A Brief History I love fog in the early Springtime with the trees still barren of their leaves and the grass resembling a wet and muddy bog.  There is something mystical yet haunting about it.  The air is full of moisture; it feels saturated.  For me, this type of weather is the most magical, the most eerie perhaps.  It is probably for this very reason that castles believed to be inhabited by ghosts are often portrayed in just this kind of environment.   The British Isles, which are well known for their otherworldly activity, are often covered in a damp mist.   Digging Deeper Scientific studies have shown that the electric…

A Brief History March 14, 1757 was a sad, black day in the annals of the Royal Navy for on that day, Admiral Sir John Byng was executed by firing squad on the deck of HMS Monarch.  Byng had been convicted of  non-compliance with The Articles of War, a British naval regulation that had been recently revised. Digging Deeper In particular, the articles governing the conduct of British naval officers had been modified to read that all British naval officers were subject to the penalty of death by execution (with no lesser sentence possible) for failing to do their utmost in…

A Brief History On March 13, 1964, Catherine “Kitty” Genovese, a 28-year-old resident of Queens, New York City was stabbed to death near her neighborhood.  The media reported that at least 38 people in the vicinity witnessed the attack but had done nothing to help, even failing to call the police, which allowed the attacker to return to the scene and finish his killing. Digging Deeper These reports were repeated in nearly all major media outlets, creating an uproar and outrage about the “bystander effect” in which citizens witness a crime but offer no assistance.  Americans became disgusted with one another, and the country engaged in…

A Brief History To take a step back from all the violent events we have recently covered, let us now celebrate some photographs taken by myself or family members in 2015 of wieners…well wiener dogs (Dachshunds), that is! Digging Deeper My mother took the above photograph of our Dachshund, Marie-Lousie, in February 2015 on a cold day in Ashland, Ohio. The above photograph was sent to my mother’s phone by my sister-in-law in March 2015. I took the above photograph at a gas station in Ashland, Ohio with my cellular phone in March 2015. This beautiful picture portrait taken in…

A Brief History On March 12, 1894, Coca-Cola, the preeminent soft drink on the planet, was first bottled and sold in Vicksburg, Mississippi by Joseph Beidenharn, a soda fountain operator who owned a candy store.  Previously sold by its creator the pharmacist John Pemberton who lived in Atlanta, Georgia and others under various formulas and names since 1886, it was Beidenharn who first bottled Coca-Cola.  A few years later, the first Coca-Cola bottling plant for mass production was founded in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Digging Deeper At first made with alcohol, the drink was marketed as an elixir or medicine that could cure…