This Date in History - May 13

 

He's got his detractors, but I'm a Bobby Valentine fan.  Happy birthday, Skipper.

1373:  JULIAN OF NORWICH HAS VISIONS WHICH ARE LATER TRANSCRIBED IN HER REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE.

Is that like an older version of Fifty Shades of Gray?

1568:  THE FORCES OF MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, ARE DEFEATED BY A CONFEDERACY OF SCOTTISH PROTESTANTS UNDER JAMES STEWART, EARL OF MORAY.  

As opposed to James Stewart, Awesome Actor.

1619:  DUTCH STATESMAN JOHAN VAN OLDENBARNEVELT IS EXECUTED IN THE HAGUE AFTER BEING CONVICTED OF TREASON.

With a name like that, he deserves it.

1787:  CAPTAIN ARTHUR PHILLIP LEAVES PORTSMOUTH, ENGLAND, WITH ELEVEN SHIPS FULL OF CONVICTS TO ESTABLISH A PENAL COLONY IN AUSTRALIA.  

If you have to be in jail, there's no better place than Australia.

1846:  THE UNITED STATES DECLARES WAR ON MEXICO.

This never ended, right?

1848:  THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF FINLAND'S NATIONAL ANTHEM.

Don't know it.  Hum a few bars, please.

1861:  DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, QUEEN VICTORIA OF THE UNITED KINGDOM ISSUES A PROCLAMATION OF NEUTRALITY WHICH RECOGNIZES THE BREAKAWAY STATES AS HAVING BELLIGERENT RIGHTS.

A good fight to stay out of.

1861:  PAKISTAN'S FIRST RAILROAD OPENS.  

For those four of you who actually want to travel around Pakistan.

1880:  IN NEW JERSEY, THOMAS EDISON PERFORMS THE FIRST TEST OF THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

Take that, Pakistan.

1914:  BOXER JOE LOUIS IS BORN.

Pow!  Crunch!  Pow!  Ouch!  

1917:  THREE CHILDREN REPORTS THE FIRST APPARITION OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA IN PORTUGAL.  

Do you see what I see?

1922:  ACTRESS BEATRICE ARTHUR IS BORN.

God will get you for that.

1933:  BASEBALL CATCHER JOHN ROSEBORO IS BORN.

Hit in the head with a bat wielded by Juan Marichal in 1965.  Just sayin'.

1939:  THE FIRST COMMERCIAL FM RADIO STATION IN THE US IS LAUNCHED IN BLOOMFIELD, CONNECTICUT.   THE STATION LATER BECOMES WDRC-FM.

1939?   It's a little early for them to be playing Jethro Tull.

1940:  WINSTON CHURCHILL MAKES HIS "BLOOD, TOIL, TEARS, AND SWEAT" SPEECH TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Earth, Wind, and Fire were not available.

1940:  QUEEN WILHELMINA OF THE NETHERLANDS FLEES HER COUNTRY TO GREAT BRITAIN AFTER THE GERMAN INVASION.

I wonder how somebody from the Netherlands would say "let's get the hell out of here."

1941:  SINGER RITCHIE VALENS IS BORN.

Died at the age of 18 in a plane crash.   Waste.

1948:  THE KFAR ETZION MASSACRE IS COMMITTED BY ARAB IRREGULARS, THE DAY BEFORE ISRAEL DECLARES ITS INDEPENDENCE.

PS, they're all still fighting.

1950:   BASEBALL LEGEND BOBBY VALENTINE IS BORN.

How he got those Mets into the 2000 World Series is still a mystery to me.

1950:  MUSICIAN STEVIE WONDER IS BORN.

When he really was Little Stevie Wonder.

1954:  THE ORIGINAL BROADWAY PRODUCTION OF "THE PAJAMA GAME" OPENS.

Steam heat!

1958:  DURING A TRIP TO VENEZUELA, VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON'S CAR IS ATTACKED BY ANTI-AMERICAN DEMONSTRATORS.

Don't hit my dog Checkers.

1958:  THE TRADEMARK VELCRO IS REGISTERED.

This will stick around for a while.

1958:  A GROUP OF FRENCH MILITARY OFFICERS LEAD A COUP IN ALGIERS DEMANDING THAT A GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY BE FORMED WITH CHARLES DE GAULLE AT ITS HEAD IN ORDER TO DEFEND FRENCH CONTROL OF ALGERIA.

By the way, De Gaulle had really big ears.

1960:  BERKELEY STUDENTS CONGREGATE FOR THE FIRST DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST A VISIT BY THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES.  

There's always some kind of nonsense on this campus.

1961:  ACTOR GARY COOPER DIES.

Dead.  Yup.

1969:  RACE RIOTS TAKE PLACE IN MALAYSIA.

Just in case you thought this only happened in this country.

1972:  WILLIE MAYS PLAYS HIS FIRST GAME FOR THE METS AFTER BEING TRADED FROM THE GIANTS.

He hit a homer in the rain if my childhood memory is correct.

1972:  ACTOR DAN BLOCKER DIES.

Hoss!

1977:  MOBSTER MICKEY SPILLANE DIES.

No mystery.

1980:  AN F3 TORNADO HITS MICHIGAN AND PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER DECLARES IT A FEDERAL DISASTER AREA.

If anybody knows disaster areas, it would be Carter.

1981:  MEHMET ALI AGCA ATTEMPTS TO ASSASSINATE POPE JOHN PAUL II IN ROME'S ST. PETER'S SQUARE.

After emergency surgery, he lasted a whole bunch longer.

1989:  LARGE GROUPS OF STUDENTS OCCUPY TIANANMEN SQUARE AND BEGIN A HUNGER STRIKE.  

An hour later, they were still hungry all over again.

1994:  JOHNNY CARSON MAKES HIS LAST TV APPEARANCE ON THE DAVID LETTERMAN SHOW.

Still miss the hell out of him.

2013:  PSYCHOLOGIST DR. JOYCE BROTHERS DIES.

You think I got problems???

2018:  ACTRESS MARGOT KIDDER DIES.

Not kidding any more.

2019:  ACTRESS DORIS DAY DIES.

They should have given her an Oscar while she was alive.

Dinner last night:  Leftover Korean chicken.

What The F Were They Thinking?

 

Ah, those were the days.   This is one of those iconic passageways at LAX that connected your gate with baggage claims.   That long, long, long walk that was made easier by the inclusion of those sliding people movers.   You just stood on it and, if you chose, you didn't have to move a single foot.   Perhaps you remember these from the opening credits of "The Graduate."

Well, it's 2026 and most terminals at LAX are sprucing up for the burgeoning Summer Olympics of 2028.   They are updating and upgrading the facilities.

And, as a result, those handy people sliders?   Gone.  Replaced by...well...nothing.  And with gates moved out more, this walk to your gate or to baggage claim on incoming flights is an unmitigated disaster.   Indeed, the American Airlines terminal at LAX is now a horror show for anybody that is ADA-compliant.  Or like me...coming off hip, knee, and hernia surgeries.

As the title says...what the bleep were they thinking?

Okay, they have a solution and I did try it out on my last plane trip.

Waymo Wheelchairs!  

The waiting attendant programs in your gate number or ultimate airport destination and off you go.  

At one mile a minute.   If you're flying next Wednesday, you might want to get your chair on Tuesday.  It's a help for sure.   But wasn't the original sliding gizmo a better alternative?

Indeed, at this point, the only people who will be fit enough to attend the Olympics will be the athletes who are in the Olympics.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - May 11, 2026

 More Johnny Carson animal hi-jacks.   Going five rounds with a baboon.

Dinner last night:  Grilled veggies.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Mom Sings

 

I just looked at that title.  It sounds like my mom was Rosemary Clooney.   Or Taylor Swift.  And the latter would mean I have no idea who my father is. 

But, I digress...

It's Mother's Day and those of you who are missing your moms today are probably doing your own version of sensory perception to bring her near to you one more time.   It might be a perfume or the scent of something good cooking in the kitchen or the aroma from her favorite flower bouquet.

For me, it's always music.  Indeed, every Saturday, I indulge a bit in bringing back the sense of the past.  Back when I was a little tyke, my grandmother would bake a cake or a pie every week.  I now do the same and the same flavors waft throughout the house.

And the soundtrack while I do this every week?  The 60s Channel on Sirius/XM.  Because nothing brings my mother back to me more than some big hits of that decade.  It's not aromas that spark these memories.   It's the music.

My mother was a rarity back in the day.  She listened almost exclusively to Top 40 radio.  The countdown surveys.  The sure shots.  The #1 hit of the land.  My mom was all this.  And it played completely in the background of our lives.

When I got up for breakfast and got ready for school, it was either WMCA (The Good Guys) or WABC on the radio.  Giving us the weather and the latest hit from the Beatles.  My mom actually called in once and won a Good Guys sweatshirt.  I might have been the only kid in the neighborhood with a mother wearing this.

It didn't stop with the radio.  If my mother really like a song, she'd make sure to stop at Brodbeck's Record Store on Fourth Avenue in Mount Vernon, NY, to buy the 45 RPM platter.  Then she'd take it home and play it on our record player.  Over and over and over and over.  Mom had a record case with probably over 200 of those little vinyl coasters.

One that predated me by a lot of years still found its way to that turntable at least once a week.  Not that it was played once.  My mother listened to it at least ten times in one setting. 


I can hear my mom singing along.  I can also feel cavities taking root in my teeth from the sickening sweetness.

Another popular song that ran through our house endlessly came from Bobby Rydell.  I knew him from "Bye Bye Birdie" but, admittedly, I was focused on co-star Ann Margret.  I accidentally sat on this record and was punished.  I also had to replace it with my own allowance money.

My mom had no language skills beyond English.  Yet, that didn't stop from amazingly singing along to "Sukiyaki."

This song was hot on the radio during a summer road trip.   On a rare moment where the car radio wasn't being commandeered by my dad, this tune came on.  And my mother sang it perfectly in Japanese.  The look on my father's face was priceless.  It asked one burning question.

"What the hell have I married?"

Okay, and whose mother danced while vacuuming the living room to this little ditty?
 

Yeah, mine did.  And I confess that quite uncomfortably.

Now, there was a bit of a music rivalry between my mom and my aunt, her sister who lived out in Deer Park on Long Island.  They were the first relatives to get a "high fidelity" console.  While my mother was spinning the platters on a crappy little record player, Aunt Anne was blowing the windows out every time we visited.  And the one song that they played over and over was a Lawrence Welk record.

 On one visit where "Calcutta" was played over and over and over, there was one of those parental "conversations" in the car going home.  Mom started it.

"We need to get a hi-fi."

"What the hell for?"

"So we can play records like they do."

"What the hell for?"

"You could play your Polka records on it."

Mom won.  Dad had no rebuttal.

We didn't get the big contraption that my aunt and uncle had on Long Island.   Our stereo was portable.  And my mother took it more places than she took me.  To peoples' houses.  To work.  To parties.

We were now one bitchin' family.

That used the new stereo to play nothing but Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. 

There we were.  My family all the way up in the northeaster part of the United States.  Playing nothing but music from the opposite end of the country.  Mexico, which might as well have been on the moon.  Even my father got into this genre.  So, whenever my folks went out with the portable stereo, they now brought along their own records as well.  As if nobody else had them.

 I can't say I didn't like the music myself.  It certainly made homework go by a lot faster.   I sure did like one of the Tijuana Brass album covers best.

 At some point in my house, the music died.  Not like when Elvis or John Lennon or Buddy Holly died.  It's just that the house became divided.  Everybody went their own separate ways.  And, once my mom went back to work and started commuting downtown to Manhattan, it got very quiet. 

All that was left were the memories of my mom.  Wearing a Good Guys sweatshirt.  Vacuuming and twisting her hips.  And getting annoyed over the fact that her sister had a better stereo than she did.

Dinner last night:  Korean chicken from Chin Chin.

Classic Newsreel of the Month - May 2026

 It must have been a slow Mother's Day back when.

Dinner last night:  The pre-game buffet at the Dodger Stadium Club.

Remembering Mom on Her Special Day

Dinner last night:  Lasagna from my freezer.
 

Two Decades Later

 

Let's all flashback our little selves to 2006.   It was so long ago that I never got to review the first Prada movie on my blog.   That's because I didn't start the blog till a year later.

So much has happened since then.  The hard drive of my brain is totally full and that explains why, despite having seen the first Prada film, I don't remember a single detail about it.   Oh, sure, it starred Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, and Stanley Tucci.   I sort of remembered that the movie was riotously funny.  But, other than that, I never bothered to see it again.* And maybe I should have.  Because a dearth of seeable movies at the cineplex led me to see the second Prada film, which just opened.   And I sat there stonefaced for most of the movie.   What I did recall as bitingly funny was a toothless mess.   Is this how funny the original was?   Or did I just mis-remember.

Meanwhile, I gaped at the characters on screen and rattle my brain for any sort of recognition.  Who is this?  What did that mean?   Were senses of humor more prevalent in 2006?

I think the sum total here is basically...20 years is too long a time between original and sequel.

LEN'S RATING:  Two stars.

Dinner last night:  Long travel day.