Thomas Edison is a beloved figure in the history of science, technology and invention.

But, boy, what a jerk.

In 1882, Nikola Tesla emigrated to the United States to work for Edison. An innovative electrical engineer in his native Serbia, he was hired to redesign Edison’s inefficient motor. At the time, Tesla was paid a salary of $18 dollars per week, but Edison promised a bonus of $50,000 if Tesla could improve the motor. In a few months, Tesla easily completed the task. Edison refused to pay, instead he laughed at Tesla and told him, “If you were an American, you would understand the American sense of humor.” As a consolation, he offered to increase Tesla’s pay to $25 per week. An outraged Tesla quit and went off on his own, eventually partnering with George Westinghouse.

While Tesla was Edison’s employee, Edison regularly mocked and belittled Tesla’s achievements, calling them “impractical.” Edison then took credit for an early X-Ray machine that Tesla had been working on under Edison’s employ.

Edison fought vehemently against Tesla’s innovative AC (alternate current) power, instead championing his own DC (direct current) power. Edison spoke publicly about the dangers of AC, going so far as to publicly electrocuting animals, including an elephant, to make his point. Edison commissioned an electric chair to be built using Tesla’s AC power. An inmate on death row was executed in a very messy spectacle in an effort to prove Tesla’s findings dangerous. (AC power is no more dangerous than DC. High voltage normally means high current. It doesn’t matter what version of voltage it is.)

Later in life, Tesla was recognized for his contributions. He was awarded a medal from The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) — The Edison Medal.

Edison wasn’t content on screwing over Nikola Tesla. In 1902, when French filmmaker Georges Méliès released his groundbreaking Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon), Edison essentially bootlegged the film and distributed it in the United States, to tremendous profit. He shared none of that profit with the director.

And he didn’t stop there. A man named Bradley Pelsgraf invented a shoe cleaning device. Edison, frustrated that he did not have a competing device, took several of Pelsgraf’s inventions and dropped them off a tall building’s roof to show that their heavy weight could be dangerous. He killed three people in the process.

Thomas Edison’s last breath is reportedly captured in a test tube housed at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. It smells like a cheater.

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It was Thanksgiving weekend 1981. Natalie Wood and her husband, actor Robert Wagner had asked fellow actor Christopher Walken, Natalie’s co-star in her current film Brainstorm, to join them aboard their yacht the Splendour. They would sail to Catalina Island, dine at Doug’s Harbor Reef, the only restaurant in Isthmus Cove on the northern end of the island, and then spend the evening on the yacht.

The trio, all of whom had been drinking excessively, boarded a 13-foot dinghy after dinner and motored back to the yacht. Other diners had noticed erratic and volatile behavior from the obviously intoxicated Natalie.

At 8 AM on November 29, Natalie’s lifeless body was found floating in the Pacific Ocean, approximately one mile from where the Splendour was anchored. She was wearing a flannel nightgown, a down jacket and wool socks. The rubber dinghy that was used as a transport was floating nearby, its ignition was off and its oars were up and locked. It was speculated that she had fallen into the water while trying to board the craft. Scratches on the vessel’s side suggested that Natalie tried to pull herself onto the boat, but the combination of alcohol in her system and the weight of her waterlogged jacket made her attempts unsuccessful. In her drunken state, she didn’t think of removing the jacket. She clung to the side of the small dinghy as it drifted away from the Splendour. Disoriented in the dark and overcome by exhaustion and hypothermia, Natalie drowned.

Over thirty years later, it is still unclear why Natalie left the yacht in the middle of the night and why Wagner and Walken weren’t alarmed by her late night disappearance. In 2011, Dennis Davern, the captain of the Splendour, alleged that Natalie and her husband were fighting on board and that Wagner was ultimately responsible for her death. His story lacked credibility (he was plugging a book at the time), although the official cause of death was changed from “accidental drowning” to “drowning and other undetermined factors.”

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My annual Christmas music compilation is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD for a limited time.

This year, it’s 29  holiday songs that run the gamut from big band swing to hipster cool, plus a custom full-color cover with track listings – all for you and all for FREE! (That’s two more songs than last year!)

Just CLICK HERE for “A Non-Traditional Christmas 2014.”
You will be taken to a new window where you’ll be able to download the zipped folder. Just ask your nearest grandchild how to unzip the folder and put the songs onto that goddamn iPod they bought you last Christmas. I guarantee you’ll be deleting these songs to make room for the latest NPR podcast in no time.

(Please contact me if you have trouble with the download… or just to say “Thanks.”)

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“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

As a young student of psychiatric medicine, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was shocked by the hospital treatment of patients in the United States who were dying. She began giving a series of lectures featuring terminally ill patients, forcing medical students to face people who were dying.

Upon graduation and  receiving her degree, she began teaching at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. She developed a series of seminars using interviews with terminal patients, which drew both praise and criticism. She regularly questioned the practices of traditional psychiatry that she observed.

Her work with the dying led to write her celebrated and respected book, On Death and Dying, in 1969. In the book, Kübler-Ross proposed the now famous “Five Stages of Grief” as a pattern of adjustment: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Later, she expressed an interest in the afterlife and spiritualism, sometimes debunking self-proclaimed “mediums,” à la Harry Houdini.

One of her greatest wishes was to build a hospice for infants and children infected with HIV to give them a last home where they could live until their death. In 1985, her attempt to fulfill her dream in Virginia was met with opposition from local residents who feared the possibility of the spread of the disease. Zoning for the facility was eventually blocked. In 1994, Kübler-Ross lost her house and possessions to an arson fire that is suspected to have been set by opponents of her AIDS work.

In 1995, Kübler-Ross suffered a series of strokes which left her partially paralyzed and limited her mobility. She was confined to a wheelchair, in constant pain, slowly waiting for death to come. She wished to determine the time of her own death. Kübler-Ross passed away in 2004 at the age of 78.

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My annual Christmas music compilation is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD for a limited time.

This year, it’s 29  holiday songs that run the gamut from big band swing to hipster cool, plus a custom full-color cover with track listings – all for you and all for FREE! (That’s two more songs than last year!)

Just CLICK HERE for “A Non-Traditional Christmas 2014.”
You will be taken to a new window where you’ll be able to download the zipped folder. Just ask your nearest grandchild how to unzip the folder and put the songs onto that goddamn iPod they bought you last Christmas. I guarantee you’ll be deleting these songs to make room for the latest NPR podcast in no time.

(Please contact me if you have trouble with the download… or just to say “Thanks.”)

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