Crabs and Beer

Oct

2026

It’s THURSDAY…almost there!

Today is the anniversary of Black Tuesday, part of the great stock market crash of 1929 which ushered in the Great Depression. The great bull market and enthusiasm of the 1920s had led the stock market to record highs. The market had been on a nine-year run that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average increase in value tenfold, peaking at 381.17 on September 3, 1929. Much of the stock was purchased on borrowed money.

Some experienced investors realized that stock prices were unsupportable and began selling. On October 24, “Black Thursday“, the market lost 11% of its value at the opening bell. In the first three minutes alone, nearly three million shares of stock, accounting for $2 billion of wealth, changed hands. The huge volume meant that the report of prices on the ticker tape in brokerage offices around the nation was hours late, and so investors had no idea what most stocks were trading for.

Several leading Wall Street bankers met to find a solution to the panic and chaos on the trading floor. They agreed to support the market with strong buying backed by their collective wealth. It didn’t work. On October 29, 1929, “Black Tuesday” hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Around $14 billion of stock value was lost, wiping out thousands of investors. The panic selling reached its peak with some stocks having no buyers at any price.

Today is the birthday, in 1946, of Rob Van Leeuwen, from the Dutch rock band Shocking Blue, who formed in The Hague in 1967. They had the 1970 US No.1 & UK No.8 single ‘Venus’ which topped the charts in nine countries and was the first song by a Dutch band to reach No. 1 on the US chart. Worldwide, the single has sold over 5 million copies. Bananarama covered ‘Venus’ in 1986, hitting No.1 in the United States, Canada, and Australia, and reaching No.8 in the UK. American rock band Nirvana recorded a cover version of the Shocking Blue song ‘Love Buzz’ for its 1988 debut single, released on Sub Pop in the USA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LhkyyCvUHk

Oct

2026

Yes, it’s WEDNESDAY already.

On this day in 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act over the veto of President Wilson. The act was designed to enforce the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919) which established the prohibition of alcoholic drinks. The act defined ‘intoxicating beverages’ as those containing more than 0.5% alcohol. The act also set forth the fines and jail sentences for the manufacture, sale and movement of alcoholic beverages.

The production, importation, and distribution of alcoholic beverages—once the province of legitimate business—was taken over by criminal gangs, which fought each other for market control in violent confrontations, including murder. Major gangsters, such as Omaha’s Tom Dennison and Chicago’s Al Capone, became rich, and were admired locally and nationally.

the Act allowed 200 gallons of “non-intoxicating cider and fruit juice” to be made each year at home. Some vineyards embraced the sale of grapes for making wine at home. Vine-Glo was produced ostensibly to let people make grape juice from concentrate but it included a warning on its packaging telling people how to make wine from it.

On December 5, 1933, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, voiding the Volstead Act and restoring control of alcohol to the states.

British road signs…

Halloween gone wrong

Halloween pickle?

Marge Simpson?

Duct tape

Stanley Cup

FoilMan??

On this day in 1972, Stevie Wonder released his 15th studio album Talking Book. The album’s first track, ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’, hit No.1 on the Billboard charts, and earned Wonder his first Grammy Award. The album featured a guest appearance of Jeff Beck on the track ‘Superstition’.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYj1DMHwFy4

Oct

2026

Yes, it’s TUESDAY. Deal with it.

On this day in 1948, a deadly smog event began in Donora, Pennsylvania. It was caused by hydrogen fluoride and sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. Steel’s Donora Zinc Works and its American Steel & Wire plant during an atmospheric temperature inversion. It killed 20 people and caused respiratory problems for 6,000 of the 14,000 people living in Donora, a mill town on the Monongahela River 24 miles (39 km) southeast of Pittsburgh.

Many of the illnesses and deaths were initially attributed to asthma. The smog continued until it rained on Sunday, October 31, by which time 20 residents of Donora had died and approximately one third to one half of the town’s population of 14,000 residents had been sickened. Another 50 residents died of respiratory causes within a month after the incident.

The event is often credited for helping to trigger the clean-air movement in the United States, whose crowning achievement was the Clean Air Act of 1963, which required the United States Environmental Protection Agency to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to hazardous airborne contaminants.

Donora Wire Mill

Charcuterie for the season

Have the right Bumper Sticker!

Today is the birthday, in 1949, of American musician and record producer Garry Tallent who is the bass player with the Bruce Springsteen E Street Band. He started playing with Springsteen in 1971 and as of 2013, and not counting Springsteen himself, Tallent is the only original member of the E Street Band remaining in the band. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPhWR4d3FJQ

Oct

2026

Happy MONDAY, tout le monde!

On this day in 1977, Ali Maow Maalin, a Somali cook and health worker was the last person in the world known to have been infected with naturally occurring smallpox. Smallpox was declared to have been eradicated globally by the World Health Organization (WHO) two years later. This amazing accomplishment was made possible by vaccination.

Before the successful worldwide vaccination campaign, smallpox was a feared and deadly disease. During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 250–500 million deaths. In the early 1950s, an estimated 50 million cases of smallpox occurred in the world each year. As recently as 1967, the World Health Organization estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year. Thanks to this successful public health campaign for vaccination and the eradication of the disease, vaccination for smallpox is no longer necessary.

Photograph by Allan Warner of two boys who came in contact with smallpox, 1901. The one on the right was vaccinated in infancy, the other was not vaccinated.

Remembering the oil embargo and gas lines of the ’70s.

a little epistemology for y’all

Chocolate-coated!

Here’s Little Feat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z-GwdaKrn8

Oct

2026

THURSDAY! We’re getting close!!

On this day in 1962, President John Kennedy announced, in a nationwide broadcast, that the Soviet Union had placed missiles in Cuba that were capable of attacking the United States with nuclear weapons. In response, Kennedy ordered a naval ‘quarantine’ (a ‘blockade’ would be considered an act of war) on all offensive weapons headed to Cuba. During the speech, a directive went out to all US forces worldwide, placing them on DEFCON 3. The heavy cruiser USS Newport News was the designated flagship for the blockade, with USS Leary as Newport News‘s destroyer escort.

The crisis continued unabated, and on the evening of 24 October 1962, the Soviet TASS news agency broadcast a telegram from Khrushchev to Kennedy in which Khrushchev warned that the United States’ “outright piracy” would lead to war. The US requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on 25 October and Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, confronted Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin and challenged him to admit the existence of the missiles. Ambassador Zorin refused to answer. At 10:00 pm EDT the next day, the US raised the readiness level of Strategic Air Command (SAC) forces to DEFCON 2. For the only confirmed time in US history, B-52 bombers were put on continuous airborne alert. B-47 medium bombers were dispersed to military and civilian airfields and made ready to take off, fully equipped, at 15 minutes’ notice. Twenty-three nuclear-armed B-52 bombers were sent to orbit points within striking distance of the Soviet Union to demonstrate that the US was serious.

The implicit threat of air strikes on Cuba followed by an invasion allowed the United States to exert pressure in future talks, and the prospect of military action helped to accelerate Khrushchev’s proposal for a compromise. At 9:00 am EDT on 27 October, Radio Moscow began broadcasting a message from Khrushchev. Contrary to the letter of the night before, the message offered a new trade: the missiles on Cuba would be removed in exchange for the removal of the US Jupiter missiles from Italy and Turkey.

Emissaries sent by both Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed to meet at the Yenching Palace Chinese restaurant in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, DC, on Saturday evening, 27 October. Kennedy secretly agreed to remove all missiles in Turkey, on the border of the Soviet Union, and possibly those in southern Italy, in exchange for Khrushchev removing all missiles in Cuba.