Author Archives: dcaligari

Today is National Pasta Day. Pasta is one of America’s favorite foods. Last year, 1.3 million pounds of pasta were sold in American grocery stores. The first American pasta factory was opened in Brooklyn, New York, in 1848, by a Frenchman named Antoine Zerega. Mr. Zerega managed the entire operation with just one horse inContinue reading “Cooked pasta waits for no one”

October 17, 1966 – The 23rd Street Fire was an incident that took place in the Flatiron District neighborhood of New York City, on this date. A group of firefighters from the New York City Fire Department responding to a fire at 7 East 22nd Street entered a building at 6 East 23rd Street asContinue reading “A little remembered tragedy”

October 17, 2005 – Stephen Colbert brilliant takes on cable-news punditry, The Colbert Report premiered on Comedy Central on this date. The word “truthiness“, which Stephen debuted during the first episode of the show, was entered into the official Websters Dictionary in 2006. It was also named “Word of the year” by the American DialectContinue reading “The Colbert Report premiered”

October 17, 1958 –What is considered a comeback special, An Evening with Fred Astaire premiered on NBC-TV on this date. The special was the first color show pre-recorded on videotape at NBC’s new state-of-the-art ‘Color City‘ studios in Burbank, California.

October 17, 1988 –The Traveling Wilburys release their debut single, Handle With Care, (the B-side is Margarita,) on this date. The group made a music video for this song that proved quite popular on VH1. Directed by David Leland, it has a sepia tone to give it a dusty, old-timey feel as we see theContinue reading “Handle With Care dropped”

October 16, 1944 – Universal Pictures released the 11th Walter Lantz Woody Woodpecker cartoon, The Beach Nut, on this date. The cartoon marked the debut of Wally Walrus, Woody Woodpecker’s first steady nemesis.

October 16, 1793 –Deposed French queen Joséphe Jeanne Marie Antoinette sat in an open cart, enduring hours of public ridicule as she is slowly driven around the streets of Paris, on this day. Finally, she was taken to the guillotine. On the scaffold she accidentally stepped on the executioner’s foot, and her last words were,Continue reading “A little cake probably wouldn’t have helped”

October 16, 1854Today is the birthday of Oscar Wilde, known for his barbed wit, was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. In between bouts of sparkling japes and posing for his Sodomite Trading Card photo, he found time to write the followingContinue reading “Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.”

October 16, 1992 – The pilot for Gilligan’s Island was finally aired – 28 years after the series began. Although the pilot was filmed in 1963, because of cast changes, it wasn’t aired this date. The pilot’s cast differed from the series with Kit Smythe as Ginger, John Gabriel as the high school science teacher/professor,Continue reading “The original Gilligan’s Island premiered (finally)”

October 16, 1974 –The Rolling Stones release their the 12th British (and 14th American) studio album, It’s Only Rock N’ Roll, on this date. It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll was an important transitional album for the Rolling Stones. Following the departure of long-time producer Jimmy Miller, the album was self-produced by guitarist Keith Richards andContinue reading “It’s Only Rock N’ Roll dropped”