Blast from the past

Since I started re-learning how to sew I've been reading a lot of sewing blogs, many focusing on vintage styles and patterns.  Some of these women throw themselves deeply into a whole vintage lifestyle; and all that nostalgia occasionally grinds my gears, particularly because it's a lot easier to feel wistful for a particular period if at that time you still would have been allowed to drink at whatever water fountain you wanted.  To her credit, one blogger pointed out that we've got it pretty good now.

Cargo Cult Craft: Britain in 1945

Harry Truman Was Great Pt. II

The man wasn't afraid of a bold pattern.

mental_floss: 22 Great Photos Found in Presidential Libraries
Part I: Ike always looked shifty to me

Ike always looked shifty to me

Whenever I try to think of my favorite president, as one does, I'm always stumped. If it weren't for those two atomic bombs, I'd pick Harry Truman in a heartbeat. Which is why I was a little affronted by this snippet from a mental_floss quiz:

"By his own estimation, the $600,000 he grossed for the work [his memoirs] netted just $37,000 in profit after office and personnel expenses (which added up to $153,000) and taxes. The 67 percent bite the government took could have been eased by President Eisenhower, who had the option to deem the work exempt from federal and state taxes and treated as a capital gain, as Truman was not an author by trade. Truman had done as much for Eisenhower when his World War II memoir was published during Truman's presidency. Truman's appeal for reciprocity drew no response from the White House, a manifestation of the chill between the two men that would last throughout the Eisenhower years."

Emphasis mine. Poor Harry.

mental_floss: Second Acts: The Post-White House Lives of Past Presidents

Fordlandia

With all the moaning and groaning about the Big Three's failure to innovate, it's easy to forget that attempts to innovate can go horribly, horribly awry. Case in point: Henry Ford's attempt to lock in a solid supply of rubber by setting up a model community and rubber plantation in the Brazilian jungle. What could go wrong, right? In a post about Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin, Mental Floss gives a few examples:

'Ford was legendarily contemptuous of experts, but he could have saved some serious dough if he’d just hired a consultant to tell him that the plantation wasn’t at all suitable for growing rubber....Fordlandia’s trees were no exception, and caterpillars and blight quickly decimated the fields."

and

"...while the indigenous workers weren’t crazy about having to eat American foods, they were livid about having to eat in a cafeteria setting rather than enjoying the homestyle meals to which they were accustomed. Eventually, the workers decided they’d had enough of the affront of cafeteria dining and rioted during a meal."

and the kicker:

"...Ford was that he disliked accountants so fiercely that he never had his company audited. By the end of his tenure, the Ford Motor Company allegedly had no idea exactly how much it cost to build a car."

Mental Floss: Fordlandia: Henry Ford’s Ill-Fated Foray Into the Brazilian Jungle

Depressing July 4th reading...

but very interesting. I'd be crazy to try and pick out excerpts, just read the whole thing.

New York Review of Books: Holocaust: The Ignored Reality

via NYT Ideas Blog

The Wordy Shipmates

Writer, and NPR contributor, and one-time cartoon voice Sarah Vowell's last book, "Assassination Vacation," charted her journey across the country to sites of note in the first three presidential assassinations, and her study of said events. In this book, she turns her attention to a group of people that have, if possible, an even worse image than homicidal maniacs- the Puritans. In particular, the settlers of the Massachusetts Bay colony. And as you may guess, she concludes that while they probably weren't a lot of fun, particularly if you happened to be a Pequot; and while some of their less pleasant traits are more prevalent in our country today than we like to admit; they're sorely underrated for their respect for knowledge- a value on which our nation was eventually built and of which, she suggests, America could use a refill. Vowell's style, mixing history with liberal dashes of personal revelation and pop culture references, might not appeal to everyone; but the woman has logged some serious library time and her research turns up gems such as this which are both revealing of her subject and reflective of her wry sense of humor:

...Endecott will send Governor Winthrop a letter complaining about how it's frowned upon for a justice of the peace to hit someone. Because Endecott, a justice of the peace, has just punched a defendant- in court. "If you had seen the manner of his carriage," continues Endecott, "with such daring of me, with his arms akimbo, it would have provoked a very patient man." He says that if it were suddenly legal for a judge to go around clocking people, "you should not hear me complain."