Todays historical fit of wit.

On this day in 1938 Orson Welles decided he was going to scare the hell out of the American public. Sure sure he had no idea he was going to cause people to lose their freaking minds, but he knew that H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds would be a great retread for the media of radio. I mean look at that guy, you know it would have been good for TV too. Welles is an intense scary looking guy. Just look at that mug. That ain't a face for radio. But all kidding aside, Welles pulled off his hysteria with killer sound effects and some really good acting from his crew he had playing announcers and other characters. Hell he even had one lady in the mid west bust up in a church screaming it was the end of the world and New York had been destroyed. Good stuff. Fear is always there, in the public mind, eating at the backs of our skulls, working on our nerves. Look at 1938, 20 years removed from WWI when the newspaper industry laid the framework for driving a nation into a reactionary fear of destruction. The oncoming fear of Nazi Germany staring the world in the face, its no wonder that the population was driven like herd of spooked cattle from this great piece of entertainment. In the end Welles thought this may end his career, but it really got him noticed by Hollywood, and that gave us Citizen Kane in 1941. Which is a great flick, I recommend it. Although with todays generation, the straight acting and dialogue may render it unwatchable to many. You actually have to pay attention to speech! ahhhhhhhh.

But going a little farther back in our history today in 1735 we get the birthday of John Adams, the second President of the United States, was born in Braintree, MA. His son became the sixth President of the U.S. The first political family dynasty in the US. Somewhere you think we would have taken notice of this and tried to prevent other sons from being president if their pops ever held the office. But I guess it came down to the fact the Adams kicked some ass and we thought nepotism was a good thing. Lesson learned right? Anyway, happy birthday John Adams.

In 1945 the U.S. government announced the end of shoe rationing. I know your like what? Why the hell would you ration shoes? But see this is from another time, another war when people actually had to do without to support the army in the field. It wasn't as simple as throwing money at the situation. Aside from the fact that American soldiers are dying, WWII doesn't draw any comparison to the Iraq war. Now your could draw some comparisons between the American Revolution and the Iraq war, but you wouldn't like the fact the Continental Army was playing the role of insurgents.

Alright ladies and gents, you have a good day.