Wednesday-Sunday, November 23-27, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving...

Before you reach for that second helping tomorrow followed by a Tums chaser, here's a brief history of Thanksgiving...

The first Thanksgiving dates back to 1621. The Pilgrims and their Indian pals didn't mark the occasion in 1620 because of a devastatingly rough first winter but the following October, that's right, October of 1621 there was a traditional English harvest feast that lasted 3 days (that corn liquor must have really kicked in during the toasts). We're not quite sure if turkey was on the table but we do know that venison, wild ducks and geese were. Interestingly enough, the Pilgrims used the term "turkey" to mean any sort of wild fowl. Along with all sorts of birds and animals that either walked or flew, there were plenty of veggies along with boiled pumpkin, not exactly in pie form, straws would have been helpful but that patent was pending at the time...

Thanksgiving wouldn't become a tradition until George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789 and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of Thanksgiving. It wasn't until 1941 that Thanksgiving was finally sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday...

In 1947 the National Turkey Federation presented Harry S. Truman with one live turkey and 2 dressed turkeys (no details on how those turkeys were dressed but my guess is casual). The live turkey was pardoned and lived the rest of his life on a peaceful farm, away from axes. That started a tradition still in existence...

One final note on Thanksgiving, it's only fitting given the fighting spirit and liberal nature of New Englanders that since 1970 a group of Native Americans and others have held a National Day of Mourning to protest Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock...

Some closing thoughts on Thanksgiving follow in my commentary...

November 23 Memories...

1887) Michigan beats Notre Dame 8-0 in the 1st meeting of their rivalry...

1889) The first jukebox goes into service at the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco (owned by developer Louis T. Glass, the jukebox contained an Edison tinfoil phonograph with 4 listening tubes. A nickel bought a few minutes of music. The jukebox took in $1,000 in 6 months)...

1903) Enrico Caruso makes his U.S. debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York appearing in "Rigoletto"...

1936) LIFE magazine debuts with a cover picture of Fort Peck Dam in Montana (part of FDRs New Deal program). On page 2, a photo of a doctor slapping a new born baby was captioned: "LIFE begins"...

1958) Ronald and Nancy Reagan appear together in the GE Theatre production of "A Turkey for the President" (hmmm)...

1960) Elvis tops the charts with his 14th #1 hit, "Are You Lonesome Tonight"...

1964) "I Feel Fine" and "She's a Woman" is released by the Beatles...

1968) Harvard scores 2 touchdowns in 42 seconds to make up a 16 point deficit and ties Yale in "The Game", 29-29. The Harvard Gazette headline: "Harvard Wins 29-29" (the 122nd edition of "The Game" was won by Harvard this past weekend in triple overtime, Harvard's 5th win in a row over Yale)...

1974) Billy Swan reached the top of the charts with "I Can Help" (I worked that record, I worked that record)...

1976) Jerry Lee Lewis is arrested outside Graceland after waving a gun and demanding to see "The King" (if he managed to get in he and Elvis could have had a duel)...

1980) A series of earthquakes devastate southern Italy killing some 4,800 people (the land my late Dad's relatives once lived on was totally destroyed and that area around Basilicata, Potenza has never been re-built)...

1984) Doug Flutie connects with roommate Gerard Phelan on a "Hail Mary" pass and Boston College beats Miami 47-45 in one of the greatest college games of all-time (Bernie Kosar was the Miami quarterback)...

1991) A day before he dies, Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury, 45, confirms he has AIDS...

1992) Legendary Country singer Roy Acuff dies of heart failure at 89...

Happy Birthday To...

1928) Former NY Rep. from Staten Island Guy Molinari...

1930) Retired (for the moment) baseball manager Jack McKeon...

1940) Red Sox great Luis Tiant...

1955) Bruce Hornsby...

Commentary...

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, my thanks to Rich Appel for his interview of me in his very fine monthly post "Hz So Good". If you'd like to become a subscriber, contact Rich at audiot.savant@verizon.net ...It was also good to hear from Dick Summer who read the story...

Thanksgiving is a time for friends and family and from mine to you and yours, Happy Thanksgiving. Here's to a safe, healthy and happy one. There's lots to be thankful for and right up there on that list is not being a turkey...

Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24, 2005...

November 24 Memories...

1859) British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes "On The Origin Of Species", explaining his theory of evolution...

1871) The National Rifle Association (NRA) is incorporated (Charlton Heston was not its 1st president, that honor went to Major General Ambrose E. Burnside)...

1953) New Dodger manager Walter Alston signs the 1st of 23 one-year contracts to manage the team...

1957) Cleveland running back Jim Brown, a rookie, sets a club record of 237 yards rushing in one game...

1963) Jack Ruby guns down accused JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV...

1963) The NBA, NHL and AFL cancel their games, the NFL does not (Pete Rozelle considered this his worst decision as NFL commissioner)...

1966) The Beatles begin recording "Sgt. Pepper"...

1969) Lt. William Calley is charged with the masacre of over 100 civilians in My Lai, Vietnam in March, 1968...

1971) Dan (D.B.) Cooper parachutes from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Washington state with $200,000 in ransom. He was never found (although he has shown up as a prisoner on "Prison Break". Actually an actor playing Cooper does)...

1985) R&B singer Big Joe Turner dies of a heart attack...

1987) The U.S. and Soviet Union agree to scrap short and medium range missiles...

1991) Freddie Mercuy of Queen dies of AIDS at 45 (also mentioned in November 23 blog)...

1993) Congress gives its final approval to the Brady handgun control bill...

1993) Two 11-year olds are convicted of murdering a 2-year old boy in Liverpool (they are sentenced to "indefinite detention"-huh ???)...

1996) Detroit's Barry Sanders sets an NFL record when he records his 8th straight 1,000-yard season...

1998) America Online confirms it was buying Netscape for $10 billion...

Happy Birthday To...

1925) William F. Buckley...

1940) NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue...

1941) The original Beatle drummer Pete Best...

1941) Memphis music great Donald "Duck" Dunn...

1950) Stanley Livingston (Chip of "My Three Sons")...

Friday, November 25, 2005...

November 25 Memories...

1783) During the Revolutionary War, the British evacuate their last military position in the U.S., New York (and don't bother to come back you Redcoats you)...

1867) How ironic is it that on this date the man we named the Nobel Peace Prize after, Alfred Nobel, patents dynamite ???

1920) The 1st play-by-play of a football game is aired in College Station, Texas (Texas-Texas A&M)...

1940) Woody Woodpecker debuts in "Knock Knock"...

1947) Movie executives blacklist the "Hollywood 10" comprised of a group jailed for contempt of Congress for failing to "name names" to the House Un-American Activities Committee...

1949) "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" is played on the radio for the first time...

1961) The Everly Brothers are inducted into the U.S. Marine Corp Reserves...

1963) JFK is buried at Arlington National Cemetery...

1966) The Jimi Hendrix Experience makes its London performance debut at the Bag O' Nails Club...

1976) The Band bows out at a farewell concert at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom...

1980) Sugar Ray Leonard defeats Roberto Duran for the welterweight crown after Duran shouts "No mas, no mas" in the 8th round, ending the fight...

1984) 36 British and American stars (including Phil Collins, Boy George, Sting, U2, Duran Duran, George Michael & James Taylor) get together as Band-Aid to record "Do They Know It's Christmas" (proceeds go to Ethiopian famine relief, conceived by Bob Geldof)...

1986) The Iran-Contra affair erupts as President Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese reveal that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels...

1997) The original Zombies play on stage for the 1st time in 30 years...

1999) 6-year old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez is rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida...

2002) President George W. Bush signs legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security and appoints Tom Ridge to be its head...

Happy Birthday To...

1920) Ricardo Montalban...

1941) Percy Sledge...

1944) Ben Stein...

1960) Amy Grant...

1969) Jill Hennessy...

1971) Christina Applegate...

1981) Barbara and Jenna Bush...

Saturday, November 26, 2005...

November 26 Memories...

1789) A day of thanksgiving is set aside by George Washington to observe the adoption of the U.S. Constitution...

1832) Public streetcar service begins in New York City...

1941) FDR signs a bill establishing the 4th Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day...

1942) "Casablanca" starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman has its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York...

1958) Maurice Richard scores his 600th NHL career goal for Montreal...

1962) The Beatles record "Please Please Me"...

1968) Cream does its last concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London (the show is recorded and released as "Goodbye Cream" February 20, 1969)...

1973) President Nixon's personal secretary Rose Mary Woods takes the fall for the 18 1/2 minute gap in the Watergate tape...

1975) Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, is quilty of trying to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford...

1975) Red Sox Fred Lynn becomes the 1st rookie to win the MVP Award...

1982) Miles Davis and Cicely Tyson tie the knot...

1983) $40 million is stolen from Brinks at London's Heathrow Airport (only a fraction is recovered)...

1993) James Carville and Mary Matalin walk down the aisle with Republicans on the right and Democrats on the left...

1995) Dan Marino sets an NFL record with his 343rd touchdown pass...

1995) Two men set fire to a subway token booth in Brooklyn. The clerk inside is fatally burned...

2000) Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certifies George W. Bush the winner over Al Gore in the state's presidential balloting by 537 votes...

Happy Birthday To...

1933) Robert Goulet...

1938) Tina Turner...

1938) Rich Little...

1945) Fleetwood Mac's John McVie...

Sunday, November 27, 2005...

November 27 Memories...

1779) The 1st legally recognized university in America, the College of Pennsylvania becomes the University of Pennsylvania...

1889) Curtis P. Brady is issued the 1st permit to drive an automobile through Central Park...

1910) New York's Pennsylvania Station opens...

1965) The Lovin' Spoonful release "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice"...

1967) Capitol Records releases the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" LP...

1970) George Harrison releases his solo album "All Things Must Pass"...

1973) The Senate votes (92-3) to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew who resigns...

1978) San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist, are shot to death inside City Hall by Dan White, a former supervisor...

1998) Answering 81 questions put to him 3 weeks earlier, President Bill Clinton states that his testimony in the Monica Lewinsky affair was "not false and misleading" (that would of course depend on what the words "false" and "misleading" mean)...

2003) President George W. Bush flies to Iraq to spend Thanksgiving with U.S. troops...

Happy Birthday To...

1946) Acting NJ Governor Richard Codey...

1957) Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg...

1964) Robin Givens...

1968) "Alias" actor Michael Vartan...

1976) Jaleel White (Urkel on "Family Matters")...