GO THERE! More monkey business…
Monday, November 3, 2025
November 27th is the date for this year’s Monkey Buffet Festival  in Lopburi, Thailand, a Hindu festival where hundreds of free roaming long-tailed macaques are set loose on a mountainous smorgasbord of delectables. The offering symbolizes an ancient story from the Ramayana in which the hero, Rama, offers a gift of land, the very land on which Lopburi sits, to his friend Hanuman, the Monkey King. Perfect excuse to monkey around for a day.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Monkey_Buffet_Lopburi_02.jpg
History Schmistory: November 3. Say hello to our little friend!
Monday, November 3, 2025
1913: The United States introduces permanent income taxes to it’s citizens, via the Sixteenth Amendment, securing the latter of only two certainties in life. Luckily, “Death” wasn’t on the table for this one.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Exit-income-taxes-coffin.jpg
Did you remember?
Sunday, November 2, 2025
Take those skeletons back out of the closet… literally! You still have time to observe Mexico’s Day of the Dead. And you thought Halloween was over!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Catrinas_2.jpg
History Schmistory: November 2. The Perfect Cheer!
Sunday, November 2, 2025
1898: Cheerleading is born at a University of Minnesota football game. Here’
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Early_women_cheerleaders_at_UW_Madison_%282246608893%29.jpg
s what some of the fist cheerleaders looked like…
MarcoWord: Elezione
Saturday, November 1, 2025
Yesterday’s MarcoWord (Italian): “elezione.” Election. “Whoa, dude that tea partier totally messed up the elezione.”
History Schmistory: November 1. “Is that all we’ve got?”
Saturday, November 1, 2025
1861: In the early stages of the American Civil war, US President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army. Proof that even histories greatest leaders can make huge mistakes. Sometimes even twice.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Gen._George_B._McClellan_-_NARA_-_528744.jpg
History Schmistory: October 31. Wait a minute, where’s Joe?
Friday, October 31, 2025
1961: In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin’s body is removed from Lenin’s Tomb. OR WAS IT?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Vladimir_Lenin_and_Joseph_Stalin,_1919.jpg
History Schmistory: October 30. Syke!
Thursday, October 30, 2025
1938: Orson Welles broadcasts an adaptation of War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, performed as the Halloween episode of a radio drama series called Mercury Theatre on the Air. The first two thirds of the story is retold through a series of fake news bulletins, informing listeners that Martians have attacked the Earth and will probably kill all of us. This causes a majority of listeners to completely freak out. The hoax is basically what made Orson Welles a household name.
![By CBS Radio and photographer unknown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://www.teammarcopolo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Orson-Welles-Show-1941.jpg)
By CBS Radio and photographer unknown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Not your everyday zombies…
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Every year around this time, Marco has the dreaded “zombie dream”, specifically, zombie emperors from ancient Rome. Yeah, totally weird. Hopefully it’s not some kind of doomsday premonition. Sweet dreams!
History Schmistory: October 29. Evil Opera
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/1920-Don-Giovanni-B.jpg
1787: Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni is performed for the first time in Prague, a show chock-full of murder and mayhem, masquerade parties, demon choruses, graveyards, ghostly statues, and ultimately a first class ticket to hell. Top it off with an appropriate moral; he who lives wickedly, dies wickedly, and you’ve got yourself a fulfilling Halloween experience, wouldn’t you say?
