Well the Show Me State has an American Idol. Sweet. Somehow I managed to find myself watching the whole fiasco last night. What a shameless display of capitalism and showmanship. Paula Abdul's breasts were begging to fall out of her dress. That might have made the show worth watching. But, if anyone asks, I can say that yes, I too watched the television program which proved to the world that not everything that comes out of Missouri is crap, unless of course you consider the whole American Idol thing to be crapolicious. And today it's raining, all sorts of lightning going on, looks like the world my end at any moment, but it won't. Nope, it's going to keep going on until I find myself in a mini-van or station wagon remembering those bygone Wednesday nights spent with the freedom to watch American Idol uninterrupted... please give me something to distract me!!!
So, on this (Thursday, Veer-waar, Panjshanbeh, yawm-al-khamis, Istijlal, Boomtime) in 334 BCE Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia at the Battle of Granicus. In 1337 Pope Gregory XI issued five papal bulls (because one just wasn't enough) denouncing John Wycliffe, not to be confused with Wyclef Jean. Wycliffe was opposed to papal interference in secular matters and was the first to translate the Bible into God's English. He was also big on predestination and believed that there was ONE universal church and outside of that there was NO salvation. In 1807 Vice President Aaron Burr was indicted for treason. In 1819 the SS Savannah left Savannah, Georgia en route to becoming the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. In 1826 Darwin's ship, the HMS Beagle, left Plymouth, England. In 1843 thousands of people left Independence, MO on the Oregon Trail in search of a nicer place to live due to a horrible meth problem. In 1844 the Bab announced his revelation to the world, effectively founding Babism, the forerunner of the Baha'i. In 1856 Preston Brooks, a Congressman from S. Carolina, beat down Senator Charles Sumner with a cane because Sumner was getting all out of sorts about the Bleeding Kansas situation (pictured). In 1906 the Summer Olympics opened in Athens. That same day the Wright Brothers received a patent for their "flying machine". In 1915 five trains collided in Scotland killing 227. In 1936 the Irish airline Aer Lingus was founded. I've flown Aer Lingus seveal times. They're nice people but do not offer free booze on their flights which really pisses me off. And in 1967 the department store L'Innovation in Brussels, Belgium burnt down killing 323 people.
Today is World Biodiversity Day. We should celebrate the diversity of our bios. It's wonderful to have different kinds of bios in the world. There's nothing like the intermingling of bios to remind ourselves that our kind of bio is not the only bio or the best bio, but a different bio.
In Yemen today is National Day. Yemen is on the SW tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Its capital is San'a' and it's home to more than 23 million people who are almost all Muslims. Yemen is slightly larger than California and the average Yemeni woman has 7 children. You know what that means. Yemenis like to get busy, yeah, it's business time in Yemen.
Happy Birthday: Richard Wagner, "Oh Bwoomhilda, you aw wuvwy..."; the artist, Mary Cassatt; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; unabomber, Ted Kaczynski; and Naomi Campbell.
Have a great day....tomorrow is Friday!!!
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