Crabs and Beer!

On this day in 1963, In a symbolic attempt to keep his inaugural promise of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” and stop the desegregation of schools, George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, stood at the door of the auditorium as if to block the way of the two African American students attempting to enter.

In response, Democratic President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11111, which federalized the Alabama National Guard, and Guard General Henry V. Graham then commanded Wallace to step aside. Wallace spoke further, but eventually moved, and the two students were allowed to register.

The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education meant that the University of Alabama had to be desegregated. In the years following, hundreds of African-Americans applied for admission, but with one brief exception, all were denied. The university worked with police to find any disqualifying qualities, or when this failed, intimidated the applicants. But, in 1963, three African-Americans—Vivian Malone Jones, Dave McGlathery and James Hood—applied. In early June federal district judge Seybourn H. Lynne ordered that they be admitted, and forbade Governor Wallace from interfering, but did not grant the request that Wallace be barred from the campus.

On June 11, Malone and Hood pre-registered in the morning at the Birmingham courthouse. They selected their courses and filled out all their forms there. They arrived at Foster Auditorium to have their course loads reviewed by advisors and pay their fees. dministration officials also concluded the best optics would be to present the matter as a conflict between state and federal authority, not a racial confrontation between the white governor and the black students.

Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach told Wallace to step aside. However, Wallace interrupted Katzenbach and gave a speech on states’ rights. Katzenbach called President John F. Kennedy who then issued Executive Order 11111, which had already been prepared, authorizing the federalization of the Alabama National Guard under the Insurrection Act of 1807. Four hours later, Guard General Henry Graham commanded Wallace to step aside, saying, “Sir, it is my sad duty to ask you to step aside under the orders of the President of the United States.” Wallace then spoke further, but eventually moved, and Malone and Hood completed their registration.

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Today is the birthday, in 1949, of Frank Beard, American drummer with ZZ Top, who had the 1984 US No.8 & 1985 UK No.16 single ‘Legs’. Beard is notable as being the only musician in the band without a long beard, an ironic fact considering his last name. The band has had global album sales in excess of 50 million as of 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae829mFAGGE

On this day in 1692, Bridget Bishop was hanged near Salem Massachusetts for “certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries”.

Bridget was born in 1632 in Norwich, England. Bridget was married to a Captain Samuel Wasselbe at St. Mary in the Marsh in Norwich and the couple took a ship to Massachusetts. Bridget’s husband Samuel died. His cause of death is unknown, but there would be speculation about this later, during the Salem witch trials.

Her second marriage was to Thomas Oliver, a widower and prominent businessman who later died. Her third marriage c. 1687 was to Edward Bishop, a prosperous sawyer, whose family lived in Beverly.

Bridget Bishop was examined due to her accusation of suspicion of “sundry acts of witchcraft”. Bishop was accused of bewitching five young women, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, Jr., Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Elizabeth Hubbard, on the date of her examination by the authorities, 19 April 1692.

Cotton Mather recorded that several people testified against Bishop, stating that the shape of Bishop would pinch, choke or bite them. The shape also threatened to drown one victim if she did not write her name in a certain book. According to Mather, during the trial, any time Bishop would look upon one of her accusers, they would be immediately struck down and only her touch would revive them. Another local man, Samuel Shattuck, accused Bishop of bewitching his child and also of striking his son with a spade.

He also testified that Bishop asked him to dye lace, which apparently was too small to be used on anything but a poppet, a doll used in spell-casting. John and William Bly, father and son, testified about finding poppets in Bishop’s house. Bishop was sentenced to death and She was recorded to be the first woman to die from hanging in the colony.

Bridget Bishop

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Here is a bobcat in an unfavorable environment…

Camouflage

Looking for love…

Today is the birthday, in 1941. of Shirley Owens, singer with American girl group The Shirelles, notable for their popularity in the early 1960s. They were the first all-female black group to have a No.1 hit record with ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ in 1961. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkT1ZvXrIh4

On this day in 1930, Jake Lingle, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, was shot dead gangland-style in the underpass leading to the Illinois Central Randolph Street station as dozens of people watched.

Lingle was known for his work as a legman covering gang-related crime stories. He reported from the scene by telephone to a writer at the Chicago Tribune office and then that person would write up his story. During this period, Lingle made connections outside journalism, and while he earned $65 ($1,065 in 2021 money) a week reporting, he had more than $60,000 ($982,875 in 2021 money) in the bank.

Lingle’s death brought to the public’s attention his connections with gangsters. Lingle turned out to have been setting the price of beer in Chicago and involved in organized dog racing and gambling. He had maintained two homes plus a suite at the Morrison Hotel and had a six-figure stockbroker account. High-placed friends of his in the police department resigned. Not only did people discover what Lingle’s occupation really was, but they also learned about the gangs and about those with whom Lingle was associated.

In January 1931, the police received a tip and arrested a man by the name of Leo Vincent Brothers from St. Louis, Missouri. Many people swore that he was Lingle’s killer. Others, including Brothers himself, denied his involvement. Convicted, Brothers was given the minimum sentence for murder of 14 years, and he served 8 years of the sentence.

Jake Lingle

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Back when meds were fun…

This is Madonna…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpzdgmqIHOQ

On this day in 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Live Among the Lowly began appearing as a 40-part serial in The National Era, an abolitionist newspaper. The novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S., and is said to have “helped lay the groundwork for the American Civil War”.

Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary, was part of the religious Beecher family and an active abolitionist. She wrote the sentimental novel to depict the horrors of slavery while also asserting that Christian love could overcome slavery. The novel focuses on the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of the other characters revolve.

Stowe was partly inspired to create Uncle Tom’s Cabin by the slave narrative The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself (1849). Henson, a formerly enslaved black man, had lived and worked on a 3,700-acre (15 km²) plantation in North Bethesda, Maryland, owned by Isaac Riley.

Eliza crossing the icy river, in an 1881 theatre poster

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still leaks…

Here’s Taylor Dayne to welcome the weekend…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud6sU3AclT4

On this day in 1411, King Charles VI granted a monopoly or the ripening of Roquefort cheese to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, as they had been doing for centuries.

According to legend, Roquefort cheese was discovered when a youth, eating his lunch of bread and ewes’ milk cheese, saw a beautiful girl in the distance. Abandoning his meal in a nearby cave, he ran to meet her. When he returned a few months later, the mold (Penicillium roqueforti) had transformed his plain cheese into Roquefort.

In 79 AD, Pliny the Elder praised the cheeses of Lozère and Gévaudan and reported their popularity in ancient Rome; in 1737, Jean Astruc suggested that this was a reference to an ancestor of Roquefort. The theory was widely taken up, and by the 1860s was being promoted by the Société des Caves.

By 1820, Roquefort was producing 300 tonnes a year, a figure that steadily increased throughout the next century so that by 1914 it was 9,250. In 1925, the cheese was the recipient of France’s first Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée when regulations controlling its production and naming were first implemented. In 1961, in a landmark ruling that outlawed imitation, the Tribunal de Grande Instance at Millau decreed that, although the method for the manufacture of the cheese could be followed across the south of France, only those cheeses whose ripening occurred in the natural caves of Mont Combalou in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon were permitted to bear the name Roquefort.

Roquefort-sur-Soulzon

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Revised…

Back when newspapers still had editors and the editors had fun…

Today is the birthday, in 1945, of Gordon Waller, British singer, songwriter, guitarist with Peter and Gordon who had the 1964 UK & US No.1 single ‘A World Without Love’. Waller died aged 64 of a heart attack on 17 July 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdx6lLvvRyg