Two Articles on the Census -- One Serious, One Funny

The police in Hawaii arrested a census worker for trespassing on someone's property to give a census form.  Admittedly, when asked to leave, he did not, but I think that he could remain on the property for at least a short while to explain about the Census.  He had the right -- under federal law -- to be there. Now, the Assistant United States Attorney is defending him -- as they should.

The other article is funny, it talks about a reporter who did the follow-up survey with people who did not return their forms for the Census and talked about some of the responses he got.

I liked reading both these articles.  In some ways, both people's experiences were not unlike my time working for the Census (well, except the getting arrested for trespassing part).  But what I like the most about working for the Census last year is that whenever I go running/walking around Silver Spring, practically no matter which direction I leave my apartment, I know that I helped to count the people that live around me.  And that, I think, is pretty cool.

What Baseball Is

Thomas pointed me to this blog entry which quotes a speech given by Ernie Harwell, who died today.
Update:  NPR also did a story on him.

Washington Monument and Why the Color Changes

At this link, there is a detailed explanation of why the Washington Monument's color changes.  The story doesn't start out talking about that, but if you search on obelisk, you'll see where it starts talking about the Washington Monument.

Snowed In? You can watch National Parks: America's Best Idea

If you're snowed in, PBS' The National Parks: America's Best Idea are posted online. Some have full episodes available.

Skyline Drive History

For anyone in the Maryland Outdoor Club reading this (or anyone else for that matter!), here's a link to a historical site on Skyline Drive.  For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, that's the road that traverses Shenandoah National Park.  There's a picture on the National Park Service's website of what looks like the same overlook that I stopped at last fall and took pictures at.  I'm looking forward to the fall.

Paying Attention on the Taconic Parkway

I read an article in the Times on the Taconic Parkway the other day and agreed with many of the points made.  The Taconic definitely requires attention when driving it.  The lanes are thin, and there is not much space between the shoulder and the center guard rail.  It's kind of like the section of the George Washington Memorial Parkway between I-395 and where it starts to climb up away from the Potomac.

Another thing to pay attention to on the Taconic Parkway is your speed.  The New York State Police love that road.

Quieting Title to a Copy of the Declaration of Independence

There was an interesting post on Boston 1775 (a blog I read) about a Virginia Supreme Court case that involved a copy of the Declaration of Independence that was stored in the attic of a house in Maine.  It looks like Maine's attorney, by not preserving issues for appeal, lost out on arguing a number of things before the Virginia Supreme Court.

Country Music Song About the Economy

A country music singer, John Rich, who, according to Wikipedia, used to play in the country music band Lonestar, has come up with a song about the current economic situation. While I don't think it's ever going to gain the same historical traction as some of Woody Guthrie's songs, I do think the song is pretty good. His website has a streaming version of it.

Another country music song that discusses economics is Cafe Down on the Corner by Sawyer Brown. That's much older.

A Little Cajun Music at the Kennedy Center

Last night I saw The Lost Bayou Ramblers at the Kennedy Center. It was part of Millenium Stage, which puts performances on 365 days a year free of charge. There is quite a variety of music, as you can see if you check out the calendar.
The Lost Bayou Ramblers not only sang in French, but also spoke to the audience in French too. I think it's neat that over 200 years after we bought Louisiana from the French, there is still so much French culture in Louisiana that there are still people that speak French and preserve this excellent music.
You can catch a recording of the concert here, and there are free downloads of music at The Lost Bayou Ramblers website.

Small Towns, Long Term Residents

I saw an article in my town's local newspaper about how this year's summer concert series on my high school's lawn will be dedicated to the memory of Donald Luckenbill. He was a music teacher in the school district from 1944 to 1980. Although I never had Donald Luckenbill as a teacher, I sang a song by him in elementary school (essentially an ode to Sagamore Hill, home of Teddy Roosevelt) and later played that song when I was a member of the Oyster Bay Community Band. I also played Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs that he arranged when I was in the boy scouts and performed at a kresh/memorial lighting.
I guess I'm writing about this because I really enjoyed growing up in my town. It's small enough so that my middle school band teacher had my third grade teacher when he was in kindergarten. This teacher could also point to a portrait of a basketball team hanging on the high school wall and point out his father on the wall.
I was at a meeting with the elementary school's principal while I was in high school to discuss a fundraiser that the club I was involved in was doing. He said, so, [D], your parents are long term residents, right? And without really thinking, I said yes. Looking back, I also don't know what this had to do with fundraising.
Afterwards, though, I realized that it all depended on how one defined the word "long" in long-term resident. Sure, my parents lived in East Norwich since right before I was born, but we're certainly not one of the "generational" families that have lived in Oyster Bay/East Norwich since the Revolution, or even since before suburbanization. In some ways, Oyster Bay is different from other towns on Long Island. Unlike other towns, it has a history of its own, and wasn't just potato farms until the suburbanization boom of the 1950s.

40 Years Since Anti-Miscegenation Laws Were Banned

Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that the US (in particular the South) was so different forty or fifty years ago, with segregated schools, anti-miscegenation laws, etc.  Today marks the fortieth anniversary of Loving v. Virginia (which banned anti-interracial marriage laws).  

When I was in law school, I always liked Loving because it was an easy case to remember (Loving = Marriage)

Anyhow, the NPR story talked about how far we've come and how far we have to go.  They talked about an interracial couple and the challenges they face.  The white wife was probably still racist (or at least used stereotypes about African-Americans)

I've realized how far we have to go as well.  My neighbor used the n-word the other day, and that has made me even more eager to get out of Chambersburg. (I'm assuming my neighbor doesn't read this blog)

Old Supermarkets

The other day I got a flyer from Weis Market in the mail saying they were celebrating their ninety-fifth anniversary. That means they're a really old supermarket, comparatively. According to this Wikipeida article, supermarkets started in 1915 with Piggly Wiggly. That makes Weis (if they started in 1912) older than Piggly Wiggly. The grocery stores in my town on Long Island have gone through several iterations. First, there was a Food Town in the downtown portion of the town. It then moved to the outskirts of town and has changed its name from Food Town to Finast to Edwards to its current name, Stop and Shop (which is part of the same gigantic corporation that owns Giant. Waldbaums and King Kullen continue to exist on Long Island, although I wonder how they are doing when they have to compete against big chains like Stop and Shop. Waldbaums in Hicksville seems to do a decent business, though. I wonder about the King Kullens though.

What law school has done to me

I was reading Boston 1775 and saw a neat post on "dentrifice" which from the description sounds like toothpaste. In the description, he said the following:
"This Essence and Dentifrice is prepared by himself, and warranted perfectly free from the least corrosive Particle or Injurious Property whatever."
And I realised it was an express warranty. Sigh.

Historical Myths

Most people know that one of the rights set forth in the Bill of Rights is the prohibition against quartering soldiers in people's homes. That, supposedly, is one of the reasons that the colonists fought against the British in the American Revolution. However, according to this blog, the statute permitting quartering of soldiers never permitted quartering soldiers in people's homes. It permitted quartering in outbuildings, but even then, other resources had to be exhausted. Maybe whoever was responsible for quartering the soldiers chose to ignore the statute and quartered soldiers in people's homes anyway.
I must take issue, however, with the blog's belief that breaking and entering is redundant. It's not. Burglary requires two elements:

• The defendant must break a lock, window, etc., or technically open a door, I think.
  
• The defendant must then go inside the building.

If the defendant breaks the lock but doesn't go any further, then it's probably vandalism, but I don't think it would be burglary.

As a side note, in California, it's burglary if you enter an outhouse (among other places).

This post does not constitute legal advice.

Old Maps

Boston 1775 has a post where the author discusses an old map of Boston from 1894 with a map from when Europeans first arrived superimposed on it. A large portion of Boston is built on landfill.
The area around Old North Church (the church that figured prominently in the midnight ride of Paul Revere) existed when the Europeans first arrived.
I think it's neat to look at old maps to see which streets existed 100 years ago. There are some streets like that in my hometown, because it predates the suburbanization of Long Island.

Boston During the American Revolution

Found an interesting blog about Boston just prior to the Revolution called Boston 1775. It seems like it is a pretty active blog; there are lots of postings. One thing I found out is that no one really knows who was involved in the Boston Tea Party.
While we're on the topic of colonial Boston, here is a web site about the Boston Massacre trial.

New York State Pavillion

There was an article in the Times about the New York State Pavillion. These are structures that were built for the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. They might have been a nice tourist attraction (but for the fact that they are in Queens, pretty far from Manhatttan) but the city allowed them to become dilapidated. They're in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, near LaGuardia Airport and Shea Stadium. I usually see them when I get off the Long Island Expressway onto the Grand Central Parkway. It's too bad, because they sound like they would have been really neat to go the top of, and I think that you might have had a clear view to Manhattan (and certainly out to Long Island) from there, but I'm not positive, since I have never been up there.
As a side note, if you have been to Disney World, you may have seen a part of the 1964 World's Fair. In Tomorrowland, there is something called Carousel of Progress (that's the ride where you go into a theatre and then it rotates around in a circle through various scenes of American life) This is its page on Wikipedia; and this is a link to Disney's official page for it. I noticed from its Wikipedia page that Disney only opens it in season. That's unfortunate, I think it is a neat ride for its historical perspective.