(I went in search of what the Pilgrims ate at the first Thanksgiving and came across this article by Mark Fleming at the newengland.com website.)
The Thanksgiving meal is remarkably consistent in its elements: the turkey, the stuffing, the sweet potatoes, the cranberry sauce. Barring ethical, health, or religious objections, it is pretty much the same meal for everyone, around the country, and through the years of their lives. We stick with the basics and simply change the seasonings.
But what about that first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621 (historians don’t know the exact date, but place it sometime between September 21 and November 9), when British settlers hosted the first documented harvest celebration? What did they eat at the first Thanksgiving, and how similar is it to the traditional American Thanksgiving meal today?
Here’s how Edward Winslow described the first Thanksgiving feast in a letter to a friend:
“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”
What They (Likely) Did Have at the First Thanksgiving
Venison
Fowl (geese and duck)
Corn
Nuts (walnuts, chestnuts, beechnuts)
Shellfish
So venison was a major ingredient, as well as fowl, but that likely included geese and ducks. Turkeys are a possibility, but were not a common food in that time. Pilgrims grew onions and herbs. Cranberries and currants would have been growing wild in the area, and watercress may have still been available if the hard frosts had held off, but there’s no record of them having been served. In fact, the meal was probably quite meat-heavy.
Likewise, walnuts, chestnuts, and beechnuts were abundant, as were sunchokes. Shellfish were common, so they probably played a part, as did beans, pumpkins, squashes, and corn (served in the form of bread or porridge), thanks to the Wampanoags.
It’s possible, but unlikely, that there was turkey at the first Thanksgiving.
What They (Definitely) Did Not Have at the First Thanksgiving
A turkey centerpiece
Potatoes (white or sweet)
Bread stuffing or pie (wheat flour was rare)
Sugar
Aunt Lena’s green bean casserole
But how about bringing a little more truly traditional flavor back to your table? Back in 2003, we consulted with historians at Plimoth Plantation, the Wampanoag and English settlers living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and asked writer Jane Walsh to devise a menu that incorporated some of the foods that would have been served at the first Thanksgiving. We didn’t eliminate any favorites or try to go sugar-free. We skipped the venison. Really, like everyone else who will gather around a table on the fourth Thursday in November this year, we simply changed the seasonings.
The Wampanoag and English settlers may not have had access to all of the ingredients included in these recipes, but by including pheasant, goose, or venison in your Thanksgiving menu, you’re at least paying tribute to a meat they likely enjoyed back in 1621. Chestnuts and native corn were common, too. Here are a few dishes to get you further inspired — both reader-submitted and from the Yankee recipe archives.
TAKES THE CAKE: The phrase “takes the cake” comes from the cake walks that were popular in the late 19th century. Couples would strut around gracefully and well-attired, and the couple with the best walk would win a cake as a prize. Interestingly, cake walk was soon used to describe something that could be done very easily, and it’s very possible that from there we get the phrase “piece of cake.”
PARTING SHOT: A parting shot, which is a final insult tossed out at the end of a fight when you assume it’s over, was originally a Parthian shot. The Parthians, who lived in an ancient kingdom called Parthia, had a strategy whereby they would pretend to retreat, then their archers would fire shots from horseback. Parthian sounds enough like parting, and, coupled with the fact that not a lot of people knew who the Parthians were, the phrase was changed to parting shot.
DEAD AS A DOORNAIL: One could certainly argue that a doornail was never alive, but when a doornail is dead, it has actually been hammered through a door, with the protruding end hammered and flattened into the door so that it can never come loose or be removed or used again. The phrase “dead as a doornail” has actually been around since the 14th century, about as long as the word doornail has officially been in the English language.
DOWN TO BRASS TACKS: “There are many theories about what “down to brass tacks” means, including that brass tacks is rhyming slang for hard facts. But it’s very likely that the brass tacks being mentioned here are actual brass tacks. Merchants used to keep tacks nailed into their counters to use as guides for measuring things, so to get down to brass tacks would be you were finally done deciding what you wanted and were ready to cut some fabric and do some actual business.
IT’S GREEK TO ME: “The phrase “it’s Greek to me” is often attributed to Shakespeare, but it’s been around since well before his time. An earlier version of the phrase can be found written in Medieval Latin translations, saying “Graecum est; non potest legi,” or “it’s Greek. Cannot be read.”
SMART ALEC: “You may have presumed the Alec in “smart Alec” was just a name that sounded good preceded by the word smart, but that’s not necessarily the case. Professor Gerald Cohen suggested in his book”Studies in Slang” that the original smart Alec was Alexander Hoag, a professional thief who lived and robbed in New York City in the 1840s. Hoag was a very clever criminal who worked with his wife and two other policemen to pickpocket and rob people. He was eventually busted when he decided to stop paying the cops.
HEARD IT THRU THE GRAPEVINE: “The grapevine people hear things through is a grapevine telegraph, which was the nickname given to the means of spreading information during the Civil War as a kind of wink at an actual telegraph. The grapevine telegraph is just a person-to-person exchange of information, and much like when you play a game of telephone, it’s best to presume that the information you receive has gone through a few permutations since it was first shared.
CAT’S OUT OF THE BAG: “Farmers used to stick little suckling pigs in bags to take them to market. But if a farmer was trying to rip somebody off, they would put a cat in the bag instead. So, if the cat got out of the bag, everybody was onto their ruse, which is how we use the phrase today, just not quite so literally. (We hope.)
OUT OF WACK: “Today, “out of whack” means not quite right, but it took a long time to get there. Whack appeared in the 18th century as a word that meant to strike a blow when used as a verb. The noun whack was the blow that was whacked on something. But whack also grew to mean portion or share, especially as loot that was being split by criminals. From there, whack grew to mean an agreement, as in the agreed share of loot, but it also meant in good order. If something was behaving as it was intended to, it was “in fine whack.” Eventually the opposite fell into common usage, and something that wasn’t in good shape was “out of whack.”
KIBOSH: “Evidence of kibosh dates the word to only a few years before Charles Dickens used it in an 1836 sketch, but despite kibosh being relatively young in English its source is elusive. Another hypothesis pointed to Irish caidhp bhais, literally, coif (or cap) of death, explained as headgear a judge put on when pronouncing a death sentence, or as a covering pulled over the face of a corpse when a coffin was closed. Today, “to put the kibosh on something” is to shut it down.
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: “Some people think that the phrase “between a rock and a hard place” is a kind of sloppy reference to Odysseus. But in 1921, the phrase became a popular means of describing when miners had to choose between dangerous work for little or no money or definite poverty during the Great Bankers’ Panic of 1907.
GOT UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED: “The generally accepted origin of the phrases “get up on the wrong side of the bed” and wake up on the wrong side of the bed is ancient Rome, where superstition was rampant. Ancient philosophers equated the right side of anything as the positive side, and the left side of anything as the sinister or negative side. The story says that Romans always exited the bed on the right side in order to start the day in contact with positive forces. If one rose on the left side of the bed, he started the day in contact with negative forces.
MAD AS A HATTER: “The expression is linked to the hat-making industry and mercury poisoning. In the 18th and 19th centuries, industrial workers used a toxic substance, mercury nitrate, as part of the process of turning the fur of small animals, such as rabbits, into felt for hats. Workplace safety standards often were lax and prolonged exposure to mercury caused employees to develop a variety of physical and mental ailments, including tremors (dubbed “hatter’s shakes”), speech problems, emotional instability and hallucinations.
Edmund Fitzgerald, St. Mary’s River, 1975. Photo by Bob Campbell
The legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains the most mysterious and controversial of all shipwreck tales heard around the Great Lakes. Her story is surpassed in books, film and media only by that of the Titanic. Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot inspired popular interest in this vessel with his 1976 ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”The Edmund Fitzgerald was lost with her entire crew of 29 men on Lake Superior November 10, 1975, 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan. Whitefish Point is the site of the Whitefish Point Light Station and Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) has conducted three underwater expeditions to the wreck, 1989, 1994, and 1995.At the request of family members surviving her crew, Fitzgerald’s 200 lb. bronze bell was recovered by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society on July 4, 1995. This expedition was conducted jointly with the National Geographic Society, Canadian Navy, Sony Corporation, and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. The bell is now on display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a memorial to her lost crew.The Fateful Journeyby Sean Ley, Development OfficerThe final voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald began November 9, 1975 at the Burlington Northern Railroad Dock No.1, Superior, Wisconsin. Captain Ernest M. McSorley had loaded her with 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets, made of processed iron ore, heated and rolled into marble-size balls. Departing Superior about 2:30 pm, she was soon joined by the Arthur M. Anderson, which had departed Two Harbors, Minnesota under Captain Bernie Cooper. The two ships were in radio contact. The Fitzgerald being the faster took the lead, with the distance between the vessels ranging from 10 to 15 miles.Aware of a building November storm entering the Great Lakes from the great plains, Captain McSorley and Captain Cooper agreed to take the northerly course across Lake Superior, where they would be protected by highlands on the Canadian shore. This took them between Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula. They would later make a turn to the southeast to eventually reach the shelter of Whitefish Point.Weather conditions continued to deteriorate. Gale warnings had been issued at 7 pm on November 9, upgraded to storm warnings early in the morning of November 10. While conditions were bad, with winds gusting to 50 knots and seas 12 to 16 feet, both Captains had often piloted their vessels in similar conditions. In the early afternoon of November 10, the Fitzgerald had passed Michipicoten Island and was approaching Caribou Island. The Anderson was just approaching Michipicoten, about three miles off the West End Light.Captain Cooper maintained that he watched the Edmund Fitzgerald pass far too close to Six Fathom Shoal to the north of Caribou Island. He could clearly see the ship and the beacon on Caribou on his radar set and could measure the distance between them. He and his officers watched the Fitzgerald pass right over the dangerous area of shallow water. By this time, snow and rising spray had obscured the Fitzgerald from sight, visible 17 miles ahead on radar.At 3:30 pm that afternoon, Captain McSorley radioed Captain Cooper and said: “Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. I’m checking down. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish?” McSorley was checking down his speed to allow the Anderson to close the distance for safety. Captain Cooper asked McSorley if he had his pumps going, and McSorley said, “Yes, both of them.”
“The Wreck Site II” by David Conklin
As the afternoon wore on, radio communications with the Fitzgerald concerned navigational information but no extraordinarily alarming reports were offered by Captain McSorley. At about 5:20 pm the crest of a wave smashed the Anderson’s starboard lifeboat, making it unusable. Captain Cooper reported winds from the NW x W at a steady 58 knots with gusts to 70 knots, and seas of 18 to 25 feet.
According to Captain Cooper, about 6:55 pm, he and the men in the Anderson’s pilothouse felt a “bump”, felt the ship lurch, and then turned to see a monstrous wave engulfing their entire vessel from astern. The wave worked its way along the deck, crashing on the back of the pilothouse, driving the bow of the Anderson down into the sea.
“Then the Anderson just raised up and shook herself off of all that water – barrooff – just like a big dog. Another wave just like the first one or bigger hit us again. I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent him under.”
Keeping Watch
Morgan Clark, first mate of the Anderson, kept watching the Fitzgerald on the radar set to calculate her distance from some other vessels near Whitefish Point. He kept losing sight of the Fitzgerald on the radar from sea return, meaning that seas were so high they interfered with the radar reflection. First mate Clark spoke to the Fitzgerald one last time, about 7:10 pm:
“Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. Have you checked down?”
“Yes, we have.”
“Fitzgerald, we are about 10 miles behind you, and gaining about 1 1/2 miles per hour. Fitzgerald, there is a target 19 miles ahead of us. So the target would be 9 miles on ahead of you.”
“Well,” answered Captain McSorley, “Am I going to clear?”
“Yes, he is going to pass to the west of you.”
“Well, fine.”
“By the way, Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problems?” asked Clark.
“We are holding our own.”
“Okay, fine, I’ll be talking to you later.” Clark signed off.
The radar signal, or “pip” of the Fitzgerald kept getting obscured by sea return. And around 7:15 pm, the pip was lost again, but this time, did not reappear. Clark called the Fitzgerald again at about 7:22 pm. There was no answer.
Captain Cooper contacted the other ships in the area by radio asking if anyone had seen or heard from the Fitzgerald. The weather had cleared dramatically. His written report states:
“At this time I became very concerned about the Fitzgerald – couldn’t see his lights when we should have. I then called the William Clay Ford to ask him if my phone was putting out a good signal and also if perhaps the Fitzgerald had rounded the point and was in shelter, after a negative report I called the Soo Coast Guard because I was sure something had happened to the Fitzgerald. The Coast Guard were at this time trying to locate a 16-foot boat that was overdue.”
With mounting apprehension, Captain Cooper called the Coast Guard once again, about 8:00 pm, and firmly expressed his concern for the welfare of the Fitzgerald. The Coast Guard then initiated its search for the missing ship. By that time the Anderson had reached the safety of Whitefish Bay to the relief of all aboard. But the Coast Guard called Captain Cooper back at 9:00 pm:
“Anderson, this is Group Soo. What is your present position?”
“We’re down here, about two miles off Parisienne Island right now…the wind is northwest forty to forty-five miles here in the bay.”
“Is it calming down at all, do you think?”
“In the bay it is, but I heard a couple of the salties talking up there, and they wish they hadn’t gone out.”
“Do you think there is any possibility and you could…ah…come about and go back there and do any searching?”
“Ah…God, I don’t know…ah…that…that sea out there is tremendously large. Ah…if you want me to, I can, but I’m not going to be making any time; I’ll be lucky to make two or three miles an hour going back out that way.”
“Well, you’ll have to make a decision as to whether you will be hazarding your vessel or not, but you’re probably one of the only vessels right now that can get to the scene. We’re going to try to contact those saltwater vessels and see if they can’t possibly come about and possibly come back also…things look pretty bad right now; it looks like she may have split apart at the seams like the Morrell did a few years back.”
“Well, that’s what I been thinking. But we were talking to him about seven and he said that everything was going fine. He said that he was going along like an old shoe; no problems at all.”
“Well, again, do you think you could come about and go back and have a look in the area?”
“Well, I’ll go back and take a look, but God, I’m afraid I’m going to take a hell of a beating out there… I’ll turn around and give ‘er a whirl, but God, I don’t know. I’ll give it a try.”
“That would be good.”
“Do you realize what the conditions are out there?”
No reply from the Coast Guard. Captain Cooper tries again.
“Affirmative. From what your reports are I can appreciate the conditions. Again, though, I have to leave that decision up to you as to whether it would be hazarding your vessel or not. If you think you can safely go back up to the area, I would request that you do so. But I have to leave the decision up to you.”
“I’ll give it a try, but that’s all I can do.”
The Anderson turned out to be the primary vessel in the search, taking the lead. With the ship pounding and rolling badly, the crew of the Anderson discovered the Fitzgerald’s two lifeboats and other debris but no sign of survivors. Only one other vessel, the William Clay Ford, was able to leave the safety of Whitefish Bay to join in the search at the time. The Coast Guard launched a fixed-wing HU-16 aircraft at 10 pm and dispatched two cutters, the Naugatuck and the Woodrush. The Naugatuck arrived at 12:45 pm on November 11, and the Woodrush arrived on November 14, having journeyed all the way from Duluth, Minnesota.
The Coast Guard conducted an extensive and thorough search. On November 14, a U.S. Navy plane equipped with a magnetic anomaly detector located a strong contact 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point. During the following three days, the Coast Guard cutter Woodrush, using a sidescan sonar, located two large pieces of wreckage in the same area. Another sonar survey was conducted November 22-25.
Finding the Fitzgerald
Restored Fitzgerald bell – Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
The following May, 1976, Woodrush was again on the scene to conduct a third sidescan sonar survey. Contacts were strong enough to bring in the U.S. Navy’s CURV III controlled underwater recovery vehicle, operating from Woodrush.
The CURV III unit took 43,000 feet of video tape and 900 photographs of the wreck. On May 20, 1976, the words “Edmund Fitzgerald” were clearly seen on the stern, upside down, 535 feet below the surface of the lake.
On April 15, 1977 the U.S. Coast Guard released its official report of “Subject: S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, official number 277437, sinking in Lake Superior on 10 November 1975 with loss of life.” While the Coast Guard said the cause of the sinking could not be conclusively determined, it maintained that “the most probable cause of the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was the loss of buoyancy and stability resulting from massive flooding of the cargo hold. The flooding of the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch closures as boarding seas rolled along the spar deck.”
However, the Lake Carrier’s Association vigorously disagreed with the Coast Guard’s suggestion that the lack of attention to properly closing the hatch covers by the crew was responsible for the disaster. They issued a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board in September, 1977. The Lake Carrier’s Association was inclined to accept that Fitzgerald passed over the Six Fathom Shoal Area as reported by Captain Cooper.
Later, in a videotaped conversation with GLSHS, Captain Cooper said that he always believed McSorley knew something serious had happened to Fitzgerald as the ship passed over Caribou Shoal. Cooper believes that from that point on, McSorley knew he was sinking.
Conflicting theories about the cause of the tragedy remain active today. GLSHS’ three expeditions to the wreck revealed that it is likely she “submarined” bow first into an enormous sea, as damage forward is indicative of a powerful, quick force to the superstructure. But what caused the ship to take on water, enough to lose buoyancy and dive to the bottom so quickly, without a single cry for help, cannot be determined.
Twenty-nine men were lost when the Fitzgerald went down. There is absolutely no conclusive evidence to determine the cause of the sinking. The bell of the ship is now on display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a memorial to her lost crew.
(If, like me, you are discouraged by the current political rhetoric, you might be surprised to learn the last few elections have not been the weirdest or nastiest in our history. I stumbled upon this article by Stephanie Pappas that details what were 5 of the nastiest elections in our history in her opinion. Keep in mind when you read this, it’s dated 2012, so her list may have changed.)
Reading the political news, you’d think this election is the nastiest, most contentious and most important our nation has ever faced. No doubt the outcome matters, but in the annals of American elections, this one barely registers for sheer strangeness.
In fact, electoral politics have always been a down-and-dirty business, starting at least as early as 1800, when our founding fathers proved themselves adept at bitter battles. Other elections have featured nasty accusations, bizarre happenstance and even the death of one of the candidates.
Read on for five of the strangest presidential elections in U.S. history.
1. The very first one, 1788-1789
The first presidential election in our nation’s history was one-of-a-kind in that it was literally no contest. Organized political parties had yet to form, and George Washington ran unopposed. His victory is the only one in the nation’s history to feature 100 percent of the Electoral College vote.
The real question in 1788 was who would become vice president. At the time, this office was awarded to the runner-up in the electoral vote (each elector cast two votes to ensure there would be a runner-up.) Eleven candidates made a play for the vice-presidency, but John Adams came out on top.
2. It’s a tie, 1800
Electoral politics got serious in 1800. Forget the hand-holding peace of George Washington’s first run — political parties were in full swing by this time, and they battled over high-stakes issues (taxes, states’ rights and foreign policy alignments). Thomas Jefferson ran as the Democratic-Republican candidate and John Adams as the Federalist.
At the time, states got to pick their own election days, so voting ran from April to October (and you thought waiting for the West Coast polls to close was frustrating). Because of the complicated “pick two” voting structure in the Electoral College, the election ended up a tie between Jefferson and his vice-presidential pick, Aaron Burr. One South Carolina delegate was supposed to give one of his votes to another candidate, so as to arrange for Jefferson to win and Burr to come in second. The plan somehow went wrong, and both men ended up with 73 electoral votes.
That sent the tie-breaking vote to the House of Representatives, not all of whom were on board with a Jefferson presidency and Burr vice-presidency. Seven tense days of voting followed, but Jefferson finally pulled ahead of Burr. The drama triggered the passage of the 12th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stipulates that the Electoral College pick the president and vice-president separately, doing away with the runner-up complications.
3. Things get nasty, 1828
Anything involving dueling war veteran Andrew Jackson was liable to get dirty, but the 1828 electoral battle between Jackson and John Quincy Adams took the cake for mudslinging. Jackson had lost out to Adams in 1824 after Speaker of the House Henry Clay cast a tie-breaking vote. When Adams chose Clay as his Secretary of State, Jackson was furious and accused the two of a “corrupt bargain.”
And that was before the 1828 election even got started, when Adams was accused of pimping out an American girl to a Russian Czar. Jackson’s wife, Rachel, was called a “convicted adulteress,” because she had, years earlier, married Jackson before finalizing her divorce to her previous husband. Rachel died after Jackson won the election, but before his inauguration; at her funeral, Jackson blamed his opponents’ bigamy accusations. “May God Almighty forgiver her murderers, as I know she forgave them,” Jackson said. “I never can.”
To round out a rough election, Jackson’s inauguration party (open to the public) turned into a mob scene, with thousands of well-wishers crowding into the White House.
“Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses, and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe,” wrote Margaret Smith, a Washington socialite who attended the party.
4. Running against a corpse, 1872
In 1872, incumbent Ulysses S. Grant had an easy run for a second term — because his opponent died before the final votes were cast.
Grant had the election in the bag even before his opponent, Horace Greeley, died, however. The incumbent won 286 electoral votes compared with Greeley’s 66 after election day. But on Nov. 29, 1872, before the Electoral College votes were in, Greeley died and his electoral votes were split among other candidates. Greeley remains the only presidential candidate to die before the election was finalized.
5. The hanging chads, 2000
Democrat Al Gore beat Republican George W. Bush in the popular vote in the 2000 election, but the electoral vote was a close, and controversial, call. As election night drew to a close, New Mexico, Oregon and Florida remained too close to call.
It would be Florida that determined the winner, but not until the Supreme Court weighed in. For a month, the outcome of the election remained in recount limbo, as Gore’s campaign contested the vote count in several close counties and the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts engaged in a tug-of-war over whether to halt the recounts or extend their deadlines. Among the challenges faced by the hand counts: determining whether semi-attached scraps of paper, or “hanging chads,” on punch-card ballots should count as votes.
Ultimately, on Dec. 12, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that a statewide recount was unconstitutional, alongside a further decision that the smaller recounts could not go forward. The decision meant the original vote counts stood, giving the election to Bush.
GABARDINE: Few movements in history have been more thrilling than the pilgrimages of the Middle Ages. Many people traveled to shrines throughout Europe and even to the Holy Land. Pilgrims continued to visit some of the shrines at enormous sacrifice of time and money. They wore an unofficial but characteristic garb: a gray cowl bearing a red cross and a broad-brimmed, stiff hat. Pilgrims carried a staff, a sack, and a gourd. They usually traveled in company with other adventurers, singing hymns as they walked and begging food from those they met.
Medieval Pilgrims
Since a particular type of upper garment was worn by the pilgrim, it gradually came to be identified with the journey itself. A will filed in 1520 included this bequest: “Until litill Thomas Beke my gawbardyne to make him a gowne.” From the garment the term came to refer to the coarse material from which it was customarily made. Slight modifications in spelling produced gabardine – a kind of cloth that passed from the religious pilgrim’s vocabulary into general use.
Assorted Gabardine
RUBBER: On his second voyage to “East India,” Columbus found natives playing with a substance they called caoutchouc. It would stretch and then snap back into shape; when made into balls it would bounce. Scientists who examined the odd substance agreed that it was unlike anything known in Europe, yet they confessed themselves unable to imagine any use for it.
Small quantities of caoutchouc were brought to Europe, but it remained a curiosity for more than two centuries. Finally, someone discovered by accident that the material could be used for removing the marks of a lead pencil. Hence, bookkeepers termed it “lead-eater.”
Around 1780 Joseph Priestley experimented with a bit of caoutchouc, hoping to find some use more important than erasing errors made in ledgers. He failed and decided that it would never be of value except for rubbing out pencil marks.
Joseph Priestley
Consequently, he called it “East India rubber.” Soon the nickname of the one-job substance was abbreviated to rubber. The name serves as a perpetual reminder that civilization was once at a loss as to what to do with a substance of a thousand uses.
MAP: Greek geographers of the sixth century BC developed considerable skill in making charts to guide sailors and travelers. Then the Romans extended the art by engraving scale representations of the Empire on fine marble slabs. These devices, and the more abundant clay tablets, proved to be extremely cumbersome, so someone thought of painting geographical charts upon cloth.
Fragment of Greek “Map”
For this purpose, the most suitable material proved to be fine table linen, or mappa. This led to the practice of calling any flat geographical chart a map.
RECIPE: Since Latin was the universal language of medieval scholars, physicians used it in writing directions for compounding medicines. Virtually every prescription listed the ingredients in precise order and began with the Latin verb recipe, meaning “take.”
Ancient Apothecary “Recipes”
Care in measuring and blending the ingredients of a tasty dish is also essential. Therefore, when housewives began to master the art of reading and writing, they adopted the apothecary’s custom and made written lists of ingredients and steps in cookery. Inevitably, such a set of directions took the pharmaceutical name and became familiar to the household recipe.
BUDGET: Struggling with a budget is no new problem; it dates back to the days of the Roman Empire. Housewives had to be cautious in their spending and they kept money for household expenses in a little leather bulga (Latin for bag). This custom also prevailed among businessmen, who may have borrowed it from their wives or vice versa.
Antique “Bulga”
Centuries later, the Latin word was adopted into Middle French as bougette (“little leather bag”). When the British Chancellor of Exchequer appeared before Parliament, he carried his papers explaining the estimated revenue and expenses in a leather bag and then “opened the budget” for the coming year. Thus, budget (as it came to be pronounced) came to mean a systematic plan for expenditures, both for governments and for private individuals.
EAT ONE’S HAT: Many a man engaged in a contest of some sort has offered to eat his hat if he loses. In such a situation, a knowledge of etymology would be of great value, for the expression eat one’s hat once referred not to a Stetson or a Panama, but to a culinary product.
Napier’s famous Boke of Cookry, one of the earliest European cookbooks, gives the following directions: “Hattes are made of eggs, veal, dates, saffron, salt, and so forth.” In the hands of amateur cooks, the concoction was frequently so unpalatable that it required a strong stomach to eat it.
Even so, the early braggart who offered to eat a hatte had in mind nothing so distasteful as a felt or a straw!
FLOUR: During the Elizabethan Age, the word “flower” meant “the best,” as it does today in such expressions as “the flower of the nation’s youth.”
Millers of the period ground wheat by a crude process, then sifted the meal. Only the finest of it passed through the cloth sieve in a process called “boulting.” Reserved for tables of the nobility, this top-quality ground wheat was naturally called the “flower of wheat,” but in this context the word came to be spelled flour. The two spellings were used interchangeably until the 19th century. In Paradise Lost, Milton wrote the line, “O flours that never will in other climates grow.”
Boulting
COOKING TERMS: There is at least one serious gap in European history. Her contemporaries failed to record the name of the woman who first thought of stuffing an egg. Nothing is known about her recipe, except that she was liberal with pepper. Her invention was so hot that folks who tried it were reminded of Beelzebub’s fiery furnaces. As a result, the tidbit came to be called a deviled egg.
Most other terms of cookery are prosaic by comparison. More than half were borrowed from the French – which suggest that English cooks were never very imaginative. Braise stems from French for “hot charcoal.” Toast is but slightly modified from “toaster” (“to parch with heat). Boil stems from a continental verb meaning “to make little bubbles.” Poach grew out of pocher, which meant “to pouch,” that is, to enclose an egg’s yellow in a little pouch of white.
Fry, grill, roast and baste were also adapted from French. Fricassee was taken as is from that language, but the ultimate origin is unknown.
The oldest term in cookery is probably cook, still much like Latin coquus. The Norse gave us bake, from baka (“hearth”). The Saxons contributed sear, spelled just as it is today. It originally meant to “wither with heat.” Scorch – the bane of a cook’s existence – has a long history that goes all the way back to the Old English scorkle, which started life as a term for skinning meat by searing.
Someone posted something about etymology and it caught my interest – IIRC, I have Duchess to thank!
I decided to do an open about the subject since I have a book about it. But there is so much more in the book than I can put in one open, I expect I’ll be doing more in the future. If anyone has specific words or phrases they are curious about, let me know and I’ll include it in a future open.
First, the definition of etymology:
– The origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes in form and meaning, tracing its transmission from one language to another, identifying its cognates in other languages, and reconstructing its ancestral form where possible.
– The branch of linguistics that deals with etymologies.
– That part of philology which treats of the history of words in respect both to form and to meanings, tracing them back toward their origin, and setting forth and explaining the changes they have undergone.
CURSOR
It is a Latin term for “flowing” or “running” that gave rise to the word “cursive” to describe handwriting produced in flowing style. The flow of letters that is produced when a pen is guided by skilled fingers is an impressive art. The name for this efficient and effortless writing style, in this computer age, soon was adapted and bestowed upon the small marker that moves quickly and gracefully across a computer screen. The cursor blinks until it is stimulated into action.
Cursor
TO BOOT
Early computer programmers faced an obstacle: the memories of their computers were wiped clean each time the machines were turned off. To address this problem, the programmers needed to enter a short program called a “bootstrap loader” each time the machine was turned on. When the first desktops first came out, there was a “boot” disc that resided in one drive, while a data disk was in the second drive, where the work was saved. This is the portable laptop I used to take with me on business trips – note the 2 drives side-by-side.
COMPAQ Portable PC
Once this program was read, the computer could then perform more complex functions. The short program gave the machine a “bootstrap” it could then use to perform tasks; without it, the computer was useless. Over time, programmers figured out ways to design software so computers could perform this function automatically, and bootstrap loaders are now part of the basic make-up of any operating system. Pulling oneself up by the “bootstraps” is a means of restarting one’s situation. The expression lives on in the phrase to boot, which today simply means to turn it on, but reflects decades of efforts of computer programmers to make computers easier to use.
CD-ROM
As an abbreviation, this cluster of letters has come to function as a word naming a compact disc crammed with an immense amount of data, graphic material, music, or other sounds. The disc can be read and viewed and printed out, but can’t be altered, making deletion of selected portions impossible. Once the basic nature of this disc is understood, it makes complete sense that the abbreviation stands for “Compact Disc [with] Read-Only Memory.
HANDS DOWN
Plantation owners and merchant princes of colonial America took great interest in horse racing. For many generations major contests were supported largely by the wealthy. After the Civil War, promoters began bidding for attendance by the general public and racing then surged to new popularity and prominence.
Skilled jockeys made an art of timing the final spurt toward the ribbon; sometimes a fellow would be so far ahead of the field that he didn’t have to lift his hands in order to urge his mount forward. Expecting an easy victory, the backer of a horse would boast that his jockey would win hands down. Erupting from racetrack lingo about the turn of the last century, the phrase came to indicate any effortless triumph.
RAISE THE HACKLES
Medieval householders made wide use of flax, whose fibers are so tough they had to be carefully worked with a tool called the hackle. Farmers noticed that angry fowls have a way of raising the feathers on their necks. Disturbed in such a fashion, a bird looked as though someone had rumpled his feathers with a hackle. Hence by 1450, such feathers had taken the name of the combing tool.
Medieval Hackle
Since visible hackles indicated anger, it was natural to say that anything causing an outburst of rage raised the hackles of the offended person.
DERBY
England has few families whose blood is a deeper shade of blue than that of the Stanleys. Descended from an aide of William the Conqueror, this family came into possession of the earldom of Derby in the 15th century. Their name entered common speech because the 12th Earl of a lover of fast horses. With no specific desire for fame, Derby established an annual race for 3 year old horses; first run in 1780, it quickly became the most noted race in England.
American sportsmen who took in the races after the Civil War were impressed by the odd hats some of the English spectators wore. They brought a few of the “Derby hats” back to the US, where a new model was developed. Made of stiff felt with a dome-shaped crown and narrow brim, the derby won the heart of the American male. By the time the first Kentucky Derby was run in 1875, the derby was standard wear for the man of parts. It is merely incidental that the hat also brought a kind of immortality to the distinguished house of Derby.
English Bowler Derby
As a side note…..how did the Kentucky Derby get that name?
“The Kentucky Derby is America’s most celebrated horse race, but its inspiration comes from England.
Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, founder of Churchill Downs, wanted to model the track’s major races after the English classics. The gold standard for Europe’s three-year-olds is the Derby at Epsom, which also stages the corresponding race for three-year-old fillies, called the Oaks.
Both the Epsom Derby and Oaks are contested at about 1 1/2 miles. And originally so were the Kentucky Derby and Oaks, in the early years since their inception in 1875. Both were eventually shortened, with the Kentucky Derby firmly established at its traditional 1 1/4-mile distance in 1896. The Oaks was subsequently held at distances ranging from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/4 miles, finally settling at its current trip of 1 1/8 miles in 1982.
But why were the Epsom classics named the Derby and Oaks at their creation in the late 18th century? An aristocratic connection, of course!
The 12th Earl of Derby, Edward Stanley, was instrumental in the development of both. The fillies’ race was established first in 1779, and named after Stanley’s Surrey estate. Fittingly, he won that inaugural Oaks with Bridget.
That prompted the idea to create another classic, open to both colts and fillies, the following year. According to the oft-told tale, the new race’s name hung on the outcome of a coin flip. Was it to be named after the Earl of Derby, or after his friend, Sir Charles Bunbury? Luckily, the toss came up in favor of the Earl, and the first “Derby” was held at Epsom in 1780. Bunbury didn’t go home empty-handed: his Diomed triumphed in that first running.
With the Epsom Derby giving rise to so many spin-offs around the world, racing fans can be grateful for that toss of the coin. The “Kentucky Bunbury” just wouldn’t have the same ring to it.”
For more than two centuries, the English-speaking world has used the expression “stealing thunder” to mean the appropriation of any effective device or plan that was originated by someone else.
An obscure English dramatis was the father of the phrase. For the production of a play, John Dennis invented a new and more effective way of simulating thunder onstage. His play soon folded but shortly afterward he discovered that his thunder machine was in use for a performance of Macbeth at the same theater.
Dennis was furious!!! “See how the rascals use me?!?” he cried. “They will not let my play run, and yet they steal my thunder.
Lizzie Borden, born July 19, 1860, was tried in court for the murder of her stepmother, Abby Borden, and father, Andrew Borden. Although she was acquitted, no other person was accused and she remains infamous for their murders. The murders occurred on August 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Abby Borden was found face down on the floor next to a bed; Andrew was found sprawled across the sitting room couch. Their skulls had been smashed in. A hatchet was found in the cellar, and suspicion fell on their 32-year-old daughter Lizzie, who also lived in the house. Lizzie claimed to have discovered the body of her father about 30 minutes after he came home from his morning errands. Shortly after, the maid, Bridget Sullivan, found the body of Lizzie’s stepmother.
It was said that Lizzie did not get along well with her stepmother, and that they had a falling out years before the murder occurred. Lizzie and her sister, Emma Borden, were also known to have conflicts with their father. They feared their stepmother’s family had designs on the family’s money and property, and they disagreed with his decisions regarding the division of that property. Her father was also responsible for killing her pigeons that were housed in the family barn.
Just before the murders occurred, the entire family fell ill. Since Mr. Borden was not a well-liked man in town, Mrs. Borden believed foul play was involved. Although Mrs. Borden believed they had been poisoned, it was discovered that they ingested contaminated meat and contracted food poisoning. The contents of their stomach were investigated for toxins following death; however, no conclusions were achieved.
Lizzie was then arrested on August 11, 1892. She was indicted by a grand jury; however, the trial didn’t begin until June 1893. Her sister was out of town at the time and was never a suspect. The hatchet was discovered by the Fall River police; however, it appeared to have been cleaned of any evidence. A downfall for the prosecution occurred when the Fall River police didn’t properly execute collection of the newly discovered forensic fingerprint evidence. Therefore, no potential prints were lifted from the murder weapon. Although no blood-stained clothing was found as evidence, it was reported that Lizzie tore apart and burned a blue dress in the kitchen stove a few days following the murder because it was covered in baseboard paint. Based on the lack of evidence and a few excluded testimonies, Lizzie Borden was acquitted for the murder of her father and stepmother.
Lizzie and Emma inherited a significant portion of their father’s estate, which allowed them to purchase a new home together. The Borden sisters lived together for the following decade. Although free, Lizzie was considered guilty by many of her neighbors, and thusly never enjoyed acceptance in the community following her trial. Her reputation was further tarnished when she was accused of shoplifting in 1897.
In 1905, Emma abruptly moved out of the house that she shared with her sister. The two never spoke again. Emma may have been uncomfortable with Lizzie’s close friendship with another woman, Nance O’Neil, although her silence on the issue has fueled speculation that she learned new details about the murders of her father and stepmother. No member of the household staff ever offered additional information on the rift, even following Lizzie’s death.
Lizzie died of pneumonia in Fall River, Massachusetts, on June 1, 1927. Emma Borden died days later in Newmarket, New Hampshire. The case has never been solved.
The House is now a Bed & Breakfast. Mr. Borden’s “couch of death” disappeared years ago — supposedly it was stored in a warehouse that was destroyed by a hurricane — but Lee Ann Wilbur (the previous owner) found a nearly identical replacement that is now the most sat-on piece of furniture in the house. The carpeted floor next to the death bed is also popular. “More people lie on that spot, and have posed on that spot, than do on the couch.”
Over at the county historical museum, the curator of Lizzie Borden’s Murderabilia told us that the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast was voted one of the scariest places on earth by the viewers of Scariest Places On Earth. Even levelheaded Lee Ann conceded that “something’s going on here,” and told us of phantom footfalls and unnatural gusts of wind, especially when guests use the Ouija Board in the sitting room. House cat Max acts as her paranormal alarm system. “When he has issues with the house, I’m gonna have issues with the house.”
Of course, most visitors here WANT an encounter with Lizzie’s pulp-headed parents. Abby Borden’s death room is the most popular rental in the house. For the murder anniversary night Lee Ann put it up for auction online (in 2008 it went for $405.00). “I haven’t had anybody have a heart attack yet,” she says, “but I have lost people around 2 AM. And there are no refunds if you leave.” Visitors can pull their lace coverlets over their heads if the ghosts pop in, but those who run for the exit don’t get breakfast — and that’s a shame, since it’s designed to be similar to the one that the Bordens ate on the morning of their murders.
NOTE: Lee Ann put the property up for sale and it was bought in 2021 by Lance Zaal, who is no stranger to the ghosts and spirits world. He is the creator of Lily, a supernatural doll that wards off ghosts and ghouls around Halloween. He also operates US Ghost Adventures, which offers ghost tours in over 35 states.
There are many theories out there about what was really behind the shooting at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017. Regardless of the motivation, it was horrific for those at the festival, with many an odd coincidence cropping up day after day after day. We all know SOMETHING isn’t right about this – there are just far too many oddities and we know what that means!
Aftermath
I am going to completely ignore the accepted “story” that has been bandied about by the media and focus instead on the connections to the Saudi regime, with connections to the Killary Show and the Muslim-in-Chief. IMO, Paddock was a CIA/FBI patsy/player who was used for this shitshow, whether knowingly or not – who can say? Waaay too much shady shit in HIS background!
Let’s lay out the players here and provide the backstory…..we all know the Saud Family is very incestuous, devious and convoluted. The current King Salman has 13 children from 3 different marriages. The current Crown Prince is one of his sons from his 3rd marriage, Mohammed Bin Salman.
Mohammed Bin Salman
Another critical player in this cat-and-mouse game is Alwaleed bin Talal, a billionaire businessman who is the Grandson of King Saud. He has ties to the DNC, Clinton, Podesta, and Obama. He also co-owned (with Bill Gates) The Four Seasons at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, which occupies the top five floors of Mandalay Bay from 35 to 39 (Paddock was on 32), as well as shares in Twitter and other high-tech silicon valley companies. He is just one of many, many “family” members who have designs on the Crown but he is more deeply and directly involved in US politics than most. He funded Obama’s stint at Harvard……
Prince Alaweed
Flash back to the May 2017 meeting….the Globe…..you see, SA was in a bind – they underestimated the amounts of natural gas the US was able to produce via fracking….they had vastly underestimated the amount of total shale reserves in North America. They had no idea that so much of this stuff exists and thought maybe they could ride it out if the reserves would dry up in a decade or so. But nope. We have enough shale to supply us for at least 50 years. Hmmm… big problem.
So, if you’re King Salman, what do you do? Well, there’s only one thing you can do. Give up the reliance on oil production and try to use existing wealth to stay wealthy; to modernize trade to include more than just exports of oil. They would need to build an entire industrial country from scratch and, to do that, he needed the help of the USA. which is where President Trump comes in.
MBS and POTUS
It was a business meeting – King Salman asked Trump for help. Trump was more than willing to give it (like listing the oil companies on the NYSE) but his help would come with a price: Liberalization and the stop of illegal funding; no more contributions to American politics; no more supplying funds to terrorists or splinter groups. King Salman took the deal and, all of a sudden, women were allowed to drive, ISIS was retreating and Syrian rebels suddenly ran out of ammunition.
Sword Dance – very rare honor!
Not all the royals in KSA are into this, of course, so they started plotting against King Salmon. Who was occupying that whole floor in the Mandalay Bay that night? The whole floor was reserved for that week and no one would do that unless they were Saudi royalty. Many believe, as I do, that it was Crown Prince Mohammad – it wasn’t King Salman because he was in Russia at the time. These pictures were taken in a nearby casino that is connected to the Mandalay Bay while the shooting was on-going.
Is that MBS???
At Mandalay Bay
The plan was to take out the crown prince, then kill King Salman — with the King and the Crown Prince both dead, Deputy Crown Prince, Muqrin, is next in line. Posing as terrorists who wanted to buy the guns for some terrorist attack, they either duped the CIA/FBI to supply the guns to the death squad via Paddock, or they were in on it. The plan is to climb the stairs right after the deal and kill the VIP in the floors above them, which is why the weapons cache was located on the 32nd floor.
Paddock’s Room
Paddock’s Room
Somehow, the word leaked, and the royalty in the floors above were notified of the assassination plot – the prince was e-vac’d out. This accounts for all the helicopter flight reports that can be found on the net, as well as the gun fire from black-dressed figures that was on video taking place on runways.
EXCERPT: “In a bombshell audio recording from the night of the Las Vegas shooting, an air traffic control dispatcher can be heard telling one pilot that it might not be a good idea to land because there are “active shooters on the runway.”
Co-founder of “The New Right,” Mike Tokes, obtained the recording and has dispensed it on Twitter.
Listen for yourself. The specific statement comes just after the 2:00 mark. [NF: I didn’t try to find the Tweet – I expect it has been removed by now]
‘Air traffic control tapes on the night of the Las Vegas shooting:
“There’s active shooters on the runway. They’re on the airport property” pic.twitter.com/HZf3LBeAgk”
—Michael Coudrey (@MichaelCoudrey) October 29, 2017′
“Shutting down might not be a good idea, there’s active shooters on the runway,” he declared. “The 19s are closed, we are in the process of trying to round them up, they are on the airport property.”
We know from audio analysis that there were at least two different ranges of shots that were fired. Mike Adams provided an excellent analysis of the audio from video footage that has been obtained and made several points of reference to where the shots of a second shooter may have originated. However, not one of the places the Adams pointed to as a possibility was the airport.”
Now, let’s fast forward to one month later. We know a missile was intercepted by the Saudi military on November 3 or 4th, which was probably the final effort by the anti- King Salman group to kill him. OR, it was staged to give King Salman the excuse to round everyone up in retaliation of the assassination attempt. We know that MASSIVE raids and the rounding of Saudi princes took place on the 5th. And who was killed at that time? The son of Muqrin, Mansour, who died in a chopper crash.
“SAUDI ROYALTY ARRESTS ROCK CLINTON-OBAMA REGIME
In a shocking development Saturday, the Saudi Arabian government arrested prominent billionaire Waleed bin Talal, a member of the royal Saudi family with deep ties to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Arrests were carried out by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recently-formed anti-corruption committee and included bin Talal, ten senior princes, and dozens of ministers for corruption and money laundering charges.
Bin Talal, a primary shareholder of Citigroup, News Corp., and Twitter, was arrested along with dozens of other princes and ministers on Saturday. Bin Talal’s arrest was part of a massive sweep of Saudi elites charged with corruption and money laundering by a newly formed anti-corruption committee headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Meanwhile, Royal princes’ private planes have been grounded.”
EXCERPT: “A staggering eight survivors, eyewitnesses and a legal attorney representing key players in the Las Vegas shooting have died in suspicious circumstances. Others are missing. What are the odds on eight people dying, the majority of them very young, in such a short space of time?
The odds would be astronomical. The fact is all of those eight people, every single one of them, had one thing in common, other than being there during the shooting, or having inside information. They all had information on the attack that contradicts the official narrative….” Here are just a few of them:
Dennis and Lorraine Carver
The most recent eyewitnesses to die were Dennis and Lorraine Carver, a married couple from California. Their car suddenly veered off the road outside their home and crashed into a gate, exploding into a fireball on impact, killing both of them instantly. A spokesman for the local fire authority said it took fire fighters over one hour to extinguish the blaze.
Suspicions surrounding the real nature of their death was raised when, one week after the fatal crash, the couple’s eldest daughter, Brooke Carver, received an item carrying memories of her 52-year-old father through the post. During the confusion of the shooting, he had lost his phone that was full of photos and videos from the night of the attack. His phone had somehow ended up in the FBI’s possession, but a Las Vegas agent promised to ship the phone back to him.
“When we turned it on, all his photos and messages were still there,” Brooke said. The question is why did the FBI take three weeks to return the phone? As has been widely reported, the phones and laptops of eyewitnesses were confiscated and wiped by the FBI, so why was Mr. Carver’s phone returned seemingly intact?
Brooke Carver says “all his photos and messages were still there,” but how would she know if anything had been deleted? She wouldn’t have seen what was on her father’s phone before the FBI had it. Could the Carver’s have captured something they shouldn’t have? Perhaps unknowingly?
Danny Contreras
In the same week the Carvers died, Danny Contreras, an eyewitness Las Vegas shooting survivor who publicly claimed there were multiple shooters involved in the attack, was been found dead in an empty house in Las Vegas with multiple gunshot wounds.
His body was found in a vacant home in the northeastern valley after a neighbor heard a man groaning inside the building and called 911. Police say Contreras was dead when they arrived at the 5800 block of East Carey Avenue, near North Nellis Boulevard. Mr. Contreras tweeted the day after the attacks saying he was “lucky to be alive” after he was “chased by two gunmen.” His social media post from his Twitter account, which has since been suspended by Twitter, that was shared several times said:
Kymberley Suchomel
Kymberley Suchomel went public with claims of witnessing multiple gunmen, and was determined to prove the mainstream narrative is wrong. She even announced plans to set up a survivor’s group to shine a light on the truth about what happened in Las Vegas, and expose the lies.
According to Kimberley, the Las Vegas shooting was carried out by multiple gunmen who were chasing people down in the crowd and shooting them. Her post on Facebook quickly went viral as it confirmed what many had already suspected: The mainstream media “official” narrative that Stephen Paddock was a “lone wolf” gunman was false.
Less than one week after she gave this account, Kymberley was found dead at her house in Apple Valley, California.
This was a multi-faceted, multi-level operation with wide-ranging, global ramifications, IMO. In the following video, you can see the muzzle flashes coming from a chopper.
Shooting Location: Panorama Tower 4525 Dean Martin Dr Las Vegas, NV 89103
Resembling a fortress standing guard over the town of Jim Thorpe (formerly known as Mauch Chunk), the historic Old Jail Museum is a beautiful two-story stone structure. The prison was opened in 1871 and through the years held the worst murderers and criminals imaginable, many of whom left their mark… literally. After hundreds of inmates passed through the doors, it was closed in 1995 and then purchased by Tom McBride and his wife, Betty Lou, of Jim Thorpe.
The building itself contains approximately 72 rooms, including 27 cells, basement dungeon cells used as solitary confinement until 1980, women’s cells on the 2nd floor, and the warden’s living quarters across the front of the building.
The building is best known as the site of the hanging of seven Irish coal miners known as Molly Maguires in the 1800’s. The Molly Maguires were a secret organization, composed mainly of Irish Catholics, that started one of the first labor movements in the country. Since the Irish were not well regarded by society at that time, one of the only jobs they could get in PA was working in the local coal mines. It was intense physical labor where workers only got pennies for their long hours. They bought all their own work equipment from the bosses, and had to pay rent to the coal bosses who owned their houses. The Molly Maguires, who had enough of the slave-labor conditions, murdered the coal management while vandalizing the mines and mining equipment. They were arrested, tried, and later found guilty.
On June 21, 1877, today known as the Day of the Rope, Alexander Campbell, Edward Kelly, Michael Doyle and John Donohue were hanged at the same time on gallows erected inside the Old Jail Museum cell block. On March 28, 1878, Thomas P. Fisher was hanged here, and on January 14, 1879, James McDonnell and Charles Sharp were also hanged on the same gallows.
The Handprint
Before their hanging, the men proclaimed their innocence and today historians believe many of the condemned men were falsely accused of murder. Before his hanging, one of the men, thought to be Alexander Campbell, put his hand on the dirty floor of his cell and then placed it firmly on the wall proclaiming, “This hand print will remain as proof of my innocence.” That hand print is visible today for everyone to view. Past wardens tried to eradicate it by washing it, painting it, and even taking down part of the wall and re-plastering it. But the hand print still remains.
Besides the hand print, visitors will experience a number of supernatural occurrences including shadows, footsteps and loud bangs from the solitary confinement cells. Legends say that these are the spirits of inmates or the ghost of the warden himself “checking up”. In the warden’s apartment objects will move near the old kitchen area, assumed to be the warden’s wife because she cooked for the prisoners herself. The Old Jail Museum is open for ghost tours at various times of the year—but makes an excellent Halloween adventure!
NOTE: If you are squeamish, this is NOT the do-it-yourself project for you.
So, let’s say a king or other high-ranking official has died. The embalmers would slit open the body and remove nearly all the organs. These would be placed in ceremonial jars called canopic jars.
A few of the important organs, like the heart and the kidneys, were left in place. The embalmers apparently thought the brain was useless (he’s a king or other official after all…lol) because in most cases, the brain matter was scrambled or shredded with small hooks inserted through the nostrils and pulled out through the nose using tiny spoons. (The brain was then thrown away.)
Next the embalmers packed the body in oil of cedar (similar to turpentine) and natron, a special mineral with high salt content. These chemicals slowly dried the body out, a process which took anywhere from 40-70 days.
The body was then completely dried out and “preserved” but that process rendered it shrunken and wrinkled like a prune. The next step was to stuff the mouth, nose, chest cavities, etc. with sawdust, pottery, cloth and other items to fill it back out and make it look more human. In many cases, the eyes were removed and replaced with artificial ones.
Then the embalmers doused the body with a waterproofing substance similar to tar, which protected the dried body from any moisture. (In fact, the word mummy comes from the Persian word mumiai which means pitch or asphalt and was originally used to describe the preservatives themselves, not the corpse that had been preserved.)
Finally, the body was carefully wrapped in narrow strips of linen, and a funerary mask resembling the deceased was placed on the head. Afterward it was laid in a large coffin that was carved and painted to look like the deceased, and the coffin was placed in a tomb outfitted with the everyday items the deceased would need in the afterlife.
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Sew Colorful 