in anyway with that fine brand - not that I wouldn't consider any offers, I'd suggest using Tanqueray. I believe it goes better with the Tonic.)


Today is also the holiday of Robigalia, honoring the god Robigus. The purpose of the holiday was to prevent mildew from ruining crops. Dog and sheep sacrifices were encouraged to honor Robigus. (I didn't suggest this, the ancient Romans did)

For some reason, it's also the holiday of celebrating male sex workers. I'm not sure how one was supposed to celebrate that portion of the holiday slaughtering livestock.

But maybe it's just me.


April 25, 1955 -
Captiol Records released the ninth studio album by American vocalist Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours, on this date.



The album is a collection of melancholy ballads, with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, was an early example of a concept album and helped popularize the 12-inch format for non-classical recordings.


April 25, 1959 -
The Fleetwoods hit No. 1 with their recording of Come Softly to Me on this date.



The original title of this song Come Softly, was changed because Dolphin (later Dolton) Records owner Bob Reisdorff feared that AM radio DJs would think it to be too suggestive. He was being extra-cautious, Dolphin Records was formed by the Seattle DJ for the sole purpose of distributing Fleetwoods records.

Remember kids, don't dance so close. Leave room for the Holy Spirit.


April 25, 1970 -
The Jackson Five started a two week run at No.1 on the Billboard singles chart with ABC, on this date.



The song is packed with hooks that put Michael Jackson's talents to good use. It opens with the call-and-response "buh buh buh buh buh buh" and has lots of little vocal interjections throughout ("Get up, girl!"). These vocal bits became one of Michael Jackson's hallmarks, both The Jackson 5 and as a solo artist.


April 25, 1974 -
Steely Dan's most successful single, (it charted at #4,) Rikki Don't Lose That Number, was released on this date.



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.


April 25, 1978 -
We all got to hang out on the strip with Dan Tanna, when the pilot of Vega$, starring Robert Urich, premiered on ABC TV on this date.



Robert Urich was 31 when the series premiered, but since he looked a decade younger than he was, they wanted to make the character of Dan Tanna, 20. But since he was a Vietnam veteran and that would be too young, they decided to make him 25, even though he still looked younger. In real life, Robert Urich was older than most of the actresses who played his girlfriends on the show, even though his character Dan Tanna was younger than most of his character's girlfriends.


April 25, 1992 -
ABC had the trifecta of finales this evening:

The final episodes of Who's the Boss, aired on this date on ABC-TV.



The original ending for the series, as proposed by the writers, was for Angela and Tony to get married. ABC executives, however, balked at this ending and were supported by Tony Danza, who was against having Tony and Angela get married in the series finale. So the series ended with Tony and Angela breaking up but with Tony appearing on Angela's doorstep to apply for the housekeeper job in a scene that is almost identical to the opening scene in the pilot episode.


The Seaver Family leave their home in Long Island and head to Washington DC in the final episode of Growing Pains - The Last Picture Show, starring Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller, Ashley Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Chelsea Noble, which aired on ABC TV, on this date.



Mike proposes to Kate in this episode but in real life Mike (Kirk Cameron) and Kate (Chelsea Noble) got married July 20, 1991 before the final season of Growing Pains started. (The less said about Mr. Cameron, the better.)


April 25, 1992 -
Angus MacGyver quits the Phoenix foundation to travel with his son, Sam, when the original MacGyver aired it last original episode, The Stringer, on ABC TV, on this date.



It's very inconsistent for Mac to tell his son he's afraid of heights. In the episode about Eagles he landed a hang glider on a tiny rock formation hundreds of ft high. Not something someone afraid of heights could ever do.


April 25, 1997 -
The surprise comedy hit, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim and Alan Cumming, premiered in the US on this date.



The trailer has a small bit of dialog edited out of the movie: In a scene from the film used in the trailer, Michele tells the A-list girls "We're not the ones who got fat," to which Christine replies "We're pregnant." In the trailer Michele then retorts "Okay, we're not the ones who got pregnant," but this line does not appear in the movie.


Another ACME Safety Film


Today in History:
April 25, 1507 -
At a small college in Eastern France, German geographer Martin Waldseemüller published a map with the region of the world commonly referred to as “the New World” labeled as “America” for the first time ever in a book entitled Cosmographiae Introductio on this date.

In the book, Waldseemüller is said to have mistakenly credited Amerigo Vespucci with discovering the continent. The amount of money that may have changed hand is uncertain but Columbus was said to be quite pissed.


April 25, 1792 -
French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier was beheaded by the guillotine, after extensive testing during its development with corpses and sheep, making him its first victim on this date. The speed that the guillotine worked as quick as lightening and in the twinkling of an eye - it was over.

The outcome was not well received by the crowd who called for the return of the gallows.


April 25, 1856 -
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, mathematician and an Oxford professor, met a three year old girl named Alice Liddell on this date.



Charles had a penchant for making up stories to entertain the little girls he liked to photograph (many of them happened to be in the nude, at the time.) Alice had a penchant for consuming unknown (and apparently psychoactive) food, pills and liquids that she found while exploring a very large rabbit hole.

And 39 years later Oscar Wilde went on trial for the shoddy laundry services provided by the hotels he and several local young men frequented. I'm not sure that there s a connection, I'm just pointing it out.


April 25, 1896 -
Cripple Creek, Colorado, endured two catastrophic fires over a period of 96 hours, on this date. The first, began on this date, when a stove overturned during a fight at the Central Dance Hall on Myers Avenue, wiping out eight blocks of the city's central business district. The second fire happend on April 29 at the Portland Hotel and nearly wiped out everything else that remained standing.



The fires leveled the central business district, causing an estimated $3 million in damages, and left roughly 5,000 residents to seek refuge on the hills above town, with only tents and blankets for shelter.


April 25, 1917 –
Ella Jane Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Song, considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, was born on this date.





Ella Fitzgerald’s life was the quintessential American success story. Through 58 years of performing, 13 Grammys and more than forty million records sold, she elevated swing, bebop, and ballads to their highest potential.


April 25, 1926 -
The premiere of Giacomo Puccini's opera, Turandot was at La Scala, Milan, on this date, one year and five months after Puccini's death. It was conducted by Arturo Toscanini.



Turandot was unfinished at the time of Puccini's death and was later completed by Franco Alfano.


April 25, 1928 -
Buddy, became the first Seeing Eye dog for the blind in the US, when she was was presented to Morris S. Frank on this date. Morris S. Frank was trained to work with the female German Shepherd at a dog-training school in Switzerland, called Fortunate Fields, and on the streets of nearby Vevey.



Frank and Buddy returned to New York City on June 11, 1928, and were together until her death on May 23, 1938; he named her replacement Buddy, as he would all his subsequent guide dogs.


April 25, 1939 - (there's some controversy about this date. I seen it listed as March 30 and April 24.)
DC Comics debuted what will become its second major superhero, Batman, in issue 27 of Detective Comics (the May issue) on this date.



The first book to feature Batman sold for 10 cents when it was published and one of the rare comics in pristine condition sold for $1,380,000 when it came up for auction.


April 25, 1947 -
Harry S. Truman officially opened the two-lane White House bowling alley on this day.



Though Truman himself wasn't much of a bowler, it became embarrassing for the staff to have to search local DC bowling alleys trying to find where the President was knocking back boiler makers every other night. The White House staff members formed a bowling team and even competed in national events.


April 25, 1953 –
Francis Crick and James D. Watson published Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid describing the double helix structure of DNA, in the scientific journal Nature, on this date.



In it, Crick and Watson reveal the double helix structure of DNA and explains how DNA transmits hereditary information between cells and generations, (the boys conveniently forgot to mention the work they 'cribbed' from Rosalind Franklin.) Their work will earn them a Nobel Prize in 1962.


April 25, 1963 -
The bronze statue of The Little Mermaid (Den Lille Havfrue) is Denmark's most visited tourist attraction. The statue was unveiled on August 23, 1913 at it's current location in Copenhagen Harbor. It gives hope to the Danes when they are not pining for the Fjords.

So imagine the horror, when Denmark woke up on this date to find that the unimaginable had happened, someone had sawed off the head of The Little Mermaid, the night before. The head was never recovered and a new head was made from the original cast.


April 25, 1972 -
... And if you covered him with garbage, George Sanders would still have style....



George Sanders, actor and husband of not one but two Gabor sisters, killed himself, leaving this great suicide note: "Dear World, I am leaving you because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool - good luck," on this date.

Short and to the point.


April 25, 1980 -
In Iran, a commando mission to rescue hostages was aborted after mechanical problems disabled three of the eight helicopters involved. During the evacuation, a helicopter and a transport plan collided and exploded. Eight U.S. servicemen were killed on this date.



The mission was aimed at freeing American hostages that had been taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.


And on a personal note - still as lovely as ever,

Andrea once again is celebrating her 39th birthday.



And so it goes.