History Schmistory: November 10. Street Smarts.

1969: National Educational Television, soon to be PBS, introduces the world to Sesame Street. If you go all the way to the end and hang a left, you’ll be in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

1188px-Plazasesamologo.svg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sesame_Street#/media/File:Plazasesamologo.svg

 

Today’s MarcoWord (Italian): Ieri (Yesterday)

Today’s MarcoWord (Italian): Ieri. (eeYERee) YesterdayIeri, all my troubles seemed so far away.”

History Schmistory: November 9. Missing Magnifico.

1494: Only two years after our man Lorenzo Magnifico dies, his eldest son Piero (the Unfortunate) manages to get the entire Family de’ Medici kicked out of Florence. This led to the sarcastic expression; “way to go, Piero!” Actually it’s not an expression at all, but you should start using it anyway. It’ll make you feel intellectually superior to others 🙂 Hit it, Marco!

History Schmistory: November 8. Rays of Hope.

1895: Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-Ray almost completely by accident. And that’s when the fun began!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Historical_X-ray_nci-vol-1893-300.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Historical_X-ray_nci-vol-1893-300.jpg

GO THERE!

Craving some opulence? St. Petersburg, Russia has enough lavish palaces and cathedrals to keep you busy for a while.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/St.Petersburg_Russia_Summer_Palace-7.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/St.Petersburg_Russia_Summer_Palace-7.jpg

History Schmistory: November 7. A Dynamic Duo.

1908: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in Bolivia. They remain dead until magically resurfacing in a 1930s caper.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/The_Sting_(film)_on_location_in_Pasadena.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/The_Sting_(film)_on_location_in_Pasadena.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Cassidy's_Wild_Bunch#/media/File:Wildbunchlarge.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Cassidy’s_Wild_Bunch#/media/File:Wildbunchlarge.jpg

History Schmistory: November 6. …hanging on a telephone wire!

1941: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time in his 30 year reign to boldly claim that, even though they had lost more than 350,000 troops, the Germans had in fact lost over 4 million, so this war should be wrapped up in no time.

History Schmistory: November 5. Back in time.

1955: Doctor Emmett Brown conceives the design for the time-travel enabling flux capacitor after taking a nasty fall and bumping his head on a bathroom sink. Someone should tell Marco that movies are not real, because he has been searching for Doc Brown for a while now…

History Schmistory: November 4. So long ago…

2008: Barack Obama becomes the first African-American President of the United States. Despite his near superhero status, his hair quickly goes gray like all the others.

 

By Official White House Photo by Pete Souza (P120612PS-0463 (direct link)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Official White House Photo by Pete Souza (P120612PS-0463 (direct link)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Being President is tough on the hair.

GO THERE! More monkey business…

November 27th is the date for this year’s Monkey Buffet Festival  in Lopburi, Thailand, a Hindu festival where hundreds of free roaming long-tailed macaques are set loose on a mountainous smorgasbord of delectables. The offering symbolizes an ancient story from the Ramayana in which the hero, Rama, offers a gift of land, the very land on which Lopburi sits, to his friend Hanuman, the Monkey King. Perfect excuse to monkey around for a day.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Monkey_Buffet_Lopburi_02.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Monkey_Buffet_Lopburi_02.jpg

 

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