Olde Posts Addenda (2)

   In these 'addenda' you will find additional information to add to the substantial amount I have already provided, much of which can be euphemistically classified as "arcane." For example, in the first post in the addenda category, I let you know that they were still carving sculptures out of butter at the Minnesota State Fair, and that women still don't have to pump gas in New Jersey (intrigued, click here.) 

Miscegenation And The WHITE House
   You learned in Factlet (9) that former President Jimmy Carter and the Black former president of Motown Records, Berry Gordy Jr. are second cousins. A genealogical  chart was provided and here is another. In this one, you will learn that the Black Holman family is related to the White Bush one.

Although African Americans have a difficult time finding genealogical records and making connections because of a lack of records, Charles Holman was able to learn that members of his family were enslaved by some in the Bush clan. You can learn more from this article: " A Stunning Find In His Family Tree: The Bushes' Ancestors Enslaved His Relatives," 
Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post, July 13, 2024.
"The lineage of one of America’s most accomplished political dynasties dates back to colonial times and includes some well-known enslavers. The most notorious stories center on Thomas Walker, George H.W. Bush’s third-great-grandfather, who was associated with at least 11 slaving voyages to West Africa, according to various news reports."

Matchbook Memorabilia

   The subject of "matchbooks" was discussed under the title, "Match Making" which was clearly concocted to attract readers who would likely be much more interested in making matches than striking them. It had to do with those colourful items found in large glass containers in my sister's sun room. Apart from the images of matchbook covers in that post, there were also some of lighters. Remember Zippos?
    Their value as decorative objects may be less than their worth as memorabilia, a point made in this article: "Grab a Matchbook From Your Favorite Spot and Thank Me Later: Collecting These Small Keepsakes Can Help You Keep the Places You Love Alive," Britta Locking, New York Times, June 18, 2024.
"When the legendary Jazz Standard club closed, in late 2020, I mourned the loss of yet another New York cultural institution…There is one place, though, where the Standard lives on: my matchbook collection . On the front there’s a burnt orange, Rothko-style square lurking behind the words “JAZZ STANDARD....” As my relationship to the city changed, so did the way I thought about the matchbooks: They became a way to document what may one day disappear. Without them, the particulars of place are no longer something I can hold onto, abandoned to our culture of screens and digital memory. With their slogans, doodles, aphorisms and inside jokes, matchbooks are objects of beauty that evoke an establishment’s singular character. Looking at one can trigger the din of a specific night out or a snippet of conversation, even the hours spent alone….. People once took care to create these tiny  representations of what a place means in the patchwork of city life."
  

   During our highly politicized times, I purposely ignored the political covers, but will remind you of them. I will also remind you of the reason why you pay more for access to the NYT, than to MM, and that is because you learn the answer to such important questions as: "What do you call a collector of matchbooks?" A phillumenist. For proof, see the Wikipedia entry for "Phillumeny."

Simply Epochal
   Back in early 2021 I told you about "The Epoch Times" which had been plopped on your porch. The good news is that the Epoch people are now working on productions soon to be seen in cinemas near you:
"Epoch Times, the Conspiratorial Pro-Trump Outlet Enters a New Market: Faith-Based Movies,"Erik Ortiz and Daniel Arkin, NBC News, July 6, 2024.

"In recent years, The Epoch Times has amassed a large audience as a publisher of right-wing news articles and peddler of baseless election conspiracies. This summer, the conservative media company is hoping to conquer new territory: Hollywood.

Epoch Studios, a branch of the wider Epoch Times Association, plans to release “The Firing Squad,” a drama starring Kevin Sorbo and Cuba Gooding Jr. as drug smugglers who find God behind bars.

“The Firing Squad” marks Epoch’s entry into the growing market of faith-based cinema, a genre that includes recent box-office successes such as “Sound of Freedom,” “Unsung Hero” and “Jesus Revolution.” The film’s Aug. 2 theatrical debut comes as other right-wing media companies are pushing into entertainment, releasing content that counters what conservatives view as Hollywood’s progressive and secular agenda."
   Well, I suppose that does not constitute "good news" for many of us, but the bad news related to The Epoch Times is this:
"Money Laundering Charges Raise Questions About the Direction of The Epoch Times," Jude Joffe-Block, NPR, June 15, 2024.

"The Epoch Times began as an anti-Chinese Communist Party newspaper founded by Chinese dissidents and later morphed into a global conservative multimedia company championing former President Donald Trump and conspiracy theories, claiming an audience of millions.

Now it is in turmoil.

Its chief financial officer, Weidong Guan, was arrested earlier this month for allegedly engaging in a multi-year money laundering scheme that federal prosecutors say helped drive the company’s skyrocketing growth in revenue in recent years. Days after the CFO’s arrest, the founder and CEO resigned and an interim management team is now running the media organization."
   Perhaps that is not such "bad news."

Match Making

Factlet (13)

   This is not about what you think, it is about matches. Back when many people smoked, matches were needed and the line uttered by Lauren Bacall to Humphrey in To Have and Have Not, "Anybody got a match?," was often heard.  One of my sisters had huge glass containers and vases full of colourful matchbook covers. Now you rarely seen them and only infrequently get asked, "Buddy, got a light?"

   I thought of those match-filled days of long ago when I ran across this paragraph which provides the Factlet(s):

"For this tree [Western White Pine], almost exclusively now [c1949], yields us our wooden matches. Formerly they were made from the Eastern White Pine, but as the first growth of that species approached exhaustion, the western species, its closest relative and similar to it in the physical and chemical properties of its wood, began (from about 1914 on) to bear the whole burden of matchwood production. This may not seem a great drain - a match so slight a thing - but remember that twelve thousand wooden matches are struck, by the American people, every second. That makes more than 103 million in twenty-four hours. To produce a year's supply of matches, three hundred thousand mature pines must yield up their lives. If grown to a pure strand, they would cover an area 2 miles wide and 10 miles long."

   I suppose that one could view all of this as "progress" since fewer trees are being cut down to provide matches.  On the other hand, less trees are being used to produce newsprint and that is not good. Trees grow back, but newspapers are unlikely to return, even in digital form.

Source:

   That paragraph will be found on p.38 of A Natural History of North American Trees, by Donald Culross Peattie. It's a much more interesting book than the title indicates. See my post about Peattie. 

   If you are interested in the disappearance of the ordinary objects we grew up with see: Going Going Gone: Vanishing Americana by Susan Jones & Marilyn Nissenson. Among the things that have gone: Bank Checks; Carbon Paper; DDT; Girdles; Men's Garters; Nuns; Slide Rules; Tonsillectomies and Typewriters and Wedding Night Virgins.

All of those topics are covered in the book and I have a copy if you want to borrow it.

Post Script: 

   If you are more interested in the subject of "Match Making," see my post - "Lonely in London."
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