Author Archives: dcaligari

July 13, 1985 –36 years ago, I had only recently patented the long birthday weekend…. (I love that Bryan Ferry sang a John Lennon song rather than one of his own and David Gilmore playing guitar, as well.) (still the greatest televised rock and roll performance of all time.) We brought the ‘big TV‘ outContinue reading “Literally, the whole world was watching”

July 12, 1991 –John Singleton directorial debut, Boyz N the Hood, starring Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, Larry Fishburne, Nia Long, Regina King, and Angela Bassett, went into general release on this date. (John Singleton’s Oscar nomination for Best Director at the age of 24 made him the youngest director to ever receiveContinue reading “Once Upon A Time in South Central L.A. …”

Ok, I’m now slightly north of 60. Can’t pretend that I’m not. As you may remember I skipped My Desert Disc choices last year, I came back to it again this year (This is how old I’m getting, upon further review, I didn’t skip them, I just posted them a day earlier than usual.). MyContinue reading “Never drive a car when you’re dead”

July 11, 1533 –The Church of England came into being on this date. The story of its origins is shrouded in sex and therefore important. Henry VIII assumed the English throne in 1509, an energetic young man of seventeen. He immediately decided to have a male heir. This became the enduring theme of his reignContinue reading “And ev’ryone was a Henery”

ACME would like to issue this public service announcement concerning Brain Freeze (also known as sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia) – Now to the point at hand – Why bring this up? The date today is 7/11 (at least in this country. Foreigners and other degenerates refer to the day as 11/7 but that’s another story…) The convenienceContinue reading “Attention Please”

July 10, 1856 –Inventor and electromechanical genius Nikola Tesla, the man who invented the 20th Century, was born to Serbian parents in what is now Croatia on this date. Remember, if we could only harness the free floating electricity, we could do away with the electric companies. And so it goes

July 10, 1958 –The first parking meter was installed in London, England on this date in 1958, along with the second through 625th. It took nearly two dozen years for the parking meter to travel across the Atlantic: the first American parking meter had been installed in Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935. It wasContinue reading “Use them as walking sticks”

On the Fourth of July in 1850, President Zachary Taylor snacked on cherries and milk while attending a ceremony at the Washington Monument. It was a hot day, and the heat made him sick. He got sicker and sicker and died on July 9. He remains the only U.S. president to have died from indigestionContinue reading “I guess this is patriotic”

July 9, 1982 –Buena Vista Pictures releases the sci-fi film Tron, directed by Steven Lisberger and starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, and Barnard Hughes, in the U.S. on this date. Many Disney animators refused to work on this movie because they feared that computers would put them out of business. InContinue reading “He fights for the Users.”

July 8th was a Sunday in 1881, so when a hot young man entered Edward Berner’s drugstore in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and ordered an ice-cream soda, his request was denied. Ice-cream sodas could not be served on the Sabbath owing to the ancient Mosaic injunction against them. The hot young man pleaded his case soContinue reading “You may begin screaming”