Never Forget has been the decree for a quarter of a century now. Two words that have been bolted and forged together, not as a polite suggestion, but as a proclamation constructed by blood, sweat, and tears.

I’ll never forget how clear the sky was that day. I distinctly remember telling myself how beautiful this morning walk down New Hampshire Avenue, from my apartment on U Street to the Kennedy Center, a place I had been working since I moved to Washington, DC, just a few years earlier. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

The daily trek was just under two miles and took 40 minutes. Summer was over – I don’t remember doing anything fun during those few months, and I always looked forward to the fall, and the cooler weather made the trip more enjoyable. I was in my element, and the magnificent and cloudless sky was my reward.

For the past few months, my path to work passed by the apartment building where a woman named Chandra Levy had lived, but had disappeared earlier that spring. Her story dominated the early years of the growing and aggressive 24/7 cable news network and the powerful rise of the internet. I’ll never forget her picture – the awkward one from her senior year of high school, where she sat on the ground covered with painter’s cloth, wearing a white tank top and jeans, looking like she was interrupting a major renovation that was about to take place.

It was discovered that Levy was having an affair with a congressman, whom police suspected of murdering her to keep her silent. The entire thing felt like a plot out of a straight-to-cable movie. I knew a little about her: she was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and although she grew up in California, she moved to the nation’s capital hoping to live a service-focused life, like me. But for reasons unknown at that time, the young Levy had been missing, and my daily ritual of passing by the place where a woman my age lived and knowing it was empty was probably not the best psychological habit to indulge. Little did I know then that I would forget about her almost completely.

That morning the Kennedy Center launched an interactive exhibit featuring President Kennedy’s commitment to the arts, with innovative technology that hadn’t been widely available yet. His youngest brother and Massachusetts Senator, Ted, was on site and interviewed by The Today Show, which meant my floormates and former coworkers in the press office had been at work for a few hours. But for me, it was a regular Tuesday, which meant my routine was the same – I had been at work for at least 30 minutes before our official 9:00 start time, reviewing sales numbers of different performances while logging onto the internet to check the news and to see that my Cleveland Indians lost the night before to the Chicago White Sox, after walking them off the previous two nights. I was happy to know that they remained in first place.

Just before 9:00, I read that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York City.

I’ll never forget thinking: “What kind of idiot flies a plane into one of the largest buildings on the planet?”

As other colleagues arrived at the office and the press team returned from their Kennedy interview, our floor, which housed about 25 people and spanned three departments, had a buzz already in the air about the New York plane accident. A bunch of us went into a colleague’s office with a television on to get updates on the presumed accident.

When I saw the second plane hit the second tower, I thought it was a replay of the original plane.

When someone said it was a different plane, I couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

As the buildings began to burn, a few of us decided we didn’t want to witness it any further, and I retreated to my boss’s office. She asked me what I thought would happen to the people trapped in the buildings – the ones on the floors above where the planes had struck. Did I think they could get out?

“I’m not sure,” was all I could muster.

The thought of thousands of people just sentenced to death overwhelmed me. People who, only minutes earlier, had just sat down to work, now had no way out. I’ll never forget that.

In what felt like seconds, people were running through the hallway with reports that the Pentagon was under attack and that multiple bombs had gone off.

My heart sank, and the first feelings of being scared began to creep in.

Now it’s important to remember that most workplaces have emergency evacuation processes, and the Kennedy Center was no different. A few deranged people liked to call in bomb threats every once in a while, so we had fire alarms on a regular basis. The three floors that housed all the employees each had a designated fire drill captain, and unfortunately for my first-floor mates, that captain was yours truly.

The head of our communications department, whom we nicknamed “The Tornado” behind her back because she was always stirring stuff up in her wake, began shouting for everyone to evacuate the building. The sound of F-16s buzzed overhead. Being afraid no longer was creeping in – it had burst through the doors of my heart and was taking over everything.

In the rush of yelling and trying to make sense of everything, two people called me. One was from my oldest friend, ECM. You may remember him from a few of our Ask Me Anything editions. He asked me if I was okay. I said I was, and asked him to call my mother and let her know I’m good and that I would try to call her later.

The other call was from a college friend in Indiana asking the same thing. I said I was good, but needed to leave.

As a “Fire Drill Captain,” you’re supposed to ensure everyone who is in the building gets out before you do. Instead of following the Fire Drill Captain ethos, I hightailed it outta there before anyone else. I guess one could argue I was going to make space outside for everyone once they got there. I wouldn’t make that argument. But I’ll never forget standing in front of the Saudi Arabia Embassy and thinking that we were sitting ducks.

Once free of the building that lacked windows, I could see the sky that was so remarkably blue that morning, now filled with black smoke rising from the Pentagon, a mile and a half down the Potomac River. I’ll never forget the silence and the long walk home while looking back at the death billowing up behind me.

I didn’t know it then, but our country was changed forever.

The terrorist attacks on New York, Washington, DC, and the downed plane in Pennsylvania remain the most extensive foreign assault on American soil. Almost 3,000 people were killed that day. In response, the “War on Terror” began, and it hasn’t ended.

A month later, we invaded Afghanistan and didn’t leave until 2021. In 2003, we tried to tie Iraq to the attack and invaded under false pretenses and didn’t completely leave until 2026. We decided to attack Iran in 2025, and I’m waiting to see when this will stop.

The fallout of 9/11 continues. We created more bureaucracy and, as a result, more surveillance. If you have concerns about more Big Brother initiatives, you can thank the 9/11 attack as the justification to try and root out terrorists, or criminals, or immigrants as quickly as possible – even before they actually commit a crime, or terrorize us.

Our country has militarized everything – from our police force to our sports. We must Never Forget the sacrifice, the service, the dedication of those who defend us from the enemies who chant Death to America. We never forget by watching warplanes fly over stadiums and singing patriotic songs before and during games.

But let’s also not forget: no attack like this has been repeated since.

So much has changed in my life since 9/11. Most of that is simply because 25 years is a long time, and the transition from your 20s to your 50s is significant for anyone. It’s hard to believe that 25 years have passed, and it really feels longer than that.

It would be a dozen years before Blue was born, and then another four before I met Anonymous. In 2001, I was getting to know Aunt Bea, and my Dad would live another 14 years. It would be another decade before I began running half marathons, and Okay History would be created twenty years later.

Work took me up and down the East Coast. I moved to Baltimore twice and returned to Washington, DC. I lived in North and South Carolina for parts of two years. I’ve been married almost four years now. I’ve experienced four work sabbaticals. I’ve lived a lot of life in 25 years, that’s for sure.

I’ll never forget that back in 2005, I worked for a Catholic college in Baltimore, whose enrollment included many students from New York. That year’s commencement speaker was former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. I remember him being such a hero on 9/11; he was “America’s Mayor,” and it wouldn’t be until a couple of years later that details of his management of the city’s security protocols and systems failed and came to light – particularly the communications between EMTs, firefighters, and police. But mostly I remember him being a completely different man than the one we saw deliver a speech in front of the lawn maintenance company almost fifteen years later.

I have such mixed emotions about 9/11. Not that I have happy memories, but mostly, how much of this day am I expected to carry?

I’m not sure how others deal with this anniversary. For the first few years, it was all about telling everyone the multiple stories they’d heard. I once repeated a story I had heard about a man who left his office in the north building to go pick up his dry cleaning and then got a call from a family member saying the building was hit – it turned out my colleague, who was standing in the group with me sharing stories, reiterated that it was his cousin.

Repeating the 9/11 timeline makes 9/11 such a distinct moment in history. We know the moment Flight 11 took off from Boston Logan Airport. We know the moment President Bush learned of the attack, and it feels as if Facebook existed from 2008-2011 so that people could refine their 9/11 story and keep up the mantra of never forgetting. It gets to be too much.

History is fundamentally understanding the past – which means being open to exploring why things took place. The key is not to overthink anything. Learn. Understand. Move on.

That’s what 9/11 is to me. I don’t think about it much, except when the day itself approaches. I understood what happened that day – I lived it. It wasn’t as dramatic as others; I didn’t lose a friend or a family member. I don’t suffer breathing ailments from the smoke inhaled that day. The only person I knew who died that day was my brother’s former boss, a lieutenant colonel in the army, who served as a secretary in the Pentagon. I don’t remember her name, but I remember the night I met her. I’ll never forget her sense of humor and smile. I’m sad that she is gone and that so many innocent lives were lost that day.

I can’t help but think that 25 years from now, I’ll be 75. Or at least I better be. How much of my life will change? How much of 9/11 will I forget? How much do I want to forget and not think I’m breaking the code that says to never do that, the one designated at its inception with no expiration date?

The big question I have when it comes to never forgetting is: why do we relive this day, never forgetting how we felt- the horror, the fear, the sadness? I remember all of that – now what? Terrorism never happens again?

It’s the time of year when 9/11 becomes front and center of our attention, but especially this year when we remember what happened 25 years ago. There won’t be any new twists to the tale – the day and the fallout are what they are. The names will be read. Tears will be shed.

Take care of yourself, and it’s okay if you begin to forget things. Plenty of memories are gone. Plenty more will fade away. History will keep everything together, and you are free to visit. You’ve learned; you understood; it’s okay to move on if you want.

Have a good week. Never forget. But also never forget: it’s okay if you do.

Okay,

Chris

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I absolutely love dogs. I’m so grateful to have one of the best with Blue.

If you need a refresher, we celebrated his 13^th birthday back in May. And luckily, we celebrate National Dog Day this week, on August 26, which gives me another chance to write about my boy.

Blue brings such joy to Anonymous and me. He has many wonderful attributes. Have I mentioned his great sense of style:

He is also gifted in sleeping. Yesterday was the perfect example of him and me taking a big old nap on the couch together. He sticks to a strict walking plan, especially in this heat, and I’m so glad that Anonymous plays with him at night while I’m sound asleep upstairs.

Politically, Blue is a big government, tax-and-eat advocate. I can’t open the fridge without him magically appearing when I close the door, with “Just let me know when I need to be ready for the cheese tax, please and thank you.”

Dogs are just great, and frankly, we don’t deserve them.

The history of dogs in the United States dates back thousands of years, when the animals crossed over into North America from Siberia. Fast forward to European colonization in the 17th century, and domesticated dogs arrived on ships, bearing nothing in common with the original settlers. These dogs would be functional – much like Blue’s primary function, which is to be loved all day because he is a good boy.

When the United States came about, the relationship with dogs also evolved. We didn’t always treat them well, and by 1850 in urban areas, we euthanized a lot of dogs out of fear of them spreading rabies and other diseases. Fortunately, organizations such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were founded in the 1860s, and our education and relationships with dogs changed dramatically.

A century later, the suburb boom increased dog ownership. With the invention of the television and shows like Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, our desire to have all kinds of dogs in our lives increased, and our lives are so much better.

It’s sad and a bit funny that we technically don’t have an official “National” Dog Day. In 2004, pet lifestyle expert (I’m not kidding) Colleen Paige founded National Dog Day on August 26, and the New York Senate followed with a resolution nine years later in 2013 – the year Blue was born.

But Congress has yet to pull the trigger, which is just another example of their lack of productivity – isn’t it, Blue?

According to stats I found that may or may not be true, 45% of American households own at least one dog, which means 65 million households have a Blue in their home. Which state has the most dogs? Well, that would be Idaho. The 49th-ranked state in our 2022 state rankings, the Potato State, improves its standing because 58% of households have a dog. Pair this information with this former government official, and Idaho is threatening to move up in the rankings should we ever get around to doing them again.

We are fortunate to live on a street that is filled with dogs, and Blue dislikes pretty much all of them. But it doesn’t matter, because while we don’t deserve them, we remain grateful to them for all that they do to enrich our lives.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. The Battle of Long Island was fought on August 27, 1776. Technically fought in what is now known as Brooklyn, the British won an important victory over a George Washington-led army that secured the Port of New York, which they held onto for the remainder of the War. A tired Continental Army retreated into the dark of the night, much like how Blue retreats from the vacuum cleaner and sleeps for another 10 hours.

2. The Steamboat patent was approved on August 26, 1791. John Fitch was an entrepreneur who also dabbled in clockmaking, but his real passion was powering boats. He was relentless in his pursuit of a steamboat patent and went head-to-head with another patent seeker; both were awarded patents, but not exclusivity. Blue approaches food with the same tenacity – a dogged focus to get his treat when he wants his treat, and a patent on his modern way of huffing until he gets it is still pending.

3. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened on August 30, 1956. This is the largest bridge over open water, connecting Mandeville, Louisiana, in the north to Metairie in the south, making New Orleans easier to navigate. The bridge is 24 miles long and expanded from two lanes to four, and there is no way Anonymous or Blue would enjoy driving over it. Blue is the only dog I have ever known who absolutely hates being in the car. It’s a real pleasure driving him anywhere.

If you are looking to celebrate dogs, I present a few organizations that support keeping dogs safe and healthy:

American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation — funds scientific research into canine disease prevention and treatment; over $52 million granted, with 970+ research projects funded, the AKC CHF ensures our good boys and girls are cared for.

AKC Humane Fund — supports canine welfare and responsible ownership, including grants to shelters that let domestic-violence survivors bring pets into their homes.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — Founded in 1866, the ASPCA works against puppy mills and dogfighting, and pushes for stronger federal animal-welfare protections. You remember their commercials on TV that make you turn the channel and cry. There is a special place in hell for people who harm dogs.

In case you missed it over the weekend, I published the latest edition of the vice presidential rankings.

As always, I appreciate the support – it’s been a challenging few weeks for me with so many things going on. I’m hoping that as the month of August winds down and the Fall gets into full swing, I can steer my way back on a path where I feel everything is clicking.

Have a great week! I’ll see you this Saturday.

Okay,

Chris

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The relationships we have in our lives usually fall into a few categories. We have family relationships, mostly because we were born into them, but we also have unique relationships where you choose to be family. We have romantic relationships, close friendships, and some that are distant. Work relationships can go in many different directions, which is why I have adopted more distance when becoming “friends” with colleagues. It’s not that I don’t like the people I work with, but I think I have enough friend relationships that I’m not going to hang out with you outside of office hours.

I have a special relationship with Blue. He’s my best boy, and I love him very much, and he loves me because I take him out for walks and feed him regularly. We have an equal relationship with Anonymous in that we’re both expensive to live with.

We can also have passing relationships, like the one I’m having with an oral surgeon who removed a cyst from under one of my front teeth (#9) two weeks ago. The surgeon is a University of Michigan graduate. Our relationship could be deemed complicated because I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and consider myself a Buckeye fan. Therefore, I have an imaginary rivalry with a guy who cut open my mouth and removed tissue to make sure it wasn’t cancer. It’s entirely silly, but I couldn’t help bringing it up each time we met. Fortunately for me, Dr. Anderson is incredibly good at his job and equally gracious, and he understood our relationship was doctor-patient.

Thankfully, that meant that I had to shut up during the important part.

The relationship dynamic in the executive branch of the federal government between the president and vice president is also complicated. The underboss is usually picked or, in earlier cases, was chosen by the party for electoral purposes. But there is no confusion as to who is in charge. The vice president’s job is to be ready if the president dies and to be the scapegoat for failed presidential positions, like what we’ve seen in the past two administrations with Harris and immigration, and Vance with the Iran War.

In this latest edition of vice president rankings, we take a look at two guys who landed in the number two spot and then, due to overall poor relationships with a lot of people, lost their number two spot or never had the chance to become number one and faded into history, never to be remembered until the emotional and sensitive historical humorist highlights their tenure.

Let’s dive in.

38: Henry Wallace

33^rd Vice President

Term – January 20, 1941– January 20, 1945

Presidential Administration: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s third term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 7)

The Good:
Wallace was a progressive who supported FDR’s New Deal policies. He was born in Iowa and served as Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce before moving into a job with far less responsibility, yet it still looked like a promotion. Don’t believe me, as Secretary of Agriculture, he had a budget of like a billion dollars and had almost 150,000 people who reported to him. As VP, he had about $10 to work with and four people to make sure they could find him in case FDR died, which – spoiler alert – he did.

The Bad:

Wallace’s path to the vice presidency began in the Republican Party, with a stop in the Bull Moose Party, before he landed in FDR’s good graces. That didn’t make him too popular with party head honchos when it came to his loyalty to party ethos.

He also treated his faith the same way he treated his political party affiliation – he dabbled in Catholicism, Judaism, and some other stuff I never heard of. He also had a weird relationship with Nicholas Roerich, a Russian artist who looks like he starred in a Quentin Tarantino movie:

Wallace was attracted to Roerich’s mysticism, as it were, and the way he looked at life and how to solve problems during the height of the Great Depression. That weirdness spooked a lot of people.

Did he become president?

He did not. Too many people in power didn’t like him, and Harry Truman replaced him on the 1944 ticket, where they clobbered the Republican challenger by three million votes. Truman, of course, would go on to become president shortly into that term.

In keeping with his personal brand, Wallace left the Democratic Party to challenge Truman for the presidency in 1948, but never came close to unseating him. He left Washington, DC and took up residence on his New York farm.

Why did I rank him here?

Wallace was labeled as someone with an affinity for the Soviet Union, advocating restraint at the beginning of the Cold War. Perhaps understanding the new world order of the nuclear bomb, he did not want to see the United States/Soviet Union escalate to that level. Regardless, party leaders weren’t comfortable, and getting the boot can’t mean that you were ever great at your job.

37: George Clinton

4^th Vice President

Term – March 4, 1805 – April 20, 1812

Presidential Administration: Thomas Jefferson’s second term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 4) & James Madison’s first term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 16)

The Good:
Clinton was a founding father of the country – who fought in the Revolutionary War with great honor, including advocating for a reward to anyone who assassinated King George III. Thank you for your service.

The Bad:

George wasn’t a fan of the Constitution. In fact, he led the opposition as an Anti-Federalist who clashed with the Federalists over how the federal government would be set up.

When he served as VP, he also broke a tie and killed the rechartering of the First Bank of the United States, a pet project of President Madison. Not that Madison chose Clinton, but it must sting when the vice president decides to smother an essential administration initiative with a pillow.

Did he become president?

He did not. However, Clinton has quite a few distinctions. He is the only person to receive electoral votes in six separate presidential elections. He never won, unlike me – when I won seven elections, never losing once, because I was so popular. Clinton’s nephew challenged and lost to Madison in the 1812 election.

George is also one of two men who have served as vice president under two different presidents.

Finally, George Clinton is the first vice president to die in office. He suffered a heart attack and was originally buried in DC, before we dug him up and sent him back to his home state of New York, where he holds the distinction of being the second longest-tenured governor in history.

Why did I rank him here?

Clinton was a heavyweight in early America, but he never made it over the hump; instead, he’s known for obstructing and taking time off.

It’s been a wild few weeks for me. I have been reflecting on the various relationships in my life. For someone who is sensitive and emotional, each relationship triggers something within me.

There’s been so much frustration, anger, acceptance, laughter, tears, and confusion that it feels like there are no defined walls to keep these feelings in one place – there’s nowhere to hide, not at work, at home, anywhere. It’s like I’ve been carrying multiple bags of emotion, and they all broke at the bottom at the same time and have spilled everywhere. I’ve been trying to pick up a few things, and I’m learning to let go of others, but mostly I’m holding on to the ones that bring me joy.

I guess the important thing to remember about relationships is that they’re things in your life you accept freely, even if they feel like they are thrust upon you because you need to afford expensive hobbies or buy eggs. We all have to navigate our relationships as best we can.

Okay! Thanks for the continued support. Let me know what you think of the latest rankings or my emotional status. I’ll be back on Monday – with a very important Maundy Monday Newsletter that you do not want to miss!

Okay,

Chris

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I’m a lucky man. One – I’m a trophy husband; in this, we can all agree. However, I have a prize in a wife whose name has two “n” – the second “n” standing for “In Charge.” If you were there, you know – I Walk the Line.

Anonymous and I have been together for ten of her birthdays. An entire DECADE! Can you believe it? I can. I’m not that great at math, but I’m pretty certain this is like a third of birthdays.

To celebrate, Anonymous has booked dinner for us at a new sushi restaurant. Yes, you read that correctly, my wife booked her own birthday dinner reservation. That’s how we roll in this family. Anonymous is a real go-getter, and I’m a real–go ahead, I’ll take it- er. We are a perfect pair.

Unfortunately, I went and got oral surgery on Friday, which has forced us to reschedule our plans. Instead, Anonymous will take herself to get a manicure and pedicure, while I’ll continue to take amoxicillin and ice cream! What a way to celebrate a birthday with a spouse! Wait till she reads what I wrote in the card!

There is no doubt that Anonymous gets more beautiful every day.

If you have a chance to say happy birthday to Anonymous – drop a line in the comments section.

Okay, let’s take a look at milestone birthdays in Anonymous’s life:

1. August 10, 2008. This birthday would be the first one where Anonymous made DC her permanent home. This would mark an important and smart decision – and Anonymous is super duper smart – because eight years later she would meet me and a few years later – we together make DC our forever home.

2. August 10, 2016. This would be the last birthday she would celebrate “Before Chris,” or BC as we both like to call it, for short. She was probably sad, but later in the day I imagine she experienced a ping of hope – something deep within her knowing that better days would be coming soon – in the form of a handsome, brilliant, and humble man with a great set of hair coming into her life. That wish she made blowing out the candles every year – Please let me find Chris – finally came true.

3. August 10, 2023. This would be the first birthday that Anonymous celebrated as a married woman. What joy she must have felt when she woke up, knowing that her first anniversary was just over a month away and the strapping older man, with a great set of hair, was her husband. BC was a distant memory.

There are so many things that are cool about my wife. One is that Anonymous has a very engaging hobby where she reviews books. She is a much more consistent reader than I am, but we share the same passion for purchasing a ton of books on a regular basis and filling up bookshelves. It’s an unending and expensive habit. But when she reads, she does it with focus, and when she is finished, she reflects and writes up voluminous reviews that really describe the prose and how it made her feel.

In honor of her and as my gift to you all, I present two quick reviews of books that I read during beach week. These modest reviews are almost the exact opposite of the insight Anonymous offers to her audience.

Why We Sleep – by Matthew Walker, PhD

Sleeping is one of the most essential and unfortunately overlooked and underappreciated acts we do as human beings. Walker argues convincingly that healthy, consistent sleep will ensure a lifetime of benefits and positive impacts.

Get more sleep, people.

The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith

Tom Ripley is a psychopathic killer who takes a job trying to find and convince a distant friend to return home to his parents, who had hired him. The friend does not know Ripley is a total psychopath.

The story establishes Ripley’s ability to deceive and an ambition, where he, in turn, kills to ensure a lifestyle of luxury and reputation continues.

Tom Ripley is crazy. But I really enjoyed this book. It makes me want to go to Italy. In fact, since spending time recovering, I have discovered I really enjoy Italian style, especially their boats and watches. On Saturday, I asked Anonymous for $60,000 to buy a Riva boat. Still waiting to hear back.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed these reviews – let me know if there is anything I am missing.

Speaking of missing – if you need to catch up on the vice president rankings – you can find them here. I hope you are enjoying the series as much as I am learning about the meaningless position of vice president of the United States. Sorry for missing last Saturday, but I thought I was dying from the surgery where I had a cyst removed from one of my front teeth.

Thanks again for the prayers and well wishes concerning Aunt Bea. Grateful to you all for your support in so many ways. An important update for the upcoming week:

I’m going to try to finish the VP essay that would have gone up last weekend. But Bea’s funeral is next Monday, and we have quite a bit of family coming in over the weekend, so all of this is to say – there will be no MMN next Monday. Thanks for understanding.

Have a great week, and take care of your teeth.

Happy birthday, babe!

Okay,

Chris

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Bavier grew up in New York City and had planned to become a teacher when she caught the acting bug. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she soon landed her big break on a Broadway show. She spent most of the 1950s playing a variety of roles until 1960, when she made a guest appearance on The Danny Thomas Show, playing a woman named Henrietta.

The episode told the story of how the main character, Danny Thomas, was arrested by the local sheriff in a small town called Mayberry. The sheriff’s name was Andy Taylor, played by actor Andy Griffith. The Andy Griffith Show debuted in October 1960, and Bavier would join the cast.

Bavier would play a new character - Aunt Bee, the sister of Taylor’s father. Her full name was Beatrice Taylor, but instead of “Bea,” she went by a different spelling for no apparent reason. The show was widely popular and ran for a total of eight years – but Bavier could never break through with other acting opportunities – she was Aunt Bee to everyone. Three years after winning the Emmy, Bavier thought it was damned foolishness that Hollywood decision-makers weren’t taking her acting career more seriously, so she quit and moved to North Carolina for the rest of her life. Bavier passed away in 1989 – but Aunt Bee lives on forever.

Elizabeth Ann Hickey was born at Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington, DC, to John and Margaret Hickey on April 26, 1946. She had two brothers, John and David; attended an all-girls Catholic school; met Jim Hastings at the age of 15 at the gym at Georgetown University; went on a first date with him a few weeks later at a dance at Holy Trinity School; and eventually married him.

Liz and Jim Hastings would have two children, Margaret (Margy) and Kevin. A few years after Kevin graduated from college, Jim and Liz got something they never asked for – a son-adjacent named Chris, who, among other non-remarkable achievements, would go on to write the world’s most mediocre American history blog.

For two decades, the Hastings and the son-adjacent would have Sunday dinners together, welcome new grandchildren, enjoy a week at the beach, and finally see the son-adjacent marry up, while talking at super high and unnecessarily loud audible levels.

But ten years ago, Liz was diagnosed with cancer. After the decade-long battle, she passed away peacefully with her family surrounding her on Friday, July 31, 2026.

Liz was a beautiful woman with short blond hair and an infectious smile. She was also a talented athlete who grew up playing basketball and later took up tennis. In the middle, she raised two fantastic children and then returned to college, earning her degree in History at Trinity University in DC, graduating magna cum laude and being elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Like many in the nation’s capital, Liz worked for the federal government. She helped chase down bad actors, doing a lot of investigations for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the SEC. She then moved over to the private sector, ensuring that the government didn’t overstep and become reckless and foolish.

But her work did not define her – she did that herself. When it came to how their grandchildren would refer to them, Margaret Hickey and her daughter Liz got creative. Margaret would be Snooky – or Snookie. (I’m actually not sure how you spell it, but I always called her Snooky.) When Liz became a grandmother, she also did not want to adopt traditional names, so Jim provided a suggestion – Bee. Or Bea. I’m not sure how Pops (Jim’s chosen grandfather name) chose how to spell it. The legend has it that Margy chimed in with Ain’t Bee.

It was settled. Liz would be Aunt Bea forever to her family.

Aunt Bea was the best. She was the best cook. She had a magical way of suggesting what you were about to eat wouldn’t be that good, but after tasting it, you experienced the best meal you’d ever had. She was a wizard when it came to dessert – like this one:

She was a tough tennis player; she was the best at the net. She also studied the game and watched tennis all the time. Bea and Pops traveled a lot – and when they could mix tennis and traveling, it was the perfect time for the two high school sweethearts who grew up together loving and learning the same activities.

Aunt Bea suffered no fools. I’m confident this was a genetic trait. Like her mother, she didn’t tolerate much “damned foolishness,” whether that was someone expressing an opinion that didn’t sound right, that same someone suggesting they had a made-up allergy that didn’t make sense, or the general concept of pickleball.

I could go on and on about Bea. I probably didn’t get a few details of her life right, but I know this: She loved her husband and her kids. She loved all six of her grandchildren. She was a force in creating a dynamic family that I have had the privilege to call my own for over 25 years now.

I’m forever grateful to her and everything she did for me in our relationship. She was intensely helpful in my lowest times and an extraordinary cheerleader at my highest of highs.

Rest in peace, Aunt Bea.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961. The 44^th president was born in Hawaii, and he has the long-form birth certificate to prove it. He would go on to serve two consecutive terms, and his candidacy was backed by Aunt Bea. There was no doubt that she felt the idea that the president of the United States needed to get on television and provide his birth certificate was “damned foolishness.” I would bet that at their peak, Bea would have whipped Obama in a game of HORSE.

2. The Revenue Act was passed on August 5, 1861. Motivated by the need to fund the Civil War, the federal government instituted the first income tax on its citizens in various forms. This included a flat tax and tariffs on goods like sugar, coffee, and booze. The implementation of tariffs is the current administration’s most backed policy – and Bea would tell you every possible reason why tariffs, especially on booze, are “damned foolishness.” This stance is supported because Bea has read about a million more books than the current and lowest-ranked office occupier.

3. President Reagan fired the PATCO air traffic controllers on August 5, 1981. Workers went on strike on August 3, and President Reagan gave them 48 hours to reconsider what was deemed to be an unlawful act. He fired all 11,000+ air traffic controllers and banned them for life from ever being rehired. This included those who worked at National Airport – just on the other side of the Potomac River from DC. It was renamed after Reagan when I first moved here, and I remembered how bonkers it was to slap this small government advocate’s name on all things, but especially an airport. Aunt Bea never referred to National Airport as “Reagan,” and neither do I. Damned foolishness at its highest degree.

Aunt Bea had so many more wonderful qualities. I loved her laugh – it was short with a loud burst, and she followed it with a smile that shaped her entire face. When you said goodbye to her, her eyes softened as she looked into yours. Over the past few months during our goodbye ritual at Sunday dinner, I would lock in with her soft eyes, and Bea instructed me to give her thoughts and best wishes to my Mom, who was also fighting her own cancer battle.

She was fiercely loyal. She’s the type of person who would hold you by your shoulders, with that same locked-in manner, look you in the eye, and tell you how special you are. You knew it too; you felt it.

Aunt Bea’s energy was contagious in the best way. You couldn’t ignore it. You could solve the world with just a piece of Bea’s liveliness.

Her intensity and opinions were her love language.

Despite the fact that Liz Hastings has passed - Aunt Bea will live forever.

Have a great week – and thanks, as always, for your support of Okay History. Please keep Aunt Bea and her family in your prayers, and I’ll see you soon with the next edition of vice presidents ranking.

Okay,

Chris

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This past Wednesday, Anonymous and I, along with two of our friends and Okay History subscribers, took in the new Christopher Nolan blockbuster movie – The Odyssey.

Based on Homer’s epic poem that I have never read, Nolan recreated the mythical world of King Odysseus, the Greek ruler of the island kingdom of Ithaca, and his trek back home after conquering the City of Troy. The story details the ten-year journey back to his wife, Penelope, during which he encounters numerous challenges that try to prevent him from succeeding.

A major part of the story is how loyal Odysseus’s men are to him throughout the mission of getting home. Based on what people who have actually read The Odyssey tell me, Odysseus is a prideful and self-absorbed man who makes many mistakes trying to navigate getting home – ones that cost the lives of many of the men whom he leads.

It got me thinking about how many of the vice presidents of the United States tried to display their unwavering loyalty to the president, probably for personal gain, but in the end didn’t succeed and had their political careers cut short. Unlike the Wrong Path Guys, we will look at two men who ran out of road in the long four-year journey of serving as a loyal number two.

Let’s dive in.

40: Schuyler Colfax

17^th Vice President

Term – March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1873

Presidential Administration: Ulysses S. Grant’s first term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 17)

The Good:
Colfax rose through Indiana state politics as a strong abolitionist, which helped him get elected to Congress and, from there, become the youngest Speaker of the House at 37. He was considered one of those “Radical Republicans,” which, based on his positions, would still make him a Radical Republican today.

Colfax eventually pushed through the highly ranked Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment (OHK #2 in 2023), ending slavery permanently. By the time the 1868 election rolled around, Colfax was as popular as the top of the ticket – Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant.

The Bad:

Why do people in power fall into corruption? I guess there are multiple reasons, and perhaps the biggest motivation is to simply make more money.

Remember back last year when we tried to rank political scandals? Well, Colfax got caught up in the scandal where a railroad company created a fake subsidiary to bribe members of Congress to help them secure the first transatlantic railroad.

Congressman Oakes Ames was the primary villain in this story, but what I found funny was that Colfax was caught depositing $1,200 into his bank account on the same day that Ames testified that he paid Colfax $1,200. The guy didn’t even bother to mix up the payments to at least claim some form of plausible deniability.

When the scandal story broke in 1872, Colfax was finished and replaced on the ticket by Henry Wilson, who managed to squirm his way out of the same mess.

Did he become president?

Nope. It’s great to know that even though you accomplish some great things, when you screw up, you still have to suffer the consequences, and the Credit Mobilier scandal was too much to overcome. He remained a popular lecturer, drumming up business by telling personal stories of Abraham Lincoln to audiences who craved information about the emerging American icon.

This idea that Schuyler became a popular lecturer reminded me of a scene in the movie American President:

Why did I rank him here?

He really fits the theme of running out of the road – Colfax died when trying to catch a train. He traveled a long distance in the middle of a cold Minnesota winter, and when he finally reached the station, five minutes later he collapsed and died of a heart attack and exhaustion.

39: Mike Pence

48^th Vice President

Term – January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021

Presidential Administration: Donald Trump’s first term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 44)

The Good:
Your boss is the worst president in history – so you can’t be that bad, unless you are the current vice president and somehow manage to pull it off.

I think the good thing here is that when Pence was governor of Indiana, he was pressured to retract a bill that would legally allow for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identification. Corporate heavyweight leaders like Tim Cook of Apple got up and protested (Something he stopped doing almost immediately after this) and got Pence to change course. So Mike understands when bending under pressure is a good thing.

The better thing was when he didn’t succumb to that pressure when President Trump sent his supporters on January 6, 2021, to overturn the election he continues to think was stolen from him.

Pence stuck to his guns because he likes guns and certified the election – fulfilling his duty. It’s funny that he called up former VP Quayle for advice, and Dan told him to do his job.

The Bad:

Pence has this weird stance that he will never be alone in a room or elevator, or a taxi, or in a line at Wendy’s with a woman who isn’t his wife.

I don’t really understand the concept here. Are women untrustworthy demons who will conjure up stories of your sexual predatory behavior that will take you down, OR are you an actual sexual predator and have the self-awareness that if let alone with a woman, you will be unable to control yourself?

It’s just funny to me that this man with his “not being alone with a woman” stance paired up with the guy who walked into women’s dressing rooms during the beauty pageants that he owned, and everyone thought “yeah, this makes total sense – a good balance here”.

Did he become president?

No, but he still has time if he can pull off a political miracle. Pence did run for president in the horrific 2024 election cycle, but couldn’t get his campaign on the road and dropped out a year earlier. His demise was mostly due to his lack of loyalty to Donald Trump, and his campaign message was a clunker as well – the idea that Trump was awesome and yet also awful. Even if he ended up picking a lane, Pence didn’t even have enough money for gas. This concludes the car/race analogy.

Why did I rank him here?

You have to hand it to Pence for sticking to his constitutional duties in the face of the president and his loony supporters threatening to kill you unless you broke the law and tried to hand the election to him. But this is as far as I will go.

Here’s my review of The Odyssey: It was Okay. That might seem like a cop out here being on brand and all, but it really was just okay. It’s long. I get the idea that it is a lengthy journey, but I don’t need to spend what felt like ten years watching Good Will Hunting make it back to his Spider-Man kid and Catwoman wife.

And that’s primarily my issue with this film. I couldn’t help but see other characters these actors have played and they were everywhere in this movie. We had the new Batman, the Punisher, and then MJ/Chani, just to name a few. Not a whole lotta range going on here. I told some colleagues that when you watch the movie Lincoln, you actually feel like you are watching Abraham Lincoln; that’s how good Daniel Day-Lewis is as an actor. Not so much in The Odyssey.

I like Matt Damon. Not a huge fan of Anne Hathaway, but there are a few roles she played that I enjoyed – like Catwoman. But a lot of these actors are in the newest Spider-Man movie as well, and I’m just like – sorry, I can’t get into Greek methodology as much as I would like to when current Spider-Man tells new Batman that “My dad is coming home.”

One minor story of loyalty that was left off – at least I think it was left off – that Nolan didn’t include was that of Elpenor – who got drunk while on one of Odysseus’s side tracks, climbed a roof, then fell off and died. Odysseus did go back to get him and properly bury him, but I’m sure that would have added another 45 minutes to the movie. But I would have loved to see that.

Finally, I am a little biased against long stories like this. When I finally finished Cold Mountain, a book that is primarily taken from the plot of The Odyssey, and wrote the review last year, I mentioned how long the prose was, and how the author Charles Frazier: (paid subscribers)

spends pages and pages discussing what these people eat and how they prepare it.

Pick any random page, and I bet there is talk about food. I looked up page 279, and this is from the second paragraph:

They sat for a while without talking, just sipping the laudanum. It was sweet and had thickened up so that it was not much runnier than sorghum, nor much clearer. It tasted some like metheglin, though without the taste of honey, and it clung to the cup with such determination that Inman found himself licking it out.

Holy Mary, Mother of God. What is going on here, Chuck? What the heck is laudanum and sorghum? I’d be interested in looking it up like I did with other books, but those were hundreds of pages shorter.

I ended up giving that novel a 1.5 out of 3 stars. The Odyssey isn’t quite that bad, more like 2 out of 3 stars. Go see it, if you can, on an IMAX screen as we did. But I’m not going to rush to see it again.

Hope that helps!

Have a great rest of your weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday.

Okay,

Chris

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I’m a big fan of the United States Postal Service. Always have been. My work requires mailing a lot of pieces – from donation requests to handwritten thank you notes. As I shared a while ago, I love writing letters and once spent an entire summer in college writing to a bunch of friends. Thanks to the postman and postlady of the USPS, that summer was especially memorable.

But recently, I have received one piece of mail four times. It’s not for Anonymous or me, but for a couple that lives in Washington, Missouri.

The weird thing is that the people mailing the letter are also from Washington, Missouri. How it ended up in the nation’s capital is anyone’s guess, if you want to spend time guessing about where misdirected mail comes from.

When I got this mail the first time, I simply dropped it back into the mailbox around the corner.

Then it came back. At first, I thought I hadn’t actually mailed it the first time, so I immediately put it back in the same neighborhood mailbox.

A few weeks went by…

And the letter came back!

At this point, I was getting a chuckle out of this. The first thing you notice is that the house number of the street is the same as ours, and the fact that the word “Washington” appears on it twice – both for the name of the city and the street. So I presumed this is why the letter or whatever it is kept showing up at our place.

After this third time, I decided to be helpful, so I highlighted the city, state, and zip code, thinking that the postpeople would see it. I even added a note not to mail it to my house anymore and put a smiley face on it, because I didn’t want to upset the people who made the term “postal” infamous.

So I proudly dropped it in the mailbox one more time, and wouldn’t you believe it, three days later it came back, and not only that, it was the first piece of mail I saw when I opened my box.

Now I think I must have done something horrible to the USPS because this piece of mail is haunting me. I’ve had a few stalkers in my day, and this letter is easily joining the ranks of the unhealthy obsession with me. Fortunately, after complaining about the situation to coworkers, one explained that the lower left-hand side of the letter has been scanned and imprinted with my ZIP code and street so that it will come to my house forever unless I scratched it out. So it was scanned wrong the very first time it hit the post office. Why? Who knows. It looks like it was dropped in the mail before Memorial Day in Missouri.

So I marked it up one last time, hoping that when they scan it, they will notice they need to fix it, and the lovely couple will finally get their piece of mail.

Godspeed, random piece of mail. Like past stalkers, I never want to see you again.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta took place on July 27, 1996. Centennial Park was built specifically by the Olympic committee charged to host the 1996 Summer Games. The 22-acre property hosted concerts, medal ceremonies, and various events for sponsors. After the end of one late concert, security guard Richard Jewell discovered a pipe bomb planted at the base of the sound system. He alerted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and a team of agents, security members, and Jewell himself began evacuating the area. The bomb went off during the middle of it, killing one person and injuring over 100 more.

Jewell was lauded as a hero, and then almost immediately became the leading suspect. The 24-hour news media did what the 24-hour news cycle does well – repeated lies about Jewell and projected him as a mysterious guy because he didn’t keep a job as a banker for 15 years or whatever.

He was never officially charged, just intensely investigated by the FBI, who searched his home twice and kept him under 24-hour surveillance, maintaining the theme of 24 hours of harassing this man who saved hundreds of lives.

It wouldn’t be until years later that the terrorist who committed this vicious act was identified, caught, tried, convicted, and is now sitting in a high maximum security prison in Colorado. Jewell passed away in 2007 due to complications from Type -2 diabetes.

2. “In God We Trust” was signed into law as the official U.S. motto on July 30, 1956. Psalm 115:9-11 tells Israel to “Trust in the Lord” repeatedly. This biblical verse is the foundation of the idea that America needs to place “Our Trust in God” – a statement that was promoted sparsely around the Revolutionary War. Fast forward to 1861, when a Protestant pastor wrote the Treasury Department imploring Secretary Chase to place God’s name on our coins, and therefore save the country, because God really loves the Union. This was partly in response to the Confederates who recently explicitly referred to “Almighty God” and his love for the CSA in their silly little constitution.

Then the term “In God We Trust” spread like wildfire. We trusted God so much that I’m certain The Man Upstairs asked us to tone it down. Then in 1956, both Houses of Congress passed a joint resolution without debate that “In God We Trust” would become the country’s official motto.

3. Music Television launched on August 1, 1981. At 12:01, MTV began to play the first music video, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, launching a genre of entertainment exclusively focused on music. Formatted much like a radio station, the network featured “video disk jockeys” who gave music personalities stories, conducted interviews, and generally made music even more entertaining. Then MTV branched out into various other programming and established the “reality television” concept, which is now its primary product. MTV is no longer a global music-focused network, shutting down music-specific channel operations outside of the United States at the end of 2025. Here in America, you can find one hour of programming dedicated to the music video that made the place a cultural icon.

When looking up information on the USPS, I noticed that it turned 55 earlier this month. How can the Postal Service only be 55 – didn’t we have this since the founding?

The answer is yes – we have had a Post Office system since the founding of the country. Delivering the mail was an essential operation at the time – getting information out into the land of the people. Benjamin Franklin was the first Postmaster General, and the position was a separate department, like Treasury or Commerce. This meant the head of the post office was cabinet-level until 1971, when the Postal Reorganization Act was passed and signed into law by President Richard Nixon, making it an independent agency under the executive branch.

Today, the USPS is run by David Steiner, who previously served as CEO of Waste Management, which helped him secure corporate board seats on companies like FedEx.

Although Steiner rejected the idea that the postal service should be privatized, he once worked for one of its biggest privatized competitors.

It’s interesting to learn how Amazon, UPS, and FedEx use the USPS infrastructure and governmental mandate to serve areas that wouldn’t be economically viable for them – while piggybacking on USPS service capabilities to build out their own and ultimately take it over.

I’m very concerned that one day Jeff Bezos and his behemoth Amazon, already the number one parcel delivery service in the country, will have the capacity to control the mail.

Just think of what we end up being delivered to my house in the future.

Okay! August is coming up – how about that. Summer is practically coming to an end.

Just kidding. We need to hang onto summer with both hands at this point.

Also, in case you missed it over the weekend, I dropped another ranking of the vice presidents for you to read. I hope you enjoy it! I’ll try to keep this momentum.

Have a great week – hope to see you again this weekend. Thanks for your continued support.

Okay,

Chris

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After spending a week at the beach where every day happy hour began around 3:30, what better subject to jump back into ranking the vice presidents of the United States by focusing attention on the relationship two of them had with booze?

Like waking up from a long stupor, here’s a quick reminder of the gentlemen we have ranked already:

There’s the current occupant.

We ranked Nixon and Agnew – the Enforcers, then Mondale and Cheney for their ability to count, next was Calhoun and Quayle with their dumbness and disagreeable attitude, and finally Breckinridge and Andrew Johnson for being on the wrong path to history.

Now that we have our act together, we will focus on two number twos who spent a lot of time downing drinks that were at least two fingers. Andrew Johnson would also fit into this criteria, but fortunately for us, we just grabbed another Vice President Johnson, who fit the bill better.

So with that and this being a mid–Saturday afternoon drop, well enough time to shake off any cobwebs from the night before, and just in time for today’s happy hour - let’s dive in.

42: Daniel D. Tompkins

6^th Vice President

Term – March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825

Presidential Administration: James Monroe’s term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 14)

The Good:
Like most vice presidents ranked this early, Tompkins made his mark on the country before ascending to the VP gig. He was elected to the House of Representatives and served as Governor of New York – where he personally bankrolled the state militia in the Second War with England.

One good thing Daniel did was randomly add the initial “D” to his name. Why? His mother said it was to distinguish him from other Daniel Tompkins of the day, which apparently were a lot of them. Makes you wonder what the “D” stood for?

Was it Daniel Day Tompkins? Or Daniel Damn Tompkins? Perhaps it was something more elaborate – like Daniel Don’t Ask Me What the D Stands for Thompkins.

Just saying – I dig the creativity.

The Bad:

Tompkins was the president of the Senate during an important time when his boss had an entire Doctrine named after him – one that promoted the idea that the United States had the right to expand west and create more states. The thing was, we still had slavery, and that begged the question – should these new states allow slavery or not? The discussion in the Senate was intense, and having a VP sit there and make sure everything stays on task is important.

Except Tompkins couldn’t pull that off very well. Why? Because of the booze and because he was suing the country to pay him back for the money he poured into the militia to fight the Second War with England. This compounded issue made travel and staying in DC financially nonviable, so Tompkins spent a lot of time back in New York, drinking and suing.

Despite his absence, the country reached the Compromise of 1820, which admitted Maine and Missouri.

Did he become president?

There is no President Tompkins for a variety of reasons. But the most important one was the fact that Tompkins died three months after leaving the office, presumably due to stress and booze. He was 50. Don’t forget, I’m also 50.

Why did I rank him here?

Tompkins is buried in Staten Island (Tompkinsville is named after him). I’ve never been there, but I’m sure it’s great. But if you are buried in Staten Island and there is a ranking involved – you are not going to be very high. There’s a policy about this somewhere in the Okay History ranking guidelines.

41: Richard Johnson

9^th Vice President

Term – March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1841

Presidential Administration: Martin Van Buren’s term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 28)

The Good:
You aren’t the worst Johnson on this list! Unfortunately for Dick here, he isn’t the best either.

Seriously, well, as serious as we can be, the best thing about Vice President Richard Johnson was that he owned a pub in Kentucky. When the Panic of 1837 hit the country, he hightailed it out of Washington, DC, back home to open a tavern and spa and make himself some money.

He stayed there for nine months. Makes me think Dan Quayle would have been better off staying back in Indiana and maintaining a pizza joint.

The Bad:

Part of the way Johnson rose to power and influence was convincing people he killed Tecumseh in the Battle of the Thames. Not many historians back him, and it’s a good thing I‘m not one either, because I probably would add my name to the list of professionals who wouldn’t believe him.

But in general I was a fan of Tecumseh, and not a fan of anyone who celebrates killing him.

Did he become president?

While VP, Johnson would cast a tie-breaking vote 14 times. And for all but one, he kept his mouth shut about his reasons, which tended not to appeal to those who wish to select the next president at the next national convention. The election of 1840 eventually went to the general who defeated the Tecumseh-led Indigenous people confederacy at another battle. Of course, we know the ending here: William Henry Harrison only lasted a month, and his successor shaped how presidents succeeded in these situations with the Tyler Precedent and the Constitutional Amendment that came with it.

Also, it was widely known that Johnson had taken a black enslaved woman as his wife. Not in any legal sense, but people back then, especially in Kentucky, did not look favorably on that type of decision-making, whether it was legal or not. Johnson added to the issues by wearing some outrageous outfits. Which I have to admit is really funny.

Why did I rank him here?

I’ve probably ranked Richard Johnson way too harshly, considering the entire “go back home to Kentucky while the country burns in economic disaster to make money selling booze” thing that defines his tenure. Add the entire fashion diva he became after he left office, and perhaps I’ll look back on this decision with regret.

It feels good to be back on the horse, as it were. Hope you didn’t completely black out from remembering we are ranking vice presidents. We just stumbled along for a few months, trying to get our bearings.

Okay, enough of the drinking analogies.

Let me know what you think the middle initial “D” for Daniel Tompkins’ name stood for. Or what you think Richard Johnson’s pub was named?

Wrong answers only, please.

Have a great weekend. I’ll see you on Monday. Thanks for your continued support of my habit of ranking stuff and helping us all learn something.

Okay,

Chris

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Growing up in the middle of Ohio, I didn’t have the opportunity to go to a beach. I don’t think it was a matter of distance for my family, but more of economics and preferences. But it wasn’t the case for others. For whatever reason, if you lived in Columbus, you traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, if you craved the Atlantic Ocean. At least, that is what I remembered about the families who did a beach week. My family made trips to Tennessee to spend time in the mountains, visit relatives we never spoke to during the year, and tube down the Little River.

It wasn’t until I made it to Washington, DC, that I made the beach an annual trip. Thanks to the generosity of my DC Family, I’ve been coming to the shores of the state of Delaware for the past twenty years.1

You learn a lot about yourself when you go to the beach, especially when you are an adult. You learn what it is like to get sunburned – I burned my feet on my inaugural trip – something I have been reminded not to repeat each year since. You learn how to enter the water – my first wade into the ocean I went in backward for some reason; now I look for waves to swim under and over. You learn that you didn’t have any time to learn anything about the beach growing up, and now you are embarrassing yourself in front of others. But you quickly get over it – because you are spending a week at the beach.

Despite those harsh life lessons of properly protecting your skin and walking into the water like a normal person, the beach is about recharging, reconnecting with family, and enjoying the time away.

It was great to get away, especially this year where work has been incredibly busy – in a good way. But with my mind now on fun work2 I took in some history staring right in front of me

One thing I noticed this year was that the beach town, Bethany Beach, Delaware, was founded in 1901. Perhaps the municipality already held its anniversary celebration, or maybe it’s later, and it got overshadowed by the noise of the 250th of America, but there wasn’t much promotion for the 125th anniversary. But Happy Birthday, Bethany Beach!

Bethany Beach has a unique history: it was founded by a Christian denomination seeking a seaside community where it could hold retreats and other events. The Disciples of Christ Church formed a company to investigate where along the Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia coastline they could plant their flag and make it their own. So they found some land in Delaware, near a town called Ocean View, bought a bunch of plots, and began forming a community.

They held a national contest for the name, and the winner, a guy named H.L. Atkinson, would win a beachfront property to call his own.3

Over the next century, Bethany Beach has been the summer destination for families from Baltimore, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and as far away as Pittsburgh, increasing the population from just under 1,000 to over 15,000 for about four months a year.

Families of Central Ohio have yet to discover this oasis.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. Viking 1 landed on Mars on July 20, 1976. NASA’s Viking Program had two spacecraft, 1 & 2, and both were launched in 1975. Viking 1 landed without issue and became the first spacecraft to land on another planet successfully. It would spend about six years roaming around looking at stuff before it ran out of gas, presumably because it was bored out of its mind since nothing is there. The run lasted until 2010, when the Opportunity Rover (which landed in 2004) spent even more time looking and collecting Martian stuff.

Driving to Bethany takes forever because it’s not a straight shot, but getting to Mars takes even longer because basically you have to do the same thing.

2. The First Battle of Bull Run is fought on July 21, 1861. The small town of Manassas sits about 30 miles southwest of Washington, DC. After a few months into the Civil War, the United States decided it was going to march straight into the Confederate capital of Richmond and put this little war to bed. Instead, as it crossed the Bull Run, a tributary of the Occoquan River, the Army of the Northeastern Virginia got bogged down, allowing the Army of the Potomac, then the name of the major Confederate Army, to reinforce itself and kick their tails back to Maryland. It’s funny how the names of these armies flipped almost immediately after this battle, which gets its name mixed up depending on who you are speaking to. (Is it Bull Run? Or the Battle of Manassas?) The Second Battle of Bull Run would take place a year later and be another Confederate victory. The US then smartly decided to stop fighting battles at Bull Run.

When you are traveling south on I95, perhaps on the way to Myrtle Beach, there is usually a massive traffic backup when you come up the Occoquan River, but it pales in comparison when you are returning from Bethany back to DC and have to cross the Bay Bridge. It’s the only trip that you go on where you are stuck for two and a half hours until you reach home, for what feels like way more than two and a half hours.

3. Apollo 15 launched on July 26, 1971. NASA launched the Apollo program in 1960, when the Race to the Moon was underway against the Soviet Union. This mission was the 15^th one – and really, does anyone remember anything about it?4 Apparently, this lunar landing included some time for a space walk to pick up a cassette tape.

One of the things I pick up on these trips is baseball hats. Here are the Bethany ones I snagged for Anonymous and Me:

I think I may have mentioned this before, but if not, here it is again. I never vacationed much until I met Anonymous. It was just “Beach Week” and not much else. It’s funny how the mind convinces you that you are too important ever to leave work, only to eventually find out that anyone fortunate to have you work for them doesn’t care about you when push comes to shove.5

So take vacation. I really wish I had one regularly outside of Beach Week, and it took me forever to find a healthy approach to Beach Week that helped me stay present, rather than letting my mind set a ticking countdown that made the week more anxiety-filled than fun.6

Yes, I’m weird.

But I’m also grateful. When putting this MMN edition together, I realized that twenty years at the beach means the early 2000s are such a distant memory for me. I knew I lived through them, but it’s almost a forgotten decade in a sense. I had a lot of tough jobs, and your early to mid-twenties can be a time of learning about yourself – mistakes made, mistakes avoided. That sort of thing. I wonder if in about 25 years I’ll look back on the 2020s and wish I had done more interesting and fulfilling things. Fortunately, I feel like I’m doing okay in this regard.

Anyway, thanks for reading my TED Talk.

Anonymous is gone this week, and we have not one, but TWO softball games. So it’s Blue and me getting back into the swing of things literally and figuratively. I appreciate the support and hope to see you later in the week. Make it a good one!

Especially if it’s a vacation!

Okay,

Chris

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I had already been up since 5:00 a.m. – I had my monthly prayer group gathering, and we finished the book The Cloud of Unknowing. After breakfast, I walked laboriously in the dense humid weather to the hardware store, because nothing is more American than walking to the hardware store on the 4^th of July holiday (I ended up doing it TWICE – like a true patriot).

After getting home around 10:00 and settling in upstairs to crank out some work – the noise arrived with force.

It sounded like we were under attack.

As a part of the 250^th celebration of America, the United States military showed off its aerial power by practicing for hours on Friday flying all over the National Mall – which included the White House, the Capitol, and of course our house.

In which our boy, Blue, lives.

Nothing bothers dogs more than not knowing where terrifying noises are generating from, so walking Blue on Friday was especially fun - the noise coming from a different cloud of the unknowing for him, and the temperature was a scorching 115 degrees. Since he doesn’t have the ability to know that he is safe, especially when he’s with Anonymous or me, Blue spent the weekend looking inquisitively at everything.

Anonymous was brave enough to head down the Mall on Friday and take in all the glory that is the 250 American State Fair, and other highlights the 4^th of July had to offer. This weekend was supposed to be the celebration of completed construction that has been taking place for years on the Mall, but for months I have noticed the lack of progress in many areas that were supposed to be ready – like the Tidal Basin where the Jefferson Memorial sits. I haven’t been over there much recently, but the Lincoln Memorial looks like crap, and there are rows and rows of portable toilets that line the side. Add in the disaster that is the Reflecting Pool and the gigantic cage fight we had on Flag Day, and Washington DC looks like a mess.

On top of this – the fair was shut down that morning and early afternoon, which did not make Anonymous happy. And you really don’t want to do that. But perhaps the decision was made because of the heat, or people forgot to come to work that day, or something else. Either way, Anonymous shared these pictures of how empty the place was:

Saturday wasn’t much better – neither the weather or the scheduling of events. It would feature more jets and more noise, leading up to President Trump’s speech about himself, then fireworks after every reasonable person has gone to bed.

We usually host a 4^th of July party – something I look forward to every year, especially this one since it was on a Saturday – but since everything was pushed back by like ten hours, we decided to cancel it this year. Booting the party this year was made easier because everyone who lives here left – at least it felt that way. Plenty of parking on Capitol Hill!

Instead it was just the three of us and the oncoming cloud attack Part II. Before the onslaught of planes, we hit the local 4^th of July parade – which is always fun. It was 45 minutes and featured not one, but two high school marching bands from the state of Nebraska, along with one from Utah. God bless these kids for braving such oppressive weather to play some good patriotic music.

Finally the time arrived for the planes to get here and Anonymous wanted to watch them pass over the neighborhood. I tried to stay focused on grilling, but got big-time distracted because you got real close and personal with some sophisticated killing machines as they flew right over your house.

After pausing the grilling, we eventually caught the new Air Force One and the other jets flying along side it. We can’t afford universal healthcare and increase the minimum wage – but we can spend money on flying our toys around. They do look pretty though.

I must admit, I do like looking at planes, expect for the ones who remind you that if enemy aircraft ever entered DC airspace, I’d be cooked instantly. But it is special to sit in the neighborhood and at least spend some time in community celebrating something.

Most of all, I just look forward to this 4^th of July being a one-off feeling and not an indication of a new era of unpleasantness. I’d be grateful if next year was just 5 – 10 degrees cooler.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. West Point admitted the first women cadets on July 7, 1976. The country’s military academy had been created exclusively for men. For the bicentennial celebration of the country, President Ford signed into law allowing the first class of women to join the ranks. 119 women entered that Fall, and four years later – 62 of them graduated.

2. President Reagan announced Sandra Day O’Connor as a Supreme Court Justice nominee on July 7, 1981. Probably spurred by the five year anniversary of West Point and the year anniversary of their graduation, President Gipper told everyone he wanted Sandra to become the first female to sit on the Supreme Court bench. She would be confirmed unanimously by the Senate that September, serve until she retired in 2006, when a Republican was president and was initially to be replaced by John Roberts, only to have the Chief Justice William Rehnquist pass away in the middle of it. So Roberts took Rehnquist job and Samuel Alito took O’Connor in an extraordinary downgrade in respectability. O’Connor passed away in 2023 at the age of 93.

3. Union forces won the Battle of Rich Mountain on July 11, 1861. Union forces under McClellan and Rosecrans defeated Lt. Col. John Pegram’s Confederates in western Virginia along the Allegheny mountain range. Once word reached Gen. Robert Garnett’s separate command up at Laurel Hill, not to be confused with singer Lauryn Hill, his men abandoned their position, only to be caught two days later at Corrick’s Ford, where Garnett became the war’s first general officer killed in action. The victory secured that portion of the state that did not want to secede, leading to the eventual creation of West Virginia, a state I ranked highly four years ago, despite the fact it leads the country in Neo Confederate hate groups. I guess you can make the case McClellan didn’t actually win.

I have one more important personal anniversary to share. It’s Christy Week.

Christy Week you may not remember is the week spent flying the Appeal to Heaven Flag, in memory of my college friend, Christy Male, who died tragically when she was hit by a train on the way to a friend’s house. It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years now this Friday, July 10.

Last year around this time I was able to go back to Cincinnati and celebrate Christy’s 50^th birthday with her friends and family (her birthday is July 14 – so she died four days before turning 26). Her dad, Greg Male, passed away in December 2024 and used to be a big Okay History supporter.

I miss them both.

I had to move Christy Week up since family beach week arrives this Saturday. So let’s fly the flag and remember the good times that our loved ones shared with us and remain grateful for the fun and good times ahead with loved ones who are still with us.

I appreciate your continued support of Okay History. Have a wonderful week and I’ll try and see you here next Monday. Hopefully it will be a lot cooler than the blazing hell we experience this weekend.

Okay,

Chris

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It was a fun trip – if you took away the results of the soccer we watched in person. The Czech Republic (now Czechia) ripped the Yanks 3-0 in the opener. When you’ve waited your entire life to watch a World Cup match — I didn’t manage to attend one when the US hosted in 1994 — only to see your team get boat-raced, it’s a bit of a downer.

The other game we took in was Ukraine versus Spain. It was Ukraine’s first-ever World Cup appearance, and they were welcomed with a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Spaniards. The best part of the match was sitting with the Ukrainians, who didn’t appear to be too upset by the loss, which was a positive way of looking at it, since they would end up advancing to the knockout round, something that the United States couldn’t say.

Fast forward 20 years, and two buddies of mine made the trip out west to Seattle to take in the latest edition of the World Cup, and do it celebrating our 50^th birthdays. The twist to this trip was – we brought our wives!

We took in two matches. First up – Bosnia Herzegovina versus Qatar, the country that hosted the last tournament, and somehow managed to qualify for this tournament – probably because the field was expanded from 32 to 48 teams.

It was an exciting game, and I can’t stress this enough – even if you don’t like soccer, make it a point to attend a World Cup match – it beats anything you can experience in American sports.

It was Anonymous’s first World Cup match. Check out the atmosphere of the pre-game:

We were treated to an absolutely fantastic match – lots of goals and Bosnia ended up winning 3-1. It was tough to beat that experience.

And yet, the next game did just that.

On Friday, we took in the final-stage match between Egypt and Iran. Little did we know when the pairings were set that we would be in the middle of a bombing campaign against one of the participants, but never mind that – because the Iranians showed up for this game.

First off, when you walk to the stadium, you are met with protesters of the current Iranian regime. They fence off people who have tickets to the matches from the herds of people who don’t, but those folks made sure you walked under a lining of pre-revolutionary Iranian flags, while people shouted at you about supporting them. I think that’s what they were shouting; I couldn’t tell. It was a surreal experience.

The game itself was brilliant. If you’ve heard anything about this game, it was the controversial ending, when it appeared that Iran took the lead in stoppage time, only to have it overturned due to an offside call.

But when Iran scored, it felt like the entire stadium erupted. Then when it was overturned, half the stadium erupted.

We took in lots of soccer, drank our fair share of beer, and left the street food alone. Great trip!

We flew back home yesterday – just in time to be in the middle of the 250^th birthday celebrations – a state fair that was supposed to feature all 50 states, but, of course, will only feature a select few since the feds passed the cost of putting up a display down to the states and a bunch of them dropped out. The entire thing has turned out to be a disaster, and it will run all week, concluding this Saturday with fireworks on the Mall that begin at 10:30 p.m. for some silly reason.

Okay, so for this week we are going to look at past Independence Day celebrations and how those turned out compared to the one we have this week:

1. The Centennial Celebration – July 4, 1876. The World Fair came to America for the first time, and the big celebration of the United States’ 100th birthday party took place where it all began – in Philadelphia. The fair began in May, ran through November, and featured groundbreaking inventions like the telephone and typewriter. President Ulysses S. Grant gave a famously dull speech at the May opening, then skipped the July 4 ceremony entirely. During the event, Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists walked onto the stage and handed the president pro tempore of the Senate (we didn’t have a VP at the time) a Declaration of Women’s Rights.

2. The Sesquicentennial Celebration – July 4, 1926. The return to Philadelphia and an even longer celebration took place – along with rain. It rained all the time – like months of rain. President Calvin Coolidge did give a speech, but attendance was so low they allowed the KKK to parade through – just to boost attendance. 150-year celebration, and it rained so bad they needed the Klan to come to town.

3. The Bicentennial Celebration – July 4, 1976. President Gerald Ford spent the day flying up and down the East Coast – hitting all the important American Revolutionary places – like Valley Forge and Independence Hall. The big announcement was that the country would officially recognize George Washington as the highest-ranking army officer in history – no one would ever be considered above him. Apparently we never made this official, and General Pershing held the title. Just random things about history that make no sense.

Of course we cannot forget the 4^th of July back in 1826 – when the country lost not one, but two presidents that day. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both passed away on this day, mere hours apart. First, Jefferson, at his home in Monticello, Virginia. He was 83. Then John Adams, who passed at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, at the age of 90.

I really enjoyed Seattle – it’s a great town with the nicest people. I was excited to take in the coffee and the seafood; the former was a tad disappointing, while the latter delivered and then some. Sushi just hits differently on the West Coast.

We took in some local places, like Pike Place Market — the place where they throw the fish — and saw the first Starbucks. Technically, it isn’t the “first” Starbucks, as we were told by a local woman who shouted at people standing in line and at people like me taking pictures. I wanted to tell the lady I don’t like Starbucks that much, but I didn’t come to Seattle to argue about coffee.

On Saturday, we spent some time on the water, where I captained the donut boat.

Overall, a great trip. Now the World Cup moves into the knockout round, and the weather here in DC will knock us out because it will be too hot.

I hope you have a wonderful week and can celebrate the good in America, which far outweighs the bad. Happy birthday to us!

Okay,

Chris

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But this week, I want to highlight two men who are in the news a lot lately, and whose paths I crossed way back when, and do the biggest thing non-famous people can do in DC: Name Drop.

The first is Graham Platner- now the Democratic nominee for the US Senate seat in Maine. If you have heard about Platner, it’s probably because he has a controversial past – there’s a Nazi tattoo, and he communicated inappropriately with women about sex while he was married. You know, great stuff.

Anyway, I met Graham about ten years ago. He was dating a friend of mine, and we were celebrating a buddy’s 40^th birthday by climbing into a bus and heading out to breweries. We were connected because of mutual love for history, especially Civil War history – and Graham had a picture of William Tecumseh Sherman as his phone screen saver.1

I remember us having some great conversations about the silliness of neo-confederates, especially with Sherman’s hometown, just 20 minutes down the road from where I grew up in Ohio, which is now flushed with confederate flags. I guess technically, he had the Nazi tattoo back then, which he never showed me, because that would have been weird. Anyway, I remember him as a nice guy. He dated my friend for a bit, then broke up with her and moved to Maine. She has never said anything bad about the guy. The only reason I bring this up is that she reminded me recently at the same buddy’s birthday get-together for his 50^th.

The other guy in my life is the billionaire Ken Griffin. Back when I was working at the Kennedy Center, my job as a fundraiser was to secure those funds from wealthy people like Ken. Now, back in 2003ish, Griffin wasn’t the billionaire he is today, but he was still really rich, and he landed on the radar of the fourth-best fundraiser on the four-person fundraising team.

Ken and I spent one evening together- when he accepted an invitation to a dinner party before a performance of the National Symphony Orchestra. I had done a ton of research on Ken, and despite that, still to this day, I couldn’t tell you how a hedge fund works. But he and I had a special connection right at the beginning. When he arrived at the show, I grabbed his tickets and brought them to him. Here’s the exchange that I remember to this day:

“Here are your tickets, Mr. Griffin.”

He responded with: “How do you know who I am?”

I responded with “Because it’s my job to know who you are.”

Long story short – I set up Ken Griffin with some fun people at his table – Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Sam Donaldson from ABC News, who is still alive by the way, along with others. I kept tabs on him, I’m sure I answered any questions he had, and at the end of the night, he turned to me and said: “Chris – you were great tonight. I feel like I need to tip you.”

I responded with “You can give me $250,000 to support the arts in this country.” This reply never left my head. I’m sure I just stammered out something like “It’s okay.”

Ken was a nice guy. He never gave us a dime, and we eventually stopped trying to cultivate him. I like reading about how intense he is about making money and, like all billionaires, how he gets incredibly defensive when any public figure brings up taxing them in some way.

The great thing about name-dropping is neither guy would remember meeting me – they aren’t regaling their friends with stories about our chance encounters. Graham isn’t telling people, “I met this guy, Chris Dake, and he wants to start Tecumseh Sherman March to the Sea tours in the South.” Nor is Ken fondly recalling “Chris Dake can grab someone’s coat with the best of them.”

Name-dropping doesn’t go both ways.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. The first Scholastic Aptitude Test was given on June 23, 1926. Developed by a Princeton professor based on an IQ test given to soldiers, the SAT would assess high school kids’ ability to learn. I took the test twice – the first time I had the flu and didn’t do very well, the second time I felt fine and did worse than the first one. Great childhood memory I’m sharing right now. I’m confident Graham and Ken scored really high on this.

2. The Battle of the Little Bighorn took place on June 25, 1876. Another Ohio-born Civil War hero, George Custer, led the 7th Infantry of the US Army against the Lakota and other Plains Indians in what was known as the Great Sioux War, which played out from 1876 to 1877. Commonly known in history as “Custer’s Last Stand,” Custer and about 200 of his men were killed in battle. The Indigenous warriors were led by men named Sitting Bull, Two Moons, and Crazy Horse. They lost one commander, Lame White Man. I’m not kidding – that was the guy’s name. Bet you Graham knows this. Ken, however, doesn’t know much about losses like this – he makes ridiculous returns on investments from what I understand.

3. The Battle of Sullivan’s Island was fought on June 28, 1776. Days before the Declaration of Independence was published, 400 South Carolinians repelled the British Navy just outside of Charleston. The victory in the Palmetto State was a significant milestone that our British Overlords could be whipped. Platner seems like the type of guy who wrote a paper about this battle back in school – something no one else would know about, and I can’t help but think that Griffin would short-sell on the British Navy if he could have.

Did some more grilling this weekend – beginning on Friday in celebration of Juneteenth, I grilled two whole Red Snappers. They turned out okay.

Then on Saturday, I fired up a Branzino:

It did not turn out okay, so there is no after picture.

Finally, Anonymous and I hosted Father’s Day Sunday dinner for the DC Family. I grilled up some steaks, and we had baked potatoes and asparagus. It was a reminder of the Sunday dinners I had growing up. My Dad loved steaks.

We had great weather, and we pulled the TV out on Friday to watch some World Cup Matches.

Speaking of the World Cup, Anonymous, a few friends, and I are heading to Seattle tomorrow for the rest of the week. We have tickets for a few matches – Qatar vs. Bosnia and Egypt vs. Iran. I’ve never been to Seattle, so I’m looking forward to it. It will be nice to take some time off work as well.

Thank you for your continued support of Okay History! I’ll see you next week!

Okay,

Chris

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Holy Trinity is considered one of the oldest continuous Catholic churches in Washington, DC, and has been visited by three sitting presidents, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Joe Biden, along with the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

Beyond the attendance of well-known political leaders, Holy Trinity has worked to pass down the faith. In 1818, it added a school, which over the years educated different populations, from high school to college-aged women, to eventually what it is today – a little over 335 students from PreK through 8^th grade.

By the mid-1830s, the church had outgrown its original chapel and launched a capital campaign in 1839. Proved successful, because on June 15, 1851, the new church opened its doors and has served as the main center of worship ever since.

I began working at Holy Trinity in 2024, overseeing the church’s fundraising efforts. We launched a capital campaign in September of last year – continuing the idea that we need more space and resources for a growing and vibrant church. And this past Saturday, we had our annual parish picnic to celebrate the church’s 175th anniversary.

While parishioners of Holy Trinity in 1839 began their journey to raise money to build a church, they endured a lot of challenges. There was the unexpected death of their president (William Henry Harrison), the continual economic depression from the Panic of 1837 that saw the Treasury dry up and the economy crash, and the rise of the abolitionist movement as the country expanded west and sought to prevent the extension of slavery with it. They experienced the second unexpected death of their president (Zachary Taylor), days after the 4^th of July in 1850.

Fast forward to the experiences of the 2026 parishioners – where, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the singing of the Declaration of Independence, the president of the United States held a cage fight on the front lawn of the White House.

Pretty much the same thing, really.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. The United States and Great Britain signed another treaty on June 15, 1846. When running for president, James Polk campaigned on the idea that he would establish the western boundaries of the United States – our God-given right to do so. “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight” was in reference to the 54^th parallel, the border he wanted. Instead, he compromised, and he got the 49th parallel. Just as good a parallel, I would say. It would create Oregon and Washington, the latter a place I will be visiting in about a week for the World Cup.

2. The first Republican National Convention opened on June 17, 1856. Founded just two years earlier in Wisconsin, the party was determined to stop the spread of slavery and give large tax cuts to huge corporations, while cutting our social service programs for the poor. They nominated John C. Fremont and ran on the idea that “Free Speech, Free Press, Free Soil, Free Men. Fremont and Victory” would win. Instead, they lost the election to James Buchanan, and the march to the Civil War quickened.

3. Juneteenth became a national holiday on June 17, 2021. President Joe Biden signed into existence the celebration of the end of slavery. What began in Texas, where federal troops explained to the enslaved people that they were in fact free, and had been for over two and a half years. There’s something perfect about the idea of showing up in Texas and explaining to the good folks there that something major happened two and a half years ago. The holiday has since been an opportunity to embrace our past, recognize it, and commit to making the country better so that we can have a cage fight on the White House front lawn.

After working on Saturday, Sunday afforded me some time to knock out a few personal projects that I haven’t gotten to – which included taking advantage of the nice weather and grilling up some chicken thighs:

I think they turned out pretty good. I’m having them all week for lunch.

Blue, of course, supervised the project:

As a thank you, I gave him a bath, which was like a cage match to get him to cooperate.

Finally, I voted in the DC Democratic primary – we are voting for a new mayor, a few councilmembers, and our representative to the House, which we haven’t replaced in over 30 years.

DC now has Ranked Choice Voting, which I’m so happy about – if you are looking for an effective way to combat one-party rule, Ranked Choice Voting is the way to go. It’s how we landed our first Democratic Congresswoman in Alaska in a long time, and it holds DC Democratic leaders’ coronations accountable. I’m quite confident I screwed it up. I dropped off the ballot anyway and hope for the best.

It was a long week, and I’m grateful for the chance to slow down and recharge yesterday. I hope you did as well. Thanks for the support of Okay History, and I hope the week ahead is a good one.

Okay,

Chris

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The in-laws were in town this week and brought us this present – he looks so much like our boy!

I work right down the street from a university in one direction and an all-girls high school in another, plus there is a grade school attached to the parish where I work, so I have been surrounded by all types of graduates for the past couple of weeks.

One thing all of these students will experience – they will move on to another unknown situation, which will require growth, maturity, and an understanding that life never goes in reverse – just straight ahead – whether you are ready or not.

This weekend, my family had a graduation party for my niece and nephew, who graduated from high school last week, which doesn’t seem possible, but it is. Now they will spend the precious few weeks of summer celebrating – before freshman orientation begins in the Fall.

Mary and Timmy are fraternal twins who are absolutely top-notch kids.1 I’m extremely proud to be their uncle. I have played absolutely no role in how well they are growing up. My brother and sister-in-law deserve all the credit in the world. Mary and Timmy are kind, smart, hardworking young people – and I can’t wait to see how they continue their educational journey.

Since this is the last of the Dake family high school graduations and we are approaching the country’s 250th anniversary, I thought it would be interesting to see how the high school graduating class of 2026 compares to the one that graduated 50 years ago, when the bicentennial was celebrated.

Since both grads are going to state schools in Virginia (considered an excellent state for higher education), I took a look at three big categories when it comes to the college experience:

Cost:

In 1976, the average college tuition in a Virginia state school was around $525, and when you added room and board, the total came to just over $2,100.2 Timmy and Mary will spend just over $16,000 a year on tuition alone. If they want to live and eat while at school, the costs climb to $40,000 – and thank goodness they are in-state residents. Someone who gets into the University of Virginia but doesn’t live in the Commonwealth and still chooses to attend will end up paying over $56,000.3

One interesting note about the rising cost: Virginia used to cover 70% of in-state college costs. It now covers 58%. The state has generously made up the difference by allowing residents to continue living in Virginia.

Technology:

Once the kids hit the back-to-school sales and unload their stuff into their dorms, both will be armed with high-powered laptops, cell phones, and, more importantly, artificial intelligence. Virginia is among the top states for AI adoption among 18-24-year-olds, alongside New York, New Jersey, and California.4

The kids who graduated in the summer of 1976 entered the fall with typewriters and whiteout. They called their parents on pay phones, and if they sought intelligence, it was usually at the library, looking up card catalogs to find books with important information.

It goes without saying that Timmy and Mary’s classmates know a thing or two about the power of instant action and results. But then again, it’s hard to say you misplaced a term paper when your professor knows you can just find it in a cloud.

Demographics:

The way college campuses look when America celebrates 250 years is wildly different from how they looked in 1976, when campuses like UVA were made up of 30% women.

Where college campuses were overwhelmingly white 50 years ago, today they are made up of more nonwhite students.

Spare a thought for the UVA student working in the alumni office trying to plan a 50-year homecoming reunion: there aren’t many 70-something women to invite, because the school had only just gotten around to letting them in.5

So college is more expensive, has more powerful technology, and has more diversity than it did when I entered the world, and when 18-year-olds in Virginia went off to college. Lots can change in 50 years – imagine what college will be like for my brother’s grandchildren.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. The NFL and AFL announced they would merge on June 8, 1966. By the mid-1950s, the National Football League had a strong grip on the sport’s growing popularity, thanks to television and rising viewership and attendance. The league wasn’t interested in expanding and increasing that wealth – so owners who were rejected from purchasing an NFL franchise formed their own league, the American Football League, in 1959. Picking cities that didn’t have NFL teams proved wise, and so the leagues were competing so much against each other - that when the NFL went out and signed a kicker from an AFL team, all hell broke out, and they merged. Now there are two conferences – the NFC, which features original NFL teams, and the AFC, which is made up of mostly AFL teams. They smashed the leagues together officially in 1970, even though the first Championship game with teams from different leagues was played in 1967.6 The league’s combined net worth is over $227 billion. I don’t think either Mary or Timmy will be studying business in school, but if they are smart – perhaps pre-law in antitrust would be a strong move.

2. The Committee of Five was appointed on June 11, 1776. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston were appointed by the Second Continental Congress to draft a declaration of independence. Jefferson then lost a game of “Not It!” and had to write the entire thing himself. He did so well, we now capitalize the “D” and “I”. Two other committees were also formed that day- don’t get the impression the rest of Congress did nothing while Tommy J did all the heavy literary lifting. Mary seems more like the committee type of the two, but Timmy was the MVP of his lacrosse team this year - so it shows he is a team player.

3. The U.S. Census Bureau got a big computer on June 14, 1951. The Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) was engineered by two really smart guys from the University of Pennsylvania, and it was the first commercially available computer to begin the laborious work of counting people and sorting them into categories. It also predicted President Eisenhower’s landslide victory in the 1952 presidential election – when polls had it close.7 The UNIVAC is the great-grandfather of the AI boom, which can now help the twins add up the tip on their DoorDash app when ordering a late-night pizza.

Saturday was a fun party – all of us are the age where all we want to do is just catch up with other family members we haven’t seen in a while. A few cousins who live out in Virginia joined as well, and while it hasn’t sunk in yet that the twins are off to college, I still can’t get over how incredibly tall they are. Also, I’m grateful I didn’t end up eating both styles of graduation cake. These are the observations you have when you turn 50.

It was also nice spending a few days with my older sister, who came to town on Thursday, and showing her around the neighborhood. She has the cutest dog, little Brownie:

She’s a shih tzu poodle, and I’ll let you come up with the new name for the combined dog. Just the sweetest dog ever, who is now charged with taking care of my sibling. Can’t wait to see her again!8

Okay, thanks everyone for your support of Okay History. I hope you have a great week.

Okay,

Chris

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But first, there is a little bit of bad news - our oven broke. This meant we needed the Oven Guy to come over and give us his diagnosis. We had a two-hour window for his arrival, which made the morning a little bit hectic. You can’t effectively plan and execute when you don’t know when Oven Guy is going to show up.

Fortunately, I didn’t even need the oven, because I’ve been wanting to grill a whole chicken since it’s now “grilling whole chicken” season. Longtime subscribers will remember our epic turkey roast from 2023, back when the oven was functional. But this time, I tried my hand at spatchcocking a chicken and then throwing it on the grill with some potatoes.

The first step was understanding the word “spatchcock.” It didn’t take me too long, but there is still a part of me that wondered why we can’t just say “butterflied.” Who decides what words mean, anyway?

Next, I pulled out an old recipe featuring Mediterranean seasoning, and what was cool about this project was that it required a brick to press down the chicken once it had been spatchcocked.

Now that we have the bird split in two, here’s how it looked on the grill with a brick that I pulled from my embarrassingly small front yard, cleaned off, and wrapped in foil.

Blue was my assistant, but when Oven Guy eventually made it to the house, he was more focused on what was going on inside than on what was going on outside.

Even though I was a bit rushed, I do believe the bird turned out quite well:

With the accomplishment of grilling, it was on to celebrate SPORTS! We had excellent seats for the Nats and the visiting San Diego Padres. My buddy and I did our best with our 50-plus dad vibes and kept score throughout the game, and were rewarded with a very engaging, if complicated, scoring exercise. We were a bit rusty, so thank goodness for the ESPN app, which let us keep the scorebook without errors.

I even brought a little bit of my grilled chicken to the game.

The game went a bit longer than we had hoped, but after the home team secured the win, we trekked the short distance from Nats Park to Audi Field and took in the Washington Spirit match. We met up with Anonymous, who was overjoyed to learn from Oven Guy that we need to purchase a new oven.

Despite missing the first half, we were fortunate to witness another DC win.

All in all, a great Saturday. It was a day of learning new words, the constant vigilance required to watch a grill with a spatchcocked chicken and a brick on top, and how expensive appliances can easily break.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Begins Serialization on June 5, 1851. The National Era was a weekly abolitionist newspaper. Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Christian abolitionist from Connecticut, was also an author who began to pen stories depicting the horrors of slavery. Beginning this week, Stowe would publish a story centered on a main character, Uncle Tom, an enslaved person who experienced the cruelty of being sold repeatedly.

The story became so wildly popular that the National Era and Stowe agreed to keep it running. A publisher convinced Stowe to turn it into a book, and in March 1852, the hardcover volume was published and sold over 10,000 copies in its first week. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is widely regarded as the most influential protest novel of the pre-Civil War Era. It became the second best-selling book in the United States during the 19^th century. Only the Bible sold more copies – but it also had a fifty-year head start.

2. The Basketball Association of America was founded on June 6, 1946. A bunch of hockey owners got anxious that their arenas sat empty during the winters when their teams were away, so they decided to create a basketball league for the growing sport to fill in the nights and make more money.

Eleven teams took the hardcourt that season for the BAA, with the Philadelphia Warriors winning the first title the following Spring. Three years later, the league would merge with the National Basketball League, which was founded in 1937.

This new super basketball league would now be known as the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Six teams from the original BAA are still in existence – The Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, and Philadelphia 76ers. One team from the NBL that did not survive the test of time- the Akron Firestone No-Skids. I’m not kidding. “No-Skids” is a reference to the team’s owners, the Firestone Tire Company, founded by Harvey Firestone, who died in 1938. The NBA Finals get underway this week, and the local team, the Washington Wizards, has the first pick in the 2026 NBA Draft in a couple of weeks. Their nickname really needs to be “Nothing But Skids.”

3. The Lee Resolution was passed on June 7, 1776. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution in the Second Continental Congress calling for America’s independence from Britain. It had three parts: breaking from the British Crown, engaging with foreign countries and developing formal diplomatic relations, and establishing a confederation of the Thirteen Colonies to govern properly.

On July 2, 12 of the 13 colonies voted to pass the resolution – only New York abstained, because the guys sent there hadn’t been given instructions on what to do, much like when Anonymous sends me to the grocery store.

Two days later, Thomas Jefferson presented the final draft of the Declaration of Independence, and a group of guys adopted it and began to rally the idea of the nation - the United States of America.

The Nats game reminded me of what a group of guys can accomplish when they all get together to show unity and inspire confidence. During the game, a small yet rambunctious group of young men began to assemble in the empty upper deck of right field. It was here that they began to rally the fans – mostly by taking their shirts off and yelling.

Over the course of a few innings, the crowd had doubled. Just rows and rows of shirtless guys whipping their clothes above their heads in the sweltering heat. I imagine the gentlemen in Philadelphia 250 years ago did the same thing – rallying the votes.

Does anyone doubt that John Adams, a fierce proponent of Independence, took off his wig, multiple wool shirts, and just started whipping his clothes over his head while screaming as the votes came in? I mean, come on, of course he did.

Hope your first week of June is just as fantastic. Thank you for your support of Okay History and I will eventually at some point get back to ranking the Vice Presidents.

Okay, Chris

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In 1971, Congress made the last Monday in May the official day we set aside to remember and honor our service members who died protecting our freedoms. The day used to be on every May 30^th – but it was sorta annoying having it on a random Wednesday.

Why? Well, because no one is out doing things on a random Wednesday, no BBQ planned, or trips to take. So Congress decided 55 years ago to move to the last Monday in May. This decision was motivated by a desire to consume as much stuff – from beer to brats to beds. I hope you are staring down inflation and higher prices right in the face and still forking over money to purchase all the stuff!

Anonymous, Blue, and I did our part, and we are already $50 in on gas while driving to West Virginia. It’s been quite a trip – it took us five hours on Friday afternoon to get here from Washington, DC, thanks to the weather and Maryland drivers. I’m not kidding when I say – I spent most of the time driving at 40 miles per hour through mountains, fog, and rain. It was so much fun!

We finally made it to Coopers Rock State Park, just east of Morgantown, West Virginia.

It’s a beautiful place, and we rented one of the new cabins they have built to encourage tourism in the area.

What is Coopers Rock? It’s an almost 13,000-acre state forest, known for its beautiful hiking trails, campsites, and a scenic overlook. Unfortunately for us, it rained most of the time, but it was still worth coming out here for a few days.

There are a few competing stories about how Coopers Rock got its name, but the one I like is that a fugitive hid out in the woods, made barrels (presumably for outlawed alcohol), and sold them to people in the surrounding communities. Either way, if I were going to hide from the law, this is an excellent place to do it.

The cabins themselves have all the new features a small family needs. I highly recommend a trip out here if you can. On Sunday, Anonymous and I joined friends for what seemed like a 500-mile uphill hike. I’m not great with pictures, but this stream gives a glimpse of what we experienced:

We grabbed a picture of the overlook on our way this morning:

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. President Kennedy tells Congress – We are going to the moon on May 25, 1961. Twenty days after Alan Shepard was launched into space, President Kennedy proclaimed that the United States would accelerate efforts to reach the Moon by the end of the decade. The “Space Race” was on, and we were already far behind the Soviet Union. Don’t worry, it all turned out fine. What’s funny is, the Moon objective wasn’t the reason for the joint session of Congress. It was about a ton of stuff, and the Moon aspect was put at the end of a 45-minute speech.

For me, this is a perfect example of what we are capable of achieving in this country when we put focus on something. At one point, our space program employed 400,000 people just to ensure we landed on the moon.

2. Frederick Douglass delivered a commencement speech on May 30, 1881. The end of May is for remembering the fallen and giving speeches to graduating seniors. Storer College was established as an institution of higher learning for Black people located in Harper’s Ferry, the site of John Brown’s uprising in October 1859. Brown and Douglass were friends, and Frederick’s speech was to celebrate Brown, whose zeal “was as the burning sun to my tapered light.”

Storer College closed in 1955, and most of the campus is preserved at Harper’s Ferry National Park. Harper’s Ferry Brewery is a pretty good place, but it has nothing to do with this story.

3. The Tulsa Race Massacre took place on May 31, 1921. Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood was known as “Black Wall Street,” a place where formerly enslaved people and their descendants had thrived with their own businesses and financial growth.

On May 30^th, a young black man, Dick Rowland, was accused of “raping” a white elevator operator named Sarah Page. The local newspaper ran a story the next day, along with a mention that a lynching was planned for later. This inspired mobs of people to descend to the local jail, where violence broke out between races – those who were there to protect Rowland and those who were determined to cause him grave harm. When white people died, that sparked two days of white retaliation where mobs of white people destroyed black businesses and murdered black people.

This horrific story was buried – never mentioned to the greater masses about its history, until the late 1990s. It’s an important reminder that there are probably more stories like this in our past. Bringing them to light doesn’t diminish our country’s legacy or future; it just makes us more aware of the challenges we faced and the struggles we will need to confront.

It’s been quite an adventure since we climbed into the car in DC. As I mentioned, the trip took longer than expected (it’s usually around 3 to 3.5 hours). When we got to the cabin, the key didn’t work. After a nice ranger lady let us in with a new key, we settled in, but then the next day, we discovered that the key wasn’t the issue – it was a broken door. Now, to be clear, we learned we were the first people to stay in these A-frame cabins that are built for stargazing (they actually call them the stargazing cabins), so experiencing a broken door that wouldn’t lock would have cut the trip short. But the good folks at the State Park were able to move us to a new cabin, where we understand we are the first people to stay there as well.

the A-Frame cabin and the

It’s a trip of firsts!

We just got back home and are in the land of reliable Wi-Fi!

Hope the holiday weekend has been a relaxing and recharging one for you.

Happy summer, everyone, and thanks for your continued support of Okay History.

Okay,

Chris

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Back in the fall of 2013, a family I didn’t know took a trip to Georgia and stopped at an apple orchard. They noticed that alongside that orchard, there was an old woman selling small animals for pets – mostly cats, though she did have one lone dog she couldn’t unload on someone else.

The family had two daughters, and one, let’s call her Oldest Daughter A (ODA), to protect her identity, came upon the lone dog the old woman was selling and was immediately smitten. Her parents weren’t as confident that buying the dog no one wanted was a good idea, so ODA and the parents agreed to sleep on it.

Nothing would change ODA’s strong desire to go back the next day to the old woman and her makeshift pet stand next to the orchard to purchase the black chow-rottweiler-lab mix. And so she did. The daughter got her dog, and the lone dog got his forever home.

The daughter, of course, was Anonymous, and the dog would be known as Blue, named after the mountain range the family visited those many years ago.

I don’t know what I was doing in the fall of 2013, probably nothing great, but I was doing enough of the right things to be on the path where four years later, Blue and I would meet.

And today, May 11, we celebrate Blue’s 13th birthday.

Dogs are the greatest thing God has given us, and it’s fair to say that everyone who has a dog thinks their dog is the greatest. It’s a nice sentiment, but completely outside of reality, because Blue is, for all intents and purposes, the best dog ever.

For this week’s Maundy Monday Newsletter, we will take a walk down memory lane and highlight three important milestones that Blue and I have shared over the past nine years.

1. The First Meeting – May 2017. There is a strict protocol when meeting Blue for the first time. Number 1: You are not to look him in the eyes, lest he take that as a challenge to his manhood, and come at you with the fury of an army battalion. Number 2: You must ignore Blue; let him sniff you out to see if you are connected to another dog he may know and most likely doesn’t like. The process of not looking him in the eye, as if Blue were a character in a random Stephen King novel, may take days, weeks, or even years, depending on how often they encounter each other. For me, the first meeting went smoothly because I followed Anonymous’s directive (as the rest of my life would play out), and Blue deemed me a reasonable guest. However, he still interrupted any affection I tried to bestow on the woman I was wooing. It would take him years to move past this.

2. The Choosing – Spring 2018. Anonymous and I had been dating for at least a year, and Blue and I had a gentleman’s agreement – he would let me walk him and pet him. We were allowed to have our eyes connect, but we had not yet leaped into “Forever Friends.” It wouldn’t be until Anonymous caught a nasty flu that forced Blue to spend a few nights at my place, where the connecting got more connecting. Then, a few weeks later, when Anonymous went to Germany to give a speech on how to spy effectively, Blue came over for an extended stay. It was then that the bond was sealed, and Blue and I felt like true bros. I basically married Blue before I married Anonymous.

3. Together Forever – Spring 2020. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Anonymous and I were three years into our relationship and still living about a mile apart. I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but one day, weeks into the new world order, Anonymous came over and then never left. That meant Blue came along as well. My small one-bedroom apartment was now a family home for three. It was during this time that I became Blue’s primary caretaker, taking him on walks and feeding him. When we moved into our current house later in 2020, Blue established himself in the neighborhood as well, ensuring that anyone who comes near our manor who he doesn’t know or like finds our family abode well protected.

Blue has one distinctive trait that I love; he has a very specific opinion about people and animals. Back in 2018, Anonymous and I drove for what felt like hours into no-man’s-land to meet with a dog trainer we hoped would help us train Blue. When we arrived and got out of the car, we encountered a large donkey.

Now I’m pretty confident Blue had never seen a donkey before. So he did what any dog with Blue’s nervousness and anxiety would do, especially after being in the car for hours – an activity he greatly despises – he barked at the donkey. When the donkey didn’t respond and continued to live his best donkey life, Blue then retreated to shake behind us. The donkey looked Blue in the eyes and won the day.

It was after this encounter that the dog trainer emerged, interacted with us for about 30 minutes, and determined there was nothing he could do to help us with Blue – we had spoiled him too much for any reasonable amount of training to undo any bad habits Blue may have developed.

But it doesn’t matter in the end because Blue always chooses you. He’s the best dog; he’s loyal, loving, and sweet. He does have anxiety, and the minute he walks outside, he thinks the world is against him, but inside the house – nothing but love.

He hates it when you are upset, and defensive when you get mad at him. His food motivation is off the charts. His vet says that, despite being 13, he has the bloodwork of a 2-year-old. He’s an old man who looks years younger.

He’s the sweetest and bluest of the bears. Anonymous and I love him very much. Happy Birthday! We get to see him soon as we return from our trip to Nashville over the weekend. He was sick for most of last week, but hopefully he is feeling better. Either way, he will take his trip to the local pet store to grab a new toy and get a treat. Not all bad habits are really bad. Who knows what the future will hold for us, but I’m grateful to have Blue here with me as we journey into it.

Okay! Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers! As I mentioned, we were in Nashville over the weekend with Anonymous’s parents to see the Eagles in concert. They are a great show to take in. I’m glad this upcoming weekend will be one where I stay home.

I hope you have a great week. Thanks for your support of Okay History!

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I’m back after two straight weekends full of friends and life events.

Two weekends ago, Anonymous and I attended a friend’s wedding, where I officiated the ceremony, and she served as matron of honor. The Bride was beautiful, and so was Anonymous. The opportunity to let the Groom and everyone know how well the two of us married above our station in life was too good to pass up. It was fun.

This past weekend I was in Cleveland, visiting one of my oldest friends from college. His wife passed away about a month ago after a battle with breast cancer, and a group of us got together and hung out with him. It was a good weekend, overall, just not under the best circumstances – but also a reminder I need to get back to The Land more often. But not during the winter.

In between, right before I left for Cleveland, Anonymous and I went to Mosaic Theater Company here in Washington, D.C., where we’ve had season tickets for the past two years. Mosaic is a fantastic small regional theater in a surprisingly vibrant theater city. Mosaic mostly produces activist and political theater, which means we usually leave having learned and felt something uncomfortable. But it makes the drinks afterwards much more enjoyable when unpacking everything.

The show we saw was a hip-hop musical premiere about the early life of John Lewis — Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest — written by their playwright-in-residence, a man named Psalmayene 24. The show follows Lewis from age 18 through the next decade of his life, through sit-ins and arrests and beatings, through his speech at the 1963 March on Washington, and finishing with the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. It’s an ensemble cast of about 15 people, and right from the jump, they grab you by your shirt collar and take you along for the ride. It’s funny, we arrived just before the show began, and the theatre was packed, so the staff let us sit in reserved seats in the front row. This is a highly recommended move for the future, especially for a place that doesn’t provide seat-number tickets.

John Lewis famously described his approach to civil rights as making “good trouble” — the idea that there are moments when the disruptive thing and the right thing are the same thing, and the only question is whether you’re willing to act. He lived that for sixty years. It’s also this week’s theme, because the Freedom Rides began on May 4, 1961, where good trouble made its way down South to change the course of American history.

The Freedom Rides were led by a group of black and white civil rights activists who boarded buses in Washington, D.C. and headed south toward New Orleans. The goal was straightforward: ride together in unsegregated seats through states that had decided that federal law was more of a suggestion.

The Supreme Court had already ruled twice that segregated interstate bus travel was unconstitutional — once in 1946 (Morgan v. Virginia) and again in 1960 (Boynton v. Virginia). The southern states interpreted these directives as something optional, like a toddler told to eat his vegetables, and since we can’t always have a Civil War every 50 years, people like John Lewis and others took on the challenge to make change.

The rides were organized by the Congress of Racial Equality and involved activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, where John Lewis was a central figure. The riders trained in nonviolent resistance, a stance the musical highlights as controversial. These young people knew they would confront violence. They knew they would respond with the exact opposite action.

They went anyway.

And the violence came. Just in Alabama, a bus was firebombed, and mobs worked through the terminals with clubs and chains on multiple occasions. And yet these young people kept going.

Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest is 90 minutes of John Lewis with all gas and no brakes – like there was no intermission. He faced challenges at home when he tried to get into Troy State University, with his peers who wanted to match the violence they faced, and with prominent Civil Rights leaders who wanted him to tone down his speeches. Throughout all of this, John Lewis was beaten and arrested more than 40 times over the course of his civil rights career.

All of it was “good trouble.” Lewis passed away in 2020 at the age of 80.

Okay, let’s get to what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark anniversaries ending in 5 or 0.

1. Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961. One day after the Freedom Rides left Washington, Alan Shepard climbed into a capsule called Freedom 7 — perfect name – no notes — and was launched into space for fifteen minutes and twenty-two seconds. The United States was behind in the race to space - the Soviets had put Yuri Gagarin into full orbit just weeks earlier, so NASA was operating from a position of considerable pressure.

Speaking of considerable pressure, Shepard’s launch was delayed multiple times that morning while he sat in the capsule. During one of those delays, he reportedly told Mission Control he needed to use the bathroom, but there were no facilities on board. Mission Control’s reaction was to tell him to go ahead and do what you have to do. So Shepard did. No more pressure.

2. The New Revolution opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain on May 8, 1976. The New Revolution was recognized by the American Coaster Enthusiasts as the first modern roller coaster to include a vertical loop. Isn’t it great that we have an American Coaster Enthusiasts organization that grants formal recognition upon roller coasters, and that somewhere there is a plaque?

What I love about this moment in history is that someone at Six Flags looked at the existing state of roller coasters, asked what would happen if we went completely upside down, was told by every reasonable person around them that this seemed inadvisable, and did it anyway. I’m quite confident that many people pulled an Alan Shepard on this ride.

3. Dr. John Pemberton sold the first Coca-Cola on May 8, 1886. Dr. John Pemberton was a Confederate veteran and pharmacist from Atlanta who, after being wounded in one of the final engagements of the Civil War, developed a morphine addiction and set about trying to find something better. What he invented was a syrup he marketed as a nerve tonic and headache remedy, which he sold at Jacobs’ Pharmacy in Atlanta on this day for five cents a glass.

The original formula included extracts from coca leaves — that’s right: COCAINE! — and caffeine from kola nuts. This was not considered unusual. Patented medicines of the 1880s operated on the working assumption that if something made you feel dramatically better immediately, we would sort out the consequences later.

Pemberton sold the rights to his formula for a modest sum and died in 1888, having seen none of what Coca-Cola would become. The cocaine was quietly removed from the formula by 1903. The sugar and the calories remained.

One last thing about Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest.

Psalmayene 24 (I cannot pronounce the name, but I love how his name presents the way he engages the world) spent seven years crafting this show. The book is sharp. The lyrics are sharper — tight, biting, and forceful in the way that good protest writing has to be, meeting the moment. The music was created by Kokayi – a Grammy-nominated artist – and you can see why. There are plenty of times where the Fourth Wall is broken, and the audience is pulled into the world – mostly for humor, but not for cheap laughs – but more so as a reminder you are an active participant in this experience. We were told a few times not to sit down. I did what I was told.

Michael Bahsil-Cook, who plays Young John, is inspiring. The talented actor delivers the fear, the faith, and the cost of choosing to stand up anyway, as Lewis did. It is a remarkable performance. If you get a chance to, go see this performance.

This week, Anonymous and I head to Nashville (coincidentally, where John Lewis began his Civil Rights journey) on Friday to visit her parents, who are driving up from Florida to join us for an Eagles concert. They have been rocking since 1971. And this tour has been going on since 2019. That’s just incredible. It’s the second time seeing the Eagles as a family – I can’t wait!

I hope everyone has a great week. Thank you, as always, for reading Okay History.

Okay, Chris

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I remember feeling that his passing was awful for a variety of reasons, most notably his direct opposition to the policies of the Trump Administration Part II: Bring the Cruel. Francis’s advocacy for migrants and his desire to create a Church that was more inclusive and centered on service to the poor stood in stark contrast to a government that sought to cleanse the country of these very people, enrich itself and the insanely wealthy, and to do all this quickly.

With the Trump sequel in place, Vice President JD Vance, the recent convert to Catholicism, took the opportunity to meet with Pope Francis during the Easter holiday. At the time of the visit, Francis was in poor health. Their official meeting did not last long, just an exchange of pleasantries and Francis gifting chocolate to Vance’s children, while VPJD presented the Holy Father with the awkwardness he is now famous for.

Soon after, Francis passed away.

Charged with the immense responsibility of replacing Francis, the College of Cardinals shocked the world when they elected Robert Francis Prevost, the next Vicar of Christ, on May 8, 2025. Pope Leo XIV is the first American to become the head of the Catholic Church, and is only the second, following his predecessor, to hail from the Americas.

Almost immediately, my anxiety about the uncertainty of who would lead the Church has been calmed greatly. Pope Leo is continuing many of Francis’ priorities, including placing women in more prominent positions within the Vatican bureaucracy, while continuing to advocate for migrants, the poor, and, lately, peace. Sure, Leo is a Chicago White Sox fan, but we all have flaws.

I dislike the phrase “we are living in unprecedented times” because it tends to be overly dramatic. But we are living in a world where the President of the United States is a convicted felon (whether you agree with that or not), cannot form any coherent policy position, and is generally considered the cruelest man ever to hold the position. At the same time, St. Peter’s Chair is occupied by a guy known to his friends as Bob, and who used to play priest with his brothers as a kid.

We have entered the dawn of a new era of what it means to be an American Catholic. I won’t get into everything that has been exchanged between Trump/Vance, and Pope Leo over the past month, that would take a longer essay. There’s going to be a reckoning for Catholics in this country, who, as a voting bloc that had experienced Trump for well over a decade, chose to bring him back.

Now in Rome, we have someone who understands our country’s politics very well. Leo has a large platform to shine a bright light on the direction our leaders take us, and cannot be easily dismissed like Francis was. Leo has already experienced Vance’s awkwardness in person and lived. You cannot brush Bob off by claiming he doesn’t understand the ways of American politics and people.

Bob knows.

The conflict we are seeing between the Trump Administration and the Vatican is only beginning, and I pray we find ourselves motivated by love for others rather than by what we have been forced to witness.

Okay, let’s highlight what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark their anniversary, ending in 5 or 0. Here’s what I got:

1. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the practice of busing for racial desegregation on April 20, 1971. In the case of Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that allowed the city government of Charlotte, North Carolina, and its suburb of Mecklenburg to bus black children to the white-dominant schools, where people fled after the landmark decision of Brown vs the Board of Education forced schools to integrate their population. Busing has been a controversial topic, and there is debate over whether it has had the positive effects intended.

2. New York became the first state to require license plates on cars on April 25, 1901. Governor Benjamin Odell, Jr. signed a law requiring car owners to register their “unnatural” vehicles with license plates. The plates displayed the driver’s initials, and there were no restrictions on their size, color, or material. It formalized a process that allowed cars on certain streets and placed car drivers on the same level as horse drivers. George Chamberlin would be the first person to receive the license plate. I can’t help but think his license plate read: GeorgeC#1.

3. Speaking of Number 1, Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” reached #1 on the Billboard on April 21, 1956. Down at the end of Lonely Street sat Heartbreak Hotel. It was a place people went to when their baby left them, and they needed a new place to dwell. The song was written in an hour by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with rumors that it was inspired by a guy who tossed himself out of a window because his lady left him. In November 1955, they presented the song to Presley at the Andrew Jackson Hotel, and he eagerly agreed to perform it as he moved his recording from Sun to RCA. Heartbreak Hotel was released at the beginning of the year and quickly shot up the charts, where it stayed for eight weeks. I once performed this song in a college variety show to critical acclaim, even though I cannot move my hips.

I finished an audiobook over the weekend. Factory Man, by Beth Macy. This New York Times Bestseller was published in 2014 and follows the life of furniture producer family icon John Bassett and his fight against the emerging globalization of his industry to save his Virginia community from ruin.

It’s a great book, and I recommend it to anyone. Macy is an author I discovered last year while reading Paper Girl, which was one of my favorite books of 2025. Even though Factory Man was written first, it doesn’t match the subject matter of Paper Girl.

I’m glad I finished the book, because I have concluded that I have been consuming too much negative news for months now and need to cleanse myself with something funnier. I’ll take any suggestions on audiobooks. Just FYI, I use the library app, Libby, so I don’t have the option to grab the most recent publications. Thanks for any recommendations for my mental health improvement!

Anonymous and I have a bunch of travel plans over the next several weeks, and this weekend begins with a banger. Good friends and subscribers to Okay History are getting married this weekend. I have the privilege of being the Officiant, while Anonymous is the Matron of Honor.

Because of that, I will be off from posting the next edition of VP rankings this Saturday and the next round of Monday Maundy Newsletter. If I can get something up, I will. But for the next few months, I will be more realistic about my schedule. I apologize for any disappointment and appreciate the support and patience!

Join me in wishing the best for our friends Catherine and Michael!

They will not be honeymooning here:

Heartbreak Hotel

See you soon.

Okay,

Chris

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“Path” is one of my favorite words. It’s a strong and commanding phrase.

Most four-letter words are. Here are a few – top of the head examples:

• Stop

• Goal

• Roar

Or how about this one:
Dake

Path is also visual. You can close your eyes right now and imagine what a path looks like. It can be a smooth, long highway that drifts into the distant mountain range, or it can be uneven, where you need to climb over rocks to reach that mountain top.

When I was courting Anonymous many years ago, I was smart enough to know right away that I needed to marry her. Enough of this dating nonsense, I needed to get on the path to matrimony. I didn’t care if it was a smooth ride or a rocky one; I was going to get it done.

Anonymous, on the other hand, took her time with me and our relationship. Even though I knew she felt the same toward me as I did for her, after two years of dating, I asked her whether getting married was in the future, and her usual response was :

“We are on that path.”

It was a reassuring answer. A path takes you places, such as the house your wife picks out that you will live in. What is marriage other than two people sharing life’s path together? Fortunately, after four years, four months, and four days of dating, we finally got engaged and have been on the path to happiness ever since.

But not all paths lead to happy destinations. Sometimes, you can find yourself going down the wrong path, like all the guys Anonymous dated before me. These dudes were “Wrong Path Guys” (WPG). I don’t know any of them at all, thank goodness, but I imagine they all lacked the gifted traits I possess, like a great set of hair and a healthy dose of humility.

It’s a good thing I helped Anonymous get off the WPG loop she was in before May 2017.

Wish we could say the same thing concerning our country back around the Civil War.

In our next edition of ranking the vice presidents of the United States, we are going to take a quick look at two WPG that tried to steer the United States off the path to prosperity and into something that wasn’t free and equal.

44: John Breckinridge

14^th Vice President

Term – March 4, 1857 – March 4, 1861

Presidential Administration: James Buchanan (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 43)

The Good:
I’m finding it hilariously frustrating to figure out what to put in these “good” sections for a position that does nothing, while on top of that, when the job is occupied by someone who was also terrible in so many ways. But, trying to be a more positive thinker, I will say the good Breckinridge did was to show young people that it is possible to fail forward. John is the youngest vice president in our history, assuming the second position under Buchanan at age 35. And there is a part of me that thinks that is a good thing. At 35, I was still six years away from meeting Anonymous, and she was stuck with her WPG.

The Bad:

There isn’t anything he did as vice president that stood out, and he was wildly popular back in his home state of Kentucky. Not giving away the ending, but after leaving the vice presidency, Breckinridge was elected to the United States Senate by the good people of Kentucky. He responded with that kindness, encouraging the state to break from the Union. When he failed to do that, he traveled down to Virginia and offered his services to the Confederacy, which were accepted. This is when Breckinridge earned another distinction – the highest federal office holder to turn traitor. He is a first-rate WPG.

Did he become president?

He did not. He did run in 1860, along with 40 other people. That divided ballot allowed Abraham Lincoln to win. I think this might have been a good thing?

Why did I rank him here?

He probably should be a few spots higher, but I forgot about him when I first was putting the list together, mostly because I forgot about the Buchanan presidency. In my defense, 44 is still pretty bad.

43: Andrew Johnson

16^th Vice President

Term – March 4, 1865 – April 15, 1865

Presidential Administration: Abraham Lincoln’s second term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: Numero Uno)

The Good:
I will always respect the fact that Andrew Johnson held firm to the Union and the Constitution of the United States in the face of increased disdain to both from his home state of Tennessee. To put this into perspective, Johnson is from East Tennessee, where Unionists outnumbered those who preferred the way of life the Confederacy was offering in 1860. In fact, the first vote of secession failed. Then they took a revote, and it passed. My father’s side of the family was also from East Tennessee, but it appears they went straight to the bad side right from the beginning. But Johnson held firm on the right path.

The Bad:

I’m not someone who knocks on people who like to drink. As someone who enjoys a good cocktail or simply a few beers, I try not to sit in judgment of others who may be fighting to keep their lives together despite the power that alcohol has over them. But Andrew Johnson was a drinker. When you are known as a “drinker,” it’s very hard to shake that off, unless you come out adamantly in words and deeds that you do not imbibe. Johnson didn’t do that. And in fact, just the opposite, as he had such a problem with drinking that he was hungover for his inauguration on March 4, 1865.

Did he become president?

Unfortunately, Andrew Johnson became the 17^th president of the United States. Johnson was a Democrat and ran with Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket in 1864, and defeated the ineffective Union General and Democratic candidate, George McClellan. Of course, Johnson and Lincoln did not see eye to eye on issues. Johnson’s job on the ticket was to appeal to any voter who could tolerate Lincoln when it appeared the country was going to tear itself in two.

Why did I rank him here?

Johnson is buried with a copy of the Constitution beneath his head. To me, that’s a projection to others in his present time and those in the future who would look back at him, that everything he did, he did for the Constitution. Now, does this include knocking back a handle of bourbon? Maybe. But Johnson wrecked Reconstruction, which put him near the bottom of the OKH presidential rankings. He started out as a right path guy, helping Lincoln win reelection, but it’s his presidency where we see him veer off and turn into that WPG, perhaps led there by alcohol.

Alright. How did I do this week? Any thoughts on where these guys are ranked? Is there any vice president you think should be ranked next? I have everything set now, but I’m always open to suggestions and well-thought-out arguments.

Who am I kidding? I’ll take poorly thought-out arguments.

Final question – can you think of any Wrong Path Guys in our history? I need to make WPG a thing.

Okay. I’ll be back on Monday with another Monday Maundy Newsletter. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, thanks for supporting Okay History, and stay on the right path.

Okay,

Chris

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