Quiz: Who were The Hollywood Ten?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: What does it mean to be a martinet?
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History for 2/10/2024
Birthdays: Former British PM Harold Macmillan, Jimmy Durante, Bertholdt Brecht, Leontyne Price, Roberta Flack, tennis great Bill Tilden, Lon Chaney Jr., Stella Adler, Mark Spitz, Boris Pasternak, Dame Judith Anderson, Greg Norman, Donavan, Dr Alex Comfort author of the Joy of Sex, Michael Apted, Jerry Goldsmith, Robert Wagner, Laura Dern is 57

Happy Chinese New Year. The Year of the Dragon.

1531- King Henry VIII demanded the Convocation of English Bishops acknowledge him as “ Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England” After much dallying, rejected compromises and threats, the Bishops agreed. Their spokesman archbishop Warham later renounced the decision on his deathbed.

1534- RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS TAKE OVER A MAJOR CITY-
In the myriad of Protestant sects popping up as the Reformation spread throughout Europe the most radical was the Anabaptists. They took the idea of living simply like the Old Testament to an advanced form of anarchist communism- no leaders, no private property. This day mobs of Anabaptists drove out the Bishop of the German City of Munster and declared the city The New Jerusalem. Their leader John of Leyden lived like an Old Testament King in rich clothing with several wives.
After the Imperial German forces recaptured the city with horrible massacre (see June 24th) the Anabaptist movement was suppressed- except… one Anabaptist preacher named Menno Simmons reformed the movement stressing simple non-political farm life. His group the Mennonites established communities in the America, Canada and Russia.

1722- Although not as famous as Blackbeard or Captain Kidd, Bartholomew Roberts was one of the most notorious pirates that ever flew the Jolly Roger. J.M. Barrie used him for the model for Captain Hook. This day he met his end when the British warship HMS Swallow caught up with his ship the Royal Fortune off Cape Lopez in Gabon. The pirates had taken a merchantman the night before so most of them were too drunk or hung-over to fight. Captain Roberts bellowed defiance, but as luck would have it, he was struck dead by the first cannonball from the very first broadside fired by the British.
His men threw his body overboard and after a short fight surrendered. The pirates were rounded up and sent in chains to the Cape Coast in Ghana where an Admiralty Court hanged 54, the largest one time pirate hanging ever.

1763- THE TREATY OF PARIS- Ending the Seven Years War (The French and Indian War). Europe makes peace and France yields to England all her territory in India and Canada. Spain gets Louisiana. “Half a continent changed hands with the scratch of a pen”. To ensure speedy approval of the treaty, Prime Minister Pitt the Elder set up a booth outside the Parliament to hand out cash bribes to the M.P.s as they walked in to vote. The French were bitter but philosophical. Minister Choiseul predicted:" With our threat removed, the Americans will try for independence in ten years." American colonial representative Benjamin Franklin reassured London:" Freedom is the last thing Americans want...."

1799- Napoleon marched out of Cairo at the head of his French expeditionary Army. He headed north towards Jerusalem but was stopped at the city of Jaffa.

1814- THE GREAT WEEK- Napoleon's enemies, figuring the little bastard can't be everywhere at once, invade France from five directions with five armies, all aimed at Paris. Napoleon with a small force of 15-year-old draftees defeated all five spearheads in one week. Today was the Battle of Champaubert.

1825- Gideon Mantell reported the discovery of an Iguanadon from the sandstone in Tilgate Sussex. He called it such because the teeth of the fossil resembled to him those of a large iguana.

1837- Russia’s greatest poet Alexander Pushkin died of wounds from fighting a duel defending his wife's honor. His last words were directed to his books "Farewell, my friends..." Pushkin was the great, great grandson of a black man Abram Gannibal, brought from Cameroon to serve Czar Peter the Great in his Moorish Guard.

1840- English Queen Victoria married a minor German prince named Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha. It becomes a real love-match, and they produced children who would occupy the thrones of Europe. Their common belief in strong moral values above all transformed English society into something truly Victorian. Victoria began the custom of brides always wearing white. Albert set men’s fashion trends like tuxedos, suits with neckties and sideburns; he also introduced to Britain and later America to the German custom of Christmas trees.

1846- After their temples in Navoo Illinois were burned by mobs, the Mormons under Brigham Young left for their trek to Utah.

1862- After a hard night partying with fellow poet Swinburne, pre-Raphaelite Dante Rossetti returned home to find his wife dead of an opium overdose.

1863- Alanson Crane invented the Fire Extinguisher.

1870- Anaheim California was founded. No Disneyland yet. The name means Ana, as in Santa Anna River, and Heim, the German word for home. So- Home of the Santa Anna River. The town was founded by 50 German immigrant families who wanted to raise grapes and build a socialist commune.

1888- The City of Long Beach incorporated.

1906- King Edward VII launched a new British design superbattleship called HMS Dreadnought. In the early twentieth century battleships were like nuclear weapons; the number and size showed the world how important a power you were. The Dreadnought class launched a new arms race, as the world’s navies spent millions to build more.

1907- THE EUHLENDBERG SCANDAL- Three of Kaiser Wilhelm's closest aides are accused by a socialist newspaper of being gay. The aides, including the Kaiser's personal friend Count Phillip zu Euhlenburg, who carried on an affair with Count Kuno von Molkte, military governor of Berlin! They sued in court but were disgraced and ostracized in the same way writer Oscar Wilde was in England. The scandal shocked German society, and the Kaiser suffered a nervous breakdown. That year in the gay hangouts of Paris the preferred pick-up line was “ Parlez vous Alemand?” “Do you speak German?”

1920- Major League Baseball banned the spitball pitch, scuff ball, licorice ball, all attempts to effect a baseball by defacing its surface.

1929- Elsa Lanchester married Charles Laughton.

1938- RKO screwball comedy with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant “Bringing Up Baby” premiered. Directed by Howard Hawks.

1940- MGM's "Puss gets the Boot" the first Tom and Jerry cartoon and the first collaboration of the team of New Mexico born Bill Hanna & New York born Joe Barbera.

1940- Despite the dangerously low manpower to fight the Nazis in North Africa, the British Cabinet voted to overrule Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and not arm the Jews in Palestine, for fear of angering the local Arabs.

1941- Nazi planes bombed Iceland.

1943- DUCT TAPE- During WW2, Miss Vesta Stoudt worked at a defense plant in Illinois. She noticed the way ammunition boxes were sealed required some effort to open. This could cost precious time in battle. She suggested they develop a strong cloth tape that could be torn open without scissors. Her supervisors ignored her. So, she wrote President Roosevelt this day. FDR loved the idea, and ordered Johnson & Johnson to make it. Because they waterproofed the tape, they called it Duck Tape. Like water rolls off a duck’s back. G.I.s liked the tape so much, they began using it for everyday repairs, even to close wounds. I’m not sure when it was first used on ducts. It was originally Army green. Manufacturers changed it to silver when marketed for home use.

1949- The premiere of Arthur Miller’s play "Death of a Salesman”.

1960- Jack Paar was the star and host of NBC’s The Tonight Show. He pioneered the talk show format, the opening monologue and couch, that everyone uses today. He tried to tell one joke about a woman in a water closet (i.e. toilet) when the network censors cut the joke. Jack Paar was so angry, that in the middle of this show, he stood up, exclaimed “ There’s gotta be better ways to make a living,” and walked off the show. A few weeks later he was convinced to return, but he left permanently in 1962. His celebrity status faded while his successor Johnny Carson became famous. Paar later admitted quitting was the biggest mistake of his life.

1962- U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, shot down over Russia in 1960, was finally traded back to the U.S. for top Soviet spy Alexander Abel. In his memoirs, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev later confided to Kennedy that he kept Col. Powers through the American election of 1960, because he didn't want "that s.o.b. Nixon" to have the advantage.

1966- CBS co-ops broadcasting the senate Kennan Hearings on the conduct of the Vietnam War with reruns of "I Love Lucy'. CBS news division president Fred Friendly quit in protest.

1966- Jaqueline Susanne’s novel The Valley of the Dolls first published. Although critics considered it cheap and trashy- Time Magazine called it “Dirty Book of the Month”, and Truman Capote called Susanne in her heavy 1960s eye shadow, a “Truck Driver in Drag” Valley of the Dolls sold like wildfire. Its frank portrayal of single women enjoying casual sex and taking drugs in suburbia was a big step in the sexual revolution of the 1960’s.

1966- Author Ralph Nader gained national fame when he testified to the Senate about the lax standards of auto safety. His greatest criticism was for GM’s Corvair. General Motors responded with a smear campaign trying to paint Nader as gay and anti-Semitic. Nader successfully sued them in court. Many of his consumer advocates ideas are mandatory today like seat belts and listing gas efficiency on the sales sticker.

1968- Operation Fractured Jaw. Secret memo only released in 2018 showed the Pentagon had planned to use nuclear weapons to win the Vietnam War. Several days later, LBJ cancelled their plan.

1992- The children’s book- The Stinky Cheese Man debuted.

1996- IBM computer Deep Blue defeated world chess master Garry Kasparov. The first time a computer ever beat a human chess champion.
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Yesterday’s question: What does it mean to be a martinet?

Answer: To be a bad-tempered unpleasant perfectionist.

Question: The medieval Holy Roman Empire based in Frankfurt was called the First Reich. The Nazis called themselves the Third Reich. Who was the Second?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is the difference between immigrating and emigrating?
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History for 2/8/2024
Birthdays: St Proclus of Constantinople 412AD, Jules Verne, Dmitri Mendeleev- inventor of the Periodic Table of Elements, James Dean, William Tecumseh Sherman, animator Ivan Ivano-Vano, Lana Turner, Jack Lemmon, Alejandro Rey, Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s TV Superman), Ted Koppel, Nick Nolte, Gary Coleman, Robert Klein, Seth Green, Sesame Street composer Joe Raposo, composer John Williams is 92

1587- MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS BEHEADED at Fotheringham Castle. Circumstantial evidence proved Mary had not discouraged plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth. Truth was Elizabeth could never sit on her throne securely while Mary lived. While some could argue Elizabeth’s legitimate birth, Mary’s grandmother was the sister of King Henry VIII.
Apologists for Queen Elizabeth argue she ordered the execution with great sadness, but others say she made jests as she signed the death warrant. Elizabeth and Mary never met face-to-face. Mary’s son James accepted his mother’s death calmly, he hadn’t seen her since he was a toddler and his Presbyterian tutors all filled him with hatred for her. She was raised Catholic at the court of French Queen Marie de Medicis. She would sit at her aunties side and watch her burn Protestants.
It must have been a hard day for the headsman. First in order to ensure a good job, Mary gave a bribe to the executioner, but he muffed the first chop and had to do it in a couple of swings. Then, when the headsman picked up the head it plopped out of it's red wig. She had lost most of her hair to smallpox, as did Elizabeth and a lot of other folks. Finally, when they moved Mary's body, a yelping lap dog jumped out of her skirts and bit the headsman. The heartbroken little pet refused all food, and died soon afterwards.

1601- Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, was the toyboy of Queen Elizabeth I. On this day he shocked the court by riding through the countryside declaring his intent to overthrow the beloved old Queen. The countryside in turn surprised him when no one joined him. He was soon captured and lost his head.

1608- A fire burns down what there is of Jamestown and most of the food supply, right in the depths of winter.

1836- Davy Crockett with twelve Tennessee leathershirts arrived at the Alamo.

1864- Abraham Lincoln visited Matthew Brady's Photo Studio and posed for the photos that would one day be on the Penny and Five-dollar bill.

1865- Russian monk Gregor Mendel publishes his laws of heredity. The science of genetics is born.

1866- Elizabeth Cady-Stanton pleaded in the New York State legislature that neglect, abandonment and wanton cruelty on the part of a husband be made grounds for divorce. Her ideas became law, one hundred years later, in 1966.

1887- Congress passed the Dawes Act, which said any Indian who left his tribe and moved into white society would be granted American citizenship. All native Americans were not granted unconditional U.S. citizenship until 1924.

1893- THE FIRST RECORDED STRIPTEASE - discounting Salome. At Paris' Moulin Rouge at the Bal de Quart’z Artes, an artist's model named Mona decided to get an edge in a beauty contest judged by art students by disrobing to music while walking up and down the stage. She was arrested and fined 100 francs, and the students rioted.

1893- Congress repealed the Enforcement Acts, a key piece of reconstruction legislation that prevented local governments from cheating African Americans out of their voting rights.

1910- Boy Scouts of America incorporated on the British model.

1914- THE FIRST TRUE CHARACTER ANIMATION- Windsor McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur" premiered as part of his vaudeville act. Up to then most U.S. animated shorts were attempts to bring popular newspaper comic characters to life, but Gertie was a new character never before seen. Some critics had wondered if animated characters weren’t some kind of man in a special suit, so McCay drew a dinosaur, a character that couldn’t possibly be impersonated by any living thing. Giving the dinosaur the personality of a precocious kitten gave the character a new level above merely drawings that move. It was the first true character animation. The brilliant draftsmanship and timing of this film would inspire the generation of Animation artists of the Golden Age of the 1930's-40s.

1915- THE BIRTH OF A NATION or The Clansman, premiered at Clunes Auditorium in Los Angeles. Film pioneer D.W. Griffith's racist movie was considered for many years the first American feature length film. The discovery in 1999 of a 1913 Richard III film predates it. Son of a Confederate veteran, it’s been thought that Griffith was making a personal statement, truth is there was a flood of films to mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil War and the book the Clansman by Thomas Dixon was a national best seller. President Woodrow Wilson (another son of a Confederate soldier) endorsed the film, when he called it: "History written with a thunderbolt and I’m afraid all too true."
Birth of a Nations’ inflammatory imagery and this politically incorrect Presidential endorsement helped a rebirth of the defunct Ku Klux Klan, and caused an increase in lynching. But despite the film’s politics, it’s technique influenced world cinema.
D.W. Griffith in later years lost his fortune and became a drunken has-been. Watching him at Chasens Restaurant pathetically beg MGM studio head Dore Schary for work, inspired Billy Wilder to write Sunset Blvd.

1924, the first execution by gas chamber in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City. It took Chinese gang member Gee Jong six minutes to die.

1928- Englishman John Logie Baird transmitted a still television image across the Atlantic from England to Hartsdale New York. It was a still image of a woman.

1949- Cardinal Mindzenty, the Roman Catholic primate of Hungary had been imprisoned by Pro-Nazi Hungarians after he spoke out against the regimes treatment of Jews. Nine years later this day he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Communist government for treason. He was released in 1956 and in 1971, escaped to the west. In his time Cardinal Mindzenty was celebrated as a champion of human rights like Nelson Mandela.

1960- Adolph Coors III the heir to the Coors beer empire was killed in a failed kidnapping attempt. Joseph Corbett Jr was apprehended in Canada and charged with the crime. Ironically, Adolph Coors was reputedly allergic to beer.

1961- Nebraska teenager and future movie star Nick Nolte was busted for the first time. He was accused of selling fake Draft cards so his friends could buy alcohol to celebrate his birthday.

1966- The Vatican closed its office of censorship.

1967- Georgy Girl by the Seekers goes to #1 in pop charts.

1968- The Planet of the Apes, directed by Franklin Schafner, starring Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowell and Maurice Evans, premiered.

1976 - Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, and Albert Brooks, was released. It was the last score by composer Bernard Hermann, whose career began with Citizen Kane. Hermann died just before the film opened, at age 64.

2001- Walt Disney California Adventure opened.

2007- Anna Nicole Smith, centerfold, pole dancer, heiress and reality TV star, died from an overdose of prescription drugs. She was 39.
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Yesterday’s Question: What is the difference between immigrating and emigrating?

Answer: Emigrating means leaving a place. Immigrating means arriving at a place. In the context of geopolitics, emigrating means leaving the country where you have been living, often one's native country, and taking up permanent residence in another country.

Question: What is the difference between immigrating and emigrating?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: Question: What does it mean to be caught between Scylla and Charybdis?
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History for 2/7/2024
Birthdays: St. Thomas Moore, Eubie Blake, Sinclair Lewis, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Laura Ingalls Wilder writer of Little House on the Prairie, Gay Talese, animator Jim Tyer, James Spader is 64, Chris Rock is 59, Eddie Izzard is 62, Ashton Kutcher is 46

310 AD- Feast of St. Theodore the General. He commanded a Roman legion under the Emperor Licinius in Pontus. After admitting he had converted to the outlaw sect Christianity, he was tortured and burned in a furnace. Two years before the ban on Christians was lifted.

457AD- After the death of the Roman Emperor Marcian, General Aspar proclaimed his friend General Leo the Armenian to be the new emperor of the Eastern Empire.

1601- Elderly Queen Elizabeth I dallied with a courtier named Robert Devereaux the Earl of Essex. This hot headed toyboy soon got it into his head he could overthrow the old Queen and take over her government. This night at his estate- the original Essex House, flattering friends paid for a performance of Master Shakespeare’s play Richard II. Queen Elizabeth’s spies overheard and told her; the symbolism of Essex watching a play about a monarch overthrown was not lost on her. Next day the Essex plot was crushed. Essex and all his theater-loving buddies went to the headsman’s block.

1792- The major European powers- Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain and England announced a grand coalition to crush the Revolution in France. They considered it a pre-emptive war to prevent a French people’s-style revolution from overthrowing their own monarchies. About the only ally the French had was the American Republic, but they were too weak and too far away to be of any help.

1796- Napoleon & Josephine’s engagement was announced.

1807- BATTLE of EYLAU- Up until the 20th century, armies traditionally avoided fighting in winter because of the added hardships of weather. After chasing the Russian army up into Northern Poland, Napoleon put his French army into winter quarters and proceeded to snuggle up with his new mistress Countess Maria Walewska. Unfortunately, a French division bumped into the main Russian army and a battle ensued. Everyone rushed there and an inconclusive slaughter raged in a blinding snowstorm. The battle was only ended when Marshal Murat massed all the French cavalry into one big juggernaut and sent it smashing through the Russian center.

1882- John L. Sullivan defeated top boxer Paddy Ryan in a ferocious bareknuckle brawl in Gulfport Mississippi. There were no official boxing championship belts yet, but John L. Sullivan boldly declared himself the Champion of the World. The title stuck. He’d travel from town to town, building his legend: "I’m John L. Sullivan and I can lick any man in the house!!” and he always did.

1900- In Barcelona a new young talent named Pablo Picasso had his first show.

1904- The Great Fire of Baltimore.

1910- The town of Hollywood was absorbed into the growing City of Los Angeles.

1925- Professor Raymond Dart of the University of South Africa named the small human like skull found in a lime deposit Australopithicus, a missing link between ape and man.

1931- Aviatrix Amelia Earhart married publisher George Putnam.

1937- PACKING THE COURT-Since seizing the initiative in 1933 to battle the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt was used to having his own way with Congress. After the Supreme Court struck down important components of his National Recovery Act (NRA) as unconstitutional, FDR this night informed leading Senators that he was introducing a bill to expand the Supreme Court so he could name his own men and create a majority to do his bidding. The heretofore docile Senate rose up and defeated FDR’s scheme, the resistance led by his own vice president Cactus Jack Garner. The newly invigorated Congress continued to defy Roosevelt until Pearl Harbor.

1939, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep was published. Chandler was a 51-year-old ex-oil company executive who had taken up writing at the age of 45, after being fired for alcohol-soaked absenteeism. Over the previous five years he had published enough crime stories in the pulp magazines to survive, but this was his first novel, the first of seven featuring the inimitable detective, Philip Marlowe.

1940- Disney's second animated feature "Pinocchio" opened at the Central Theater in Manhattan. It cost a staggering $2.6 million to make.

1942- Despite being under heavy Japanese attack, British commander Sir Spencer Percival vowed that Singapore, The Gibraltar of the East, would resist to the last man. Singapore surrendered one week later.

1942- Detroit assembly lines ceased all production of automobiles and focused exclusively on war material- tanks, planes, trucks, until 1945. When President Roosevelt challenged carmakers to help make America the "Arsenal of Democracy" in 1939 they dragged their feet. Now the government sweetened their orders with guaranteed profits, labor peace, and they could sell at incredible discount the factories built at government expense.

1944- German Panzergrenadiers launched a heavy counterattack on the Allied beachhead at Anzio Italy. Panzergrenadiers were elite infantry, the equivalent of the U.S. 101 Airborne.

1950- The US recognized the nation of Vietnam not as ruled by Ho Chi Minh but ruled by French mandate under the Emperor Bao Dai.

1960- JFK PARTYS WITH THE RATPACK-Before he created the Peace Corps and Camelot, presidential candidate John Kennedy needed to relax and raise some hell. So in total secret he helicoptered down to Las Vegas and spent this night at the Sands Hotel with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and his brother in law, actor Peter Lawford. These men were famous for their all-night Rat Pack parties, heavy drinking, girls, poker and more. Sinatra introduced Kennedy to a party girl named Judith Cambell Exner, who would claim JFK as a lover at the same time as she was sleeping with Sam Momo Giancana, the head of the Chicago Mafia. In the wee hours of dawn, Kennedy slipped away to continue his race for the White House.

1964- THE BRITISH ROCK INVASION BEGAN. Thousands of screaming fans welcomed THE BEATLES to New York for their first U.S. Tour. The last music out of England to be taken seriously by Americans was The Lambeth Walk, now the UK announced itself as a powerhouse of rock & roll. For a Brit to do Rock & Roll in America was as audacious as an American reciting Shakespeare in Stratford, but the welcome for the Beatles was so overwhelming that other bands like The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Herman’s Hermits soon followed.
Local New York disc jockeys Cousin Brucie and Murray the K wiggled to the front of the crowds and got a national audience by following the young musicians around. The crowds of teenagers were so excited they mobbed a Rolls Royce in front of the Warwick Hotel where the Beatles were staying just because they figured a Rolls Royce would be something they drove in. They actually used taxicabs.

1964- The GI Joe action figure born. In 1974 it got the Kung-Fu Grip.

1968- During the Vietnamese Tet offensive, a US Army colonel issued a statement to the A.P. after burning the tiny village of Ben Tre.:" We had to destroy that village in order to save it." It typified the sometimes-dizzy logic the Army used to justify its actions.

1971- Women in Switzerland receive the right to vote.

50th Anniversary 1974- Mel Brook’s classic comedy “Blazing Saddles” opened in theaters.

1979- Nazis Angel of Death Dr. Josef Mengele was living in hiding in Brazil. This day the old man had a stroke while swimming and drowned. His death was kept secret until 1985.

1989- Retired tennis champ Bjorn Borg was rushed to a Madrid hospital and had his stomach pumped after he tried to overdose of sleeping pills. He survived and today is 66.

1992- Twelve European nations sign the Maastricht Treaty of European Union.

1994- Jean Bertrand Aristide sworn in as democratically elected president of Haiti. He was overthrown shortly afterward.

2001-After being overthrown, Jean Bertrand Aristide sworn in as President of Haiti again. He was overthrown again in 2003.

2002- President George W. Bush issued a determination “…that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which affords minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al-Qaeda or Taliban detainees.'" This gave direct permission to torture our prisoners, something every American leader since George Washington would not allow.

2014- The Lego Movie premiered. Directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord.

2020- During an interview with journalist Bob Woodward, President Donald Trump admitted he always knew that the Covid-19 virus was deadly, spread through the air, and likely to be a serious health emergency. Nevertheless, within the week he was giving public speeches where he called Covid a hoax that would go away by itself. He didn’t want the bad news to affect his chances at re-election. Woodward sat on this information until his book came out later that Sept. Meanwhile, Americans were dying by the thousands.
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Yesterday’s Question: What does it mean to be caught between Scylla and Charybdis?

Answer: Made famous by Homer in the Odyssey, The narrow straights between the toe of Italy and Sicily was known to be perilous to mariners. Scylla was a deadly six headed sea monster, and Charybdis was a deadly whirlpool. So being caught between Scylla and Charybdis means the stuck between two bad options.

Question: What does it mean to be caught between Scylla and Charybdis?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: What is a demitasse?
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History for 2/6/2024
Birthdays: Christopher Marlowe, Eva Braun, Ronald Reagan, Francois Truffaut, Babe Ruth, Elias Disney-Walt’s dad, Bob Marley, Queen Anne I of England, Aaron Burr, Robert Townsend, Mike Farrell, Tom Brokaw, Mike Maltese, Haskell Wexler, Axel Rose, Patrick McKnee- Mr. Steed of the Avengers, Thurl Ravenscroft the voice of Tony the Tiger, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Rip Torn, Marty Sklar , Kathy Naijimy is 67

46BC- Julius Caesar defeated the Egyptian army of Cleopatra’s kid brother Ptolomey IX at the Battle of Thapsus. Young Ptolomey’s body was found face down in a swamp.

1481- The first public burnings of heretics by the Spanish Inquisition. Six men and women were marched out to a public square in Seville and burned at the stake. The executions soon took on a pageant like atmosphere and were called an Auto-da-fe’, an Act of Faith.

1671- Young John Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough, was wounded in a duel with a man named Pfenning. At the time he was the lover of the beautiful Barbera Villars the Duchess of Cleveland, who was also the mistress of King Charles II. One time Churchill had to leap out of Ms. Villars bedroom window when he heard the king at the door. Luckily, his majesty had paused to urinate in a nearby planter.
At the king’s suggestion, Barbara Villars was the model for the woman in the Greek helmet with trident & shield, symbolizing Britannia.

1778- The Kingdom of France signed a formal alliance with the rebellious North American colonies, calling themselves the United States. Queen Marie Antoinette was charmed by the American ambassador Benjamin Franklin, calling him 'Le Ambassadeur d'Electrique'.
In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Lord North had said that he doubted any European monarch would ever ally itself to the rebels: “For it would raise in America a new Empire dedicated to missionary it’s form of radical democracy around the world. “ In Germany, the philosopher Goethe said: “We wish the Americans every success.”

1815- President James Madison granted a complete pardon to Jean Lafitte, Dominique Yue and all the swamp pirates of Barataria who had fought alongside Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans.
Jean Lafitte became a prosperous citizen of New Orleans. But by 1819 had tired of the legit life. He outfitted a new ship and went buccaneering again. A book about pirates written in 1837 claimed Lafitte died fighting a British warship in the Gulf of Mexico in 1829, but no other proof of that exists. General Dominique Yue was a sergeant of artillery for Napoleon before becoming a buccaneer. The title of General seems to be something he made up, He died one of the first citizens of New Orleans. He is buried in tomb #1 in the city’s oldest cemetery.

1847- The Treaty of Waitangi- Britain settled New Zealand from the Maoris. Hobbits to follow….

1857- The first Perforated Postage Stamp.

1865- THE NERO BALL- During the Civil War, as Sherman’s army burned and looted its way up from Georgia through the Carolinas, Sherman’s cavalry leader Judson Kilpatrick came up with newer and more novel acts of cruelty to inflict on the civilian population. This day at the town of Barnwell South Carolina, Kilpatrick invited all the belles of the town to a “Nero Ball” The ladies didn’t understand the meaning until that evening, when he forced them to dance with his officers while his soldiers burned their homes. One of Kilpatricks officers protested:” It was the bitterest satire I ever witnessed”. Many of his own men hated him and called him “Kill-Cavalry”. But Uncle Billy Sherman defended him,”I know he’s a helluva damn fool, but I need him for my cavalry”.

1874- THE ASHANTI RING- The British Army under Sir Garnet Woolsley defeated this West African kingdom, and on this day burn its capitol, Kimesha. Woolsley's inner circle of officers all became generals and were nicknamed the Ashanti Ring.

1904-The Russo-Japanese War began with a surprise attack on the Russian Manchurian base of Port Arthur, just like Pearl Harbor forty years later. Japan's defeat of mighty Russia in a modern war, after being in medieval poverty only 55 years before, amazed the world.

1919- The Great Seattle General Strike. 100,000 people walk off the job and paralyzed the city.

1919- Because defeated Berlin was awash in communist and rightwing paramilitary mobs fighting in the streets, the German government moved to Weimar to write its democratic constitution. Germany in between the wars was called the Weimar Republic.

1916- Oliver Hardy tried once to be a dancer in a minstrel show, but wound up managing a movie theater in his hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia. He watched the comics on screen and thought" I’m better than those guys." He moved to Hollywood, and this day signed a contract with the Hal Roach Studios to appear in short comedies, usually as a villain. The following year director Leo McCarey teamed the rotund Hardy with a skinny English music hall comedian Stan Laurel, and the legendary team was born- Laurel & Hardy. Interesting Note: Laurel & Hardy were both over 6 feet tall.

1929- Introduction to Photoplay magazine, the first lecture of the first university film degree course ever in the USA was given at The University of Southern California.

1932- Charles Addams published his first macabre cartoon in The New Yorker.

1935- The board game Monopoly is introduced by Parker Brothers. The prototype of the monopoly board was on a round oilcloth and had street names from Atlantic City NJ.

1935- Boxers or briefs? Arthur Kneibler patented men’s underwear brief. He got the idea looking at Frenchmen’s bathing suits on the Riviera and called them Jockeys.

1937- John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” published. In a result Mr Steinbeck probably didn’t anticipate, was the stereotype image of a mildly autistic man as the big sidekick Lenny, cartoonists used so often. “Duh, tell me about da rabbits, George.”

1938- The first automatic donut making machine invented in Dubuque, Iowa.

1943- “GET ME GEISLER!” Actor Errol Flynn was acquitted of two counts of sex with adolescents, which even if it was consensual is still considered statutory rape. The two women who brought the charges had actually tried this shakedown with other celebrities. They weren't exactly adolescents, despite testifying in court with pigtails and a lollypop. Flynn hired lawyer to the stars Jerry Geisler and he slowly took the women story apart. Geisler discovered one had a prior conviction for 'public lewdness, and the other had an abortion, which then was illegal. So Flynn got off- literally.
Flynn had just completed a film called "Gentleman Jim. At the finale of the film, when he says to Alexis Smith: "I never said I was a Gentleman." Peals of knowing laughter rang out from audiences. This is also the time the slang term for living it up was coined- to be “In Like Flynn”. Errol Flynn’s car had the license plate- RU18?

1943- Walt Disney’s Saludos Amigos went into general release.

1948- In Paris’ Cherche-Midi jail, Nazi General Von Stuelpnagel, the former commandant of occupied France, shot himself rather than face trail for war crimes. Stuelpnagel was part of the Valkyrie Plot to overthrow Hitler, but he also executed many members of the French Resistance and shipped French Jews to concentration camps.

1956- Invasion of the Body Snatchers opened in theaters.

1974- John Boorman’s sci-fi cult classic Zardoz premiered. Sean Connery in his red jock-strap.

1985- Steve Wozniak, the young engineer who started Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in his garage, retired from running the company. He’d rather work as an engineer and teach children. He also returned to Berkeley to complete his undergraduate degree, under the name Rocky Clark. Rocky was the name of his dog.

2007- PSYCHO ASTRONAUT- Lisa Nowak, Space Shuttle commander, and mother of three, nicknamed RoboChick by the other astronauts, was fell in love with another astronaut on the program, William “Billy-O” Oefelein. This day Lisa Nowak drove non-stop 900 miles from Texas to Orlando to threaten the life of her boyfriend’s new girl. She wore a wig, a Huggies diaper to prevent having to pull over to use the restroom and was carrying handcuffs and duct tape. She was arrested before she could execute her strange plan. The incident spawned dozens of jokes- The Astro-Nut, Lust in Space, The 150 Mile High Club, etc.

2018- First launch of the Space X Falcon Heavy, the first privately owned reusable rocket, capable of taking people to the Moon or Mars. This rocket took into orbit entrepreneur Elon Musk’s personal red sports car with a dummy astronaut in the driver’s seat, with the music playing David Bowie’s Space Oddity in an endless loop. Also, the words from Hitchhiker’s Guide “Don’t Panic” in a panel in the dashboard.
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QUESTION: What is a demitasse?

ANSWER: Demitasse comes from French for half-cup for coffee, usually expresso. A demitasse set is a complete set of expresso cups and coffee pot.

Question: What is a demitasse?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Who are you imitating when you say, “ Ruh-Roh…”
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History for 2/5/2024
Birthdays: Sir Robert Peel founder of London’s police force- the Bobbies, outlaw Belle Starr, John Carradine, William Burroughs, Arthur Ochs Schulzburger, Hank Aaron, Tim Holt, Barbera Hershey, Charlotte Rampling, Roger Staubach, Michael Mann is 82, Bobby Brown, H. R. Giger, Red Buttons (born Aaron Chwatt), Christopher Guest, Jennifer Jason Leigh is 63, Laura Linney is 60, Michael Sheen is 55, Bruce Timm, who created Harley Quinn.

2BC -The Roman Emperor Octavian Caesar was given by the Senate the title Father of His Country- Pater-Patria, or the Augustus.

1631- Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, arrived in America from England. Tossed out of Boston for complaining about the Puritan fathers right to lock up anybody who disagreed with their religious views, Williams set up a new colony where he invited all those who wanted complete freedom of religion to come. Rhode Island is one of the smallest states in America, so I guess that says something about the response he got.

1642- The House of Lords finally gives in and agrees with the militant House of Commons to exclude bishops from sitting with an equal vote in Parliament.

1723- Louis XV who became King of France at age 5, attained manhood at age 13. The period in French History called the Regency came to an end, even through his uncle Phillip d’Orleans continued to run the government.

1736- Briton John Wesley landed in Savannah and brought the first Methodist missionaries to the U.S. On the boat Wesley was influenced by the simple discipline of several members of the sect the Moravian Brethren.

1783- The Kingdom of Sweden recognized the United States.

1811- The previous November, elderly and blind King George III lapsed into madness again never to recover. This day, by act of Parliament, his eldest son Georgie was declared Regent. The next 8 years was called the Regency Period, until the old mad king died in 1820 and the Prince-Regent became King George IV.

1846- The Oregon Spectator, first English newspaper on the Pacific Coast, published.

1887- Verdi’s opera "Otello" debuted. Guiseppi Verdi had retired from composing after 1875, but was goaded by a new generation of composers like Arrigo Boito to take up his pen once more.

1895- PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND asks BANKER J.P. MORGAN TO BAIL OUT THE UNITED STATES- The business climate of the late 1880’s & 90’s was dominated by the debate of whether U.S. currency should be backed by gold or silver bullion. Class distinctions and politics were aggravated by Gold Bugs vs. Silver Men. Wild speculation on Wall Street in both metals made and ruined fortunes overnight. In the midst of all this confusion it was suddenly noticed that the gold reserves of the U.S. treasury were so seriously depleted that the Federal government was about to go bankrupt. So, President Cleveland was reduced to going cap-in-hand to the famous tycoon for a loan. Morgan drove a hard bargain but the U.S. economy was saved. J.P. Morgan was so rich at this point he had stopped several Wall Street panics almost single-handedly. Morgan smoked twenty fat cigars a day and on the advice of doctors never exercised because they said it would be bad for his health.

1916- Enrico Caruso recorded O Solo Mio for the Victor Talking Machine Co.

1919- Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith sign papers to form the United Artists Studio. The press teased, “ The Lunatics have taken over the asylum!”

1921- The Loews State Theater in Chicago opened.

1922- The Reader’s Digest began publication.

1936-THE BATTLE OF JARAMA - Spanish General Franco’s Fascist army was thrown back from the gates of Madrid with help from the Republic’s newly arrived foreign volunteers, called the International Brigades. These idealistic young Europeans and Americans (the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) were thrown into the battle with no training as they had just arrived. They suffered 50% casualties, but still won the battle. Unlike the U.S Army at the time, The Lincolns were completely intergrated.
The Lincolns sang a tune to Popeye the Sailor Man:
"In a green little vale called Jarama, We made all the fascists cry "Mama!; we fight for our pay, just six cents a day, and play football with a bomb-a, Yippy kai-yo-kai yay."

1937- Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times opened in theaters. Chaplin was inspired to lampoon modern technological madness when he was invited to view the auto assembly production lines in Detroit and saw men moving like machines.

1944- British scientists at Bletchley Park booted up the Colossus Mark I, a huge early computer used to decode Hitler’s secret messages. Eleven more Colossus computers were built. After the war, all but one were destroyed with sledgehammers, and the scientists put under a vow of secrecy for thirty years.

1952- New York City is the first to adopt the three light traffic lights-red, yellow, green.

1953- Walt Disney’s "Peter Pan" opened in general release theaters.

1956- Darryl Zanuck resigned from 20th Century Fox, the studio he built into a powerhouse. He later won back the chairmanship in 1962 in the wake of the Cleopatra fiasco, and was ousted again in 1970 by a consortium led by his own wife and son, Darryl Zanuck Jr.

1957- Mel Lazarus’ comic strip Miss Peach debuted.

1970- TWA began 747 nonstop services between New York and Los Angeles.

1971-The NASDAQ computer stock trading system starts up.

1972- After numerous airline hijackings, the U.S. institutes luggage inspection and metal detectors at airports.

1974- Hearst Publishing heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped at gunpoint by an underground radical group called the Symbianese Liberation Army. She was kept in a closet, brainwashed, changed her name to Tanya, did prison time for a bank job, and later appeared in several John Water’s movies.

1988- A new Palestinian militant group announced its formation. Called HAMAS meaning "zeal" They were trained in Islamic fundamentalism in the Ayatollah’s Iran. They vowed undying hostility to Israel, and refused to acknowledge the PLO as being in charge. Also, around this time the Syrians backed the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

1989- The last Soviet Russian troops leave Afghanistan.

2003- Former war hero and US Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations to make the case for the United States attack on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He was doing so in emulation of Adlai Stevenson’s historic presentation to the UN of proof of the Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962.
But Adlai Stevenson had genuine proof. Powell had only the rumors and half-truths supplied him after the CIA declared it all suspect. Describing some trucks and aluminum tubes as proof of mobile nuke labs. In 2005 all these findings were declared totally false, and Powell’s reputation damaged. He later confessed:” It was the worst day of my life.”
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Yesterday’s Question: Who are you imitating when you say, “ Ruh-Roh…”?

Answer: Rooby-Doo! Uh,oh in Scooby Doo’s voice. Don Messick originally created it for George Jetson’s dog Astro, but used it again a few years later for Scoob.