Saturday, December 9, 2017

It's Santacon today.

The amateur drinkers (in various shades of holiday undress) are once again back in Manhattan this year: supposedly, they will be in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, stating at 10 AM. I can take comfort that it may snow today and many of the revelers will catch cold.



I am past outrage that several websites are suggesting that if I don't want to be bothered by drunken 20 somethings in the middle of the day, I should just stay indoors. I will be in cranky old man mood this evening - be warned! 


(Changing gears)
The first Christmas card was created in England on December 9, 1843

Like most of us, Henry Cole, an Englishman, was too busy to write personal greetings for all of his Christmas greetings in 1843. Cole hired artist John Calcott Horsley to design a ready-to-be-sent card.



The hand-colored card Horsley designed was lithographed on stiff, dark cardboard and featured adults and children raising wine glasses in a toast. Some thought the card blasphemous with the family, surrounded with religious symbols, holding glasses of wine



Printed in an edition of 1,000, Horsley's card was sold in London stores. At the time, the greeting cards could be mailed for a penny each. Less than a dozen of those cards exists today. Printed cards soon became the rage in England; the controversy is thought to have helped promote Cole's idea.


December 9, 1947 -
An oft forgotten holiday classic, The Bishop's Wife, starring Cary Grant, David Nivens, and Loretta Young premiered in NYC on this date.



Originally Cary Grant played the Bishop and David Niven the Angel. When original director William A. Seiter left the film, Henry Koster replaced him and viewed what had been shot so far. He realized that the two were in the wrong roles. It took some convincing because Grant wanted the title role of the Bishop. He eventually accepted the change and his role as the Angel was one of the most widely praised of his career.


December 9, 1965 -
A pre-teen drama about the bi-polar kid and his wacky friends first experiences of the depressive nature of the holiday season premiered on this date -



The nearly 150,000 inmates in Texas prisons are barred from using Facebook, possessing cellphones and receiving snacks in the mail. They are also prohibited from reading the pop-up edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Color Purple and the 1908 Sears, Roebuck catalog.

Now you know.


December 9, 1978 -
Nicolas Roeg's
iconic thriller Don't Look Now, starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, was released in New York City on this date.



Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie met for the first time on the set of this film. The first scene they had to shoot was the sex scene, as Nicolas Roeg wanted to "get it out of the way."


December 9, 1989 –
Billy Joel's
history lesson, We Didn’t Start the Fire hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



Joel wrote the lyrics first, which he rarely does. He says that is why the song has no melody. Joel told Billboard magazine: "It's terrible musically. It's like a mosquito buzzing around your head."


December 9, 2005 -
The adaptation of C. S. Lewis's fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe premiered on this date.



The wolves that destroyed the Beavers' home were mostly real animals, with one or two CGI ones added in, although their tails had to be digitally removed and re-added. Their tails kept wagging while filming the scene, making them seem less vicious, showing instead, being happy with frolicking around.


December 9, 2005 -
Rob Marshall's
adaptation of critically acclaimed novel (of the same name) Memoirs of a Geisha, starring Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, and Suzuka Ohgo premiered in the US on this date.



The three leading non-Japanese actresses, including Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, and Michelle Yeoh, were put through a six-week crash course on geisha culture through a "geisha boot camp" before production commenced, during which they were trained in traditional geisha practices of musicianship, dance, and tea ceremony. 


(Today's Special - The holidays can really bring you down)

Today in History:
December 9, 1783
-
The site of London's executions (via the gallows) was moved from Tyburn to Newgate. The public spectacle of prisoners' executions drew large crowds.



Out with the old, in with the new.


December 9, 1902 -
A great deal of my mail comes from fans of the 'Oz' picture - fans of all ages. The scholarly, the curious, the disbelievers write and ask how? why? when? what for? did you fly? melt? scream? cackle? appear? disappear? produce? sky-write? deal with monkeys? etc., etc., etc.



Margaret Hamilton, celebrated character actress best known for her portrayal of The Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, was born on this date.


December 9, 1957 -
Donny Osmon
d was born on this date!



Still a little bit Rock and Roll.


December 9, 1968 -
The John Birch Society, is a political education and action organization founded by Robert W. Welch on this date.



The society supports associated with traditionally conservative causes such as anti-communism, support for individual rights and the ownership of private property.

If you think I'm going to make fun of them, given some of the things that the president has said, you've got another thing coming.


December 9, 1994 -
Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders was dismissed after suggesting discussion of masturbation in school classes on sexuality.









This gives rise to the euphemistic term "firing the surgeon general."


Useless Christmas Trivia
:

The lighting of candles and decorating with candles has always been popular, but also one of biggest sources of danger during the Christmas holidays.



In 1895 a New England Telephone employee, Ralph Morris, while looking at the newly installed string of lights made for the telephone switchboard decided to take some home to decorate his tree with. And/or it may be attributed to Thomas Edison's partner, Edward Johnson for inventing the first string of lights around the same time Ralph, for safety reasons.

In 1923, after his daily scalp massage with Vaseline, President Calvin Coolidge started the annual tradition of the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony on the White House lawn.



And so it goes


Before you go - another funny video from the people at Bon Appetit about popular pastries from the past 100 years -



I think I could get my kids to try all of these.



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