Race down to your local wine shoppe

Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé !

Since it's the third Thursday in November, it's that time of the year


November 17, 1933 -
...Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot....

Unbelievable, but, a box office flop (at the time), The Marx Brothers Duck Soup, opened on this date. (This film marks the last appearance of Zeppo Marx in a Marx Brothers film.)



Screenwriters Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar were standing on the set of one day when an extra standing next to them said, "I don't know who wrote this stuff but they ought to be arrested...they should be in a different business." Kalmer, who was known as a rational and calm man, said to Ruby, "I'm going over to hit him. Who does he think he is? He's just an extra!" But before fisticuffs erupted, Kalmer and Ruby were informed that Chico Marx had paid the extra to rib the screenwriters, just for the hell of it.


November 17, 1942 -
Martin Scorsese, Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, producer, actor, film historian, former drug addict and asthmatic was born on this date.



Go watch a movie (any movie) in his honor. He won't mind.


November 17, 1951 -
... Slight pause while I adjust my accoutrements.



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


November 17, 1978 -
The two-hour Star Wars Holiday Special aired for the first and only time on CBS on this date. (I must strongly warn readers not to attempt to watch the entire special in one seating - stronger men have been driven to drink and drugs for less.)



The Holiday Special is the first time that James Earl Jones was credited with performing the voice of Darth Vader. The next time would be five years later, in 1983, during the end credits of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.


November 17, 1989 -
Jim Jarmusch's fourth feature, Mystery Train, opened on this date.



The hotel where the three stories converge is no longer standing, so many fans of the movie have made pilgrimages to the site only to find that it no longer exists. The film also contains some of the last known footage of Stax Records.


Today in History:
Things you probably didn't need to know
November 17, 375 -
Valentinian I, the Emperor of the West, enraged by the rudeness of barbarian envoys,

died of apoplexy in present day Hungary on this date.


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



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


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



So dammit, stop making those jokes.


November 17, 1869 -
The Suez Canal was opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean and the Red Seas on this date. The 100 mile canal eliminated a 4000-mile trip around Africa.

Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, together with Ferdinand de Lesseps, chief architect of the canal, led the first file of ships from on board the French imperial yacht Aigle.


November 17, 1871 -
George Wood Wingate and William Conant Church established the National Rifle Association in New York on this date.

Today, the group has more than 5 million members (as of January 2015,) - but the truth of those numbers is a matter of debate.


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



The Russian terms for majority and minority are Bolshevik and Menshevik, respectively, and so these factions took their names. Later the Mensheviks became the majority party, meaning that the Mensheviks had become Bolsheviks and the Bolsheviks Mensheviks.

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

It was easy after that.


November 17, 1917 -
The world famous 77 year old French Sculptor Auguste Rodin froze to death in an unheated attic in Meudon, France on this date. He had applied to the government for quarters as warm as those wherein his statues were stored, but the government turned him down.

His case was so desperate that he asked to be permitted to have a room in the museum the Hotel Biron, formerly his own studio. The official in charge of the museum refused. Other officials and friends promised coal but never sent it, though his situation at Meudon (ill, and freezing to death,) was apparently well known to all of them.


November 17, 1941 -
U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Joseph C. Grew cabled the US State Department that he has heard that Japan has 'planned, in the event of trouble with the United States, to attempt a surprise mass attack at Pearl Harbor.' His warning was ignored by the Office of Naval Intelligence.

His diplomatic relations with Japan were cordial until the late 1930s, when Japanese expansionism became openly aggressive toward Asian neighbors like China. The US increased economic pressures on Japan until, in late 1939, Grew had been predicting that the situation will soon come to a head. He told President Roosevelt in October 1939 that 'if we start sanctions against Japan we must see them through to the end, and the end may conceivably be 'war.'

Oops.


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



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


November 17, 1970 -
Douglas Engelbart receives a patent (US No. 3,541,541) for the first computer mouse on this date.

The patent, titled “X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System,” is a simple hollowed-out wooden block, with a single push button on top.


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



President Nixon spoke to more than 400 editors from the Associated Press at a gathering in Orlando, Florida, at Walt Disney World on this date.

I guess that means Disney World isn't the happiest place on Earth for everybody.



And so it goes

Big question for the day - Fresh or Frozen?

Watch them, catch them unawares

Many sites have noted that today is "Have a Party with Your Bear Day" but can't quite figure out the source:

(No it's not this reason.)

In 1902 while on a hunting trip with Mississippi Gov. Andrew H. Longino, President Teddy Roosevelt was offered the opportunity to shoot a bear tied to a tree.  Seeing this as extremely unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear. News spread quickly (or as quickly as it could in 1902), that the great huntsman Roosevelt has refused to shoot the animal.

A political cartoonist, Clifford Berryman read about the incident and decided to comment on the president's refusal to shoot the bear. Berryman's cartoon appeared in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902.


November 16, 1960 -
Working on the film, The Misfits was a trying experience for all involved. Marilyn Monroe's marriage was unraveling before the cast and crews eyes. Clark Gable, became bored while waiting for Monroe to turn up on the set. Gable, 59 (but a long-time smoker and drinker was in poor health) opted to do his own stunts, which included being dragged by a truck traveling at 30 mph. On the last day of filming, Gable said, "Christ, I'm glad this picture's finished. She (Monroe) damn near gave me a heart attack."



On the next day, Gable suffered a severe coronary thrombosis. He died at the hospital from a heart attack several days later, on this date. Marylin Monroe died of an alleged drug overdose (murder) a year later. Montgomery Clift, lingered around another six years, committing "the longest suicide in Hollywood," - heaving drinking and drug taking.


November 16, 1969 -
BJ Thomas released his hit, Hooked on a Feeling on this date.



Please don't click on this version unless you want the Ooga Chuka ear worm for rest of the week.


November 16, 1973 -
David Bowie appeared in his first TV special, 1980 Floor Show, broadcast on NBC's Midnight Special, on this date.



The show was a spectacular stage production that was filmed over three days, mostly at The Marquee Club, in Soho, London.  It would be Bowie’s last performance as the Ziggy Stardust persona with The Spiders From Mars.


November 16, 1977 -
Steven Spielberg's sci-fi classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, opened on this date.



François Truffaut's English was not strong. In order to get through some of his scenes, he stuck pieces of paper with his lines on them on various objects where he could read from them but the camera would not pick them up.


November 16, 1994 -
The Peter Jackson film.Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet in her film debut, opened in the U.S. on this date.



Most of the cast was selected because of their physical resemblances to their real-life characters.


Today in History:
November 16, 42 BC -

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus was born on this date. He was the Emperor of Rome from 14 to 37 AD.



John the Baptist and Jesus were put to death during his reign, as well as many others whose deaths didn't result in the creation of a religion.


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

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


November 16, 1913 -
Whatever you do, don't disparage M. Proust.




Unable to find a publisher willing to publish the first part of his ambitious three-volume novel, Marcel Proust paid the cost of publication himself of Du Côté de Chez Swann (Swann's Way,) the first volume of what turns out to become the seven-part novel À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past,) on this date.


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

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


November 16, 1971 -
Her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls...

Edie Sedgwick, actress and one of Andy Warhol's 'Superstars', died in California from a barbiturate overdose on this date.



Allegedly when learning of Sedgwick's death, Andy Warhol responded with "Edie who?" She was 28 years old.


November 16, 1981 -
Actor William Holden died after a fall, hitting his head on a table probably on November 12, 1981. He was too drunk to telephone for assistance; instead he died alone, bleeding to death trying to treat his wound with Kleenex. After failing to answer telephone calls from concerned friends, his body was found on this date. If it wasn't so sad, it would sound like the end of a classic film-noir.



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



And so it goes

There are 8 days until Thanksgiving
There are 38 days until the start of Hanukkah.
There are 39 days until Christmas.

Today is America Recycles Day.

We should all be celebrating this every day, although today is also known as National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day today.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, today's a good day to make some room in the frig ( I actual made room for the 'frozen corpse' coming to our house this weekend to thaw out.).



Which made me think about this old George Carlin routine.  I hope everybody get to be their family's ice box man.


I could not let the day pass without recognizing that it is also National Bundt Cake Day.



We are rolling around the floor in our house at the mention of this, (Hey we need something to keep our spirits up!)


I guess I need someone to explain to me the concept of  holiday long-form commercials in England



It's a wonderful commercial and James Corden is now the busiest man in show business; I just can't imagine Americans sitting for more than a minute for a commercial.


November 15, 1935 -
...  So now I tell you how we fly to America. The first time we started we got-a half way there when we run out a gasoline, and we gotta go back. Then I take-a twice as much gasoline. This time we're just about to land, maybe three feet, when what do you think: we run out of gasoline again. And-a back-a we go again to get-a more gas. This time I take-a plenty gas. Well, we get-a half way over, when what do you think happens: we forgot-a the airplane. So, we gotta sit down and we talk it over. Then I get-a the great idea. We no take-a gasoline, we no take-a the airplane. We take steamship, and that, friends, is how we fly across the ocean.

The Marx Brother's first film made without Zeppo, A Night at the Opera, premiered on this date.



In exasperation after several attempts to have Groucho Marx read one of his lines in the manner director Sam Wood had requested, Wood exclaimed, "I guess you just can't make an actor out of clay." Groucho Marx instantly responded, "Nor a director out of Wood."


November 15, 1940 -
The film that introduced Abbott and Costello to movie audiences, One Night in the Tropics, opened on this date.



Although billed as Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's debut film, it was actually their debut as a team; Costello had appeared, unbilled, in bit parts and worked as a stuntman on several films in the mid- and late 1920s. It was, however, Abbott's film debut.


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



This involved building the largest studio set in the then history of French cinema - the quarter mile of street frontage, reproduced in scrupulous detail, representing the Boulevard du Crime, the theater district of Paris in the 1830s and 40s. This would have been a daunting prospect at the best of times but in Vichy France, when all artisans, transport, materials, costumes and film stock were all in short supply, it was a miraculous achievement.


November 15, 1956 -
Elvis Presley's first movie, Love Me Tender, premiered at New York's Paramount Theater on this date.



The footage of Elvis Presley singing Love Me Tender at the end was shot after preview audiences reacted badly to his character's fate. This new footage created a continuity error, as Elvis had dyed his hair black by the time of the additional shooting, while in the movie his hair color was closer to blonde.


Today in History:
November 15, 1539 -
The Bishop of Glastonbury, Richard Whiting, was hung, drawn and quartered on this date, at Glastonbury Tor after being convicted of treason (on a trumped up charge) of remaining loyal to Rome.

The Abbot's head was stuck on a spike above his abbey gateway for all to see, and his quarters, boiled in pitch, were displayed at neighboring monasteries.

Here's a fact to impress your friends with:

One interpretation of the children's nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner relates it to Jack Horner, steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Richard Whiting. Supposedly, the abbot sent Horner to London to present a pie to Henry VIII with the deeds to 12 manors inside. During the journey, Horner opened the pie and took the deed to Mells (it being the real 'plum' of the twelve manors), which was indeed acquired by the family at that time, although they claim that it was purchased legitimately.


November 15, 1660 -
Asser Levy (one of the first Jewish citizens to come to New Amsterdam) became the first kosher butcher licensed in NYC (New Amsterdam) on this date.

Later that day, a Mrs.Yetta Abromowicz is the first customer to ask how fresh the chicken was.


Today in 1864 -
Union General William T. Sherman began his March to the Sea and burnt Atlanta on this date.



Meanwhile in another part of Atlanta, Rhett rescues Scarlett, Melanie and her brand new baby from Aunt Pittypat's Peachtree Street home before the conflagration began.



Rhett declared his love for Scarlett but she rebuffed him.



But that's a another story.


November 15, 1887 -
American artist Georgia O'Keeffe was born on this date.



Ms. O'Keeffe is best known for her colorful paintings of desert flowers -



that don't look like vaginas.


November 15, 1904 -
A patent (US patent No. 775,134) was granted to King C. Gillette for a safety 'razor' on this date.

Production on the razors began in 1903 when he sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades. The following year, 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades were sold, thanks in part to Gillette's low prices, automated manufacturing techniques, and good advertising


November 15, 1922 -
The 1912 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, Dr. Alexis Carrel announced his discovered of white corpuscles in the blood on this date.



Remember, there is constant warfare between the red and white corpuscles.


November 15, 1939 -
Perhaps because it was the depth of the Great Depression, the perversion of Washington D.C., knew no bounds -

President Roosevelt, slowly but deliberately rose from his wheelchair and laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., in front a group of horrified dignitaries, on this date


November 15, 1940 -
The Queens–Midtown Tunnel linking Manhattan and Queens opened to traffic on this date.

Some of those first drivers have just made it out to Mattatuck by now.


November 15, 1959 -
In Holcomb, Kansas, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith brutally killed four members of the Herbert Clutter Family on this date.



This crime was memorably recounted by Truman Capote in his famous non-fiction story, In Cold Blood.


November 15, 1969 -
The first Wendy's fast-food restaurant was opened by Dave Thomas in Columbus, Ohio on this date.



Today, the restaurant has locations around the globe and is one of the largest hamburger fast food chains in the world.


November 15, 1970 -
Things that didn't teach you in school: The Soviet moon rover, Lunokhod 1 lands on the Moon on this date. (Yes kids, the video is a simulation.)



Lunokhod was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another celestial body.



And so it goes.

An unnecessary fact of the day

Today is Day Two of National Split Pea Soup Week.

You may go back to the business of your day.


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



Among the books burned by the firemen is the film journal Cahiers du Cinema for which director François Truffaut wrote. Pictured on the cover is a picture from Breathless, written by Truffaut. Also among the books burned are The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 itself, both written by Ray Bradbury.


November 14, 1975 -
Queen released its fourth album A Night at the Opera on this date (There actually were other songs on the album besides Bohemian Rhapsody you know.)



At the time of it's release, this was the most expensive album ever recorded.  The album went on to be a commercial success, debuting at No. 1 in the UK and topping the charts for four non-consecutive weeks.


November 14, 1980 -
One of the greatest films Martin Scorsese ever made, Raging Bull premiered in NYC on this date (I was actually at the premiere.)



When the real Jake LaMotta saw the movie, he said it made him realize for the first time what a terrible person he had been. He asked the real Vicki LaMotta "Was I really like that?". Vicki replied "You were worse."


November 14, 1988 -
The comedy series Murphy Brown, starring Candice Bergen premiered on CBS TV on this date.



One of the running series jokes was Murphy Brown's inability to get a good secretary or one that could work with her. During the show's 10-year run, Murphy had a total of 93 secretaries. (During my time at the legally bound unnamed cable organization, I ran through 17 secretaries in a six year period.)


Today in History:
November 14, 1851 -
Harper and Brothers published Herman Melville's most famous novel, on this date.



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

Oops.



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



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



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


November 14, 1889 -



Nellie Bly, the pen name of journalist Elizabeth Cochran, sailed from New York to begin her record-breaking 24,899-mile trip around the world--a journey that would end on January 25, 1890.



The around-the-world trip originated in an attempt to beat the Jules Verne's fictional hero Phineas Fogg's 80-day journey. Millions of people followed the adventures of the plucky reporter through stories posted back to the World at every stop. Tremendous celebrations greeted Nellie when she arrived in New York. Her trip lasted 72 days, six hours and 11 minutes - a record that would stand until the Graf Zeppelin circled the globe in 20 days, four hours and 14 minutes in 1929.


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

while future Senator Joseph McCarthy was being born,

on this date, although not in the same room.

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



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


November 14, 1910 -
An airplane, piloted by Eugene Burton Ely, took off from the warship, USS Birmingham, off the coast of Hampton Roads, Virginia, on this date. The plane was the first airplane takes off from a ship.

Ely pilots the plane, a Curtiss pusher, to a nearby beach, where he lands after only just keeping the plane above sea level.


November 14, 1940 -

The Nazi Luftwaffe's two-day blitz of  Coventry, England, began on this date, killing several hundred people.



The German raids, codenamed Moonlight Sonata, destroyed much of the historical, English city.

Bad Nazis.


November 14, 1948 -
Charles Philip Arthur George (Mountbatten-Windsor), Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Extra Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Member of the Order of Merit, Knight of the Order of Australia, Companion of the Queen's Service Order, Royal Chief Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu, Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty and heir to the throne of England, was born on this date.



Charles, as of April 21, 2011, was the heir apparent longer that his great great grandfather, Edward VII. Edward VII was heir apparent for 59 years, 2 months and 14 days.  Prince Charles has been eligible to draw his state pension for two years now.


November 14, 1968 -
Today was National Turn In Your Draft Card Day - (the Vietnam death toll was fast approached 30,000 and US troop strength in Vietnam reached its peak of 550,000)



featuring burning your draft card hour.



And so it goes

Let us turn our thoughts to something else

 It is the one year anniversary of the deadly Paris attacks last November 13, massacring 130 people in the bloodiest terror attack in years.

Please take a moment out of your day to remember the victims and their families.


November 13, 1940 -
Walt Disney's third animated film Fantasia, opened in New York on this date.



Even after more than 70 years after its release, Disney still receives complaints from parents claiming the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence terrified their children.


November 13, 1954 -
Looney Tunes first 3D cartoon, Lumber Jack Rabbit, starring Bugs Bunny, premiered on this date.



Chuck Jones left Warner Brothers for four months over the production of this cartoon, which he felt was unsatisfactory. He went to Disney for those months, and worked on Sleeping Beauty, but eventually realized that, although he thought Walt Disney was an excellent producer, the company was not right for him. A famous meeting occurred when Disney told Jones "We can work out something for you" and Jones responded "Well, you have one job here that I want, and that's yours!" to which Disney said "I'm sorry, it's filled." It was the only time Jones left the company in a career that lasted over 25 years, until Jones was "let go" from the animation department in 1962.


November 13, 1955 -
Happy Birthday Caryn



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


November 13, 1965 -
Get Off My Cloud by the Rolling Stones topped the charts on this date.



There was some of controversy over this song. Some U.S. radio stations refused to play the song because of the supposed drug references.


November 13, 1971 -
Steven Spielberg's first full- length film, Duel, starring Dennis Weaver, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.



When Carey Loftin, playing the truck driver, asked Steven Spielberg what his motivation was for tormenting the car's driver, Spielberg told him, "You're a dirty, rotten, no-good son of a bitch." Loftin replied, "Kid, you hired the right man."


November 13, 1975 -
Morris Albert's song Feelings went gold on this date.



In 1987, Morris Albert was found guilty of plagiarism, with a jury finding that this borrowed heavily from a French song from 1956 called "Pour Toi."

You can blame me later for this ear worm

November 13, 1991 -
The first animated film to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast premiered in Hollywood on this date.



Angela Lansbury, the voice of Mrs. Potts, thought that another character would be better suited to sing the ballad "Beauty and the Beast". The director asked her to make at least one recording to have for a backup if nothing else worked, and that one recording ended up in the film.


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

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



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



Like many other theological luminaries, Augustine began life as a debauched young man who sought his pleasures in wine, women, and song. Eventually he became old and cranky and declared his youth wasted.



All of the things that occurred during the drunken orgies of his youth recounted in his Confessions do not hold a candle to the crap going on at the Pitt - Jolie household.


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



I would include, "please return your seat in the upright position."


November 13, 1927 -

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



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


November 13, 1947 -
The AK-47 assault rifle development by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the Soviet Union was completed on this date.  The rifle was one of the first assault rifles to be created.



Today, it is the most widely-used assault rifle in the world — more AK-47 models have been made than all other assault rifle models put together.


November 13, 1965 -
Appearing on a late night live satire program called BBC3, critic Kenneth Tynan becomes the first man to say “Fuck” on TV.

A national fit of apoplexy follows with one Tory MP suggesting that Tynan should hang!


November 13, 1971 -
The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first space probe to orbit another planet when it enters into orbit around Mars on this date. The probe’s mission was to return photographs that would map seventy percent of the surface while conducting a study of the planet’s atmosphere.



Analysis of the data returned by the probe revealed that the planet is covered in dried river beds. Two Soviet probes achieved the same orbit about a month later.


November 13, 1974 -
Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., was killed in a 'car crash' while on her way to meet a reporter on this date.



The Kerr-McGee nuclear fuel plants closed in 1975. The grounds of the Cimarron plant were still being decontaminated more than 40 years later.



And so it goes.

There are 11 days until Thanksgiving.
There are 42 days until Christmas.

Order up (or the terrorists have won.)

It's National Pizza with the Works (Except Anchovies) Day, I'm not joking, I've seen this exception on many sites.

What's so wrong about anchovies?



(Well there is an old joke by George Carlin, but I'm not going to play it to you, you'll have to find it yourself, but I guess that would put me off anchovies.)


November 12, 1945 -
Back then people closed their eyes and listened to music. Today there's a lot of images that go with the music. A lot of music is crap and it's all commercial and the images are all trying to sell the record







Happy Birthday Neil Percival Young !!!


November 12, 1955 -
Today was one of the most event-filled dates in Hill Valley, CA history:

George McFly and Lorraine Baines kissed for the first time at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance on this date. One week earlier, George had been struck by a car driven by Lorraine's father, Sam Baines, and Lorraine looked after him during his recovery. Lorraine accepted George's invitation to go the dance. Marvin Berry and the Starlighters played popular music during the entire dance, such as Night Train and Earth Angel.



During the famous Hill Valley Thunderstorm, a bolt of lightning strikes the Clock Tower at precisely 10:04 p.m., and it hasn't rung since.


November 12, 1993 -
Jane Campion's Oscar-winning film, The Piano starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel (and his penis), Sam Neill and Anna Paquin, was released in the US on this date.



Jane Campion became the first woman to win the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with this film, though she was unable to receive the award in person as she was due to give birth.


Today in History:
King Cnut of England, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden died on this date in 1035. (Cnut is better known to most Americans as King Canute, which offers fewer typographical hazards.)



Cnut was the son of Svein Forkbeard, son of Harald Bluetooth, son of Gorm (now you know.) In 1013 Cnut's father conquered all of England from the Saxon King Aethelred but died anyway. This allowed Aethelred to take England back, which made it necessary for Cnut himself to reconquer England in 1016. He enjoyed this so much that he went on to conquer Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and part of Sweden, all of which came to be known collectively as Cnutland, perhaps explaining the region's subsequent popularity among European dyslexics.

This will be on the test.


November 12, 1859 -
The first flying-trapeze circus act was performed by Jules Leotard at the Circus Napoleon (later renamed  Cirque d'Hiver) in Paris on this date.

His act caused a sensation in Paris, and soon other circus performers were trying out his technique. Leotard designed the garment that bears his name. Jules died at the age of 28 in Spain, leaving behind the famous Leotard and the art of flying trapeze.


November 12, 1912 -
The bodies of Captain Robert Scott and his men were found on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, frozen solid in one huge block of ice, on this date.



So he had literally become Scott of the Antarctic.


November 12, 1928 -
S. S. Vestris left New York November 10, 1928, with 129 passengers and 196 crew. The next day she ran into a severe storm and developed a starboard list, caused by a partially open coal port four feet above the water line



An SOS was sent out on November 12, some 200 miles off Hampton Roads, Virginia, and the ship was abandoned and after a few hours, the ship fell on her side and sank. Approximately 112 of the 325 onboard were lost (there was never a conclusive count - you know how it is during a disaster): all 13 children on board perished, as well as 28 of the 36 women.


November 12, 1933 -
Hugh Gray of the British Aluminum Company took five pictures of the Loch Ness Monster, the first known photos. Four the the five exposures were blank, and the remaining photo was later proven to be a hoax.

The brand of whiskey, Mr. Grey consumed has been lost in the ethers of time.


Early on the morning of November 12, 1942, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, mob informer, then in protective custody, fell to his death from a hotel window. It is not known whether he was thrown or pushed out the window, or if he was trying to escape. The angle of trajectory suggests that he was, in fact, defenestrated (my favorite word.)

Because of his mob status as a stool pigeon and the circumstances surrounding his death, Reles gained another moniker after his passing. In addition to "Kid Twist," Reles became known as "the canary who sang, but couldn't fly."


It was on this date in 1948 that former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and seven others were sentenced to hang.



(This was back in the quaint old days, when the world considered it legal not only to have enemies, but to kill them after they tried to kill you.)


November 12, 1980 -
NASA's space probe Voyager 1 reached Saturn on this day and sent photos of the planet's rings back to Earth, nearly a billion miles (about 1.6 billion km) away.

This was the first photograph of Saturn's rings were transmitted to Earth. OK you can get the laugh out - the ring around Uranus were photographed in 1986.



And so it goes

Music is the emotional life of most people.

November 10, 2016 -
I don't really understand that process called reincarnation but if there is such a thing I'd like to come back as my daughter's dog.









As if this week couldn't get any worse, everybody's favorite witty, charming and self-deprecating Jewish Zen Buddhist Canadian moved to the next level of consciousness.


(completely changing directions)
A 94-foot Norway spruce from the northern foothills of New York’s Catskill mountain range has been chosen as Rockefeller Center's Christmas tree this year in New York. The spruce hails from a backyard of Angie and Graig Eichler in Oneonta, which is a little over an hour from Albany. The tree was cut yesterday, November 10th and arrive in Manhattan on November 12th and begin a round of intensive wardrobe fittings.



The tree will be lit for the first time on Wednesday, November 30 at Rockefeller Plaza. The tree will remain lit and on display on the plaza between West 48th and 51st Streets and Fifth and Sixth Avenues until 9pm on January 7th  - remember to avoid midtown at all cost on that date.


At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month ... World War I ended on this date in 1918 -



It's Veterans Day in the United States and Armistice Day for many in Europe (and it's Singles Day in China, 11/11- it's considered China's Anti-Valentine's Day, but we're not going to discuss that now.)



I'd like to thank our veterans for having fought, and in many cases died, to preserve my liberties -



and I'd like to apologizes for having made such foolish use of them.


November 11, 1943 -
The under-appreciated wartime-drama Sahara, starring Humphrey Bogart premiered on this date.



The Sahara desert in this movie was portrayed by the California desert's Borego Desert which is located in the Imperial Valley, north of the American-Mexican border as well as Brawley, Imperial County, California; Chatsworth, California and the sand dunes of Yuma, Arizona.


November 11, 1947 -
Elia Kazan's searing expose of anti-Semitism, Gentleman's Agreement, starring Gregory Peck premiered in New York on this date.



When other studio chiefs, who were mostly Jewish, heard about the making of this film, they asked the producer not to make it. They feared its theme of anti-Semitism would simply stir up a hornet's nest and preferred to deal with the problem quietly. Not only did production continue, but a scene was subsequently included that mirrored that confrontation.


November 11, 1958 -
The (relatively unknown) British-comedy The Horse's Mouth, starring Alec Guinness, opened in the US on this date.



One day director Ronald Neame found Guinness sulking in his dressing room, refusing to come to the set. According to Neame, Guinness felt he hadn't been stroked enough and explained, "Actors are emotionally 14-year-olds. We need to be chastised like children, and we need to be hugged and told we're doing fine work. We are the children who never grow up."

Do yourself a favor and watch this one.


November 11, 1959 -
The beginning of American independent cinema can be traced to this date when Shadows, directed by John Cassavetes, premiered in NYC.



John Cassavetes was the guest on a Manhattan radio show, promoting Johnny Staccato, a TV series Cassavetes was starring in. Somehow the conversation moved into making a feature film, and Cassavetes told listeners that if he were to make a feature film, they should donate a dollar or two by sending it to the station. A few days later, a surprised Cassavetes had received a couple of thousand dollars from listeners sending money to the station, which he put toward the making of this film.


Today in History:
November 11, 397 -
St. Martin of Tours, another in the series of anorexic visionaries is a patron saint of France, soldiers (he is known as the he man's saint), reformed alcoholics and winemakers. When the armistice fell on the Saint Martin’s Day, November 11, 1918, the French people saw it was a sign of his intercession in the affairs of France.

Martin, after another of his life long practice of fasting, has a dream about Jesus wearing the cloak he had recently given to a naked beggar. Pieces of Martin's actual 'cloak' were revered as holy relics and the derivation of the name of the priest who looked after these relics became 'chaplain'.  (My father-in-law always reminded us that today is the day when the grapes you pressed and bottled turned into wine.)

And now you know.


November 11, 1215 -
The Fourth Lateran Council met on this date. They adopt the doctrine of Transubstantiation, meaning that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ.

This means all Catholics are essentially cannibals on a feeding schedule, but who am I to judge a theology of which I am a nominal member.


November 11, 1634 -
Following pressure from Anglican bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes "An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery". Seven years later, the good Bishop Atherton is himself is found well hanged under the Act.

I guess the religious right has always been a little loose on this issue.


November 11, 1821 -
One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man.



Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Russian novelist who wrote Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, was born on this date.


November 11, 1862  -
Joe Green's (stage name - Giuseppe Verdi) Opera, La Forza Del Destino premiered in St Petersburg, Russia on this date.



La Forza Del Destino is an opera that many old school Italian singers felt was "cursed" and brought bad luck. The very superstitious Luciano Pavarotti avoided accepting a role in the opera for this reason.


November 11, 1921 -
One year after unknown soldiers were simultaneously buried at Westminster Abbey, London, and the Arc de Triomphe in France, President Warren G. Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (a white marble sarcophagus in Arlington National Cemetery.)





The tombstone itself, designed by sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones, was not completed until 1932, when it was unveiled bearing the description “Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God.” The World War I unknown was later joined by the unidentified remains of soldiers from America’s other major 20th century wars and the tomb was put under permanent guard by special military sentinels.


November 11, 1925 -
The most terrible fear that anybody should have is not war, is not a disease, not cancer or heart problems or food poisoning - it's a man or a woman without a sense of humor.



Jonathan Winters, the great improvisational comedian and actor, was born on this date.


November 11, 1969 -
The Beatles with Billy Preston released Get Back in the UK on this date.



Get Back was going to be the title of the album. The concept was The Beatles "getting back" to their roots and playing new songs for a live audience without any studio tricks. This song came closest to capturing that spirit, but the album became something completely different when they decided to scrap the idea of a live album.


November 11, 1978 -
A perennial favorite suicide location, the renovated Hollywood Sign is unveiled, due in large part to the public campaign to restore the landmark by pornographer Hugh Hefner and shock rocker Alice Cooper.

The original sign was built in 1923, and said "Hollywoodland".

And so it goes


Before you go - This is a very British thing but the John Lewis Christmas Commercial is out -



Apparently, besides the Queen's Christmas speech, here's how you mark the holidays in England.

With the holidays coming up,

Remember to pick up those decorations.


November 10, 1953 -
Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom was an educational Adventures in Music animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions, and originally released to theaters by Buena Vista Distribution on this date.



This was the first animated cartoon in CinemaScope.


November 10, 1956 -
Billie Holiday returned to the stage at Carnegie Hall after a three-year absence on this date.



The concert was called, by some, a high point in jazz history .


November 10, 1967 -
The Moody Blues released their hit, Nights in White Satin, on this date. This was written by Justin Hayward, who joined the band the previous year. He got the idea for the song after someone gave him a set of white satin sheets - yes, sometimes, it's just that inane.



This song introduced a new sound for the band. When they formed, they were more of a Blues band, and had a hit in 1965 with a cover of Bessie Banks' Go Now. With the songs on Days of Future Passed, they distinguished themselves with original songs in a more psychedelic/orchestral sound.


November 10, 1969 -
Come and play. Even at 47, everything's still A-OK (even on HBO.)



Sesame Street premiered on PBS-TV on this date.


November 10, 1969 -
Just four months after the Apollo 11 moon landing, Columbia Pictures released the thriller Marooned, directed by John Sturges and starring Gregory Peck and Gene Hackman, in U.S. theaters on this date.



The Film Ventures International re-edit of this film (retitled Space Travelers) was featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. This was also the only film featured on the show to have won an Academy Award.


Today in History:
November 10, 4004 BC -
Are you having that , "Gee, I'm feeling rather shamed about my engorged genitals today", here's the reason why:

Adam and Eve, all our forebearers, were driven from Paradise on this date, according to our good old friend Rev. Ussher.


November 10, 1871 -
New York Newspaperman Henry M. Stanley finally found Scottish explorer Dr. Livingstone at Ujiji near Lake Tanganyika (helpfully identified by some sources as being "near Unyanyembe"), and remarked, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?", on this date.



This was extremely witty and therefore historical.


November 10, 1903 -
U.S. patent  no. 743,801 was issued to Mary Anderson, a resident of Birmingham, Alabama. She tried to sell her invention to a manufacturing firm in Canada, but the offer was rejected as having no practical value.

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US743801-0.png
Others belittled her creation as well, insisting it would distract drivers and result in accidents. In the end, her patent expired before she was able to profit from her invention.


November 10,  1911 -
The following entry was made by George Levick, a surgeon and the medical officer on Scott's famous 1910-1913 expedition to the South Pole: This afternoon I saw a most extraordinary site - A Penguin was actually engaged in sodomy upon the body of a dead white throated bird of its own species.



How I know this and why I though it important to note it in this blog speaks volumes to my education and general mental state.

(The rest of today's posting is dedicated to the 40th President of the United States:)

November 10, 1925 -
Richard Burton was born on this date.



No, not the Victorian international man of mystery, self-circumcisor and male brothel frequenter but Welsh actor with the greatest voice of the 20th Century.

 Ronald Reagan somehow figures into this story.


November 10, 1928 -
Playing against Army at Yankee Stadium, Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne gave what is considered the greatest locker room speeches of all time by saying "Win one for the Gipper."



Somehow Ronald Reagan got mixed up in all of this.


November 10, 1928 -
Michinomiya Hirohito was crowned the 124th Emperor of Japan, Emperor Showa on this date.

Some how Ronald Reagan got mixed up in this, as well.


November 10, 1938 -
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, one of the most extraordinary men of the 20th Century, statesman and first President of Modern Turkey, died of cirrhosis of the liver on this date.



Will Durant had said, "men devoted to war, politics, and public life wear out fast, and all three had been the passion of Atatürk."

Ronald Reagan makes a bizarre appearance here


November 10, 1940 -
Walt Disney begins serving as a secret informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI, to report back information on Hollywood subversives. He was made a "Full Special Agent in Charge Contact" in 1954.

We should note that Disney was also atheist, Neo-Nazi, racist and possible child pornography collector, thus subversive in his own little way. Also remember that he reported in directly to a cross-dressing, homosexual who would never make left turns in his car.

You just knew Reagan was going to show up here.


November 10, 1954 -
The Iwo Jima Memorial, also known as the US Marine Corps (USMC) War Memorial, was dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Arlington National Cemetery on this date.



the Marine Corps War Memorial is dedicated to all Marines who have served and given their lives in the defense of the United States since a resolution of the Second Continental Congress on this date in 1775 ordered their formation.

I'm not going to insult the Marines with any association with Mr. Reagan.


November 10, 1975 -
The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board





and unfortunately is the subject of Gordon Lightfoot's annoying hit song, The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald.

Thankfully, Mr. Reagan was not in Canada at the time.



And so it goes.



x
getting on the 'Good' list might be a problem.