Showing posts with label Clothing. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Pam Bondi on Epstein.

A person who will be regarded as a complete stooge.

Of course it starts with White Flash Jordan, a man who doesn't know how to wear a sports coat.

Saturday, February 7, 2026

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 116th Edition. Dissing J.D., What's the point of the National Prayer Breakfast?, Drip.

Boo

J. D. Vance was booed at the Olympics

No surprise, had I been at the Olympics, I'd have booed Vance, and I'm an American. Trump has brought the U.S. into universal contempt, so that a symbol of it gets jeered is no surprise.

Vance must go home and cry seeing his chances of being President decline below 0 every day. His only hope in the first place was the application of the 25th Amendment and so far, in spite of my expectations, no luck there.

Trump was asked about the event.

REPORTER: “The vice president got booed during the opening ceremony. What do you make of that frosty reception?”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “That's surprising because people like him. Well, I mean, he is in a foreign country, you know, in all fairness. He doesn't get booed in this country.”

Truly, Trump is clueless.

Ignoramus at National Prayer Breakfast

I don't see the point of this anymore.

Truth be known, I probably never did. I appreciate prayer, obviously, but this, at least in my memory, has been sort of a lukewarm American Civil Religion event in which the sitting President makes a nod towards religion The same guy could have been chasing skirts all week and then sound like he was really sincere at the breakfast.

Here's JFK's 1963 speech there.

February 07, 1963
Senator Carlson, Mr. Vice President, Reverend Billy Graham, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, gentlemen:
I am honored to be with you here again this morning. These breakfasts are dedicated to prayer and all of us believe in and need prayer. Of all the thousands of letters that are received in the office of the President of the United States, letters of good will and wishes, none, I am sure, have moved any of the incumbents half so much as those that write that those of us who work here in behalf of the country are remembered in their prayers.
You and I are charged with obligations to serve the Great Republic in years of great crisis. The problems we face are complex; the pressures are immense, and both the perils and the opportunities are greater than any nation ever faced. In such a time, the limits of mere human endeavor become more apparent than ever. We cannot depend solely on our material wealth, on our military might, or on our intellectual skill or physical courage to see us safely through the seas that we must sail in the months and years to come.
Along with all of these we need faith. We need the faith with which our first settlers crossed the sea to carve out a state in the wilderness, a mission they said in the Pilgrims' Compact, the Mayflower Compact, undertaken for the glory of God. We need the faith with which our Founding Fathers proudly proclaimed the independence of this country to what seemed at that time an almost hopeless struggle, pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence. We need the faith which has sustained and guided this Nation for 175 long and short years. We are all builders of the future, and whether we build as public servants or private citizens, whether we build at the national or the local level, whether we build in foreign or domestic affairs, we know the truth of the ancient Psalm, "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it."
This morning we pray together; this evening apart. But each morning and each evening, let us remember the advice of my fellow Bostonian, the Reverend Phillips Brooks: "Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks."
[The President spoke first to the gentlemen in the hotel's main ballroom and then to the ladies in the east room.]
Ladies:
I'm glad to be with you again this morning with the Vice President, Reverend Billy Graham, Dr. Vereide, Senator Carlson, the same quartet that was here last year and the year before.
I think these breakfasts serve a most useful cause in uniting us all on an occasion when we look not to ourselves but to above for assistance. On our way from the last meeting to this, we met two members of Parliament who carried with them a message from Lord Home to this breakfast, in which Lord Home quoted the Bible and said that perhaps the wisest thing that was said in the Bible was the words, "Peace, be still."
I think it's appropriate that we should on occasion be still and consider where we are, where we've been, what we believe in, what we are trying to work for, what we want for our country, what we want our country to be, what our individual responsibilities are, and what our national responsibilities are. This country has carried great responsibilities, particularly in the years since the end of the Second War, and I think that willingness to assume those responsibilities has come in part from the strong religious conviction which must carry with it a sense of responsibility to others if it is genuine, which has marked our country from its earliest beginnings, when the recognition of our obligation to God was stated in nearly every public document, down to the present day.
This is not an occasion for feeling pleased with ourselves, but, rather, it is an occasion for asking for help to continue our work and to do more. This is a country which has this feeling strongly. I mentioned in the other room the letters which I receive, which the Members of Congress receive, which the Governors receive, which carry with them by the hundreds the strong commitment to the good life and also the strong feeling of communication which so many of our citizens have with God, and the feeling that we are under His protection. This is, I think, a source of strength to us all.
I want to commend all that you do, not merely for gathering together this morning, but for all the work and works that make up part of your Christian commitment. I am very proud to be with you.

Kennedy, who was a (bad) Catholic, was only able to get elected by promising not to be really Catholic, an act of betrayal to his faith that has hurt Catholics ever since. At least with Trump we don't have that, as he's some sort of undeclared Protestant, he says. Crediting that claim, which I don't think deserves much credit, he's a really bad Christian.

None of which stops people like Franklin Graham and Paula White-Cain from praising him.

White Cain was pretty restrained in her opening remarks there. She isn't always so restrained. Trump wasn't restrained in his babbling remarks, which departed greatly from Christianity.

I'm pretty skeptical about any real attachment, or perhaps understanding, of Trump to religion. Indeed, I'm firmly convinced the damage he's doing to Evangelical Christianity is deep.

Trump announced a May 17, 2026 national prayer gathering on the National Mall as part of the White House's 'America Prays' initiative, which encourages one million people to dedicate weekly prayer time. Such prayer would be beneficial no doubt, but a big gathering on the National Mall is a mistake. It's going to gather a counter prayer demonstration for sure by Christians who see through Trump, and it'll likely generate a mass protest. It'll be difficult to keep it from getting out of hand.

That's a Sunday. Maybe J.D. can note that he has to go to Mass and skip out.

Drip

For the 2026 US Olympic drip, the teams has white duffle coats and a sort of winter themed sweater with the flag on it. It looks nice, but Norway has accused the US of stealing the star motif on the sweater.

I have a duffle coat I wear as a winter overcoat. I really like it. I've had it for years and year, but oddly suddenly I'm getting compliments while wearing it. It always catches me off guard as it is getting long in the tooth, but still I get a fair number of them.

The same is true with a Hanna Hats panel cap I've been wearing for about 25 years or so. I've always received some compliments on it, but I"m getting a lot all of a sudden. A guy actually interrupted a conversation he was having with a woman at a store just to ask me "what's that sort of cap called"?

In other somewhat surreal conversations, I picked up pizza on my way home from an unsuccessful goose hunt the other day and went into the joint in a heavy surplus European camouflaged coat. I'm too cheap to buy the designer camo that other people do. Anyhow, I parked my Jeep right in front of the place and when I went in the girl waiting the counter said "What kind of a car is that?"

It was a Jeep.

That was a surprising question as Jeeps look like Jeeps and they have since the very first Jeep.

Probably because of my coat she then asked, after getting my pizza, "where you in the military"? I affirmed and she thanked me for my service.

I note this as this sort of somewhat awkward but ready engagement seems common for people in Generation Alpha. Indeed, back to the hat, I've had some young women, probably 20 years old or less, just look at me and say "I like your hat" in passing. It's a little awkward and surprising.

When I was 20 myself, young women never told me that, darn it.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 115th Edition. The Killing of Alex Pretti, Hageman flees the stage, ICE blocked in hotel.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, Alex Pretti Incident, Border Patrol, Civil Unrest, Harriet Hageman, Renee Good Incident, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Wyoming (Casper), Wyoming (Riverton), Wyoming (Thermopolis), Zeitgeist

Thursday, February 7, 1946. France attacks in Bến Tre Province, Truman speaks. Bikinis appear in the press. Strike controls. Army shoes on the market.

France launched a large-scale campaign to take the island province of Bến Tre Province in the Mekong Delta which was held by the Việt Minh.

President Truman gave a press conference.

The President's News Conference
February 7, 1946
THE PRESIDENT. [1.] I have a most interesting letter which I would like to read to you this morning, from the famous Dean of Canterbury, Mr. Hewlett Johnson. He says:
"My dear Mr. President:"--
This is dated 31st of January, 1946·
--"May I categorically deny a statement, which I understand has appeared in the American press, that I regarded America as 100 years behind in everything save religion and 150 years behind in that." [Laughter] "That statement, which is of course ridiculous, was made in a jocular mood by my predecessor." [More laughter]
"I neither endorsed such a statement, nor do I think it is true.
"I believe and constantly affirm that America leads the world in industrial adventure, activity and achievement. Indeed, I am accused in England of over-enthusiasm for America's achievement.
"I am convinced that we in Europe have rich lessons to learn from America, especially in enterprise and the arts of production.
"I believe also that America may learn in the future from some European experiments in distribution and planned economy.
"I only write because had such a statement really been made by me, it would have shown the most gross ingratitude for the over-abundant kindness I received from you and your countrymen."
If anybody wants a copy of that letter, we will furnish it.
[2.] Now to get down to serious things, I am particularly interested in this food situation.
In most of the wheat-producing countries of the world, outside of the United States and Canada, there has been almost a total crop failure in wheat. Australia's crop is a failure. South Africa had a drought. All Europe suffered from a drought, so far as the wheat situation is concerned. And in the far East, the production of rice in India is from 12 to 15 percent short of the usual crop, and they are always an importing country on that part of their food, and they import from Burma and Siam and Indochina. Those countries' rice crops are, of course, a total failure on account of the fact that they have--were in this war situation, and they also have had adverse weather conditions along with the war situation. The Japanese crop, I am informed, is 15 percent short of normal, and they import usually 15 percent of their rice for food.
It is proposed under this program which we have inaugurated, that we hope to be able to ship 6 million tons of wheat in the first half of 1946. Now, if anybody needs a lesson in arithmetic, that is about 200 million bushels. The measures ordered should make it possible for us to come closer to what we want to do by about 500,000 or a million tons.
Wheat and other food products which we plan to export during the first 6 months of this year will provide 50 million people with a diet of 2,000 calories a day, or 100 million with 1,000 calories a day for a 6 months' period.
Now, some of the people in the devastated countries of Europe are living on much less than 1,500 calories a day. We eat about 3,300 here in the United States. The situation is so serious that we felt it was absolutely essential to take every measure possible to help keep the people in these countries from starving; because in those countries which are our friends and allies, they are not to blame for the situation.
And in enemy countries we can't afford to see our enemies starve, even if they did bring this situation on themselves. We can't do that and live according to our own ideals.
We have asked Canada and Australia, and all the countries which are supposed to have surplus foods, to join us in this program; and I think every one of them will.
If you want a copy of these figures and things, Mr. Ayers will be able to furnish them to you after the conference.
Q. Mr. President, is it possible we may have meat rationing as a--may we have to come to that eventually?
THE PRESIDENT. I hope not. If the packing plants can run at full blast, it will not be necessary. If it becomes necessary, in order to keep 10 or 15 million people from starving to death, I think we ought to do it.
Q. Mr. President, can you throw any light, in that connection on that same story, in your meeting with the Cabinet?
THE PRESIDENT. That is substantially the statement that was issued yesterday as adopted by the Cabinet as a whole.
Q. Mr. President, under the Potsdam Declaration, the rations of the Germans should be no higher than the European average?
THE PRESIDENT. That's right.
Q. Does this worldwide shortage, particularly as it affects Europe, indicate there will have to be a cut in German rations?
THE PRESIDENT. There will probably have to be a cut in the whole European ration. There is a cut in the whole European ration now. That is what we are trying to meet. We are trying our best to meet the thing on as equitable a basis as we possibly can.
Q. But this thousand calories would be less than the Germans are getting. Are we going to feed the enemy better than our allies?
THE PRESIDENT. No, we are not. That is what we are trying to prevent. We are not going to do that. We are going to take care of our allies first. That figure is in Poland and Germany, principally.
Q. I was thinking of Poland, that is what I mean.
THE PRESIDENT. Poland and Germany. But we certainly are not going to treat our allies worse than our enemies, you can be assured of that.
Q. Mr. President, are there any mechanical difficulties in milling the flour?
THE PRESIDENT. I don't know. I don't know enough about the milling business to answer the question.
Q. Mr. President, can you say whether there is any problem of hoarding wheat in other countries at the present time?
THE PRESIDENT. I am not familiar with it, if there is.
Q. Mr. President, in connection with the extraction order, there are some rough spots in the milling industry, and I take it that the objection to that order is to get the wheat and the order--you would not object to the order being workable or flexible, so long as you got the wheat?
THE PRESIDENT. That's the point exactly. And I think we will get their cooperation-I don't think there will be anybody who isn't anxious to keep people from starving to death. It's un-American, I think, to have the idea to let people starve.
Q. Mr. President, when you were discussing this with the experts--with the agricultural people particularly--did they bring up details of this wheat shortage--grain shortage--in certain areas where farmers would be anxious to keep the wheat right with them, and you have to get it out? Is that part of the problem?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes. I think every phase has been gone into by the agricultural experts.
Q. Any particular answer to that situation ?
THE PRESIDENT. I can't give you an answer to that. We hope that this situation will work out. The reports that have been made indicate that everybody seems to think it answers the purpose.
Q. Mr. President, if there will be no rationing here, are the mechanics such that we will cut down, just not buy so much; that is, the American people--
THE PRESIDENT. Yes. Make contributions, just like they would clothing and everything else. I think they will do that. I think they will be pleased to do that.
Q. Mr. President, who will handle the equitable distribution of these food supplies in the various countries?
THE PRESIDENT. UNRRA will handle most of it.
Q. It will continue under UNRRA?
THE PRESIDENT, Yes.
Q. Mr. President, does this 6 million tons represent an increase in our commitments, or a decrease in our commitments?
THE PRESIDENT. No. There is, I think, a slight decrease in our first commitments. You will have to get those figures categorically from the Secretary of Agriculture, who has been the conferee with our allies in this setup.
Q. Mr. President, can you tell us what estimate you have on wheat saving from the livestock reduction program?
THE PRESIDENT. About--between 25 and 50 million bushels.
Q. Well, do you believe that this saving is justified in the light of the danger of short liquidation of livestock?
THE PRESIDENT. I don't think there will be any short liquidation of livestock. Livestock will be slaughtered at a lighter weight than they ordinarily would. And 225-pound hogs will, I think, make just as good eating as 300-pound ones; and I used to raise them.
Q. [Aside] Better.
[3.] Q. Mr. President, about Mr. Pauley. Are you going to withdraw his nomination?
THE PRESIDENT. I am not. I am backing Mr. Pauley. I think Mr. Pauley is an honest man, and I don't think he is the only honest man in Washington or in the oil business.
Q. Have you any comment?
THE PRESIDENT. I think he is a very capable administrator, because he was the Reparations Director up until just recently and did a magnificent job in that, and I have the utmost confidence in him.
Q. Did Secretary Ickes advise you of his testimony before?
THE PRESIDENT. No, he did not. I didn't discuss it with him.
Q. Do you intend to now?
THE PRESIDENT, No.
Q. Mr. President, did Ed Flynn confide in you yesterday, when he was going to leave your office, that he was going to criticize Mr. Ickes?
THE PRESIDENT. No, he did not. I didn't discuss Mr. Ickes with Mr. Flynn. He was discussing other matters.
Q. Can you tell us what you were discussing, sir?
THE PRESIDENT. It was political matters in the State of New York. [Laughter]
Q. Mr. President, you don't consider that this situation involves anything at all, any change in your relations with Mr. Ickes?
THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so. Mr. Ickes can very well be mistaken the same as the rest of us.
[4.] Q. Mr. President, how is the price-what is the situation on the wage-price balance?
THE PRESIDENT. I hope to be able to make a complete statement on that in a day or two. I can't do it now.
Q. Will it come today possibly?
THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so.
Q. Do you anticipate, sir, that that would bring on an early settlement of the steel and other big strikes?
THE PRESIDENT. I hope so.
Q. Mr. President, has the administration made any suggestions on that wage-price formula that may be under consideration by U.S. Steel and Labor in their current sessions?
THE PRESIDENT. I haven't discussed the matter with either one, up to the present time.
Q. I was wondering whether Mr. Snyder may have passed it along for some suggestions for a formula?
THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so. They are working on it. That's what they are working--it will all be worked out.
Q. Is it a materially new wage-price stabilization policy, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT. No, it isn't. It's a working out of the situation we are faced with now, and I think it will be worked out in a very satisfactory manner.
Q. Can you say when, sir?
THE PRESIDENT. I hope in the next day or two.
Q. There has been some speculation, Mr. President, that this will be called "the big steel formula"?
THE PRESIDENT [laughing]. I haven't heard that one.
Q. Does that mean it will be temporary, Mr. President, in meeting the present situation?
THE PRESIDENT. Here is the situation that we are trying to meet: We are all aware of the fact that what we need is production. We know that if we get production--mass production--on the basis that we are capable of putting out here in this country, that the situation will adjust itself; and whenever that situation comes about there will be no reason for a wage-price formula, for that will adjust itself.
And that is exactly what we have been working for, ever since V-J Day. That was the reason for the first directive on a wage price formula. It was my hope that we would, as soon as possible, begin working just as hard as we could to create production to meet the demand that has now piled up as a result of the war.
We have had some stumbling blocks. We are trying to meet those stumbling blocks now. The first wage-price formula would have worked, if we had been able to arrive at the production we were hoping we were going to get.
[5.] Q. If the steel and other strikes are not settled, will there still be a Florida trip?
THE PRESIDENT. I am still going to Florida.
Q. [Aside] Good!
THE PRESIDENT. I can still do business by telephone.
[6.] Q. Has the committee from the House Territories Committee reported to you on their investigation of statehood for Hawaii?
THE PRESIDENT. That's right. They recommended
Q. Can you report your views?
THE PRESIDENT. They recommended that Hawaii ought to have statehood.
Q. As you made in your annual Message for immediate statehood?
THE PRESIDENT. That's right. I think they were--they are in favor of that very thing.
Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT, All right.
NOTE: President Truman's forty-seventh news conference was held in his office at the White House at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 7, 1946.

How nice it must have been to have a President who didn't sound like an idiot every time he spoke.

The India Burma Theater Roundup came out. It was one of the many service newspapers of the Second World War.

IBT Roundup

The paper's masthead.

We've had Yank up here from time to time and that service magazine notably had a pinup in ever issue, an unfortunate indication of things to come, even though the pinup was always clothed. Perhaps because of its distance from the continental US, the Roundup was packed with pinups. This issue, which I'm not going to fully post, had a bikini clad young woman on every page. I note that because, for whatever reason, I'd assumed that the bikini had come into being in the 1950s. Not so, it had clearly arrived by the mid 1940s.

Because we put some newspapers up from the 1940s, well because we do it quite often, we've looked at quite a few and that's been revealing as well The Rocky Mountain News was very obviously much more of a tabloid than it was later, and it had cheesecake photos in it a fair amount. However, the other day going through it it had an article entitled "Denver Women Do Not Like Nude Look" featuring a woman wearing a see through blouse. I don't doubt that Denver women didn't like it, but the fact that it even came up says something about the standards of the time. Indeed, in looking at the issue for this day in 1946, a bikini clad actress was featured. In a recent issue, a cartoon that focused on post war life had women a dressing room, naked bare backs to the viewer, in the drawing, with the cartoon page being the one that children favored.

Perhaps related, the Rocky Mountain News had this article for the day:

Hmmm.

In a more serious article:

And the Cold War was heating up.

This article for shoes in the same issue featured a type of shoe that we'd call a Service Shoe, that being an ankle high boot. That type of boot has been discussed at length here, and is still made by companies like Red Wing and Whites. They were the boot of the U.S. Army from 1902 until into World War Two, when they were replaced by the M1943 combat boot. In 1945 some troops would still have had them.

The advertised manufacturer, Roblee, is still around. They came into existence in 1908. Roblee had been an Army contractor during World War Two and had made service shoes as well as jump boots.

Indeed both of the shoe designs depicted above would have worked for the Army uniform at the time, which leads us to suspect that these were contract overruns, or perhaps left over after contract terminations.

Related Threads:

Munson Last Boots, or how I became a hipster and didn't even know it. And reflections what hipster affectations mean.

Labels: Agrarianism, Agriculture, Army, Clothing, Commentary, Contra Mudum, Footwear, James Montgomery Flagg, Work

Friday, January 30, 2026

Saturday, January 30, 1926. Pinks and Greens.

The Allied occupation of the first zone of the Rhineland in Germany ended.

It was a Saturday.

Mitchell was out.

The Army was just introducing its new service uniform.

1926 was the year the U.S. Army adopted an open collared "service uniform", with a different pattern for enlisted men as opposed to officers. Here Maj. John B. Coulter is shown wearing the newly introduced uniform. While the cut is a little different, and breeches are not common now, and were then, this is the same basic color scheme of uniform, "pinks and greens" reintroduced for all ranks in 2018, after having been originally phased out in 1954. While it was a good looking uniform, it was actually not as practical as its predecessor, given that it was supposed to be a combat uniform. This would cause the Army to rapidly develop combat specific clothing immediately before World War Two.

Officers had to buy their uniforms (they still do) and Coulter must have just purchased his. Coulter was a cavalryman (hence the breeches) who had entered the Army in 1912 and who would serve until 1952, retiring as a Lt. General.

Last edition:

Wednesday, January 27, 1926. The Paul Whitman Orchestra at UW.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Education, Music, University of Wyoming

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Wednesday, December 30, 1925. Ben-Hur.

The first variant of Ben-Hur was released.

I tried listening to the book as an audio book once, but gave it up. I should either try that again, or read it.

The Association of College Honor Societies was formed by representatives of six organizations, Alpha Omega Alpha; the Order of the Coif; Phi Beta Kappa; Phi Kappa Phi; Sigma Xi; Tau Beta Pi. While nothing compared to the post World War Two boom in college attendance, the 1920s did see an increase in it, including an increase in female attendance.

Adding an item that would have properly been posted yesterday, but we were unaware of it, on December 28, 1925, this patent was granted:

We do not wish to be crude, but we do seek to track various developments on this blog. Indeed, that's one of its main purposes. This is a real development. This is a sanitary belt for menstruation, a very common, indeed the normal, method of addressing sanitary concerns until the tampon became common which wasn't really until the 1970s.

Anyhow, women in their current societal roles necessitated inventions such as this. Kotex, the primary brand, was not introduced until 1920.

Related threads:

Clothing: It was because of World War One.

Labels: 1910s, Clothing, It was because of World War One, It was because of World War Two, Men, Standards, The roles of men and women, Women, World War One, World War Two, Yeoman's Fourth Law of History

Women and Trousers. No big historical deal, or the triumph of the harpies in trousers?

Labels: Christianity, Clothing, Islam, religion, Standards, The roles of men and women, trends, Women, World War One, Yeoman's Fourth Law of History

Last edition:

Sunday, December 27, 1925. Between time.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Cartoons, Christianity, Coal, Coptic, Disaster, Mexico, Mining, Oriental Orthodox

Monday, December 8, 2025

A Holy Day of Obligation Plea for the Common Man, and some other thoughts.

Today in the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics.

Almost every weekday Catholic holy day I think about posting something like this, and then never do. But on this occasion, I'm going to.

I don't resent the holy days, and indeed, it would be wrong to do so. But, in this very localized post, I don't like the way that the parishes handle scheduling Masses for them, or at least I'm whining about it.

Indeed, as this one follows a Sunday, I was hoping the feast had been transferred so there would by no obligation, but it wasn't.

Catholics are required, under the pain of mortal sin, to attend a Mass for a holy day of obligation, assuming that it's possible to do so. What I think is the case is that sometimes the Church doesn't take into account the daily lives of Catholics, at least here, to make it a bit more easier to fulfill that obligation. Or maybe it figures that it being difficult is part of the point, I'm not sure.

Anyhow, what the situation is, is as follows.

Like a lot of Catholics in this region, I worked on Saturday. I took time out of my work day, however, to go to confession. I went, and then went back to work. The confession schedule at the Church I normally go to makes getting to confession very easy. There's confession on Saturday mornings at 8:00 a.m. On First Saturdays there's a Mass at 9:00 a.m., although I don't attend it. There's confession again at 1:30 p.m. The two other parishes have confessions at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. One parish has confession on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. and again on Wednesday evenings, and the big across town parish has confession on Thursday evening. So every parish is making it easy to get to confession.

It's easy to get to Sunday Mass as well. One parish starts its vigil Mass at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. The other two are about 6:00 p.m., I think. Masses resume at the big parish at 8:00 and run them through the day with two of the three concluding with Masses in the evening, with the earliest being 5:15 p.m.

So far, so good.

All the parishes have weekday Masses, which is where this begins to break down in my view.

One parish has a morning Mass at 6:30 a.m., way early. Another one has daily Masses at 9:00 a.m.. Not so early. Another has one at 8:30, but today, on the holy day, that's been moved to 9:00 a.m.

I used to attend daily Mass. . . at noon. The downtown parish, which has a morning Mass at 6:30, had one at noon as well. It was well attended in relative terms. It was also quite short, as the two Priests who conducted the Masses (they now have one) knew that almost everyone there represented foot traffic from downtown.

Okay, so what is the problem?

This is.

I could have made the Mass last night, the vigil Mass. I thought about it.

But I also attended Mass at 8:30 in the morning, and then headed out to look for elk on my one day off. It's not so much that Mass twice in one day is too much, but for people who have a single day off, and that's a lot of people around here, what that effectively does is to devote the entire day to Mass.

There is something charming about that, and I think some people do that very thing. But for a feral person like me, bookending the day that way means that pretty much the rest of the day is lost.

To add to it, while I did bet back in town in time, on this day, like a lot of Sundays in the fall and winter, that would have put me in Mass wearing tiger stripe cargo pants. . . which would look a bit odd.

It might be possible for me to make a 6:30 a.m. Mass, but it would be pretty difficult. I'm usually still downing coffee at 6:30 a.m. and my days are really long. If I did that, particularly because of that location, I'd be at work before 7:30 and therefore be putting in a default 12 hour day with no break, most of the time.

And when I had school age children here at home, it was an absolute impossibility. When we still had a dog here, which we did until quite recently, it would have been as well, as my long suffering spouse, who has the temperament of a grizzly bear if she's awakened early, and who is not Catholic, would have had to been poked awake.

And 6:30, frankly, is absurdly early. Is there a reason this can't be 7:30? A 6:30 Mass will draw people, but it will tend to draw the retired elderly who don't have much else to do at that hour and who have given up sleeping, as the elderly tend to do. I know that, as in spite of my whining here, I'm always up early.

I have, I'll note, attended that Mass when I had no other choice. I frankly was darn near asleep, but it was interesting as I sat right behind two young women who were friends, one of whom was a trad, sort of combining a mochila with a leather skirt, and the other who was wearing street clothes. My guess is that they were on the way to high school or community college, probably the latter.

I'll also note that when I made that 6:30 a.m. Mass it was before they were worried that I might have intestinal cancer and then thyroid cancer. My stomach has never been the same and mornings is generally where that shows it. Enough said.

I'm grateful that there are two parishes with evening Masses I can make, although I with the one that has 5:15 Sunday Masses still had a holy day mass at that time. Now it does not. It's 6:00 holy day Mass is a Spanish Mass, which is also fine, so I suppose the time was moved to accommodate Spanish speaking Catholics on their way home from work.

What I really wish, however, is that one Parish had a noon Mass.

Any Mass after 8:00 on a weekday really isn't very well scheduled to accommodate working people, or students, in this region. When I was a student, I was nearly always at school by 8. I'm nearly always at work by 8, if not 7. By the end of the day, I'm nearly always beat down and just want to crawl home (a coworker who occasionally does the "let's go get a beer" nearly always gets the reply "I just want to go home). I'll make one of the evening Masses, but I'll be pretty worn out by that time.

A noon Mass would be ideal. And not just for me, but for others like me, who work in town. The downtown noon Mass was great, as I could and did walk to it, but I could drive to any of them.

I know, in no small part due Fr. Joseph Krupp's podcast, that Priests are grossly overburdened, so I shouldn't be complaining at all. But I am a bit. Masses at 8:30 or 9:00 can only be attended by people, for the most part, who aren't working, and who don't have children. Masses at 6:30 will probably only be attended by the elderly and the other very early risers, who can accommodate getting something to eat thereafter.

For most working people these just don't work. Noon won't work for everyone either, but it'll work for some who might otherwise have a difficult time going.

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While waiting for Confession to commence on Saturday, I was stunned to find a large crowed of people in the Church. It soon was obvious it was a Baptism, and had just concluded.

Quite of few of the men were wearing hats, with at least one wearing a cowboy hat. This is inside the church.

I've grown used to declining clothing standards, and frankly I'm not exactly that well dressed most Sundays. But wearing hats indoors was something I was taught to never do as a child. In the service it was normally absolutely prohibited. "Is your head cold?" was a question addressed in the form of a snarl by sergeants to enlisted men who forgot to remove their hats.

Now people wear hats indoors all the time. I don't like, and I still don't. I never see Catholics do that inside of a church, if they are men (and for that matter its pretty rare with women), so my presumption is that these were people who were largely unchurched.

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In looking for Mass times, I looked to see what was offered by the by The Ukrainian Catholic Church's mission to Casper. I suspect they don't have a service today, but looking up their information is always a problem. I don't know if its because its a small community and they know what they're doing, and therefore don't feel that they need to publicize it, or if its something else.

The Eastern Rite churches of the Catholic Church are growing, and it'd behoove them to at least make the dates and times of their services known, I'd think. So far they've also been holding services in non Catholic buildings, which I also don't get. I don't know what's up with all of this, if anything at all, but here I wish that they'd make use of one of the Catholic Churches and make it easier to find out when they're holding services.

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It's interesting, at least to me, to note that the word holiday obviously comes from Catholic holy days. Most of the original holidays were in fact holy days and in Catholic countries, that's still very much the case.

This is a Protestant county.

That gives rise to part of the problems noted. The US has a hardcore Protestant Work Ethic pounded into the culture by the Puritans, who got it from Calvin. It's part of the crappiest aspects of Americans culture. It doesn't add a day to our lives, probably shortens them, and makes them a lot less enjoyable.

Calvinism, from which that comes, really has threads of steel throughout the culture. John Calvin was a fun sucker, but he believed in work in a major way. He also believed that being well to do showed that you were probably amongst the elect. The Puritans themselves were big on the marital act, but by the time of the English Civil War prominent Calvinist in England figured that if they were well to do, that was proof enough they were amongst the elect, and so pick up a mistress on the side was okay.

You can see a lot of that in the culture today, particularly amongst those in power. People don't mind the concept of telling you to work harder while the engage in serial polygamy. It's strong in the American Civil Religion and some strains of Evangelicalism as well, where some "faith leaders' who have had morally dubious lives see nothing particularly disturbing about that.

The culture lost a lot in the Reformation.

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Finally, this is not only holy day, it's a feast day. The difficulty of getting to Mass will take away from the feasting aspect of it, as will the fact that in a Puritan Protestant county we're not supposed to be feasting on a Monday. Everyone has to be at work again, bright and early in the morning.

Saturday, December 6, 2025

Froma Harrop: Who Even Remembers Why We Should Dress Respectfully?

Who Even Remembers Why We Should Dress Respectfully?

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Wednesday, November 25, 1925. Hats.

The Turkish Hat Law, banning non Western headgear, took effect.

Beijing's Forbidden City was opened to the public for the first time.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 24, 1925. William F. Buckley born

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 2000s, 2007, Conservatism, William F. Buckley

Saturday, November 22, 2025

The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You

The Secretary of Transportation has taken a lot of flak for this, and I'm not fan of the Trump Administration, but you know, I don't think the message here is wrong by any means.

And, fwiw, I hate seeing people in pajamas in public, whether its on an airplane, or Walmart.

Sunday, November 9, 2025

Going Feral: Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, November 3, 1945. Wyoming Game Wardens Game Wardens Bill Lakanen and Don Simpson murdered.

Going Feral: Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, November 3, 1945. Wyom...: Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, November 3, 1945. Chinese Civil War, G... : China's civil war was acknowledged now to be a major conflict ...

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, November 3, 1945. Wyoming Game Wardens Game Wardens Bill Lakanen and Don Simpson murdered.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, November 3, 1945. Chinese Civil War, G...: China's civil war was acknowledged now to be a major conflict and two Game Wardens were found dead near Rawlins. The Chinese Civil War w...

Linked over from Lex Anteinternet, which also discussed the Chinese Civil War.

Saturday, November 3, 1945. Chinese Civil War, Game Wardens Killed.

China's civil war was acknowledged now to be a major conflict and two Game Wardens were found dead near Rawlins.

The Chinese Civil War was the topic of a political cartoon as well.

The murdered Game Wardens were Bill Lakanen and Don Simpson who were killed by ardent Nazi sympathizer and German immigrant Johann Malten. The same Game Wardens had arrested Malten for game violations when investigating, interestingly enough, claims that Malten had been involved in espionage and was relaying weather reports on shortwave, something that was illegal during the war when there was a blackout on weather reporting as the information was useful to submarines. Upon visiting Malten's cabin in the Sierra Madres they found he had committed numerous game violations.

On this occasion they were stopping by to see if Malten had continued to ignore the law. They were shot down out of hand when they arrived.

Malten burned his cabin down and it was officially reported that he'd died within it, although the evidence of that is very poor. There were reported sightings of him for years thereafter.

And a selection of 1945 cartoons.

I knew about this story because former Wyoming Game Warden David Bragonier wrote about it in his book about Wyoming Game Wardens, Wild Journey: On the Trail With a Wyoming Game Warden in Yellowstone Country. It's a good book, and I recommend it.

Bragonier discusses this event, although I clearly don't remember everything I read in his account. That's probably not too surprising as I read the book in 1999. What I recall but didn't see in the accounts on the murder you can find here is that the investigation was associated not only with the killer's German nationality and his strong Nazi sympathies, but also with shortwave radio transmissions that could not be pinned down.

There's a bunch of interesting things that could, and if a person had time, should be explored here as the story raises all sorts of undeveloped oddities.

One of them is that Lakanen and Simpson are two out of the three Wyoming Game Wardens who were murdered by immigrants (to the extent I know why the various ones who lost their lives in the line of duty did). I'm not saying that immigrants murder game wardens, but this is an interesting fact. The other one is John Buxton, who was murdered by a youthful Austrian immigrant in 1919. In that instance he had taken a .30-30 Savage rifle from a 17 year old who drew a revolver and killed him. The reasons that Buxton was checking the boys is unclear. Stories frequently claim they were hunting out of season, but that seems incorrect. They were certainly overarmed for rabbits, however, with a .30-30 being way too large for that pursuit. Buxton might have been checking them as their activities seems suspicious, which frankly they do, or because there was a state law at the time that prohibited aliens from carrying firearms.

The killers handgun, we might note, was concealed.

I only note this as its odd. Hunting is common in Germany and Austria, and indeed there's a strong hunting culture there, but it's highly regulated. As a result, poaching is fairly common as well, even though its highly criminal. Indeed, one of the SS's units during World War Two, the Dirlewanger Brigade, was originally made up of convicted poachers, although it moved on to other criminals over time.

Anyhow, I wonder if these people were just hugely out of sink with any culture at all.

In the earlier murder, it's been noted that the young men had been in run-ins apparently with Italian immigrants in the same location. Austro Hungaria and Italy had been on opposite sides of World War One. Again, I'm not saying that caused the murder, but I do wonder if they conceived of themselves as being very much on the outside of things.

Another interesting thing, although having nothing to do with the focus on this page, is the lingering Nazi sympathies in some quarters amongst German immigrants who chose to continue to live in the country. That carried on, quietly, well after the war, even after the news of the Holocaust became known.

Odd.

If Malten was actually a spy, that may explain the killing in and of itself.

Another thing this story oddly brings up is the extent to which trapping remained economically viable.

Trapping was pretty common in Wyoming up into the 1970s, when there was a fur market price collapse. I had, well still have, traps, although I haven't set them for decades. In the 1970s high school kids like myself supplemented our incomes by trapping or hunting coyotes for their furs. The market was so lucrative at the time that there were people who flew in from out of state and hunted coyotes near Miracle Miles, something we didn't appreciate very much as we didn't have those sorts of resources available to us. The Federal Government was also big into predator control at the time which we also didn't appreciate much for the same reason.

Furs are, fwiw, an actual renewable resource fabric, one of the few.

Fur coats were a big deal for women at this time and would, again, be throughout the 1950s. They were not nearly as much of a luxury item as people like to remember. My mother had a heavy mink coat that she brought down from Montreal that she wore on really cold days. As a kid I loved it when she brought it out, due to the feel of the soft minks.

It was, in spite of Donald Trump and the Sweet Home Alabama crowe dof the GOP may believe, colder then.

I've never looked into it but I suspect that synthetic fabrics had as much to do with the decline in furs as anything else. That started during World War Two and is well evidenced by the Air Force's switch from sheepskin flight altitude flight jackets to synthetic ones. That trend continue into the 1950s and I suspect it just generally caught up with fur coats by the 1980s. Indeed, the association of fur with luxury somewhat increased in that time, with it generally being the case that things are regarded as luxurious not only for their scarcity, but because they really aren't needed.

Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

We also noted: "Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book."

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

We hope you'll feel moved to comment as well. While we moderate every comment, so as to weed out Spam, we greatly appreciate the comments where they are offered, and hope to see more.

Thank you for stopping in!