TIMING FOR ANIMATION, by John Halas and Harold Whitaker, with a new update written by Yours Truly, is now officially out in stores and on order on sites like Amazon.




Thanks to everyone who contributed to making the new edition special, especially Mark Farquhar, Dorse Lanpher, Kevin O'Neill, Bill Plympton, John Lasseter, JibJabb, Olive Jar, Rhythm & Hues and many more! Hope you all like it.
-----------------------------------------------------

Question: When asked: What do you think of Western Civilization? Who replied:" I think it would be a very good idea."..?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean to “ see the writing on the wall”..?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 9/20/2009
Birthdays: Alexander the Great -356 BC, Upton Sinclair, Jelly Roll Morton, Red Auerbach, Guy Lafluer, Fernando Rey, Ann Meara, Rachel Roberts, Jonathan Hardy, Pia Lindstrom, Gary Cole, Fran Drescher, Sophia Loren is 75

356BC- The Great Temple of Artemis of Ephesus was destroyed by fire. It was said to be the work of a lunatic arsonist from Hailicarnassus. The temple had been built as a gift to the goddess by Croesus the Lydian who had so much wealth the phrase “To be as rich as Croesus “ is still in use today. Why had the Goddess Artemis would allow her house to be consumed so cruelly? The priests explained that she was probably too busy overseeing the birth of Alexander the Great in Macedon to keep a watch on her house. The Ephesians rebuilt the huge temple and 400 year later Saint Paul was thrown out of it for preaching his weird new religion. The cult statue of Artemis or Diana had dozens of breasts, which some describe as bull testicles. They are symbols of fertility.

450 A.D.-Battle of Chalons-Attila the Hun is decisively defeated by Theodoric the Visigoth and Aetius, the general of what remained of the dying Roman Empires’ legions. Attila's shaman's had predicted a great chief would die that day. Theodoric wound up being the one killed as his warriors won the battle.

1400- The Welsh under Owen Glendower revolt against English rule. Supposedly the fierce bowmen marched into battle to the sound of harps. Owen had captured English Prince Edwin Mortimer. He not only treated him well but he married Owens daughter creating the Tudor family of British monarchs.

1519- Fernand de Magellan sails from Seville, Spain. His original mission from King Carlos Ist was to seize the Moluccas from Portugal, now part of Indonesia. Instead his fleet was the first to sail around the world.

1670- English poet John Milton published his last works “Paradise Regained” and “Samson Agonistes”. He was blind but dictated to a secretary who wrote down his poems. When he felt the inspiration he would call him by saying:” Come. I need to be milked.”

1714- George Ist the Elector of Hanover in Germany entered his new capitol of London as King of England. The eccentric George feared his new subjects as treacherous revolutionists who’d overthrown and executed their earlier monarchs. So he deliberately waited out the huge throngs lining the streets come to welcome him. He slipped into the city in the dead of night, after most had gone home to bed disappointed. George never bothered to learn English.” The English have asked me to rule them, not to speak to them!”

1746- Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to France, the Highland Rebellion ended.

1777- No-Flint Grey- In the dead of night British troops surprise attack American colonial forces under Gen Mad Anthony Wayne asleep in their camp. British Commander Charles Grey ordered his men not to waste time loading their muskets but just go at them silently with the bayonet. To ensure his order was obeyed he collected their musket flints, for which he earned the nickname “No Flint Grey”. Paoli Tavern was called a massacre as a press exaggeration because the perception was 500 men were stabbed as they slept. Fact is only 150 casualties are reported and Washington had used the same kind of surprise attack on the Hessians at Trenton earlier that year.

1792-BATTLE OF VALMY- French revolutionaries (The Sans-cullottes, without trousers) mow down the Prussian army, the best soldiers in Europe, who were marching on Paris to suppress their revolution and rescue King Louis XVI. The cool, professional Prussian troops, used to the powdered bewigged, silk stockings type of soldier, had underestimated the passions unleashed by the enraged masses shouting "Aux Armes, Citoyen!" Another problem the Germans had was an excess of diarrhea among the ranks from eating too many grapes in the Champagne region. The great German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe was there as an adviser to his patron the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. Although Goethe did not fight, he stood cool under fire. Watching the spectacle Goethe predicted: From today and from this place begins a new epoch in the History of the World”.

1803- Irish patriot Robert Emmett executed for leading an abortive uprising against the British. His final words became famous: “ Let no man write my epitaph. When my country takes her place among the nations of the Earth, then, and not till then, Let my epitaph be written.”

1814- A new poem by Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key was first published in the Baltimore Patriot. First called the Defense of Fort McHenry. Keys brother in law Judge Nicholson suggested it sounded good sung to the tune To Anacreon in Heaven’. Soon everyone was singing it as the Star Spangled Banner.

1830-The first National Convention of African-Americans convened.

1839- The steamer British Queen first brought news of the invention of Photography and the Daguerreotype process to the U.S.. Soon everyone is happily snapping away.

1853- Elisha Otis revolutionized office building construction by demonstrating his elevator that didn’t fall when the cable was cut.

1863-BATTLE OF CHICKAMAGUA- Bloody Civil War battle in Eastern Tennessee. Union General Rosecrans moved some troops to fill an imagined gap in his line and opened up a real gap that Confederate General Bragg exploited to rout the Yankees. The Union army was only saved by the rearguard action of Gen.George H. Thomas, who earned the name "Rock of Chickamagua". The fighting was unusually vicious, when soldiers ran out of bullets they threw rocks, clubbed and strangled each other. Lincoln's opinion of the losing commander, Rosecrans:" Old Rosy acts like a duck that's been struck on the head." Rosecrans was a devout Catholic and had the habit of crossing himself frequently and sitting with his head in his hands. He had verbally insulted most of the top officers of the U.S. Army, yet despite this was beloved of his troops.
Another legend born was Johnny Shiloh, the "Drummer Boy of Chickamagua". John Joseph Clem ran away from home at age 9 and joined the 22nd Mass. as a drummer boy. He drummed through the Battle of Shiloh even though a shell had smashed his drum. By Chickamagua he had killed his first man at age 10. He made corporal. Major John Joseph Lincoln Shiloh Clem was the last Civil War veteran on U.S. Army rolls to retire in 1915.

1870- The Italian Army captures Rome from the Papal guards and allied French troops and finished the unification of Italy. The city was under Napoleon III's protection until he was defeated and overthrown by the Germans in the Franco Prussian War.The status of the Pope in an Italian Rome remained ambiguous until 1927, when Mussolini signed the Concordat (Treaty) creating the Vatican city-state. (Still the best postoffice in town.)

1918- Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab army enter Damascus. Lawrence had inspired Prince Faisal's Bedouins that they were fighting for their own all Arab nation. But the British and the French had no intention of honoring that pledge and the knowledge gnawed at Lawrence. Arabia was divided into British and French protectorates (a civil servant named Speeckes created Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Palestine and Saudi Arabia with a stick in the sand) and Lawrence returned to England a spiritually broken, albeit famous, man.

1942- SUPERSNIPER- This day during the terrible Battle of Stalingrad a young shepherd boy from the Ural Mountains named Vassily Zaitsiev arrived to fight the Nazis. Zaistsiev turned out to be the most deadly sniper since Sgt. York. In ten days he shot forty Germans, mostly officers- one man one bullet. The Germans got so upset they sent for a top marksman from Bavaria named Major Koenig. For the next few weeks the two supersnipers waged a private duel in the ruins of Stalingrad. In mid October Zaitsiev finally got Koenig. Zaitsev survived the war and his rifle is lovingly preserved in the Volgograd Museum today.

1944-"I HAVE RETURNED'- Douglas MacArthur and the President Quezon of the Philippines led the invasion of Japanese held Luzon. The U.S. military wanted to pass by the Philippines to head straight for Japan, but MacArthur couldn't bear to go back on his pledge. MacArthur did the stepping off of the landing craft on to the beach twice, once for the moment and a second time for the newsreel cameras. Some insiders said the scowl on his face was not just his grim determination to get at the Japanese but because the landing craft had left him in water deeper than expected and he soaked a good pressed uniform.( William Manchester, American Caesar,pg 145)

The Generals press attache' briefed the press that you're never supposed to film or photograph the General in other than an up-angle shot.

1944- Now that the Pacific War was winding down martial law was lifted on the Hawaiian Islands. It had been imposed since Pearl Harbor. One tragic result for the servicemen was that the first thing the restored chief of Honolulu police did was shut down the brothels of Waikiki. The area known as Hotel Street was ringed with houses of ill repute servicing servicemen for the duration. One sailor reminisced: I got stewed, screwed and tatooed, all in one night.” The quarters most famous hooker, Jean O’Hara said: “ I think I slept with the entire US Navy.”

1952- CBS premiered the Jackie Gleason Show- The Honeymooners".

1955- The Phil Silvers Show, originally entitled You’ll Never Get Rich” debuted on CBS.

1973- Musician Jim Croce (30) died in a charter plane crash near Natchitoches Louisiana.

1979- The Central African Empire of Boukassa Ist was overthrown with the aid of 700 French paratroops. Jean Bedel Boukassa was known for repression, and spending one quarter of the gross national income of his nation on his coronation. He had a golden throne made based on Napoleon Bonaparte’s, but changed it when he saw it wasn’t grand enough.

The Central African Republic was declared.

1984- The Cosby Show premiered.

1989- A Los Angeles court found Richard Ramierez guilty of the Night Stalker crimes- 43 counts including 13 murders, rape, burglary and sodomy. He would draw a Satanic pentagram in the victim’s blood at the scene.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Question: : What does it mean to “ see the writing on the wall”..?

Answer: Babylonian King Belshazzar had a great drunken feast to celebrate his conquest of Israel. During the orgy, a mysterious floating hand wrote on his wall this mysterious message MENE MENE TEKEL U-PHARSIN. Belshazzar had the prophet Daniel brought up from the dungeon to translate this cryptic graffiti. Daniel said it meant THOU HAS BEEN WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE AND FOUND WANTING. Later that day the conquering Persian armies burst into the city and killed Belshazzar.

Question: What does it mean to “ see the writing on the wall”..?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: In Ben Hur movies, What does SPQR mean?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 9/19/2009
Birthdays: Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Salladin, Hungarian nationalist Leopold Kossuth, Brian Epstein, "Momma" Cass Elliot, Frank Tashlin, Dr. Ferry Porsche- inventor of the Porsche race car, Twiggy– real name Leslie Hornby, Leon Jaworski, William Golding author of The Lord of the Flies, Paul Williams, Adam West is 81, Frances Farmer, David McCallum is 76, Duke Snyder, Jeremy Irons is 61, Jimmy Fallon is 35.

1356-BATTLE OF POITIERS- In the Hundred Years War Edward the "Black Prince" destroyed the French army and captured the French King and Dauphin. French King John II "The Good" was held for ransom in the Tower of London. Once there he found he could have all the benefits of Kingship without any of the stress, so he party'd hardy. Even when the Dauphin Charles V got his freedom, and started to organize a heroic resistance to the English invasion, John the Good ignored his sons pleas to escape. Some apologist historians say John sacrificed his freedom for the French Nation. Other scholars like Henri Guizot and found the budgets this hostage spent on dwarves, feasts, mistresses and hunting dogs "disgraceful".

1493- Pope Alexander VI had never made it a secret that he had a growing family of children. He wanted to make his son Caesar Borgia a Cardinal at 26 and his daughter Lucretzia a duchess but first there was the problem that they were illegitimate. Well, that’s no problem for the Vicar of Christ! This day he declared them legitimate offspring, of his cousin. Everyone winked at the twisted logic and went along with it.

1580- The family of Miguel de Cervantes ransomed the writer from the Barbary Pirates. He wrote Don Quixote de la Mancha in 1604.

1692- One of the only men convicted in the Salem Witch Trials was executed. Pilgrim Giles Corey had a wooden board laid on top of him and his neighbors piled large stones on top until he was squished to death. At one point his tongue was sticking so grotesquely out of his head that the magistrate pushed it back in his mouth with the tip of his cane.

1783- Jacques Montgolfier launches the first hot air balloon in Paris. The first aeronauts were a sheep, duck and rooster. Montgolfier made his fortune in paper. To this day if you get some high quality stationary with a balloon and French flag in the watermark that is Papier Canson et Montgolfier, his company.

1796-President George Washington’s farewell address was first published in Claypools American Daily Advertiser, then reprinted in other papers throughout the country. Washington warned to “avoid entangling foreign alliances and asked for national unity above partisan politics. But party politics had firmly taken root. One opposition paper called Washington’s speech “the last loathings of a sick mind..”

1819- On a beautiful English autumn day poet John Keats was moved to write his Ode to Autumn.

1827- Fight at the Vidalia Sandbar- Famous Mississippi gamblers brawl in which Jim Bowie uses his famous knife to carve up a gang of sore losers who shoot him twice. The Bowie knife may not have been designed by Jim Bowie but by his brother Rezin Bowie, who wanted an intimidating toothpick to brandish after he almost died in an earlier altercation. The Bowie knife was the Saturday night special of the early nineteenth century. In Brahm Stoker's Dracula, Van Helsing doesn't kill the count with a wooden stake but with a Bowie knife.

1876- Melvin Bissell of Grand Rapids Michigan invented his carpet sweeper.

1881- PRESIDENT JAMES GARFIELD DIED- Garfield was shot in the back at Washington rail station by Charles Guiteau on July 2nd.The President lingered these many weeks in agony before finally dying. Garfield might have lived had it not been for all the doctors poking around in his wound without antiseptic conditions. Even inventor Alexander Graham Bell was invited to search for the bullet with a new invented metal detector. James Garfield died of blood poisoning and infection. Interestingly enough, for the two and a half months the President was out of action and Congress was not called into session, yet the U.S.A. ran just fine.

1893- New Zealand becomes the first nation in the world to give women the vote.

1926- THE BIG ONE- Miami Florida was destroyed by a huge Hurricane. The storm stopped a real estate boom in South Florida. SnowBirds up north invested millions in land that turned out to be under water. The Marx Brothers poked fun at the craze in their 1929 film Cocoanuts. As Groucho said:” Florida Folks. Sunshine, Sunshine , now let’s get the auction started before there is a tornado.”

1931- The Marx Brothers comedy “ Monkey Business” premiered.

1936- Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald record “Indian Love Call”. When I’m Calling You, Oooh-ohhoohhh, Ohhhh-ohhh-oohhhhhhh”, etc.

1939- Geli Raubel, Adolf Hitler’s 23 year old niece was found dead with a gunshot wound in the head. Hitler had a passion for his niece that she did not return. It remains a mystery whether she killed herself or she was murdered, and made to look like a suicide. Even though Eva Braun worshipped him, years later Adolf admitted Geli was the only woman he ever really loved.

1945- Little Shirley Temple, now all grown up, married actor John Agar, who she met on the set of John Ford's film Fort Apache. The RKO studio turned the marriage into a media circus by inviting 12,000 people. John Ford teased Agar mercilessly, calling him Mr. Temple. John and Shirley divorced within two years. Shirley Temple did a few more small roles, remarried and became a diplomat and John Agar went on to star in a number of sci-fi flicks like 'Tarantula", The Brain from Planet Aurous" and built his own theme dinosaur park by an Arkansas freeway "John Agar's House of Kong'.


1961- This is the night Betty and Barney Hill claimed they were picked up by a flying saucer and experimented on. It is one of the more famous abduction stories because it was one of the first, and it holds up under hypnosis. Hey, what are you planning to do with that anal probe?

1970- The Mary Tyler Moore TV Show premiered.

1985- Mexico City devastated by a large earthquake 8.1 on the Richter scale. The next day the city was rocked again by a 7.5 earthquake. 10,000 people died. Curiously enough 80% of the cities ancient landmarks were undamaged, only modern buildings collapsed. People camped out in Aztec ruins, figuring they’ve stood for centuries and would stand now.

1995- Orville Reddenbacher 'the Popcorn king' died.

1995-The NY Times and Washington Post printed the 35,000 word manifesto of the Unabomber. He promised to stop sending bombs to people if they printed his message. He accused technology of subverting American society, and that the Democrats stoke the fears of the poor and the Republicans believe in nothing but pure self interest.

2004- Chinese leader Chiang zsi Minh resigned his last offices to his successor Hu Zhin Tao. It marks the first peaceful regular transition of power in China since the People’s Republic was declared in 1949.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Question: In Ben Hur movies, What does SPQR mean?

courtesy prestontours.com

Answer: Senatus Populsque Romanum- The Senate and the People of Rome. It was inscribed on buildings and carried on the standards of the legions. Today you can see it stamped on Rome’s mailboxes, litter baskets and manhole covers.

Question: In Ben Hur Roman movies, What does SPQR mean?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Are St. John the Apostle and St. John the Evangelist the same guy?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 9/18/2009
Birthdays: Roman Emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajan 53AD, Dr Samuel Johnson, Frankie Avalon, Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Leon Foucault ( Foucault's Pendulum ), Jack Warden, Canadian PM John Diefenbaker, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Rossano Brazzi, Debbie Fields founder of Mrs. Field's Cookies, Jada Pinkett-Smith, James Gandolfini is 49, June Foray

96 A.D. ROMAN EMPEROR DOMITIAN ASSASSINATED- Domitian was a crazy tyrant in the mold of Nero and Caligula. He once ordered all the fortunetellers, sorcerers, swamis and such driven out of Rome. Their guild got together and retaliated by doing a group prediction of Domitian's assassination: Sept. 18th on the eleventh hour. Domitian pretended not to care but on the day spent all day locked indoors with a sword under his pillow. He didn't come out until his slaves and butlers assured him the eleventh hour had passed. Domitian came out and was promptly murdered by his slaves and butlers. They lied. It was the eleventh hour.

-BUT WAIT! IT GETS WEIRDER... A Roman mob drags Domitian's body through the streets on a hook and chain. They tried to stuff him into the sewer but he was too fat, so they tore the body to pieces and threw the chunks into the Tiber.

-BUT WAIT! IT GETS EVEN WEIRDER!!-The Roman Senate told his wife the Empress Valeria no hard feelings, if she needed anything.... She requested to be allowed to keep one statue of her husband in the Forum. The Senate approved. Unbeknown to them fishermen had fished out the pieces of Domitian. Valeria took the fish-knawed chunks to an Egyptian doctor and had him sew them back into something resembling a man. Then she told her artists to make a statue of the cadaver. This horrid statue she put in the forum to remind Roman's of 'their ingratitude'.

324 A.D.-Battle of Chalcedon-Constantine, Roman Emperor of the West,
defeated Licinius, Emperor of the East and takes over the whole Roman Empire. One result of this battle was he took the Christian religion, which he had earlier removed the ban on, and made it the official state religion of the Empire.

1572-the painter El Greco first appeared in history in a document paying his union dues to the Guild of St. Lawrence, the artists guild of Rome. His real name was Domenico Theotocopoulos. People just called him El Greco, 'the Greek Guy".

1705- PIRATES TAKE OVER NEW YORK CITY and hold it until the British Navy drove them away.

1793- At the building site of the new capitol city (Washington D.C.) the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building was set in a ceremony presided over by President George Washington and a group of Freemason masters from GW's local lodge.
At one point Washington dismissed the crowd so the Freemason's could do their mystical rites in secret. No regular clergy was invited nor conventional Christian benedictions given. The US Capitol as we know would not be completed until 1863.

1804- Napoleon inspected Baron Gros new painting The Plague Victims of Jaffa and liked it. Nappy considered paintings part of propaganda and commissioned artists to project his image.

1811 A Portuguese 'Projectionist' (experimenter with Magic Lanterns) offers the Duke of Wellington to burn up Napoleon's army with a series of convex lenses and mirrors. Wellington says thanks, but no thanks...

1812- The Great Fire of Moscow finally out, Napoleon sent to Czar Alexander informing him of the tragedy and once more calling upon him to submit to peace talks. The Czar sent no reply but told his troops and court: “I will continue to fight so long as I have one soldier. Rather than surrender to the invaders I’d grow my beard to my waist, go to Siberia and live on potatoes!”

1851-First issue of the New York Daily Times, later just the New York Times.

1870-THE SIEGE OF PARIS BEGAN- The main French armies defeated and Emperor Napoleon III a prisoner, Paris alone refused to surrender to Prussia. As the great Krupp guns boom shells into the city, American General Phil Sheridan stood as a tourist in between Chancellor Bismarck and the Kaiser. Painter August Renoir would go outside the city walls to sketch and was once picked up and accused of espionage. Parisians starved in the siege and elegant restaurants were soon offering 'roast cat in orange sauce with a decorative garnish of mice'. Top fashion guru Worth of Paris declared it chic' to have some decorative ruins in your garden. After the siege the Paris city walls were demolished. They were approximately where the freeway "peripherique" around the city is today. The fiercest fighting was where the suburb of La Defense is (hence the name).Young Emile Cohl was inspired by the military wall posters he saw to become an artist. He later became the first true animation artist.

1873- THE GREAT PANIC AND DEPRESSION OF '73- Contrary to modern belief the Depression of 1929-41 and 2008 wasn't the only time the U.S. economy stumbled. This panic began when the huge Bank of Cooke & Sons closed. In those times you would say "to be rich as Jay Cooke' was like saying rich as a Rockefeller or Trump today. Cooke got the news of his ruin while having breakfast with President Grant and broke down and wept in front of the befuddled chief executive. The run on the collapsing market got so out of control that the New York Stock Exchange shut down for ten days. The Depression lasted ten years.1907,1819,1893,1914, 1832 and 1987 also saw financial panics. Uh, also 2008.

1895- In Davenport Iowa Daniel David Liliiard invented the chiropractic adjustment session. Now just relax- CRACCCK!!

1917-Writer Aldous Huxley got a job teaching at Eton. One of his students was Eric Blair, who would write under the name George Orwell.

1927-The Columbia Broadcasting System-CBS, broadcast its first program, an opera called the King’s Henchman.

1931- THE MUKDEN INCIDENT- The Japanese army rig a supposed Chinese ambush at a small railway junction near Shenyang. This served as the pretext for a mass invasion of Manchuria. This is technically the first violence of World War Two, since the Sino-Japanese conflict would continue until 1945.

1932-Frustrated movie actress Peggy Enwhistle jumped off the Hollywood Sign. In case you are curious she jumped off the “H”. She also didn’t hit the ground immediately but hit a cactus patch, dying slowly later in great pain. Ironically in her mail that day was a script and a job offer. The role was of a woman who commits suicide.

1939-LORD HAW-HAW Shortly after World War Two broke out in Europe today Britons first heard an English voice reading propaganda news from Radio Berlin. English fascist William Joyce became the voice of Nazi Germany in English, making pro-axis commentary not unlike Tokyo Rose was doing in Asia. He was nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw because of his assumed upper-class British accent. He was actually of Irish ancestry and lived in Brooklyn New York for awhile, but he considered himself English. After Germany’s defeat Joyce was captured and executed for treason.

1961- United Nations General Secretary Dag Hammerskjold was killed in a plane crash in Africa. He left behind a book of philosophical musings called Markings that became a best seller. Today the central plaza in front of the United Nations Building is named for him.

1965- I Dream of Genie debuted on television. Network Standards & Practices said Barbara Eden could wear the harem outfit so long as her belly-button didn’t show. At first the reviews were not good. Variety said: “The only star of this show is Barbera Edens cleavage.”


1970- Jimi Hendrix (27) was found dead of drug and alcohol abuse. He had passed out and choked on his own vomit. Janis Joplin's reaction was -"G-ddammit! He beat me to it !" Joplin herself died three weeks afterwards.

1981- France outlaws capitol punishment and the guillotine.

1991- Comedian Redd Foxx was famous for doing bits like faking a heart attack. This day on the set of his new series the Royal Family while joking with Della Reese he clutched his chest and fell over dead. Everyone thought he was faking and laughed.

1992- Arch anti-feminist and conservative values spokesperson Phyllis Schlafly learns from her son John Schlafly that he is gay. Doh!
1994- Tennis star Vitus Gerulaitis was found in his home dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.

2001- ANTHRAX- While America was still in shock from the 9-11 attacks, government and media offices started getting envelopes in the mail containing weapons grade Anthrax powder. 22 people are sickened and 5 died. Most of the lethal packets were mailed to opponents of the Bush Administration. Bush immediately claimed it was the work of Al Qaeda and later Saddam Hussein. But the only culprit the FBI could pinpoint was a disgruntled chemist at the Army Biological Weapons Lab, who committed suicide. Nothing was ever proven.

2003- In Scotland paleontologists discover the worlds oldest genitalia. From a dinosaur era insect ancestor of the preying mantis. Great Giant Mantis Balls!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Question answered below: Are St. John the Apostle and St. John the Evangelist the same guy?

Answer: There is a big argument among Biblical Scholars whether they are the same. Christian tradition has it that John the Apostle wrote the Gospel of St. John and was the only apostle not martyred, but allowed to grow old. Other scholars say John of Patmos was someone else, living in Greece and hallucinating the Book of the Apocalypse around AD165. So the earliest Gospel was that of Mark, who knew Simon Peter but wrote his Gospel around AD120. Maybe the Gospel of Thomas, discovered at Nag Hamadi in 1948 but not included in the Bible, is the only Gospel written by someone who actually looked Jesus in the face. There is no definitive answer either way.

Question: Are St. John the Apostle and St. John the Evangelist the same guy?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: When they say “ he faced a phalanx of reporters.” What is a phalanx?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 9/17/2009
Birthdays: Hank Williams, Spiro Agnew, Ken Kesey, Jerry Colonna, Roddy MacDowell, George Blanda, Wendy Carlos Williams, Elvira- real name Cassandra Peterson, Anne Bancroft, Jeff MacNelly, Sir Frederick Ashton, Rita Rudner, Bass Lehrman is 47

1179- Feast of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the medieval female composer.

1630- Happy Birthday Beantown! The Puritan colonists of New England decide to name their new settlement Boston, after a town in Lincolnshire. The site was an Algonquin village called Shawmut.

1632-BATTLE of BRIETENFELD- One of the great battles of the religious Thirty Years War. South Germans, Austrians, Italians, Spaniards on the Catholic side, Swedes, Danes, Hungarians and North Germans on the Protestant side. Catholic general Joachim Tchserclas Von Tilly lost despite dedicating the battle to the Virgin Mary and having twelve cannon named for the Twelve Apostles. Protestant Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus sang morning prayers with his army from the saddle. I wonder if their battle cry was:" Prince of Peace! CHAAAAARGE !!"

1787- The U.S. Constitution signed by the representatives of 12 of the thirteen states. Rhode Island boycotted the convention. “The business is closed.” George Washington wrote in his diary. Alexander Hamilton signed as the only representative of New York since the others left in protest. He was a prime mover of the Constitutional rewrite but was unimpressed with the final result: “Just more pork with the same old sauce, but it might lead the way for a better one later.”Aaron Burr wrote” I doubt if it will last 50 years.” Yet the US Constitution became the bedrock of the American system and is viewed with an almost religious dedication. When Ben Franklin emerged from the meeting, an old woman asked:’ Well, Dr Franklin, what have you given us now?” Franklin replied:” A Nation, mam, if you can keep it!”

1859- JOSHUA NORTON of San Francisco, a well known rice merchant, suffered a mental breakdown under the strain of work, bought a tricycle and a marching band uniform and declared himself Joshua Ist, By God's Grace Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico! Everybody went along with the gag including Abraham Lincoln, who Joshua would write to as "My Prime Minister" and Abe would answer "Your Majesty". When Joshua died in 1875, 35,000 San Franciscans turned out for a state funeral befitting royalty.

1862- BATTLE OF ANTIETAM or Sharpsburg. Abe Lincoln needed a Union victory before freeing the slaves so the act wouldn't look like the last desperate gamble of a losing side. Robert E. Lee had invaded Maryland but his secret orders wrapped around some cigars were discovered by Yankee trooper. "At last I've got him!' crowed Gen. George B. "Little Mac" McClellan, the Union commander who was a great organizer but a terrible battlefield commander. The two sides batter each other in one of the bloodiest days in U.S. history, double the U.S. casualties of D-Day in World War II. McClellan delayed sending in his reserves at a critical moment to break Lee's center, so the battle was a draw. Lee withdrew into Virginia -he was leaving Maryland anyway, so it was kind of, sort of, a Union success.
Yet despite Lincoln's pleading, McClellan refused to pursue. Lil' Mac was convinced Lee had 100,00 troops (he had barely 30,000.). Never one for modesty, McClellan wrote his wife: "Once again God has made me His instrument to be the Savior of my country."
Lincoln fired him ,but published his Emancipation Proclamation anyway.

1921-SWASTIKA- New leader of the German National Socialist or Nazi Party Adolph
Hitler sent his first circular letter to party members. He had spent a lot of time researching graphic symbols in a Munich library with a Professor Pluskau who specialized in Oriental cultures. Now Herr Hitler advised all good party members to adopt as their emblem an ancient Aryan symbol of a crooked cross called a Swastika. This was to be worn as an armband and on party stationary toped with an eagle in imitation of ancient imperial Rome. Early Nazi rallies actually sold name brand merchandise to fund their movement. I wonder if they had Nazi ShamWows….?

1939- Russian forces join German troops in the invasion of Poland and occupied the Balkan countries Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. These nations would not regain their independence until 1990.

1940- After the failure of the German Luftwaffe, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of the British Isles. The Battle of Britain was over. Hitler would resume bombing London with rocket weapons in 1943 in the period called 'The Blitz".

1941- As Stuka Bombers drop incendiary explosives over their heads, Dmitri Shostakovitch performs the first two movements of his Symphony #7 the "Leningrad" to a Leningrad audience. Shostakovitch wrote the symphony during the terrible 900 day siege by the Nazi's, often pausing to join the fire brigade in putting out fires.

1951- Battle of the Yalu River. General MacArthur's UN army reached the edges of North Korea near the Chinese border.

1965- If you ever wondered what could be funny about being held in a Nazi prison camp you could watch the TV sitcom HOGANS HEROES, which debuted this day. Nazi Commandant Colonel Klink was acted by Werner Klemperer, whose father was the famous orchestra conductor Otto Klemperer who had to flee Germany because they were Jewish. Sergeant Schulz and the Frenchman LeBeau were also played by actors who survived the Holocaust- John Banner and Robert Clary.

1971- RCA gave up and pulled out of the retail computer market.

1972- Filmation's The Groovie Ghoulies" debuts.

1975- Psychotherapist Lucile Yaney opened one of LA’s most unusual restaurants- the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon. Built on the site of a countryhouse 1920’s evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson brought her lovers. Premiere organic cuisine with berry wines, then you can browse the store for power crystals, I-Ching sticks and literature from Alastair Crowley and Edgar Cayce. Faaar- Out !

1978- After thirteen days of intense negotiations President Jimmy Carter announced the Camp David Peace Accords , the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab neighbor- Egypt. Prime Minister Menachem Begin shook hands with President Anwar El Sadat.

2008- the entire country of Iceland declared bankruptcy.

2008- the first revelations that the Department of the Interior officials were having sex and taking drugs with lobbyists for the Oil companies. One official admitted snorting meth off an office toaster oven. Meanwhile they winked at the oil companies forgetting to pay hundred of millions of dollars in environmental penalties and fees.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Question: When they say “ he faced a phalanx of reporters.” What is a phalanx?

Answer: Most ancient armies were disorganized mobs of warriors. The Greeks invented the system of in-step marching and fighting in a huge rectangle formation. They presented their enemies with a moving wall of shields, bristling with bronze spears. The formation was called the Phalanx. This human wedge literally pushed their enemies off the field. The phalanx dominated until replaced by the smaller and more maneuverable Roman legion.
The name phalanx has come down to us to mean a group that presents a solid united front. Franco’s fascist party in Spain called themselves phalangists or the phalanx.

Question: When they say “ he faced a phalanx of reporters.” What is a phalanx?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Lately the favorite catchphrase of politicos is “ The Senator Double downed on his comment in Congress.” Okay, what does Double down mean?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 9/16/2009
Birthdays: J.C.Penney (James Cash Penney), B.B. King is 84 (originally Rydell King, when a DJ in Memphis his name was Beale St. Blues Boy or B.B.King, Anne Francis, Linda Darnel, Nadia Boulanger, Alan Funt, George Chakiris, Peter Falk, Ed Begley Jr, Jennifer Tilly, Molly Shannon, Marvin Middlemark 1919-the inventor of the rabbit ears TV antenna. ), Mickey Rourke is 53, Lauren Bacall- born Betty Persky is 85

218BC -Estimated date that Hannibal and his Carthaginian army completed their crossing of the Alps and descended into the Po River Valley of Italy. Of 32 elephants only 2 survived the journey.

1498-The Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada died peacefully. He presided over the torture and execution of up to 17,000 people during the Spanish Inquisition. He also oversaw the expulsion of Jews and Christian Arabs from Spain. Even the Borgias asked him to cool it. The name Torquemada became a synonym for judicial cruelty.

1776-BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS- From Washington's defeat by the British at New York City until Christmas he fought several rearguard actions as the British chased him and his raggedy ass rebels up into White Plains, across the Hudson, and across New Jersey to Pennsylvania. Historians graciously call these desperate hit and run actions battles, Harlem Heights, Throggs Neck, White Plains, Ft. Washington. The British were now so cocky about knocking the rebels about, that when the advance scouts spotted the American positions they didn't use the usual trumpet signals but sounded fox-hunting calls. The British referred to the Americans as Mr. Washington’s Army, because they refused to honor him with the title of General.

1830- The Liverpool-Manchester railroad inaugurated. The first trip was an all VIP affair, with the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington and most of the government along for the ride. At one point during a stop the elderly Duke watched a member of the House of Lords Sir William Huckisson, step out on to the track and get his leg severed by another train. The first known fatality by train.

1859- In Old San Francisco California State Senator David Broderick called California Supreme Court Justice David Terry a “pro-slavery crook, knave and poltroon”. The chief justice in a rage and challenged Broderick to a duel. They had to reschedule their meeting several times to elude the police but finally met on this date on site near present day Stinson Beach. Broderick's gun discharged prematurely near Terry's feet. Terry, instead of being satisfied and firing wide, took aim and drilled Broderick through the chest, killing him instantly.

1864- THE NILE DEBATE- On this day a debate was scheduled in the British city of Bath between famous African explorers Richard Burton and John Speeckes as to whether Speeckes had discovered the source of the Nile River at Lake Victoria Nyanza. They had started the expedition together as friends but came ot hate one another. The debate would be moderated by another famed explorer Dr. David Livingstone. However fate, or Speeckes, ensured the debate would never take place. On the day before the high strung Speeckes had gone hunting to break the tension and had accidentally shot himself in the chest. Whether he had intentionally or unintentionally committed suicide remains a mystery. A different explorer, Henry Stanley, proved Speeckes correct in 1873.

1893- THE LAST GREAT OKLAHOMA LAND RUSH-After appropriating some of their land in 1889, in 1893 the U.S. Gov't takes over the last huge stretch of land owned by the Cherokee Nation, who once owned all of Georgia and the Carolinas and Tennessee. They rename the Cherokee Strip Oklahoma and at the sound of a signal gun at noon one hundred thousand white settlers swarmed over it like a mad gold rush, on horseback, bicycle and carriages. By days end 40,000 claims averaging 160 acres a claim were made. Senator Henry Dawes of Mass. who sponsored the land grab, said of the Cherokee: " The defect in their system is obvious. Because they hold their land in common there is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of all Civilization."

1898- Indianapolis attorney Albert Beveridge advocated the conquest of the Philippines in a speech entitled “The March of the Flag,” the classic manifesto of U.S. Imperialism.

1901- A British Imperial Academy of Sciences team began to excavate a Wooly Mammoth frozen in Siberia. Most of the head had been eaten by wolves and the ears and trunk were gone, but the hair, skin and contents of its’ stomach were still there.

1908- General Motors Car Company formed. The phrase then was:"What's good for General Motors is good for the Nation."

1917- TANKS make their first appearance on the Somme battlefield. The inventors wanted them to be called “Land-Battleships” but the British had shipped their secret weapon across the Channel in crates marked "water-Tanks" to fool spies, so the name Tank stuck.

1919- An Austrian ex-corporal named Hitler drifting through Munich today joined a new right wing political party called the German Workers Party, later the National Socialists or Nazis. He also attended meetings of the ultra-nationalist Thule Society. It was a group that espoused racial supremacy and hated of Jews.

1920- FOR THOSE WHO THINK TERRORISM IS A MODERN PROBLEM- On this day anarchists planted a time bomb in a wagonload of scrap iron and parked it in the middle of Wall Street on a busy business lunch hour. The blast killed 38 and injured hundreds, blowing out the ground floor of J.P. Morgan's bank. Bankers described nightmarish scenes like a woman's decapitated head with her stylish bonnet still on, imbedded like a cannonball in a marble inlaid wall by the force of the blast. One of the victims was a sailor named Watson who had survived the explosion of the U.S.S. Maine. He survived this one as well but had to get a steel plate in his head. He eventually went mad. Another man knocked senseless and almost killed was young bank executive Joseph Kennedy Sr., father of the Kennedy Dynasty. The perpetrators were never caught. In 2001 the headquarters of Morgan/Stanley were in the World Trade Center.

1920- Enrico Caruso made his last recordings for the Victor Recording Company.

1934- Los Angeles Mayor Frank Shaw recalled for corruption. The city father's frustration with the mob corruption of politicians and police back east moved them to create the unique city charter that makes the Los Angeles City Council more powerful than the Mayor and made the LAPD an independent entity. Currently Los Angeles has one of our city council members under indictment for influence peddling and another busted for drug use.

1940- Congress passed the Burke-Wadsworth Act, creating the first peacetime draft in US History. The Selective Service Agency is born.

1940- Texan Sam Rayburn became Speaker of the House of Representatives. Rayburn was a mentor of young Lyndon Johnson. In 1945 Harry Truman was having an old fashioned Bourbon and poker party with Rayburn in his office when he was given the news of Franklin Roosevelt’s death.

1941- CBS Radio premiered the Arkansas Traveler Show. In it bandleader Bob Burns played a strange instrument he called a Bazooka. Later when the US Army issued the first hand-held anti-tank rocket launchers to their infantry, the GI’s called the things Bazookas because it resembled Burns instrument.

1949-Chuck Jones "Fast and Furrious" the First Road Runner-Coyote cartoon.

1953- The St. Louis Browns Baseball team moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles.

1963- The Beatles record “She Loves You- Yeah,Yeah,Yeah.”on the Swan Records label.

1964- The Peter Potamus Show debuted.

1965- The Dean Martin Show premiered on NBC. “Well, Ah think I’m gonna go to da couch now..”

1966- the last LOOK magazine published.

1966- The new Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center had its opening night. A performance of Samuel Barbers Anthony & Cleopatra sung by Leontyne Price and Justino Diaz. It was a near disastrous night because Ms Price got locked in a pyramid for awhile and couldn’t get out.

1969- President Nixon appears on the t.v. comedy "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and says:"Sock it to Me?"

1973- American Indian Activists Russell Means and Dennis Banks were acquitted of all charges in the Wounded Knee shootout and siege. That Banks and Means were shooting it out with the FBI was beyond question. The reason was the judge objected to the governments illegal bungling of evidence and witnesses.

1976- The U.S. Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women as priests and bishops.

1983- Arnold Schwarzenegger became a US citizen.

1984- “Miami Vice” TV show debuted.

1985-The Congressional Budget Office announced that the United States had gone from a Creditor Nation that had bankrolled most of the world in the Twentieth Century, to a Debtor Nation.

2003- Sheb Wooley, the composer of the 1951 hit “One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater” and the theme song of the TV show Hee Haw, died in Henderson Tennessee at age 82.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Question: Lately the favorite catchphrase of politicos is “ The Senator Double downed on his comment in Congress.” Okay, what does Double down mean?

Answer: in Blackjack, it means doubling your bet after only two cards are down, showing your bold confidence and determination.