Spread love as thick as you would peanut butter

Its National Peanut Butter Day. Boldly celebrate the lowly legume Arachis hypogaea, (except for the 1.5% of US students allergic to peanuts.) Former President Bill Clinton says one of his favorite sandwiches is peanut butter and banana; also reported to have been the favorite of Elvis.



Women and children prefer creamy peanut butter, while most men opt for chunky. People living on the East Coast prefer creamy peanut butter, while those on the West Coast prefer the crunchy style.

Go figure.

January 24, 1927 -
Alfred Hitchcock's first film, The Pleasure Garden, went into general release on this date in England.



Although shot in 1925, and shown to the British press in March 1926, the film wasn't actually released in the UK until after The Lodger, his third film, was a massive hit in 1927.


January 24, 1939 –
George Stevens' adaption of Rudyard Kipling's poem, Gunga Din, starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Sam Jaffe premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



The film was made before support for Indian independence became a cause célèbre in the United States during World War II. Upon release, a campaign was launched by the Indian magazine Filmindia against what it called misrepresentation of Indian characters in the film and the displaying of insensitivity towards Hindu customs. Following riots in India and Malaya, the film was withdrawn by the censors in India.


January 24, 1940 -
John Ford's film version of John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda, premiered in New York City on this date.



Prior to filming, producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent undercover investigators out to the migrant camps to see if John Steinbeck had been exaggerating about the squalor and unfair treatment meted out there. He was horrified to discover that, if anything, Steinbeck had actually downplayed what went on in the camps.


January 24, 1975 -
The Norman Lear developed TV adaptation of Lanford Wilson's 1973 off-Broadway play, Hot L Baltimore, starring Richard Masur, Conchata Ferrell, James Cromwell, Al Freeman, Jr., & Charlotte Rae, premiered on ABC, on this date.



The series garnered controversy due to its cast of characters, which included two prostitutes, an illegal immigrant, and a gay couple (one of network TV's first, in fact), leading ABC to run a disclaimer before the show started.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
January 24, 41 -
Roman emperor and crackpot Caligula was assassinated by his bodyguards on this date. His last words apparently were, "I am still alive! Strike again."

Yeah, yeah, I know you know that the Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator and a god, married his sister, slept with the horse, slept with the potted plants ...



I guess this guy got more unnatural things done in a day then most of us do in a lifetime.


January 24, 1848 -
James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento, starting the California Gold Rush on this date.



According to the Gold Institute, less than two million ounce's of gold were mined during the height of the California Gold Rush in 1849.

January 24, 1908 -
The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England on this date, by its founder, Robert Baden-Powell, a man who enjoyed seeing and photographing, just a little too much, boys swimming.



I wonder what Baden-Powell would think (a noted repressed homosexual) now that girls and openly gay boys (but not transgender boys) can join the scouts.


January 24, 1922 –
Christian K. Nelson of Onawa, Iowa was granted a patent (US patent No.#1404539) for his ice cream dessert covered in chocolate ( The ‘Eskimo Pie’.)



Mr Nelson invented Eskimo Pie, America's first chocolate covered ice cream bar, in his home laboratory in 1920. The ice cream bar quickly rose in popularity in America. By 1922, Nelson was earning $2000 per day in royalties on his product.



In 2020, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, joined a substantial number of well-known brands in their decisions to rename racially insensitive brands and the ice cream treat was renamed Edy's Pie.


January 24, 1925 -
A motion picture of a solar eclipse was recorded by the United States Navy from the dirigible USS Los Angeles, about nineteen miles east of Montauk Point, Long Island, New York on this date.



It is the first time a dirigible has been used for astronomical observations in the U.S.


January 24, 1935 -
The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of New Jersey introduced the first canned beer, Krueger Cream Ale. The new, three-piece steel and tin cans containing this drink had no pull tab; they were opened by a special kind of tool called a church key.



This new method of packaging beer was an instant success and other breweries quickly followed as they noted that the new cans were more cost effective, easier to handle and took up less space than bottles.


January 24, 1947 -
Well, I was interested in playing the piano from as early as I can remember.







Warren William Zevon, singer-songwriter and musician, was born on this date.

Remember kids - keep enjoying every sandwich.


January 24, 1949 -
The trick is knowing what you want to do and then resolving to do everything you have to do to get there.



John Adam Belushi, actor and comedian, was born on this date.


January 24, 1961 -
Mel Blanc, The Man of a Thousand Voices, was involved in a near-fatal auto accident on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California on this date. Hit head-on, Blanc suffered a triple skull fracture that left him in a coma for three weeks, along with fractures of both legs and the pelvis.



The accident prompted over 15,000 get-well cards from anxious fans, including some addressed only to "Bugs Bunny, Hollywood, USA", according to Blanc's autobiography. One newspaper falsely reported that he had died. After his recovery, Blanc reported in TV interviews, and later in his autobiography, that a clever doctor had helped him to come out of his coma by talking to Bugs Bunny, after futile efforts to talk directly to Blanc. Although he had no actual recollection of this, Blanc learned that when the doctor was inspired to ask him, "How are you today, Bugs Bunny?", Blanc answered in Bugs' voice. Blanc thus credited Bugs with saving his life.


January 24, 1965 -
After telling his son-in-law, Christopher Soames: "I am so bored with it," Winston Churchill, at age 90, never again makes an intelligible remark to anyone and died on this date.



Churchill died at his home at 28 Hyde Park Gate in London shortly after 8:00 a.m. on the seventieth anniversary of the death of his father, Sir Randoph Churchill.


January 24, 1972 -
Shoichi Yokoi, despite the fact that the war had been over for more than 27 years, was still at his post in Guam. Yokoi was unaware that the war had ended, and had been hiding out in the jungles of Guam since American troops occupied the island in the 1940s.



He refused to surrender until his old commanding officer, who had retired from the military for more than 20 years, was found and told him to stand down on this date. He was the last Japanese soldier from World War II to surrender.


January 24, 1978 -
The nuclear-powered Soviet Cosmos 954 satellite plunges through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrates, scattering radioactive debris over parts of Canada's Northwest Territories. Much of the satellite landed in the Great Slave Lake; only about 1% of the radioactive material was recovered.



Hey, I hope we all enjoyed that smoked salmon from Canada in the late 70s.


January 24, 1986 -
Crackpot and founder of the fraudulent Scientology movement, L. Ron Hubbard died on this date (laughing his ass off about the crap he made up.) His bad science fiction writing has grown alarmingly prolific in the years since his death.

Note to Leah Remini: keep fighting the good fight - otherwise nothing to read here, move on.



And so it goes

Sign your name on the line

The Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA) established today as National Handwriting Day back in 1977, in order to celebrate John Hancock's birthday (who was born on January 12th, so go figure,) one of our Founding Fathers, as well as the first signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Most people who were around then were taught penmanship as children, but that may no longer be the case for younger generations.



In most schools today, greater emphasis is placed on typing and computer technologies. Cursive is disappearing from the curriculum; many young people today learn only enough to sign their name - if they learn any cursive at all.



Remember, celebrate responsibly - practice your penmanship.


January 23, 1948 -
John Huston's classic film, Treasure of Sierra Madre, starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt opens in NYC on this date.



John Huston stated that working with his father on this picture and his dad's subsequent Oscar win were among the favorite moments of his life.


January 23, 1962 -
François Truffaut's adaptation of the Henri-Pierre Roché novel, Jules et Jim, starring Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, and Henri Serre was released in France, on this date.



Henri-Pierre Roché's original novel was based on his own experiences as a young man. The original Catherine was still alive when the film was released and even attended the premiere incognito.


January 23, 1965 -
Petula Clark's song Downtown, hit No. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



This was Petula Clark's first hit in the US, which was slow to discover her talents. In the UK, she was a star as a singer and as a television performer, where she was a regular on the BBC. In the early '60s, she also caught on in France when she started recording her songs in French. Oddly, she didn't get an American record deal until late in 1964 when a Warner Bros. executive named Joe Smith, who was vacationing in England, heard the song and signed her to a deal. (Bunkies, she's still alive and kicking.)


January 23, 1969 -
Elvis Presley recorded the song Suspicious Minds at American Sound, a small studio in Memphis, on this date.



The song is a huge comeback hit for Elvis, (it was seven years since his last #1 hit,) and gives him his last #1 in America.


January 23, 1975 -
Barney Miller, a TV series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



In a highly unusual departure from a conventional TV series, the show was deliberately staged as a theatrical play using only one set which included the squad room, the office, and rarely, the restroom. Out of 170 total episodes in the series, all but 13 are filmed exclusively on the ABC Television Center Barney Miller set.


January 23, 1977 -
The twelve-hour miniseries Roots premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



The show was programmed by ABC to air on several consecutive nights in prime time. It was considered a revolutionary approach to programming a mini-series, since most minis were aired once or twice a week over several weeks' time. It was revealed years later that the reason the network did this was so that they get the show "out of the way" in a hurry because they felt, nobody would watch the story if it aired over a longer period of time.


January 23, 1983 -
The A-Team starring George Peppard, Dirk Benedict and Mr. T premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



According to the remaining cast members, Mr. T and George Peppard did not get along. Peppard was a "proper movie actor," but Mr. T became the real star of the show. Things got even worse when Peppard learned Mr. T was being paid more than he was.


January 23, 1991 -
NBC-TV aired the first regularly scheduled episode of the series Seinfeld, The Ex-Girlfriend, on this date.



Before the show was set to air, Jerry Seinfeld asked Jason Alexander what he thought their chances for success were. Alexander said he thought they "didn't have a chance". When asked why, Alexander responded, "Because the audience for this show is me, and I don't watch TV."


January 23, 2003 -
The pilot episode of Mythbusters premiered on The Discovery Channel on this date.



Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are known for not being friends off-set. Savage has admitted this freely, but stresses that the two of them got along well enough professionally (it was Jamie Hyneman who recommended Adam Savage as co-host in the first place) but make no effort to engage socially. He attributes this to clashing personalities rather than full-blown dislike.


Another book from the back shelves of the ACME Library


Today in History:
January 23, 1849 -
The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me.



English-born Elizabeth Blackwell, becomes the first woman to receive an American medical degree, graduated at the top of her class from the medical school of Hobart College, Geneva, NY on this date.


January 23, 1870 -
One of the worse slaughters of Native American by U.S. troops occurred on this date. The Incident has become known as the Marias Massacre. While the U.S. Cavalry was looking for a band of hostile Blackfoot Indians led by Mountain Chief, they stumbled instead, onto a peaceable band of Piegan Indians led by Chief Heavy Runner and killed about 200 tribes people, many of them women and children.



140 others were captured, later to be turned loose without horses, adequate food, and clothing. As the refugees made their way to Fort Benton, Montana, some ninety miles away, many of them froze to death. In the meantime Mountain Chief and his people had escaped across the border into Canada.

Another proud day for the American military


January 23, 1897 -
Elva Zona Heaster was found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia on this date. Authorities originally thought Heaster had died of natural causes, but her mother later claimed that Elva's ghost visited her and told her otherwise, leading to her widowed husband's arrest and conviction.

It was one of the few times in American legal history that the testimony of a ghost was taken into account at trial.


January 23, 1931 -
While touring in the Netherlands, the prima ballerina Anna Pavlova's train had a slight accident, derailing and being delayed for 12 hours. She went outside dressed only in pajamas and a light scarf to see what was happening. As a result of this she caught a cold, which developed into pneumonia.



She died three weeks later on this date. At the end, she asked to hold her Dying Swan costume. Her last words were, "Play that last measure very softly."

So kids, once again, your mother was right - when it's cold outside, put on a sweater.


January 23, 1978 -
Terry Kath of band Chicago accidentally killed himself on this date while pretending to play Russian Roulette in Woodland Hills.



Kaith's last words were 'Don't worry, it's not loaded.' The circumstances of his death gave him the dubious distinction of being one of the first celebrities to be nominated for a Darwin Award.

Moral: Remember guns don't kill - however one bullet in the chamber is a killer.



And so it goes

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 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, 1989 -
Metallica's first music video, for their single, One, makes its debut on this date. The video incorporates footage from the 1971 anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun.



Metallica performed this song at the Grammy awards in 1989. This was the first year a Grammy was awarded for Hard Rock/Metal Performance, and the award went went to ... Jethro Tull.


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.

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


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.

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 former President towards the end.)


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 real job. Edward VII was proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria on January 22, 1901. As his mother lay dying a member of the Royal Household wondered if she would be happy in Heaven. "I don't know" said the prince, "she will have to walk behind the angels and she won't like that."


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 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport, on this date. The flight had carried 332 passengers and 18 crew.





The 747 airplane held the record for most passenger numbers for almost 40 years after. It went on to become one of the most commonly used models of aircraft for both commercial and passenger use. 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, 1987 -
If you know, you know why





Otherwise, nothing to see here


January 22, 1997 -
Lottie Williams became the first—and, so far, only— human ever reported to be hit by human-made space debris (also known as “space junk”) on this date. Williams was jogging in a park near her Oklahoma home very early in the morning, and she saw a brilliant fireball-type meteor. She felt a “gentle tap” on her shoulder and looked down; on the ground was a piece of blackened metal.

The debris that struck Ms. Williams later was confirmed to be a piece of metal from the fuel tank of a Delta II rocket, launched nine months earlier, that had crashed into the Earth's atmosphere half an hour earlier. The rest of the fuel tank crashed into a field in Texas. Williams says she received a letter from the deputy secretary of defense apologizing for the incident.



And so it goes

Another made up celebration

To A City-Park Squirrel

Dear little exile from woodlands dear,
How can you keep your wilderness grace,
How can you bound so merrily here,
Shut in this narrow and formal place?

Still your fancies are forest-free,
Still as gallant you swing and glide
From dusty tree to skeleton tree
As once you roamed through the woodlands wide.

Surely you must, on a witching night,
Flee from the prisoning haunts of men,
Over the housetops take your flight,
And bathe yourself in the woods again!
- Amos Russel Wells



For some reason, today is Squirrel Appreciation Day


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



The song became a crossover hit, charting at #2 Country and #12 Pop, and established Cline as a Country singer capable of mainstream success.

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 Pattie '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, 1982 -
Hsin-Yen Chang's martial arts film Shaolin Temple (Shao Lin si,) starring Jet Li in his debut role premiered on this date.



This film was the first Hong Kong-China co-production to be filmed in mainland China. The film was also the first such to use a Mainland cast and crew.


January 22, 1967 -
The Monkees performed live, to a sold-out crowd, at Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona, on this date. The concert was filmed for the last episode of the first season, The Monkees on Tour, which aired on April 24, 1967.



Initially formed for the TV show about an imaginary band, the actor-musicians, soon became a real band with five #1 hit songs. Defying instructions to stay out of the recording studio, The Monkees eventually fought for and earned the right to supervise all musical output under the band’s name.


January 21, 1968 -
The soundtrack album for the film The Graduate was released on this date.



The Graduate was one of the first major films to use rock music in its soundtrack, using songs written by Paul Simon (notably, Mrs Robinson, which became a hit).


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. With help from MTV, Yes suddenly found a new audience, who were sometimes shocked to learn that much of their back catalog consisted of complex pieces that would often run well over 10 minutes.


Another unimportant moment in history


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. He delivered a short speech in which he prayed, "I trust that my death will be for the happiness of my people, but I grieve for France, and I fear that she may suffer the anger of the Lord," but his speech was drowned out by a roll of drums. 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 seek out on your own, various sites - 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 was completed.



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



And so it goes

We should not grudge our toil

Today is the Feast day of St. Sebastian, patron saint of soldiers, plague-stricken, archers, Christian martyrs, 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. Sebastian 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 also 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”.









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.


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



but then I discovered that when cheese is digested, it breaks down into an opioid.


January 20, 1929 -
The Fox Film Corporation's film, In Old Arizona, directed by Irving Cummings and starring Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe, and Dorothy Burgess, went into general release on this date in the US.



Director Raoul Walsh, who was to star as The Cisco Kid, lost an eye in an accident shortly before filming. Buddy Roosevelt was then cast in the role, but he broke his leg shortly before the picture was to start again. He was replaced by Warner Baxter, who managed to stay in one piece and won an Academy Award.


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



In addition to Hal B. Wallis, Humphrey Bogart also sent several telegrams to studio head Jack L. Warner, begging to be cast as Roy Earle. After Paul Muni left Warner Bros. in a contract dispute and George Raft turned down the role, Warner called Bogart and told him the part was his . . . on the condition that Bogart stop sending him telegrams.


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.



The identity of Celeste Holm who did the voice-over for Addie Ross, was kept secret when the film was released. The studio held a number of "Who is Addie?" contests around the country where moviegoers could guess the actress' name.


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.


January 20, 1968 -
One Hit Wonders John Fred and the Playboy Band started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with Judy In Disguise, (With Glasses), it made No.3 in the UK. The song was inspired by The Beatles Lucy In The Sky.



John Fred Gourrier was a star baseball and basketball player for Southeastern Louisiana University, where he went on scholarship. While this was his only hit, but he did have some popular, non-parody songs in Louisiana with titles like Up and Down, and She Shot a Hole in My Soul. His song Shirley also did well locally, and was a #6 hit in the UK for Shakin' Stevens in 1982.


January 20, 2006 -
Once upon a time, Kenny Ortega mega-hit teen musical, High School Musical starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale premiered on the Disney Channel, on this date. (This was my daughters favorite movie for a time - when they were very young children.)



Zac Efron's singing voice was that of Drew Seeley, who tested for the role of Troy. Seeley sang the entirety of Get'cha Head in the Game and the reprise of What I've Been Looking For. Efron only sings the first four lines of Start of Something New, the first sentence of Breaking Free, and during the scene on the balcony. The reason for this is because Efron's natural voice was too low for that of a tenor and the producers wanted a tenor to match the role. Efron did, however, do all of his own singing in the sequels, as all the music in those films had been tailored specifically for his voice.


January 20, 2008 -
The series that some consider one of the best dramas ever on TV, Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan and starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul premieres on AMC on this date.



In 2005, after Showtime, TNT, and HBO rejected the initial pitch for the series, FX stepped in and immediately began development on the pilot. They eventually passed on the project in favor of the Courteney Cox show Dirt, in a bid to draw more female viewers. According to Vince Gilligan, HBO showed no interest even on the pitch. TNT loved the idea, but said that they couldn't air a show with a crystal meth dealer as the central character.


Another moment of edifying culture


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 Basketball (as opposed to Peach Soccer .)


January 20, 1920 -
Talking about dreams is like talking about movies, since the cinema uses the language of dreams; years can pass in a second, and you can hop from one place to another. It's a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something, as in a dream.



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.)


Let us opine on one of my favorite occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (whom I mercilessly rib.)
January 20, 1949 -
President Harry S. Truman's took the oath of office for the second time (the first time in which he is elected to the office,) on this date. It is the first to be televised.



Eight years later, when his term as President of the United States ended on this date, private citizen Harry S.Truman took the train home to Independence, Missouri, mingling with other passengers along the way. He had no secret service protection. After Harry Truman returned to his home in Missouri his only income was his old army pension. It was no more than $112.56 per month or about $982 today.

These gentlemen were inaugurated on this date as well:
34th Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953 to 1961
35th John F. Kennedy 1961 to November 22nd 1963 (Assassinated)
37th Richard Nixon 1969 to August 9th 1974 (Resigned)
39th Jimmy Carter 1977 to 1981
40th Ronald Reagan 1981 to 1989 (Reagan became the first President elected in a ‘0’ year (1980) since 1840, to leave office as President while still alive.)
41st George H. W. Bush 1989 to 1993
42nd Bill Clinton 1993 to 2001
43rd George W. Bush 2001 to 2009
44th Barack Obama 2009 to 2017
45th Donald Trump 2017 to 2021

46th Joseph Biden 2021 to present

36th Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office November 22nd 1963 to 1969
38th Gerald Ford took the oath of office August 9th 1974 to 1977


January 20, 1956 -
To me a real patriot is like a real friend. Who's your real friend? It's the person who tells you the truth. That's who my real friends are. So, you know, I think as far as our country goes, we need more people who will do that.



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 to be exact), one of the longest duration 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 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 in 1981.



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

Think I'll kick it down the street

On this day in 1825, the US patent (#X004009) for food storage in cans to “preserve animal substances in tin” was issued to Ezra Daggett and his nephew Thomas Kensett of New York City. I wonder if they knew that the tin can had been patented in 1810 by Peter Durand.

Oh, Never mind.



As always, celebrate responsibly.


January 19, 1940 -
The Three Stooges film You Nazty Spy! about the Nazis released with the disclaimer "Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle."



Filmed in 1939, not released until 1940, the film was the first Hollywood film to spoof Adolf Hitler, released nine months before Charles Chaplin's more famous The Great Dictator.

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



Knowing of Spencer Tracy's reputation as a heavy drinker, Katharine Hepburn served him strong tea between scenes. She also got him to paint, as she did, as an escape from the pressures of Hollywood life.


January 19, 1952 -
In the first match-up between Wile E. Coyote and Bugs Bunny, Operation: Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones, 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 -
Michael Anthony began doling out the life changing checks from John Beresford Tipton when The Millionaire premiered on CBS-TV on this date. (The million dollare check would now be worth about $10 million dollars.)



The mysterious philanthropist John Beresford Tipton was named for Tipton, Missouri, the birthplace of producer Don Fedderson's wife, Tido Fedderson.


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.


January 19, 2012 -
Malik Bendjelloul amazing documentary about the strange but true career of musician Sixto Rodríguez, Searching for Sugar Man premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, on this date.



Director Malik Bendjelloul traced all the illustrations on oven paper as a mock up for the 3D animations he never could afford to have made. Thus the oven paper illustrations made it to the final cut.


In case you're looking for a new job,

check out ACME Employment Agency


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 believe that my music is just about feelings, and the style is just a side effect.







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


January 19, 1977 –
Snow fell in Miami and The Bahamas on this date.

It was the only time in recorded history that it happened.


January 19, 2006 -
NASA launched the New Horizons space probe aboard an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral on this date. It's mission was to perform the first fly by of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, and Hydra.



It left Earth at an Earth-relative velocity of about 36,373 mi/h (10.10 mi/s), making it the fastest speed ever recorded for a human-made object. It arrived at Pluto on July 14, 2015.

(This will be on the test.)



And so it goes

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you

The way we experience life is not linear, but logarithmic. We’ve all noticed that a year keeps feeling shorter, but it’s because there’s a mathematical formula for it.



It’s called Weber’s Law. Life is truly too short. Before we ever notice, it’s over.


January 18, 1973 -
The third season finale of Monty Python, The British Showbiz Awards (aka Grandstand,), aired on this date



This is the only episode of the series that does not feature the opening credits. (It is, however, the third and final episode to feature Her Royal Highness the Dummy Princess Margaret.) This is the last episode to feature John Cleese.


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



Early episodes of the series had Austin killing villains on occasion. As it became clear that Austin was becoming a role model for kids, the level of violence in the series decreased, with Austin rarely (if ever) actually killing anyone.


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



When the show first started, George constantly referred to Tom as a honky. After a few seasons, Sherman Hemsley asked the writers to stop having George call him that, as he felt that the characters were friends, and that George would not use a racist term on a friend. When the writers refused to stop, Hemsley simply mumbled the the word every time he said it, forcing re-shoots. Eventually the writers stopped using the word.


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.



Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted that he had made up several stories in the movie for attention because the producers told him that without drama it would be boring. One of the stories made up was the fact that he did not attend his father's funeral because of a body building competition that was going to happen in a couple of months. Arnold did actually attend his father's funeral and spoke to him shortly before he passed.


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.



The title is based on a phrase from the Dashiell Hammett novel Red Harvest, in which "blood simple" is a term coined to describe the addled, fearful mindset people are in after a prolonged immersion in violent situations. Blood Simple writers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen later made Miller's Crossing, which is loosely based on that novel.


Today's moment of Zen


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 -
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.



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 -
My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.



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, in San Francisco Bay (less than ten years after the airplane was invented.)



Two months previously Ely had made the first successful take off from a warship. 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) -
When I stopped making films, they were getting on to the more realistic films and the explicit films and all. They were depicting life as it is, and some of it was unpleasant. I gradually moved away from that.



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


January 16, 1955 -
Kevin Costner was born in Lynwood, California on this date. He is the youngest of three boys (the middle of whom died at birth) of Bill and Sharon Costner.



Before hitting it big in the acting business Kevin Costner worked as a skipper on the ride, the Jungle Cruise, at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. His first film role was in the 1981 low-budget softcore film Sizzle Beach.


January 18, 1958 -
Afro-Canadian Willie O'Ree was the very first black player in the NHL Signed by Boston Bruins he made his NHL debut with the Bruins on this date, against the Montreal Canadiens.



O'Ree appeared in two games that year playing as a winger, and came back in 1961 to play 43 games, scoring 4 goals and 10 assists. O'Ree is referred to as the "Jackie Robinson of ice hockey" due to breaking the black color barrier in the sport.


January 18, 1968 -
At a White House luncheon to discuss the rise in urban crime, Eartha Kitt gets into a notorious spat with First Lady Claudia Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson, declaring, "Vietnam is the main reason we are having trouble with the youth of America. It is a war without explanation or reason."



Although accounts of the entire argument differ, Kitt is subsequently blacklisted in America.


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.


Before you go: One late entry - I just saw that David Elrich posted his 2021 film mash-up compilation about a week ago



I always enjoy his videos and look forward to them each year.



And so it goes