Well, I'm back in LA but I'm still buzzing about my time last night at the New York Booksigning! The speakers area of the Chelsea Barnes & Noble was standing room only.

Lots of old friends from ASIFA*East like Mike Sporn, John Dillworth and David Levy. Lots of friends from The School of Visual Arts like my old teacher Howard Beckerman and Animators Ink fellow Jose Maldonado. Julia Lord, a lovely literary agent who encouraged my pursuing a writing career, and Jeremiah from the Hubley clan. And lots of new friends, animation students from SVA, NYU and points east. We told stories, and swapped laughs and a great night was had by all.



MONDO THANK YOUSE to all my old friends who came out, and thanks to Don and Reeves and the SVA and Barnes & Noble folks who put it all together.

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Birthdays: Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, Jonathan Swift,Gordon Parks, G. Gordon Liddy, Alan Sherman, Abbie Hoffman,Virginia Mayo, Ephram Zimbalist Jr, Richard Crenna, Robert Guiliame,Mandy Patinkin, Luther Ingram, Ridley Scott is 69, David Mamet, Ben Stiller is 41, Shuggie Otis, Billy Idol, Joan Ganz Cooney the creator of Sesame Street, Dick Clark is 78,

1782- On a dark snowy day in an upstairs room on the Rue Bonaparte on Paris' Left Bank, The United States and Britain signed the first of several protocols leading up to the full peace treaty ending the American Revolution in 1783. John Adams,John Jay, Benjamin Franklin and Richard Lawrence signed for America, a parliamentary
delegation led by Lord Oswald signed for the Crown. On British diplomat said The Americans are the greatest quibblers I have ever dealt with, and I pray never to again in the future!

1886- Paris' famed naughty nightclub the Follies Bergere opened. The home of the Can-Can, Toulouse Lautrec, Josephine Baker, Brickttop, Maurice Chevalier.

1900- Oscar Wilde died of meningitis in a hotel in Paris. His last words; "This wallpaper is appalling! Either it goes or I do."

1924- The first fax message sent. A photo of the Prince of Wales was wired across the Atlantic by radio transmission.

1940-actress Lucille Ball married Cuban band leader Dezi Arnez de Acha. Together they pioneered the new art of sitcom Television. They divorced in 1960.

1970- First day shooting on William Freidkin's film The French Connection.

1974- In a dry gully in Ethiopia Dr Dennis Johannsen discovered the perfect skeletalremains of one of the earliest human ancestors, an ape that walked upright named- Australiopithicus Afrancenis or Lucy. Johannsen liked the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

1979- ESPN, the 24 hour sports channel began broadcasting.

1982- Nova Pictures is founded, but due to conflict with a PBS t.v. show of the same name they change theirs to TriStar Pictures.In 1994 TriStar was merged into SONY Pictures.

1985-Punk band The Dead Kennedys released their album Frankenchrist.

2003- Roy Disney Jr, the last member of the Disney family was forced to resign from the Walt Disney Company. It was claimed to be the mandatory retirement policy but more likely he was forced out by the exec he hired to run the company in 1984- Michael Eisner. Roy and the Disney family attorney Stanley Gold fought back by organizing a grassroots campaign of former employees and investors called SaveDisney.com. In 2005 after Eisner announced his retirement Roy Disney was restored to an emeritus consultant position.