Today in 1752 –This day never hap­pe­ned nor the next 10 as England adopts the Gre­go­rian Calen­dar. Peo­ple riot thin­king the govern­ment stole 11 days of their lives.

To cele­brate this mis­pla­ce­ment of days here’s today’s iPod playlist:

Eight days a Week – The Beatles

Tuesday’s Gone – Lynrd Skynrd

One Week – Bare­na­ked Ladies

Where have all the good times gone?  — The Kinks

Been Caught Stea­lin’ Jane’s Addiction

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Today in 1901 VP Theo­dore Roo­se­velt advi­ses, “Speak softly & carry a big stick”.  To cele­brate this famous quote about big sticks, here’s today’s play­list for your iPod:

Big Balls – AC/DC

Big Me – Foo Fighters

Mr. Big Stuff – Jean Knight

Can’t Beat it with a Stick – Jackyl

My Ding-a-ling – Chuck Berry

Sled­geham­mer – Peter Gabriel

Mons­ter–  Fred Schneider

Big ten Inch record – Aerosmith

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Today in 1982, the  maxi­mum spee­do­me­ter rea­ding was man­da­ted at 85 MPH.  To cele­brate spee­ding into a new era, here’s today’s playlist:

Speed Racer Theme Song

Speed King – Deep Purple

The Dis­tance – Cake

High­way to Hell – AC/DC

Life in the Fast Lane – The Eagles

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Here’s the play­list com­me­mo­ra­ting the birth of the US Cen­sus Bureau

* Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Seven nation Army

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT5eJwgAtvY

 * Seven Faces – Cali­for­nia Dreamin

http://sevenfacesmusic.com/bandbio.html

My Hero Zero– The Lemonheads

Three is a Magic Num­ber — Blind Melon

http://www.amazon.com/Schoolhouse-Rock-Rocks-Various-Artists/dp/B000005J80/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1282936279&sr=8–1

 Six words long– Weird Al

http://www.amazon.com/Even-Worse-Weird-Al-Yankovic/dp/B00000HZYJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1282936312&sr=1–1

 Hawaii Five O – Gary Hoey

http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Surf-Gary-Hoey/dp/B0009IOR9I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1282936340&sr=1–1

 Four Sticks — Rollins Band

http://www.amazon.com/Encomium-Tribute-Zeppelin-Various-Artists/dp/B000002J3Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1282936475&sr=8–1-catcorr

Four Year Strong – Love Song

http://www.amazon.com/Punk-Goes-Pop-Volume-Two/dp/B001UF36S2/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1282936439&sr=301–1

 Aven­ged Seven­fold – Paranoid

http://www.amazon.com/Paranoid/dp/B001UERWNS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1282936400&sr=8–1-catcorr

 Three’s Com­pany —  Richard Cheese

http://www.amazon.com/Dick-at-Nite-Richard-Cheese/dp/B000WS4PGA/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1282936366&sr=1–9

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Today in 1955 the 1st sun-powered auto­mo­bile was demons­tra­ted ( Chi­cago, Ill)

To cele­brate this shi­ning achie­ve­ment, here’s today’s playlist:

Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden

Island in the Sun – Weezer

Sunshine of your Love – Clap­ton (But I really like the ver­sion by Fudge Tunnel)

Wal­king on Sunshine – Katrina and the Waves

Sun – They Might Be Giants

Don’t let the sun go down on me – Roger Daltry (From the Lost Boys Soundtrack)

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As I sat with my beau­ti­ful wife watching the Pri­me­time Emmy Awards last night, they star­ted announ­cing TV shows I was not aware of.  There were cate­go­ries where the shows in con­ten­tion I’ve never seen and some I’ve never even heard of. 

I thought I was a TV jun­kie, but it appears that I must not be.  It may be because I don’t watch anything serious or in any way dra­ma­tic.  I con­sume the junk food of TV broad­cas­ting.  It’s pro­bably rot­ted my brain enough so I can’t even recog­nize those other TV shows.  Maybe I’m TV Disabled? 

OK, the com­mer­cials are almost over.  Back to the Dirty jobs marathon.

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Today in 1930 William H Taft 27th US Pre­si­dent, died. 

Besi­des being the only per­son to be Pre­si­dent of the US and then later Chief Jus­tice, William Howard Taft was a large man, so to cele­brate his enor­mous con­tri­bu­tion to society, here’s today’s Playlist:

 Fat – Weird Al

He’s Ain’t  Heavy, He’s my brother – Neil Dia­mond or the Hollies

Roc­ka­fe­ller Skank – Fat­boy Slim

Baby Got Back – Sir Mixa­lot or Jonathan Coulton

Thick n’ Thin – The Black Crowes

Livin Large – L7

Happy being Fat – Carole King

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It was get­ting dark that Fri­day night when I got a phone call, Mark, our 15 year old was in a small acci­dent.  He hit a curb and blew a tire, and, oh yeah, got a tic­ket for exhi­bi­tion dri­ving.  Whoa whoa whoa!  What?  Yeah a tic­ket for exhi­bi­tion driving. 

What came next was pretty typi­cal for a situa­tion like this, my wife and I were disap­poin­ted and Mark was a little ratt­led.  Thank­fully we had a con­tract I drew up prior to him get­ting his license just a few weeks ago.  It details punish­ments as agreed upon by both us and Mark and out­li­nes what he is res­pon­si­ble for. 

Since the “mishap”, I’ve been gree­ted by so many parents who chuc­kle, slap me on the back and say “Wel­come to the club” and “All kids at this age go through this”.  Really?  EVERY child does?  I guess I will have to come up with a plan for Mark’s two youn­ger sis­ters.  Here’s what I have so far.

Step 1.  Don’t allow them to get a driver’s Per­mit until they are at least 27. 

That’s all I have right now.

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Today in 1860, the Ame­ri­can Canoe Asso­cia­tion was foun­ded at Lake George NY.  To cele­brate canoes, here’s today’s playlist:

I’m On a Boat – Lonely Island

Banana Boat Song – Harry Belafonte

Michael, Row the Boat Ashore – The Beach Boys

Theme From Love Boat

Come On Down to My Boat – Every Mother’s Son

Rock the Boat – Hues Corporation

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Today in 1869 Mar­ga­rine was paten­ted in Paris, for use by French Navy.  To so cele­brate all things sprea­da­ble, here’s today’s playlist:

Pop­corn by Hot But­ter
Make it with you – Bread
Lady Mar­ma­lade – Chris­tina Agui­lera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, Pink, etc)
Black — Pearl Jam
Three Little Pigs — Green Jelly
Mar­ga­rine — Sad­gasm (from the Simpsons)

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It was a twin­kle in the eye just months ago and now it’s a huge glassy eye.

Mr. Scott “Ava­tar” Wild and Me, Brian “Oil Pan” Matthews will meet for the third time ever and  create utter chaos and con­fu­sion.  It will be a great time. 

The Red Wild Show pre­miers today at 4pm

You can lis­ten by going to http://www.urlradio.net and clic­king on “Lis­ten” or just go here:

http://theurlradio.com/listen/

There will be talks of con­tests, inter­net good­ness, ques­tions and ans­wers, and maybe some Bra­zi­llian throat music.  Never know!

Check out http://www.redwildshow.com if you have nothing else bet­ter to do.  I dare you.

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For those of you who don’t keep up with Ame­rica, July Fourth is a big thing here because that’s the day the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence was sig­ned in 1776, effec­ti­vely crea­ting the U.S. (OK, in rea­lity the Dec­la­ra­tion was likely sig­ned on a later date and in inter­vals, but kee­ping it to just the one day saves a lot on fireworks).

So it’s one of those “more iro­nic than weird” coin­ci­den­ces that one of the foun­ding fathers and second Pre­si­dent of the Uni­ted Sta­tes, John Adams, met his maker on July 4, 1826: 50 years to the day after Ame­rica was born.

Where it Gets Weird:

Right before John Adams died, he mut­te­red, “Tho­mas Jef­fer­son sur­vi­ves,” since the two enjo­yed a bit of a bro­mance in the twi­light of their lives (Jef­fer­son of course taking the White House right after Adams).

Howe­ver, little did the Adams’s (or the country) know, Jef­fer­son had just died a few hours prior, also on the fif­tieth anni­ver­sary of Ame­ri­can independence.

We admit that having just one of these men die on July 4, 1826 as oppo­sed to any of the 18,261 other days after sig­ning the Dec­la­ra­tion is kinda weird, but having both these men die on this day?

Where it Gets Even Weirder:

So, two of the nation’s first three pre­si­dents died on the same day. So by our cal­cu­la­tions, it’d be like a thou­sand pre­si­dents before you’d have another die on the Fourth of July.

Or, you know, two. Our fifth Pre­si­dent, James Mon­roe, died on July 4, 1831. Yep, three of our first five Pre­si­dents died on Inde­pen­dence Day.

While we’re on the July 4th thing, can we also throw in the Battle of Gettys­burg, the lar­gest and most pivo­tal battle in the Civil War, a day that deter­mi­ned the fate of the nation Adams and Jef­fer­son hel­ped create? It ended on July 4, 1863.

And that vic­tory was cru­cial for the Union for­ces because, in a com­ple­tely unre­la­ted battle, Union Gene­ral Ulys­ses S. Grant’s six-month cam­paign against Vicks­burg, Mis­sis­sippi finally ended in the city’s uncon­di­tio­nal surrender.

Also on July Fourth.

By the way, we said July Fourth was a big deal here, that may not go for pla­ces like Vicks­burg, who didn’t cele­brate it as a holi­day until after World War II. Pos­sibly because they were still bit­ter over the Civil War thing, or because they’re just worried that the ven­ge­ful July 4 spi­rit will return to take out another president.

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Just after 5:30 yes­ter­day Mark heard two words he had been lon­ging to hear for over a year.  “You pas­sed”.  He took his road test to get his driver’s license.  He is now a licen­sed dri­ver which opens up a new world of free­dom for him, and an excuse for me to brush up on traf­fic laws.  In the last year during one our many dri­ves prac­ti­cing, we spot­ted dozens upon dozens of peo­ple making silly dri­ving mis­ta­kes.  Not just run­ning red lights or rolling stops, but other driver’s swer­ving around yelling out win­dows,  peo­ple dri­ving large trucks like they think it’s a Camaro in the movie “Can­non­ball Run 2”.  These were all lear­ning moments follo­wed by each of us utte­ring “Stu­pid peo­ple are everywhere”.

So, Mark, you are embar­king in another new phase in your life of mobi­lity. Just remem­ber  as you drive solo, beware of the stu­pid peo­ple.  They really are everywhere.

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I like your shoes.

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5.  Star Trek has ama­zing simi­la­ri­ties to accounting.

4.  If your boss says “rInpa’ jaj­vam, De’ vIghaj­nIS” you know they need that report by the end of the day.

3.  There’s no harass­ment laws regar­ding squashing tribbles

2.  All orga­ni­za­tions should encou­rage diver­sity.  If they don’t, then they should feel the wrath of Klingons

1.  Don’t ask, yIghelQo’!

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It’s a sultry sum­mer Tues­day eve­ning.  My beau­ti­ful wife and I wan­der into a Best Wes­tern loo­king over the inters­tate like friendly gar­goyle.  Inside, we are gree­ted by a sign with an arrow.  Being the lem­mings we are, we follow the signs and end up outside a dar­ke­ned ball­room filled with peo­ple wea­ring pea­sant skirts, stoc­king caps, and goa­tees.  I am pretty sure that was just one per­son wea­ring all those at the same time.

We pay our cover charge and enter.  The Live CD is pla­ying and peo­ple are min­gling, some lou­der than others, when a man in Middle Eas­tern garb enters and starts spray pain­ting “F” then “U” then “N” on the back­drop.  He finishes spe­lling Funky Arabs and they kick off the show.

 A few things I wan­ted to share about the show—an overly-happy dude wea­ring a thrift store hat and a shirt that reads, “Quit work, Make music” is enthu­sias­ti­cally han­ding out ska­ter stickers.

A cer­tain local poli­ti­cian wea­ring red snea­kers (bonus points for you, sir) is dan­cing with who I assume is his wife, to a song about lying girlfriends.

 It was fun all around, plus on the way home, I got to have an Ice Cream Snicker’s Bar.

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