November 12
Better Than News
The Guitar Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film adaptation of the 1972 song by David Gates starring Peter O'Toole Sophia Loren and directed by Arthur Hiller.
Goldfisher (1964): James Bond must stop aquaculture mogul Auric Goldfisher from stealing the United States Strategic Milt Reserve at Fort Knox.
How Green Was My Green Felt Jungle is a cautionary novel about a Welsh family and the gambling community in which they live: Las Vegas.
Chainsaw Reaction is a 1996 American action power tool film about a machinist (Keanu Reeves) who discovers a clean energy source for power tools.
Polenta and You (full title: Polenta and You: The Untold Story of the Niger Polenta Forgeries) is a young adult adventure story about the confusion between harmless polenta and radioactive yellowcake.
Panspermia Travel Agency is a travel agency run by and for tardigrades.
Are You Sure
• ... that astronomer, mathematician, and political leader Jean Sylvain Bailly (15 September 1736 – 12 November 1793) was guillotined during the Reign of Terror?
On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction
1793: Astronomer, mathematician, and political leader Jean Sylvain Bailly is guillotined during the Reign of Terror. He participated in the early stages of the French Revolution, presiding over the Tennis Court Oath, and serving as the mayor of Paris from 1789 to 1791.
1941: New York mobster and hit man turned goverment informant Abe Reles falls to his death while under police custody. Despite knotted sheets and other evidence of an escape attempt, there is widespread belief that Reles was murdered to prevent him from testifying.
1944: Mathematician George David Birkhoff dies. He was one of the most important leaders in American mathematics in his generation.
1947: Painter and forger Han van Meegeren is convicted on falsification and fraud charges.
1990: Engineer and computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.
Topic of the Day
Walt Disney
Profit-Centers of the Caribbean is a series of lectures on macroeconomic theory produced by The Jerry Bruckheimer Enterprise and based on Walt Disney's balance sheet of the same name.
"There's a Great Big Beautiful Machine Elf" is the battle cry of the rebel Tao Te Gnom fighters.
Artificially intelligent brass knuckles are sometimes called "conjoined twin Mickey Mice" in a playful yet derisive satirical allusion to the Disney Corporation.
Old Thumper is an American drama film about a Fremen boy and a stray dog on post-Butlerian Jihad Arrakis.
Wodka on Ice is a satirical re-imagining of Disney on Ice.