The British comedy troupe Monty Python celebrates their 40th anniversary today. It was October 5, 1969 that a new show called Monty Python’s Flying Circus made it debut on the BBC, forever changing the course of comedy.  To say I am a Monty Python fan would be a terrible understatement. Yes, I can recite every line from The Holy Grail, though I’m one of the few who considers The Meaning of Life their best film.

What made Python work? A little of everything, not the least of which was their uncanny intelligence. Python was capable of high-brow humor and the lowest of lows. From “Can we have your liver?” to a hilarious examination of “What have the Romans ever done for us?”

Many comedy groups have emerged since Python, though none have managed to capture their spirit. True originals in every way. To celebrate the 40th anniversary, here are some of my favorite bits:

Bloody Catholics

The Galaxy Song

What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

Killer Rabbit

Sex Education

George Reeves committed suicide 50 years ago today, inadvertently setting in motion what became known as the Superman Curse. Reeves had a troubled life beset with failed marriages, but his biggest problem was his inability to shed the Superman image, a stereotype that destroyed his acting career.

Wired has a solid write-up on the life of George Reeves that is worth your time.

From Wired:

Some hope glimmered when he landed a part in the war drama So Proudly We Hail! in 1943. Director Mark Sandrich promised to make him a star, but Sandrich died shortly after of heart failure.

When Reeves became the Man of Steel in 1951, television was in its infancy and regarded as cinema’s red-headed stepchild. But as a real stepchild who played a redhead in Gone With the Wind, Reeves — like television itself — was about to take off.

The reality behind the scenes was that he worked for meager pay under punitive contracts that forbade him from acting in other series or films. Although he became a national celebrity due to his role in the film Superman and the Mole Men and the popular television series Adventures of Superman, he was still a B-lister in the glitzy clique of Hollywood.

2009 is going to be a great year for science, as it marks the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating 400 years since Galileo peered through a telescope and successfully stoked the rage of the Catholic Church.  A ton of events are already planned, NASA is totally on-board, and hopefully people who aren’t normally exposed to the wonders of the universe will find themselves awed. In anticipation of the coming year,Astronomy2009.org has unleashed their first trailer, which you’ll find below.