In honor of this quasi-historic day (everyone seems to forget that Coolidge was also African-American), we present a special edition of “In Their Own Words,” featuring inaugural addresses of yesteryear. “It is with distinct honor that I take upon myself the mantle of this office, a distinction that has been bestowed upon me by...
Read more »
• On December 22, 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes gave a speech in Philadelphia during which he extolled, at great length, the health values of vinegar. The speech rambled on for some 45 minutes, well beyond its allotted time, and made it vividly clear that Hayes consumed nearly a quart of malt vinegar each...
Read more »
“I am not going to lie to you, men. The odds we face are grim. We are outnumbered and outgunned. Our supplies dwindle. Our ammunition will not last. The enemy is well rested, well positioned, and very angry about the fact that I called King George the son of a motherless goat. It is...
Read more »
• On June 22, 1936, British astronomer Melvin Tinsdale stunned his Oxford colleagues by announcing that he had discovered a new planet. Located between Uranus and Neptune, the planet was to be called Demeter, after the Greek goddess of fertility.* Tinsdale had already mailed a paper for submission to The Astronomical Journal when it...
Read more »
• On May 11, 2004, city officials in Pittsfield, MA announced the discovery of a document that was believed to be the earliest written reference to baseball in North America. The document, a set of bylaws from 1791, raised quite a stir because it made specific reference to “baseball” by name, decades before the...
Read more »
“What I wanted it for is my business, last I checked this was a free country. I don’t follow you into the store and ask why you’re buying shoes or a lamp.” -Denver pharmacist Robert Crowley, following his conviction for the theft of 12,700 tons of corn meal, 1992. Of the 12,700 tons, only...
Read more »