Bluegrass Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt with the Virginia Road Runners, circa 1933.  That's her just behind the banjo player.

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Digital art: Dahlias

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Big Bang to The Reformation: history in a nutshell, from the first Encyclopedia Britannica (1768)

Found by Mona Goldwater, History Ed.

From the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, 1768

click to enlarge

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Digital art: Tulips

By Jack Brummet

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Guy Clark's "Maybe I can paint over that"

By Mona Goldwater, Roots/Americana Music Ed.

Guy Clark's song from his new album.  Another knockout. Guy is a master who has been writing and recording for decades.  And now, late in life, he comes up with a masterpiece like this,

"Maybe I can paint over that."

I've smeared my heart on my sleeve
I've tagged my name on the wall
It's prob'ly time for me to leave
Actin' big and talkin' small

I've tracked blood in on the floor
I put my first through the wall
I've dragged trouble through the door
And I've spilled wine on it all

(chorus)
Maybe I can paint over that
It'll prob'ly bleed through
Maybe I can paint over that
But I can't hide it from you

I've got some ink beneath my skin
A good idea at the time
I won't be doing that again
Not with any arm of mine

And I have stumbled in my time
I left my footprints down the road
And the part of me that shines
Ain't the part of me that's showed

Maybe I can paint over that
It'll prob'ly bleed through
Maybe I can paint over that
But I can't hide it from you

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Finger of the day: Anthony Weiner gives the finger to reporters after delivering his concession speech

By Mona Goldwater, Gestures Ed.

Anthony Weiner gives the finger to reporters after delivering his concession speech.  Election night was a mess for Weiner, like much of his campaign.  Sydney Leathers, the woman at the center of the sexting scandal that began the unraveling of his mayoral campaign, showed up outside the election party in what she admitted was a play for media attention (and a boost to her fledgling career in the adult film industry).  Between her and the media/paparazzi, it was a zoo.    

CNN: "When the candidate finally showed just before 11 p.m., he quickly bolted into a next door McDonald's restaurant. The press corps and Leathers gave chase – yes, this really happened – security pulled a blocking maneuver as Weiner ducked through a door that connected Connolly's and the Mickey D's."

He gave his concession speech, and then, the former congressman got in his car, flipped off the press, and drove away into obscurity.

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President Ronald Reagan aims a rifle in Air Force One

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

President Ronald Reagan aims a rifle out a window of Air Force One, circa 1983.  I guess he armed up after the assassination attempt.  Source: unknown.

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Digital art: Orchids

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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A small surrender in one of the battles in "the war on drugs": DoJ allows marijuana legalization to proceed in Washington and Colorado

By Mona Goldwater, Jurisprudence Ed.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently let the governors of Washington and Colorado know that the Department of Justice was backing down from their earlier statements and would allow the states to implement the ballot initiatives that legalized the use of marijuana.

Holder's memo outlines the priorities for federal prosecutors enforcing marijuana laws. According to the guidance, DoJ will still prosecute individuals or entities to prevent:

• the distribution of marijuana to minors;
• revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels;
• the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states;
• state-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity;
• violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana
• drugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with marijuana use;
• growing of marijuana on public lands and the attendant public safety and environmental dangers posed by marijuana production on public lands;
• preventing marijuana possession or use on federal property.

DAGMemo8-29-13

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Habitual Drunkards — images from the 19th and early 20th century

By Jack Brummet, Substance Abuse Ed.

At some point in American history (e.g., the 19th century), tough laws were enacted against habitual drunkards.  These laws were often far harsher than any measures enacted since against heroin, crack, or meth addicts.

According to the Free Dictionary/Legal Dictionary, a Habitual Drunkard was:

• A person given to ebriety or the excessive use of intoxicating drink, who has lost the power or the will, by frequent indulgence, to control his appetite for it.  

• By the laws of Pennsylvania an habitual drunkard is put nearly upon the same footing with a lunatic; he is deprived of his property, and a committee is appointed by the court to take care of his person and estate. Act of June 13, 1836, Pamph. p. 589. Vide 6 Watts' Rep. 139; 1 Ashm. R. 71.  

• Habitual drunkenness, by statutory provisions in some of the states, is a sufficient cause for divorce. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 296. 

        [from A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856]

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Wound Man, from middle ages surgery textbooks

By Jack Brummet, Anatomy Ed.

Wound Man is an illustration from European surgical texts in the Middle Ages. It shows the various wounds a person might suffer in battle or an accident.  The text details treatments for the various injuries. It first appeared in 1492 in Johannes de Ketham's Fasciculus Medicinae and used often in surgical texts up to the seventeenth century.

Public domain images from Wikipedia Commons:

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Reclaimed and redecorated birdhouse

By Jack Brummet

[pencil, pen and ink, and Sharpie on found birdhouse]

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