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September 27th, 2008
September 27th, 2008

Question: What is an aegis? When one assumes a terrifying aegis? The Navy uses a missile interceptor called Aegis.

Quiz: When someone refers to someone else as Leopold & Loeb, what does that
mean?
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History for 9/27/2008
Birthdays: King Stefan Bathory of Poland, Thomas Nast, Arthur Penn, Mike Schmidt,
Meatloaf, William Conrad, Dick Schapp, Samuel Adams -brewer and patriot , George Cruikshank, Jayne Meadows, Wilford Brimley, Shaun Cassidy, Greg Morris, Amanda Detmer, Avril Lavigne is 24, Gywnneth Paltrow is 36.

1771-Young artist Francisco Goya enters a scholarship competition sponsored by the Academy of Parma. He loses to some obscure artist named Bettino. Judges say about his work: "Crude and ugly colors"

1894- The Big A, Aqueduct Racetrack opened in New York.

1903- THE WRECK OF OLD 97- The Southern Pacific express jumps the tracks at 90 miles an hour and inspires the first great country music hit. Written in 1924, recorded by everyone from Woody Guthrie to Johnny Cash.

1910- The Black & Decker tool company formed. Starting with the first portable electric drill in 1919 they became the first power tool company.

1934- “ I’M SICK OF THIS CAT & MOUSE GAME!” shouted Gangster Baby Face Nelson as he was cornered by two FBI agents on a rural road south of Chicago. While his gang and wife looked on in amazement, Nelson boldly walked out in the open, down the middle of the road, his tommy gun blazing away at the G-Men. He killed them both but not before he was riddled with 17 bullets. He died the next day and was left in a ditch.

1935-13 year old singer Frances Gumm of the singing Gumm Sisters signed an exclusive contract with MGM Pictures. Louis B. Mayer changed her name to Judy Garland.

1938- Bob Hope first sang “Thanks For the Memory” on his NBC radio show. It became a hit his movie appearance in the film “The Big Broadcast of 1938.

1944- Evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson died in hospital from an overdose of sleeping pills. She was 53. MacPherson was one of the most powerful evangelists of the 1920s with thousands of followers donating millions of dollars. Her continued success even after sex scandals prompted H.L. Mencken to declare that "there are morons per square mile in Los Angeles than any other place on Earth!"

1977- Bob McKimson, Warner director of countless Foghorn Leghorn shorts, falls dead of heart failure in front of Friz Freleng and Yosemite Sam animator Gerry Chiniquy while having lunch. Fellow artist Art Leonardi had asked Bob for a souvenir drawing that morning, Bob did him a Bugs Bunny but as he was leaving Art reminded him that he neglected to sign it. Bob said as he walked out "Oh, I'll get to it after lunch..."

1989- The Japanese corporate giant Sony purchased Columbia Pictures, starting a wave of Japanese investment in Hollywood.

1996- The Taliban captured the Afghan capitol of Kabul and established their hardline fundamentalist regime, until driven out by the US invasion in 2002.

2003- Hours after the seasons final concert, in the middle of the night, the historic bandshell at the Hollywood Bowl was demolished. After a long legal fight with preservationist, the historic 1929 structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, that Gershwin and Stokowski played in, was replaced with a new shell promising better acoustics. So, by that logic, why not build a newer Coliseum in Rome? The old one is dilapidated and full of holes.
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Quiz: When someone refers to someone else as Leopold & Loeb, what does that
mean?

Answer: It was about a sensational murder case in 1924, think OJ or Robert Blake.
Leopold & Loeb were rich college students who read too much Neitzsche and thought they were too smart for the common horde. They decided to commit the perfect crime, so they murdered a cousin, just to see if they could do it. They were quickly caught and convicted, despite mom & dad hiring famed lawyer Clarence Darrow. Orson Welles made a movie about the case. Remember when Bradford Dillman was supposed to be the new James Dean? So today to call someone Leopold and Loeb is to call someone coldly arrogant and diabolically elitist.

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