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Pharaoh RutinTutin

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Posts posted by Pharaoh RutinTutin

  1. Posted

    This is supposed to be a game parody,.

    But Mall Elliot's appearance reminds me of some great movie scenes.

    The Historian in Holy Grail
    The Criminologist in Rocky Horror
    Criswell in Plan 9

    In Classical Greek theatre, the chorus would narrate much of the story instead of having the thespians act out every scene.

    In silent pictures, title cards were vital to advancing or explaining the action.

    In our world of "Show and Tell", we have become too dependent upon the Show.  I want more Tell.

  2. Posted

    06 December

    1790 – The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia.
    We're goin' hoppin', we're goin' hoppin' today
    Where things are poppin' the Philadelphia way
    We're gonna drop in on all the music they play
    On the bandstand (bandstand)

    1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., is completed.  When the city was being planned, there was supposed to be an equestrian statue of George Washington due south of the Executive Mansion and due east of the Capitol.  How this became an Egyptian obelisk that took a century to complete is a tribute to the power of petty partisanship.

    1897 – London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.  What?  Why would anyone want transportation regulated?  Isn't having a vehicle all you need to take passengers for hire?

    1904 – Theodore Roosevelt articulated his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the U.S. would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.  It's a good thing Teddy cleared this up.  With only James Monroe's original Doctrine, some one might have thought we expected Latin America to take care of itself.

    1912 – The Nefertiti Bust is discovered.  Just a reminder, whenever you pose for a portrait, make sure the results are as accurate and attractive as possible.  You never know which of your portraits will survive over three thousand years into the future.

    1957 – Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.  A chemical rocket launch is a series of controlled explosions.  Apparently, the "Controlled" part is more critical than first estimated.

  5. Posted

    04 December

    771 – Austrasian king Carloman I dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne king of the now complete Frankish Kingdom.

    1154 – Englishman Nicholas Breakspear is elected Pope Adrian IV. The only man from England to become pontiff, although perhaps not the only person from England to become Bishop of Rome.  His family, until recent years, had brewed beer in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

    1783 – At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, U.S. General George Washington bids farewell to his officers.  At least he thought he was retiring.  But as the Godfather of his country, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in".

    1875 – Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison; he is later recaptured in Spain.  He will be identified by a Spanish Customs worker based on a Thomas Nast cartoon.

    1909 – In Canadian football, the First Grey Cup game is played. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeat the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club, 26–6.  And in Hockey, The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club is founded.  It is now the oldest surviving professional hockey franchise in the world.  Strangely, neither involve competitive apology as an event, eh.

    1918 – Woodrow Wilson becomes the first US President to go to Europe while in office when he sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles.  This went well, except that the winning European powers would not head his warning against continuing to punish Germany after the war as the North did to the South after the US Civil war, and the US Senate would not agree to US participation in the League of Nations.  But other than that, Wilson's trip was completely successful.

    1945 – By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations. (The UN had been established on October 24, 1945.)  Someone was finally able to explain Wilson's plan in a way the Senate would understand.

    1954 – The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida.  America's true royalty ascends to the throne.

    1956 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio for the first and last time.  Future gatherings of the biggest names in Pop, Rock, and Country would generally be associated with charity benefits or Hee-Haw.

    1961 – The Museum of Modern Art displays Matisse's Le Bateau.  It would be 47 days until someone noticed that it is upside down.

  6. Posted

    Crazy idea.

    Sam texted Sarah saying HE would not show up tonight.
    Maybe Sam is planning to attend in her feminine personae to meet Sarah on other terms?

    And if Luke had any doubt, he must now be aware that Justin talks. 
    He is careful about with whom he speaks, but Justin will tell someone he trusts almost anything.

  7. Posted

    03 December

    1775 – The USS Alfred becomes the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.  And we are really supposed to believe that the fact that the flag for the rebellion was nearly identical to the flag of the East India Company is strictly a coincidence.

    1910 – Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.  Delegates from Las Vegas and Tokyo seem particularly enamored.

    1919 – After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, including two collapses causing 89 deaths, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.  Next time, chose your lead engineer based on engineering skills, not political connections.  And when the subordinate engineers raise concerns, don't dismiss them (concerns or engineers).

    1927 – Putting Pants on Philip, the first Laurel and Hardy film, is released.  Turns out that the secret to comedy isn't timing or topic.  It's the bowler hat.  Everything is funnier in a Derby.

    1960 – The musical Camelot debuts at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. While many in the audience go ape for Roddy McDowall's performance as Mordred, the role is never truly perfected until a certain displaced Pharaoh makes the part his own in a rural Michigan community theatre production.

    1964 – Free Speech Movement: After the University of California Regents decide to forbid protests on UC property, Students take over the administration building at UC Berkley and stage a sit-in.  Who would have thought that the students would do exactly what the Regents told them not to do?   Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley.

    1968 – NBC airs the television special, "Singer Presents Elvis", considered to be his "comeback" performance.  The artist and his audience were ready for a return to music after the first bad film.  It took Colonel Tom Parker seven years of bad films before he got the message.

    1979 – In Cincinnati, 11 fans are suffocated in a crush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert.  Why does it take a tragedy to remind civilized people that civilized people will not always behave like civilized people?

    1989 – Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between NATO and the Soviet Union may be coming to an end.  Dasvidaniya Soviet Union.  We didn't appreciate what we had with you until you were gone.

    1992 – A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world's first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague.  And the ability to spell becomes irrelevant.

    1994 – The PlayStation developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment was released in Japan.  Meanwhile, my Odyssey II from Magnavox just kept collecting more dust in the corner.

    1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.  THEY won't tell you the real reason is because of global warning and the melting of Earth's polar ice caps, Santa Clause was forced to relocate to the North Pole of Mars.  To preserve his privacy, the NASA probe was shot down by a Surface-to-Air Reindeer.

  9. Posted

    1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

    Still badle(y) designed user interface if the dial is not labeled with obvious pictograms and doesn't rotate with audible "click" drawing attention to the fact it moved.

    Obvious and audible to whom?

    The operational details may be easily apparent for the intended users.  If the intended users were not human.

    Humans don't bother to put Feline and Canine understandable instructions and warnings on the potentially dangerous things we build and use.  Why should another species bother designing their tools for our safety?

  13. Posted

    02 December

    1697 – The current St Paul's Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, is consecrated in London after the Old St Paul's was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.  This is, perhaps, the fifth large Christian Church to stand on the site.  And it may have been preceded by any number of ancient pagan structures including, according to some antiquarians, a Roman Temple to Diana.  And thanks to Disney, it is best know as place to feed the birds.

    1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French. If you're going to rent out the Cathedral for the ceremony, you could at least let the Arch-Bishop do his job.

    1805 – War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Austerlitz: French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte decisively defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.  Nice way to celebrate your first anniversary.

    1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas.  Spoiler:  America does not remain neutral, European powers interfere.

    1845 – Manifest destiny: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.  And the US does expand aggressively, at least until it hits the Pacific.  There have been some wars and lots of battles in the Pacific and Asia since then, but the US has only controlled some small (relative to the size of the Pacific) islands since then.

    1848 – Franz Joseph I becomes Emperor of Austria.  Must be a good day to become Emperor.

    1851 – French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.  I think we all know where this one is going.

    1852 – Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte becomes Emperor of the French as Napoleon III.  What a surprise.

    1859 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.  John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
    His soul's marching on.

    1865 – Alabama ratifies 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed by North Carolina then Georgia, and U.S. slaves were legally free within two weeks.  Certainly no deliberate symbolism in making the heart of the confederacy enact the decisive legislation ending slavery constitutionally.

    1867 – At Tremont Temple in Boston, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading of his second, and final, speaking tour in the United States.  By the end of the tour, he was living on Champaign and eggs blended in sherry.  He left America barely escaping a Federal Tax Lien against the proceeds of his lecture tour.

    1942 – World War II: During the Manhattan Project, at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.  This takes place under the football stadium.  The university would not field another football team until 1969.

    1954 – Cold War: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute".  Mr McCarthy, are you now or have you ever been a member of the United States Senate?

  15. Posted

    01 December

    800 – Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican.  Not to give away the verdict, but later that month, Leo would declare the Frankish King to be Emperor.

    1420 – Henry V of England enters Paris.  Despite all the pretentions to ruling France that English and British monarchs would claim, right up until France started Guillotining their Kings, this was the closest England and France came to having a unified crown.

    1824 – United States presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the electoral college votes, the House of Representatives must decide the winner per the Twelfth Amendment to the US Constitution.  Imagine, candidates who fail to win a majority, or even a plurality, of votes could become President.  We should be grateful that this kind of mess is no longer a concern in America.

    1887 – "Study in Scarlet", the first story featuring Sherlock Holmes appears in print.  Did Watson ever find out what school Holmes attended?

    1887 – A Sino-Portuguese treaty recognizes Portugal's control of Macao.  The story of Macao is a textbook example of China's troubled past with a major European colonial power.  But it is so often ignored by those who prefer to tell the story of Hong Kong.  Would "The Man With The Golden Gun" have been any worse if some of Roger Moore's fight and romance scenes had been shot in Macao instead of Hong Kong?

    1896 – The State of New York begins issuing certificates to accountants qualified to work for the public.  Thus beginning the era of Certified Public Accountants.

    1918 – Transylvania unites with Romania, thus concluding the Great Union.  Romania, Transylvania could not have harmed you if you had not invited him.

    1918 – The Kingdom of Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom.  …  The concept of Sovereignty was surprisingly flexible in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

    1929 – Game of Bingo invented by Edwin S Lowe.  Thus ends the cultural history of Florida.

    1941 – World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives the final approval to initiate war against the United States.  One might wonder if, at this point, the Emperor could have stopped the fleet that was already underway.

    1971 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono release "Happy Xmas (War is Over)", just in case you were wondering exactly how long that song has been stuck in your head.

    1982 – "Thriller", 6th studio album by Michael Jackson is released (Grammy Award Album of the Year 1984, best-selling album of all time, Billboard Album of the Year 1983) and musical immortality for Vincent Price.

    1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the seabed.  Corporals Newkirk and LeBeau are thoroughly unimpressed.  They could have tunneled twice as far in half the time while Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schultz remained blissfully unaware.

  18. Posted

    Grace is still not quite accustomed to dealing with people who aren't used to magic.
    Maybe if Luke gets a few other questions answered he will become less nosy about Grace and the other usual suspects.
    And Grace, the Ostrich Survival plan rarely works for anyone other than ostriches.

  23. Posted

    29 November

    1612 – The Battle of Swally takes place, according to the Julian Calendar.  This relatively small naval battle is historically important as it marked the beginning of the end of Portugal's commercial monopoly over India, and the beginning of Indian Independence the ascent of the English East India Company's presence in India.

    1807 – Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil: John VI of Portugal flees Lisbon from advancing Napoleonic forces during the Peninsular War, transferring the Portuguese court to Brazil.  It can be difficult to maintain an Imperial-Colonial relationship when the Monarch in the Colony has no authority in the homeland.

    1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phono, phono, phono, phono, phono *SCRATCH*   phonograph for the first time.

    1890 – 1st Army - Navy football game at West Point.  Navy 24, Army 0.

    1934 – Chicago Bears beat Detroit (19-16) in 1st NFL game broadcast nationally.  The Lion's most celebrated Thanksgiving tradition, losing, is now shared with a national audience.

    1935 – Physicist Erwin Schrödinger publishes his famous thought experiment 'Schrödinger's cat'.  Cats seem largely uninterested in the paper.

    1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission: Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbits the Earth twice and splashes down off the coast of Puerto Rico.  Enos leaves his space ship and discovers a world similar to the one he left, except that humans treat apes like pets or laboratory specimens.

    1963 – "I Want to Hold Your Hand" single released by the Beatles in the United Kingdom.  The end of all human culture and civilization immediately follows.

    1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to cover up investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

    1964 – Roman Catholic Church in US replaces Latin with English.  But is it wise to let people understand what you tell them to believe?

    1972 – Co-founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell releases Pong, the first commercially successful video game, at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California.  What happened to all the quarters I used to own?