A Brief History On August 16, 2024, we rushed to our local theater to watch the newest edition of the Alien movie franchise, Alien: Romulus. Alas, we did not see this summer blockbuster sci fi pic in IMAX or the latest movie development, 4DX. Nonetheless, the movie experience was definitely a must see for any fan of the previous movies. Digging Deeper Even if you have not seen all or some of the previous Alien movies, our opinion is that viewers new to the franchise will still enjoy the film without knowing the subtle nods to the other editions. As…
Browsing: August
Read More
A Brief History On August 16, 1933, antisemitism reared its ugly head in Toronto, Canada, famous for being a nice city. Known as the “Christie Pits riot” after the playground in which it occurred; the incident was not unique in Toronto. Digging Deeper Toronto was a mostly White, British derived city with Jewish people making up the largest minority. Previous riots had taken place in 1875 against Catholics and in 1918 against Greek immigrants. Not just anti-Jewish, the Anglo rioters also railed against Italians. The setting had been a baseball game with a team of Jews and Italians against a…
A Brief History On August 15, 2013, a new carnivorous mammal was announced by the Smithsonian Institution, a two-pound animal resembling a racoon from the Andes in Columbia and Ecuador. Digging Deeper The Olinguito, dubbed Bassaricyon neblina in science talk, is the smallest member of the Procyonid family. Along with insects, the little guys also gobble some fruits and nectar. The first new carnivorous mammal found in the Americas in the last 35 years, the Olinguito is certainly not the last new animal discovery of our lifetime. In fact, The Science Museum of Virgina reports that 18,000 new species are…
A Brief History On August 14, 1948, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game began Beaver Drop, dropping Beavers by parachute into the central Idaho Chamberlain Basin. Digging Deeper Beavers were trapped live from Northwestern Idaho, the plan being to repopulate an area that once naturally held a Beaver population depleted by fur trapping. Also, Idaho residents in the Northwestern region had been complaining about Beavers wrecking their property and cropland. Merely reducing the population of Beavers in Northwest Idaho was dismissed as environmentally unsound, as well as the tremendous value of the Beavers in other Idaho habitats. In all,…
A Brief History On August 13, 1889, the coin operated pay phone was patented by William Gray of Connecticut. “It’s your dime” was a common phrase meaning “you make the call, you paid for it” and our greatest superhero, Superman, needed phone booths to change into his Superman suit. Not anymore! Digging Deeper Pay phones and phone booths used to be part of the American scene, as recently as the 1980s or the 1990s, but cell phones made them obsolete. Like the Marlboro Man, other bits of Americana largely disappeared, including: Coin operated kids’ rides outside the front of stores. …