Many of my comrades in the National Cartoonist Society are currently filing out their ballots for the Reuben Awards. For the Reuben for lifetime achievement, may I suggest we name FRANK FRAZETTA!

who is this Sito guy..?

Frazetta is 82, not in the best of health and he lost his wife last year. No one can deny he was one of the most important cartoon artists of our time.

I have no self interest in this idea, hell, I never even met the guy. I just think it's a shame that such an important artist never got this important award.

So vote for Frank!

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Quiz: What future US president went on a diplomatic mission to China, and brought his mistress as his private secretary?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Which future president spent World War Two sleeping with his Army driver?
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History for 1/14 /2010
Birthdays: Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Benedict Arnold, Faye Dunaway, Hal Roach, Raymond Outcault, Cecil Beaton, John Dos Passos, Lawrence Kasdan , Andy Rooney, Julian Bond, Steven Soderbergh is 47, LL Cool J, T. Bone Burnett, Emily Watson

350 a.d.- The feast day of Saint Hilary of Poitiers- Saint Hilary may have been the father of church music. In exile in Phyrgia he noticed pagans sang hymns to their deities, so he composed the first Christian musical hymns. The Halleluiah Chorus, Ave Maria and “Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goalposts of Heaven” would follow in due time.

1604- King James 1st of England thought he could be like Roman Emperor Constantine and use his royal authority to resolve the theological disputes dividing Christianity. This day he convened at Hampton Court a grand synod of Anglican Bishops, Presbyterians, Baptists and Puritan elders to try and settle their differences. Nothing was solved, but the only positive step was a motion was made to create a standardized translation of the Holy Bible into English- The King James Edition.

1699- The Pilgrims of Salem hold a day of fasting and prayer to atone for any people they may have unjustly tortured and executed as witches. Well, at least they said they were sorry.

1893- After Britain’s Liberal party broke up over the Irish Question the Independent Labor Party was founded.

1900- Puccini's opera "Tosca" debuts in Rome.

1914- Henry Ford's assembly line process for building cars accelerates thanks to a new chain system pulling the chassis along as they are worked on. As the system got faster and faster the older, slower workers were replaced by younger ones. Hair dye sold at a premium in Detroit.

1943- Churchill and Roosevelt hold a summit meeting in Casablanca in North Africa. The Casablanca Declaration bound the allies to never negotiate less than a total surrender out of the Axis powers. It was felt that one of the reason Germany resorted to war only twenty years after the last World War was their denial that they were ever defeated. At one point Churchill made a number of American diplomats and staff climb a high tower in the Casbah because he thought the setting sun would make a smashing good watercolor painting.


1952-The NBC "Today" show debuts with Dave Garroway, Jim Fleming and J. Fred Muggs the chimp.

1954- actress Marilyn Monroe married baseball great Joe DiMaggio.

1957- Humphrey Bogart died of esophageal cancer at age 57. When he was buried at Forrest Lawn, wife Lauren Bacall put in with his ashes a solid gold whistle inscribed with the famous line from "To Have and To Have Not"- 'If you ever need me, just whistle.' The group of friends around Bogie and Bacall were nicknamed ‘The Rat Pack” . After Bogart’s death Frank Sinatra made the Rat Pack famous.

1964- Hanna & Barbera's ' The Magilla Gorilla' cartoon show.


1967- HIPPIES! The first “ Human Be-In” in Golden Gate Park. The Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead performed. Allan Ginsburg, Ram Dass and Timothy Leary spoke. LSD was laced into turkey sandwiches, and soon the crowd of 30,000 was stoned. The national media played up the event, and the rest of America first saw the power of the Hippy youth culture, and heard the word like “psychedelic” and Timothy Leary saying “ Tune in, Turn on, Drop out.” It was the prelude to the Summer of Love.

1972- Norman Lear’s hit comedy series Sanford & Son premiered. Starring Red Fox, it was based on the English show Steptoe & Son.

1990- Matt Groenings the Simpsons, which had been run as a series of blackout vignettes on the Tracey Ullman Show, now debuted as its own regular prime time series. Cowabunga!

2004- President George W. Bush, trying to channel JFK, declared his resolve to return America to the Moon and make a manned landing on Mars by 2030. To do this he gave NASA only one billion dollars more than their normal budget, while at the same time allocating $1.5 billion to fight Gay marriage initiatives.

2005- The Cassini-Huygens Probe landed on Saturn’s moon Titan.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Which future president spent World War Two sleeping with his Army driver?

Answer: General Dwight D. Eisenhower, when not leading the Allied Armies to victory, was spending his R&R time with his pretty young English driver Kay Summersby. She did not admit to the affair until 1975, after Ike was gone and she was dying of cancer. Other historians claim Summersby’s ghost writer made up the affair to sell books.