If you're as old as me (368) you'll remember Hugh O'Brien on the telly in a half hour show - they were all half an hour in the good old days when we apparently all had the concentration span of goldfish - as Marshal Wyatt Earp. The real guy died this day in 1929 and he's a fascinating character - played by Burt Lancaster, Henry Fonda, Kevin Costner and James Garner apart from O'Brien - with a moustache to die for. As a kid we all rooted for him at the gunfight at the OK Corral and just knew those Clantons and McLowerys were thoroughgoing baddies. I even had - and, thanks to the eBay watching proclivities of my good lady, have again - a replica Buntline Special Colt .45, Wyatt's purpose-built long-barrelled revolver.
When I grew up of course I realized that Earp was a rather oily character, liar, gambler and cheat. That's what being an historian does for you. Life was so much simpler when we were kids, wasn't it?
In other news ...
The Liverpool band known as the Beatles did quite well in the US pop charts this week in 1964, getting to a heady Number 45 with I Wanna Hold Your Hand. Billboard magazine said the track was 'a driving rocker with surf on the Thames sand'. I didn't understand that at the time and I still don't understand it now.
And finally - I don't know why I have written this blog for today; since as it is Friday 13th, everyone is hiding under their beds until it is all over.
