Go topless on the beach

This one is for my little brother who is going on vacation with us and tries not to wear a shirt whenever possible (he learned it from my dad). In the 1920's and 30's it was illegal for men to be shirtless in public. The government officials at the time thought that they had to protect women and children from such an indecent sight. Men disagreed and decided to do it anyway. In 1934, 8 men were fined a dollar each for going topless at Coney Island. This same year the first shirtless man appeared in the movie "It Happened One Night," causing quite a stir. In 1935, New Jersey officials were feeling similarly unhappy. They arrested 42 shirtless men and gained 84$. In 1936, in Winchester, NY, men were finally allowed to go topless, the city rented out swimsuits and realized that the less swimsuit the less money it would cost them, so in the interest of the economy men could now show a little chest. New York was also the first place in the U.S. where it became legal for women to go topless. in 1986, seven topless women were arrested, in 1992 the supreme court took their case and ruled that it was legal for women to go topless in New York. It is legal for men and women to go topless in 33 states but some cities in these states say differently. In Tennessee, Indiana, and Utah it is specifically illegal to show the female breast. The rest of the states have ambiguous laws. Sometimes women are arrested for going topless in places where it is legal and won court cases against the state.

Clark Gable Topless in the 1934 film "It Happened One Night"

Palm trees

Palm trees are a feature of pretty much every tropical vacation you can imagine, every wonder how they got there? Palm trees are particularly well adapted to where they live, the beach. Coconuts not only float they have their own internal water source. If you've ever had coconut water you are drinking baby coconut food. Through out history coconuts have been traveling hundreds of miles across oceans to be transplanted on various beaches. Where, if the climate is right, they sprout roots and voila, palm tree.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palm_trees.jpg

No shirts, no shoes, no service

This one is for my sister. Recently their have been a lot of topless protests by women. These women are not only protesting because they want to go topless all the time, they are protesting the underlying assumptions that brought about these laws, and which they continue to promote. In 1986, it was still illegal to be a topless female in NY. When a number of women in Rochester were arrested for being topless in a park they brought it to court. These women ultimately won the case in the supreme court, who ruled that it is legal for women to go topless in NY. But, what were the arguments in a case that continues to be so relevant. Judge Herman Walz argued against making female toplessness legal saying:
             "The statute's objective is to protect the public from invasions of its sensibilities, and merely reflects current community standards as to what constitutes nudity. The objective itself is not based on stereotyped notions, therefore it is not illegitimate... community standards do not deem the exposure of males' breasts offensive, therefore the state does not have an interest in preventing exposure of males' breasts"
              He is arguing that most of the public wants to be protected so the government is protecting them and since the law is based on protection not sexism its fine. Don't buy it? Neither did the court. With this logic you could make oranges illegal because they offended peoples sensibilities, and we would end up with a very silly country. They appealed that their was no good government reason to distinguish between the genders in this case and the courts agreed, The case went on to the supreme court.
             These laws are made because of the reaction of the viewer not the action of the perpetrator. Reena Glazer Wrote in The Duke Law Journal  in 1993 that when you realize that these laws are to please the viewer and also look at the exception in the statute that exempts topless entertainment a glaring issue starts to  emerge. Things that might turn men on are only allowed to be show when men want to be turned on. In other words men's views of women's bodies are the ones that matter. This inherently objectifies women. Both sides argue that they are fighting objectification. One side says that breasts will make people objectify women, this is like the argument that wearing revealing clothing means women are "asking for it", my boobs don't talk and they certainly didn't "make" anyone do anything. The other sides argues for reevaluating preconceived norms about breasts automatically being sexual because those that are attracted to them say so.
         In 1995 Phoenix Feeley  tested out the NY law on toplessness and was arrested for walking down the street topless. She won the court case and $29,000 from the state. In 2011 she was arrested again in New Jersey where the laws are ambiguous and she served nine days in jail, hunger striking for eight of them and was let go. Gotopless protests have taken place in France, Iran, The U.S. and Canada, many resulting in arrests.

Curacao Liqueur

So you have sensed a theme with my last entry have you? I decided that while I'm on my articles will be themed, having to do with my vacation. So how did a liqueur get named after a place? In the late 1400's when the Spanish colonized Curacao one of their many plans for using the island was to grow their beautiful sweet oranges. Little did they know the oranges had another plan. The climate and soil were not good for the plant, the oranges that grew were evil tasting bitter tiny oranges and were abandoned. Not even the islands burgeoning goat population would touch them. At some point in the 1800's someone figured out that even though the oranges sucked the orange skins contained a lot of sweet oil and that when soaked in alcohol (because if it tastes good, lets face it, someone has soaked it in alcohol) thye made curacao liqueur. This alcohol is naturally clear but the company decided their product needed to look more tropical so it is often colored blue or orange.

Who started vacations?

I'm headed to Curacao for a week and so I decided to do some research on the history of vacation in the United States. Who was the brilliant person who came up with this concept of sunshine and laziness. Their isn't really an answer to this. The idea evolved over time and highly religious early america had a love hate relationship with the idea. Originally vacation meant the time where teachers and students were not at school. AKA vacating the school. People would take this time to do other things, often work. By the mid 1800's people start noticing that stress is doing bad things to business men. Doctors start proscribing vacations for peoples health, only people with money can really do this though. With the dawn of the automobile and trains people start thinking about taking farther trips for themselves. Trains companies realize that they can get more business by building hotels at one end of their line. Some religious people are still worried about the idleness of vacation at this time and so some christian groups run hotels offering far fewer temptations, no smoking or drinking and so on. As transportation improved and infrastructure arose vacationing evolved into what it is today.

Keeping it cool

I'm not sure why our generation has gone refrigerator crazy, we seem to think it makes everything last longer, but it doesn't. Putting some things in the refrigerator is flat out detrimental to their health. I'm not suggesting you do any of these things based on my meager experience but their is always more research that you can do. So, how did people survive before refrigerators?

Eggs
 Working at a living history museum I learned that eggs do not need to be refrigerated. Of all things I would think eggs do, but nature has provided for them so when their is a baby chick growing in side they wont go bad, duh, makes sense or their wouldn't be any chicks. Eggs have a substance called bloom on them that helps protect them for any bacteria or nastyness getting inside of the shell so unwashed eggs will last well out of the fridge I think we kept ours for about two weeks. Washed eggs that you have bought from the store are more questionable. They have been washed really good to get rid of the bacteria but sitting on your counter the could acquire more, they could acquire more in your refrigerator if it isn't clean but the temperature will make the bacteria grow more slowly.

Butter
Unless it is hot enough to melt your butter flat out you don't need to refrigerate it. We have kept better on my counter at home for my entire life and I have never seen it go bad. We keep the sticks we aren't using in the freezer and the stick we are on the counter in a butter dish to keep out the fuzzes and bacteria. Margarine will last forever but in a lot of cases it will puddlize at a lower temperature than butter.

Hard Cheese
Here is another dairy product you don't need to refrigerate, in fact, as long as the skin has been left on it is pretty hard to do anything to a good hard cheese. The skin of cheese was not for eating, unless you had to. The skin was to protect the yummy part from the everything else. We stored our cheese on a board in a cheese closet and while we kept our house clean at the museum dust gets everywhere. I have never seen this happen but if you have a true hard cheese and you get a moldy spot supposedly you can cut it off and the rest of the cheese will not have been effected.

Bread
Keeping bread in your refrigerator will make it stale. Bread starts to dehydrate as soon as you take it out of the oven and the refrigerator only speeds this up to six times faster.

Onions and Garlic
These two vegetables do not approve of moisture, it makes them get yucky. You have probably noticed that most of your produce from the store is a bit damp. Storing these in a drawer in the fridge together is not good for your onions and garlic, they would prefer to be left out where there is good circulation at room temperature.

Fire cats go!

A warfare manual by the siege warfare professional Franz Helm from around 1530 includes a curious illustration of a cat carrying fire. The manual suggests that when left with no other options, capture a pigeon or cat from the local area, and strap a bomb or fire to its back in a container. The idea was that the freaked out animal would run home and light the city on fire. However cats being contrary as they are, would probably run under your ammunition wagon or snuggle onto your commanders lap. Which is probably why we don't have any record of fire cats used in battle.

Ridiculous yet dignified: Graduation regalia

Graduation regalia began in the 1100 and 1200's  when universitys began to form up across Europe. The only job at this time that required a degree was the Clergy. So the regalia was modeled after the typical robes of the clergy which made up a large section of scholars. From the mid 1300's onward colleges many colleges began regulating what their students could and could not wear, gowns became even more standardized. It was not until the late 1800's and only in the United States that specific cut, color, and details were standardized by most colleges to indicate very specific things such as area of study. The caps, also called mortarboards because they resemble the boards masons hold mortar on came into the picture in the 1400's. In many colleges it was against the rule to wear hats so instead students took up caps and mortarboards, originally mortarboards were only for doctorate students and signified their position as a teacher.

Your turn to hold down the castle, I mean fort

La Crete Fort was built by the English on Jersey an island off the coast of France to try and keep Napoleon from invading. Ironically it still ended up with a french name meaning "the ridge". During World War II the area was captured by the Nazi's and used for military operations. Now a days the fort is used to defend peoples privacy, on vacation. If you want to go live in a fort, or a castle which this basically looks like, this is your spot. You can stay here for seven days in peak season for only about 1600 dollars which is about half of most other comparably sized castles in the UK and on the European coast.

Grand Central Station backwards?

The ceiling of grand central station is beautiful. It was painted in 1913, replaced in the 1930s and  refurbished in the 1990s to represent the constellations in the night sky. Except backwards, except for Orion who appears as he would from earth. While human stupidity never ceases to amaze me, I don't think you could paint several hundred feet of prestigious ceiling, with consultants, and no one would notice the entire thing is backwards, then again, I could be wrong. Some people also suggest that it was painted this way as occult symbolism, this also seems unlikely to me. Their are much more reasonable explanations however. It is possible that the artist based his drawing on a faulty Colombian astronomy chart where Orion was drawn backwards, and so when he flipped the entire thing, on purpose, Orion ended up the correct way while everyone else was the way the artist wanted.  The artist may have been inspired by renaissance artists who painted the constellations "from above" so that a person got the view the gods would see when looking down from the heavens. The "mistake" was promptly noticed by an amateur astronomer as soon as the mural went up, but as a testament to the artist and history of Grand Central's terminal the art has been left "backwards"

Eating scientists

In highschool science one of the first things they teach us is NEVER EVER PUT YOUR SCIENCE EXPIREMENT IN YOUR MOUTH! Well apparently this is one of those cases of do as I say not as i do because scientists have put some pretty weird stuff in their mouths over the years.

Their are a lot of stories of people sampling mammoth, but as far as I can tell none of them have been confirmed officially, however in the 80's some scientists at the University of Alaska, specifically Dr. Guthrie decided to sample their 36,000 year old bison. Of coarse they ate "extra" neck meat, that wouldn't show when they displayed the ice preserved find. Apparently the meat was "well aged but still a little tough, and it gave the stew a strong 'Pleistocene' aroma"p258  What did the Pleistocene smell like?

Some geologists lick rocks, they say that you can tell the difference between different types of sediment with your taste that you can not tell apart by sight. Mole from Atlantis anyone?

Marine biologist Win Watson, a big proponent of eating what you study brought home some bio luminescent jelly fish to show his family. He left them out and the dog ate them creating glowing dog throw up. 

The polite 40's way to say shut up

During World War II women were pulled into the work world through necessity. Much of the popular culture of the time period, advertising, music, and movies attempted to convince women to join the war effort through working. Although much of this popular culture became well known, only one song hit the top 100's charts that even mentioned women working. The song is called "Milkman Keep Those Bottles Quiet" By Ella Mae Morse. The song talks about her working on bombers and riveting for the war effort and when she comes home the milk man is clinking around, and basically she says shut up in a classy 40's lady way.

Milkman, Keep those bottles quiet
Cant use that jive on my milk diet
So milkman, keep those bottles quiet

Been Jumpin on the swing shift, all night
Turnin out my quota all right
Now i'm beat right down to the sod
gotta catch myself some righteous nod

Milkman stop that grade A riot
Cut it out if you cant lullaby it
Oh, milkman keep those bottles quiet

Been knocking out a fast tank, all day
working on a bomber okay
boy you blast my wig with those clinks
And I gotta catch my forty winks

Now noise of the riviter rocks, don't mind it
cause the man with the whiskers has a lot behind it
but I can't keep punchin' with the victory crew
when you're making me punchy with that bottled moo

I wanna give my all if I'm guna give it
But I gotta get my shuteye if I'm guna rivet
So bail out bud, with that milk barrage
cus its unpatriotic, its sabatage

Been knocking out a fast tank, all day
boy you blast my wig with those clinks
And I gotta catch my forty winks

So milkman keep those bottles quiet

Ooooh, milkman keep those bottles quiet
Ooooh, milkman keep those bottles quiet

Quiet!

There's a fish in my Ketchup!

Ketchup was originally a form of fish sauce. The recipe evolved to be made with many things from berries to mushrooms and eventually tomatoes. I learned about a recipe called Ketchup soup when I was tricked into eating it while working at a museum. The soup was fish based not tomato. I couldn't find the actual recipe but I found something similar from the 1840's. Mace you ask? in my food? Mace is an ingredient that comes from the outer shell of nutmeg. It tastes somewhere between cinnamon and pepper.

Anchovy Catchup

Ingredients

• 24 anchovies
• 10 shalots or very small onions, cut fine
• 1 handful of scraped horseradish
• 1/4 ounce of mace
• 1 lemon, cut into slices
• 12 cloves
• 12 pepper-corns
• 1 pint of red wine
• 1 quart of white wine
• 1 pint of water
• 1/2 pint of anchovy liquor

Instructions

Bone anchovies, and then chop them. Put to them the shalots and horseradish, with mace. Add lemon, cloves, and pepper-corns. Then mix together red wine, white wine, water and anchovy liquor. Put the other ingredients into the liquid, and boil it slowly till reduced to a quart. Then strain it, and when cold put it into small bottles, securing the corks with leather.

Source

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches (1840).

I found this recipe on an amazing historical food blog called Vintage Recipes you can check it out here http://www.vintagerecipes.net/recipes/sauces_spreads/ketchups/

Your neighborhood beer drinking mamals

If any of you have ever left a beer outside and seen your neighborhood wild life lumber over and lap it up you probably know of skunks secret love for alcohol. But I'm lying, this is not a literal phrase. Though I have seen a cat lick up almost an entire bottle of wine and proceed to sort of role down the attic stairs.

Why do we say drunk as a skunk? Probably because drunk only rhymes with 16 other frequently used English words and the only other one that makes sense is monk, and that saying already exists. Also people don't like it when you make fun of religious figures. Another possible reason, it sounds better than stinking drunk and has the same connotation.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KOAK_Midsummer_2011_Le_Pew.JPG

How did Humpty Dumpty get on the wall anyways?

The nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty was first recorded by Lewis Caroll for his book "Alice Through The Looking Glass. In the 1500's Humpty Dumpty was a not very nice nick name used to refer to overweight people. It only makes sense that in his book for children a heavy person might be imagined as an egg. So who was Humpty Dumpty? Is this just nonsense? This is another one of those mysteries that is lost to history, but their are some fun theories.

Humpty Dumpty might be Charles I, calling him "large" could be a way of poking fun at an unpopular king. He was deposed by the Puritan, Oliver Cromwell and fell from power. Those still loyal to him could not restore his power and he was executed in 1649.

The theory I like best is that Humpty Dumpty might be a cannon. During the second British Civil war Colchester was suring up its defenses. One of the churches referred to as "St. Mary's by the Wall" had a tower and was well placed for defense of said wall. Many cities at this time were walled against attack. So the men of the town managed to lug a gigantic cannon ( as all canons were at the time) to the top of the church tower. This is our mysterious Humpty Dumpty, the very chubby cannon. During the assault on Colchester the cannon was fired into the enemy's lines, naturally causing the enemy to fire back. The tower was very damaged causing the cannon to fall from the roof. The cannon was very damaged, as things are wont to be when they fall three stories and could not be returned to working order. Later Colcheseter was forced to surrender and open their gates

First Female Serial Killer?

Sometimes the most interesting stories are the ones we may never know that truth of.  Lavinia Fisher was purportedly the first convicted female serial killer in the United States, however, she was actually arrested on the charge of highway robbery. The story goes that Lavinia and her husband ran a hotel in about six miles outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Lavinia and her husband would quiz the people staying in their hotel to find out of they had money, or were expected anywhere. Lavinia would give the unwary travelers a sedative in their tea. Depending on the story they would either stab the sleeping visitor or drop them through a trap door under the bed. One night a John Peeples became suspicious of the questioning. He really did not like tea but the hostess was generous so he dumped it when she wasnt looking. When he went to bed he decided to watch the door from his chair in case they tried anything. He woke up to hearing the bed fall through the trap door, high tailed it out the window, and alerted the authorities. Fortunately or unfortunately their is no proof of almost any of this. Lavinia and her husband lived or at least met at some place with the same name as the hotel in their story. They were part of a gang and they assaulted a man named John Peeples at that place. Lavinia assaulted atleast one man choking him and smashing his head into a window. She was hanged for highway robbery as part of the gang in 1820. Just before being hanged it is reported that Lavinia yelled to the crowd "If any of you have a message for the devil, tell me now - for I will be meeting him soon" but the truth of these words, along with many other parts of the story are lost to history.

Quotes from people born on June 14th

I love quotes, and their are lots of good ones. But how to choose? I decided to narrow it down to quotes from people born on this day in history.

 "The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone." -Harriet Beecher Stowe
 "Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly" - Robert M. La Follette
 "Excessive reservations and paralyzing despondency have not helped the sciences to advance nor are they helping them to advance , but a healthy optimism that cheerfully searches for new ways to understand, as it is convinced that it will be possible to find them." -Alois Alzheimer
 "I believe that true art is universal in its appeal" John McCormack
 "time flows in the same way for all human beings; every human being flows through time in a different way" Yasunari Kawabata
 "Lucidity is the wound closest to the sun." Rene Char
 "I do not wear my emotions on my sleeve. I was once described by my own son Stephen as an emotional ostrich." Pierre Salinger
 "Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war" -Donald trump

Kitty War Hero

 

Simon was smuggled on board the HMS Amethyst by a 17 year old sailor who found the sick hungry cat in Hong Kong. The cat quickly made himself both useful and lovable presenting rats to beloved sailors and sleeping in the captains hat. The ship changed hands and the new captain loved Simon as well. As the ship took its first mission up the Yangtze river it was attacked by communists, in 1949, during the "Yangtze Incident." A cannon shot through the captains quarters killing the captain and injuring Simon badly. Simon was repaired by the ships doctors, but not expected to live the night. Simon recovered and was handed over to a third captain who was indifferent to his charm. The recovering Simon again made himself useful, killing off the rat infestation and raising morale. Simon is the only cat to have been rewarded the Dickin Medal, an award to honor valorous animals. He also received the blue cross, the Amythest Campaign Medal, and was given the rank "Able Seacat" created especially for him. Entering the U.K., Simon had to go through quarantine like all animals do. He died of a complication that was a result of a virus contractced through his war wounds

Listen children and you shall here, of the midnight ride of Sybil Ludington

                Sybil Ludington, was the daughter of Abigail and Henry Ludington. She was born in 1761 and became the eldest of 12 children. Her father was originally a loyalist. In Sybil's young life he fought for the king, but the cry of no taxation without representation got inside his head and in 1775 he broke his bonds with the Royal army and was recruited by George Washington as Colonel of the Seventh Militia of Dutchess County, New York, earning him the hatred of other loyalists. General How placed a huge bounty of 300 guineas on his head (its hard to equate $ to guineas but if we make the rough estimate that 1 guinea = $1.75 that's about $528 1776 money which is about $13,900 in 2014 money when you account for inflation) so a lot of people wanted to kill him. He was also in charge of a very important tract of land, called the Hudson Highlands. The area contained dense forest where Native Americans and also bandits lived, The bandits were taking advantage of wartime chaos to harass unprotected towns, the militia lived in spread out farm houses. The Hudson high lands were the most direct route from Long Island Sound to Connecticut and if captured would split the colonies in two. Sybil lived on the edge of this territory in what is now Kent, New York.
                 By 1775, Sybil had eight brothers and sisters whom she helped her mother care for. When she managed to find a spare moment she would be out riding her horse star who she had trained from a colt. Sybil knew her fathers life was in danger and came up with a plan. One night about 50 men planned to capture Sybil's father and take him for the reward. Sybil was on watch and saw them coming from behind the mill. She woke her 14 year old sister Rebecca and they roused the other children. The children lit all of the candles in the house and marched back and fourth with muskets, throwing shadows on the windows. Sybil shot a single shot out of the window into the night and deterred the would be kidnappers.
                In 1777 her father returned home after months of fighting. The farmers in the area had been allowed to return and plant in order to feed their families. On April 5th Sybil turned 16, 21 days later, just after she put her siblings to bed their was a knock on the door. Sybil listened as an exhausted terrified rider reported to her father that the British were burning Danbury, Connecticut and coming this way. Sybil's father ordered the man to ride on and alert the militia, the man could not or would not ride on. Accounts vary as to whether Sybil spoke up or was asked by her father but either way she said she would do it. She knew her father could not leave his militia men and their was no one else. The trip would take Sybil 40 miles through dense forest filled with bandits, British, and dangerous animals through the pouring rain, armed only with a stick. She rode up to doors and pounded with her stick calling:
                                  "The British are burning Danbury - Muster at Ludingtons!"
She his from the scouting British soldiers behind trees. According to some accounts when she reached caramel they rang the church bells to alert people faster. A man from the town offered to see her home but instead she sent him east to alert another town and continued on her ride. Her ride started at 11 pm and ended when she returned home at dawn. They were too late to save Danbury but they did drive the British back out of the Hudson Highlands and into long Island sound. Sybil was congratulated by George Washington, she had mustered over 400 men, she is remembered in a monument in Caramel, New York.

Both of these people were very brave and important to the founding of our country, here are some of their differences.

	Paul Revere	Sybil Ludington
Age at time of ride	40	16
Miles	12-14	about 40
Where	streets, some of them lit	Through the forests and fields of the Hudson Highlands in the rain
how long	two hours 11pm- 1am	Nine hours 9pm- dawn(around 6 am)
captured?	yes	no

War Pigeons in World War II

By World War II communications were greatly improved but pigeons were still used to supplement other types of communication. They were used in emergencies and also when a person was too close to the enemy lines and did not want to be detected. 

Mary of Exeter was a racing pigeon gone war pigeon during WWII. She was injured repeatedly taking a gun shot wound, attack by a hawk, and shrapnel wound, recovering each time. The pigeon recieved 22 stiches and a leather collar. She lived another 10 years.

Paddy the Irish pigeon was the first Pigeon to deliver news of the successful D-day. it took him four hours and five minutes to fly the 230 miles across the English channel (thats about 57.5 miles per hour for four hours strait)

In 1942, Winkie was thrown free of her cage on a crashed and sinking bomber plane. She flew 129 miles to Scotland. Her plane was located and the crew saved from the small cold dingy they had been huddling in. These men threw a feast for Winkie and her owner.

Born in 1943, G.I. Joe sent messages for the Americans during WWII. The British were trying to capture Colvi Vecchia, the Germans unexpectedly fell back and the British entered the city with little resistance. Their were plans for the Americans to bomb the town later that day, and all communications failed. The city that was scheduled to be bombed was now filled with British soldiers. G.I. Joe was sent out in a final attempt to call off the bombing, he flew the 25 miles back to base, and arrived just in time to stop the planes from taking off. He saved more than 100 soldiers from friendly fire.

G.I.Joe