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This Date in History: George Masa & The Mountains

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He had an infectious laugh as well.

1934 American basketball player Bill Russell, one of the greatest defensive centres in NBA history and the first Black coach of a major professional American sports team (the Boston Celtics), was born.

William Felton Russell was a professional basketball player and NBA icon who played center for the Boston Celtics from 1956 to 1969. He was a key player in the Celtics' dynasty, which won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career. Russell is considered the NBA's first outstanding defensive center. In 1966, after Red Auerbach retired as coach, Russell became a player-coach. He also played for the Sacramento Kings and Seattle Supersonics.
 
As Heather Cox Richardson has reminded us...today is the actual birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

February 11, 2025

On February 12, 1809, Nancy Hanks Lincoln gave birth to her second child, a son: Abraham.
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
 
grimes70 said:
He had an infectious laugh as well.

1934 American basketball player Bill Russell, one of the greatest defensive centres in NBA history and the first Black coach of a major professional American sports team (the Boston Celtics), was born.

William Felton Russell was a professional basketball player and NBA icon who played center for the Boston Celtics from 1956 to 1969. He was a key player in the Celtics' dynasty, which won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career. Russell is considered the NBA's first outstanding defensive center. In 1966, after Red Auerbach retired as coach, Russell became a player-coach. He also played for the Sacramento Kings and Seattle Supersonics.
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Is this birthday or deathday?
 
“Today in 1923, the first all-Black basketball team—the New York Renaissance—was established by Bob Douglas in Harlem. They won the 1939 World Championship. Douglas was the first Black man in the NBA Hall of Fame, guiding the Rens to a 2,318-381 record.”

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#OTD (Feb 14) 1775 Janet Schaw landed in Brunswick on the Carolina coast. Sailing in from the Caribbean (St. Kitts and Antigua), she and her brother had departed Scotland on October 26, 1774. They stayed in North Carolina for 9 months until unrest that grew into the full blown War for Independence caused she and her sibling to return to Europe on November 12, 1775 - alighting at the port city of Setúbal, Portugal on December 12, 1775.

Janet Schaw was a faithful diarist, attentive to detail and descriptive of conversations. Schaw was also a Loyalist as were her Carolina friends and as such she reflected those sentiments and worldview in her chronicle. Her journal is candid enough to have served as a great primary source for historians over the years. Just below is an example if her estimate of the women and men of Brunswick:

&&&&&&&&&
“The difference between the men and the women surprised me, but a sensible man, who has long resided here, in some degrees accounted for it. In the infancy of this province, said he, many families from Britain came over, and of these the wives and daughters were people of education. The mothers took the care of the girls, they were train'd up under them, and not only instructed in the family duties necessary to the sex, but in those accomplishments and genteel manners that are still so visible amongst them, and this descended from Mother to daughter. As the father found the labours of his boys necessary to him, he led them therefore to the woods, and taught the sturdy lad to glory in the stroke he could give with his Ax, in the trees he felled, and the deer he shot; to conjure the wolfe, the bear and the Alligator; and to guard his habitition from Indian inroads was most justly his pride, and he had reason to boast of it. But a few generations this way lost every art or science, which their fathers might have brought out, and tho' necessity no longer prescribed these severe occupations, custom has established it as still necessary for the men to spend their time abroad in the fields; and to be a good marksman is the highest ambition of the youth, while to those enervated by age or infirmity drinking grog remained a last consolation.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&

Her diary was published as ‘Journal of a Lady of Quality.’ Thanks to UNC’s ‘Documenting The American South Project’ in The Southern Historical Collection you can read it at this link: Janet Schaw, ca. 1731-ca. 1801. Journal of a Lady of Quality; Being the Narrative of a Journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal, in the Years 1774 to 1776.
 
Screw that romantic crap. My favorite thing about today

1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago, garage on the morning of February 14, 1929. They were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants, two of whom were disguised as police officers.

Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

SaintValentine'sDayMassacre.jpgThe seven men slain during the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
LocationWarehouse at West Dickens Avenue and North Clark Street, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois, United StatesDateFebruary 14, 1929; 96 years ago
10:30 am (CST)

Attack type

Massacre, mass shootingWeaponsTwo Thompson submachine guns
Two shotgunsDeaths7 (five members of the North Side Gang and two other affiliates)PerpetratorsAl Capone

The murders resulted from the competition for control of organized crime in the city during Prohibition between the largely Irish North Siders, headed by George "Bugs" Moran, and their largely Italian Chicago Outfit rivals led by Al Capone.[1] The perpetrators have never been conclusively identified, but former members of the Egan's Rats gang working for Capone are suspected of involvement; others have said that members of the Chicago Police Department who allegedly wanted revenge for the killing of a police officer's son played a part.
 
donbosco said:
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#OTD (Feb 14) 1775 Janet Schaw landed in Brunswick on the Carolina coast. Sailing in from the Caribbean (St. Kitts and Antigua), she and her brother had departed Scotland on October 26, 1774. They stayed in North Carolina for 9 months until unrest that grew into the full blown War for Independence caused she and her sibling to return to Europe on November 12, 1775 - alighting at the port city of Setúbal, Portugal on December 12, 1775.

Janet Schaw was a faithful diarist, attentive to detail and descriptive of conversations. Schaw was also a Loyalist as were her Carolina friends and as such she reflected those sentiments and worldview in her chronicle. Her journal is candid enough to have served as a great primary source for historians over the years. Just below is an example if her estimate of the women and men of Brunswick:

&&&&&&&&&
“The difference between the men and the women surprised me, but a sensible man, who has long resided here, in some degrees accounted for it. In the infancy of this province, said he, many families from Britain came over, and of these the wives and daughters were people of education. The mothers took the care of the girls, they were train'd up under them, and not only instructed in the family duties necessary to the sex, but in those accomplishments and genteel manners that are still so visible amongst them, and this descended from Mother to daughter. As the father found the labours of his boys necessary to him, he led them therefore to the woods, and taught the sturdy lad to glory in the stroke he could give with his Ax, in the trees he felled, and the deer he shot; to conjure the wolfe, the bear and the Alligator; and to guard his habitition from Indian inroads was most justly his pride, and he had reason to boast of it. But a few generations this way lost every art or science, which their fathers might have brought out, and tho' necessity no longer prescribed these severe occupations, custom has established it as still necessary for the men to spend their time abroad in the fields; and to be a good marksman is the highest ambition of the youth, while to those enervated by age or infirmity drinking grog remained a last consolation.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&

Her diary was published as ‘Journal of a Lady of Quality.’ Thanks to UNC’s ‘Documenting The American South Project’ in The Southern Historical Collection you can read it at this link: Janet Schaw, ca. 1731-ca. 1801. Journal of a Lady of Quality; Being the Narrative of a Journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal, in the Years 1774 to 1776.
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Should have stayed at St. Kitts or Antigua.
 
A truly American cultural icon.

1954 American cartoonist and animator Matt Groening, who created the comic strip Life in Hell and the television series The Simpsons and Futurama, was born. Take our Simpsons quiz

The Simpsons, longest-running animated television series and longest-running scripted prime-time TV show in U.S. history (1989– ), now broadcast in many languages to audiences around the world.

Created by cartoonist Matt Groening, The Simpsons began in 1987 as a cartoon short on the Tracey Ullman Show, a variety program on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Expanded to half an hour, it debuted as a Christmas special on December 17, 1989, and then began airing regularly in January 1990. With veteran television and film producer-director James Brooks (Mary Tyler Moore [1970–74], As Good As It Gets [1997]) as its executive producer, along with Groening and Sam Simon, the show was slow to gain an audience, but its popularity took off later in the year, and it helped establish the upstart Fox network as a major competitor on broadcast television.

Set in the fictional American city of Springfield—according to Groening, it was named after Springfield, Oregon—The Simpsons centres on a family with all the dysfunctions of the modern era but the demographics of the 1950s: two married parents, two preadolescent children and an infant, living grandparents, aunts, and uncles. The children are exceptional: Lisa is a superb jazz saxophonist and is inclined to philosophy and mathematics; Bart is a prankster of the highest order, a connoisseur of mayhem. The adults are grown-up versions of the children: Homer Simpson, an operator in a nuclear power plant, is a devotee of beer, doughnuts, and bacon, while his long-suffering wife Marge is the sound-minded glue who holds the family together. (The family are, according to Groening, “creatures of consumption and envy, laziness and opportunity, stubbornness and redemption. Just like the rest of us. Only exaggerated.”) Added to this list are the town’s strange residents, some of them immigrants, and an endless series of walk-on guest stars voiced by their real-life counterparts, such as former Beatle George Harrison and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.

The Simpsons has heavily influenced popular culture and other television series. The characters’ voices are widely recognized, and many of the characters’ neologisms and catchphrases (such as Homer’s “D’oh!”) have entered common currency. Moreover, the show branched out to include comic books, video games, and, in 2007, a feature film. The Emmy Award-winning Groening remains the show’s creative consultant and an executive producer.

movieweb.com

20 Most Memorable Simpsons Moments of All Time, Ranked

There are a lot of unforgettable moments in The Simpsons. Here are our top picks, ranked.
movieweb.com movieweb.com
 
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When the character of Sheriff Andy Taylor first appeared in an episode of ‘The Danny Thomas Show,’ aired on February 15, 1960, he was more a bad cop than a good one and in some early episodes of his own show Griffith continued in that role - as an opportunist and slightly mean-spirited trickster. But that’s not the Andy that we love, and we know now that Griffith made a conscious move away from that representation by the second season. That’s a good thing for us all - if any of you have seen ‘Face in the Crowd’ you know the kind of malevolence that Griffith could muster up. Thankfully Sheriff Taylor stepped away from that and toward the honest, wise, and thoughtful lawman that we love.
 
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donbosco said:
. . .. When the character of Sheriff Andy Taylor first appeared, in an episode of ‘The Danny Thomas Show,’ aired on February 15, 1960, he was more a bad cop than a good one and in some early episodes of his own show Griffith continued in that role - as an opportunist and slightly mean-spirited trickster. But that’s not the Andy that we love and we know now that Griffith made a conscious move away from that representation by the second season. That’s a good thing for us all - if any of you have seen ‘Face in the Crowd’ you know the kind of malevolence that Griffith could muster up. Thankfully Sheriff Taylor stepped away from that and toward the honest, wise, and thoughtful lawman that we love.
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That's an interesting take that--of course--I knew, but could never have articulated as concisely and clearly as you just did. Nicely done!
 
donbosco said:
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When the character of Sheriff Andy Taylor first appeared in an episode of ‘The Danny Thomas Show,’ aired on February 15, 1960, he was more a bad cop than a good one and in some early episodes of his own show Griffith continued in that role - as an opportunist and slightly mean-spirited trickster. But that’s not the Andy that we love, and we know now that Griffith made a conscious move away from that representation by the second season. That’s a good thing for us all - if any of you have seen ‘Face in the Crowd’ you know the kind of malevolence that Griffith could muster up. Thankfully Sheriff Taylor stepped away from that and toward the honest, wise, and thoughtful lawman that we love.
Click to expand...
The only problem with that is much of America saw this as sort of reality TV (as with many 50s, 60s, shows) instead of treating it as a fictional portrayal of small southern town as a heartwarmingly wholesome morality play with a comedic twist.

But yes, we do love the whole cast of characters that comprised that community. I'll take Otis.

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1923 The burial chamber of King Tutankhamun was unsealed by British archaeologist Howard Carter; his discovery of the tomb the previous year was one of the most-celebrated contributions to Egyptology.



King Tut (King Tut)
Now when he was a young man,
He never thought he'd see
People stand in line to see the boy king.
(King Tut) How'd you get so funky?
(Funky Tut) Did you do the monkey?
Born in Arizona,
Moved to Babylonia (King Tut).
(King Tut) Now, if I'd known
They'd line up just to see you,
I'd trade in all my money
And bought me a museum. (King Tut)
Buried with a donkey (Funky Tut)
He's my favorite honky!
Born in Arizona,
Moved to Babylonia (King Tut)
Dancin' by the Nile, (Disco Tut)
The ladies love his style, (Waltzing Tut)
Rockin' for a mile (Rockin' Tut)
He ate a crocodile.
He gave his life for tourism.
Golden idol!
He's an Egyptian
They're sellin' you.
Now, when I die,
Don't think I'm a nut,
Don't want no fancy funeral,
Just one like ole king Tut. (king Tut)
He coulda won a Grammy,
Buried in his jammies,
Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia,
He was born in Arizona, lived in a condo made of stone-a,
King Tut
 
40+ years too late. May be the single most important figure in the creation of MAGA nation.

2021 American radio personality and author Rush Limbaugh, who was known for his ultraconservative and often controversial views, died at age 70.

feeding-the-talking-heads-like-rush-limbaugh-and-co-ylli-haruni.jpg
 
On February 18, 1885, Mark Twain publishes his famous—and famously controversial—novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the U.S.

Twain (the pen name of Samuel Clemens) first introduced Huck Finn as the best friend of Tom Sawyer, hero of his tremendously successful novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Though Twain saw Huck’s story as a kind of sequel to his earlier book, the new novel was far more serious, focusing on the institution of slavery and other aspects of life in the antebellum South.

At the book’s heart is the journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway enslaved person, down the Mississippi River on a raft. Jim runs away because he is about to be sold and separated from his wife and children, and Huck goes with him to help him get to Ohio and freedom. Huck narrates the story in his distinctive voice, offering colorful descriptions of the people and places they encounter along the way. The most striking part of the book is its satirical look at racism, religion and other social attitudes of the time. While Jim is strong, brave, generous and wise, many of the white characters are portrayed as violent, stupid or simply selfish, and the naive Huck ends up questioning the hypocritical, unjust nature of society in general.

Even in 1885, two decades after the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn landed with a splash. A month after its publication, a Concord, Massachusetts, library banned the book, calling its subject matter “tawdry” and its narrative voice “coarse” and “ignorant.” Other libraries followed suit, beginning a controversy that continued long after Twain’s death in 1910. In the 1950s, the book came under fire from African American groups for being racist in its portrayal of Black characters, despite the fact that it was seen by many as a strong criticism of racism and slavery. As recently as 1998, an Arizona parent sued her school district, claiming that making Twain’s novel required high school reading made already existing racial tensions even worse.

Aside from its controversial nature and its continuing popularity with young readers, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been hailed by many serious literary critics as a masterpiece. No less a judge than Ernest Hemingway famously declared that the book marked the beginning of American literature: “There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

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