![]() Under the heading “There’s a Holiday for Everything”, March 28th is “National Weed Appreciation Day”. Yep. I’m not even making that up. National Weed Appreciation Day was established to remind people that a weed is just a plant growing where you don’t want it to grow. Blackberries are fantastic when you find them growing wild in the forest, but are perhaps less desirable when you find them growing in the middle of your rhododendron bushes. That’s basically the details of what makes a weed a weed, and there are hundreds of ‘weeds’ that are incredibly important in health, science, and culinary uses. After all, dandelion wine isn’t just a pretty name! Growing up, when we visited my Italian grandparents, we always had dandelion salad. My grandfather would grow patches of the dandelions on purpose, just to harvest the greens. They were bitter as all get-out, but when washed down with homemade wine… well… you forget about the bitterness really fast... ![]() Nobody likes doing laundry. And we have machines. Pity the homemakers before the machine age. Clothes had to be washed in the bathtubs, usually with nothing more than household soap, and then hung out on lines outside to dry. When families consisted of six or eight or more children, it must have been an enormous undertaking. Not surprising, then, that patents for washing machines appeared just after the perfection of steam power — automatizing the washing of clothes was an obvious time and energy saver, and the relatively simple motions of the wash making the machine fairly easy to build. On this day, March 28, in 1797 the first United States patent for “Clothes Washing” was granted a New Hampshire man, Nathanial Briggs. This was known as the Box Mangler. It consisted of a heavy frame containing a large box filled with rocks, resting on a series of long wooden rollers. Washing was laid flat on a sheet and wound round one of the rollers. Two people pulled on levers to move the heavy box back and forth over the rollers. It was large and expensive and required heavy labor to operate. A New Brunswick man improved on Brigg’s invention to build a washing machine with a wringing mechanism, and by early 1900s the first patents for electric washers and driers began appearing. ![]() On this date in 1881, the "Greatest Show On Earth" was formed by PT Barnum & James A Bailey when they merged their two circuses together (Ringling Brothers would come later). Phineas Taylor Barnum was the most remarkable entrepreneur and entertainer in 19th century America. He is an icon of American ingenuity and our patron saint of promotion, his story is a fascinating exploration of 19th century social, commercial, political and industrial history, and his tale begins long before his famous circus was created in 1872. He was an entrepreneur, museum proprietor, business leader, politician, urban developer, community benefactor, philanthropist, temperance leader, emancipationist, lecturer and author. Barnum was committed to the intellectual and cultural development of society, and was a voice for the pursuit of freedom and choice. The circus was P.T. Barnum’s retirement project – Barnum was a well-established entertainer and 61 years old when he began the “Greatest Show On Earth.” Barnum introduced fine arts to America by engaging the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind to tour the United States, paying her an unheard-of $1,000 a night to rave reviews. Barnum created the 10,000-seat New York Hippodrome as a home for his circus venture, but you might know it by its later name: Madison Square Garden. Barnum had an office there until his death in 1891, and some of his last words are reported to have been the question: “…what were the receipts at the Garden?” James Bailey is probably the least known of the founders of the now closed Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. At age thirteen James ran away from this home, barefooted and with only the clothes on his back and a broken pocket knife. He found work at a farm, working for $ 3.25 a month with lodging and food. During this period of working at the farm, young Bailey happened to meet a billposter for 'Robinson and Lake's Old Time Circus". James was hired to put up posters for the show, earning him free tickets to the performance. When the circus came to town Bailey was introduced to Mr. Robinson, James told him that he was an orphan and wanted to join the show. He was hired and began working hard in an environment that he loved. Robinson liked the young man and soon began treating him as his own son, however three years later Robinson died. Bailey then at age sixteen began working for circus owner James E. Cooper, as an advance agent for his show. Again Bailey worked hard and greatly impressed Mr. Cooper, who eventually made Bailey a partner in the circus. The show was then renamed the "Cooper and Bailey Circus". Cooper died in 1873; Bailey soon partnered with famed impresario P.T. Barnum. When Barnum died in 1891, his widow sold her interest in the circus to Bailey, who began a five-year tour of Europe with the circus in 1897. By the end of the century, the Barnum & Bailey Circus featured five performance rings and more than 1,000 employees and traveled in some 85 railroad cars. It became one of the most successful circuses in the country until his death in 1906, when the Ringling brothers bought it. ![]() And this date in 1971 marks the end of the Ed Sullivan show. From 1948 until its cancellation in 1971, the show ran on CBS every Sunday night from 8–9 p.m. Eastern Time, and it is one of the few entertainment shows to have run in the same weekly time slot on the same network for more than two decades (during its first season, it ran from 9 to 10 p.m. ET). Virtually every type of entertainment appeared on the show; classical musicians, opera singers, popular recording artists, songwriters, comedians, ballet dancers, dramatic actors performing monologues from plays, and circus acts were regularly featured. The format was essentially the same as vaudeville and, although vaudeville had undergone a slow demise for a generation, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show. The Ed Sullivan Show is especially known to the World War II and baby boomer generations for introducing acts and airing breakthrough performances by popular 1950s and 1960s musicians such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Supremes, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beach Boys, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, The Mamas and the Papas, The Lovin' Spoonful, Herman's Hermits, The Doors, Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand, and The Band. Bill Haley & His Comets performed their hit "Rock Around the Clock" in early August 1955, later recognized as the first rock and roll song broadcast on a national television program. In the late 1960s, Sullivan remarked that his program was waning as the decade went on. He realized that to keep viewers, the best and brightest in entertainment had to be seen, or else the viewers were going to keep on changing the channel. Along with declining viewership, Ed Sullivan attracted a higher median age for the average viewer (which most sponsors found undesirable) as the seasons went on. These two factors were the reason the show was cancelled by CBS on March 16, 1971, as part of a mass cancellation of advertiser-averse programming. While Sullivan's landmark program ended without a proper finale, Sullivan produced one-off specials for CBS until his death in 1974, including an Ed Sullivan Show 25th anniversary special in 1973. We had 25 people come out to play this week. TWENTY-FIVE! Including our own Ms. Dot! We were so happy to see her and Jim come through the door! We paid out six places and three teams this week: 1st Place: Jerry Gooden with an 18/8/+134 2nd Place: Glenn McMahon with a 14/7/+78 3rd Place: Jim Townsend with a 13/6/+65 4th Place: Allan Simpson with a 13/6/+58 5th Place: Fran Ward with a 12/6/+31 6th Place: John Morch an 11/5/+24 First Team: Jeff Seidenstein (11) and Megan Player (8) Second Team: Kristy Haught (10) and Larry Phifer (9) Third Team: Bernard Whitfield (10) and Jeff raynes (8) Thanks, Kristy, for handling the end-of-night partner stuff! Full results are posted on the website, with the top-10 standings below: Jerry is making a move on Jeff -- can Jeff be overtaken? STAY TUNED! For those of you thinking of coming out to the tournament this weekend, walkins are totally accepted (cash only). Thanks for all the support! See many of y'all this weekend, the rest on Monday! ~ Jennifer
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