Browsing: October 19

A Brief History On October 19, 2019, we celebrate another Saturday geared toward honoring our sweetest of our sweeties, another one of those “holidays” allegedly created by greeting card companies to sell greeting cards, but fun for the rest of us nonetheless! Digging Deeper Of course, we have previously discussed some of these made-up holidays, and had this to say about Sweetest Day: “Along with Mother’s Day and Father’s Day among others considered a “Hallmark Holiday” created commercially to sell candy and greeting cards, it was invented in Cleveland in 1921 by the newspaper, The Plain Dealer. MEN: DO NOT…

A Brief History On October 19, 1864, military forces of the Confederate States of America invaded Vermont from a staging area in Quebec, Canada.  Although we have long been taught in school that the Gettysburg campaign was the last invasion of the North by the Confederate States, the St. Albans Raid proves that premise false.  Although not a “real” invasion by a large military force, the 21 cavalry soldiers involved on the side of the Rebels were in fact real soldiers of the CSA, men who had evaded capture in other campaigns and made their way North to Canada to…

A Brief History In October 1934, state prisoners at the Cummins State Farm in Lincoln County, Arkansas recorded a folk song, “The Rock Island Line.”  The song is about a train engineer that sneaks a load of pig iron on his train past the toll collectors by claiming his train is carrying only produce, a cargo not levied.  Since this is the only song I know of about pig iron, it will be the inspiration for today’s subject! Digging Deeper Many notable artists, Black and White, have recorded the song originally written and recorded by African Americans.  Some of those…

A Brief History On October 19, 2016, just a few hours ago, the Cleveland Indians won the American League Pennant (Championship) and earned a ticket to the World Series against either the LA Dodgers or the Chicago Cubs, starting Tuesday, October 25, 2016. Beating the Toronto Blue Jays 4 games to 1 (finishing with a 3-0 shut out) after beating the Boston Red Sox 3 games to 0 put an intimidating stamp on the playoffs. And this was with the loss of 2 of their best pitchers late in the season! Digging Deeper Not a bad year for Cleveland sports…

A Brief History On October 19, 1969, the fickle winds of fate must have been blowing awful hard, because the almost supernatural coincidence of cartoonist Trey Parker and self proclaimed psychic John Edward were both born on this day. Little did they realize that in September of 2002 Parker and his partner, Matt Stone, would feature Edward in the starring title role of the South Park episode known as The Biggest Douche in the Universe! (The 94th episode of the South Park animated cartoon series.) Digging Deeper Was this occurrence a cosmic joke? An example of fate? Or a mere…