BACK to Blog Posts

October 30th, 2008 thurs
October 30th, 2008

Question: In 1993, when U.S. special forces were trapped in Mogadishu, the Black Hawk Down Raid, what nation’s forces helped rescue them?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why is an old person called Methuselah?
-------------------------------------------------------------
History for 10/30/2008
Birthdays: John Adams, Christopher Columbus, English playwright Richard Sheridan, Ezra Pound, Emily Post, Louis Malle, Henry Winkler, Charles Atlas, Ruth Gordon, Claude LeLouch, Dick Gautier, Louis Malle, Ted Williams, Grace Slick, Diego Maradona

1501-THE BALLET OF THE CHESTNUTS, or His Holiness throws an Orgy.
One of the most notorious examples of depravity in PreReformation Rome. Pope Alexander VI Borgia, with his children Cesare and Lucretia Borgia throw a party of parties at the Vatican. The wild revelry was highlighted by a race of nude prostitutes on hands and knees through an obstacle course of silver candlesticks gobbling up chestnuts. The pope later gave gifts to the courtiers and ladies who demonstrated the greatest sexual stamina.
On another occasion His Holiness closed off St. Peter's Square to worshipers to stage a bullfight. This was the kind of holy hedonism that drove the Protestant reformers nuts and caused the eventual rift in the Christian world. One participant in these revelries was the chef of the French ambassador, who was intrigued to see the guests getting their own plates of food from large tubs set in a row. He though this was a neat way to serve food. His name was Pierre Buffet.

1811- Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility published.

1938-"THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED AMERICA- 27 year old Orson Wells broadcast a radio update of H.G. Well’s story "The War of the Worlds". Despite periodic station announcements that it was only a fictional re-enactment, people across the U.S. go bonkers that an actual Martian invasion had landed in Grover’s Mill New Jersey. In Hollywood famed actor John Barrymore, drunk as usual, went over to his kennel of prize winning racing greyhounds and open their cage doors, saying: "Fend for yourselves!"

1941-The REUBEN JAMES INCIDENT-Five weeks before the Pearl Harbor attack the neutral U.S. destroyer Reuben James was torpedoed by a German U-boat, drowning dozens of American sailors. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill thought this would be the incident to anger Americans enough into getting into World War Two like the Lusitania did a generation earlier. Woody Guthrie sang: "Oh tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names? Did you have a friend on the good old Reuben James?" However Adolf Hitler apologized and offered immediate monetary reparations. Popular anger cooled Roosevelt told his cabinet:" I think I can keep us out of this war for one more year unless Germany or Japan does something stupid."

1947- Bertholt Brecht, the playwright of Mother Courage and the Threepenny Opera, testified to the McCarthy HUAC committee. He smoked a large cigar through the whole session. Next day, as he had once fled Hitler’s Germany, he fled the U.S. and settled in East Germany.

1961- Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev has his old boss Stalin’s body removed from it’s place pickled next to Lenin, and has it buried in the back.

1963- The first Lamborghini 350GTV went on sale.

1966- An inventory done at the National Archives revealed that medical evidence of John F. Kennedy's assassination autopsy, including his brain, were missing. They have since never been found. Kennedy’s brother Robert was still attorney general at the time and some historians claim he hid evidence of conspiracy to hide his brothers mob connections and preserve the purity of the Camelot myth. We may never know.

1973- The Carlin Case- Radical radio station WBAI in New York broadcast hippy comedian George Carlin’s routine about the “Seven Deadly Words” the naughty words you can’t say on the air. I can’t write them because children read this column but you all know what they are anyway. The FCC slapped a heavy fine and WBAI sued for free speech and the case made it to the Supreme Court. Today the High Court found for the FCC and those 7 deadly words remain banned from airwaves today. Aw, Sh*t!

1975- King Juan Carlos assumed the throne in the restored monarchy of Spain.

1991- Middle East Peace Conference began in Madrid Spain. These first days about the only thing the Arabs and Israeli’s could agree upon was to politely refuse the lunch the Spaniards had set out for them- smoked ham sandwiches.

1992- QUANTRRILL’S FUNERAL- The remains of William Clark Quantrill were buried in a cemetery in his birthplace of Dover Ohio. Quantrill’s Border Raiders were infamous during the Civil War for their guerrilla depredations in Kansas and Missouri. After being shot dead in 1865 an admirer dug up his bones and kept them. After passing through several hands the bones were put up for sale, displayed in a glass case and even used by Ohio State fraternities for their initiation rituals. Billy Quantrill’s head was discovered in a refrigerator behind the tuna sandwiches and Coca Cola in the Dover Historical Society.

2002- Rap star of Run-DMC Jam Master Jay was shot dead in the lounge of his recording studio in Queens NY. The killer was never found.
------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Question: Why is an old person called Methuselah?

Answer: Methuselah lived 900 years.
Methuselah lived 900 years.
But who calls that livin'
When no gal will give in
To no man what is 900 years.

(George Gershwin by way of Genesis 5:27)


RSS