Author Archives: dcaligari

January 14, 1957 –I should never have switched from scotch to martinis Humphrey Bogart, the Greatest Male Star of All Time, model for the Gerber baby and founding member of the Hollywood Rat Pack (a phrase coined by Lauren Bacall) finally decided to let the world catch up with his three drink lead and succumbsContinue reading “Humphrey DeForest Bogart”

For those of you not following that new fangled Gregorian Calendar (and still keep stock with the Julienne Calendar), it’s January First. Happy New Year If you need to, please feel free to call in sick today and explain to them that it’s Orthodox New Years Day in your religion (but remember that you usedContinue reading “Great dangers give birth to great resolutions.”

The Asian Lunar New Years is 16 days away. Valentine’s Day is 32 days away. Mardi Gras is 50 days away. And today is Old New Years Eve (Old Style Calendar.) Feel free to forget it’s ‘Dry January‘

You may ask why? … because that’s what Ernie says! While scrubbing himself clean at bath time and singing that song we all know from Sesame Street, Ernie said January 13th is his favorite bath time toy’s birthday. The rubber ducky was first patented in 1928 by Landon Smart Lawrence. They are most often usedContinue reading “Today is National Rubber Ducky Day”

January 13, 1989 –British comedy sketch show series A Bit of Fry and Laurie starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie debuts on BBC1 on this date. Stephen Fry was never able to convincingly fake hitting someone, so often he genuinely hit Hugh Laurie while filming the sketches.

January 13, 1910 –Lee De Forest, the American inventor of the vacuum tube, demonstrates the first radio broadcast, a live performance of Cavalleria Rusticana with Enrico Caruso from the Metropolitan Opera, on this date. The broadcast over a telephone transmitter could be heard only by the small number of electronics hobbyists who had radio receiversContinue reading “If you had a radio, you finally heard something”

Janury 13, 1968 –The Beatles’ non-album single Hello Goodbye was #1 on the Billboard charts for the third week in a row, becoming the band’s 15th American chart-topper. (It was the first single that The Beatles released after the death Brian Epstein.) John Lennon hated the song. He viewed it as an inconsequential song ofContinue reading “Hello Goodbye topped the charts”

January 13, 1967 –Decca Records released The Rolling Stones single, Let’s Spend The Night Together, (the b-side was Ruby Tuesday,) in the UK on this date, It’s pretty obvious what’s going on in this song, as Mick Jagger makes a play to bed down a lovely lady. All this talk of “satisfying her every need”Continue reading “Let’s Spend The Night Together first went on sale”

January 13, 1945 – One of the ‘banned’ World War II Looney Tunes cartoons, Herr meets Hare, first aired on this date. This cartoon marks the first appearance of Bugs’ classic “left turn at Albuquerque” joke. The cartoon was finally broadcast in its entirety in July, 2001, on a special episode of the Cartoon Network’sContinue reading “Herr meets Hare premiered”

January 12, 1992 –“… My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.” The HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic Computer) 9000 computer became operational in the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on this date in the film, 2001, A SpaceContinue reading “The start of the A I revolution”