Read the ramblings of Dr. Caligari. Hopefully you will find that Time does wound all heels.
You no longer need to be sad that nowadays there is so little useless information.
No, it's not the celebration of the invention of Gin but it is an observance celebrated on the third Saturday in October. While it is not as large or widely observed as Valentine's Day, it is still celebrated in parts of the United States, despite persistent allegations of being a "Hallmark holiday."
I say celebrate by NOT burning down your local Hallmark store (but think it in your mind.)
I can't believe that I nearly forgot -
To those readers who celebrate today's "Festival of Lights",
Happy Dawali.
Today in History: The Sixth Crusade ended on this date in 1244 after the Saracens ("Infidels") defeated the Franks ("Infidels") at Gaza. But you know after the Fourth Crusade, I just stop counting.
October 17, 1777 - At one of the turning points of the American Revolution,
British Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American Gen. Horatio Gates at Saratoga, N.Y.
October 17, 1967 - The play Hair, full of dancing naked people, unshaved armpits, and body odor, opens at the 299-seat Anspacher Theater on Broadway. At the time, the musical's depiction of the use of illegal drugs, sexuality, profanity, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy.
The musical broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of the "rock musical", utilizing a racially-integrated cast, and by inviting the audience onstage for a "Be-in" finale.
October 17, 1939 - In the year that is considered the apex of the Golden age of Hollywood, Frank Capra's contribution, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was released on this date.
This was the role of a lifetime for Jimmy Steward (at the time) and it cemented his All-American wholesome imagine. I have a different read on his character and perhaps many of Steward's characters. There is something almost psychotic about his determination and ernestness. Go back and watch the film.
October 17, 1944 - The little known and under appreciated drama directed by Clifford Odets, None But the Lonely Heart, was released on this date.
This was Cary Grant's favorite film role. Unfortunately, the public always typecasting Grant as either the Romantic or Comic lead, didn't buy him in this dramatic role and the film flopped.
October 17, 1979 - Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a Roman Catholic nun who cared for the sick and poor, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
But what she really wanted to do was direct.
October 17, 1984 - The New York Times runs an article entitled "CIA Primer Tells Nicaraguan Rebels How to Kill." The story describes the secret manual Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare which the CIA furnished to the Contras in Nicaragua.
The booklet instructed how to kidnap and assassinate civil officials, such as judges and police.
Barnes and Noble no longer sells the primer and you cannnot back order it.
Sorry.
October 17, 1986 - Congress passed a landmark immigration bill, the first U.S. law authorizing penalties for employers who hire illegal aliens.
Green card, I don't gotta show you no stinking green card.
October 17, 1989 - The Loma Prieta earthquake strikes the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 67 and causing billions in property damage. The 6.9 magnitude temblor manages to collapse a long section of the double-decker I-880 freeway, smushing motorists between the two layers. Part of the Bay Bridge also collapses.
Worst of all, the quake postpones the third World Series game.
The Cat Piano is a tale about a city of singing cats is preyed upon by a shadowy figure intent on performing a twisted feline symphony.
Here's a great piece of animation set to a poem by Eddie White. It's not the greatest poem ever written but a brilliantly sneaky way to get your kids to read poetry.
http://catpianofilm.com/media/#poem
Enjoy
The word of the day is: Stiricide: noun, falling of icicles from a house. The icy quiet after the storm was shattered by Mrs. Witherbottoms shrieks. Sprawled out under the eaves, blood, now congealed and frozen, masking his face, was Mr. Wetwilly - a clear victim of stiricide.
Here's your Today in History: On this date in 1792 (or 1799), there was baptised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, a boy named Francisco Morazàn. He was young, like most newborns, and full of idealism. After a disappointing childhood, in which he turned out not to have been born to wealth and privilege, he decided first to educate himself and then to enlist in the fight against Mexican annexation of Honduras.
After a disappointing loss, in which Honduras turned out to be a part of Mexico even though neither of them was any longer a part of Spain, Morazàn joined the government of the United Provinces of Central America. Two years later he was the president of the Honduras State legislature, and the following year he became president of the entire United Provinces by means of the traditional Central American electoral process ("civil war").
As president, he tried to limit the powers of the Roman Catholic Church, which eventually led to a new round of elections ("civil wars") that produced a new president, this time from the State of Guatemala. The new president exiled Morazàn, who returned several years later calling for electoral reform ("revolution") and was therefore impeached ("shot in the head") by one of his own troops.
It's a holiday in Honduras today.
But it is not a holiday in Guatemala.
Or Mexico.
Also, Deposed French queen Joséphe Jeanne Marie Antoinette sits in an open cart, enduring hours of public ridicule as she is slowly driven around the streets of Paris, on this day in 1793.
Finally, she is taken to the guillotine. Before she loses her head, Antoinette tells the crowd: "Farewell, my children, forever. I go to your Father."
She wasn't having a good day.
It's also the birthday of Oscar Wilde (1854), known for his barbed wit, was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day.
In between bouts of buggery, he found time to write the following passage in The Picture of Dorian Gray: "Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the caveman had known how to laugh, History would have been different." Unfortunately for Oscar, had he fled England in the spring of 1895, his history would have been different.
I believe that cavemen did indeed know how to laugh, and that people who accuse humanity of being too serious obviously aren't paying attention. Voluminous scientific research has incontrovertibly proven that we are the only species to giggle at one other's farts.
I reminds you that our lives are haphazard accidents in an indifferent world and that the very absurdity of life is what gives it the most meaning. Burp. Laugh.
Ignore the serious bastards (and remember that we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.)
October 16, 1946 - At Nuremberg, Germany, 10 high-ranking Nazi officials were executed by hanging for World War II war crimes.
Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo and chief of the German air force,
was to have been among them but he committed suicide in his cell the night before.
That must have been some neck stretching party.
October 16, 1964 - China detonated its first atomic bomb.
For god sakes, please tip the delivery guys a hell of a lot more.
October 16, 1972 - A light plane carrying House Democratic leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana (the most outspoken and critical member of the Warren Commission) and three other men was reported missing in Alaska. The plane was never found.
Perhaps if they had that bridge to nowhere, they would have found them.
October 16, 1984 - Black Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa won the Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle against apartheid.
Global Handwashing Day is a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world to wash their hands with soap, the campaign is dedicated to raising awareness of handwashing with soap as a key approach to disease prevention. Remember, recent studies have found up to 60% of the people leaving public restrooms have not washed their hands.
Remind me not to eat the free mints from the diner this afternoon.
Today's word of the day:
Gleimous: adjective, slimy, full of phlegm. Lauren was fond of dairy products and was therefore very gleimous.
Here's Today in History -
Today is St Teresa of Avila Day in Spain and Evacuation Day in Tunisia, I felt I had to know more. It turns out that Evacuation Day recognizes the important contributions made to the world of science by Tunisian proctologists. The less said about the gastroenterological rituals performed on this holiday the better.
Saint Teresa of Avila (one of my favorite saints, as this is the second mention of her this year) is also known as the Roving Nun (but should not be confused with the Wandering Nun, the Meandering Nun, or the Hopelessly Disoriented Nun). In case you still don't know who this Saint is - she's the one who was repeatedly pierced by God's golden shaft of light, again and again. She is the patron saint not only of Spain, but also bodily ills, headaches, laceworkers, opposition to Church Authorities, and people ridiculed for their piety.
She died in the arms of her close friend Anne of Saint Bartholomew, allegedly from Transverberation ("the crossing of verbs"). Her pierced heart is on display at Alba de Tormes, so if you're the kind of person that's interested in 400-year-old pierced human hearts you'll probably want to pay a visit. (You'll probably find it in the "Pierced Human Hearts Room" of the "Three-to-Five Hundred Year Old Internal Organ Wing.")
Saint Teresa famously said , "There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers", (Truman Capote took this quote very seriously.) "God," she famously prayed, "deliver me from sullen saints!"
Friedrich Nietzsche, who was born on this day in 1844, apparently shared her sentiments if not her tactics.
October 15, 1582 -
Finally, with the formal implementation of the Gregorian calendar by Pope Gregory XIII, this day actually exists in Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. The calendar jumped from October 4 directly by October 15. People are generally relieved but never quite get over the feeling that they missed something during those 11 days.
October 15, 1940 -
Two of the most famous men in the world, not only had superficially similar looks, most famously their mustaches, but were born only four days apart in April of 1889 and both grew up in relative poverty. One of them decides to take a hugh risk and release a film taking advantage of this freakish similarity.
The Great Dictator, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin, released on this date, bitterly satirizes Nazism and Adolf Hitler, culminating in an overt political plea to defy fascism. The film is exceptional in its period, in the days prior to American entry into World War II, as the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Well before the full extent of the horrors of Nazism had been uncovered, Chaplin's film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Hitler, fascism, and the Nazis, the latter of whom he excoriates in the film as "machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts".
October 15, 1951 -
A former starlet convinced the alcoholic, womanizing head of a television network to run the TV version of her somewhat successful radio program. I Love Lucy, the television situation comedy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, also featuring Vivian Vance and William Frawley, goes on to run on CBS for 181 episodes (including the "lost" Christmas episode and original pilot).
Then, the show introduced three more seasons, running from 1957 to 1960, known as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (while Ball and Arnez go through an acrimonious divorce). I Love Lucy won five Emmy Awards and received numerous nominations. In 2002, it was ranked #2 on TV Guide's top 50 greatest shows of all time, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners. In 2007, it was placed on Time Magazine's (unranked) list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME".
I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the ratings (to be matched only by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld), although it did not have a formal series finale episode. Episodes of I Love Lucy are still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world.
October 15, 1964 -
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was too busy pounding his shoe at every official meeting to realize that he was ousted
and replaced by Alexei Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev.
October 15, 1990 -
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gives up the practice of shoe banging practices of the Soviet Premier all together
and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
October 15, 1991 -
Despite sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, The Senate confirmed Judge Clarence Thomas as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48, the closest confirmation vote in court history.
Sorry but there's nothing funny I can say about this as we're stuck with this guy until heart disease or stroke carry him away.
October 15, 2002 -
Former ImClone Chief Executive Officer Samuel Waksal pleaded guilty to insider trading as part of an ongoing investigation into the trading of shares from his biotech company, which also involved home decor diva and Waksal friend Martha Stewart.
Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling out his wife, Maria Shriver, for apparently violating a state law he signed — holding her cell phone while driving.
The celebrity Web site TMZ.com posted two photographs Tuesday showing Shriver holding a phone to her ear while she's behind the wheel. It says one was snapped Sunday and the other in July.
The Web site later added a video it said was shot Tuesday in Brentwood, where the family lives. It shows Shriver holding a cell phone to her ear while driving a large SUV that appears to be a Cadillac Escalade. She then puts the phone down while the camera is rolling. (I feel dirty playing a video from TMZ.)
The first lady's office said it would have no comment.
Maybe Bill Clinton can make up another bed in the house (since Dave Letterman is also on his couch.)
October 14, 1953 - Possibly the ultimate film noir, Fritz Lang's The Big Heat opens in NYC on this date.
The main thing is to have the money. I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better.
Today's word of the day Cacatory: adj, followed by a bout of diarrhea. For the diners, the effects of the Activia yogurt shake and chocolate prune souffle, alas, were cacatory.
Today in History: October 14, 1651 - Massachusetts passed laws prohibiting the poor from dressing excessively, on this date.
It was felt that persons of limited means should save their money and learn to get by with simple vinaigrettes.
October 14, 1893- Lillian Diana Gish, American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987, was born on this date. She was a prominent film star of the 1910s and 1920s, particularly associated with the films of director D.W. Griffith, including her leading role in Griffith's seminal Birth of a Nation (1915). Her sound-era film included a memorable role in the 1955 cult thriller Night of the Hunter. She closed her career in the 1987 film The Whales of August.
It would be difficult to brief sum up this brilliant actress' career, but the always cantankerous Bette Davis may have paid her the ultimate back-handed compliment. Complaining about her co-star in the "Whales of August", Miss Davis was reported to have said, "How can I compete with her in a scene, she invented the goddamn close-up."
October 14, 1912 - Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for a return to office, was shot in Milwaukee by a saloonkeeper named John Schrank.
What saves Teddy was the bullet lodged in Roosevelt's chest only after hitting both his steel eyeglass case and a copy of his speech he was carrying in his jacket. Roosevelt declined suggestions that he go to the hospital, and delivered his scheduled speech.
He spoke vigorously for ninety minutes. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." Afterwards, doctors determined that he was not seriously wounded and that it would be more dangerous to attempt to remove the bullet than to leave it in his chest. Roosevelt carried it with him until he died.
Teddy Roosevelt, superhero.
October 14, 1917 - The German spy Mata Hari, a Dutchwoman named Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, was executed by the French on this date. There wasn't much actual evidence of espionage, but she had been seen naked with German officers and the French considered this distasteful enough to kill her.
(I think I continue to kill her off at various dates this year. Sorry about that Margaretha.)
October 14, 1944 - Field Marshal Rommel (James Mason) of Germany was visited by two of Hitler's personal staff.
They informed him that he was suspected of involvement in the July 20th plot to assassinate the Fuhrer and that he would therefore be required either to (a) stand trial and die, or (b) just die. They brought some poison along to facilitate his decision.
Hitler always liked him.
October 14, 1947 - American pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in a rocket-powered airplane, on this date. Yeager insisted it was already broken and consequently refused to repair it despite repeated admonitions by his mother.
It remains broken to this day. (The sound barrier should not be confused with the Long Island Sound barrier, sometimes referred to as the Throg's Neck Bridge.)
October 14, 1959 - Actor and Nazi sympathizer Errol Flynn, dubbed "the most despicable human being yet born" (and that was by a friend), dies of a heart attack in Vancouver. Flynn reported slept anything with a pulse including (but not limited to) Truman Capote, Howard Hughes, as well as countless Hollywood starlets.
My kids told me last night that a local store was putting up decorations for Christmas. I thought they were mistakes. Nut, as I made my way to work this morning the Pier One on our corner was festooned with holly and garland.
So with that, there are 73 days until Christmas (60 days til Hannukah) - let the reduced shopping orgy begin!
Today's word of the day: Seplasiary: noun, seller or producer of perfumes and ointments. Even though Pepe Le Pew went searching for un skunk de femme in the seplasiary's shop, business still fell off for months.
October 13, 1959 - Olive Marie Osmond, actress, singer, doll designer, Nutrisystem junkie and Osmonds family survivor, was born on this date.
Hey let's all cut Marie a break, she's had to deal with Donnie her whole life.
October 13, 1950 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz's brilliantly caustic valentine to Broadway, All About Eve premiered in NYC on this date.
You won't bore him, honey - you won't even get a chance to talk.
Here's your Today in History - October 13, 54 - Roman Emperor Claudius I (Derek Jacobi) consumes a favorite mushroom dish prepared by his fourth wife, Agrippina. What he does not know is that the meal is laced with the toxin of the Amanita phalloides mushroom. Feeling ill the next morning, Claudius summons his personal physician. Unfortunately, the doctor happens to be a co-conspirator in the scheme, administering a colocynth enema which kills Claudius instantly.
So remember kids, avoid all doctor prescribed poisoned enemas.
October 13, 1947 - Kids, a lifetime ago there was a very popular TV series featuring two puppets and a very polite lady that ad-libbed the entire show - A version of what ultimately became 'Kukla, Fran and Ollie' premieres on this date.
If you're of a certain ago, you can just about remember Kukla, Fran and Ollie hosting the CBS Children's Film Festival.
October 13, 1792- It was on this day in Washington D.C. that the cornerstone was laid for the presidential residence, now known as the White House. The Frenchman, Pierre L'Enfant, who designed Washington, D.C. wanted the residence to look like the palace of Versailles. George Washington thought that was a little too fancy, so he got an Irish architect named James Hoban to reduce the design to one-fifth of its original size. Washington laid the cornerstone and supervised the construction. John Adams was the first president to call it home.
People nicknamed it the White House from the very beginning. There was a coat of whitewash brushed on the sandstone to protect it against winter. Thomas Jefferson was the one who installed flushing toilets. Andrew Jackson got the first shower. Martin Van Buren brought in central heating. Rutherford B. Hayes introduced the telephone. Benjamin Harrison had it wired for electricity. President Truman brought in the first TV set.
October 13, 1972 - Due to poor visibility, a Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying the Montevideo Old Christians Rugby Club crashes high in the Chilean Andes. Of the 45 people aboard the flight, only 27 survive the crash, and just 16 make it to their rescue 72 days later.
How did they do it? Cannibalism. According to one survivor, "the slight browning of the flesh gave it an immeasurably better flavor, softer than beef but with much the same taste."
So there you go - it doesn't taste just like chicken.
October 13, 1988 - A report published in the journal Nature declares the Turin shroud to be a 13th century fake.
Although carbon-14 testing places the shroud's fabrication somewhere between 1260 and 1390 AD, true believers spend much of the next several years attempting to explain away the radiocarbon test results.
October 12, 1492 - Christopher Columbus, not the brightest bulb in the explorers club, reached America, making his first landing in the New World on one of the Bahamas Islands.
Columbus believed he had reached India.
Today's word of the day: Epalpebrate: adjective, lacking eyebrows. Although Bert was now epalpebrate, he kept his sense of humor about the barbecue accident.
Here's your Today in History - October 12, 1915 - British nurse Edith Cavell, 49, was executed by a German firing squad in Brussels for helping Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I. The night before her execution she told the Anglican chaplain, Rev. Gahan, who had been allowed to see her, "Patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." These words are inscribed on her statue in St. Martin's Place, near Trafalgar Square in London.
Her final words to the German pastor, Le Saur were recorded as 'Ask Mr. Gahan to tell my loved ones later on that my soul, as I believe, is safe, and that I am glad to die for my country.'
Pretty tough cookie.
October 12, 1960 - Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a U.N. General Assembly session by pounding his desk with a shoe during a dispute.
This resulted in the popular stereotype of the Soviet Dictator who pounds his desk with his shoe.
In fact, many Soviet Dictators did not pound their desks with their shoes. They had their deputies do it for them.
October 12, 1966 - This was a particularly busy date in history. Sammy Davis, Jr. makes a cameo appearance on the ABC television series Batman, during one of their legendary Batclimbs.
Rumors began in earnest, on this date, that Paul is dead. However, the Beatle somehow persists in making several public appearances for years.
Today, Vegas odds makers are making it even money that John and George, though, are definitely dead and not just holding their breath.
October 12, 1970 - During his court martial for the My Lai Massacre, Lt. William Calley testifies that Cpt. Ernest Medina had ordered that anybody they couldn't move would be "wasted." Which is why Calley said he and his men killed 350 Vietnamese, including more than 100 civilian men, women, and children.
October 12, 1973 - U.S. President Richard Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald Ford for the vice presidency, under the 25th Amendment, to replace Spiro Agnew, who had resigned two days earlier.
Interestingly, Ford was on the Warren Commission investigating the Kennedy assassination.
I'm not saying that there is a connection but it gives you pause.
October 12, 1997 - Folk singer John Denver dies when the small plane he was piloting crashed into Monterey Bay on the California coast.
Divers later recover most of the body, but not the head. Denver is ultimately identified by his fingerprints.
Here's another clip of "Royal de Luxe" - the Sultan's Elephant.
This troupe has to come to America. Somebody get on this right away.
Today's word of the day - Mingent: adjective, discharging urine. My dear mingent man, could you please aim the other way - you're soaking my pant leg?
Here's your Today in History - October 11, 1899 - The Bores of South Africa declared war on Great Britain in the hopes of generating interest, on this date.
(The war should not be confused with the Boar War, which had been cancelled on account of tusks.)
October 11, 1910 - Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright Brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.
He was having such a good time, they had to club him like a baby seal to get him out of the plane.
Bully.
October 11, 1952 - Referee Francis DeReus halts the college football match between Wesleyan and Dubuque because of the profanity spewing from Dubuque's coach, Maco Mercer. DeReus tossed coach and team from the game, and called the game because of profanity. The final score was Iowa Wesleyan 1, Dubuque 0. History does not record which vulgarities were involved.
Wanna guess?
October 11, 1961 - Leonard Marx, Chico, one of the Marx Brothers, died on this date. Chico Marx was a compulsive womanizer, and had a lifelong gambling habit. His addiction cost him millions of dollars by his own account. When an interviewer asked him how much money he'd lost from gambling, he answered, "Find out how much money Groucho's got. That's how much I've lost." Gummo Marx, in an interview years after Chico's death, said, "Chico's favorite people were actors who gambled, producers who gambled, and women who screwed."
Chico's lifelong gambling addiction compelled him to continue in show business long after his brothers had retired in comfort from their Hollywood income, and in the early 40s he found himself playing in the same small, cheap halls he had begun his career in 30 years previously.
For a while in the 1930s and 1940s Chico led a big band.
Singer Mel Tormé began his professional career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra.
October 11, 1975 - Cold open of a new TV program:
And so began the long running (some say too long running) comedy variety show, with George Carlin as its host, it was called NBC's Saturday Night, because ABC featured a program at the same time titled Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. After ABC canceled the Cosell program in 1976, the NBC program changed its name to Saturday Night Live on March 26, 1977. The first episode featured two musical guests Billy Preston (Nothing From Nothing & Fancy Lady ) and Janis Ian (At Seventeen & In The Winter).
October 11, 1976 - The Gang of Four were arrested in Peking, on this date. Their first album, "Entertainment!" is released two years later.
After re-education, eventually, so are they.
October 11, 1978 - Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) stabs girlfriend Nancy Spungeon (Chloe Webb) to death in room 100 of New York's Chelsea Hotel. Because Sid remembers nothing about the crime, theories include robbery and an abortive suicide pact. Vicious dies of an ugly heroin overdose shortly before his trial.
Folks, there are no pretty heroin overdoses.
October 11, 1981 - Andy Kaufman successfully defends his World Intergender Wrestling Champion title in Atlantic City, by defeating Playboy magazine's Miss September, pinning her at the 18-minute mark.
"Royal de Luxe" a French troupe of giant puppets came to Berlin to celebrate the Day of German Unification from 2nd to 4th of october. Two giants, walking through Berlin - one coming from the east, one from the west of Berlin, to finally meet and unite at the Brandenburger Tor ..and to leave the city again, together.
Go to youtube and watch some more of this event - it's amazing.
then look for another event the "Royal de Luxe" did - the Suktan's Elephant - equally brilliant.
Today's word: Crassulent: adjective, very fat, overweight, grossly obese. The crassulent Republican candidate for Governor bounded onto the stage and bounced several of the children in the choir into the laps of the horrified audience members.
Today in History: October 10, 1780 - Over 48 hours, a slow-moving hurricane decimates Barbados, killing 4,326 (however according to the island's governor, "fortunately few people of consequence were among the number").
Over the next week, the catastrophic storm system moves on to Martinique (9,000 dead) and St. Eustatius (4-5,000). The unprecedented Great Hurricane of 1780 remains the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record.
October 10, 1910 - Tau Epsilon Phi (TEF, commonly pronounced "TEP") is a predominantly American fraternity with approximately 40 active chapters, chiefly located at universities and colleges in the Northeastern United States. The organization was founded on October 10, 1910, by ten Jewish men at Columbia University, as a response to the existence of similar organizations who would not admit Jewish members. The national headquarters is currently located in Voorhees, New Jersey and the official colors of the organization are lavender and white (although most chapters use purple instead of lavender).
Why is is important. Several of the readers and I (and well as George Stephanopoulos) are members of this fraternity. And you thought "The Skull and Bones" Society rules this country.
October 10, 1911 - The Chinese revolution began in Hankow, on this date. The revolution spread rapidly, resulting in the abdication of six-year-old Henry Pu-Yi, the Academy Award-winning "Last Emperor" of China.
On the same day, the Panama Canal was officially opened, resulting in a popular palindrome. No palindrome was developed for the Chinese revolution, and this would later result in civil war.
October 10, 1956 - George Steven's sprawling epic, Giant, premiered in NYC on this date.
As everyone knows, James Dean died during the making of this film and his performance is the one most remembered; check out Elizabeth Taylor's nuanced work throughout the film.
October 10, 1962 - The British Broadcasting Company bans "Monster Mash" -- the Halloween-themed novelty tune by Bobby "Boris" Pickett -- for being "offensive."
The BBC never specifies precisely what it is about the song that's problematic.
October 10, 1968 - One of the silliest movies Jane Fonda (or anyone else for that matter) ever made, Barbarella, lands in US theatres on this date.
The film's missing scientist character famously inspired the band name of pop stars Duran Duran.
October 10, 1969 - King Crimson releases their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, considered by many to be the first progressive rock album.
Turn it up loud, spark it up and don't bogart that joint.
October 10, 1973 - Bribe-happy Vice President Spiro T. Agnew finally resigns, after pleading guilty to federal income tax evasion.
In addition to his venality, Agnew is chiefly remembered for this offhand remark during the 1968 campaign: "What's the matter with the fat Jap?"
It should be noted that humorist Dave Barry points out that one can rearrange the letters in "Spiro Agnew" to spell "Grow A Penis."
October 10, 1985 -
As to all, cheap wine hawker, voice-over whore and movie legend Orson Welles, whose remarkably innovative Citizen Kane of 1941 was named the best American-made picture of all time in a 1998 American Film Institute poll, died of a heart attack at the age of 70.
Yul Brynner, Russian-born, Academy Award-winning Broadway and Hollywood actor died on October 10, 1985 (the same day as Orson Welles, his co star in The Battle of Neretva) in New York City. The cause of death was lung cancer brought on by smoking. Throughout his life, Brynner was always seen with a cigarette in his hand. In January 1985, nine months before his death, he gave an interview on Good Morning America, expressing his desire to make an anti-smoking commercial.
The clip from that interview was made into just such a public service announcement by the American Cancer Society, and released after his death; it includes the warning "Now that I'm gone, I tell you, don't smoke." If only he listened to himself.
President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.
The President is only the thirs sitting US President to receive the honor. President Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906, and President Woodrow Wilson won in 1919.
Rep. Michelle Bachmann will need a crow bar to get her panties out of her crack.
Here's today's word. Retirant: noun, retiree. Mort was like most retirants living on the Upper Westside -he shuffled along muttering to himself about the sable slicers at Zabars.
Today in History - October 9, 1000 - Leif Ericson discovers Vinland and becomes the first known European to walk in North America, on this date (or not). In 1964, the United States Congress authorized and requested the President to proclaim October 9 of each year as "Leif Erikson Day".
The day after Leif Ericson Day in 1965, Yale University astonished the world with its Vinland Map, a 1440 transcription of a map believed to have been originally drawn by Ericson himself (or possibly Eriksson, but certainly not Eiriksson) around 1000 A.D., and which appeared to depict parts of Canada. Just a few years ago, more evidence supporting the authenticity of the map was revealed, lending further support to the conclusion that there were Vikings in North America five centuries before Columbus soiled his first diaper.
This is an exciting development, because it will almost certainly necessitate the development of Viking reservations and the establishment of Viking-run casinos.
Still more exciting are recent scientific findings that suggest caucasians may have existed in North America prior to being displaced by the so-called native-Americans who were later visited by Vikings prior to being utterly displaced by still more caucasians.
But this is also deeply troubling, because there was probably someone here before those original caucasians.
In the interests of fairness, I enthusiastically endorses the endowment of every American with their own casino.
On this date in 1776 a group of Spanish Missionaries, led by Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is today San Francisco.
Their arrival displaced a small Native American population and therefore came to be known as the "missionary imposition."
October 9, 1582 - It's true, tomorrow never comes. Once again, because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. This leads to more mass confusion and most of the populous just go back to bed and give up belief in calendars.
October 9, 1934 - While the Boomtown Rats don't like Monday. King Alexander I of of Yugoslavia doesn't like Tuesdays.
On account of the deaths of three members of his family on a Tuesday, Alexander refused to undertake any public functions on that day. On Tuesday 9 October 1934, however, he had no choice, as he was arriving in Marseille to start a state visit to the Third French Republic, to strengthen the two countries' alliance in the Little Entente. While being driven in a car through the streets along with French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, a gunman, Vlado Chernozemski, stepped from the street and shot the King and the chauffeur. The Minister was accidentally shot by a French policeman and died later.
It was one of the first assassinations captured on film; the shooting occurred straight in front of the cameraman, who was only feet away at the time. The cameraman captured not merely the assassination but the immediate aftermath; the body of the chauffeur (who had been killed instantly) became jammed against the brakes of the car, allowing the cameraman to continue filming from within inches of the King for a number of minutes afterwards.
The assassin, Vlado Chernozemski — driver of the leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Ivan Mihailov and an experienced marksman — was cut down by the sword of a mounted French policeman, then beaten by the crowd. By the time he was removed from the scene, he was already dead.
The film record of Alexander I's assassination remains one of the most historic pieces of newsreel in existence (film footage), alongside the film of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia's coronation, the funerals of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
October 9, 1958 - Pope Pius XII suffered a most 'unfortunate' accident after his demise. The Pope died during an exceptionally hot summer.
When Pius died, Professor Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi who was treating the ill pontiff (Galeazzi-Lisi was not a doctor but an optometrist) turned embalmer, trying to hide his crimes.
Rather than slow the process of decay, the doctor-mortician's self-made technique sped it up, leading the Holy Father's corpse to disintegrate rapidly, turning purple, with the corpse's nose falling off. The stench caused by the decay was such that guards had to be rotated every 15 minutes, otherwise they would collapse. The condition of the body became so bad that the remains were secretly removed at one point for further treatments before being returned in the morning.
Very messy indeed.
October 9, 1967 - On 8 October, Che Guevara was captured while leading a detachment with Simeón Cuba Sarabia in Bolivia. According to some soldiers present at the capture, during the skirmish as they approached Guevara, he allegedly shouted, "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead." Upon hearing of Guevara's capture, new was relayed to CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia, via CIA stations in various South American nations.
The President of Bolivia, René Barrientos promptly ordered his execution upon being informed of his capture. Guevara was taken to a dilapidated schoolhouse in the nearby village of La Higuera where he was held overnight. Early the next afternoon he was executed. The executioner was Mario Terán, a Sergeant in the Bolivian army who had drawn a short straw after arguments over who got the honor of killing Guevara broke out among the soldiers. To make the bullet wounds appear consistent with the official story sold to the public, Felix Rodriguez, the CIA asset, ordered the soldier who pulled the trigger to aim carefully to make it appear that Che had been killed in action during a clash with the Bolivian army, and thus to help cover up the official secret assassination. Guevara received multiple shots to the legs, so as to avoid maiming his face for identification purposes and simulate combat wounds in an attempt to conceal his ex judicial execution.
Che Guevara had some last words before his death; he allegedly said to his executioner, "I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man." His body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to neighboring Vallegrande where it was laid out on a laundry tub in the local hospital and displayed to the press.
After the execution, Rodríguez took several personal items of Guevara's including a Rolex watch, often proudly showing them to reporters during the ensuing years. Today, some of these belongings, including his flashlight, are on display at the CIA. After a military doctor surgically amputated his hands, Bolivian army officers transferred Guevara's cadaver to an undisclosed location and refused to reveal whether his remains had been buried or cremated. And that boys and girls, was your US dollars at work in 1967.
October 9, 1985 -
Central Park's Strawberry Fields is dedicated on John Lennon's birthday, by Yoko Ono, who had underwritten the project..
Do yourself a favor and go reread it (I'll cut you a break and assume that you've read Leaves of Grass at some point.)
Here's today's word. Sagittipotent: adjective, having great ability in archery. Although William Tell's brother Bob was also known for his sagittipotent abilities, his unfortunate sneezing accident prevented him from becoming more well known.
Today in History: October 8, 1871- Mrs O'Leary's cow starts The Great Chicago Fire destroying more than 17,000 buildings, killed more than 300 people and left 90,000 homeless. That same day, a forest fire broke out at Peshtigo, Wis., eventually killing about 2,500 people while burning some 850 square miles (making it the largest lost of life by fire in the United States), Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan. Bad cow.
Catherine O'Leary seemed the perfect scapegoat: she was a woman, immigrant, and Catholic-–a combination which did not fare well in the political c limate of the time in Chicago. This story was circulating in Chicago even before the flames had died out and was noted in the Chicago Tribune's first post-fire issue. Michael Ahern, the reporter that came with the story would retract it in 1893, admitting that it was fabricated.
More recently, amateur historian Richard Bales has come to believe it was actually started when Daniel "Pegleg" Sullivan, who first reported the fire, ignited some hay in the barn while trying to steal some milk. However, evidence recently reported in the Chicago Tribune by Anthony DeBartolo suggests Louis M. Cohn may have started the fire during a craps game. Cohn may also have admitted to starting the fire in a lost will, according to Alan Wykes in his 1964 book The Complete Illustrated Guide to Gambling.
October 8, 1582 - Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
This leads to mass confusion and most of the populous just go back to bed and wait for tomorrow.
October 8, 1869 - Franklin Pierce, an American politician and the fourteenth President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857 is to date the only president from New Hampshire and was the first president born in the nineteenth century.
His good looks and inoffensive personality caused him to make many friends, but he suffered tragedy in his personal life (all three of his children died in childhood - don't ask how his third child died) and as president subsequently made decisions which were widely criticized and divisive in their effects, thus giving him the reputation as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.
After losing the Democratic nomination for a second term, Pierce reportedly quipped "there's nothing left to do but get drunk" (quoted also as "after the White House what is there to do but drink?") which he apparently did frequently. He once ran over an elderly woman while driving a carriage drunk. Franklin Pierce died in Concord, New Hampshire on this date at 64 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver, thus ending his miserable life
October 8, 1918 - Sgt. Alvin York (Gary Cooper) of Tennessee became a World War I hero by single-handedly capturing a hill in the Argonne Forest of France, killing 20 enemy soldiers and capturing 132 others.
What makes this feat all the more amazing is that York original applied and was denied Conscientious objector status because of his religious beliefs.
October 8, 1919- The first U.S. transcontinental air race began with 63 planes competing in the round-trip aerial derby between California and New York. Each way took about three days.
Seven men lost their lives during the race - flying was extremely hazardous at the time. Even the winner, Lieutenant Belvin W. Maynard, on September 7th 1922, would meet his death three years later, while stunt flying at a county fair in Rutland, Vermont
October 8, 1928 - Police raid 20 speakeasies in New York City in an effort to crack down on illegal liquor sales.
Police remain blind drunk in New York for three days afterward.
October 8, 1956- New York Yankees pitcher Donald James Larson pitches the first perfect game in a World Series--no walks, no hits, no runs.
His perfect game remains the only no-hitter of any type ever pitched in postseason play.
October 8, 1993 - Ted Danson appears in black face at a Friars Club roast.
His offensive comments amuse Whoopi Goldberg but the incident becomes a great embarrassment.
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