Author Archives: dcaligari

Happy Palm Sunday The name Palm Sunday comes from the tradition for worshippers being given palm fronds which they use to participate in the reenactment of Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem. Once again, Our sponsor ACME will quote the great theologian, my mother: “I swear to God if you kids don’t cut that shit out, IContinue reading “The ash placed on your foreheads on Ash Wednesday comes from the palms on Palm Sunday.”

April 1, 2007 –Showing her very acute sense of irony, Alanis Morissette transforms the Black Eyed Peas’ song My Humps into a mournful piano ballad for an April Fools’ Day prank. The accompanying music video debuts on YouTube on this date and became a viral sensation, garnering millions of views.

When you woke up this morning, one of your first thoughts probably was probably, what day is it?. But take comfort, it’s April (again.) April is National Poetry Month It is a cruel month – usually mixing memory with tax payments (hopefully you’ve heard that you have to file your taxes by Monday, April 18,Continue reading “If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings”

April 1, 1978 – Tonight was the last time you could play the original version of the game, ‘Hi Bob‘ because the final episode of The Bob Newhart Show aired on this date. Over the course of the series, the phrase, “Hi, Bob” was said 256 times. Howard Borden (Bill Daily) said it a totalContinue reading “The finale of The Bob Newhart Show”

April 1, 1930 – Josef von Sternberg’s Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel), starring unknown German actress, Marlene Dietrich, premiered in Berlin on this date. Marlene Dietrich’s screen test for this film survives. In it, she upbraids an unidentified piano player for his bad playing and sings two songs, the first of which is “You’reContinue reading “The Blue Angel premiered”

March 31, 1994 –Madonna appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on this date. She dropped the f-bomb more than a dozen times, exchanged less- than-friendly barbs with Dave and then stubbornly refused to leave the set. This made the episode the most censored in American network television talk-show history; it also resulted inContinue reading “Madonna drops the F bomb (a lot)”

March 31, 1987 – US network television’s very first cyberpunk series, Max Headroom premiered on ABC-TV, on this date According to the first episode, the name “Max Headroom” came about when Edison Carter was fleeing from security guards on a motorcycle, and he ran into a parking garage exit gate labeled MAX HEADROOM. While heContinue reading “20 minutes into the future”

March 31, 1943 –Ronald Walken, possibly the most imitated actor in America, was born on this date. In his almost 40 years career in film, he has acted in well over 90 films. He rarely turns down a part, under the belief that making movies (whether they turn out good or bad) is always aContinue reading “Christopher Walken”

March 30, 1964 –This game show is celebrating its’ 59th anniversary on this date? Pens down. Merv Griffin’s game show Jeopardy! made its debut on television. He sold the rights for the show to Coca-Cola for $250 million in 1986. The show was hosted by Art Fleming until 1975. It resurfaced in syndication in 1984Continue reading “Remember to answer in the form of a question”

March 30, 1966 –Barbra Streisand’s second television special, Color Me Barbra aired on CBS-TV, on this date. The concert was one of the first to be filmed in color. The technology was so new that when two of the three cameras broke immediately prior to the show, there were no parts available to repair them.