Sock it to me

January 22, 1968 -
The comedy show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, hosted by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, premiered on NBC television on this date.


(sorry this isn't the entire first episode but you get the idea.)

One of the trademarks of the series was the fast cutting that happened in between videotaped segments. Blackouts, one-liners and sketches were edited together in such a way that the show had a very rapid, almost frenzied, pace. This was done before computer controlled editing machines were invented, so much of the show was edited by hand.


January 22, 2003 -
The hysterical funny and groundbreaking comedy show Chappelle's Show, starring Dave Chappelle premiered on Comedy Central on this date.



Dave Chappelle was inspired to create the show after watching a documentary about Hugh M. Hefner that featured clips of Playboy After Dark. Chappelle was inspired by the laid-back atmosphere of Hefner's show.


January 22, 2010 -
To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I'll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere.

Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen - Conan O'Brien



Coco hosted his last episode of The Tonight Show on this date.


Word of the day


Today in History -
Today is the birthday of Grand Duke Ivan III of Moscow, better known as Ivan the Great.

He was born in 1440 and became Grand Duke of Moscow in 1462. Although Moscow was a lot of fun, it was not yet Russia. Ivan was determined to remedy that shortcoming as quickly as possible: he had tsars in his eyes.

To enlarge his dominions he began nibbling at his smaller neighbors, paying an annual tribute to the Golden Horde of Tatars to keep them from nibbling at him. Having eventually swallowed most of his surroundings, Ivan decided in 1480 that it was time to stop paying the Golden Horde.

http://i1.wp.com/listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/mongol-invasion.jpg?resize=632%2C356
The Golden Horde reminded him that it was time for their annual tribute. Ivan ignored them.

The Golden Horde sent him polite reminders in the mail, but he ignored these also.

They sent reminders on brightly colored stationery embossed with the words PAYMENT PAST DUE, but Ivan, alas, remained indifferent.

Finally the Golden Horde marched against Ivan and he marched his own troops out to meet them. The two armies met, faced off, and simultaneously retreated.



This was a victory for Ivan, in that neither he nor his descendants ever paid tribute to the Golden Horde again. But it was also a defeat for Ivan, who was therefore denied the rank of tsar.

(The first real Tsar of Russia was his grandson, Ivan IV, "the shooting tsar.")


January 22, 1521 -
The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V commenced the imperial Diet of Worms, on this date, to address the issues Martin Luther brought up in his 95 Theses.

While worms in general are quite unpleasant to consume, most people were afraid to contradict the Emperor, so many people in Europe became Protestant.


It was on this date in 1807 that U.S. President Thomas Jefferson exposed a plot by his former vice-president and unconvicted murderer, Aaron Burr, to establish an empire in the southwestern part of the continent. Burr was eventually acquitted as a result of Chief Justice Marshall's tree-falling-in-forest ruling that treason wasn't treason unless someone was there to see it—along with someone else who saw the same thing. The vice-presidency was never the same.



From that date forward, retiring vice-presidents have been compelled to either retire into the political obsolescence of private life, where we can safely ignore them, or into the presidency, where we can keep an eye on them (or possibly in Mike Pence's case, continuously avoiding being seen with the President.)


January 22, 1901 -
After 63 years, England stopped sales of the Queen Victoria postage stamps series and began the King Edward VII series on this date.



Alexandrina Victoria (Hanover, if she needed a last name) the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India of the British Raj, finally gave up the ghost much to the relief of her 59 year old son Edward, permitting him to finally get a job.


January 22, 1905 -
Thousands of demonstrating Russian workers were fired on by Imperial army troops in St. Petersburg on what became known as "Red Sunday" or "Bloody Sunday" on this date.



96 people were killed, and over 300 were wounded. This incident marks the beginning of the so-called 1905 Revolution.


January 22, 1918 -
Manitoba, Canada film censor board decides to ban comedies, on the grounds that they make audiences too frivolous.



Canada does not fully recover their true frivolousness until the broadcasting of SCTV in the early 80s.

January 22, 1970 -
A Pan Am Boeing 747-100 named Victor Clipper (N736PA) makes its first commercial passenger trip to London, England on this date

The flight had departed from New York City, and had carried 332 passengers and 18 crew. Although most passengers enjoyed the flight, one had mentioned that this plane is too big for commercial travel.



(Unfortunately, seven years later on March 27, 1977, the Clipper Victor was involved in the worst aircraft accident in history, with a total of 583 fatalities. A KLM 747 at full take off speed, while trying to get airborne crashed into Pan Am’s Clipper Victor in Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands.)


January 22, 1973 -
The Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision on this date, which legalized abortion, using a trimester approach. The court ruled that a woman's right to privacy encompasses her decision to terminate a pregnancy.



Norma McCorvey, the anonymous Jane Roe, revealed her identity in 1989. She ended up having her third baby that was the initial focus of the issue.


January 22, 1984 -
The future began today. The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, was introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous 1984 television commercial.



Now that Steve Jobs is gone; we can stop saying 'Hooray for Big Brother!!!'


January 22, 1997 -
Lottie Williams was reportedly the first human to be struck by a remnant of a space vehicle after re-entering the earth's atmosphere on this date.

The debris that struck Ms. Williams has not been examined to confirm its origin, but a used Delta II rocket, launched nine months earlier, had crashed into the Earth's atmosphere half an hour earlier. Williams says she received a letter from the deputy secretary of defense apologizing for the incident.



And so it goes.


One last thing:

January 22, 1987 -
If you know, you know why





Otherwise, nothing to see here


1096

The walls have ears... Your ears have walls

Your ears secrete more earwax when you are afraid than when you are calm


For some reason, today is Squirrel Appreciation Day



(Remember, they are just rats with good PR.)


January 21, 1957 -
Patsy Cline sang Walking After Midnight on Arthur Godfrey's nighttime television show, quickly launching her career on this date.



Mr. Godfrey did not fire her after her performance.


January 21, 1957 -
NBC recorded and later broadcasted the second inaugural ceremonies of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.



It is the first national broadcast of a previously recorded event.


January 21, 1966 -
George Harrison married model/actress Patti 'Layla' Boyd whom he met on the set of the Beatles movie, Hard Day's Night on this date.



The couple later divorced in 1974 and she married Eric Clapton (whom she divorced in 1989 but that's another story.)


January 21, 1984 -
The prog rock group Yes song, Owner of a Lonely Heart, hit No. #1 on this date.



This is the first single from 90125, and was the group's one and only #1 charting hit. The album was a drastic departure from Yes' progressive sound in the '70s, containing distorted guitar and synthesizers that were popular at the time.


And now a word from your dessert


Today in History:
January 21, 1793 -
On a chilly Monday, stripped of all titles and honorifics by the republican government, citizen Louis Capet was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd in what today is the Parisian Place de la Revolution. The executioner, Charles Henri Sanson, testified that King Louis XVI had bravely met his fate.



Apparently, three years earlier, to the date, Joseph Guillotine proposed a new, more humane method of execution: a machine designed to cut off the condemned person's head as painlessly as possible.  An early urban legend has the King suggesting, after inspecting an early guillotine prototype, a slant and beveling of the blade, for better cutting action.

Sometimes, people should just keep their opinions to themselves.


January 21, 1908 -
New York City's Board of Aldermen passed the Sullivan Ordinance that effectively prohibited women from smoking in public.

Two weeks later the measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.


January 21, 1924 -
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Vladimir I. Lenin) driving force behind the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the first great dictator of the Soviet Union died from a massive stroke on this date.



Lenin, idolized during his life -- an icon after his death, helped along by an unusual effort to preserve his corpse. For decades after his death, Russians lined up in all weather to view Lenin's body on display in a glass container inside a special mausoleum in Red Square. A triumph of the embalmer's art, the corpse was removed on a regular basis for the special top-secret treatments that kept it looking remarkably lifelike.

I'm going to let you sick puppies go on your own to this site - you can enjoy the sight of the nude, mummified corpse of Lenin getting his rejuvenating bath.


January 21, 1954 -
The first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus (named after the submarine in Jules Vernes' Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) was launched by First lady Mamie Eisenhower on the Thames River in Groton, Connecticut on this date.



The propulsion system of the Nautilus makes the ship the first “true” submarine. Vessel previously termed “submarines” were, in fact, only submersibles powered by diesel engines which consumed vast amounts of oxygen. However, the Nautilus can remain submerged for months on end.


January 21, 1959 -
Former Our Gang child star Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer arrived at Moses 'Bud' Stiltz's home in Mission Hills, California, to settle an alleged debt owed to Switzer on this date.

Previously, Switzer had borrowed a dog from Stiltz which was lost, but eventually found, Switzer paying the man who returned the dog $50. Switzer went to Stiltz's house to collect the money "owed" him. He banged on Stiltz's front door, demanding that he let him in, flashing a fake police badge. Once Switzer got inside he and Stiltz got into an argument. Switzer informed Stiltz that he wanted the money owed him. However, when Stiltz refused to hand over the money, the two engaged in a physical fight. Switzer bashed Stiltz in the head with a lamp, which caused Stiltz to bleed from his left eye. Stiltz retreated to his bedroom and returned holding a gun, but Switzer immediately grabbed the gun away from Stiltz, which resulted in a shot being fired but neither man being hit. Then Switzer forced Stiltz into a closet, despite Stiltz having gotten his hands back on the gun. Switzer then allegedly pulled out a knife and was attempting to stab Stiltz with it. But just as Switzer was about to charge Stiltz, Stiltz raised the gun and shot Switzer in the chest. Switzer died of intense blood loss while on his way to the hospital. He was 31 years old.



Switzer's death was largely ignored in the media, mainly because director Cecil B. DeMille had died on the same day.

Kids, never loan a dog to a former child star.


January 21, 1960 -
The Little Joe 1B was a Launch Escape System test of the Mercury spacecraft, conducted as part of the U.S. Mercury program, on this date. The mission also carried a female Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) named Miss Sam in the Mercury spacecraft. The six pound monkey survived the 8 minute 35 second flight in good condition.



Miss Sam retired from the space program and enjoyed a successfully career in the "Straw Hat" theatre circuit, starring in, among other things, Medea and Uncle Vanya.


January 21, 1968 -
A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminated the area after its nuclear payload ruptured on this date. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete.



If you have the bomb, the US government would be happy to take it off your hands - no questions asked.



And so it goes.


Before you go - This week, Puddles covered Chris Isaak's classic hit Wicked Game, in his own unique way.



Now, who wants donuts!


1097

Today is Art Action Day

Today is also the Feast day of St. Sebastian, patron saint of soldiers, plague-stricken, archers, Christian matyrs, athletes (and  homosexual icon - the saint is always depicted as a strapping youth, nude, save a haphazardly placed loin cloth, bound to the post, muscles, straining. Pierced by several arrows, still smiling -  but we shan't discuss that today.)

St. Sebastian, likewise, did not die immediately upon being shot with many arrows, but recovered and suffered a second martyrdom – hence, he is sometimes called the saint who was martyred twice. St. Sebastain was left for dead when St. Irene of Rome came to bury the relics of St. Sebastian and found that was not quite dead.  St. Irene nursed him back to health. Sebastian went before the man who ordered him executed, the Emperor Diocletian and told him to repent. Diocletian, didn't take kindly to having the condemned speak to him and had him clubbed to death. He then had St. Sebastian corpse tossed into a sewer.

You can't keep a good man down - Saint Sebastian appeared to a pious woman named Lucina and told her where to find his remains.


Today is National DJ Day, as well.  The first DJ, or Disc Jockey, was sixteen-year-old student Ray Newby, who played the first records over the airwaves at Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless located in San Fernando, California, in 1909.







National Disc Jockey Day is celebrated in remembrance of the death of Albert James "Alan" Freed,  (AKA Moondog,) the man who coined the term “Rock ‘n’ Roll”


It wasn't strange enough to discover that today is National Cheese Lovers Day (according to several and sundry websites,)



when cheese is digested, it breaks down into an opioid.


January 20, 1941 -
Raoul Walsh's crime-drama High Sierra, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino premiered on this date.



This was the last movie Humphrey Bogart made where he did not receive top billing. The studio thought that Ida Lupino should have top billing, given the fact that she had been such a big hit in They Drive by Night, and so her name ended up above Bogart's on the title card. Bogart was reportedly unhappy about receiving second billing but never complained.


January 20, 1949 -
A surprise hit for writer/ director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (which garnered for him his first two Oscars,) A Letter to Three Wives, premiered on this date.



Joseph L. Mankiewicz had a real battle with the American censors at the time who would not permit him to use words like "laxative" and "toilet" in his script. He got his revenge with a famous double-entendre laden exchange which used words like "penetration" and "saturation".


January 20, 1964 -
The second Beatles' album, Meet the Beatles! was released in the United States on this date.



It was the first US Beatles album to be issued by Capitol Records. Two days previously, the Beatles entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time, as 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' appeared on the Hot 100 at No. 45.

Don't forget to tune into The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today.


Today in History -
Jimmy Naismith was born in Ramsay township in Ontario, Canada in 1861. He grew up and eventually went to McGill University in Montreal. He became their Athletic Director and in 1891 he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, to take a post at the YMCA Training School. It was there that he was confronted with the problem of developing a game that could be played indoors and in relatively little space.



On January 20, 1892, with only two peach baskets, a soccer ball, and a hand-written list of 13 rules, Dr. Naismith oversaw the world's first full game of a brand new sport, a sport that took its name from the peach baskets and soccer ball used to play it.



He had finally invented Peach Soccer (as opposed to Peachbasket - see January 15.)


January 20, 1920 -
No critic writing about a film could say more than the film itself, although they do their best to make us think the oppposite.



Federico Fellini, director, screenwriter, producer, painter and cartoonist, was born on this date.


January 20, 1936 -
King George V of England was euthanized with injections of cocaine and morphine on this date, after a painful cancer illness. His final words, a mumbled God damn you!, were addressed to his nurse when she gave him a sedative before his final lethal injection. His physician, Bertrand Dawson (later becoming Viscount Dawson of Penn,) was motivated not only to ameliorate the king's suffering, but also to break the story in the morning edition of the newspapers, rather than the less appropriate evening journals.



Remember kids - Promptness is the politeness of kings.



At the procession to George's Lying in State in Westminster Hall, as the cortege turned into New Palace Yard, the Maltese Cross fell from the Imperial Crown and landed in the gutter. The new King, Edward VIII, saw it fall and wondered whether this was a bad omen for his new reign.



He would abdicate before the year was out.


January 20, 1949 -
As a early gift for her 21st birthday, J. Edgar Hoover gives his friend Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen.  This is not as odd as it seems: Hoover had known Shirley for much of her professional life - the FBI have investigated several death and extortion threats against the child star for years.

I have scourged the internet but alas cannot find a picture of the pen (or Hoover in his cha-cha heels.)


January 20, 1956 -
We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It's overrun with sheep and conformists.



Bill Maher, actor, comedian, political analyst, avowed atheist and professional pot smoker, was born on this date.


January 20, 1981-
The hostages being held by Iran had been held for almost 450 days (444 days), one of the longest durations of a hostage situation in modern history, were released on this date.



The way President Carter handled the situation was extremely unpopular, and the hostages were only released minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.


January 20, 1982 -
While playing in Iowa to promote the release of his second solo album The Diary of a Madman, a live bat was thrown onstage in front of Ozzy Osbourne and, dazed by the bright spotlights and its hard landing, (the bat) was knocked unconscious.



Ozzy, thinking that the bat was made of rubber, proceeded to put the bat head into its mouth and... well, you know where we're going with this. It was the point where the bats' severed head twitched inside Ozzy's mouth that he realized that it was no Halloween decoration. He was rushed to hospital immediately following the incident and treated for rabies.


January 20, 1993 -



Although Tom Waits was notoriously against selling himself in commercials, he did let his principles slip slightly and provided voiceover work for dog food company Butchers Blend.



After the commercial began to win awards and become recognized Waits regretted the decision; when asked about it years later he said "I was really down on my luck at that time and I've always really loved dogs".



And so it goes.


BTW - Donald Trump took the oath of office one year ago today. My how time flies.

1098

Mud spelled backwoids is Dum

January 19, 1942 -
The first of nine films to feature Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Woman of the Year premiered on this date.



The first scene shot was the characters' first date, in a bar. Katharine Hepburn was so nervous she spilled her drink, but Spencer Tracy just handed her a handkerchief and kept going. Hepburn proceeded to clean up the spill as they played the scene. When the drink dripped through to the floor, she tried to throw Tracy off by going under the table, but he stayed in character, with the cameras rolling the entire time.


January 19, 1952 -
In the first match-up between Wile E. Coyote and Bugs Bunny, Operation: Rabbit, premiered on this date.



This was the second cartoon to feature Wile E. Coyote (following 1949’s Fast and Furry-ous), and the first in which he is identified by his full name. It is also the first in which the Coyote speaks.


January 19,1953 -
68% of all television sets in the United States were tuned in to I Love Lucy on this date to watch Lucy give birth to a baby boy - the same day Lucille Ball gave birth to her son, Desi Arnaz Junior.



All the while they couldn't say pregnant on TV or be seen sleeping in the same bed - it appears to be the second virgin birth. The audience for the program was larger than that watching the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower the following day.


January 19,1955 -
President Eisenhower decided not to play golf today and allowed a filmed news conference to be used on television (and in movie newsreels) for the first time on this date.



The press conference given by President Eisenhower was filmed in the Indian Treaty Room at the East Wing of the White House.


January 19, 1957 -
Ernie Kovacs burst into the public consciousness with the comedy special, The Silent Show, premiering on this date.



It was filmed for broadcast first, in color, on the NBC network in 1957. A second version of the show was created on videotape and broadcast November 10, 1961, on the ABC network.



Though both were broadcast in color, only B&W kinescopes of these shows survive, although an excerpt of the color show was aired as part of the NBC 50th Anniversary Special in 1976.


Today in History:
January 19, 1809 -
Edgar Allan Poe, writer who contributed to the creation of both the detective and science fiction genre, was born in Boston on this date.



His best known stories include: Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-Tale Heart. His most famous poems are The Raven and Annabel Lee.


January 19, 1915 -
George Claude, an engineer, chemist and inventor was the first person to create a lamp by applying an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon. He was issued U.S. Patent No. 1,125,476 for a “System of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes,” on this date.



This patent was the basis for the neon sign.


January 19, 1937 –
Bisexual Billionaire, future germaphobe and aviator Howard Hughes designed and flew the plane Silver Bullet, setting a landplane speed record and a transcontinental record of 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds,

flying from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey on this date.


January 19, 1949 -
I joined a band because I didn't like school, and there's nothing else I'd rather have done. If I really wanted to make money, I'd be in real estate. But I'm rich enough. I have a son and daughter, a lovely home, and if I see something I like, I can buy it. That's rich enough.



Robert Palmer, blue-eyed soul singer, was born on this date.


January 19, 1992 -
In Florida, the 64-year-old award-winning playwright Edward Albee was arrested on a Key Biscayne beach for indecent exposure on this date. Charges were later dropped when it was determined that Albee had removed his swimming trunks only to rinse out the sand that was in them and had not done anything vulgar or immoral.

Thank goodness he didn’t try to touch his Tiny Alice.



And so it goes.


1000 (apparently, as has been my want in the past, I miscounted; so, the actual count down number is 1099)

Bear this in mind

The penalty in England for attempted suicide, until 1961:

death by hanging (not typically enforced)


January 18, 1973 -
The third season finale of Monty Python, Grandstand, aired on this date



This is one of the only episode of the series that does not feature the opening credits. It is also the last episode John Cleese appeared in.


January 18, 1974 -
The sci-fi series, The Six Million Dollar Man, starring Lee Majors, premiered on the ABC-TV on this date.



The characters of Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) and Rudy Wells (Martin E. Brooks) appeared on this series and its spin-off, The Bionic Woman. When the spin-off moved to another network, this practice continued. This was the first time the same continuing characters appeared on two different television series broadcast on two different networks at the same time.


January 18, 1975 -
The Jeffersons, a spin-off of All In The Family premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



Isabel Sanford did not want to do a spin-off. She told producers that she was happy with her recurring role on All in the Family. When they told her that they were writing Louise Jefferson off of All in the Family, and moving the character to this show with or without her, she decided to stay in the role.


January 18, 1977 -
The last wet dream of the Nietzchian Uberman came to fruition when Arnold Schwarzenegger was introduced to America, when George Butler’s bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron hit the theaters on this date.



To put some Hollywood asset into the film, actor Bud Cort was offered to appear being trained by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Pieces of footage were actually filmed but removed from the final cut on demand of Cort who judged them too distracting from the main subject. He also asked for his salary to be injected into the rest of the production. Some of this footage eventually appeared in Raw Iron: The Making of 'Pumping Iron'.


January 18, 1984 -
The Coen Brothers made their directorial debut (as well as the first major cinematography work by Barry Sonnenfeld) with the release of Blood Simple, starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, and M. Emmet Walsh, on this date.



On the advice of Sam Raimi, the Coens went door-to-door showing potential investors a two minute 'trailer' of the film they planned to make. They ultimately raised $750,000 in a little over a year, enough to begin production of the movie.


Quote of the day


Today in History:
January 18, 1836 -

Knife aficionado Jim Bowie arrived at the Alamo to assist its Texas defenders on this date.


On January 18, 1871, while Prussian guns blasted all hell out of Paris, William I was proclaimed Emperor of a united Germany in nearby Versailles.

For this reason, the Germans have always had a soft spot for France, and have returned often.


January 18, 1882 -
Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.



Alan Alexander Milne was born on this date.


January 18, 1892 -
That's another fine mess you've gotten me into.



Oliver Hardy, American comedian, actor and the other half the the world's greatest comedy duo, was born on this date.


January 18, 1903 -
President Theodore Roosevelt sent a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.

Unfortunately, once again, the ill-chosen "Prince Albert in the can" joke is used - and 'Bertie', the King had already heard the joke ad nauseum (Prince Albert, penis ring wearing enthusiast, was his father ) and was not amused.


January 18, 1904 -
I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.



Archibald Leach, noted actor, acrobat and over the top orgy participant, was born on this date.


January 18, 1911 -
The first landing of an aircraft onto a ship took place on this date. Pilot Eugene Ely was the first person to land a plane onto a ship, the USS Pennsylvania (less than ten years after the airplane was invented.)

The technique would later become commonplace as aircraft carriers became major wartime assets.


January 18, 1912 -
Explorer Robert F. Scott reached the South Pole - only to discover that Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by almost a month.



The Norwegian Amundsen's expedition beat that of the British Scott's by a little more than a month, which Scott discovered upon reading a letter that Amundsen had left at the site.

As my girls would say (and I'm paraphrasing - it must have sucked to be him.)


January 18, 1913 (or 1911) -
You bet I arrived overnight. Over a few hundred nights in the Catskills, in vaudeville, in clubs and on Broadway.



David Daniel Kaminsky, UNICEF ambassador, comedian, actor, was born in Brooklyn on this date.


January 18, 1990 -
Rusty Hamer, the actor who played Danny Thomas' son on Make Room For Daddy, shot himself in the head with a .357 Magnum in DeRidder, Louisiana on this date. Rusty was 42 years old.

Uncle Tonoose made him do it.


January 18, 1990 -
Washington DC mayor Marion Barry was arrested on cocaine possession charges at the Vista International Hotel, as he tokes on a glass crack pipe while being videotaped with his mistress Rasheeda on this date.



Kids remember, say NO to drugs, especially while being videotaped, .



And so it goes


Before you go - The History of Film in 222 Heartbeats (the video is a few years old)



It's about 5 minutes, pull up a chair, watch it, then quiz yourself - how many of them can you name? How many of them have you seen?


1001

I won't tell anybody.

It's time to think about how you're doing two-and-a-half weeks into the new year, on your new year's resolutions.  If your evaluation is less than positive, consider participating in today's made up holiday, Ditch New Year's Resolutions Day.



If you haven't broken or given up all of those New Year's resolutions, you're doing better than most of us.


January 17, 1949 -
American audiences finally got to see family that lived in Apt. 3B of 1030 East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx, after hearing them for years on the radio, when The Goldbergs premiered on CBS-TV on this date.


(this is not the first episode but it is the earliest surviving episode from the first season.)

Many episodes of The Goldbergs were recorded live, and others were only shown once and then destroyed. Today, only a handful of episodes survive.


January 17, 1975 -
The TV-series Baretta, starring Robert Blake and Tom Ewell, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.



The series was originally intended as a continuation of the TV series Toma, with Robert Blake replacing Tony Musante as Det. David Toma. When Blake balked at taking over an established role, a new series was created for him instead.


Another book I didn't read


Today in History:
January 17, 1706 -
Benjamin Franklin was born on this date.



The inventor of spectacles and the hundred dollar bill, Franklin was one of Washington’s first celebrated womanizers to avoid conviction. One day Franklin tied a key to the string of a kite that he then flew in a thunderstorm, thus discovering Electrolysis.



Franklin also invented the Post Office and can be credited with the creation of the first fully functioning disgruntled postal worker.


On January 17, 1806, President Thomas Jefferson's grandson James Madison Randolph became the first child to be born in the White House - his mother was Martha Randolph, one of President  Jefferson's two daughters. James was her eighth child.

Sadly, no official records have been kept on the more interesting statistics of children conceived in the White House.


January 17, 1860 O.S. - (which means Julian calendar. We celebrate his birthday on the 29th of January N.S. - which means Gregorian calendar. So it not really his birthday today but he's dead so I don't think he really cares.) -

Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia.

Tragically, a bureaucratic snafu at the Kremlin resulted in Chekhov’s not being told he was one of the Great Russian Writers, so he practiced medicine well into middle life. By then, of course, he was almost good enough to quit practicing, but he’d also made a name for himself as a writer. As a doctor and writer of comedies, Chekhov originated the saying "laughter is the best medicine" (some of his tubercular patients disagreed, but they subsequently died, proving his point).



Chekhov’s greatest work is The Seagull, in which a young man with an odd haircut, kills a seagull, making his girlfriend cry and a lot of people with unpronounceable Russian names argue and wave pistols about.



Chekhov should not be confused with Chekhov, who was the security officer of the USS Enterprise,



and neither of them should be confused with Charo.


January 17, 1871 -
Andrew Smith Hallidie received the patent (U.S. patent #110,971)  for an "improvement in endless wire ropeways" which would be the basis for his cable car system, on this date.

He was inspired to work on the cable car system after seeing horses having a difficult time trying to pull cars up Jackson Street in San Francisco.


January 17, 1893 -
Another proud moment in America history - a group of American businessmen stole Hawaii on this date. Queen Liliuokalani, the monarch of Hawaii, was overthrown by a group of sugar plantation owners who wanted a more pro-American government.



The coup took place with the tacit approval of the United States, though the new leader of Hawaii, Sanford Dole, refused to step down when asked to do so by President Cleveland. Hawaii and the US finally resumed full diplomatic relations in 1897, under President McKinley. Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. in 1898.


January 17, 1899 -
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born on this date. Chronic self-esteem problems in his early adolescence resulted in his turning to a life of crime in Chicago (where crime had by now trickled down from elected officials to the lower classes).



The United States wanted to help this poor unfortunate individual, so that gave him an early birthday present.  The day before his 21st birthday, Prohibition went into effect.



Capone was such a successful gangster that eventually Robert DeNiro had to play him.



In the end, Capone was captured by Eliot Ness and his Unmentionables, who got their name from the fact that their busy schedules prevented them from changing their underwear


January 17, 1922 -
A lady likes to be complimented on her looks, her eyes, her figure. But the personality comments are much appreciated.



Betty Marion White, one of the hardest working actress in Hollywood (has been working almost continuously since 1949) was born on this date.


January 17, 1929 -
I yam what I yam

Popeye the Sailor Man, created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip on this date.


January 17, 1931 -
Speech is a very important aspect of being human. A whisper doesn't cut it.



James Earl Jones, actor and (Darth Vader), was born on this date.


January 17, 1961 -
In his farewell address on this date, President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."



And yet on the same date, Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of Congo, was murdered after 67 days in office on this date. President Eisenhower allegedly approved the assassination of the prime minister by the CIA.


January 17, 1962 -
Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.



James Eugene Carrey, Canadian-American actor and rubber-faced comedian, was born on this date.


January 17, 1964 -
You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.



Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, the first African-American First Lady of the United States, was born on this date.


January 17, 1977 -
Let's do it



Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States.



And so it goes.


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You may continue to read today's postings.

It's National Nothing Day, set aside each year for people to sit around for the entire day and just hang out. No celebrating, observing or honoring anything.



It was created by newspaperman, Harold Pullman Coffin in 1972 and first celebrated in 1973.


It's also National Fig Newton Day, (named not after Sir Isaac Newton but the town of Newton in Massachusetts, near the Kennedy Biscuit Works, which first made the cookie back in 1891.)



Please celebrate responsibly


January 16, 1932 -
Funny and definitely risque, Paramount released the Betty Boop animated short, Boop-Oop-A-Doop, on this date.



Please - don't take her boop-oop-a-doop away - Betty is supposed to be just 16.


January 16, 1959 -
I always said that if I could just find a guy who could chop wood and had a nice smile, it wouldn't bother me if he was a thug or an aristocrat, as long as he was a good guy. And I've ended up with an educated thug.







Helen Folasade Adu, OBE, singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer, was born on this date.


January 16, 1965 -
You finally get control back of the vertical and horizontal of your television set - ABC-TV aired the final episode of The Outer Limits on this date.




When this episode originally aired, a live announcer spoke over the Control Voice's closing statement about returning "next week at this same time." The live announcer stated that The King Family Show would be seen "next week in this time period."


January 16, 1973 -
NBC-TV presented the 440th, and final episode of Bonanza (which began airing on NBC on September 12, 1959) on this date.



This was the first US Western television show to have all its episodes filmed in color.


January 16, 1976 -
Peter Frampton's platinum live album, Frampton Comes Alive, was released by A & M Records on this date.



Frampton used a talkbox, a device hooked up to his guitar amp that allowed him to make distorted vocal sounds through a tube in his mouth. Other groups had success with the device around that time (Aerosmith used it on "Sweet Emotion" the year before), but Frampton became known for it because he played a talkbox solo on this. Every time he formed words, the crowd went nuts, especially when he sounded out "I want to thank you," which came out sounding like "I want to f*ck you."


Today's ACME PSA


Today in History:
January 16, 1547 -
Ivan IV was crowned Tsar of Russia. He is better known by his nickname: Ivan the Terrible. He was the first king of Russia to call himself a Caesar, probably in the hopes that Shakespeare would write a play about him.



He couldn’t pronounce Caesar, however, so he simply called himself "zar," and subsequent arguments over whether that should be spelled czar, tsar, zar, or tzar became so heated that they eventually resulted in Russian History.


January 16, 1865 -
General William T. Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15, entitling the household of each freed slave "a plot of no more than forty acres of tillable ground" along the Carolina coastline between Charleston and Jacksonville.

After the Confederate surrender, the Johnson administration makes a halfhearted attempt to follow through on the acreage, but all efforts to parcel out the land in question are abandoned just a few months later.


January 16, 1908 -



When you are in deep conflict about something, sometimes the most trivial thing can tip the scales.





Ethel Merman, actress, singer and the woman who learned love at the hands of Ernest Borgnine, was born on this date.


January 16, 1920 -
Please save some of your brain cells another weekend of binge drinking,



and remember that Prohibition went into effect in the U.S. on this date.


January 16, 1939 –
The Superman newspaper comic strip debuted on this date.

Printed daily, they were the first stories to go into detail about the planet Krypton, exploring the story of superman's parents, Jor-El and Lara.


January 16, 1942 -
Raising money for the war, actress Carole Lombard, her mother, 18 passengers and three crew, were killed when their plane crashed into Mount Potosi, 32 miles southwest of Las Vegas on this date.



Lombard was much loved for her unpretentious personality and well known for her earthy sense of humor and blue language.


January 16, 1969 -
Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first docking of manned spacecraft in orbit as well as the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another.



Yevgeny Khrunov became the first astronaut to transfer between linked capsules. It is the only time such a transfer will ever be accomplished with a space walk.


January 16, 1991 -
Operation Desert Storm commenced as Baghdad was pummeled live on CNN on this date. Targeted with smartbombs were "command and control facilities" and Saddam Hussein himself.



We seem to miss both, but did manage to kill about 100,000 Iraqi soldiers in the surreal bombardments that follow.


January 16, 2003 -
NASA launched the Space Shuttle Columbia on its 28th and final mission on this date.



The shuttle's mission ended in tragedy when, 16 days later, on February 1st, the Columbia disintegrated as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven of the shuttle’s crew members. The disaster shocked the nation, and set the space shuttle program back.



And so it goes.

Before You Go -
I live as I choose or I will not live at all.







It was very sad news yesterday that Dolores O'Riordan, musician and lead singer for the group, The Cranberries, passed away, unexpectedly at the age of 46.


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It's not just a Sales day at the department store

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.



Here's the reason you have the day off, it's Martin Luther King Day.



To celebrate the day and the man, I'd like you to once again opine these words:

... I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.


January 15, 1967 -
Ed Sullivan, when he wasn't fall down drunk, swore a lot. He swore that his arch-rival, Walter Winchell was a goddamned bastard. He swore that his 'so called friend' J Edgar Hoover was a goddamned transvestite but surprising spry in his cha-cha heels. And he swore that those goddamned filthy limey boys, The Rolling Stones, would never return to his show.



Sullivan sobered up, looked at his rating when the Stones last appeared on his show and permitted that boys back on The Ed Sullivan Show, on this date.



They were forced to change the lyrics of to Let's Spend Some Time Together (the clip is from the rehearsal of their televised performance.)


January 15, 1971 -
George Harrison unintentionally rewrites the song He's So Fine and releases it as My Sweet Lord on this date .



Harrison had "subconsciously" copied the old Chiffon song indeed.

Silly Beatle.


January 15, 1974 -
America once again, found it's thrill, on Blueberry Hill.

The first episode of Happy Days (series) aired on this date. Potsie sets Richie up with that Mary Lou girl.



As I'm sure you all remember, the Happy Days pilot was shown as a segment of Love American Style.


January 15, 1977 -
The Coneheads at Home, featuring Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin, debuted on Saturday Night Live on this date. For those of you too young to remember, The Coneheads at Home, was a recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live featuring a family of extraterrestrials with cone-shaped heads, from the planet Remulak, posing in the suburban United States as immigrants from France.


(sorry, it not the first appearance of the Coneheads.)

The inspiration for the Coneheads came from a proposal by Dan Aykroyd about pin-headed lawyers. This idea was shot down by the producers, fearing it might be offensive. A later trip to the Easter Islands in the South Pacific and the haunting images of stone head monoliths inspired Aykroyd to pen the series drawings that evolved into the Coneheads.


January 15, 1981 -
Let's Be Careful Out There

Hill Street Blues premiered on NBC on this date.



NBC executives supported the series in its infancy despite a lack of viewers; in 1981 it became the lowest-rated series ever renewed for a second season.


Word of the day


Today in History:
January 15, 1759 -
The British Museum, one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world, opened to the public on this date.



Maybe someday they'll return the Elgin Marbles back to the kids in Greece (but that's another story.)


January 15 , 1870 -
A Thomas Nast cartoon titled, "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion", was printed in Harper's Weekly on this date.

The cartoon symbolized the Democratic Party with a donkey, a concept still in use today.


January 15 , 1892 -
A little magazine in Springfield, Massachusetts, first published the rules for a brand new game that involved tossing a ball into a high-mounted peach basket.

This was, of course, the precursor of what is today known as "Peachbasket,"



still as popular as ever in Springfield, Massachusetts.


January 15, 1919 -
In Boston an explosion opened a tank of molasses and the cylindrical sides toppled outward knocking down 10 nearby buildings. 2 million gallons of molasses oozed onto the streets and killed 21 people. Another 50 were injured.



So yes, apparently, there are people slower than molasses in Boston.


January 15, 1929 -
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.



Martin Luther King, Jr.,  pastor,  political activist and Nobel Prize winner was born on this date (and it is just happenstance today that it's the third Monday in January.)


January 15, 1943 -
Just outside of Washington, DC in Arlington , VA, The Pentagon was dedicated as the world's largest office building on this date.



It covers 34 acres of land and has 17 miles of corridors.

Once again I ask: what would happen to the DC sewer system if you could have a co-ordinated flush of all the toilets in the building?


January 15, 1947 -
A passerby spotted the nude body of Elizabeth Short, a 22 year old actress in a vacant lot near Hollywood. Her body, cut in half, was bruised and beaten. Grass had reportedly been forced into her vagina, and she had reportedly been sodomized after death. The case was dubbed The Black Dahlia murder and over the years as many as 50 men and women have confessed to this gruesome crime yet it has never been solve.

For those of you with stronger constitutions than mine, you may go on the internet to view truly horrifying actual crime scene photos (you sick puppies.)


January 15, 1953 -
An out-of- control, 16-car train, Train #173, the Federal-Express train, suffers a near-catastrophic brake failure and crashed through the railroad terminal at Union Station in Washington, DC on this date.



Thanks to the quick thinking and action of the engineers, there were only 87 injuries and zero fatalities.



Coincidentally this is the eighth anniversary of airline pilot Sully Sullenberger and his crew 's miraculous ditching into the Hudson River.


January 15, 1967 -
The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Superbowl I on this date.



It was generally agreed upon by most television historians that all known broadcast tapes which recorded the game in its entirety were subsequently destroyed in the the process of recycling videotape by re-recording over previous content. NFL films has been able to recreate a version of the game from various sources.


January 15, 1983 -
Meyer Lansky, retired Jewish organized crime genius, (rumored to have photographic proof that J. Edgar Hoover was a homosexual; conspiracy theorists believed this was the reason Hoover wasn't aggressive in pursuing organized crime), died of a fatal nosebleed at Mount Sinai Hospital on this date.



It is not clear where Lansky's estimated $300 million fortune went.

Once again, what a way to go!


January 15, 2001 -
Happy Birthday Wikipedia.

Wikipedia was formally launched on this date, as a single English-language edition at www.wikipedia.com (now found here.)


January 15, 2013 -
Horse DNA was found in beef burgers being sold in supermarkets in Ireland and the United Kingdom on this date.



Health officials stated there was no risk to public health and that the contaminated batches were being recalled from retailers.



And so it goes.


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BTW - There are 350 days left until next year.

And never brought to mind?

For those of you not following that new fangled Gregorian Calendar (and still keep stock with the Julian Calendar), it's January First. Happy New Year

Please feel free to call in sick today and explain to them that it's Orthodox New Years Day in your religion (but remember that you used this excuse when March rolls around and you try to mention that it's New Year's Day again.)


January 14, 1952 -
On a cold East Coast morning at 7 a.m., NBC-TV opened the the first Today show broadcast with a shot of Dave Garroway looking outside through the 'Window on the World' in New York City. The broadcast also featured Jack Lescoulie as co-host.



The show would be a radical departure from the TV industry's accepted programming; a news, features, special events program that would run in the early morning. In pre-production, the show's proposed title was The Rise and Shine Revue.


January 14, 1967 -
Sonny and Cher, one of the big musical duos of the mid '60s released on of their biggest hits, The Beat Goes On, on this date.



In 1968, Chrysler Corporation paid a large sum of money to use parts of the song in an ad campaign for the Plymouth line.


January 14, 1972 -
Sanford and Son, featuring comedian Redd Foxx (whose last name was really Sanford) and Demond Wilson, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



Redd Foxx was a huge fan of the '30s vocal group The Ink Spots and sang many of their songs on the show. NBC would not pay the royalties because the cost was astronomical. So out of his love for the group, Foxx paid them out of his own pocket.


January 14, 1973 -
Touch but the hem of his raiment and be saved!

Elvis Presley made TV history with a live concert, Aloha from Hawaii, televised via satellite on this date. It has been estimated that over one billion people saw the concert.



Aloha From Hawaii made history as the first televised event to be simulcast live to 40 countries world wide. It's still today most watched entertain show with only one performer.


January 14, 1980 -
The Blues Brothers movie with Dan Akroyd and John Belushi opened on this date.



John Belushi was nicknamed 'The Black Hole' onset, as he went through hundreds of pairs of sunglasses during production. He would do a scene and then lose the pair before filming the next one.


January 14, 1981 -
This was the date television died.



The FCC freed stations to air as many commercials an hour as they wish, and removed any obligation to allocate time for news or public affairs programming.


January 14, 1990 -
The Simpsons episodes, Bart the Genius, premiered on Fox television on this date. This episode was considered the first official episode of The Simpsons, and FOX advertised it as such. The Christmas episode was considered as a special.



Although this episode aired after Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, it was written prior. This is why Santa's Little Helper does not appear in the episode.


January 14, 1993 -
Talk show host David Letterman announced he was moving his late-night show after 11 years on NBC to sign a $16 million deal with CBS.



Coincidentally, seven years later, on January 14, 2000, he had quintuple bypass surgery.


Just another day


Today in History:
January 14, 1690 –

The Clarinet was invented in Nurnberg, Germany on this date.



Any time you watch John Candy, your life is better.


January 14, 1858 -
Emperor Napoleon III (having the unusual distinction of being both the first titular president and the last monarch of France) and Empress Eugenie escape unhurt after an Italian assassin threw a bomb at their carriage as they travel to the Paris Opera to see Rossini's William Tell, on this date. Felice Orsini and his accomplices threw three bombs at the imperial carriage.

The first bomb landed among the horsemen in front of the carriage. The second bomb wounded the animals and smashed the carriage glass. The third bomb landed under the carriage and seriously wounded a policeman who was hurrying to protect the occupants. Eight people were killed and 142 wounded, though the emperor and empress were unhurt. Napoleon, ever the politician, realized that he and Eugenie had to proceed to the performance and appear in their box.

They really wanted to see the opera.


January 14, 1900 -
Speaking of opera, Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca premiered in Rome, to mixed reviews on this date.




January 14, 1954 -
Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio on this date.  Though the marriage between the iconic actress and the baseball star only lasted 274 days, they remained friends over the years.



After Monroe's death in 1962, DiMaggio sent flowers to her grave every week until his own death in 1999.


January 14, 1956 -
Little Richard released Tutti Frutti on this date, (to fully take advantage of the healing powers of Little Richard, much like Elvis - you must remove your pants and dance around the house in your underwear and socks.)



This song introduced Little Richard's famous "Whooooo," and also a big "Aaaaaaahhh" scream which he sings just before the tenor sax solo performed by Lee Allen. Richard's scream had a practical purpose: to let Allen know when to start playing. They were recording on just three tracks, so overdubbing the horns wasn't a practical option.



And yet Pat Boone's cover of the song rose higher in the charts on it's initial release. Many listeners at the time only knew the song through Boone, so Little Richard's promotional materials often labeled him "Original 'Tutti Frutti' Man."

Stupid record buying public.


January 14, 1957 -
I should never have switched from scotch to martinis



Humphrey Bogart, the Greatest Male Star of All Time, model for the Gerber baby and founding member of the Hollywood Rat Pack (a phrase coined by Lauren Bacall) finally decided to let the world catch up with his three drink lead and succumbs to cancer of the esophagus on this date.



And so it goes


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