Crabs and Beer

Oct

2026

Of course, MONDAY is sunny and pleasant.

Today is the anniversary of the Women’s March on Versailles, which took place in 1789 and ended the king’s independence.

he march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, on the morning of 5 October 1789, were rioting over the high price of bread. The unrest quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. The market women and their allies ultimately grew into a crowd of thousands. The crowd besieged the palace and, in a dramatic and violent confrontation, they successfully pressed their demands upon King Louis XVI. The very next day, the crowd forced the king and his family to return with them to Paris. Over the next few weeks, most of the French assembly also relocated to the capital.

The women’s march was a signal event of the French Revolution, with an effect on par with the fall of the Bastille. For posterity, the march is emblematic of the power of popular movements. It marked the end of the king’s resistance to the tide of reform; he made no further open attempts to push back the Revolution. The marathon course used at the 2024 Summer Olympics is based on a similar route taken by the women’s march.

A contemporary illustration of the Women’s March on Versailles, 5 October 1789

Real estate can be tough

Curses!

Terri Nunn and Berlin…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx51eegLTY8

Oct

2026

FRIDAY…I say it again: FRIDAY!!

Today is the anniversary of the Nottingham Cheese Riot which took place in 1766 during the Goose Fair. Coming at a time of food shortages and rising foodstuff prices in England, violence broke out when city residents attempted to prevent Lincolnshire merchants taking away Nottinghamshire cheeses they had bought at the fair. A warehouse, shops and a cargo boat were looted and hundreds of cheese wheels were rolled through the streets by angry rioters.

Government troops were deployed when the mayor of Nottingham, Robie Swann, was unable to restore control. One man was killed and several wounded as the military opened fire on the rioters. Order was eventually restored after several days of unrest.

Spectators and contestants at the annual Coopers Hill cheese rolling contest

SIGNS or something…

something to wake you up for the weekend!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU0IyxvcH4E

Oct

2026

THURSDAY, first day of October!

Today is the birthday, in 1910, of Bonnie Parker in Rowena, Texas. Her father, Charles Robert Parker (1884–1914), was a bricklayer who died when she was four years old. Her widowed mother, Emma (Krause) Parker (1885–1944), moved her family back to her parents’ home in Cement City, an industrial suburb in West Dallas where she worked as a seamstress.

Parker was a bright child who thrived on attention. She enjoyed performing on stage and dreamt of becoming an actress.^[8] In her second year in high school, Parker met Roy Thornton (1908–1937). The couple dropped out of school and married on September 25, 1926, six days before her sixteenth birthday. Their marriage was marred by his frequent absences and brushes with the law and proved to be short-lived. They never divorced, but their paths never crossed again after January 1929. When she died, Parker was still wearing the wedding ring Thornton had given her.

She and and Clyde Chestnut “Champion” Barrow were an outlaw couple who roamed the Central United States with their criminal gang during the Great Depression, committing a series of criminal acts such as store robberies, bank robberies, kidnappings and murders between 1932 and 1934. The couple were particularly infamous for their bank robberies and multiple murders, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations, and are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and three civilians.

On May 23, 1934, the couple were ambushed and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, by a law enforcement posse led by retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. She was 23.

Bonnie Parker, c. 1932–1933

Today is the birthday, in 1942, of Herb Fame, singer from the American vocal duo Peaches and Herb, who had the 1979 US No.1 & UK No.4 single ‘Reunited’. The song was a huge crossover smash, topping both the pop and soul charts. It spent four weeks at No.1 on both the R&B singles chart and the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1979 and sold over two million copies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMh3utpqfaY

Sep

2026

Only WEDNESDAY, but you can see FRIDAY from here

On this day in 1791, the first performance of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute takes place two months before his death. It is a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. It was Mozart’s last opera. It was an outstanding success from its first performances, and remains a staple of the opera repertory.

the Queen of the Night persuades Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina from captivity under the high priest Sarastro; instead, he learns the high ideals of Sarastro’s community and seeks to join it. Separately, then together, Tamino and Pamina undergo severe trials of initiation, which end in triumph, with the Queen and her cohorts vanquished. The earthy Papageno, who accompanies Tamino on his quest, fails the trials completely but is rewarded anyway with the hand of his ideal female companion Papagena.

Detail from Portrait of the Mozart Family, c. 1781

Nothing to add here…

What shall we name our business???

There are three good songs in Mozart’s the Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), and here is one of them: the Queen of the Night aria. Also known as der Hölle Rache, or the revenge of hell ^_^’ in this song, the princess has finally been rescued from the sun cult, but she has developed Stockholm syndrome and wants to go back and join them. Her mother, the queen of the night, tells her nope! Mom then asks the princess to kill Sarastro, the leader of the sun cult. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HEjAkFBBz0

Sep

2026

TUESDAY, and the sun is back!

On this day in 1907, the foundation stone of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, also known as Washington National Cathedral, was laid in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt and a crowd of more than 20,000. The cathedral was completed 83 years later, after several phases of construction and years long interruptions, in the presence of President George H. W. Bush on September 29, 1990.

It is the second-largest church in the United States and the third-tallest habitable building in Washington, DC. The cathedral is the seat of both the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Over 270,000 people visit the structure annually.