On this day in 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. It repealed the 18th Amendment and thus legalized the sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. It is unique among the 27 amendments of the U.S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment.
The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution had ushered in a period known as Prohibition, during which the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal. The enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 was the crowning achievement of the temperance movement, but it soon proved highly unpopular. Crime rates soared under Prohibition as gangsters, such as Chicago’s Al Capone, became rich from a profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol. The federal government was incapable of stemming the tide: enforcement of the Volstead Act proved to be a nearly impossible task and corruption was rife among law enforcement agencies.
The end of prohibition was thought to be responsible for the creation of a half million jobs. States were allowed to regulate alcohol within their borders. Mississippi was the last state to remain entirely dry. In August 1966, 19 of Mississippi’s counties voted to legalize alcohol. Kansas continued to prohibit public bars until 1987.
KRAMPUS….
Today is the birthday, in 1945, of Eddie Serrato, drummer with ? & The Mysterians, who had the 1966 US No. 1 & UK No.37 single ’96 Tears’. The song later became a hit for The Stranglers in 1990. Serrato died from a heart attack on February 24, 2011, aged 65. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7uC5m-IRns
Today is St. Barbara’s Day. Known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian Greek saint and martyr. Saint Barbara is often portrayed with miniature chains and a tower to symbolize her father imprisoning her. As one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Barbara is a popular saint, perhaps best known as the patroness saint of armourers, artillerymen, military engineers, miners and others who work with explosives because of her legend’s association with lightning.
She is invoked against thunder and lightning and all accidents arising from explosions of gunpowder. She became the patroness saint of artillerymen, armorers, military engineers, gunsmiths, and anyone else who worked with cannon and explosives. Following the widespread adoption of gunpowder in mining in the 1600s, she was adopted as the patroness of miners, tunnelers, and other underground workers.
Saint Barbara’s Day, 4 December, is celebrated by the British (Royal Artillery, RAF Armourers, Royal Engineers), Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Armourers, Australian (Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery, RAAF Armourers), Canadian (Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technicians (EOD), Canadian Ammunition Technicians, Canadian Air Force Armourers, Royal Canadian Artillery, Canadian Military Field Engineers, Royal Canadian Navy Weapons Engineering Technicians), and New Zealand (RNZN Gunners Branch, RNZA, Royal New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps, RNZAF Armourers) armed forces.
The Irish Army venerates her as the patroness saint of the Artillery Corps where she appears on the corps insignia, half dressed, holding a harp, sitting on a field cannon. Saint Barbara is recognized as the patroness saint of the field artillerymen of the Marine Corps 1st Marine Division, who commemorate Saint Barbara’s Day with a dinner and the traditional preparation artillery punch.
Badge of the Irish Artillery Corps
Upstate NY shopping…
More leaks from the Epstein files?????
“Let It Snow”
You may start watching this thinking that they are lip-synching to a record, but no, this woman’s voice is just that good. And at the end of an all-night wedding reception. She is Clodagh McCarthy, singing an old Irish folk song at the wedding of her sister Patrice O’Connor and Donagh Davern in Tipperary. The video went viral a few years ago. Patrice comes from a family embedded in music and it was therefore no surprise that a sing-song started after the wedding. However, what has happened since has been phenomenal, as the video of Patrice’s sister Clodagh McCarthy singing, with Patrice harmonizing, has gone viral. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oFQ76ctfS0
On 3 December 1984, over 500,000 people in the vicinity of the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, India were exposed to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate, in what is considered the world’s worst industrial disaster.
The leak caused approximately 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. An estimated 8,000 died within two weeks of the incident occurring, and another 8,000 or more died from gas-related diseases.
Civil and criminal cases filed in the United States against majority owner Union Carbide Corporation and Warren Anderson, chief executive officer of the UCC at the time of the disaster, were dismissed and redirected to Indian courts on multiple occasions between 1986 and 2012, as the US courts focused on UCIL being a standalone entity of India. Civil and criminal cases were also filed in the District Court of Bhopal, India, involving UCC, UCIL, and Anderson.
One-stop shopping!
Hallmark is always good for a discount
Getting it together is hard…
It’s time to Face It!
Today is the birthday, in 1951, of Kimberley Rew from British-American rock band Katrina And The Waves, best known for the 1985 hit ‘Walking on Sunshine’. They also won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘Love Shine a Light’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPUmE-tne5U
On this day in 1865, Alabama ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, to be followed closely by North Carolina and Georgia. The Amendment outlawed slavery in the United States. The immediate impact of the amendment was to make the entire pre-war system of chattel slavery in the U.S. illegal. The impact of the abolition of slavery was felt quickly. When the Thirteenth Amendment became operational, the scope of Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation was widened to include the entire nation. Although the majority of Kentucky’s slaves had been emancipated, 65,000–100,000 people remained to be legally freed when the amendment went into effect on December 18. In Delaware, where a large number of slaves had escaped during the war, nine hundred people became legally free.
The Three-Fifths Compromise in the original Constitution counted, for purposes of allocating taxes and seats in the House of Representatives, all “free persons”, three-fifths of “other persons” (i.e., slaves) and excluded untaxed Native Americans. The freeing of all slaves made the three-fifths clause moot. Compared to the pre-war system, it also had the effect of increasing the political power of former slave-holding states by increasing their share of seats in the House of Representatives, and consequently their share in the Electoral College.
As the amendment still permitted labor as punishment for convicted criminals, Southern states responded with an array of interlocking laws essentially intended to criminalize black life. These laws, passed or updated after emancipation, were known as Black Codes. Mississippi was the first state to pass such codes, with an 1865 law titled “An Act to confer Civil Rights on Freedmen”. The Mississippi law required black workers to contract with white farmers by January 1 of each year or face punishment for vagrancy. Blacks could be sentenced to forced labor for crimes including petty theft, using obscene language, or selling cotton after sunset. States passed new, strict vagrancy laws that were selectively enforced against blacks without white protectors. The labor of these convicts was then sold to farms, factories, lumber camps, quarries, and mines.
Pineapple and Spam???
BADA BING!
ust a helpful reminder as Christmas approaches: if your birth year starts with 19, wrap your presents on a table, not the floor.
There is no truth to the persistent rumor that France intends to seize control of the Rock of Gibraltar from England and rename it “De Gaulle Stone.”
He’s paved the rose garden. He’s bulldozing the White House. There’s a planned UFC fight on the lawn. What in the white trash hell is happening?!
I just want to go back to a time where my first thought of the day is not, “what the hell did he do now?”
Why is a cow tired after giving birth? Because they’re decaffeinated.
What do you call a hippie’s wife? Mississippi.
Statistically speaking, 6 out of 7 dwarves are not Happy.
tRUMP’s healthcare plan has been “two weeks away” for so long it technically qualifies as a pre-existing condition.
Scientists planted human brain cells in a Sweet Potato. Its very first words, “I think therefore I yam”.
Mourning people really enjoy funerals before lunch.
This morning I saw an envelope on my doorstep that said: ‘Do Not Bend’. I stood there for ages trying to figure out how to pick it up.
My friend told me I was courageous for golfing so badly in front of people. I said it doesn’t take courage, but it does take a lot of balls.
Today is the birthday, in 1981, of American singer Britney Spears, referred to as the “Princess of Pop”, she has had a significant cultural impact in the 21st century and is credited for helping revive the teen pop genre She scored the 1999 US & UK No.1 single ‘Baby One More Time’, (one of the best-selling singles in history), and the 1999 album Baby One More Time, spent 82 weeks on the UK chart. With over 150 million records sold worldwide, Spears is one of the best-selling music artists in history, with Nielsen SoundScan ranking her the fourth best-selling female album artist of their era. Forbes listed her as the world’s highest-paid female musician twice, in 2001 and 2012. Spears received numerous industry awards, including one Grammy Award, six MTV Video Music Awards, and seven Billboard Music Awards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4
On this day in 1660, The Royal Society (a learned society and the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences.) was founded by twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray. It was granted a royal charter by King Charles II and is the oldest continuously existing scientific academy in the world.
The society’s motto, Nullius in verba, is Latin for “Take nobody’s word for it”. It was adopted to signify the fellows’ determination to establish facts via experiments and comes from Horace’s Epistles, where he compares himself to a gladiator who, having retired, is free from control.
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