This Date in History - April 29

 

There's a lot of famous birthdays, but how can I not single out 1969 World Series hero Ed Charles???

711:  THE ISLAMIC CONQUEST OF HISPANIA.

For those who think all the current torture is a new thing for them.

1429:  JOAN OF ARC ARRIVES TO RELIEVE THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS.

Joan of Arc for the save.

1770:  JAMES COOK ARRIVES AT AND NAMES BOTANY BAY, AUSTRALIA.

And we care why?

1781:  DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, BRITISH AND FRENCH SHIPS CLASH OFF THE COAST OF MARTINIQUE.

Well, if you have to travel some place for a war, Martinique is always nice.

1861:  DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, MARYLAND VOTES NOT TO SECEDE FROM THE UNION.

Go Terrapins!

1862:  DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, LOUISIANA FALLS TO UNION FORCES.

Hey, with all the great restaurants in New Orleans, that was a smart move on the part of the North.

1882: THE ELEKTROMOTE - THE FORERUNNER OF THE TROLLEYBUS - IS TESTED IN BERLIN.

Change for the express to Munich.

1899:  MUSICIAN DUKE ELLINGTON IS BORN.

First stop for the A Train.

1910:  THE PARLIAMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM PASSES THE PEOPLE'S BUDGET, THE FIRST BUDGET IN BRITISH HISTORY WITH THE EXPRESSED INTENT OF REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH.

For those who thought Roosevelt invented this concept.

1917:  ACTRESS CELESTE HOLM IS BORN.

All About Her.

1933:  BASEBALL STAR ED CHARLES IS BORN.

The Gilder!!!

1933: POET ROD MCKUEN IS BORN.

There once was a hermit named Dave...

1933:  MUSICIAN WILLIE NELSON IS BORN.

With or without a beard?  Discuss.

1938:  BUSINESSMAN BERNARD MADOFF IS BORN.

Play Happy Birthday by banging your cup on the cell bars.

1945:  THE DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP IS LIBERATED BY US TROOPS.

A trifle late.

1945:  DURING WORLD WAR II, THE GERMAN ARMY SURRENDERS TO THE ALLIES.

One way train tickets to Nuremberg now available.

1945:  ADOLF HITLER MARRIES EVA BRAUN IN A BERLIN BUNKER.  

Don't bother finding out where they registered.   They kill themselves the very next day.

1946:  FATHER DIVINE, A RELIGIOUS LEADER CLAIMING TO BE GOD, MARRIES THE MUCH YOUNGER EDNA ROSE RITCHINGS.

God help her.

1953:  THE FIRST US EXPERIMENTAL 3D TV BROADCAST SHOWS AN EPISODE OF SPACE PATROL IN LOS ANGELES.

Those damn glasses still don't work.

1954:  COMIC JERRY SEINFELD IS BORN.

Who are these people?

1958:  ACTRESS EVE PLUMB IS BORN.

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.

1967:  AFTER REFUSING INDUCTION INTO THE US ARMY FOR RELIGIOUS REASONS, MUHAMMAD ALI IS STRIPPED OF HIS BOXING TITLE.

Muhammad, my ass.

1968:  THE HIPPIE MUSICAL HAIR OPENS ON BROADWAY.

Gee, those actors look cold up there on stage.

1974:  PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF EDITED TRANSCRIPTS OF WHITE HOUSE TAPE RECORDINGS RELATING TO THE WATERGATE SCANDAL.

Anybody know who's got the Director's cut?

1980:  DIRECTOR ALFRED HITCHCOCK DIES.

Did I just see a wry smile on the face of Tippi Hedren?

1986:  A FIRE AT THE CENTRAL LIBRARY OF LOS ANGELES DESTROYS 400,000 BOOKS.   

Of course, no one was hurt because nobody goes to the Library in Los Angeles.

1986:  AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN SPY SATELLITES CAPTURE THE RUINS OF THE REACTOR AT THE CHERNOBYL POWER PLANT.

That's gonna be a bitch to clean up.

1992: RIOTS IN LOS ANGELES FOLLOWING THE ACQUITTAL OF POLICE OFFICERS CHARGED IN THE BEATING OF RODNEY KING.

Safest store to be in during these lootings?   A Barnes and Noble.

2004:  OLDSMOBILE BUILDS ITS FINAL CAR ENDING 107 YEARS OF PRODUCTION.

I once rented an Oldsmobile and I know exactly why they went out of business.  What a shitty car.

2011:  THE WEDDING OF PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE MIDDLETON.

I didn't get an invitation.  A royal screw-up.

2014:  ACTOR BOB HOSKINS DIES.

Roger Rabbit delivers the eulogy.

2015:   A BASEBALL GAME BETWEEN THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES AND THE CHICAGO WHITE SOX IS PLAYED IN FRONT OF NO FANS DUE TO THE BALTIMORE RIOTS AND THE GAME BEING CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC.

So, what's the Mets' excuse?

2022:  ACTRESS JOANNA BARNES DIES.

The hated Vicki in the very first Parent Trap.

Dinner last night:   Leftover SPO from my freezer.

Hollywood Then and Now - April 2026

 The opening and closing credits were iconic.  No, it wasn't the Al Simon show.   Nope, it was the amazing "Beverly Hillbillies" with that mansion of the fancy eating room and the cement pond.

Indeed, the house was easy to find in Bel Air and, as far as I know, the property is still there.  The last buyer was in 2019.

Whee doggie.

Dinner last night:  Chopped steak.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - April 27, 2026

 God bless the Buzzr network for preserving moments like these.

Dinner last night:  Grilled beef sausage and roasted tomatoes.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Oy

  

Inexplicably, that would be Borscht Belt comic Myron Cohen.  

It's not like they ever saw this guy perform.  But, for about a year when I was a kid, the above record album was all my folks ever played on the hi-fi.  I have only very isolated moments where I actually saw my folks enjoying something together and laughing in tandem.

Myron Cohen was one of them.  I have no idea how they connected with this guy, except he used to show up a lot on the Ed Sullivan Show.  The guy's delivery was as Jewish as they come.  Full of dialects and Yiddish phrases.  What was all this about?  My parents were as white bread as they come.

My mother picked up Cohen's first record album at Brodbeck's Record Store on Fourth Avenue in Mount Vernon, New York.  She got the recording home and played it.  She was doubled up on the couch in laughter.

Mom?  Is that you?

I listened along and most of the humor went over my nine-year-old head.  There was one joke that I remember to this day.  It took me several times to get the gag.

"Two ladies are sitting at a bar, having a smart cocktail.  One lady says to the other, 'Are you having another?'  The other lady says, 'no, it's just the way the coat is buttoned.'"

Weeks later, I got it.  Oh.

By then, the comedy train had left the station as far as my folks were concerned.  This record was played over and over and over.

And over.

To make matters worse, my parents suddenly got into the sharing mode.  No matter where they went or who they visited, Myron Cohen's record album went along.  Suddenly, the centerpiece of any gathering was the group enjoyment of this humor.

"This is the Klopman Diamond.  It comes with a curse.  Mr. Klopman."

Ba-da-bing.

Meanwhile, I don't think a single listener in our midst was even remotely Jewish. 

I started to parrot some of the jokes myself, complete with phony Yiddish accent.  If this was funny stuff for my parents and their chums, the humor must be universal, right?

Um, not so much.  I repeated some of my "favorite" Myron Cohen jokes for my buddies up the block on Fifteenth Avenue.  Their reactions were uniformly the same.

"Huh?"

My fifth grade tenure as a little junior Sunshine Boy came to an abrupt and untimely end.  Nobody my age seemed to have the affinity for Myron Cohen that my folks' generation did.

In retrospect, there was something very sweet about the community of laughs that gathered around my parents and their record album.  When was the last time a bunch of adults sat around a hi-fi and participated as a group responding to a comedy record?  You definitely don't see that happening today. 

Whether I got the jokes or not, I pretty much knew the record album by heart.  And, then, just as it seemed that my folks had pretty much exhausted their universe with Myron Cohen's platter, the unthinkable happened...

He released a second one.

Oy vey iz mir.

The cycle began all over again.  My mom picking up the newfound gold at Brodbeck's.  The constant playing in the house for a week or two.  And then the scheduling of visits to friends and relatives near and far so they, too, could laugh along with them.

In a day when most people were waiting for the next Beatles' release, my parents were lining up for the new offerings from Myron Cohen.

Flash forward to years later, I was living on my own and enjoying newfound status as a HBO subscriber.  Flipping through the TV Guide, I noticed that they had taped a Myron Cohen nightclub performance.  Hmmm.  This would be ideal entertainment for the folks when they came over at Thanksgiving.  I popped one of those ancient tape cartridges into my clunky RCA VCR and recorded the event.  I was very proud to unveil my new find when they came over for turkey and stuffing.  I thought this would be a wonderful touchstone for days gone by.

They sat and watched in stone silence.

Now some of the gags were the very same from the record albums.  How did they work so well twenty years ago and not now?  My dad's answer was succinct.

"It's not the same."

I thought about that afterward.  And realized it sure wasn't.

A lot of my parents' friends?  No longer in that classification.

Some of those relatives?  No longer around in one shape or another.

My own parents?  Amicably divorced. 

Yep.  It wasn't the same.

So, in the true sense of the adage, I guess you had to be there.

Dinner last night:  Chili.

Classic Movie Trailer of the Month - April 2026

 Sixty years ago this month.  One song that spawned an entire movie.

Dinner last night:  Lasagna from my freezer.

One Picture Ain't Worth a 1000 Words

 

More fresh slices of Hell, courtesy of somebody's Instamatic Camera. Take, for instance, this guy. It's amazing when you can easily spot a family resemblance.

How to use the word "hump" twice in one sentence.

The incorrect way to ride a horse.

This is either a family with way too much time on their hands. Or rejects from the June Taylor Dancers.

Al Qaeda obviously gets a discount at Sears Photo and Portraits.

Hmmm. Somebody doesn't like the groom.

Beam them the hell out of here.

The library was all out of "Green Eggs and Ham."

Dinner last night:   Cheese and crackers.

Len's Recipe of the Month - April 2026

 

This isn't really sharing a new recipe from my kitchen.  It's really a revisit and you'll be happy you did.

This is my sausage, peppers, and onions.  I have featured it here before and the dish has truly become the very, very best thing I make.  And that's a remarkable statement given I make a lot of dishes quite well.

As time has gone by, I have fashioned this recipe to the point of perfection.  And the little tricks I have uncovered make it so.

So what are the secrets?

First off, when I sear the sausage, I use my air fryer.   It reduces the grease that can come out of the sausage and thereby enhances the flavor.

You will notice above red peppers and yellow peppers and orange peppers.  When you are making SPO, avoid at all costs using a green pepper in the rotation.  They are usually bitter and run counter to the overall sweetness of the dish.

You want another trick?   Well, I prefer SPO in its "wet" variety.  For that, you use tomatoes.   But do not use crushed tomatoes which would turn this into SPO soup.   Instead, take a pint of cherry tomatoes and just dump them in.   Their juice will come out but there will still be a firmness to them in the final incarnation.

More?

I always use sweet Italian sausage, not the hot variety.  But a little heat in the dish is okay.  For that, get yourself a jar of Cento Hot Pepper Relish.  Add a tablespoon to the dish.  It's another varied addition of flavor.

Lastly but not leastly, the flavor of the peppers is spurred by a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.   It wakes up those peppers that is so refreshing.

Now you can be as perfect as I am.

Dinner last night:  Grilled beef sausage.