Torn Between Two Posts

What I really wanted to post about this morning was the "Family Circus" comic strip, which made its debut on this day in 1960. I wanted to talk about how amusing it still is after all these years, and about how it has changed, yet remained the same.

Instead, I have to cut it short because the staph infection is back with a vengeance, it seems. I have been on the antibiotics for over a week, and it is not getting better.



Today is:

Army Day, Mexico

Butter Festival begins, China

Chief Leschi Day

Flag Day, Netherlands and Turkmenistan

Fly-By for Goblins and others -- Fairy Calendar

National Chocolate Mint Day

Pusiuraura, Melanesia (god of the dart game)

St. Conrad of Piacenza's Day


Birthdays Today:

Justine Bateman, 1966
Seal, 1963
Jeff Daniels, 1955
Margaux Hemingway, 1955
Smokey Robinson, 1940
Lee Marvin, 1924
Willam III, 1817 (last king of the Netherlands -- there have only been queens since)
Nicolas Copernicus, 1473


Today in History:

Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus' defeats beats Clodius Albinus at Lyon, 197
Emperor Constantius II shuts down all pagan temples, 356
The second Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ends as a council in Constantinople formally reinstates veneration of icons in the churches, 842
Jews of Tyrnau, Hungary (then Trnava, Czech) are expelled, 1539
The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America, 1600
Britain and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, and New Amsterdam formally becomes New York, 1674
The first practical coal burning locomotive in the US makes a trial run, in Pennsylvania, 1831
Tin-type camera is patented by Hamilton Smith of Gambier, Ohio, 1856
Daniel E. Sickles is acquitted of the murder of his wife's lover, Phillip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key), on the grounds of temporary insanity, the first time this defense is successfully used, 1859
Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom in Russia, 1861
Thomas Edison patents the gramophone (phonograph), 1878
Kansas becomes the first US state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages, 1881
WK Kellog and Charles Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co., 1906
The first prize is inserted into a Cracker Jack box, 1913
Ed Wynn becomes the first talent to sign as a radio entertainer, 1922
Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize for poetry, 1949
Bill Keane's "Family Circus" comic strip makes its debut, 1960