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February 8th, 2009 sun
February 8th, 2009

Question: What is the origin of the term “to whip up the crowd?”

Answer to yesterday’s question below- Today people call each others comments “snarky”. Where did the term snarky come from?
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History for 2/8/2009
Birthdays: St Proclus of Constantinople 412AD, Jules Verne, Dmitri Medeleyev- inventor of the Periodic Table of Elements, James Dean, William Tecumseh Sherman, John Williams, Ivan Ivano-Vano, Lana Turner, Jack Lemmon ,Alejandro Rey, Ted Koppel, Nick Nolte, Buck Henry, Gary Coleman, Robert Klein.

1587- MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS BEHEADED at Fotheringay Castle. Circumstantial evidence proved Mary had not discouraged plots to overthrow and kill Queen Elizabeth. Truth was Elizabeth could never sit on her throne securely while Mary lived. While some could argue Elizabeth’s legitimate birth Mary’s mother was the sister of King Henry VIII. Apologists for Queen Elizabeth argue she did ordered the execution with great sadness but others say she cracked jokes as she signed the death warrant. Elizabeth and Mary never met face-to-face. Mary’s son James accepted his mothers death calmly, he hadn’t seen her since he was a toddler and his Presbyterian tutors were all filled him with hate for her.
It must have been a hard day at work for the headsman. First in order to ensure a good job, Mary gave a bribe to the executioner, but he muffed the first chop and had to do it in a couple of swings. Then, when the headsman picked up the head it plopped out of it's red wig. She had lost a lot of her hair to smallpox, as did Elizabeth and a lot of other folks. Finally, when they moved Mary's body, a yelping lap dog jumped out of her skirts and bit him. The heartbroken little lap dog refused all food, and died soon afterwards.

1672- THE SPECTRUM- Earlier in 1666 Sir Issac Newton bought a little prism stone at Stourbridge Fair. It inspired him to think about the principles of light. On this day he presented his paper to the Royal Society “New Theory about Light and Colors”. Newton discovered the Spectrum. That white light is not light devoid of color but made up of all colors which when broken up in a prism always assume the same spectral pattern Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

1836- Davy Crockett with twelve Tennessee leathershirts arrived at the Alamo.

1864- Abraham Lincoln visited Matthew Brady's Photo Studio and posed for the photo's that would one day be on the Penny and Five dollar bill.

1865- Russian monk Gregor Mendel publishes his laws of heredity. The science of genetics is born.

1893- THE FIRST RECORDED STRIPTEASE -discounting Salome’ of course. At Paris's famed Moulin Rouge an artist's model named Mona decided to get an edge in a beauty contest judged by art students by disrobing to music while walking up and down the stage. She was arrested and fined 100 francs and the students rioted over her arrest.

1915- THE BIRTH OF A NATION or The Clansman premiered at Clunes Auditorium in Los Angeles. Film pioneer and son of a Confederate veteran, D.W. Griffith's racist movie was considered for years the first American feature length film. Only recently the discovery of a 1913 Richard III film predates it. It is thought nowadays that Griffith was making a personal statement by the film, truth is there was a flood of Civil War films to mark the 50th anniversary of the conflict and the book the Clansman by Thomas Dixon was a hot property. President Woodrow Wilson ( another son of the South ) called it :"History written with a thunderbolt and I’m afraid all too true." Birth of a Nations’ inflammatory imagery and this politically incorrect Presidential endorsement helped a rebirth of the defunct Ku Klux Klan, and caused a marked increase in lynchings of African Americans.

But despite the film’s unfortunate politics it’s technique influenced world cinema and established once and for all the feature film length as the standard for all future motion pictures. It’s original running length was 3 hours.

D.W. Griffith in latter years lost his fortune and became a drunken has-been. Watching him at Chasen's Restaurant in the 1940’s beg MGM studio head Dore Schary for work inspired Billy Wilder to write SUNSET BLVD.

1928- Englishman John Logie Baird transmitted a still television image across the Atlantic from England to Hartsdale New York. It was a still image of a woman. Baird was one of the fathers of Television with Vladimir Zworkin, Lee DeForrest and Deutches Telefunken.

1960- Adolph Coors III the heir to the Coors beer empire was killed in a failed kidnapping attempt. Joseph Corbett Jr was apprehended in Canada and charged with the crime. Ironically, Adolph Coors was reputedly allergic to beer.

1961- Nebraska teenager and future movie star Nick Nolte was busted for the first time. He was accused of selling fake Draft cards so his friends could buy alcohol.

1966- The Vatican closed it’s office of censorship.

1967- Georgy Girl by the Seekers goes to #1 in pop charts.

1994- Jack Nicholson destroyed the windshield of a neighbors car with a golf club, screaming “You cut me off!” He settled the matter out of court.

2002- The death of Sheldon Allman. He was 77. Sheldon was the lyricist of television songs like George of the Jungle and Mr. Ed .” A Horse is a Horse Of Course, Of Course”

2007- Penthouse centerfold, pole dancer, heiress and reality TV star, Anna Nicole Smith, died from an overdose of prescription drugs. She was 39.
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Yesterday’s Question: Today people call each others comments “snarky”. Where did the term snarky come from?

Answer: The term is from the Lewis Carroll story The Hunting of the Snark, about a mythical monster. Other authors picked up on the funny work and used it. Jack London named his boat The Snark. Today it means irritably critical or bitchy.


Many of my friends know I love good political humor. Now that the Bush administration is at last only in history books, for old times sake, you should check out this website


http://whitehouse.georgewbush.org/index.asp

This site did some very funny photoshop versions of old WWII posters. Re-live all your favorite moments of the last 8 years, while you can still recognize a photo of John Ashcroft and Tony Blair. See it before they shut it down and send it to Top Secret Storage in a lead lined bunker next to Dick Cheney's EKG records.

courtesy Whitehouse.org

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Question: What does it mean to get your “Pound of Flesh”..?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: Gitmo has been called an American Gulag. What does that mean?
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History for 2/6/2009
Birthdays: Christopher Marlowe, Eva Braun, Ronald Reagan, Francois Truffaut, Babe Ruth, Elias Disney- Walt’s dad, Bob Marley, Queen Anne Ist of England, Aaron Burr, Robert Townsend, Mike Farrell, Tom Brokaw, Mike Maltese, Haskel Wexler is 83, Axel Rose, Patrick McKnee- Mr Steed of the Avengers, Kathy Najimy is 52, Rip Torn is 78, Zsa Zsa Gabor is 92!

Chuck Jones once referred to Mickey Mouse as the " Zsa Zsa Gabor of Animation, famous for being famous."

1481- The first public burnings of heretics by the Spanish Inquisition. Six men and women were marched out to a public square in Seville and burned at the stake. The executions soon took on a pageant like atmosphere and were called the Auto-da-fe’ an Act of Faith.

1778-The Kingdom of France signed an alliance with the rebellious North American colonies calling themselves the United States. Queen Marie Antoinette was charmed by the American ambassador Benjamin Franklin and called him 'Le Ambassadeur d'Electrique'. In the House of Commons Prime Minister Lord North had said that he doubted any European monarch would ever ally itself to the rebels: “For it would raise in America a new Empire dedicated to missionary it’s form of radical democracy around the world. “ German philosopher Goethe said: “We wish the Americans every success.”

1847- The Treaty of Waitangi- Britain settled New Zealand from the Maoris. Hobbits to follow….

1865- THE NERO BALL- During the Civil War as Sherman’s army burned and looted it’s way up from Georgia through the Carolina’s Sherman’s cavalry leader Judson Kilpatrick came up with newer and more novel ways to commit acts of cruelty on the civilian population. This day at the town of Barnwell South Carolina, Kilpatrick invited all the belles of the town to a “Nero Ball” The ladies didn’t understand the meaning until that evening, when he forced them to dance with his officers while he burned their homes. One of Kilpatricks officers protested:” It was the bitterest satire I ever witnessed”. Even his own men hated him, and called him “Kill-Cavalry”. But Gen Sherman defended him.”I know he’s a helluva damn fool, but I need him for my cavalry”.

1919- The Great Seattle General Strike. 100,000 people walk off the job and paralyze the city.

1919- Because defeated Berlin was awash in communist and rightwing paramilitary mobs fighting in the streets, the German government moved to Weimar to write it's democratic constitution. Germany in between the wars was called the Weimar Republic.

1926-Oliver Hardy tried once to be a dancer in a minstrel show, but wound up running a movie theater in his home town of Millidgeville, Georgia. He watched the comics on screen and thought" I am funnier that those guys.." He moved to Hollywood and this day signed a contract with the Hal Roach Studios to appear in short comedies, usually as a villain. Next year director Leo McCarey teamed the rotund Hardy with skinny British music hall comedian Stan Laurel, and a legendary team was born- Laurel & Hardy.
Note: Laurel & Hardy were both over 6 feet tall.

1935- The board game Monopoly is announced by Parker Brothers. The prototype monopoly board was round oilcloth and had street names derived from Atlantic City NJ. It now is in the toy collection of Forbes Magazine in New York.

1935- BOXERS OR BRIEFS? Arthur Kneibler patented the men’s underwear brief. He got the idea looking at Frenchmen’s bathing suits on the Riviera and called them Jockey’s.

1937- John Steinbecks novel “Of Mice and Men” published. In a result Mr Steinbeck probably didn’t anticipate was the stereotype image of a mildly retarded man as the big dumb sidekick Lenny, cartoonists used so often. “Duh, tell me about da rabbits, George.”

1943-“GET ME GEISLER!” Actor Errol Flynn was acquitted of two counts of sex with adolescents, which even if it is consensual is still considered statutory rape. The two girls who brought the charges had actually tried this shakedown with other celebrities. They weren't exactly adolescents despite testifying in court with pigtails and a lollypop. Flynn hired lawyer to the stars Jerry Geisler and he slowly took the girls story apart. Geisler discovered one girl had a prior conviction for 'public lewdness' and the other had had an abortion which then was illegal. So Flynn got off- literally. Flynn had just finished a film called "Gentleman Jim" and at the end of the film when he says to Alexis Smith:"I never said I was a Gentleman." Peals of knowing laughter rang out from audiences. This is also the time the slang term for living it up was coined- to be “In Like Flynn”. Flynn’s limo soon sported the license plate- R U 18?

1948- In Paris’ Cherche-Midi jail, Nazi General Von Stuelpnagel, the former commandant of Paris, shot himself rather than face trail for war crimes. Stuelpnagel was part of the Valkyrie Plot to overthrow Hitler and disobeyed the Fuehrer’s orders to destroy Paris landmarks, but he also executed many of the French Resistance and sent Paris Jews to concentration camps.

1952- King George VI died at 56 of lung cancer. Princess Elizabeth found herself queen at 27 years old.

1985- Steve Wozniak, the young engineer who started Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in his garage, resigned from the company. He’d rather be an engineer and teach children.

2007- PSYCHO ASTRONAUTS-Lisa Nowak, Space Shuttle commander, and mother of three, nicknamed RoboChick by the other astronauts, was enamored of another astronaut on the program, William “Billy-O” Oefelein. Today Lisa shocked America by driving 900 miles from Texas to Orlando non-stop to threaten the life of her lovers’s new girlfriend. When arrested She wore a wig, a Huggies diaper to prevent having to pull over to use the restroom and was carrying handcuffs and duct tape. The incident spawned dozens of puns- Astro-Nut, Lust in Space, The 150 Mile High Club, etc.
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QUESTION: Gitmo has been called an American Gulag. What does that mean?

Answer: In the 1960’s Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote the Gulag Archipelago, which described the Soviet Union’s system of forced labor camps for political dissidents, located chiefly in Siberia. Gulag was an acronym in Russian for Chief Administration for Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies.

"Guantanamera,
guajira guantanamera.
Guantanameeeeraaaa,
Guajira guantanameraaaa"

Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar mis versos del alma
Guantanamera, guajira, Guantanamera

Mi verso es de un verde claro
Y de un carmín encendido
Mi verso es de un ciervo herido
Que busca en el monte amparo
Guantanamera, guajira, Guantanamera

Y para el cruel que me arranca
El corazon con que vivo
Cardo ni ortiga cultivo
Cultivo la rosa blanca
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Con los pobres de la tierra
Quiero yo mi suerte echar
El arroyo de la sierra
Me complace más que el mar
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera


"Guantanamo Peasant Girl"
Traditional Cuban song with lyrics by José Martí. A cuban patriot and most
famous poet
( Special Thanks to Oscar Grillo)


February 5th, 2009 thir
February 5th, 2009

Question: Gitmo has been called an American Gulag. What does that mean?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: In news shows you hear politicians using the phrase:” I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Where did that come from?
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History for 2/5/2009
Birthdays: Sir Robert Peel founder of London’s police force- the Bobbies, Female outlaw Belle Starr, John Carradine, William Burroughs, Arthur Ochs Schulzburger, Hank Aaron is 76, Tim Holt, Barbera Hershey, Charlotte Rampling, Roger Staubach, Michael Mann, Bobby Brown, H. R. Giger, Red Buttons, Christopher Guest, Jennifer Jason Leigh is 48, Laura Linney is 45

2BC -The Roman Emperor Octavian Caesar was given by the Senate the title Father of His Country- Pater-Patria or the Augustus.

1631- Roger Williams, the founder of Rhodes Island, arrived in America from England. Tossed out of Boston for complaining about the Puritan fathers right to lock up anybody who didn’t like their religious views, Williams set up a new colony where he invited those who wanted freedom of conscience to come. Rhodes Island is one of the smallest states in America so I guess that says something about the response he got.

1642- The House of Lords finally gives in and agrees with the militant House of Commons to exclude bishops from sitting in Parliament.

1723- Louis XV who became King of France at age 5, attained manhood at age 13. The period in French History called the Regency came to an end, even through his uncle Phillip d’Orleans continued to run the government.

1736- Briton John Wesley landed in Savannah and brought the first Methodist missionaries to the U.S. On the boat Wesley was influenced by the simple discipline of several members of the sect the Moravian Brethren.

1783- The Kingdom of Sweden recognized the United States.

1846-The Oregon Spectator, first English newspaper on the Pacific Coast, published.

1887- Verdi’s opera "Othello" debuted. Guiseppi Verdi had retired from composing after 1875 but was goaded by a new generation of composers like Arrigo Boito to take up his pen once more. Boito was originally a critic of Verdi's style but later became his protege and wrote the libretto for Otello.

1895- PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND asks BANKER J.P. MORGAN TO BAIL OUT THE UNITED STATES- The business climate of the late 1880’s & 90’s was dominated by the debate of whether U.S. currency should be backed by gold or silver bullion. Class distinctions and politics were aggravated by Gold Bugs vs. Silver Men. Wild speculation on Wall Street in both metals made and ruined fortunes overnight. In the midst of all this confusion it was suddenly noticed that the gold reserves of the U.S. treasury were so seriously depleted that the Federal government was about to go bankrupt.
So President Cleveland was reduced to going cap-in-hand to the famous tycoon for a loan. Morgan drove a hard bargain but the U.S. economy was saved. J.P. Morgan was so rich at this point he had stopped several Wall Street panics almost single-handedly.
Morgan smoked twenty fat cigars a day and on the advice of doctors never exercised because it would be bad for his health.

1919- Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith form the United Artists Studio.

1921- The Loews State Theater in Chicago opened.

1922- The Reader’s Digest began publication.

1936-THE BATTLE OF JARAMA - Spanish General Franco’s Fascist army was thrown back from the gates of Madrid with help from the Republic’s newly arrived foreign volunteers, called the International Brigades. The idealistic young Europeans and Americans (the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) were thrown into the battle with no training as they had just arrived. They suffered 50% casualties but won the day. The Lincolns sang a tune to Popeye the Sailor Man:
"In a green little vale called Jarama, We made all the fascists cry "Mama!; we fight for our pay, just six cents a day, and play football with a bomb-a "

1937- Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times premiered. Chaplin was inspired to lampoon modern technological madness when he was invited to view the auto assembly production lines in Detroit and saw men moving like machines.

1952-New York City is the first to adopt the three light traffic lights-red, yellow, green.

1953- Walt Disney’s "Peter Pan".

1956- Darryl Zanuck resigned from 20th Century Fox, the studio he built into a powerhouse. He later won back the chairmanship in 1962 only to be ousted finally in 1970.

1957- Mel Lazarus’ comic strip Miss Peach debuted.

1970- TWA began 747 nonstop service between New York and Los Angeles.

1971-The NASDAQ computer stock trading system starts up.

1972- After numerous airline hijackings the U.S. institutes luggage inspection and metal detectors at major airports.

1974- Hearst Media heiress Patty Hearst kidnapped at gunpoint by an underground radical group called the Symbianese Liberation Army. She is kept in a closet, brainwashed, changes her name to Tania, does prison time for a bank job, and later appears in several John Water’s movies.

1988- A new Palestinian militant group announced it’s formation. Called HAMAS meaning "zeal" They were trained in Islamic fundamentalism in the Ayatollah’s Iran. They vowed undying hostility to Israel, and refused to acknowledge the PLO as being in charge. Also around this time the Syrian backed Palestinian group Hezbollah formed and an even more radical Islamic Jihad.

2003- Former war hero and US Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations to make the case for the United States attack on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He was doing so in emulation of Adlai Stephenson’s historic presentation to the UN of proof of the Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962. But Stephenson had real proof. Powell had only the rumors and half truths supplied him after the CIA declared it all suspect. Describing some trucks and aluminum tubes as proof of mobile nuke labs. In 2005 these findings were declared totally false, and Powell’s reputation damaged. He privately confessed:” It was the worst day of my life.”

Yesterday’s Question: In news shows you hear politicians using the phrase:” I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Where did that come from?

Answer: It's from Peter Finch playing the mad newsanchor Howard Beale in Paddy Chayevsky's last film Network(1976)


February 4th, 2009 weds
February 4th, 2009

Question: In news shows you hear politicians using the phrase:” I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Where did that come from?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: Pres. Barack is having a basketball court built in the Whitehouse so he can shoot hoops while thinking. Nixon liked to bowl while thinking, Gerald Ford swam laps. What did Mozart do to think?
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History for 2/4/2009
Birthdays: Francois Rabelais, Big Bill Haywood, Fernand Leger', Charles Lindbergh, the Agha Khan, Betty Friedan, Rosa Parks, Erich Liensdorf, Alice Cooper, Dan Quayle, Ida Lupino, Conrad Bain, McKinlay Kantor, George Romero, Lisa Eichhorn, boxer Oscar De La Hoya, Clyde Tumbaugh amateur astronomer who discovered the Pluto in 1930.

211 AD Roman Emperor Septimius Severus died, despite praying every night to a line up of statues that included Zeus, Apollo, Mithras, Moses and Jesus. This guy wasn’t taking any chances! His two sons Caracalla and Geta became co-emperors. That didn’t last too long because by December Caracalla killed his brother and ruled alone.

1703- THE 47 RONIN- A Japanese story that has inspired hundreds of play novels and films.The Lord of Ako, Asano Nagori quarreled with Kiru, the chief of protocol for the Shogun, and struck at him with his sword. To attack a representative of the Shogun was an insult no matter how justified, so Nagori was ordered to commit suicide (seppuku) and his samurai declared Ronin, or discharged freelancers. The Ronin banded together to plan their revenge. They ambushed Kiru, and placed his severed head on the grave of their master. Then they sat in his house to quietly await judgement. After consulting several Shinto bishops, the Shogun could see no dishonor in what they did. So instead of executing them as criminals, on this day they were allowed to commit suicide, which they did unquestioningly. Today their gravesite is a popular shrine in Japan as a model of total dedication to duty.

1775- MR. PITT’S PLAN- Legendary British statesman William Pitt the Elder, was Prime Minister during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years War) and called "the Architect of the British Empire" . Today he came out of retirement to try to solve the American Crisis before violence could break out. With the support of Whigs like Lord Shelburne, Edmund Burke, Rockingham and Charles Fox and with his friend Benjamin Franklin attending, Mr. Pitt proposed in the House of Lords that Britain legitimize the American Congress and give it seats in Parliament. He stated “The Britons in America are only doing what we Britons in Britain should be doing, namely, demanding our rights.” But Mr. Pitts’ plan was voted down by Lord North and the government party, who passed a bill instead allocating more money to hire German mercenary troops to crush the malcontents. Ministers now placed bets on how soon they would burn Boston.
It’s intriguing to think how history would have changed had Pitt's solution been adopted, for at this time most Americans like George Washington were not yet interested in a complete break from Mother England. The hard core radicals like John and Sam Adams worried that if America did win Parliamentary seats, that the momentum for independence would be lost.

1783- Britain declared a formal cease fire with it's former colonies the U.S.
ending the American Revolution.

1826- James Fenimore Cooper’s novel “The Last of the Mohicans” was published. The character of wild frontiersman Natty Bumpo called Hawkeye has been referred to as the first American superhero.

1861- Delegates of the several Southern states meet in Montgomery Alabama to declare themselves the Confederate States of America. They decide to move the rebel capitol to Richmond, Virginia to insure that the Old Dominion State will join their cause.

1861- At the same moment in Washington D.C. a group of Virginia politicians led by old former President John Tyler arranged a covert peace conference between the slave states and free states in one final attempt at compromise. Despite long talks in a backroom of Willards Hotel they emerged more divided than before.

1861- The Apache Wars began. The U.S. Army arrested Apache chief Cochise for raiding his neighbors. Cochise escaped and declared war on the white man. The conflict would rage off and on until 1886 and involved all the various Apache tribes as well as their cousins the Navajo.

1871- Ms. Victoria Woodhull testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the subject of women's voting rights. She was the first woman to testify before Congress, the first woman to run for President and the first woman to own a stock brokerage on Wall Street. Yet she is not as well known a figure as Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cadie Stanton. The mainstream suffragette movement was shocked of her open advocacy of Free Love, Spiritualism and Socialism.

1940- Soviet dictator Josef Stalin had Nicholai Yezhov, the Commissar of Internal Affairs and leader of the NKVD, the secret police, arrested and shot. In 1956 Khruschev said Yezhov was an alcoholic and drug addict who got what he deserved.”

1945-YALTA- Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet to map the postwar world. In an unguarded moment Roosevelt told Stalin that America only intended to stay in Europe two more years. Later in the month a courier plane flying over Germany to Russia is shot down. Maps showing the agreed occupation zones of postwar Germany fall into the hands of the Nazis. Knowing how much mercy they could expect from Stalin most of the top officials of the Third Reich arrange to be captured in the American Zone.

1961- United Artists released the Misfits, the last film of stars Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. John Huston directed and Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay. The film flopped in its initial run but has since gained classic status.

1968- Old beatnik Neal Cassady was found dead in Mexico. Cassady was not an intellectual but his wild non-conformist lifestyle was the inspiration for his companion author Jack Kerouac to write his greatest novel " On the Road'. While Kerouac disliked hippie kids Cassady in 1967 drove the first Hippie Bus filled with LSD advocates like Ken Kesey. Jacques Kerouac also died in the same year 1968 of advanced alcoholism.

1983- Pop singer Karen Carpenter died of anorexia-nervosa. She was 32 and only weighed 77 pounds. Her death brought to national prominence how the social pressure to stay thin could lead to this deadly condition.

2003-Legendary rock and roll producer Phil Spector allegedly shot and killed his girlfriend B-Movie actress Lana Clarkson at his LA mansion. Spector created the Wall of Sound concert technique and produced for the Beatles among many others. Clarkson was the Barbarian Queen and appeared in Scarface and Fast Times At Ridgemont High. The few days before, Phil Spector said to the British Daily Telegraph, "I don't know, genetically, whether or not that had something to do with what I am or who I became. I would say I'm probably relatively insane, to an extent. I take medication for schizophrenia, but I wouldn't say I'm schizophrenic. I have a bipolar personality, which is strange.”

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Question: Pres. Barack is having a basketball court built in the Whitehouse so he can shoot hoops while thinking. Nixon liked to bowl while thinking, Gerald Ford swam laps. What did Mozart do to think?

Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus liked to shoot billiards while thinking.





Once each year, at the Hollywood Studio Museum ( aka the Barn) in Hollywood, the Animation Guild, ASIFA Hollywood and Women In Animation present An Afternoon of Remembrance “a non-denominational celebration of departed friends from our animation community”. We used to do it in a church, but most animators are pagans who get fidgety in such sacred surroundings and want to tell naughty jokes about their friends. So we use the DeMille/Lasky Barn, the first true Hollywood Studio, to meet and share our stories.

This year it takes place this Saturday, Feb 7th, at 1pm. Tributes will be paid to:

1. John Ahern (October 29)layout artist
2. Bob Allen- designer of the Howdy Doody Puppet.
3. Gus Arriola (February 3)creator of the comic strip Gordo
4. Phyllis Barnhart (February 6)ink & paint
5. Gordon Bellamy (January 29)NY animator who taught at Pratt.
6. Harriet Burns (July 25)Designer of the Mickey Mouse TV Clubhouse
7. Greg Burson (July 22)voice actor
8. John W. Burton, Jr.-Warners and Hanna & Barbera's key cameraman.
9. Vivian Byrne (March 11) ink & paint
10. Joyce Carlson (January 2)WED Designer
11. Bob Carr (September 27) animator
12. Rose Di Bucci (May 28) cel services
13. Charlie Downs (July 21)animator
14. Ray Ellis (October 27)composer of the Spider Man theme song.
15. Joni Jones Fitts (November 16) special effects artist
16. Etsuko Fujioka (April 10)ink & paint
17. Steve Gerber (February 10) creator of Howard the Duck
18. Fernando Gonzalez (December 8, 2007)animator
19. Yoo Sik Ham (January 14)xerox processor
20. Larry Harmon- Bozo
21. Margie "Hix" Hermanson (March 12)ink & paint
22. Ollie Johnston (April 14)Legendary Animator and last of the Nine Old Men.
23. Ted Key (May 3)Cartoonist creator of Hazel the Maid, and Peabody & Sherman
24. Eartha Kitt- chantuese, voice on The Emperor's New Groove.
25. Andy Knight (April 10)Canadian Studio director Red Rover.
26. Harvey Korman (May 29)voice actor
27. Lyn Kroeger (March 29) assistant animator

28. Brice Mack (January 2)Disney BG artist
29. Bill Melendez (September 2)animator, director of A Charlie Brown Christmas
30. David Mitton (May 23)director of Thomas the Tank Engine
31. Gary Mooney (August 5) animator
32. Jim Mueller (November 13)layout artist
33. June Nam (February 24) assistant animator
34. Ethan Ormsby (June 12)compositing, lighting TD
35. Bill Perez (August 29)animator
36. Richard Pimm (September 24) Nelvana Cameraman and WD TV producer
37. Oliver Postgate Creator of beloved British childrens shows Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss and the Clangers
38. Denis Rich (November 26, 2007) designer of the opening titles of the 1978 Christopher Reeve Superman movie.
39. Dodie Roberts (February 11)supervisor of the Disney paint lab.
40. Irma Rosien (April 11)layout, assistant anim supervisor
41. Gerard Salvio (June 23)NY Animation union rep Local 841.
42. Dalton Sandifer (April 16)animation writer Loopy De Loop, Atom Ant
43. Don Sheppard (February 21)storyboarder
44. Gina Sheppherd (April 5)ink & paint
45. Robert Smith (October 10)layout artist
46. Jim Snider (January)assistant animator
47. Al Stetter (January 27)animator
48. Dave Stevens (March 10) Creator of the Rocketeer,and re-discovered Betty Page
49. Morris Sullivan (August 24)Co-owner of Sullivan Bluth Studio Ireland
50. Emru Townsend (November 12)Canadian animation historian
51. Pat Raine Webb- president of ASIFA/UK
52. Choyoko Wergles (February 21)ink & paint
53. Bob Winquist (September 10) former Director of Cal Arts
54. Justin Wright (March 18)PIXAR animator

Animators, producers, legends, novices. One was 99, one was 27. Now all are one, as the Greeks would say.

The Afternoon of Remembrance is free of charge and is open to all. No RSVPs necessary. You don't have to be related to anyone to attend. It is about the animation industry remembering our friends and colleagues. Believe it or not, it's not that sad or morbid an occasion. Food and refreshments, and good stories. In previous years Chuck Jones spoke of is friend Friz Freleng, Bob Kurtz recalled Marc Davis. We learned a lot about many artists alternate pursuits like one who invented the game Chutes and Ladders, one was a drummer of the rock band the Turtles, one spent a summer with Picasso and wrote a book- My Summer with Picasso. Laughter, tears, memories, but never dull.

1 pm * Memorial speeches, 2 pm
Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn)
2100 N. Highland (across from Hollywood Bowl), Hollywood, California. Lots of free parking. Enter the parking lot on Odin St.



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Quiz: Pres. Barack is having a basketball court built in the Whitehouse so he can shoot hoops while thinking. Nixon liked to bowl while thinking, Gerald Ford swam laps. What did Mozart do to think?

Answer to Yesterdays Question below: What are French Fries called in France, English Muffins in England, Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, and American Cheese in America?
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History for 2/3/2009
Birthdays- French King Charles VI the Mad –1380, Happy 200th Felix Mendelson-Bartoldy, Horace Greely, Gideon Mantell 1790-pioneer British fossil hunter that named the Iguanadon, Pretty Boy Floyd, Gertrude Stein, Norman Rockwell, James A. Michener, Joey Bishop, Shelley Berman, Bob Griese, Fran Tarkenton, Victor Buono, Blythe Danner, Morgan Fairchild is 59, Nathan Lane is 53

Today is the Feast of St. Blaise, patron saint of sore throats and sick cattle.

1780- EARLY AMERICAN SERIAL KILLERS- For those who think this kind of crime is a symptom of our sick Secular-Humanist modern society:

In rural Connecticut Revolutionary War veteran Barnett Davenport was rooming at the farm of Mr. Caleb Mallory. This day for no apparent reason Davenport murdered Mr Mallory, his wife, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren using his rifle and farm tools. The incident was widely reported in the young nations press and was quite sensationalized.

At about the same time the Harpe Brothers went about the hills of Kentucky nabbing hapless travelers & farmers. Their favorite prank was to torture their victim with pig sticks, then disembowel the unfortunate, fill the hole with stones & chuck the corpse into the nearest watercourse. Finally the community raised a posse and chased the brothers to some remote place. One of them escaped while a musket ball split the spine of the other, unhorsing him. As he fell to the ground, one of the pursuers leapt onto him and began to saw at the Harpe's neck with his hunting knife; “ you're a damned rough butcher, but cut on and be damned” cried Mr. Harpe. The hunter “wrung off his head as one would a hog”. They put the head in a bag & set off for home, but it was now winter & as hunger set in, they cooked & ate it, nailing the bleached skull to a tree, from where it grinned down on frightened travelers for years after. Our Forefathers.

1862- President Lincoln received a message from the King of Siam offering him Siamese war elephants to help him win the Civil War. He politely passed on the offer.

1863- MARK TWAIN- This day in the Virginia City Territorial Register newspaper was an article authored by someone calling himself - 'Mark Twain', pseudonym of Samuel Clemens. Mark Twain was the Mississippi River pilot's term for when a steamboat is in two fathoms of water or more, in other words, safely enough away from shallows to proceed at full speed.

1889-THE BANDIT QUEEN- Today outlaw Belle Starr was shotgunned out of the saddle by an old boyfriend. She usually shot them first. Originally named Myra Belle Shirley, she pursued a career as an outlaw and had two children, one by Cole Younger, another by a member of the James Gang. Rustler, gunfighter, prostitute, sideshow performer-she said: "Let's just say I'm a woman who's seen a lot of the world."

1912- The rules governing U.S. football are revised. The playing field was shortened to 100 yards; a touchdown counted as six points instead of five; four downs are allowed instead of three and the kickoff point was moved from midfield to the 40 yd. line.

1913- Federal Income Tax Amendment ratified. Booo!

1920- The play Beyond the Horizon premiered. The first hit of a young man who tried to drink himself to death, but instead became a playwright- Eugene O’Neill.

1930- Roy Disney signed a deal with M. George Borgfeldt Co. of New York to sell figurines of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Disney merchandising is born! The first plush doll of Mickey was sewn by the mother of Warner Bros director Bob Clampett.

1945- Walt Disney’s the Three Caballeros premiered.

1948- The first Cadillacs with big rear tail fins were produced.

1953- Jacques Cousteau, inventor of the Aqua Lung published the Silent World, and later made a film version of the book with Louis Malle.

1959-FIFTY YEARS AGO- "The Day the Music Died" The first Rock & Roll tragedy. Top pop stars Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson died in plane crash. They were on tour and Holly chartered the small plane so they could get to Fargo, North Dakota in time to get his shirts cleaned. Waylon Jennings was supposed to join them but he gave up his seat to Richardson because Richardson was running a fever and didn’t want a long cold bus ride. As they left Richardson teased Jennings:” Hope your bus doesn’t freeze.” And Jennings joked:” Hope your plane doesn’t crash.” The plane was called the American Pie, which inspired a Don McClean’s hit song “Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.”



1962- John F. Kennedy signed the trade embargo act against Cuba, banning all trade with Fidel Castro’s regime. White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger recalled how the night before JFK had him go around Washington DC and buy up all the Havana cigars (Monte Cristos) he could for the White House humidor. It’s still in effect today.

1973- Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law.

1989- Swiss firm L'Oreal/Nestle bought animation studio Filmation from Westinghouse and shut it down laying off 229 artists the day before a new federal regulation requiring a company give it's employees 60 day notice before closing went into effect.

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Yesterdays Question: What are French Fries called in France, English Muffins in England, Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, and American Cheese in America?

Answer: Pommes Frites, American Muffins, Hot Wings, and American Cheese. Interesting, American Cheese is not called American Cheese outside America, but Mild Cheddar.


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