October 2010
33 posts
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We will, we will rock you
Happy Halloween. Love to see your costume pics too.
It might look done to your untrained eye but the national monument at Mt. Rushmore is unfinished. The carvings were intended to be the heads and bodies of the 4 symbolic presidents. Work began in the 1920s with Washington finished in 1934, Jefferson in `36, and Lincoln in `37. The work ended on Roosevelt after the original artist, Mr. Gutzon...
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One of the best pranks ever played
We interrupt this blog to bring you historical coverage of an event that never actually happened. This non-existent occurrence created a wave of bona fide panic across the U.S. What really happened was a well staged broadcast of then radio talent Orson Welles depicting events borrowed from H.G. Wells novel “The War of the Worlds” (1898). Like a Halloween episode of Punk’d but...
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Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
Only Will Smith can portray
that much attitude
If you think the capital of Kentucky is pronounced Louisville* (with an “s”) or Lou-eh-ville (no “s”), there’s no arguing that it is the birthplace of one of the most renowned boxers in history. Cassius Clay took an interest in boxing in his home town preparing him for 1 turn at the Rome summer Olympics in 1960 where he...
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And nothing else matters
Metallica may not have invented awesome, but they perfected it. Founding members Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield were seeking the dream in L.A. in the late fall of 1981. While responding to an ad claiming stage time with the already popular Iron Maiden, these two decided to collaborate and mounted a search for bandmates.
When you cameo on the Simpsons, you know you’ve hit the big...
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You can take the 'A' train
Here’s your little known facts about New York City’s public transportation system which boasts its 106th anniversary. The subway was originally called the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) when it opened today in 1904. (When the population was only 3.5 million.) Now that NYC tops 8 milion people, the weekday traffic on the lines averages over 5 million passengers.
Go before you...
Next time someone says there's a bridge in Arizona...
For really great fudge, everyone knows to go to Mackinac Island in Lake Michigan. But a well kept secret is the best saltwater taffy comes from the London Bridge. An even better secret is that the London Bridge is located in western Arizona on Lake Havasu near the California state border.
Bridges by themselves are rarely noteworthy. But this bridge, originally constructed in 1831, was...
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Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a...
A: “Fish”
Not that we celebrate it any more, or ever did for that matter, but today is Pablo Picasso’s birthday. He was Spanish born but lived most of his life in the art world of France. Even his young life was devoted to art and art training as he showed much aptitude at an early age. He did not like formal art instruction and preferred studying on his own.
P.P. is best...
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Even the great Houdini can't cheat death forever
“Fate, it would seem, is not without a sense of irony.” - Morpheus, The Matrix (1999)
Tonight would be Harry Houdini’s last successful night of cheating death. Despite years of torture chambers, water submerged crates, locked milk cans, straight jacket suspensions, and other death defying feats of human endurance. This noted magician, illusionist, escape artist and...
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The man, the legend, the 13 inch statue
Mark Ingram ‘Bama 2009 Heisman winner.
We know that the most outstanding collegiate football player gets awarded the Heisman Trophy every year. But exactly who was this Heisman fellow and how did he get a trophy named after him?
John Heisman, born today in 1869 played football, basketball and baseball (such as it was before the turn of the 20th century). He later went on to coach mostly...
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About your TPS reports...
We sent out a memo that we are including 2 cover sheets on all of our TPS reports from now on. Okay? We really need you to make sure you have duplicates on each one. Alright? Thanks.
Double kudos to Mr. Chester Carlson for inventing the electrophotographic image duplicator today in 1938. His years of fiddling in his kitchen and mom-in-law’s beauty salon made it possible for us to
...
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Party @ my place, BYO Topping
These do not stay crispy in beer.
Suggestions: Monterey jack cheese, green onions, jalapeños, sour cream… Today is the International Day of the Nacho. It is not officially, federally recognized… YET! …Tomatoes, black olives, cilantro, queso… This day of honor is in remembrance of the inventor of this Sunday ball game essential, Senor Ignacio Anaya (get it?) of humble...
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High Culture, Down Under
It’s early spring, Queen Elizabeth II is there, the who’s who of Australia and New South Wales are thrilled. Today in `73 was a glorious day in Sydney when people `round the globe would ask “What the hell is that supposed to be?”. The Sydney Opera House (awesome pics) became a spectacle to symbolize a continent.
To answer the question, it is reminiscent of a ship...
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Lord Farquaad or King Midas?
The rundown: graduated top of his class at Harvard in `67 (Besting roommates Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore). Fulbright scholarship to school in London. 5 Emmy awards in both comedy and drama. 2 Golden globes and an SAG award for small screen work. Multiple academy award nominations. 2 Tony awards including a musical. Released 2 CD’s of children’s music. Published 10...
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752 songs in your pocket
An average of 20 new radio stations were being established every year since 1912. There were 752 stations available by this date in 1954 when T.I. debuted the first transistor radio. This device changed the world being so self contained, compact, battery powered and all.
Think of it as a
generation 0.
Since the portability and availability were so drastically enhanced, 57 new radio stations...
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Flood of beer. What's next $100 bills falling from...
Like this, only a million times worse.
The time: Today, 1814. The city: London (St. Giles parish specifically). The sitch: a beer vat burst containing 135,000 gallons of beer. This affected other vats in the building causing them to also rupture. Adding another 323,000 gallons. The result: a wave of beer in the street, literally filling nearby homes and structures. Ironically damaging a pub...
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Trivia Remix
Stevland Judkins a.k.a. Stevie Wonder’s album “Songs in the Key of Life” went #1 today in 1976. It stayed there for 14 weeks. Stevie was 26 trying to portray the difficulties of growing up as a minority in Motown. “Pastime Paradise” is a complex yet hopeful song on the record. You don’t hear it much any more.
Artis Ivey a.k.a. Coolio was 13 when that album...
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In which a boy and a bear inspire a global...
Do stop to remember A.A. Milne’s son and inspiration, Christopher Robin, and his active imagination, but don’t forget to start again. Since the book story collection Winnie the Pooh was published today in 1926 the boy and his bear have captured the hearts of all generations since.
Oft forgotten details are that Winnie was a name borrowed from a bear at the London Zoo, who served as...
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Good day for logging. Who am I to argue?
According to the Farmer’s Almanac today is a good day to; start your logging, harvest your above ground crops, and pour concrete. I know that wasn’t what you had planned, but how do you ignore results that have been trusted for over 2 centuries without a single interuption?
Today was the first publication in 1792. It uses some type of scientific or folkloric methods of tracking and...
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Oktoberfest Bicentennial? I'll drink to that.
It’s the hospitality that really draws the crowds.
In honor of the recent nuptials of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen in 1810, the townsfolk of Munich were invited to a horse race. What, no beer? Perhaps. It was popular enough to observe again a year later. (and again, and again…) Eventually the horse race became a full agricultural celebration including a...
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Non-geeks please skip right to the video
Today in 1962 IBM released the IBM1440 disk storage system for “smaller businesses”. And by “smaller” they meant businesses that could easily drop 90K* on computer accessories. This washing machine sized marvel read disk-packs that weighed 10 pounds and held 2 million bytes of data. And by “2 million” I mean 1/8000th of what the cheaper iPhone 4 currently...
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Hey, I'm still 1 hit shy of being a 1 hit wonder
All you needed was limos, fast women, strobe lights, copious amounts of hair spray and the most obnoxious women’s clothing money could buy and your band was going to make it. Today’s example: Whitesnake from Yorkshire, England riding the 80’s powerchord bandwagon.
While they had a number of fairly popular tunes and records, they never gained the notoriety of some of their...
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The most important appliance you don't own
Form, function, longevity. Like a BMW only smaller.
Born in 1811, Isaac Singer had a head for invention and design. He contributed to the industrial boom of America with a rock boring drill, a wood carving machine and finally his longest standing contribution, the sewing machine.
Your assumption is correct. Mr. Singer did not originally invent the sewing machine but he did patent his...
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Big Miracle, Huge War. Sgt Alvin York 1918
Any day is a good day for a miracle. Like today in 1918 in the lovely, German-occupied forest near Chatel Chehery, France. Corporal Alvin York’s (out-manned, out-gunned) battalion was under order’s to secure German positions along the rail lines. ”There’s was not to question why…” (Tennyson reference, sorry.)
Heavy machine gun fire took out all...
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Great poetry never dies (it runs for 18 years on...
Queen video or Kiss concert? No silly,that’s David Bowie!
Maybe you aren’t a huge Andrew Lloyd Weber fan either, but at least he brought limelight to a clever collection of classic verse by T.S. Eliot. The poems from “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” (c. 1939) were the basis for the characters and lyrics of the smashing success “Cats”. It opened on...
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Meanwhile in America
Thomas Edison released what is considered the very first motion picture the exact same day the Moulin Rouge opened. You can make whatever parallels between scantily clad women and cinema without my help.
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Moulin Rouge turns eleventy-one
This is a family friendly blog. The outside
is as much as I can show.
111years, 182 revues, six movies and one book later, the Moulin Rouge (Red Mill) still stands as an effigy in Paris’ racy Pigalle district. It is a birthplace of many questionable activities and today is its birthday. But, considering it is $168 a seat and in a foreign country, I doubt I’ll be there for...
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And now for something completely different
Excuse me miss. Did you know that Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired from 1969 to 1974? In fact I’ll have you know that it was today that the first episode went up. Wink-wink, know what I mean? That’s right. John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and two Terrys (Gilliam and Jones) came together (nudge nudge, get it?) to form this most historic television collective...
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All aboard for murder, mystery, nostalgia on the...
Today marks the historic, 1883 launch of the Orient Express. The route spans from Paris through Munich to Vienna. Then through Budapest, Bucarest and finally to Istanbul, not Constantinople. (They Might Be Giants + Tiny Toons = excellent). Linking posh and intellectual western Europe to the gateway to the east.
Cultural references include Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”,...
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Happy 60th Charlie Brown!
Social security check?
The late, great Charles M. Schultz published the first Peanuts comic strip today in 1950. We all know, love, and wax nostalgic when we watch the holiday specials. Today’s treat is Charles Schultz’s philosophy given in quiz form.
Part 1:
Name the 5 wealthiest people in the world today.
Name the last 5 Heisman trophy winners.
Name the last 5 Miss...
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And Happy Anniversary EPCOT
Opening exactly 11 years after DisneyWorld was Walt’s true vision: EPCOT (Environmental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). A futuristic look at a life of automation, environmentally friendly convenience, and community living. He died before either park opened.
EPCOT’s icon is the 257’ tall ride Spaceship Earth resembling a golf ball made of brushed aluminum. It’s design...
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Happy Anniversary DisneyWorld
“Have you heard of Orlando?”
“You will.”
Orlando, FL today in `71 an American icon is launched. Not included in the $3.50 entrance fee were over 7 rides on opening day. (Yeah, there were 9).
Cool Fact: Cinderella’s Castle at 189’ tall, an example of forced perspective was nothing more than decoration. Later outfitted with a multi-room suite, families are...
