The right side and the left side of the talk radio dial
Fans of progressive talk radio here in Southern California are angry. KTLK-1150 AM is going to go from its current lineup of progressive hosts and be re-branded as "The Patriot", beginning on January 2, 2014.
Nationally syndicated talk-show host Randi Rhodes, whose program airs on KTLK, posted a message on her show's FB page a few hours ago, taking a survey in an effort to try to save progressive radio in Los Angeles. Her show's FB page has over 46,000 likes and so far more than 1,000 people have posted comments to her survey that are 99.99% in favor of keeping progressive radio on the air in Los Angeles
Sean Hannity, who used to have a show on KABC-790 AM in L.A., will take over Randi's timeslot on January 2nd. His FB page has over 1.4 million likes. Granted, he's on the Fox News Channel, but the point is, he generates something that Randi Rhodes does not. Ratings. Rush Limbaugh, who is moving from Clear Channel's Los Angeles flagship station, KFI-640 AM, does as well.
Much of the outrage from the people decrying the loss of yet another progressive talk radio station centers around this being based on the political leanings of the owners of Clear Channel. Nothing could be further from the truth. The bottom line in radio is actually the bottom line. The people who invest in radio stations put up a lot of money to get a "stick" in a major market. Their sole interest is in earning profits. You think Clear Channel is paying that big bag of gas, Rush Limbaugh, $400 million over his eight year contract because his political views are in line with theirs? Think again.
I don't listen to KTLK very much. The problem is, I'm not alone in NOT listening to it. It's ratings are in the basement. KFI is king of talk-radio in Southern California. In the most recent ratings available, they put up an impressive 3.4, tied for 9th place in the market. But they are the top AM station and by a wide margin. With the exception of all-news KNX-1070 AM, no other AM station in Los Angeles earned any rating above 1.3 in November of 2013. KABC managed only a 0.7, KFWB a 0.3 which is also the measly rating of KTLK and another talk station, KRLA.
Much is being made in this angry discussion of the fact that the AM and FM radio bands are public airwaves. They are. But once a station has been granted a license, it is up to them to operate it as they see fit. They have to make a certain number of public service announcement, comply with FCC regulations and so on; however, what format they choose to air is their choice.
Some claim that one of the reasons progressive talk has failed over and over again is that because the conservative talk programs are firmly entrenched on top-tier station with powerful signals, the progressive talkers wind up on weaker stations with less of an available audience. However, KTLK and KFI have the same signal strength during the day and at night, dropping from 50,000 watts to 44,000 watts isn't that big a drop in power. By contrast, one of the AM stations I've worked at broadcast at 5,000 watts during the day and only 500 at night. So signal strength isn't the problem either.
The problem is, the audience isn't there for this format. Maybe someday someone will be able to produce a progressive talk-radio format that draws large enough audience numbers to make it profitable.
* * *
A woman will become CEO of one of the Big Three automakers next month. Mary Barra takes over as CEO of General Motors on 1/15/2014. Is this another bellwether for women breaking into the top levels of management? Yes and no.
The Fortune 500 CEOs are currently 4.2% female. The Fortune 1000 fares a bit better as 4.5% of those 1000 CEO jobs are held by women. Interestingly, the Fortune 100 will have 9 females among its members when Ms Barra assumes her new duties.
While this is a significant step, considering the long history of male dominance at the top of the Big Three, women still lag behind at the highest levels. Oh there are female-run companies, many of them run by the woman who founded them. At a glance it appears that being an entrepreneur rather than rising through the ranks is the fastest and perhaps best path for a woman to take to get to the corner office that overlooks all others.
Is the fact that women who choose to have children fall behind in the race to the highest levels? Let's look at those 8 women who are currently CEO of a Fortune 100 company:
Meg Whitman - 2 children
Virginia Remetty - no children
Patricia Woertz - 3 children
Indra Nooyi - 2 children
Marillyn Hewson - 2 children
Ellen Kullman - 3 children
Irene Rosenfeld - 2 children
Phebe Novakovic - (couldn't find a reference to indicate either way)
So of the 7 women CEOs of Fortune 100 companies where I was able to find out if they did or didn't have children, 6 of them did. Maybe having kids doesn't harm careers as much as some think it does. Maybe it does and these are exceptional women who overcame the "burden" (not my term) of having an executive career and children.
All I know for certain is that 4.5% just isn't representative of real progress.
* * *
Adam Sandler
Katherine Heigl
Reese Witherspoon
Nicolas Cage
Kevin James
Denzel Washington
Steve Carell
Jennifer Aniston
Matt Damon
Ryan Reynolds
The ten actors who are the most "overpaid" in the movie business according to Forbes magazine. Their measure is taking the three most recent films by the actor over the three year period that ended on June 1st.
Is it a fair list? Maybe, maybe not. Katherine Heigl hasn't had a hit since 2007's "Knocked Up" and her film choices haven't been the best. Adam Sandler's numbers would have been much better if "Grown Ups 2" had been released before June 1st instead of in July. Matt Damon's "Elysium" wasn't a flop, but it wasn't a big moneymaker either.
My point? These lists are interesting, but the changes in how Hollywood is paying big-name actors isn't based on this kind of list. Actors are now being asked to take less up-front and more on the back end because it's a better formula for the people who invest anywhere from $30 million to $300 million to make and market a movie.
Then again, I fully expect to see Robert Downey, Jr., on the next list from Forbes, those of the best for the buck. That isn't so much to do with the actor himself, but how well franchise film properties he is part of do at the box office. The Marvel Comics films of Iron Man and The Avengers, and the Sherlock Holmes movies are both big winners. Why else will he be getting a huge upfront payment for "The Avengers 2" if it isn't because the investors are certain they will profit from making the deal?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Heads of state taking selfies at major funerals is not a good thing.
A six year old kissing one of his female classmates on the hand isn't sexual harassment. But the fact he did this should raise concerns in the mind of his parents. Did former San Diego Mayor Filner do similar things when he was six?
The worst part of having your car in the shop is that they never call, no matter how many messages you leave.
The so-called expert who put Frank Pepe's pizza in New Haven, CT on his list and didn't include Sally's Apizza right nearby stepped into the middle of a pizza war that's been going on for decades.
Yes, Kansas City sports anchor Jack Harry called the Kansas Jayhawks' men's basketball team the "Gayhawks" and all his protests that he didn't say it don't alter the viral video evidence. Listen for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHbNaESnImg
The position of Russia on "non-traditional sexual relations" is horrible. But the IOC is right in notifying athletes and the nations they represent, in writing, that protests on this or any other subject, are prohibited. It was wrong in 1968 in Mexico City and it would be wrong today.
Republicans giving President Obama a rough time over the fact he shook hands with Cuba's Raul Castro at the memorial for Nelson Mandela should find something more important to think and talk about. It was a handshake, nothing more.
Maybe hiring an outsider to take over the IRS is a good thing, if Republicans will allow his nomination to be voted on.
The cheerleader who deliberately tried to trip a player from the opposition, as he celebrated a game-ending touchdown, should face severe consequences. He should also be told claiming he was just "joking" is bullshit.
Kim Kardashian speaking out to defend her choice to give only 10% of the things she was auctioning off on EBay to the Philippines relief effort in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan was dumber than publicizing what she was doing in the first place. She tried to milk her "largesse" and then tried to defend making money from what she publicly stated was a charitable endeavor. When will her 15 minutes be up???
There was nothing wrong with the current mayor of Wasilla, AK selling the vehicle that Sarah Palin rode around in when she was the town's mayor. The money goes to the city.
Who had the biggest "career crash" in 2013? Paula Deen is the runaway winner in my book, with CBS news chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan a distant second place.
Which starlet would you want to take home for dinner with mom? Based on the list I saw, I'd rather just sit and enjoy mom's company alone.
Kanye West saying being a rapper is as dangerous as being a police officer is more evidence that he has no perception of what the real world is like.
Now the IRS is after Manny Pacquaio for back taxes. He's telling the tax authority in the Philippines he doesn't owe them because he paid taxes in the U.S., but if the IRS is after him, sounds like he didn't pay anyone.
Justin Bieber says he's just a misunderstood teen, but that he has had it rough going from teen to manhood in the public eye, both in the same interview. Maybe he's just confused. After all, he thinks kitchen mops are actually urinals.
* * *
December 10th in History:
1041 – The son of Empress Zoe of Byzantium succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.
1510 – Portuguese Conquest of Goa: Portuguese naval forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque, and local mercenaries working for privateer Timoji, seize Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, resulting in 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.
1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
1665 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter
1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.
1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.
1861 – American Civil War: The Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
1861 – Forces led by Nguyen Trung Truc, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance.
1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea – Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.
1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
1869 – The Kappa Sigma Fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.
1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.
1896 – Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi premieres in Paris. A riot breaks out at the end of the performance.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.
1899 – Delta Sigma Phi fraternity is founded at the City College of New York.
1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected.
1909 – Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
1911 – The first transcontinental flight across the United States is completed. Calbraith Perry Rodgers began the flight on 17 September 1911, taking off from Sheepshead Bay, New York.
1927 – The phrase "Grand Ole Opry" is used for the first time on-air.
1932 – Thailand becomes a constitutional monarchy.
1935 – The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman Trophy, is awarded for the first time. The winner is halfback Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago.
1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.
1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
1941 – World War II: Battle of the Philippines – Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on the Philippine mainland.
1948 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1949 – Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
1955 – Mighty Mouse Playhouse premieres on American television.
1965 – The Grateful Dead's first concert performance under this new name.
1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.
1976 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.
1978 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1979 – Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.
1983 – Democracy is restored in Argentina with the inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín.
1989 – Mongolian Revolution: At the country's first open pro-democracy public demonstration, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of the Mongolian Democratic Union.
1993 – The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.
1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Maurice Baril, military advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations recommends that UNAMIR stand down.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
George Shaw (not George Bernard Shaw)
Joseph Skoda
Ada Lovelace
Emily Dickinson
Hermes Pan
Dorothy Lamour
Harold Gould (big fan of his acting)
Dan Blocker
Fionnula Flanagan
Tommy Kirk
Tommy Rettig
Susan Dey (another teen crush)
Rod Blagojevich (love how Wikipedia lists him as "American politician and criminal")
Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP, big guy)
Nia Peeples
Bobby Flay
Rob Blake
While she isn't famous, I did want to note that for some reason I can't seem to forget that today is also the birthday of the bridesmaid from my second wedding. If I'd been a smarter, more handsome guy, I would have gone after her instead of my 2nd wife. She was a winner.
Movie quotes today come from "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby", in honor of the late Michael Clarke Duncan:
[on Ricky's new 'corporate sponsor']
Susan: "Me" is you. Because it's just you out there. We don't have any corporate sponsors, we don't have any fancy team owners. We have you. And this car, and this cougar, which symbolizes the fear that you have overcome. It's all there for you.
Glenn: Ricky, this car is like your Excalibur, the mighty sword that Sir Lancelot used to bring together the Knights of the Round Table, until Lancelot betrayed him by laying with his queen...
[whispers suggestively]
Glenn: ... in the biblical sense.
Ricky Bobby: Okay, Glenn. Everything cool that Susan said, you wrecked it.
#2
Cal Naughton, Jr.: I like to picture Jesus as a figure skater. He wears like a white outfit, and He does interpretive ice dances of my life's journey.
#3
Cal Naughton, Jr.: So when you say psychosomatic, you mean like he could start a fire with his thoughts?
Nationally syndicated talk-show host Randi Rhodes, whose program airs on KTLK, posted a message on her show's FB page a few hours ago, taking a survey in an effort to try to save progressive radio in Los Angeles. Her show's FB page has over 46,000 likes and so far more than 1,000 people have posted comments to her survey that are 99.99% in favor of keeping progressive radio on the air in Los Angeles
Sean Hannity, who used to have a show on KABC-790 AM in L.A., will take over Randi's timeslot on January 2nd. His FB page has over 1.4 million likes. Granted, he's on the Fox News Channel, but the point is, he generates something that Randi Rhodes does not. Ratings. Rush Limbaugh, who is moving from Clear Channel's Los Angeles flagship station, KFI-640 AM, does as well.
Much of the outrage from the people decrying the loss of yet another progressive talk radio station centers around this being based on the political leanings of the owners of Clear Channel. Nothing could be further from the truth. The bottom line in radio is actually the bottom line. The people who invest in radio stations put up a lot of money to get a "stick" in a major market. Their sole interest is in earning profits. You think Clear Channel is paying that big bag of gas, Rush Limbaugh, $400 million over his eight year contract because his political views are in line with theirs? Think again.
I don't listen to KTLK very much. The problem is, I'm not alone in NOT listening to it. It's ratings are in the basement. KFI is king of talk-radio in Southern California. In the most recent ratings available, they put up an impressive 3.4, tied for 9th place in the market. But they are the top AM station and by a wide margin. With the exception of all-news KNX-1070 AM, no other AM station in Los Angeles earned any rating above 1.3 in November of 2013. KABC managed only a 0.7, KFWB a 0.3 which is also the measly rating of KTLK and another talk station, KRLA.
Much is being made in this angry discussion of the fact that the AM and FM radio bands are public airwaves. They are. But once a station has been granted a license, it is up to them to operate it as they see fit. They have to make a certain number of public service announcement, comply with FCC regulations and so on; however, what format they choose to air is their choice.
Some claim that one of the reasons progressive talk has failed over and over again is that because the conservative talk programs are firmly entrenched on top-tier station with powerful signals, the progressive talkers wind up on weaker stations with less of an available audience. However, KTLK and KFI have the same signal strength during the day and at night, dropping from 50,000 watts to 44,000 watts isn't that big a drop in power. By contrast, one of the AM stations I've worked at broadcast at 5,000 watts during the day and only 500 at night. So signal strength isn't the problem either.
The problem is, the audience isn't there for this format. Maybe someday someone will be able to produce a progressive talk-radio format that draws large enough audience numbers to make it profitable.
* * *
A woman will become CEO of one of the Big Three automakers next month. Mary Barra takes over as CEO of General Motors on 1/15/2014. Is this another bellwether for women breaking into the top levels of management? Yes and no.
The Fortune 500 CEOs are currently 4.2% female. The Fortune 1000 fares a bit better as 4.5% of those 1000 CEO jobs are held by women. Interestingly, the Fortune 100 will have 9 females among its members when Ms Barra assumes her new duties.
While this is a significant step, considering the long history of male dominance at the top of the Big Three, women still lag behind at the highest levels. Oh there are female-run companies, many of them run by the woman who founded them. At a glance it appears that being an entrepreneur rather than rising through the ranks is the fastest and perhaps best path for a woman to take to get to the corner office that overlooks all others.
Is the fact that women who choose to have children fall behind in the race to the highest levels? Let's look at those 8 women who are currently CEO of a Fortune 100 company:
Meg Whitman - 2 children
Virginia Remetty - no children
Patricia Woertz - 3 children
Indra Nooyi - 2 children
Marillyn Hewson - 2 children
Ellen Kullman - 3 children
Irene Rosenfeld - 2 children
Phebe Novakovic - (couldn't find a reference to indicate either way)
So of the 7 women CEOs of Fortune 100 companies where I was able to find out if they did or didn't have children, 6 of them did. Maybe having kids doesn't harm careers as much as some think it does. Maybe it does and these are exceptional women who overcame the "burden" (not my term) of having an executive career and children.
All I know for certain is that 4.5% just isn't representative of real progress.
* * *
Adam Sandler
Katherine Heigl
Reese Witherspoon
Nicolas Cage
Kevin James
Denzel Washington
Steve Carell
Jennifer Aniston
Matt Damon
Ryan Reynolds
The ten actors who are the most "overpaid" in the movie business according to Forbes magazine. Their measure is taking the three most recent films by the actor over the three year period that ended on June 1st.
Is it a fair list? Maybe, maybe not. Katherine Heigl hasn't had a hit since 2007's "Knocked Up" and her film choices haven't been the best. Adam Sandler's numbers would have been much better if "Grown Ups 2" had been released before June 1st instead of in July. Matt Damon's "Elysium" wasn't a flop, but it wasn't a big moneymaker either.
My point? These lists are interesting, but the changes in how Hollywood is paying big-name actors isn't based on this kind of list. Actors are now being asked to take less up-front and more on the back end because it's a better formula for the people who invest anywhere from $30 million to $300 million to make and market a movie.
Then again, I fully expect to see Robert Downey, Jr., on the next list from Forbes, those of the best for the buck. That isn't so much to do with the actor himself, but how well franchise film properties he is part of do at the box office. The Marvel Comics films of Iron Man and The Avengers, and the Sherlock Holmes movies are both big winners. Why else will he be getting a huge upfront payment for "The Avengers 2" if it isn't because the investors are certain they will profit from making the deal?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Heads of state taking selfies at major funerals is not a good thing.
A six year old kissing one of his female classmates on the hand isn't sexual harassment. But the fact he did this should raise concerns in the mind of his parents. Did former San Diego Mayor Filner do similar things when he was six?
The worst part of having your car in the shop is that they never call, no matter how many messages you leave.
The so-called expert who put Frank Pepe's pizza in New Haven, CT on his list and didn't include Sally's Apizza right nearby stepped into the middle of a pizza war that's been going on for decades.
Yes, Kansas City sports anchor Jack Harry called the Kansas Jayhawks' men's basketball team the "Gayhawks" and all his protests that he didn't say it don't alter the viral video evidence. Listen for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHbNaESnImg
The position of Russia on "non-traditional sexual relations" is horrible. But the IOC is right in notifying athletes and the nations they represent, in writing, that protests on this or any other subject, are prohibited. It was wrong in 1968 in Mexico City and it would be wrong today.
Republicans giving President Obama a rough time over the fact he shook hands with Cuba's Raul Castro at the memorial for Nelson Mandela should find something more important to think and talk about. It was a handshake, nothing more.
Maybe hiring an outsider to take over the IRS is a good thing, if Republicans will allow his nomination to be voted on.
The cheerleader who deliberately tried to trip a player from the opposition, as he celebrated a game-ending touchdown, should face severe consequences. He should also be told claiming he was just "joking" is bullshit.
Kim Kardashian speaking out to defend her choice to give only 10% of the things she was auctioning off on EBay to the Philippines relief effort in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan was dumber than publicizing what she was doing in the first place. She tried to milk her "largesse" and then tried to defend making money from what she publicly stated was a charitable endeavor. When will her 15 minutes be up???
There was nothing wrong with the current mayor of Wasilla, AK selling the vehicle that Sarah Palin rode around in when she was the town's mayor. The money goes to the city.
Who had the biggest "career crash" in 2013? Paula Deen is the runaway winner in my book, with CBS news chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan a distant second place.
Which starlet would you want to take home for dinner with mom? Based on the list I saw, I'd rather just sit and enjoy mom's company alone.
Kanye West saying being a rapper is as dangerous as being a police officer is more evidence that he has no perception of what the real world is like.
Now the IRS is after Manny Pacquaio for back taxes. He's telling the tax authority in the Philippines he doesn't owe them because he paid taxes in the U.S., but if the IRS is after him, sounds like he didn't pay anyone.
Justin Bieber says he's just a misunderstood teen, but that he has had it rough going from teen to manhood in the public eye, both in the same interview. Maybe he's just confused. After all, he thinks kitchen mops are actually urinals.
* * *
December 10th in History:
1041 – The son of Empress Zoe of Byzantium succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.
1510 – Portuguese Conquest of Goa: Portuguese naval forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque, and local mercenaries working for privateer Timoji, seize Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, resulting in 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.
1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
1665 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter
1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.
1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.
1861 – American Civil War: The Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
1861 – Forces led by Nguyen Trung Truc, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance.
1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea – Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.
1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
1869 – The Kappa Sigma Fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.
1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.
1896 – Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi premieres in Paris. A riot breaks out at the end of the performance.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.
1899 – Delta Sigma Phi fraternity is founded at the City College of New York.
1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected.
1909 – Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
1911 – The first transcontinental flight across the United States is completed. Calbraith Perry Rodgers began the flight on 17 September 1911, taking off from Sheepshead Bay, New York.
1927 – The phrase "Grand Ole Opry" is used for the first time on-air.
1932 – Thailand becomes a constitutional monarchy.
1935 – The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman Trophy, is awarded for the first time. The winner is halfback Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago.
1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.
1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
1941 – World War II: Battle of the Philippines – Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on the Philippine mainland.
1948 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1949 – Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
1955 – Mighty Mouse Playhouse premieres on American television.
1965 – The Grateful Dead's first concert performance under this new name.
1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.
1976 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.
1978 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1979 – Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.
1983 – Democracy is restored in Argentina with the inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín.
1989 – Mongolian Revolution: At the country's first open pro-democracy public demonstration, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of the Mongolian Democratic Union.
1993 – The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.
1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Maurice Baril, military advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations recommends that UNAMIR stand down.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
George Shaw (not George Bernard Shaw)
Joseph Skoda
Ada Lovelace
Emily Dickinson
Hermes Pan
Dorothy Lamour
Harold Gould (big fan of his acting)
Dan Blocker
Fionnula Flanagan
Tommy Kirk
Tommy Rettig
Susan Dey (another teen crush)
Rod Blagojevich (love how Wikipedia lists him as "American politician and criminal")
Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP, big guy)
Nia Peeples
Bobby Flay
Rob Blake
While she isn't famous, I did want to note that for some reason I can't seem to forget that today is also the birthday of the bridesmaid from my second wedding. If I'd been a smarter, more handsome guy, I would have gone after her instead of my 2nd wife. She was a winner.
Movie quotes today come from "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby", in honor of the late Michael Clarke Duncan:
[on Ricky's new 'corporate sponsor']
Susan: "Me" is you. Because it's just you out there. We don't have any corporate sponsors, we don't have any fancy team owners. We have you. And this car, and this cougar, which symbolizes the fear that you have overcome. It's all there for you.
Glenn: Ricky, this car is like your Excalibur, the mighty sword that Sir Lancelot used to bring together the Knights of the Round Table, until Lancelot betrayed him by laying with his queen...
[whispers suggestively]
Glenn: ... in the biblical sense.
Ricky Bobby: Okay, Glenn. Everything cool that Susan said, you wrecked it.
#2
Cal Naughton, Jr.: I like to picture Jesus as a figure skater. He wears like a white outfit, and He does interpretive ice dances of my life's journey.
#3
Cal Naughton, Jr.: So when you say psychosomatic, you mean like he could start a fire with his thoughts?
posted by me at 5:31 PM
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