December 24

On Christmas Eve, 1906, radio innovator Reginald Fessenden, broadcasting from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, using a synchronous rotary-spark transmitter, made the first radio broadcast containing programming. The broadcast included Fessenden playing O Holy Night on the violin, and reading both poetry and a passage from the Bible.

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December 23

On the 23rd in 1989, pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager landed their airplane, named Voyager, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. There is nothing particularly interesting at that, except for one little thing – they had taken off from Edwards Air Force Base on December 14. In the interim, they had flown around the planet without landing or re-fueling, becoming the first people to fly an aircraft non-stop around the world. A transcript of the cabin voice recorder indicates that a large portion of the flight consisted of Yeager saying to Rutan, “For crying out loud, just pull over and ask for directions. I don’t understand why you won’t ask someone how to get there. What is wrong with you? It’s not a crime to ask for directions, heck, anyone can get lost. It’s not a big deal; just ask for directions. You never want to ask anyone for directions.”

December 22

The holiday season puts a lot of pressure on people which is probably why, in a trial without a jury, on the 22nd in 1964 Lenny Bruce was convicted of obscenity, a decision, which when viewed from a vantage point over 40 years on, now seems just plain silly. Bruce’s brand of comedy now seems distressingly banal. But then again all too many things that at one time seemed frightening are now just terribly plain, edging ever closer to becoming unforgivably boring. As hard as it may be to believe, there was a time when rock and roll was innovative and dangerous; now it is nothing more than the rather tepid, corpulent beneficiary of corporate largesse. Today people react to a guy like Marilyn Manson whereas they responded to a guy like Alice Cooper. There is a huge difference between reacting and responding and I find this development to be somewhat sad in many ways. I think both comedy and rock and roll is far more interesting when it is dangerous.

December 21

Walt Disney’s movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered on the 21st in 1937, at a theater in Los Angeles, California. It went into general release on February 4, 1938. As you must know, the movie was remarkably successful. The Motion Picture Academy would give Walt Disney an honorary Academy Award for the movie and Disney was presented with a full-size Oscar trophy and seven miniature ones by Shirley Temple. Snow White has the distinction of being the second oldest animated movie whose running time made it eligible for an Academy Award. The oldest surviving animated movie is The New Gulliver, produced in the Soviet Union and released in 1935. The New Gulliver tells the riveting story of young boy who dreams of himself as a version of Gulliver who lands in Lilliput and suffers under capitalist inequality and exploitation. I don’t know about you but the plot line alone makes me want to immediately run out and look for a copy of that one. There is something about cartoons detailing the workers’ struggle to break free of the iron fist of the brutal ruling class that just sets my heart aflutter and I find myself having to fight the temptation to have a clenched fist tattooed on my forehead. Just as a closing note, Dumpy, Sleazy and Bitchy were not the names of any of the seven dwarfs.

December 20

If I were to mention the name Arco, would the name ring any bells for you? Well, it is the name of a gasoline company but Arco is also the name of a small desert town in Idaho. Its one claim to fame (the town’s, not the gas company’s) is that it is the home of the Experimental Breeder Reactor – 1 (EBR-1) that has been designated a United States National Historic Landmark. This puts it in the company of the Statue of Liberty and slew of other landmarks, probably including the first International House of Pancakes and In and Out Burgers. Still in the dark? Let me grab a flashlight and shed a bit of light on the subject. On the 20th in 1951, at 1:50 in the afternoon, EBR-1 began to generate electricity, enough electricity, difficult though this may be to believe, to actually power four 200-watt light bulbs. ERB-1 was not only the first nuclear reactor to generate power but also the first breeder reactor, producing plutonium as a by-product. There were some problems however and on November 29, 1955, an operator error resulted in a partial meltdown of the reactor.

December 19

American Presidents have a wide range of reputations. A reputation for having unusual pets, or even particularly nice ones, is not among them. Household pets for the White House seem to be limited to rather bland ones like dogs, often ones with a tendency, like their owners, to roll around drooling on the carpet in the Lincoln bedroom. On rare occasions, the leader of the free world will choose a cat, showing better judgment in their taste in pets than in their plans for the country. There is however, at least one president who chose a pet that was practical as well as soothing. President William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States, had not one but two cows as pets. Pauline Wayne, a Holstein cow, replaced Mooly Wooly in the President’s household. Miss Wayne, as she was referred to, kept the White House grounds neatly trimmed and supplied the Taft household with fresh milk. It is rather nice that, apparently, Miss Wayne did not also furnish the main course for state dinners. She was essentially a pet and people should not eat pets. This practical yet tender side of Taft explains many things. It explains why, on the 19th in 1912 he pardoned William H. Van Schaick, the captain of the steamship General Slocum, who was imprisoned for 3 ½ years in Sing Sing prison after being found liable for the deaths of over 1,000 people when the Slocum burned and sank in New York City's East River on June 15, 1904.

December 18

Saki was born on the 18th in 1870. Wait a minute, isn’t that a Chinese wine made from rice, generally served warm? That, of course, assumes that you will have the patience to warm the stuff up and don’t just pour it on your cereal in the morning. I am fairly certain that Saki, with an ‘i’ has something to do with the 18th, hang on a moment while I go through my notes. I really have to straighten this place up a bit. A saki is a small, monkey with a very long tail, from the Western hemisphere. What? That can’t be it, as far as I can tell species do not celebrate birthdays. Excuse me once again. Here it is - Saki was the nom de plume of Hector Hugh Munro who was born on the 18th in 1870. As it is with all writers, you either like his work or you don’t, but anyone who comes up with the line ‘say what you will about the decay of Christianity, but the religion that produced Green Chartreuse can never really die’ certainly deserves to have his birthday remembered.