Crabs and Beer!

On this day in 1886, The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) was dedicated. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and its metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel.

The statue is a figure of a classically draped woman, likely inspired by the Roman goddess of liberty, Libertas. In a contrapposto pose, she holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. With her left foot she steps on a broken chain and shackle, commemorating the national abolition of slavery following the American Civil War.

The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe’s Island. The statue’s completion was marked by New York’s first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.

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BADA BING!

At a couples counseling meeting the speaker mentioned that couples are so disconnected that 85% of husbands don’t know their wives favorite flower. 

Mick turned to his wife and whispered, “It’s self rising, right?”

Front doormat – WELC… Wait, who did you vote for?

Trump: “I do not think any President has ever ended a war. One war. I did eight of them”. Me: Kinda feels like we’re all living in a giant mental hospital with him.

I’d rather be an American than a Trump supporter.

Shannon Kobylarczyk, the woman who went viral for telling a US citizen and veteran she would call ICE on him for cheering on the LA Dodgers has been FIRED.

What’s Irish and stays out all night? Patty O’Furniture.

A leaked Young Republican group chat included horrific violence, racism, sexism, antisemitism, and homophobia. The thing about it that really surprises me is that anyone else was surprised.

They’re giving all this money to Argentina so they have a safe place to go when the international trials start.

Scientists have discovered the 99.9% of those who are told to “Hold your horses!!” do NOT in fact HAVE horses.

If I understand the MAGAs in my comment section, No Kings was poorly attended and the pictures are fake, but also those in attendance were friendless losers, but also those in attendance were groups of unemployed people, but also those in attendance were paid to be there, but also the attendance doesn’t matter because the protests won’t change anything, but also if things change it’s not because of the protests, but also…

You know that feeling you get after you wake up from what was supposed to be a 20-minute nap and aren’t sure what day it is?

A lady just asked me what “mansplaining” is. I think it’s a trap. We’ve been staring at each other in silence for a half an hour now.

I discovered that answering the door naked helps deter trick or treaters.

Oh, here we go again. Here’s two dressed as policemen.

Filling a whoopee cushion with chocolate pudding adds a whole new dimension to the joke.

tRUMP: Everybody wants to have sex with me. Obama: Donald, that’s not what “fuck tRUMP” means.

Comment: Food stamps should not be used to buy soda.

Reply: Wild how a poor person buying a $1 soda with food stamps sends you into a moral panic. But billionaires writing off private jets and yachts on their taxes? Not a peep. Your outrage is as cheap as that soda.

The best part about No Kings was the comforting proof that millions of us still haven’t lost our goddamn minds.

Could someone explain which crimes get you deported and which ones get you elected president? It’s so confusing.

I knew school was a scam when my business teacher didn’t own a business, and my PE teacher was fat.

A man is driving to an important meeting. He’s running late, completely stressed, and can’t find a parking spot anywhere. In desperation, he looks up to the sky and says, “Lord, please help me find a parking spot. If you do, I swear I’ll quit drinking and go to church every single Sunday!” At that exact moment, a car pulls out of a spot right in front of him. The man looks up to the sky again and says, “Ah, never mind. Found one!”

My daughter was doing history homework and asked me what I knew about Galileo. I said, “He was a poor boy from a poor family.”

Can’t wait to see how MAGA pretends that the Trump-supporting, gun-loving, confederacy-promoting, cis straight white man, who tried to shoot up the Atlanta airport was somehow not one of theirs. (Steve Hofstetter)

Founding fathers: We never wrote a rule against electing felons. We mistakenly assumed America wouldn’t be that stupid.

Calling it “the nuclear option,” House Speaker Mike Johnson opted on Tuesday to enter a medically induced coma to avoid swearing in newly elected congresswoman Adelita Grijalva.

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coming up…

creative architecture…

Today is the birthday, in 1940, of British singer Wayne Fontana, who had the 1966 UK No.2 single with Mindbenders, ‘Groovy Kind Of Love’, and the 1965 US No.1 single ‘Game Of Love’. Fontana died from cancer on 6 August 2020 at the age of 74. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8kq1IU7Y44

On this day in 1682, the city of Philadelphia was founded by William Penn. Before colonization, the area had been inhabited by the Lenape people.

The first exploration of the area by Europeans was in 1609, when a Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson entered the Delaware River valley in search of the Northwest Passage. The Valley, including the future location of Philadelphia, became part of the New Netherland claim of the Dutch Republic.

A group of Swedish colonists reached Delaware Bay in March 1638, and the settlers began to build a fort at the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. They named it Fort Christina, in honor of the twelve-year-old Queen Christina of Sweden. It was the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley.

The Dutch never recognized the legitimacy of the Swedish claim and, in the late summer of 1655, Director-General Peter Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam mustered a military expedition to the Delaware Valley to subdue the rogue colony. After the English defeated the Dutch and took over their North American colonies, King Charles II gave Penn a large piece of his newly acquired American land holdings to repay a debt the king owed to Admiral Sir William Penn, Penn’s father. This land included present-day Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Penn later journeyed up the river and founded Philadelphia with a core group of accompanying Quakers and others seeking religious freedom on lands he purchased from the local chieftains of the Lenape or Delaware nation. Penn himself designed the layout of the city, based in part on the city design of the Latin tract Utopia by Thomas More. He also planned that the city’s streets would be set up in a grid, with the idea that the city would be more like the rural towns of England than its crowded cities. The homes would be spread far apart and surrounded by gardens and orchards. It didn’t work out that way.

More details

Philadelphia’s skyline at twilight from the southwest on South Street Bridge with the Schuylkill River on the left in July 2016

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When the steaks are high…

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

Mom: Do you want to wear a scary costume or a princess costume?
Girl: I don’t know!
Mom: You can be both! You can be a queen who got her head cut off!
Girl: Yeah, let’s do that!
Boy: I want to have my head cut off!
Mom: How about you be the king that murdered her?
Boy: Well, okay. But how will people know I did it?
Mom: Let me tell you a scary story, a true story…

Scream’s distant Alabama cousin, ‘Holler’

On this day in 1977, Baccara were at No.1 in the UK singles chart with Yes Sir, I Can Boogie. They were the first Spanish act to score a UK No.1, and the first female duo to do so. ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’ is also one of the thirty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32wDFCM7iSI

Today is the birthday, in 1830, of Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood, American lawyer, politician, educator, and author who was active in the women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements. She was one of the first women lawyers in the United States. In 1879 she became the first woman to be admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court. Lockwood ran for president in 1884 and 1888 on the ticket of the National Equal Rights Party and was the first woman to appear on official ballots.

Belva Ann Bennett was born in Royalton, New York. By age 14, she was teaching at the local elementary school.^[4] In 1848, by age 18, she married Uriah McNall, a farme local to the area. McNall died of tuberculosis in 1853, three years after their daughter Lura was born. Realizing that she needed a better education to support herself and her daughter, she enrolled in Genessee College. Lockwood graduated with honors in 1857 and soon became the headmistress of Lockport Union School. It was a responsible position, but Lockwood found that whether she was teaching or working as an administrator, she was paid half of what her male counterparts were making.

n February 1866, Belva and her daughter Lura moved to Washington, D.C., as Belva believed it was the center of power in the United States and would provide good opportunities to advance in the legal profession. She opened a coeducational private school while exploring the study of law. She applied to the Columbian Law School in the District of Columbia. The trustees refused to admit her, fearing she would distract the male students.^[9] She and several other women were finally admitted to the new National University School of Law (now the George Washington University Law School). Although she completed her coursework in May 1873, the law school refused to grant her a diploma because of her gender.

Without a diploma, Lockwood could not gain admittance to the District of Columbia Bar. After a year, she wrote a letter to the President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, appealing to him as president ex officio of the National University Law School. She asked him for justice, stating she had passed all her courses and deserved to be awarded a diploma. In September 1873, within a week of having sent the letter, Lockwood received her Bachelor of Laws. She was 43 years old.

he District of Columbia Bar admitted her, although several judges told Lockwood they had no confidence in her, a reaction she repeatedly had to overcome. When she tried to gain admission to the Maryland Bar, a judge lectured her and told her that God Himself had determined that women were not equal to men and never could be. When she tried to respond on her own behalf, he said she had no right to speak and had her removed from the courtroom.

Lockwood drafted an anti-discrimination bill to have the same access to the bar as male colleagues. From 1874 to 1879, she lobbied Congress to pass it. In 1879, Congress finally passed the law, which President Rutherford B. Hayes signed into law. It allowed all qualified women attorneys to practice in any federal court. Lockwood was then sworn in as the first woman member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar on March 3, 1879.

Late in 1880, Lockwood became the first female lawyer to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing Kaiser v. Stickney. In 1906, Lockwood represented the Cherokee Nation in United States v. Cherokee Nation. She was successful in ensuring the payment of the five million dollar suit, one of the largest made to that date to a Native American tribe for land ceded to the government.

She ran in the presidential elections of 1884 and 1888 as the candidate of the National Equal Rights Party. Belva Lockwood died on May 19, 1917, and was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

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Engagement…

SIGNS…

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Today is the birthday, in 1937, of American steel guitarist Santo Farina, who, with the instrumental rock and roll duo Santo & Johnny Farina scored the 1959 US No.1 hit ‘Sleep Walk’. The track has since been used in over 25 movies, including La Bamba, The Irishman, Mermaids, Eddie and the Cruisers, Hearts in Atlantis, Charlie’s Angels and was used in the Stephen King film Sleepwalkers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rwfqsjimRM

On this day in 1947, Carl and Gerty Cori, along with Bernardo Houssay of Argentina, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The Coris were the third married couple to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

Carl grew up in Trieste and Gerty grew up in Prague. Gerty was tutored at home before enrolling in a lyceum for girls, and at the age of 16, she decided she wanted to be a medical doctor. Pursuing the study of science, Gerty learned that she lacked the prerequisites in Latin, physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Over the course of a year, she managed to study the equivalent of eight years of Latin, five years of science, and five years of mathematics. She was admitted to the medical school of the Karl-Ferdinands-Universität in Prague in 1914 where she met Carl.

Carl was drafted into the Austrian army and served during World War I. Life was difficult after the war, and Gerty developed dry eye caused by severe malnutrition due to food shortages. These problems, in conjunction with the increasing anti-Semitism (Gerty was from a jewish family), contributed to the Coris’ decision to leave Europe. In 1922, the Coris both immigrated to the United States (Gerty six months after Carl because of difficulty in obtaining a position) to pursue medical research at what later became the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. In 1928, they became naturalized citizens.

They continued their research, specializing in investigating carbohydrate metabolism. They were particularly interested in how glucose is metabolized in the human body and the hormones that regulate this process. They published fifty papers while at Roswell. The lead author of each paper was the one who had done the most research. Gerty Cori published eleven articles as the sole author. In 1929, they proposed the theoretical cycle that later won them the Nobel Prize, the Cori cycle. The cycle describes how the human body uses chemical reactions to break some carbohydrates such as glycogen in muscle tissue into lactic acid, while synthesizing others.

Gerty Cori with her husband and fellow-Nobelist, Carl Ferdinand Cori, in 1947.

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Here’s Tuba Skinny! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYJhgz4L3UU

This day in 1844 was the day of The Great Disappointment. The Great Disappointment in the Millerite movement was the reaction that followed Baptist preacher William Miller’s widely believed proclamation that Jesus Christ would return to the Earth by 1844, which he called the Second Advent. His study of the Daniel 8 prophecy during the Second Great Awakening led him to conclude that Daniel’s “cleansing of the sanctuary” was cleansing the world from sin when Christ would come, and he and many others prepared. When Jesus did not appear by October 22, 1844, Miller and his followers were disappointed.

These events paved the way for the Adventists who formed the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They contended that what had happened on October 22 was not Jesus’s return, as Miller had thought, but the start of Jesus’s final work of atonement, the cleansing in the heavenly sanctuary, leading up to the Second Coming.

William Miller

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On this day in 1966, The Supremes became the first female group to have a No.1 album on the US chart with ‘The Supremes a Go Go’, knocking The Beatles Revolver from the top of the charts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTBmgAOO0Nw