October 9th: Today in 1000 Leif Eiríksson is credited with the founding of Vinland. This was long after the Indians, the Chinese, the Irish and countless others, but it is pretty cool think about Vikings romping about the Canadian wilderness. It is the sort of thing Hal Foster would have gotten brilliantly right in Prince [...]
October 8th: Today in 1871 Mrs. O’Leary’s cow is framed for starting the Great Chicago Fire, which killed 250 and burned up a third of the city. Apparently it did begin in the O’Leary’s cowshed, but is believed to have been started by the man who first reported the fire, Daniel Sullivan. The O’Leary house [...]
You know they are out there looking for you when you go to the beach. Vicious Great White Sharks. What you didn’t know was how far they will go to find you. Thousands of miles if required. Great story from the Times about shark tagging. Really interesting how little we know about so many creatures, [...]
October 7th: Today in 1849 Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore. The cause of his death and details of much of his life are lost in history and myth, his first major biographer was a literary enemy taking his vengence for a bad review that he felt Poe had written about one of his works. [...]
There is a suprising lack of good hamster theatre in the world, Jay Pinkerton tries to get to the root of this problem in his article, Dear Parents. I suspect it was the choice of plays, Hamlet is just too heavy and old fashioned, Cats performed by hamsters is the ticket to success.
October 6th: Today in 1945 William “Billy Goat” Sianis and his pet goat were ejected from a Chicago Cubs game and cursed the Cubs to never win another Championship or World Series again. That is the official story, I put it down more to an ownership that realized it is proftitable and cheaper [...]
Python bursts after trying to eat Gator. This is NEWS we need to know! From the story: Be afraid, be very afraid Be sure to check the picture…..
October 5th: Today in 1969 the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus appeared on BBC1. To celebrate the day the Ministry of Silly Walks has graciously donated a wonderful prize to the person who can list in order of appearence the Python movies and the years they came out. This prize will not be [...]
Tiring of the heavy pull needed to master the longbow, thugs have moved on to samurai sword. The UK quakes in fear. No wild animals thought to be involved.
October 4th: Today in 1777 George Washington decided to try that clever ‘flanking’ trick on the British army outside of occupied Philadelphia resulting in the Battle of Germantown. Unfortunately the American army proved to be harder to maneuver than the British army so the planned flank attacks never quite made it and a large part [...]