All or Nothing

Today is Aunt and Uncle’s Day. If you do not have an Aunt or Uncle, please don’t feel bad, I am sure there is someone out there who does not have a niece or nephew that would love to celebrate with you. If you can’t think of someone, I am available for lunch and dinner as my niece and nephews left for home yesterday. Also, I believe, Mom is available as well.

As if that weren’t enough to celebrate, many celebrate All or Nothing Day today. I have heard of celebrations in Atlantic City, NJ, Las Vegas and Reno, NV and Indian Reservations across the country. Have fun today, but remember your limitations. Well, I guess that warning kind of negates the idea of All or Nothing Day…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY:

Speed Actress, Sandra Bullock(1964); K-Pax Actor, Kevin Spacey (1959); Ice Skater, Dorothy Hamill (1956); Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger (1943); 2001:A Space Odyssey Director, Stanley Kubrick (1928); Raise the Titanic! Actor, Jason Robards (1922); Breakfast at Tiffany’s Director, Blake Edwards (1922); I Love Lucy Actress, Vivian Vance (1912); Comedian and wife of George Burns, Gracie Allen (1906); Brave New World writer, Aldous Huxley (1894); Painter specializing in the west and Indian portraits, George Catlin (1796).

1984- Edward Theodore Gein died from complications from cancer. Ed Gein was arrested in 1957 after the body of a missing storekeeper was found at his farm. After a complete search, the remains of 10 women were discovered only 2 of which were murdered by Gein, the others, he had dug up after funerals. Gein was the  inspiration for Robert’s Bloch’s character Norman Bates in the novel Psycho; characters in Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs and the movie(s) Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

1975- Disco hits #1 with the new song and dance craze, The Hustle. Do the Hustle! Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp….Do the Hustle….

1942- Novelist, William Faulkner, contracted with Warner Brothers to work as a screenwriter. In the 5 months of the contract, he wrote To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep. He believed it would help sell his novels, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August and Absalom, Absalom!, which he had written between 1929 and 1936, and were not commercially accepted.

1931- Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota are dealt a second disaster on top of a devastating flood. An unknown number of grasshoppers swarmed and dessicated millions of acres of farmland  eating cornstalks down to the ground and leaving entire fields bare. There were so many ‘hoppers it was said they blocked out the sun and you could shovel them with a scoop. My sentiments: EWW. Of all insects, grasshoppers (all varieties and sizes) give me the willies the most.

1908- The Office of the Chief Examiner was founded. This newly hired group of federal investigators,the 10 men were former Secret Service agents,  would report to Stanley W Finch at the Department of Justice. Their charge was to investigate criminals who evaded arrest by crossing state lines. In 1909, this it was renamed the Bureau of Investigation, in 1935, it became the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1775- The first Postmaster General of the United Colonies was named, and, hence, the US Postal System was established. While serving in this post, Benjamin Franklin set up more efficient routes (which cut delivery time in half), created a rate chart to standardize delivery fees based on distance and weight.When he left in 1776, to become a diplomat in France, Franklin left a postal system with regular routes from Florida to Maine.