Browsing: Arts & Entertainment

A Brief History On April 23, 2005, the video world was treated to the first ever YouTube video, a video created by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, under the screen name of “jawed.”  The 18 second video was of the Elephant exhibit at the San Diego Zoo, and was so brief we can include the entire script here: “All right, so here we are in front of the, uh, elephants, and the cool thing about these guys is that, is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks, and that’s, that’s cool, and that’s pretty much all there is to…

A Brief History On April 16, 1910, Boston Arena opened for the first time, an indoor ice hockey arena that is still in operation, the oldest such building still operating.  We use this occasion in sports history to list 8 of the really old and great sports stadiums, arenas, venues, or whatever you want to call them, but only those that still exist.  All but the last are still in use.  As always, feel free to tell us of places we “should have” listed or if any we listed do not deserve mention. Digging Deeper Boston Arena, 1910. Although the…

A Brief History On April 4, 1859, the familiar Southern anthem, “Dixie,” alternatively known as “Dixie Land,” “Dixie’s Land,” and “I Wish I Was in Dixie,” made its public debut performed by the blackface troupe Bryant’s Minstrels as the closing number of their show.  Not only was the song first publicly performed in New York, a decidedly NOT city in Dixie, it was written by a guy from Ohio, another place North of the Mason-Dixon Line. Digging Deeper The Mason-Dixon Line, the line symbolically separating the Northern from the Southern United States, dates back to a surveying job performed by…

A Brief History On March 30, 1296, King Edward I of England, often better known as Edward Longshanks, sacked the Scottish town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, part of the ongoing war of England trying to maintain suzerainty over Scotland.  (Which means control of the direction and foreign policy of another nation without total ceding of local control.  Or something like that.)  As Scotland chafed under the English thumb, patriots such as William Wallace, a knight of murky origins, arose to fight the English during the struggle for total independence for Scotland. Digging Deeper Why “Longshanks?”  Meaning “Long Legs,” Edward was quite tall…

A Brief History On March 21, 1986, Debra Janine Thomas made athletic history by becoming the first African American woman to take the Gold Medal at the World Figure Skating Championships.  As March is Women’s History Month, it is our pleasure to relate her story. Digging Deeper Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1967, Debi moved with her mother to California at an early age, growing up in San Jose.  Her mother had become a single parent when she divorced Debi’s dad, but that hurdle did not stop Debi from taking up a career in figure skating starting at the…