Root-Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band: This Date in History

[grimes70]

If you haven't read it you should.



8f

He was a map geek as a kid too. Still is.

 

[donbosco]

#OTD (Feb. 28) in 1861 North Carolinians voted not to talk about secession. In a statewide referendum prompted by the creation of The Confederacy from Deeper South states three weeks earlier the state government called for the will of the people. With 93,995 citizens casting ballots the “Do Not Hold A Convention To Talk About Secession” tally carried the day by 651 votes.



The Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge had taken North Carolina’s electoral votes in the presidential election three months earlier. Abraham Lincoln had not appeared on the ballot. But of course the Republican had won the presidency - a reality that had set wheels spinning in Southern Slave Societies to thoughts of leaving the Union.



The states most heavily invested in enslavement broke away first - the Alabamas and Mississippis of the world - as well as our immediate neighbor, South Carolina. The Old North State watched and waited. Not until President Lincoln requested troops of the states to address the South Carolinian attack on Fort Sumpter did North Carolina cast its lot to break the Union. To be sure, Virginia and Tennessee had already signaled their intention to secede before NC joined in.



Accounts seem to indicate that when North Carolina finally made this decision there was no remorse. The state would see the most casualties of any in fact while paradoxically it would also be the source of the highest number of deserters. It would appear that the first vote - the February 28, 1861 in which Tar Heels frankly said, “Let’s don’t talk about this,” was the best course to follow.

 

[grimes70]

Aside from Dean's birthday...

For whatever reason I read this book as a teenager. Key person in the creation of Vegas as a gambling Mecca.



Bugsy Siegel (born February 28, 1906, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died June 20, 1947, Beverly Hills, California) was an American gangster who played an instrumental role in the initial development of Las Vegas gambling.

Siegel began his career extorting money from Jewish pushcart peddlers on New York’s Lower East Side. He then teamed up with Meyer Lansky about 1918 and took to car theft and, later, bootlegging and gambling rackets in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. He and Lansky also ran a murder-for-hire operation, the forerunner of Murder, Inc. In 1931 he was one of the four executioners of Joe Masseria.

In 1937 the syndicate leaders sent him to the West Coast to develop rackets there. In California the handsome gangster successfully developed gambling dens, gambling ships (offshore beyond the 12-mile [19-km] limit), narcotics smuggling, blackmail, and other illegal enterprises and equally successfully cultivated the company and friendship of Hollywood stars and celebrities. He developed a nationwide bookmakers’ wire service and in 1945 began realizing his dream of a gambling oasis in the desert northeast of Los Angeles. In that year he built the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, originally budgeted at $1,500,000 but costing eventually $6,000,000, much of it in syndicate funds from the east.



The cost overruns involved extensive skimming by Siegel, who had his girlfriend Virginia Hill deposit the money in European banks; he also began writing bad checks to cover construction costs. Such actions and other duplicities angered Lansky and other eastern bosses. In the late evening of June 20, 1947, Siegel was killed in his palatial Beverly Hills home, brought down by a fusillade of bullets fired through his living-room window. At almost the same moment, three of Lansky’s henchmen walked into the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and declared that they were taking over.

 

[Patb78]

Aside from Dean's birthday...

For whatever reason I read this book as a teenager. Key person in the creation of Vegas as a gambling Mecca.



Bugsy Siegel (born February 28, 1906, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died June 20, 1947, Beverly Hills, California) was an American gangster who played an instrumental role in the initial development of Las Vegas gambling.

Siegel began his career extorting money from Jewish pushcart peddlers on New York’s Lower East Side. He then teamed up with Meyer Lansky about 1918 and took to car theft and, later, bootlegging and gambling rackets in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. He and Lansky also ran a murder-for-hire operation, the forerunner of Murder, Inc. In 1931 he was one of the four executioners of Joe Masseria.

In 1937 the syndicate leaders sent him to the West Coast to develop rackets there. In California the handsome gangster successfully developed gambling dens, gambling ships (offshore beyond the 12-mile [19-km] limit), narcotics smuggling, blackmail, and other illegal enterprises and equally successfully cultivated the company and friendship of Hollywood stars and celebrities. He developed a nationwide bookmakers’ wire service and in 1945 began realizing his dream of a gambling oasis in the desert northeast of Los Angeles. In that year he built the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, originally budgeted at $1,500,000 but costing eventually $6,000,000, much of it in syndicate funds from the east.



The cost overruns involved extensive skimming by Siegel, who had his girlfriend Virginia Hill deposit the money in European banks; he also began writing bad checks to cover construction costs. Such actions and other duplicities angered Lansky and other eastern bosses. In the late evening of June 20, 1947, Siegel was killed in his palatial Beverly Hills home, brought down by a fusillade of bullets fired through his living-room window. At almost the same moment, three of Lansky’s henchmen walked into the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and declared that they were taking over.

Great post. It has been said that Meyer Lansky never killed anyone. He didn’t have to, he had Siegel do it for him.

 

[nycfan]

 

[Patb78]

Great post. It has been said that Meyer Landry never killed anyone. He didn’t have to, he had Siegel do it for him.

Meant Lansky.

 

[grimes70]

JFK gets too much credit for things LBJ and others actually did. This was one of his better accoplishments (even with it's behind the scenes imperialism at work), And damn, look at what we have become since.

1961 Peace Corps, U.S. government agency of volunteers, established by executive order by Pres. John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961, and authorized by the U.S. Congress through the Peace Corps Act of September 22, 1961. (From 1971 to 1981 it was a subagency of an independent agency called ACTION.) The first director of the Peace Corps was Kennedy’s brother-in-law R. Sargent Shriver.

The purpose of the Peace Corps is to assist other countries in their development efforts by providing skilled workers in the fields of education, agriculture, health (there has been a particular emphasis on combating HIV/AIDS), trade, technology, environmental protection, women’s economic empowerment, and community development. Peace Corps volunteers are assigned to specific projects on the basis of their skills, education, and experience. Once abroad, the volunteer is expected to function for two years as a good neighbor in the host country, to speak its language, and to live on a level comparable to that of the volunteer’s counterparts there.



The Peace Corps grew from 900 volunteers serving 16 countries in 1961 to a peak of 15,556 volunteers in 52 countries in 1966. By 1989 budget cuts had reduced the number of volunteers to 5,100, but over the next two decades there were increases, such that by the Peace Corps’ 50th anniversary in 2011 there were more than 8,500 volunteers serving in 77 countries. In the 1990s the organization’s global reach was extended to include eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland and republics of the former Soviet Union. Among other countries, China was added in 1993, South Africa in 1997, and Mexico in 2003. By 2018, 141 countries had hosted more than 235,000 Peace Corps volunteers.

Overseas volunteer services akin to the Peace Corps are maintained by other countries, while similar humanitarian work is sponsored by nongovernmental organizations such as Doctors Without Borders.

 

[heelinhell]

No doubt he was a great coach, but he was a far greater man.

 

[donbosco]

For @heelinhell

Chapter 11 in ‘A Coach’s Life’ is titled “I May Be Wrong, But!” It is my favorite in a book that is never out of reach. It is Coach Smith’s “This is what I believe” essay. In it Coach Smith writes that the game of basketball gives no advantage for wealth, nor race, nor religion, nor nationality and is “about as fair as humans can make something.”



In his assisted autobiography (John Kilgo and Sally Jenkins), ‘A Coach’s Life,’ Coach Smith thinks out loud about theology, one of his favorite topics. As a man of faith he expressed his reluctance to see God’s favor in a victory — “I may be wrong, but the idea that God cheers for one team to win over another is not my idea of God.” You may not like it, or perhaps you will love to hear it, but Coach Smith was firmly and thoughtfully Left-of-Center. And that Worldview was rooted in Christian Theology and The Bible.



He stood in opposition to White Supremacy, Nuclear Proliferation, and the Death Penalty. He saw right through the Moral Majority. He protested the Vietnam War. Coach Smith spoke for ‘Gay Rights’ and Civil Rights and the dismantling of segregation - all in a state that sent Jesse Helms to the Senate five times and has, disgracefully, more recently been carried in presidential elections three times by trump.



Many of us loved him for his coaching style long before we knew these things about him. But that style exemplified the baseline philosophy — share the ball, work hard to make your teammates’ opportunities better, and selfless sacrifice — that all of his teams displayed on the court. Maybe even for some of us it was Coach Smith’s example that helped to bring the light into our own lives. Like another UNC thinker, Frank Porter Graham, Coach Smith generated great heat in the lives of a great many people. Understandably, some did not like him, but if you did not respect him then you were/are a pitiable case.



Fred Hobson, born and raised in Yadkinville, NC, and who played Junior Varsity basketball at Carolina and later served as an English Professor at his Alma Mater, said, “To be quite frank, many of the people who idolized him in the state did not know his politics and would not have agreed with them if they had. So what everyone saw in him was not his politics. It was simply his leadership — that calm in the face of crisis.”



Continuing with the frankness, I’m personally very glad that I came to know the full measure of Coach Smith - because he showed us a path forward through darkness and did so with tact and by example. In the meantime, Coach Smith brought that same thoughtfulness to the game itself and to the relationship that he forged with each of his players over his 36 years on the sidelines. Yes, he thrilled us and taught us never to give up and that the only way was the right way, the human way, the kind and considerate way, but he also won the game far, far more than he lost.



He worked to turn the Front Porch of The University of North Carolina into a welcoming entryway for all people. Quite literally because of him the world had a focus other than Helms or KKK violence or Bathroom Bills when they looked to North Carolina and had to know that we all weren’t — clearly we couldn’t be — like that. He demonstrated that regression was contested in The Tar Heel State. If you don’t see this or are skeptical, read up - start with ‘A Coach’s Life’ then move on to the testimonials of his players, fellow coaches, folks that he worked and prayed with, and even most of all - the people that he bested. Happy Birthday Coach (1931-2015). Never, ever forgotten.

 

[donbosco]

51 years ago today. 54-52 in 13 overtimes.

 

[Zoo_View]

51 years ago today. 54-52 in 13 overtimes.

So, no one on either team could shoot well.

 

[donbosco]

 

[donbosco]

Missed this one. Here’s a story.

In #Bonlee #DeepChatham growing up it was pretty common to see a sub-16 year old out on the highway driving a tractor. But then my Elementary School (Grades 1 through 8 had student parking — think about THAT for a minute). The roads down that way were narrow with no shoulder in those days — just the ditch on either side. Drivers either poked along or dreamed of NASCAR fame. Throw in teen-age tractor pilots and rampaging chicken trucks and the highway was downright treacherous.

I was awarded my first speeding ticket at 16, topping a rise on Old 421 doing 80 mph only to meet John Law eyeball to eyeball. I totaled my car the next year - on an icy day in front of my high school just as school let out. There were four of my classmates in the car with me. No one was much hurt. Other students wrecked and rolled their cars and trucks regularly. Sometimes kids and young adults died.

Car culture was big, and souped up engines, mag wheels, and jacked up chasis were all over. Muscle cars were ubiquitous and LOUD was the sound of main street in Siler City and Sanford on Friday and Saturday night. Gas shortage be damned! CB radios eventually appeared — aiding the concerted effort to thwart the State Patrol and the Sheriff. Racing happened despite the admonitions and best efforts of long-time Driver’s Ed teacher (and legendary baseball coach) Ronald Scott.

But cars were needed in that neck of the woods - there was no public transportation whatsoever - no one thought about it. There were school buses — and they were mainly driven by high school students! Only little kids rode the bus anyway. Imagine the roads feeding into a country high school about 7:45 on a weekday morning filled as they were with hot rods — It’s a true wonder more didn’t die.

I don’t know what’s it is like these days on the roads around Bonlee, Goldston, Bennett, and Bear Creek. Last I saw it seemed that Big Trucks had taken over from the race cars. Maybe that means those kids are armored up and air-bagged sufficiently that fatalities are low. I doubt, however, that the roads are any wider in most of #DeepChatham nor are the temptations, necessities, and distances to drive reduced one whit.

#OTD (Feb. 28) in 1935 the NC General Assembly passed a law requiring a Driver’s License to operate “any rubber-tired vehicle propelled or drawn by any power other than muscular” on a public road. From the start the age was 16 to get that first license. Tractors were exempt. Testing began in ‘48. Driver’s Licensing Began

 

[grimes70]

For the past at least 20 years I have bought a dozen Dr. Seuss books for Toys for Tots come Xmas time.

Dr. Seuss (born March 2, 1904, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.—died September 24, 1991, La Jolla, California) was an American writer and illustrator of immensely popular children’s books noted for their nonsense words, playful rhymes, and unusual creatures.



After graduating from Dartmouth College (B.A., 1925), Geisel did postgraduate studies at Lincoln College, Oxford, and at the Sorbonne. He subsequently began working for Life, Vanity Fair, and other publications as an illustrator and humorist. In addition, he found success in advertising, providing illustrations for a number of campaigns. Geisel was especially noted for his work on ads for Flit insect repellent. Some of his characters later appeared in his children’s works.

After illustrating a series of humor books, Geisel decided to write a children’s book, which was reportedly rejected by nearly 30 publishers. After his chance meeting with a friend who was an editor at Vanguard Press, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was finally released in 1937. The work centers on a young boy who transforms his ordinary walk home from school into a fantastical story. Later, however, he describes only the facts of his walk to his father, who frowns on the boy’s imaginative nature. Geisel used the pen name Dr. Seuss, planning to publish novels under his surname; the Dr. was a tongue-in-cheek reference to his uncompleted doctorate degree. However, his first book for adults, The Seven Lady Godivas (1939), fared poorly, and thereafter he focused on children’s books, which he preferred. (In many profiles and articles, he is often quoted as having said, “Adults are obsolete children, and the hell with them.” In 1986 he published a humor book on aging “for readers of all ages,” You’re Only Old Once! A Book for Obsolete Children.)

After publishing several more children’s works, Geisel released Horton Hatches the Egg in 1940. With it, he introduced the features that would come to define his books: a unique brand of humor, playful use of words, and outlandish characters. It centers on an elephant who is duped into sitting on the egg of a bird who goes on vacation. Despite various hardships, Horton refuses to leave: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one hundred percent!” In the end, he is rewarded when the egg hatches, and a creature with bird wings and an elephant’s head emerges.

During World War II Geisel’s focus shifted to politics. In the early 1940s he was an editorial cartoonist at PM magazine in New York City. Although his political cartoons pointedly critiqued American isolationism and “America First” attitudes, some of them also contained xenophobic and sexist tropes and racist depictions of Asians (in particular, Japanese people), Arabs, and Africans. Geisel then served (1943–46) in the U.S. Army, where he was assigned to the documentary division. In 1945 he wrote Your Job in Germany, which was directed by Frank Capra; it was later remade as the Academy Award-winning Hitler Lives (1945), though Geisel was not credited. After his service ended, he continued to make films. With his first wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, he wrote the Oscar-winning documentary feature Design for Death (1947). His animated cartoon Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) also won an Academy Award.

In 1947 Geisel returned to children’s books with McElligot’s Pool, about a boy who imagines a fantastical marine world while fishing. The work was especially noted for Geisel’s inventive creatures, which would come to populate his later stories. In addition, he continued to use his whimsical rhymes to convey important life lessons. In Horton Hears a Who! (1954), the loyal pachyderm returns to protect a tiny speck of a planet known as Whoville. A discussion about minority rights and the value of all individuals, the work features Horton repeating “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” The book’s message was inspired by Geisel’s visit to Japan in 1953, where the devastation of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima deeply affected him and caused him to retract some of his previous anti-Japanese views. He also published The Sneetches (1953), which tackles racism.

In 1957 Geisel published two of his most popular works: The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The former features a mischievous talking cat who entertains two bored children on a rainy day, while the latter introduces the Scrooge-like Grinch, who wants to ruin Christmas in Whoville but ultimately discovers that the holiday is more than just its material trappings. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was later adapted (1966) for television, and it became a holiday staple. It was also made into a feature film (2000), a Broadway musical (2006), and an animated movie (2018).

In 1958 Geisel founded Beginner Books, Inc., which in 1960 became a division of Random House. He subsequently wrote a number of books for beginning readers, notably One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960), Green Eggs and Ham (1960), Hop on Pop (1963), and Fox in Socks (1965). They—along with his other works—went far beyond the traditional, and often boring, primers and were valued for their contribution to the education of children. During this period, Geisel also wrote The Lorax (1971), in which he expressed concern for the environment. The cautionary tale centers on a businessman who destroys a forest of Truffula trees—despite the protest of the Lorax, who speaks up because “the trees have no tongues”—and, when left with a desolate landscape, laments the damage he has caused. Geisel’s later notable books include the inspirational Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (1990), which became a popular graduation gift to students.

In 1984 Geisel received a Pulitzer Prize “for his special contribution over nearly half a century to the education and enjoyment of America’s children and their parents.” The honor underscored the immense popularity of his works, which were perennial best sellers. According to various reports, by the early 21st century more than 600 million copies of Dr. Seuss books had been sold worldwide.

 

[donbosco]

 

[05C40]

Wilt said that often people would come up to him and claim they were "in the stands" that night in Madison Square Garden when he scored 100. Wilt said he would just smile and thank them for their support without mentioning the game was played in Hersey, PA

 

[donbosco]

#OTD in 1923 Doc Watson was born in Deep Gap, Watauga County, NC. Blind from a childhood eye infection, he attended Gov Morehead School in Raleigh. Musically inclined early, the guitar became his primary instrument-early on he adapted fast fiddle parts with his unique style. The Folk Revival of ‘60s brought him into the light and to the world. Later his son, Merle, joined him. Doc Watson passed in 2012 but a renowned music festival, named Merlefest after his son who pre-deceased him, carries on the music. Guitar Virtuoso “Doc” Watson—A Late Bloomer

When I moved to Boone in the early ‘80s I was fortunate that one of the first people that I met was Merle Watson. It was a fluke — a friend of a friend of a friend introduced us. After that, on occasion he stopped by when I was tending at the Tijuana Fats’ in Blowing Rock, sat at my bar, and had a Dos Equis or two. Those mountains were full of music in those days and by way of that connection I heard some incredible front porch playing by the likes of Merle and friends of his like T. Michael Coleman, Gove Scrivenor, Jack Lawrence, and Joe Smothers - regulars up in the wide and high expanse of Watauga and Avery.

I went to a BBQ joint pretty often back then (the early 1980s) called ‘The Woodlands.’ Butch and Gina ran the place and the food was good and the music tended to match it. Phil Stinson on the piano singing tunes that we all knew was probably my favorite thing about the place but the Q was pretty tasty too. P.B. Scott’s music hall was nearby and among others of lesser renown I caught B.B. King and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band there before its rude and untimely demise.

I met Doc during that time as well. I probably only had a couple of conversations with him and those only light, pre-show ones. I was kind of awe-struck really. His voice and his presence were big and intense and precise and he was generally friendly though busy and very professional. He clearly had his Way. Showtime was SHOWtime.

 

[donbosco]

#OTD (March 3) in 1865 Confederate Home Guard captured and executed Allen (father) and William (son) Lowry. The Lowrys were Lumbee and entangled with a gang of resistors to Rebel conscription and forced labor. The “Lowry Gang” was led by Allen Lowry’s son Henry Berry Lowry. Over the next seven years the resistance continued and the gang became the scourge of whites and heroes to The Lumbee. Henry Berry gained a reputation as “Robin Hood come again” in the press of the day.



(Feb. 16) 1872 Lumbee Legend Henry Berry Lowry and accomplices made their last raid in Robeson Cty, taking $28K. He disappeared 4 days later and was never publicly heard from again. The story is complex & debated. Start reading here: Tar heel junior historian [2000 : spring, v.39 : no.2] - North Carolina Digital Collections

(Image is a painting by Phil Blank after a photo of Lowry - which is also spelled Lowrie.

 

[grimes70]

#OTD in 1923 Doc Watson was born in Deep Gap, Watauga County, NC. Blind from a childhood eye infection, he attended Gov Morehead School in Raleigh. Musically inclined early, the guitar became his primary instrument-early on he adapted fast fiddle parts with his unique style. The Folk Revival of ‘60s brought him into the light and to the world. Later his son, Merle, joined him. Doc Watson passed in 2012 but a renowned music festival, named Merlefest after his son who pre-deceased him, carries on the music. Guitar Virtuoso “Doc” Watson—A Late Bloomer

When I moved to Boone in the early ‘80s I was fortunate that one of the first people that I met was Merle Watson. It was a fluke — a friend of a friend of a friend introduced us. After that, on occasion he stopped by when I was tending at the Tijuana Fats’ in Blowing Rock, sat at my bar, and had a Dos Equis or two. Those mountains were full of music in those days and by way of that connection I heard some incredible front porch playing by the likes of Merle and friends of his like T. Michael Coleman, Gove Scrivenor, Jack Lawrence, and Joe Smothers - regulars up in the wide and high expanse of Watauga and Avery.

I went to a BBQ joint pretty often back then (the early 1980s) called ‘The Woodlands.’ Butch and Gina ran the place and the food was good and the music tended to match it. Phil Stinson on the piano singing tunes that we all knew was probably my favorite thing about the place but the Q was pretty tasty too. P.B. Scott’s music hall was nearby and among others of lesser renown I caught B.B. King and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band there before its rude and untimely demise.

I met Doc during that time as well. I probably only had a couple of conversations with him and those only light, pre-show ones. I was kind of awe-struck really. His voice and his presence were big and intense and precise and he was generally friendly though busy and very professional. He clearly had his Way. Showtime was SHOWtime.

Posted in music thread some time ago. In 5th or 6th grade alll us kids went outside and sat in the grass where we watchd and listened to a blind guy sing. Froggy Went a Courtin was the big hit..

 

[donbosco]

Re: Doc Watson - Merle once told me about taking bus trips with Doc when he was in his early teens to places like Chicago and New York City in search of blues legends. He said those journeys took them into some inner city situations that scared him to death but Doc was determined. He also said that if Doc could have seen the world around them he might have reconsidered. But the good son was his father’s eyes and persevered. They also found what/who they were looking for often and he said that once Doc pulled out his guitar all was well.