October 30, 2023. Ah the memories. Eggs by the dozen, bags of flour, water balloons by the trash can full and toilet paper for the trees. I grew up in the 60s in Central Kansas where being a dumb kid on Devils Night didn’t get you arrested or shot. What fun we had. Today is Buy a Donut Day, Checklist Day, Haunted Refrigerator Night, Mischief Night, National Candy Corn Day, National Text Your Ex Day, Sugar Addition Awareness Day, and World Audio Drama Day. Now some pre-Halloween history: On this day in 1503 Queen Isabella of Spain banned violence against the Indians in the Americas. This decree was issued 9 years after Columbus “discovered” them. On this day in 1784 Napoleon Bonaparte was admitted to the elite Ecole Militare in Paris to start his military career. In 1866 on this day Jessie James’ gang robbed a bank in Lexington Missouri of $2,000 ($38,720 in 2023 dollars). This is the day in 1919 that the baseball league presidents called for the abolishment of the spitball. On this day in 1922 Benito Mussolini formed the government of Italy. No vote needed. This is the day in 1938 when the radio broadcast of H.G. Wells “War of the Worlds” narrated by Orson Welles caused mass panic. On this day in 1952 Clarence Birdseye began selling frozen peas. On this day in 1974 “The Rumble in the Jungle” was fought by Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. This was the “rope-a-dope” tactic was introduced by Ali who beat Foreman in the 8th round in Kinshasa, Zaire. Today’s observations come from the television personality, comedian and writer, Steve Allen who died in 2,000. Steve said, “totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.” “Nothing is better than the unintended humor of reality.” “In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In our actual society we insist they be cheerleaders.” “One of the nice things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in our imaginations.” Enough for today. Abide.
