Thanks to Animated News, we now know the dates and titles of the animated features to come out in 2008.

• January 11 - The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything - A VeggieTales Movie (Universal)
• March 14 - Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (Fox) Chris Wedge's latest.
• June 6 - Kung Fu Panda (Paramount/DreamWorks)
• June 27 - WALL*E (Disney/Pixar)
• November 7 - Madagascar: The Crate Escape (Paramount/DreamWorks)
• November 26 - Bolt (Disney)
• December 19 - The Tale of Despereaux (Universal)

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Steve Moore of FLIP online magazine sent this to me this morning.
This is the most brilliant thing I've seen this year, which of course is only four days old. Very British, and Painfully funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xU57gP0Kzw

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Quiz: Who are these men? Yakima Canutt, Al Leong, Richard Farnsworth

Yesterdays Quiz answered below: Who are Tito Schipa, Jussi Bjoerling, Jan Peerce, Benjamino Gigli, Guiseppi DiStefano, Lauritz Melchior?
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History for 1/4/2008
Burthdaze: Sir Issac Newton, Emile Cohl the first animator, Louis Braille, General Tom Thumb, Jane Wyman, Jacob Grimm of the Brothers Grimm, Francios Rude, Dyan Cannon is 71, Floyd Patterson, Don Shula, Barbara Rush, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Julia Ormond is 40

1642-English King Charles Ist, egged on by his pushy French queen Hennrietta Maria, attempts to squash his uppity Puritan enemies in Parliament with one stroke. He personally marched troops into the House of Commons and demanded the arrest of five ringleaders, John Pym, Sir Arthur Hazelrig and others. They had already fled. When
he ordered the Speaker of the House to identify the men, the speaker bowed and politely refused: "Sire, I have neither eyes to see nor lips to speak say as this House biddeth me". The King left empty-handed and the people of London raining garbage and abuse down on him. He quit London to travel north and raise troops. The English Civil War is recorded as beginning in September, but from this moment on King Charles considered no other remedy but force.

1946- Terrytoons "The Talking Magpies" the first Heckle and Jeckle cartoons.

1948- Burma, now Myammar, received her independence from Britain.

1954- Young truck driver Elvis Presley went into Sun Records recording studio in Memphis. He plunked down $4 to record two demos for his mothers’ birthday. " Casual Love Affair" and "I’ll Never Stand in your Way". The studio technician was impressed enough to play the demo for his manager who called back Presley for an audition.

1956- In the Peanuts comic strip Charles Schulz first had Snoopy stand up on two
legs.

1960- Writer Albert Camu was killed in a car accident. He was 46.

1973- In San Francisco scientists from several top food companies like Proctor & Gamble, Heinz and DelMonte began work inventing the Universal Product Code, or the Bar Code now seen on everything you buy. The first product to sport the bar code was Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum. Before the bar code, stores would have to shut down on occasion just to count their inventory.

1995- Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of Representatives. In the Washington atmosphere of congenial deal making and compromise Gingrich was the archdeacon of the slash & burn, destroy the enemy style of politics. Even after he stepped down his influence is still felt in the politics of Washington today.

1997- Spoon bending psychic Uri Geller predicted a UFO would land in Tel Aviv. Israelis watched the skies, but in the end, nothing appeared.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Who are these men? Tito Schipa, Jussi Bjoerling, Jan Peerce, Benjamino Gigli, Guiseppi DiStefano, Lauritz Melchior? Hint- they all had the same kinda job.

Answer: Opera singers. Famous tenors, to be exact.

Watched David Letterman do his first show today. I was a regular Tonight Show viewer, but now I won't watch Leno until the strike is over. I feel for Jay Leno, because I know he has been a strong friend to union people in the past. He must be under awful pressure. But Letterman's Show was great, Robin Williams was funnier than I've seen in a long time.

Nods to the WGA for understanding that todays strikes are not won in the streets but in the press. By doing what they did on Letterman, they did more damage to the Corporate side than many hours of walking picketlines in the cold. It also proves that the WGA's demands aren't insanely out of the question. And you can only do stuff like that by sticking together. Corporations LOVE when you think you can go it alone. It's their greatest single weapon. Who was it who said-The individual who has no concern for his fellow man will have the greatest difficulty in life. It is from that individual that all human failure stems.

Dave's beard didn't look like this, but it was close.

I like the beard, too! Bravo Dave. Bravo, WGA.
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Quiz: Who are these men? Tito Schipa, Jussi Bjoerling, Jan Peerce, Benjamino Gigli, Guiseppi DiStefano, Lauritz Melchior? Hint- they all had the same kinda job.

Yesterdays question answered below: If the ancient Roman’s named the months, who named the days of the week?
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History for 1/3/2008
Birthdays: Marcus Tullius Cicero, John Paul Jones, Victor Borge, Zazu Pitts, Sergio Leone, Hank Stramm, Bobby Hull, Robert Loggia, Maxene Andrews of the Andrews Sisters, Ray Milland, Anna Mae Wong, Steven Stills, J.R.R. Tolkein, Victoria Principal, Mel Gibson is 53.

1777- BATTLE OF PRINCETON- After the Christmas victory at Trenton George Washington’s little army gives the main British army the slip, wheels around behind them and surprise attacks another redcoat regiment at Princeton New Jersey. Years before young student Alexander Hamilton had failed the entrance requirements to study at Princeton University and instead went to Kings College, later renamed Columbia. Now artillery major Hamilton had a pleasure rare among rejected college applicants- that of being allowed to fire a few cannon rounds into the college’s admissions building.

1871- Henry Bradley patents Oleomargerine in the U.S.. It had been demonstrated in the Paris Exhibition of 1867 as a butter that didn't spoil, so it could be used by armies in the field.

1899- An editorial in the New York Times refers to the horseless carriage as an “Automobile”. This is the earliest known use of the word.

1925-Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini suspended democracy and his black shirted followers declared him Il Duce, or the leader. He became dictator of Italy.

1926- General Motors introduced the Pontiac brand of automobile.

1933- MGM hired producer David O. Selznick to produce movies. His father-in-law Louis B. Mayer set his salary at $4000 a week. Newspapers joked “The Son-In-Law Also Rises”

1946- Lord Haw-Haw ,William Joyce, the English voice of Nazi radio propaganda broadcast from Berlin, was hanged for treason. English Fascist Joyce was actually born in Brooklyn but moved to England at an early age. He was nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw because of his stuffy upper class accent.

1952-The T.V. series DRAGNET premiered today. “The story you have seen is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.” Star Jack Webb produced and wrote most of the scripts and oversaw the deadpan acting style.”Just the facts, Mam..”



1958- Howard Rushmore was the editor of Confidential, one of the most ruthless scandal magazines in show business. This day for reasons never explained Rushmore murdered his wife then took his own life in the back of a NYC taxicab. Today Howard Rushmore would probably be considered a serious journalist.

1967- Jack Ruby, real name Jacob Rubenstein, the murderer of Lee Harvey Oswald, died of lung cancer in prison. To the end he was refused a meeting with Congress where he claimed he could discuss his patriotic motives for killing Oswald. Retired Mafia don Bill Bonano said Ruby being Jewish and not Sicilian, was the type of hood the mob used for clean-up jobs. That he was a soldier for Chicago boss Sam Giancana. Others say Ruby was just a two bit hood who claimed he was more important than he actually was.

1973- Boatbuilding tycoon and Florida developer George Steinbrenner leads a group that buys the last place New York Yankees baseball club from CBS. He ran meetings with his board of directors with lines like: "You guys all have one vote on this board, but I have six, so what I say goes !" "The Boss" becomes one of the more colorful baseball owners and propelled the Yankees into a new era of championship contention. If you believe there is no money in sports teams except for players, Steinbrenner bought the Yankees for $10 million and today they are worth $100 million.

2004- After partying hard all News Year in Las Vegas, 22 year old pop singer Britney Spears married friend Jay Alexander for a joke. Later after she woke up, she realized the jokes on her. Because the marriage was legal. She annulled it a day later. Alexander, who listed himself as unemployed, was soon seen driving around rural Louisiana in a $90,000 luxury BMW.
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Yesterdays question answered below: If the ancient Romans named the months, who named the days of the week?

ANSWER: The Romans at first had a ten day week, three weeks to the month, the Kalends, Ides and Nones. So today would be the Third Day of the Kalends of Janus, in the 8th year of the reign of Emperor Bush Dubyius Minor. When Caesar reformed the calendar they went to an 8 day week, finally to a seven day week, all named for the visible planets- Sun Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. This system lives on in Latin countries like France- Lundi-( Moon), Mardi ( Mars), Mercredi (Mercury), Jeudi ( Jupiter) Vendredi (Venus), and Samedi ( Saturn).
Christian monks working in the Germanic lands like Anglo-Saxon England had to adapt the calendar into terms their flock understood, even if it meant using the names of the Old German Gods- after Sonnandag or Sun-Day and Moon-Day comes Tyrs Dag, Odin’s Day or Wodensday, Thor’s Day ( Like Jupiter, he also threw thunderbolts around), Frejyas Day ( Frejya was a goddess like Venus) then Saturn’s Day.

Steve Moore, artist, filmmaker and raconteur, has a wonderful website called FLIP. It's purpose is to present stories by animators for animators. For those who want to know more about animation professionals, this site is all written by industry insiders. Jeff DeGrandis, Nancy Beiman, Dan Jeup, Alan Smart, Tina Price and many Moore have graced his pixels with their eloquence.

But now he had to go and ruin it all! Because in a moment of weakness, he interviewed me for the January issue! I attribute this lapse in judgement as symptomatic, since his initial desire to relocate from warm sunny LA for snowy damp New Jersey. And as a former citizen of Hoboken, I know whereof I speak!.....just kiddin! Since he's settled in the Garden State he has found fulfillment, love, family, decent pizza and seasonal Nets tickets. I'll send you my old windshield ice scraper!

Thanks for letting me blow gas, Brother Steve! Seriously, FLIP is a cool site. Everybody should check it out!

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Quiz: If the months were named by the Romans, who named the days of the week?
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History for 1/2/2008
Birthdays: Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV-1642, Frederic Opper the cartoonist of Happy Hooligan, Phillip Freneau, Rev Jim Baker, Roger Miller, Issac Asimov, Julius LaRosa, Tito Schipa, Renata Tebaldi, Tex Ritter, Cuba Gooding Jr, is 40, Tia Carrere

1496- Did Leonardo da Vinci try to fly? Leonardo studied the motor actions of birds and sketched numerous flying machines. In one of his notebooks Leonardo had written:”On the second day of January, I will make the attempt.” When one of his aides Antonio broke his leg it was said he broke it trying to pilot one of his masters flying machines.


1522- Adrian VI, a Dutchman was elected Pope. He was the first non Italian since 1378 and the last non-Italian until John Paul II in 1978. He really tried to be a true Christian spiritual guide and agreed with Martin Luther that the church was too corrupt and sinful in it’s ways. He demanded he and his cardinals live on only one ducat a day, about $12.50, he walled up the Belvedere Palace and it’s collection of ancient Greek and Roman art as pagan idolatry. Poets and artists were furious that this Pope cancelled all their rich contracts. The unemployed poet Aretino called the cardinals “miserable rabble” and that they should all be buried alive for electing this lousy pope. After three months Adrian died. This time the cardinals elected a Medici Pope who loved art, music and parties. The people of Rome sent flowers to Adrian’s doctor to congratulate him for losing his patient.

1611-THE BLOOD COUNTESS- Beautiful Transylvanian Countess Elizabeth Bathory was indicted for the murder of 610 people. She apparently believed that bathing in the blood of virgin girls would keep her skin beautiful- remember Oil of Olay wasn’t invented yet. The crimes of the Medieval nobility were often winked at until like Count Giles de Rais-Bluebeard in France they become so outrageous they couldn’t be ignored any longer. When peasant girls kept disappearing around Csejthe Castle word got back to her big uncle King Sigmund Bathory of Poland, the nemesis of Ivan the Terrible. When King Sigmund discovered the full horror of her story he had Elizabeth walled up alive in her chamber. Daily food passed through a slit in the wall. When after a few years the empty dishes stopped being passed through that slit was bricked up as well.
Darlink,pass the loofah!

1688- The great insurance house Lloyd’s of London founded. In the past they’ve insured Betty Grable’s legs, Bruce Springsteen’s lungs and offered a million English pounds to anyone who could prove Elvis Presley was still alive.

1873- Richard Connolly becomes the first American to embezzle a million dollars -he actually embezzled four million. He was the financial controller for the City of New York under Boss Tweed. He padded invoices so that the final cost to build a small municipal jail exceeded the cost of rebuilding the British Parliament! Eventually the Tweed ring bilked New York City out of $60 million dollars. Today Connolly skipped town. Boss Tweed was nabbed and died in jail but Slippery Dick Connolly lived in Europe happily ever after.

1878- Farmer John Martin thought he saw something shiny flying in the sky above Denizen Texas. He is the first person to describe it as a “flying saucer.”

1882- John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company controlled almost 90% of the U.S. crude oil output but the government seemed poised to hit it with anti-monopoly laws. So anticipating this move he reorganized Standard Oil into a Trust with himself as chief Trustee. Standard Oil later became ESSO (S-O) then EXXON.

1937- Hollywood actor Ross Alexander had hit on tough times. He had been in a few movies like Captain Blood and Max Reinhardt’s A Midsummer Nights’s Dream but his career seemed to be stalled and he was deeply in debt. This day the 29 year old went into the barn behind his Valley ranch home and shot himself. The Warner Bros. Studio looked around for a replacement to refill their roster of male leads. They replaced Alexander with a Illinois college sportscaster named “Dutch”- Ronald Reagan.

Ross Alexander

1958- Maria Callas threw one of the more celebrated temper tantrums in Opera history when she stormed off the stage at La Scala in the middle of Bellini’s Norma with the President of Italy in the audience. La Divina Callas was a Greek-American with a beautiful voice and the slimmest waistline since Lili Pons. She was part of the Jet-Set society culture and her temper was famous.

1960- Young Mass. Senator John F. Kennedy announced he was a candidate for president. When asked why do you want to be president? Kennedy replied:” Because it’s the best job there is.”

1971- Israeli archaeologists in Jerusalem discovered the 2000 year old remains of a crucified man. No, they didn’t think it is was You-Know-Who. But it did provide the first physical proof that Romans really used that method of execution.

1984- The Zenith corporation announced it would stop selling video recorders in Betamax format and go over wholly to VHS. Other electronics giants followed suit and VHS won out over the higher quality Beta system.

1995- Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was inaugurated for a second term after winning election despite his conviction of smoking crack cocaine. As comedian Chris Rock said: “Who ran against him? Who was such a bad choice that he lost to a crackhead? “

courtesy of wikimedia.com

Jan. 1st 2008 A.D. or 2008 of the Common Era-
New Year's Day
It’s also the Hebrew year 5,766 AM or Year of the World Anno Mundane ,
in the Moslem calendar 143 A.H. or Al Hajira –since the Haj,
And the Year 1386 in the Persian Zoroastrian Calendar

if you are interested in time-keeping, an excellent web site I like is Todays Date & Time
http://www.ecben.net/calendar.shtml

Yesterday’s Quiz question: Why is December the twelfth month when Decembrius means number ten in old Latin? For the answer look at 45 BC.

Happy Last Day of Kwanza

Birthdays: Duke Lorenzo”the Magnificent” De Medici, Pope Alexander VI Borgia, Paul Revere, Betsy Ross, Mad Anthony Wayne, E.M. Forrester, J.Edgar Hoover, Xavier Cugat, Frank Langella is 69, Barry Goldwater, Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Dana Andrews, Idi Amin Dada, Kliban, J.D. Salinger is 89, Verne Troyer (Mini-Me) is 38

Welcome to the month January from IANUARIUS, the old Roman god Janus, the two faced god of doorways and portals who looks forward and back, symbolizing new beginnings. Not to be confused of course with Terminus the god of boundaries and borders. Janus’ temple was dominated by a large doorway in the Roman Forum. Whenever the temple doors were closed, it meant Rome was at peace with the world. Unfortunately, this was hardly ever the case.

45 BC.- By edict of Julius Caesar the Roman Empire adopts the 12 month 366 day calendar Caesar ordered developed by the Alexandrian scientist Sosigenes. This was an improvement from the ten month, ten day week system. The ten month system is why December, which means ten, is counted as the twelfth month. The system had become so lopsided that the Roman civil service had to open a special office just to tell you what day it was! In order to pull the calendar back in line with the solar seasonal year Caesar decreed the last year of the old system 46 b.c. would have to be 445 days long! He called it Ultimus Annus Confusionis. Roman merchants, bankers and shippers called it the Year of Confusion.

Happy Feast of the Holy Circumcision, when baby Jesus had his…well,…you know…..

69AD- The Roman legion at the Rhine frontier fort of Mainz rose in rebellion under their general Marius Vindex. This is the first act of defiance that would overthrow the Emperor Nero. By years end four men would be Emperor until only one –Vespasian, remained.

1525- Despite the pleadings of Hernando Cortez to respect Aztec institutions, twelve Franciscan missionaries began to close down Aztec temples, and conducted mass baptisms of Indians at gunpoint.

1531- French King Louis XII died of sexual exhaustion from too many evenings spent with his new English queen, the sister of Henry VIII. His nephew Francis was next in line. The dying king lamented. “That big nosed boy will ruin everything we tried to accomplish!” Actually, Francis Ist turned out to be one of France’s best kings.

1666- Sabbatai Zevi, a 22 year old Sephardic rabbi of Smyrna, announced to the world that he was the long awaited Mosiach, the Messiah. Married to the Kaballah he claimed, he and his followers were going to sail to Constantinople where the Sultan Selim the Grim would willingly hand over his crown to him and he would return the Jewish people to Palestine. Stories of his miracles worked up the hopes of Jews from Amsterdam to Kiev, but the Turkish Sultan was not impressed. Upon landing in Constantinople the Turks clapped Sabbatai in prison and made him convert to Islam to avoid torture and execution. Sabbatai then tried to say he converted as a ruse and was still the Messiah. But by now everyone realized he was a phoney and he died in obscurity.

1677-Racines greatest play “Phedre” premiered at the Theatre du Bourgogne in Paris. Phedre is the role all French actresses aspire to, the way English speaking actors dream of doing Shakespeares Hamlet.

1772- Thomas Jefferson married Martha Lockwood who he called “Patsy”. She died giving him 6 children only one of whom outlived Jefferson. The grief stricken Jefferson promised on her deathbed to never remarry, but I guess he didn’t count the slave quarters or French aristocrats.

1776- The first U.S. invasion of Canada is defeated, Benedict Arnold and William Montgomery's colonial army attacks Quebec City in a snowstorm and are repulsed. Montgomery is killed and Arnold takes a bullet severing his thigh bone. Aware of the Puritan New Englanders contempt for Roman Catholics most French Canadians did not rise up as expected to help 'Les Bostonnais', as they called the minutemen. Around 1780 The Marquis de Lafayette hoped to mount a new invasion of Canada to return it to the French crown.

1788- THE LONDON TIMES is born. Daily newspapers had appeared in Europe in the early 1600s. Publisher John Walters had started a small one sheet in 1785 called the Daily Universal Register. In 1788 he changed the name to the simpler "The Times" and created the format for newspapers around the world for centuries to come. The Walters family ran the newspaper for 125 years and Walters even had to edit it for two years while serving a prison term for libel.

1801- Toussaint L’Overture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines declare the Republic of Haiti, only the second independent republic in the Americas. Originally called Sainte Dominque, they reverted to the original Arawak Indian name of Haiti. The other American Republic the United States refused any help or recognition, out of the fear that the example of a successful slave revolt would spread to their own plantations.

1831- William Lloyd Garrison first began publishing his newspaper The Liberator, openly calling for the end to black slavery in the U.S. ‘ I will not Equivocate, I will not Retreat, and I Will Be Heard!”

1839- Twelve years after Franz Schubert's death composer Robert Schumann was rooting around in an old trunk at his friend's house when he discovered the score for Schubert's Great C Major Symphony. This is why this Symphony is called # 9 when the Unfinished Symphony is called #8.

1850- The TaiPing Rebellion began in China. Hung tsu Tsuan listened to a Christian Missionary. Later he decided he was the son of Jesus Christ come to Earth to right all wrongs. He led millions until he was crushed by the Manchu Emperor’s foreign mercenaries.

1863- Poet Walt Whitman visited Washington D.C. but passed on an chance to meet President Abraham Lincoln. Whitman was looking for his brother and the New Years reception line in front of the White House was just too long to bother. Lincoln is young and there will be plenty of other occasions to meet him, Whitman reasoned.

1876- The first Mummers Parade in Philadelphia. Philadelphia created a fusion of Swedish custom of celebrating New Years with masquerade and noisemaking with a British custom of mummery- reciting doggerel and ribald songs in exchange for cakes and ale. George Washington received mummers when the US capitol was in Philadelphia in 1790. The large Mummers parade that continues to this date began to welcome the US Centennial year in 1876. Now why Shriners drive little cars is anybody’s guess.


1878- The Knights of Labor, the first national American Union Movement is born. They demanded unheard of: An 8 hour workday down from 14, a six day workweek down from 7, paid vacations and no child labor. Balderdash! As industrialist Jay Gould reacted:" I'll hire half the working class to murder the other half."

1881- Eastman Kodak Company formed. Kodak supposedly was named from the sound of the snapping camera shutter.

1890- The First Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena California.

1890- Ellis Island, the great processing center for immigrants in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty opened for business. By the 1990 census it was estimated that close to 50% of the entire U.S. population could trace back to an ancestor who came through Ellis Island.

1909- London astronomers say they had detected signs of a planet further out than Neptune, the furthest known planet in our little solar system. The theoretical body was called Planet -X until in 1930 an amateur astronomer named Clyde Tumbaugh found it and named it Pluto.

1914- The Archbishop of Paris threatens with excommunication young people who dance the Tango. "It's lascivious nature offends morality."

1939-ANOTHER BIRTHDAY OF T.V.. Vladimir Zworkin patented the Iconoscope ( the eye of a t,v, camera ) and Kinescope. The television process evolved over so many years -there were experimental t.v. stations in 1923 and the Berlin Olympics of 1936 were televised. So you can't really point to one Tom Edison type inventor although Zworkin, Englishman James Logie Baird in 1924, Farnsworth, Deutsches Kino and Dr. Lee DeForest all at one time tried to take the full credit .

1942- Because of the fear of a Japanese attack on the California coastline, the Rose Bowl that year was played in North Carolina.

1953- 29 year old country music star Hank Williams had spent the night drinking whiskey and doing chloral hydrate. When a West Virginia policeman pulled over his car he remarked to the driver that Williams looked dead. He was. The driver said he was just sleeping and drove on. Williams last song was “I’ll Never get out of this World Alive.”

1959- As Fidel Castro’s hairy, cigar smoking guerrillas approach Havana, Cubans celebrated the fall of dictator Fulgensio Batista. Fidel is proclaimed the leader of Cuba.

1959- The Chipmunk Song by David Seville (aka Ross Bagdassarian) tops the pop charts..

1960- The Radio and Television Director's Guild merge with the Screen Directors Guild to form the DGA.

1963- Tetsuwan Atomu or Atom Boy, an animated television show by Osamu Tezuka premiered on Japanese t.v. As Astro Boy it became the first Japanese anime show to break into the mainstream American market.

1976- Potheads sneak up to the Hollywood Sign and change the two “O’s to “E’s, so the sign reads HOLLYWEED.

1984- By court order, the phone system AT&T also called the Bell System which had dominated telephone communication exclusively since Alexander Graham Bell spilled carbolic acid on his lap, was ordered broken up into 22 regional companies, the Baby Bells. The explosion of telecommunications, portable phones and bigger phone bills result.

1998- Michael Kennedy, a son of Robert F. Kennedy was killed in Aspen Colorado during a freak skiing accident. He was playing ski-football and while handling a video camera he struck a tree.