Enjoy life sip by sip, not gulp by gulp.

It's a perfect day to celebrate National Hot Tea Day.

So have a cuppa.


January 12, 1934 -
George Cukor's star-studded extravaganza Dinner at Eight, went into general release in the US on this date.



Jean Harlow was in awe of Marie Dressler's talents and praised the veteran actress for her generosity. "Being in the same cast with Marie was a break for me," said Harlow. "She's one trouper I'd never try to steal a scene from. It'd be like trying to carry Italy against Mussolini."


January 12, 1944 -
Probably Alfred Hitchcock's most underrated film, Lifeboat, opened in NYC on this date.



The harsh conditions of the shoot took its toll: actors were soaked with water and oil, which led to two cases of pneumonia for Tallulah Bankhead, an illness for actress Mary Anderson and two cracked ribs for actor Hume Cronyn, according to his autobiography. Production was temporarily halted twice to allow for recovery of the cast.


January 12, 1955 -
Kraft Television Theatre presented the first drama written by Rod Serling, Patterns on this date.



The drama was so popular that it became the first live drama in television history to be broadcast twice due to popularity.


January 12, 1960 -
Michael Todd, Jr. released Scent of Mystery in "Smell-o-Vision", starring Denholm Elliott, Peter Lorre, Leo McKern, and Diana Dors into general release on this date.



Producer Michael Todd, Jr. famously said of this movie that he was the first movie producer in history to make a movie "and then admit that it smells". He was not amused when most critics were quick to agree with him. Sadly, for all concerned, the critics were right. It was a critical disaster, and a financial failure.


January 12, 1966 -
Holy homoeroticism!!!

ABC-TV premiered the tightly colored underwear wearing, perfectly genitally arranged comedy Batman on this date.



After ABC cancelled the series, the producers waited to see if anyone else would pick it up, then bulldozed the Batcave set when it appeared nobody would. Two weeks later, NBC offered to pick it up, unaware that the set had already been dismantled; unwilling to invest in the high cost of rebuilding the entire set, NBC ultimately declined to acquire the series.


January 12, 1967 -
You're pretty high and far out son, what kind of kick are you on son?

Dragnet reappeared in color when their iconic episode The LSD Story premiered on this date.



When the revival was in the planning stages, Jack Webb had originally planned on bringing in his former co-star Ben Alexander to reprise his role as Officer Frank Smith. However, Alexander was appearing on the ABC series The Felony Squad and that network would not let him out of his contract to appear on the revival. Webb then chose Harry Morgan to reprise his role of Officer Bill Gannon, from the earlier series.


January 12, 1971 -
Oh Geez, stifle yourself.

The first episode of All In The Family made television history by broadcasting the sound of a toilet flushing on this date.



This is not, however, the first time a toilet tank is seen on television. That honor goes to Leave It to Beaver premiere episode, Captain Jack back in 1957.


January 12, 1981 -
Aaron Spelling's glitzy soap opera Dynasty, starring John Forsythe, Linda Evans and Joan Collins premieres on ABC-TV on this date.



John Forsythe (Blake Carrington) is the only actor to appear in all 220 episodes of the series. Joan Collins and John Forsythe did not get along. Ironically, she got along fine with Linda Evans.


January 12, 1991 -
Australian new wave group Divinyls hits #1 on the Australian ARIA chart, #4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and #10 on the UK charts with their song I Touch Myself on this date.



This was certainly not the first song to touch on the subject of masturbation, but it was one of the most obvious. Very few places banned it, probably because it was so lighthearted. In order to honor the memory of Christina Amphlett, everyone should touch themselves while the song is playing.


January 12, 1997 -
Fox-TV premiered the pilot episode of King of the Hill on this date.



Stephen Root was uncredited during the first few seasons. This was because he was also on NewsRadio, and his contract prevented him from being credited on another network's show. After the show was cancelled in 1999, he was able to be credited for this show.


Another ACME Safety Film.


Today in History -
If you were ever an altar boy or ever took Latin, I don't need to tell you what jacta alea est means. But if you're like most Americans, to whom Latin is about as familiar as Urdu, let me translate: it means the die is cast. At least that's how it's usually translated. Back in the early days of English, when the phrase was first translated, that's how they would have said "the dice are thrown."

This Latin snippet is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly because it demonstrates the popularity of gambling with dice in the ancient world, which is an important bit of trivia for keeping wayward adolescents interested in the classics; secondly because it's a short little Latin phrase you can drop into conversation to impress snobs; thirdly because the event of its utterance changed the course of western civilization for ever.

The line was uttered by Julius Caesar on this very date in 49 BC (There is some disagreement on this date - this is clearly one of those dates that most of historians, around at the time, were too busy at the local orgy to clearly denote when a short bald Italian soldier crossed a rivulet.) Caesar and his army had just crossed the Rubicon, a little stream in northern Italy. The Roman Senate had long ago established a rule that Roman citizens should be forbidden from crossing the the Rubicon with their armies, since they figured anyone coming south toward Rome with an entire army probably wasn't up to any good (this should be enacted immediately in the USA - no bald men in a short skirt on horse should ever cross the Potomac with their own army.)

(If the Roman Senate had really wanted to play it safe, maybe they should have designed the infrastructure of their empire so that all roads didn't lead to Rome - but that's beside the point.)

You may be wondering why Caesar would set out to break the law this way. He had, after all, been a popular and successful general and had been governor of Gaul for some time. But that's exactly why he decided to cross the Rubicon: he had become so popular and so powerful that the Roman Senate ordered him to disband his army and give up Gaul. Which has always made me wonder why the Roman Senate didn't say jacta alea est after issuing their demands. Maybe they were just too eager to get back to their dice.



Anyway, by crossing the Rubicon, Caesar had officially committed treason and launched the Roman Civil War. I've also saved you several hours of watching DVD's of the series Rome. Except for the naked parts.

The rest is history and thusly, unimportant to most Americans.


January 12, 1856 -
A person with normal eyesight would have nothing to know in the way of 'Impressionism' unless he were in a blinding light or in the dusk or dark.



John Singer Sargent, American Gilded Age portrait painter, was born on this date.


January 12, 1928 -
Ruth Snyder became the first woman to die in the electric chair on this date.

She was electrocuted by “state electrician” Robert G. Elliott at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, along with Judd Gray, her lover and co-conspirator, for the murder of her husband, Albert on March 20, 1927. This was billed in the press as “The Dumb-Bell Murder.”



The case was the inspiration for the novel Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, which was later adapted for the screen by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Cain also mentioned that his book The Postman Always Rings Twice took inspiration from the crime. The man who snuck the camera into the execution chamber Thomas James Howard Jr. is the grandfather of actor George Wendt, and great-grandfather of actor and comedian Jason Sudeikis.


January 12, 1965 - (File this under: Your taxes dollars at work -)
At 10:58am PST, on this date, US government scientists conduct what they term a “controlled excursion,” launching a nuclear rocket in Jackass Flats, Nevada and burning off a portion of its radioactive core. The resultant radioactive close drifted over Los Angeles before It produced a radioactive cloud over Los Angeles.

Documents released in 1994 revealed that the cloud was an “intentional accident” designed to test the possible effects of a malfunction aboard a rocket. A federal committee noted in 1994 that while the radioactivity levels were extremely low and unlikely to have caused illnesses, Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey, a member of the committer said "an intentional reactor accident releasing a radioactive cloud should not be considered prudent public policy."

Oops.


January 12, 1967 -
Dr. James Bedford (a psychology professor at the University of California) became the first person to ever be cryogenically preserved with the intent of being resuscitated in the future.



Dr. Bedford remains were switched to a different tank in 1991 and it would appear that everything has held up thus far. (Remember though, as much as you want it to be true - Disney is not a Popiscle inside Cinderella's castle.)


January 12, 1992 –
“... My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.”



The HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic Computer) 9000 computer became operational in the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on this date in the film, 2001, A Space Odyssey.


January 12, 2007 -
Concert violinist Joshua Bell, played for free, for 45 minutes, on a violin worth 3.5 million dollars at a subway station in a DC Metro station on this date.



Of the 1,097 people who passed by Bell, only seven stopped to listen him play, including a 3-year old boy, and only one person recognized him. The experiment was initiated by The Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten and won him a Pulitzer Prize for the article he wrote about the event.


January 12, 2010 -
A powerful 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti and crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace on this date. Thousands of people were believed dead and untold numbers were trapped. An estimated three million people were in need of emergency aid.



The quake left over 200,000 people dead. Some 4,500 prison inmates escaped during the earthquake. By April they were terrorizing neighborhoods and fighting turf battles.



And so it goes

So, is it Arkan-saw or Ar-kansas?

Today is National Arkansas Day, the Natural State, and the 25th state to join the union. Arkansas earns the name Natural State with over half the state is forested and more than 1 million acres in Ozark National Forest. 



Perhaps, Mr. Black doesn't realize that we are here to praise the state.


January 11, 1940 -
The classic newspaper comedy, His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, premiered in New York on this date.



Rosalind Russell thought, while shooting, that she didn't have as many good lines as Cary Grant had, so she hired an advertisement writer through her brother-in-law and had him write more clever lines for the dialog. Since Howard Hawks allowed for spontaneity and ad-libbing, he, and many of the cast and crew didn't notice it, but Grant knew she was up to something, leading him to greet her every morning: "What have you got today?"


January 11, 1958 –
Danny & the Juniors' single, >At The Hop, reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



Danny & the Juniors were the Philadelphia group of Danny Rapp, Dave White, Frank Maffei and Joe Terranova. At the time, they were known as The Juvenairs. They were on a street corner singing when a someone who worked at a recording studio heard them and brought them in to sing. The rest, as they say, is history.


January 11, 1966 -
The children's adventure-series Daktari, debuted on CBS-TV on this date.



Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion and Judy the Chimpanzee both won PATSY Awards for the Series.


January 11, 1972 -
The TV movie, Kolchak, The Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



While filming in Las Vegas, producer Dan Curtis was amazed at how oblivious the casino gamblers were to any events going on around them other than gambling. So as a joke one day, actor Barry Atwater (Janos Skorzeny) was asked to walk through the Sahara's casino in full costume and makeup to see if anyone noticed him. He did this for over 40 minutes, and didn't even get a second glance.


January 11, 1980 -
The Pretenders eponymous album Pretenders debuted on this date in the UK.



This was the breakout hit from the first Pretenders album, which was a triumph by any measure. In the UK, three singles were released before the album appeared. The first was a cover of The Kinks song Stop Your Sobbing, which was released in January 1979 and reached #34 in March 1979. Kid followed in June, going to #33 in August. In November, Brass In Pocket was released; it rose to the top in January 1980, and stayed at #1 for two weeks. The album is consistently cited as one of the greatest debuts in rock.


January 11, 1998 -
Nike debuted its I Can commercial, introducing the British band The Verve to a wide American audience with the song Bitter Sweet Symphony, on this date.



The song becomes the band's only hit in the States, which is sucked for the band because they had to sign away royalties to the song to get the publishing rights to the string sample from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra's version of the Rolling Stones song The Last Time.


Another job posting from The ACME Employment Agency


Today in History -
January 11, 1569 -
The very first English lottery was drawn at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, under a royal proclamation issued by Queen Elizabeth I, on this date.



The tickets were ten shillings each, beyond the means of an ordinary person, which makes it different from a modern lottery, where tickets are often priced low enough so that low income people can afford them. the proceeds will be used to repair fortifications, harbours and other public works.


January 11, 1753 - Hans Sloane (b.1660), Anglo-Irish physician, naturalist and collector, died in London, on this date.



He bequeathed his collection to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Museum. (Great bar bet - Sloane is very important in the introduction of chocolate in England.)


January 11, 1813 - (File this under: the bitterest of ironies)
Among many of the things Columbus stole from the New World, taking back to Europe with him, were pineapples. From there, the tasty fruit spread throughout other parts of civilization. It was carried on sailing ships around the world because it was found to, like oranges, help prevent scurvy, a devastating disease that often afflicted sailors on long voyages. the pineapple came to Hawaii to stay. On January 11, 1813, pineapples were first planted there.



It was at the end of one of these long voyages that Don Francisco de Paula y Marin, a Spanish advisor to King Kamehameha, brought the famous fruits back with him. On this date, legend has it that pineapples were first planted in Hawaii. Currently, it's much cheaper to produce pineapple in Asia and South America. In 2009, Maui Land and Pineapple also shut down operations. Today, the state of Hawaii produces less than 10% of the pineapple sold worldwide. So the Hawaiian people had their kingdom stolen from them because of a crop no longer grown there.


Harry Gordon Selfridge was born on January 11, 1864. Though American-born, he is best known as the founder of the British store Selfridge and Co., Ltd (think Macy's, for those of you unfamiliar with the store). He receives little or no attention here in the United States. His name does not appear in any textbooks, he is not honored with any holidays. And yet Mr. Selfridge's philosophy has had more impact on western civilization than a dozen Aristotles.

His great maxim is uttered carelessly by a million voices every day, is enshrined in the halls of commerce and government alike, and has permeated our culture to the point where it has become a cliche. Like most successful ideas, we can hardly imagine that his concept was ever new or controversial; we must strain our imaginations to conceive a world unilluminated by his wisdom.



It was Mr. Selfridge's philosophy that "the customer is always right."


January 11, 1878 -
Milk was first delivered in bottles by milkman Alexander Campbell, in New York on this date.

Previously, one had to keep a cow in a spare room of their apartment, making taking out the trash a mandatory daily occurrence.


January 11, 1902 -
Popular Mechanics magazine, with just five paying subscribers, was published for the first time, on this date

The publication quickly helps put a more incredible technical achievements into the public's view, showcasing an inspiring arsenal of scientists and cultural heavyweights along the way.


January 11, 1922 -
The first insulin injection was given to Leonard Thompson, a teenager in Canada, on this date. He weighed only 65 pounds and was about to slip into a coma and die. Drs. Frederick Banting and Charles Best worked on the insulin, then called Isletin, using a fetal calf pancreas extract. Unfortunately, the injection was so impure that Thompson had a severe allergic reaction and further injections were canceled.



Researchers worked around-the-clock for the next 12 days to refine the process, and with the help of Dr. James Collip, the next injection went off without a hitch. The availability of insulin turned diabetes from a fatal condition into a treatable one.


January 11, 1928 -
Thomas Hardy, English novelist and all around curmudgeon, died near Dorchester, England on this date. In his will, Mr. Hardy specifically requested to be buried with his beloved first wife. His friends, however, didn’t think this was good enough for the author and lobbied to have him buried in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey instead.



An ugly fight between Hardy fans and family ensued, until they reached a compromise. The author’s heart was removed and buried with his wife; his ashes were preserved in a bronze urn inside the Abbey. There’s also a long-running (but unsubstantiated) rumor that Hardy’s sister’s cat snatched the heart, somehow left on a table, and that a pig’s heart had to be substituted for the burial ceremony.


January 11, 1935 -
Amelia Earhart took off from Honolulu on this date, to become the first person to fly solo between Hawaii and California. She landed in Oakland the next day.



Three years earlier, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. According to one of our favorite bunkies, Earhart was hankering for some BBQ and hopped into a taxi after her flight to California to the Everett and Jones barbecue joint. They are still there.


January 11, 1943 -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt flew to Morocco for a top-secret meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He had not flown since 1932, when he traveled from Albany, New York, to Chicago to accept his nomination at the Democratic national convention.



No U.S. president had previously flown while in office because the Secret Service regarded flying as a dangerous mode of transport.


January 11, 1961 -
The Throgs Neck Bridge, carrying six lanes of Interstate 295 (I-295) over the East River where it meets the Long Island Sound, opens to traffic, on this date.

The bridge connects the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx with the Bay Terrace section of Queens. The bridge carried 20,000 vehicles and generating $5,000 in tolls in the first 12 hours.


January 11, 1964 -
The Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health, (Luther Terry was the Surgeon General st the time,) issued their Smoking and Health report, which said smoking caused bronchitis and lung cancer. It also linked, though without statistical proof, smoking to emphysema, heart disease and cancer.



It was the first formal government acknowledgement of the health dangers of cigarette smoking - changing the tobacco industry forever. Notably, most of the committee members were themselves smokers.


January 11, 1971 -
Music makes us want to live. You don't know how many times people have told me that they'd been down and depressed and just wanted to die. But then a special song caught their ear and that helped give them renewed strength. That's the power music has.

Mary Jane Blige, eight-time Grammy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American R&B singer-songwriter rapper, record producer, and actress, was born on this date.



Billboard ranked Blige as the most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years.



And so it goes

You can cut all the flowers

but you cannot keep spring from coming.



There are 70 days until Spring (Although we haven't really had any snow in NYC. I'm sure I've brought a kinahora upon us.)


January 10 1927 -
The film Metropolis premiered in Berlin on this date. It was the most expensive silent film of the time, adjusting for inflation, the budget for Metropolis (7m Reichsmarks) ran around $230 million (2016). (The film has gone into public domain this year.)



Much to Fritz Lang's dismay, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were big fans of the film. Goebbels met with Lang and told him that he could be made an honorary Aryan despite his Jewish background. Goebbels told him "Mr. Lang, we decide who is Jewish and who is not." Lang left for Paris that very night.


January 10, 1949 (This date is under much debate) -
45 RPM's - the term for the record format introduced by RCA on this date. This soon became the standard format used for vinyl “singles” for several decades. (Kids, RPM stands for "revolutions per minute.”)



Just think, all that pleasure from just 7".


January 10, 1952 -
Cecil B. DeMille's circus extravaganza, The Greatest Show on Earth, opened on this date.



Cecil B. DeMille was always demanding of his actors and actresses. He insisted that everyone truly learn to perform the circus stunts they were supposed to be performing. This meant that Betty Hutton really learned the trapeze and Gloria Grahame had to let an elephant rest its foot an inch from her face. Cornel Wilde probably had it the worst, since he was portraying a high-wire artist. He was seriously afraid of heights.


January 10, 1964 -
The American version of the British program That Was The Week That Was (TW3), a weekly show of topical political satire, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



Singer Nancy Ames, Buck Henry, Pat Englund and Alan Alda were among the regulars. The show proved equally groundbreaking in the United States and, like the British version, was no stranger to controversy.


January 10, 1964 - (Follow along this is complicated ...)
Introducing the Beatles, the first Beatles album is released in the US by Vee-Jay Records. Originally scheduled for a July 1963 release, the LP came out on this date, ten days before Capitol's Meet the Beatles!



The first editions of the LP were halted after Vee-Jay received a restraining order from Beechwood Music, Inc, who owned the US publishing rights to Love Me Do and PS I Love You. Although approximately 80,000 copies of the album had been sold, it was reissued without those two songs in early February.


January 10, 1969 -
The Star Trek episode, in which the Enterprise picks up a passenger and his pursuer who are both members of a race locked in a planetary racial war, Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, first aired on this date.



This is the only episode in the original series to feature close-up shots of the exterior of the Enterprise.


January 10, 1971 -
PBS's Masterpiece Theatre first began with the American premiere of an engrossing, 12-part BBC series, The First Churchills, starring John Neville, and Susan Hampshire, (who both appeared in all 12 episodes) on this date.



Judi Dench was slated to star as Sarah, but was unable to. The role went to Susan Hampshire, who went on to win an Emmy for her portrayal of Sarah Churchill.


January 10, 1984 -
The "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's with Clara Peller was first aired on this date.



Clara Peller was 81 when she came out of retirement to star in the Wendy's spot. Peller died on August 11, 1987, one week after her 84th birthday.


January 10, 1999 -
David Chase's landmark series about the lives of gangsters and their existential angst, The Soprano, starring James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, and Lorraine Bracco premiered on HBO on this date.



After the pilot aired, a real-life "wise guy" told James Gandolfini never to wear shorts again. The encounter seems to have been incorporated into season four, episode one, For All Debts Public and Private, when New York City mob boss Carmine tells Tony that he'd heard about his recent backyard party, and that "a don doesn't wear shorts."


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
Common Sense was a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine. It was first published anonymously (not that Tom didn't know his name - it was theoretically punishable by death to denounce the crown and Tom wasn't quick looking for death at that time) on January 10, 1776, before the American Revolution. Paine wrote it with editorial feedback from Benjamin Rush, who came up with the title.



The document denounced British rule, and through its immense popularity contributed to fomenting the American Revolution. The second edition was published soon thereafter. A third edition, with an accounting of the worth of the British navy, an expanded appendix, and a response to criticism by the Quakers, was published on February 14, 1776.


January 10, 1810 -
Napoleon, unable to to produce an heir with his wife, the Empress Josephine, divorced her on this date.



The divorce was unpopular with the people, and also strained Napoleon's relationship with church officials; especially after he quickly remarried an Austrian duchess.


January 10, 1863 -
The London Underground (the Tube) opened to the public on this date. The Underground, a symbol of British culture, was the world's first underground railroad.



Passengers can still ride the original line, which ran between the London's Paddington station and the Farringdon station.


January 10, 1870 -
Victor Noir, French journalist, was killed by Prince Pierre Bonaparte. Noir had called on him with a companion to present his editor's challenge to a duel because of a journalistic dispute concerning Corsican politics. Bonaparte was so insulted to have been approached by mere "menials" (his phrase, apparently) that he slapped the hapless 22-year-old in the face, pulled out a pistol and shot him on the spot.

Over 10,000 people attended his funeral and public sentiment over Noir's death forces Napoleon III to abdicate. A statue of Noir s prostrate figure became a magnet for anorgasmic women rubbing themselves against him as a sexual charm.



Once again, the French, they are a funny race.


January 10 1883 -
A fire at the six-story Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee killed more than 71 people on this date. For years this was considered one of the worst single structure fires in the United States.

Two famous midgets residing there, General Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton) and his brother-in-law Commodore Nut, were rescued by firefighters.


January 10, 1899 –
British inventor, David Misell who was living in New York, was issued a patent for an Electric Device (US patent #617,592) on this date. The first portable flashlights were hand-made from paper and fiber tubes, with a bulb and a crude brass reflector.

Misell sold those patent rights to Russian immigrant and inventor, Conrad Hubert and his American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company (later renamed the Eveready Battery Company.)


January 10, 1911 -
The first photo was taken from a flying airplane,(a Curtiss Hydroplane,)

by Major Erickson (the pilot was Charles Kenny Hamilton,) over San Diego on this date.


January 10 1948 -
Donald Fagen, singer and front man of the rock band Steely Dan, was born on this date.







After the death of his friend and cofounder of Steely Dan, Walter Becker, Fagen continues to tour as Steely Dan.


January 10 1982 -
You could no longer go to Paul Lynde to block on this date. Mr. Lynde was found dead of a heart attack, (an apocryphal story has been going around that he was also naked and clucking a bottle of poppers in his West Hollywood home at the time.)



Mr. Lynde's bed companion, it appears, neglected to call 911 to report the emergency.

Kids, remember - don't count on that hustler to call the paramedics for you (that's always extra.)


January 10 1984 -
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper became the first female recording artist since Bobbie Gentry (1967) to be nominated for five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Performance (Female), Record of the Year and Song of the Year on this date.



She may be unusual but Cyndi is still going strong more than 30 years later.


January 10, 2016 -
I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring.



Extraterrestrial and music legend David Bowie returned to his home planet on this date.



And so it goes

Rollin', rollin', rollin'.

January 9, 1959 -
The TV Western, Rawhide, with Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



Clint Eastwood used the same gun and wore the same boots as in his "Spaghetti Westerns" A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He also wore those same boots in Unforgiven.


January 9, 1968 -
It Takes A Thief, starring Robert Wagner, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



Al Mundy's apartment was in the Watergate complex, famed for Nixon break-in in 1972.


January 9, 1996 -
Four extraterrestrials first land on Earth and find Earthlings mostly wanting, when NBC-TV first aired 3rd Rock from the Sun on this date.



One of John Lithgow's reasons for doing this television series was to allow him a "family friendly" work schedule, which he was unable to manage in theatre with an 8 p.m. curtain time, and movies, which required location shooting. Lithgow wanted to be at home with his family and this show allowed that.


January 9, 1997 -
Based on the original BBC series, which premiered in 1979, Antiques Roadshow premiered on your local PBS station, on this date.



In 2001, PBS began airing the original BBC version of Antiques Roadshow in the United States. In the United States, the BBC version is titled Antiques Roadshow UK to differentiate it from the American version.


January 9, 1998 -
Screenwriters and actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s breakthrough film, Good Will Hunting went into general release on this date.



Casey Affleck ad-libbed most of his lines. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Gus Van Sant later admitted that Casey's improvised lines were much funnier and better than what had been originally written for him.


January 9, 2000 -
Fox-TV brought back the single-camera, no-laugh track comedy when, Malcolm in the Middle premiered on this date.



Although the family's surname was revealed as Wilkerson in the pilot episode, it was decided afterwards that they should not have a last name. A running joke on-set was that the family's last name was "Nolastname". This is officially confirmed in the final episode, Malcolm in the Middle: Graduation, when Francis drops his work pass, and his surname is briefly seen. Further confirmation can be seen when Malcolm is introduced to the stage for his speech. His last name is not heard, as the microphone screeches at the crucial moment, but you can read the announcer's lips clearly saying "Malcolm Nolastname".


January 9, 2011 -
The first episode of Bob's Burgers: Human Flesh premiered on Fox TV on this date. (I'm sure this will be taken down shortly, once the Fox lawyers get wind of this. Even more enticement - an episode from the second season - Beefsquatch - for some reason is also available.)



To pitch the show to the Fox network, the creators of the show made a rough three minute demo of the scene where Bob and Linda are grinding the meat and Bob forgets their wedding anniversary. The differences between the demo and the scene in the actual show included very different character designs by Jay Howell and cruder animation, and the Belcher actually were a family of cannibals, making burgers out of the flesh of their victims. However, Fox found the idea of cannibalism too dark for an animated sitcom so it was taken out. Although, this led to the plot of the first episode where the family is accused by the health inspectors of being cannibals.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
January 9, 1386 -
a sow was convicted by an ecclesiastical court of murdering a young child and hanged in Faliase, France. The pig was sentenced to be "mangled and maimed in the head forelegs”, and then dressed up in a jacket and breeches to be hung from a gallows in the market square.

The executioner was paid ten sous and ten deniers for his efforts in dragging and then hanging the pig. This is another clear example of why the Dark Ages sucked.


January 9, 1768 (I've also seen it posted as April 4, 1768) -
The first modern circus opened in London, England on this date - cavalry sergeant Philip Astley staged the first modern circus, performing elaborate feats on the backs of horses racing around a ring.



Though similar entertainment had existed for centuries, Astley was the first to hold a circus in a ring, and to gather such disparate forms of entertainment together. And people paid good money to smell horse manure in a theatre.


January 9, 1788 -
Connecticut ratified the new U.S. Constitution on this date and became the fifth state to join the United States.



I guess that's only important if you come from Connecticut (which I do not.)


January 9, 1793 -
The first US manned balloon flight occurred as Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J.

He stayed airborne for 46 minutes, traveled close to 15 miles and set down at the "old Clement farm" in Deptford, New Jersey. President George Washington was in Philadelphia for the event, along with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, James Monroe and other bigwigs.


January 9, 1913 -
Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain..



Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, was born on this date.


Also born on this date -
January 9, 1913 (or 1911) -
Sing out Louise!!!





Rose Louise Hovick, actress, ecdysiast and writer, was born on this date.


January 9, 1915 -
When a person has an accent, it means he can speak one more language than you.





Fernando Álvaro Lamas y de Santos, actor and director, was born on this date.


January 9, 1920 -
The Human Fly, George Polley, attempted to climb to the top of the Woolworth Building (57 Floors) in New York City on this date.

He was able to reach the 30th floor before being arrested.


January 9, 1960 -
Professor Severus Snape, a half-blood wizard who was the son of the witch Eileen Snape (née Prince) and Muggle Tobias Snape, was born on this date.



During his lifetime, Severus Snape was Potions Master (1981-1996), Defense Against the Dark Arts professor (1996-1997), and Headmaster (1997-1998) of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (which he attended as a student from 1971-1978.)


January 9, 1981 -
Jesus saves and (insert your favorite sports figure here) scores.



Hockey Hall of Famer, Phil Esposito, said he would call it quits as a hockey player after the New York Rangers-Buffalo Sabres hockey game. It was a game that seemed like it might never end - both teams skated to a 3-3 tie. Esposito quit the New York Rangers and went on to become General Manager and coach of the Rangers. Phil Esposito played for the Boston Bruins when he won the Hart Memorial Trophy for Most Valuable Player in the NHL in 1969 and 1974 and helped lead the Bruins to two Stanley Cup Championships in 1970 and 1972.


January 9, 1995 -
You know, I go to the theatre to be entertained... I don’t want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction... I can get all that at home.



The very influential English comic/actor Peter Cook, died at 57, on this date.


January 9, 2007 -
We're going to make some history together today.



Steve Jobs introduced Apple's iPhone to the world, on this date. The unveiling occurred at the Macworld convention in San Francisco.



And so it goes

It's a wonderment

(Still operating under some technical difficulties)

Elvis the King (who was born in 1935,)





(As I always say - lay your hand upon the screen and feel his healing power pulsate through your nether regions.)

and Davy Jones, who was born in 1947, somehow were both born on this date - (you may lay your hand upon the screen and feel the throbbing in your loins. It may or may not be a healing power but it is a throbbing.)





What a strange and wondrous world we live in that they were both born on this date.


In the mood to luxuriate, to lounge, to live the lazy life?



You're in luck, for today is Bubble Bath Day.


January 8, 1950 -
Robert Rossen's adaptation of the Robert Penn Warren's novel, All the King's Men, starring Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, Joanne Dru, and John Derek went into general release in the US on this date.



Director Robert Rossen filmed in an unusual manner. Nobody in the cast had a complete script. Rossen let them read it once and took it away from them. According to Broderick Crawford, "We really had to stay on our toes."


January 8, 1966 -
The Beatles single We Can Work It Out reached No. 1 on the Billboard Charts. It was their 12th No. 1 hit.



The Beatles recorded this specifically for release as a single at two quick sessions while they were making the Rubber Soul album in October 1965. When it was released as a single backed with Day Tripper, debate raged over which was the A-side. Most pop groups put B-sides on their singles that were far inferior, but The Beatles often came out with 45s containing two great songs.


January 8, 1968 -
Welcome to zee exotic world of undersea explorer...



The first episode of the documentary series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau: Sharks premiered on this date.


January 8, 1973 -
Carly Simon received a gold record for the single, You're So Vain on this date.



Yeah, yeah, it's mostly about Warren Beatty.


January 8, 1997 -
Chuck D guest starred on the NBC sitcom NewsRadio episode Rap, to face off against Phil Hartman's Bill McNeal, who is convinced rap music will destroy society.



Phil Hartman was asked if he minded playing one character in a weekly series, while he had previously played various different characters on SNL (and was called the member with the most unity). Hartman stated that he felt there was an upturn to it as you can keep building more 'dimension' to a character if it keeps continuing with a series.


Another book from the back shelves of The ACME Library.


Today in History -
The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, with General Andrew Jackson in command, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and America's vast western lands.



Unfortunately the war ended with the signing of The Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814. News of the peace would not reach New Orleans until February.

Oops


The only 'recognized' monarchy to reign in the United States died on this date.

Joshua Norton was a businessman in San Francisco in the 1800's. In the 1840's, just before the Gold Rush, he tried to corner the market on rice and failed. He went from being very wealthy to being destitute overnight and the experience completely shattered his reason. A couple of months after this event, he put on a formal admiral's uniform, complete with gold braid and epaulets and strode in to the office of the newspaper. He handed the editor a large, official looking proclamation which stated in quite formal language that, due to popular demand, he hereby declared himself Emperor Norton I of the United States, and the Protector of Mexico. He bade all his subjects show him loyalty and the other courtesies due a person of such eminent stature.



On the evening of January 8, 1880, Joshua Norton collapsed on the corner of California Street and Dupont Street (now Grant Avenue) while on his way to a lecture at the Academy of Sciences. His collapse was immediately noticed by another citizen who raised the alarm, and "the police officer on the beat hastened for a carriage to convey him to the City Receiving Hospital." Norton died before the carriage could arrive.

Norton's funeral was a solemn, mournful and large affair. Some accounts report that as many as 30,000 people lined the streets to pay homage, and that the funeral cortege was two miles long. He was buried at the Masonic Cemetery, at the expense of the City of San Francisco.



The day after his funeral, January 11, 1880, the San Francisco skies were blackened with a solar eclipse.



(Please check out the status of adding the emperor's name to the the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in his honor.)


January 8, 1889 –
Dr. Herman Hollerith work on the 1880 census led to his receiving a patent (U.S. Patent No. 395,782) for a tabulating machine on this date.

The 1880 census took eight years to tabulate by hand. With Dr. Hollerith's punch-card tabulating machine, the 1890 census was tabulated in just one year. Herman Hollerith went on to found the company that was to become IBM.


January 8, 1908 -
The Joralemon Street Tunnel carrying the 4 and 5 trains (of the NYC Subway) under the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn first opened for traffic on this date.

It was the first subway tunnel to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn.


January 8, 1963 -
The Mona Lisa was displayed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC on this date. It was one of the few times the painting ever left France intentionally (without being stolen). The fact that it even came to the US at all was largely due to the influence of First Lady Jackie Kennedy, who mentioned to French cultural minister and writer, Andre Malraux that she would like to see it. He replied off the cuff that the painting should visit America, and President Kennedy ('the man who had accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris') held him to it.



In just 27 days, more than 518,000 visitors filed past the painting, including thousands of children brought in on specially arranged school trips. La Giocanda then headed to New York, for a month-long exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it drew more than a million people.


January 8, 1964 -
Lyndon B. Johnson declares his War on Poverty during his State of the Union address on this date 58 years ago.



Unfortunately, poverty continues to win.


January 8, 1992 -
George Bush, World War II veteran, sick with the stomach flu, decided to avenge the US for the raid of Pearl Harbor at a Tokyo state dinner on this date.



He vomited in the lap of the Japanese Prime Minister while cameras are rolling, to the great amusement of everyone except the Prime Minister.

Sushi, anyone?


January 8, 2002 -
George W. Bush began a major overhaul of the education system in the signing of the No Child Left Behind Act on this date, which rewarded schools based on their students' performance.

The act has been perceived as controversial, because some have seen it as forcing schools to sacrifice a good education in order to achieve good test scores. On December 10, 2015, President Barack Obama signed legislation replacing NCLB with the Every Student Succeeds Act.



And so it goes

Something to ponder today

(Sorry for the delay in posting - technical difficulties)

One woman survived the Titanic, Britannic, and Olympic shipwrecks. A very lucky person, indeed. (Although not as lucky perhaps as Tsutomu Yamaguchi, but that's another story ...)
 

 
Violet Jessop was a nurse and ocean liner stewardess who earned the nickname "Miss Unsinkable" by surviving both the accidents of the Titanic in 1912 and its sister ship, the HMHS Britannic, which met the same fate in 1916. Jessup was also reportedly on board a third boat, the RMS Olympic, when it hit a war ship—but fortunately, the Olympic stayed afloat.

 
January 7, 1929 –
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D. , illustrated by Dick Calkins, appeared in newspaper comics on this date; (the same date that Tarzan of the Apes, illustrated by Hal Foster, appeared in newspapers, as well.).
 

The main character, Anthony Rogers, appeared in the in the Sci-Fi magazine, Amazing Stories, six months earlier, in August, as a short novel Armageddon 2419 A.D, by writer Philip Francis Nowlan. His name was changed to the snappier Buck Rogers for the comic strip.
 
 
January 7, 1934 –
Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon comic strip debuted in newspapers across the United States.
 

In addition to the comic strip, Flash has also starred in a live-action serial, a radio show, novels, comic books, animated cartoons, and he even appeared on his own U.S. postage stamp.
 
 
January 7, 1961 -
The pilot episode of The Avengers - Hot Snow, starring Ian Hendry and Patrick Macnee premiered in the UK on this date.
 

 
The vast majority of the first series of The Avengers is missing from TV archives and likely lost forever - only the first 15 minutes of this first episode and three complete later episodes, The Avengers: Girl on the Trapeze (which incidentally does not feature the character of Steed), The Avengers: The Frighteners, and The Avengers: Tunnel of Fear have been recovered and preserved.
 
 
January 7, 1967 -
The Newlywed Game premiered on ABC TV on this date (the show began airing in 1966 as a local afternoon show in some areas.)
 

 
I know your thinking about it - where was the most unusual place you and your husband made whoopee?
 
 
January 7, 1972 -
David Bowie released Changes as a single in the UK on this date. The track peaked at No.49 on the UK chart and later at No.41 on the US chart.
 

 
According to Bowie, this started out as a parody of a nightclub song - "kind of throwaway" - but people kept chanting for it at concerts and thus it became one of his most popular and enduring songs. Bowie had no idea it was going to become so successful, but the song connected with his young audience who could relate to lyrics like "These children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds, are immune to your consultations, they're quite aware of what they're going through."
 
 
January 7, 1994 –
Possibly, one of the worst movies made with such a talented cast, Cabin Boy, starring Chris Elliott, Andy Richter, David Letterman, Mike Starr, Brian Doyle-Murray, Russ Tamblyn, and Bob Elliott premiered on this date.
 

 
The name "Captain Greybar" is an inside reference to the building where Chris' father, Bob Elliott, and his radio and stage partner Ray Goulding, had their Bob and Ray offices for many years (The well-known Graybar Building in NYC). Bob & Ray also had a company called GEG, which (long story short) had to be changed from Goulding-Elliott-Graybar to the differently spelled Goulding-Elliott-Greybar, under threat from the Graybar Building's lawyers. So, Chris gets the last laugh on those lawyers with the name of the tyrannical captain.
 
 
January 7, 2011 -
Tom Hopper's historical drama, The King's Speech, starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter, premiered in United Kingdom on this date.
 

 
Screenwriter David Seidler stammered as a child, and heard King George VI's wartime speech as a child. As an adult, he wrote Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (widow of George VI) and asked for permission to use the King's story to create a movie. The Queen Mother asked him not to make it during her lifetime, saying the memories were too painful. Seidler respected her request.
 
 
January 7, 2012 –
The group LMFAO 's hit Sexy and I Know It reached No. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.
 

 
The music video was shot in late August 2011 and features Redfoo and some of LMFAO's usual Party Rock crew dancing around town in Speedos in front of some girls. Simon Rex from What I Like About You, Wilmer Valderrama from That 70s Show and porn actor Ron Jeremy all have cameos in the clip.
 
 

Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today. 
 
 
Today in History:
January 7, 1325 -
King Afonso IV ascended the Portuguese throne, upon the death of his father, King Denis, on this date.

So now you know.


January 7, 1598 -
Theodorus I, [Feodor Ivanovitch], czar of Russia (1584-98), died on this date.
 

 
Boris Godunov seized the Russian throne on February 17 upon the death of Feodor I.
 
But what do you care?
 
 
January 7, 1714 –
The world’s first patent (#395) for a “Machine for Transcribing Letters” was granted in England by Queen Anne to Henry Mill.
 

This first planned typewriter was never actually produced.
 
 
January 7, 1789 -
 

 
 
January 7, 1800 -
Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States, was born on this date. (Often cited as one of the 10 worse Presidents because he backed the Compromise of 1850 that delayed the Southern secession by allowing slavery to spread.)
 

 
And no, he didn't install the first bathtub in the White House, that was a hoax by Henry Louis Mencken.
 

January 7, 1851 -
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault first used a pendulum to demonstrate that the Earth rotated on this date. This initial experiment, which is conducted in the cellar of his home using a five kilogram pendulum suspended from a two meter cable, represents the first time the Earth’s rotation has been proven experimentally, rather than through observation.



Foucault went on to give a public demonstration for scientists using an eleven meter wire at the Paris observatory on February 3 and again at the Pantheon in Paris on March 31.

Now you know.

 
January 7, 1894 -
William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for the first practical celluloid film and decided on 35 mm for the size, a standard still used.
 

 
The earliest surviving copyrighted motion picture, the Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze is a short film made by W. K. L. Dickson on January 7, 1894 for advertising purposes. Often referred to as Fred Ott's Sneeze, this is is one of the world's earliest motion pictures and America's best known early film production. The star is Fred Ott, an Edison employee known to his fellow workers in the laboratory for his comic sneezing and other gags.
 
 
January 7, 1912 -
Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.
 

 
Charles Addams, cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters, was spawned on this date.
 
 
January 7, 1943 -
The world's greatest inventor, Nikola Tesla, died alone in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, of heart failure on this date in history.
 

 
Despite having sold his AC electricity patents, Tesla died with significant debts on the books.
 
 
January 7, 1953 -
Lame duck President Harry Truman, rattling around the White House, packing up empty liquor bottles and other assorted crap, announced that the US had detonated the first hydrogen bomb months earlier.
 

 
The development of the bomb came almost in direct response to the news that the USSR had exploded an atomic bomb three years earlier. It was one of the first instances of the technological and military one-upmanship that characterized the Cold War.
 
 
January 7, 1957 -
I feel like a human pinata. The disappointing thing is, no candy is going to spill out.
 

 
Katherine Anne Couric, TV news host and colonoscopy spokes model, was born on this date.
 
 
January 7, 1999 –
This was not a great day for Bubba - The impeachment trial of President William Jefferson Clinton began on this date.
 

 
It was only the second impeachment of a President in American history, following the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in 1868. And the third one occurred recently.
 
 
January 7, 2015 -
Two gunmen killed twelve people in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical publication based in Paris, then killed a police officer outside, (eleven others were wounded in the assault,) on this date.
 

Please take a moment out of your day to remember the victims.
 
 
 
And so it goes