This Date in History - July 15

 

Happy birthday, Linda Ronstadt.   Back in the day....wow.

484 BC:  DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE OF CASTOR AND POLLUX IN ANCIENT ROME.

Obviously, it was not televised.

756:  EMPEROR XUANZONG OF TANG IS ORDERED BY HIS IMPERIAL GUARDS TO EXECUTE YANG GUOZHONG BY FORCING HIM TO COMMIT SUICIDE OR FACE A MUTINY.  HE PERMITS HIS CONSORT YANG GUIFEI TO BE STRANGLED BY HIS CHIEF EUNUCH.

All this craziness explains to me why you still hear fighting in the kitchen whenever you call for Chinese take-out.

1149:  THE RECONSTRUCTED CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE IS CONSECRATED IN JERUSALEM.

Nor was there radio coverage for this event.

1207:  KING JOHN OF ENGLAND EXPELS CANTERBURY MONKS FOR SUPPORTING ARCHBISHOP STEPHEN LANGTON.

I bet those monks had some tales.

1381:  JOHN BALL, A LEADER IN THE PEASANTS' REVOLT, IS HANGED, DRAWN, AND QUARTERED IN THE PRESENCE OF KING RICHARD II OF ENGLAND.

That had to hurt.

1685:  JAMES SCOTT, 1ST DUKE OF MONMOUTH, IS EXECUTED IN ENGLAND.

No word on the whereabouts of the Earl of Pimlico.  Come on, you knew this would be a horse racing joke.

1799:  THE ROSETTA STONE IS FOUND IN THE EGYPTIAN VILLAGE OF ROSETTA.

Naturally.

1815:  NAPOLEON BONAPARTE SURRENDERS ABOARD HMS BELLEROPHON.

Or was that Bell Telephone?

1823:  A FIRE DESTROYS THE BASILICA OF SAINT PAUL OUTSIDE THE WALLS IN ROME, ITALY.

I hope they were insured with State Farm.

1834:  THE SPANISH INQUISITION IS OFFICIALLY DISBANDED AFTER NEARLY 356 YEARS.  

That's one long inquisition.

1838:  RALPH WALDO EMERSON DELIVERS THE DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS AT HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL, DISCOUNTING BIBLICAL MIRACLES AND DECLARING JESUS A GREAT MAN, BUT NOT GOD.  THE PROTESTANT COMMUNITY REACTS WITH OUTRAGE.

What do you expect from a man whose middle name is Waldo?

1870:  GEORGIA BECOMES THE LAST OF THE FORMER CONFEDERATE STATES TO BE READMITTED TO THE UNION.

I guess we had to.

1910:  IN HIS BOOK CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY, EMIL KRAEPELIN GIVES A NAME TO ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE, NAMING IT AFTER HIS COLLEAGUE ALOIS ALZHEIMER.

Lucky he remembered.

1916:  IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, WILLIAM BOEING AND GEORGE CONRAD WESTERVELT INCORPORATE PACIFIC AERO PRODUCTS, LATER NAMED BOEING.

Boeing, boeing, gone.

1922:  THE JAPANESE COMMUNIST PARTY IS ESTABLISHED IN JAPAN.

We never hear about Red Japan.

1935:  ACTOR ALEX KARRAS IS BORN.

Mongo like candy.

1935:   ACTOR KEN KERCHEVAL IS BORN.

Cliff Barnes from TV's Dallas.

1946:  SINGER LINDA RONSTADT IS BORN.  

Hotter than blazes in the 70s, she now has Parkinson's.

1954:  FIRST FLIGHT OF THE BOEING 367-80.

Apparently not boeing, boeing, gone.

1959:  THE STEEL STRIKE OF 1959 BEGINS, LEADING TO SIGNIFICANT IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN STEEL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN US HISTORY.

Thinking of Superman as I type this.

1966:  THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH VIETNAM BEGIN OPERATION HASTINGS TO PUSH THE NORTH VIETNAMESE OUT OF THE DMZ.

That's DMZ, not TMZ.

1972:  MODEL BETH OSTROSKY STERN IS BORN.

Howard likes them younger.

1979:  US PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER GIVES HIS SO-CALLED MALAISE SPEECH, WHERE HE CHARACTERIZES THE GREATEST THREAT TO THE COUNTRY AS "THIS CRISIS IN THE GROWING DOUBT ABOUT THE MEANING OF OUR OWN LIVES AND IN THE LOSS OF A UNITY OF PURPOSE FOR OUR NATION" BUT IN WHICH HE NEVER USES THE WORD MALAISE.

Len says the greatest threat to our country is when we elects idiots like this guy.

1991:  ACTOR BERT CONVY DIES.

Tattletale.

1997:  IN MIAMI, SERIAL KILLER ANDREW CUNANAN GUNS DOWN GIANNI VERSACE OUTSIDE HIS HOME.

Wear this.

2002:  "AMERICAN TALIBAN" JOHN WALKER LINDH PLEADS GUILTY TO SUPPLYING AID TO THE ENEMY AND TO POSSESSION OF EXPLOSIVES.

Kill, please.

2003:  AOL TIME WARNER DISBANDS NETSCAPE.  MOZILLA IS ESTABLISHED ON THE SAME DAY.

And we still can't avoid spam.

2006:  TWITTER IS LAUNCHED.

#Idon'tgiveashit.

2012:  ACTRESS CELESTE HOLM DIES.

All About Death.

2017:  ACTOR MARTIN LANDAU DIES.

Mission Really Impossible Now.

Dinner last night:  Leftover vegetables.

Len's Moron of the Month - July 2026

 

Rhetorical question:  Can you be a genius and a moron at the same time?   Well, yes, if you're thinking about the esteemed Mayor of The City/Socialist Society of New York Zorhan Mamdani.  Indeed, this clown has figured out how to be both.  Meanwhile, his young soldiers revere him as something almost Biblical. I mean, look at the sainted photo above.

Overall, Mamdani is an idiot.   He has done virtually nothing in his short career and I don't think he's destined for greatness.   But he's figured out how to make the most of little. By appealing to the youngest and newest generation of voters who have grown up getting everything done for them.  Indeed, the Laziest Generation.   And Mamdani's socialist views fall right in line with them. They have grown up expecting everything free and that's just what little Zorhan has promised.

Now you know and I know that nothing is ever free and that socialism has never worked anywhere.  But the youngest voters don't largely because they've been taught in school by a bunch of liberal stooges. Want to know how smart that subculture is?   Well, it just came out that the Los Angeles Unified School District is going broke.  Why? Because the teacher's union has a stranglehold on the city.

But I digress...

Mayor Moron has figured how to win elections and that's by promising the world to the youngest...and apparently dumbest...members of our voting populace.  So he's a genius...and a moron all at once.

And don't think this stops here.   I've heard recently that Culver City in California has introduced legislation to lower the voting age to 16!

Stop me when you want to get off.

Dinner last night:  Grilled veggies.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - July 13, 2026

 Summer hiccups.

Dinner last night:  Beef tri tip at the home of friends Kevin and Amir.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - When The Stars GetHot

 

Holy shit!

I'm looking at the internet and rubbing my eyes.  This could have been a photo that my father took with that damn Argus Technicolor camera of his.  Because I clearly remember this image on the Boardwalk at Atlantic City.  We went to see this show.

After seeing the "Jersey Boys" movie last weekend, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I had actually seen Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons perform.  At the Steel Pier that you see above.  And at Freedomland in the Bronx.  I don't know how I had forgotten this, but the movie and the music jogged my memory.

My mom was a big fan and wouldn't miss seeing them.   And, of course, it was during the summer at Atlantic City that we actually went to see somebody perform live.

Back in the day, my family didn't venture out beyond the local movie theater when it came to entertainment.  Heck, I didn't see my first Broadway show until I was 15.  I didn't go to my first rock concert until I was in college.  The closest I had come to seeing stars in person was when they showed up for a ten minute walk-on during a movie promotional tour that landed at one of the Mount Vernon movie theaters.  That was as close as we ever got. 

I wonder now if this caused an issue between my parents.  My mom was a big fan of top 40 music.  She went out to buy the 45 rpm discs of all the big hits.  She sang along to them while she cleaned the house.

Music was a big deal to her.

My dad?  Meh.  

He would listen to nothing but WNEW AM 1130 on the car radio.   And then tune into the Polka Party on WFUV every Saturday night.  That was it.

So, another question that goes begging for an answer through the ages is whether my parents ever went to see a musical star perform in person.  I'll never know the answer.   My guess is...no.  Nein.  Nyet.

And this makes our summer vacations in Atlantic City even more important.  And it explains now to me why my mother always seemed to be focusing on who was appearing at the Steel Pier while we were there.

She'd call ahead weeks before to find out.  The entire vacation, usually accompanied by another family, was planned around the performance schedule at the Steel Pier.  It was tricky since stars only showed up there for two or three days at a time.  They would then move on.  If your vacation was ill-timed, you'd be stuck with some dog.   But, not with my mom handling the logistics.

And that's how we ended up seeing Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons on the Boardwalk at Atlantic City.  The place was jammed.  Me and the rest of the kids got dragged along.  My dad and the representative male figure of the other family?  My guess is that they passed the time in a nearby gin mill.

And here's yet another photo that my dad could have taken.  Because on a subsequent summer, Mom got to see Paul Anka at the same venue.  There was a meet-and-greet line.  I shook Paul Anka's hand.  I was probably eight years old.  I was already taller than him.

Lo and behold, there was one more summer and one more concert at the Steel Pier.  Mom called ahead.  Who was on the schedule for our week in the sun and the surf?

Lawrence Welk and the Lennon Sisters.

You would have thought my family hit the million dollar lotto.  The show that played on two...count 'em...two different TV sets in my house every Saturday.  And we would be seeing them live.

Naturally, I was bored out of my skull.

But, of all people to make an appearance for the show?  My father.  Lawrence Welk was sacred.  He was German.  He played polka music.  That was good enough for him.  Two degrees of separation for my dad.

We got an added bonus when the Freedomland amusement park opened just ten minutes from our house in Mount Vernon, New York.   It was a foolhardy attempt by some idiot to recreate Disneyland.  In. The. Bronx.  But, since there was no freakin' way that my family was going to get to Anaheim, California any time soon, we sucked in the swamp air of Freedomland on multiple summer nights. 

They had a musical band shell at Freedomland and suddenly the Steel Pier was at our doorsteps.  Mom regularly checked the newspapers to see who was appearing.  One night, we ventured out to see Frank Fontaine, who played "Crazy Guggenheim" on the old Jackie Gleason Show.

Okay, going by the picture, you know his act was an acquired taste.  But he was on the Gleason Show.  We watched the Gleason Show.  We went.  My father was a fan.  He showed up, too.

A month later, my mother was on the moon again.  Coming to Freedomland:  Frankie Valli and the Four Season.  I didn't understand the reason for a repeat viewing.  I questioned the outing.  Mom was not hearing a thing.

"Don't argue with me.  We're going."

Yes, ma'am.

One year later, guess who showed up at Freedomland.   The bubble king and those four sisters.   We're not, are we?

"Don't argue with me.  We're going."

This time, an appearance by Lawrence Welk ten minutes away from where we lived emptied out the whole house.   My grandmother and grandfather came along.  This was monumental.   The only places they really went were the supermarket, the bank, and the doctor.

It was odd seeing Grandma and Grandpa out amongst the living.  In an amusement park, no less.

I don't remember much about the performance that night, except I probably dozed off two or twenty times.  Indeed, the oldest generation was not impressed.

"He looks better on television."

Given that their TV set only got black and white, that didn't say much for Mr. Welk's complexion.

"Next time we stay home."

And, as far as I can remember, that was the last concert we ever went to as a family.

Dinner last night:  Pepperonata.

Classic Newsreel of the Month - July 2026

 How did that work out for you, Barry?

Dinner last night:  Broccoli and rice.

Hazy, Hot, and Stupid

 

Obviously, the photographer had told them this would be nothing but a head shot.

If this is a familyu portrait, I have some questions.

Little Petunia is being blocked by, well, a little petunia.

The way Dad is sitting behind Mom, you would think she would have a bigger smile on her face. 

This time, the dog is giving Mom a bath.

Future pole dancer.

Trying to fit a size 6 baby into a size 4 wagon.

"Mommy, this uncle is drunk now, too."

I need her phone number.

Surprisingly, the most awkward thing in this picture is the sofa.

Dinner last night:  Salisbury steak.

Enough May Be Enough

 

Okay, confession time.   The "Toy Story" franchise is the only Pixar genre I follow.  All the rest bored me to tears.

I have followed (seen) them all since the first one hit in the early 90s.  Surprisingly, the fifth just came out and I was caught off guard by the release. Did they really make a fifth edition?

Well, yes.   And I'm here to announce that it is time to put all the toys away for good.   Or sell them on eBay.  

Yep, I'm done.   They're done.  We're all done.

"Toy Story 5" is one convoluted mess that had the adults I was with totally confused by the plot.   How the heck can kids follow this stuff?   There's a well meaning concept here of traditional old toys being replaced by tech devices.   Yrp, that is happening.   But, the way this all unfolds in 2026. Elon Musk would have a tough time telling the story.   Plus Tom Hanks as Woody, always the best thing in any Toy Story film, is relegated to a reasonably small role.  But I doubt more would have helped.

We can stop at Five.   Sadly, the on-screen epilogue sets up the sixth installment.  

Yeesh.

LEN'S RATING:  One star.

Dinner last night:  Broccoli and rice.