fortune telling

I’ve been told people skip right over these posts, the This Week in History posts. But I love them, and let me tell you why. During the week, when I’m reading other blogs or watching Letterman, there will be a post or a joke where somebody says, “hey, you know what happened this day in history? Blah blah blah.” And when it comes to what they are talking about, I did know. So it’s like research for the week ahead, as well as a good predictor of how things are going to shape up. For example, you know how last week I wrote about the anniversary of Heath Ledger’s death? I mentioned it was too hard to find any good in that day. And you know what happened to me that day? The “a” key on my work computer stopped working. It was dreadful. But I already knew it would be a dreadful day. OMENS, people.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 25
On this day in history, my work computer’s “a” key started working again. Hey, it’s worth a shot, right? Also, on this day in 1971, Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten were found guilty of the Tate/LaBianca murders. In college, I had to read the book “Helter Skelter” by the prosecutor in the case, Vincent Bugliosi, for a criminal justice class. My roommate was in the class also, and we both became kinda obsessed with the book. To the point that we downloaded Mp3’s of Charles Manson singing off Napster and went to several Blockbusters trying to find this Charles Manson documentary. We were convinced we were being monitored and were going to end up on some awful governmental list. But what can I say? It’s a really good book, one of my favorites.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 26
On this day in 1905, Maria Von Trapp was born! I admit I don’t know much about the real Maria Von Trapp; I know about the Julie Andrews Maria Von Trapp. I just spent some time on the Trapp Family Lodge Web site, for it seems that something not covered in the movie is how they moved to Vermont and opened a ski lodge. I was particularly interested in the dining menus as I am a little bit hungry as of this writing. It seems overpriced, but what are you going to do? There are real-life Von Trapps there!

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 27
As a resident of the state of Georgia, I feel compelled to mention that the University of Georgia was founded in 1785. When I was in high school, I had my parents drive me to Athens, so we could take a look at it. It was way, way too big for me, so I really wasn’t considering it, as I may have implied at the time. I really just wanted to be in the place where R.E.M. formed. This past year, when I was shopping for furniture for my current apartment, I liked this red couch. But I couldn’t get it, because I felt it sent a message of support to the University of Georgia that I wasn’t quite ready to send. I felt a red couch would have certain UGA meanings in Atlanta.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 28
Elijah Wood was born this day in 1981! Now, Elijah Wood was a childhood crush of mine, due to his roles in 1992’s “Radio Flyer” and 1993’s “The Good Son.” Since he was only a year older than me, I figured we could grow up and get married, though I remember being slightly turned off when I read in some sort of teen magazine that Elijah Wood really liked girls who had followed his career and could have deep conversations about his films. Cause even then I knew that sounded pretentious and self-absorbed and I really didn’t know how long talking about “The Good Son” might last before I became terribly bored. But it really didn’t matter, because once he became a hobbit (both physically and on the silver screen), I really wasn’t interested anymore.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 29
Today is Oprah’s birthday! Earlier in the week it was Ellen DeGeneres’s birthday! I don’t really get to watch any daytime television, but I’m mentioning this in case I have any readers who are giving birth this week. Maybe if you groom your child just right, they too will grow up and become talk show hosts! It’s an auspicious week for that.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 30
You know how earlier I was talking about omens? This does not look like it’s going to be a good day. Today is the day in history where Dick Cheney was born and the Beatles gave their last public performance. Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and Martin Luther King Jr’s home was bombed. It’s also Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s day of birth, but I just don’t know if he can overcome all of the negativity emanating from today.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 31
Oh man, do you love Scotch tape? If not, why? It’s so useful, particularly when you’re wrapping presents! Anyways, on this day in 1930, 3M started marketing the product. According to Wikipedia, it’s called Scotch tape because they only put a little bit of sticky stuff on it at the beginning, and someone said that the stingy Scotch bosses needed to put more on. And voila, a valuable office supply was born.