My old Boss, Mentor and Muse Dick Williams is coming out with a DVD to accompany his famous book. He released a sneak peak on Jerry Beck's website CARTOON BREW where he animated the figures on the books cover.



Beautiful stuff. The Old Master is showing all us young pups he still got it. I don't know about you, but I'm going to go get mine soon.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ and see June 5th entry.

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Question: What does Gung-Ho mean?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: How did Nazis smell? ( hint, it’s not a joke.)
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History for 6/7/2008
Birthdays: Pope Gregory XIII, Beau Brummel, Paul Gauguin, Chick Corea, George Szell, Tom Jones, Jessica Tandy, James Ivory, Virginia McKenna, Liam Neeson, Prince

1191- Richard the Lionheart arrived in the Holy Land for the Third Crusade, he went by ship via Sicily and Cyprus- the easy way. The Crusaders met him on the beach with an old song that today is "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".

1594- All during Queen Elizabeth Ist reign there were plots and attempts on her life. This day the Queens Spanish-Jewish doctor Rodrigo Lopez was executed on suspicion of his attempting to poison the Queen. The evidence was circumstantial and Elizabeth took several weeks to decide to sign the death warrant. When the news got out there was a wave of Anti-Semitic feeling among the English populace, even though most Jews had been banned from England since 1388. This is seen as the time when William Shakespeare got the inspiration to create Shylock the wicked Jewish money lender in his play the Merchant of Venice.

1654- French Louis XIV "the Sun King" is crowned.

1692- Port Royal, the Jamaican port that became haven for buccaneers and pirates of the Carribbean, was destroyed by a huge earthquake. After Tortuga was cleaned out of pirates by the Spanish Navy Port Royal became the unofficial pirate capitol. At its height with a harbor that could shelter 150 ships she boasted more citizens than Boston and more money per capita than London.

1769- Frontiersman Daniel Boone reached Kentucky by charting a way through the Cumberland Gap. Though they seem quaint hills today in Colonial times the Allegheny Mountains presented an insurmountable barrier preventing further movement west from the colonies of the Atlantic coast. Boone’s achievement was the first penetration of this wall. Daniel Boone was once asked if he ever got lost. “ Nope” he said: “But I was bewildered once.”

1776- In the Continental Congress representative Richard Henry Lee stands up and proposes a resolution calling for American Independence. " Be it Resolved that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States." This began the fateful debate that lasted until July 2nd. John Adams calculated that at this time only one third of the American public was for full independence, one third was for reconciliation with Britain and one third was fence sitting.

1856-CONGRESSIONAL SLUGFEST- During an angry debate on the slavery issue South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks attacks and beat unconscious Massachusetts Representative Charles Sumner right on the floor of the House of Representatives.
"I wore out my cane on his head!” Brooks boasted. Admirers sent Brooks more canes.

1860- Workmen in San Francisco began laying track on Market Street for a light rail system, the famous Cable Cars.

1924- This day marked the last known contact with the George Mallory Expedition. He was the first mountain climber to attempt to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They disappeared shortly after. Mallory’s bones were finally discovered in 1999. We all know that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenjin Norgai conquered Everest in 1953, but Mallory reach the top first ? Unlike Scott of the Antarctic he left no diary or logbook so we may never know.

1932- During the Great Depression about one third of the independent banks in the U.S. failed. On this day Hollywood was affected because the First Bank of Beverly Hills went under, erasing the assets of many important Hollywood figures.
Greta Garbo lost one million dollars overnight. Louis B. Mayer, ever one to capitalize on a situation, offered her an advance if she would sign an exclusive 7 year contract with MGM. Garbo's back was to the wall so she signed, but then got her revenge in her own way- namely she immediately went on a 6 month vacation to Europe and took a lesbian lover named Mercedes DeAcosta whom she tongue-kissed in public.

1954- Scientist Alan Turing was considered one of the fathers of the digital computer. His developments influenced computer research throughout the 1940s, and he predicted one day computers would be able to think like humans. But when Turing was revealed to be gay he had to chose jail or medical treatment in a mental hospital. Medical procedures to “cure” homosexual inclinations could include electro-shock, lobotomy and narcotics. This day after a humiliating examination, Alan Turing committed suicide at age 42.

1975- Happy Birthday VCR’s ! This day Sony announced the first home videotape playing system, the Betamax. They were about $25,000 each but we were promised as they became more popular the price would come down. Today they average around a hundred bucks.

1993- Rockstar Prince celebrated his birthday by changing his name to that funny symbol no keyboard can reproduce and no one can say. In 2000 he switched back to Prince.

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Yesterday’s question: What did Nazis smell like?

Answer: According to Steven Ambrose book Band of Brothers, a veteran of the 101st Airborne in charge of prisoners, said Nazis :” Smelled of leather and wet wool..”

In addition, this came in from mi old companero Oscar in Old London Town;
"It may sound like a Woody Allen scenario, but medical historians are unanimous that Adolf Hitler was the victim of uncontrollable flatulence. Spasmodic stomach cramps, constipation and diarrhea, possibly the result of nervous tension, had been Hitler's curse since childhood and only grew more severe as he aged. As a stressed-out dictator, the agonizing digestive attacks would occur after most meals: Albert Speer recalled that the Fuehrer, ashen-faced, would leap up from the dinner table and disappear to his room.

In case you don’t believe it- SOURCES/FURTHER READING: Gordon, Bertram, "Fascism, the Neo-Right and Gastronomy: A Case in the Theory of the Social Engineering of Taste," Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery (1987); Heston, Leonard and Renate, "The Medical Casebook of Adolf Hitler: His Illnesses, Doctors and Drugs", (New York, 2000); Irving, David, "The Secret Diaries
Of Hitler's Doctor", (London, 1983);

From the Dani Levi's comedy Mein Fuehrer: The Truly, Truest, Truthful, Truth about Adolf Hitler.