The Facts of Life

August 24, 1979 –NBC-TV introduced the girls of Eastland School, an all-girls boarding school in Peekskill, New York, to audiences when The Facts of Life premiered on this date. The pilot Rough Housing may have been the very first children’s program on network television to discuss gender confusion and sexual identity crises among youth; asContinue reading “The Facts of Life”

It really was the Crime of the Century (at the time, anyway.)

August 21, 1911 –Pablo Picasso was having a very bad day. His so called friend, French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be “burnt down,” came under suspicion when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Lourve on this day; he was arrested and put in jail. Apollinaire, as allContinue reading “It really was the Crime of the Century (at the time, anyway.)”

Today is National Soft Serve Ice Cream Day.

Soft Serve Ice Cream has been around since the 1930s. There are conflicting reports of the origins of the dessert. In 1934, Tom Carvel, the founder of eponymous ice cream brand and franchise, had to sell melting ice cream on a parking lot because his ice cream truck had a flat tire. He noticed thatContinue reading “Today is National Soft Serve Ice Cream Day.”

And everywhere there was song and celebration

August 19, 1969 –David Crosby, Steven Stills, Joni Mitchell, and the Jefferson Airplane appeared on the Dick Cavett Show, giving a first-hand account of the Woodstock festival that took place over the weekend. Jefferson Airplane’s performance of We Can Be Together marked the first time the word “fuck” was uttered on live US television.