Okay. I admit it. During my San Antonio trip last week, I had to do at least one tourist spot. I mean … even one of the in-flight movies on my trip into San Antonio was Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. And I’m sorry, but if you can’t watch a Pee-Wee Herman movie without laughing your head…
Read MoreAll articles filed in history
“Shoot him on the spoot.”
In the latter months of James Buchanan’s presidency, just as the Southern states seceded from the Union, John A. Dix was sworn in as Secretary of the Treasury upon the resignation of the previous officeholder. Dix’s appointment was essentially a lame-duck seat-filling action for the former New York Senator and postmaster; Abraham Lincoln was weeks…
Read MoreThe Straight’s Elephantine Shoe Store art project
I’ve written about William Straight’s shoe store in Albany before. He operated a bootery and shoe store from approximately 1862 to 1866 at the corner of Broadway and Hudson Avenue in downtown Albany (a parking lot exists there now). While his shoes and boots were probably just as good as any other boots and shoes…
Read MoreThe Bicentennial, a check and 9/11
NOTE: The following blog post was originally posted on September 11, 2012. It has been updated for today. It’s the fourth of July weekend, 1976. My mother thought it would be a great idea to take me to New York City to see the Tall Ships sale in the harbor. That’s all she talked about…
Read MoreBadge #1305
Wanna see something cool? Sure you do. From 1933 to 1988, the Ford Motor Company operated a radiator manufacturing plant in the Town and Village of Green Island, New York. Every Ford vehicle manufactured during that time, from the Mustang to the Edsel, from the Lincoln Continental to the Mercury Cougar, contained a radiator that…
Read MoreI want to see this “Franklin” movie. Someone make it happen here.
In 1983, one of the most important and significant ecological challenges took place in Tasmania in Australia. There were plans in place to build a hydroelectric dam along the Franklin River, which would have provided gigawatts of hydroelectric power in the area – but would have also caused immeasurable ecological damage. There were protests through…
Read MoreLive life like you’re Evel Knievel.
There’s a current Twitter meme going around in which Twitter users are encouraged to post pictures of two athletes – one athlete that the 10-year-old Twitter user idolized, and then a current athlete that catches his attention. So I did this. Evel Knievel was a bad-ass stuntman. His whole raison d’etre was to race his…
Read MoreHow to make your Grandma Betty have a major car accident on the VFW.
So for me to make this story work, I have to explain something. During summers, my Grandma Betty would come to Albany, pick me up, and let me spend the summer at her home in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. She lived in a little cape-style house on the corner of Willowdean Avenue and Courtney Road, just…
Read MoreSo Philip Schuyler’s statue is leaving … what’s replacing it?
There’s been plenty of discussion regarding what’s going to happen with the statue of Philip Schuyler in downtown Albany. His history as part of the founding of the city is counterbalanced by his reputation as being one of the largest slaveowners in the area. So a few days ago, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan announced that…
Read MoreThe Warner Bros. cartoons that should stay out of circulation
I had thought about this blog post for a while, and I wasn’t really sure how to approach it. In fact, I shelved this blog for a while. Until I heard that HBO Max was bringing back the Warner Bros. cartoon characters in a new iteration of Looney Tunes cartoons. See, in bringing back the…
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