January 5 in nerd history: You're so Odor-able
February 23, 2024
Happy National Bird Day! Our favorite variety is Big. Stop and give a little tip of your hat to all the avians you spot today.
Happy National Bird Day! Our favorite variety is Big. Stop and give a little tip of your hat to all the avians you spot today.
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This is The Reset Button from Classic Nerd, resetting your day.
Here are five things that happened on January 5th at the intersection of nerd and pop culture.
Birthdays of honor: Hayao Miyazaki (1941), Bradley Cooper (1975), Diane Keaton (1946), Robert Duvall (1931), January Jones (1978), George Reeves (1914), Alex English (1954).
Today in 1945 the world was introduced to what is objectively one of the saddest cartoon characters in history when Pepé Le Pew debuted in the Warner Bros. cartoon "Odor-able Kitty."
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This poor bastard is one of the most romantic, loving creatures to ever grace the planet — but thanks to a foul odor he emits (due to his being born as a skunk, naturally) his love goes perennially unrequited.
In fairness, he's also super self-centered and narcissistic, and clearly has an issue with consent. But what ya gonna do, he's French!
Some of my children? Heyall nah, we're talking about All My Children, which debuted today in 1970 on ABC.
The daytime soap opera lasted for 41 years before finally getting canceled and briefly existing as a web-only series. At one point it was so popular that it became the most-recorded TV show in the country. I guess because people loved it but they were at work? Also, how do you even measure that?
But most of all it featured Susan Lucci in her iconic role as Erica Kane, earning her 21 nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She only won once.
The Harlem Globetrotters easily have the best record in professional sports, with over 27,000 wins to just 345 losses — that means they win 98.7% of the time.
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But today in 1971, they suffered one of those losses, falling 100-99 to the New Jersey Reds. It was all the more significant as it snapped a 2,495-game winning streak. You gotta feel for all the guys who just wanted to get to 2,496.
The number one song 40 years ago today, on January 5th 1984, was "Say Say Say" by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.
But us just writing about it doesn't do it justice. You really should watch the video, which has Paul and MJ doing everything from shaving to selling snake oil (or some kind of liquid anyway) to performing magic.
