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Sunday, August 25, 2013

August 26, 2013: National Dog Day, Pepper's ghost and Don LaFontaine.


Today is National Dog Day. Nothing, nothing, loves you unconditionally like a dog. When we come home each day Duke is just as excited as if we had been gone for a year and finally returned. This day is set aside to bring awareness to the massive number of dogs that require rescue each year. There is no need to buy a puppy mill dog or pay huge money for a purebred dog, there are thousands of dogs without a home and they will love you, unconditionally, until death do you part. You know Mickey’s pal, go see him now.



Henry Dircks was born on this day in 1806 in Liverpool England. Dircks was an engineer who is thought to have been the main architect of a projection trick known as Pepper’s ghost. Pepper’s ghost is the illusion used to create the visual magic in the ballroom scene in The Haunted Mansion. It’s awesome how a trick over 100 years old can still amuse and amaze today.

Don LaFontaine was born on this day in 1940 in Duluth, Minnesota. LaFontaine may be the most successful voice actor of all times. It seems that at one point he was the voice on every movie trailer in every movie theater. His biography mentions over 5,000 movie trailers and over 350,000 television commercials, network promos and video game trailers. Most importantly, in our little part of the world, he did the trailer for Meet the Robinsons, my favorite Disney movie. Let’s enjoy Tomorrowland (Todayland in the movie) and remember a prince among announcers.



On this date in 0580 the Chinese invent toilet paper. Thank you.

On this date in 1843 Charles Thurber patented the typewriter. Samuel Clemens was on of the first to adopt the typewriter to produce his stories. Prior to this, novels were generated by hand. Visit Tom Sawyer Island at The Magic Kingdom as a tribute to typewriter generated prose.



Remember, your best excuse is always: waiting for your dreams to come true.

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