Quiz: Has Antonio Banderas done any other voices for animation other than Puss in Boots in Shrek?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is an Epicurean?
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history for 8/10/2008
Birthdays: Alexander Glauzunov, Billie Holiday, Eddie Fisher, Leo Fender, Herbert Hoover, King Jan III Sobieski, Norma Shearer, Rhonda Fleming, Jimmy Dean, Rosanna Arquette, Antonio Banderas is 48

70 A.D.- JERUSALEM DESTROYED BY THE ROMANS- After a prolonged siege, the Roman legions of Vespasian and Titus break into the city and crush the Zealot Jewish revolt with great slaughter and destruction. The cedar panels and muslin curtains of the Great Temple of Herod catch fire and the entire temple is destroyed but for an outer building retaining wall, known thereafter as the Wailing Wall.

256 AD- St. Lawrence's day. He was the Saint who's emblem is the grill he was roasted on. Supposedly he showed his contempt for his torturers efforts by saying:" I think I'm done on this side." The Perseid Meteor Shower occurs around this time. It has been called the Burning Tears of Saint Lawrence.

1536- CANADA GETS ITS NAME-French explorer Cartier discovered a great river on St. Lawrence's day which he calls the St. Lawrence River. Cartier asks the Huron people "what people lived upstream ?". They replied people who work with red copper, in their language" Caignetdaze". Cartier names the land "Chemyn de Canada".

1628- The King of Sweden Gustavus builds a huge battleship called the Vasa. In front of the whole court he launches it into a fjord and it immediately sinks straight to the bottom.Doh!

1629- Spanish painter Diego Velasquez traveled to Italy to study the Renaissance Masters on the advice of his buddy painter Peter Paul Rubens.

1787- Mozart completes his Eine Kleine Nachtmusik -A Little Nightmusic.

1788- Mozart’s on a roll! This day he completed his Jupiter Symphony #41. It was his last symphony. He never heard it performed in his lifetime.

1889 - Dan Rylands patents the screw -on cap.

1897 -German chemists working for the Bayer Company invent Aspirin, the first mass market over the counter drug. A powdered tree root that was known to the Native Americans for years. The Roman's drank Willow-Water.

1928- Calvin Coolidge dedicated the cornerstone of the monument at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. The last time a President of the United States rode a horse to deliver a speech.

1945- Even after two atomic bomb attacks and their navy and airforce destroyed the Japanese cabinet is still divided 3 - 3 on whether to surrender. Defense minister Anami is worried about a mutiny of the army and Prime minister Suzuki still thinks he can get Russia to negotiate separately -Stalin had just declared war and sent troops to invade Manchuria and the Kurile islands. Anami said the National Honor demanded a final battle on the home soil:" Wouldn't it be wonderful to see all of Japan destroyed...like a beautiful flower !"
The impasse was broken by Emperor Hirohito who breaks tradition and personally intervened "The time has come to bear the unbearable". Next morning a note requesting negotiations based on Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration is sent to the Swiss and Swedish Consulates in Tokyo .

1948 – The Birth of Reality TV.- Allen Funt's "Candid Camera" TV debut on ABC.
When it's least expected, you're elected, youre the star to-day..SMILE! Youre on..

1970 - Jim Morrison is tried in Miami on "lewd & lascivious behavior"

1973 –San Francisco’s first BART train travels through the transbay tube to Montgomery St Station.

1978- Ford announces a recall of it's Pinto series car after tests prove when bumped from behind the auto explodes into flames.

1983- Discovery of the Vega Galaxy. This was the first physical proof of a planetary system outside our Milky Way.

1987 - Clara Peller, the elderly actress who gained last minute advertising fame by saying Where's the Beef?, died at 86 The director and writer of the spots was the father of J.J. Sedelmier, who created the Ambiguously Gay Duo and other TV Funhouse animations for SNL.
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Quiz: What is an Epicurean?

Answer: Originally a follower of philosopher Epikouros of Samos (341BC), who said that the Gods are too busy to worry about if you sin or not. They set up things in nature to regulate your free will. So if something is painful, that means it’s bad. If it feels good, it can’t be bad. That would be unnatural, and so against Gods laws. The Romans took this philosophy a bit too far with their orgies and gluttony. Today an Epicurean is a name for someone who appreciates the finer things in life, fine wine, gourmet food, good animation, etc.

Quiz: What is an Epicurean?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: Who created the voice of Woody Woodpecker?
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History for 8/9/2007
Birthdays: King Henry V of England, John Dryden, Sir Issac Walton-author of the Compleat Angler, Melanie Griffith, Whitney Houston, David Steinberg, Deion Sanders, Bob Cousy, Jill St. John, Robert Shaw, Robert Aldrich, Sam Elliot is 64, Gillian Anderson is 40, Pamela Lyndon Travers –the creator of Mary Poppins, Eric Bana is 40, Audrey Tautou is 30

378A.D. HADRIANOPLE-The "Custer's Last Stand' of the Roman Empire.
The Emperor Valens and his legions were wiped out by a horde of Goths led by Fritigern the Visigoth. This battle is considered the last battle of the ancient world and the beginning of the Medieval superiority of armored horsemen -which was the way the Goths fought. Valens co-emperor Valentinian gave him the Empire of the East because it was the easier of the two theaters and Valentinian was confident even a dummy like Valens couldn't mess it up. The Nordic peoples migrations into western Europe we call the Barbarian Invasions the Germans called "Die Volkvanderung-the Wandering of the People".

1588- Queen Elizabeth I visited the camp at Tilbury to inspect the troops that would defend England from a landing by the Spanish Armada. The Armada had been driven off ten days ago but they were still somewhere in English waters so it still seemed like a good idea to visit. She thrilled the men by delivering the most famous speech of her career: “ I know that I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, Aye, and of a King of England too!”

1854- Henry David Thoreau published “Walden”, the first great work about nature conservation.

1910 - Alva Fisher patents the electric washing machine.

1929- Hollywood theater mogul Alexander Pantages was convicted of assaulting a young woman in a broom closet. The conviction was later overturned. It was the first successful defense case of attorney Jerry Geisler, who became famous for getting movie stars and other Hollywood hoi poloi out of trouble with the law. The word in the studios when a movie star was naughty was “Get Geisler!”

1930- Max Fleischer's cartoon "Dizzy Dishes" introduces Betty Boop. A singing star named Helen Kane sued Fleischer claiming that they stole her distinctive Boop-Ooop-a-Doop from her, but the case was thrown out when it was revealed Kane had stolen it herself from another singer. Betty was supposed to be a dog character to match her male couterpart Bimbo. But Animator Grim Natwick had done a lot of drawing of girls in Paris and New York and turned the character into a saucy little flapper.

1936- Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics. Host head of state Adolf Hitler refused to shake hands with him.

1941- One of the more legendary British air aces in the Battle of Britain was Wing Commander Douglas Bader. He was all the more novel because he was had no legs. This day Bader’s Spitfire was finally shot down by the Luftwaffe over Belgium. Bader bailed out and was captured. But the German pilots were so impressed with this handicapped ace that they treated him like a rock star, touring him around airfields where other pilots could wine and dine him. Bader’s tin legs were damaged when his plane went down so the RAF dropped a substitute pair over a German airfield for him. But later as a POW he tried so many times to escape the German commandant of his prison camp took away his legs. “I wish all my prisoners were so easily manageable.”

1942- Walt Disney's "Bambi" premiered.

1944- Antoine Du Saint-Exupery, the author of the Little Prince, died when he crashed his fighter plane. He was not shot down by the Germans, he was just a terrible pilot. The main protaganist of the little prince is an aviator who crashes his plane.

1945-NAGASAKI- the second Atomic Bomb "Fat Man" was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The B-29 bomber "Boxcar” was plagued by a violent thunderstorm and they wasted precious fuel searching for their target. When they made it back to base after the 14 hour flight two of their four engines had run out of gas. Nagasaki was the second choice target. The first Kokura, was so fogged in scientists couldn't study the bomb's effect. 63,000 people killed was one effect.

1945- At the same time President Harry Truman was reporting to Congress and the nation about his trip to Potsdam and plan for post war Germany. He said among other things that it was vital for democracy in Germany to break up the huge centralized corporations and foster the rights of workers to form unions. Hmmm…we could use a plan like that in the US today….

1947 -The British government in an attempt to bolster revenue for their shattered postwar economy, announced a 300% import tariff on Hollywood films. The Big Eight-Hollywood studios retaliate by stopping the export of movies to Britain. The British film industry has a heyday and Disney starts producing films locally in Britain like 'Rob Roy Highland Rogue' and such.

1960- Near Cuernavaca Mexico, Harvard professor Timothy Leary took some magic mushrooms and experienced his first hallucinogenic trip. He called it “ a conversion.”

1963 - Britain's rock & roll TV show, Ready Steady Go, premieres.

1967 - Joe Orton, English actor/playwright (Leaf, Murdered), died at age 34.

1969-HELTER SKELTER- Charles Manson's cultists murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate and several houseguests of her husband/director Roman Polanski. One other guest killed was socialite Jay Sebring, who made cocaine fashionable and invented the 1970's blow-dry hair style for men. A Polish tourist named Dominic Frykowski who had the misfortune to be visiting that night was shot twice, bludgeoned and stabbed 51 times. Kill the Pigs was scrawled on the wall in blood. Charles Manson had a messianic concept that he could lead the Apocalypse devolving out of a race war if his followers first killed celebrities to advertise their cause. Manson had a hit list that included Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen and Liz Taylor. The California spawned Hippy-Flower-Child culture lost it’s innocent fun after Manson.

1974- “KNEEL WITH ME, HENRY.” Richard Nixon, aka Tricky Dick, resigned and left the Presidency of the United States in disgrace. New President Gerald Ford of whom Lyndon Johnson once said "Sometimes I think Jerry played football once too often with his helmet off" assumed office.
Tricky Dick, courtesy of the Guardian UK
I recall hearing the news, while I was sitting in the offices of Penthouse Magazine, where I was trying to sell some spot cartoons. I had already worked for Playboy under Harvey Kurtzman, so I thought I could diversify. That night I went to my girlfriend's house in Queens and her dad and I drank many toasts and laughed, as Nixon teared up and blubbered his resignation speech. Life was good then.
Afterwards, Nixon moved to New York City. His logic was: In NY, no one likes each other there, so I'll blend in." Today President Bush's popularity is lower than Richard Nixons.

1995- THE HIGH TECH BUBBLE- Netscape first appeared on the stock market. The 15 month old company started by a Silicon Graphics exec and a 22 year old college senior immediately shot up to $1.07 billion dollars in value. This IPO signaled the beginning of the gold rush in high tech stocks which five years later came crashing down as violently. Stocks like Lucent Technology which sold at $84 dollars a share in 1998 dropping to 39 cents a share in 2001.

1999- The US Government tax people closed Nevada’s Mustang Ranch, the most famous legal house of prostitution in the US.
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Quiz: Who created the voice of Woody Woodpecker?

Answer: In 1940 Mel Blanc initially created the voice of the famous bird, then Walter Lantz’s wife Gracie assumed the job until her death in the 1985.

My old friend Frederic Back is in LA for a rare visit. Frederic is one of the world's animation filmmakers whose work can make the most hallowed animation artists of Disney, Dreamworks and PIXAR fall over and kick up their heels in delight. Many moons have passed since we first shared a raclette wheel at Annecy in 1987.



Frederic, a multi-Oscar winner, is in town to dedicate a show of his work at the Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences. On Sunday Aug 10th the Academy would celebrate the work of his music composer Normand Roger, and to dedicate his art show. On Tuesday John Lasseter will join him at SIGGRAPH for an evening show and screening of the Man Who Planted Trees. On Friday the Canadian Consulate here will host a formal luncheon reception at their residence. Frederic is a great conservationist and passionate champion for the environment. Check out his website http://www.fredericback.com If you've never met him or seen his work, you are missing something real special. Call oscars.org or Siggraph about the shows.



Welcome back to LALAland, mon ami Frederic'!

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Quiz: Who created the voice of Woody Woodpecker?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is Cheerios named for? Mr Cheerio?
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History for 8/8/2008
Birthdays: Emiliano Zapata. Esther Williams, Gene Deitch, Dino DeLaurentis, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Keith Carradine, Deborah Norville, Mel Tillis, Dustin Hoffman is 70, Martin Brest, Peter Weir, Patricia Arquette, Japanese animation director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) is 57.

1588- THE GREAT PROTESTANT WIND- The bulk of the Spanish Armada was not destroyed by the English Navy but by a huge North Sea Typhoon that hit them off the coast of Northern Ireland. This is why if you want to view relics of the great Spanish galleons don't go to Cadiz or Tortuga, go to the Museum of Belfast. Supposedly the thousands of Spanish and Italian sailors marooned on the Irish coast intermarrying with the Irish population, who weren't crazy about the English either, created the racial strain Black Irish, or Celts with milk white skin and black hair and eyes.

1811- THE IRON CROSS- Before medals common soldiers were rewarded for bravery with a few gold coins. Washington and Napoleon made medals things soldiers dreamt of. General Gerhard von Gneisenau urged the King of Prussia to create a medal like the French Legion d'Honneur to reward all ranks in the German Army. At first the sulky King was against anything that led common soldiers to believe they were better than the common schweinhundts he felt they were, but he finally was made to give in. The new medal was based on the heraldic symbol of the Crusader order of the Teutonic Knights, a black cross formed by four arrowheads. The "Iron Cross" medal was created.
Goths, Surfers and Hells Angels rejoiced.

1876 - Thomas Edison patented the mimeograph, a forerunner of the Xerox process.

1944 - Smokey the Bear, named after NYC fireman Smokey Joe Martin born .

1945-Two days after the Hiroshima bombing, the Soviet Union declared war on the Japan and began landing troops in Manchuria, Korea and the northern Kurile Islands. The Japanese cabinet had hoped to avoid a total unconditional surrender by first negotiating a separate peace with Stalin, then using him to force a deal with the Anglo-Americans. But Stalin had his own ideas. Even today with Stalin dead and Communism long gone, the Russians still won’t give back the Kuriles.

1960 – Brian Hyland’s song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-dot Bikini" hits #1.

1963 – THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY- In Buckinghamshire England a small group of masked men stopped the London to Glasgow express and stole 2.6 million pound sterling about $7.3 million U.S.. English police netted most of the gang, but the ringleader Ronald Biggs escaped. Biggs lived well in Rio de Janiero for thirty eight years and gave frequent interviews to British media. Old and sick, he finally returned to England and jail in 2001. “I just want one more pint in a pub” he sighed.

1963 – The Kingsmen release the song "Louie, Louie,". Many labeled it obscene, although no one is quite sure just what the song lyrics mean. In the 1980s Northwestern University staged Louie-Louie Marathons- 44 straight hours of Louie-Louie, played by punk bands, polka bands, marching bands, folk trios, and singing water glasses.

1966 -The Beatles' released "Revolver"
1973-Vice President Spiro Agnew vows not to resign. He resigned shortly afterwards.

1974 - Richard Nixon decided to resign the U.S. Presidency after Senator Howard Baker informed him his last supporting congressmen on the Senate Impeachment Committee intended to change their vote to yes for impeachment. Insiders say his last call before making up his mind was to Dixiecrat George Wallace, who told the President he could no longer count on the support of Southern white conservatives.

1978- The character of Odie the dog first met Garfield in Jim Davis’ comic strip.

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Yesterday’s Question: What is Cheerios named for?

Answer: General Mills created the new breakfast cereal in 1941. Originally called Cheery Oats, it was altered because of a copyright challenge. Another version of the origin is that the man who created it was inspired by the Italian town of Cheerigalia, which had been making grain cereals since ancient Roman times. Who first figured out its a great way to distract hungry toddlers is unknown.

I don't know who these people are, or why they are wearing Cheerios, but I think I worked on Ultimate Avengers on the poster behind them?

I learned today that the film I directed in Taiwan in 2006, ADVENTURES IN THE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM was awarded Grand prize at the Tokyo International Animation Festival! The second prize was given to Ark, the film that won top honors at the 2007 SIGGRAPH. The film is 3D short about how the exhibits in Taipei's great art museum, the NPM, come to life after the museum is closed. It was a way to highlight the treasures of this great museum and introduce them to a new generation of art lovers.

Domo Arrigato to the Tokyo International Animation Festival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmCP3Aep5XI&feature=related

My congratulations to Teddy Yang and all the Digimax gang!
Ho Shan Ku Faa!!

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Quiz: What is Cheerios named for? Mr Cheerio?

Yesterday’s answer below: Who is Bugs Bunny named for?
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History for 8/7/2008
Birthdays: Roman Emperor Constantius II, Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene, Mata Hari, Rassan Rolling Kirk, Dr. Ralphe Bunche, Nicholas Ray, Dr. Richard Leakie, Grandma Moses, Alan Page, The Amazing Randi, David Duchovny, Billy Burke aka Glenda the Good Witch " Come out, come out. wherever you are..." Garrison Keillor is 66, Stan Freeberg- radio star and voice of Pete Puma is 82, Animator Rudy Ising, Charlize Theron is 33

1674-The Bagel is invented in Vienna. Some say the hole is a tribute to the stirrup of Polish warrior king Jan III Sobieski, more likely the hole was just so a street peddler could stack them on a stick.

1834 -Death of Joseph Jacquard, French silk weaver who invented the first loom capable of weaving patterns. Some say that the cards used in the Jacquard Looms were the inspiration for the computer punch card, a way of transmitting data, whether pulses of light or lengths of wool.

1882- The legendary Hillbilly Feud in Kentucky between the Hatfields and the McCoys began, supposedly over a prize hog. Ellison Hatfield was stabbed 26 times and shot in the back by Tolbert McCoy. The Hatfields then rounded up three McCoys and shot them execution-style. Over the next forty years over100 men women and children from both families would be killed in the argument.

1914 – The famous poster of Lord Kitchner pointing and saying "Your country needs you," spreads over UK. James Montgomery Flagg later copied the poster for the American version with Uncle Sam in a similar pose. Lord Asquith commented that by now the elderly soldier Kitchener made "a better poster than a leader."



1919- the First Actor’s Equity Strike.

1928- The US Treasury issued a smaller leaner dollar bill. Before this dollars were two times larger and wider than the ones we now use.

1931 - Leon Bismarck "Bix" Beiderbecke, jazz trumpeter died at 29 of drink and drugs. Bix along with his idol Louis Armstrong was considered one of the first jazz musicians to popularize the solo-riff, where in the body of a song the soloist would depart from the arrangement and improvise like a cadenza in classical music. His family in Davenport Iowa were horrified that their son dropped out of school to associate with Negroes and become a musician. Even after Bix was famous he returned proudly home only to discover his parents had stacked up every record he sent them in a box under the stairs. They never listened to a single one.

1933-The first "Alley-Oop" comic strip.

1942- GUADALCANAL BEGINS-10,000 Marines land on the Japanese held island in the first U.S. offensive of World War Two. Americans at home had to learn names like Tulagi, Savo, Gaivutu-Tanonbogo, Chesty Puller and Washing Machine Charlie as their loved ones slugged it out for six months in one of the most brutal battles of the Pacific War. The evenly matched Japanese and Americans went at each other with everything from bayonets to battleships. So many ships were sunk in the island’s lagoon that they nicknamed it "Ironbottom Sound".

1942-The first days aerial dogfights over Guadalcanal Japanese fighter ace Saburo Sakai won fame for shooting down his 58th,59th and 60th American planes. Then his Zero was badly shot up by Gruman F-4 Wildcats and Sakai was paralyzed on his left side and had one eye shattered by a bullet. Yet even in this state he managed to fly his smoking plane 500 miles to home base safely. In the air for 8 1/2 hours, he later said he would occasionally thrust a thumb into his eye wound to give himself a shot of pain to keep awake. Sakai survived, fought at Iwo Jima in 1944, volunteered for Kamikaze duty but flew back with honor when he could find no suitable targets. He survived the war and wrote a famous memoir- Zero Pilot.

1964-After the Tonkin Gulf Incident President Johnson asked for permission to act in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war. Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution 93-2 in the Senate and 410-0 in the House to accelerate the U.S. combat troops role in Vietnam. President Johnson used the hotline to the Kremlin for the first time to assure Premier Khruschev that the US did not plan to expand their role in IndoChina- (?) The American commitment goes from 30,000 to 450,000, trillions of dollars and eventually immolates Cambodia and Laos as well. Senator William Fullbright, later a great anti-war critic, was at this time an enthusiastic supporter. Congressman Mark Hatfield said : "I can’t get over the feeling we’re making a big mistake."

1970 - Christine Perfect McVie joins the band Fleetwood Mac.

1970 – The first computer chess tournament.

1974- French daredevil Phillipe Petit strung a tightrope between the two 110 story towers of NY’s World Trade Center and walked across it. As New Yorkers watched in amazement, Petit kept his concentration by carrying on a conversation with the buildings. In 2005 Animator Michael Sporn created an award winning film about the incident. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.

1979- THE RUNAWAY WARS.-Hollywood Cartoonist’s Union strike against studios sending animation work overseas.

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Yesterday’s Quiz: Who is Bugs Bunny named for?

Answer: Looney Tune storyman Ben Hardaway was nicknamed Bugs, like famed Chicago Gangster Bugs Moran. When Hardaway requested a rabbit design for a new cartoon, designer Charlie Thornton made up a model sheet and labeled it Bugs’ Bunny.

Well, Boys & Girls, the warlords of PBS are crunching the numbers to see if we rate a second season of Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns. We struggled to find a big audience in this current oversaturated media market. Just like 30 Rock, MadMen, Arrested Development and Star Trek the Next Generation got great buzz and critical appeal but took time to find an audience. The good news is I heard that our audience never diminished, but has stayed loyal since we premiered. This despite the PBS local affiliates sticking us all over the dial at all kinds of weird times. And for that CarTalk loyalty I am heartily grateful. Now we'll see if PBS thinks we merit more episodes. Well, let's cross our fingers and rub our Roger Rabbit's feet and hope for the best. Remember to watch tonight, and write PBS via the website and tell them you want more Click and Clack!

my crew can't wait to get back to work on a new season!

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Quiz: Who is Bugs Bunny named for?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is a peripatetic?
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History for 8/6/2008
Birthdays: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Daniel O'Connell "the Liberator", Dutch Schultz, Louella Parsons, Lucille Ball, Robert Mitchum, Andy Warhol, Hoot Gibson, William B. Williams, Michelle Yeoh, Sir Freddy Laker, M. Night Shyamalan, Melissa George, Andy Messersmith, Soliel Moon-Frye aka Punky Brewster

1504 Birth of Matthew Parker, English cleric who became Archbishop of Canterbury under Elizabeth I and was responsible for formulating the 39 Articles - an apocryphal story is that his long nose and inquisitive nature gave rise to the term "Nosy Parker ".

1890- FIRST MAN ELECTROCUTED- Prison officials wanted a more humane way to execute badguys than hanging, after a 300 pound killer named Mad Jack Ketcham made everybody sick when the noose ripped his head off. So they turned to the miracle of the age, electricity. A spirited competition began between inventors Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse whether AC or DC current was more lethal. Lots of dogs and cats around their laboratories disappeared for test subjects. Edison wanted to call his device an "Automort" or "Electramort". When Edison knew he was going to lose the contract he suggested the inventor give his name to it." Joe will be Westinghoused at Midnight !"-etc. Finally it was simply the Chair or the Hot Seat. The first man in it, an axe murderer named William Kemmler, took several 17 second jolts to be sent off, his hair and jacket caught fire and his shoes melted and stuck to the floor.

1926- Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel.

1926- Warner Brothers Studio premiered it’s motion picture sound on disk system.The film was Don Juan with John Barrymore the Great Profile. It didn’t really have much impact until they made the "Jazz Singer"with Al Jolson two years later.

1930- Judge Crater disappeared. The New York Supreme Court Justice had given no indication of any trouble but he had accrued huge gambling debts. The good judge had dinner with some friends at the Stork Club and told them he would join them later at the theater. He got into a taxi at 43rd street and vanished forever. It was the media sensation of the year.

1932- Top Broadway singer Libby Hollman "Statue of Libby" had married quiet millionaire Smith Reynolds and moved to his North Carolina estate. But life on the farm was boring so Libby brought her Broadway friends down to party. After one party she was missing for several hours and had grass stains on her knees. The couple quarreled and Smith Reynolds died of a gunshot wound to the head. No one was ever charged .

1945- HIROSHIMA.- At around 11:00 A.M. Capt. Tibbetts and his B-29 "Enola Gay" dropped one bomb and sent us into the Atomic Age. The uranium device was called the "Cosmic Bomb" by the scientists and "Little Boy" by the crew. Navy Secretary Admiral Leahy had said:" It's the biggest damn fool thing we've ever done. It'll never go off!" When it did go off one crewmember shouted:"Wow! Lookit that sonofabitch go! This war is over!!" The navigator wrote in his journal" My God! What have we done ?" The target city of Hiroshima was selected because it was undamaged up until then and the surrounding hills would concentrate it’s effect. The A-bomb killed around 130,000 people and continued to kill survivors with radiation and cancer. 50,000 people were vaporized outright leaving only shadows burned into the pavement. Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, the bomb's main designer, had built it primarily to stop Hitler -both the Nazis and Japanese had their own unsuccessful atomic bomb programs. He was still horrified by the results. He became a lifelong pacifist and was later persecuted as a commie for refusing any more help in developing nuclear weapons.

1962- Jamaica gained independence from Britain.

1970- THE HIPPIES ATTACK DISNEYLAND- A nationwide call for civil disobedience at the famous American-establishment tourist spot was called for August 6th. Called "Yippie Day" Yippies were considered more militant than Hippies. 750 long haired, denim clad moppets filtered into park. Once in they quickly massed, then invaded the Wilderness Fort in Frontierland. There they raised the Vietcong flag, passed marijuana to tourists and chanted "Stop the War! Free Charlie Manson!" They were finally expelled with great difficulty by park security and the Anaheim police. In the 1980’s Disney was almost invaded by Nazi skinheads but this time they were ready.

1973- Stevie Wonder involved in car crash, goes into a 4 day coma but eventually recovered.

1984- Carl Lewis won four gold medals in track & field at the Olympic Games in LA.

1998- A chubby White House student intern from LA named Monica Lewinsky testified to a Federal Grand Jury that she had sex with President Bill Clinton in a small room down the hall from the Oval Office. Hey, watch where ya put that cigar!

2001- One month before the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks the CIA presented President George W. Bush with a study. The report was entitled OSAMA BEN LADEN LIKELY TO ATTACK IN CONTINENTAL US. That the terrorists attack on the US was likely and they may use hijacked civilian airliners. President Bush thanked them then resumed clearing brush on his ranch in Crawford Texas. CIA chief George Tenant didn’t think it important enough to even show up. Later in 2003 after the 9-11 attack National Security adviser Dr. Condoleeza Rice was quoted in the press that " No one could predict terrorists would hijack civilian airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon."


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Yesterdays Quiz: What is a peripatetic?

Answer: Someone who moves around a lot. Speaking on the move. Named for Aristotle, who liked to lecture while wandering around in a garden.