And
so arrives Day #9 of THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT
CALENDAR. And with the arrival of said ninth day comes
the TUESDAY TIMELINE portion of the week.
And,
as always, I tried to come up with a topic that was relevant to Christmas and
holidays and all that fun stuff.
Here's
the catch though. I found the absolute
perfect subject to talk about on this date.
The problem is...I already did a blog on it back in 2011. And no other event that took place on
December 9 was as Christmas oriented at this particular one! I certainly can't do two blog entries on the
same exact subject...
...or,
CAN I?
Hmmm...maybe
there is a way that I can make this work after all. In the meantime, why not enjoy the list of other things that took
place on December 9.
1793 - New York City's first daily newspaper - The
American Minerva - is established
1851 - The first YMCA in North America is established in
the city of Montreal
1872 - P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana becomes the first
African-American governor of a U.S. State
1875 - The Massachusetts Rifle Association is founded
1905 - The law separating church and state is established
in France
1914 - "Days of our Lives" actress Frances
Reid (d. 2010) is born in Wichita Falls, Kansas
1932 - Talk show host Morton Downey Jr. (d. 2001) is
born in Los Angeles, California
1935 - Jay Berwanger is the first recipient of the
Downtown Athletic Club Trophy - which would later come to be known as the
Heisman Trophy
1941 - The Republic of China, Cuba, The Philippine
Commonweath, and Guatemala all declare war against Japan and Germany as World
War II continues
1950 - Harry Gold is sentenced to thirty years behind
bars for aiding Klaus Fuchs pass information about the "Manhattan
Project" to the Soviet Union
1960 - The British drama "Coronation Street"
airs its first episode - as of 2014, it is currently the longest running drama
series still on the air
1962 - The Petrified Forest National Park is established
in Arizona
1968 - Douglas Engelbart debuts hypertext, the computer
mouse, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System
(NLS)
1979 - The eradication of the smallpox virus is
certified
1996 - Lead singer of The Waitresses, Patty Donahue,
dies of lung cancer at just 40 years of age
2008 - Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is arrested by
federal officials on several charges including trying to sell the U.S. Senate
seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama
2012 - Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera is killed in
a plane crash at the age of 43
2013 - A train crash near Bintaro, Indonesia kills seven
and injures 63
And
for celebrity birthdays, we have quite a few to announce. Happy birthday to Kirk
Douglas, Dick
Van Patten, Buck
Henry, Ashleigh
Brilliant, Dame
Judi Dench, Beau
Bridges, Dick
Butkus, Michael
Nouri, John
Malkovich, Donny
Osmond, Nick
Seymour, David
Anthony Higgins,
Joe Lando, Felicity Huffman, Spencer Rochfort, Brian
Bell, Jakob
Dylan, Allison
Smith, Sebastian
Spence, Kara
DioGuardi, Lance
Krall, Reiko
Aylesworth, Tre
Cool, Imogen
Heap, Jesse
Metcalfe, Simon
Helberg, and Elle
Evans.
Okay,
so we have a lot of information presented, and not one piece of it deals with
Christmas. You see my dilemma.
Sigh...I
suppose I'll have to come up with a way to talk about a previously discussed
topic while making it seem fresh and new.
I'm not sure how to go about it, but here goes nothing.
The
date we're going back to? Nearly fifty
years ago. December
9, 1965.
And,
it was on this date that the very first television special starring Charlie
Brown, Linus, Lucy, and Snoopy first aired on network television.
Yes,
it was on December 9, 1965 that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" made its
television debut. It's a television
special that has aired annually for almost fifty Christmases and counting, and
probably contains the best pro-Christmas speech ever heard in a television
special. Take it away, Linus.
Wasn't
that beautiful?
Now,
here's the problem. I already talked
about this special three years ago when this blog was still in its toddler
stages. And, at this stage in the game,
I really don't want to do duplicate posts on the same subject. What am I going to do?
Well,
what if I talk about the special from a different angle? Like, what if I saw myself as one of the
Peanuts gang? What if I was in the
special myself?
What
if I built my own psychiatric help booth and charged the Peanuts gang a nickle
dime oh, hell, with inflation, I'd charge $500 an hour for the gang to ask me
for advice. I wonder what I would say
to them?
I
mean, let's face it...this Christmas special is one that features a lot of
different characters, and each one certainly has room for improvement.
Well,
everyone except Linus Van Pelt anyway.
Because Linus, as we already established, is the pinnacle of rationality
and coolness.
Okay. Let's go with that idea. Oh, but first, let's play a little bit of
music to get us into the mood, courtesy of Vince Guaraldi.
CHARLIE BROWN:
Good grief, man, when the heck are you going to get a backbone? You consistently get whipped by Lucy,
humiliated by your supposed friends, and even your own dog can't stand you half
the time. And you know why? Because you let them walk all over you. Believe me, I know what that is like. So, my advice to you is to stand up
straight, tuck in your yellow zig-zag shirt and set them all straight. There wouldn't have been a Christmas play if
you didn't step up and direct it! And
when those kids started to laugh and you and call you a blockhead after
bringing the most darling little tree to the play with you, you should have
just taken that tree and gone home.
Oh,
wait. You did that. Nevermind.
Anyway,
no charge this time. You've been
through enough.
LUCY: If only
you were more sensitive, kind-hearted, and joyful like your little brother,
Linus. Instead, you come across as a
know-it-all pain in the neck! Clearly,
you are someone who is a full-fledged material girl right down to the plastic,
fake, aluminum Christmas tree that you wanted Charlie Brown to get for the
pageant. And, clearly, you don't like
losing control to anyone. From
threatening to punch your own brother to harassing poor Schroeder to basically
directing Charlie Brown in directing the play, you're certainly not coming
across as a likeable person this Christmas.
I actually cheered when Snoopy kissed you, knowing that you liked
it. Believe me, with your attitude, you
deserved a lot more.
Eventually
you came around and helped Charlie Brown decorate his little tree. But you're still getting a lump of coal and
a final bill for $500.
SNOOPY: Okay. You may have been guilty of laughing at
Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, but you did slobber all over Lucy. You're okay. And, apparently when it comes to decorating houses for Christmas,
you have a talent!
LINUS: Frankly
speaking, you are the star of this special.
You also epitomize the real meaning of what Christmas is all about. Well played, sir. Well played. And, good on
you for not following the crowd either.
You are a person who doesn't take
SHERMY, VIOLET, FRIEDA, and PIG-PEN: Let us get one thing straight.
You are not leaders. You are
followers. That is why you never see
any specials called "It's the Garbage Dump, Pig-Pen", or "It's
Your First Date, Shermy". You were
basically only at the play because you had to be, and you went along with
teasing Charlie Brown because you had the "everyone else is doing it, and
I don't want to feel left out" mentality.
Of course, this worked out in your redemption as well, as you helped
decorate Charlie Brown's tree. But,
seriously, your following along with the crowd will not get you noticed.
SALLY: You may be
Charlie Brown's little sister, but you seem to have taken on a Lucy type
personality. Okay, so you aren't mean
and bossy, but asking Santa Claus for tens and twenties for Christmas? Do you know how much twenty bucks was back
in the 1960s? Talk about dreaming big! Sally, set realistic goals. Please.
3, 4, and 5: You probably don't know them by their
names...ahem...numbers...but by this photo, you probably know who they
are. 5 is the boy in orange, 3 and 4 are the twin girls. And, let's just say that they
won't be winning "Dancing With The Stars" anytime soon. My advice to you three...keep practicing.
Anyway,
that's all that I have to say about that.
Your bills will be in the mail.
In the meantime, let's close off this Tuesday Timeline special by
listening to another classic song from "A Charlie Brown Christmas",
which first aired nearly fifty years ago.
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