Did Tom Golisano go to Iran?

As of this morning, It seems that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been re-elected by a 'landslide'. GOP members are taking detailed notes.

Did you lose something - remember St. Anthony.

It's the feast day of Saint Anthony of Padua. One of the most beloved of saints, his images and statues are ubiquitous. Proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on January 16, 1946, he is sometimes called the "Evangelical Doctor."



He is especially invoked for the recovery of things lost; as well as against starvation, barrenness; patron of amputees, animals, boatmen, Brazil, diocese in Beaumont, Texas, domestic animals, the elderly, expectant mothers, faith in the Blessed Sacrament, Ferrazzano, fishermen, harvests, horses, lower animals, mail, mariners, oppressed persons, Padua, paupers, Portugal, sailors, scholars, sterility, swineherds, Tigua Indians, travel hostesses, travellers, and watermen.

I wonder if Mir Hossein Mousavi can pray to him?


Today in History:
On June 13, 323 BC, a youthful Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell) died in Babylon (NOT Long Island). The precise cause of his death has baffled modern science for thousands of years. Many historians believe he died of hybris, also known as Syphilis or the Greek Fire.



Alexander had a horse named Bucephelas, and is best known for having devoured the Gordian Nut.


In the village of Maidstone, Kent, there lived a Pheasant (or Villain) whose daughter was about fourteen years old. The day the Taxman came around to collect, the Villain was away. Only his wife and daughter were home. The Taxman didn't believe that the girl was less than fifteen. She and her mother insisted that she was. At last the Taxman tore the girl's clothes off to see for himself.

After stripping her, he quickly determined that a more tactile examination would be necessary. When she resisted, the situation took a violent turn—and at that volatile moment, the girl's father came in and saw what was going on. Like any good father, he crushed the Taxman's skull and stomped on his brains.



News of the event spread. The Pheasants (Villains) of southeast England rallied to the father's support. They began Wat Tyler's Rebellion on June 13, 1381.

They made the skull-smashing father their leader because his name was Wat Tyler. Over the next few days, Wat Tyler led the Pheasants (Villains) against the government, burning the Archbishop of Salisbury at the Stake (whence the expression "Salisbury Steak").

The purpose of this rebellion was to secure a pardon for having rebelled. When Wat Tyler confronted King Richard II in Smithfield, he voiced this demand and was consequently stabbed to death, etc, by the Lord Mayor of London.



Upon Wat Tyler's death, of course, it was no longer possible to have Wat Tyler's Rebellion, so everyone else went home (hence "Pheasants coming home to roost").

Many of them were later killed.


June 13, 1865 –
"...And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"



William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures in 20th century literature. He was brother of the artist Jack Butler Yeats, the son of John Butler Yeats, and along with J. M. Synge and Sean O'Casey, was one of the driving forces behind the Irish Literary Revival. Together with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn he founded Abbey Theatre, and served as its chief playwright.

Jun 13 1886 -
The bodies of Bavaria's mad King Ludwig II and his physician, Dr. Gudden, are discovered floating face-down in Lake Starnberg.



The recently-deposed monarch who wasn't so much mad as gay, had been under house arrest ever since his uncle, Prince Luitpold von Bayern, staged a coup a few days earlier.


June 13, 1917 -
Fourteen German Gotha bomber planes flew over London in the first aerial bombardment in history (not counting Zeppelins); on June 13, 1944, Germany commemorated the anniversary by launching the first of its V-1 flying bombs on southern England.



Only four of the Buzzbombs actually strike London, but the Germans will eventually follow that up with another 9,000. On June 13, 1990, East Germany began tearing down the Berlin Wall. The date apparently has some significance in the Teutonic psyche. Be gentle with men in lederhosen.


Jun 13 1920 -
The United States Postal Service rules that children may not be sent via Parcel Post. Before that, children had been clogging the mail chutes of America.


Jun 13 1934 -
Two months before becoming Fuhrer, Hitler meets Mussolini in Venice. Unfortunately, Mussolini refuses to have an interpreter and his German is not good, so neither man can understand the other.



Unimpressed, Mussolini gathers a general impression of the German as "a silly little monkey."


June 13, 1970 -
"The Long and Winding Road" becomes the Beatles' last Number 1 song.




Jun 13 1971 -
Next to the White House wedding photo of President Nixon's daughter Tricia, the New York Times runs its first story on the "Pentagon Papers," a top secret DoD analysis authored by the RAND Corporation detailing every mistake and deception made during the 30-year history of the Vietnam War.



Attorney General John Mitchell manages to block any further publication of the embarrassing documents, but the court order is countermanded two weeks later in a Supreme Court decision.


And so it goes.

Goodnight, Analog

2009 Digital Conversion deadline is reached -- all analog TV signals turned off by midnight on 6/12/09, home users either need to receive DTV signal via cable or satellite service, over the air with digital converter box and antennae or with a digital-ready television with antennae.



So hopefully all you cheapskates have gotten your converter boxes.


Here is your Today in History -

In early 1381 England imposed a new tax, which was called the "Pole Tax" because everyone got the shaft.


The Swiss Army Knife was patented on June 12, 1897. It was the fruit of centuries of Swiss research, development, and testing. Its release was heralded as the dawn of a golden age of Swiss technology.



Switzerland may not have won a war since, but they've never been caught without a corkscrew.


June 12, 1942
For her thirteenth birthday on June 12, 1942, a young girl living in the Netherlands received a book which she had pointed out to her father in a shop window a few days earlier. Although it was an autograph book, bound with red-and-white plaid cloth and with a small lock on the front, Anne had already decided she would use it as a diary. She began writing in it almost immediately, describing herself, her family and friends, her school life, boys she flirted with and the places she liked to visit in her neighborhood. While these early entries demonstrate that, in many ways, her life was that of a typical schoolgirl, she also refers to changes that had taken place since the German occupation. Some references are seemingly casual and not emphasized. However, in some entries she provides more detail of the oppression that was steadily increasing. For instance, she wrote about the yellow star which all Jews were forced to wear in public, and she listed some of the restrictions and persecutions that had encroached into the lives of Amsterdam's Jewish population.



The diary, which was given to Anne Frank on her thirteenth birthday, chronicles her life from June 12, 1942 until August 1, 1944. It was published as The Diary of a Young Girl and eventually translated from its original Dutch into many languages and became one of the world's most widely read books. There have also been several films, television, theatrical productions, and even an opera based on the diary. Described as the work of a mature and insightful mind, it provides an intimate examination of daily life under Nazi occupation and in hiding; through her writing, Frank has become one of the most renowned and discussed of Holocaust victims.



So parents, chose wisely when giving your children birthday gifts.


June 12, 1963 -
The four-hour film spectacle Cleopatra debuts, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, premieres in New York City, on this date.



Adjusting for inflation, this is one of the most expensive movies ever made. Its budget of $44 million is equivalent to $297 million 2007 dollars.


June 12, 1978 -
David Berkowitz is sentenced to 365 consecutive years in prison without the possibility of parole. Berkowitz killed six New Yorkers between 1976 and 1977, known collectively as the Son of Sam murders.



Harvey, Sam Carr's dog, was not charged with any crime.


June 12, 1981 -
Hard to believe but Mel Brooks' History of the World Part 1 and Lucas/ Spielberg Raiders Of The Lost Ark both premiered on this date.





These are two film you never think of together.


June 12, 1987 -
U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall at Brandenburg Gate.



Although there is some disagreement over how much influence, if any, Reagan's words had on the destruction of the wall, the speech is remembered as an important moment in Cold War history.


June 12, 1994 -
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman meet a ghastly end in front of Simpson's condominium complex in Brentwood, California.



O.J. Simpson, the most likely suspect, is currently hunting for the killer inside the Lovelock Correctional Center.

Go, O. J. Go.


And so it goes.

More Summer Movies will soon be upon us.

June 11, 1978 -
Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John opens, on this date.



Heavy petting leads to seat wetting.


June 11, 1993 -
Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg's science fiction thriller opens, on this date.



The film gos on to break all box office weekend records .


Today in History -
June 11 is an important day for American football fans and seems almost inevitably slated to someday become a national holiday. It's the birthday of Vince Lombardi (1913) and Joe Montana (1956). Mr Lombardi played at Fordham University and was a Latin and chemistry teacher in New Jersey before becoming the head coach of the Green Bay Packers at the age of 46. They had won only one of twelve games the season before he was hired; they won seven his first year. Over the course of his brief career, the Packers won five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls (Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II, in that order).



It was Coach Lombardi's background in Latin that persuaded the NFL to use Roman numerals to number the Super Bowls.

"Winning isn't everything," Coach Lombardi famously declared, "but it's awfully darn important in competitive endeavors." (He was the first NFL coach to hire a publicist and his statements were often edited for distribution to the Green Bay press corps.)



Over the course of his career, Joe Montana completed 3409 of 5391 passes and threw 273 touchdowns. In the playoffs, he completed 460 of 734 passes and threw 45 touchdowns. As a starter, he won 117 and lost 47 regular season games.

Upon his retirement, the town of Ismay, Montana, changed its name to Joe. The town of Joe, Rhode Island, attempted to change the name of its state to Montana, but was prohibited from doing so by heavily-monied special interests.

Adrienne Barbeau was also born on this day, along with Gene Wilder and Jacques Cousteau, none of whom ever won a Super Bowl.


June 11, 1881 -
A phantom vessel appears in the sky to the passengers and crew of the ship Bacchante, including Price Albert Victor and Prince George, both sons of the Prince of Wales.



This is what comes from too much rum, the lash and buggery.


June 11, 1955 -
An Austin-Healy and Mercedes-Benz collide at the Le Mans Grand Prix. The Mercedes drove into a dirt retaining wall, disintegrated, and the hood, chassis, and various auto parts sliced through the spectator crowd.



Eighty-three were killed, and 100 others were missing various "parts".


June 11, 1962 -
Frank Morris and the brothers John and Clarence Anglin become the only prisoners to successfully escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.

The following morning the officers awoke to find dummies lying in their beds and the prisoners missing. The FBI conducted one of the largest manhunts since the Lindbergh kidnapping to no avail. Bits of the raft and life preservers were later found in the bay. Also found was a waterproof bag containing personal effects of the Anglins. Although the authorities never found any bodies, they were certain the men had drowned. They pointed out that there were no robberies or car thefts that could have been attributed to them, as well as the fact that the men were habitual criminals and yet were never arrested again.



However it was shown by MythBusters that the raft could have possibly landed at the Marin Headlands, raising possible doubt over Morris' and the Anglins' deaths. The film Escape from Alcatraz is based on the famous escape. Morris is played by Clint Eastwood.


June 11, 1963 -
Governor Wallace stands in the schoolhouse door, blocking admission of two 'colored students' (Vivian Malone and James Hood) to the University of Alabama. This became known as the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door."



Wallace stood aside only after being confronted by federal marshals, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, and the Alabama National Guard. However, there is evidence that the entire encounter was partially or wholly coordinated with the Kennedy administration to allow Wallace to save face with Alabama voters.


June 11, 1999 -
He's dead, Jim



DeForest Kelley, "Bones" from the original Star Trek television series, dead of stomach cancer.


And so it goes.

This should make the local C-Span fun to watch.

If things keep going the way the seems to be - I'm anticipating fist fights in Albany to break out by Friday.

It's a happy day, with feasting and flag-waving in some isolated jungle villages in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, celebrating the birthday of my favorite itinerant greek sailor Philip Mountbatten (Prince Philippos of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.)



The Duke of Edinburgh is worshipped as a god there.


Today in History

June 10, 1692 -
Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts after having been convicted of "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries."



Bishop is just the first casualty of what will come to be known as the Salem Witch Trials.


June 10, 1935 -
It's the anniversary of the establishment of A(lcoholics) A(nonymous), in Akron, Ohio. It was founded by a stockbroker named Bill Wilson and a surgeon, Bob Smith, who found that the best way to keep from drinking was to spend time with other people who were trying to keep from drinking. Between the two of them, they developed the main traditions of AA: anonymity, confession, and mutual support.

Alcoholics Anonymous grew rapidly in the '40s and '50s, but Bill Wilson refused to appear on the cover of Time, wouldn't accept an honorary degree from Yale, because believed in anonymity, and he stuck with it to the end.


Jun 10 1973 -
The 17-year-old grandson of J. Paul Getty is abducted in Rome. When the kidnappers demand a $17 million ransom, the billionaire refuses. "I have 14 other grandchildren, and if I pay one penny now, then I will have 14 kidnapped grandchildren." After the grandson's severed ear arrives in the mail, Getty finally coughs up the money.



What a cheap bastard - even if he had to pay $17 million dollars for each of his grandchildren, it still would have left him well over $750 million dollars of his estimated $1 billion dollar fortune.

This is the kind of love you can only find in families.


June 10, 1953 -
Argueably, one of the worse films ever (save those of auteur Ed Wood), Robot Monster was released upon an unsuspecting public, on this date.





The film was reportedly shot in just four days, utilized no sets, and was entirely filmed outside. A long standing film industry rumors has been that director Phil Tucker attempted suicide after the release of "Robot Monster", due to the overwhelmingly negative critical reaction it received.


June 10, 2004
Ray Charles Robinson known by his stage name Ray Charles, American pianist and musician who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues, died on this date.




And so it goes.

So let me get this right?

In order to reform government in Albany, the GOP formed a coalition with two Democratic State Senators under criminal investigation.



This is what passes for good government in New York State.


Today in History

June 9, 68 -
Rather than suffer a Senate-imposed death by flogging, Nero implores his secretary Epaphroditus to slit his throat. The freedman complies, giving the condemned emperor a quick death, just as centurions arrive at the villa to haul him away.



You certainly can't get help like that anymore from your company's secretarial pool.


June 9, 1870 -
Charles Dickens dropped dead at his chair at the dinner table in his home in London. He died of a stroke, or apoplexy as it was called then. He was 58 years old. In the months before he died, he must have already suffered a stroke—he spoke in his letters of weakness and deadness on the left side and of not being able to pick up things with his left hand.



Being the ever prolific writer, Mr. Dickens still manages to write three more short stories, a humorous monograph and a recipe for rum punch while on the way to his burial.


June 9, 1930 -
Jake Lingle, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, is shot dead gangland-style at the Illinois Central train station underpass, during rush hour. Dozens of people witness the murder, and the Leo Vincent Brothers are caught four months later after an intensive manhunt.



Lingle was allegedly killed over a $100,000 gambling debt owed to Al Capone. I wonder what the vig was on that kind of debt?


June 9, 1934 -
Seventy five years ago today, an American legend made his first appearance on the silver screen. Since then, he has appeared in over 450 films in more than 200 languages, held lead roles in dozens of television serials and hundreds of specials, and has been featured in books and magazines in every language. He has done all of this without wearing pants.



He is, of course, the world's favorite lazy, hot-headed, bare-assed mallard: Donald Duck.


June 9, 1947 -
Another of his studio mangled features, Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai was released on this date.



Studio Boss Harry Cohn, famously offered anyone $1000.00 if they could explain to him the plot of the movie after an initial screening.


June 9, 1980 -
In the midst of a cocaine binge, comedian Richard Pryor attempts suicide by dousing himself with rum and setting it ablaze. The self-immolation attempt goes haywire when the flaming man leaps from his apartment window and runs down the street, screaming in agony.



Pryor barely survives the incident, and only after six weeks of intensive care and three skin graft surgeries.


June 9, 1992 -
Entertainer Ben Vereen was critically injured when he was struck by a van while walking along the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, California. The driver, producer/composer David Foster, was not charged. Some hours earlier, Vereen had run into a tree while driving his own car. He blames that mishap for the later accident. He said, "I had hit my head on the steering wheel but felt fine. Later that evening as I was walking in Malibu, I had [a] stroke as a result of that accident." Vereen says he then stumbled into the roadway and was hit by the van.



Talk about having a lousy day...


And so it goes.

The world almost inched closer to being a better place last night.

For some bizarre reason, only fully understood by the show's producers, Bret Michaels performed with the Tony-nominated musical Rock of Ages and it did not go well.

If you watch very carefully, you can see at the end of the clip, a piece of scenery nearly decapitates the legend in his own mind Michaels.




June 8, 1968 -
Rolling Stones release "Jumpin' Jack Flash" on this date.



It's stil a gas, gas, gas.


Today in History

Those boots must be made for endurance walking,



Nancy Sinatra is (it would be impolite to say how old she is) today.

June 8, 632 -
The prophet Mohammed died on this date. He was the founder of Islam, and his death was the first in a long chain of events that ultimately resulted in the Treaty of Tordesillas. Whether he is at this very moment reclining on a soft couch somewhere in Paradise, being serviced by a high-bosomed virgin with dark eyes or consuming a handful of raisins is debatable.

And if you think I'm going to post a picture of the Prophet, you've got another thing coming.


June 8 1869 -
Ives W. McGaffey of Chicago patented his "sweeping machine," the first suction vacuum cleaner, on this date, suggesting that Chicago was famous for sucking long before the emergence of the Cubs.



June 8, 1986 -
Former UN Secretary General and Nazi war criminal Kurt Waldheim is elected president of Austria. One year later, the U.S. Justice Department places him on a watch list of undesirable aliens, making Waldheim the first foreign head of state legally forbidden from visiting America.



I believe many in the Bush administration have studied his, "I have no recollection of being a Nazi" defense.


June 8, 1949 -
The very funny Looney Tunes cartoon, Kitty Kornered, is released on this date. It have a number of firsts going for it:
1.) It's the first appearance of Sylvester the Cat (as this point unnamed) in a Warner Bros. cartoon.
2.) It's the first pairing of Porky and Sylvester.



Milkman keeps those bottles quiet!


June 8, 1950 -
The Asphalt Jungle, the superb film noir directed by John Huston,was released on this date.



Marilyn Monroe has a minor but memorable role in the film.


And so it goes.

It's a beautiful Sunday in NYC

Given how warm it's going to be in NYC today, it's nice to know that the first day ice cream was sold in the US, on this date, in 1786.




And there's no true to the rumor that Martha Washington or Dolley Madison sold to scoop to a very young Barbara Walters.

It's Dean Martin's,



Tom Jones'



and Prince's birthday today.



(The Purple One is involved in a protracted dispute with YouTube, so there are no available clips)

Talk about cosmic convergence.


Here is your Today in History -
June 7, 1494 -
Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas (which divides the New World between the two countries. Hence, the Brazilians speak Portuguese rather than Spanish). In the volatile, war-torn world in which we live, many historical documents have become required reading. Not this one. You will never be standing at a cocktail party where someone says, "It's all because of that damn Treaty of Tordesillas."



No one will ever blame the failures of the Middle East Peace Process or the brinkmanship in south Asia on the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Tordesillas. You'll never see your favorite pundit toss off the "Treaty of Tordesillas" in an ironic and off-handed way. You won't hear Noam Chomsky cite it as a cause or effect of American imperialism. It will never attract the directorial eye of Michael Moore or Oliver Stone.

You already know more about that treaty than most people alive today. You may now forget it ever existed. It has no relevance to your life.


June 7, 1502 -
Ugo Buoncompagni was born on this date. He became Pope Gregory III in 1572 and remained the Pope until 1585. He is best known for reforming the Julian calendar, which is why it's now Gregorian instead of Julian.



Had he reformed the calendar before becoming Pope, it would be the Ugian Calendar. That would have been a calendar worth having.


June 7, 1692 -
At 11:43am, a catastrophic earthquake strikes Port Royal, Jamaica, then known as "the richest and wickedest city in the world." Buildings are shaken apart and ships in harbor hurled onto busy streets.



In just three minutes, the temblor takes out 70% of the population, killing 1,600 and seriously injuring 3,000 others.


June 7, 1954 -
Despondent over court-ordered estrogen treatments to cure his homosexuality, Alan Turing commits suicide by consuming an apple laced with cyanide. (His inspiration - "Snow White", his favorite movie.)



Turing is considered the founder of modern computing, a pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and a crucial member of the team that cracked Germany's Enigma cipher in World War II.

So, apparently an apple a day does keep the doctor away - permanently.


June 7, 1982 -
In an effort to defray its $500,000 annual upkeep costs, Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public only five years after Elvis died in an upstairs bathroom. The bathroom is kept off-limits to tourists.



Think about how much money Priscilla could have made if you charged people to use the bathroom.


And so it goes.

Birthday wishes are in order

June 6, 1935 -
Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (born Lhamo Döndrub), the Dalai Lama, Tibet, spiritual leader of Tibet's Lamaistic Buddhists was born on this date.




June 6, 1955 -
Sandra Bernhard, comedian/actress was also born on this day.



These are not two people you ever mention in the same breathe.

Today in History -
June 6, 1752 -
A devastating fire destroys a third of Moscow, including 18,000 homes. Two other large-scale fires already struck the city in the previous 13 days.

June 6, 1755 -
A boy was born in Coventry, Connecticut. He grew up, went to Yale, and became a teacher. He never distinguished himself in any way. He never wrote or said anything of note, never committed any famous or infamous deeds, never married or had children. He seemed destined to be swallowed whole by the omnivorous mouth of obscurity. He was therefore recruited by the United States Military as an intelligence agent, dispatched behind enemy lines in British-occupied Manhattan, and captured.

He was hanged by the British on September 22, 1776.



Moments before his execution, he expressed regret that he couldn't be hanged more than once. This remark catapulted him to posthumous fame (but only after his death), and Nathan Hale is revered to this day.


June 6, 1844 -
" ...Young man, there's a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time...."



That 'fun' place to stay, the YMCA opens for the first time in London England.


June 6, 1944 -
Sixty four years ago was D-Day, the day of the allied invasion of Normandy, which was called Operation Overlord. The military calls the date of every major operation D-Day, probably to confuse the enemy.



This would have been especially confusing in Normandy, which is in France, where Day begins with a J. German spies were probably waiting to hear something about J-Day.


June 6, 1968 -
Senator Robert F. Kennedy dies at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. The Democratic lawmaker had been campaigning for his party's Presidential nomination when he was shot three times by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.

Jun 6 1976 -
American expatriate J. Paul Getty, named the richest man in the world in 1957, dies in London at age 83.



According to the oil baron, "If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars."


June 6, 1985 -
Authorities in Embu, Brazil exhume the grave of one Wolfgang Gerhard in order to determine its true identity. The remains are later proven to be those of Dr. Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's notorious "Angel of Death."



Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in the ocean in February 1979.


June 6, 1989 -
During the Tehran funeral of the Ayatollah Khomeini, frenzied mourners accidentally tip his corpse out of its coffin and onto the ground. Three million horrified followers bear witness to the desecration.


June 6, 1990 -
US district court judge Jose Gonzalez rules that the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by 2 Live Crew violates Florida's obscenity law.



Gonzalez declares that the predominant subject matter of the record is "directed to the 'dirty' thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind."

I wonder what class teaches 'interpreting dirty thoughs and the loins'?


Happy Birthday Joe !!!


And so it goes.

Today is Donut (Doughnut) Day.

National Doughnut Day occurs on the first Friday in June and honors the Salvation Army "Lassies" of WWI. It is also used as a fund raiser for needy causes of the Salvation Army.



The original Salvation Army Doughnut was first served by Salvation Army in 1917. During WWI, Salvation Army "lassies" were sent to the front lines of Europe. These brave volunteers made home cooked foods, and provided a moral boost to the troops. Often, the doughnuts were cooked in oil inside the of the metal helmet of an American soldier. The American infantrymen were commonly called doughboys.



Salvation Army lassies were the only women outside of military personnel allowed to visit the front lines. Lt. Colonel Helen Purviance is considered the Salvation Army's "first doughnut girl".

On National Doughnut Day, please hug a police officer.


Today in History
Doroteo Arango was born to a family of share-cropping pheasants in Durango, Mexico, on June 5, 1878. One day when he was sixteen he came back from work in the pheasant fields to find that his sister had been raped by the owner of the hacienda, Don Agustin Negrete. Doreteo killed Don Agustin and fled into the hills.

In the hills he met and joined forces with a gang of cattle wrestlers. Doroteo was a good wrestler, a natural. He was sure he had found his career.

The leader of his new gang was a man named Francisco "Pancho" Villa. Pancho was passionate about cattle wrestling. He taught young Doroteo everything he knew. One day the gang was ambushed by a Mexican possum and Pancho was killed in the skirmish.
Young Doroteo changed his own name to Francisco "Pancho" Villa and became the gang's new leader.

The new and improved Pancho gradually diversified the operations of his gang. They were still some of Mexico's most-feared cattle wrestlers, but they also branched out into banditry, railroad contracting, and relationship counseling.

When the Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, Pancho was recruited by the leader of the revolution. He was made a general and put in charge of conducting the war in northern Mexico. Everyone loved him except for the people he killed, who had mixed feelings, and the cattle, who welcomed the respite from wrestling but still hated their nemesis.



One day in 1916 a shipment of arms that Pancho had ordered from an American merchant didn't arrive. In retaliation Pancho raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico. During the raid he seized many American arms and a fair number of legs. This irritated the Americans, who preferred to minimize the distance between their limbs and their bodies, so General Pershing was sent to chase Pancho into Mexico.

Pershing chased Pancho throughout the Chihuahuas. It was a difficult chase, which comes as no surprise to anyone who's ever had to make their way through a herd of Chihuahuas, and consequently Pershing never found Villa. Eventually had to issue the telegraph, "Villa is everywhere, but Villa is nowhere," which made no sense and is therefore famous.



The war ended in 1920 and three years later Villa was killed by an unknown assassin while driving through Parral. His death marked the end of the golden age of cattle wrestling. And as previously discussing in these pages, Dubya's grandpappy got involved in a little Mexican adventure concerning the head of Pancho Villa.


June 5, 1956 -
Elvis Presley appears on Milton Berle TV show. His undulating hip movements during the song "Hound Dog" cause quite a controversy.



American virginity was never the same again.


June 5, 1968 -
Seconds after Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot by Sirhan Sirhan in a Los Angeles hotel, witnesses wrestle the Palestinian to the ground and grab his smoking .22-caliber revolver.



Sirhan later claims to have been acting unconsciously, the result of hypnotic brainwashing, possibly under the orders of a dog named Harvey in Long Island.


June 5, 1975 -
" ... Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter,
you piper, you prisoner, and shine!"



During the Wish You Were Here recording sessions, Syd Barrett just happens to wander into Abbey Road studio while Pink Floyd are mixing "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," a song written about Barrett. At first, none of Syd's former bandmates recognizes the fat, bald lunatic who is compulsively brushing his teeth.


June 5, 1998 -
Reuters and ABC News both erroneously report the death of Bob Hope, after Arizona congressman Bob Stump announces the comedian's demise on the floor of the U.S. Congress.



This is to the great surprise of Bob Hope himself, who was eating breakfast at the time.

Oops.

Speaking of Bob Hope, I saw this video on youtube - very funny and bizarre:




And so it goes.

I can't believe it!!!

Please try to remain calm, I'm sure this will shock you to the very core - Eminem has come clean, saying that he knew what was in store when bare-buttocked comedian Sacha Baron Cohen crashlanded on him at the MTV Movie Awards television broadcast last Sunday.

MTV Shows

What next, appliances are designed to break down just months after their warranties are up?


June 4, 1938 -
Another extremely funny Warner Bros. Cartoon, Porky the Fireman, was released on this date.



The director, Frank Tashlin, is one of the few directors to successfully make the transition from animation to live-action, noted especially for his work with Jerry Lewis.


June 4, 1963 -
The Nutty Professor, arguably Jerry Lewis' best directorial effort, was released on this date.



While the film is a loose parody of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it has been said that the character of Buddy Love was a skewering of his former show business partner Dean Martin.


Today in History:
The Freemasons were officially founded in London on June 4, 1717.

The Freemasons are not a secret society of assassins. They do not have Cesar Borgia's head preserved in an urn. They were not responsible for the French Revolution. They did not kidnap Anastasia Romanov. They are not in control of the Hale-Bopp comet. They did not invent horseradish.

They were masters of masonry, however, and they ushered in a golden age of making things out of rocks.

Freemasons first appeared in England and Scotland in the 1300s, not long after the first appearance of the Loch Ness monster but well before the advent of crop circles. Most laborers of the era were villains and therefore prohibited from travel; since most stone masonry projects (such as cathedrals, churches, and big piles of rocks) required specialized training and large numbers of workers, however, stone masons were permitted to travel freely. They became known as freemasons; their curious lunchboxes came to be known as mason jars.



Whenever the freemasons arrived in town to start work on a new project, they set up a common area where they could meet one another, receive their pay, get food, train apprentices, rest, and get roaring drunk. These came to be known as lodges.



As the centuries passed, the freemasons did less and less work with rocks and more and more drinking at lodges. Today, the freemasons are a friendly social organization with a secret handshake, and are therefore believed to be responsible for selling out the governments of the world to an invading extraterrestrial army.


June 4, 1783 -
The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon).




June 4, 1798
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt, Venetian adventurer and author, dies in relative obscurity as the librarian of Count Waldstein of Bohemia. The Count often ignored him at meals and failed to introduce him to important visiting guests. More over Casanova, the testy outsider, was thoroughly disliked by most of the other inhabitants of the Castle of Dux. Casanova’s only friends seemed to be his fox terriers.



In despair, Casanova considered suicide, but instead decided that he must live on to record his memoirs, which he did until his death.



His main book Histoire de ma vie (History of My Life), part autobiography and part memoir, is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century. His last words are said to have been “I have lived as a philosopher and I die as a Christian”


June 4, 1965 -
Rolling Stones release "Satisfaction" on this date.



In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine placed "Satisfaction" in the second spot on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.


June 4, 1984 -
Bruce Springsteen releases "Born in the USA" on this date.



The song was in part a tribute to Springsteen's friends who had experienced the Vietnam War, some of whom did not come back; it also protests the hardships Vietnam veterans faced upon their return from the war. The song, unfortunately, was widely mis-interpreted as purely nationalistic by those who heard the anthemic chorus but not the bitter verses.


June 4, 1989 -
Tiananmen Square protests (also know as the "June Fourth Incident") were ended in the typical manner of a totalitarian regime - with the People's Liberation Army soldiers and tanks.



Amnesty Internation estimated anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 Chinese democracy advocates were killed on this day. The Chinese government puts the death toll at 241. To celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the massacre, critics have been put under house arrest, newspapers and popular web sites and search engines have been censored by the Chinese government, in an effort to 'erase' the incident from the public conscience.


And so it goes.

Please, oh please.

Now that the President Obama has landed in Saudi Arabia, don't let him be photographed holding hands with Saudi King Abdullah, strolling through his pleasure gardens.



The newscasters at Fox would die from such a massive jerkoff session.


Today In History:
June 3, 1791 -
The French Assembly passes a resolution bringing decapitation to the common criminal: "Every person condemned to the death penalty shall have his head severed." So it wasn't just for the rich anymore.

(Wouldn't it be nice if such a fate would await those on Wall St. and the Banking industry.)


June 3, 1888
"Casey at the Bat", subtitled "A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888", by Ernest Thayer,



is published in the San Francisco Examiner on this date.


June 3, 1943 -
Three days after a sailor had been badly injured in a brawl with a group of Hispanics, a mob of 60 servicemen leaves the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory and bludgeons anybody wearing a zoot suit.



The first two victims are a couple of boys, aged 12 and 13, who were just sitting in the Carmen Theater watching a movie. Thus begins the famous weeklong Zoot Suit Riot.


June 3, 1965 -
The first American astronaut to make a spacewalk was Major Edward White II, when he spent 20 minutes outside the Gemini 4 capsule during Earth orbit at an altitude of 120 miles. A tether and 25 foot airline were wrapped in gold tape to form a single, thick cord. He used a hand-held 7.5 pound oxygen jet propulsion gun to maneuver. The launch had taken place a few hours earlier on the same day.



During the remainder of the flight, pilot White and his crewmate commander McDivitt completed 12 scientific and medical experiments. The total time in orbit was almost 98 hours, making 62 orbits. Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov, had made the first ever spacewalk for 10 minutes about three months earlier .


June 3, 1968 -
Valerie Solanas, author of the SCUM Manifesto, arrives at the art studio of Andy Warhol and shoots him three times in the torso. Warhol barely survives the attempt on his life. Solanas is later jailed and institutionalized.



Doctors finish the job Solanas attempted several years later in a NY hospital when they botch a gall bladder operation in 1987.


June 3, 1955
Barbara Graham, a convicted murderer who was executed in the gas chamber along with two accomplices.



Susan Hayward won an Academy Award for playing Graham in the movie I Want to Live!


June 3, 1989 -
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini dies after 11 days in a hospital, recovering from surgery to stop internal hemorrhaging.



Khomeini became ill when he reallized that through a very bad translation, 73 virgins were not waiting for him but 73 raisins.


And so it goes.

The Baton was passed

Conan O'Brien, stepped in as the fitfh host of the Tonight Show last night.



I laughed, I cried, I fell asleep (it ended after midnight you know and I can't stay up late anymore.)


Today in History-
The Marquis de Sade was born on this date and his sexual proclivities made his name a noun.



His sexual proclivities themselves have been preserved in a mason jar at the Louvre.


June 2, 1793 -
Jean Paul Marat recites names of 29 people to the French Assembly, virtually all of whom will be guillotined. The "Rain of Terror" officially began in France.



This was one of the worst meteorological events in French history and cost hundreds of thousands of lives.


June 2, 1941 -
Baseball great, Lou Gehrig, dies at 37 at his home in the Bronx.



You would have thought someone might have mentioned to him that he had Lou Gehrig's disease earlier in his career.


June 2, 1953 -
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Mountbatten officially becomes the head of her family's business and is coronated on this date.



The entire ceremony was, save for the anointing and communion, televised throughout the Commonwealth, and was watched by an estimated twenty million people, with twelve million more listening on the radio.

The Queen's reign is longer than those of her four immediate predecessors combined (Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, and George VI). She is the third longest reigning British or English monarch, the second-longest-serving current monarch of a sovereign state (after King Bhumibol of Thailand), and the oldest reigning British monarch.

June 2, 1996 -
Ray Combs, host of television's Family Feud, hangs himself with his bedsheets at Glendale Adventist Hospital. Combs was on a 72 hour suicide watch.



Only 17 people guessed bedsheets.


And so it goes.

Let the rhyming begin

June is the sixth month of the year and consists of thirty days. The ancient Romans gave it twenty-nine days until 46 BC, when Julius Caesar added the thirtieth for reasons known only to himself. The last day of the month is therefore referred to as its "Caesarian Section" by calendar insiders.

The month is believed to derive its name from either the Roman goddess Juno, patron goddess of marriage, or the Greek Juniko, god of charcoal briquettes.



June marks the transition from spring to summer in the northern hemisphere, and from fall to winter in the southern hemisphere. (It is not a transitional month in other hemispheres.)



June has traditionally been the most popular month for weddings, but it's commonly overlooked that it's also one of the top twelve months for bathtub drownings and spontaneous human combustions.



June is traditionally considered the poet's month because with the warming of the earth and the lengthening light of the fragrant evenings, thoughts inevitably turn to romance as hearts and passions swell. Also, June rhymes with a lot of words. For example: afternoon, aswoon, attune, baboon, balloon, bassoon, bestrewn, boon, buffoon, cartoon, cocoon, commune, croon, doubloon, dragoon, dune, entune, expugn, festoon, harpoon, hewn, honeymoon, immune, inopportune, impugn, jejune, lagoon, lampoon, loon, macaroon, maroon, monsoon, moon, noon, pantaloon, picayune, platoon, poltroon, pontoon, prune, raccoon, rune, saloon, soon, spittoon, spoon, strewn, swoon, tune, tycoon, typhoon, untune.


Iggy Pop has a great new album out, PRELIMINAIRES



Who knew Iggy spoke french?


Here is your Today in History -
June 1, 1571 -
The "Triple Tree" gallows is installed at Tyburn, England in time for the execution of John Storey, who is hanged, drawn, and quartered for committing treason. The Triple Tree consists of an equilateral triangle nine feet long on each side, 18 feet off the ground. It can hang as many as 24 prisoners at once, and will remain in place for almost 200 years.



June 1, 1660 -
After having received a last-minute reprieve seven months earlier, Mary Dyer is hanged for heresy after returning to Boston.



Dyer was a member of the Quakers, a subversive religious sect which had been banned by the Puritan colony under "pain of death."


June 1, 1926 -
Gladys Baker gives birth to Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles.



June 1, 1967 -
It was 41 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. The Beatles officially release their new album,



Remember to also catch the fantastic tribute album by the Easy Star All Stars - it the Beatles with a wicked Reggae beat.




June 1, 1968 -
Helen Keller -- America's all-time favorite deaf and blind Socialist -- dies in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 87.




June 1, 1980 -
Cable News Network (CNN) made its debut as the first all-news station.



How sad, Darth Vader had to do voice over work to rebuild the death star


It's Oscar the Grouch's birthday.



Remember to leave something nice out in the trash today. (Please note: when Oscar first moved into his trash can he was orange. The gangrene set in.)


It's also my sister's birthday



(My sister's name isn't Lisa and she's not older than me but the sentiment's nice just the same.)


And so it goes.