Monday, November 16, 2015
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Sunday, November 14, 1915. Great Americans.
Native American Jim Thorpe played his first professional football game in a 16–0 Canton Bulldogs' loss to the Massillon Tigers.
Thorpe would win Olympic gold medals, and played professional football baseball and basketball. He was he most versatile athlete of all time. He served as a merchant marine in World War Two, but descended into alcoholism and died nearly penniless in 1953 at age 65.
Booker T. Washington died at age 59 in Tuskegee, Alabama of overwork, Bright's disease and congestive heart failure.
Last edition:
Saturday, November 13, 1915. French fall back in Macedonia.
Labels: 1910s, 1915, Art, Battle of Krivolak, Bulgarian Army, French Army, Macedonia, Thanksgiving, World War One
Friday, November 13, 2015
Saturday, November 13, 1915. French fall back in Macedonia.
The French fell back to Bitola, Macedonia, and halted offensive operations in the Vardar region.
Last edition:
Thursday, November 11, 1915. Churchill resigns, war in Morocco resumes.
Serialized stories in newspapers
I've been reading the great Japanese novel Musashi recently. It's a fictionalized account of the life of Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary Japanese samurai. I rarely read novels, and normally Asian fiction wouldn't be my cup of tea, but it is very good.
This novel, which is sometimes called Japan's "Gone With The Wind", was originally run as a serialized story in a newspaper. Indeed, the chapters of the book are fairly short, which is likely explained by that.
This wasn't uncommon anywhere. I think, for example, A Mule for the Marquesa, which was made into the movie The Professionals, was likewise a serialized novel before it was released as a book, and then later a movie.
Everyone knows that newspapers are in trouble. And while our local paper won't admit it (it's part of the larger Lee chain) it's a shadow of its former self. The paper has columnist, most of whom I'm not impressed with. I wouldn't, for example, continue to subscribe to the paper just to read what Mary Billiter or Edith Cook have to say every week, although in fairness it does have columnist that I really like to read.
But what I would note is that I'll find myself following cartoons that have story lines, even if I don't really like the cartoon. I read, for example, Mary Worth and Rex Morgan everyday, even though I really don't like either cartoon. It's hard to drop off a story. When the paper used to run Prince Valiant on the weekend it was the same way. I don't really like the cartoon, but I'd get caught up in the story line and find that I was resolving to read that line out and then stop reading the cartoon.
I suspect that this would be all the more the case for a well written serialized novel.
So, in this era when newspapers are biting the dust everywhere, and even major papers like The New York Times are increasingly irrelevant, why not revive this old practice? I suspect that there are a lot of local novelist who could turn out the appropriate length of text every week, or at least every month, and people would follow it. And in an era when certain types of novels have a hard time getting to press, but we all claim to love the local, why not give this a try?
This novel, which is sometimes called Japan's "Gone With The Wind", was originally run as a serialized story in a newspaper. Indeed, the chapters of the book are fairly short, which is likely explained by that.
This wasn't uncommon anywhere. I think, for example, A Mule for the Marquesa, which was made into the movie The Professionals, was likewise a serialized novel before it was released as a book, and then later a movie.
Everyone knows that newspapers are in trouble. And while our local paper won't admit it (it's part of the larger Lee chain) it's a shadow of its former self. The paper has columnist, most of whom I'm not impressed with. I wouldn't, for example, continue to subscribe to the paper just to read what Mary Billiter or Edith Cook have to say every week, although in fairness it does have columnist that I really like to read.
But what I would note is that I'll find myself following cartoons that have story lines, even if I don't really like the cartoon. I read, for example, Mary Worth and Rex Morgan everyday, even though I really don't like either cartoon. It's hard to drop off a story. When the paper used to run Prince Valiant on the weekend it was the same way. I don't really like the cartoon, but I'd get caught up in the story line and find that I was resolving to read that line out and then stop reading the cartoon.
I suspect that this would be all the more the case for a well written serialized novel.
So, in this era when newspapers are biting the dust everywhere, and even major papers like The New York Times are increasingly irrelevant, why not revive this old practice? I suspect that there are a lot of local novelist who could turn out the appropriate length of text every week, or at least every month, and people would follow it. And in an era when certain types of novels have a hard time getting to press, but we all claim to love the local, why not give this a try?
Marrying the profession
According to one survey, farmers, fishermen, and lawyers, are the professions that are most likely to see intermarriage in the profession.
That is, farmers are likely to marry another person from a farm family, lawyers are likely to marry another lawyer, etc. Not that they all do, by any means, but they do so more than, say, accountants marrying another accountant.
Makes sense for farmers, I think. Fishermen and lawyers surprises me, however.
That is, farmers are likely to marry another person from a farm family, lawyers are likely to marry another lawyer, etc. Not that they all do, by any means, but they do so more than, say, accountants marrying another accountant.
Makes sense for farmers, I think. Fishermen and lawyers surprises me, however.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
And the economic news continues to darken
Earlier this week Arch Coal announced it was considering bankruptcy, just at about the same time the Governor announced that he expected to be able to ship coal to Asia. I'm not sure if the Governor really believes that, but I doubt very much that's going to be the case. Things are looking increasingly bleak for coal.
And the state's community colleges are now preparing for an economic slump, the Tribune reports, with one even putting in place a hiring freeze. I'm not sure that they'll see a drop in enrollment, like they fear, as at least in the past an increase in unemployment in the young has tended to see an increase in the young seeking college opportunities, something I've witnessed personally. But they're wise to do some planning.
And the state's community colleges are now preparing for an economic slump, the Tribune reports, with one even putting in place a hiring freeze. I'm not sure that they'll see a drop in enrollment, like they fear, as at least in the past an increase in unemployment in the young has tended to see an increase in the young seeking college opportunities, something I've witnessed personally. But they're wise to do some planning.
The Demise of the Magazine
When I was young, I was an avid magazine reader.
My father subscribed, when I was very young, to Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Sports Afield, Wyoming Wildlife and probably a few other journals. Seems like a lot? Yes, it was, but it was partially a lot because he kept them for his office. I don't think the National Geographic's ever made it to the office, but the others did. Anyhow, even as a young kid I read through quite a few of these, with Sports Illustrated being the least likely for me to read.
Even by the time I was a teen one of these magazines, Look, had disappeared and Life was on life support. The others kept on keeping on, however. As a teenager I regularly read Time and Newsweek, as well as Wyoming Wildlife and the National Geographic. When I went away to college my magazine reading dropped off quite a bit, but a girlfriend I had at the time bought me a subscription to The New Republic, which I still get.
Around here, we have subscribed to a variety of magazines of various interests, and indeed, I still get them. I quit reading Time quite some time ago, however, and of course Newsweek as a print journal is no more. I'm inclined to discontinue my subscription to The New Republic, which seems to me to be in a long slow period of decline which going from a weekly, to a monthly, and a change in ownership, has not arrested.
And now this past couple of weeks comes news about two well known journals that appear to be in, indeed are experiencing, trouble.
The one that sparks this entry is The National Geographic. Once a standard of American scientific and cultural magazines, the magazines subscription based has massively declined over the past few years. A while back the society that owned it sold its television rights to Rupert Murdoch's Fox network, which may explain why shows on The National Geographic channel seem to fall so far below the standards of the magazine. About a year and a half ago the Society actually sold the controlling interest in the magazine to a Murdoch entity, which was news but not as big of news as a person might suspect. I managed to miss it.
Since then there's been fears that Murdoch's control of the magazine would lead to a decline in its standards. I haven't seen that, if its true. There's also been fears that Murdoch's organization would start firing some of the staff, which has traditionally been lower paid than comparative journalists. Now that's sort of come true, a bit.
National Geographic is now laying people off. That story has hit the news, but what's missed in it is that the people being laid off are support staff, in departments like legal, which the giant Murdoch organization otherwise has. Frankly, layoffs like that are justified. I doubt the Lincoln Mercury division of Ford Motors, for example, has a separate legal department from Ford Motors. But the entire story does shine the light on the sad decline of the magazine. The National Geogrpahic Society actually sold its flagship in order to raise money for the Society's endowment. I get it, but that doesn't bode well for the future of the magazine or the Society. I doubt it will survive long term.
Another magazine that's been in trouble for years and which I also doubt will survive has been in the news as well, that being the trash put out by an ossified freak whose main achievement is to help objectify women since the early 1950s. I'm glad its in trouble, but the reason that it is, is the same that the National Geographic is, the Internet. Here the story is more grim. The National Geographic has not declined and is simply the victim of free information. The other magazine, on the other hand, helped take debasement out of the gutter and into everyone's homes and now it can't make a go of it, as the Internet allows trash to be circulated for free. In other words, having helped pollute the culture, there's too much pollution everywhere in order for it to make a go of selling it.
It's reaction has been a decision to take its models and send them back to the dressing room, apparently. In doing that, it's would appear to be trying to occupy the space now occupied by a couple of other magazines directed towards men which will feature women, but not in the same purely objectified way, as they want to appear more gentlemanly and serious. Ironically, that's the same way that the filth put out by this ossified freak became successful in the first place, as it took gutter trash literature and tried to dress it up, a marketing strategy that worked for about a decade before it was engaged in a race towards the bottom which it appears to now be loosing. It's readership is also way, way off, and it appears doomed. Indeed, I'm sure it is, and good riddance too, as while its not too late for the purveyors of such filth to reform, it's too late for the rag itself to do so.
Quite a change in a long period of time. Magazines have an honored place in the American written landscape, and as far back as the mid 19th Century they were important means of conveying information. We appear to see that era ending, except for specialty journals.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Thursday, November 11, 1915. Churchill resigns, war in Morocco resumes.
The French captured a pair of key Bulgarian defense positions in Vardar Macedonia, but by the evening Bulgarian forces caused a French withdrawal.
An informal truce ended in Morocco when a French convoy was attacked by a large party of Zayanes.
Churchill Resigns After Exclusion from New War Committee
And a bunch of interesting stuff:
Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: November 11, 1915: The war upon the ki...: After that Austrian-flagged, German-manned u-boat sank the Ancona, the US is just now realizing that while Germany gave assurances about g...
Last edition:
Wednesday, November 10, 1915. Staging on Hermosillo.
For Veterans' Day: In Memoriam by Ewart Alan Mackintosh who was killed in action on November 21, 1917.
So you were David’s father,
And he was your only son,
And the new-cut peats are rotting
And the work is left undone,
Because of an old man weeping,
Just an old man in pain,
For David, his son David,
That will not come again.
And he was your only son,
And the new-cut peats are rotting
And the work is left undone,
Because of an old man weeping,
Just an old man in pain,
For David, his son David,
That will not come again.
Oh, the letters he wrote you,
And I can see them still,
Not a word of the fighting,
But just the sheep on the hill
And how you should get the crops in
Ere the year get stormier,
And the Bosches have got his body,
And I was his officer.
And I can see them still,
Not a word of the fighting,
But just the sheep on the hill
And how you should get the crops in
Ere the year get stormier,
And the Bosches have got his body,
And I was his officer.
You were only David’s father,
But I had fifty sons
When we went up in the evening
Under the arch of the guns,
And we came back at twilight -
O God! I heard them call
To me for help and pity
That could not help at all.
But I had fifty sons
When we went up in the evening
Under the arch of the guns,
And we came back at twilight -
O God! I heard them call
To me for help and pity
That could not help at all.
Oh, never will I forget you,
My men that trusted me,
More my sons than your fathers’,
For they could only see
The little helpless babies
And the young men in their pride.
They could not see you dying,
And hold you while you died.
My men that trusted me,
More my sons than your fathers’,
For they could only see
The little helpless babies
And the young men in their pride.
They could not see you dying,
And hold you while you died.
Happy and young and gallant,
They saw their first-born go,
But not the strong limbs broken
And the beautiful men brought low,
The piteous writhing bodies,
They screamed “Don’t leave me, sir”,
For they were only your fathers
But I was your officer.
They saw their first-born go,
But not the strong limbs broken
And the beautiful men brought low,
The piteous writhing bodies,
They screamed “Don’t leave me, sir”,
For they were only your fathers
But I was your officer.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Confessions of a Writer of Westerns: Reading the Old Letters
Recently this interesting item was published on the blog noted:
Confessions of a Writer of Westerns: Reading the Old Letters: I spent much of the late afternoon and early evening reading through many letters written by Owen Wister. I never found what I was looking ...It's an interesting entry in and of itself, but what it brings to mind to me is something I've written about here before, that being the stunning level of personal correspondence in earlier days.
Now, to be fair, in the age of email and instant messaging, people do write. And I'm actually a bit of an optimist in this area, as I think personal correspondence has actually revived a bit in the internet age, as has journaling. None the less, the amount of personal correspondence that people once undertook is simply amazing.
Mail Call, Army barracks during World War Two. Forty years later mail call was still a big deal. Amazingly, even in basic training we found time to write back.
Nearly any well educated person wrote letters at least as recently as mid 20th Century. My own mother was an avid correspondent, writing her relatives and friends almost constantly, which they in turn also did. My father was less of a correspondent, but when I went to university he wrote me regularly, and I in turn wrote him. And I used to write a few friends I knew who had moved elsewhere. Indeed, I wrote them quite a bit more than I know email the same friends.
There's something particularly close and personal about a written letter. Closer than an email, although what it is, is hard to describe. And there's something really telling that in earlier eras people wrote letters in vast numbers, and they saved them too, for our unintended benefit. We're lucky they did, but it's hard to feel that something hasn't been lost by the disappearance of common correspondence, even if something has been gained by instant correspondence.
Letter writer, Mexico. This man was employed as a scriviner for hire, a common occupation around the world at one time.
Wednesday, November 10, 1915. Staging on Hermosillo.
Leaving a force of 5,000 cavalrymen behind him to guard his rear, Villa moved his forces south to stage an attack on Hermosillo.
The Royal Serban Army took up positions for a final stand at Gijilan.
Italy launched an offensive with the aim of taking Gorizia.
Last edition:
Sunday, November 7, 1915. Seas of blood.
Monday, November 9, 2015
More how you can tell you are really out of it.
1. When UW plays CSU, the legendary "Border War", over the weekend and you had no idea who won until you ran across the headline in the newspaper (and you didn't read the article).
2. Al Roker came to your town and you have utterly no idea at all why anyone went to see him. He's a weatherman, right? And you have less idea why people are "proud" of the town for so many people showing up. Eh?
2. Al Roker came to your town and you have utterly no idea at all why anyone went to see him. He's a weatherman, right? And you have less idea why people are "proud" of the town for so many people showing up. Eh?
Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming's First School
Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming's First School: Being an old school teacher, I am always interested in reading about early day schools and especially the schools of Wyoming. Like many...
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Sunday, November 7, 1915. Seas of blood.
3,000 ZAPATISTAS YIELD.; Surrender with a Leader to General Pablo Gonzales at Capital.
Headline in the New York Times.
The French failed in their effort to capture the monastery stronghold at Vardar.
Walter M. Geddes, finding his witness to the Armenian genocide too much to bear, killed himself at Smyrna, Ottoman Empire. He had been working in Aleppo when he witnessed the Ottoman atrocities and had recorded what he saw for the American embassy.
He, too, was a victim of Ottoman barbarity.
Mary Pickford was the story of the film adaptation of Madama Butterfly, which is an odd thought given that the silent movie era was still ongoing.
Last edition:
Saturday, November 6, 1915. Another French offensive halts.
The Big Speech: War and Peace
I have put up, as best I might, with millionaires of my time when they
decreed war, sudden and sensational war, as everyone admitted; mean and
immoral war, as I believed. I have got used to millionaires when they
dictate war. But if they begin to dictate peace I positively rebel.
G.K. Chesterton: Illustrated London News, Dec. 31, 1910.
G.K. Chesterton: Illustrated London News, Dec. 31, 1910.
Friday, November 6, 2015
Saturday, November 6, 1915. Another French offensive halts.
The French concluded their offensive actions at Champagne after having sustained 145,000 casualties. The Germans had sustained about 97,000.
The British captured the German fort at Banjo.
The USS North Carolina became the first U.S. ship to launch an aircraft using a catapult.
Last edition:
Friday, November 5, 1915. March of the Dungarees.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Friday, November 5, 1915. March of the Dungarees.
French forces captured Kamen Dol, Debrista in Vardar Macedonia and occupied the Gradsko rail station.
British forces launched an assault on the German mountain fort near Banjo, Kamerun.
The Queensland Recruiting Committee held a public meeting in the Exhibition Hall in Brisbane to initiate a "snowball recruitment march"which would become the March of the Dungarees. A snowball recruiting march was a walking long distance march that gathered volunteers, like a rolling snowball, as it went along.
The march was named for the jackets issued to marchers.
Australian interest in the Great War wsa flagging following Gallipoli. Overall, results were disappointing.
Last edition:
Thursday, November 4, 1915. Villa withdraws.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Thursday, November 4, 1915. Villa withdraws.
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I don't think the withdrawal was puzzling anyone who knew what had happened at the battle.
The Third Battle of Artois concluded with the Allies having sustained major casualties and having failed to achieve their objectives.
The French pulled off at Karahojali and advanced toward Veles.
The British besieged a German position at Banjo, Kamerun.
The SM U-38 sank the French troopship SS Le Calvados off the coast of Algeria, killing 740 of the 800 on board..
A contingent of 129 Belizean men departed for the “great fight for civilization and freedom” and British military service aboard the HMT Verdala.
Last edition:
Wednesday, November 3, 1915. Wilson considers ordering troops into Mexico.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Wednesday, November 3, 1915. Wilson considers ordering troops into Mexico.
President Wilson was considering sending troops into Mexico.
The Austro Hungarians defeated the Italians at the Isonzo River.
The first aircraft with a wheeled undercarriage to take off from a ship did so when Royal Naval Air Service Flight Sub-Lieutenant Fowler flew a Bristol Scout from HMS Vindex.
Last edition:
Tuesday, November 2, 1915. The nighttime attacks at Agua Prieta.
Monday, November 2, 2015
A Constitutional Convention? Think first.
There's an idea afloat to revive an effort in this year's state budget session to have Wyoming's legislature pass a bill supporting having a Constitutional Convention. An op ed in the Star Tribune recently endorsed it.
It's a poorly thought out idea.
The concept behind such a convention is that the delegates could go and pass an amendement ot the United States Constitution requiring a balanced budget.
Leaving aside the question of whether or not such an amendment is a good idea, which is a topic of legitimate debate, the problem with a Convention goes far beyond that topic.
There's no legal way to limit the scope of a convention. Backers claim that this isn't so, as the charge of the Legislatures would be solely on that topic, ignoring for a moment that slightly under half the states would be sending delegates to a convention that they hadn't actually endorsed. As a convention, a legal entity, is only recognized in the broad, rather than the narrow, those who believe that its scope can be limited are absolutely incorrect. A convention could do anything it darned well wanted to do.
And there's no reason to believe that it would limit its scope. You can be assured that delegates would try to expand it. They have in the past after all, that's how we ended up with the United States Constitution in the first place.
Both liberal and conservative delegates would be licking their chops at a convention, and a person has to be naive not to believe so. Yes, they'd address a balanced budget amendment, and probably pass one, but they would not stop there.
Liberals, whom by the time of the convention are highly likely to riding high on the election of a second President Clinton (note, I"m not endorsing her, I'm just reading the political tea leaves here, and that's how things look to be shaping up to me), would see it as a chance to do the following:
1. Wipe out the Second Amendment.
2. Create a new equal rights amendment that creates an absolute a society that turns a blind eye to anything to do with gender whatsoever.
3. Create new social and economic rights.
Conservatives, if you are gasping in horror at the possibilities, particularly under a new Clinton Administration, well you ought to be.
But Liberals, before you laugh with delight, Conservatives, who really control more states than Liberals, would propose the following:
1. Reverse the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions on same gender marriage and when life begins.
2. Define citizenship to eliminate the location of birth element to it.
3. Bolster the Second Amendment.
4. Redefine the First Amendment.
Now, note, some of these things I might be in favor of myself. I think the Supreme Court was wrong in Obergefell and I also think that the Court's 1973 effort at defining the beginning life was one way pathetic example of legal reasoning.
But does anyone want to open all of this up to a convention?
I doubt it.
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