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July 21, 2007 sat
July 21st, 2007

Birthdays: Ernest Hemingway, Issac Stern, Marshal McCluhan,Norman Jewison, Don Knots, Janet Reno, Jon Lovitz is 50, Gary Trudeau, Ernst Shuftan- inventor of the "Shuftan Effect", a cheap way of combining actors with miniatures by shooting through mirrors. All those "Lost World" Cesar Romero fighting the giant Iguanas were done that way. Tony Scott, Robin Williams is 56, Josh Harnett is 28

Happy National Zippo Lighter Day. Smoking is bad but Zippos are cool- another one of life’s mysteries.


1884- In one of the dirtiest elections in U.S. history the New York Post broke the story of Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland fathering a child out of wedlock and abandoning the mother. Cleveland admitted the story and won election anyway because the Republican James G. Blaine was even worse. Just as Cleveland pioneered the Democratic preoccupation with sex scandals Blaine pioneered the cozy relationship between the Republican Party and big business. He had taken so many kickbacks his nickname was the Tatooed Man. Republicans chanted "Ma, Ma! Where’s My Pa!- Dems countered" He’s Going to the White House, Ha Ha Ha!" another ditty was: "Mary is healthy and so is the Kid, We Voted for Cleveland and we’re damn glad we did!" Aren’t you glad we don’t have name-calling negative election campaigns today boys & girls?

1917-Ford introduces their first truck, the Model TT. It weighed one ton and had a new innovation not in regular automobiles, a reverse gear.

1944- Democratic Presidential Convention nominates Sen. Harry Truman of Missouri to be Franklin Roosevelt's Vice President on the second ballot. As early as December 1943 the Democratic party knew FDR was a dying man. Whoever was his running mate would in all likelyhood be President as well. With World War Two not finished and the United Nations to create this was a pretty important decision. The incumbant Vice President was Henry Wallace, an early New-Age buff who had a guru, sent field scientists to China and India to look for traces of teenage Jesus, and who believed Joe Stalin's Russia was the perfect model for the American economy to pull out of the Depression. Democratic Party Chairman Robert Haneghan pulled every string he had to get Wallace off the ticket and Truman on. Truman himself didn't want the job and Roosevelt was promising it to everyone he met.
At last Truman agreed, and Hanaghan barred a pro-Wallace demonstration. He even sent a man with an ax upstairs to threaten the convention organist to stop playing "The Corn Grows High in IOWA" (Wallace's home state). Truman talked to Roosevelt only once or twice before FDR died and Truman had to decide whether to drop the A-Bomb and form the post-war world. Wallace tried a third party presidential run with Chet "the Singing Cowboy" Taylor as running mate in 1948. Robert Haneghan said-"The only epitaph I want on my tombstone is: AT LEAST HE PREVENTED HENRY WALLACE FROM BECOMING PRESIDENT!"

1959- Judge Frederick van Pelt-Bryan ruled that Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence was not pornography and therefore could be sent through the postal system. What do you think of that, John Thomas?

1969- THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN...Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step onto the Moon.-In his autobiography "Return to Earth" Aldrin said: "Neil was the first man to walk on the Moon, but I was the first to pee on the Moon." He had to go (in more ways than one) and it was time for them descend the ladder onto the Lunar surface. At one point Houston Control said: "Buzz, I see you're smiling.."

1980- SAG went on strike for actor's residuals from video cassette and cable t.v. sales. The actors hit the bricks twice more, in 1988 and 2000. And they're set to do it again this year.


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