Approximately 300 people are believed to have died in the Great Chicago Fire. Overlooked in America’s history textbooks is that the Fire wasn’t even the worst fire that day. About 250 miles away, in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, another fire killed several times as many as in Chicago.
“On Wisconsin” is the fight song of the Wisconsin Badgers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The tune was composed in 1909 by William T. Purdy as “Minnesota, Minnesota,” with the intention of entering it into a competition for a new fight song at the University of Minnesota.
In the early 1980s, after the purchase of Edwin H. Morris & Company, lawyers working for Paul McCartney attempted to claim copyrights for several well-known songs, including “On, Wisconsin!” The entire catalog was later sold to Michael Jackson. When the copyright claim was initially made, public outcry demanded that the copyright be deeded over to the State of Wisconsin as the copyright holders were demanding royalties for performance. The matter was resolved quietly; however, rumors persist that McCartney or Jackson’s estate holds the claim. The song remains in the public domain.
In addition to “On, Wisconsin,” there are several other songs which are officially (or unofficially) associated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison:
- “Varsity” is the school’s “alma mater,” or school anthem.
- “If You Want to Be a Badger” was written by one of the school’s professors in 1919 for use by upperclassmen to sing to new freshmen.
- “Here Comes the King” (a.k.a. “The Bud Song”), which has been played at Wisconsin games by the marching band since 1978; at the end of the song, fans sing “When you say Wisconsin, you’ve said it all!”
- “Jump Around” by the hip hop group House of Pain, has become a tradition at Wisconsin football games, where it is played at the end of the third quarter; fans jump up and down in time with the music, causing Camp Randall Stadium to shake.
(Why, yes, I am a Wisconsin alumnus. 
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George Clinton was elected Vice President of the United States in the 1804 election. He served under Thomas Jefferson.
In the 1808 election, George Clinton was again elected Vice President of the United States. He served under James Madison. Clinton was the first, and he remains the only, Vice President to serve under two presidents, Jefferson and Madison.
George Clinton served until he died on 1812-04-20 of a heart attack, and James Madison served out the rest of his term without a Vice President. Clinton was the first Vice President to die in office as well as the first Vice President to die overall.
But wait, there’s more. In the 1812 election, Elbridge Gerry was elected Vice President of the United States. He also served under James Madison.
Elbridge Gerry served until he died on 1814-11-23 of a heart attack, and James Madison again served out the rest of his term without a Vice President.
Thus, James Madison is the only President to lose two Vice Presidents, and both were lost to heart attacks.
George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic is, by some measures, the second most-sampled musician in history, after James Brown. His loops, beats, hooks, and samples thereof largely are the tentpoles that hold up the 1990s West Coast Rap sound, which includes Snoop Dogg, Doctor Dre, and Warren G. However, due to chicanery in the contracts, Clinton never made a dime from all of this sampling, when by all rights he’s probably due tens of millions.
Snoop Dogg was born Calvin Broadus in Long Beach CA in 1971. When he was a little boy, his mother nicknamed him “Snoopy” due to his love for (and slight likeness to) the cartoon character from Charles Schulz’s Peanuts.
Snoop Dogg reportedly has an IQ of 147.
According to police records, Snoop Dogg was affiliated with the Rollin 20s Crips gang in the Eastside neighborhood of Long Beach, CA. He was arrested for possession of cocaine and spent time incarcerated at the Pitchess Detention Center (called the Wayside Jail at the time).
Snoop Dogg’s most significant criminal charge was a 1993 murder charge, for which he was acquitted in 1996. Through years and criminal activities he has largely resolved his legal cases through plea deals, probation, and community service rather than significant prison time.
Snoop Dogg has also done plenty of good works. He has built a significant and often quiet track record of philanthropy. He founded the Snoop Youth Football League (SYFL) in 2005, which provides athletic and educational opportunities to inner-city youth. He has reportedly donated over $100 million to various causes, including cancer research, support for children with special needs through Snoop Youth Special Stars, and mentoring young artists.
We all fuck up. And we can do good works.
Not in play: if a time traveler went back to talk to me in 1996, and told me, “thirty years from now, a currently-popular rapper will have become a beloved national figure, a successful commercial spokesman, businessman, and philanthropist, and close friends with Martha Stewart of all people,” I would have never guessed it would be Snoop. 
In play: The Peanuts character Snoopy was first featured as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1968. At least nine different Snoopy balloons have been used over the years, and Snoopy has appeared in at least 44 Macy’s parades.
Also not in play: About Martha Stewart, you forgot to add “with whom he smokes weed.”
OMG, yes.
In play: The Snoopy balloon float has probably succumbed to the most accidents. In 1971, high winds wrapped Snoopy around a helium truck. In 1975, he smacked into a lamppost. In 1980, a shard of glass punctured his leg, forcing a patch job for the next year’s flight. By 1985, even his Christmas list fell off mid-route, littering 6th Avenue with paper scraps. And in 1990, his tail deflated again. He may be the most accident-prone balloon in parade history, but he’s also the most beloved. A balloon tech remarked: “No one retires Snoopy. We just keep patching him up and hoping for better wind.”
LEGO recently announced a “Snoopy’s Doghouse” set, which will be available June 1.
LEGO will also soon be selling a kit of the starship featured in the upcoming Ryan Gosling sf adventure, Project Hail Mary, based on the 2021 novel by Andy Weir. The movie was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
For more: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/project-hail-mary-11389
Though Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels is famous for his lack of tolerance towards cast members, extras, and even guest hosts “breaking” (viz, busting up into laughter during the sketch), he’s lightened up juuuuuust a bit in the past few decades (likely because keeping Jimmy Fallon from breaking was a fool’s game). In one of the most famous SNL breaks of recent vingage is the Beavis & Butthead sketch, in which Ryan famously tried, and failed, to keep it together once Heidi Gardner herself lost her shit.
Among many other roles, Ryan Gosling has twice played astronauts: Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong in First Man (2018) and Dr. Ryland Grace in Project Hail Mary (2026).
Out of play: Since it’s been well over a day since the most recent post, I’m going to break my self-imposed rule of Not Posting Too Frequently (for which I have no hard and fast number of posts in between mine to consider), and continue the game.
In Play: A Hail Mary pass, in gridiron football, is a long pass, oft made in desperation as the clock runs out, and with little chance of being completed. The name comes from the fact that it’s done in a matter of desperation similar to that of a person who resorts to prayer. Or, by another interpretation that I heard, it hangs in the air for so long that the quarterback could recite a Hail Mary before it’s caught. Though it had been in use for decades by that time, the term gained popularity when Roger Staubach, a devout Catholic, threw a game-winning one in a playoff game. Afterwards he told the media, “I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.”
A similar religious-themed play in NFL lore is “the Immaculate Reception”: Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back, Franco Harris, scooped up an errant ball after it bounced off of teammate John Fuqua and before it touched the ground. Harris ran with the ball and scored a touchdown, giving the Steelers a win over the Oakland Raiders in a divisional AFC match. The Steelers would go on to win the Super Bowl, and another three Super Bowls by the end of the 70s.
Nitpick: Harris caught the ball in the air, but the ball actually bounced off a Raiders defender before caroming to Harris. Based on the rules in effect at the time, had the ball bounced off Fuqua and then been caught by Harris, it would have been ruled an incomplete pass, because two offensive players could not legally touch a passed ball in succession.
Also, this play occurred on December 23, 1972. The Steelers lost to the undefeated Dolphins the following week in the AFC championship game. The Fins, of course, would go on to win the Super Bowl.
The Steelers won Super Bowls following the seasons of 1974, 1975, 1978, and 1979.
Carry on.
1975 was one of only two complete calendar years of the Ford Administration. Gerald Ford, Republican of Michigan, took office as President of the United States on Aug. 9, 1974, and left office on Jan. 20, 1977.