Browsing: May 5

A Brief History On May 5, 1862, the Mexican Army defeated the French Army at the Battle of the Puebla (Puebla City) during the Second French Intervention in Mexico, a marvelous victory for the Mexicans over a superior French force, a victory celebrated each year on May 5th, or in Español, Cinco de Mayo. Oddly enough, the Mexican celebration has been appropriated by Americans in the United States where it has become a bigger holiday for us Gringos than for Mexicans! Digging Deeper Mexico had been torn by one of their seemingly eternal civil wars which impoverished the country and…

A Brief History Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks is a Bildungsroman by Horatio Alger Jr., which was serialized in Student and Schoolmate in 1867 and expanded for publication as a full-length novel in May 1868 by the publisher A. K. Loring. It was the first volume in the six-volume Ragged Dick Series and became Alger’s best-selling work. The tale follows a poor bootblack’s rise to middle-class respectability in 19th-century New York City. It had a favorable reception. Student and Schoolmate reported their readers were delighted with the first installment, and Putnam’s Magazine thought boys would love the novel. One modern scholar considers the story a “puerile fantasy” about class…

A Brief History On May 5, 2017, as we celebrate Cinco de Mayo (and we do here, believe me!), we would like to expose what we think are 5 of the best and 5 of the worst television theme songs of all time.  Despite some of the songs having some popularity, the cloying, smarmy, sappy nature of some of them either makes us want to go to sleep or they are so overly sweet we gag.  Others are exciting or have become iconic TV music, even major radio hits.  (Maybe next time premium television such as HBO, Showtime and Starz…

A Brief History On May 5, 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, erstwhile Emperor of the French died on the lonely island of St. Helena, whispering his last word, Josephine. Digging Deeper The great man, a shell of his former self, in ill health served his exile on a desolate island. Little did he know, things would get worse. When Napoleon died in the custody of the British military, an autopsy was performed and the doctor snagged a souvenir for himself, the dead emperor’s penis. Apparently you could get away with that sort of shenanigans in those days. Napoleon is certainly not alone…

A Brief History On May 5, 1802, two of Napoleon’s generals entered into a pistol duel to the death over perceived insults between them. Digging Deeper Back in early 1801, the French soldiers that had remained in Egypt after Napoleon’s failed expedition there were trying their best to prevent an English army from pushing them out of the country.  The French commander-in-chief, General Menou, had only gotten the job after the previous commander General Kléber had been stabbed to death by a religious fanatic.  More of an administrator and less of a battlefield commander, Menou was in over his head.…