Good Day DU (September 22, 2021)

[EarlG]

Today in History: September 22

------------------------------------

Question of the Day: What dumb accomplishment are you most proud of?

------------------------------------

Today's milestones: Congratulations to the following active DU members!

Anniversaries
PRETZEL (20 years), nutsnberries (17 years), world wide wally (15 years), MyOwnPeace (13 years), mercuryblues (13 years), tom_kelly (10 years), chillfactor (9 years), MasonDreams (6 years), mike507 (5 years), njcpa1978 (5 years), Demdummy (2 years), johnthewoodworker (2 years), GenX_Dem (1 year), BlueNProud (1 year), Mondrianatic (1 year)

Posting milestones
left-of-center2012 (30000 posts)

New members who posted for the first time
Across-the-Desk, dfert34rfd, gojoe12

[Harker]

1. I successfully associated John Wayne with the Zodiac killings.

Not as a perpetrator.

[Backseat Driver]

4. How many degrees away? n/t

[Harker]

5. Buckle up!

John Wayne wanted the role of Harry Callahan in director Don Siegel's 1971 film "Dirty Harry", which was based very loosely on the Zodiac case.

Siegel dismissed Wayne as too old, and Clint Eastwood got the part.

Wayne's last film appearance was in Siegel's 1976 Western "The Shootist", with the screenplay written by Miles Swarthout, the son of Glendon Swarthout, who had written the novel upon which the film was based.

There is a scene in the film in which Wayne, as terminally ill gunfighter J.B. Books comes upon his landlady playing the piano and singing a ditty from Gilbert and Sullivan's opera "The Mikado.". He listens silently until near the end, then pipes up to sing the phrase "tit-willow, tit-willow!"

Zodiac made extensive references to "The Mikado", repeating the "tit-willow" refrain repeatedly in his July 26, 1970 'little list' letter.

I read Glendon Swarthout's novel and found no such scene.

I wrote Miles Swarthout to ask whether he wrote that bit into the screenplay. He replied that he had not, and said "that was all Don Siegel."

Thus, Siegel had Wayne, in effect, quoting Zodiac.

[Backseat Driver]

8. ...

[Ocelot II]

2. My most recent dumb accomplishment, of which I am inordinately proud,

was when I single-handedly managed to get a heavy, bulky rolled-up memory foam mattress up my weird, narrow stairway with a 90-degree turn using only my brute strength. I documented this feat here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181530058

[Backseat Driver]

3. Daughter and I had a "first degree of Kevin Bacon" moment

when he entertained in a band at the local casino, hehehe. I guess that would qualify as a "dumb" accomplishment.

[Ohio Joe]

6. Congrats DU'ers

I won a balloon float in 1969.

[jcgoldie]

7. My accomplishment

Was featured on a national tv show last year even though i had no business being there whatsoever.