A Brief History On December 26, 2023, hordes of recipients of unwanted Christmas gifts will start the annual pilgrimage to the stores to return those disliked gifts. Traditionally, people make fun of fruitcake as a disliked gift, but we go further and list some of the most disliked gifts, although lists you find vary considerably. What gifts do you dislike the most? Digging Deeper Candles, as apparently folks like to pick their own fragrances. Clothes and Shoes, especially baby and toddler clothes. Exercise equipment and weight loss related items are often seen as an insult. Glassware and coffee cups since…
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A Brief History On December 24, 1913, someone, either as a prank or as an evil way of messing with the crowd, yelled, “Fire!” in the crowded Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan. The Christmas party turned tragic when 73 people died in the crush to escape the false fire. Digging Deeper When discussing “Freedom of Speech,” the example of falsely calling out “Fire!” in a crowded place is often cited as an exception. Some other exceptions include: Counterfeit currency. False advertising and speech that is copyrighted or otherwise owned by another. False statements, which include Slander and Libel, the spoken…
A Brief History On December 22, 1975, President Gerald Ford ordered a national stockpile of oil, or petroleum if you prefer, be created in underground storage located in Texas and Louisiana. The stockpile would consist of as many as 714 million barrels of oil and would be there if a national crisis mandated its use. Digging Deeper During the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Arab and Muslim oil producing countries followed Saudi Arabia’s lead to embargo oil from nations aiding Israel, most notably the United States. International oil prices soared from an average of $3 per barrel to $12 per barrel…
A Brief History On December 14, 2017, the Walt Disney Company continued a trend of corporate mergers and acquisitions that are killing competition in many markets when they announced the deal to acquire the 20th Century Fox movie studio for over $52 billion. Digging Deeper Way back in 1890, Congress realized the problem with only a few companies owning too much of a market, and passed the Sherman Act, the first major anti-trust law in the US. President Teddy Roosevelt built on a reputation as a “trust buster” to protect competitive commerce, but his successor, President William Taft, proved to…
A Brief History On December 10, 1968, a fake motorcycle cop stopped employees at the Nippon Trust Bank and stole 294 million yen, about $1 million in US dollars. Known as the “300 Million Yen Robbery,” the dramatic heist is not only the largest robbery in Japanese history, it is still unsolved to this day! Digging Deeper To sell the fiction of being a police officer, the faux cop told the bank employees there was a bomb threat on their delivery car, and he even crawled under the car to “confirm” the presence of the bomb. The robber also lit…