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April 8, 2008 tues.
April 8th, 2008

Quiz: Why are people who peddle influence in Washington called Lobbyists?

Yesterday’s quiz answered below: Why are Pirates also called Buccaneers?
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History for 4/8/2008
Birthdays: Gautama Buddha –as commemorated by Japanese custom-Kambutsue, Ponce De Leon, King Albert of the Belgians, Mary Pickford, Yip Harburg, Betty Ford, Sonja Henje, Jim Catfish Hunter, Jacques Brel, Julian Lennon, Carmen McCrae, Shecky Green, Douglas Trumbull, Robin Wright-Penn, Patricia Arquette

64AD est.- An advertisement found on a wall in Roman Pompeii: “ TWENTY PAIRS OF GLADIATORS sponsored by Decimus Lucretius Satrius Valens, lifetime priest of Nero Caesar and TEN PAIRS OF GLADIATORS sponsored by Decimus Lucretius Valens Minor (his son) will fight on April 8th –12th, Their will also be a suitable WILD ANIMAL HUNT , THE AWNING will be opened. “ Ticketmaster, Visa, Mastercard accepted.



1476-In Florence Leonardo da Vinci is accused of sodomy with his 17 year old male model. He was acquitted in a preliminary hearing, but in his sketchbook he designed a lockbusting tool, just in case.

1876- Amiliare Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda debuted. The ballet portion is famous as the Dance of the Hours.

1879- Milk first sold in glass bottles.

1911-Vitagraph releases Winsor McCay's short cartoon "Little Nemo" theatrically.

1933-The WPA- Works Progress Administration-later renamed the Works Projects Administration founded. It was the Franklin Roosevelt Administration’s massive jobs program to heal the Depression by putting unemployed people back to work doing public works. They built bridges, dams, roads, federal buildings .The WPA arts projects employed artists like Grant Wood, Berenice Abbott and Thomas Hart Benton and put on plays with Orson Welles and John Houseman. There was even a WPA Symphony Orchestra, employing out of work classical musicians, including two old Russian immigrants who knew Tschaikowsky.



1973- Famed artist Pablo Picasso died at 91. His last words were 'Drink to me'. On his night table was a comic book drawn by former Disney animator Vip Partch. Picasso along with Churchill are the Epicurean poster boys- symbols for those of us who want to eat, drink alcohol, smoke, make babies at 81 and die in your 90's.

1974- Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth's home run record. Hammerin' Hank hits #715 off Dodger pitcher Al Dowling. Aaron had tied the Babe’s record at the end of the previous season and had to endure an entire winter of stress and racial threats before he could come up to bat again and break the record on opening day of the new season. He retired with a new record of 755. Al Dowling joked: "I never say 7:15 anymore. I now say, 'It's a quarter after seven'."

1986- Actor Clint Eastwood was elected Republican mayor of the town of Carmel, California. Two weeks ago Clint was fired by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Cal State Parks Commission for objecting to a new freeway planned through a wetlands.

1994 Chan Ho Park becomes the first Korean to play in the US major leagues as he makes Dodger pitching debut.

1994- Grunge rocker Kurt Kobain’s body was discovered by a security system electrician three days after he committed suicide with a shotgun. Whew, somebody open a window!

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Yesterday’s Question: Why is a pirate also called a Buccaneer?

Answer: In the 1600’s some seafaring people living on the islands of Hispaniola and Tortuga augmented their meager income by hunting wild oxen and boars, then smoked the meat in a barbecue frame hut known in French as a boucan. These same boucaneers many times also augmented their meager income by piracy. Buccaneer had been used as a synonym for pirate since the 1690s.


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