July 4th, 2009 Sat Independence Day

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:00:00 PST

Michael Sporn's blog has a nice overview today about the people who composed the music for animated films, from Frank Churchill to Randy Newman. http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/ -------------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: Which medal is older- The Congressional Medal of Honor, The Purple Heart or the Victoria Cross? Yesterday’s question answered below: Who is Mrs. Malaprop? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 7/4/2009 U.S. Independence Day Birthdays: Jean Pierre Blanchard the balloonist-1753, George M. Cohan, Stephen Foster, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Calvin Coolidge, Rube Goldberg, Louis Armstrong*, Edward Walker the inventor of the Lava Lamp, Mayer Lansky, Tokyo Rose, Louis B. Mayer, George Murphy, Emerson Boozer, Neil Simon, Mitch Miller, Eve Marie Saint is 86, Gina Lollabrigida is 83, Al Davis, George Steinbrenner, Ann Landers, Ron Kovic, Geraldo Rivera, Victoria Abril, Pam Shriver, Rene Laloux, Gloria Stuart is 99 •Louis Armstrong always claimed his birthday was July 4th 1900, although records show his birth was August 4th 1901. 1054- A supernova in the constellation Taurus created a star visible in the sky for 23 days. The residue of the blast is visible today as the Crab Nebula. 1187- BATTLE OF THE HORNS OF HATTIN- Sultan Saladin lured the Christian Crusader army out into the desert, far away from water. The Saracens started a brush fire to confuse the Crusader formations with choking smoke. Old Duke Raymond of Tripoli realized what was happening but was helpless to stop it. When he saw his knights stopping to fight, he cried out:" We're lost! We are already dead men!" In one big battle the entire hierarchy of Crusader Palestine or Outremer as they called it in French, was dead or taken. Saladin also captured Christian holy relics like the wood of the True Cross, and sent them to the Caliph in Baghdad. Saladin's sister had been captured while on the pilgrimage to Mecca and raped by a crusader named Peter de Courtenay. De Courtenay bragged that he planned next to march on Mecca and “piss on the grave of that lying old mule trader Mohammed!” Saladin had Peter taken alive, he then spent that evening slowly torturing him to death. Hattin was The battle that decided that the Holy Land would not be an outpost of Christian Europe. 1744- Representatives of the Crown Colony of Pennsylvania negotiate a peace accord with the Iroquois Confederacy of the 5 Nations. The great Onondaga chief Canastego lectured the whitemen : " Our wise forefathers established union and amity between the five tribes, it has made us formidable. We are a powerful confederacy and by following the same methods you too can acquire great powers." A secretary named Benjamin Franklin took his advice to heart. Their symbol, five arrows tied together is still held in the claws of the eagle in the Great Seal of the United States. 1776- U.S. INDEPENDENCE DAY- The actual vote for independence was on July 2nd, two days were required for rewrites, but the 4th was the day of the vote to approve the amended Declaration and the official announcement. After 46 revisions and deletions Tom Jefferson showed the finished document to Ben Franklin, he smiled :”Now we may proceed.” The 56 men who signed the document knew that this was their death warrant as they were committing high treason. Many had their personal fortunes ruined as a result. 1776- It took two months for the news to cross the Atlantic. In London King George III wrote in his diary for July 4th, 1776:" Nothing important happened today..." 1802-The Hudson River fortress of West Point is inaugurated as a military academy. 1804- Already pledged to fight a duel to the death in a week, Vice President Aaron Burr and former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton have to sit next to each other at an Independence Day dinner in New York City. 1826- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Adams last words were: "Jef[...]

July 03, 2009 friday

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Who is Mrs. Malaprop? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What are the Seven Deadly Words, also called the Carlin Case?? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 7/3/2009 Birthdaze: King Louis XI of France "the Spider King"1423, Franz Kafka, Mr. Preserved Fish -New York Congressman-1819, Dave Barry, Leos Janacek, John Singleton Copley, Ken Russell, Tom Stoppard, George Saunders, Peter Fountain, Tom Cruise is 47 1754- During the French & Indian War, young Virginia militia Captain George Washington surrendered his post, Fort Necessity, to the French. Up till now his major ambition in life was to be an officer in the British Army. Now his first command was a defeat and to top it all off, because one of his allied Indians tomahawked a surrendered French officer, he was almost arrested for war crimes. When Washington signed the surrender document, a murder confession was slipped into the terms. It was in French, so he didn’t understand it. 1826- Elderly, dying Thomas Jefferson was drifting in and out of consciousness at his home in Monticello. He would be cognizant long enough to ask “ Is it the 4th of July yet?” The author of the Declaration of Independence was grimly hanging on, determined to see one more Independence Day. 1863-PICKET'S CHARGE-CLIMAX OF GETTYSBURG-Robert E. Lee launched his last fresh divisions in a grand frontal attack to win the war. 15,000 Virginians, South Carolinians and Floridians walk across one mile of open ground, while being shot at from the whole Yankee Army. Even against such long odds they almost break the Union center. The entire attack took thirty minutes, German, British and Austrian diplomat observers in full dress uniforms climbed a tree to watch. Picket’s division suffered 50% casualties including all his leading generals. General Lothario Armistead put his hat on his sword point and shouted "Who will follow me?" Lo Armistead’s father had commanded Fort McHenry during the “Rockets Red Glare” British attack in 1814. Armistead reached the union artillery before he was killed. Ironically Armistead and the Yankee commander Winfield Hancock (who was also wounded) were personal friends. When one North Carolina flagbearer survived murderous gunfire from all sides and lived to reach the union wall, the men in blue instead of killing him, shook his hand. Finally the Southern assault spent itself and started to recede. Men retreated backwards because they didn’t want to be shot in the back. Lee rode out and told the survivors: “This is my fault. All of this..” That night he wrote his resignation to Richmond. But no fault would stick on their beloved old general. 1863- Santee Sioux chief Little Crow had led a large uprising against the whites in Minnesota. This day near the town of Hutchinson he was picking berries with his son when he was ambushed and killed by settlers seeking the $25 dollar bounty on Indian scalps. His body was thrown on an offal pile at a cattle slaughterhouse, and later put on exhibit by the Minnesota Historical Society. Eventually both bones and scalp were returned to the Sioux for proper burial. 1916-Hetty Green "the Witch of Wall Street" dies at 80. Her eccentric cheapness created the millionaire-bag lady myth. The richest woman in America, worth around $100 million, she lived in a dumpy apartment in Hoboken, refused to pay for a doctor when her son broke his leg, and stole bread off the tables at fashionable restaurants. 1931- The Cab Calloway Orchestra recorded 'The St. James Infirmary Blues." 1937- In California the Del Mar Racetrack opened. Part owner singer Bing Crosby personally welcomed the first customers to his track. 1946- Millionaire aviator Howard Hughes crashed an experimental airplane into four homes in Beverly Hills. Hughes had crashed planes before without much injury, but this crash left him near death. His slow recuperation addicted him to morphine and codine. 1969- Brian Jones, having been kicked out of the Rolling Stones just days before [...]

July 2nd, 2009 thurs

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What are the Seven Deadly Words, also called the Carlin Case? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: The natural son of the late Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal is named Redmond. Why is he named that?? --------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 7/2/2009 Birthdays: Bishop Thomas Cranmer (1429) , Christoph Witobald Gluck, Herman Hesse, Medgar Evers, Patrice Lamumba, Thurgood Marshall, Andrez Kertesz, Richard Petty, animator Abe Levitow, Ahmad Jamal, Cheryl Ladd, Jose Canseco, Jerry Hall, Imelda Marcos, Ron Silver, Brock Peters, Larry David is 62, Lindsay Lohan is 23 6BC.-Feast of the Visitation- When the Virgin Mary visited Saint Elizabeth and confided in her that she was pregnant with baby Jesus. The Magnificat is Mary's reply to the Angel of the Annunciation--"Magnicifcat anima mea Dominum..." "My spirit doth magnify the Lord" Many great composers like Vivaldi and Bach wrote choral brilliant choral masses called Magnificats for this occasion. 64 a.d.- Today is the feast day of Saints Processus and Martinian who supposedly were Saint Peter's jailors in the Mamertine Prison in Rome. They were converted by their victim and Peter struck stones of the floor with his staff and like Moses water squirted out so he could baptize them. 1296-Scottish King John Balliol indicates to English King Edward I Longshanks (Long-legs) that he is ready to give up. He is stripped of his titles and the Scots refer to him derisively as "Toom-Tabard" or "the bugger without any sleeves". Scottish resistance to English rule soon flares up under William Wallace and later Robert the Bruce. John Balliol founded a school at Oxford. 1776- AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS VOTES FOR INDEPENDENCE- Deep into a hot rainy Philadelphia night the delegates finally voted the ultimate break with the mother country. At this time most Americans still referred to England as 'home'. No colony had ever broken away from their mother country and become an independent nation. And as far as the document Thomas Jefferson had written, called the Declaration of Independence, there were 46 separate revisions. The Southern states would not vote until the anti-slavery clauses were dropped. A clause stating New England Protestants objecting to the tolerance of Roman Catholics was dropped. One cancer-wracked delegate rode 80 miles just to be there to effect the vote. The final vote was 12 colonies yay, 0-nay and New York abstaining, "The Business is Done." John Adams said. 1789- Two weeks before the French Revolutionaries storm the Bastille, prisoner the Marquis DeSade was transferred to another jail. This after he grabbed one old inmates ear trumpet and recited out the window some sexual anecdotes about the warden to the laughing crowd below. 1863-2nd Day Battle of Gettysburg. Yankees and Confederates fight each other all day with no result. Places like Little Round Top, Devils Den and The Peach Orchard become battlefields. This was the day Maine schoolteacher Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain successfully defended the Little Round Top, climaxing with a bayonet charge after his men had all but run out of ammunition. Gen.Dan Sickles had his leg blown off. He was carried from the field cooly puffing a cigar. A wiley Tamany politician, Dan Sickles knew this wound meant votes back home. He was elected to Congress after the war. He donated his shattered leg to the Army Medical School and used to visit it in his old age. 1881-PRESIDENTIAL ASSASINATION. President James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau. Guiteau was a demented gov't worker who expected a job when Garfield was elected. He said he believed in "Bible-Communism" and that he worked for "Jesus & Company". When nobody took notice of him Guiteau decided to kill the President, then ask the Vice President Arthur for a job. On a platform at Washington's Union Station Charles Guiteau shot the President in the back, dropped his gun and announced:" I am the last Stalwart. Arthur is now President !" Garfield lingered thre[...]

July 1st, 2009 weds

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: The natural son of the late Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal is named Redmond. Why is he named that? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: : The doctor for Michael Jackson has been accused of being a Doctor Feelgood. Who was the original Doctor Feelgood?? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 7/1/2009 Birthdays: Louis Bleriot, Tommy Dorsey, George Sand, Charles Laughton, James Cagney, Princess Diana, Twyla Tharp, Carl Lewis, Jamie Farr, Sidney Pollack, Wally "Famous"Amos, Olivia DeHavilland is 93, Estee Lauder, Debbie Harry (Blondie), Genevieve Bujold, Karen Black, Dan Ackroyd. Andre Crouch, Pamela Anderson is 42, Liv Tyler is 32 Welcome to July named for Julius Caesar. Before that the Romans called it month number five- "Quintilicus". They had a ten month calendar and ran out of names after Juno (June). So thank Julius Caesar that you don't have to celebrate the Fourth of Quintilicus. 1776- During a hot, humid day in Philadelphia the Continental Congress held the final crucial debate over whether to declare American Independence. The conservative lawyer John Dickinson argued that the colonies indeed had grievances with England, but to declare independence was rash, "we would be embarking upon an ocean of storms in a skiff made of paper!" John Adams waited until he was finished, and then gave the greatest speech of his life. There is no record of what he said, because the debates were secret and Adams didn’t work from notes. Jefferson said his passion swept the room. Yet despite it all, four colonies still were not sure they could vote for a final break with the Mother England. So Adams got a delay of one day, to await the New Jersey and South Carolina delegations to get their instructions. 1851-Painter James MacNeil Whistler applied to West Point Military Academy. After failing entrance exams he washes out and concentrates on becoming one of the most celebrated artists of the century. He later joked:" If silicon was a gas, I’d be a major general by now!" 1862-President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Revenue Act, calling for a 3% tax on people for the duration of the Civil War. Real graduated income tax didn’t become permanent until 1913. One other institution Lincoln started from this act was the Internal Revenue Office 1863- GETTYSBURG- the most famous battle ever fought on U.S. soil. Confederate General Robert E. Lee decided to invade north into Pennsylvania and hopefully by threatening Philadelphia and Washington force peace talks. Union General Meade shadowed his movements. With all their cavalry away chasing each other the two large armies groped around blindly through the backwoods of Lancaster County. Rebel General Henry Heath stopped in the little crossroads town of Gettysburg to get shoes for his men. While there he ran into some blue uniforms up the street. "Go on boys, that's jes some Pennsylvania militia." Heath said. Actually it turned out to be the Yankee's elite "Iron Brigade". A nasty firefight brewed up and both armies started to boil into each other like a slow motion trainwreck. Union General Winfield Scott Hancock drew up his cannon in a hilltop cemetery for defense. The battle would last three days and Lee's defeat would be the turning point of the Civil War. Through the screams and gunsmoke one could read a little sign on the Gettysburg Cemetery gate: " The Carrying or Discharge of Firearms on these Premises are strictly Prohibited". 1867-HAPPY CANADA DAY- By treaty Her Majesties North American Colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, Maritimes, Prince Rupert Land and diverse other holdings are incorporated as the Autonomous Dominion of Canada. This master plan to consolidate the British Empire's colonial administration was invented by Lord Caernarvon, who Queen Victoria nicknamed "Twitters." 1898- THE CHARGE UP SAN JUAN HILL. Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders take the Spanish fortifications on the two hilltops above the [...]

RIP Dave Simon and Victor Haboush

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:00:00 PST

I just learned from the Guild newsletter of the death of two friends, Dave Simon, and Victor Haboush.

Victor Haboush was 85. He was a long time designer stylist at Walt Disney where he contributed to the unique look of 101 Dalmations, later Brad Bird used him for the Iron Giant.

A veteran of D-Day, he had the distinction of being one of the few identifiable soldiers in the photos of the great combat Photographer Robert Capa took on Omaha Beach that day.

Dave Simon was a New York based cartoonist who did superhero storyboards for H&B, Bakshi and Marvel. We worked together on Biker Mice and Legend of the Dragon. We communicated frequently as he battled his cancer, and he was quite eloquent on his changing condition. Dave wanted more from life, but in the end he went down like the superheroes he drew, fighting to the end. He was age 54.
courtesy of comicsreporter.com

I am at a loss for words, but for those of Nikos Kazantzakis in his novel Zorba the Greek

ZORBA: Why do the young die? Why does anybody die?

BASIL: I don't know.

ZORBA: What's the use of all your damn books? If they don't tell you that, what the hell DO they tell you?

BASIL: They tell me of the agony of men who, can't answer questions like yours.

Posted by:Tom

June 30th, 2009 tues.

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: The doctor for Michael Jackson has been accused of being a Doctor Feelgood. Who was the original Doctor Feelgood? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Gustav Holst was the composer of the Planets. What country was he born in? ----------------------------------------------- History for 6/30/2009 Birthdays: Buddy Rich, Lena Horne is 92, Czeslaw Milosz, Susan Hayward, Mike Tyson is 43, Deanna Durbin, Howard Hawks, William Goldman, Martin Landau, Essa-Pekka Salonen, David Alan Grier, Vincent D’Onofrio, Monica Potter, Rupert Graves 1520- " La Noche Triste- THE NIGHT OF SORROWS" at Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs finally realize that Cortez and his conquistadors aren’t visiting gods and drive them from the capitol with great slaughter. Almost half the Spaniards died on this one night. Some Spaniards attempted to escape by diving into the lake and swimming but were dragged down by the weight of their stolen gold and drowned. Cortez forced his hostage the Emperor Montezuma to go out and quiet the multitudes, but the crowd killed him with a shower of stones. During the fighting, captured Spaniards were dragged up the steps of the great pyramid of Huitzilopochtli and sacrificed while their comrades could only watch in horror. The temple towered over the city so everyone could see. After the ritual sacrifice the Aztecs would eat barbecued strips cut from the man’s thighs. Remember this the next time you order fajitas. Diarist Bernal Diaz de Castillo remembered that during a lull in the fighting the Aztecs would call out :' You Spaniards better go home. I'm stuffed!" Cortez would regroup his forces and with the aid of allied Indian tribes and a terrible smallpox epidemic eventually reconquer the city. 1559- King Henry II of France is warned by a weirdo named Michel de Nostre Dame or Nostradamus, to beware of lances. Henry laughed it off because nobody fought that way anymore. However to celebrate a dynastic marriage and peace treaty with Spain part of the Rue Saint Antoine in Paris was closed off for a joust with blunt lances–kind of a Renaissance version of a "Medieval Times" party. Forty year old King Henry jousted with the Dukes of Guise and Savoy and knocked them down. He complained they let him win and ordered his Scottish body guard Montgomery to lay on for real. In a freak accident, Montgomery’s lance splintered and shot through the king’s gold helmet visor and into his brain, killing him. Nostradamus was quickly put on the royal payroll. 1632- Caecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, was awarded proprietorship of a new English colony forming north of Virginia named Maryland. The colony’s charter left open the issue of the official sanctioned church, so Baltimore could make it a haven for his fellow Roman Catholics. 1643- In Paris the son of an upholsterer named Jean Coquelin signed a contract to establish the Ilustre Theatre. Jean also took on a stage name- Moliere . 1832- The Great Pierce Island Rendezvous- In the Old West the end of June marked the one time of the year the solitary Mountain Men would come down out of the Rockies and meet together. At the rendezvous they contacted fur company representatives to turn in their furs and pelts for gunpowder, blankets, trade trinkets and whiskey. There were several rendezvous sites including Bent's Fort and Papoagia but Pierce Island was one of the more celebrated. 1837- The steamboat St. Petersburg arrives at Ft. Union to give the Indians of North Dakota blankets, knives and smallpox. The resultant plague all but wipes out the Assinoboines, Sans Arcs, Mandans and decimates the Blackfeet. 1882- Charles Guiteau, assassin of President Garfield and major league fruitcake, was hanged. He had acted as his own lawyer on a defense that God had ordered him to kill the president. One prison guard hated Guiteau so much he took a shot at him but missed, prompting a Congressman to order an investigation of the marksmanship [...]

June 29th, 2009 mon.

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

I heard from Camille Leganza some news about the Irish animated feature the Secret of Kells- "The Secret of Kells" won the Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival! One of our producers, received the award from Sean Connery! Very cool. I saw the film a few months back, and it's pretty good. Very interesting styles. Animated Celtic filagree. It's one of the cold hard facts of doing animated features, that just because you complete an animated feature, it doesn't mean it will get a deal to be distributed to theaters in the U.S.A. I've seen many good international movies that for one reason or another didn't reach American theaters. I worked on Rock & Rule in 1982, and John Korty's Twice Upon a Time. Last year Nina Paley's beautiful Sita Sings the Blues came out on line, but I don't recall if made it to a theater. Knocking on the door this year for some American Pie is Brendan and the Secret of Kells ( Ireland) Tom Moore & Nora Twomey, which I hear will indeed get an limited American release. Mary & Max by Adam Elliot ( Australia) Missing Lynx by my old pal Raul Garcia ( Spain) This film won a Goya Award, Spain's Oscar. I wish them luck and hope we all get to seen them in theaters. And remember, if we get more than 15 animated features released in the U.S., the Academy gives us 5 nominations instead of 3. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: Gustav Holst was the composer of the Planets. What country was he born in? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a Te Deum? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/29/2009 Birthdays: Bernard Hermann, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, Slim Pickens, Nelson Eddy, Gary Busey, John Hench, Little Eva, Harmon Killabrew, Antoine de Saint Exupery, Anna Sophie-Mutter, Leroy Anderson, Maria Conchita Alonso, Robert Evans, Ray Harryhausen is 88 65 AD- Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul. Supposing to be the date they were executed by order of Nero. Paul was beheaded in the Mamertine prison. He had the right to die quickly because he had honorary Roman citizenship- Civitas Romanum Sum! Peter was taken to Vatican Hill and when he expressed joy that he would die as Jesus had the Roman guard conceived of a variation and crucified him upside down. When later Roman Emperor Commodus learned the Christians venerated Vatican hill because of that event, he had his favorite racing horse buried there. 1762- Catherine the Great overthrew her husband Czar Peter III in a palace coup. When Catherine received word that Peter intended to depose her to marry his mistress she decided to strike first. Peter was mentally ill, so few believe he managed to make a child Her husband the Czar –Autocrat preferred playing with his toy soldiers in bed. But in those days if a marriage didn’t produced children it was assumed the woman was at fault. Catherine had a son the Czarevich Paul. So the remainder of the Romanoff dynasty may well be the spawn of Count Orloff in the Guards, Polish Prince Poniatowski or any one of a number of men. Catherine was not even Russian; her original name was Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst. She was given the name Catherine when she converted to Eastern Orthodoxy to marry. The Russian troops worshipped their “little mother” because her first order after the coup was to cancel Peter’s planned war with Denmark, which the men thought foolish. Czar Paul was beaten and strangled, and Czarina Catharine became one of Russia’s great rulers. 1776- SO YOU WANT INDEPENDENCE EH?- This day outside New York Harbor near Sandy Hook New Jersey an immense British fleet was sighted. 500 ships bringing 32,000 redcoat troops and supplies 3,000 miles. It was led by the Howe brothers- General Lord Willam Howe and Admiral Richard Howe, “Black Dick”. One American soldier wrote[...]

June 28th, 2009 Sun.

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What is a Te Deum? Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: If a puta is a prostitute, what is puttanesca sauce? ----------------------------------------------------- History for 6/28/2009 Birthdays: King Henry VIII, Luigi Pirandello, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Dillinger, Richard Rogers, Gilda Radner, Cartoonist George Booth, John Elway, Don Baylor, CIA chief Leon Panetta, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kathy Bates is 60, John Cusack is 42, Mel Brooks is 82 1098- THE HOLY LANCE- Outside the city of Antioch Kerbogha the Saracen Emir of Aleppo was defeated by the warriors of the First Crusade inspired by the "Holy Lance". The Crusaders were surrounded and starving, when a monk from Marseilles named Peter Bartholomew began to have visions of St. Andrew. The Saint told him to instruct the Crusader warlords where to dig to find the Holy Lance that pierced the side of Christ. At first the monk was too frightened to go up to the barons but plucked up his courage after Saint Andrew appeared to him in a second vision and boxed his ears for not following his orders. Boy, that’s one touchy saint! They dug in a church as instructed and found nothing, then dug up every other church in town until they found a rusty spike that looked close enough. The army was so zazzed over this obvious sign of divine favor that they stormed from the gates of the city to give battle. The Crusader Bishop Alhdemar Du Puy bolstered their religious zeal by dressing up three mounted knights in pure white, having appear on a distant hillside and declared they were the Saints Jude, Andrew and Maurice come down to fight the unbelievers. Thus inspired, the Crusaders joyfully slaughtered all before them. After the victory Peter Bartholomew started to order the crusader barons around and get real uppity. The warlords told him that they were going to build a huge bonfire and that if he could walk through the inferno unharmed, then God must surely be acting through him. By the morning of the test the little monk had run off. 1751- The first volume of the ENCYCLOPAEDIA appeared in print. French philosophers Diderot, D’Alambert and Voltaire inspired by the ideas of English scholars Newton and Francis Bacon decided to put a summary of all human knowledge into one work. Encyclopedie is from the Greek “Knowledge all in the Round”. It took thirty years to write all the volumes, the last volume the index was published in 1780. But in those days the Encyclopedists were as much a political and anti-clerical movement as a fount of trivia. That these humanist scholars should attempt to define concepts like “God” The Soul” “Heaven and Hell,” without Church permission was considered a declaration of philosophical war. The liberal thinking in the Encyclopaedia did a lot to advance the thinking of the Enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions. 1778- BATTLE OF MONMOUTH- The largest land battle of the American Revolution. George Washington had gotten word that the main British army had quit the rebel capitol of Philadelphia and was falling back to New York. He resolved to strike the British army while strung out on the march. It was the first battle where the Americans, their discipline stiffened by Baron Von Stueben’s drills, could slug it out face to face with the redcoats. The temperature was a stifling 90-100 % F and many men collapsed from heat exhaustion. This was where Molly Harris, called Molly Pitcher, took her husbands place manning a cannon. She laughed when an enemy cannonball flew between her legs taking away parts of her lower petticoats. The battle was a draw, but Washington had shown his army wasn’t a mob of raggedy-ass farmers, but a true modern army. Washington also silenced his last critics among the other generals. His second, General Charles Lee, was retreating from the field when Washington rode up and rallied his men. Lee was dismi[...]

June 27th, 2009 sat Harvey Kurtzman bio.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

The new biography of the great cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman is finally available. Harvey, like his contemporary Wally Wood, is not as well known today, but he was a very influential and important figure in American cartoon art in the mid-twentieth century. He created the look of EC comics, Mad Magazine, Little Annie Fannie for Playboy and enabled Monty Python to get started.( He introduced John Cleese to Terry Gilliam). He was a great teacher and I'm proud to say, he was my friend. As he was a friend who helped many cartoonists get their starts, like R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Drew Friedman, Bat Lash and Russell Calabrese. http://www.amazon.com/Art-Harvey-Kurtzman-Genius-Comics/dp/0810972964/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246087080&sr=1-1 Congratulations to authors Dennis Kitchen, Paul Buhle and Harry Shearer( forward) for a great keepsake. Buy it now! Sell your children, mortgage your dog, pry pipes from the walls to sell the copper, just get it! Hoo-Rah! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: If a puta is a prostitute, what is puttanesca sauce? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is a coup d’ etat? ---------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/27/2009 Birthdays: Swedish King Charles XII "the Madman of the North", Helen Keller, Norma Kamali, Charles Stuart Parnell, Bob" Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan, Emma Goldman, Walter Johnson, Ross Perot, Isabella Adjani is 54, Lauren Hill, Alice McDermott, Tobey McGuire is 34, Tony Leung Chu Wai is 47 1542- Juan Cabrillo set sail from Mexico to explore the unknown California Coast. He was told he might find a magic kingdom of Califa, a land of brown amazons with golden swords. 1787- English historian Edward Gibbon completed his most famous work-The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The massive history ran thousands of pages and took twenty years to write. When he presented the first volume bound in gold to mad King George III, the King said: -"What's this? Another damn big, black, square book, eh Mr. Gibbon? Scribble, Scribble!" 1788- The Battle of the Liman. Catherine the Great's fleet defeated the Turkish navy in the Black Sea near the Moldavan coast. What is memorable about this was one of the Russian admirals was Pavel Ivanovich Jones, or John Paul Jones from the US Navy. During the night Jones got in a little boat manned by one Cossack named Ivak and had himself rowed out into the middle of the Turkish Navy to inspect it. Jones suffered no discovery and even paused to write graffiti on the stern end of a Turkish battleship to prove he was there. He wrote in chalk the French: "This ship to be burned- Paul Jones". Next day it was. 1829- James Smithson died. The English scientist had amassed a huge fortune from patents yet was snubbed by polite London society because of his illegitimate birth. So he turned his back on his mother country and willed his money to the United States, specifically asking a museum be set up in his name. The Smithsonian Institute was the result. 1844- Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother Hyram were killed by a mob in Illinois. After being shot down Smith was propped up and used for target practice. A man drew his Bowie knife to decapitate the body but Mormon folklore says his hand was stopped by a thunderbolt. 1863- George Gordon Meade named commander of the Union Army of the Potomac. The quiet Pennsylvanian was awoken out of his sleep at three a.m. by a courier sent by special train from Washington. At first he thought he was under arrest. General Meade would have command for just one week before he would have to fight the greatest battle in U.S. history- Gettysburg. 1876- Major Gibbon's column discovered the remains of Custer and the Seventh Cavalry at the Little Big Horn. It was near one hundred degrees Fahrenheit in the dry sun. At[...]

June 26, 2009 friday

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Iranian protesters are calling conditions a coup d’etat. What is a coup d’ etat? Yesterday’s question answered below: What was the origin of the phrase,the Real McCoy? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/26/2009 Birthdays: Peter Lorre- born Laszlo Lowenstein, Pearl Buck, Abner Doubleday, Babe Deidrickson-Zacharias, Willy Messerschmidt, Claudio Abbado, Woolie Reitherman, Gregg LeMond, Vittorio Storaro, Colonel Tom Parker, Pat Morita, Chris Isaak, Derek Jeter, Chris O’Donnell, Sean Hayes is 39 363 AD- Julian the Apostate slain falls in battle. Julian was the Roman Emperor who decided his stepdad Constantine had made a mistake making the world Christian and we should go back to Zeus, Venus, Hercules and the lot. This is why he is called "Apostate". Despite his religious views, he wasn’t a bad leader. During his invasion of Persia his camp was surprised by the army of the Grand Surenna, the Persian Prime Minister. Julian jumped on a horse without his heavy breastplate and rode into the melee. As he was struck in the chest by the enemy spear, he supposedly looked heavenward and said:" You have won, Galilean." The legions elected emperor a Christian General Jovian, and Europe never looked back. 1483- Duke Richard of Gloucester, having locked up his two nephew princes in the Tower of London "for protection", has them declared illegitimate, so he could become King Richard III. Even after Richard was killed in battle and the Tudor Dynasty in place the two little princes seemed to have disappeared. In 1903 their two little skeletons were discovered buried under a staircase in the Tower. 1496-Michelangelo Buonnarotti arrived in Rome to look for work. Coming from the city of Florence he was treated as the citizen of a foreign country. 1541- Francisco Pizzarro, the conqueror of Peru, was eating dinner in Lima when his enemies rushed in and stabbed him to death. 1815- After Waterloo, Napoleon requested a condition of his abdication be that he be allowed to go to the United States. He started to study books on America and the provisional French government prepared two frigates at Rochefort to take him across the Atlantic. Napoleon said his goal was now to be a scientist and study flora and fauna but he also said to another "Come, let us go to Texas and found a new Empire in the Desert!" But the allies would not allow this dream to manifest. The British took him instead to a lonely prison island off the coast of Africa, Saint Helena. 1830- Ascension of King William IV of Great Britain after the death of his brother George IV. While still Duke of Clarence, William kept a certain actress, a Mrs. Jordan as a mistress, by whom he sired ten illegitimate children. One day he told his mentally tottering father, George III, that he paid her 1000 pounds annually for this service. Reportedly, the feisty king was much agitated by this revelation and replied: "A thousand, a thousand--too much! Too much! Five hundred quite enough! Quite enough!" Some time later, following the collapse of his relationship with Mrs.Jordan, and after perhaps reflecting on his father's words, William demanded repayment of a portion of her "allowance." She responded by sending him the announcement for a play that read, "Positively no money refunded after the curtain has risen." 1858- The U.S. Army marched into Salt Lake City Utah. This was considered the end of the Mormon Rebellion. The city was deserted as Mormon leader Brigham Young had ordered the population to flee into the mountains. The US commander Col. Albert Sidney Johnston would later die at Shiloh leading Confederate forces. In the soldiers’ gambling tents, nicknamed FrogTown, was a teamster and card-shark named William Clark Quantrill, who would one day lead his rebel g[...]

June 25th, 2009 thurs

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What was the origin of the phrase, the Real McCoy? Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: What is a monstrance? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/25/2009 Birthday: George Orwell (born Eric Arthur Blair ), Marc Charpentier, Lord Louis Mountbatten, General Hap Arnold, Cajun musician Clifton Chenier, Sidney Lumet is 82, Walter Brennan, Willis Reed, George Abbott, Carly Simon, June Lockhart is 84, Alex Toth, Jimmy Dyne-o-Mite Walker, George Michaels, Mike Myers 1630 – The Fork was introduced to American dining by Plymouth Gov Winthrop. 1815- After Napoleons defeat at Waterloo, now it that it was safe, King Louis XVIII returned to France. He was the younger brother of the Louis XVI guillotined in the Revolution. The slow, rotund Louis XVIII, called Dix-Huit -Deez-Hweet in French, was nicknamed "Louis Biscuit" by the British because he came to Paris with the supply wagons of Wellington’s Army. The French called him Louis Dix-Huitres meaning Louis Ten Oysters. One British officer called him "A French Falstaff, a Fat Disgrace." 1835- Antoine Baron Gros was a celebrated painter under Napoleon and a friend of David and Ingres. But politics and tastes change. In a royalist postwar France dominated by Delacroix and Gericault, Baron Gros lived on forgotten and melancholy. This day the 64 year old artist drowned himself in the Seine. 1857- Writer Gustav Flaubert goes on trial for pornography for his novel Madame Bovary. He escaped conviction, and went on to his next book Salambo the Carthaginian princess who strangled herself with her own hair. Don’t try this at home girls! 1863- During the Civil War siege of Vicksburg Yankee engineers dug a tunnel under the rebel lines and fill it with gunpowder. The huge explosion accomplished little but blew a black slave named Abraham up through the air and over into Union lines. The man was badly frightened by his strange flight to freedom but miraculously unhurt . Soldiers of an Iowa regiment immediately put him in a tent and charged people five cents to come look at him. 1867 - 1st barbed wire patented by Lucien B Smith of Ohio. It was considered the perfect tool to protect crops from free-range cattle and other marauders. During the Boer War in 1898 South Africa the White Afrikaner Boers got the idea of stringing the stuff in front of the attacking Gordon Highlanders.It’s been used as a tool to herd people ever since. 1876- CUSTER'S LAST STAND called by the Sioux the Battle of the Greasy Grass- George Armstrong Custer and 300 of his 7th Cavalry are wiped out by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and the combined Sioux, Cheyenne nations (approximately 1,700 warriors). There had been defeats of the Whites like this before: Fetterman's Massacre, The Little Rosebud Battle, but nothing captures the imagination like the Little Big Horn. And for Native-Americans it marks the last coming together of the tribes and the last great victory .The Ogalala Sioux, Hunkpapa, Miniconjou, Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne all united to resist the violation of their sacred Black Hills. No U.S. Army commander ever expected so many different tribes could unite and field thousands of warriors at once. Custer trusted in his audacity. "Custer's Luck". The boy general –just 23 years old in the Civil War, he was always at the head of his men in costly, reckless attacks yet personally suffered nothing more severe than the flu. Now at age 36 his luck ran out. Accounts by natives were sketchy and no one is sure just how Custer died. The last white soldier who saw him alive was a courier sent away with a message " Benteen, come up quick. Big Village. Bring packs". The courier was an Italian immigrant named Giusepppi Martini who couldn’t speak English. The famous image of Custer stand[...]

June 24,2009 weds

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What is a monstrance? Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: Why is New York City called the Big Apple? ------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/24/2009 Birthdays: Earl Kitchener, the Sirdar of Omdurman, E.I.Dupont, Ambrose Bierce, Jack Dempsey, John Ciardi, Mick Fleetwood, Phil Harris- singer and voice of Baloo in Disney’s Jungle Book, Billy Casper, Michelle Lee, Claude Chabrol, Chief Dan George, Pete Hamill, Peter Weller, Sherry Springfield 1219- Pope Innocent III set today as the deadline for deadbeat knights who volunteered to go on Crusade to get off their ironclad butts and get going. Knights had an economic incentive to taking the Crusading vow: no one could collect a bad debt from you and you couldn't be imprisoned. So some knights would take the vow for the perks but then stall on making the dangerous trip to the Middle East where two out of three never returned. 1324- THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN- Scottish King Robert the Bruce defeated the invading army of King Edward II of England and secured the crown of Scotland for the next 300 years. The Bruce fought in the midst of his troops, hacking down Sir Hugh de Bohun in single combat with his battle-axe. Edward’s father, Edwards Longshanks, had developed winning tactics of using Welsh archers to shoot up an enemy before the mounted knights charged. But Edward II’s bad generalship bungled the system and knights and footmen scrabbled to get out at the Scots not allowing the Welsh bowmen a target. 1374- In the French town of Aix la Chapelle was the first recorded outbreak of Ergot Madness or St. John’s Dance. Groups of people frothing at the mouth danced around uncontrollably until they fell over dead from exhaustion. 1497-English explorer John Cabot discovered Canada -Eh! 1534- The great medical pioneer Phillipus Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus Von Hohenheim led a mass burning of medical textbooks at Basel University. The eccentric scholar took frequent sips of laudanum (a heavy opiate he developed) from a container in the hollow handle of his sword. He pioneered the use of minerals in medicine and invented the term Tartar for teeth. He also practiced Astrology and would never give an enema during the full moon. With this book-burning stunt Paracelsus claimed that all medical text before him was quackery and mumbo-jumbo. Burning in St. John’s Fire was the least it deserved. Truth be told he was right. His middle name Bombast became a synonym for bragging. 1668- Margaret Brent entered the legislature of the colony of Maryland and demanded the right to vote. She was chased out of the building. 1812- NAPOLEON INVADES RUSSIA with the largest army yet assembled. Around 600,000. By December, barely 30,000 came out alive. This day while inspecting the troops Napoleon’s horse stepped in a rabbit hole and threw him on his butt. This was taken as an ill omen. 1876- CUSTER APPROACHES THE LITTLE BIG HORN- General Custer's scouts reported a large Indian camp at the Little Big Horn River. Custer decides to attack tomorrow without waiting for the other armies to catch up. Through his interpreter Mitch Boyer, he tells his Indian scouts that after he has destroyed the Sioux, he will go back east and become the Great White Father. The Republican presidential nominating convention was next month. The Crow and Mandan scouts were troubled by the signs and began their death-songs. Embedded N.Y. Herald reporter Mark Kellogg made a final entry in his diary: "I go to ride with Custer and will be there at the death...” In the dawn's light a survivor from Major Reno’s command overheard Custer's chief scout Bloody Knife tell Custer: " You and I are going Home today -but by a different path." 1901- The first exhibit in a Paris salon on the [...]

June 23, 2009 tues

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Why is New York City called the Big Apple? Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why is Max Yazgur remembered fondly by Rock & Roll history, even though he never played an instrument? ------------------------------------------- History for 6/23/2009 Birthdays: Roman Emperor Augustus, Josephine DeBeauharnais-Bonaparte, Bob Fosse, Justice Clarence Thomas, James Levine, Dan Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Mayers, Joss Whedon, Dr Alfred Kinsey, The Duke of Windsor formerly King Edward VIII, Wilma Rudolph, Selma Blair, Frances MacDormand 1611- In Hudson’s Bay, Canada, explorer Henry Hudson's crew mutinied and set him adrift in a rowboat with his son. They were never seen again. When back in Holland the mutineers were never charged because they claimed to have discovered the Northwest Passage to the Indies, which luckily they never were called upon to prove. 1683- William Penn signed a treaty with the Lenni Lenapi Indians at Shackamaxon under the Treaty Elm to start his new Quaker colony called Penn-sylvania. Penn wrote of the Indians: "Their language is narrow, yet lofty like the Hebrew…one word suffices in place of three." 1757- Battle of Plassey- Sir Robert Clive with 900 English and 1300 Indians defeated an army of 50,000 under Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Bengal who perpetrated the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta. Daula was killed and the victory assured the British domination of India. 1793- During the French Revolution, Josephine De Beauharnais is condemned to be guillotined. In a prison filled with nobles and intellectuals she found her husband Alexandre the Vicomte du Beauharnais. They had been estranged for years and she had become quite a scandalous woman. When the jailer read out the names to go to the blade that day he read: "DeBeauharnais!" without specifying which DeBeaharnais was to go. The husband stepped forward and said: "Madame, just this once allow me to go first." When the Reign of Terror was overthrown she was released and she became the love of Napoleon. 1810- The Pacific Fur Company was set up by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant merchant. His ambition was to set up a string of fur trading posts along the route traveled by Lewis & Clark. It is the beginning of the great Astor fortune. 1859- Battle of Solferino- Garabaldi and Napoleon III defeat the Austrian army. This victory and the next battle of Magenta free Milan and the Po Valley. All Italy is united for the first time since the Roman Empire. The completion of the unification process Italians called The Irredenta. In return, Italy gave France the city of Nice. After the carnage of the battle the suffering of the wounded was so pitiable that a Swiss volunteer doctor named Dr. Henry Dunant was inspired to found the International Society of the Red Cross. He was soon bankrupt and forgotten but his organization was taken up at the first Geneva Convention in 1864 and made international law. 1860- The U.S. Secret Service set up. 1865- Two months after Lee surrendered to Grant, at Fort Towson in Indian Territory, General Stand Watiee, aka De-Ga-Ta-Ga, surrendered his Cherokees. This is the last Confederate force in the Civil War. Confederate Jo Shelby rather than give up rode his Iron Legion of rebel cavalry across the Rio Grande into Mexico. After two years exile he returned and excepted the Yankee amnesty. 1868- Christopher Latham Scholes patents the typewriter. In 1873 he sold his patent to the Remington Company. In 1874 Mark Twain secretly admitted to a friend that he enjoyed writing on the newfangled technology. 1940- HITLER THE TOURIST. After the defeat of France, Adolph Hitler takes his one vacation out of Germany. A plane flies him to Paris in the early morning and he is driven around to see the[...]

June 21st, 2009 sun.

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: When you call something a “ real doozie” where did that come from? Yesterday’s Question: Sometimes the followers of a famous person are called Myrmidons. Who were the Myrmidons? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 6/21/2009 Birthdays: Martha Washington, Alexander Pope, Berke Breathed, Al Hirschfeld, Jean-Paul Sartre, Judy Holliday, Benazir Bhutto, Jane Russell, Mariette Hartley, Bernie Koppel, Rick Sutcliffe, Maureen Stapleton, Joe Flagherty, Juliet Lewis, Prince William the Duke of York is 27. He will be King William V some day. Happy Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. The sun, at dawn, aligns perfectly with the entrance to Stonehenge and in Persia the Zoroastrians would light ceremonial fires on altars on their roofs to the sungod Ahura Mazda. 1527- Political theorist Niccolo' Machiavelli died. - His last words were: "I hope I shall go to Hell, for there I shall meet kings, popes and princes. In Heaven one can only meet beggars, monks and apostles." 1582- Japanese warlord Nobunaga Oda assassinated. He was the most pro-western of Japan's feudal lords and in western Japan, a folk hero, sort of a samurai Robin Hood. Under his protection the Catholic missionaries flourished, and Oda liked to parade around in his Spanish suit of armor. His enemy Tokugawa Ieyasu later became Shogun and banned all contact with the outside world. 1789- RATIFICATION OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION- New Hampshire becomes the 9th state to ratify the new document giving the majority of two thirds of the states. This despite angry anti-federalist sentiment from critics like Patrick Henry and John Hancock. They felt the new system was too centralized and could be tyrannical. Copies of the constitution were burned by mobs in Albany and Williamsburg. But eventually everyone got behind the system. Statesman Benjamin Rush noted: "We are now a Nation." 1791- THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES- After the fall of the Bastille in 1789, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette tried to work things out as constitutional monarchs but moderates like Mirabeau and Lafayette were losing control of the vengeful people, kept in medieval poverty for so long. So the royals decided to sneak away and escape across the border. The escape plot was organized by Count Axel Fersen, a lover of Queen Marie Antoinette. They slipped away in the dead of night and traveled 150 miles to the Belgian border before they were stopped. At Varennes they were recognized and brought back to Paris by the city's fishwives led by Jean-Baptiste Drouet the postmaster of Ste. Menehould. King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were eventually both guillotined and their son Louis XVII died rotting in prison. Ironically, a troop of loyalist cavalry, who were to meet them on the road and escort them across the border got lost only a quarter mile away. 1791- The first Ledger entry. 1813- Battle of Vittoria- Wellington defeats the French in Spain and ends the Peninsular War and Beethoven writes a really silly overture to celebrate it. The Overture to Wellington's Victory has musical scoring for cannons and musket volleys. It was commissioned by a mechanical calliope inventor named Wilhelm Deitzel. It actually made Beethoven more money than anything else he ever wrote. 1854 -During service in the Baltic in the Crimean War –Ships Mate C D Lucas, Royal Navy, HMS Hercla, received the first of a new decoration called the Victoria Cross, or VC. 1864- FATHER ABRAHAM- President Abraham Lincoln visited General Grant’s Union army attacking Lee in Petersburg, Virginia. One highlight of the tour was when Lincoln was shown the 18th corps, a unit of black soldiers. General Grant complimented their[...]

June 20th, 2009 sat

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: Sometimes the followers of a famous person are called Myrmidons. Who were the Myrmidons? Yesterdays Question answered below: Question: XVIII Century Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, and XX century English composer Gustav Holst had something in common, besides being composers. What was it? --------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/20/2009 Birthdays: Wolf Tone, Jacques Offenbach, Lillian Hellman, Errol Flynn, Audie Murphy, Andre Watts, Cyndee Lauper, Bob Vila, Chet Atkins, Stephen Frears, Brian Wilson, Robert Rodriquez, John Goodman, John Mahoney is 69, Nicole Kidman is 42 1218- Simon De Monfort, Leader of the Crusade against the Albigensian heretics of southern France, was squished by a catapult stone whilst besieging Toulouse. Legend says the lucky catapult shot that nailed Simon was fired by the women & children of Toulouse who knew they could expect no mercy from him. In his brutal crusade in Albi, for the first time, the order heard about how to tell Heretics from True-Believer,“ Slay them All and God will know His own.” By contrast, his son, also a Simon de Monfort, emigrated to England and fought the King for individual civil rights and establishment of the House of Commons. 1605-The False Dmitri invades Russia. A defrocked Lithuanian priest named Grishka declared himself the dead infant son of Czar Ivan the Terrible grown up and convinced a powerful Polish noble family, The Mniszechs, to back him. Historians wrongly call this a Polish-Russian War but actually it was a privately run freelance invasion. I hope they paid 401k benefits and dental. Dmitri succeeded in toppling Czar Boris Gudunov and occupying Moscow. When the Polish Army went home the Russians killed him, burned his body, mixed the ashes with gunpowder, stuffed it in a cannon and fired it back in the direction of Poland. 1747- Persian King Nadir Shah had seized the throne and led armies across Central Asia in a march of conquest not seen since the days of Tamerlane. He conquered Iraq, Uzbekizatan, Afghanistan, Northern India and Yerevan. He forced the Indian Moguls to give him the fabulous Peacock Throne. But as he grew older he got increasingly paranoid, blinding his eldest son and executing hundreds. Finally, this day, his own bodyguards stabbed him and all Persia breathed a sigh of relief. 1756- THE BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA- Bengal Rajah Siraj ud Daula stuffed 146 captured British officers in a cell the size of Dilbert’s cubicle. Most died of asphyxiation by morning. 23 survived. It's a phenomenon discovered here as well as during the London Blitz of 1940 in crowded shelters that if you pass out in a perfectly upright position you may die because the blood literally drains out of your brain. Ick! 1789- THE TENNIS COURT OATH- French King Louis XVI got annoyed with his parliament or Estates General for constantly asking for permanent power and the right to rule by laws. So this day he tells them to disband. Of the Estates three divisions the First Estate- Nobility and the Second Estate – Clergy quietly obey and go home. But the Third Estate -the common folk- refused and when they were turned out of their meeting hall by the guards they reconvened in the Royal tennis court. There the members pledged not to disband until Liberty was established. "Go tell your master that here the People rule!"- Said Mirabeau to the royal herald. 1790- THE US CAPITOL CONCEIVED- In the then American capitol, New York City, Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, went over to have dinner with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Senator James Madison. There were no real American political parties yet, but Jefferson had been lead[...]

June 19th, 2009 friday. Colby Curtin

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Dan Phillips sent me this tragically sad but lovely story from yesterday's Orange County Register. It's about a very brave ten year old named Colby Curtin. She was diagnosed with a fatal cancer. She requested that before she die, if could she see the new PIXAR film UP. The studio heard about her case, and rushed someone to her bedside with a special DVD of the movie. He ran it for her in her hospital room. She enjoyed the film, said she was now ready, and died a few hours later. Here's the full story: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pixar-up-movie-2468059-home-show This little girl had more guts in the face of a raw deal than most people I've ever known. Her story is a signal to all of us; that we all only have a short time here, and we should be grateful for every day we're given, and live every day to the fullest. And Colby also has a special message to all of us who call cartooning and animation our careers. That beyond all the hassles about salaries, technique, contracts and freelance, you and I have been given a special gift. We have the ability to make a child smile, even a child faced with a more terrible situation than you or I could ever imagine. God ( Fate, Whoever) gave you that power for a reason. Be thankful for it, don't waste it, be sure you use it the way a Colby would've wanted you to. Rest in Peace, dear child. My deepest condolences to your family. And my thanks to the folks at PIXAR, well done. ----------------------------------------------------------- Question: XVIII Century Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, and XX century English composer Gustav Holst had something in common, besides being composers. What was it? Yesterdays Quiz answered below: Quiz: Who is the current Prime Minister of Canada? --------------------------------------------------- History for 6/19/2009 Birthdays: Euclid, Blaise Pascal, King James Ist Stuart, Wallis Simpson Duchess of Windsor, Moe Howard, Kathleen Turner, Spanky McFarland, Lou Gehrig, Guy Lombardo, Gena Rowlands, Mildred Natwick, Charles Coburn, Louis Jourdan, Pauline Kael, Salman Rushdie, Dame Mae Whitty, Lucie Sloane, Ang Sung Soo Chi, Paula Abdul. 240 BC- Greek mathematician, Erastosthenes, measuring the cast shadows made by sticks placed in the ground, first calculated the total circumference of the Earth. He was off by only a few miles. 1588- The Spanish Armada sailed from Cadiz and Lisbon to invade England. 1619- THE OLD GLOBE THEATER FIRE. During a performance of William Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, a prop cannon fired a salute that set afire the straw thatch on the roof. Soon the blaze consumed the old theater. Shakespeare, as a partner in the company that owned the Globe, paid to rebuild it. He soon retired home to Stratford. Fifty years later, during Cromwell’s Puritan rule, the Globe was pulled down because the Puritans frowned on theatrical entertainment as unGodly. 1803- Captain Meriwether Lewis sent a letter inviting Captain William Clark to come join him and explore the route from the Mississippi to the Pacific Coast. Lewis had a backup in mind in case Clark said no, a Lt. Moses Hook. But Clark said yes so today we remember Lewis & Clark, not Lewis & Hook. 1846-THE EARLIEST RECORDED BASEBALL GAME- The famous legend is that Abner Doubleday invented the game but that's been mostly disproved. No one is sure of the exact date the game was invented, but, on this day, a New York newspaper ran a notice of a "base-ball" game played by the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club and the New York Nines Cricket Club at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. The cricketeers won 23-1. This was the first game played under Cartwright’s[...]

Moe Howard on Michael Douglas

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Cartoonist Drew Friedman sent me this cool link of an interview with Moe Howard of the Three Stooges talking about his brother Curly. Looks like it was done in the early 1970's

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=93516803458&h=Z-i6S&u=Rstp8&ref=nf

Posted by:Tom

June 18th, 2009 thurs

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Who is the current Prime Minister of Canada? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is the Torah? ----------------------------------------------------- History for 6/18/2009 Birthdays: M C Escher, Charles Gounod, James Montgomery Flagg, Kay Kayser,William Lassell 1799- English astronomer who discovered Neptune's moon Triton, Richard Boone, Jeanette MacDonald, Key Luke, Isabella Rosselini, E.G. Marshall, Roger Ebert, Eduard Daladier, Carol Kane, Sammy Kahn, ,Sir Paul McCartney is 67 1178- According to the chronicler Gervase of Canterbury, on this evening five monks sitting near the town witnessed a "flaming torch" spring up from the moon - it has been theorized that this was a lunar meteor impact; explosion on moon. Or maybe an interplanetary visitor? 1682 – Quaker leader William Penn founded Philadelphia. 1778- The British army evacuated the American Capitol of Philadelphia. The reason General Clinton pulled back his redcoats was because of his learning of the French entry into the war. London didn’t want him to be stranded in the American interior should the French fleet attack the coast. 1815- WATERLOO- One of the battles that changed history. 145,000 men in brightly colored uniforms with 400 cannons blew each other to pieces for 9 hours at a road intersection about three miles square. Many factors affected Wellington's defeat of Napoleon: The previous nights rains delayed the battle until 11:00 A.M. Napoleon had a bout of stomach cramps (he had bleeding ulcers, cystitis, piles and hypertension) and while he rested his subordinates wasted troops in fruitless assaults. The Prussian army everyone thought was running to Berlin boiled into the French right just when it seemed that the French were winning. Wellington in private admitted, "It had been a very close run thing." Suffice to say the world would have been a much different place. Napoleon said: "If I lose England will dominate the world for the next 100 years." Individual stories abound. - When a sharpshooter suggests to Wellington early in the battle that he thinks he can pick off Napoleon, Wellington snaps:"Certainly Not! Generals have better things to do than take pot shots at one another!" -Towards the end of the battle the Earl of Uxbridge was struck by a cannonball while seated next to Wellington. The Earl noticed: "My God Sir, I do believe I’ve lost my leg." Wellington looked down, then replied: "My God Sir, I do believe you’re right." Uxbridge had eloped with Wellington's younger sister so he didn't like him that much anyway. -My favorite anecdote is about General Cambronne, leader of the French elite' Old Guard. He formed up an infantry square to take a last stand to cover the French retreat. His small band is surrounded by the victorious Anglo-Dutch German army and called upon to surrender. Cambronne had time for a one word reply before all the guns go off-" MERDE!" This is a favorite French epithete meaning "sh*t!" The writer Chateaubriand later said that he cried"The Guard dies but never Surrenders!" But we all know what he really said. To this day in France if you’re too polite to use an expletive you can say: A' la mode de Cambronne!" -Wellington didn't have any dinner until 11 p.m. He ate alone because his entire personal staff were dead or wounded. - In later years writer Victor Hugo lived at Waterloo for awhile and was influential in making the old battlefield field a shrine. When I visited I saw across from Hugo's statue the "Victor Hugo's Private Men's Club" with "New Hostesses!" 1817- With the Iron Duke (Wellington), himself in attendance London ope[...]

June 17th, 2008 weds.

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: What is the Torah? Yesterday’s question answered below: what is the Pentateuch? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/17/2009 Birthdays: King Edward Ist "Longshanks", John Wesley the founder of the Methodists, Igor Stravinsky, Wally Wood, Ralph Bellamy, Pete Seeger, Mignon Dunn, Dean Martin, Barry Manilow, Joe Piscopo is 58, Newt Gingrich, Martin Bormann, Jason Patric, Ken Loach, Greg Kinnear is 46, Venus Williams, Thomas Haden Church is 49 1745- During one of the periodic wars between England and France, a force of New England colonists captured the fortress of Louisburg, the largest French bastion on the Atlantic coast. It cost 100 colonists’ lives and 900 more during the occupation but, amazingly, England gave the fortress back to France in exchange for a fortress in Madras, India. This was another reason Americans were pissed off about being a colony. 1775-THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. British troops surrounded in Boston, crossed the harbor to attack an entrenched rebel position on Breeds Hill (the names got confused.). It took the Redcoats three human wave assaults until they took the hill, but the rebel farmers, instead of fleeing like rabbits, shot them to pieces. Captain Israel Putnam advised his men,” Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes, then aim low.” The minutemen only retreated when their ammunition ran low. The battle exacted such a huge cost in soldiers’ lives that the British public was shocked (1,000 casualties out of 2,040 men). Based on America's lukewarm participation in the French and Indian War a decade past, had not the great General Wolf of Quebec labeled the American the "Worst Soldier in the Universe"? and General Gage once told his friend, George Washington," New Englanders are big boasters and worst soldiers. I never saw any as infamously bad." The English generals consoled themselves with the thought that it couldn't have been the Yankees that fought so well, but all the Irish and Scottish immigrants that had arrived recently. Lexington and Concord could be dismissed as an extended civilian disturbance, but Bunker Hill convinced London that it now had a full-scale war to fight 3,000 ocean miles away. 1789- French King Louis XVI had convened an Estates General to solve the bankrupt economy. The body consisted of three branches- the First Estate-Nobility, 2nd – Clergy and Third Estate the common people- about 99% of the country. This day after much debate the Third Estate voted to declare itself the real representative will of the French people and as such they should legislate for them, King or no. They renamed themselves the National Assembly. 1815- Heavy Spring rains cancel any actions as the British and French armies converge on a little village outside Brussels called Waterloo. Thunder and lightning drowned out the sound of cannon. The English were optimistic because by coincidence every major victory of the Duke of Wellington was preceded by a strong thunderstorm. 1823- Charles MacKintosh patents the waterproof rubberized raincoat. In England, a raincoat is still called a MacKintosh. 1873- Women’s Rights leader Susan B. Anthony went on trial for attempting to vote. She was found guilty by an all-male jury and fined $100, which she refused to pay. 1885- The pieces of the Statue of Liberty arrive from France. Some assembly required... 1893- Cracker Jacks invented by RW Reuckheim. Their name came from Teddy Roosevelt sampling the caramel corn, and exclaimed “These are Crackerjack!”- popular slang fo[...]

2009 Student Academy Awards

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Alices' Attic


The Student Academy Awards were held last week. Two of the winners, Robyn Yannoukous and Joachim Baldwin of UCLA were students of mine. Despite that distinction, they still managed to win.

Alternative
Alice’s Attic, Robyn Yannoukos, University of California, Los Angeles
Matter in a Quiescent State, Prepares Itself to Be Transformed, Kwibum Chung, School of Visual Arts, New York

Animation
Kites, Jed Henry, Brigham Young University
Pajama Gladiator, Glenn Harmon, Brigham Young University
Sebastian’s Voodoo, Joaquin Baldwin, University of California, Los Angeles

Congratulations to one and all!

Posted by:Tom

June 16th, 2008 tues.

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: what is the Pentateuch..? Yesterdays Question answered below: True or False, chocolate is an Aztec word. ------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/16/2009 Birthdays: Stan Laurel, Willy Boskovsky, Joyce Carol Oates, Nelson Doubleday, Brian Eno, animator Pete Burness, Martha Graham, Erich Segal, Jack Albertson, Helen Traubel, Ron LeFlore, Laurie Metcalf, Sonia Braga, John Cho is 37 1686 BC- King Hammurabi the Lawgiver died in Babylon. He was succeeded by his son Samsu-iluna. 391 A.D.- Roman Emperor Theodosius Ist sent the Praefect of Egypt orders to close the pagan temples and forbid the any further practice of the worship of Isis, Serapis and Amon-Ra. It was Theodosius' policy to purge the now Christian Empire of the last vestiges of the old pagan religions. Theodosius closed Plato's Academy, silenced the Oracle of Delphi, burned the Sybilline Books and stopped the Olympic Games. Acting on the Imperial nod St. Cyrus of Alexandria whips up a mob of zealots that destroyed the Serapeum and Library of Alexandria, killing the last true Greek philosopher, the lady Hypatia. She was stripped and torn to pieces between the mob's frenzied Hosannas. Theodosius ordered the Senate to stop doing a sacrifice to Mars the Avenger before each session. One bitter Roman historian noted that Rome fell to the Barbarians not twenty years later –410 AD. This ceremony has a descendant -the US Congress always opens it daily session with a religious benediction. 1497- Amerigo Vespucci reached the mainland of South America. 1549- Catherine de Medici entered Paris as the bride of King Henry II of France. Many French noblemen objected to the “That Florentine shopkeepers daughter and her gang of corrupt Italians” but she dominated French politics for decades the way Elizabeth Ist dominated England. She inspired the Saint Batholemew’s Day Massacre which is why there are few French Protestants today. She also brought a brilliant retinue of Italian cooks using new foods like artichokes and parsley. Modern scholars say Catherines influences helped French cuisine break out of the medieval rut of burned meat covered with heavy fruit sauces, and begin it’s ascendancy to Haute Cuisine. 1657- First recorded mention in London of chocolate for sale. Xocoaltl was served to Hernando Cortez by Montezuma in 1517 but it was pretty bitter stuff. The Maya also gave Europeans the first Vanilla beans. They tamed Chocolate with sugar and kept the formula a secret for 100 years. The Dutch figured it out and added milk for Milk Chocolate and Sir John Sloan the British chemist invented a formula as well. 1815-BATTLES OF QUATRE BRAS (Four Corners) & LIGNY- Napoleon's last victory. Napoleon slipped his army into Belgium in between Wellington's and his Prussian (German) allies then split his own army in three. While one part stalled the English, Napoleon defeated the Prussian army and sends it running. The Prussian's recovered and Wellington fell back on a little intersection outside of Brussels called Waterloo. 1857-WAR OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENTS-One of the strangest incidents in law enforcement history. The New York City Police Dept. under Mayor Fernando Wood was so unbelievably corrupt that Governor Samuel Tilden built a second police force called the Metropolitan Police Force and ordered it to take over the city and arrest the Mayor. They were stopped on the steps of City Hall by the original NYPD and a fight broke out. While citizens and criminals alike looked on in amazem[...]

June 15th, 2009 mon

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: True or False, chocolate is an Aztec word. Yesterday’s Question answered below: How did you flip someone the finger in Italy during the Renaissance? ------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/15/2009 Birthdays: Edward the Black Prince of England, Rachael Donelson Jackson- Andy Jackson’s First Lady, Edvard Grieg, Saul Steinburg, Mario Cuomo, Jim Varney, Wade Boggs, Waylon Jennings, Xaviera Hollander the Happy Hooker, Jim Belushi, Ice Cube is 40, Neil Patrick Harris, Courtenay Cox is 45, Helen Hunt is 46 Happy St. Vitas Day ! "If St. Vitas Day be rainy weather, twill rain for thirty days together. "St.Vitus was the patron of epilepsy, and some extreme forms of spasmic seizure (chorea) was called "St. Vitus Dance". 1215- The MAGNA CARTA or the Great Charter SIGNED. On the field of Runymede. The rebellious English barons force King John Lackland ( also called John Soft Sword, John the Total Loser, etc. ) to sign a document granting basic rights such as trial by a jury of peers, Habeas Corpus, etc. It basically said for the first time that even a King was not above the law of the land. After King John signed, he traveled to Rome to bribe the Pope to absolve him of his oath. Then he returned with an army of mercenaries to squash his uppity subjects. Even though he hired rogues like Victor the Villain and Mauger the Murderer, King John still lost. Magna Carta became the basis of English Law. 1300- Poet Dante Alighieri got a job as one of the governing priors of Florence, sort of a city council. We don’t know if it says something about his abilities at municipal governing, but he was run out of town in 1302. 1775 - The Continental Congress appointed Mr. George Washington, Esq. of Virginia to be commanding general of the new colonial army forming around Boston. John Adams urged Congress to pick a southerner to command the mostly New Englander farmers in the interest of colonial unity. The fact that he was one of the richest men in America didn't hurt either. Plus the 6’ 2 plantation owner dropped hints he was interested in the job, like being the only delegate to attend congress squeezed into his 20 year old militia uniform. They afterwards bought him dinner at Peg Mullen's Beefsteak House. During the meal he turned to Patrick Henry and said with the appropriate 18th Century modesty: " From the date I enter into command of America's Armies, I date the fall and ruin of my reputation!" 1776- William Franklin, the pro-British governor of New Jersey is arrested by the Yankee rebels and thrown into a dungeon. He was the illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin and his cook Deborah Regan, whom Franklin had married out of sympathy for the boy. William had assisted his dad with his flying kite experiment years ago. The New Jersey delegates told Dr. Franklin while the Independence Declaration was being debated and he was 'unmoved'. Truth be told the two men couldn't stand one another. They said they reconciled after the Revolution but that may have been more for public record than reality. When he died Ben Franklin did not leave his son a penny in his will, bitterly stating it's only what William would have left him had the positions been reversed. 1800- US Congress ordered the disbanding of the US Army as a waste of money. 1815-THE WATERLOO BALL- In Brussels Belgium, the Duchess of Richmond hosts a ball for the officers of Wellington’s army before they go to stop Napoleon. Many of the dancers will be dead at Waterloo t[...]

June 14th, 2009 sun.

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: How did you flip someone the finger in Italy during the Renaissance? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does it mean when a person describes themselves as a Luddite? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/14/2009 Birthdays: Tomaso Albinioni, Senator Fighting Bob LaFollette,, Margaret Bourke-White, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sam Wanamaker, Dorothy McGuire, Burle Ives, Gene Barry, Jerzy Kosinski, Marla Gibbs 451 A.D. Battle of Orleans- Attila the Hun was defeated by Theodoric the Visigoth and the Roman general Aetius. Attila was told by his shamans that a great king would die that day. But even though Attila lost, it was Theodoric who fell. 1645- Battle of Naseby- Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army defeated King Charles Ist's army in the decisive battle of the English Civil War. After this the King never again could put a large army in the field. Charles Ist had as one of his generals his German nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Rupert rode into battle with a white poodle under his arm named Bobbie. He made insensitive declarations like: "We will strew the field with English dead !" Considering it was a civil war, that fact seemed unavoidable. 1727- George II of England told by Sir Robert Walpole that his august father George Ist had died and he was now king. George thought it was one of his dad's cruel jokes and said" Dat ist von big lie!"( they had German accents remember). He always resented his dad’s cruel treatment of his mom, like having her lover murdered, while he himself kept a regular mistress. George Ist didn’t trust his English subjects and was always homesick for his birthplace in Hanover Germany. He was always visiting. So when he died and was buried over there truth be said nobody in England really missed him. While his grandson King George III’s death was cause for national mourning, George I’s death was only casually mentioned in the society newspapers. Happy Flag Day -in 1777 The Continental Congress orders the Stars and Stripes flag to be the official U.S. flag. It replaced the Cambridge Flag (The Tree and Stripes) and the Snake and Stripes and all those other things silly things and stripes. 1789- Capt. Bligh reached East Timor after floating 4,000 miles in an open boat . He and his followers were cast adrift by the Bounty Mutineers. 1800- Battle of Marengo- Napoleon defeats the Austrian army and conquers most of Italy. At first he was losing and his men were fighting so furiously against high odds that some could be seen urinating into their rifle barrels to cool them off. Just when things seemed lost his regimental commander General Desaix, arrived in the nick of time, won the battle and was conveniently killed in action so Napoleon didn’t have to share any of the credit. This led Napoleon to observe "The difference between victory and defeat can be 15 minutes." Napoleon’s cook at 5 p.m. was told the battle was lost and not to fix supper. At 7:00 pm Napoleon had won the battle and asked for dinner. Frantically the cook grabbed some chicken, prawns and garlic and invented Chicken Marengo. Believe it or not the cook’s name was Pierre Goufee’.( Garsh!) 1801- Old Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold died in London of dropsy. He was living on a major generals half pay but was shunned by polite British society as he was hated by Americans. Tradition has it that in his last days he had his wife Peggy help him ba[...]

June 13th, 2009 Saturday

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: What does it mean when a person describes themselves as a Luddite? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What film had the line “ Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!” ------------------------------------------------------ History for 6/13/2009 Birthdays: Gnaeus Agricola-40AD, Harriet Beecher Stowe, W.B.Yeats, Red Grange, Basil Rathbone, Dorothy Sayers, Ralph Edwards, Paul Lynde, Tim Allen, Darla Hood, Ally Sheedy, Simon Callow, Joe Roth, Christo, Malcom McDowell is 66 The Festival of the Roman Goddess Minerva. 313 A.D. Constantine, the Roman Emperor of the West and Licinius the Emperor of the East publish a joint edict throughout the Roman Empire granting religious toleration : "All men to worship what Gods they will." This edict lifts the 250 year persecution of Christianity. 1381-THE ENGLISH PEASANT REVOLT OCCUPIES LONDON. -Wat the Tyner and his pissed-off peasants chase young King Richard II into the Tower of London,then drag the Archbishop of Canterbury up to Tyburn Hill to chop his head off. The Archbishop was in charge of economic policy and taxation for the young king, so he was the focus of the people's rage.They used a non-union headsman, so it took several whacks to get the job done... 1777- General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne began his invasion down from Canada into New York State to smash the American Revolution. The Great North River, called the Hudson, was the jugular of America, because it divided militant New England from the moderate Mid-Atlantic and Southern States. Before Burgoyne left London he had wagered politician Charles Fox 20 guineas that he would finish off the Yankees by Christmas. Burgoyne immediately annoyed senior British officers in America. He refused orders from Canadian Governor General Carleton. He declared that his was an independent command and so could not be ordered about by anyone but London. By October, defeated and surrounded by hordes of rebel soldiers at Saratoga he got a letter out to Carleton “requesting instructions”. Carleton understood a weenie attempt to shift the blame, so he ignored him, Burgoyne surrendered and was exchanged. He did get home by Christmas, just without his army... 1905- The workers of the Russian city of Odessa go on strike and the Tsar's troops shoot them down on the Odessa steps. This causes the Battleship Potemkin's sailors to mutiney. Twenty years later Sergei Eisenstein to make a famous film of the same name. 1920-The US Government rules Americans cannot mail their children through the Parcel Post System. 1927- Wall St. tickertape parade for Lucky Lindy- Charles Lindbergh. 1941-The American Federation of Labor the AF of L called for a nationwide boycott of all Disney products and films. This was to support the Disney Cartoonists strike. 1942- President Roosevelt by executive order created the Office of Strategic Services or the OSS. Under director Wild Bill Donovan its job was to coordinate espionage and intelligence gathering against the Axis powers in cooperation with its British counterpart , the SOE. On the agencies personnel roster were experts from spymasters Bill Gates and William Casey to tourist book author Eugene Fodor and chef Julia Child. Child recalled the outfit was nicknamed “Oh So Secret!” and “Oh, So-Social” for all the society notables in it. After World War Two the OSS transformed into the CIA. 1944- The first Vengence-1( V-1) Buzz Bombs hit London. The fi[...]

June 12th, 2009 friday

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What film had the line “ Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!” Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Before the Tom Wolf bestseller and the awful movie, what was The Bonfire of the Vanities? ------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/12/2009 Birthdays: Egon Scheile, John Roebling the architect of the Brooklyn Bridge, Uta Hagen, Chick Corea, Sir Anthony Eden, Jim Nabors, Vic Damone, David Rockefeller, Irwin Allen, Marv Albert, Arthur Fellig-better known as Weegee, Sherry Stringfield,Former President George Herbert Walker Bush or George Ist is 84, if Anne Frank had survived she would be 80 today 1192- King Richard Lionheart stood on a hilltop overlooking the Holy City of Jerusalem. Lionheart had been campaigning in Palestine for a year. The other Crusader leaders had gone home, leaving him with too weak a force to capture the city. On the hilltop he covered his eyes with his shield and refused to look, saying he could not bear to see the Holy City in chains. Salladin was having problems of his own with unruly vassals and lukewarm support for the Jihad. But when he got the news that the Christians were withdrawing from Jerusalem to the coast. The Third Crusade had spent itself, and Salladin had won. 1815- Napoleon left Paris for Waterloo. 1876- Newsman George Kellogg is invited by General Custer to accompany his 7th Cavalry on their next campaign against the hostile Indians. Kellogg would be the only correspondent "embedded" with the 7th as they rode to the Little Big Horn. 1898- Nationalist leader Emilio Aquinaldo declared the Independence of the Philippines after 300 years of Spanish rule. Too bad the United States didn’t see it that way. During the war with Spain the U.S. gave lip service to Philippine nationalism but after the war annexed the Philippines and fought the same rebels. 1936- Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame dedicated on the supposed 100th anniversary of Abner Doubleday inventing baseball. We now know that date to be fiction but it was a good party anyway. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson were the first inductees. Doubleday was a Civil War general and the composer of the bugle call "Taps", first called General Doubleday’s Lullaby. 1937- Soviet leader Josef Stalin had eight of his top generals shot without trials. Even Marshal Tuchashevsky, the military genius of the Bolshevik Civil War. At his state funeral Stalin publicly praised Tuchashevsky’s talents as a leader even as he was having his mother and family rounded up and sent to a Siberian prison camp. When General Rossokovsky, was interrogated a secret policeman broke out his front teeth with a hammer. He wore steel dentures thereafter and would help win the Battle of Stalingrad,. Eventually Stalin’s paranoid purge would kill 25,000 officers, 90% of Red Army's general staff, just when they were about to be attacked by Hitler’s army. 1940- As German panzer tanks rolled towards Paris, French commander General Weygand ordered the military governor of Paris declare it an open city- meaning the French army would voluntarily evacuate it if no fighting or destruction would happen in it’s precincts. Weygand then said everything was Britain’s fault. 1949- The first LA parking ticket. 1962-Edward M. Gilbert, the "Boy Wizard of Wall Street," loses $23 million for his firm E.L. Bruce Flooring, then embezzles $2 million more[...]

June 11th, 2009 Thursday

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Before the Tom Wolf bestseller and the awful movie, what was The Bonfire of the Vanities? Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who coined the term OnLine? -------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/11/2009 Birthdays: Ben Johnson, Richard Strauss, Jacques Cousteau, Nelson Mandela, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Joe Montana, John Constable, Gustav Courbet, Vince Lombardi, Adrienne Barbeau, William Styron, Chad Everett, race car driver Jackie Stewart , Gene Wilder is 76, Hugh Laurie is 50, Shia LeBoeuf is 23. 1174- Crusader king of Jerusalem Amalric IV dies, he is succeeded by his son Baldwin IV the "Leper King of Jerusalem". That this disease afflicted Baldwin did not stop him from marrying (unconsummated) and fighting battles -no one would get close enough to fight with him. Ed Norton played him in the Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven. 1685- MONMOUTH'S REBELLION- The Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of English King Charles II felt he should be king instead of his prissy Roman Catholic Uncle King James II. Being illegitimate was to him a mere technicality. This day The Duke of Monmouth landed in the U.K. and raised the banner of revolt. He got some of Oliver Cromwell’s old roundheads to join him but they were soon crushed by the regular army. Monmouth was executed and many of his men shipped off to be slaves on the sugar plantations of Bermuda and the Bahamas by the infamous Judge Jeffries during the Bloody Assizes. The novel Captain Blood is about one such slave-survivor of Monmouth's Rising. 1790- In Hawaii this is King Kamehameha day in honor of the king who united all the Hawaiian Islands under one rule. 1928 - Alfred Hitchcock's 1st film, "The Case Of Jonathan Drew," is released 1934- the first Mandrake the Magician comic strip. 1936- Shy, quiet, 30 year old Texas writer Robert E. Howard had created the macho warriors Conan the Barbarian, Kull and single handedly defined the genre we call Sword & Sorcery. This day after he learned his mother was dying and would never regain consciousness, he went into his garage and blew his brains out. Some say he had an Oedipal fixation, others that he always intended to end his life and was waiting to spare his mother the pain. On his typewriter he left a short message: "All fled, all done, so lift me upon the pyre. The feast is over and let the lamps expire." 1937 –" Getta’ yu tutsie-frutsie Ice-a Creem!"the Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races" premiered. 1939 – President Franklin Roosevelt hosted King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the White House. There the rulers of the British Empire ate Hot Dogs for the first time. Whether they in turn gave FDR some Marmite is an open question. 1944- The Allied forces who landed at D-Day at five separate beaches and several drop zones link up their forces into one continuous front. 1948- Col. Eddie Marcus was a career West Point grad US Army officer who spent World War Two on General Eisenhower’s staff planning the campaigns in Europe. Eddie Marcus was also a Jew. When the new state of Israel needed military experience, Marcus volunteered and was made the commanding Aluff -General of the Jerusalem Front. He was given the name Mickey Stone as a code name. After furious fighting against Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi forces a UN ceasefire went into effect. This night when Marcus stepped out of his t[...]

SAG settles

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

My congratulations to the membership of the Screen Actors Guild for voting overwhelmingly for the new contract.



I have found in my years in labor negotiations, there will always be hotheads who want to fight on, no matter how lopsided the odds. That is when cooler heads need to come forward and make their wishes known. The extremists will always claim to speak for all. That's when it is necessary for reasonable people to prevail. It's what Jefferson meant when he said that freedom is not a gift, but a responsibility.

That's not to say I don't agree with the goals of those in your guild who want to get a more equitable share of things. It's just that these contracts negotiations are like innings in a baseball game. This contract may not be the best, but it's what you can get for now. In a few years, it will be time to come to the plate and do it again. And the world, and certainly the economic situation will be different.

Voltaire said there are no complete victories, and no complete defeats. For now in this bad economy, it was vital to restore labor peace in Hollywood, so we all can get back on our feet.

By the way, the Animation Guilds' new contract negotiations are happening this summer. Stay Tooned...

Posted by:Tom

June 10th, 2009 Wednesday

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Who coined the term OnLine? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What does T.W.I.Z.M. stand for, and where did it originate? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/10/2009 Birthdays: Charles James Stuart the Old Pretender, Yamaoka Tesshu (1832- Japanese swordsman), Saul Bellow, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel, Frederick Loewe (of Lerner & Loewe) Howlin’ Wolf, Maurice Sendak, Gina Gershon is 47, Leilee Sobieski is 26, Jean Triplehorn is 46, Britain’s Prince Phillip, Jurgen Prochnow, John Edwards, Elizabeth Hurley is 44 1682- English colonists in Connecticut observed a phenomenon common to the Americas, a dark windstorm taking the form of a funnel. The first recorded Tornado. 1720 - Mrs Clements of England markets the 1st paste-style mustard. 1750- Francois Voltaire accepted the invitation of King Frederick the Great of Prussia to come live at his court. French King Louis XV laughed: “ Now there will be one less nut in Versailles and one more nut in Berlin.” The friendship between Frederick and Voltaire is fascinating- night after night over dinner, the enlightened gay despot matched wits with the commoner who was the greatest philosophical mind of the century. When Voltaire argued that the world would be better off with no religion or belief in God, King Frederick retorted:” But my dear Voltaire, if you did away with God, then common people would raise statues to you and pray to them.” At times Voltaire’s arguments would get Frederick so angry that the Frenchman would flee fearing for his life. Frederick ordered the borders closed and sent a troop of cavalry to drag him back, so they could finish their argument. 1752- BEN FRANKLIN FLIES HIS KITE- The wizard of Philadelphia was not the actual discoverer of electricity, Leyden Jars and Volta's experiments predate him. He did make the connection between lightning and electric currents and created the lightning rod and the first electric battery. He didn't tell anyone about the kite experiment until 15 years later for fear people would think him a silly fellow. There’s a famous painting of Ben with his kite being assisted by his young child William. In actuality William was about thirty at the time and during the Revolution he became Royalist Governor of New Jersey and couldn’t stand his old man. 1776- The Continental Congress appointed a committee of Ben Franklin, John Adams ,William Rutledge and Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence. Most of the hard work devolved upon Jefferson. Franklin glibly noted:` It has been my practice to avoid being the author of any paper which would be reviewed by a public body. Tom Jefferson borrowed much from enlightened European writers like Burke and Montesqiou. There were 46 revisions before the final draft was voted on, including taking out any references to outlawing the slave trade. Yet Jefferson’s great prose but it perfectly “All Men are Created Equal, endowed by their Creator with certain Inalienable Rights, among them Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Ever since these words were thrown at tyrants and inspired leaders as diverse as Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro. 1801- The Barbary Pirates of Tripoli declared war on the little nation called the United States. These Mediterranean buccan[...]

June 09th, 2009 tues.

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: What does T.W.I.Z.M. stand for, and where did it originate? Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: Who said ” Killing one person is a crime, killing millions is a statistic” ….? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 6/9/2009 Birthdays: Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Cole Porter, John Bartlett of Bartletts Familiar Quotations, Boy George O’Dowd, Les Paul, Burl Ives, Lash LaRue, Happy Rockefeller, Robert MacNamara, Major Bowes, Carl Neilsen, Donald Trump, Jerzy Kosinski, Pierre Salinger, Steffy Graff, Marvin Kalb, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, physicist who formulated Coulomb's Law, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, Aaron Sorkin, Michael J. Fox is 48, Johnny Depp is 46, Natalie Portman is 28 68 AD- Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide. Nero saw the jig was up when the Roman people welcomed the Spanish Legions of Servius Galba into the city, shouting "Death to the Incendiary! Death to RedBeard!” a nickname implying his fatherhood may not have been pure Latin. He took his life on the anniversary of the murder of his wife, whom he had kicked to death while she was pregnant. He had his servant Epaphroditus push a knife into his throat. Nero died saying "Oh, what an artist dies in me!” Nero was descended from Augustus on his father’s side, and on the other side from Marc Anthony. His death ended the direct bloodline of Julius Caesar's family. For the next few months four generals would turn their armies homeward to fight for power. The Roman called this period "The Long Year". 1358- The Massacre of Meaux. In a France already ravaged by the Black Death and the Hundred Years War, a violent peasant revolt broke out called the Jacquerie -Poor Jacques. On this day two top knights, one from the English side and one from the French- Gaston Phoebus and the Captal De Buch, took time out from their war to join forces and chop up dozens of rebellious peasants in the town of Meaux. Phoebus later became a character in Hugo's novel the Hunchback of Notre Dame. 1732- James Oglethorpe, a British Parliamentarian, was granted a charter by King George II to found a penal colony south of the Carolinas. He would call it Georgia in honor of the king. 1834 – Brass helmet deep-sea diving suit was patented by African-American inventor Leonard Norcross of Dixfield, Maine. The design remained unchanged for 100 years. Remember Diver Dan and Surgeon Sturgeon? 1834 - Sandpaper patented by Isaac Fischer Jr., Springfield, Vermont 1847 - Robert von Bunsen invents the Bunsen burner. 1860- DIME NOVELS & PULP FICTION. Mr. Erastus Beadle (don’t you love 19th century names?) published the first dime novel, Maleska, Indian Wife of the White Hunter by Anna Stephens. Sometimes called the Penny Dreadfulls, pocket-sized stories printed on cheap pulp paper became popular reading. They fantasized the West, extolling two-gun chivalry and virtuous maidens, roaring desperadoes and wild savages. This early form of mass media made celebrities out of fringe yahoos like Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid and Belle Starr. 1902- Woodrow Wilson was named President of Princeton University. One of the Board of Trustees that selected the future US President, was the former US President, Grover Cleveland. 1918- Louella Parsons began her[...]

June 8th, 2009 monday

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

The Creative Talent Network's first Annual Animation Expo is firing on all cylinders for this November, the week before Thanksgiving. Panels, screenings, portfolio reviews and other goodies. The Animators Educators Forum will be holding it's Second Annual Student Animation Retrospective in conjunction with CTN> If you are a local animation student and want to volunteer to help, you'll get free admission among other goodies. check out this site: [link]http://www.ctnanima tionexpo.com/registration /volunteer/volunteer_ info.htm[/link] There is a facebook page link as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: Who said ” Killing one person is a crime, killing millions is a statistic” ….? Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who first called the D-Day invasion The Longest Day? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/8/2009 Birthdays: Robert Schumann, Frank Lloyd Wright, Barbara Bush, Admiral David Dixon Porter, Leroy Neiman, Emmanuel Ax, Alexis Smith, Nancy Sinatra, Boz Scaggs, Jerry Stiller is 82, Dana Wynter, British cricketeer Ray Illingsworth, Juliana Margulies, Joan Rivers is 76, Keenan Ivory Wayans is 51, Scott Adams (the creator of Dilbert) is 51. Gary Trousdale is 48, Kanye West is 32 452AD- Attila the Hun invaded Italy. 632 A.D. The Prophet Mohammed died in Medina. His followers elected his uncle Abu Bakir as the first Caliph or defender of the faith. The position of Caliphate continued through the Middle Ages in Baghdad until the rising Ottoman Empire moved them to Constantinople and made the post a figurehead behind the Turkish Sultan. The office disappeared after 1918 when the secular Republic of Turkey was declared. 1786- A New York newspaper advertised a Mr. Hall was now selling the Italian confection called Iced Cream. First reference to Ice Cream in the United States. 1809- American Revolutionary writer Thomas Paine died. His last words were when his chubby doctor said: " Your belly diminishes." Paine smiled and replied: "And yours augments." 1869- Chicago native Mr. Ives McGaffey was given a patent for a “sweeping machine that utilizes the power of air suction” the Vacuum cleaner. 1871- 70-year-old Kiowa warchief Satanka or Setangya was being transported in an army wagon, handcuffed, to prison. He said to some Indians along the road:" Go tell my people to come and get my body here, because I'm gonna go die now." As he spoke he slowly worked his hands out of the handcuffs, taking the flesh off in the process. He then sprang on the surprised soldiers and fought until they killed him. They dumped his body on the roadside where the Kiowa found him later. 1892- Bob Ford, the man who killed Jesse James ten years earlier, was running a saloon in the Colorado silver mining country. A man named Ed Kelly came up behind him and said: "Oh, Bob?" As Ford turned around, Kelly let loose with both barrels of his shotgun. Ford had just come from a Church where he donated money to bury a local saloon girl. He had written on his donation " Charity Covereth Up a Multitude of Sins..." 1912- Carl Laemmle forms Universal Pictures Studio. 1942 - Bing Crosby records "Silent Night". 1942-In a private meeting at the White House President Frankl[...]

June 7th 2009 sun.

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

It's fun to do a google image search of yourself and find photos you don't remember. This was a shot of my partner Piet Kroon and I when we were directing OSMOSIS JONES for Warner Bros ten years ago. This is a shot of art director Hans Bacher and I working on pre-production on Disneys Beauty and the Beast, twenty years ago in London, 1989. The map of France to the right was not for yet another planned Anglais invasion. It was a vitner's map to plan our research tour of the Loire Valley, for ideas for the Beast's Castle. In case you wonder what our results were- we used Chambord and Azay Le Rideau for inspiration. chambord castle --------------------------------------------------------- Question: Who first called the D-Day invasion The Longest Day? Yesterday’s Question answered below: Was Napoleon short? ------------------------------------------------ History for 6/7/2009 Birthdays: Pope Gregory XIII, Beau Brummel, Paul Gauguin, Chick Corea, George Szell, Watergate congressman Peter Rodino, Tom Jones, Jessica Tandy, James Ivory, Virginia McKenna, Liam Neeson is 57, Prince is 51 1099- After three years of marching and fighting, the massed hordes of the First Crusade finally sight the Holy City of Jerusalem. 1191- Richard the Lionheart arrived in the Holy Land for the Third Crusade, he went by ship via Sicily and Cyprus- the easy way. The Crusaders met him on the beach with an old song that today is "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". 1520-THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD- A Renaissance international summit organized by Cardinal Woolsey. King Henry VIII of England, King Francois Le Bel of France and Emperor Karl of Germany, all pitched their expensive gold cloth tents together, and held feasts, revels and tournaments while discussing politics. 1594- All during Queen Elizabeth Ist reign there were plots and attempts on her life. This day the Queens Spanish-Jewish doctor Rodrigo Lopez was executed on suspicion of his attempting to poison the Queen. The evidence was circumstantial and Elizabeth took several weeks to decide to sign the death warrant. When the news got out there was a wave of Anti-Semitic feeling among the English populace, even though most Jews had been banned from England since 1388. This is seen as the time when William Shakespeare got the inspiration to create Shylock the wicked Jewish money lender in his play the Merchant of Venice. 1692- Port Royal, was the Jamaican port that became a haven for buccaneers and pirates of the Carribbean. Today it was destroyed by a huge earthquake. After Tortuga was cleaned out of pirates by the Spanish Navy, Port Royal became the unofficial pirate capitol. At its height with a harbor that could shelter 150 ships, she boasted more citizens than Boston and more money per-capita than London. Trade was so extensive that among the treasure, divers found a Japanese samurai sword. 1769- Frontiersman Daniel Boone reached Kentucky by charting a way through the Cumberland Gap. Though they seem quaint hills today, in Colonial times the Allegheny Mountains presented an insurmountable barrier, preventing further movement west for the colonies from the Atlantic seacoast. Boone’s achievement was the first penetration of this wall. Daniel Boone was once asked if he ever g[...]

June 6th, 2009 sat.

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Congratulations to all my friends at the UCLA Animation workshop, who are having their end of the year show today. They are giving the first UCLA ANIMATION AWARD to their illustrious alumni DAVID SILVERMAN, he who is the director of the Simpson's Movie and Monsters Inc. Remember tonight is also the screening of Raul Garcia's THE MISSING LYNX at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. ------------------------------------------------------ Quiz: Was Napoleon short? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: The Zamboni is the rolling device that cleans ice hockey rinks. Where was it invented? Halifax? Buffalo?? ------------------------------------------------------ History for 6/6/2009 Birthdays: Diego Velasquez, Pierre Corneille. Alexandre Pushkin, Nathan Hale, John Trumbull, Thomas Mann, The Dalai Lama, Klaus Tennestedt, Bjorn Borg, Richard Crane, Harvey Fierstein is 57, Dr. Karl Braun, Walter Chrysler, Isaiah Berlin, Aram Kharachaturian, Jason Issacs, Sandra Bernhard is 54, Paul Giamatti is 42 1683- The worlds first public museum , the Ashmolean, was opened. English archaeologist Elias Ashmole donated his collection of curiosities to Oxford University for the students to study. A building was commissioned from Christopher Wren and the museum opened to the public this day. 1727- BATTLE OF THE DIVAS- In Old London at this time the rage was for Italian Operas. Many international musicians made lucrative livings singing for Britons. Italian soprano Francesca Cuzzoni was the reigning star but a rival arrived in town named Faustina Bodoni. This night at His Majesty’s Theatre Covent Garden with the Princess of Wales in attendance as Bodoni tried to sing Astianatte, Cuzzoni fans booed, hissed and shouted so much a fight broke out. Soon the two rival singers were up on stage tearing each others hair out, fistfights in the pit and scenery being pulled down. Composer George Frederich Handel laughingly accompanied the mayhem with an impromptu solo on kettledrums. 1740- Prussian King Frederick the Great instituted a new medal. Originally called the Order of Generosity, Frederick called the little blue Maltese cross Order Pour Le Merite fur Offizeren. Frederick liked to say things in French. The medal became famous as the Blue Max, coveted by World War I flying aces. 1797- The Lake Poets meet. In the Coxwolds region of England Samuel Taylor Colderidge walked across a field and visited William Wordsworth in his cottage. This began one of the great collaborations in literature. Coleridge had just finished the Rubiyat of Omar Khayam. The married Mr Colderidge even had a platonic affair with Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy and later Wordsworth’s sister-in-law Susan Hutchinson. 1833- President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train. 1844 –George Williams formed the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in London, for lonely young men working in the new urban factories to have an alternative to pubs and dance halls. 1857- THE SIEGE & MASSACRE OF KANPUR- The most infamous episode of the Indian Sepoy Rebellion against the British. The Hindu Maharrata of India and the Moslem Moghul Emperor Bajadur had thrown their support behind the Sepoys, the rebellious Indian troops attacking B[...]

June 5th, 2009 fri.

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

A friend of mine from Disney sent on her memories of that June in China during the Tienahmen Sq crackdown. Wow, I had forgotten, I was there, the artists of Pacific Rim animation studio, all of ink and paint working on The Little Mermaid ( in 1989, when the studio in Burbank was overwhelmed and the deadline looming, Disneys sent some Mermaid work overseas, especially the bubbles, which had to be hand inked. The studio was south of the capital in Jiangshu Province.) All of my girls and the rest of the studio marched in protest and support for the students in Beijing, the guys in the background dept came down to ink and paint and "borrowed" chip board from the Mermaid scenes to make protest signs. ( chip board were large, stiff, cardboard cards that are used to wrap animation scenes in.) I watched them all march into the great park next to the studio, myself and Leo Sullivan looking out the window. Leo saying:" This is history", and "what would you do if the police opened fire on your kids right now?" I said I would go down and stand with them, Leo replied "No you would not, you would go home, we all would go home." Who knew? That event took place the week before June 4th 1989. I reused the chip boards and sent them back to Disney Burbank. I know somewhere in the studio archives today, someone has some yellowing animation paper, wrapped with a "live free or die "on the chip board. Cartoonist Selby Kelly (1917-2005) once said:" Everything in Life is Politics. You just can't stay out of it." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: The Zamboni is the rolling device that cleans ice hockey rinks. Where was it invented? Halifax? Buffalo? Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Are airplane black boxes, actually black? ------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/5/2009 Birthdays: Socrates, Pancho Villa, Thomas Chippendale -furniture maker, not male strip club owner, Igor Stravinsky, Archduchess Anastasia Romanov, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Dean Acheson, Bill Moyers is 75, Hopalong Cassidy, Tony Richardson, Kenny G., Lancelot Ware the founder of Mensa, Spaulding Gray, Mark Wahlberg 221B.C. - The Chinese poet Chu Yuan drowned himself as a protest of an unjust Emperor. His memory is remembered by the annual Dragon Boat Festival. People decorate boats like dragons and created dumplings to drop into the river to dissuade fish from eating the remains of the poet. 1305-"The BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY"- King Phillip the Fair of France makes a deal with a cardinal to help him become elected as Pope Clement V. The cost is Clement has to move the entire Vatican from Rome to Avignon in French territory. The Holy See stayed in France about 150 years. 1455- Poet FrancoisVillon gets thrown out of Paris again, this time for stabbing a priest in a bar fight. Gotta watch out for priests in bars.... 1502- LEONARDO GETS A JOB- This day Leonardo Da Vinci was hired by Caesare Borgia as a military engineer. Borgia was the son of Pope Alexander VI and wanted to conquer Italy for the Church. The artist-scientist Leonardo had promised Borgia he could design horrific war making devices like tanks, flame-throwers and p[...]

June 4th, 2009 thurs PIXAR PSYCHOANALYSIS

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

I will see UP this weekend. One thing I noticed during all the years of enjoying PIXAR films is the personal growth of all the artists there. I recall back in the early 90s' when all these young computer guys flocked up to the Bay Area, to work long hours and live on pizza and Diet Coke. Their first big film TOY STORY, was about a bunch of young single guys hanging out, (plus Bo Peep and Mrs. Potatohead, of course.) TOY STORY II was a young guy torn between girlfriend and family. egads! Responsibility! courtesy Disney/Pixar MONSTERS INC. was about a young daddy and a toddler. FINDING NEMO was about a young daddy and a school age son THE INCREDIBLES was about a Dad dealing with Middle Age disillusionment and alienation from their teenage kids. Now UP is about a retired old man and a kid. I'm wondering when I'm going to see the PIXAR dad as a three time divorcee' with a combover, riding a Harley, growling about alimony and shacking up with a High School Senior. Bravo, Gang! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: Are airplane black boxes, actually black? Yesterday’s Question answered below: Where is the oldest town in the continental USA? --------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/4/2009 Birthdays: King George III, Alvah Bessie, Rosalind Russell, Gene Barry, Dennis Weaver, Robert Merrill, Bruce Dern, Andrea Jaeger, Dr Ruth Westheimer, Freddy Fender, Noah Wylie, Rachael Griffiths, Angela Jolie is 34 Happy Birthday to Youuuu Happy Saint John the Baptist Day. 1070- THE BIRTHDAY OF ROCQUEFORT CHEESE. Legend has it on this day in the town of Roquefort a shepherd found in a cave some cheese he had been saving but had forgotten about. He noticed it was covered with mold but he was hungry and ate it anyway, and lo and behold, it tasted much better than before... 1259- Kubilai Khan, the grandson of the Genghis Khan, was elected council the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. Kubilai then shattered Mongol tradition by dividing the huge Empire into three pieces. His uncles Kaidu and Batu would rule the Mongol homeland and Western section (the Golden Horde) respectively while Kubilai preferred to rule China as it's emperor. In doing this he was acknowledging the reality that the master plan of Genghis for world conquest was unfeasible. The empire which extended from Korea to Budapest to Baghdad was unmanageable and would break up anyway. Kubilai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China would last. He was the Chinese Emperor who met Marco Polo. 1666- Moliere’s play "Le Misanthrope" premiered. 1717- FREEMASONS- The Grand Lodge of England was inaugurated in London on St John the Baptist Day. This is considered by some the birth of Freemasonry, but many alleged histories claim the practices of the Brotherhood of the Craft go back to ancient Egypt and was brought to England by the Knights Templar in the 1300’s. There is some validity to the reports of independent Lodges already existing in the 1630’s in England and earlier in Scotland. The Freemason movement spread throughout Europe and became an alternative to religion for many intellectuals in the 1700’s. Moz[...]

JUNE 3rd, weds.

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Where is the oldest town in the continental USA? Quiz- Who said- The Pellet with the Poison is in the Vessel with the Pestle? --------------------------------------------------- History for 6/3/2009 Birthdays: John Paul Jones, Jefferson Davis, Josephine Baker, King George V, Henry Shrapnel, Tony Curtis is 84, Allen Ginsburg, Collen Dewhurst, Alain Renais, Curtis Mayfield, Paulette Goddard, Maurice Evans, Jack Oakey, Jan Peerce, Zoltan Korda, John Dykstra, Tom Arnold, Hale Irwin, Chuck Barris is 80 The First Friday in June is commemorated as DONUT DAY, when we reflect on the origins of the portable cake. It’s birth in 1847 is credited to a Maine sea captain Hanson Crockett Gregory. Out at sea, the old salt had his breakfast interrupted by a New England squall. So he stuck his cake onto the spoke of his ship’s wheel, while he steered out of danger, thereby creating the legendary hole. 1579- Sir Francis Drake, his ship the Golden Hind parked in Drake's Bay or Anchor Bay or wherever, claims California for England. He calls it Nova Albion. Early explorers thought North and South America was one big island. Magellan had found the way around the southern tip. Drake repeated Magellan's route around South America to attack Panama and the Peruvian treasure fleet. After which he sailed north trying to find the northern end of the island so he could sail around the top to get back into the Atlantic. By Mendocino California Drake realized that this was one big mother of an island and it would be wiser to turn around and go home another way. The Northwest Passage isn't discovered until Canadian ice breaker does it in 1958. 1778- MOTHER ENGLAND OFFERS A DEAL- After the French, Dutch and Spanish decide to intervene in the American Revolution, and pile on Britain, The British Government under Lord North offered the rebellious American colonies all of their grievances, taxation, seats in Parliament. Everything short of full independence. The Continental Congress says too late, you're dealing with a separate country now. 1779-HMM, WHAT TO DO WITH DANGEROUS PRISONERS..? British General Sir Henry Clinton had a problem. He had just captured Charleston South Carolina and accepted the surrender of the largest number of American rebels- 4000, as many as his own army. Now orders from London were to leave Lord Cornwallis with a force to subdue the South and return to New York. But what about the prisoners? Today Clinton published an edict that all rebels who take an oath of loyalty to the Crown will be released. His subordinate grumbled:”Sir Henry doesn’t understand that these rebels swallow an oath to their King then an oath to their Congress, with the same ease his Lordship swallows a plate of poached eggs!” 1846- General Stephan Kearny with his Army of the West forming in Texas received orders from Washington to invade Mexican Alta-California. 1851- The American clipper ship Flying Cloud began her maiden voyage from Sandy Hook New York. She was so fast she could sail from New York around South America to San Francisco in 89 days, making her the most celebrated Yankee merchant ship and with the British Cutty[...]

June 02, 2009 tues.

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz- Who said- The Pellet with the Poison is in the Vessel with the Pestle? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What was the original colonial name for Alabama? ------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/2/2009 Birthdays: John Randolph, The Marquis DeSade, Martha Custis Washington, Thomas Hardy, Hedda Hopper, Sir Edward Elgar, Johnny Weismuller, Charlie Watts, Disney animation story artist Dick Heumer, Lotte Reinniger Marvin Hamlisch, Barry Levinson, Jon Peters, Dana Carvey, Garo Yepremian, Jerry Mathers the Beaver of the old TV show Leave it to Beaver is 65, Dayvid Haysbert, Lasse Halstrom is 63 303AD-Martyrdom of St. Elmo. This guy has to win the endurance record. The Emperor Diocletian had him starved, beaten with clubs, flogged with lead balled whips, rolled in tar and set on fire, roasted again in an iron chair, and he finally died after having his intestines wound out around a windlass. He is the patron saint of seafarers. When the blue electrical phenomenon appeared on ship's masts during a storm, it is called "St. Elmo's Fire". 1453-At Breslau, Papal Legate John of Capistrano presided over the torture of six Jews. After they confessed to Jewish practices, he had them burned at the stake. After John died the Protestants dug up his bones and threw them to their dogs. John was canonized San Juan Capistrano in 1690. A century later Franciscan monk Fra Junipero Serra named the picturesque little mission in California after him. And the swallows do migrate there. 1763- At the British Fort Michilimackinac near Lake Superior some Sauk and Chippewa Indians were playing lacrosse. While the British sentries were engrossed in the ball game Indian women gathered near the forts’ open gates. When one player hurled the ball up over the wall as a signal the women tossed concealed knives and tomahawks to the players who rushed the fort and massacred its garrison. 1886- President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony. She was the daughter of his former law partner and Cleveland became her legal guardian after his death. Despite her being half his age and his earlier reputation for fathering cxhildren out of wedlock they were much in love and she especially charmed the American public. At age 21 she became the youngest woman to be First Lady. Songs were written for her and their first baby was honored with a candy bar- the Baby Ruth. 1896- Gugielmo Marconi took out a patent on wireless broadcasting - radio. At the time his device could be heard from almost 12 miles away ! 1920- Eugene O’Neill won a Pulitzer Prize for his first play Beyond the Horizon. 1920- THE WAR ON TERRORISM- Anarchists set off several bombs in the US, including at the home of the U.S. Attorney General. This year they also set off a bomb in a wagonload of scrap metal on Wall Street and tried to assassinate banker J.P. Morgan. This sparked a large government crackdown called The Palmer Raids. Many innocent immigrants, suffragettes and union organizers were jailed or deported as criminals. The progressive reaction to the crackdown was the birth of t[...]

June 01st, 2009 mon.

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PST

FROM ANIMATION MAGAZINE: Charles Rivkin, CEO of the animation studio Wildbrain, has been tapped by President Obama to be the United States’ ambassador to France. The move has prompted Rivkin to step down from his position at the studio, best known for creating the hit Nick series Yo Gabba Gabba! Rivkin served as Obama’s campaign finance co-chairman for Southern California during last fall’s election. I didn't quite believe this until I read it twice. Not that Mr Rivkin is probably more than worthy and up to the task. It's just rare to see such honors bestowed upon animation people. Bravo et Bon Chance Monsieur Rivkin! ------------------------------------------------------------ Quiz: What was the original colonial name for Alabama? Yesterday’s Quiz: What were LaSalle, DeSoto, Nash, Maxwell and Duesenberg? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 6/1/2009 Welcome to June, from Iunius, the month of Juno, queen of the Roman gods. Birthdays: Brigham Young, Marilyn Monroe would be 83!, Pat Boone, Mikhail Glinka, Red Grooms, Karl Von Clausewitz, Andy Griffith, Morgan Freeman is 72, Nelson Riddle, Lisa Hartman, Cleavon Little, Frederica Von Stade, Powers Booth, Rene Aubergjenois, Lisa Hartman, Brian Cox is 63, Heidi Klum is 36, Josef Pujol * *Pujol was famous throughout late Victorian Europe as Le Petomane- The Fartiste- who could fart musical melodies and snuff candles at great distances. He performed an entire concert for crowned heads, and would finish by farting La Marseillaise. 193 AD- Roman General Septimius Severus defeated his rival for the Empire Pescennius Niger “Black Pescennius”, massacred his family, and carried his head around on a spear. Septimius used the corpse of another rival as a doormat to his tent. Pretty severe guy. 1660- Boston Puritans had passed a law that preaching any religion other than that accepted by the Massachusetts Bay Puritan group was heresy and forbidden. When Quaker Mary Dyer refused to cease, leave or recant her views she was hanged this day. Her death and that of another Quaker Anne Hutchinson shocked the colonies so that soon after the King Charles II of England issued an order forbidding hanging for heretical preaching. 1813- In battle with a British warship, HMS Leopard, dying Captain Lawrence, of the U.S.S. Chesapeake, cried:" Don't Give Up the Ship!" They don't, but he died anyway. 1876- Eighteen-year old Milton Hershey opened his first candy store. Hershey's goes on to become the largest candy maker in the U.S. The Hershey’s chocolate kiss is so named because the machine that creates the candy looks like it is kissing the conveyor belt. 1880 - 1st pay telephone installed; this one in a bank. 1879-After falling from the French throne in 1870 the Emperor Louis Napoleon III and his family lived in England. Young Louis Napoleon IV, only son of Napoleon III and Eugenie, went with the British Army to South Africa to fight Zulus. While waving his granduncle's sword around on patrol, he falls off his horse during a skirmish and is speared to death by 1[...]

May 31st, 2009 sun.

Sun, 31 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What were LaSalle, DeSoto, Nash, Maxwell and Duesenberg? Answer to Yesterday’s Quiz Below: For all you WWII experts: if you took a Higgins Boat, where did it drop you off? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/31/2009 Birthdays: King Manuel Ist of Portugal –1495, Walt Whitman, Fred Allen, Clint Eastwood, Don Ameche, Prince Ranier, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Ranier Fassbinder, Brooke Shields, Joe Namath, Richie Valens, Tom Berenger, Denholm Elliot, Peter Yarrow, Lea Thompson, John Bonzo Bonham of Led Zepplin, Colin Ferrell 1578- A farmer plowing a vineyard near Rome causes the ground to collapse beneath him revealing the long buried Ancient Roman CATACOMBS. Antonio Bosio studied them and writes in 1632 "Underground Rome". 1793- LA TERREUR- THE REIGN OF TERROR BEGAN- French extreme leftists the Jacobins named for their meeting place, near the monastery of St.Jacob- Danton, Robespierre and Marat take over the French Government. They declare anybody who doesn't agree with them to be counterrevolutionary dead meat. Robsepierre said: “Virtue without Terror is Impotence, Terror without Virtue is Criminal.” Marat said: "If we cut off 10,000 heads today, it saves us having to cut off 100,000 tomorrow!" For a year they guillotined 17,000 people, including Madame DuBarry, the scientist Lavoisier, poet Andre Chenier and even fellow revolutionaries Danton and Camille Desmoulins. They also drowned hundreds in barges. Napoleon, Josephine, Roget Du Lisle -who wrote Le Marseillaise, even American Thomas Paine barely escape the blade. To their credit they enacted much needed social reforms, For the first time the public could enjoy the Royal art collections like the Louvre and the royal parks like the Luxembourg Gardens. 1837 - Joseph Grimaldi, England’s greatest clown (king of pantomime), died at 57. On stage since the age of 3 at Sadler-Wells, he never appeared in a circus ring. Instead, his act was stage pantomime. In tribute to him English clowns are known as “Joey’. 1873- SCHLEIMANN FOUND TROY. German archaeologist Heinrich Schleimann unearthed the horde of gold known as Priam's Treasure in a mound near Hysarlik Turkey. This proved this site was the Troy of Homer and the Trojan War was not a myth but a real historical event. There were actually 9 Troys on the site- from a Bronze Age village to a Late Roman Empire city. The Troy of the Trojan War was Troy number 4. It showed signs of destruction by fire. 1879- New York’s Madison Square Garden opened. Designed to resemble a Venetian Palazzo. 1884-Happy Birthday Kellogg’s Corn Flakes! Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek Michigan patents "flaked cereal and the process for making same." He felt whole foods like Corn Flakes could help gentle Victorian people curb their urge to sexual excesses. Hmm…should I mud wrestle Jessica Alba or have a bowl of corn flakes? Decisions, decisions. 1889-The Johnstown Flood. The South Fork Dam swollen by heavy rains burst and sent a 35-foot wall of water and[...]

May 30th,2009 sat.

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

So, the Rueben Awards and Memorial Day are done, and you've already seen UP twice. Is there still anything to do in ToonTown LA now? You Betchya! And Free Too! The Art of Marc Davis is still at the Forrest Lawn Museum in Glendale until July 26th. Also the Golden Age of Comic Book show is still up at the Skirball Center in the Sepulveda Pass until August 7th. ------------------------------------------------------------ Quiz: For all you WWII experts: if you took a Higgins Boat, where did it drop you off? Yesterday’s Quiz: To maintain their anonymity while based in a San Rafael industrial park, what did George Lucas' ILM call itself? -------------------------------------------- History for 5/30/2009 Birthdays: Czar Peter the Great, Benny Goodman, Mel Blanc, Stepin Fetchit, Keir Dullea, Boris Pasternak, Irving Thalberg, Milt Neil, Howard Hawks, Gale Sayers, Michael J. Pollard, Wynonna 1431- At Place de Vieux-Marche’, in English controlled Rouen, St. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. She was only 19. Her last request was for a priest to hold up high a Crucifix so she could pray aloud above the flames. When one English knight watched the maid call out to Christ as she died he exclaimed in grief: "Brothers, we are lost because I think we have just killed a Saint! ". 1593- English playwright Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in an argument over a restaurant check at the Bulls Tavern in Depford. Marlowe, whose plays included “Tamburlane” and “Dr Faustus", was one of Shakespeare's competitors and found time for some espionage on the side. Writer Sir Anthony Burgess theorized there may have been more spy-stuff to this case than not wanting to pay for ale & kippers. The murderer, Ingram Frizer, was quickly pardoned by Queen Elizabeth I and Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave. 1630- King Gustavus Adolphus gave an emotional farewell speech to the Swedish Diet as he prepared to leave with his army for Germany. He had pledged to take up the Protestant cause in the brutal Thirty Years War then raging across Europe. Gustavus won many victories but he never saw Sweden again because he was killed in battle at Lutzen in 1632. 1787- THE CRUCIAL VOTE in creating the U.S. Constitution. The delegates of the thirteen states (actually twelve, Rhode Island refused to participate) had originally come to Philadelphia to iron out some bugs in the system called the Articles of Confederation. On this day they were instead convinced to accept “the Virginia Plan” authored by James Madison and strongly backed by Alexander Hamilton. In effect, they voted to scrap the entire government used up till then and create a new strong central government with a two chamber Congress based on the Roman Senate and an elected chief magistrate called, at first, 'The Executive" and later the President. Later during a breakfast with Washington, Jefferson asked, “why did you agree to a two-house legislature?” Washington replied:” Why do you pour your tea on to your saucer?” To cool it” Jefferso[...]

May 29th, 2009 fri.

Fri, 29 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: To maintain their anonymity while based in a San Rafael industrial park, what did George Lucas' ILM call itself? Yesterday’s question answered below: True or False? Chop Suey was not invented in China. ---------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/29/2009 Birthdays: King Charles II Stuart (the "Merry Monarch"), John F. Kennedy, J.G. Chesterton, Patrick Henry, Oswald Spengler, T.H.White, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Josef Von Sternberg, LaToya Jackson, John Hinckley Jr., Al Unser Jr., Beatrice Lilly, Danny Elfman, Annette Benning, Melissa Etheridge, Rupert Everett, Bob Hope 526 AD -An earthquake destroyed the city of Antioch. Another major quake two years later caused rebuilding efforts to be abandoned. Once one of the largest cities in the ancient world, locals moved to the new settlement called Beirut. 1415- The Grand Council of churchmen at Constance trying to heal the Great Schism ordered the deposition of Pope John XXIII. John ran the Vatican like a mercenary captain, taxing everything including gambling and prostitution. It was said he had slept with 200 women including maids, matrons and nuns. He fled Constance disguised as a groom and was given sanctuary by Cosimo de Medici of Florence. Today he is counted an AntiPope, an illegal one, so Salvatore Roncalli in 1958 was given his number John XXIII. 1453- CONSTANTINOPLE CONQUERED BY THE TURKS- Sultan Mohammed II the "Scourge of Christendom" captured the capitol of the old Byzantine Empire. His great cherry wood cannons firing giant stone balls blew great holes in the city walls, proving the end of castles as serious defenses. When he knew the battle was lost, the Last Eastern Emperor of the Romans, Constantine XI Paleologus, sallied out sword in hand and went down fighting. His body was identified out of a pile of corpses only by the bejeweled purple shoes. As Mohammed II rode into the city in triumph he recited a Persian poem:" A spider weaves it's web in the palace of the Caesars, a shadow falls over the House of Amonhasarib". Legend has it that when he entered the great Basilica of Hagia Sophia he put is finger in a magic hole and caused the entire building to rotate and face Mecca. (?!) Except for Spain, Christian Europe hadn’t given much thought to expansionist Islam since the Crusades. Now Turkey became the number one threat for the next 300 years. The Byzantine Empire’s loss did have one beneficial effect on Western Europe. All the fleeing Greek scholars and scientists with their arms full of the works of Plato and Aristotle would settle in European capitols and help spark the Renaissance. 1606- Michel Caravaggio the artist shot a man over a tennis match. Caravaggio was a mad-artist before the term was invented. The police records of Rome show the master painter constantly in trouble, seducing man, woman and child, throwing rocks at soldiers, stabbing waiters, etc. 1765 - Patrick Henry historic speech against the Stamp Act, answering a cry of "Treason!" with, "[...]

May 28th,2009 thurs

Thu, 28 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: True or False? Chop Suey was not invented in China. Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: What is a Pyrrhic Victory? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 5/28/2009 Birthdays: Solomon -970 BC-?, Noah Webster, Dr. Joseph Guillotine, William Pitt the Younger, General Pierre Beauregard, Ian Fleming, Jim Thorpe, The Dion Identical Quintuplets 1930, Gladys Knight, Jerry West, Dietrich Fisher-Deiskau, Sandra Locke, T-Bone Walker, Taffy Abel (one of the first professional hockey stars), John Fogarty is 64. 1358-THE JACQUERIE- In the Middle Ages the oppression of the peasantry coupled with the Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War reaches the breaking point and major peasant revolts begin to break out across Europe. In Italy they’re called the Ciompi, in England Wat the Tyner’s revolt, and outbreak today in France was called the JACQUERIE (after "poor Jacques" or peasant). The outraged peasants burned manor homes and castles and massacred nobility without any real plan. To English and French knights class meant more than national feuds, so they took time out from their Hundred Years’ War to join together to chop up the uppity peasants. 1494- The official "birth" of Scotch - though it had been around for a long time, on this date, the Scottish Exchequer records a purchase of malt by a friar to make "aqua vitae", the first written reference to spirits in Scotland. Hoot Man! 1786- French explorer the Comte de Purvoise became the first European to set foot on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. "The climate of Mowhee is quite delightful." He wrote. Then spending only three days there he hurried his ship on to the Northwest coast of America. 1853- THE CRIMEAN WAR BEGAN- England and the French Empire declare War on Russia over Russia’s trying to beat up Turkey and annex the Bosphorus. England and Russia spent the nineteenth century in a tactical struggle for supremacy in Central Asia not unlike the Cold War the Soviet Union fought with America after World War Two. The name for the Anglo-Russian duel was "the Great Game". It only heated up once, producing such artifacts as the Charge of the Light Brigade, Balaclava Helmets and Florence Nightingale. Roger Fenton also followed the army to the Crimea as the first war-photographer. 1892- The Sierra Club formed. 1928 - Dodge Brothers Inc & Chrysler Corp merged. 1929 - 1st all color talking picture "On With the Show" exhibited (NYC). 1935- Tortilla Flat published. The first novel by John Steinbeck. 1941- THE WALT DISNEY STRIKE- Labor pressures had been building in the Magic Kingdom since promises made to artists over the success of Snow White were reneged on and Walt Disney’s lawyer Gunther Lessing encouraged a hard line with his employees. On this day, in defiance of federal law, Walt Disney fired animator Art Babbitt ,the creator of Goofy, and thirteen other cartoonists for demanding a union. Babbitt had emerged as the union movements’ lead[...]

May 27th, 2009 WEDS. STUDENT FILM MAKERS BEWARE!

Wed, 27 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Young Filmmakers Beware! It's fun to get your short film up on the web on sites like YouTube and let your friends across the country see it. I was talking today with members of the Board of Governors at the Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences. We were discussing the problem of young filmmakers who can't wait to get their short films up on the web. They told me that Academy rules state that if you put a short on the web, especially on a pay per view site, YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT ENTERING IT IN THE ACADEMY AWARDS AND STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS. To the Motion Picture Academy,being on the web is the same as running your movie on TV, which would also disqualify it. Films for Academy consideration first have to be shown in theaters or entered in film festivals that are academy sanctioned. Even then, some film festivals like to put the winners of their competition on the web. This would disqualify you too. Of course, if trying for an Oscar is not a priority to you, then do as you like. But if it is, please check Academy rules before you agree to let your film be put on line. http://www.oscars.org When I get more info, I'll pass it on. Meantime, good luck. I'd hate to see all your hopes and hard work be disqualified on a technicality. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Question: What is a Pyrrhic Victory? Yesterday’s Question: What is a Papist? ---------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/27/2009 Birthdays: James 'Wild Bill' Hickock, Julia Ward Howe, Aemelia Jenks-Bloomer, Dashiell Hammett, Vincent Price, Dr. Henry Kissinger is 86, Leopold Goldowsky (the inventor of Kodachrome film), Hubert H. Humphrey, Herman Wouk, Christopher Lee is 86, Harlan Ellison, Joseph Feinnes. Richard Schiff, Peri Gilpin, Paul Bettany is 38 595 a.d. Today is the Feast day of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, who saw children in the slave docket and when told 'Those are Angles"-The barbarian tribe that England is named for. Augustine replied: Non Sunt Anglicai, Sunt Angelis”- Those are not Angles, those are Angels". Augustine of Canterbury should not be confused with the Saint Augustine of Hippo, who wrote the Confessions and said:" Lord, help me to be Chaste.... But not just yet." 1647-The first witch execution in Salem Massachusetts. Contrary to popular perception, more witches were hanged or crushed with stones than burned. 1647- Peter Stuyversant inaugurated as Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam. The one legged old soldier was a staunch Calvinist who was sent to “clean up the town”. 1703- Czar Peter the Great laid the cornerstones for his new capitol Saint Petersburg. The Baltic Port was called at one time Petrograd and Leningrad but was changed back to the original name in 1989. It was the capitol until Lenin moved it back to Moscow in 1917. 1831- Mountain man explorer Jedediah Smith killed fighting Commanches. 1930- HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTCH TAPE -Chemist Richar[...]

May 26th, 2008 Tuesday

Tue, 26 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: What is a Papist? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Sometimes when discussing the politics of the last 8 years, you hear the term Bizzaro World. Who created that idea? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/26/2009 Birthdays: John Churchill the first Duke of Marlborough, Pope Clement VII the Medici Fox-1478, Mary Wollenstonecraft Godwin 1759- early feminist writer and mother of Mary Shelley, Alexander Pushkin, Isadora Duncan, Norma Talmadge, Paul Lukas, John Wesley Hardin the shootist, John Wayne- real name Marion Morrison, Al Jolson, Jay Silverheels (Tonto), Peter Cushing, Robert Morley, Peggy Lee, Sally Ride, Pam Grier, Helen Bonham Carter is 44, Bobcat Golthwaite, Frank Gladestone, Matt Stone the co creator of South Park 1805- Lewis and Clark sight the Rocky Mountains. 1828- THE MYSTERY OF KASPAR HAUSER- On this day on a street in Nuremberg a judge came upon a filthy boy unable to read, write or even speak. As the boy's trauma eased and he could communicate he said he had been kept in a dungeon since he was three years old, never seeing another human soul. One day he was suddenly released. His name was Kaspar Hauser and his case became a cause celebre throughout Europe. Some thought he was the rightful prince of the German State of Baden. Then one day while walking in the park a man came up and stabbed Kaspar Hauser. He bled to death. The judge who first cared for him was poisoned. The murderers were never found and the mystery never solved. 1865- Rebel General Simon Bolivar Buckner surrendered the last organized body of Confederate troops to Yankee General Canby in New Orleans. Rebel Gen. Joe Shelby rather than surrender took his cavalry over the border to Mexico where a Confederate exile community was forming under the Emperor Maximillian. 1896- Charles Dow started his stock index named the Dow Jones Index. The first Dow Jones closing is 40.94 1913- Actors Equity formed. 1933- Jimmy Rogers "the Singing Brakeman", considered the father of modern country music, died of tuberculosis at age 31. Shortly before his death he recorded a song about it called "TB Blues". 1937- The Battle of Millers Overpass- Henry Fords hired thugs beat up Walter Reuther and four other UAW union men for handing out union literature. 1940-The Miracle of Dunkirk- When German panzers overrun France they surround the British army and pin them against the Normandy coastline. Instead of finishing them off Marshal Goering asks Hitler's permission to use the Luftwaffe (airforce) to administer the coup de grace. Britain mobilized all available ships and hundreds of small boat owners volunteer to cross the channel under dive bombing and strafing and in ten days evacuate 340,000 troops. 40,000 stayed behind and surrendered. The British force was decimated but not destroyed and would live to fight again. 1949- Mao Tse Tung’s Red Army entered Shanghai, [...]

May 25th, 2009 monday.

Mon, 25 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Today at a National Cartoonists Society event I had the chance to shake hands with legendary old sports cartoonist Bill Gallo. I remember all his imaginative cartoons in the NY Daily News sports section. That moment and an interview asking me about my choice of comic books brought me back to a memory. Summer 1964,on a hot night my dad would take me for a walk a few blocks to the local Candy Store on the corner of Seaview Ave & Rockaway Parkway in Canarsie, Brooklyn. The candy store is a ubiquitous neighborhood institution that featured everything from a rootbeer float to cigarettes to milk to Good & Plenty candy. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, the floor sticky from spilled soda pop and echoing with the chatter of old men. But the center of this regional meeting house was the piles of newspapers and the comic book rack. In New York at the time you could choose the NY Times, the Herald Examiner, the NY Post or the Daily News. We were a Daily News family. My dad would get the evening edition of the News, a container of milk and a pack of unfiltered Camels, Kool cigarettes for mom, back home watching Ed Sullivan. Meanwhile I would be allowed to peruse the comic books, and get one or two at 12 cents each. I browsed through the rotating rack with the gravity of a judge at the Westminster Dog Show. Hmmm.... Spiderman vs. Green Goblin again, Fantastic Four vs Dr. Doom again, Double Issue of Hawkman and Green Lantern, and Our Army At War featuring Sgt Rock and the Haunted Tank. Cool! Only years later as a professional did I realize I was attracted by the drawing and inking techniques of John Buscema, Jack Kirby, and Joe Kubert. I think every animation person begins as a fan of cartoon art, and only later comes to analyze what he or she was intrigued by. I kept trying to copy the cross-hatching style,and that eye squint ------------------------------------------------------------ Quiz: Sometimes when discussing the politics of the last 8 years, you hear the term Bizzarro World. Who created that idea? Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: Who sang the solo vocal on the original theme song of Star Trek? ------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/25/2009 Birthdays: Miles Davis, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Josef Broz Tito, Igor Sikorsky, Pontormo, Bennett Cerf, Claude Akins, Leslie Uggams, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Beverly Sills-aka Bubbles Silverman, Anne Heche, Irwin Winkler, Mike Myers is 46, Ian McKellen is 70 1660-RESTORATION DAY- After Oliver Cromwell executed King Charles Ist, he declared the British Monarchy abolished, and ruled England with a junta of generals as Lord Protector. When Cromwell died of natural causes in 1659 he tried to elevate his son Richard Cromwell in his place. But the son is not the father. The rickety system didn’t work, and Richard earned the nickname “Tumbledown-Dick”. The generals led [...]

May 24th, 2009 sun The 63rd Reuben Awards

Sun, 24 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

The National Cartoonist Society Reuben Awards held at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel were a great success. The award has been given since 1946 to all the tops in cartooning art. Think of it like the Pulitzers of toontown. 380 of the most famous cartoonists from all over North America and even Australia were at the black tie event. Congratulations to Dave Coverly, who won top honors as Cartoonist of the Year. A big shout out also to my friend Mort Gerberg of the New Yorker, for winning Best Gag Cartoon. Animation was certainly the talk of the weekend, as many popular strips in fading daily newspapers are looking to get their stuff animated on the web. Representing the art of animation was Glen Keane, Eric Goldberg, Bert Klein, Stephen Silver, David Silverman, Chad Frye and myself. Eric and Burt are on terrible deadline OT to finish Princess and the Frog, but they still attended. Unfortunately as far as we could see, none of the nominees or winners from TV or Feature animation categories had made it. While other cartoonists tearful thanked their families and friends and said this was the proudest day of their lives, when the animation winners were announced, there were long periods of silence, no one was there to accept them. In past years we've had to defend the animation categories from those in the NCS who wanted to drop them, figuring the Annies are enough for us. So its' going to be hard to explain this year when we do the post mortem. Next time if you know you can't make it, please try to arrange for someone to go up and accept on your behalf. As a proud animator, I hope we in animation make a better showing next year, so as not to spoil it for future winners. -------------------------------------------------- Quiz: Who sang the solo vocal on the original theme song of Star Trek? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Why is Memorial Day in the US celebrated at the end of May, while England and Canada celebrate it in November? ---------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/24/2009 Birthdays: Jean Paul Marat, Queen Victoria, Walt Whitman, Emmanuel Leutze, Bob Dylan by 68, Gary Burghoff, Priscilla Presley is 64, Patti LaBelle, Tommy Chong of Cheech & Chong, Frank Oz, Jim Broadbent is 60, Alfred Molina is 56, Kristin Scott Thomas is 49, Ray Stephenson is 45 1429- Near Champagne, Joan of Arc was pulled off her horse and captured by the Burgundians. The independent Duchy of Burgundy then was the area where Belgium and Lorraine are today. They sold her to the English, who put her on trial as a witch. The French king, Charles VI, whom Joan had re-conquered half of France for, did absolutely nothing to help or ransom her, as was the custom with noble prisoners. She was tortured and burned at the stake. While other kings are nicknamed Lion Heart or The Great, Charles VI nickname is Charles "The Well-Serv[...]

May 23rd, 2009 sat. LITTLE MERMAID PANEL

Sat, 23 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

We all had a great time at The Little Mermaid at 20 panel for ASIFA/Hollywood. A sell out audience at Woodbury University watched a panel I hosted consisting of JOHN MUSKER & RON CLEMENTS, who wrote and directed, MARK HENN who was the animator of Ariel along with Glen Keane ( Glen is in Europe), ANDREAS DEJA who animated King Triton, RUEBEN AQUINO who did Ursula, DUNCAN MARJORIBANKS who created Sebastian, RICK FAMILOE who animated on Scuttle, MIKE PERAZA who was the art director, and TINA PRICE who was instrumental in the development of Disney's computer efforts and CAPS painting system ( Mermaid was the last traditionally painted ink & paint feature. The last shot of the film was the very first digitally painted shot.) A number of other crew veterans like KATHY ZIELINSKI( Ursula's spell casting),JOERIN KLUBIEN (animator), BOB LAMBERT (music production), my wife PAT SITO( checking), BILL MATTHEWS ( training) were in attendance as well. Woodbury's animation chair DORI LITTEL-HERRICK also worked on the film. I know a dozen other animators equally deserving of being up on the stage like Dave Stefan, Russ Edmonds, Matt O'Callaghan, Tony Fucile and Will Finn and more. Sorry gang, you can kick my butt when you see me, but I had to limit the crowd up there. I was pleased to see many of my students there. There was a fun intermingling with the filmmakers afterwards. Lots of great stories about the making of the film were told, John Musker was particularly eloquent, but we all got some good stuff in. ( And YES, we did bring up the Priest with the stiffy! It's his knees, get your mind out of the gutter!) I wish all my old Mermaid crew-mates a hearty CONGRATS! on our little Ariel, still enchanting twenty years later. And happy memories of when we all went UNDA' DA SEA.. -------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: Why is Memorial Day in the US celebrated at the end of May, while England and Canada celebrate it in November? YESTERDAYS Quiz answered below: What movie ends with the line:” Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown….” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/23/2009 Birthdays: Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Scatman Crowthers, Rosemary Clooney, Artie Shaw, ,Alicia de Larrocha, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Dr. Robert Moog –inventor of the first Music Synthesizer, Drew Carey is 51, Joan Collins is 76 Today in ancient Rome was the feast of Vulcan. 1498- In Florence mystic monk Savonarola was hanged and his body burned for defying the Pope and Church. Artists Michelangelo Buonarrotti, Sandro Botticelli and Luigi Della Robbia were admirers of his. Among his reforms were to hold a large Bonfire of the Vanities. 1533- King Henry VIII of England has his first wife Catharine of Aragon's marriage to him annulled. Henry's interest in m[...]

May 22nd, 2009 fri.

Fri, 22 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What movie ends with the line:” Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown….” Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Name the Three Musketeers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/22/2009 Birthdays: Sir Lawrence Olivier, Mary Cassatt, Richard Wagner, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, T. Bone Pickens, Judith Christ, Irene Pappas, Paul Winfield, Richard Benjamin, Susan Strassberg, Paul Winchell, Tommy John, Naomi Cambell 337AD Emperor Constantine the Great, who raised Christianity from an illegal cult to the official religion of the Roman Empire, died after a ruling for 37 years. For some odd reason he himself didn't accept baptism until on his deathbed. His coins had Christ on one side and Sol Invictus, the Imperial Sun god on the other. To maintain order in the Empire until his son Constantius could be contacted and safely installed as leader in Constantinople, the embalmed corpse of Constantine continued to receive ambassadors and preside over meetings until that winter. 1276- Today is the feast day of Saint Humility of Faenza, a nun who insisted she be bricked up into her cell with only a hole cut for food, water and to hear Mass and slept on her knees. After twelve years of this she was talked out of her cell to become an abbess. 1761-The first life insurance policy issued in the U.S. 1782- In a letter to one of his officers George Washington rejected the calls to declare him King of the United States. " It pains me to hear such ideas are circulating within the army. I regard such ideas with horror and condemn it severely. It seems pregnant with the greatest misfortunes that could ever befall our country." 1800- The US Congress disbanded the US Army as being unnecessary and expensive. We would make do with militia to deal with Indians and a coast guard. 1843- Wagons Ho! The Great Emigration- One of the largest wagon trains ever formed set out from Independence Missouri to the new Oregon Territory. Thousands of settlers driving a thousand head of cattle set off along the Oregon Trail. 1854- The NEBRASKA COMPROMISE-One of many stop-gap legislative measures to try to stall the Civil War a few more years. In an attempt to keep the balance between slave states and free states entering the Union Whig Congressmen strike a deal where Kansas and Nebraska could decide for themselves whether they wanted to enter the union as free or slave states. Nobody was pleased with this deal. Guerrilla war broke out in Kansas and the Whig party disintegrated from dissent. The dissident Whig politicians like Freemont and Lincoln soon formed a new political party. At first called the Anti-Nebraska Men, they later became the Black-Republicans or simply Republicans. 1856- San Francisco City supervisor James Casey was hanged by San Francisco City Vi[...]

May 21st,2009 thurs.

Thu, 21 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

I heard the other day about the passing of Wayne Allwine at age 62. Wayne was the third person to be the official voice of Mickey Mouse, and by coincidence he was married to the official voice of Minnie, Russi Taylor. I knew Wayne from Roger Rabbit and Prince and the Pauper. He was a big, sweet man, who took his job very seriously. I will miss him. My condolences to his family. ------------------------------------- Quiz: Name the Three Musketeers. Yesterday’s Question: Where does Denim come from? -------------------------------------------------------------- history for 5/21/2009 Birthdays: Plato, Fats Waller, Albrecht Durer, Andre Sakharov, Armand Hammer, Raymond Burr, John Hubley, Dennis Day, Minn Senator Al Franken is 58, Harold Robbins, Judge Reinhold, Larry Terro called Mr. T. is 57 Happy Ascension Day- This is the traditional day in the Republic if Venice when the Doge led a huge floating procession on board his huge golden barge the Bucintoro. At sea he ceremoniously tossed a golden ring into the water, signifying Venice was married to the sea. 1420- After the great victory of Agincourt King Henry V of England and King Charles VI the Mad of France conclude a peace treaty at Troyes. Harry of England would marry the French king's daughter and become heir. But Henry's early death from dysentery at 35 canceled these plans. That would have been an early end to the Hundred Years War, making it the 75 Years War. 1471- King Henry VI of Lancaster had been captured in the battle of Tewkesbury when he was defeated in the War of the Roses. On this day the prisoner-king was slain in the Tower of London while at prayers. Many say he was done in by King Edward IV hunchbacked brother Richard of Gloucester (later Richard III). To this day the spot where the king was murdered is covered with flowers every May 21st. 1506-Christopher Columbus died. Bitter, forgotten, watching other people take credit for his discoveries. He still believed he had discovered the outer islands of Asia. 1540- Hernand DeSoto discovered the Mississippi River, the "Father of the Waters." 1542- Hernand DeSoto's yellow fever ridden body is dumped in the Mississippi to keep it from being violated by outraged Indians. 1661- BLIMEY! TEA COMES TO ENGLAND- King Charles II of England the Merry Monarch, married Catherine of Braganza, the Princess of Portugal. Her dowry included Tangiers and Bombay India. Poor Catherine never gave Charles any children, and she had to endure his constant philandering with a steady stream of mistresses. But she did introduce Britain to a new custom. She preferred drinking tea to the more traditional English Ale. Soon everyone had to have some. 1674- COSSACKS AND BAGELS- Hetman of the Ukraine Jan III Sobieski crowned king of Poland. He replaced King Michael Wisn[...]

May 20th, 2009 weds

Wed, 20 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Congratulations to my UCLA students Joaquin Baldwin, who won a Student Academy Award for his film SEBASTIAN'S VOODOO. And to Robyn Yannoukos who won an alternate for her film ALICES' ATTIC. -------------------------------------------- Question: What is the origin of Denim? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is an agent-provocateur?? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/20/2009 Birthdays: Honore Balzac, Jimmy Stewart, Leon Schlesinger, William Fargo of Wells Fargo, Moshe Dayan, Henri Rousseau, Dave Thomas, Ted Bessell (Donald to Marlo Thomas’ “That Girl”), Japanese baseball great Sadaharu Oh, Antony Zerbe- the badguy vampire in the Omega Man, Bronson Pichot, Joe Cocker, Cher is 63, Busta Rhymes 1347- Cola di Rienzi became the “tribune” or leader of the city of Rome. The Pope was a prisoner in Avignon so the Eternal City was in chaos. Rienzi tried to bring about reforms and restore infrastructure but like Mussolini he eventually got too arrogant and overplayed his hand. A mob slaughtered him and danced with his corpse. The main thing Rienzi is remembered for today is giving his name to an early overture by Wagner and to Gen. Phil Sheridan’s horse. 1520- A violent young Spanish mercenary soldier named Ignacio was hit by a cannonball. When he recovered he underwent a spiritual conversion and became St. Ignatius Loyola. Loyola founded a religious order called the Society of Jesus or Jesuits. Instead of acting like monks the Jesuits were organized on military discipline. Their leader is not called an abbot but the Secretary General. He is nicknamed “the Black Pope”. 1520- Hernando Cortez had not only to fight the entire Aztec Empire with just 391 troops, he also had the Spanish Governor of Cuba out to get him! This day Cortez surprised attacked the troop of Spaniards sent to arrest him. After a short battle he defeated the Governor’s force, and invited the survivors to join him. 1621- The Sack of Magdeburg-During the Thirty Years War Catholic armies captured this Protestant German city. They stabbed the surrendering Dutch commander Dietrich Von Falkenberg and committed horrible atrocities on the population. The medieval cry "Cria Havoc!" was the signal for the pent up soldiers to run amuck. According to the rules of war they have the right to rape, pillage and destroy for three days then discipline is restored. But at Magdeburg they burned the city down and for 14 days the victors dumped the bodies of the innocent in the Elbe River. The army’s commander Johan Tserclas von Tilly explained: “ The soldier must get something for his toil and trouble.” The incident galvanized Protestant resistance. Ironically a lot of the troops in the Catholic army[...]

May 19th,2009 tues

Tue, 19 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: What is an agent-provocateur? Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: We speak of enlightened laws, that Americas founders were men of the Enlightenment. What does that mean? -------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/19/2009 Birthdays: Malcolm X- real name Malcolm Little, Ho Chi Minh- real name Ngyun Tat Tanth- Ho Chi Minh means the Enlightener, Giovanni Della Robbia, John Hopkins, Lord Waldorf Astor, Dame Nelly Melba –Australian opera singer for whom Melba Toast, Peach Melba and the cocktail the "Manhattan" were created, Frank Capra, Wilson Mizner, Elena Poniatowska, Jim Lehrer, Nora Ephron, Grace Jones, Peter Mayhew, Nancy Kwan, Pete Townshend, Pol Pot, Joey Ramone, Jimmy Hoffa Jr., and Tom Sito, aka me, your author. 988-Today is the Feast of Saint Dunstan, who pulled the Devil’s nose with hot tongs. 1536- Anne Boleyn-King Henry VIII's second queen, was beheaded not by axe but by a French swordsman with a sort of golf-swing. The king was playing tennis at Hampton Court. He had a relay signal of cannons fired from the Tower of London so he would know the minute he was single again. 1571- Spaniard Miguel Lopez de Lagazpi founded the city of Manila. 1586- Fleeing her rebellious nobles, Mary Queen of Scots crossed the border into England and threw herself upon the mercy of Queen Elizabeth, who promptly locked her up. 1635- Cardinal Richelieu confuses the religious nature of the Thirty Years War by putting Catholic France on the Protestant side. His eminence, the Cardinal, didn’t care a figgy about religious issues, he just wanted to break the power of Hapsburg Spain. 1643- The separate Anglo-American colonies of Plymouth, Connecticut, New Harbor and Massachusetts Bay form an association called New England. 1649- Oliver Cromwell’s victorious Puritan Parliament declared the British Monarchy extinct. England was to be a Commonwealth. They also stipulated that all nobles who had been for the King in the just-completed Civil Wars would be tax assessed to one-half the value of their properties. This tax drove many cash poor noble families to emigrate to American where they set up homes in Virginia- The Washingtons, Lees, Randolphs, Livingstons and Madisons. In the US Civil War many southerners flattered themselves as being the descendents of the Cavaliers and the Yankees of New England the heirs of the Puritan Roundheads. 1798- Napoleon embarks to invade Egypt, trying to thereby cut off England's easy access to India and if possible conquering his way across Turkey and Persia to join forces with Tippoo Sahib, the Indian Sultan fighting against British rule. On the boat to pass the time Nappy played cards with his generals. Everyone noticed he was cheatin[...]

May 17, 2009 mon

Sun, 17 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What country was known to Medieval Europeans as the Magical Kingdom of Cathay? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What book is Disney’s film The Lion King based on? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/17/2009 Birthdays: Sandro Botticelli, Eric Satie, Ayatollah Khomeni, Edmond Jenner, Archibald Cox, Sugar Ray Leonard, Maureen O'Sullivan, Bill Paxton is 54, Dennis Hopper is 73, Enya is 48- born Eithne Patricia Ni’ Bhraonain 1204- The Fourth Crusade captured the city of Constantinople (Istanbul). The Crusaders decided to blame the Greeks for their failure to keep Jerusalem and the Holy Land so they sent a crusade just to get them. This Crusade was backed by the growing merchant naval powers like Venice, Genoa and Pisa who saw the Byzantines as a commercial competitor. They stormed the unconquerable city and killed the Emperor Constantine VIII Paleologus called Mourzufle "Fuzzy" by hurling him off a high column. The Republic of Venice plundered many treasures to adorn their Cathedral of San Marco back home, including the four bronze horses that had adorned the Hippodrome. In the weeks of destruction and pillage that followed many priceless works of art were lost, including only remaining copies of a dozen plays of Sophocles, leaving only the four we have now. The Doge of Venice Enrico Dandolo had a horror of dying in bed. So he was in the first assault boat to attack the city's walls even though he was 81 and blind. He survived the arrows, spears; catapult stones and boiling oil, and died in bed anyway. 1488- Vasco DeGama reached India from sailing around the horn of Africa. This fulfilled the master plan of Prince Henry the Navigator to outflank the Moslem world, providing an alternative to the ancient Silk Road land route caravans that connected the world’s trade. It was the beginning of the Age of Exploration and the rise of Western Europe to world domination. Both Columbus and Magellan learned their stuff studying in Prince Henry’s Portugal. Ironically legend has it that DeGama’s navigator was an Arab. A previous Portuguese navigator named Diaz had actually rounded the African continent before DeGama but his men were so freaked out that they mutinied and made him go home, so he got no credit. 1673- French Explorers Father Marquette and Joliet set out from Green Bay, Wisconsin to explore the Mississippi. The missionary made only one baptism but he said that alone made the trip worthwhile. 1792- In New York twenty-four investors meet under a buttonwood tree on the street where the old city wall once stood and formed the first New York Stock Exchange. Then they all went to the Merchant’s Coff[...]

May 16th, 2009 Saturday.

Sat, 16 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What book is Disney’s film The Lion King based on? Answer to Yesterday’s Question below: The Cohen Bros’ movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou ( 2000), was based on what book? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 5/16/2009 Birthdays: Lily Pons, Richard Tauber, Henry Fonda, Liberace- real name Wladziu Valentine Liberace, Jan Kiepura, Edmund Kirby-Smith, Gabriela Sabbatini, Thurman Thomas, Margaret Sullivan, Olga Korbut- the original adorable 16 year old Olympic Gold Medal gymnast, Debra Winger is 54, Tori Spelling, Janet Jackson is 43, Woody Herman, Studs Terkel, Pierce Brosnan is 56, Megan Fox is 23 218 A.D.- Elagabulus hailed Roman Emperor by the Eastern Legions. During the long succession of Roman emperors many usurpers and mercenaries would try and prove a tenuous family link to Julius Caesar or Augustus for legitimacy. Elagabulus was the son of an Egyptian prostitute and had no idea who his father was. So he declared himself divinely conceived by the Sun god, Helios -hence Helio-gabulus. He liked to remove all his body hair with depilatories and proclaim to the startled Imperial Court: "Address me not as Lord, for I am a Lady!" 1571- By his own calculations, Astronomer Johannes Kepler was conceived at 4:37 AM. 1717- A Lettre du Cachet was issued to arrest young writer Voltaire. They locked him up in the Bastille for writing satires critical of the King’s government. He was not allowed to take anything but his clothes, and his mistress Suzanne De Livry consoled herself by promptly jumping into bed with his best friend. Philosopher Voltaire was philosophical: ” We must put up with these bagatelles.” 1763- James Boswell was drinking tea in Samuel Davis’ London bookshop when he first met Dr. Samuel Johnson. The two great men of letters became lifelong friends and Boswell’s biography of Dr Johnson became a literary classic. 1770- Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette marry. Louis was 15 and Marie was 14. Louis was just Duc' du Berry and never expected to become king until both his father and older brother died before grandpa King Louis XV. But Louis was unable to consummate their marriage because of an obstruction in his foreskin that caused him great pain. It took seven years and a painful operation before they could create any children. During that time the vivacious but undoubtedly frustrated Marie-Antoinette would put her dull husband to bed early and party all night with others. 1866- Congress authorized the creation of a new 5 cent coin, which because of it’s metal content people called the Nickel. 1868-The IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT -President Andrew Johnson survived a Senate[...]

May 15th, 2009 fri.

Fri, 15 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: The Cohen Bros’ movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou ( 2000), was based on what book? Yesterday’s question answered below: What is a jackdaw? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/15/2009 Birthdays: Lyman Frank Baum, Claudio Monteverdi, Richard Avedon, James Mason, Joseph Cotten, George Brett, Jasper Johns, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Jean Renoir, Richard Daley Sr., Trini Lopez, Charles Lamont, director of Abbott & Costello Go to Mars, country singer Eddy Arnold, Chaz Palmintieri is 57, Lainie Kazan is 69, Disney artist Joe Grant The Roman Festival of Mercury, the Mercuralia- God of business, profit, orators, professional athletes and travelers. Businessmen and athletes would go to the sacred well of Mercury on the Aventine Hill, and sprinkle water on themselves to ensure good luck. 1248- Bishop Otto Von Hochstaden laid the cornerstone for the great DOM Cathedral of Cologne (Koln) 1577- The Great Orgy of Chenonceaux. Wild party at the French Royal Palace gardens with nude ladies cavorting with cross dressing knights and all such goings on. Historians like Barbara Tuchman speculate that queen mother Catherine de Medici threw this kind of party for her son King Henry III because the monarch showed no interest in his Queen but hung around with his male courtiers, his "mingons"-darlings. She figured by placing scores of scantily clad damsels around the palace grounds perhaps the King would see that girls are fun too and he should try some and make some heirs to the throne. If this was the reason for the party it didn't work. The king spent the evening in drag and there were no royal princes at the time of the king's death. Most gay monarchs like Frederick the Great of Prussia and Edward II of England understood that your personal tastes aside, part of your job was to make an heir. 1602 - Cape Cod discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold. 1702- Charles Perrault, who wrote stories under the name Mother Goose, died. 1800-At a performance at London's Old Drury Lane Theatre, a man rose from the audience and fired two pistols at King George III. They both miss and the assassin was dragged off. The King not only insists that the show go on but even doses off during the second act. 1863- Edouard Manet first displayed his Dejeuner sur l’Herbe at the Salon des Refuses in Paris. The painting is of two modern clothed men having a picnic with two nude women by a river bank. The women aren’t mythical goddesses or muses but just naked ladies. This shocked Paris society and Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugene called it “Immodest and obscene”.It’s revolut[...]

May 14th, 2009 thurs- Tone Does It!

Thu, 14 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

My dear old comrade Tony Fucile has debuted his children's book Let's Do Nothing! At Walt Disney Tony did Flounder on Little Mermaid, Hogarth in the Iron Giant, Phoebus on Hunchback, and was a main animator at PIXAR on the Incredibles. Go get a copy! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: What is a jackdaw? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In the Old West, why were dollars referred to as Shin Plasters? ------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 5/14/2009 Birthdays: Thomas Gainsborough, George Lucas , Thomas Wedgewood, Francesca Annis, David Byrne, Jack Bruce, Bobby Darin, Tim Roth is 48, Robert Zemeckis is 58, Kate Blanchett is 40 Roman festival of the Avral Brethren, a ceremony where straw puppets are thrown into the river to bless Father Tiber. (perhaps it's an adaptation of a more primitive human sacrifice?) 1264-BATTLE OF LEWES- Rebel earls of Sussex and Simon de Monfort defeated and captured King Henry III and the Prince of Wales -Edward Longshanks. These barons compelled extensions to liberties that began with Magna Carta and created the House of Commons. The Prince eventually gets loose and kills de Monfort and Sussex but can’t stop the growth of representative parliament. 1525 - Great German peasant revolt under Thomas of Munzer was crushed at the battle of Bad Frankenhausen. Munzer was a devotee of reformer Martin Luther and he became a folk hero for trying to extend Luther’s concepts of spiritual freedom to political freedom. Martin Luther himself was horrified by the violence of the revolt and denounced it. Finally a powerful coalition of the Elector Dukes of Hesse, Saxony and Brunswick raised a big army of knights and went city by city suppressing the revolt with great massacre. Munzers group was destroyed at Bad Frankenhausen Thomas Munzer was ordered broken on the wheel and beheaded by the vengeful German nobles. So many common people were being put to the sword, that the Imperial Diet at Augsburg warned that if the nobles killed all their peasants, who would be left to do the work and pay taxes? 1667- At this time, the sailors of the English Navy were only paid once a month. During the Dutch Wars, an incident happened when the loyal sailors were told after several months of hard fighting, that their fun loving King Charles II didn't have any money left in his treasury to pay them. The tars were so angry, scores of them deserted to the enemy. They guided Dutch Admiral De Ruyter's fleet right up the Thames where they could burn the docks of Greenwich, within sight of King Charles' palace. 1787- Sho[...]

May 13th, 2009 weds

Wed, 13 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: In the Old West, why were dollars referred to as Shin Plasters?? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What was the name of the character Humphrey Bogart played in his breakout film The Petrified Forrest? --------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/13/2009 Birthdays: St. Sergius of Radonez 1314, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Cyrus McCormick, Stevie Wonder, George Braque, Daphne DuMaurier, Joe Louis, Richie Valens, Gil Evans, Beatrice Arthur, Peter Gabriel, Harvey Keitel, Dennis Rodman, Clive Barnes. In ancient Rome this was the Liberalia, Festival of the gods of the Grape- Liber and Liberia. As part of the fertility theme people waved little carved phalluses or wore them around their necks to parties. In a mime show, the comedian waving a large rubber phallus with bells was called a Stupidus, the origin of the word stupid. Putting a big stone phallus in your garden was a sure way to make your flowers bloom. ……..Is Martha Stewart reading this? 1610- French King Henry IV Bourbon was stabbed to death by Ravaillac the mad monk. Catholic fanatics were furious with him for ending the Religious Wars in France by granting freedom of worship to all. Ravaillac leapt up onto the running board of the King’s carriage and thrust at him with his knife through the carriage window. His Queen Marie De Medici, the fat lady Rubens painted so many triumphant pictures of, succeeded Henry. 1637-French Cardinal Richelieu threw a dinner where he introduced a novel invention- a Fork. He had each place at the table set with a fork, a spoon and a table knife. For the first time guests didn't have to whip out their own blade to cut their food. 1794-FOUNDING FATHERS SOAP OPERA- Dolly Madison writes in her diary today that if she was ever to die she would want her child raised by Aaron Burr (Vice President, two time presidential candidate, assassin of Alexander Hamilton and acquitted of treason.-). She was a 26 year old widowed mother at the time but according to both friend and foe she was a ravishing Ultra-Babe. Much writing of the time criticized her immodestly low necklines and flirtatious demeanor around men. She knew most of the Founding Fathers and in four months would marry powerful senator James Madison author of the Bill of Rights and the original 40-year-old virgin. Ironically Burr introduced them to each other. 1846-THE U.S. DECLARES WAR ON MEXICO- The U.S had claimed the border of it’s new state of Texas was the Rio Grande, Mexico said it was the Rio Nueces. When American General Zachary Taylor was ordered to march his army into the disputed area [...]

May 12th, 2009 tues

Tue, 12 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What was the name of the character Humphrey Bogart played in his breakout film The Petrified Forrest? Yesterday’s Question Answered below: One or two American Presidents went back to Congress after leaving office. How many British Prime Ministers went back to the benches after their term is over? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/12/2009 Birthdays: Dolly Madison, Daniel Rossetti, Frank Stella, Florence Nightingale, Tom Snyder, George Carlin, Wilfred Hyde-White, Emilio Estevez, Howard K. Smith, Ron Zeigler, Farley Mowatt, Ving Rhames, Bruce Boxleitner, Katherine Hepburn, Yogi Berra 1463-B.C.- THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON- Egyptian Pharoah Thutmoses III defeated a coalition of Canaanite princes at an outpost fort named Ha-Megiddo. This fort was the intersection of several roads that led south through the Lebanon mountains into Palestine and so for centuries was known for all the vicious battles and invasions that occurred there. When Saint John wrote of the final battle in Book of the Apocalypse he said it would be as terrible as one fought at Ha-Meggido or Armageddon. 1775- During the American Revolution a New York mob carrying clubs and torches broke onto the campus of King’s College determined to lynch it’s president Miles Cooper, who was an outspoken loyalist. The mob was stopped on the steps of Cooper’s home by student Alexander Hamilton. While Cooper watched from the second story window. Cooper was hard of hearing and he thought the troublemaker Hamilton was the instigator of the mob. So while Hamilton begged the mob not to kill his college President Cooper yelled down:” DON’T LISTEN TO HIM! HE’S A BLOCKHEAD!” Despite this Miles Cooper got away unharmed and Kings College name was changed to Columbia University. 1796- Napoleon's French Republican Army occupied the city of Venice and destroyed the last traces of the independent Venetian Republic 'La Serenissima" The Most Surene Republic. The Last Doge Daniele Manin was forced to abdicate and his Byzantine crown and trappings of office were burned, along with his famous gilded barge, the 'Boucintoro'. Venice, an independent city-state since 976AD was going to be part of Italy whether she liked it or not! 1809- Napoleon’s heavy cannon- called Napoleon’s Daughters- began bombarding the Austrian capitol Vienna. Beethoven hid in a cellar. A cannonball fell near composer Franz Josef Haydn’s house but the octogenarian composer comforted his friends:” Children don’t be frightened; Where Papa Haydn is, no harm can c[...]

May 11, 2009 mon Sebastian's Voodoo

Mon, 11 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Today I heard one of my UCLA animation students, Joaquin Baldwin, has had his film SEBASTIAN'S VOODOO accepted at the Cannes Film Festival! He worked on it in class and it was a joy giving him notes on it. I am very proud of Joaquin! Congratulations! And thank you Melissa Graziano for making me aware of this. It is running in a competition sponsored by the National Filmboard of Canada. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Event: Support Bruin Joaquin Baldwin's animated film at CANNES "Vote Online!!" What: Exhibit Host: CANNES SHORT FILM CORNER ONLINE Start Time: Saturday, May 9 at 4:00pm End Time: Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00pm Where: http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.pixelnitrate.com/ To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below: http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=93719042648&mid=71c22fG47ad29adG334832G7 Another one of my students, Imran Shafi, has a film in the finals of the Student Academy Awards. Congratulations! -------------------------------------------------------------- Question: One or two American Presidents went back to Congress after leaving office. How many British Prime Ministers went back to the benches after their term is over? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is the difference between Beijing, Peking and Peiping? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 5/11/2009 Birthdays: Salvador Dali', Jean Jerome, Chang and Eng Bunker-the original Siamese Twins-1811, Baron Munchausen, Irving Berlin, King Oliver, Martha Graham, Dr Richard Fenyman, Mort Sahl, Phil Silvers, Foster Brooks, Denver Pyle, Henry Morgenthau, Doug McClure, Randy Quaid, Natasha Richardson, Rev Louis Farrakhan 330 A.D. Constantine the Great founded his city of New Rome, called Constantinople on the site of an older Greek city called Byzantium. The Russians call it Tsargrad, the Turks Istambul or "The City". A favorite ethnic joke of the ancients was how the people of Chalcedon had migrated right past this perfect natural harbor and central location to build their city in a flat, arid desert. So to be" as dumb or blind as a Chalcadonian" was a surefire laugh getter in Athens or Sparta. 1189- German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (red-beard) led 100,000 Crusaders out of Regensburg towards the Holyland. Two thirds of them never came home. 1780- A RUDE SHOCK TO THE INDEPENDENCE OF AMERICA.- That was how it was described by a Tory minister back in London, when the British Army captured the last major American seapor[...]

May 10th, 2008 sun.

Sun, 10 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What is the difference between Beijing, Peking and Peiping? Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who were the parents of Robin the Boy Wonder? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/10/2009 Birthdays: Fred Astaire, Sir Arthur Lipton (inventor of the teabag), Nancy Walker, French royal minister Turgot, Marshal Jean Lannes, Marshal Nicolas Davout, John Wilkes Booth (assassin of Lincoln) Mark David Chapman (assassin of John Lennon), David O. Selznick, Ariel Durant, Jim Abrahams, Donovan, Homer Simpson, Bono Happy Mothers' Day in the USA, see 1908 below. 1650- The British take Jamaica from the Spanish. At this time Britons were discovering the delights of a new condiment made on that island- sugar! 1748- English slave trader John Newton’s ship was caught in a violent Mid Atlantic storm and was about to go under. When Newton prayed to God he would reform his life if he made it through this gale, the storm broke. Newton not only stopped his slave trading ways but he wrote a hymn, Amazing Grace. "Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art, to Save a Wretch Like Me! I was lost, but now I’m found, etc." 1774- King Louis XV of France died. Before he died he muttered "apres moi, le deluge.." after me, the deluge. His grandson the Duke du Berry became King Louis XVI. 1775- FT. TICONDEROGA- Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen surprise the great fortress in the dead of night and capture the cannons Washington needed to drive the British out of Boston. 20 years earlier the British took huge losses taking that same fort from the French. All the British commander lost this time was his trousers, he was captured in his nightclothes. As Allen and Arnold woke him he scowled: "By who's authority do you do this?" Allen retorted: " In the name of Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" 1796- THE BATTLE OF LODI- The Austrian Army in Italy attempted to slow Napoleons pursuit of them by blocking a bridge with 14 cannon and daring the French to cross. This is where the beginning of Napoleons legend among his men starts to form. He whips up the confidence of his men to the point where they enthusiastically rush across the bridge and overrun the cannon. Even though Napoleon is the army’s commander he is out in front sharing the danger from shot and shell sighting his cannon like a corporal. This is when men start to call him "The Little Corporal". He later told a friend’ They haven’t seen anything yet." Another older general said:" You know, tha[...]

May 09th, 2008 sat.

Sat, 09 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Who were the parents of Robin the Boy Wonder? Yesterday’s Question: the Chase Bank is currently going national, eating up Washington Mutual and Wachovia Banks. How old is Chase Bank? ------------------------------------------------------------ History for 5/9/2009 Birthdays: John Brown- who's body lies a' mouldering in the grave, James Barrie the creator of Peter Pan, Henry J. Kaiser of Kaiser Aluminum, Glenda Jackson is 73, Billy Joel, Candice Bergen is 63, Mike Wallace is 91, Pancho Gonzales, James L. Brooks, John Corbet is 48, Rosario Dawson, Albert Finney is 73 -------------------------------------------------------- To the ancient Romans this was the Lemuria, the Festival of Death . Like the ancient Greek Anthesterion in February the Lemuria was a deal made with the Underworld that the dearly departed were allowed to visit the surface world and you should leave your door open and leave out food for them. This way they won't haunt you and you'll have good luck all year. At sunset tomorrow the head of the house (Pater Familias) walks through the house hitting a little bronze gong, he throws a handful of black beans over his shoulder and chants 'With These Beans I Redeem Myself and My Family. O Shades of My Ancestors Depart ! Lemuria has Ended!' 1754- THE FIRST NEWSPAPER CARTOON- Ben Franklin in his Pennsylvania Gazette prints a drawing of a segmented snake with each piece named for a colony with the inscription: Join or Die. ( Okay, it's not Calvin and Hobbs but it's a start). 1775-LUMBERJACKS ATTACK THE ROYAL NAVY- One of the stranger engagements of the American Revolution. Captain Henry Mowat, RN, anchored his warship off Falmouth Maine (present day Portland) to reassert Royal authority on the Maine seacoast. Suddenly several little boats rowed out to his ship. At first he thought they were royalists come out to greet him. But when they scampered up on board he saw they were Maine lumberjacks wielding their huge double bladed axes. Mowat and his startled crew surrendered and were roughly taken into custody. It was the first time a warship was ever captured by axe. The Maine men, not having any central authority or instructions about what exactly to do with prisoners eventually let them go. Once back on his ship Capt. Mowat ‘s revenge was to haul off and bombard the town with red-hot cannonballs, burning the town of Falmouth to the ground. The incident created a violent resentment in the colonies, many of whom still hoped for eventual reconciliat[...]

May 08th, 2008 fri.

Fri, 08 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: the Chase Bank is currently going national, eating up Washington Mutual and Wachovia Banks. How old is Chase Bank? Yesterday’s Quiz Answered Below: You may have heard the name The Robber Barons, but who were they? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/8/2009 Birthdays: Harry Truman, Roberto Rossellini, Leopold Bakhunin, Louis Gottschalk, Oscar Hammerstein, Ted Sorenson, Sonny Liston, Toni Tennille, Ricky Nelson, Peter Benchley, Thomas Pinchon, David Attenborough, Keith Jarrett, Alex Van Halen, Melissa Gilbert is 44, French illustrator Jean Giraud aka Moebius is 70, Enrique Inglesias is 33, Don Rickles is 83 1429-St. Joan of Arc saved the City of Orleans. The English had never captured the capitol of the Loire Valley but were besieging it from a string of powerful fortresses built around it. Joan with her French knights John the Bastard, Etienne the Furious One and their retainers had to storm these strategic castles one by one to break the siege. At one point in the battle for a point in a castle wall called La Tourelles and huge English knight stood in the breach hewing down Frenchman with his two-handed broadsword. He seemed invincible until a knight named Jean De Montesclere brought up one of those newfangled hand held cannons that sat on your shoulder. From a safe distance Jean put a stone bullet through the Englishman. The unknown knight was the first man ever shot by a gun. 1587- The Roanoke Colony settlers leave England for Virginia (named by Sir Walter Raleigh for Queen Elizabeth, "the Virgin Queen"). When a supply ship reached their colony in 1590 the houses were intact but the colonists had all disappeared, leaving no remains or signs of violence, but only a cryptic message CROTOAN carved on a tree. 1776- While the American Congress was debating whether to declare independence or not the British Navy reminded them what was at stake. This day two warships, HMS Roebuck and Liverpool tried to shoot their way up the Delaware River to Philadelphia They were turned back by the Yankee shore batteries. 1824- Ludwig Von Beethoven performed his Ninth (Choral) Symphony and Missa Solemnis in concert for the first time. Even though he was stone deaf he was still in demand as a conductor. The orchestra trained themselves to ignore the Maestro's baton waving and follow the lead of the concert-master ( first violinist ). It was said when they finished and the audience was cheeri[...]

May 7th, 2009 thurs

Thu, 07 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: You may have heard the name The Robber Barons, but who were they? Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Quiz: In honor of Shimon Peres visiting Pres. Obama, which Israeli Prime Minister was never invited to the White House? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/7/2009 Birthday: Johannes Brahms, Peter Ilyich Tschaikowsky, Gary Cooper, Gabby Hayes, Robert Browning, Marcus Loew of Loews Theater chain, Darin McGavin, Edward Land (inventor of the Polaroid lens and camera), Bob Clampett, Amy Heckerling, Traci Lords is 41 Greek Festival of the Birth of Apollo. 401 B.C. SOCRATES DIED. Contrary to modern perception not everyone in ancient Greece loved philosophy. The Greeks had the same conflicts we have now between faith, tradition and rational thought and science. The scientist Anaxagoras was run out of town for saying that the Sun wasn’t Phoebus in a chariot but a burning rock floating in space. Euripides the playwright was also in trouble for doubting the Gods existence. But Socrates pushed the argument to its most extreme conclusion. The Athenian conservatives convicted Socrates of blasphemy and subverting the public morals. All hoped Socrates would just pay a fine and shut up, but Socrates unrepentant stance forced the law to go all the way to the death penalty. He was ordered to commit suicide by being given a cup of Hemlock. Actually it wasn’t a cup., the poison was held in a leaf of Romaine Lettuce, then called Lettuce of the Isle of Cos. His friend Crito said “You don’t deserve to die!” To which he replied: “You weep because you would rather I did deserve death? ” Socrates was 71. Socrates students like Plato and Xenophon continued on and became great writers on their own. 1661- When it became obvious that King Charles II was going to be restored to the English throne, radical Puritans like poet John Milton thought it best to go into hiding. Many urged the king to hang the old blind poet with the other men who caused his father Charles Ist to be beheaded. But Charles chose to forgive and ignore the old man. The positive result was now that Milton was barred from politics, he could focus on his great epic poems like “Paradise Lost”. 1789- To complete the break with Mother England the Church of England in America renamed itself the Episcopalian Church. 1800- The US Congress divided up the Northwest Territories, separating [...]

May 06th,2009 weds.

Wed, 06 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Dear Readers, Last night I accidentally put the wrong entry down for this date, it is now corrected. My bad.- TS Quiz: In honor of Shimon Peres visiting Pres. Obama, which Israeli Prime Minister was never invited to the White House? Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Speaking of car companies in trouble, in the 1954 Nash, Hudson and Rambler companies merged to form what car company? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/6/2009 Birthdays: Maximillian Robespierre, Sigmund Freud, Rudolph Valentino, Orson Welles, Robert Peary, Willie Mays, Stewart Granger*, Bob Seger, Toots Schoor, Weeb Ewbank, Andriana Caselotti- the voice of Snow White, Ruben Hurricane Carter, Christian Clavier, Tony Blair, George Clooney is 49, *English actor Stewart Granger had to change his name to get into Hollywood movies. His real name was Jimmy Stewart. 1096- Massacre of Mainz- As mobs of Crusaders massed to war on the Holyland, they deliberately chose a route of march through Central Europe. As they passed through cities like Prague, Wurms, Mainz and Spier they could vent their religious zeal by massacring the Jewish communities there. Many well meaning bishops like the Bishop of Mainz tried to stop them and hide Jews, but the pogrom was terrible. In some cities when faced with death or baptizing, hundreds of Jews committed suicide. When at the walls of Jerusalem the Crusaders saw the Jewish community fighting shoulder to shoulder with their Moslem-Arab cousins against them. 1527- THE SACK OF ROME- Pope Clement VII "the Medici Fox" played the diplomatic tango with the world powers a bit too clumsily and Emperor Charles V of Spain, Holland and Germany launched an army at Rome. Charles gave his general Charles De Bourbon a hangman's noose dipped in gold, a "Golden Rope to Hang the Pope" The Vatican armies were led by the late Pope Julius's bastard son Maria Della Rovere who didn't like Clement so he kept his army out of the whole war. The city of Rome’s defense was organized by the artist Benevenuto Cellini. He managed to get off one shot before escaping out the back door and that shot killed Charles de Bourbon, so now a loot crazed mercenary army with no commander was let loose in the richest city in Europe. The troops pillaged for months, only the plague drove them out. Many of the troops were newly converted Protestants, so they looked forward to[...]

May 5th, 2009 tues. Dom DeLuise 1933-2009

Tue, 05 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

I heard this morning that Dom DeLuise passed away. Besides featuring in Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles, The Glass Bottomed Boat and many Burt Reynolds movies, Mr. DeLuise did many animated film voices. These include Tiger from An American Tale, Bacchus from Disney's Hercules and Fagin from Disney's Oliver & Company. Adieu Dom! ---------------------------------------------- Quiz: Speaking of car companies in trouble, in the 1954 Nash, Hudson and Rambler companies merged to form what car company? Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below; Why are newspaper reporters and photographers called Paparazzi? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 05/05/08 Birthdays: Tyrone Power, Karl Marx, Elizabeth Cochrane called Nellie Bly, Soren Kierkegard, Alice Faye, James Beard, Michael Palin, Pat Carroll, Patrick Ewing, John Rhys Davies, Lance Henriksen, In Mexico and parts of the US, this is Cinco de Sito (huh.? see 1862 below ) In Japan this is a holiday known as Children's Day. National Teacher's Day. National Cartoonist's Day. 2349BC- According to Flemish Bishop Ussher, a XVI Century cleric who tried to calculate a date for every event in the Bible, today is the day Noah’s Ark struck dry ground on Mount Ararat. 1504 -Sir Anton of Burgundy, known as The Great Bastard, dies at 82. We don’t know much about this knight but you gotta love that nickname! 1800- Shortly after winning his Federalist parties nod to run for re-election President John Adams was told by his wife Abigail Adams” Tis a pity that politicians would sacrifice all that Good men hold dear and Sacred just to win an election.” Of course, that doesn’t happen today, now does it? 1821"...le Armee'......Josephine....." Napoleon Bonaparte died on the island of St.Helena at age 52. Recent radioactive analysis of his hair samples reveal that in his last 18 months the arsenic level in his body went up 150%. Did he die of stomach cancer like his father or was he poisoned as he stated in his memoirs ? Was there too many bits of mercury and arsenic in his prescribed medicines or the wallpaper ? The debate continues.. When the news reached England King George IV was in the middle of trying to get divorced from his estranged wife Queen Caroline so he could marry his mistress. When an aide announced to him :"Sire! Your Majesty's greatest enemy has died [...]

May 04, 2009 mon

Mon, 04 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Why are newspaper reporters and photographers called Paparazzi? Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Has anyone ever gone from President of the United States to Supreme Court Justice? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 5/4/2009 Birthdays: Bartolomeo Christofori'-inventor of the piano, Alice Liddel 1852- Inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, Audrey Hepburn –real name Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Rusten, Roberta Peters, Maynard Ferguson, Pia Zadora is 55, Howard Da Silva, Tammy Wynette, Randy Travis, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, George Will, Richard Jenkins is 62 1471-"Now are the Winter of our discontentment made glorious Summer by this Son of York"... TEWKESBURY, the deciding battle of the War of the Roses. Edward IV with his brothers Clarence and Richard the Hunchback defeat Lancastrian King Henry VI. The white rose vanquished the red. 1493- the Papal Bull Inter-Contrera and the Treaty of Tordesillas was announced. Pope Alexander VI Borgia divided up the non-European world between Portugal and Spain- saying Spain could conquer everything west of the Cape Verde Islands like America, and Portugal could have everything east like Africa and India. Damned sporting of him! Columbus knew of this impending treaty when he sailed so may have deliberately falsified coordinates in his ship's logs to hide the fact he was violating Portuguese territorial waters to catch the transatlantic current he counted on. 1521- Martin Luther had been invited under a safe passport by Emperor Charles V to come to the Imperial Court at Wurms and explain himself. This was still very dangerous because all recalled a generation ago Czech reformer Jan Hus was similarly invited, then burned at the stake. Shortly after Luther openly defied both Pope and Emperor he was kidnapped and disappeared. Liberals like Erasmus and Albrecht Durer were shocked, but it was all turned out to be a charade. Luther’s protector Frederick the Wise of Saxony was concerned Luther would be arrested, so he arranged to spirit him away into hiding at the Wartburg Castle in Eisenbach until things cooled down. Martin Luther changed out of his monks clothes, grew a beard and called himself Junker Karl. 1715- A French inventor demonstrated the first folding umbrella. 1776-While marching up the California coast Spanish e[...]

Miyazaki's Ponyo.

Mon, 04 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

This August Hayao Miyazaki's new project Ponyo will premiere in the U.S.



Jerry Beck had posted a beautiful French trailor for the film. Check it out-

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/

Posted by:Tom

May 3rd, 2009 Sun. ASIFA*East Awards 2-nite.

Sun, 03 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Congratulations to everyone involved in The 40th Annual ASIFA*East Awards. I attended several when I lived in New York. Screenings at Parsons, with Dick Rauh at the projector and Tissa whispering in the darkness:" Zee next feelm iz Horrybull!" They were all great fun. ASIFA/Hollywood in L.A. has had The Annie Awards since 1972. They were competitive for awhile, then became exclusively a lifetime achievement award for about 15 years. In 1989 Bill Kroyer, Antran Manogian, and I worked successfully to move the Annies back into competitive categories, to become the wonderful event they are today. Part of my inspiration that I used in debate was my experiences at the ASIFA*East Awards. So, in that way the East competition has had a direct influence on the West one. Thank You ASIFA*East, and enjoy your party. ----------------------------------------------------------- Question: Has anyone ever gone from President of the United States to Supreme Court Justice? Yesterday’s question answered below: Today a news analyst made a pun about the Chrysler Bankruptcy situation. He called it Government by Fiat. Why is that funny? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/3/2009 Birthdays: Niccolo Macchiavelli, Golda Meir, Sir Richard D'Oly-Carte, Peter Gabriel, James Brown, Pete Seeger, Betty Comden, Doug Henning, Beaulah Bondi, Mary Astor, Sugar Ray Robinson, Alex Cord, 70’s singer Englebert Humperdinck, Dule Hill 328 A.D.- Discovery of the True Cross-According to medieval legend St. Helena the mother of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great unearthed three old crosses on the Mount of Calvary. She tested it out by crucifying someone on it who gets up after three days. After all, it might have been someone else's cross! Byzantine Emperors carried the True Cross around and into battle like a flag until it was thought to be too precious to lose, so it was broken up and the wood distributed to the kings of Christendom. By Luther's time it was said so much of the Good Wood or Holy-Rood was around that if you got it all together you could build a nice house. The custom of saying "Knock on Wood" comes from touching the True Cross for luck. 1536- Huron Indian chief Donnaconna noticed that the French explorer Jacques Cartier and the[...]

May 2nd, 2009 sat.

Sat, 02 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Today a news analyst made a pun about the Chrysler Bankruptcy situation. He called it Government by Fiat. Why is that funny? Yesterday’s Question Answered below: President Obama repeats the phrase of Harry Truman:” The Buck Stops Here..” What is the origin of that phrase? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 5/2/2009 Birthdays: Czarina Catherine the Great, Domenico Scarlatti, Manfred Von Richtofen the Red Baron, Bing Crosby, Dr. Benjamin Spock the Baby Doctor, Vernon Castle, Theodore Bikel, Lesley Gore, Roscoe Lee Browne, Satyajit Ray, Pinky Lee, Link Wray of the Wraymen, Dwayne Johnson called The Rock is 36 1349- The Kings of England and France are forced to declare a ten year truce in their Hundred Years War because of the ravages of the Black Plague. After all, how can one be expected to have a good war when everyone was already dead? 1519- Leonardo Da Vinci died at the chateau of Amboise in the arms of King Francis Ist. He had accepted the offer of the French King of a stable retirement (even then artists worried about that kinda stuff). Two hundred and eighty years later during the French Revolution peasants broke into his tomb to get the lead lining for cannonballs and threw his bones in a pile. So no one is sure where he's buried. 1670- The Hudson's Bay Company is chartered by England's Charles II. At one point the Honorable Company was responsible for the administration of most of western Canada, then called loosely Prince Rupert's land, the largest land mass in history ever under the control of a board of directors. It's CEO , Sir George Simpson was nicknamed "the Emperor" . Today The Bay Co. is known for nice wool blankets and a 1930's movie about the founders with Paul Muni doing an outrageous French accent: " Come Jacques! Let us go where ze beaver she eez thick!" 1808- Spanish Independence Day- Napoleon had invaded Spain and put his older brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne. The Spanish called him "Pepe Bottaglia" (Joey Bottles-due to his fondness for drink) and bitterly hated the French occupation. Reacting to the occupation of Madrid, the Spanish people riot in the Playa Del Sol and cut up all the French soldiers they can find. The French arrest and shoot them.[...]

Is There Life After Newspaper Cartoons?

Sat, 02 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

When I started my career, I wanted to be a newspaper strip cartoonist. I tried a few times, but never could break in. I later fell in love with making animation, but I always wondered "what if..?"

If I was a newspaper cartoonist today, I would be going through my Kubler Ross options, wondering if there was a Career AfterLife when newspapers are disappearing so quickly.

Courtesy of Daryl Cagle & Newsday Syndicate

Today Karl Cohen sent me this link to a funny bit of web animation my Walt Handelsman of Newsday. It might show the future of Editorial Cartooning.

It's called the Recession Sing-A-Long

http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/opinion/walthandelsman/blog/2009/04/animation_recession_singalong_1.html

Posted by:Tom

May 1st, 2009 fri.

Fri, 01 May 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: President Obama oft repeats the phrase of Harry Truman:” The Buck Stops Here..” What is the origin of that phrase? Yesterday’s question answered below:Who said:” You May Fire when Ready, Gridley..” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 5/1/2009 Birthdays: Mary Harris a.k.a.Mother Jones, Marshal Vauban 1633, Benjamin Latrobe, Calamity Jane, Joseph Addison, Kate Smith, Jack Paar, Joseph Heller, Rita Coolidge, Steve Cauthen, Judy Collins, Glen Ford, Ray Parker Jr. writer of the Ghostbusters themesong, Maurice Noble, Fyodor Khytruk, Louis Nye, John Woo, Wes Anderson, Eric Goldberg May or Maius is named for Maia, Roman god of flowers, daughter of Fauna and Vulcan. This day Romans celebrated the LARALIA- the feast of the Lares, your personal domestic gods who watch over you and your family. Many times they included the founder of your house, a famous family member or a particular allegiance to one deity, for example Julius Caesar claimed to be descended from Venus. It’s also the Roman festival for the Bona Dea or the Good Goddess, a deity of fertility. Feast of Saint Phillip and Saint James the Lesser 62BC- Publius Clodius Pulcher- The Handsome, seduced the wife of Julius Caesar by dressing like a woman and sneaking into Caesars home while the women were celebrating the secret sacred mysteries of Bona Dea. Caesar wasn’t too upset because he was sleeping around as well. Part of Greco-Roman religious mysteries was the drinking of a wine mixed with herbs approximating the effect of modern LSD. Sex, Drugs and Latin Conjugations! 1152- Henry II Plantagenet, king of England and Duke of Normandy (grandson of William the Conquerer) married Eleanor of Aquitaine, divorced wife of King Louis VI of France and heiress of half of France. This union created the powerful state called the Angevin Empire, so named because one of Henry's family titles was Duke of Anjou. They would bear those rather interesting offspring Richard the Lionhearted and John Lackland. 1373- Dante Alighieri met the love of his life Beatrice at a MayDay party in Florence. Although she married another he was inspired to write his Divine Comedy to her. 1516-The poor of[...]

April 30th, 2009 thurs

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Congrats to Nina Paley for winning a GoldenThumbs up from Roger Ebert among other awards for her film Sita Sings the Blues. Happy Birthday to Bill Plympton! Condolences for MyToons closing shop. Thanks for all the free promotional t-shirts. I had a great time at the Milt Kahl lecture at the Academy the other day. Besides the cool folks on stage, in the audience was Bill Kroyer, Burny Mattinson, Rob Minkoff director of Stuart Little,Jerry Beck, Leonard Maltin, June Foray and a sell out crowd. 150 people were turned away. It was a huge crowd that stayed transfixed for over three hours watching Andreas Deja, Charles Solomon and others celebrate the great animator. If Milt only knew...he'd probably say:" WHY THE &%$#* DON'T YOU ALL GO HOME!" ----------------------------------------------- Quiz: Who said:” You May Fire when Ready, Gridley..” ? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What was Danegeld? ------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 4/30/2009 Birthdays: Elector Johann-Frederich the Magnanimous, Franz Lehar, Joachim Von Ribbentropp, Max Skladanowsky, Jaroslav Hasek, Eve Arden, Jill Clayburgh, Alice B. Toklas, Willie Nelson, Isaiah Thomas, Cloris Leachman, Jane Campion, Bill Plympton, Lars von Trier, Burt Young, Kirsten Dunst is 27 Walpurgisnacht- In the Hartz Mountains of Germany the eve the Feast Day of St. Walpurga the demon chaser is a Halloween kind of party, when the Devil can romp for a night. It's the inspiration for Mussogorsky's "Night on Bald Mountain". 535 A.D. STRANGULATION OF ARMALASUNTHA, queen of the Ostrogoths. One hundred years after the fall of Rome the nomadic Gothic peoples had settled in Southern Europe.The West-Goths or Visigoths across southern France and Spain, the East Goths or Ostrogoths across central Italy under their leader Totila. But Totila had now died and his Vandal wife Armalasuntha was trying to fend off rivals to her throne. She had concluded and alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Justinian just before she was overthrown and killed by Totila’s brother Witimer. She was supposedly strangled in her bath, the latest fad among barbarians (baths I mean, they always had strangulatio[...]

April 29th, 2009 weds

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: What was Danegeld? Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: One more Supreme Court ruling- All you film majors, what was the 1948 ruling Defendants vs. Paramount Pictures, et al? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/29/2009 Birthdays: Emperor Hirohito, Duke Ellington , Duke Wellington, Sir Thomas Beacham, Zuben Mehta is 73, Tom Ewell, Rod McKuen, Fred Zinnemann, Jerry Seinfeld is 54, Michelle Pfeiffer is 51, Daniel Day Lewis is 52, Uma Thurman is 39 Today is the feast day of the Patron Saint of Italy, no.. not Frank Sinatra, Saint Catherine of Sienna. 1429- At around 8:00PM, the Royal French Army entered the City of Orleans surrounded on three sides by the besieging English. The torchlight glinted off the armor of the great warriors like the Duke DuAlencon, Giles Des Rais, Etienne LaVignoles” the Angry-One”. But all eyes were on their warchief, a little 17 year old peasant girl in white armor- Joan La Pucelle, Joan the Maid. Since she was illiterate she immediately dictated a letter to the English army : “Surrender to the Maid, sent by God the King of Heaven, the keys to all the French towns you have despoiled and go home!” Joan of Arc was once asked "Do you hate the English?" She replied- "I love the English -in England!" 1749- In Philadelphia inventor Ben Franklin hosted a dinner party where he used his new battery to electrocute the turkeys to be roasted for the amusement of his guests. . 1771- Artist Benjamin West unveils his painting of the “Death of General Wolfe” at the Royal Academy in London. Wolfe was killed in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which decided that Canada would be English. West’s portrayal of Wolfe in his actual uniform instead an idealized Grecian god was considered scandalously realistic and revolutionized painting. 1786- The day before his opera THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO was to premiere, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sat down after dinner and wrote the famous overture. 1818- The ARBUTHNOT & ARMBRUISTER INCIDENT- Henry Arbuthnot was a 70 year old British merchant with a fondness for the Seminole Indians of Florida. Together with [...]

April 28th, 2009 tuesday

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: One more Supreme Court ruling- All you film majors, what was the 1948 ruling Defendants vs. Paramount Pictures, et al? Answer to yesterdays Quiz- Do you know more Supreme Court decisions than Sarah Palin? What was the Miranda Decision? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/28/2009 Birthdays: English King Edward IV (1442), President James Monroe, Lionel Barrymore, Carolyn Jones, Ann Margaret is 68, Jay Leno is 59, Sadam Hussein,Penelope Cruz is 35, Jessica Alba is 30, Godzilla is 54- see below. Feliz Compleanos Penelope! Wha..? You'd rather see Jay Leno or Saddamn Hussein? In ancient Egypt today was Wake up and Smell the Breeze Day, The first known Spring Festival in history. As part of the holiday, Egyptians ate a small dried fermented fish called Fessig, which they thought prevented diseases blown in by the desert. 1192- CONRAD OF MONFERRAT SLAIN BY THE ASSASSINS OF ALAMUT- The word "assassin" comes from "hash-a-shin" or "eaters of Hashish". Their leader Sheik Ibn-Abdel Sinan, was called :"The Old Man of the Mountain" established his cult on a mountain fortress in Lebanon. He got his followers stoned in a pleasure garden filled with pretty girls, telling them they had just spent time in Paradise. And if they were good he’d let them in for more visits. Sheik Abdel Sinan ran his sect like an extortion racket throughout the Middle East. In exchange for gold he wouldn't have one of his stoned followers knife you. When the Crusaders arrived in the Holyland, no one had clued them in to this system. So when Conrad laughed off the Assassin's emissary, he was stabbed by hitmen disguised as Christian monks. Conrad was the other leader of the Third Crusade with Richard Lionheart and Phillip Augustus of France. Many believed Richard had bribed Abdel Sinan to murder Conrad. That's the reason Richard was imprisoned on his way home by Leopold of Austria, Conrad's uncle. The Assassins were finally exterminated a century later by the Mongols, whose horde happened to be riding by when they thought their fortress would be fun to destroy. 1376-The Good Parliament- Englis[...]

April 27th, 2009 mon

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Do you know more Supreme Court decisions than Sarah Palin? What was the Miranda Decision? Yesterday’s Quiz: In honor of the imminent demise of the Pontiac brand automobile- What does Pontiac mean? -------------------------------------------------- History for 4/27/2009 Birthdays: Ulysses S. Grant*, King Edward IV, Samuel Morse, Mary Wollenstonecraft, Edward Gibbon, Anouk Aimee, Sheena Easton, Sandy Dennis, Coretta Scott King, Walter Lantz, Kasey Kasem is 77, Jack Klugman is 87 * He was born Hiram Ulysses which he changed to Ulysses Hiram and his West Point administrator mistakenly noted Ulysses Simpson Grant which he just went along with. Close friends called him Sam. 1278- Today is the Feast day of Saint Zita of the Magic Beans, the patron saint of domestic servants. She is also the Saint you call upon when you can't find your keys. No, I’m not making this up. http://catholicfire.blogspot.com/2006/04/todays-saint-st-zita.html 1521- MAGELLAN EATEN- Fernan' De Maghellanes (Magellan) was the captain who found a way around the Americas to Asia. Although he was ordered to conquer the Portuguese Moluccas he paused after his discovery of the Phillipines to convert the population to Catholicism. Magellan tried to demonstrate the power of the Spanish King to the Lord of Cebu by attacking a village called Mactan who was the enemy of Cebu. Almost at once everything started to go wrong. First the village was too far inland for his ships cannon so his men had to wade ashore .In doing so their powder got wet so their guns were useless. Then while fighting hand-to-hand a lucky fishbone tipped spear hurled through Magellan's helmet visor and killed him. The Lord of Cebu was unimpressed. The Spanish captains tried to barter for his body but the tribesmen said such a powerful enemy must stay for dinner. 1567- THE DUKE OF ALBA was given by King Phillip II of Spain the job of Governor General of the Netherlands and ordered him to "stamp out all Heresy, Rebellion and Freedom". Alba recruited an army of 10,000 soldiers and two thousand registered prostitutes and set up shop in Antwerp. His "C[...]

April 26th, 2009 Sun.

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: In honor of the imminent demise of the Pontiac brand automobile- What does Pontiac mean? Yesterday’s question answered below: what does it mean to gin-up something? ------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/26/2009 Birthdays: Roman Emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius, Queen Marie De Medicis, John James Audubon, Frederick Law Olmstead, Eugene Delacroix, Syngman Rhee, Dr. Lee DeForrest, John Grierson founder of the National Film Board of Canada, Rudolf Hess, Bobby Rydell, Anita Loos, I.M.Pei, Carol Burnett, Eyvind Earle, Alan Arkin, Amos Otis, Joan Chen, Koo Stark, Jet Li- born Li Lian jie is 46 1478-THE PAZZI CONSPIRACY- Pope Sixtus planed to take over Florence by arranging a hit on Duke Lorenzo de Medici "The Magnificent". Francesco Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini attacked the Duke in church just as the consecrated Host was being raised. Lorenzo escaped harm but his brother Giuliano was slain. Furious Florentines fell on the felons (repeat three times fast) and nailed their smoking hearts to the door of the cathedral. People blamed Archbishop Salviati for being part of the plot. The mob chased the archbishop up the bell tower, wrapped the bell chords around his neck and tossed him out to ring the bells for awhile. The people shouted "Long Live the Balls!" for the six gold balls that were the heraldic emblem of the Medici Family Bank. This emblem of three gold balls has come down to us as the universal sign for pawnbrokers. Michelangelo created a beautiful tomb for murdered Giuliano de Medici. Duke Lorenzo ordered artists to paint the portraits of the murderers corpses. Giuliano’s illegitimate son became Pope Clement VII. 1607-THE ENGLISH LAND AT JAMESTOWN....The good ship Susan Constant and two small pinnaces land 150 men . These men were mostly professional adventurers and gentlemen. Capt. Martin and Capt. Archer served with Sir Francis Drake . Of the 150 only 12 men actually could do a trade other than fighting. Their actual purpose was to find Aztec Empires like the Spaniards found in Mexico and send gold back home. In[...]

April 26th, 2009 Sun. The Nairobi Trio

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein once said his earliest childhood memory was a closeup shot. My earliest childhood recollection was being put in front of the TV while the Ernie Kovacs Show was on. The Nairobi Trio routine was playing. Here it is-



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Uw03hS_EMY

Ernie Kovacs was one of the great TV surrealists. A pioneer in sketch comedy. In this routine, his friend actor Jack Lemmon and wife Edie Adams often were under the masks with Ernie.



Kovacs is a great teacher of how to look at the medium of TV and it's images in a different, slightly crazy, way. Anyone who is serious about being funny on TV should check out his stuff.

----------------------------------------------------------

Posted by:Tom

April 25, 2009 Saturday. STANCHFIELD'S LECTURES

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

I got my copy of the two volume Walt Stanchfield book. Walt Stanchfield was one of Disney animation's secret weapons in the 2D Renaissance of the 1990s. He was our own generations answer to Don Graham, who at 80 could still kick all our butts at tennis. When I first heard about this, I confess, I was skeptical whether Don Hahn could make a practical useful tome out of 462 pages of unrelated notes. But yumpin' yiminy, he did it! Congrats Don. And for anyone interested in animation and continuity drawing, you should pick this up. It doesn't cost and arm in a leg, and these lessons don't grow on trees. Enjoy the book. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: What does it mean to Gin Up something? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Do you know more Supreme Court decisions than Sarah Palin? What is the meaning of the ruling Plessy vs. Ferguson..? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 4/25/2009 Birthdays: Roman emperor Otho -32ad, English King Edward II-1284, Oliver Cromwell-1599, Guiseppi Marconi, Edward R. Murrow, Ella Fitzgerald, Al Pacino is 68, Meadowlark Lemon, Talia Shire, Paul Mazursky, Hank Azaria, Jason Lee, Ron Clements the co-director of the Little Mermaid is 54. Rene Zellwellger is 39 TODAY is the feast of the Roman god ROBIGUS, dreaded god of Rust and Mildew. It is also the part of the Festival of Venus for the male prostitutes of Rome to celebrate. It’s Raining Men!! 404BC- ATHENS SURRENDERED TO SPARTA- After the victory of Aegespotamoi, Spartan General Lysander had the Long Walls of Athens torn down to the sound of flutes. It ended the Peloponnesian War and the Athenian dominance of Greece. Lysander had delayed the surrender at one point to allow for the funeral procession of old Sophocles the playwright to move between the lines. Spartan domination of Greece was short lived. They were defeated by a coalition led by Epaminondas of Thebes and in 323 Macedonian armies led by Alexander the Great’s father Phillip crush[...]

April 24, 2009 fri. Reprint this!

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

I'm very excited that I heard that my first book Drawing the Line is going to come out in a second edition. Thank you to all my readers who bought copies of the book. I have collected a little folder of notes and corrections from a number of friends that I hope I can get into this new edition. So if you are, or you ever have been, a communist or socialist, feel free to let me know. I'll let you know when it's out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quiz: Do you know more Supreme Court decisions than Sarah Palin? What is the meaning of the ruling Plessy vs. Ferguson..? Yesterday’s Answer below: People talk about Brainwashing. Where did that come from? ------------------------------------------------- History for 4/24/2009 Birthdays: Daniel Defoe, William de Kooning, St. Vincent de Paul, Morgan Earp, Shirley McLaine, Jack E. Leonard, Dame Ethel Smyth, Jill Ireland, Eric Bogosian, Sue Grafton, Robert Penn Warren, Barbera Streisand is 68, Cedric the Entertainer 1184 B.C.(est.)- TROY FALLS TO THE GREEKS- Despite the warnings of Cassandra and Laocoon the Trojans pull Ulysses' great horse into the city and at night the Greeks climb out and open the city gates to destruction. The reason we have any estimated date for this is this was the day the Romans celebrated a festival commemorating this event. Conventional wisdom was always that Troy was a myth until Heinrich Schleimann found it in the 1800’s. The Romans loved a myth of their own origin that they were descended from the Trojan refugees led to Italy by the hero Aeneas. This seemed way more cool than being a grubby little Latin tribe who got their act together ahead of their neighbors. They loved this myth so much that in 218 B.C. when the legions of Publius Scipio Asiaticus marched into Turkey to make war on Antipater the king of Syria, they paused first to go to the plains of Illium (the field where Troy once stood). There the writer Livy states" The grim warriors embraced and wept al[...]

April 23rd, 2009 thurs

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: People talk about Brainwashing. Where did that come from? Have you ever been brainwashed..? Yesterday’s question answered below: Who were Murray the K and Cousin Brucie? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/23/2009 Birthdays: William Shakespeare, President James Buchanan, Sergei Prokoviev, J.M.W. Turner, Vladimir Nabokov, Senator Stephen Douglas the Little Giant, Shirley Temple is 80, Roy Orbison, Halston, Sandra Dee,Valerie Bertinelli, Lee Majors is 69, Judy Davis, Simone Simon, Michael Sporn, Tony Esposito, Michael Moore is 55, Herve Villechaise- da plane ! da plane! This was the ancient Roman Feast of the Vinalia, the feast of the first grapevine plantings. This is the Feast of St. George.- George of Nicomedia was a native of Illyria (Croatia) who went up to the Emperor Diocletian’s palace and tore up his edict banning Christianity. Then Diocletian had George torn up. In the old tradition of borrowing from pagan myths, the Coptic Christian monks took from the Ancient Egyptian religion the famous battle between Horus and his evil uncle Seth, God of Sandstorms, often represented in temple art as a weird dragon-like animal. 1014- BATTLE OF CLONTARF- Irish High King Brian Boru defeated the Vikings and drove them from Ireland. Boru himself was too elderly to fight, so he was praying in a church when a renegade group of Danes surrounded the church and set it on fire. Oh well, at least he won... 1348- The Order of the Garter created in England. 1374- The King of England grants the writer Geoffrey Chaucer a pot of wine daily for the rest of his life. What more could a writer ask for ! 1500- Explorer Pedro Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal. 1538- Protestant theologian John Calvin was asked to leave his ministry in Geneva for being, uhh, well.. too Puritan. Geneva went party wild. Two years later the city fathers called Calvin back to clean up the town. 1616-After a night out part[...]

April 22, 2009 weds

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Who were Murray the K and Cousin Brucie? Yesterday’s Question answered below: : I had mentioned that out of 44 U.S. Presidents, 7 had been generals. Were there any who had been Colonels ? --------------------------------------------_________ History for 4/22/2008 Birthdays: Queen Isabella I of Castille, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, Immanuel Kant, Madame De Stael , Alexander Kerensky, Arron Spelling, Eddie Albert, Glen Cambell, Betty Page, Marylin Chambers, Charlie Mingus, Peter Frampton, John Waters, Jack Nicholson is 72 Happy Earth Day (since 1970) 753 B.C.-Founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus. The Romans counted time from this foundation date. So A.D. 1 to them was 754 AUC or Anno Urbis Conditae- from the "Founding of the City". So this year 2006 is 2,760 AUC. 1370-Beginning of construction on the castle/prison in Paris called La Bastille. 1741- Georg Frederich Handel dipped his quill into ink and began to write the Messiah. 1769- Madame DuBarry officially presented at the French Court. King Louis XV’s earlier mistresses like Madame La Pompadour were women of breeding and culture. But DuBarry was a saucy little trollop who had already schtupped most of the men of the court. When the Duc d’ Richelieu asked Louis what he saw in this vulgar new toy, His Majesty replied:" She makes me forget that I shall soon be sixty." 1811- Last of the Parthenon Marbles pried off their walls in Greece and sent back to England on a British frigate. Lord Byron was on board and called Lord Elgin, the supervisor of this act, "The Spoiler". Today the marbles are still at the British Museum and the Greeks are still mad about it. 1876- Composer Peter Tschaikowsky completed his score for the ballet Swan Lake. 1889-At noon on the signal of a cannon shot The Great Oklahoma Land Rush began. The town of Oklahoma City was set up in one day-population 10,000. The settlers who slipped in early were nicknamed Sooners and Oklahoma became known as t[...]

April 21, 2009 tues.

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: I had mentioned that out of 44 U.S. Presidents, 7 had been generals. Were there any who had been Colonels ? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What part of England is Richard the Lionhearted buried?? -------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/21/2009 Birthdays: Edwin S. Porter, Charlotte Bronte', John Muir, Freiderich Froebel the inventor of kindergarten-1782, Anthony Quinn, Patti Lupone, Iggy Pop, Charles Grodin, Anna Mangnani. Andie MacDowell, Tony Danza, Elaine May, Queen Elizabeth II is 83 1526-The First Battle of Panipat. Mogul Emperor Babur defeated the Indian army of Ibrahim Lodi and took Delhi. This established the Moghul Empire in India. Babur’s army fought with Mongol bows, elephants and he introduced cannon to India. 1847- The 4th rescue team removed the last survivors of the Donner Party wagon train from their snowed in camp on Lake Truckee in the Sierras down to the settlement on the Sacramento River. A furious winter trapped the Donners in the mountains last Oct 31st with almost no food and all their oxen dead. Of 86 pioneers 41 died and the others ate the dead to survive. Louis Keyesburg, the only settler who spoke openly of eating human flesh and was called a ghoul, moved to Sacramento and opened a restaurant. Don’t ask what’s in those home fries! 1865- UNCLE BILLY’S POLITICAL LESSON. In North Carolina, General William T. Sherman had offered Confederate Joe Johnston’s army the same terms for surrender that Grant had given Robert E Lee. But Johnston handed Sherman new terms rewritten by crafty Confederate President Jefferson Davis. It asked for political and property amnesty for all Confederate leaders; that the US Government would leave all Southern state officials at their posts. This went much further than one army surrendering to another, it was in effect a treaty that no one would be punished for the Civil War. But Billy Sherman[...]

April 20th, 2009 mon.

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What part of England is Richard the Lionhearted buried? Answer to yesterday’s question below: - Of 44 American Presidents, seven had been generals- Washington, Jackson, Harrison, Taylor, Grant, Garfield and Eisenhower. How many British Prime Ministers were generals? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/20/2009 Birthdays: Harold Lloyd, Juan Miro', Adolph Hitler, Tito Puente, Nina Foch, Gregroy Ratoff, Ryan O'Neal, Daniel Day Lewis, Jessica Lange, Luther Vandross, Don Matingly, Rosalyn Summers, Keys Verwey, Crispin Glover, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, George Takei, Carmen Electra is 37, Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, Andy Serkis the Gollum, Bob Kurtz 1605- King James I granted charters to the Virginia Company to found colonies in the New World. Jamestown and Plymouth are the result. 1653- After the English Civil War beheaded King Charles Ist, General Oliver Cromwell sat listening to the English Barebones Parliament arguing over trivial issues. He had already arrested everyone who disagreed with him and those who were left were too afraid to discuss anything but trivia. Finally, Oliver rose and exploded in rage:” Drunkards! Whoremasters! You are no Parliament! “He ordered his troops to run them all out. England would remain under Cromwell’s military dictatorship until his death in 1659. A note was tacked onto the locked doors of the House of Commons-“ This House to Let, Unfurnished.” 1759- Composer George Friedrich Handel died after collapsing in the orchestra pit while conducting the Messiah. He was 74, blind and suffering from a number of illnesses. 1814- Napoleon sent to Elba, a little island off the coast of France. He quoted the famous palindrome "Able was I ere I saw Elba." he had been learning English. 1859- " It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times..." Charles Dicken's[...]

April 19th, 2009 sun

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz- Of 44 American Presidents, seven had been generals- Washington, Jackson, Harrison, Taylor, Grant, Garfield and Eisenhower. How many British Prime Ministers were generals? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: what political party called themselves the National Socialists? -------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/19/2009 Birthdays: Paulo Verronese, Elliot Ness, Jayne Mansfield, Dudley Moore, Paloma Picasso, Ashley Judd is 41, James Franco is 31, Kate Hudson is 30, Tim Curry is 63, Anna Porchicova is 22 Cerealia-an ancient Roman agricultural festival. Ceres the mother of Porsephone, was the Happy Goddess of Growing and Planting. To say “Fit for Ceres” was the ancient Roman way of saying “Awesome”. 1775- LEXINGTON AND CONCORD- The American Revolution begins. For years after the French and Indian War the British government tried to save money by getting the North American colonies to defend themselves. The local committees that organized the American colony's militia had slowly been taken over by radical political groups like the "Sons of Liberty". To the British, these Minutemen seemed to be training to fight them instead of Indians. In 1774 a General, Sir Thomas "Old Tom" Gage was appointed Royal Governor of Massachusetts to show the colonists that Mother England was not going to tolerate any more foolishness. Gage pulled his troops out of frontier patrols and concentrated them in Boston harbor. This annoyed citizens further, thinking the only reason they pay taxes now is to have troops watching them instead of protecting them. In early 1775 Gage warned London that the situation was deteriorating fast. Ironically Gage liked America and had a good friend named George Washington. Finally Gage received permission to send out a force to seize a stockpile of illegal weapons and arrest some ringleaders. [...]

April 18, 2009 Saturday.

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Congratulations to the Screen Actors Guild for finally making a deal on their contract. My advice is, even if you don't like the deal, to vote to ratify. The contract will be up in three years, and it will be a different economic situation then. Meanwhile, the suits will start greenlighting projects and we can all get back to work. ----------------------------------------------------------- Quiz: What political party called themselves the National Socialists? Yesterday’s question answered below: When you listen to hysterical protesters shouting “ Socialism!”, is there a difference between Socialism and Communism? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/18/2009 Birthdays: Lucretzia Borgia, Franz Von Suppe’, Haley Mills, Leopold Stokowski, Miklos Rosza, Herb Sorell, Wahoo Sam Crawford, Conan O’Brien, James Woods is 64, Eric Roberts, Rick Moranis is 57 1506- Pope Julius II lays the cornerstone for St. Peter's Basilica. He had pulled down the old St. Peters, which had stood for 1200 years. The new structure designed by Bramante with the Dome by Michelangelo and the interiors by Sangallo and later Bernini. 1775- PAUL REVERE'S RIDE- "One if by land and two if by sea, etc." Informers in Gen. Gage's office learn the British planned to send troops to seize an illegal arms cache in Lexington and arrest two radical leaders named John Hancock and Sam Adams. So silversmith Paul Revere, Thomas Dawes and a country doctor out on a date named Dr.Prescott were sent to warn them and raise the minutemen on the way, after getting the two lantern signal in the old North Church. Dr. Prescott actually completed the mission. Revere was arrested by a British patrol soon after warning Adams & Hancock and sent home without his horse. Longfellow's poem never mentioned Prescott or [...]

April 17th, 2009 fri Universe.

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

When I was a student I once saw a B/W film in school about what the outer planets were like. It was called UNIVERSE, and it was made by the National Film Board of Canada in 1959. The effects work and camera was so well made, the film in hauntingly engaging. Remember this was before the Hubble Space Telescope and before the Moon Landings. So most of this film was 2d animation effects. In 1965, Universe was seen by director Stanley Kubrick, who was planning a movie entitled first " How the Solar System was Won", later changed to 2001: A Space Odyssey. He was so impressed he hired most of the effects crew for his own, including Con Pederson and Les Novros. He also remembered the narrator of the film. When Kubrick felt unsatisfied by all the actors he was auditioning to be the voice of the Hal 9000, he recalled this narrator Douglas Rain, and hired him. Listen to the narration, and you'll hear the voice of Hal. Check it out. http://www.nfb.ca/film/Universe/ --------------------------------------------------- Quiz: When you listen to some hysterical protesters shouting “ Socialism!”, is there a difference between Socialism and Communism? Yesterday¹s Question: What does prima non pares mean? ----------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/17/2009 Birthdays: artist Tobias Stummer-1539, Duke Maximillian Ist of Bavaria- leader of the Catholic League 1579, Nikita Khruschev, Thorton Wilder, Clarence Darrow, Arthur Schnabel, Olivia Hussey is 58, Gregor Piatigorsky, Don Kirschner, William Holden, Harry Reasoner, Boomer Eiseason,, Sean Bean, Victoria Beckham, Jennifer Garner is 38 1492- After 8 years of interviews, waiting in antechambers and being laughed at, King Ferdinand of Spain finally signed a commission for Christopher Columbus to outfit a fleet and sail west ac[...]

April 16, 2009 thurs

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What is a prima non pares? Yesterday’s Question answered below: Who were William S. Hart, Norma Talmadge, Lillian Gish and Wilma Banky? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/16/2009 birthdays: King John II “The good” of France (1319), Elisabeth Vignee-Lebrun, Wilbur Wright, Charlie Chaplin, John Pierpoint Morgan, Kingsley Amis, Anatole France, Henry Mancini, Peter Ustinov, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bobby Vinton, Spike Milligan, John Halas, Edie Adams, John Millington Synge, Martin Lawrence is 44, Pope Benedict XVI is 82. 1260- Chartres Cathedral completed. Art history teachers rejoice! 1746- BATTLE OF CULLODEN- The last pitched battle fought on British soil. British armies under the Duke of Cumberland crushed the Scottish Highlanders raised by Prince Charles Stuart. It is considered the last gasp of Scottish independence although “Bonnie” Prince Charlie’s goal was not an independent Scotland but recapturing the English throne for his deposed family. Historians harp on what a forlorn hope it was to conquer the mighty British Empire but truth be told the Highland Army got pretty far pretty easy, down into England as far as Derby before falling back into Scotland. With the majority of the British army running around North America, Gibraltar and India there were fewer than 15,000 redcoats to defend the homeland. But the initial surprise was lost as most of the Highland Chieftains spent most of the time arguing and paid their troops with Oatmeal. 1787- What some consider the first professionally produced American play- Royall Tyler’s the Contrast- debuted at New York City’s John Street Theater. It was a comedy that poked fun at aristocracy. Gen. George Washington was in the audience. At this ti[...]

April 15th, 2008 weds.

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Who were William S. Hart, Norma Talmadge, Lillian Gish and Wilma Banky? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: England has had Welsh Prime Ministers like Lloyd George, and Scots like Ramsay MacDonald. Has an Irishman ever been British Prime Minister? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/15/2009 Birthdays: Leonardo DaVinci, composer Domenico Gabrieli, Nanak Ist – the Guru of the Sikhs 1469, Charles Wilson Peale, Theodore Rousseau, Henry James, Bessie Smith Queen of the Blues, Heinrich Klee, Kim Il Sung, Claudia Cardinale is 71, Roy Clark, Emma Thompson is 50, Olympic runner Evelyn Ashford, Alice Braga is 26, Seth Rogen is 27 Happy U.S. income tax day- celebrating the Internal Revenue Service who take their motto from the Roman Emperor Caligula : " Let them hate me, so long as they fear me..." Fordicidia-Ancient Roman Festival where 31 pregnant cows are sacrificed in honor of Tellus, the Earth-Mother. 69A.D. Battle of Bedriacum. Otho the praetorian praefect and old orgy buddy of Nero's, lost his bid to stay Emperor of Rome to Vitellius and the Legions of Germany. Otho had knocked off the man who overthrew Nero, General Servius Galba. Galba was stabbed by a troop of cavalry while he was buying fruit in a market. After Otho was defeated in this battle he committed suicide. Vitellius was defeated by the end of the year by Vespasian and his Eastern legions. All these events transpired in one year which is why the Romans refered to A.D. 69 as" The Long Year". 1632- Battle of the Lech River. round one of Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus vs. Catholic Imperial Duke Albrecht Wallenstein in the Thirty Years War. 1729- The Saint Matthew’s Passion oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach was firs[...]

April 14th, 2009 tues.

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: England has had Welsh Prime Ministers like Lloyd George, and Scots like Ramsay MacDonald. Has an Irishman ever been British Prime Minister? Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is a Catch 22? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/14/2009 Birthdays: Sir John Gielgud, Papa Doc Duvalier- Haitian dictator 1907, Robert Doisneau, Rod Steiger, Loretta Lynn, Morton Sobotnick, Frank Serpico, Pete Rose, Julie Christie, Anthony Michael Hall, Steve Martin is 59, Sarah Michelle Geller is 32, Adrien Brody is 36. 73-A.D. MASADA- After the great Jewish revolt against Rome was crushed by Titus and Jerusalem destroyed, two legions remained behind to do mopping up of guerrillas. A group of zealots, Essene rabbis and their families held out in a mountaintop stronghold for two years in an epic siege. The night before the Zealots realized the Roman siege engines were about to breach the walls. They resolved to not be taken alive. This day soldiers of the Tenth Legion Felix broke into the quiet works. They found 960 corpses. The zealots had preferred mass suicide to slavery. Contrary to modern sensibilities the Romans were not horrified by the ghastly scene, Greco-Roman ethics considered suicide a rational way out of a bad situation, it’s what the Romans would have done in similar circumstances. They expressed grudging admiration of their Jewish foes. The fortress was rediscovered in 1947. 1543- Explorer Bartolomeo Ferrelo returned to Spain with news of a big new harbor he discovered on the Pacific coast of California that he named for his patron Saint Francis- San Francisco Bay. 1828- The first edition of Noah Webster’s Dictionary published. In the 70.000 entries W[...]

April 13th,2009 mon

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: What is a Catch 22? Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why an Easter Rabbit? Why not an Easter mule? Easter sea-sponge? ---------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/13/2009 Birthdays: St. Thomas Becket, Thomas Jefferson*, Frederick Lord North, Samuel Beckett, Dame Eudora Welty, Al Green, Jack Cassidy, Butch Cassidy, Franklin W. Woolworth, Howard Keel, Don Adams, Ricky Schroeder, Peabo Bryson, Ron Perleman, Stanley Donen, Alfred Butts the inventor of Scrabble, Disney animator Glen Keane is 55 * For many years in the early American republic Jefferson's birthday was a holiday. 1387- A party of 29 English pilgrims assemble to travel to the shrine of Canterbury. The trip was immortalized by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales. 1598- King Henry IV of France tried to end the religious strife tearing his country apart by publishing the Edict of Nantes- granting freedom of worship to all. At this time the Edict of Nantes shocked Pope Clement VIII. He cried:" Every man with freedom of conscience? What can be worse than that?!" 1775- British Prime Minister Lord North had placed rebellious Massachusetts colony under an act called the Restraining Act. It declared that the New Englanders were not allowed to do business with any other nation but Britain. This day Lord North extended the act to cover the other colonies of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Carolinas. He inadvertently gave the widely separated crown colonies in North America even more reason to work together, like they were an independent nation. 1829- THE CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION BILL PASSED IN ENGLAND. The previous June Irish orator Daniel O'Connell had successfully[...]

April 12, 2009 Easter Sunday

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: Why an Easter Rabbit? Why not an Easter mule? Easter sea-sponge? Yesterday’s question answered below: Why is Easter called Easter? Why not Jesus Resurrection Day..? ----------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/12/2009 Birthdays: Henry Clay, Lily Pons, Lionel Hampton, David Letterman-61, Herbie Hancock, Monserrat Caballe', Ann Miller, Tiny Tim, Shannon Dougherty, Andy Garcia, Claire Danes HAPPY EASTER, Commemorating the time when Jesus Christ was crucified and after three days rose from the dead. For those of you who always wondered why Easter moves around so much when the other holidays stay put, the Medieval Church wanted the festival of Jesus moved from any connection with the Jewish Passover. So Church doctors decided the Easter feast would be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox-Spring. Makes sense to me..? The Resurrection story has roots in other cultures- Osiris in Egypt, Dionysius and Orpheus in Greece and Odin in Scandinavia all had death and resurrection myths about them. In the early Church a major heresy arose called Gnosticism or Arian Christians. A Bishop Arrius speculated “If Christ was God on Earth how could you kill God? He must have been only pretending to be dead” Orthodox Christians led by Bishop Athanasius argued that the central truth is Jesus suffered death and resurrection. 65AD.-SENECA DIED- The Roman philosopher Seneca committed suicide after his old pupil the Emperor Nero ordered him to. The poet Lucan was also forced to kill himself. When Caesar sent you an indictment for treason, you knew the verdict would be guilty already. So Romans had the option[...]

April 11, 2009 sat

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Why is Easter called Easter? Why not Jesus Resurrection Day..? Yesterday’s question answered below: What was jus primae noctis? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/11/2009 Birthdays: Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, Frederick the Warlike of Saxony-1370, Ethel Kennedy, Joel Grey, Louise Lasser, Mason Reese, Oleg Cassini, Cameron Mitchell. Norman McClaren, Bill Irwin, John Milius, Jennifer Esposito 1506- Pope Julius II laid the corner stone for the new Saint Peter’s Basilica. It was completed in 1626. 1512-BATTLE OF RAVENNA -The first battle decided by artillery. The armies of Pope Julius II and his Spanish allies are defeated by Duke Alfonso D'Este of Ferrara and his French allies. The D'Este' family were patrons of Leonardo daVinci but this Duke was an artillery buff. For his birthday friends gave him cannons. In true Renaissance fashion during the battle the Duke pulled his guns to the side of the battlefield where he could fire on both sides at once. When someone explained he would be firing on his friends as well the Duke answered:" Well, they'll probably be enemies tomorrow!" Despite this curious strategem, he won anyway. 1713 - FIRST TREATY OF UTRECHT- Ending the War of Spanish Succession. George Frederich Handel premiered the Royal Fireworks Music in celebration. France yields to England the eastern coastal provinces of Canada. When the French speaking inhabitants of Arcadia refuse to swear allegiance to the English King they are driven out of their homes at bayonet point. Scottish colonists are brought in who rename the island Nova Scotia -New Scotland. [...]

April 10 ,2009 Friday.

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

History: What is the right of Just Primae Noctis? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is a Pentathelete? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------? History for 4/10/2009 Birthdays: Josef Pulitzer, Lew Wallace, George Arliss, Omar Sharif, Harry Morgan, Max Von Sydow, Ken Griffey Sr, Claire Booth Luce, Chuck Connors, John Madden, “Dandy”Don Meredith, Paul Theroux, David Halberstram, Steven Segal is 57, Orlando Jones, Mandy Moore is 25, Haley Joel Osment is 21 Today is Good Friday to Christians. 1741- Battle of Mollwitz- King Frederick the Great's first victory. His big battalions of Prussian-disciplined infantry defeated the Austrians even after his cavalry had been driven off the field, the King Frederick swept along in the rout. He thought he had lost. He was drinking his sorrows away in a pub, when he got the news of his victory. The international fame of Frederick’s Army created an unexpected side industry. A Coburg toy maker named Andreas Hipert began selling mass market sets of toy soldiers modeled on his men. Flats made of lead and brightly painted, they were a big hit. Toy soldiers go back at least as far as the Romans. Medieval princes owned little replicas of knights. But Hipert created toys for average people. 1836- THE HELEN JEWETT MURDER- Helen Jewett was a beautiful, well-bred woman. But bad luck had brought her down to prostitution on the mean streets of New York. This night at a brothel at 41 Thomas St, she was murdered with an axe. Her partner shop clerk Richard Robinson was charged with the murder, but there was not enough evidence for [...]

April 09, 2009 thurs

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: What is a Pentathelete? Yesterdays quiz answered below: Who was the first president to travel out of the country while still in office? ----------------------------------------------------- History for 4/9/2009 Birthdays: Tartar conquerer Timur the Lame called Tamurlane, Vladimir Ulyanov called Lenin, Paul Robeson, Jean Paul Belmondo, Dennis Quaid, Ward Bond, Seve Balesteros, Carl Perkins, Michael Learned, Tom Lehrer, Paula Poundstone, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Hefner is 83, Elle Fanning is 11 999 AD.- Sylvester II made pope, the first Frenchman. He reformed the way Popes were selected by organizing the College of Cardinals. Before that Popes were selected out of infighting between several leading Roman families. Tradition also says Sylvester was a sorcerer because he experimented with the medicinal properties of herbs and is credited with inventing the pendulum clock. 1241-MONGOLS ! BATTLE OF LEIGNITZ- The son of Genghis Khan, Ogodai, had dispatched four armies –one to China, one to Korea and one to Europe, the fourth was pushing south through Baghdad, Egypt and Palestine. This would complete his father’s master plan for world conquest This day the Mongol horde of Subotai ,Vuldai and Paidar clashed with the cream of East European knighthood on a plain in Poland. Since they had burned Baghdad and killed the Caliph at first the western kings thought the Mongols were the magical knights of Prester John come from Cathay to save Christendom, but after they had destroyed Moscow, Budapest and Kracow the alarm spread. The Kings of England, France and even Norway prepared for the a[...]

Poopdeck Pappy

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

There is an interesting entry on Michael Sporn's sblog this morning about a Poopdeck Pappy walk. It was done by Bill Nolan, an early animator who with Otto Mesmer was responsible for the standard peanut shape cartoon character body with three fingered hands. The conversation with Mike about Nolan is by Borge Ring, the great Academy Award winning Danish animator who at age 85 is still going strong.

Check it out

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog

Posted by:Tom

April 8th, 2009 wed.

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Who was the first president to travel out of the country while still in office? Yesterday’s quiz answered below: What was Country Music called before it was Country Music? Say in the 20s and 1930s. ------------------------------------------------------ History for 4/8/2009 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 Happy Passover. 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. 217AD.-The Roman Emperor Caracalla was stabbed in the back while taking a pee during the Moon God Festival. He got caught with his toga down. The assassin Martialis tired to gallop away, but was brought down by a well aimed javelin. The Praetorian Prefect Macrinus becomes Emperor. The question here is: Was Macrinus a Black Roman Emperor? The Romans didn't have the same color prejudice we have, they were equally prejudiced against everyone. There were emperors like Phillipus the Arab, Vespasian the Spaniard and Percennius Niger- Bla[...]

April 7th, 2009 tues.

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: What was Country Music called before it was Country Music? Say in the 20s and 1930s. Answer to yesterday’s question below: Which one never did a voice in an animated film? A-Max Fleischer, B –Walt Disney, C-Tex Avery, D- Brad Bird -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/7/2009 Birthdays St. Francis Xavier, William Wordsworth, Mongo Santamaria, Francis Ford Coppola is 70, Stan Winston, Walter Winchell, David Frost, Percy Faith, Daniel Ellsberg, Jerry Brown, Alan Pakula, Billie Holiday, Ravi Shankar, Irene Castle, Wayne Rogers, James Garner is 81, Olikirk Christenson-the inventor of Lego toys, Russell Crowe is 45, Jacky Chan is 55 1805- Ludwig Van Beethoven premiered his Symphony # 3 Eroica at Vienna’s Theater-an-der-Wein. It marks his break with the gentle styles of Mozart and Haydn and the evolution of his full mature sound. He originally intended to dedicate it to Napoleon but scratched out the dedication page when he heard Napoleon had renounced Republican liberal values and made himself an emperor. Of all his symphony’s it remained his favorite, despite the opinions of music critics-“ Strange modulations and violent transitions… undesirable originality.” 1827- The first book of matches is patented. 1850 - The California gold rush town of Rough n’ Ready declared itself an independent nation, complete with president, flag and constitution. It lasted about three months, because unknown to them on the other side of the US[...]

April 06th, 2009 mon

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Which one never did a voice in an animated film? A-Max Fleischer, B –Walt Disney, C-Tex Avery, D- Brad Bird Quiz: Who has never done a voice in an animated cartoon? A- Brad Pitt, B Sean Penn, C- Jeff Goldblum, D- Danny DeVito -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/6/2009 Birthdays: Raphael of Urbino, Sacajawea, Ram Dass, Butch Cassidy, Gustav Moreau, Lowell Thomas, Merle Haggard, Billy Dee Williams, George Reeves, Michelle Phillips, Andre Previn, Barry Levinson, Roy Thinnes, John Ratzenberger, Zach Braff is 34. 46AD- Battle of Thapsus- Even after Julius Caesar defeated his chief rival Pompey, other enemies kept the Roman Civil War going. This day in Africa, Caesar defeated an army led by a coalition of senatorial foes including Cato the Younger. Caesars troops were angry that they had to fight again the enemies Caesar had pardoned after the Battle of Pharsalia. So after the victory, they went on a killing spree of most of the prisoners. Cato the Younger declared he would spend the rest of his life eating his meals seated upright instead of lying down, which the Romans considered very bad for the digestion. Then he went on board his flagship at Utica and tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the belly. A doctor bandaged up his wounds. As Caesars officers arrived to arrest Cato, he pulled off the bandages, ripped open his wounds and pulled out his own intestines. “All is well with the Genera[...]

April 05th, 2009 Sun.

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Who has never done a voice in an animated cartoon? A- Brad Pitt, B Sean Penn, C- Jeff Goldblum, D- Danny DeVito Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Define ubiquitous. _-------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/5/2009 Birthdays: Plato, Swineburne, Booker T. Washington, Josef Lister, Bette Davis, Nadar, Jean Fragonard, Hicks Lokey, Nguyen Van Thieu, historian Robert Bloch, Gale Storm, Washington Atlee-Burpee the mail order seed king, Spencer Tracy, Frank Gorshin, Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston, Nigel Hawthorne, Peter Greenaway, Gregory Peck, Roger Corman. Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA is 59, Colin Powell is 72 To the ancient Romans this was the Feast Day of the Goddess Fortuna Virilis, or Good Fortune. To Christians it is Palm Sunday. 622 A.D.- BYZANTINE EMPEROR HERACLIUS began his military campaigns. Heraclius is one of the mysteries of history. He sat lethargic on his throne while the Persian Shah Chosroes II conquered the whole Middle East almost up to his doorstep. Then Heraclius got up, put on his armor and turned into Julius Caesar, Alexander and Rambo all rolled into one. In a lightning campaign he destroyed the Persian army, burned their capitol, sprinkled garbage on the grave of Zoroaster and chased them to the foot of the Himalayas. The Persians assassinated Chosroes just to make Heraclius go away. Then Heraclius went back to his throne and did nothing for the rest of his reign. Moslem Arabs would soon[...]

April 04, 2009 Saturday.

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz: Define ubiquitous. Answer to yesterday’s question below- Who coined the term- to start from scratch? --------------------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/4/2009 Birthdays: Roman Emperor Caracalla, Edweard Muybridge, Maya Angelou, Frances Langford, Irv Spence- Tom & Jerry animator, Gil Hodges, Arthur Murray, Muddy Waters, Cloris Leachman, Dorothea Dix, Elmer Bernstein, Bijan, Robert Downey Jr is 44, Barry Pepper is 39, Hugo Weaving is 48, Heath Ledger would have been 30 If you were a Roman today is the first day of the Megaleasian Festival in honor of Lunus the Moon god. Party! Par-tee! 636AD- Today is the Feast Day of Saint Isadore of Seville, the Patron Saint of the Internet. Don’t believe me? Check out http://www.catholic.org/saints 896 A.D.-THE SYNOD HORRENDIUS-One of the more bizarre incidents in Vatican history. Bishops Stephen and Formosan hated each other. When Formosan became pope Stephen had to bide his time in hiding. After Formosan's death Stephen became pope but was unsatisfied that he couldn't strike back at his old enemy. So Pope Stephen had Formosan's tomb opened and the corpse dressed in bishop's robes, sat up in a chair and put on trial for heresy. The cross examination was pretty strange, the prosecutor said things like :"His very silence is proof of his guilt!" The corpse was convicted, excommunicated, bounced around by a Roman mob and thrown in the Tib[...]

April 03, 2009 fri.

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Quiz- What is the origin of the phrase- to start from scratch? Yesterday’s Question answered below: When thinking of the patriots of the American Revolution, we think of Washington, Lafayette, the Marquis de Galves….., who is that? ----------------------------------------------------------- History for 4/3/2009 Birthdays: King Henry IV of England (1361), Washington Irving, William Marcy " Boss" Tweed, Sally Rand the Fan Dancer, Ma Rainey, Iron Eyes Cody, Wayne Newton, Doris Day, Robert Sherwood, Virgil Grissom, Marsha Mason, Melissa Etheridge, Marlon Brando, Amanda Byrnes, David Hyde Pierce, Alec Baldwin is 51, Eddie Murphy is 47 In Ancient Greece the beginning of April was the Aphrodisia- the Festival of Aphrodite. Greeks would offer sacrifices to the Goddess of Love and some would visit the holy prostitutes in the great temple in Corinth. Gimme that Ole Time Religion….. 1312-The Vatican, under the influence of the French King Phillip the Fair, abolished the Holy Order of the Knights Templar. The order was rich in international finance and none of it taxable and because they were monks there were no relatives to sponge it off. They invented the personal check, so a Templar didn’t have to ride from castle to castle with those heavy bags of gold. Just write out a note (or have your scribe do it if you were illiterate) and affix your seal to it. I wonder if they had pretty sunsets[...]

April 02, 2009 thurs

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:00:00 PST

Question: When thinking of the patriots of the American Revolution, we think of Washington, Lafayette, the Marquis de Galves….., who is that? ”? Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: In American colloquial slang, when did bluesmen begin referring to the authorities as “ The Man”…? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ History for 4/2/2009 Birthdays: Frankish Emperor Charlemagne, Giacomo Casanova, Hans Christian Andersen, Marvin Gaye, Emile Zola, Max Ernst, Buddy Ebsen, Sir Alec Guinness, Frederick Bartholdi, Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Hunt 430 a.d. Today is the feast day of Saint Mary the Egyptian, a former prostitute who repented by living naked and alone in the desert for 49 years, only appearing briefly at Easter time to take communion, and to get some more sunblock. 1459- Vlad II "Dracula" -Little Dragon, duke of Wallachia, shows why he got the nickname Vlad the Impaler by impaling the city council of Brasov high on stakes then eating lunch under their quivering bodies. Impaling was a torture of Turkish origin, where you had a huge sharpened stake hammered up into your body, then standing it up. A good executioner could keep the stake from piercing too many important organs, prolonging the agony of your death. This was Vlad’s preferred method of getting rid of inconvenient people. No wonder in the 1890’s when British a[...]