July 11
Better Than News
Dial M for Marty is an American romantic crime drama film about a good-natured but socially awkward butcher who becomes involved in a plot to commit murder.
"Number '39 Dream" is a song by John Lennon and Queen.
Five Easel Pieces is a 1970 drama art film about a surly watercolor painter (Jack Nicholson) whose rootless existence belies his privileged youth as the heir to oil wealth.
Of Mice and Penguins is a 1939 American superhero film about two men, George (Burgess Meredith) and his mentally-challenged partner Lennie (Lon Chaney Jr.), trying to survive during the dustbowl of the 1930s and pursuing a dream of running their own crime gang instead of always working for the Joker.
"Wendigo Girls" is a lost episode of the American television series "The Night Stalker" starring Darren McGavin. The episode features guest stars Richard Kiel, Amy Ray, and Emily Saliers.
Are You Sure
... that Blue Peacock was a British tactical nuclear weapon project in the 1950s which designed and built ten-kiloton nuclear mines for deployment in Germany; that cold weather presented technical challenges; and that live chickens were proposed as a heating system: the chickens would be sealed inside the casing, with a supply of food and water, remaining alive for a week or so, with the chickens' body heat keeping the mine's components at a working temperature?
... that "A Devil Sold Fruit" is an anagram of "David Otis Fuller"?
On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction
1732: Astronomer, freemason, and writer Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande born. As a lecturer and writer Lalande will help popularize astronomy. His planetary tables will be the best available up to the end of the 18th century.
1801: Astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.
1812: Physicist and academic Petrus Leonardus Rijke born. He will explore the physics of electricity, and be known for the Rijke tube (which turns heat into sound, by creating a self-amplifying standing wave).
1931: Physicist and academic Tullio Regge born. He and G. Ponzano will develop a quantum version of Regge calculus in three space-time dimensions now known as the Ponzano-Regge model; this will be the first of a whole series of state sum models for quantum gravity known as spin foam models.
1958: EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, is shut down, having been superseded by EDSAC 2.
Topic of the Day
Condoms
Talking Condoms is a brand of novelty condoms. When the foil packet is opened, it plays a pre-recorded message.
Kondom Kingdom is an American retail condom franchise.
The Condom Olympics are the leading international condom sporting events.
Always wear a condom while chiseling a mortice and tenon.
Cracker Jacks with condom prize inside.
Prophylacticon 2000.
