It's Turkey Day folks

Remember, it's about 20 minutes per pound for a frozen turkey and 15 minutes for a fresh one.

November 26, 1942 -
"Round up the usual suspects", Casablance, premiered in NYC on this date.



I came to Casablanca for the waters.


Today in History:
November 26, 1789 -
The first national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.



Thanks George.

As you know, the immigrant scum that settled this country discomfited the uncivilized savages that had lived here before them (having themselves discomfited still other savages). Landing on the east coast and gradually moving west, the wave of aliens pressed the wild savages further and further west until at last they reached the Pacific Ocean and there was nowhere left for them to go.

Or was there?

The Indians clearly continued their westward expansion, because it was just 60 years ago this very day that they finally approved their Constitution . On January 26, 1950, the Constitution took effect On January 26, 1979, "Le Freak" was on the top of the American charts.



It's nice to think there's a connection.

(India should not be confused with the East Indies, which is a consortium of independent film companies on the Lower East Side and which in turn should not be confused with the Yeast Undies - a disgusting concept.)


November 26, 1865 -


Oxford Don and nude child photographer Charles Dodgson, sends the manuscript for the psychedelic novel "Alice in Wonderland" to his 12 year old special friend Alice Liddell.



For some reason her parents did not notify the authorities.


November 26, 1976 -
Anarchy in the UK, (as a single) by theSex Pistols is released.



The song later appeared on Never Mind the Bollocks.


Here is a brief history of the holiday you may wish to share with your loved ones:

In the winter of 1620-1621, a group of immigrants in Massachusetts experienced a devastating winter. The weather was fierce. Food was scarce. Many died. At last spring came, then summer, and by the time of the autumn harvest things were looking about as rosy as they ever look in Massachusetts.


At a fundraising dinner that fall, Governer Bradford stood up and gave a speech.

"Thank God we survived last winter," he said. "Thank God this harvest gives us a fighting chance to survive the coming winter. And thank you for your support in the last election, please make checks payable to the Committee to Re-Elect the Governor, God bless America, amen. Let's eat."


The ensuing winter didn't turn out too badly, so the superstitious immigrants concluded that Governor Bradford's magic spell of "Thanksgiving" had done the trick.

The holiday was intermittently celebrated for years, with an enthusiasm scaled to the previous winter's weather, until November 26, 1789, when President Washington issued a proclamation calling for a nationwide day of thanksgiving for the establishment of the Constitution.

Washington's proclamation wasn't much different from Bradford's.

"Thank God we survived last winter," he said. "Thank God we've got a fighting chance to survive the coming winter. Thank God we've got our own damn country now and don't have to put up with a bunch of meddling European bastards. And thank you for your support in the last election, please make checks payable to Federalists for Washington, God bless America, amen. Let's eat."


Washington, the Constitution, and many of the immigrants (who were now Americans) survived the winter, so this new spell was also deemed effective.


President Lincoln later proclaimed the last Thursday of November Thanksgiving Day in 1863, but President Roosevelt moved it back to the fourth Thursday of the month in 1939 to extend the time available for holiday shopping.


President Ford proposed making it the third Wednesday in September, in order to really extend the time available for holiday shopping, but he only made the proposal to his golden retriever, Liberty, so the suggestion never reached congress.


And so we celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November every year, in honor of having survived last winter, having got rid of those meddling European bastards, having invented our own rules, having bitch-slapped the Confederacy, and having plenty of time to shop before the holidays.




29 more shopping days until Christmas, 16 more shopping days until Hanukkah. Shop til you drop. Remember, if you don't, we won't have an economy.

And so it goes

Remain calm (it soon will be all over)

Hey, Turkey day is a day away. Begin thinking about all the creative ways to consume 3 or 4 types of pies. Here's today's tip for all cooks - continue drinking today but pace yourselves - you want to make it to Thursday without a trip to the emergency room.



Here's another holiday tip: Don't let your pet dog and his pet bird set your holiday table. The poop stains are difficult to get out.


Word of the day:
Egrote: verb, to feign an illness. She was a master of egroting in order to avoid taking tests.


Today in History:
11/25 -
According to Biblical scholars, a powerful rain storm began on this date in BC 2348. It rained an inch every ten seconds. Imagine that. An inch every ten seconds. The sheer volume and velocity of the deluge, comparable to rapid-fire artillery, ought to have been enough to kill every living thing on the planet in seconds, and yet it reportedly continued at this rate for a full 960 hours.

The only human survivors were a crotchety six-hundred-year-old man and his family. Fortunately, these sturdy souls had had the foresight to gather up two to seven specimens of every species on the planet (excepting, one assumes, the undaunted creatures of the sea) and load them onto a wooden boat before the storm began.



It may not sound like much, put like that, but considering the far-flung distribution of all the various creatures of the earth, and the difficulty of tracking down, say, all the varieties of paramecium without the benefit of a microscope, or sustaining desert flora on a water-logged ship, it was a considerable accomplishment.


I applaud the foresight, initiative, and ambition displayed by Noah and his family, but remain a little wary of the person or persons behind all that rain.


November 25, 1867 -
Patent granted to Alfred Nobel for dynamite. To quote Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok , "May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up real good!!!"


I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize - George Bernard Shaw


On November 25, 1914, Joe DiMaggio was born. In addition to leading the New York Yankee to ten World Series championships, Joe DiMaggio also got to marry Marilyn Monroe.



Be grateful for role models.


November 25, 1970 -

Japanese playwright, poet, novelist, nationalism and patron of transvestite bars, Yukio Mishima commits seppuku (self disembowelment) after an aborted coup attempt in Japan.

He had authored over 100 works and was deemed by Life magazine the "Japanese Hemmingway".



One has to ask themselves - what is it that requires "true manhood" to face one's own death willingly.


On November 25, 1977, Greece announced the discovery of the tomb of King Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great.

On November 26, 1922, archeologists Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter opened the tomb of Egypt’s King Tutankhamen.


Be grateful that the high point of your job isn’t digging up people who’ve been dead for thousands of years.




November 25, 1987 -

Fawn Hall, Oliver North's assistant, removes documents from sealed National Security Council offices inside the White House by hiding them inside her skirt, causing President Ronald Reagan to form a task force which eventually put both North and Hall on trial.

Another true American Patriot



30 more shopping days until Christmas, 17 more shopping days until Hanukkah. Shop til you drop. Remember, if you don't, we won't have an economy.

And so it goes

I suspect somewhere swines are laughing.

Celebrity chef Paula Deen discovered that the road to hell is paved with good intentions Monday at a charity event when she was hit in the face with a flying pork product.



Deen was relatively unharmed and had her revenge as she soon cooked and ate the ham.

Word of the day:
Obrumpent: adjective, breaking; bursting. The obrumpent dam certainly put a damper on Lauren's soiree; several guests were washed away, never to be seen again.

Today in History:
November 24, 1740 -
William Duell was hanged for rape and murder. A few hours later, whilst being prepared for dissection by medical students, he awakens .


The authorities took pity on him and commuted his sentence to one of transportation to Australia.

Wow that's had to freak him out.


November 24, 1859 -
Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species" 150 years ago today.



And depending on your point of view, either this is a seminal work in scientific literature and arguably the pivotal work in evolutionary biology or



you're a monkey's uncle.


November 24, 1871 -
National Rifle Association is established (in New York City.)


Who knew?


November 24, 1963 -
Extra-terrestrials used mass-hypnosis to persuade the world that someone resembling Jack Ruby had fatally shot someone resembling the person alleged to have been Lee Harvey Oswald. This also becomes the first actual murder captured on live TV.



The next day, November 25, a coffin containing the purported remains of the man many Americans believed to have been John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. And on November 29, President Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren the head of a commission to investigate the alleged assassination of the person believed to have been John F. Kennedy.



Be grateful the CIA, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, extraterrestrials, and the Children’s Television Workshop don’t give a damn about you.


November 24, 1971 -
D.B. Cooper hijacks a Northwest Orient 727 and parachutes into the freezing rain over Washington state from the rear stairway of the plane with $200,000 in cash.



Currency from the ransom is eventually located, but his body isn't.


31 more shopping days until Christmas, 18 more shopping days until Hanukkah.

And so it goes.

Ouch. Feel better, J. Lo!

Jennifer Lopez fell during her performance at the American Music Awards, making this the only reason you care about the American Music Awards.



I know many of you would like to apply salve or unguent upon her injuries area, I believe that job has already been taken.


I understand people love their pets but,


this is either TMI or a love that REALLY dare not speak its name.


Today is the birthday of both Boris Karloff (1887)



and Harpo Marx (1888).



And that makes this a good day.


Today in History:
November 23, 1910 -
English murderer Hawley Crippen an American physician is hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, England, after he was caught aboard the SS Montrose attempting to escape to Britain, on this date.


It was the first use of wireless radio for the apprehension of a criminal.


November 23, 1963 -
The first episode of Doctor Who, The Unearthly Child, premiered on the BBC, on this date.



William Hartnell was the first Doctor Who.


November 23, 1976 -
Jerry Lee Lewis has been a bad boy again. On this date, he was arrested in front of Graceland in Memphis for public drunkenness, and carrying a chrome plated .38.



Looking for Elvis, I bet.


32 more shopping days until Christmas, 29 more shopping days until Hanukkah.

And so it goes.

You should not be allowed to use the good scissors,

If you need this product.



or cook for that matter.


November 22, 1940 -
This is Bette Davis at her best - The Letter, premiered in NYC on this date.



Due to the restrictive the Production Code, the film ending is different from the original play because it would not allow one of its characters be seen to get away with adultery and murder.


Today in History
November 22, 1888 -
Tarzan of the Apes (Lord Greystoke) was born on this date, according to Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel.




November 22, 1928 -
"Bolero" by Maurice Ravel has it's first public performance in Paris.



Forget about Bo Derek, sex itself, is never the same.


November 22, 1963 -

A covert CIA operation privately funded by a plutocratic cabal of multinational industrial interests acting in conjunction with extraterrestrial forces and the Knights Templar succeeded in making it appear that Lee Harvey Oswald had assassinated President John F. Kennedy, on this date.


Or this this is too much for you, you can always believe in the MAGIC BULLET.


November 22, 1968 -
Many a KKK member and Daughter of the Civil War were given the vapors on this date in history.



Capt. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) share the first interracial kiss in TV history on Star Trek.


November 22, 1975 -
Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias is proclaimed king of Spain after he confirms with advisers that Francisco Franco planned to be dead for a while.


Juan Carlos is related to both Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (and as you know they are related to each other.) To confuse matters even more, his wife Queen Sofia, is related to all three of them.


November 22, 1995 -
Toy Story is released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.





33 more shopping days until Christmas, 20 more shopping days until Hanukkah.

And so it goes

Remember to say hello to everyone you meet (that way they'll know you're crazy.)

Today is the 35th annual World Hello Day. Anyone can participate in World Hello Day simply by greeting ten people. This demonstrates the importance of personal communication for preserving peace. World Hello Day was begun in response to the conflict between Egypt and Israel in the Fall of 1973. Since then, World Hello Day has been observed by people in 180 countries.



I'm still trying to transform this day into World Hello and give Kevin 10 bucks day.

November 21,1946 -
One of the greatest films about vets returning home after WWII, The Best Years of Our Lives, premiered in NYC on this date.



To avoid awkwardness when he first met his fellow cast members, Harold Russell made a point of reaching out with his hooks and taking their hands, thus putting them at ease with his disability.


November 21, 1976 -
Ok everybody, "...Gonna Fly Now, Flying High Now..", Rocky, premiered in NYC on this date.



This was the first sports film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.


Today in History -
November 21, 1694 -


Jean Francois Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet) was born on this date. Voltaire is best known for having said things. Here are some of the witty things he said:

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."

"To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."

"Anything too stupid to be said is sung."

"God created sex. Priests created marriage."

"It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge."

"He was unhappy only when he thought: and that is true of the majority of mankind."

"People who believe in absurdities will eventually commit atrocities."

And most significantly:

"A witty saying proves nothing."


November 21, 1921 -
U.S. President Warren G. Harding signed the Wills Campbell Act, which prohibited the medical prescription of beer and liquor on this date.


He was killed - probably by his wife - two years later and nobody seemed to mind (remember, this was the clown who lost the White House China in a poker game.)

Enough said.


November 21,1964 -
The upper deck of The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (at the time it was the world's longest suspension bridge).


And it still takes forever to get to Jersey through Staten Island.


November 21, 1973 -
A gap of 18-1/2 minutes is revealed in one of the Watergate tapes, a conversation between Richard M. Nixon and Haldeman. The erasure is blamed on an accident by Nixon's private secretary Rose Mary Woods, but scientific analysis determines the erasures to be deliberate. Later, Chief of Staff Alexander Haig blames the erasure on "some sinister force".


Forensic experts are now working on Haldeman's notebook to see if they can find the imprint of any notes he may have taken that day but later destroyed.


November 21, 1980 -
The third deadliest hotel fire in history occurs at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, caused by faulty wiring; 84 people dead. Helicopters were used to rescue stranded guests from the top floors.



No more pu-pu platters with charcoal grills in the suites.


November 21, 1993 -
Death of actor Bill Bixby, who played David Banner (The Incredible Hulk's mild mannered persona, before the gamma radiation) and also starred in The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Cancer at age 51.




November 21, 1997 -
Lead singer of INXS Michael Hutchence found hanged in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Sydney Australia. Police have denied that his death was due to Autoerotic Asphyxiation.



The fact that his pants were around his ankles and copies of the magazines "Hot Chicks in Tubs of Pudding" were scattered around the room, did not enter into it.



34 more shopping days until Christmas, 21 more shopping days until Hanukkah.

And so it goes

Hey - it's going around

The disturbance in the force that you felt was not the destruction of another planet and millions of voices crying out as one - Oprah is leaving her syndicated talk show in September of '11 to concentrate on her all Oprah , all the time network.



Coming up in '11 on The Oprah Network - the special Oprah's Pap Smear show and Colon Cleansing with Oprah,"I've never felt so alive" special.


November 20, 1965 -
Michael Louis Diamond, better known as Mike D, member of the Beastie Boys, was born on this date.



We are all getting old.


Today in History -
November 20, 1917 -
T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) was held prisoner, whipped, and repeatedly raped by Turkish Army officers. He apparently thoroughly enjoys the experience.



Shades of Midnight Express.


In 1975, Generallismo Francisco Franco started his brave and courageous mission to remain dead.



He is still working at it today.


November 20, 1984 -
McDonald's made its 50 billionth hamburger .


Mrs. Edna Bulgewards has just finished digested that meal.


November 20, 1985 -
Windows 1.0, a 16-bit graphical operating environment was released on this date. It was Microsoft's first attempt to implement a multi-tasking graphical user interface-based operating environment on the PC platform. Windows 1.0 was the very first version of Windows launched.


If you think I'm going to make fun of Bill Gates, you're mistaken. Hooray for Big Brother!!!


35 more shopping days until Christmas, 22 more shopping days until Hanukkah.

And so it goes

Hey, butt out.

For over 3 decades, The Great American Smokeout, the third Thursday of November has been designated a day dedicated to helping people quit smoking, and a day which has helped many addicted smokers give up on their daily light-up habit.


The event has been around since the 1970s and is sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Quit smoking - stick around a little longer to read this blog.


November 19, 1975 -
One of Jack Nicholson's greatest performances, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, opened in the US on this date.



Kirk Douglas, who owned the rights, planned to star himself, but by the time they got around to making the film he was too old.



Word of the day -
Improcerous: adjective, low; short. The coffee table was much too improcerous to be of any real use.


Today in History -
November 19, 1581 -
Russian Czar Ivan The Terrible kills his son, Ivan, The Merely Petulant. The younger Ivan interrupted the elder Ivan, who was beating Ivan Jr's pregnant wife because of her inappropriate garb. Still in a fit of range, dad smote his son with a staff, killing him.


This is what passed for family life amongst the Royals in the Middle Ages in Russia.


On November 19, 1620, a group of maniacal religious fanatics reached North America and stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock. Because America did not yet have a Puritan Government, they developed the Mayflower Compact while still at sea. (William Bradford had argued for a Sporty Coupe, but the more practical John Alden had carried the day.)



Eventually the descendants of these frugal and passionately religious people would invent the Internet and enable the transmission of pornography around the world at light speed.


November 19, 1703 -
The Man in the Iron Mask dies in the Bastille. He was a prisoner of Louis XIV, forced to wear a black velvet mask, and his identity has never been revealed.





Seven score and six years ago today (i.e., November 19, 1863), President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.



The speech remains an important part of American history on account of its having been written on the back of an envelope despite stringent postal requirements that addresses be printed clearly on the front.


November 19, 1954 -
Driving to Los Angeles, Sammy Davis, Jr. is in a serious automobile accident in San Bernardino.



He lost his left eye, but the resultant publicity greatly accelerated his career.


November 19, 1961 -
Michael Rockefeller, 23 year old son of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller (later Vice President), disappears while searching for Asmat wood carvings in the jungles near Atsj, Papua New Guinea. He was probably eaten by the Asmat.



Hence the motto, " Eat the Rich".



36 more shopping days until Christmas, 23 more shopping days until Hanukkah. Shop til you drop. Remember, if you don't, the terrorists have won.


And so it goes

Another great find on the internet.

Here is a clip of an unfinished documentary about Las Vegas lounge acts from the late 60's through the early 70's.



Go on youtube and encourage the maker to finish it (I don't know him but this is just too good not to complete.)


November 18, 1959 -
The Biblical spectaculars to end all spectaculars, Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston, had its world premiere in New York, on this date.



Paul Newman was offered the role of Judah Ben-Hur but turned it down because he said he didn't have the legs to wear a tunic.


November 18, 1987 -
Bernardo Bertolucci's magnificent take on Pu Yi, The Last Emperor, premiered in NYC on this date.



This was the first feature film granted permission by the Chinese government to be filmed in the Forbidden City. John Lone has to make more movies.


November 18, 1992 -
The biopic of the influential Black Nationalist leader, Malcolm X, premiered on this date.



This was the first non-documentary production that was given permission to film in Mecca.


Senticous: adjective, prickly; thorny. Naughty Larry pricked himself on a senticous bush as he peeked through the neighbor's window.


Today in History
November 18, 1307 -
Local Child Services authorities in Uri, Switzerland report that a William Tell shoots apple off his son's head . Charges may be pending.




November 18, 1421 -
A seawall at the Zuiderzee dike breaks, in the Netherlands, flooding 72 villages and killing somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 people.


Let the joke commence about the killer dikes.


November 18, 1477 -
William Caxton published the first book printed in England, on this date. The book was a translation of The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, by Frenchman Guillaume de Tignoville. The translation to English was performed by Anthony Wodville, Earl Rivers, who had devoted a considerable portion of his life to the study of philosophers' dictes.


Wodville first formulated the theory that the length of a philosopher's dicte was less important than its thrust. He has also been credited with originating the theory that a philosopher's dicte was commensurate with his shoe size. Neither theory is given much credence by contemporary philosophers, most of whom appear to be dicteless anyway.


November 18, 1686 -
King of France Louis XIV's anal fistula is operated on by surgeon Charles Francois Felix, with great success, in front of the horrified yet fascinated court. To prepare for the operation Felix practiced his surgery on anuses of the peasantry, with some fatalities at first but improving his technique in time for the royal bung.


You know what they say, "if at first you don't succeed..."


November 18, 1928 -
Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse (according to the Disney corporation and I wouldn't mess with them.)



Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, is released on this date (it's the third appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse).


November 18, 1970 -
Singer/polygamist Jerry Lee Lewis divorces his third wife Myra Gail, after 12 years of marriage. Not only was she jailbait when they got married (being 13 at the time), but Lewis was married to Jane Mitcham at the time.



It's so hard to keep details like the number of wives you have straight in your mind.


November 18, 1978 -
Congressman Leo Ryan is slain at the People's Temple compound in Guyana, after which over 900 members of the cult led by the Reverend Jim Jones drank cyanide laced Flavor Aid (a Kool Aid knockoff), including over 270 children. It was probably not a pretty sight.


Also, The Kraft Foods Company would like you guys to stop making those damn 'drink the Kool Aid' jokes



- it wasn't them. So go 'drink the damn Flavor Aid and drop dead'.


November 18, 1985 -
The comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, created by Bill Waterson, is first published.


(in my humble opinion, the world's greatest strip)


37 more shopping days until Christmas, 24 more shopping days until Hanukkah. Shop til you drop. Remember, if you don't, the terrorists who are going on trial in NYC have won.


And so it goes

And no people were injuried in the making of this video.

The Penn Coach Yard chimney in the 30th Street Station railyards in Philadelphia, or the more colloquial term amongst students at Drexel University for the structure, the Drexel Shaft, was imploded on Sunday morning



Either this is emblematic of the decline of America or sometimes a cigar is just a good smoke.


November 17, 1942 -


Martin Scorsese, Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, producer, actor, film historian and asthmatic





November 17, 1933 -
The unbelievable box office flop (at the time), Duck Soup, opened on this date.



The film did so poorly when it opened, Paramount canceled the boys contract and MGM promptly signed them, where they produced two of their classic films, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.



(This film marks the last appearance of Zeppo Marx in a Marx Brothers film.)


November 17, 1951 -
Another in the series of Daffy and Porky buddy flicks, Drip-Along Daffy, opened on this date.



Slight pause while I adjust my acuetruments!


Today's word of the day -
Oncethmus: noun, braying. Stop your oncethmus, Joe - you're sounding like a jackass more and more every day.


Today in History -
November 17, 1558 -
Elizabeth I of England ascended to the throne, on this date.



She is best known for her imperfect application of the cosmetic sciences, a flaw that is strikingly evident in all her portraits but that courtiers were apparently reluctant to address.


November 17, 1796 -
Empress Catherine the Great dies of a stroke while sitting on the commode and not while astride her steed (or something like that) on this date.



So dammit, stop making those jokes.


November 17, 1903 -
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's stubbornness split his Russian Social Democratic Labor Party into two factions: the slim majority who sided with him, and the vast minority who opposed him, on this date.



The Russian terms for majority and minority are Bolshevik and Menshevik, respectively, and so these factions took their names.

Later the Mensheviks became the majority party, meaning that the Mensheviks had become Bolsheviks and the Bolsheviks Mensheviks.

This was confusing. If you asked someone what they were and they said "Bolshevik," you'd have no way of knowing whether they meant Bolshevik (Menshevik) or Menshevik (Bolshevik). This state of affairs quickly became intolerable. All sorts of remedies were suggested — placards, ID bracelets, hats, tattoos—but it was impossible to arrive at a consensus until Lenin clarified matters by having all the Mensheviks shot.

It was easy after that.


November 17, 1968 -
NBC preempts the final 1:05 from a very close Jets-Raiders NFL football game with "Heidi". Two touchdowns were scored during this missing time.



Sports fans everywhere applaud and understand the network's decision.


November 17, 1973 -
"People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook".



Thus spoke Richard M. Nixon on this date.



38 more shopping days until Christmas, 25 more shopping days until Hanukkah.

And so it goes

It's like the 'I Spy' books come to life

It's like the 'I Spy' books come to life

Photographer and Children's book author, Walter Wick, stacks 117 objects on a Lego block, then knocks them down.



Cool (I've spent too much time with the kids this weekend.)


(After a brief respite) Today's word:
Adimpleate: verb, to fill up. Adimpleate this glass, my good barkeep, I have a powerful thirst.


Today in History:
November 16, 42 BC -

Tiberius Claudius Nero was born on this date. He was the Emperor of Rome from 14 to 37 AD.



He was not the Nero who fiddled while Rome burned (nor did he riddle while foam churned.)and nor was he the crippled, seemingly dimwitted Claudius (Derek Jacobi) - John the Baptist and Jesus were put to death during his reign, as well as many whose deaths didn't result in the creation of a religion.


November 16, 1906 -
Opera star Enrico Caruso is charged with an indecent act committed in the monkey house of New York's Central Park Zoo. He pinched the bottom of a woman described as "pretty and plump", causing outrage amongst New York high society. Caruso claimed a monkey pinched the lady's bottom.



You know what I think - Caruso pinched the monkey's bottom and the fat lady was jealous. And you don't even want to know what the monkey was doing to hmself at the time.


November 16, 1952 -
Lucy first holds a football for Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoon strip.



What was often left out of the cartoon strip by newspaper editors was the last panel where Charlie Brown beating the living daylights out of Lucy for pulling that stunt.


November 16, 1957 -
Serial killer Ed Gein kills his final victim, Bernice Worden, a storeclerk in her 50's. Her decapitated body is later found outdoors hanging from a block and tackle, gutted. Some parts were unaccounted for.



"Mother, no, no. So much blood!!!"


November 16, 1981 -
Actor William Holden dies after a fall, hitting his head on a table. He is too drunk to telephone for assistance; instead he dies alone, bleeding to death trying to treat his wound with kleenex. If it wasn't so sad, it would sound like the end of a classic film noir.



Years later, Suzanne Vega references his ignominious death in her song, "Tom's Diner".


39 more shopping days until Christmas, 26 more shopping days until Hanukkah.

And so it goes.

It's America Recycles Day

Be a good American - eat leftovers tonight!!!




November 15, 1935 -
The Marx Brother's classic send up of the Opera world, A Night at the Opera, premiered on this date. "...And now, on with the opera. Let joy be unconfined. Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor. "



This is the first Marx Brothers film made without Zeppo.


November 15, 1945 -
The beautifully lyrical, Les enfants du paradis, opened in the US on this date.



That this film was made during the height of WWII in Paris is amazing - a large number of members of the French Resistance worked on this film's crew, as Nazi power was at its peak in France and these fighters needed concealing.


Today in History
November 15, 1660 -
Asser Levy is the first kosher butcher licensed in NYC (New Amsterdam). Later that day, a Mrs. Yetta Abromowicz is the first customer to ask if the chicken was fresh.


Today in 1864, Union General William T. Sherman begins his March to the Sea and burns Atlanta.



Rhett rescues Scarlett and a very pregnant Melanie from Aunt Pittypat's Peachtree Street home before the conflagration begins.


Rhett declares his love for Scarlett but she rebuffs him.


But that's a another story.


November 15, 1887 -


American artist Georgia O'Keeffe was born on this date. Ms. O'Keeffe is best known for her colorful paintings of desert flowers that don't look like vaginas.





40 more shopping days until Christmas, 27 more shopping days until Hanukkah.


And so it goes

Kids, this is a cautionary tale.

Watch this animated special about Dock Ellis' legendary LSD fueled no-hitter.



Kids, don't do drugs (unless you play major league baseball.)


November 14, 1966 -
François Truffaut's foray into Science Fiction, Fahrenheit 451, opened in the US on this date.



The film is the only English language film directed by François Truffaut, who was so eager to begin filming that he and his co-writer wrote the screenplay before they had fully mastered English.


November 14, 1980 -
Possibly the greatest film ever made (there I said it), Raging Bull premiered in NYC on this date (I was actually at the premiere.)



Everyone knows that De Niro gained 60 pounds to play the older La Motta - a record weight gain for an actor. De Niro held that record until Vincent D'Onofrio gained an astonishing 70 pounds for his role in Full Metal Jacket.


November 14, 1851 -
Harper & Brothers published Herman Melville's most famous novel, on this date.


Called Moby Dick, the tale is teeming with seamen, spermaceti, and rigid harpoons. Scholars continue to debate its symbolism. The British publisher accidentally left out the ending of the book, the epilogue. This confused a lot of British readers, because without the epilogue there was no explanation of how Ishmael, the narrator, lived to tell the tale. It seemed like he died in the end with everyone else on the ship. The reviews from Britain were harsh, and costly to Melville.



Oops.

In America, Moby-Dick sold for $1.50 but contained the epilog (the great savings were seen by leaving off the ue). At the time, Americans deferred to British critical opinion, and a lot of American newspaper editors reprinted reviews from Britain without actually reading the American version with the proper ending. One reviewer said the book wasn't worth more than 25 cents. It took only two weeks for the publisher to see that Moby-Dick would sell even fewer copies than Melville's previous books. In his lifetime, Melville's royalties added up to a total of about $10,000.

These days, college students buy 20,000 copies of Moby-Dick every year.



Melville said, "It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."


November 14, 1908 -
Albert Einstein presented his quantum theory of light for the first time


while future Senator Joseph McCarthy was being born,


although not in the same room, on this date.

McCarthy's communist witch-hunts of the mid-twentieth century live in infamy despite the fact that they failed to uncover a single communist witch.

Einstein's quantum theory remains popular because people like the word quantum. In fact, Einstein's seldom-cited Law of Quantum Usage states that there is an inversely proportionate relationship between one's understanding of quantum theory and one's likelihood of discussing it.


November 14, 1940 -

The Nazis bomb Coventry, England, destroying the cathedral and killing several hundred people.



Bad Nazis.


November 14, 1968 -
National Turn In Your Draft Card Day - featuring burning your draft card hour.





41 more shopping days until Christmas, 28 more shopping days until Hanukkah. (Black Friday is just 15 days away.)



And so it goes

Boo (it's Friday the 13th)

November 13, 1789 -
Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."


I always took Ben to be a more cheerful fellow.


The modern basis for Friday the 13th phobia dates back to Friday, October 13, 1307.


On this date, the Pope Clement in Conjunction with the King Philip of France secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France. The Templars were terminated (burned to a crisp) for apostasy, idolatry, heresy, "obscene rituals" and homosexuality, corruption and fraud, and secrecy, never again to hold the power that they had held for so long.

Those wacky Knights were such party animals.


November 13, 1940 -
Walt Disney's film 'Fantasia,' opened in New York .



Fantasia, despite its initial commercial failure, went on to become one of the most popular films of all time and is today considered a classic film.


November 13, 1955 -
Happy Birthday Caryn



Whoopi Goldberg (Caryn Elaine Johnson) actress, comedienne, and television host, was born on this day.


Today in History -
November 13, 1927 -

New York's Holland Tunnel officially opened today, the first underwater tunnel built in the United States, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River, ushering in a massive wave of Dutch immigration (and more fools them - The tunnel was named after its chief engineer, Clifford Milburn Holland, who died of a heart attack on the operating table while undergoing a tonsillectomy, as a posthumous honor, starting the trend for the NY/NJ interstate crossings to have names with no relation to their geographic locations).



Most of the Dutch returned to Holland after learning that New Amsterdam had become New York.




While it is a particularly uneventful day in history, let us opine these words:

"The students are beyond control and their behavior is disgraceful. They come blustering into the lecture-rooms like a troop of maniacs and upset the orderly arrangements which the master has made in the interest of his pupils. Their recklessness is unbelievable and they often commit outrages which ought to be punishable by law, were it not that custom protects them."



People concerned about the pace of change in human affairs can find solace in knowing that these familiar sentiments were expressed about sixteen centuries ago by St. Augustine, who was born on November 13, 354 AD.





Like many other theological luminaries, Augustine began life as a debauched young man who sought his pleasures in wine, women, and song. Eventually he became old and cranky and declared his youth wasted. The drunken orgies of his youth are recounted in his Confessions, which have at last been optioned by HBO and are expected to begin production later this year.



And so it goes.

On a personal note: I've been dividing my time as of late between this daily distraction and a friends' new site

http://www.Mymightyteam.com

If you have a chance, check it out.