Premier Joseph Smallwood was premier of the new Canadian province of Newfoundland for the first 23 years of its existence. In 1949, Smallwood campaigned tirelessly for the union of Newfoundland with Canada, in a referendum that also offered national sovereignty, or continued British colonial status. It would be only a small exaggeration to say he shook hands with ever eligible voter in the colony, and his Liberal party was rewarded with huge majorities, once governing for a session with the opposition benches empty.
When Alben Barkley, Democrat of Kentucky, was inaugurated Vice President of the United States on Jan. 20, 1949, he would become the oldest person ever to hold the post.
The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 replaced the Presidential Succession Act of 1886, which replaced the Presidential Succession Act of 1792. The Act has been modified several times with the addition of new cabinet positions.
The first 7 people in the libe of succession currently are:
1 Vice President Mike Pence ®
2 Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan ®
3 President pro tempore of the Senate Orrin Hatch ®
4 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ®
5 Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin ®
6 Secretary of Defense James Mattis (I)
7 Attorney General Jeff Sessions ®
Alben Barkley had a long legislative career, starting in Congress, moving to the Senate and rising to Majority leader. After his term as Vice President, he ran for Senate again and as a Freshman senator was assigned a seat in the back row. In recognition of his previous positions he was invited to sit in the front but declined. He referred to this in a 1956 speech at Washington and Lee University with a line from the Bible: “I am glad to sit on the back row,” he said, “for I would rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty.” These were his last words; he had a heart attack and died on stage.
In his first year of office, Vice President Mike Pence is already tied with three former VPs, including Dick Cheney, Richard Nixon and Alben Barkley, for casting tie-breaking votes in the Senate, according to a list compiled by the Senate Historical Office.
If Pence breaks 2 more ties he would surpass the 9 tie-breaking votes cast by Thomas Marshall, who served under President Woodrow Wilson from 1913 to 1921, and Elbridge Gerry, James Madison’s VP, whose short tenure spanned less than two years.
Vice-President Joe Biden once promised us that President Barack Obama has a big stick
:smack:
In play:
The Washington and Lee Mock Convention is a simulated presidential nominating convention held every four years, during the early stages of the US Presidential Primary, at Washington and Lee University. Located in Lexington VA and established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, W&L is the ninth-oldest institution of higher learning in the US.
W&L’s Mock Convention simulates the nomination process for whichever major party does not currently hold the presidency. Since its inception in 1908, the student body has correctly predicted the national nominee 20 out of 26 times, with only two incorrect predictions since 1948. 9 times out of that 20 that nominee has gone on to win the Presidential election:
1932, D: FDR
1952, R: Ike
1960, D: JFK
1968, R: Tricky Dick
1976, D: Jimmy
1980, R: Ronnie
1992, D: Bill
2000, R: Bush (W)
2016, R: Trump
Since 1948 W&L has always correctly predicted the Republican nominee for president.
Washington and Lee University was founded as Augusta Academy in 1749. It was renamed in 1776 to Liberty Hall. In 1796, as the institution was struggling financially, President George Washington endowed the academy with $20,000 in James River Canal stock. In appreciation, the trustees changed the school’s name to Washington Academy; in 1813 it was chartered as Washington College. After the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee accepted the post of college president. Lee died in 1870, after just five years as Washington College president. After Lee’s death, the college’s name was almost immediately changed to Washington and Lee University. Lee’s son, George Washington Custis Lee, followed his father as the university’s president.
Cab Calloway appeared in the Blues Brothers movie as Curtis the janitor, where he did a stunning, full length rendition of his signature song Minnie the Moocher. The members of the Blues Brothers band were excellent back up musicians who had played for many famous singers, but the video shows even they got a thrill out of playing on this one.
*Picky thing: Custis is not Curtis, but what’s a consonant between friends?
in play: On January 22, 2018, Minnie Mouse, who first appeared in comic form in 1928, joined the ranks of other animated celebrities (including Mickey Mouse) by receiving her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Mickey and Minnie, Bugs and Woody Woodpecker, The Simpsons, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, and Snoopy have their own stars.
Winnie the Pooh is named after Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Winnipeg MB CAN lies at the confluence of the Red River of the North and the Assiniboine River. The Red River of the North flows from the confluence of Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail Rivers in Wahpeton ND USA, and through Fargo ND USA, Moorhead MN USA, Grand Forks ND USA, and empties 550 miles later into Lake Winnipeg MB CAN. The Assiniboine River is a tributary of the Red River of the North that flows for 660 miles from Windy Lake east of Kelvington SK CAN and through the prairies of Western Canada in SK and MB.
Fargo, North Dakota, was founded in 1871 and was originally named Centralia. It was later renamed to Fargo, after William Fargo, the founder of the Wells Fargo Express Company. Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota, accounting for 16% of the state’s population.
In the movie musical “The Music Man”, starring Shirley Jones and Robert Preston, the song “Wells Fargo Wagon” was sung by a perfectly adorable little Ron Howard, who went on to portray Opie and Richie before his film directing career.
Ron Howard, then about 8 years old and credited as Ronny Howard in The Music Man (1962), sang a few lines in the song “Wells Fargo Wagon” — as ElvisL1ves tells us.
YouTube, 3:40, The Wells Fargo Wagon (entire song): 05_Wells Fargo Wagon - YouTube (at 2:30 is a line about hoping to get raisins from Fresno)
YouTube, 1:02, Ron Howard’s lines from that song: A wee youngin' Opie Cunningham in The Music Man - YouTube
Googling on “raisins from fresno” (raisins from fresno - Google Search) yields some interesting results, including a MiLB baseball team named the Fresno Raisin Eaters that played in 1906 in the PCL, the Pacific Coast League. They were terrible, finished dead last, and then folded.
During the 2006 season, the Fresno Grizzlies honored the 100th year anniversary of their short-lived PCL predecessors in Fresno by wearing Raisin Eaters jerseys on the field during each Wednesday home game.
gSearch, “jersey Fresno Raisin Eaters”: https://www.google.com/search?q=jersey+Fresno+Raisin+Eaters&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=ismvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigtojgsp7ZAhVpyoMKHf8ABnEQ_AUIESgB&biw=768&bih=922
The Pacific Coast League was formed on December 29, 1902, with a total of six franchises. These were the Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Oaks, Portland Beavers, Sacramento Senators, San Francisco Seals, and Seattle Indians.
The mild climate of the West Coast, especially California, allowed the league to play longer seasons, sometimes starting in February and ending as late as December. During the 1905 season the San Francisco Seals set the all-time league record by playing 230 games.
The San Francisco Seals were a MiLB baseball team in San Francisco CA that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 until 1957 before transferring to Phoenix AZ. Their home games were in:
1903: Central Park — 8th & Market Streets
1907: Recreation Park (‘Big Rec‘) — 14th & Valencia Streets
1914: Ewing Field — near Geary Blvd & Masonic Ave, in the Richmond District
1915: Recreation Park (‘Big Rec‘) — 14th & Valencia Streets
1931: Seals Stadium — 16th & Bryant Streets
1958: the New York Giants moved to San Francisco and played at Seals Stadium for the 1958 and 1959 seasons before moving to the brand-new Candlestick Park for the 1960 season
Selkies are magical creatures said to live as seals in the sea but shed their skin to become human on land. The legend was common in Orkney, Shetland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The MacCodrum clan of the Outer Hebrides became known as the “MacCodrums of the seals” as they claimed to be descended from a union between a fisherman and a selkie.
*Oh, me father was the keeper of the Eddystone light
And he slept with a mermaid one fine night.
From this union there came three,
A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me.
Yo ho ho,
The wind blows free,
Oh for the life on the rolling sea.*