Category Archives: history

October 10

In two days some of America will celebrate Columbus Day. Many will curse the Genoan On October 10, 1492 the great navigator was two hundred miles from land. In 1973 Vice President Agnew was deposed as Nixon’s vice president for graft. He once said, “An intellectual is a man who doesn’t know how to park […]

RAIN 9/10/2001 by Peter Nolan Smith

September 10, 2001 was a rainy day in New York and the Weather Channel predicted precipitation throughout the afternoon. .3 inches humid and wet. I exited from my East 10th Street apartment at 9.13 and headed toward Velseka’s on 2nd Avenue. My breakfast of a bagel and coffee came to $2.11. I gave the waiter […]

Provincetown Lore – niizh manitoag

In the autumn of 1620 my antecedent, John Howland, crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower. Mid-voyage a storm washed passenger the indentured servant was overboard. He sank about 12 feet (4 m), but a crew member threw a rope, which Howland managed to grab, and he was safely hauled back onboard. The pilgrims landed after […]

Happy Gun Shooting Freedom Day -2014

Today the USA celebrates the Declaration of Independence freedom. 24 hours of traffic jams, bbq, flag-waving, chest-thumping, nascar, bad beer, fighting, and fixing a crapped out car on the highway causing a miles-long traffic jam. As well as American ingenuity. Belly flops. Flip flops A house in the country. And the right to be a […]

Handwriting History – 1776

Historians have attributed the authorship of the Declaration of Independence to Thomas Jefferson, despite the Second Continental Congress having appointed Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston to aid in the writing of this document. Jefferson wrote the first draft from June 11 to June 28, after which John Adams and Benjamin Franklin […]