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Flashback Friday – On This Day In History, January 14th!

Hello everyone and TGIF!!! For your reading pleasure, here’s a treasure trove of events that occurred on this day in history, January 14th. Enjoy and please, venture on into our forums here and let us know what you think!!!

On this day, January 14th:

1639 – Connecticut’s first constitution, the “Fundamental Orders,” was adopted.

1784 – The United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War.

1858 – French emperor Napoleon III escaped an attempt on his life.

1873 – John Hyatt’s 1869 invention ‘Celluloid’ was registered as a trademark.

1878 – Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone for Britain’s Queen Victoria.

1882 – The Myopia Hunt Club, in Winchester, MA, became the first country club in the United States.

1907 – An earthquake killed over 1,000 people in Kingston, Jamaica.

1939 – “Honolulu Bound” was heard on CBS radio for the first time.

1943 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office. He flew from Miami, FL, to French Morocco where he met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss World War II.

1951 – The first National Football League Pro Bowl All-Star Game was played in Los Angeles, CA.

1952 – NBC’s “Today” show premiered.

1953 – Josip Broz Tito was elected president of Yugoslavia by the country’s Parliament.

1954 – Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married. The marriage only lasted nine months.

1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merged with Nash-Kelvinator. The new company was called the American Motors Corporation.

1963 – George C. Wallace was sworn in as governor of Alabama.

1969 – An explosion aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise off Hawaii killed 25 crew members.

1972 – NBC-TV debuted “Sanford & Son.”

1973 – The Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII and became the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.

1985 – Martina Navratilova won her 100th tournament. She joined Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert Lloyd as the only professional tennis players to win 100 tournaments.

1985 – Former Miss America, Phyllis George, joined Bill Kurtis as host of “The CBS Morning News”.

1986 – “Rambo: First Blood, Part II” arrived at video stores. It broke the record set by “Ghostbusters”, for first day orders. 435,000 copies of the video were sold.

1993 – Television talk show host David Letterman announced he was moving from NBC to CBS.

1993 – The British government pledged to introduce legislation to criminalize invasions of privacy by the press.

1994 – U.S. President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed Kremlin accords to stop aiming missiles at any nation and to dismantle the nuclear arsenal of Ukraine.

1996 – Jorge Sampaio was elected president of Portugal.

1996 – Juan Garcia Abrego was arrested by Mexican agents. The alleged drug lord was handed over to the FBI the next day.

1998 – Whitewater prosecutors questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House for 10 minutes about the gathering of FBI background files on past Republican political appointees.

1998 – In Dallas, researchers report an enzyme that slows the aging process and cell death.

1999 – The impeachment trial of U.S. President Clinton began in Washington, DC.

1999 – The U.S. proposed the lifting of the U.N. ceilings on the sale of oil in Iraq. The restriction being that the money be used to buy medicine and food for the Iraqi people.

2000 – A U.N. tribunal sentenced five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 massacre of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.

2000 – The Dow Jones industrial average hit a new high when it closed at 11,722.98. Earlier in the session, the Dow had risen to 11,750.98. Both records stood until October 3, 2006.

2002 – NBC’s “Today” celebrated its 50th anniversary on television.

2002 – Actor Brad Renfro, 19, was arrested after being stopped on a traffic violation. He was charged with public intoxication and driving without a license.

2004 – In St. Louis, a Lewis and Clark Exhibition opened at the Missouri History Museum. The exhibit featured 500 rare and priceless objects used by the Corps of Discovery.

2005 – A probe, from the Cassini-Huygens mission, sent back pictures during and after landing on Saturn’s moon Titan. The mission was launched on October 15, 1997.

Famous People Born on This Date:

Benedict Arnold 1741

Henri Fantin-Latour 1836

Albert Schweitzer 1875

Cecil Beaton 1904

William Bendix 1906

Russ Columbo 1908

Mark Goodson 1915

Billy Butterfield (World’s Greatest Jazz Band) 1917

Andy Rooney 1919

Tom Tryon 1926

Billy Walker 1929

Caterina Valente 1931

Clarence Carter 1936

Sonny Siebert 1937

Billy Jo Spears 1937

Jack Jones 1938

Allen Toussaint 1938

Julian Bond 1940

Faye Dunaway 1941

Gibby Gilbert 1941

Holland Taylor 1943

Shannon Lucid

Graham Marsh 1944

Gene Washington

Carl Weathers 1948

T-Bone Burnett 1948

Lawrence Kasdan 1948

Geoff Tate (Queensryche) 1959

Steven Soderbergh 1963

Mark Addy 1964

Slick Rick 1965

Dan Scheider 1966

Tom Rhodes 1967

Emily Watson 1967

L.L. Cool J (James Todd Smith) 1968

Jason Bateman 1969

Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) 1969

Jordan Ladd 1975

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Flashback Friday: Shows I Miss.

Not that long ago, or at least it doesn’t feel that long ago, I used to turn on “Nick at Nite” or TV Land late at night to put my mind to sleep with the classics. Shows I watched as a child, and a few shows that were on before I existed. It was comforting, and something I did every night, a routine.

Nowadays, I am a little disappointed in what they deem “classic” television. Don’t get me wrong, I do like some of the shows, but to me, they just aren’t classic, yet. It could quite possibly be me just getting older I guess, but I would love for one of those channels to cater to the older classics in the evenings. Nowadays, both of those channels are pretty much playing the same things over and over and over. The Nanny, Roseanne, Three’s Company, Fresh Prince, Family Matters… The closest to what I would deem “classic” in that bunch is Three’s Company, and really, there is only so much I can take of the same story, over and over and over.  Plus, I REALLY don’t need to hear the Nanny’s shrilly voice when trying to sleep. For that matter, Steve Urkel? No thank you!

If I could wave a magic wand (or take over programming at a network) and make my dream nighttime line-up, it would look kinda like this:

Mon – Fri:

10:00PM – The Bob Newhart Show – I really liked this one. The show ran from 1972 – 1978 on CBS, a total of 142 episodes. With his dead pan comedy and “straight man” ways, Bob Newhart became a comedic icon. The finale of his follow up show “Newhart” has become classic.

Since I was unable to locate a video for this show, I have included a “skit” of him playing his character from Mad TV.

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Flashback Friday – President Clinton Impeachment Trial Begins

On January 7th, 1999, a trial for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton began. He was originally accused of lying under oath and obstruction of justice, later charges of witness tampering and abuse of power were added on. This was all due to testimony regarding the Paula Jones case and his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Many considered the evidence against him to show his guilt, however others asked if he was guilty “enough”. The Constitution states that a president can be removed from office due to “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”. Since he obviously wasn’t guilty of treason or bribery, it all came down to “other high crimes and misdemeanors”, which is clearly a matter of judgement. When the Constitution was drafted, the framers put this power of impeachment in the hands of the legislative branch rather than the judicial branch which gives Congress the power to give it’s own judgement.
During the Watergate investigation, Gerald Ford stated that what defines high crimes and misdemeanors is “whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” On this point, Clinton was clearly guilty. With that being said, the investigator into the entire Clinton matter, Kenneth Starr, wasn’t exactly impugn himself and his motives couldn’t be considered infallible. Many considered his obsession with finding something, anything, on Clinton in this situation, that he used Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky as a tipping point in the impeachment investigation. To play devil’s advocate, others could argue that the Clintons so effectively covered their tracks during the Whitewater “scandal” that the Lewinsky affair was the only thing Starr could chase him on. There was a multitude of issues which lead to the impeachment investigation; the Whitewater real estate scandal, the firing of White House travel agents, alleged misuse of FBI files and Clinton’s conduct during a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones.
Another interesting point is that the vote to impeach was clearly a draw along party lines, both in the Senate and Congress. In the end, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Bill Clinton, but that was overturned by Senate two months after that.
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Random Thought Thursday: MCR, Tiger Woods, Birds, and Tears

(Editorial: TheKdd) Well, another week has gone by, and so much information is just dying to get out of my brain, so onto another Random Thought Thursday!

Let’s see, this past week, we celebrated New Year’s Eve. 2011. Other than writing a few wrong dated checks, everything seemed the same, until… The birds are dying! Get that? BIRDS ARE DYING! RUN! Ok, I’m guessing this isn’t the apocalypse, although I did read this week, unrelated to the birds, that there is a group running around the country to tell people the end of days begins this May. Aside from that, the bird thing is a bit strange. So far, we had the birds falling from the sky on New Years Day in Arkansas, with similar reports in Kentucky, Louisiana, and even Sweden! (So it’s not just the U.S. going down in the end times.) There are also reports of fish and crabs keeling over too. Well, today it was reported that 1000’s of birds are dying in Italy. Turtle Doves at that. (There goes that Christmas song.) Scientists believe it all to be unrelated. The birds in Italy have been found with blue stains on their beak, so scientists are pointing to some kind of poisoning. I guess time will tell, or it won’t… muahaha.

In another report, EA Games is reportedly removing the image of Tiger Woods from the cover of their new “Tiger Woods” Golf video game. Really? They expect sales may be better without the image, however the title of the game is ‘Tiger Woods PGA Tour’. I don’t have much to say about that, other than… really? Maybe it’s the re-writer of Huck Finn coming up with their marketing plan?

A quick little shout out and thank you to one of my favorite rock bands, My Chemical Romance. Apparently, MCR was offered a good sum of money to record a song for the soundtrack of ‘Twilight’ but turned it down. Way to not take that ‘Vampire Money’. It’s awesome to see a band not sell out these days. I’m still holding my grudge against Muse and their contribution to the Twilight series. I mean come on! They WERE the “Resistance!” Way to stand up MCR! I knew you were one of my faves for a reason! Very nice album by the way.

Last and maybe least, there was a new experiment done that may have proven that a “Chemical signal” in women’s tears are a turnoff to men, temporarily lowering a man’s testosterone level. The experiment, conducted by researchers from Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, was unable to test the theory the other way around, since it was hard for them to get a man to cry in a lab setting.  Yeah ok. Scientists can call it a “turn off” all they want, but I figure, with the lowering of the testosterone, it hits a man’s more sensitive side, stripping a little bit of the “manly man” out of them. Maybe this is why women get away without the speeding ticket? Hmmmm…

Alright, I could go on all day, but I will stop now. What are your random thoughts today? Let us know below or in the FORUM!!

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and the Alabama Butcher

Have you heard the news? Apparently, Mark Twain’s novels ‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ are in need of a re-write! You heard me right. According to “Twain Scholar” Alan Gribben, who is currently working with NewSouth Books of Alabama to publish a combined volume of his books, they are in need of some revisions; namely, to remove the N-word from the novels replacing it with the word “slave.” He believes the word is in danger of putting the classics into a list of books that “people praise and don’t read.”

Well, get over yourself Sir. I read them. My son has read them. My daughter will as well. I would recommend them to everyone. I will not, nor will my kids, read your “P.C.” new editions, nor would I ever recommend them. If the new crowd of today doesn’t like the word, well, put down the book.

Mark Twain once wrote that “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter.” This, however, is now being used by Mr. Gribben as a his reasoning instead of what it really means. I would be sure, that even if these classics were in danger of not being read because of the use of certain words, Twain himself wouldn’t change a thing.

‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ are essentially historical pieces. Just because society may not care for our historical past doesn’t mean it should be changed to make people more comfortable. History, well, had some pretty nasty moments. Are we going to go through all historical documents and censor anything some may not like? Just erase it like it didn’t happen? (Wish I could do that!)

In addition to replacing the N-word, Gribben changes the villain in “Tom Sawyer” from “Injun Joe” to “Indian Joe” and “half-breed” becomes “half-blood.” Why change the Injun to Indian? Shouldn’t that be “Native American Joe” Mr. Gribben?

What’s next? A re-write of Salinger? Steinbeck? Henry Miller? Oh I know, how about Harry Potter! I am not too fond of being referred to as a Muggle. Fix that would ya?

Thoughts? Will you read it if the language gets changed? Will you read it if it doesn’t? Have you read it at all? Let us know below or in the FORUM.

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Flashback Friday: The First African American Woman Elected To Congress

On this day in history, November 5th, 1968, Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) became the first African American woman elected to serve as a representative to Congress. Shirley was an expert on early childhood education and served as a consultant to the NYC Bureau of Child Welfare before being elected to the state assembly. She was elected to Congress as a Democrat (good girl), and was a vocal critic on the Vietnam War as well as being a great advocate for the urban poor. Although she was unsuccessful in her 1992 bid for a presidential nomination she remains a pillar and beacon for the Civil Rights movement. She was elected, on this day in history……..

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Fox v. Cablevision – Lose/Lose?

Since this is “Random Thought Thursday”, I thought I would throw in my own .02 cents about the fight that continues between Fox and Cablevision.

I myself used to work for a cable company not horribly long ago, in the customer service department. When it was our turn in the “Fox” hunt, we got calls ranging on both sides of the issue. The error in customer’s thinking, however, is that no matter how you feel (Give in/Pay out) is that it’s the customer who is losing this war, on both sides of the aisle.

Many customers would call in just to scream “If you lose FOX, I will cancel my service!” Well, here are the inside tips of what you can do as a customer:

1. First, STOP DOING THAT!! They are customer service, they don’t really care if you cancel, and are not part of these big “corporate head” negotiations, so seriously, stop yelling at them. They don’t lose money if you cancel. The company, yes. Them, no. They are also not in charge of any little button that turns a channel on or off… So cut it out! If you want to cancel, just say you would like to cancel and be done with it. Threatening a Customer Service Rep with cancellation does nothing, even IF FOX’s advertising is telling you to do so. FOX even has a phone line set up for you to call, and then transfers you over to your cable/satellite/phone company to yell. Give me a break. Just stop. There is absolutely NOTHING customer service can do for you, other than cancel… if that’s what you really want, hang on the line and do so. Don’t just call to threaten it, because they really, really, REALLY don’t care.

2. You can leave the service and go elsewhere where FOX resides happily… until of course, a couple of months roll by, and it’s your turn in the negotiation barrel. At that point, hopefully you aren’t now stuck in a contract with this new provider, since you cancelled your cable with the other company that has no contracts… in which FOX is now “happily” back on.

3. If the one channel you are unhappy with losing on your television is just a broadcast channel (ie, your local Fox Channel) then you can hook up a digital box, sold pretty cheap at any electronics store, and still get that channel, free. Yes, free. How are any of these channels able to swipe them off the air in a negotiation dispute when it’s already free? I have no idea, but they do, just to tick you off.

And most importantly… 4. Stop letting FOX, or whatever channel is doing the negotiations this time around hold you hostage. If they get what they want, you better believe your bill is going up. Heck even if they don’t get what they want, they will still get more money in the end, and your bill will go up. The cable/satellite/phone companies that are in the TV business are not going to lose profit on behalf of Mr. or Mrs. Customer. It WILL get passed on to you. Thus starts the cycle at the beginning of the year, when you receive your rate increase letter from your provider, of you calling up and yelling at customer service again, and AGAIN, they are NOT in charge of the rate increases, so STOP DOING THAT! In fact, as a previous customer service representative, AND a customer, we LOATHE the increases. It just means that we have to pay a higher bill AND get yelled at by customers every day at our job. If you don’t like the rate increase, call and cancel, downgrade, or just don’t call. It does nothing but cause an agent that can do nothing about it, grief. Know that causing an agent grief does absolutely nothing to cause the money makers grief, AND, know the representative is now REQUIRED to try and upsell to you. So if you don’t like that jargon, just don’t call.

In a time when our unemployment is so high, and money is so tight, television should not cost $100-$200 a month, and yet, we pay it loyally, month by month by month. Yes, technology is changing on the horizon, and more and more people are turning to internet streaming for their viewing pleasure, but until the masses stop letting these companies (The media heads AND television providers) get away with this overpriced garbage, it will just continue. If FOX gets what they are asking, which they came close with Dish and Time Warner Cable not long ago, you better believe NBC, CBS, ABC, Viacom, etc. are next. It’s only fair to them right?

Now I am not so bold as to tell anyone to stop watching TV. I gotta have my must watched list as much as the next girl, but man oh man, if they are asking too much, tell your provider that you are NOT willing to pay the price, and let them go. Besides, you can always catch the episode you missed nowadays on HULU or the networks website.

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Bridge to Hawaii

A man was riding his Harley along a California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, The Lord said,
‘Because you have TRIED to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant
you one wish.’

The biker pulled over and said, ‘Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride
over anytime I want.’

The Lord said, ‘Your request is materialistic, think of the enormous
challenges for that kind of undertaking; the supports required too reach
the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take! It
will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is
hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little
more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind.’

The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said, ‘Lord, I
wish that I, and all men, could understand our wives; I want to know how
she feels inside, what she’s thinking when she gives me the silent
treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing’s wrong, and how I can make a woman truly happy.

The Lord replied, ‘You want two lanes or four on that bridge?’