Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy International Mountain Day!
Mountain Day refers to three different and unrelated events: (1) Mountain Day, a student celebration in some colleges in the United States in which classes are cancelled without prior notice, and the student body heads to the mountains or a park, (2) International Mountain Day, held each year on 11 December, which was established by the UN General Assembly in 2003 to encourage sustainable development in mountains, and (3) Mountain Day, a national holiday in Japan as of 2016.




On December 11, 1919, the citizens of Enterprise, Alabama, erected a monument to the boll weevil, the pest that devastated their fields but forced residents to end their dependence on cotton and to pursue mixed farming and manufacturing. Measuring an average length of six millimeters (one-quarter inch), the insect illegally entered the USA via Mexico in the 1890s and reached southeastern Alabama in 1915. It remained the most destructive cotton pest in North America for much of the twentieth century.


The infestation led to the introduction of the peanut—an alternative crop popularized by the Tuskegee Institute‘s George Washington Carver. Peanut cultivation not only returned vital nutrients to soils depleted by cotton cultivation, but also proved a successful cash crop for local farmers.

Boll Weevil Honored


Here's Ms Vampira...The original glamour ghoul herself, "Vampira", of late night 1950s television, believed to be the first television "horror host" was actually born Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi (later changed to the easier surname Nurmi) on December 11, 1922 in Gloucester, Massachusetts (not Finland as she often claimed).


Of course, her unusual figure was a key factor to her success, as Vampira claimed to be gifted with the following measurements: 38-17-36! Her uncle was the multiple Olympic medal runner Paavo Nurmi.

She was raised in Astoria, Oregon, where she worked in tuna and salmon canneries. She relocated to Los Angeles in 1940, with hopes of becoming an actress. After several minor film roles, she found success with her Vampira character, television's first horror host. Nurmi hosted her own series, The Vampira Show, from 1954 to 1955, on KABC-TV.

In the 1940s, Nurmi claimed she had a child with Orson Welles; since Welles was married to Rita Hayworth, the child was given up for adoption.


December 11, 1959: Twilight Zone's "And When The Sky Was Opened" S01E11 aired. Three astronauts return to Earth after testing an experimental rocket. Then things start getting weird. Rod Taylor, Charles Aidman and Jim Hutton star in Rod Serling's adaptation of a Richard Matheson story. One of the best, in the top 5.




Dec 11, 1959: Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) steals $40k to start a new life with boyfriend Sam Loomis. In Gus Van Sant's remake, Marion Crane steals $400k. She did it again in 1998.


It's not actually stated in the movie, but the clues are there with the novel released in 1959, and December 11th being a Friday in 1959.



Tales of New Jersey - "Andrews' Balloon" "what seems to have been the world's first steerable balloon. He built several of them in the period 1848-1866. Each consisted of 3 cigar-shaped gas bags, lashed together & filled with hydrogen..." (New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, 1963)


"Being a collection of the best tales, fact and folklore that have appeared in the pages of Tel-News, the informal publication sent to all New Jersey Bell customers since 1935."

"We hope you enjoy these tales as much as the Tel-news' editor, Frank P. Townsend, has enjoyed the pleasant chore of ferreting out the unusual and the little-known about our State over a span of nearly 30 years. The illustrations accompanying the stories are by Harry Devlin, of Mountainside, New Jersey."
Tales of New Jersey


Dec 11, 1972: Apollo 17 became the 6th and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon. Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, while Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans orbited above. Schmitt was the only trained geologist to walk on the lunar surface.


S72-49079 (8 September 1972) - This is the official emblem of the Apollo 17 lunar landing mission which will be flown by astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans and Harrison H. Schmitt. The insignia is dominated by the image of Apollo, the Greek sun god. Suspended in space behind the head of Apollo is an American eagle of contemporary design, the red bars of the eagle's wing represent the bars in the United States flag; the three white stars symbolize the three astronaut crew men. The background is deep blue space and within it are the Moon, the planet Saturn and a spiral galaxy or nebula. The Moon is partially overlaid by the eagle's wing suggesting that this is a celestial body that man has visited and in that sense conquered.

The thrust of the eagle and the gaze of Apollo to the right and toward Saturn and the galaxy is meant to imply that man's goals in space will someday include the planets and perhaps the stars. The colors of the emblem are red, white and blue, the colors of our flag; with the addition of gold, to symbolize the golden age of space flight that will begin with this Apollo 17 lunar landing. The Apollo image used in this emblem was the famous Apollo of Belvedere sculpture now in the Vatican Gallery in Rome. This emblem was designed by artist Robert T. McCall in collaboration with the astronauts.

Apollo Lunar Surface Journal


Seven weeks before resigning the Presidency, Richard Nixon and his wife Pat fly to Syria 1974 for a visit with President Hafez al-Assad and his family, including 8-year-old Bashar:




Almost there. From the 1982 cover for 'The Running Man,' by Stephen King.





Oldest known Ten Commandments tablet heads to auction

The Temple Mount isn’t even the mount they need. The Dome of the Rock contains the Well of Souls that’s true-but in the Samaritan Pentateuch (and corroborated by the most recent Dead Sea Scrolls research) it was at Mount Gerizim that Moses commanded the building of the altar.


If god is a woman
The devil is too
Better get down on your knees
I’m gonna pray for you, pray for you
Get down on your knees
Pray for you
Heaven and hell hath no fury
Better watch what you do
I’m gonna pray for you
I'm gonna pray for you

Blessed be my haters
I love to hear ‘em talk
I make waves like an alligator
Walk on water through the swamp
Through the swamp
I’m gonna walk on water