"We are the first nation in the history of the world to go to the poorhouse in an automobile."
Will Rogers
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THE VERY EARLY MODEL T
"The driver of the old model T was a man enthroned. The car, with the top up, stood seven feet high. The driver sat on top of the gas tank, brooding it with his own body. When he wants gasoline, he alights, along with everything else in the front seat; the seat was pulled off, the metal cap unscrewed, and a wooden stick thrust down to sound the liquid in the well.'
Lee Stroud White
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"England had marshes, bogs, and fens, but only
America had swamps."
Dick K. Barnhardt and Allen A. Metcalf. America in So
Many Words: words that have shaped America (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co. 1997)
**
House Republicans move forward with their plan to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. They wrote articles of impeachment even before holding hearings.
"In all our history, only one cabinet officer has been impeached. William Belknap, whose eight years as secretary of war under President U. S. Grant had been marked by ostentatious displays of wealth and apparent kickbacks from army contracts, was charged with corruption in March 1876 just hours after he tearfully handed Grant his resignation. "
Heather Cox Richardson -- January 30, 2024
Now 2 cabinet officers have been impeached.
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THE EINSTEIN VISA
"Among the hardest permanent-resident visas for immigrants to the United States to obtain is the EB-1A, known colloquially as the Einstein visa. It is reserved for those with extraordinary talents or accomplishments—the kinds of people who don’t just make it to the Olympics but win a medal. In a fascinating piece from this week’s Cartoons & Puzzles Issue, Natan Last tells the story of Mangesh Ghogre, a forty-three-year-old man from Mumbai, who was granted an EB-1A for his exceptional ability to write crossword puzzles. Ghogre’s journey reveals the ways in which the crossword, a uniquely American export to the world, has always relied on people and innovations from abroad—and how the form might open up to include more voices."
THE NEW YORKER DAILY (December 22, 2023)
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WHAT IS A JOHN WAYNE?
"Although he’d never served in the military, the Marine Corps dubbed a can opener attached to dog tags that was used to open C rations “a John Wayne.” It was used by servicemen for the next forty years."
Donald A. Ranard in his essay "Becoming John Wayne"
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGwJvhjxHCnJJpfQrjQWWjtxvzl
--
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GEORGE WASHINGTON OPERATED A WHISKEY DISTILLERY
Shortly after departing the presidency in March 1797, George Washington set out on an entirely new endeavor. The founding father was encouraged by his farm manager James Anderson to use the vast expanse of the Washington family estate, Mount Vernon, to open a whiskey distillery. Anderson believed that the estate’s extant gristmill and plentiful water supply would make for a thriving operation. Sure enough, the prediction came true, and the distillery blossomed into a highly profitable business venture for Washington."
HISTORY FACTS (Website) February 19, 2024
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In 1900, the average payroll check taken home by a male working a 59 hour week was $12.74.
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MAKING ICE CREAM POPULAR IN AMERICA
James Madison and his wife, Dolley, helped popularize ice cream in America. Tastes in the treat, however, would be considered questionable today: chestnut, asparagus, and parmesan were all on the menu. Dolley’s favorite flavor was … oyster"
https://www.interestingfacts.com/american-president-facts. (January 3, 2024)
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SCOTT SHANE DISCOVERS THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD" -FIRST USED BY THOMAS SMALLWOOD IN 1842
"Addressing in his usual antic style a Washington slaveholder whose 'walking property walked off.' as he once put it. Mr. Smallwood told the man 'It was your cruelty to him that made
him disappear by the same 'underground railroad or 'steam balloon,' about which one of your city constables was swearing so bitterly a few weeks ago, when complaining the 'd--d rascals got off so, and no trace of them could be found."
Scott Shane. " The Man Who Named the Underground Railroad" in Sunday Opinion, The New York Times (September 17,2023),p.10.
**
POEM BY WORLD WAR II HERO & MOVIE STAR AUDIE MURPHY
| THE CROSSES GROW ON ANZIO |
| Oh, gather ’round me, comrades; and listen while I speak Of a war, a war, a war where hell is six feet deep. Along the shore, the cannons roar. Oh how can a soldier sleep? The going’s slow on Anzio. And hell is six feet deep. Praise be to God for this captured sod that rich with blood does seep. With yours and mine, like butchered swine’s; and hell is six feet deep. That death awaits there’s no debate; no triumph will we reap. The crosses grow on Anzio, where hell is six feet deep. . . . Audie Murphy, 1948 |
PhillipsMiscellany 
Washington’s whiskey was recreated in 2007 and is available for purchase.
https://www.mountvernon.org/the-estate-gardens/distillery/distilled-spirits-at-mount-vernon/george-washingtons-rye-whiskey/
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Thanks for the John Wayne quote, Lou. Just read a biography of Audie Murphy. The most decorated war in US hero slept with a .45 under his pillow for the rest of his life.
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Whoops. Meant to say: “The most decorated war hero in US history slept with a .45 under his pillow for the rest of his life.”
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https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/ice-cream/ :
“While the claim that Thomas Jefferson introduced ice cream to the United States is demonstrably false, he can be credited with the first known recipe recorded by an American. Jefferson also likely helped to popularize ice cream in this country when he served it at the President’s House in Washington.
One of only ten recipes surviving in Thomas Jefferson’s hand, the recipe for ice cream most likely dates to his time in France. Although Jefferson himself did not note the source, Jefferson’s granddaughter Virginia Jefferson Randolph Trist recorded a virtually identical recipe sometime later in the 19th century and attributed it to “Petit,” indicating that Adrien Petit, Jefferson’s French butler, was the original source of this recipe.[1]”
Google response: “Who was the first president to try ice cream?
In 1790, George Washington purchased as much as $200 dollars worth of ice cream. He had been elected as the first president of the United States in 1789 but was living in Philadelphia during his two terms. Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, was the first to serve ice cream at the White House.”
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