Ali and The Beatles in 1964 (from WikiCommons) This song just pops in my head from time to time. It was released in 1975 and it never left my brain. Its catchy in some way. He was a magnetic personality and probably the greatest sports figure of all time. RIP champ! Here’s a famous Ali […]
Classic 1980’s Music Videos, Part 1: So Much Fun
February 12, 2016 by
David Bowie and Mick Jagger in “Dancing in the Streets” I came across a couple of 1980’s music videos on YouTube and realized there’s a gold mine out there of stuff that is great to see again. And much of it is a ton of fun! So… I’ve started collecting them and will do a few […]
The Top 40 Disaster Movies of All Time With Grades and Rank
November 25, 2015 by
Mt. Vesuvius erupting in "Pompeii" 2015 was a good year for disaster movies and after seeing a bunch of "Best Disaster" movie lists I decided to create my own. Shortly after starting the list I realized I needed to make some rules to clarify which movies qualified as disaster movies and come up with a grading system to sort […]
How Much did Paul Revere Charge for His Infamous Midnight Ride? Here’s The Bill He Submitted
April 10, 2013 by
Paul Revere made his historic ride to warn the countryside that the British Regulars were coming on April 18, 1775. Revere had a big family (8 kids) and was an astute businessman who had an engraving business, was a silversmith, a printer, and had several other enterprises. So when he had to take time off […]
10 Things You Didn’t Know About “The Godfather” Including the Horse’s Head Was Real!
March 19, 2013 by
Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" which premiered on March 15, 1972, remains one of the great movies of all time. It is aging a bit, but it still holds up. Here's a few interesting tidbits about the movie: 1. The organization Who Shall Not Be Named Despite the fact that everybody knows it exists and that […]
How To Get Kindle Books From Your Local Library. It Is Easy!
March 7, 2013 by
For the last few months I've been getting all my Kindle books from the library. It is very easy to use and it works out great! Here's an outline of the offering from Amazon: More than 11,000 libraries in the United States offer Public Library Books for Kindle, which allows you to check out eBooks […]
In 1897 Boston Built America’s First Subway to Help with Congestion and… Blizzards
October 15, 2012 by
Construction at Park St. Click for larger image. (from the BPL) On September 1, 1897 Boston opened for business the first Subway in the United States. It was modeled after several European cities (including London which had launched their own 34 years earlier) and was followed a few years later with a subway in New York […]
The Pop Culture Staying Power of “The Wire”
April 26, 2012 by
The other day as I was browsing around the web I found 3 different new posts on “The Wire” and heard a reference to it on “30 Rock”. It ts the best TV show I’ve ever seen but I am still surprised at what a grip it has on our pop cluture 4 years after it […]
The Great Boston Fire of 1872: How a Horse Flu, Drunkards, and Bad Roofs Led to Disaster
April 5, 2012 by
One year after the Great Chicago fire, the Great Boston Fire in 1872 burnt over 700 buildings and 65 acres of downtown Boston to the ground. Here's some background on the blaze and some interesting points on how the city was not prepared. How Did It Start? MassMoments has a great summary of how the […]
The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 – A 2,300,000 Gallon Tidal Wave
March 22, 2012 by
This is one of those stories that seems unreal, but it is true. There was actually a flood of molasses that swept through the streets at 35 MPH. Here's the details from Wikipedia: Near Keany Square,[4] at 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter […]