I heard that our old comrade Raul Garcia has won the Goya Award, Spain's Oscar, for his feature film the Missing Lynx, co-produced by Antonio Banderas.

Raul Garcia is an animator who has worked on films around the world such as Lucky Luke, Bluth's Land Before Time, Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and more. He directed an Award winning short of the TellTale Heart, and this is his first major feature film direction. We hope it is first of many.
You'd be hard put to find anyone important in animation who does not know Raul and even more rare to find someone who does not like him.

Here is the movie trailor in English.
http://www.themissinglynxmovie.com/

Congratulations and Felicitaciones from all your old friends across the globe, especially in El Pueblo Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles de Porcincula (aka LA)
I'm sure Melon is very proud. Glory to you!

----------------------------------------------------------------
Quiz: What are French Fries called in France, English Muffins in England, Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, and American Cheese in America?

Yesterdays question answered below: If you recently saw the Sergio Leone classic spaghetti western- The Good the Bad and the Ugly, did you know the action takes place around one real historical event? What was it?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 2/2/2009
Birthdays: Tallyrand, Charlie Halas a co-founder of the NFL, James Joyce, Ayn Rand, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifitz, Abba Eban, Garth Brooks, Christie Brinkley, Tommy Smothers, Stan Getz, James Dickey, Liz Smith, Elaine Stritch, Brent Spinner is 60, Shakira, Farrah Fawcett is 62

Happy Groundhog Day. This morning if Paxatawney Phil sees his shadow, it means 6 more weeks of winter.

In ancient Rome it was the day for the lesser Eleusinian Mysteries. Part of the ceremony was you were given a bowl of wine with certain herbs in it. After drinking it you saw the gods. In 1946 experimenting to find the nature of these ancient herbs led Dr. Albert Hoffman to discover LSD.

12-1300's-In the middle Ages this was the day of the Winter Reysa- when Crusader Knights of the Teutonic Order would venture into the Lithuanian forest, find a village of pagans, and chop them up for the Christian Faith. There were two expeditions a year, this one and in the summer. The Prussian Knights ran a sort of Club-Med for northern knights who wanted to crusade but not risk the dangerous journey to Palestine.

1536- The City of Buenos Aires founded.

1565- CZAR IVAN THE TERRIBLE exhibited the first signs of mental unbalance. Without warning, he abandoned his capitol Moscow in December. It took several weeks for the Russian court to find him at a little village named Alexandrov, 350 miles away. A procession waving incense and icons came out to beg him to return. He said he would return only if he were allowed to deal with his enemies ruthlessly. This day he returned to the Kremlin with a private army called the Oprichina, 6000 criminals and peasants dressed as monks to help Ivan torture people.


When once asked if a group of Jews from Lithuania could settle in Muscovite lands, Ivan explained his opposition: “ Jews would bring strange herbs into our realm and lead astray Russians from Christianity.”

1709- William Dampier was a reformed buccaneer who wrote books about his travels. This day while cruising the South Seas he rescued a man named Sir William Selkirk, who had been marooned on an otherwise uninhabited island for two years. It seems Selkirk had gotten into an argument with the captain of a Chilean schooner who left him there. Upon returning to London Capt. Dampier mentioned the incident to his friend writer Daniel DeFoe, who used it to create his most memorable novel- Robinson Crusoe.

1848- TREATY OF GUADALUPE HIDALGO signed, which ended the U.S.-Mexican War. Ambassador Nicholas Trist was given the dangerous assignment of finding the Mexican Government fleeing the American assault on Mexico City, then convincing them to sign away California and the Southwest, approximately 40% of their national territory. Just when negotiations in the little village of Guadalupe Hidalgo were about to conclude successfully, he got a message from Washington to break off talks and return. President Polk had changed his mind and now wanted the complete annexation of Mexico down to the Yucatan! Trist knew if he did this, the war party in Mexico would keep up a guerrilla war for decades afterwards. So he ignored the message, signed for the U.S. and fixed our southern border.

When Trist got home, instead of thanks, he was arrested for treason. But President Polk couldn't convince his war-weary people to continue the war. So the treaty was upheld. The French tried conquering Mexico twenty years later and got the Mexican national uprising Trist avoided. Nicolas Trist was released from prison, but he never got his back pay until President Lincoln awarded it to him on his deathbed 16 years later.

1852- London’s first public toilet was dedicated- near 95 Fleet St.

1870- Samuel Clemens also known as Mark Twain, married Olivia Langdon or Livy.

1870-The first international news agency. Reuters, Havas and Wolf News Agencies agree to pool their resources to cover the world. United Press International.

1910- D.W. Griffith's' In Old California', sometimes called the first Hollywood film.

1912- New York’s Grand Central Station opened.

1920- Admiral Kolchak, leader of the anti-communist (White) Russian armies in the civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution, was shot by firing squad and chucked into a dry canal. For a year Kolchak was defacto dictator of all Russia from the Ural mountains to the Pacific.

1922- the novel "Ulysses" is published. James Joyce had finished the book months earlier but delayed publishing until his birthday, when it would be 2/2/22, which he considered lucky.

1922-Twenty one year old Walt Disney founds Newman's Laff-O-Grams in Kansas City.

1925- IDITEROD- THE SERUM RUN COMPLETED- Nome Alaska at this time was a town totally depended upon supplies from the outside world traveling in by sled dog teams. When a serious epidemic of diptheria threatened the population the call went to the ‘Outside” as Alaskans called the rest of the world, for help. It normally took a musher 18-20 days to cover the 650 miles from the coast to Nome, now a relay of 20 teams in short sprints would attempt to do it in 5 days in the depth of winter. One musher reported blizzard conditions so bad he couldn’t see the end of his team. While the press kept the world waiting breathlessly on this day Charlie Evans and his malamute team led by his lead dog Balto got into Nome with the serum in a metal cylinder wrapped in fur. At one point two of his dogs froze to death in harness and Evans took up their place himself and ran alongside the dogs the balance of the trip. It took 5 days and 7 hours. The epidemic was limited to five deaths. The 20 men and their teams were hailed as heroes. Although the dog Balto got most of the credit and has a statue and a movie about him, experts say a 48 pound Siberian husky named Togo did the greatest exertion, going 200 miles in the first leg. The Iditerod sled race is today run in commemoration of this event. The last surviving musher of the original race, Edgar Nollner, died in 1999 at 94 years old

1940- Soviet dictator Stalin had famed futurist theater director Vselevod Meyerhold shot.
At the time of his arrest Meyerhold’s wife Zinaida was stabbed to death. Neighbors who heard her screams assumed they were rehearsing a new play.

1957- Elizabeth Taylor married producer Mike Todd. Todd was killed in a plane crash a year later. Despite her famous association with Richard Burton, Taylor later said Mike Todd was the only one she ever truly loved.

1961- In a little Greenwich Village nightclub called the Blue Angel, a young television writer turned stand up comic made his first debut. His name was Woody Allen.

1963- In England, singer Helen Schapiro was on tour. On the lower end of her program card was a new band called the Beatles.

1966- Woody Allen married Louise Lasser.

1971- After a coup toppled legal President Milton Obote former British colonial sergeant Idi Amin was inaugurated as president in Uganda. Before being driven out in 1979 by the Tanzanian army Dr.Idi Amin Dada was one of the more outrageous dictators of post colonial Africa. He declared himself Conquerer of the British Empire, led his pitiful little army in mock invasions of Israel even though it was thousands of miles away and he was surrounded by hostile nations. He played drums in his own rock band, wrestled crocodiles, and once reputedly killed and ate one of his sons.

1979- Lead singer for the punk band Sid Vicious found dead of a drug overdose. The 21 year old was awaiting trial for the stabbing death of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

1985- O.J. Simpson married Nicole Brown Simpson.

2006-The Cartoon Riots. A Danish newspaper printed a political cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with his turban shaped like a bomb. This so offended the Moslem world that rioting broke out in Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jakharta and European capitols. Grenades were thrown at Danish embassies and Danish nationals made to flee.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterdays question: If you recently saw the 1967 Sergio Leone classic spaghetti western- The Good the Bad and the Ugly, did you know the action takes place around one real historical event? What was it?

Answer: Sibley’s Raid was the one attempt to extend the Civil War into the Southwest. In the film you heard the characters refer to Rebel General Sibley. Henry Sibley led a regiment of Confederate cavalry out of Texas to try and conquer the California goldfields. They were stopped outside of Santa Fe New Mexico territory by militia from Colorado, California and Utah at the battle of La Glorieta, also called the battle of Apache Pass. Confederates scouts reached as far west as Phoenix, Arizona.

Quiz: If you recently saw the Sergio Leone classic spaghetti western- The Good the Bad and the Ugly, did you know the action takes place around one real historical event? What was it?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Thinking of modern problems, what U.S. President said to the CEO of U.S. Steel:” My father warned me that all businessmen are sons of bitches, but I never believed it until I met you!”
-------------------------------------------------------------
History for 2/1/2009
Birthdays: Victor Herbert, Langston Hughes, Renata Tebaldi, Clark Gable, John Ford, George Pal, Terry Jones, Jim Thorpe, Sherman Helmsley, Lisa Marie Presley, Garrett Morris, Boris Yeltsin, Pauly Shore, Sherilyn Fenn

Welcome to February from Februarius, named for Februus, a Sabine god of the underworld called the Purifier. Another theory is this month is named for Febis, the Latin for fever, this being a time in the Roman climate when fevers were most common.

570 AD- Today is the Feast Day of Saint Brigid, an Irish saint who gave beer to the poor.

1733- Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland died. Described as Half-Bull- Half Cock, he could break horseshoes with his bare hands and drink anyone under the table. He wasted his kingdom’s treasury indulging his vices and filling his palace at Dresden with bejeweled treasures and porcelains, which make it such a cool tourist destination today. One of the horniest monarchs of Europe, his reputation for fornication would be unbelievable, had he not left behind regiments of bastard children. His last words were “My entire life has been one long act of Sin.”

1887- California land Developer Harvey Wilcox takes out a county deed for a new ranch he calls 'Hollywoodland' after the name of an estate his wife admired back in Connecticut. It gave its name to the new Los Angeles town- Hollywood.

1893- In New Jersey Thomas Edison and his engineer W. K. Dickson built the FIRST MOTION PICTURE STUDIO in New Jersey. It was covered with black tar paper and nicknamed"The Black Mariah" because that was the nickname of police paddy wagons that it resembled. It's debatable how much of the inventing effort was more Dickson than Edison. Edison was only marginally interested in the movies. He was more concerned with how to extract New Jersey iron ore from rocks using magnets. Dickson worked himself into the hospital to make the studio work, and resenting Edison’s apathy started experimenting on his own. When Edison found out he fired him.

1896- Puccini's opera "La Boheme" debuts in Turin. It was based on Prosper Merimee’s popular book Bohemian Sketches. Puccini's old roommate Piero Mascagni (Cavaleria Rusticana) with whom Puccini and he once lived like Bohemian artists, tried to sue because he was writing a Boheme' also. The suit failed and Mascagni released his rival version but it didn't hold up in comparison with Puccini's.

1901- Outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with prostitute Hedda Place, sometimes referred to as Mrs.Sundance, escape the law back in Wyoming and arrive in New York City to relax. After a month of sightseeing they take a ship to Bolivia.

1943- At his headquarters at the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia, Adolf Hitler received the news of the Nazi disaster at Stalingrad. Hitler was furious. Not that he lost 250,000 of his best men but that their commander Field Marshal Von Paulus surrendered instead of committing suicide.”This hurts me so much that the heroism of so many soldiers was nullified by one single characterless weakling.” Then Hitler said in a foreshadowing of his own fate:”When the nerves break down, there is nothing left but to admit one can’t handle the situation and to shoot oneself.”

1964- Indiana Governor Matthew Walsh declares that the Rock & Roll song “Louie-Louie” by the Kingsmen was pornographic and should be banned. The FCC investigated and their conclusion was that the “lyrics are unintelligible at any speed”. The song remained a major hit. In the 1980’s several schools in Northern Cal held Louie-Louie Marathons-96 straight hours of Louie-Louie, played by Punk bands, polka bands, string quartets, folk trios and marching bands. Whoah whoah, Me gotta go-yo,yo yo yo.

1968- During the Vietnamese Tet Lunar Offensive-as cameras rolled South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan put a snub nosed pistol to the head of a Vietcong prisoner and pulled the trigger. The photo of the young mans death grimace became one of the more disturbing images of the 1960’s.

1979- The Ayatollah Khomeni returned to Teheran Iran after a 15 year exile.

1990- Siegfried & Roy open their exclusive show at the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas. They and their white tigers have performed for Hollywood stars, presidents and Pope John Paul II. One Vegas columnist notes: “When Elvis performed in Vegas there were some empty seats. But there are nothing but full houses when Siegfreid & Roy perform.” The act was finally ended by Roy’s throat being slashed by a tiger in 2003.

2003-“ Columbia this is Houston on UHF, Houston, Columbia on UHF…” NASA’s first spaceshuttle- the Columbia, broke up and disintegrated upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. All seven astronauts were killed. The Columbia had flown 26 missions since 1981. On board was the first woman astronaut born in India and the first Israeli in Space, Col. Llan Ramon.

2004- At a Superbowl live halftime show pop star Justin Timberlake pulled the bra cup off of singer Janet Jackson exposing her right breast with a starburst stud on it. Named “the Wardrobe Malfunction”, the incident sent America into another one of its periodic paroxysms of Puritan censorship.
---------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Quiz: What U.S. President said to the CEO of U.S. Steel:” My father warned me that all businessmen are sons of bitches, but I never believed it until I met you!”

Answer: John F. Kennedy. US Steel promised to not raise prices if they got JFK to force concessions from the Steelworkers unions. After he did, they raised prices anyway, eliciting this outburst from the President. Kennedy’s father, Joe Sr. was himself a Wall St buccaneer, so he oughta know.

The 2008 Annie Award Winners are:

John Lasseter won the Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award.

PRODUCTION CATEGORIES

Best Animated Feature

KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Best Animated Home Entertainment Production

FUTURAMA: THE BEAST WITH A BILLION BACKS -- The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Ent.

Best Animated Short Subject

WALLACE & GROMIT: A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH -- Aardman Animations Ltd.

Best Animated Television Commercial

United Airlines HEART -- Duck Studios

Best Animated Television Production

ROBOT CHICKEN: STAR WARS EPISODE II -- ShadowMachine

Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER -- Nickelodeon

Best Animated Video Game

KUNG FU PANDA -- Activision

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES

Animated Effects

Li-Ming Lawrence Lee -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Feature Production

James Baxter -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Television Production or Short Form

Pierre Perifel -- SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE -- DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Nico Marlet -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Nico Marlet -- SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE -- DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

John Stevenson & Mark Osborne -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Joaquim Dos Santos -- AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER "Sozin's Comet Pt. 3" -- Nickelodeon

Music in an Animated Feature Production

Hans Zimmer & John Powell -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Music in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer & John Powell -- SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE -- DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Tang Heng -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Tang Heng -- SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE -- DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Jen Yuh Nelson -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Chris Williams -- GLAGO'S GUEST -- Walt Disney Animation Studios

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Dustin Hoffman -- Voice of Shifu -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Ahmed Best -- Voice of Jar Jar Binks -- ROBOT CHICKEN: STAR WARS EPISODE II -- ShadowMachine

Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Writing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Tom Root, Douglas Goldstein, Hugh Davidson, Mike Fasolo, Seth Green, Dan Milano, Matthew Senreich, Kevin Shinick, Zeb Wells, Breckin Meyer -- ROBOT CHICKEN: STAR WARS EPISODE II -- ShadowMachine

Special juried awards honoring career achievement and exceptional contributions to animation were also awarded: Winsor McCay recipients -- Mike Judge, John Lasseter and Nick Park for career contributions to the art of animation; June Foray award -- Bill Turner for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation; and Certificate of Merit award -- Amir Avini, Mike Fontanelli, Kathy Turner, Alex Vassilev.

Congratulations EVERYONE...winners, crews, & nominees!
-------------------------------------------
In case you're curious, Who the heck are ASIFA? An offshoot of Hezbollah?

ASIFA-Hollywood: An Organization With A Purpose
ASIFA-Hollywood is the Los Angeles chapter of the international organization, ASIFA: The International Animated Film Society. Founded by a group of animators like John Hubley, Paul Grimault and Dusan Vukotic' in 1957, and chartered by UNESCO in 1960.

ASIFA encourages the art of animation and furthers international understanding and goodwill through the medium. Today, there are about thirty chapters of ASIFA all over the globe. ASIFA is a French acronym for "Association Internationale du Film D'Animation."

ASIFA-Hollywood was established over thirty-five years ago as a 501(c)(3) California non-profit organization. It is the largest chapter of ASIFA in the world. We are self-sustaining through our membership dues and the proceeds from our various projects and events.

I did an interview recently with Fulle Circle that has just been put up. check it out-

www.fullecirclestuff.blogspot.com

---------------------------------------------------------
Quiz: Thinking of modern problems, what U.S. President said to the CEO of U.S. Steel:” My father warned me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it until I met you!”

Yesterday’s quiz answered below: Why are chicken wings in spicy sauce called Buffalo Wings? Isn’t Buffalo more like Beef?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
History for 1/31/2009
Birthdays: Gouverner Morris, Zane Grey, James G. Blaine*, Franz Schubert, Tokugawa Ieyasu the Shogun, Sir John Profumo, Phillip Glass, Johnny Rotten, Ernie Banks, Norman Mailer, Nolan Ryan, Susanne Pleshette, Minnie Driver, Anthony LaPaglia, Tallulah Bankhead, Jean Simmons is 80, Justin Timberlake is 28, Portia DiRossi, Minnie Driver is 39

*James G. Blaine was a corrupt politician and failed presidential candidate that Thomas Nast loved to make cartoons of.

Today is the Feast day of St. John Bosco, patron saint of Catholic Schools (AAARRGH!)

Happy National Dress up in a Gorilla Suit Day. First advocated by Don Martin, cartoonist for MAD Magazine.

1606- Sir Guy Fawkes cheated the executioner by leaping off the scaffold and breaking his neck. Fawkes was convicted of the Gunpowder Plot, trying to blow up King & Parliament.

1839- Englishman William Fox Talbot says Frenchman Louis Daguerre is full of pate' when he announces he had invented photography (1/7/39). Talbot declares HE invented it first. Actually a Belgian priest experimenting with capturing light on chemically treated glass or paper as early as 1817, Thomas Wedgewood in 1770 and Louis Niepce, with whom both Daguerre and Talbot were familiar. While the principles of capturing a shadow had been known for some time, no one had worked out how to fix the image so earlier attempts faded away in a few hours. Niepce' work predates both Talbot and Daguerre by about 10 years and constitute the earliest "photographic" images still extant. But Talbot and Daguerre are considered the fathers of Photography, provided you like history Anglais or a’ Francais.

1843-The first recorded minstrel show. The mode became so popular that even black performers had to wear burnt-cork blackface makeup.

1876- The U.S. Congress ordered all remaining Indian tribes to move into reservations or be declared hostile.

1925- Scotch brand invisible tape introduced by the 3-M Company.

1933- New Chancellor Adolf Hitler promised he would respect Parliamentary Democracy. Uh, huh….

1940- Mrs. Ida Mae Fuller of Ludlow Vermont received the first Social Security check- $22.50.

1945- Private Eddie Slovik becomes the only U.S. soldier in World War II to be shot by firing squad for desertion.

1950- THE H-BOMB - Despite the unanimous recommendation of the civilian Atomic Energy Commission that a "Super" or Hydrogen Bomb "would not be a weapon of war but an instrument of mass genocide and calamity" President Harry Truman announced to the world that the U.S. was going to build one anyway. Physicist. I. G. Rabi said he was shocked that Truman should have announced a bomb we still didn't yet know how we were going to build ,and accelerate the arms race. When Dr. Robert Oppenheimer protested, Truman called him a “sissy-scientist.” Secretary of State Dean Acheson groaned privately to a friend: “What a horrible world we’re living in.”

1954- Howard Armstrong, the inventor of FM Radio, driven to despair by constant lawsuits with RCA Corporation over his patents, jumped to his death out of a hotel window. He first put on his hat, overcoat and gloves because he didn't want to be cold...(?) Armstrong loved heights and used to climb hundreds of feet in the air to meditate on top of his radio antennas. By 1977 his family won all the lawsuits. Today, most radio, television and air traffic communications are by FM band.

1958- The U.S. enters the Space Race with the launching of satellite Explorer- 1.

1963- U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara declared to the press:” The War in Vietnam is going quite well…”

1968- TET- The North Vietnamese army combined with the Viet Cong guerrillas surprise attack American Forces all over South Vietnam. Even the capitol Saigon and the American Embassy became battle zones. Despite an alert issued the night before, 200 US intelligence officers attended a pool party, and were as surprised as everyone else. Although all the Vietnamese attacks were defeated and the Viet Cong destroyed, the U.S. public was shocked that such an attack could happen from what they had been told was “ A defeated enemy” It was the turning point of the Vietnam War. The military of course, blamed the media.

1968- The Seattle city council concluded that there was no legal means to curb hippies hanging out in the downtown U- District.

1974- Apollo 14 blasted off for the moon. This voyage is chiefly remembered for Alan Shepard playing golf on the lunar surface.

1978- Polish director Roman Polanski fled the U.S. for exile after being charged for having sex with a thirteen year old girl in Jack Nicholson’s house.

1989- LaToya Jackson posed nude for Playboy.

1995- First Meeting of the WTO- World Trade Organization.

1999- The first episode of Seth McFarlane’s show Family Guy premiered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s question: Why are chicken wings in spicy sauce called Buffalo Wings? Isn’t Buffalo more like Beef?

Answer: Because they were invented in Buffalo NY. In 1964,Teressa Bellissima, the co-owner and cook of the Anchor Bar in Buffalo decided her patrons could use a warm finger food. She had lots of left over chicken wings. So she mixed the sauce and deep fried them and history was made.

Quiz: Why are chicken wings in spicy sauce called Buffalo Wings? Isn’t buffalo meat more like Beef?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: Former Gov. Rod Blogoyevich described the impeachment against him as “ The Fix is In.” Where did that term come from?
---------------------------------------------------------------
History for 1/30/2009
Birthdays: Barbara Tuchman, Gene Hackman is 79, Walt “Moose” Dropo, Olaf Palme, Vanessa Redgrave is 72, Dick Martin, Louis S. Rukeyser, Dorothy Malone, Boris Spassky, John Ireland, Phil Collins, Christian Bale,

HAPPY DICK CHENEY DAY!Former VP Dick Cheney is 68

courtesy of uppitynegronetwork.com

1649- KING CHARLES I of ENGLAND BEHEADED-The Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell condemns the King "That man of Blood" and abolished the English monarchy. As Charles laid his head upon the block he said:" I go from a corruptible crown to one which is Incorruptible." -Splat! Cromwell’s government worried that if the identity of the headsman was ever found out avengers may harm his family. They kept the secret so well that his name for a time was lost to history. His name was Richard Brandon. In Alexander Dumas' sequel to “The Three Musketeers”, he makes the executioner to be the son of Madame DeWinter and the Duc de Rochefort.

1661-HAVE YOU SEEN OLIVER CROMWELL'S HEAD? English dictator General Oliver Cromwell died of natural causes in 1659. After the restoration of the British monarchy a mob celebrated by breaking into Cromwells’ tomb and bouncing the corpse around, taking the head and putting it on London Bridge where criminals are usually exhibited. After the head fell off it's spike and rolled around on the ground a priest took it home and later sold it to a travelling circus.( It was a very popular attraction during the French Revolution: “Speaking of Heads! I just happen to have.....”)
Eventually it was donated to Cambridge University, to whom Cromwell had been a benefactor.
guess who..?

1790- Sir Malcom Greathead invented the lifeboat.

1835- THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ASSASINATION ATTEMPT -A lunatic named Richard Lawrence emerged from a crowd in the lobby of the House of Representatives and fired two pistols at President Andrew Jackson. They both miss. Jackson, an old army man who carried around two lead bullets in his body from Indian fights and duels, was so outraged that he grabbed Lawrence and started drubbing him on the head with his silver tipped cane. He beat him so badly that the Washington police had the strange task of saving the assassin from his intended victim.

1889- THE MAYERLING AFFAIR-Archduke Rudolf Von Hapsburg, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, commits suicide with his mistress, a Bavarian baroness Maria Vestera. Rudolf was already married and even if he could divorce he could never marry so below his station. Some say that there was more intrigue to it, that German statesman Otto Von Bismarck had Rudolf murdered because Rudolph planned on challenging Berlin’s hold over German unity, but that conspiracy theory is a longshot. His family felt Rudolf was an emotionally disturbed man, who finally found a girl dumb enough to follow him in his suicide pact. The Baroness had taken poison and then Rudolf had blown his brains out. Austrian funerary makeup artists worked overtime to make the Archduke's shattered face fit for an open casket wake. His mother the Empress Elizabeth refused to go: "I won't go see that thing! It's head is made of wax !"

1931- Hollywood Premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. Later at a dance at the Biltmore Hotel writer Herman Mankewicz (Citizen Kane, Duck Soup) got into a drunken fistfight with producer David O. Selznick (Gone With the Wind, Rebecca). You’ll never eat turtle-soup in this town again!

1933- HI-YO SILVER!! The Lone Ranger debuts on Radio. The Masked man was invented by the WXYZ station owner George Trendle and writer Fran Striker with absolutely no experience of cowboys or Indians. They just wanted a hero like Zorro with a strict moral code. He was later voiced by actor William Conrad who did the Rocky & Bullwinkle narration and the tv series Cannon.

1934- Artist Salvador Dali married Gala.

1933- ADOLF HITLER TAKES POWER. After a general election President Von Hindenberg was forced to appoint the Nazi Party leader Chancellor. Hindenberg had earlier growled” Chancellor? I’ll make him a postmaster so he could lick stamps with my face on it!” But he was forced to give in. Germans were fed up with skyrocketing inflation and political anarchy so they voted for the little man with the Charlie Chaplin mustache. The Nazis didn’t win by a landslide vote, it was a 37-42% majority, with the rest divided among splinter parties. The German Army at first didn’t cooperate with the Nazis. Their real power came when Hitler made a bargain with the major German corporations like Krupp, Seimans, Bayer and Daimler to take the ‘socialist” out of National Socialists and arrest all communists, unions and other bad-for-business types. All this was applauded by big business in the US like JP Morgan, Chase and Hearst who loaned money to German firms. With their new corporate clout and money the Nazis quickly called a new election to gain an overwhelming parliamentary majority in the Reichstag.

After ancient President Hindenberg died in 1934 the Reichstag voted dictatorial powers to Hitler making him Der Fuehrer.

1943- At Stalingrad as the freezing remains of the German 6th Army were wiped out by superior Soviet forces, this day Berlin received the last radio message from Field Marshal Von Paulus’ headquarters in the basement of a bombed out department store:” Russians at the door. We are preparing to destroy the radios. We are preparing…”

1946- The first US dimes with Franklin Roosevelt on the head were issued.

1948- 78 year old Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi the Mahatma, was shot and killed by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse while walking to morning prayers.

1956- Elvis Presley recorded Blue Suede Shoes, written originally by Carl Perkins.

1960- STRAVINSKY SPEAKS OUT. For years after the making of Fantasia, critics had pondered Igor Stravinsky's cryptic reaction to Disney's portrayal of his "Rite if Spring". Disney p.r. said he was "speechless with admiration!"
Twenty years later in a Saturday Review article, Igor Stravinsky said Leopold Stokowski's editing of his music was 'execrable' and the visuals "an unresisting imbecility". His opinion still didn't stop him from selling the studio film rights to several other of his pieces including "The Firebird' in 1942. Igor needed the cash.

1961-H-B's the Yogi Bear Show.

1969-THE ROOFTOP CONCERT The rock band the Beatles last public appearance as a group. They tried to do a free concert in the London streets but were banned by police for fear of congestion and noise complaints. So they withdrew to a rooftop above their recording studio and played anyway. John Lennon ended the concert by saying: ‘Thank you very much on behalf of the band and myself and I hope we passed the audition.”

1973- White House operatives G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord were convicted of burglary in the Watergate break in. President Nixon hoped sacrificing these two small fish would end the investigation. It didn’t. Liddy did some jail time, and today is a highly paid conservative radio talk show host.

1976- George Bush Sr. became head of the CIA. Poppy Bush revived the organization which had been wracked by scandal after the Frank Church Congressional Committee revealed details of the Alende coup in Chile, overseas assassination, illegal surveillance of Americans and schemes to put chemicals in Fidel Castro’s food to make his beard fall out.

2002- President George W. Bush Jr salutes his Vice President Dick Cheney on his birthday by saying “You are the best Vice President this country has ever had!” He may have forgotten that his own father George Bush Sr was also once vice president. I’m sure his mom reminded him later.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Question: Former Gov. Rod Blogoyevich described the impeachment against him as “ The Fix is In.” Where did that term come from?

Answer: It was first coined about the rigged 1919 World Series, when mobster Arnold Rothstein bribed several key members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the series. When the pitcher Eddie Cicotte threw one of his first pitches and hit the batter between the shoulders, that was the signal to the gangsters that “ The Fix is In.”

If you don't like my animated cartoons, then Go F*%$# Yourself!!