Spice responsibly.

National Hot Sauce Day is celebrated every year on January 22nd, a day dedicated to the world of spicy condiments, from fiery chili-based sauces to milder, flavorful varieties, (remember to grab some milk, just in case it's a little too spicy.)



I wonder how Sean Evans is celebrating the day.


January 22, 1968 -
The comedy show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, hosted by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, first aired on it's regularly scheduled night on NBC, on this date.



One of the trademarks of the series was the fast cutting that happened in between videotaped segments. Blackouts, one-liners and sketches were edited together in such a way that the show had a very rapid, almost frenzied, pace. This was done before computer controlled editing machines were invented, so much of the show was edited by hand.


January 22, 1971 -
MGM held a special screening of the documentary of Joe Cocker's 1970 US tour, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, on this date. The film was released later that March in the US.



Joe Cocker found himself in the unusual position of having no band and several concert dates to play when his group Grease Band returned to England ahead of him. At his request, Leon Russell recruited over 40 of his friends and family to help out, and for the next six weeks, effectively created a touring commune.


January 22, 1972 -
The Jack Webb midseason replacement series, Emergency!, starring Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe premiered on NBC TV on this date.



The series originated when producer Robert A. Cinader was in the Los Angeles area researching for a new medical drama series that took place in an emergency hospital. There, he learned of the fledgling paramedic program being tested in the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Upon learning the full details of the program and the nature of their dispatches, Cinader immediately concluded the adventures of such a team of special firefighters would be excellent material for a television series.


January 22, 1977 -
Wings' triple live album Wings Over America, recorded during the American leg of the band's 1975–76 Wings Over the World tour, hits #1 on the Billboard Charts, in the US, on this date.



Wings over America provided the total Paul McCartney experience. It showcased the full range of his musical skills as a singer/songwriter.


January 22, 1989 -
Metallica's first music video, for their single, One, makes its debut on this date. The video incorporates footage from the 1971 anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun.



Metallica performed this song at the Grammy awards in 1989. This was the first year a Grammy was awarded for Hard Rock/Metal Performance, and the award went went to ... Jethro Tull.


January 22, 2003 -
The hysterical funny and groundbreaking comedy show Chappelle's Show, starring Dave Chappelle premiered on Comedy Central on this date.



Dave Chappelle was inspired to create the show after watching a documentary about Hugh M. Hefner that featured clips of Playboy After Dark. Chappelle was inspired by the laid-back atmosphere of Hefner's show.


January 22, 2010 -
To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I'll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere.



Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen - Conan O'Brien



Coco hosted his last episode of The Tonight Show on this date.



And in case you were interested, here's the opinion of a man with no dog in this fight - David Letterman,


Little known Monopoly cards .


Today in History -
Today is the birthday of Grand Duke Ivan III of Moscow, better known as Ivan the Great.

He was born in 1440 and became Grand Duke of Moscow in 1462. Although Moscow was a lot of fun, it was not yet Russia. Ivan was determined to remedy that shortcoming as quickly as possible: he had tsars in his eyes.

To enlarge his dominions he began nibbling at his smaller neighbors, paying an annual tribute to the Golden Horde of Tatars to keep them from nibbling at him. Having eventually swallowed most of his surroundings, Ivan decided in 1480 that it was time to stop paying the Golden Horde.

The Golden Horde reminded him that it was time for their annual tribute. Ivan ignored them.

The Golden Horde sent him polite reminders in the mail, but he ignored these also.

They sent reminders on brightly colored stationery embossed with the words PAYMENT PAST DUE, but Ivan, alas, remained indifferent.

Finally the Golden Horde marched against Ivan and he marched his own troops out to meet them. The two armies met, faced off, and simultaneously retreated.



This was a victory for Ivan, in that neither he nor his descendants ever paid tribute to the Golden Horde again. But it was also a defeat for Ivan, who was therefore denied the rank of tsar.

(The first real Tsar of Russia was his grandson, Ivan IV, "the shooting tsar.")


January 22, 1521 -
The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V commenced the imperial Diet of Worms, on this date, to address the issues Martin Luther brought up in his 95 Theses.



While worms in general are quite unpleasant to consume, most people were afraid to contradict the Emperor, so many people in Europe became Protestant.


January 22, 1788 -
One of the greatest of the English Romanticist poets, Lord Byron, (George Gordon,) the sixth Baron of Byron, was born in London, on this date. No one ever called him George after he became Byron, not even his mother.





He was born into a life of wealth and privilege which never suited him, and in the likeness of some of the best artists in history, spent himself into debt traveling around the world having affairs and writing about them. It must has sucked to be him.


It was on this date in 1807 that U.S. President Thomas Jefferson exposed a plot by his former vice-president and unconvicted murderer, Aaron Burr, to establish an empire in the southwestern part of the continent. Burr was eventually acquitted as a result of Chief Justice Marshall's tree-falling-in-forest ruling that treason wasn't treason unless someone was there to see it along with someone else who saw the same thing. The vice-presidency was never the same.



From that date forward, retiring vice-presidents have been compelled to either retire into the political obsolescence of private life, where we can safely ignore them, or into the presidency, where we can keep an eye on them (or possibly in Mike Pence's case, continuously avoiding being seen with the former President towards the end.)


January 22, 1901 -
After 63 years, England stopped sales of the Queen Victoria postage stamps series and began the King Edward VII series on this date.



Alexandrina Victoria (Hanover, if she needed a last name) the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India of the British Raj, finally gave up the ghost much to the relief of her 59 year old son Edward, permitting him to finally get a real job. Edward VII was proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria on January 22, 1901. As his mother lay dying a member of the Royal Household wondered if she would be happy in Heaven. "I don't know" said the prince, "she will have to walk behind the angels and she won't like that."


January 22, 1905 -
Thousands of demonstrating Russian workers were fired on by Imperial army troops in St. Petersburg on what became known as "Red Sunday" or "Bloody Sunday" on this date.



96 people were killed, and over 300 were wounded. This incident marks the beginning of the so-called 1905 Revolution.


January 22, 1918 -
Manitoba, Canada film censor board decides to ban comedies, on the grounds that they make audiences too frivolous.



Canada does not fully recover their true frivolousness until the broadcasting of SCTV in the early 80s.


January 22, 1970 -
A Pan Am Boeing 747-100 named Victor Clipper (N736PA) makes its first commercial passenger trip from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport, on this date. The flight had carried 332 passengers and 18 crew.





The 747 airplane held the record for most passenger numbers for almost 40 years after. It went on to become one of the most commonly used models of aircraft for both commercial and passenger use. Although most passengers enjoyed the flight, one had mentioned that this plane is too big for commercial travel.



(Unfortunately, seven years later on March 27, 1977, the Clipper Victor was involved in the worst aircraft accident in history, with a total of 583 fatalities. A KLM 747 at full take off speed, while trying to get airborne crashed into Pan Am's Clipper Victor in Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands.)


January 22, 1973 -
The Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision on this date, which legalized abortion, using a trimester approach. The court ruled that a woman's right to privacy encompasses her decision to terminate a pregnancy.



Norma McCorvey, the anonymous Jane Roe, revealed her identity in 1989. She ended up having her third baby that was the initial focus of the issue.


January 22, 1984 -
The future began today. The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, was introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous 1984 television commercial.



Now that Steve Jobs is gone; we can stop saying 'Hooray for Big Brother!!!'


January 22, 1987 -
If you know, you know why





Otherwise, nothing to see here


January 22, 1997 -
Lottie Williams became the first—and, so far, only— human ever reported to be hit by human-made space debris (also known as “space junk”) on this date. Williams was jogging in a park near her Oklahoma home very early in the morning, and she saw a brilliant fireball-type meteor. She felt a “gentle tap” on her shoulder and looked down; on the ground was a piece of blackened metal.

The debris that struck Ms. Williams later was confirmed to be a piece of metal from the fuel tank of a Delta II rocket, launched nine months earlier, that had crashed into the Earth's atmosphere half an hour earlier. The rest of the fuel tank crashed into a field in Texas. Williams says she received a letter from the deputy secretary of defense apologizing for the incident.



And so it goes

These guys have great PR agents

To A Squirrel At Kyle-Na-No

Come play with me;
Why should you run
Through the shaking tree
As though I'd a gun
To strike you dead?
When all I would do
Is to scratch your head
And let you go.

- W.B. Yeats



For some reason, today is Squirrel Appreciation Day


January 21, 1957 -
Patsy Cline sang Walking After Midnight on Arthur Godfrey's nighttime television show, quickly launching her career on this date.



The song became a crossover hit, charting at #2 Country and #12 Pop, and established Cline as a Country singer capable of mainstream success.

Mr. Godfrey did not fire her after her performance.


January 21, 1957 -
NBC recorded and later broadcasted the second inaugural ceremonies of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.



It is the first national broadcast of a previously recorded event.


January 21, 1966 -
George Harrison married model/actress Pattie 'Layla' Boyd whom he met on the set of the Beatles movie, Hard Day's Night on this date.



The couple later divorced in 1974 and she married Eric Clapton (whom she divorced in 1989 but that's another story.)


January 21, 1982 -
Hsin-Yen Chang's martial arts film Shaolin Temple (Shao Lin si,) starring Jet Li in his debut role premiered on this date.



This film was the first Hong Kong-China co-production to be filmed in mainland China. The film was also the first such to use a Mainland cast and crew.


January 22, 1967 -
The Monkees performed live, to a sold-out crowd, at Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona, on this date. The concert was filmed for the last episode of the first season, The Monkees on Tour, which aired on April 24, 1967.



Initially formed for the TV show about an imaginary band, the actor-musicians, soon became a real band with five #1 hit songs. Defying instructions to stay out of the recording studio, The Monkees eventually fought for and earned the right to supervise all musical output under the band’s name.


January 21, 1968 -
The soundtrack album for the film The Graduate was released on this date.



The Graduate was one of the first major films to use rock music in its soundtrack, using songs written by Paul Simon (notably, Mrs Robinson, which became a hit).


January 21, 1984 -
The prog rock group Yes song, Owner of a Lonely Heart, hit No. #1 on this date.



This is the first single from 90125, and was the group's one and only #1 charting hit. The album was a drastic departure from Yes' progressive sound in the '70s, containing distorted guitar and synthesizers that were popular at the time. With help from MTV, Yes suddenly found a new audience, who were sometimes shocked to learn that much of their back catalog consisted of complex pieces that would often run well over 10 minutes.


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts.


Today in History:
January 21, 1793 -
On a chilly Monday, stripped of all titles and honorifics by the republican government, citizen Louis Capet was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd in what today is the Parisian Place de la Revolution. He delivered a short speech in which he prayed, "I trust that my death will be for the happiness of my people, but I grieve for France, and I fear that she may suffer the anger of the Lord," but his speech was drowned out by a roll of drums. The executioner, Charles Henri Sanson, testified that King Louis XVI had bravely met his fate.

Apparently, three years earlier, to the date, Joseph Guillotine proposed a new, more humane method of execution: a machine designed to cut off the condemned person's head as painlessly as possible. An early urban legend has the King suggesting, after inspecting an early guillotine prototype, a slant and beveling of the blade, for better cutting action.



Sometimes, people should just keep their opinions to themselves.


January 21, 1908 -
New York City's Board of Aldermen passed the Sullivan Ordinance that effectively prohibited women from smoking in public.

Two weeks later the measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.


January 21, 1924 -
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Vladimir I. Lenin) driving force behind the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the first great dictator of the Soviet Union died from a massive stroke on this date.



Lenin, idolized during his life -- an icon after his death, helped along by an unusual effort to preserve his corpse. For decades after his death, Russians lined up in all weather to view Lenin's body on display in a glass container inside a special mausoleum in Red Square. A triumph of the embalmer's art, the corpse was removed on a regular basis for the special top-secret treatments that kept it looking remarkably lifelike.



I'm going to let you sick puppies go seek out on your own, various sites - you can enjoy the sight of the nude, mummified corpse of Lenin getting his rejuvenating bath.


January 21, 1954 -
The first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus (named after the submarine in Jules Vernes' Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) was launched by First lady Mamie Eisenhower on the Thames River in Groton, Connecticut on this date.



The propulsion system of the Nautilus makes the ship the first 'true' submarine. Vessel previously termed 'submarines' were, in fact, only submersibles powered by diesel engines which consumed vast amounts of oxygen. However, the Nautilus can remain submerged for months on end.


January 21, 1959 -
Former Our Gang child star Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer arrived at Moses 'Bud' Stiltz's home in Mission Hills, California, to settle an alleged debt owed to Switzer on this date.

Previously, Switzer had borrowed a dog from Stiltz which was lost, but eventually found, Switzer paying the man who returned the dog $50. Switzer went to Stiltz's house to collect the money "owed" him. He banged on Stiltz's front door, demanding that he let him in, flashing a fake police badge. Once Switzer got inside he and Stiltz got into an argument. Switzer informed Stiltz that he wanted the money owed him. However, when Stiltz refused to hand over the money, the two engaged in a physical fight. Switzer bashed Stiltz in the head with a lamp, which caused Stiltz to bleed from his left eye. Stiltz retreated to his bedroom and returned holding a gun, but Switzer immediately grabbed the gun away from Stiltz, which resulted in a shot being fired but neither man being hit. Then Switzer forced Stiltz into a closet, despite Stiltz having gotten his hands back on the gun. Switzer then allegedly pulled out a knife and was attempting to stab Stiltz with it. But just as Switzer was about to charge Stiltz, Stiltz raised the gun and shot Switzer in the chest. Switzer died of intense blood loss while on his way to the hospital. He was 31 years old.



Switzer's death was largely ignored in the media, mainly because director Cecil B. DeMille had died on the same day.


  
Kids, never loan a dog to a former child star.


January 21, 1960 -
The Little Joe 1B was a Launch Escape System test of the Mercury spacecraft, conducted as part of the U.S. Mercury program, on this date. The mission also carried a female Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) named Miss Sam in the Mercury spacecraft. The six pound monkey survived the 8 minute 35 second flight in good condition.



Miss Sam retired from the space program and enjoyed a successfully career in the "Straw Hat" theatre circuit, starring in, among other things, Medea and Uncle Vanya.


January 21, 1968 -
A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminated the area after its nuclear payload ruptured on this date. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation was completed.



If you have the bomb, the US government would be happy to take it off your hands - no questions asked.



And so it goes

I found out all I needed to know

Today is National Disc Jockey Day -

The day is celebrated in remembrance of the death of Albert James "Alan" Freed, (AKA Moondog,) the man who coined the term “Rock ‘n’ Roll”.









The first DJ, or Disc Jockey, was sixteen-year-old student Ray Newby,

who played the first records over the airwaves at Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless located in San Fernando, California, in 1909.


Today is the feast day of St. Sebastian, patron saint of soldiers, the plague-stricken, archers, Christian martyrs, and athletes,

(and a homosexual icon — the saint is always depicted as a strapping youth, nude save for a haphazardly placed loincloth, bound to a post, muscles straining, pierced by several arrows, and still smiling… but we shan’t discuss that today).



St. Sebastian, remarkably, did not die immediately after being shot with numerous arrows, but recovered and later suffered a second martyrdom — hence his occasional title as the saint who was martyred twice. Left for dead, Sebastian was discovered by St. Irene of Rome, who had come to retrieve his body for burial and found that he was not quite dead after all.

St. Irene nursed him back to health. Once recovered, Sebastian went before the man who had ordered his execution, Emperor Diocletian, and urged him to repent. Diocletian did not take kindly to being confronted by someone he believed already condemned and had Sebastian clubbed to death. He then ordered St. Sebastian’s corpse thrown into a sewer.

But you can’t keep a good man down. Saint Sebastian later appeared to a pious woman named Lucina and told her where to find his remains.


It wasn't strange enough to discover that today is National Cheese Lovers Day (according to several and sundry websites,)



but then I discovered that when cheese is digested, it breaks down into an opioid.


January 20, 1929 -
The Fox Film Corporation's film, In Old Arizona, directed by Irving Cummings and starring Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe, and Dorothy Burgess, went into general release on this date in the US.



Director Raoul Walsh, who was to star as The Cisco Kid, lost an eye in an accident shortly before filming. Buddy Roosevelt was then cast in the role, but he broke his leg shortly before the picture was to start again. He was replaced by Warner Baxter, who managed to stay in one piece and won an Academy Award.


January 20, 1941 -
Raoul Walsh's crime-drama High Sierra, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino premiered on this date.



In addition to Hal B. Wallis, Humphrey Bogart also sent several telegrams to studio head Jack L. Warner, begging to be cast as Roy Earle. After Paul Muni left Warner Bros. in a contract dispute and George Raft turned down the role, Warner called Bogart and told him the part was his . . . on the condition that Bogart stop sending him telegrams.


January 20, 1949 -
A surprise hit for writer/ director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (which garnered for him his first two Oscars,) A Letter to Three Wives, premiered on this date.



The identity of Celeste Holm who did the voice-over for Addie Ross, was kept secret when the film was released. The studio held a number of "Who is Addie?" contests around the country where moviegoers could guess the actress' name.


January 20, 1964 -
The second Beatles' album, Meet the Beatles! was released in the United States on this date.



It was the first US Beatles album to be issued by Capitol Records. Two days previously, the Beatles entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time, as I Want to Hold Your Hand appeared on the Hot 100 at No. 45.


January 20, 1968 -
One Hit Wonders John Fred and the Playboy Band started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with Judy In Disguise, (With Glasses), it made No.3 in the UK. The song was inspired by The Beatles Lucy In The Sky.



John Fred Gourrier was a star baseball and basketball player for Southeastern Louisiana University, where he went on scholarship. While this was his only hit, but he did have some popular, non-parody songs in Louisiana with titles like Up and Down, and She Shot a Hole in My Soul. His song Shirley also did well locally, and was a #6 hit in the UK for Shakin' Stevens in 1982.


January 20, 2006 -
Once upon a time, Kenny Ortega mega-hit teen musical, High School Musical starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale premiered on the Disney Channel, on this date. (This was my daughters favorite movie for a time - when they were very young children.)



Zac Efron's singing voice was that of Drew Seeley, who tested for the role of Troy. Seeley sang the entirety of Get'cha Head in the Game and the reprise of What I've Been Looking For. Efron only sings the first four lines of Start of Something New, the first sentence of Breaking Free, and during the scene on the balcony. The reason for this is because Efron's natural voice was too low for that of a tenor and the producers wanted a tenor to match the role. Efron did, however, do all of his own singing in the sequels, as all the music in those films had been tailored specifically for his voice.


January 20, 2008 -
The series that some consider one of the best dramas ever on TV, Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan and starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul premieres on AMC on this date.



In 2005, after Showtime, TNT, and HBO rejected the initial pitch for the series, FX stepped in and immediately began development on the pilot. They eventually passed on the project in favor of the Courteney Cox show Dirt, in a bid to draw more female viewers. According to Vince Gilligan, HBO showed no interest even on the pitch. TNT loved the idea, but said that they couldn't air a show with a crystal meth dealer as the central character.


Today's moment of Zen.


Today in History -
Jimmy Naismith was born in Ramsay township in Ontario, Canada in 1861. He grew up and eventually went to McGill University in Montreal. He became their Athletic Director and in 1891 he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, to take a post at the YMCA Training School. It was there that he was confronted with the problem of developing a game that could be played indoors and in relatively little space.



On January 20, 1892, with only two peach baskets, a soccer ball, and a hand-written list of 13 rules, Dr. Naismith oversaw the world's first full game of a brand new sport, a sport that took its name from the peach baskets and soccer ball used to play it.



He had finally invented Basketball (as opposed to Peach Soccer .)


January 20, 1920 -
Talking about dreams is like talking about movies, since the cinema uses the language of dreams; years can pass in a second, and you can hop from one place to another. It's a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something, as in a dream.



Federico Fellini, director, screenwriter, producer, painter and cartoonist, was born on this date.


January 20, 1936 -
King George V of England was euthanized with injections of cocaine and morphine on this date, after a painful cancer illness. His final words, a mumbled God damn you!, were addressed to his nurse when she gave him a sedative before his final lethal injection. His physician, Bertrand Dawson (later becoming Viscount Dawson of Penn,) was motivated not only to ameliorate the king's suffering, but also to break the story in the morning edition of the newspapers, rather than the less appropriate evening journals.



Remember kids - Promptness is the politeness of kings.



At the procession to George's Lying in State in Westminster Hall, as the cortege turned into New Palace Yard, the Maltese Cross fell from the Imperial Crown and landed in the gutter. The new King, Edward VIII, saw it fall and wondered whether this was a bad omen for his new reign.



He would abdicate before the year was out.


January 20, 1949 -
As a early gift for her 21st birthday, J. Edgar Hoover gives his friend Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen. This is not as odd as it seems: Hoover had known Shirley for much of her professional life - the FBI have investigated several death and extortion threats against the child star for years.

I have scourged the internet but alas cannot find a picture of the pen (or Hoover in his cha-cha heels.)


Let us opine on one of my favorite occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (whom I mercilessly rib.)
January 20, 1949 -
President Harry S. Truman's took the oath of office for the second time (the first time in which he is elected to the office,) on this date. It is the first to be televised.



Eight years later, when his term as President of the United States ended on this date, private citizen Harry S.Truman took the train home to Independence, Missouri, mingling with other passengers along the way. He had no secret service protection. After Harry Truman returned to his home in Missouri his only income was his old army pension. It was no more than $112.56 per month or about $982 today.

These gentlemen were inaugurated on this date as well:
34th Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953 to 1961
35th John F. Kennedy 1961 to November 22nd 1963 (Assassinated)
37th Richard Nixon 1969 to August 9th 1974 (Resigned)
39th Jimmy Carter 1977 to 1981
40th Ronald Reagan 1981 to 1989 (Reagan became the first President elected in a ‘0’ year (1980) since 1840, to leave office as President while still alive.)
41st George H. W. Bush 1989 to 1993
42nd Bill Clinton 1993 to 2001
43rd George W. Bush 2001 to 2009
44th Barack Obama 2009 to 2017
45th Donald Trump 2017 to 2021
46th Joseph Biden 2021 to 2025

47th Donald Trump 2025 to present

36th Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office November 22nd 1963 to 1969
38th Gerald Ford took the oath of office August 9th 1974 to 1977


January 20, 1956 -
Freedom isn't free. It shouldn't be a bragging point that 'Oh, I don't get involved in politics,' as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.



Bill Maher, actor, comedian, political analyst, avowed atheist and professional pot smoker, was born on this date.


January 20, 1981 -
The hostages being held by Iran had been held for almost 450 days (444 days to be exact), one of the longest duration of a hostage situation in modern history, were released on this date.



The way President Carter handled the situation was extremely unpopular, and the hostages were only released minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.


January 20, 1982 -
While playing in Iowa to promote the release of his second solo album The Diary of a Madman, a live bat was thrown onstage in front of and, dazed by the bright spotlights and its hard landing, (the bat) was knocked unconscious.



Ozzy, thinking that the bat was made of rubber, proceeded to put the bat head into its mouth and... well, you know where we're going with this. It was the point where the bats' severed head twitched inside Ozzy's mouth that he realized that it was no Halloween decoration. He was rushed to hospital immediately following the incident and treated for rabies.


January 20, 1993 -
The Supreme Court let stand on this date, a $2.5 million award to Tom Waits over use of what the singer had charged was a sound-alike artist to mimic his voice in a television commercial.



Although Tom Waits was notoriously against selling himself in commercials, he did let his principles slip slightly and provided voiceover work for dog food company Butchers Blend in 1981.



After the commercial began to win awards and become recognized Waits regretted the decision; when asked about it years later he said "I was really down on my luck at that time and I've always really loved dogs".



And so it goes

The time is always right to do right.

Again, I'll remind you, there's a reason we have a three day weekend; it's Martin Luther King Day.



To celebrate the day and the man, I'd like you to once again opine these words:



Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.


Supposedly, today is known as Blue Monday. Blue Monday refers to the third Monday in January, dubbed the "most depressing day of the year" by a psychologist Cliff Arnall in 2004 for, Sky Travel, a UK travel company using a pseudoscientific formula to sell vacation packages, factoring in cold weather, debt, and post-Christmas slump.





The PR stunt succeeded in generating media buzz and sales, evolving into an annual event. So, wipe your nose and relax - today isn't that bad.


Buttered, salted, kettled, drizzled with caramel, no matter how you serve it, today is National Popcorn Day.



I'm surprized that today is not also National Dental Floss Day. Don't forget to check out if your local movie theatre chain is offering any specials to celebrate the day.


January 19, 1940 -
Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle.

The Three Stooges short You Nazty Spy! about the Nazis released on this date.



Filmed in 1939, not released until 1940, the film was the first Hollywood film to spoof Adolf Hitler, released nine months before Charles Chaplin's more famous The Great Dictator.


January 19, 1942 -
The first of nine films to feature Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Woman of the Year premiered on this date.



Knowing of Spencer Tracy's reputation as a heavy drinker, Katharine Hepburn served him strong tea between scenes. She also got him to paint, as she did, as an escape from the pressures of Hollywood life.


January 19, 1952 -
In the first match-up between Wile E. Coyote and Bugs Bunny, Operation: Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones, premiered on this date.



This was the second cartoon to feature Wile E. Coyote (following 1949’s Fast and Furry-ous), and the first in which he is identified by his full name. It is also the first in which the Coyote speaks.


January 19, 1953 -
68% of all television sets in the United States were tuned in to I Love Lucy on this date to watch Lucy give birth to a baby boy - the same day Lucille Ball gave birth to her son, Desi Arnaz Junior.



All the while they couldn't say pregnant on TV or be seen sleeping in the same bed - it appears to be the second virgin birth. The audience for the program was larger than that watching the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower the following day.


January 19, 1955 -
Michael Anthony began doling out the life changing checks from John Beresford Tipton when The Millionaire premiered on CBS-TV on this date. (The million dollare check would now be worth about $10 million dollars.)



The mysterious philanthropist John Beresford Tipton was named for Tipton, Missouri, the birthplace of producer Don Fedderson's wife, Tido Fedderson.


January 19, 1955 -
President Eisenhower decided not to play golf today and allowed a filmed news conference to be used on television (and in movie newsreels) for the first time on this date.



The press conference given by President Eisenhower was filmed in the Indian Treaty Room at the East Wing of the White House.


January 19, 1957 -
Ernie Kovacs burst into the public consciousness with the comedy special, The Silent Show, premiering on this date.



It was filmed for broadcast first, in color, on the NBC network in 1957. A second version of the show was created on videotape and broadcast November 10, 1961, on the ABC network.



Though both were broadcast in color, it was thought only B&W kinescopes of these shows survive, although an excerpt of the color show was aired as part of the NBC 50th Anniversary Special in 1976.


January 19, 1967 -
Lesley Gore shows up on the Batman TV series, playing Catwoman's sidekick, Pussycat, on this date.



She sang her new single California Nights on the show. TV doesn't get much staranger that this.


January 19, 2012 -
Malik Bendjelloul amazing documentary about the strange but true career of musician Sixto Rodríguez, Searching for Sugar Man premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, on this date.



Director Malik Bendjelloul traced all the illustrations on oven paper as a mock up for the 3D animations he never could afford to have made. Thus the oven paper illustrations made it to the final cut.


Word of the Day.


Today in History:
January 19, 1809 -
Edgar Allan Poe, writer who contributed to the creation of both the detective and science fiction genre, was born in Boston on this date.



His best known stories include: Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-Tale Heart. His most famous poems are The Raven and Annabel Lee.


On this day in 1825, the US patent (#X004009) for food storage in cans to “preserve animal substances in tin” was issued to Ezra Daggett and his nephew Thomas Kensett of New York City. I wonder if they knew that the tin can had been patented in 1810 by Peter Durand.

Oh, Never mind.



As always, celebrate responsibly.


January 19, 1915 -
George Claude, an engineer, chemist and inventor was the first person to create a lamp by applying an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon. He was issued U.S. Patent No. 1,125,476 for a “System of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes,” on this date.



This patent was the basis for the neon sign.


January 19, 1935 -
During a Chicago snow storm, Marshall Field's State Street store featured a display window with a brief-wearing mannequin. Surprizingly enough, Coopers Inc. sold the world's first jockey briefs, on this date.



Designed by an apparel engineer named Arthur Kneibler, the briefs dispensed with leg sections. The company dubbed the design the Jockey, since it offered a degree of support that had previously only been available from the jockstrap. The day of its debut, Marshall Field sold out its stock of 600 packages by noon and sold 12,000 more in the following weeks


January 19, 1937 –
Bisexual Billionaire, future germaphobe and aviator Howard Hughes designed and flew the plane Silver Bullet, setting a landplane speed record and a transcontinental record of 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds,



flying from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey on this date.


January 19, 1949 -
I believe that my music is just about feelings, and the style is just a side effect.







Robert Palmer, blue-eyed soul singer, was born on this date.


January 19, 1977 –
Snow fell in Miami and The Bahamas on this date.



It was the only time in recorded history that it happened.


January 19, 2006 -
NASA launched the New Horizons space probe aboard an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral on this date. It's mission was to perform the first fly by of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, and Hydra.



It left Earth at an Earth-relative velocity of about 36,373 mi/h (10.10 mi/s), making it the fastest speed ever recorded for a human-made object. It arrived at Pluto on July 14, 2015.

(This will be on the test.)



And so it goes

Alluring, compelling, delightful, engaging, fascinating, intriguing

Today is Thesaurus Day. It celebrates the birthday of Peter Mark Roget and his famous work, volume, tome, manual, opus.



You could spend all day perusing, studying, scanning, looking through, scuritying for fun.

Well some people could.


January 18, 1973 -
The third season finale of Monty Python, The British Showbiz Awards (aka Grandstand,), aired on the BBC on this date



Eric Idle portrays "Dickie Attenborough," a clear reference to Richard Attenborough, who also sometimes went by Dickie. His brother, David Attenborough, worked at the BBC and actually gave this series the green light.


January 18, 1974 -
The sci-fi series, The Six Million Dollar Man, starring Lee Majors, premiered on the ABC-TV on this date.



The characters of Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) and Rudy Wells (Martin E. Brooks) appeared on this series and its spin-off, The Bionic Woman. When the spin-off moved to another network, this practice continued. This was the first time the same continuing characters appeared on two different television series broadcast on two different networks at the same time.


January 18, 1975 -
We all moved on up to the Eastside when The Jeffersons, a spin-off of All In The Family premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



When the show first started, George constantly referred to Tom as a honky. After a few seasons, Sherman Hemsley asked the writers to stop having George call him that, as he felt that the characters were friends, and that George would not use a racist term on a friend. When the writers refused to stop, Hemsley simply mumbled the the word every time he said it, forcing re-shoots. Eventually the writers stopped using the word.


January 18, 1977 -
The last wet dream of the Nietzchian Uberman came to fruition when Arnold Schwarzenegger was introduced to America, when George Butler’s bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron hit the theaters on this date.



Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted that he had made up several stories in the movie for attention because the producers told him that without drama it would be boring. One of the stories made up was the fact that he did not attend his father's funeral because of a body building competition that was going to happen in a couple of months. Arnold did actually attend his father's funeral and spoke to him shortly before he passed.


January 18, 1978 -
Warren Zevon third studio album, Excitable Boy, was released on this date. The album brought Zevon to commercial attention and remains the best-selling album of his career.



Co-produced by Jackson Browne, the album is laced with such horror-tinged songs like Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner, Werewolves Of London and the title track, Excitable Boy.


January 18, 1980 -
Pink Floyd’s album, The Wall hit #1 on the Billboard Charts, on this day. It remained there for an astounding 15 weeks straight.



Despite Roger Waters' clear ambivalence towards his audience, new and old fans alike found the album appealing: The Wall sold 11 million copies stateside and 20 million copies worldwide.


January 18, 1984 -
The Coen Brothers made their directorial debut (as well as the first major cinematography work by Barry Sonnenfeld) with the release of Blood Simple, starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, and M. Emmet Walsh, on this date.



On the advice of Sam Raimi, the Coens went door-to-door showing potential investors a two minute 'trailer' of the film they planned to make. They ultimately raised $750,000 in a little over a year, enough to begin production of the movie.


Another album found in the discount bin at The ACME Record Store


Today in History:
January 18, 1836 -



Knife aficionado Jim Bowie arrived at the Alamo to assist its Texas defenders on this date.


On January 18, 1871, while Prussian guns blasted all hell out of Paris, William I was proclaimed Emperor of a united Germany in nearby Versailles.



For this reason, the Germans have always had a soft spot for France, and have returned often.


January 18, 1882 -
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.



Alan Alexander Milne was born on this date.


January 18, 1892 -
That's another fine mess you've gotten me into.



Oliver Hardy, American comedian, actor and the other half the the world's greatest comedy duo, was born on this date.


January 18, 1903 -
President Theodore Roosevelt sent a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.

Unfortunately, once again, the ill-chosen "Prince Albert in the can" joke is used - and 'Bertie', the King had already heard the joke ad nauseum (Prince Albert, penis ring wearing enthusiast, was his father ) and was not amused.


January 18, 1904 -
I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.



Archibald Leach, noted actor, acrobat and over the top orgy participant, was born on this date.


January 18, 1911 -
The first landing of an aircraft onto a ship took place on this date. Pilot Eugene Ely was the first person to land a plane onto a ship, the USS Pennsylvania, in San Francisco Bay (less than ten years after the airplane was invented.)



Two months previously Ely had made the first successful take off from a warship. The technique would later become commonplace as aircraft carriers became major wartime assets.


January 18, 1912 -
Explorer Robert F. Scott reached the South Pole - only to discover that Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by almost a month.



The Norwegian Amundsen's expedition beat that of the British Scott's by a little more than a month, which Scott discovered upon reading a letter that Amundsen had left at the site.

As my girls would say (and I'm paraphrasing - it must have sucked to be him.)


January 18, 1913 (or 1911) -
I wasn't born a fool. It took work to get this way..



David Daniel Kaminsky, UNICEF ambassador, comedian, actor, was born in Brooklyn on this date.


January 16, 1955 -
Kevin Costner was born in Lynwood, California on this date. He is the youngest of three boys (the middle of whom died at birth) of Bill and Sharon Costner.



Before hitting it big in the acting business Kevin Costner worked as a skipper on the ride, the Jungle Cruise, at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. His first film role was in the 1981 low-budget softcore film Sizzle Beach.


January 18, 1958 -
Afro-Canadian Willie O'Ree was the very first black player in the NHL Signed by Boston Bruins he made his NHL debut with the Bruins on this date, against the Montreal Canadiens.



O'Ree appeared in two games that year playing as a winger, and came back in 1961 to play 43 games, scoring 4 goals and 10 assists. O'Ree is referred to as the "Jackie Robinson of ice hockey" due to breaking the black color barrier in the sport.


January 18, 1968 -
At a White House luncheon to discuss the rise in urban crime, Eartha Kitt gets into a notorious spat with First Lady Claudia Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson, declaring, "Vietnam is the main reason we are having trouble with the youth of America. It is a war without explanation or reason."



Although accounts of the entire argument differ, Kitt is subsequently blacklisted in America.


January 18, 1990 -
Rusty Hamer, the actor who played Danny Thomas' son on Make Room For Daddy, shot himself in the head with a .357 Magnum in DeRidder, Louisiana on this date. Rusty was 42 years old.

Uncle Tonoose made him do it.


January 18, 1990 -
Washington DC mayor Marion Barry was arrested on cocaine possession charges at the Vista International Hotel, as he tokes on a glass crack pipe while being videotaped with his mistress Rasheeda on this date.



Kids remember, say NO to drugs, especially while being videotaped.



And so it goes

No matter how hard the past,

you can always begin again

Bunkies, we're two-and-a-half weeks into the new year - how are you doing on your new year's resolutions? If your evaluation is less than positive, consider participating in today's made up holiday, Ditch New Year's Resolutions Day.



If you haven't broken or given up all of those New Year's resolutions, you're doing better than most of us (So maybe the rest of us can try make those new good behaviors regular habits)


January 17, 1929 -

I yam what I yam



Popeye the Sailor Man, created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip on this date.


January 17, 1949 -
American audiences finally got to see family that lived in Apt. 3B of 1030 East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx, after hearing them for years on the radio, when The Goldbergs premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



Many episodes of The Goldbergs were recorded live, and others were only shown once and then destroyed. Today, only a handful of episodes survive. The epsiode shown above is one of the earliest surviving episodes.


January 17, 1975 -
The TV-series Baretta, starring Robert Blake and Tom Ewell, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.



The series was originally intended as a continuation of the TV series Toma, with Robert Blake replacing Tony Musante as Det. David Toma. When Blake balked at taking over an established role, a new series was created for him instead.


January 17, 1976 -
Barry Manilow scored his second US No.1 single with I Write The Songs, which was written by The Beach Boys Bruce Johnson, on this date.



Manilow was originally reluctant to record this song, saying to Arista Records chief Clive Davis, "This 'I Write The Songs' thing Clive, I really don't want to do it." Manilow says his worry "was that the listeners would think I was singing about how "I" write the songs, when it was really about the inspiration of music. Clive understood, but didn't think it would be a problem. "Besides," he told me, "You DO write songs!" Manilow says he was concerned about coming off as a gigantic egomaniac, but that he liked the song so much he decided to record it. He adds, "Whenever I heard the song in public, I felt the need to run to everyone who was listening and say, 'You know, I'm really not singing about myself!'"


January 17, 1977 -
The short-lived sitcom Busting Loose, (the series ran for 21 episodes,) starring Adam Arkin, Pat Carroll, and Barbara Rhoades premiered on CBS TV on this date.



Busting Loose was broadcast over two seasons. Thirteen episodes aired during its first season in the winter and spring of 1977. Eight more were broadcast during its second season in the fall of 1977, and four other episodes produced for that season never aired.


January 17, 2015 –
The Mark Ronson single, Uptown Funk (featuring Bruno Mars,) goes to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



The Vance Joy song Riptide was on the charts when Uptown Funk was released. Both tracks mention Michelle Pfeiffer, which is a little odd considering the actress hadn't been in any blockbuster movies in a while.

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


Today in History:
January 17, 1706 -
Benjamin Franklin was born on this date.



The inventor of spectacles and the hundred dollar bill, Franklin was one of Washington’s first celebrated womanizers to avoid conviction. One day Franklin tied a key to the string of a kite that he then flew in a thunderstorm, thus discovering Electrolysis.



Franklin also invented the Post Office and can be credited with the creation of the first fully functioning disgruntled postal worker.


On January 17, 1806, President Thomas Jefferson's grandson James Madison Randolph became the first child to be born in the White House - his mother was Martha Randolph, one of President Jefferson's two daughters. James was her eighth child.

Sadly, no official records have been kept on the more interesting statistics of children conceived in the White House.


January 17, 1860 O.S. - (which means Julian calendar. We celebrate his birthday on the 29th of January N.S. - which means Gregorian calendar. So it not really his birthday today but he's dead so I don't think he really cares.) -

Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia.

Tragically, a bureaucratic snafu at the Kremlin resulted in Chekhov’s not being told he was one of the Great Russian Writers, so he practiced medicine well into middle life. By then, of course, he was almost good enough to quit practicing, but he’d also made a name for himself as a writer. As a doctor and writer of comedies, Chekhov originated the saying "laughter is the best medicine" (some of his tubercular patients disagreed, but they subsequently died, proving his point).



Chekhov’s greatest work is The Seagull, in which a young man with an odd haircut, kills a seagull, making his girlfriend cry and a lot of people with unpronounceable Russian names argue and wave pistols about.



Chekhov should not be confused with Pavel Chekov, who was the security officer of the USS Enterprise,



and neither of them should be confused with Charo.


January 17, 1871 -
Andrew Smith Hallidie received the patent (U.S. patent #110,971) for an "improvement in endless wire ropeways" which would be the basis for his cable car system, on this date.

He was inspired to work on the cable car system after seeing horses having a difficult time trying to pull cars up Jackson Street in San Francisco.


January 17, 1893 -
Another proud moment in America history - a group of American businessmen stole Hawaii on this date.

Queen Liliuokalani, the monarch of Hawaii,

was overthrown by a group of sugar plantation owners who wanted a more pro-American government.



The coup took place with the tacit approval of the United States, though the new leader of Hawaii, Sanford Dole, refused to step down when asked to do so by President Cleveland. Hawaii and the US finally resumed full diplomatic relations in 1897, under President McKinley. Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. in 1898.


January 17, 1899 -
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born on this date. Chronic self-esteem problems in his early adolescence resulted in his turning to a life of crime in Chicago (where crime had by now trickled down from elected officials to the lower classes).



The United States wanted to help this poor unfortunate individual, so that gave him an early birthday present. The day before his 21st birthday, Prohibition went into effect.



Capone was such a successful gangster that eventually Robert DeNiro had to play him.



In the end, Capone was captured by Eliot Ness and his Unmentionables, who got their name from the fact that their busy schedules prevented them from changing their underwear


January 17, 1922 -
I like bawdy humor. I love bawdy humor, but not dirty humor.



Take a moment out of your day to remember - Betty Marion White, who was one of the hardest working actress in Hollywood (she had been working almost continuously since 1949) was born on this date.


January 17, 1931 -
When I was in New York after I left the Army, I studied for two years at the American Theater Wing, studied acting, which involved dance and fencing and speech classes and history of theater, all that.



James Earl Jones, actor and (Darth Vader), was born on this date.


January 17, 1950 -
In Boston on this date, eleven thieves stole more than $2 million in cash and securities from the Brink's armored car company’s offices. They were all later caught.



The 1978 film The Brink’s Job starred Peter Falk and Peter Boyle was based on the nonfiction book about the crime, The Big Stick-Up at Brink’s by Noel Behn.


January 17, 1961 -
In his farewell address on this date, President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."



And yet on the same date, Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of Congo, was murdered after 67 days in office on this date. President Eisenhower allegedly approved the assassination of the prime minister by the CIA.


January 17, 1962 -
Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they're eating sandwiches.



James Eugene Carrey, Canadian-American actor and rubber-faced comedian, was born on this date.


January 17, 1964 -
Just try new things. Don't be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?



Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, the first African-American First Lady of the United States, was born on this date.


January 17, 1966 –
A B-52 bomber collided with a KC-135 Stratotanker during a mid-air refueling maneuver over Spain, killing seven airmen, on this date.



The accident caused the dropping of three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea (each of the bombs were equal to 70 thousand tons of TNT) but none of them exploded.

Oops


January 17, 1977 -
Let's do it



Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States.



And so it goes