Tag: Dead Milkmen

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Ortho Orange #42

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A mysterious and deadly substance, Ortho Orange #42 has been illegally dumped by an un-named American corporation in at least one vacant lot, possibly in Philadelphia. Little is known of its chemical composition or intended use, but its effects on both human and canine subjects are well-documented.

One human subject, “Scotty”, developed a blood-clotting disorder as a result of his exposure, in addition to his skin turning green, losing his sight, and requiring nasal tubes to breathe. At this point, barring a miracle, his prognosis is terminal. A canine subject experienced less dramatic effects, although his once grey fur was changed to a yellow shade by exposure to the same substance.

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June 7, 1982 — Graceland is opened to the public

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When Elvis died in 1977, he left most of his fortune to his daughter Lisa-Marie, who was only 9 at the time. The assets, including Graceland, were held in trust for her, with his father Vernon as the executor. Upon Vernon’s death in 1979, this responsibility passed to Priscilla Presley.

Taxes and other bills were eating into the inheritance, and in order to keep it going, Priscilla decided to convert Graceland into a tourist attraction. It rapidly became one of the most popular destinations in the United States, and the income it generated saved the Presley fortune. Graceland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, and declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006.

Memphis TN Graceland gates snow.jpg
By Thomas R Machnitzki (thomas@machnitzki.com) – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link

As mentioned in:

Going To Graceland — The Dead Milkmen

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May 17, 1981 — The band later named the Butthole Surfers play their first ever gig

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Appearing as “The Dick Clark Five”, the first gig by the band that would become the Butthole Surfers took place at the Shown-Davenport Art Gallery, in San Antonio, Texas. The occasion was the opening of an art exhibit by band-member Scott Mathews, and fellow artist Cheryl Dawn Dyer.

The original lineup of the band featured Mathews, Gibby Haynes, Scott Stevens and Paul Leary. Over the years, members would come and go, but Leary and Haynes, the co-founders of the band, would remain its constants, with both men singing and playing guitar. (Haynes also played saxophone, and is generally considered the lead singer of the band.)

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August 16, 1977 — Elvis Presley dies

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Just one more day, and he would have been touring again. But as it happened, Elvis Presley’s lifestyle caught up with sooner than that. Over the preceding few years, he had become seriously overweight, and also addicted to drugs. By the time of his death, Presley was sick enough that he was having difficulty staying upright throughout his concerts. His friends and crew were doing their best to conceal his difficulties, but things had been slipping for some time.

Elvis was buried in Memphis, next to his mother’s grave, two days after his death – although even today, decades later, sightings of the King of Rock and Roll continue (it’s just barely plausible that a man born in 1935 might be alive today, although in Elvis’ case it would seem to be less the years than the mileage).

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March 5, 1963 — Patsy Cline dies

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About a month after finishing recording her fourth, and, alas, final album Sentimentally Yours, Patsy Cline died in what has been described as “one of the worst wrecks in the country”. Also on the plane that night – and also dying in the crash – were her manager Randy Hughes and fellow musicians Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas.

Patsy Clines’s legacy is vast: at the time of her death, she was one of the most popular and best-selling artists in the world (and deservedly so). Her works remain perennially popular, both in terms of airplay and of being covered by the artists that followed her.

Patsy Cline II.jpg
By Four Star Records
derivative work: User:Dottiewest1fan – Patsy Cline – A Fan’s Tribute, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Air Crash Museum — The Dead Milkmen

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February 3, 1959 — Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper die in a plane crash

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The facts, as generally agreed upon, are these:

At appoximately 1AM on February 3, 1959, Holly, Valens and Richardson (‘the Big Bopper’) boarded a plane in Clear Lake, Iowa, intending to fly to their next concert, in Moorhead, Minnesota. The three, flown by pilot Roger Peterson, were killed a short time later when their plane crashed.

The major cause of the crash appears to have been a combination of poor weather conditions and pilot error. Peterson was not qualified for nighttime flights, and it also appears that he may have been given incorrect information regarding the weather conditions on that fateful night.

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May 5, 1958 — The discovery of Nobelium is announced

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Nobelium is a trans-uranic element whose atomic number is 102. A radioactive metal, it was first created in April 1958 by a team at the University of California’s Berkeley campus. The members of the team were Albert Ghiorso, Torbjorn Sikkeland, John R. Walton and Glenn Seaborg.

They named the newly discovered element after Alfred Nobel, which may or may not have been intended as a tiny hint to the Nobel Prize Committee. There is some controversy regarding this date, with several different teams claiming to have discovered Nobelium at different times, but this one seems to be the most commonly cited.

AlfredNobel2.jpg
By Unknown author – [1][2], Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

The Fez — The Dead Milkmen

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November 1, 1952 — Einsteinium is first created

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Einsteinium is a completely artifical element (atomic number 99) with a very short half-life (a about 1 and a third years). It was first discovered in the fallout from the detonation of the world’s first hydrogen bomb, code Ivy Mike, detonated at Enewetak Atoll on November 1, 1952.

As a trans-uranic element, it is extremely radioactive. It has no known applications other using it to develop other extremely radioactive trans-uranic elements with even higher atomic numbers – so far, it has been employed successfully in the creation of mendelevium (atomic number 101) and unsuccessfully in the attempted creation of ununennium (atomic number 119).

Quartz vial (9 mm diameter) containing ~300 micrograms of solid 253Es. The illumination produced is a result of the intense radiation from 253Es.
By Haire, R. G., US Department of Energy.
Touched up by Materialscientist at en.wikipedia. – [1], Haire, Richard G. (2006). “Einsteinium”. In Morss; Edelstein, Norman M.; Fuger, Jean. The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements (3rd ed.). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Science+Business Media. ISBN 1-4020-3555-1. p. 1580
Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Urutseg using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

The Fez — The Dead Milkmen

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March 17, 1950 — The creation of Californium is announced

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One of the elements of the actinide group, Californium was first synthesized on approximately February 9, 1950 by researchers at the University of California. After checking and replicating the initial experiment, its discovery was announced a month later, and the element named for the university (and state) where it had been created.

Unusually for a synthetic element, it was later discovered in naturally occurring forms, albeit as a result of extremely rare phenomena. Californium also has practical uses, notably in initiating nuclear reactions and in the creation of higher elements – ununoctium (element 118) was synthesized by bombarding californium-249 atoms with calcium-48 ions

A very small disc of silvery metal, magnified to show its metallic texture
By United States Department of Energy (see File:Einsteinium.jpg) – “Californium” in (2006) THE CHEMISTRY OF THE ACTINIDE AND TRANSACTINIDE ELEMENTS, III (3rd ed.), Springer, pp. 1,518 DOI: 10.1007/1-4020-3598-5_11., Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

The Fez — The Dead Milkmen

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May 10, 1941 — Rudolf Hess crashes in Scotland

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To this day, there is no clear explanation of his motives, but the facts in the case are these: on May 10, 1941, Rudolf Hess – the third most powerful man in Nazi Germany behind Hitler and Goring, flew a plane to Scotland, where he crash landed and was taken into custody. He had come on a mission of peace, trying to secure an end to hostilities between Germany and the United Kingdom.

However, his offer was quickly disavowed by the German government, and Hess stripped of al authority. He spent the rest of the war as a p.o.w., and stood trial alongside the other surviving Nazis at Nuremberg.

It seems that he had experienced some sort of guilt-motivated nervous breakdown, causing him to undertake his quixotic mission. It remains an open question whether his guilt was about the war by itself, or also about the Holocaust.

Rudolf Hess - Bf 110D Werk Nr 3869 - Wreckage - Bonnyton Moor.jpg
By Ian Dunster – Imperial War Museum – picture scanned by me Ian Dunster 17:37, 22 January 2006 (UTC) from the The Flight Of Rudolf Hess article in the December 1986 issue of Aeroplane Monthly and credited to IWM., Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Air Crash Museum — The Dead Milkmen