This Date in History - September 30

 

Happy birthday, Angie Dickinson.  Why do I think she doesn't exactly look like this picture any more?  Because I saw her at a screening...that's why.

737:  BATTLE OF THE BAGGAGE - TURGESH DRIVE BACK AN UMAYYAD INVASION OF KHUTTAL AND CAPTURE THEIR BAGGAGE TRAIN.

The smart money is on the garment bag.

1541:  SPANISH CONQUISTADOR HERNANDO DE SOTO AND HIS FORCES ENTER TULA, WHICH IS PRESENT-DAY WESTERN ARKANSAS.

So Bill Clinton used to be governor of Tula?

1791:  THE NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY IN PARIS IS DISSOLVED.

Like an Alka Seltzer tablet.

1860:  BRITAIN'S FIRST TRAM SERVICE BEGINS IN BIRKENHEAD, MERSEYSIDE.

Lord have mersey.

1882:  THOMAS EDISON'S FIRST COMMERCIAL HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT BEGINS OPERATION IN WISCONSIN.  

This guy did it all.

1888:  JACK THE RIPPER KILLS HIS THIRD AND FOURTH VICTIMS.

On the same day.  Must have been a day/night doubleheader.

1903:  THE NEW GRESHAM SCHOOL IS OPENED BY SIR EVELYN WOOD.

How fast did you read that last line?

1921:  ACTRESS DEBORAH KERR IS BORN.

She died in 2007.  So, from here to eternity.

1924:  AUTHOR TRUMAN CAPOTE IS BORN.

Then his blood was warm.

1927:   BABE RUTH BECOMES THE FIRST BASEBALL PLAYER TO HIT 60 HOME RUNS IN ONE SEASON.

Steroids!  Steroids!!

1931:  ACTRESS ANGIE DICKINSON IS BORN.

Don't you really want to know what she was doing in that JFK White House?

1932:  BASEBALL STAR JOHNNY PODRES IS BORN.

Pitched the Brooklyn Dodgers to their first World Series win in 1955.

1935:  THE HOOVER DAM IS DEDICATED.

Dedicated to...holding back water.

1935:  SINGER JOHNNY MATHIS IS BORN.

My writing partner had a whole conversation with him in the super market.  A nice guy.

1938:  THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNANIMOUSLY OUTLAWS "INTENTIONAL BOMBINGS OF CIVILIAN POPULATIONS."

What?  No ruling about the designated hitter?

1939:  NBC BROADCASTS THE FIRST TELEVISED AMERICAN FOOTBALL GAME BETWEEN THE WAYNESBURG YELLOW JACKETS AND THE FORDHAM RAMS, WHO WON.

Wait???  My alma mater of Fordham???  How cool???  And they won??????!!!

1947:  PAKISTAN AND YEMEN JOIN THE UNITED NATIONS.

Make sure their dues checks don't bounce.

1947:  THE WORLD SERIES BETWEEN THE NY YANKEES AND THE BROOKLYN DODGERS IS TELEVISED FOR THE FIRST TIME.

Except my team won't win until...well, see above reference for Johnny Podres.

1954:  ACTOR BARRY WILLIAMS IS BORN.

Oh, Greg.

1955:  ACTOR JAMES DEAN DIES IN AN AUTO ACCIDENT.

This guy's career would have been phenomenal.

1962:  MEXICAN-AMERICAN LABOR LEADER CESAR CHAVEZ FOUNDS THE GROUP WHICH WOULD LATER BECOME THE UNITED FARM WORKERS.

Cesar, I love your ravine.

1962:  JAMES MEREDITH ENTERS THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI, DEFYING SEGREGATION.

First stop: the book store.

1965:  THE PILOT EPISODE OF THUNDERBIRDS AIRS IN ENGLAND FOR THE FIRST TIME.

A show about marionette pilots.  My writing partner's favorite show when he was a kid.

1968:  THE BOEING 747 IS ROLLED OUT AND SHOWN TO THE PUBLIC FOR THE FIRST TIME.

Oooh.  Aaah.

1972:  ROBERTO CLEMENTED RECORDS THE 3,000TH AND FINAL HIT OF HIS CAREER.

Off the Mets' Jon Matlack if I am not mistaken.

1982:  CYANIDE-LACED TYLENOL KILLS SEVEN PEOPLE IN CHICAGO.

Must have been the Extra Strength.

1977:  SINGER MARY FORD DIES.

Attached to that Les Paul guitar guy.

1978:  ACTOR EDGAR BERGEN DIES.

Eulogy by Charlie McCarthy.

1996:  THE US CONGRESS PASSES AN AMENDMENT THAT BANS THE POSSESSION OF FIREARMS FOR PEOPLE WHO WERE CONVICTED OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

Duh.

1998:  BASEBALL PITCHER DAN QUISENBERRY DIES.

Any comment from Count Chocula?

2017:  TV HOST MONTY HALL DIES.

Should have taken Door #2.

2024: BROADWAY STAR GAVIN CREEL DIES.

Got to see him several years in the Bette Midler "Hello Dolly."  Horrible loss at a young age.

2024:  BASEBALL STAR PETE ROSE DIES.

What were the odds?

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Hollywood Then and Now - September 2026

Few movie theater come.  Most go.   Indeed, we are going to have a bit of a resurgence shortly.  The Westwood Village and the Bruin are classic movie houses and they are headed to re-opening.   The same goes for the Arclight Hollywood and adjoining Cinerama Dome which shut down the first weekend of the COVID pandemic in March of 2020.  That venue re-opens in 2028.

But there are a few that never close.   They just evolve.   We salute the Laemmle theater chain for keeping as many screens open as possible.  One such place is the Royal right down the block from my home.

Here it is many years ago.  And today?  It's been carved up into four screens.   But it remains open and we applaud vociferously.

God bless.

Dinner last night: Sandwich.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - September 28, 2026

 Blucher!

Dinner last night:  Sausage, peppers, and onions.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - The Blank Side of the Family Tree

 

Unfortunately, this Memory Drawer is empty.  And the fact that it prompts, of all things, some memories.

Confused?

A few years ago, I was watching the season finale of the TNT reboot of "Dallas."  And I noted the plot developments.

We learn that J.R. Ewing had a daughter.   And that John Ross Ewing, his son, is now aware that, somewhere in the world, he has a sister.

To find such close relatives at such a point in your life.  How unsettling, miraculous, and fun that can be simultaneously. 

I thought about it all.  Indeed, if you are regular visitors to this on-line nonsense, you've heard a lot of tales about my family as I grew up.  My paternal grandparents who owned the house that my parents and I lived in.  You've seen a lot of old photos of my family's holiday gatherings.  There have been no mysteries.  My life has been an open blog.

Alas, amidst all those Technicolor photos, you have seen very little evidence or information about the other side of the family.  My mom's.   Hence, the empty picture frame that adorns the top of today's entry.

There are no pictures because I never saw any.   I'm not sure if my mom even had photos of her parents.  If she did, they might have been stored way back in her own memory drawer.

I know this.   My mom and her older sister were born in New York City.  Depending upon how she felt on a given day, the actual year of birth would change by one or two.  Their parents were named John and Esther.  As the slim story goes, they both got sick with influenza about that time in our history when such an ailment was a fatal disease.  Allegedly, they died practically in succession.  One apparently got sick and then gave it to the other.  And out.  My mom was about ten.  Her sister was about twelve.

I know they both wound up in the Leake and Watts orphanage that I still believe exists in Yonkers, New York.  As a matter of fact, my mom had to contact them for some records when she was filing some official documents when she retired.  She was on their mailing list.  How long were she and my aunt there?  No clue. 

When the inquisitive me asked questions about any of this, my mom's standard response was sort of like a press representative for a politician.

"I have no information at this time."

Or something like that.

Do you have any photos? 

"No."

What did they do for a living?

"I was too young."

Were there any other relatives?

"I don't think so."

Hmmm.  I don't think so.

Back when I was a kid, there was a common resource when you wanted information from one parent.  You asked the other one.

Dad was no help.

"Your mother doesn't want to talk about any of that."

Okay, so that means he asked the question, too.

Opening the curtain on our lives even further, I can tell you that, in later years, both my mother and my aunt had...well...a love of beer.  I wouldn't say they were out-and-out alcoholics but there were frequent evenings with multiple buzzes going.  If we went to visit my aunt and her family out on Long Island, both women were fairly fuzzy within the first two hours. 

Hmmm.  What is behind that?

I never knew it.  And was only left to purely speculate.

Years later, I tried to broach the issue again coming at it from my status as a full-grown adult.  Not long before she passed away, my mom got the question again.

"It was complicated."

Today that's why people use Facebook to describe their relationship status.  Back then, it was my family's way of avoiding a question and/or an issue.

So, now you know why my mind was working overtime in the middle of the Dallas season finale.   John Ross has a sister. 

Are there any relatives I am missing?  Did John and Esther have brothers and sisters?   This would have given my mother and my aunt cousins.  Maybe it gives me second and third cousins removed.  A whole extended family.   I mean, my maternal grandparents weren't aliens from outer space who just showed up on Planet Earth.

I've used Ancestry.com and 23andMe to flesh things out.   If I spit in a cup, I connect with some cousins several times removed.  I learned that my mom's mother had a maiden name of Larson.  But the people I connected with were just as confused as I am

More stuff I will never know.

And likely never will.

Dinner last night:  Hot dog at the movies.

Classic Movie Trailer of the Month - September 2026

Hard to believe it came out 30 years ago this month.   And I forgot Rob Reiner was in it.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Open For Business

 

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Len's Recipe of the Month - September 2026

 

Actually there are numerous ones every month.  Because I am now addicted to making meals in an air fryer.   This is mine...called InstantPot...and you can tell it gets used a lot by the fingerprints on it.   Frankly, I would probably be the last person you would expect such an addiction from.

I bought it on a whim...actually an Amazon Prime sale...several years, largely because I heard it's great to make French fries and chicken wings.   I was intrigued by the lack of oil needed.   I figured this is a healthy device.

Now, several years later, I still haven't made chicken wings in this thing.   But I have done a lot more.   Because all you have to do is Google "how to make _____ in an air fryer" and you get your answers.   Pretty much, everything gets done in 12 to 14 minutes.

I am continually shocked at what you can do with the right prep.   Ribeye steak?  Phenomenal.  Roasted vegetables?  Magnificent.  Korean chicken thighs?  Terrific.  A juicy hamburger.  Perfection.  Even my prized pan-roasted grape tomatoes now doesn't need the...well...pan.

Plus the number of frozen entrees that can get quickly cooked is amazing.  On the web, I have found a recipe that allows you to make an olive oil cake in this thing.  And clean-up is a breeze.  No different than washing a pot or a pan.

There's an Amazon Prime sales day coming.   Note to you.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

This Date in History - September 23

 

Happy birthday, Julio Iglesias.  See you down by the school yard.

1122:  POPE CALLIXTUS II AND HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR HENRY V AGREE TO THE CONCORDAT OF WORMS.

The mention of worms?   Never good.

1215:  EMPEROR KUBLAI KHAN IS BORN.

Great, great grandfather to Chaka.

1409:  BATTLE OF KHERLEN, THE SECOND SIGNIFICANT VICTORY OVER MING CHINA BY THE MONGOLS SINCE 1368.

I read all about it in a blog.  Kherlen Speaks.

1641:  THE MERCHANT ROYAL, CARRYING A TREASURE WORTH OVER A BILLION US DOLLARS, IS LOST AT SEA.

A billion dollars dumped overboard.  The 1641 version of affordable health care.

1642:  THE FIRST COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES OCCUR AT HARVARD.

In September?   They have some kinks to work out.

1779:  THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - JOHN PAUL JONES ON BOARD THE USS BONHOMME RICHARD WINS THE BATTLE OF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD.

Way to go, JP.

1780:  THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - BRITISH MAJOR JOHN ANDRE IS ARRESTED AS A SPY BY AMERICAN SOLDIERS EXPOSING BENEDICT ARNOLD'S CHANGE OF SIDES.

What???  Benedict Arnold is a turncoat???

1806:  LEWIS AND CLARK RETURN TO ST. LOUIS AFTER EXPLORING THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST OF THE US.

Just in time for playoff baseball.

1845:  THE KNICKERBOCKERS BASEBALL CLUB, THE FIRST BASEBALL TEAM TO PLAY UNDER THE MODERN RULES, IS FOUNDED.

Wait.   Isn't there another team they would be playing?  

1869:  TYPHOID MARY IS BORN.

Mary, Typhoid as printed in the phone book.

1889:  NINTENDO KOPPAI IS FOUNDED TO PRODUCE AND MARKET THE PLAYING CARD GAME OF HANAFUDA.

Yes, that Nintendo.

1897:  ACTOR WALTER PIDGEON IS BORN.

Mr. Miniver.

1909:  THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, A NOVEL, IS FIRST PUBLISHED.

Boy, will this have some residuals??!!

1920:  ACTOR MICKEY ROONEY IS BORN.

He probably kept the same height all his life.

1927:  SINGER MIGHTY JOE YOUNG IS BORN.

Not the ape.

1930:  SINGER RAY CHARLES IS BORN.

Georgia on his mind.

1943:  WORLD WAR II - THE NAZI PUPPET STATE IN THE ITALIAN SOCIAL REPUBLIC IS FOUNDED.

Why do I think these weren't exactly Muppets?

1943:  SINGER JULIO IGLESIAS IS BORN.

My mother loved his records.  But whose mother didn't?

1945:  ACTOR PAUL PETERSEN IS BORN.

I traded e-mails with him on a project about ten years ago.  Nice guy.

1947:  ACTRESS MARY KAY PLACE IS BORN.

I've always thought she was very underrated as an actress.

1949:  SINGER BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IS BORN.

Yes, gang, I am not a fan.  Never saw him in person.   Never wanted to.

1952:  RICHARD NIXON MAKES HIS FAMOUS CHECKERS SPEECH.

King me.

1962:  THE LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS OPENS IN NEW YORK CITY.

Funny because it still looks new.

1969:  THE CHICAGO EIGHT TRIAL OPENS IN CHICAGO.

The Chicago Nine were busy losing the NL East to the Mets at the same time.

1973:  JUAN PERON RETURNS TO POWER IN ARGENTINA.

Soon to be a musical in your town.

1974:  ACTOR CLIFF ARQUETTE DIES.

Charlie Weaver!

1981:  ACTOR CHIEF DAN GEORGE DIES.

I always get him mixed up with that other Indian who was crying about the garbage on the road.

1986:  JIM DESHAIES OF THE HOUSTON ASTROS SETS THE MAJOR LEAGUE RECORD BY STRIKING OUT THE FIRST EIGHT BATTERS OF THE GAME AGAINST THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS.

Two silhouettes....

1987:  DANCER/DIRECTOR BOB FOSSE DIES.

And all that jazz.

1988:  JOSE CANSECO OF THE OAKLAND ATHLETICS BECOMES THE FIRST MEMBER OF THE 40-40 CLUB.

Yeah, but I still remember him most for the ball hitting him in the head and then bouncing over the wall.

1998:  ACTRESS MARY FRANN DIES.

The TV wife of Bob Newhart that nobody remembers.

1999:  CELEBRATE BISEXUALITY DAY IS FIRST OBSERVED IN THE US.

I can't make up my mind which joke to use.

2002:  THE FIRST PUBLIC VERSION OF THE WEB BROWSER MOZILLA FIREFOX IS RELEASED.

The most recent version messed up my laptop.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.

The Passage of Blog Time

 

When you've been doing a daily blog for nineteen years, you take some things for granted.  You naturally assume that everything is forever.

So I get an e-mail from the Blogger people who have housed this two decade nonsense.   They were alerting me that storage space is getting limited.  As a result, they need to open up some room in the etherworld.  That will necessitate the removal of some videos I have previously loaded.   

Many of you know that videos consume two days of every week with my Monday Video Laugh and assorted TV/Movie historical pastiches on Saturday.   Well, if you go back to the likes of 2014 or 2015 on Len Speaks, you will likely get this message.  How they are making the judgment of what stays and what goes is beyond my skill set.   

I mean, this is not devastating, right?  You weren't looking for a Classic Newsreel posted in 2009?

If you were, thanks for the continuous hits.

Dinner last night:  Leftover chicken.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - September 21, 2026

The super under-appreciated David Hyde Pierce.

Dinner last night:  Chicken tenders and roasted tomatoes.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - When Football Was Important To Me

 

Well, that's one long title.

The NFL football season started last Sunday and, frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn.  I started losing interest in pro football about two decades ago.  The players seemed to become more intense and increasingly cartoonish with their histrionics in the end zone and the manner in a tackle has to completely demolish the other guy.  Admittedly, American society has gotten much darker and sinister, which explains why football is now so revered in this country.

But my ambivalence wasn't always like this.  Back when I was a kid, I wandered from baseball to football as soon as the leaves started to become a crispy gold and brown.  I think this pleased my father who was a big fan. 

Now, in those days, pro football wasn't much of a sport you could watch on television.  Well, the road games of your favorite team were televised.  But blackout rules prevailed and any home games were not shown.  You had to listen to them on...gasp...the radio.  Or, if you lived in New York, you drove up to Connecticut and, provided you were close enough to the Hartford-New Haven TV market, you watched games there.  Some pulled up bar stools.  Others actually rented motel rooms to see their beloved Jets and Giants.  Hopefully, the sheets cooled off after a robust Saturday night.

As for my house, my first foray into football fandom was for the Jets as I was again adopting the allegiance of the new kids in town.  I remember my dad always listening to the New York Giant games on WNEW AM Radio, but, just as he with baseball, he gravitated to my team as well.  Fathers make those kinds of sacrifices.  Plus I previously have written about the year I spent going to Jet games at Shea Stadium with my mom's boss and her boyfriend, who were season ticket holders.   So, I suppose that I was a major part of the Jet faithful.

But, almost as soon as I became a Jet fan, they won the Super Bowl and they got a little boring as a result.  Of course, at the time, nobody knew that they wouldn't get another shot at it for the next two centuries.  So, my love for a football team wasn't as deep as it was for the New York Mets.  I could be easily pulled away.

Back in the day, it was virtually impossible to get tickets to New York Giant football games.  Most of the patrons were season ticket holders since the 1800s and seat plans were often included in last wills and testaments.  There were 60,000 privileged people every Sunday who got to enter their then-home of Yankee Stadium.

The prospect of going to a New York Giant game was about as alien to me as a trip to the Moon.  And, hell, there were people going there back then.  So, you can imagine my surprise when, on one September Saturday, I got a call from my best friend at school, Danny.

"A guy my dad knows is offering us his two season tickets for tomorrow's Giant game."

Huh?

I never turned down any invitations to any sporting event at that age.  And, since my friends and I were already well versed in traveling to Shea and Yankee Stadium by ourselves, I didn't foresee any parental opposition.

Surprise.  My dad, who probably had never been to a Giant football game himself, was a bit defensive.  And probably a little bit envious.

"What do you want to go down there for?   A lot of nuts in that place."

Well, yeah.  So? 

"It's too damn crowded.  You'll get lost."

Well, maybe.  So?

"Lots of traffic down there.  The two of you will get clipped."

I doubt it.  So?

But, as most fathers always do, my dad caved in.  As long as he could orchestrate the whole day.  He'd drive me and Danny to the Jerome Avenue subway train which would let us off right in from of the stadium.   He'd listen to the game and then time our return home and wait for us at the train station. 

And so he did. 

Meanwhile, Danny and I walked into that stadium like kings on that Sunday.  We felt like we belonged to the most elite group in the world.  The seats sucked.  Actually, the view at the top of this blog was pretty much our POV.  But, we didn't care.  And we rooted for the home team because, heck, everybody around us had owned their season tickets the turn of the century.

Yes, we became Giant fans.  And, you can imagine our euphoria when Danny got the call one Saturday later about tickets to the very next game.  

As it turns out, because the season ticket owner was having some business issues, we got to go to four of the seven home games that year.  He let us know on Saturday and, when the call came, we were delirious.  It was great.   We started to be on a first-name basis with the folks around us.   And my father's transport service and our Sunday schedule became almost robotic.

These days, football teams can make the playoffs if they score more than three touchdowns all season.  But, back then, it was a more prestigious group that moved forward.  And the Giants had to win on the last home Sunday to go into the playoffs.   This was the game everybody in town was talking about.

Danny and I waited eagerly for the Saturday call.  That never came.

Now, I was desperate to see this damn game.  So, I really pushed the envelope with my father.   

I suggested we drive to Connecticut and find a motel or bar that was airing the game.

"What are you, some kind of nut??"

I listened on the radio.  The Giants lost.   They didn't make the playoffs.  

And, since there were never any tickets in any subsequent year, my Giant fan days were done.

Dinner last night:  Orange chicken from Panda Express.

Classic TV Theme of the Month - September 2026

 Wow!  This premiered sixty years ago this week.

Dinner last night:  The buffet at the Dodger Stadium season ticket holder party.

The School Photographer is Back!

 

Barack Obama, Second Grade.

Mad Magazine had to start some place.

Nancy Guthrie could be in there.

Yes, the guy behind the camera is a pedophile.

Future bimbo runway model.

Sally Struthers, Age 8.

Hey, kid, that smell just might be you.

If Howard Stern got a nose job.

Dinner last night:  Salisbury steak.

One Last 9/11 Story

 

And it's one I can't believe.  Or stomach.  

It's not a remembrance from 2001.   It was last week as related by a work colleague who has a kid in college.   I don't know if the class involved was history or journalism.  But the reference comes from whatever dumbbell stands in front of this class to lecture.

You see, this higher educator numbskull went on a soap box to talk about how the planes going into the WTC was an early form of AI.

I heard this and shook my head.   

Yeah, the buildings never crumbled to the ground.

Almost 3,000 lives didn't end on that day.

People who worked in Ground Zero didn't get life-ending cancer years later.

I can only hope this teacher was making a sick joke.  It would be hard to fathom that somebody actually believes this.  And shares it with a bunch of kids who weren't even born in 2001.

As I always say, academia rhymes with macadamia.   Fitting because they're both nuts.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

This Date in History - September 16

 

Happy birthday to Ed Begley Jr., who co-starred in one of my favorite TV shows of all time, "St. Elsewhere."

307:  EMPEROR SEVERUS II IS CAPTURED AND IMPRISONED AT TRES TABERNAE.  HE IS LATER EXECUTED.

That's a little severus, don't you think?

1400:  OWAIN GLYNDWR IS DECLARED PRINCE OF WALES BY HIS FOLLOWERS.

Give that last name a vowel, please.

1620:  PILGRIMS SET SAIL FROM ENGLAND ON THE MAYFLOWER.

Trying to beat the Thanksgiving traffic.

1776:  THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - THE BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS IS FOUGHT.

I hope they don't damage the Apollo Theater.

1810:  WITH THE GRITO DE DOLORES, FATHER MIGUEL HIDALGO BEGINS MEXICO'S FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN.

Grito de Dolores?   Does that come with guacamole?

1880:  THE CORNELL DAILY SUN PRINTS ITS FIRST ISSUE IN ITHACA, NEW YORK.  THE SUN IS THE NATION'S OLDEST, CONTINUOUSLY-INDEPENDENT COLLEGE DAILY.

As if college students are truly independent.

1908:  THE GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION IS FOUNDED.

Recall.

1914:  TV DIRECTOR ALLEN FUNT IS BORN.

Smile.

1919:  THE AMERICAN LEGION IS INCORPORATED.

Just what do they do besides march in your local Memorial Day parade?

1920:  A BOMB IN A HORSE WAGON EXPLODES IN FRONT OF THE JP MORGAN BUILDING IN NEW YORK CITY AND KILLS 38 WHILE INJURING 400.

Not exactly an improvement - years later, terrorists use children instead of horses.

1924:  ACTRESS LAUREN BACALL IS BORN.

You just know she was a bitch.

1927:  ACTOR PETER FALK IS BORN.

Just one more question...

1934:  ACTOR GEORGE CHAKIRIS IS BORN.

Take the Sharks over the Jets with the points.

1943:  WORLD WAR II - THE ALLIED INVASION OF ITALY CONCLUDES WHEN HEINRICH VON VIETINGHOFF, COMMANDER OF THE GERMAN TENTH ARMY, ORDERS HIS TROOPS TO WITHDRAW FROM SALERNO.

Mr. Vietinghoff to you.

1945:  WORLD WAR II - THE SURRENDER OF THE JAPANESE TROOPS IN HONG KONG IS ACCEPTED.

Who knows a notary public, please?

1949:  ACTOR ED BEGLEY JR. IS BORN.

In his honor, take the bus today.

1955:  THE MILITARY COUP TO UNSEAT PRESIDENT JUAN PERON OF ARGENTINA IS LAUNCHED AT MIDNIGHT.

Don't cry for me, yada yada yada.

1956: MAGICIAN DAVID COPPERFIELD IS BORN.

Presto.

1958:  BASEBALL STAR OREL HERSHISER IS BORN.

Great baseball announcer, but, boy, did I hate him back in 1988.

1959:  THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL PHOTOCOPIER, THE XEROX 914, IS INTRODUCED IN A LIVE TV DEMONSTRATION.

Somebody forgot to add paper.

1965:  ANIMATOR FRED QUIMBY DIES.

I created Gumby, damn it.

1966:  THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE OPENS AT LINCOLN CENTER IN NYC WITH THE WORLD PREMIERE OF SAMUEL BARBER'S "ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA."

What's the over/under that Tony Randall was in the audience that night?

1970:  KING HUSSEIN OF JORDAN DECLARES MILITARY RULE FOLLOWING THE HIJACKING OF FOUR CIVILIAN AIRLINES BY THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE.

Just in case you thought those dirtbags in 2001 were all that original.

1980:  SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES JOIN THE UNITED NATIONS.

I think I saw them perform in Greenwich Village.

1992:  THE TRIAL OF THE DEPOSED PANAMANIAN DICTATOR MANUEL NORIEGA ENDS IN THE US WITH A 40-YEAR SENTENCE FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING AND MONEY LAUNDERING.

Forty years too short.

2009:  SINGER MARY TRAVERS DIES.

Peter, Paul, and Nobody.

2013:  A GUNMAN KILLS TWELVE PEOPLE AT THE NAVY YARD IN WASHINGTON, DC.

Just so you realize that this kind of workplace violence will always exist.

2016:  PLAYWRIGHT EDWARD ALBEE DIES.

Who's afraid now?

2021:  ACTRESS JANE POWELL DIES.    

Seven Corpses for Seven Brothers.

2025:  ACTOR ROBERT REDFORD DIES.

Remembering the way he was.

Dinner last night:   Salad. 

One More 9/11 Documentary

 

With the 25th anniversary just past, there were a variety of new documentaries on the subject.  And replays of some old ones.   For me, the newest one might just be the best.   I was crying throughout, largely because "When America Took the Field" connected that horrific tragedy with a love of my life...baseball fandom.

Now there have been other films that covered how Major League Baseball helped our country heal in those first weeks after 9/11.  HBO did one that was very good about 15 years ago.  Indeed, some of the same children who were spotlighted by HBO have their lives updated in this new movie on the MLB Network.   But, indeed. the tone set by this new doc, executive produced by former baseball star Todd Zeile, would move emotionally impact the most casual of fans.

The usual tales are covered.   The kids who lost their dads and moms who are baseball fans.  The first game in NY after 9/11 when Mike Piazza hits a game winning homerun that just be the greatest moment of the sports ever.  Fan connections with the likes of Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter.  Community outreach by managers Joe Torre and Bobby Valentine who secretly arranged to have one dad's ashes scattered at Shea Stadium's home plate.

Believe me, this movie pulls at your heart strings as if it was a symphony violin. And, as I watched, memories washed over me.   It made me miss Shea Stadium.  It made me recall how strong my love was for the NY Mets during my childhood.  And it made me realize how baseball was the basis of so many of my longtime friends.  

And I thought about my own parents, gone due to illness and not because a building fell on them.  My dad introduced me to the game.  I myself introduced the game to my mother in her later years, largely because she loved both Dwight Gooden and Met announcer Tim McCarver.

This film has it all.   Memories of a grateful nation.  And mine.

LEN'S RATING:  Four stars.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.