Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday, which happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year. For example, 2015 had a Friday the 13th in February, March, and November, which will happen again in 2026. Leap years that begin on Sunday (i.e. that follow Dominical Letter AG) such as 2012 and 2040, also have 3 Friday the 13ths in January, April and July. 2017 through 2020 had two Friday the 13ths, as did 2023; 2016, 2021 and 2022 had just one Friday the 13th, as will 2025, 2027, and 2028; 2024 will have two Friday the 13ths.
A month has a Friday the 13th if and only if it begins on a Sunday.
There are 21 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds until the next Friday the 13th (September 2024).
History
Unluckiness of "13"
One source mentioned for the unlucky nature of the number "13" is a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party in Valhalla. The trickster god Loki, who was not invited, arrived as the 13th guest, and arranged for Höðr to shoot Balder with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. Dossey: "Balder died, and the whole Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned. It was a bad, unlucky day." This major event in Norse mythology caused the number 13 to be considered unlucky.
If you want to read more, go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th
Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles. Hefner extended the Playboy brand into a world network of Playboy Clubs. He also resided in luxury mansions where Playboy Playmates shared his wild partying life, fueling media interest.
Early life and education
Hefner was born in Chicago, on April 9, 1926, the first child of Glenn Lucius Hefner (1896–1976), an accountant, and his wife Grace Caroline (Swanson) Hefner (1895–1997) who worked as a teacher. His parents were from Nebraska. He had a younger brother, Keith (1929–2016). His mother was of Swedish ancestry, and his father was German and English.
Through his father's line, Hefner was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. He described his family as "conservative, Midwestern, [and] Methodist". His mother had wanted him to become a missionary.
He attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School, then served from 1944 to 1946 as a United States Army writer for a military newspaper. Hefner graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a double minor in creative writing and art, having earned his degree in two and a half years. After graduation, he took a semester of graduate courses in sociology at Northwestern University, but dropped out soon after.
Career
In January 1952, Hefner left his job as a copywriter for Esquire after he was denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he took out a mortgage loan of $600 and raised $8,000 from 45 investors (including $1,000 from his mother—"not because she believed in the venture," he told E! in 2006, "but because she believed in her son") to launch Playboy, which was initially going to be called Stag Party. The first issue was published in December 1953 and featured Marilyn Monroe from a 1949 nude calendar shoot she did under a pseudonym. That first issue sold more than 50,000 copies, but Monroe was not paid by Playboy or Hefner for the photos. (Hefner never met Monroe, but he bought the crypt next to hers at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in 1992 for $75,000.)
Esquire magazine rejected Charles Beaumont's science fiction story "The Crooked Man" in 1955, so Hefner agreed to publish it in Playboy. The story highlighted straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. The magazine received angry letters, so Hefner responded, "If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too." In 1961, Hefner watched Dick Gregory perform at the Herman Roberts Show Bar in Chicago, and he hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club. Gregory attributed the launch of his career to that night.
Hefner promoted a bon vivant lifestyle in his magazine and in the television shows that he hosted Playboy's Penthouse (1959–1960) and Playboy After Dark (1969–1970). He was also the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, the publishing group which operates the magazine.
On June 4, 1963, Hefner was arrested for promoting obscene literature after he published an issue of Playboy featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield in bed with a man present. The case went to trial and resulted in a hung jury.
In the 1960s, Hefner created "private key" clubs that were racially diverse. During the civil rights movement in 1966, Hefner sent Alex Haley to interview American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, much to Rockwell's shock because Haley was black. Rockwell agreed to meet with Haley only after gaining assurance that he was not Jewish, although Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout the interview. In Roots: The Next Generations (1979), the interview was recreated with James Earl Jones as Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell. Haley had also interviewed Malcolm X in 1963 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 for the newly established 1962 "playboy interview".
Playboy Mansion
In January 2016, the Playboy Mansion was put on the market for $200 million, on condition that Hugh Hefner would continue to work and live in the mansion. Later that year it was sold to Daren Metropoulos, a principal at private equity firm Metropoulos & Company, for $100 million. Metropoulos planned to reconnect the Playboy Mansion property with a neighboring estate that he purchased in 2009, combining the two for a 7.3 acre compound as his own private residence.
In May 2017, Eugena Washington was the last Playmate of the Year to be announced by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.
Death
Hefner died at the Playboy Mansion on September 27, 2017, at the age of 91. The cause was sepsis brought on by an E. coli infection.
He is interred at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, in the crypt beside Marilyn Monroe, for which he paid $75,000 in 1992. "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to pass up," Hefner had told the Los Angeles Times in 2009.
If you want to read more, go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner
- SERVES
- 4
- COOK TIME
- 15 Min
Our All-In-One Pork Chop Dinner has everything you love in a pork chop dinner. We're talking creamy mashed potatoes, cheesy broccoli, and juicy, skillet-fried pork chops. Best part? It's ready in 15 minutes!
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 4 pork loin chops (about 1-1/2 pounds)
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 (10-ounce) package frozen broccoli and cheese sauce
- 1 (16-ounce) container refrigerated mashed potatoes
- In a shallow dish, combine flour, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Place buttermilk in another shallow dish.
- Dip pork chops in buttermilk, then in flour mixture, coating completely.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add pork chops and cook 6 to 7 minutes per side, or until cooked through. Meanwhile, heat broccoli and cheese sauce and mashed potatoes according to their package directions.
- Top pork chops with broccoli and cheese sauce and serve with mashed potatoes.
2001 – Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
1857 – Milton S. Hershey, American confectioner (d. 1945)
1939 – Richard Kiel, American actor (d.2014)
1944 – Jacqueline Bisset, British actress
1951 – Jean Smart, American actress
1956 – Anne Geddes, Australian photographer
On September 13th, the United States recognizes Uncle Sam Day. The day commemorates the man behind the iconic image. The fascinating nickname for the United States government was born on September 13, 1766.
Sam Wilson, a meat packer from New York, supplied barrels of meat to soldiers during the war of 1812. To identify the meat for shipment, Wilson prominently stamped “U.S.” on the barrels. It wasn’t long before the soldiers dubbed the grub a delivery from Uncle Sam. As such nicknames tend to do, its popularity spread.
The first illustration of Uncle Sam is unlike the one we know today. Published by Harper’s Weekly in 1861, the young government representative (a starred bandanna on his head and wearing a striped vest) is depicted dividing up Virginia like a butcher. Through the years, the image of Uncle Sam would take many forms.
Credit is given to German-born illustrator and cartoonist Thomas Nast for developing the long-legged Uncle Sam we know today. With the starred top hat and striped pants, the Uncle Sam debut in Harper’s Weekly, also. He took on many issues with Nast as his illustrator. Some of the issues topics included Boss Tweed, Union recruitment, and Reconstruction.
During the modern era, Uncle Sam obtained some color. The United States Army awarded Montgomery Flagg with the artwork for the familiar portrait used in the “I Want You For The U.S. Army” campaign during World War I. It first appeared on the cover of Leslie’s Weekly, an illustrated literary and news magazine.
UNCLE SAM DAY HISTORY
President George H. W. Bush proclaimed Uncle Sam Day to be September 13, 1989, in honor of the anniversary of the birth of Samuel Wilson. It coincided with the bicentennial celebration of the City of Troy, New York where Wilson lived and worked. The City of Troy requested the designation of the President.
On September 7, 1961, through concurrent resolutions, Congress officially named Uncle Sam as a permanent symbol of American strength and idealism.
