T.D.I.H. - Feb 3

February 3 is officially Four Chaplains Day in the United States by an act of Congress. On this date in 1943, four US Army chaplains died while helping to save lives and calm fears after the ship they were on was torpedoed in the Northern Atlantic. Below is a clip of Michelle Bachman commerating the day on the floor of Congress last year.

T.D.I.H. - Feb 1

On this date in 1968, General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan summarily executed a Viet Cong terrorist named Nguyễn Văn Lém during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. The general was filmed and photographed as he shot the prisoner with his personal weapon. This image was widely used by the Left and the anti-war forces to discredit our South Vietnamese allies . No one ever mentioned that the terrorist and his death squad had just murdered the entire families of several policemen. The terrorist was not in uniform, and did not fight according to the articles of war, so he was not a POW. The execution was both legal and justified.

A deeper question is the fact that the photo was printed at all in a time of war. Could you possible imagine a US newspaper in 1944 or 1918 printing a similar picture? Because there were plenty of summary executions by our allies in both of those wars.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 28

This is a pretty important day for manned space exploration. First of all, it is the anniversary of the Challenger disaster. I was watching the launch live that morning, and I vividly remember my rage when the TV commentator didn't immediately realize what had happened like I did. This explosion killed seven astronauts and grounded the shuttle fleet for several years.

In happier news, a couple of astronauts and a cosmonaut were born on this day. Leonid Kadeniuk from the Ukraine was born in 1951 went into space on the space shuttle Columbia in 1997. David Carl Hilmers from Iowa was born in 1950. He flew into space four times, twice each on the Atlantis and Discovery. John McCreary Fabian was born in Texas in 1939. He flew into space twice, once each on the Challenger and the Discovery.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 23

On this day in 2003, Pioneer 10 communicated with Earth for the last time. The spacecraft was 80 au away from Earth at the time..or about 12 billion kilometers, and almost thirty years after launch. One of the interesting things about the Pioneer craft was their inclusion of a plaque on them with representations of the male and female human body as well as symbols designed to tell anyone or anything that found them Earth's location. I wonder if we would leave clues as to our planet's location nowdays?

T.D.I.H. - Jan 9

On this day in 1788, Connecticut became the fifth State to ratify the Constitution and join the United States as one of the founding States.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 8

On this day in 1926, Soupy Sales was born. His original name was Milton Supman. Soupy was most famous for developing pie throwing into an art. I'm really too young to remember Soupy, (especially since so much of my early life was spent in England) however I still consider him one of my favorites from the late 60's, early 70's period of television. He hosted adult variety shows, children's morning shows and was a frequesnt guest on game shows. The video below is a great tribute created and performed by Barry Mitchell.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 7

On this day in 1964, Nicolas Cage was born. Now I know what you are think...so what? Our boy Nick doesn't get a lot of props for his work, but when you sit down and look at it, the boy's done OK. He even was in The Outsiders, (in an uncredited role) and Fast Times at Ridgemont High . How many people can say that? As far as I can tell, he's it. In fact I bet you could play Six Degrees of Separation with Nick at least as well as you can Kevin Bacon. He also has two cult classic movies to his credit, Raising Arizona and 8mm.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 6

On this date in 1912, New Mexico entered the Union as the forty-seventh State. Among other things, New Mexico is famous (or infamous) for being the birthplace of your humble host. I was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico on June 9, 1965 while my father was stationed at Holloman A.F.B.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 4

On this day in 1896, Utah became the 45th State to join the United States. The state's nickname is the beehive state, yet Utah's professional basketball team is called the Jazz, while the team in New Orleans (considered the birthplace of Jazz) is called the Hornets.

T.D.I.H. - Jan 3

On January 3, 1959, Alaska became the forty-ninth State to join the United States of America. Happy Birthday Alaska, you betcha!

Happy Birthday

My blog is five years old today!

Give The Man Some Cowbell!

Christopher Walken, one of America's greatest actors, turned 66 today! Happy birthday Chris!

Happy Birthday Coca-Cola!

On this day in 1886, the first batch of Coca-Cola was brewed up. Now Coke is one of the great American success stories, sold all over the world. I'll hoist a Cuba Libre tonight in your honor. Here in honor of rule 5 Sunday are some Coca-Cola models to help celebrate this day.

Happy Birthday to Me.....

Woo freaking hoo....

43 today. I wake up, turn on Mike and Mike, and they are wishing Dick Vitale happy birthday. A little later, I switch to CNN and they are wishing one of their financial analysts happy birthday. That's a little weird...

Gave myself a sort of birthday present and paid off my car loan early. The girl on the phone noticed and wished me a happy birthday.

Oh well, another year older....

Veteran's Day

Today was Veteran's Day. Thank you to all the veterans out there.

What some of you may not know, is that originally today's holiday was called Armistice Day. It marked the official end of combat in World War I. Because communication was so much less sophisticated back then, they had to set a time in the future to cease hostilities to ensure that everyone got the word. So the ceasefire was set for the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. It was changed to Veteran's Day to celebrate all of our veterans in 1952.

It's still celebrated as Armistice Day in France and Belgium.

It's a completely different holiday in other parts of Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. It's St. Martin's Day, and celebrates a Catholic saint. (fittingly enough, he was once a Roman soldier)

In most of the Commonwealth (Including the UK, Canada and Australia) it's celebrated as Rememberance Day.

Happy Birthday Dad!

My Dad turns 62 today....and he's been semi-retired for a while now, but today he begins collecting Social Security. He quit smoking, got into pretty good shape, and is about to run a 5 K race. Looks like he's got years of retirement ahead of him to enjoy his grandkids. Happy birthday dad, and thanks for providing an interesting childhood for me, and giving me a love of history.

Update 11:30 10/13/07: Dad came in fourth in his age group, running 12 minute miles, which is pretty damn good for your first 5K at age 62.

Hmmmm.....

Today is both Molly Shannon's (1964) and Amy Poehler's (1971) birthday. Last night NBC showed an episode of SNL with Amy in the cast and Molly as the guest host. Coincidence? You decide.

Never Forget

Today is the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States by Islamic terrorists. We must not, we cannot forget these attacks. Radical Islam declared war on us, and attacked us on our homeland.



It appears that we are soon going to try to cut and run from the war. What people seem to forget is that our choice is not whether or not to fight radical Islam, our enemies have made that choice for us. Our choice is where to fight them. I for one, would much rather fight them in Iraq than the United States.

Happy Birthday El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula

Or as we know her today, Los Angeles. On this day in 1781, forty-four Spanish (NOT Mexicans or Aztecs), founded the city. The city was part of Mexico for only 27 years, from 1821 to 1848.



LA is now the second biggest city in the country. Sometimes it hard to like her, but I still love her............

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday. She was born on September 1, 1946. She is the youngest of five children. She was Los Angeles born, but has lived all over the world. She lived in the Middle East while she was a girl, and then followed my dad around (usually to England) during his career in the military, only to settle down back in So Cal when my Dad retired.

My Mom didn't have it easy by any means. She had two babies by the time she was 21, and was living in a foriegn country, poor and married to the Air Force as well as my Dad. My life was infinitely easier than hers. I treasure the fact that both of my parents are relatively young (61 and 62 to my 42) because I consider them my friends as well as my parents. We are probably closer than most because we spent so much time as a nuclear family far away from the rst of our relatives.

She shares her exact birthday with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. I don't how she feels about that, or even if she is aware of it. But I'll dedicate this one to her anyway.