Author Archives: dcaligari

January 20, 2006 –Once upon a time, Kenny Ortega mega-hit teen musical, High School Musical starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale premiered on the Disney Channel, on this date. (This was my daughters favorite movie for a time – when they were very young children.) Zac Efron’s singing voice was that of DrewContinue reading “High School Musical premiered”

January 19, 1952 – In the first match-up between Wile E. Coyote and Bugs Bunny, Operation: Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones, premiered on this date. This was the second cartoon to feature Wile E. Coyote (following 1949’s Fast and Furry-ous), and the first in which he is identified by his full name. It is alsoContinue reading “Operation: Rabbit”

January 19, 1949 –I believe that my music is just about feelings, and the style is just a side effect. Robert Palmer, blue-eyed soul singer, was born on this date.

January 19, 2006 –NASA launched the New Horizons space probe aboard an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral on this date. It’s mission was to perform the first fly by of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, and Hydra. It left Earth at an Earth-relative velocity of about 36,373 mi/h (10.10 mi/s), makingContinue reading “Flying round the universe”

January 19, 1955 –Michael Anthony began doling out the life changing checks from John Beresford Tipton when The Millionaire premiered on CBS-TV on this date. (The million dollar check would now be worth about $10 million dollars.) The mysterious philanthropist John Beresford Tipton was named for Tipton, Missouri, the birthplace of producer Don Fedderson’s wife,Continue reading “The Millionaire premiered”

On this day in 1825, the US patent (#X004009) for food storage in cans to “preserve animal substances in tin” was issued to Ezra Daggett and his nephew Thomas Kensett of New York City. I wonder if they knew that the tin can had been patented in 1810 by Peter Durand. Oh, Never mind. AsContinue reading “Think I’ll kick it down the street”

January 18, 1968 –At a White House luncheon to discuss the rise in urban crime, Eartha Kitt gets into a notorious spat with First Lady Claudia Taylor “Lady Bird” Johnson, declaring, “Vietnam is the main reason we are having trouble with the youth of America. It is a war without explanation or reason.” Although accountsContinue reading “When ladies lunch”

January 18, 1975 –The Jeffersons, a spin-off of All In The Family premiered on CBS-TV on this date. When the show first started, George constantly referred to Tom as a honky. After a few seasons, Sherman Hemsley asked the writers to stop having George call him that, as he felt that the characters were friends,Continue reading “The Jeffersons premiered”

The way we experience life is not linear, but logarithmic. We’ve all noticed that a year keeps feeling shorter, but it’s because there’s a mathematical formula for it. It’s called Weber’s Law. Life is truly too short. Before we ever notice, it’s over. And so it goes

January 17, 1860 O.S. – (which means Julian calendar. We celebrate his birthday on the 29th of January N.S. – which means Gregorian calendar. So it not really his birthday today but he’s dead so I don’t think he really cares.) – Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia. Tragically, a bureaucratic snafu at theContinue reading “Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.”