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Category Archives: History
One hundred days of learning Italian!!
Italian is what I’m primarily learning. I’m also picking up bits and pieces of Spanish while also refreshing my French. Why though? It all started with my friend Jeremy who lives in the Netherlands. Thanks to Amerika finally shedding its … Continue reading
1981: US Air Traffic Controllers are fired by St. Reagan
Forty years later, US air travel has never recovered from this. Plus, air traffic controllers continue to be overworked to the point of burn out. Computers still haven’t come to the rescue for such an undertaking and if you ever … Continue reading
1981: MTV begins 40 years ago, started sucking within 10
I’m confident the original pitch at Warner Communications, MTV’s birth parent, was met with tons of resistance by the old farts in charge. When the proposers got around to explaining how little programming would cost, because music videos were free, … Continue reading
Congratulations to the Bucks!
It took them 50 years but Milwaukee’s NBA franchise finally won its second championship after numerous teams failed to get there. When I lived there near my waning years at Marquette, I grew to be a fan through my part-time … Continue reading
NTSC TV in the US is finally gone
This week was the end for the last Analog-based broadcasting TV stations in the US. But by now, even the cheapest Senior Citizen has cable. I have to admit, it was an interesting system for as long as it lasted, … Continue reading
‘Merica! turns 245, will it see 250?
These Irish comedians are painfully on the nose about ‘Merica these days. Meanwhile, I hope to get my own copy of Team America since Alamo isn’t allowed to show it anymore for fear of North Korea’s wrath. I guess we … Continue reading
Rot in Hell Donald Rumsfeld
He was one of the architects of the continued mess America is in. Still waiting for those Arabs to welcome us as liberators while they kill our soldiers with mines and bullets. Rummy helped pump up the lie about Iraq … Continue reading
1876: The Battle of Greasy Grass ends in Custer’s defeat
Most people refer to this as Little Bighorn but I prefer to go with the winners, a combined force of First Nations known as the Lakota, North Cheyenne and Arapaho. It’s also known as one of America’s biggest defeats in … Continue reading
Happy Juneteenth Day
It’s nice to see what was often a Texas-based holiday finally become a National Holiday in the US. The more amazing thing was how many Republicans voted with the Democrats on this. Currently, they can’t even have a compromise on … Continue reading
Posted in Austintatious, History
Tagged 19th Century, Black History, Holiday, US Civil War
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1966: NFL and AFL agree to merge by 1970
With the growing popularity of professional football thanks to TV, the upstart AFL and the older (started in the Twenties) NFL will come together into the newer, bigger NFL. I guess then the Super Bowl followed a year later. We … Continue reading
1961: Newton Minnow gives his “Wasteland Speech”
This one is under the wire for the month for it happened on May 9, 1961; roughly four years into the new Kennedy administration, FCC Chairman Newton Minnow declares American TV a vast wasteland. Pretty funny given that there were … Continue reading
1981: Bobby Sands dies from hunger strike
I remember this happening 40 years ago since we didn’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the Midwest. St. Patrick’s Day is the Midwest’s preferred binge-drinking holiday. Sands’ death was a tragic event and in its immediacy, more fighting and killing … Continue reading
1971: NPR begins with All Things Considered
Too many obituaries this week! Three great people to celebrate and another whose career got screwed over. By the way, I did listen to the first new episode of On the Media minus Bob and Brooke did address it. Unfortunately, she … Continue reading
1996: Australia’s enough is enough moment
I’ve forgotten how many shooting sprees the US has had just this year but 25 years ago, the Aussies had what was their worst on the Island of Tasmania. After that, they reformed their gun laws and now being gunned … Continue reading
RIP Walter Mondale
I’m glad to see that most of the stories about the former veep’s passing focused on how he changed the role instead of the alleged trouncing he received from St. Reagan in 1984. This is what I hope he will also … Continue reading