The Thing About Today – October 28

October 28, 2020October 23, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 28, 2020
Day 302 of 366

October 28th is the 302nd day of the year. It is the Day of the Establishment of an Independent Czecho-Slovak State, which celebrates the independence of Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic) from Austria-Hungary in 1918.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Internal Medicine Day, National Chocolate Day, and National First Responders Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1636, the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted to establish a theological college, which would later become Harvard University.
In 1664, the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, were established.
In 1726, the novel Gulliver’s Travels – also known as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships – by the Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift was published.
In 1893, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique received its première performance only nine days before the composer’s death.
In 1919, the United States Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Wilson’s veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.
In 1941, English actor and writer Ian Marter was born. He portrayed Harry Sullivan on Doctor Who.
In 1942, the Alaska Highway first connected Alaska to the North American railway network at Dawson Creek in Canada.
In 1948, Paul Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.
In 1952, actress Annie Potts was born.
In 1955, businessman, philanthropist, and co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates was born.
In 1956, Elvis Presley received a polio vaccination on national television.
In 1962, actress Daphne Zuniga was born.
In 1963, actress Lauren Holly was born.
In 1967, actress and producer Julia Roberts was born.
In 1971, Prospero became the only British satellite to be launched by a British rocket.
In 1978, English actress Gwendoline Christie was born.
In 1982, actor and Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith was born.
In 2009, NASA successfully launched the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for the short-lived Constellation program.
In 2014, a rocket carrying NASA’s Cygnus CRS Orb-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station exploded seconds after taking off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia.

October 28th is International Animation Day, an international observance proclaimed in 2002 by the International Animated Film Association (Association Internationale du Film d’Animation, also known as ASIFA) as the main global event to celebrate the art of animation.

It commemorates the first public performance in 1892 of Charles-Émile Reynaud’s Théâtre Optique at the Grevin Museum in Paris. In 1895, the Cinematograph of the Lumière brothers outshone Reynaud’s invention, driving him to bankruptcy, but his public performance of animation still predates the camera-made movies in cinematic history.

In recent years, the event has been observed in more than 50 countries with more than 1000 events, on every continent, all over the world. During International Animation Day, cultural institutions are also invited to by screening animated films, organizing workshops, exhibiting artwork and stills, providing technical demonstrations, and organizing other events helping to promote the art of animation. Such a celebration is an outstanding opportunity of putting animated films in the limelight, making this art more accessible to the public.

ASIFA also commissions an artist to create an original art poster announcing the event each year. It is then adapted for each country in order to guarantee a worldwide view of the event. Previous editions involved the work of animators such as Iouri Tcherenkov, Paul Driessen, Abi Feijo, Eric Ledune, Noureddin Zarrinkelk, Michel Ocelot, Nina Paley, Raoul Servais, Ihab Shaker, and Gianluigi Toccafondo.

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – October 27

October 27, 2020October 22, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 27, 2020
Day 301 of 366

October 27th is the 301st day of the year. It is Independence Day in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, commemorating their separation from the United Kingdom in 1979.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National American Beer Day, Navy Day, and National Black Cat Day.

Navy Day, you say? Wasn’t the birthday of the Navy on October 13th? More on that in a minute.

Historical items of note:

This day in 1275 marks the traditional founding date of the city of Amsterdam.
In 1682, Philadelphia was founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
In 1795, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Madrid, which established the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the United States.
In 1838, Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Extermination Order, which decreed that all Mormons were to leave the state or be killed.
In 1858, American colonel and politician Theodore Roosevelt was born. He was a Nobel Prize laureate and the twenty-sixth President of the United States.
In 1904, the first underground New York City Subway line opened. It was later designated as the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line.
In 1922, actress and poet Ruby Dee was born.
In 1936, Mrs Wallis Simpson obtained her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and force his abdication from the throne.
In 1939, actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer John Cleese was born.
In 1946, Slovak-Canadian actor, director, and producer Ivan Reitman was born.
In 1947, You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx premiered on ABC radio.
In 1953, actor, director, and screenwriter Robert Picardo was born.
In 1954, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. became the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.
Also in 1954, illustrator Jan Duursema was born.
In 1961, NASA tested the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.
In 1971, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was renamed Zaire.
In 1992, United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. was murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay. This precipitated debate about gays in the military that resulted in the United States’ “Don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy.
In 1994, Gliese 229B became the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.

So, Navy Day.

In the United States, the Navy League of the United States organized the first Navy Day in 1922, holding it on October 27 because it was the birthday of President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was a naval enthusiast, promoter of sea power, and former assistant Secretary of the Navy just before the Spanish–American War of 1898.

The event met with mixed reviews in the first year, but the next year brought over 50 major cities participating. The United States Navy sent a number of its ships to various port cities for the occasion. In 1949, Louis A. Johnson, the second Secretary of the newly merged and created Department of Defense, directed that the Navy’s participation occur on the newly established Armed Forces Day for the unified and coordinated uniformed services in May. As a private civilian organization, the Navy League was not affected by this directive, so they continued to organize separate Navy Day celebrations.

In the 1970s, historical research found that the “birthday” of the earlier Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War was determined as October 13, 1775. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt worked with the Navy League to define October 13th as the new date of Navy Day, but it is still largely recognized as October 27th.

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – October 26

October 26, 2020October 21, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 26, 2020
Day 300 of 366

October 26th is the 300th day of the year. It is National Day in Austria, celebrating the anniversary of the Declaration of Neutrality in 1955.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Financial Crime Fighter Day, National Tennessee Day, National Day of the Deployed, National Mule Day, National Pumpkin Day, and National Mincemeat Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1689, General Piccolomini of Austria burned down Skopje to prevent the spread of cholera. He died of the disease himself soon after.
In 1774, the first Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia.
In 1825, the Erie Canal opened, allowing direct passage from the Hudson River to Lake Erie.
In 1854, businessman C. W. Post was born. He founded Post Foods.
In 1914, actor Jackie Coogan was born.
In 1920, astronomer and academic Sarah Lee Lippincott was born.
In 1921, the Chicago Theatre opened.
In 1934, basketball player and sportscaster “Hot Rod” Hundley was born.
In 1935, mathematician and academic Gloria Conyers Hewitt was born. She was the fourth African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Mathematics.
In 1936, the first electric generator at Hoover Dam went into full operation.
In 1942, English actor, singer, and director Bob Hoskins was born.
In 1945, actress and producer Jaclyn Smith was born.
In 1946, journalist, actor, and game show host Pat Sajak was born.
In 1956, actress and producer Rita Wilson was born.
In 1958, Pan American Airways made the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris.
In 1961, actor Dylan McDermott was born.
In 1962, English actor and producer Cary Elwes was born.
In 1963, singer-songwriter and pianist Natalie Merchant was born.
In 1964, Canadian actor and producer Tom Cavanagh was born.
In 1968, Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy piloted Soyuz 3 into space for a four-day mission.
In 1971, actor and singer Anthony Rapp was born.
In 1984, The Terminator premiered.
In 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginals.
In 1999, Britain’s House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain’s upper chamber of Parliament.
In 2000, the Sony PlayStation 2 was launched in North American markets with 27 launch titles.
In 2001, the United States passed the USA PATRIOT Act into law. The negative impacts on Constitutional rights and freedoms continue to this day.
In 2015, Spectre, the twenty-fourth James Bond film, premiered.

October 26th is Intersex Awareness Day.

An internationally observed day designed to highlight human rights issues faced by intersex people, it marks the first public demonstration by intersex people in North America, on October 26, 1996, outside the venue in Boston where the American Academy of Pediatrics was holding its annual conference. Activists Morgan Holmes and Max Beck participated for the now-defunct Intersex Society of North America, alongside allies from Transsexual Menace including Riki Wilchins.

Not intended as a demonstration, the intent was to deliver an address to challenge the opinion that cosmetic surgery to “fix” intersexed genitals was the best course of action. They were met with hostility and escorted out.

Intersex people are individuals born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies”. Intersex typically constitutes the I in LBGTQIA+.

The commemoration day itself began in 2003 with the establishment of a central awareness raising site. Intersex Awareness Day is an international day of grassroots action to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children The day also provides an opportunity for reflection and political action.

Between October 26th and November 8th, intersex organizations bring attention to the challenges intersex individuals face, culminating in the Intersex Day of Remembrance on November 8th, the birthday of Herculine Barbin, also sometimes known as Intersex Solidarity Day.

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – October 25

October 25, 2020October 19, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 25, 2020
Day 299 of 366

October 25th is the 299th day of the year. It is Thanksgiving Day in Grenada.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Greasy Food Day, Sourest Day, National Mother-in-Law Day (typically observed on the fourth Sunday in October), and Chucky, The Notorious Killer Doll Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1854, the Battle of Balaclava took place during the Crimean War. It was soon memorialized in verse as The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
In 1881, Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso was born.
In 1917, the October Revolution began in Russia (by Old Style dating).
In 1940, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was named the first African American general in the United States Army.
In 1955, producer Gale Anne Hurd was born.
In 1957, voice actress Nancy Cartwright was born. She’s probably best known as the voice of Bart Simpson.
In 1962, actress Darlene Vogel was born.
In 1964, voice actor and singer Kevin Michael Richardson was born.
In 1971, the People’s Republic of China replaced the Republic of China at the United Nations.
In 1978, Halloween premiered.

In 1979, the autonomous community of Basque Country was granted the status of nationality within Spain.

Part of a larger cultural region of the same name, the area is home to the Basque people. They have a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians, each part of pre-Roman cultures. The region is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – October 24

October 24, 2020October 19, 2020 Michael Falkner1 Comment

October 24, 2020
Day 298 of 366

October 24th is the 298th day of the year. It is United Nations Day, commemorating the date in 1945 when the United Nations officially came into existence.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Food Day, National Bologna Day, and National Make A Difference Day (typically observed on the fourth Saturday in October).

Historical items of note:

In 1851, William Lassell discovered the moons Umbriel and Ariel orbiting Uranus.
In 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States was completed.
In 1901, Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
In 1915, author and illustrator Bob Kane was born. With Bill Finger, he co-created the character of Batman.
In 1926, Harry Houdini’s last performance took place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit.
In 1929, “Black Thursday” occurred on the New York Stock Exchange. The market lost 11 percent of its value at the opening bell on very heavy trading. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 ended shortly thereafter, signaling the beginning of the Great Depression.
In 1931, the George Washington Bridge opened to public traffic over the Hudson River.
In 1939, actor F. Murray Abraham was born.
In 1946, a camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket took the first photograph of earth from outer space.
In 1949, the cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters was laid.
In 1960, actor B.D. Wong was born.
In 1962, The Manchurian Candidate premiered.
In 1989, actress Eliza Taylor was born.
In 1992, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first Major League Baseball team based outside the United States to win the World Series.
In 1998, Deep Space 1 was launched to explore the asteroid belt and test new spacecraft technologies.
In 2003, Concorde made its last commercial flight.
In 2007, Chang’e 1, the first satellite in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

In 1914, Jonas Salk was born. He was the virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines.

In 1947, Salk accepted a professorship in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. While there, he undertook a project to determine the number of different types of poliovirus, starting in 1948 with funding from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. He saw an opportunity to extend this project towards developing a vaccine against polio, and he gathered a research team and devoted himself to this work for the next seven years.

The field trials were called the the most elaborate program of its kind in history. They included 20,000 physicians and public health officers, 64,000 school personnel, and 220,000 volunteers. Over 1.8 million schoolchildren took part in the trials.

Before the Salk vaccine was introduced in 1955, polio was considered one of the most serious public health problems in the world, and epidemics were increasingly devastating in the post-war United States. The 1952 epidemic in the United States killed 3,145 people and left 21,269 with some form of paralysis. Known as the worst polio outbreak in the nation’s history, most of its victims were children.

After news of the vaccine’s success was first made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was immediately hailed as a “miracle worker”, but he chose to not patent the vaccine or seek any profit from it in order to maximize its global distribution. Less than 25 years later, domestic transmission of polio had been completely eliminated in the United States.

October 24th is known as World Polio Day to commemorate Salk’s birth and his work in defeating the polio virus.

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – Quarantine Con, Episodes XX-XXI

October 23, 2020September 26, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
Quarantine Con, Episodes XX-XXI
October 23, 2020

The folks at the Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics have started up the quarantine panels once again, and I have two to offer you this week.

The twentieth panel in this series comes ready to discuss favorite Frankensteins (or monsters thereof).

Panel #21, in typical track tradition, kept it strange by comparing famous cereal mascots to actual serial killers.

Gary and Joe have a lot more fun discussions planned in the Dragon Con off-season, if anything because these are so much fun to do. Stay tuned to the YouTube channel and the group on Facebook. If you join in live, you can also leave comments and participate in the discussion using StreamYard connected through Facebook.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – October 23

October 23, 2020October 18, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 23, 2020
Day 297 of 366

October 23rd is the 297th day of the year. It is Paris Peace Agreement Day in Cambodia, commemorating the Paris Peace Agreements (សន្ធិសញ្ញាសន្តិភាពទីក្រុងប៉ារីស in Khmer) that marked the official end of the Cambodian–Vietnamese War in 1991

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Boston Cream Pie Day, National TV Talk Show Host Day (coincides with Johnny Carson’s birthday), Swallows Depart from San Juan Capistrano Day, and iPod Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1850, the first National Women’s Rights Convention began in Worcester, Massachusetts.
In 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont flew an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe.
In 1925, comedian and talk show host Johnny Carson was born.
In 1941, Walt Disney’s Dumbo premiered.
In 1942, author, director, producer, and screenwriter Michael Crichton was born.
In 1954, Taiwanese-American director, producer, and screenwriter Ang Lee was born.
In 1956, the first video recording on magnetic tape was televised coast-to-coast.
In 1958, the Smurfs debuted on television in the story “Johan and Pirlouit” by Belgium cartoonist Peyo.
In 1959, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Sam Raimi was born.
Also in 1959, singer-songwriter, comedian, and actor “Weird Al” Yankovic was born.
In 1970, Gary Gabelich set a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame which was fueled with natural gas.
Also in 1970, television presenter and engineer Grant Imahara was born.
In 1976, Canadian-American actor and producer Ryan Reynolds was born.
In 1986, English actress Emilia Clarke was born.
In 1995, Yolanda Saldívar was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of popular Latin singer Selena.
In 2012, the twenty-third James Bond film, Skyfall, premiered.

October 23rd is Mole Day.

No, it’s not about the underground rodent. Instead, it’s all about chemistry.

Mole Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists, chemistry students, and chemistry enthusiasts on October 23rd, between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m. making the date 6:02 10/23 in the American style of writing dates.

The time and date are derived from Avogadro’s number, which is approximately 6.02×10²³, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in one mole (mol) of substance. It is one of the seven base SI units.

Mole Day originated in an article in The Science Teacher in the early 1980s. Then-high school chemistry teacher Maurice Oehler founded the National Mole Day Foundation (NMDF) on May 15, 1991. Many high schools around the world celebrate Mole Day as a way to get their students interested in chemistry, with various activities often related to chemistry. In fact, the American Chemical Society sponsors National Chemistry Week, which occurs from the Sunday through Saturday during which October 23rd falls. Thus, Mole Day is an integral part of National Chemistry Week.

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – October 22

October 22, 2020October 18, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 22, 2020
Day 296 of 366

October 22nd is the 296th day of the year. It is Wombat Day in Australia, despite the fact that they are considered to be nuisances by farmers.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Make a Dog’s Day, National Nut Day, and National Color Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1746, the College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) received its charter.
In 1811, Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt was born.
In 1938, English actor Derek Jacobi was born.
Also in 1938, actor, comedian and producer Christopher Lloyd was born.
In 1844, followers of Baptist preacher William Miller, known as Millerites, anticipated the end of the world in conjunction with the Second Advent of Christ. The following day became known as the Great Disappointment. After his proclamation of the Second Coming did not occur as expected, new heirs of his message emerged, including the Advent Christians (1860), the Seventh-day Adventists (1863), and other Adventist movements.
In 1879, Thomas Edison tested the first practical electric incandescent light bulb using a filament of carbonized thread. It lasted 13¹⁄₂ hours before burning out.
In 1883, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opened with a performance of Gounod’s Faust.
In 1910, Hawley Harvey Crippen was convicted of poisoning his wife. He was the first felon to be arrested with the help of radio.
In 1942, actress and singer Annette Funicello was born. She was one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club.
In 1943, actress Catherine Deneuve was born.
In 1952, actor and producer Jeff Goldblum was born.
In 1959, film and Broadway composer Marc Shaiman was born.
In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but turned down the honor.
Also in 1964, an all-party Parliamentary Committee selected the design which would become the new official flag of Canada.
In 1966, The Supremes became the first all-female music group to attain a #1 selling album with The Supremes A’ Go-Go.
Also in 1966, the Soviet Union launched Luna 12.
In 1968, Apollo 7 safely splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.
In 1975, the Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 landed on Venus.
In 1976, Red Dye No. 4 was banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it was discovered to causes tumors in the bladders of dogs.
In 1983, two correctional officers were killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, thus inspiring the Supermax model of prisons.
In 2008, India launched its first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1.
In 2013, the Australian Capital Territory became the first Australian jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage with the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013.
Also in 2013, Thor: The Dark World premiered.
In 2019, Same-sex marriage was legalized and abortion was decriminalized in Northern Ireland. This was as a result of the Northern Ireland Assembly not being restored.

October 22nd is International Stuttering Awareness Day.

Also known as International Stammering Awareness Day in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the day is intended to raise public awareness of the issues faced by millions of people – one percent of the world’s population – who stutter, or stammer.

Every year, stuttering communities and associations worldwide host events and campaign to highlight how certain aspects of society can be difficult for people who stammer. They challenge negative attitudes and discrimination, and they debunk myths that people who stammer are nervous or less intelligent.

The event also celebrates the many notable figures who stammer who have made a mark on the world now and throughout history in the fields of science, politics, philosophy, art, cinema and music.

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Timestamp #SJA18: Mona Lisa’s Revenge

October 21, 2020October 20, 2020 Michael Falkner4 Comments

Sarah Jane Adventures: Mona Lisa’s Revenge
(2 episodes, s03e05, 2009)

Timestamp SJA18 Mona Lisa Revenge

The art is so lifelike.

The Bannerman Road Gang is enjoying a moment in class while Clyde sketches K9. Mr. Chandra comes in with an important announcement, revealing that Clyde has won a chance to see the Mona Lisa at the National Gallery. Clyde never entered the competition, but Luke did it for him secretly. Clyde doesn’t mind given the occasion.

At the gallery, Lionel Harding and Phyllis Trupp examine the newly arrived painting. Phyllis longs for Harding, but as he ignores her overtures, the panting comes to life.

Luke arrives home to a furious Sarah Jane. She’s upset about the state of his room, and Luke is upset because she expects perfection just like the Bane did.

The next day, the class arrives at the gallery. Per the rules, they turn in their phones before perusing the facility. Luke confides his troubles in his friends and they start the tour. Luke picks up a Chinese mystery box and Clyde chastises him for handling the exhibits. They’re soon introduced to Harding and Trupp. Phyllis finishes preparing the exhibit hall and, upon confessing her feelings to the painting, is attacked by the Mona Lisa.

Clyde finds his own work in the gallery and his classmates celebrate. Harding praises his work, which Clyde later admits to his friends is inspired by their adventures. When the class is taken to see the Mona Lisa, they find Phyllis in the picture instead. After the class is ushered out of the exhibit, the gang sneaks back in to investigate.

Back at Bannerman Road, Mr. Smith checks in with Sarah Jane and her distracted state. She’s feeling depressed because Luke is growing up so quickly and that she’ll be alone again. Mr. Smith notifies her that the Mona Lisa has been stolen, and despite a lack of obvious alien activity, she decides to investigate because the kids are involved and the circumstances are so weird.

On their way to the exhibit, Rani notices that one of the guns is missing from Clyde’s painting. Hardin arrives to retrieve the kids and Mona Lisa emerges from the shadows, armed with a Sontaran blaster. After a brief discussion with her hostages, she declares that she wants to have fun and opens fire, sending the gang running.

They find the police officers and museum staff trapped in the museum’s paintings. Meanwhile, Mona Lisa remembers Harding from his multiple trips to the Louvre and requests his help to free her brother from a painting of her same vintage. It so happens that the painting is in the museum.

The gang spots Sarah Jane’s car in the parking lot. While they look for her, Sarah Jane finds her way to the Mona Lisa exhibit gallery and hides as Harding and Mona Lisa arrive. Sarah Jane is taken hostage by Mona Lisa, who recognizes her from Luke’s discussion with his friends. Mona Lisa nearly shoots Sarah Jane, but stops when she hears a grumbling from her brother.

Mona Lisa puts Sarah Jane in a picture, drawing the gang to the gallery. They demand that Sarah Jane be released, but Mona Lisa refuses. Luke tackles Mona Lisa and the gang runs with Sarah Jane’s painting, so Mona Lisa releases William Bonneville’s Dark Rider from the painting of the same name.

And the chase commences. Mona Lisa and Harding continue their search while the Dark Rider pursues the gang with unlimited ammunition.

During their search, Mona Lisa sees a window and asks to go outside. When she reaches beyond the building, her arm reverts to its painted form. Furious that she’s trapped in the museum, she storms into a unfinished section. Clyde overhears as Mona Lisa details her plan to release her brother and conquer the world, but he is soon captured by the Dark Rider.

Clyde is forced to join the hunt for The Abomination, a painting by Giuseppe di Cattivo crafted from paint derived from sentient rocks that fell to Earth. The same paint was used to craft the Mona Lisa. The painting drove the artist insane and he crafted a puzzle box to make sure no one ever saw the painting again. Luke and Rani find this same information in a book from the gift shop.

The quest takes Mona Lisa and her group to the museum’s vaults. They find the painting, but the case is locked and the puzzle box is missing. In the gallery above, Luke realizes that the puzzle box he examined earlier is the key, but Mona Lisa arrives moments later to retrieve it. Harding tries to stand up against her, but after he smashes the box, Luke saves his life by promising an alternate method of opening the lock.

Everyone is unhappily reunited in the vaults. Luke asks Clyde to draw a new puzzle box so Mona Lisa can manifest it in the physical world. When she tries to, however, she also manifests K9 from Clyde’s sketchbook. When Mona Lisa opens the lock, K9 blasts the Abomination and destroys the alien pigment. This breaks Mona Lisa’s link on the physical, forcing all of her manifestations to revert to their true forms.

The world is saved once again.

The gang reunites with Sarah Jane and Luke makes amends while Sarah Jane praises his ingenuity. Meanwhile, Harding reunites with Trupp, but Trupp wants nothing to do with him after his dalliance with Mona Lisa.

The Mona Lisa is not a stranger to Doctor Who, having appeared before in City of Death alongside a Chinese puzzle box. There’s also another link with faces and time: An artist in City of Death painted Romana’s face as a clock, and one of the paintings in this story’s classroom setting was titled Face of Time.

That classic callback aside, this story was not particularly engaging. The villain had simple motivations, but the acting and thin plot were not compelling. The character moments with Sarah Jane and Luke felt forced for the story and didn’t seem to naturally evolve.

On the plus side, it was good to see Clyde happy about his craft. His joy was palpable, both in seeing his work in an actual museum and in his friend secretly submitting him for consideration.

I also like how he adores K9. I do too.

Rating: 2/5 – “Mm? What’s that, my boy?”

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars

cc-break

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – October 21

October 21, 2020October 19, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

October 21, 2020
Day 295 of 366

October 21st is the 295th day of the year. It is National Nurses’ Day in Thailand.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day, National Reptile Awareness Day, BRA (Breast Reconstruction Awareness) Day, Hagfish Day, and Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce. The last three are typically observed on the third Wednesday in October.

It is also Medical Assistants Recognition Day, which is typically observed on the Wednesday of the third business week in October.

Historical items of note:

In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan discovered the strait now known as the Strait of Magellan.
In 1797, in Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution was launched.
In 1833, Alfred Nobel was born. The Swedish chemist and engineer invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize.
In 1867, the Medicine Lodge Treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders, which required Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.
In 1879, Thomas Edison applied for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.
In 1911, actor Peter Graves was born.
In 1921, President Warren G. Harding delivered the first speech by a sitting United States President against lynching in the deep South.
In 1929, author and critic Ursula K. Le Guin was born.
In 1940, the first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls was published.
In 1941, Wonder Woman made her premiere in All Star Comics #8.
In 1950, astronaut Ronald McNair was born.
In 1956, actress and screenwriter Carrie Fisher was born.

I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.
—Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking

In 1959, in New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened to the public.
Also in 1959, Japanese actor and producer Ken Watanabe was born.
Also in 1959, President Eisenhower approved the transfer of all US Army space-related activities to NASA, including most of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.
In 1964, My Fair Lady premiered.
In 1983, the meter was defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
In 2005, images of the dwarf planet Eris were taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery.

October 21st is Apple Day in the United Kingdom.

Apple Day is an annual celebration of apples and orchards. It traditionally falls on October 21st, the date of the first event in 1990, but events are also held throughout the month.

Common Ground, the organization responsible for the first Apple Day, describes the day as a way of celebrating and demonstrating that variety and richness matter to a locality and that it is possible to effect change in your place. They use the apple as a symbol of physical, cultural, and genetic diversity, and they hope that linking particular apples with their place of origin will allow orchards to be recognized and conserved for their contribution to local distinctiveness, including the rich diversity of wildlife they support.

Apple Day events can be large or small, from apple games in a garden to large village fairs with cookery demonstrations, games, apple identification, juice and cider, gardening advice, and the sale of many hundreds of apple varieties.

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: