Don't really think about where milk comes from

Today is Moldy Cheese day.



Am I really going to encourage you to eat rotting cheese, (while bleu, camembert, gorgonzola, maytag blue, roquefort, brie, and stilton are perfectly fine,) I just never thought I'd be in this position.


October 9, 1969 -
BBC's Top Of The Pops refused to play the Number One hit in the country Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus, on this date.



Serge Gainsbourg's song Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus, was considered one of the first 'orgasm records' and the BBC was not able to cope with such explicit lyrics and Jane Birkin’s moans and groans.


October 9, 1978 -
Jacques Brel was certainly not alive and well and living in Paris on this date.



Mr. Brel, the Belgian-born French cabaret singer, had died earlier in the day.


Today in History:
October 9, 28 BC -
Caesar Augustus dedicated the Temple of Apollo to his patron god Apollo, on the Palatine Hill in Rome, on this date.

Not to upset those of you with delicate natures, but just think of having the lubricant concession with the amount of unnatural act committed that night.


October 9, 1000 -
Leif Ericson discovered Vinland and became 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.


October 9, 1582 -
It's true, tomorrow never knows.



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 populace just go back to bed and give up belief in calendars.


On this date in 1776 a group of Spanish Missionaries, led by Father Francisco Palou founded 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, 1915 -
Took my girl to a baseball game, sat her in the front ...

President Woodrow Wilson and his then fiancé, Edith Gault (and soon be the first female U.S. President, but that another story ...) watched game two of the World Series, at Baker Bowl, between Boston and Philadelphia on this date.

Wilson, an avid baseball fan, becomes the first U.S. President to attend a World Series.


October 9, 1934 -
While the Boomtown Rats don't like Mondays, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia didn'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 October 9, 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 (I hate when that happens.)

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 a bloody pulp.



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 October 8th, 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, news 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 headquarters. 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, 1973 -
All this new stuff they call rock ’n’ roll, why, I’ve been playing that for years now… Ninety percent of rock-and-roll artists came out of the church, their foundation is the church.



Sister Rosetta Tharpe, pioneering gospel singer and recording artist, died on this date.


October 9, 1974 -
Obscure German businessman Oskar Schindler, passed away at the age of 66 in Frankfurt, Germany on this date. A member of the Nazi Party, he ran an enamel-works factory in Krakaw during the German occupation of Poland, employing workers from the nearby Jewish ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated, he persuaded Nazi officials to allow the transfer of his workers to the Plaszow labor camp, thus saving them from deportation to the death camps.



In 1944, all Jews at Plaszow were sent to Auschwitz, but Schindler, at great risk to himself, bribed officials into allowing him to keep his workers and set up a factory in a safer location in occupied Czechoslovakia. By the war's end, he was penniless, but he had saved 1,200 Jews. In 1962, he was declared a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, Israel's official agency for remembering the Holocaust. According to his wishes, he was buried in Israel at the Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion.


October 9, 1985 -
Happy Birthday John

Central Park's Strawberry Fields was dedicated on John Lennon's birthday, by Yoko Ono, who had underwritten the project, on this date.


There are 83 days left in the year



(So therefore there are 77 days until Christmas.)



Plan accordingly.



And so it goes

You may be glad you have enough

Today is Fluffernutter Day, celebrating the fresh white bread, peanut butter, and marshmallow cream sandwich.



While this may be a childhood favorite for some - it's causing me to gag to even think about.


Wow, I can't believe I nearly missed that today is the 35 anniversary of Talking Heads: Remain in Light - talk about TBT!



Same as it ever was, indeed.


October 8, 1925 -
One of the most expensive movie made, at the time (at $3.9 million,) Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ premiered on this date.



This film had an "extra" cast like no other. Many Hollywood stars showed up on set to watch the shooting and were pressed into service as extras, especially in the chariot race. In addition, many who would later become Hollywood's top stars, but who were at the time just struggling actors, were also in the crowd scenes as extras. Among well-known and soon-to-be-well-known names "working" in the film were John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Marion Davies, Myrna Loy, John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks, Clark Gable, Harold Lloyd, Carole Lombard, Janet Gaynor, Fay Wray, Mary Pickford, Colleen Moore, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Samuel Goldwyn and Rupert Julian.


Today in History:
October 8, 1582 -
Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day (and the four previous days) does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.



This leads to mass confusion and most of the populace 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, 1871 -
Mrs O'Leary's cow started The Great Chicago Fire that destroyed more than 17,000 buildings, killed more than 300 people and left 90,000 homeless, on this date.



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 climate 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.



In 1997, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution exonerating Catherine - and her cow - from all blame.



Occurring the same day as the Great Chicago fire, a forest fire broke out at Peshtigo, Wisconsin, eventually killing about 2,500 people while burning some 850 square miles including, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan (making it the largest lost of life by fire in the United States.)


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 more than 20 enemy soldiers and capturing 132 others on this date.



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, would meet his death three years later, while stunt flying at a county fair in Rutland, Vermont, on September 7, 1922.


October 8, 1928 -
Police raid 20 speakeasies in New York City in an effort to crack down on illegal liquor sales on this date.

New York City Police remain blind drunk, wandering the streets for three days afterward.


October 8, 1948 -
As far as my favorite songs to perform live, most of the songs we did live were my favorite. If they weren't, I would have gotten rid of them.



Johnny Ramone (nee John William Cummings) the lead guitarist for The Ramones was born on this date.


October 8, 1956 -
New York Yankees pitcher Donald James Larsen pitches the first perfect game in a World Series - no walks, no hits, no runs.



His perfect game was the only no-hitter of any type ever pitched in postseason play until Doc Halladay pitched one on October 6th, 2010.


October 8, 1993 -
Ted Danson appeared in black face at a Friars Club roast for Whoopi Goldberg on this date.

His offensive comments amused Whoopi Goldberg but the incident becomes a great embarrassment.


Before I let you go - the folks at SoulPancakes got a group of people between the ages of 0 - 100 (well really a couple of months old to 105) and asked them to show off their best dance moves -



Remember, Dance like no one is watching!



And so it goes

When will this ever end!

14 years ago today, the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom, hunting for the terrorist in Afghanistan, that brought down the World Trade Center Towers. Given the current situation on the ground, there are rumors of a troop increase again.

Last week, the 2370th US soldier died; there have been 3502 coalition deaths.  Please take a moment out of your day today to consider the sacrifices, warranted or not, that the men and woman of the US military (and their families) have made.


October 7, 1950 -
The character of Granny appeared for the first time in a Looney Tunes Cartoon when Canary Row premiered on this date.



The title of this cartoon is a play of words on the 1945 John Steinbeck novel, Cannery Row.


October 7, 1952 -
A little TV show called American Bandstand premiered on this date, 63 years ago.



It premiered locally as a live show, Bandstand, on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV (Channel 6, now WPVI-TV) on this date in Studio 'B', which was located in their just-completed addition to the original 1947 building (4548 Market Street) and was hosted by Bob Horn, with Lee Stewart as co-host. Dick Clark did not become associated with the show until 1956.


October 7, 1960 -
Kirk Douglas in his magnificent leather thong, starred in Spartacus, which premiered in the US on this date.



Stanley Kubrick was not given control of the script, which he felt was full of stupid moralizing. After his work on Spartacus, Kubrick always kept full control over all aspects of his films.


October 7, 1960 -
Route 66 premiered on this date.



The show was originally to be called The Searchers, which would have made a lot more sense, but producers feared there would be confusion with the very popular John Wayne western by that name that came out four years earlier.


October 7, 1971 -
William Friedkin's taut policier, The French Connection, opened in NYC on this date.



William Friedkin recently reiterated his claim that he did not have any official permission for the iconic car chase and only secured 'permission' with a $40,000 bribe to an MTA official.


Today in History:
October 7, 1849 -
On this date, Edgar Allen Poe was found in a delirious state (Maryland) outside a Baltimore voting place (saloon).




Mr. Poe was often found delirious, especially outside voting places,



but this time his delirium was serious and he died.


October 7, 1952 -
It's Vladimir Putin's 63rd birthday.



Somebody please check what the Russian people are drinking; in the past year, Russia has annexed Crimea, and transformed what had been a domestic Ukrainian crisis an international one and propping up a failing regime by bombing the resistance in Syria; Putin’s approval numbers have never been higher (domestically.)


October 7, 1955 -
It was on this day in San Francisco at the Six Gallery, the poet Allen Ginsberg read his poem Howl for the first time.



The poem begins, "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." His friend Jack Kerouac sat on the edge of the stage and when Ginsberg was done, the audience exploded in applause.



When Lawrence Ferlinghetti published the poem Howl out of his City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, he was arrested and tried for obscenity, but he was found not guilty.


October 7, 1959 -
... There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark.



The dark far side of the Moon was photographed for the first time and pictures relayed back to Earth by Russia's Luna 3 spacecraft. After passing the moon, the Luna 3 looked back from a distance of 63,500 km to take 29 photos of the sunlit far side of the moon.



The photos, taken over a period of 40 minutes, were developed onboard and radioed back to earth on October 18, 1959. They covered 70% of the far side. While the resolution of the photographs was very low resolution, many of the features of the moon could be recognized.


October 7, 1964 -
Walter W. Jenkins, chief White House aide and longtime friend of President Lyndon B. Johnson, was arrested for disorderly conduct two blocks from the White House on this date. Jenkins was discovered in a YMCA pay toilet with another man.

Ultimately, Jenkins is forced to resign, so as not to jeopardize Johnson's re-election campaign. Jenkins stated that during his arrest, his mind had been "befuddled by fatigue, alcohol, physical illness, and lack of food."

Yeah, that's it, befuddled by fatigue... yeah, that and a wide stance will get you in trouble in a mens public restroom all the time.



And so it goes

When the CIA ran a cartoon studio

In the late 40s through the 50s, the CIA led a top secret campaign, called Militant Liberty that encouraged studios to insert the theme of freedom into Hollywood movies.  Alfred P. Sloan (think about the name and it will come to you) the recently retired head of of General Motors from 1923 to 1946, was recruited to head the cause.  Sloan hired George Stewart Benson, president of Harding College to produce a series of cartoons to promote anti-Communist, pro-free enterprise themes.



Why Play Leap Frog? (1949) was one of the first.  At least three Warner Bros. cartoons during the period, Heir Conditioned,  By Word of Mouse, and Yankee Dood It were probably produced under this program.  And the  famous Duck and Cover as well as Disney's Our Friend the Atom have the fingerprints of the program all over them. (We don't even have time to discuss the CIA's involvement with the live action studios during the time.)


Today is Mad Hatter day. The Mad Hatter wore a top hat on the front of which a slip of paper with reads "10/6."



(Except since the Mad Hatter lived in England, 10/6 might refer to June 10th - but I'm not going there.)


October 6, 1927 -
Good, bad or indifferent to it, The Jazz Singer (the first feature-length movie with audible synchronized dialogue), premiered in NYC on this date.



George Jessel, star of the stage version, was asked to play the role in the film, but refused over a pay dispute. Eddie Cantor was also asked, and also refused.


October 6, 1963 -
The wonderful adaption of the classic 18th Century novel, Tom Jones premiered in NYC on this date.



Albert Finney felt the lead role wasn't serious enough, and agreed to star only if he got a producing credit; he later traded the credit for profit participation.


October 6, 1976 -
The song, Disco Duck by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots received a gold record on this date. The song was featured in the movie Saturday Night Fever but was not included on its soundtrack album.



The voice of this song sounds a lot like the Disney character Donald Duck, prompting speculation that Clarence Nash, who voices Donald Duck, sang on this. The Walt Disney Company has emphatically denied this rumor; however, in 1979, toward the tail end of the disco era, Disney put out an album called Mickey Mouse Disco featuring adaptations of various disco songs, including one by Nash as Donald Duck.


Today in History:
Today is Armed Forces Day in Egypt (we'll get back to Armed Forces Day in a moment but it's not in celebration of the Elvis Costello album) and Ivy Day in Ireland. (Ivy Day is not a horticultural celebration. The date marks the anniversary of the 1891 death of Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell;



Irish favoring home rule traditionally pin a bit of ivy to their lapels in his honor. Ivy Day should not be confused with I.V. Day,

celebrated only by drips.)



Aeschylus was the first Greek playwright to produce tragedies as we would know them today, but that's not important to our story today.



According to legend, Aeschylus died when an eagle, mistaking his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise on it, killing him instantly on this date in 456BC (that was tragedy for Aeschylus but it's comedy to us.)


October 6, 1014 -
Czar Samuil of Bulgaria died of a heart attach after an army of 15,000 of his men returned, blinded by his enemy Emperor Basil of the Byzantine Empire. One out of every hundred of his men was permitted to keep one eye, such that they were able to return home.



For this victory Basil earned the title Bulgaroctonus, slayer of Bulgars.

I guess we shouldn't complain.


October 6 is the anniversary of one of the greatest moments in the history of literary criticism. It was on that date in 1536 that William Tyndale was recognized for his important contribution to world literature—the first translation of the New Testament into English - by being tied to the stake, strangled, and his dead body then burnt.



Ah, when men were men, women were women, and critics were murderous, torch-wielding fanatics!


October 6, 1966 -
LSD was declared illegal in the US on this date.



Hopefully you timed your intake accordingly.


October 6, 1973 -
In a surprise attack on the Jewish highest holiday of Yom Kippur - Syrian and Egyptian armies invaded Israel on this date, starting, what became known as, the Yom Kippur War. The US came to Israel's aid, but as Israel began winning the war, Israel wouldn't back down from the siege brought on by the Egyptian troops to the south.



The Soviet Union threatened to intervene on Egypt's behalf, causing high tensions between the US and Soviet Union that caused lasting damage to the relationship between two. Eventually, all parties came to a peace agreement.


October 6, 1976 -
During a televised debate on this date, President and candidate Gerald Ford asserts that there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.



Ford lost the election. (there are several current Republicans via for the White House, using his playbook.)


October 6, 1981 -
During Armed Forces Day (commemorating Egypt's participation in the Arab-Israeli War,) armed gunmen leapt from a truck and began shooting into the reviewing stand at Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.



The assassination had been approved by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric later convicted in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.



And so it goes.

Today's secret word is 'Genius'

October 5, 1950 -
You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx with his announcer George Fenneman, premiered on NBC-TV on this date. Its' run lasted 11 years.



Groucho Marx stated that the biggest laugh he ever got on the show was when he was talking to a female contestant. He asked about her husband, and she replied earthily, "Have you ever been made love to by a Frenchman?" The audience went into gales of laughter, and Groucho answered, "Not that I can recall!"


October 5, 1956 -
The huge, hulking, biblical spectacular, The Ten Commandments (the last film directed by the master showman, Cecil B Demille) opened on this date.



When asking the Egyptian authorities for permission to film there, Cecil B. DeMille was pleasantly surprised to find out they were fans of his film The Crusades (1935). "You treated us [Arabs in the film] so well, you may do anything here you want," they told him.


October 5, 1961 -
Blake Edwards' adaptation of Truman Capote's novel, Breakfast at Tiffany's, premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on this date.



Although not visible on camera, hundreds of onlookers watched Audrey Hepburn's window-shopping scene at the start of the film. This made her nervous and she kept making mistakes. It wasn't until a crew member nearly got electrocuted behind the camera that she pulled herself together and finished the scene.


October 5, 1962 -
Parlophone Records released the Beatles first single, Love Me Do, in England on this date. (The b side was, P.S., I Love You.)



John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this in 1958, when John was 17 and Paul was 16. They made time for songwriting by skipping school. They had written songs before, but this was the first one they liked enough to record.


October 5, 1969 -
The British Empire had been on a long slow decline for many years. The last flourish of that dying world power happened on this date - Monty Python's Flying Circus made its debut on BBC-TV.



The funniest joke in the world is what Eric Idle refers to as "German gibberish". But for those who can handle it, it is, "Venn ist das nurnstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beigerhund das oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!"  When translated into English, the Funniest Joke in the World is complete nonsense.


October 5, 1990 -
Henry & June, the first NC-17-rated film was released in the US on this date.



Alec Baldwin was originally cast as Henry Miller but pulled out two weeks prior to filming.


Today in History:
October 5, 1877 -
... I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking-glass is dead. Too-hul-hul-suit is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men, now, who say ’yes’ or ’no’[that is, vote in council]. He who led on the young men [Joseph’s brother, Ollicut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people--some of them--have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are---perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find;maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever! ....



Chief Joseph, exhausted and disheartened, surrendered in the Bears Paw Mountains of Montana, forty miles south of Canada ending the Nez Percé war. Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain was born in 1840 in the Wallowa Valley of what is now northeastern Oregon. He took the name of his father, (Old) Chief Joseph or Joseph the Elder. When his father died in 1871, Joseph or Joseph the Younger, was elected his father's successor. He continued his father's efforts to secure the Nez Percé claim to their land while remaining peaceful towards the whites.


October 5, 1902 -
Ray Kroc was born on this date.



Mr Kroc invented McDonalds, which caused the collapse of the Soviet Union and made us all fat, allowing us to buy sub prime mortgage properties, which ultimate will bring down the United States as a dominant world power. (Michael Keaton is currently in production with a bio-pic on the business man.)


October 5, 1970 -
PBS became a network on this date.



Unlike the model of America's commercial television networks, in which affiliates give up portions of their local advertising airtime in exchange for network programming, PBS member stations pay substantial fees for the shows acquired and distributed by the national organization.


October 5, 1974 -
David Kunst left Waseca, Minnesota on  June 20, 1970 and completed the first journey around the world on foot, returning to Waseca, Minnesota, on this date, four years, three months and sixteen days later.



He crossed four continents, walked 14,450 miles and went through 21 pairs of shoes. On October 21, 1972, he and his brother were shot during their portion of the trek through Afghanistan (his brother, John, was unfortunately killed in the incident.)  After four months of recuperation, Dave continued on his walk with his other brother Pete.


October 5, 1989 -
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for nonviolent efforts to free his homeland from China.

The Committee’s citation read, “The Committee wants to emphasize the fact that the Dalai Lama in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people.”

Oh great, I keep blowing my chance of being read in China.



And so it goes.

Bless the Beast and the Children

St Francis of Assisi, (nee Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone,) was born the son of a rich silk merchant in Italy during the late 12th and 13th centuries. He is remembered for his generosity to the poor, love of animals and his willingness to minister to the lepers. He was fond of kissing leper's sores which comes across today as somewhat of a fetish. 

St. Francis, who at the time, was not a saint or a priest, for that matter, went on to found the Catholic Church’s Franciscan order as well as the women’s Order of St. Clare (remember the patron saint of Television.)  St. Francis was reportedly the first person to receive a stigmata (please seek out the old ladies in the back pew of church to explain that one,) as well as developing the Christmas creche. Exhausted, St Francis decided to rest on his laurels and died in Portiuncula, Italy on October 3 or 4, 1226, (neither electric lights, clocks nor calendars were around his monks' cell, so the exact time could not be established.)



In many churches around the United States, The Feast of St Francis is celebrated by offering animal blessing services. One of the largest services in the United States is held at St. John the Divine in NYC.


Once again, it's National Vodka day. While it's not my first choice of drink - I'm not one to pass up the chilled neutral spirit.



Whatever brand you drink, it always taste better fresh out of the freezer. (yes, they may quote me on that, I'd be willing to endorse the stuff.)


October 4, 1957 -
Leave It To Beaver premiered on CBS-TV on this date. Once again, another show from the 50s where the lead actor (Hugh Beaumont not Jerry Mathers) was a raging alcoholic.


(Sorry about the haze.)

In addition to his role as Ward Cleaver, Hugh Beaumont also did some writing and directing for the series.


October 4, 1964 -
Gerry Anderson's third Supermarionation could freak out unsuspecting children again when Stringray, premiered in the UK on this date.  (It was the first British series to be filmed entirely in Colour: the extra U was particularly expensive.)



Stingray takes place a few years prior to Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, with some WASP (the World Aquanaut Security Patrol) personnel becoming members of the later SPECTRUM.

Impress your friends with that bit of knowledge. (or not.)


Today in History:
October 4, 1822 -
Rutherford Hayes was born on this date , in Delaware, Ohio.



That's not especially interesting in itself. Presidents, after all, must be born somewhere - and President Hayes was not the only one to have chosen Ohio. But consider: Jimmy Carter was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, and Chester Arthur was born on October 5, 1830, in Fairfield, Vermont (or Canada.) That's three presidential birthdays in a four-day period, a glut of presidential timber not to be found anywhere else on the calendar. Hayes came into office by one electoral vote, accomplished nothing, and did not run for a second term.



Arthur came into office as James Garfield's vice-president and was promoted eight months later, upon Garfield's assassination. He accomplished nothing, and wasn't even nominated for a second term (although he does look a lot like Captain Kangaroo.)



Through no fault of his own, Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976 (and must therefore bear his share of responsibility for my own difficult misspent youth). He sought but was denied a second term.

Significance? Zero.


October 4, 1957 -
Sputnik One (meaning "companion" or "fellow traveller"), the first man-made satellite, was launched on this date, beginning the "space race."



The satellite, built by Valentin Glushko, weighed 184 pounds and was launched by a converted Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Sputnik orbited the earth every 96 minutes at a maximum height of 584 miles.



In 1958, it reentered the earth's atmosphere and burned up.

Significance? A Little More Than Zero.


October 4, 1969 -
A despondent Diane Linkletter jumps out the kitchen window of her tenth-story apartment in West Hollywood, California on this date.



Even before an autopsy can be performed, television personality Art Linkletter blames his daughter's death on a bad LSD trip. Even though the toxicology report disputes Art's assertion, the LSD story persists.


October 4, 1970 -
I always wanted to be an artist, whatever that was, like other chicks want to be stewardesses. I read. I painted. I thought.



Janis Joplin accidentally overdoses on an unusually-pure dose of heroin at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles on this date.


October 4, 1976 -
Earl Butz, President Ford's Secretary of Agriculture, was forced to resign after newspapers print a comment he made regarding race relations

(and I will paraphrase for those with weak constitutions) : "I'll tell you what the coloreds want. It's three things: first, a tight female reproductive organ; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to go to the bathroom."


October 4, 1986 -
Network news anchorman Dan Rather was mugged in New York City on this date. The attacker, one William Tager, shouts the question "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" during the beating.

While the "frequency" refers to the wavelength of the transmissions that CBS was beaming into Tager's head, history is still unclear on exactly who "Kenneth" is or why R.E.M. would record a song about it. It is rumored that the attack occurred because of Rather's uncanny resemblance to underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger.


October 4, 1989 -
Secretariat, 1973 triple crown winner and one of the greatest athletes of all time, was euthanized in Paris, Kentucky. He was 19.



Not surprisingly, viande de cheval appeared on the menu of several Parisian Bistros that night.


October 4, 1989 -
Death can really absorb a person. Like most people, I would find it pleasant not to have to go, but you just accept that it's more or less inevitable.



Dr. Graham Chapman (though he never actually practiced medicine professionally) died from complications related to spinal and throat cancer on this date.



And so it goes.

Finding something to celebrate on this rainy day.

Begin planning accordingly



October 3, 1941 -
John Huston's first directorial effort, The Maltese Falcon, premiered in NYC on this date.



At 357 pounds, 60-year-old British newcomer Sydney Greenstreet was so large that the studio had to specially manufacture his entire wardrobe for the role of Kasper Gutman. The chair in which Greenstreet sits while talking with Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) in the hotel room was also specially made for him; the chairs the prop department was going to use weren't wide enough to accommodate Greenstreet's girth nor strong enough to support his weight.


October 3, 1953 -
The final installment of the Looney Tunes "Hunting Trilogy", Duck! Rabbit, Duck!, premiered on this date.

   

Bugs Bunny stuck out four signs to lead Elmer Fudd to shoot Daffy Duck. (They are all in capital letters). In order they are:

1st GOAT SEASON OPEN;
2nd, DIRTY SKUNK SEASON;
3rd, PIGEON SEASON;
4th and last, MONGOOSE SEASON.


October 3, 1954 -
Another in the series of alcoholic actors playing model Dads, Father Knows Best, starring Robert Young premiered on this date.



The Andersons' kitchen actually had working appliances. They were used to make coffee and pastries for cast and crew members when they reported for work in the mornings.


October 3, 1955 -
Considered one of his 5 'lost films' (held up for years from re-release), Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry, premiered on this date. This was Shirley MacLaine's film debut.



Alfred Hitchcock originally designed the film as an experiment in seeing how audiences would react to a non-star-driven film. He was of the opinion that oftentimes having a big star attached actually hindered the narrative flow and style of the story. He also developed the film with a view to test how American audiences would react to a more subtle brand of humor than that which they were used to.


October 3, 1955 -
Hey kids, remember Captain Kangaroo. Well, his show premiered on this date.



Captain Kangaroo was the longest running children's series on US commercial television.


October 3, 1955 -
If today wasn't special enough, The Mickey Mouse Club also premiered on this date.



Although the show was filmed and broadcast in black and white, all of the animated segments - the opening theme, Mickey's introductions and farewells, the Jiminy Cricket shorts, etc. - were filmed in color.



Annette Funicello has stated in interviews that, upon being cast for the show, she told Walt Disney that she wanted to change her last name to one that sounded more "American". To his credit, Disney told her to keep her original last name because, "once someone remembers it, they will never be able to forget it".


October 3, 1960 -
Let grab down our fishin' poles and head down to the fishin' hole, The Andy Griffith Show premiered on this date.



Andy Griffith originally told Don Knotts that he only wanted to do the show for five years. So they both signed five-year contracts. During the fifth season, Knotts began looking for other work. He then signed a five-year deal with Universal Pictures. Suddenly, Griffith decided to continue on with the series for three more years and offered Knotts a new contract. But Knotts was already bound by his contract with Universal and left the show.


October 3, 1961 -
The Dick Van Dyke Show premiered on this date. The show wasn't an immediate success but became a hit.



For the first three seasons of the show, Alan Brady's face was never shown but his voice was heard rarely, because Carl Reiner wanted to get a big star to play Alan. Reiner eventually decided to take on the role himself as the newest on-screen star.


Today in History:
October 3, 1283 -
Dafydd ap Gruffudd was having a bad day. Besides having an unpronounceable name, he had gotten on the wrong side of King Edward I of England, for wanting to gain Welsh independence. On September 30th, Dafydd ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, was condemned to death, the first person known to have been tried and executed for what from this time onwards would be described as high treason against the King. Edward ensured that Dafydd's death was to be slow and agonizing, and also historic; he became the first person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn and quartered.

Dafydd was dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury at a horse's tail then hanged alive, revived, then disemboweled and his entrails burned before him for 'his sacrilege in committing his crimes in the week of Christ's passion,' and then his body cut into four quarters 'for plotting the king's death'.

Apparently, Edward was quite pissed off.


October 3, 1678 -
The greatest build out was finally completed on this day in history - the Taj Mahal.



Imagine what the contractor got to hide in his final bill with 20,000 laborers, master builders, masons, calligraphers, etc., working 22 years for the grieving Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to complete the great mausoleum for the shah's beloved wife.


October 3, 1728 -
Charles G Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont, French duelist, diplomat, spy, soldier, Freemason and transvestite, was born on this date.

His/ her story is far to complicated to synopsize here, read about the Chevalier for yourself.


October 3, 1863 -
Sarah J. Hale, editor and founder of the Ladies' Magazine, continually annoyed President Lincoln until he declared the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day on this date.



George Washington had previous declared a Day of Thanksgiving on November 26 on this date.

But we'll talk more about Thanksgiving in November.


October 3, 1899 -
Lonely bachelors and housewives everywhere rejoiced,

J S Thurman patented the motor-driven vacuum cleaner on this date.


October 3, 1906 -
Anticipating ABBA, SOS was adopted as warning signal by first conference on wireless telegraphy on this date.



Previously, people had to stand on the deck of their sinking ships and scream their heads off in hopes that someone would hear them.


October 3, 1922 -
Rebecca L. Felton became the first female senator in the US when she is appointed to the US Senate by Governor Thomas Hardwick of Georgia, on this date.

The appointment takes place when Congress had already adjourned, so Felton has no opportunity to serve. When the new session starts, Senator-elect Walter George, who is to replace her, will gallantly agree to claim his seat a day late, to allow the eighty-seven years old Felton to actualy serve one day. Her tenure was the shortest for any Senator in history. She was also the last former slaveowner to serve in the U.S. Senate.


October 3, 1952 -
The United Kingdom successfully tests their first atomic bomb, Operation Hurricane, four hundred yards off the coast of the Monte Bello Islands off the Australian coast, becoming the world’s third nuclear power on this date. In order to test the potential threat of a bomb smuggled in a ship, the bomb was detonated inside the hull of the frigate HMS Plym.



Despite the explosion beginning in a ship and nine feet below the water line, the explosion created a crater twenty feet deep and a thousand feet across.

Oops, radiation still lingers around the test site like a bad chili and broccoli dinner farts.


October 3, 1964 -
According to noted food historian, Calvin Trilling, the first buffalo wings were served on this date. The wings were reported to have first been made in Buffalo, New York, by the Bellissimo family at the Anchor Bar.



They were served with blue cheese dressing and given away for free. The bar now sells the wings nationwide through its website.


October 3, 1990 -
East and West Germany were officially reunited. The reunification of this once great nation was recognized as a clear sign that the Cold War was coming to an end, and was therefore celebrated not only in Germany, but throughout the world



- excepting certain corridors of France, Poland, and the Czech Republic, where the exuberance was strangely muted.


On October 3, 1992, Sinead O'Connor was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. At the end of her a capella performance of the Bob Marley song War, Sinead produced a copy of a photograph of Pope John Paul II, which she ripped into pieces.



Time has proven Sinead dead right about her protest.



And so it goes.

If there are Tom - please, put me on the guest list

The piano has been drinking, not me.



Rolling Stone created a great mash-up of various interviews with Tom Waits to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his album Raindogs, released on September 30, 1985.


October 2, 1955 -
Revenge, the very first story on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents show premieres on this date.



Alfred Hitchcock drew the caricature of himself featured in the opening credits. He began his film career as an illustrator of title cards for silent movies.


October 2, 1959 -
...a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind....

Where is Everybody? the first episode of the anthology series The Twilight Zone premiered on this date



Rod Serling thought he had come up with the term 'Twilight Zone' on his own (he liked the sound of it), but after the show aired he found out that it is an actual term used by Air Force pilots when crossing the day / night sides above the world.


October 2, 1976 -
 I'll tell you why.. Because I'm a dancer!



John Belushi came out on stage with Joe Cocker while he was performing on Saturday Night Live on this date.


October 2, 2001 -
In the long line of medical series, Scrubs, starring Zach Braff, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



Every episode was scripted, but the actors had the choice to improvise their lines if they thought of something funnier.


Today in History:
Three of the past century's finest comedians were born on October 2:

Groucho Marx (1890),



Bud Abbott (1895),



and Mahatma Gandhi (1869).



Groucho and Abbott were funny enough, but they pale beside the towering comic greatness of Gandhi. "When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, " he once quipped: "but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always."

That a humorist capable of such scathing sarcastic wit should have sullied himself with politics is regrettable, but not much worse than Jesus having gotten into religion.

It should also be remembered that for most of Gandhi's life the Indian subcontinent was occupied by the British, and that for the first few formative decades of his existence the British were ruled by a queen who was famously unamused. Gandhi went to extraordinary lengths to amuse Queen Victoria. It was only decades after her death that his genius came to full flower, however, and one can only hope she was amused posthumously.



(Eventually the British realized they didn't get Gandhi's jokes and withdrew from India to develop Monty Python.)


October 2, 1925 -
Scottish inventor John Logie Baird successfully transmitted the first television picture with a greyscale image: the head of a ventriloquist's dummy nicknamed Stooky Bill on this date.



Almost immediately, Logie Baird wanted to test his invention on a living, breathing human being. Baird went downstairs and grabbed an office bot, 20-year-old William Edward Taynton, to see what a human face would look like, and Taynton became the first person to be televised.


October 2, 1950 -
The comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles Schulz, debuted in nine newspapers with the characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Patty and Sherman. It is still the most-read comic strip in the world.

And yet, Charlie still hasn't kicked that damn football.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the released A Charlie Brown Christmas special, the U.S. Postal Service is releasing a series of holiday postage stamps.


October 2, 1968 -
10 days before the opening of the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, police officers and military troops opened fire on a peaceful student protest of the government occupation at the National Polytechnic Institute, on this date. Initially, the government tried to claim the students began shooting first, but this later was proved false.



Hundreds of protesters, many of whom were women and children, were killed, in what has became known as the Tlatelolco massacre.  The Olympics, shamefully continued as planned, as the violence wasn't targeted at the games.


October 2, 1985  -
I am not happy that I am sick. I am not happy that I have AIDS. But if that is helping others, I can at least know that my own misfortune has had some positive worth.


Rock Hudson died at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. after a battle with AIDS on this date.



And so it goes

October has tremendous possibility

October is the tenth month of the year and its name is therefore derived from Octo, the Latin word for eight (as the vegetables in V8 well knows.) October is often preceded by September and sometimes followed by November.

There are 31 days in October, many of which are Wednesdays. (Wednesday is the fourth day of the week and its name is therefore derived from Wednes, the Latin word for hump.)



October is National Dental Hygiene Month, Chiropractic Month, Medical Librarians Month, Sausage Month, National Book Month, Computer Learning Month (which naturally go together), and Sarcastic Awareness Month. It also Vegetarian Month.



As a result of a U.N. resolutions passed five years ago, October is no longer Take a Break from Furtive Masterbation Month (now celebrated in February) or International Soiled Schoolgirl Undergarment Appreciation Month (April).

There are 30 shopping days left until Halloween, 84 shopping days left until Christmas.


Oh happy day, a new Puddles video!



And yes, you little snot noses, the Boulevard of Broken Dreams was a song long before Green Day sang a song with the same title.


October 1, 1955 -
The Honeymooners half hour episodes premiered on this date.



Audrey Meadows was the only cast member to receive residual payments for the show for her entire life. This was a result of her shrewd manager, who predicted the prospect of a "rerun" even in the early stages of television, before precedent was set for it.


October 1, 1962 -
Johnny Carson hosts his first Tonight Show with Joan Crawford as his guest, on this date. On his first show, Carson was introduced by Groucho Marx; Johnny's first words, reacting to applause as he walked onstage for the first time: "Boy, you would think it was Vice President Nixon."



Although no footage is known to remain of Carson's first broadcast as host of The Tonight Show on this date, photographs taken that night do survive, as does an audio recording of Carson's first monologue. One of his first jokes upon starting the show was to pretend to panic and say, "I want my Na-Na!"


October 1, 1962 -
The follow-up to I Love Lucy series (but not a sequel to the series,) The Lucy Show, premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



The series was originally intended to air for only one season.  Desilu Studios was losing money and her ex husband and business partner, Desi Arnaz persuaded Lucille Ball to return to series television if only to help their studio become viable again.


October 1, 1968 -
Night of the Living Dead premiered in Pittsburgh on this date.



Readers Digest tried to warn people away from watching the film in 1968 by claiming if it's ever watched, it will inspire cannibalism.


October 1, 1992 -
Turner Broadcasting launches a cable channel with 24 hour animated programming called the Cartoon Network on this date.



The first program aired on the channel was the Looney Tunes classic Rhapsody Rabbit.


Today in History :
October 1, 1847 -
Maria Mitchell, a distant relative of Benjamin Franklin, using a telescope, discovered "Miss Mitchell's Comet" (Comet 1847 VI, modern designation is C/1847 T1) on this date. Some years previously, King Frederick VI of Denmark had established gold medal prizes to each discoverer of a "telescopic comet" (too faint to be seen with the naked eye). The prize was to be awarded to the "first discoverer" of each such comet (note that comets are often independently discovered by more than one person). She duly won one of these prizes, and this gave her worldwide fame, since the only previous woman to discover a comet had been Caroline Herschel. She was also asked by her Nantucket neighbors to stop peeking into their bedrooms at night.

There was a temporary question of priority because Francesco de Vico had independently discovered the same comet two days later, but had reported it first; however, this was resolved in Mitchell's favor. The prize was awarded in 1848 by the new king Frederick VII.



She was the first professional woman astronomer in the United States, noted for her discovery that sunspots are whirling vertical cavities and not, as previously thought, clouds.


October 1, 1888 -
The National Geographic Society was founded by Gardiner Hubbard, the father-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell on January 13, 1888.  National Geographic magazine was published for first time on this date.  It primarily contains articles about geography, history, and world culture.

Over-excited boys had to wait an addition eight years until the first photographs of bare-breasted women appeared in the magazine. Tissue sales increased precipitously.


October 1, 1890 -
The Yosemite National Park and the Yellowstone National Park were established by the U.S. Congress on this date.

Both parks had a total of 7.5 million visitors last year.


October 1, 1903 -
The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the home team Boston Pilgrims (Red Sox), 7-3, in the first World Series game.

Boston, however, went on to win the series, five games to three.


October 1, 1907 -
Located at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, one of NYC most iconic sites, the Plaza Hotel open on this date. (It was the second incarnation of a hotel on this site.The first Plaza Hotel stood on the same location from 1890 to 1905.) The first guest to check into the Plaza Hotel, was Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt famously, survived the Titanic tragedy by his last minute decision not to return home on the ill-fated ocean liner, only to lose his life three years later during another ocean liner disaster, the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915.



Guests at the Plaza's opening gala got a special ride home: they were the first in New York to ride in motorized cabs. The initial fare was 30 cents for the first half-mile, 10 cents for each quarter-mile thereafter, and 10 cents for each six minutes of waiting. The well-to-do guest didn't have to reach into their deep pockets, though: the rides on this evening were complimentary.


October 1, 1908 -
Rabid Anti-semite and American Isolationist Henry Ford puts the Model T car on the market at a price of $825 on this date.

Ford sold over 10,000 cars in the first year of production. (Remember that when you want to put a Ford into your future.)


October 1, 1924  -
We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children's.

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James Earl 'Jimmy' Carter, the 39th president of the U.S. (1977-1981), was born in Plains, Georgia, on this date.


October 1, 1946 -
Roland Berrill, an Australian lawyer and Dr. Lancelot Ware, a British scientist and lawyer, founded the Mensa organization at Lincoln College, in Oxford, England, on this date. Mensa was established as a non-profit organization for the world's highest IQ testers.

To quote the great philosopher Groucho Marx, "I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member."


October 1, 1949 -
The People's Republic of China was formed with Mao Zedong as its head with its capital at Beiping (Peiping), which was renamed Beijing (Peking).



I will make no other comment other than Happy National Day and hope all is well in the South China Sea today. I've already pissed off a large segment of the world with some of my other comments about China.


October 1, 1971 -
Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opened 44 years ago on this date.



Epicot Center opened on this date in 1982.



Here's an odd fact to throw out - More than 1.6 million turkey drumsticks are consumed at the resort every year, and you can even buy all sorts of gear (t-shirts, hats, etc.) with pictures of turkey legs on them.


October 1, 1975 -
The Thrilla in Manila was the third and final famous boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier for the Heavyweight Boxing Championship of the World, fought in Manila, Philippines on this date.



Muhammad Ali TKOs Joe Frazier in 15 for heavyweight boxing title .


Also - on a personal note, Happy Anniversary Cara and Matt.



And so it goes