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February 3, 2008 sun
February 3rd, 2008

Quiz: People of the Mormon faith are sometimes also referred to as LDS, for Church of Later Day Saints. What faith was once called Russelites?

Answer to Yesterdays Question below: Who explained his reason for retiring from films this way: “ Today’s movies are all just bluejeans, dope and The Method.”
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History for 2/3/2008
Birthdays- French King Charles VI the Mad –1380, 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 58, Nathan Lane is 52

* About Gertrude Stein- Heiress of the company that had the monopoly on making mass transit system for San Francisco and Oakland. Stein and Alice B. Toklas lived most of their lives in Paris collecting modernist paintings when most thought they were junk. A favorite piece of doggerel she kept was a lampoon of her artistic tastes from a Chicago newspaper:
ODE TO A CUBIST
I called my painting "Cow with Cud"
and hung it upon the line;
Though to me it seemed as thick as Mud
'Twas Clear to Gertrude Stein.”

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

Happy Super Bowl Day, in the US the equivalent of a Holy Day of Obligation.

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- It was a long custom in American newspapers for columnists and critics to publish under pseudonyms. Author, riverboat pilot and ex-Confederate militiaman Samuel Clemens invents for himself the pseudonym for which he would become famous. This day in the Virginia City Territorial Register newspaper was an article authored by someone calling himself - 'Mark Twain'. 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 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.

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!

1945- Walt Disney’s the Three Caballeros premiered.

1948- The first Cadillac’s 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-"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, the last liberal US President (?), 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: Who explained his reason for retiring from films this way: “ Today’s movies are all just bluejeans, dope and The Method.”

Answer: Cary Grant. 1904-1986. He retired around 1966.
Although one reader reminded me of Bill Wilder’s description of modern films. “Today in the movies everybody is the boy next door. If I want to see the boy next door, I'll go next door!"



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