Rex Stout (December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975)
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as “that Falstaff of detectives.” Wolfe’s assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 (Fer-de-Lance) to 1975 (A Family Affair).
Posted in Because I Can, Literary
Richard Wagstaff “Dick” Clark (November 30, 1929 – April 18, 2012)
Richard Wagstaff “Dick” Clark is an American television personality and businessman, best known for hosting long-running shows such as American Bandstand, various Pyramid game shows, and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
Clark has long been known for his continued youthful appearance, earning the moniker “America’s Oldest Teenager”, and also for his good health — until he suffered a stroke in 2004. With some speech ability still impaired, Clark made a dramatic return to his New Year’s show on December 31, 2005, and appeared at the Emmy Awards on August 27, 2006.
Posted in Because I Can, Music, On This Day
On November 30, 1996… we all heard Griswald say, “Hello” for the first time.
November 30, 1996 –
Posted in Because I Can, Gaming, On This Day
“I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley”
Leslie Nielsen (February 11, 1926 – November 28, 2010)
Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in over one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying over 220 characters.
Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, Nielsen enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and worked as a disc jockey before receiving a scholarship to Neighborhood Playhouse. Beginning with a television role in 1948, he quickly expanded to over 50 television appearances two years later. Nielsen appeared in his first films in 1956 and began collecting roles in dramas, westerns, and romance films. Nielsen’s lead roles in the films Forbidden Planet (1956) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972) received positive reviews as a serious actor, though he is primarily known for his comedic roles.
Death. The great equalizer.
Life may be infinitely unfair, but in death, we’re all in the same boat. Here are tombstone inscriptions from the graves of famous people. Some funny, others clever, some insightful, others angry, some sad, others optimistic.
Winston Churchill: “I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another question.”
Rodney Dangerfield: “There goes the neighborhood.”
Merv Griffin: “I will not be right back after this message.”
Stan Laurel: “A genius of comedy. His genius in the art of humor brought gladness to the world he loved.”
Oliver Hardy: “A genius of comedy. His talent brought joy and laughter to the world.”
Billy Wilder: “I’m a writer but then nobody’s perfect.”
Jesse James: “Murdered by a traitor and a coward whose name is not worthy to appear here.”
Isaac Newton: “Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night, God said ‘Let Newton be!’ and all was light.”
Frank Sinatra: “The best is yet to come.”
Doc Holliday: “He died in bed.”
Billy the Kid: “Truth and history. 21 men. The boy bandit king. Died as he lived.”
George Washington: “Looking into the portals of eternity teaches that the brotherhood of man is inspired by God’s word: then all prejudice of race vanishes away.”
Dean Martin: “Everybody loves somebody sometime.”
Edgar Allan Poe: “Quoth the raven, nevermore.”
Jayne Mansfield: “We live to love you more each day.”
Robert Frost: “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”
Mel Blanc: “That’s all folks.”
Jack Lemmon: “Jack Lemmon in.”
Bonnie Parker (of Bonnie and Clyde): “As the flowers are all made sweet by the sunshine and dew, so this world’s made brighter by the lives of folks like you.”
Karl Marx: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point is to change it.”
Don Adams: “Would you believe………”
Leslie Nielsen: “Let ‘er rip.”
Jackie Gleason: “And away we go.”
Bette Davis: “She did it the hard way.”
The Unknown Soldier: “To save your world you asked this man to die. Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?”
Posted in Because I Can
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917–November 22, 1963)
The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p.m. CST (18:30 UTC). John F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife Jacqueline in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza, according to the conclusions of multiple government investigations, including the ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963-4 and the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) of 1976-9. This conclusion initially met with widespread support among the American public, but polls, since the original 1966 Gallup poll, show a majority of the public hold beliefs contrary to these findings. The assassination is still the subject of widespread speculation and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories (even the HSCA, based on disputed acoustical evidence, concluded that Oswald may have had unspecified co-conspirators), though these theories have not generally been accepted by mainstream historians and no single compelling alternative theory has emerged.
Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic
On November 20, 1998, the first segment of the ISS, the Zarya FGB, was launched into orbit on a Russian Proton rocket, and was followed two weeks later by the first of three ‘node’ modules, Unity, launched aboard STS-88.
Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic
Dick Wilson as Mr. Whipple with the Charmin.
Dick Wilson, born Riccardo DiGuglielmo (July 30, 1916 – November 19, 2007), was a British-born American character actor who played the role of finicky grocery store manager Mr. (George) Whipple in over 500 Charmin toilet paper television commercials (1965–1989, 1999).
Posted in Because I Can, The Little Screen (Television)
A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to his country for an amount of ‘up to and including my life.’
Posted in Because I Can, Patriotic
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, May 1975.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a cargo ship that sank suddenly during a gale storm on November 10, 1975, while on Lake Superior. The ship went down without a distress signal in 530 feet (162 m) of water at 46°59.9′N 85°6.6′W, in Canadian waters about 17 miles (15 nm; 27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay. All 29 members of the crew perished. Gordon Lightfoot‘s hit song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, helped make the incident the most famous marine disaster in the history of Great Lakes shipping.
Posted in Because I Can, On This Day
Clocks turn back an hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, marking the beginning of standard time for the next few months.
This means that this weekend will be an hour longer than normal, but it will get dark an hour earlier in the evenings.
Standard time will be used through March 8, when clocks will “spring” forward an hour to begin Daylight Saving Time.
Ironically, standard time is no longer the norm. About two-thirds of the days during the year now operate on Daylight Saving Time.
Daylight Saving Time now begins on the second Sunday of March each year and ends on the first Sunday of November.
DST has roots tracing to 1918 in the United States, though not all places always observed it. Currently, it is not used in Hawaii and most of Arizona.
Posted in Because I Can
Tara Wood of Augusta, Georgia, was with two of her kids on a routine trip to the grocery store. It was Norah, her 4-year-old’s, birthday.
That’s when they ran across Dan Peterson, known as Mr. Dan.
“As Mr. Dan walked by, she (Norah) smiled and waved. ‘Hi old person! It’s my birthday!’” said Wood. “He stopped in his tracks, smiled, and said, ‘Well hello, little lady! How old are you today?’ They chatted for a couple of minutes, and we went our separate ways.”
Posted in Because I Can
In 1886, the ticker-tape parade is invented in New York City when office workers spontaneously throw ticket tape into the streets as the Statue of Liberty is dedicated.
In 1929, the New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of ’29 or Black Tuesday, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.
In 1960, in Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.
In 1969, the first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.
In 1998, Space Shuttle Discovery blasts-off with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. He became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962.
Posted in Because I Can, On This Day
Charles Edward Daniels is an American country music, Southern rock, and jazz singer, fiddler, and guitarist.
Charles Daniels (October 28, 1936 – )
Posted in Because I Can, Music, On This Day
Rex Stout (December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975)
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as “that Falstaff of detectives.” Wolfe’s assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 (Fer-de-Lance) to 1975 (A Family Affair).
Posted in Because I Can, Literary
Roger Miller (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992)
Roger Dean Miller was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs. His most recognized tunes included the chart-topping country music and pop music hits King of the Road, Dang Me, and England Swings, all of which came from the Nashville sound era of the mid-1960s.
Posted in Because I Can, Music, On This Day
USS Johnston (DD-557) was a World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy. She was the first Navy ship named after Lieutenant John V. Johnston. The ship was most famous for its bold action in the Battle off Samar. The small “tincan” destroyer armed with nothing larger than 5 inch (127mm) guns and torpedoes would lead the attack of a handful of light ships which had inadvertently been left unprotected in the path of a massive Japanese fleet led by battleships and cruisers. The sacrifices of Johnston and her little escort carrier task unit “Taffy 3” helped stop Admiral Kurita’s powerful Center Force from attacking vulnerable U.S. landing forces, and inflicted greater losses than they suffered.
Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic, Planes Trains and Automobiles
