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

Subscribe now

Share

“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

Subscribe now

Share

It’s been fun turning 50 and having moments of reflection with others about it. Born in America’s bicentennial year, 50-year-olds in 2026 would have meant graduating from high school in 1994. Bicentennial babies have reached a point in life where our graduating year is now a few years away from being eligible to run for president.

Reflection and observation usually mean being drawn to famously successful people my age and seeing what they are up to. Is this a healthy behavior? Probably not, because this almost always leads to a feeling of jealousy. But just a pinch. My mind then tends to wander, and I’m left wondering whether, if these famous and wildly successful 50-year-olds knew I wrote a mediocre US history blog, would they feel a pinch of jealousy, too?

My wondering mind then observed that last week was a big one for famously successful 50-year-olds from the class of 1994. Let me share two quick examples.

First up, one of my favorite authors, Patrick Radden Keefe, published his latest book.

If you don’t know who Keefe is, here’s a quick bio – Patrick is an award-winning writer whom I first began reading years ago in The New Yorker. He’s also written two of my all-time favorite books, Say Nothing and Empire of Pain. He is incredibly talented.

So it was obvious I was going to head over to my local bookstore and pick up my pre-ordered copy of London Falling to celebrate the guy who, after graduating from high school in 1994, earned a degree in history, went to an Ivy League law school, passed the bar, and then decided that instead he would settle into writing.

When I see his success, it’s like I’m practically looking into a mirror. Patrick turns 50 next month, and nothing beats turning 50 by cranking out another New York Times bestseller. We are practically twins at this point.

Then on Friday, the crew of Artemis II returned from its ten-day lunar flyby mission. With all of the craziness coming from my town, it was a hopeful respite to watch these four incredibly brave people willingly launch themselves out of Earth’s atmosphere and then return with such speed and force that I don’t know how they did it.

Here again, we see another bicentennial baby. Victor Glover was the mission’s pilot and will turn 50 in a few weeks. Like Keefe, Glover is a proud member of the high school class of 1994, where he was named “Athlete of the Year.” Just like my uncanny parallel life with Keefe, I achieved a similar level of youthful success with Glover as I lettered in theater.

But the comparisons don’t stop there. Glover’s achievement of becoming the first black man to travel beyond low Earth orbit, whatever that is, is quite impressive. I’m the first person in my family to attend the same high school for all four years, which is quite an achievement considering I have four siblings. Two peas in a pod, really.

If you were born in 1976, graduated from high school in 1994, went on to excel at Ivy League institutions, military academies, or the 6th-best Jesuit university in the Midwest, you are going off to do some amazing things at the cusp of 50.

I’m proud of both Patrick and Victor and their recent accomplishments. I know they would share the same sentiment toward me if they knew me and the work I did this past week, where I did that thing in a remarkable way that was widely recognized as awesome.

I’m not too proud to admit that I have a pinch of jealousy toward these two. Patrick and Victor had a heck of a week, so let’s raise a glass in honor of all of us 50-year-olds from the Class of 1994!

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. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation to recruit troops to suppress insurrection on April 15, 1861. South Carolina soldiers attacked Fort Sumter three days earlier, officially beginning the Civil War. Lincoln had been president for about 45 days when he issued the order to secure 75,000 troops to bring freedom to the Southern states. What they thought would last days and months turned into years. In 1994, Bernard Cornwell published his novel Copperhead, which was a part of a series of books about a character named Nathaniel Starbuck. I wonder if he got into coffee.

2. The Bay of Pigs invasion began on April 17, 1961. After Cuba fell to the Communists and Fidel Castro took power in 1959, the United States tried all different ways to get him out of there. After the CIA trained over 1,000 exiles to do that by military force, they landed at a southern port called the Bay of Pigs. The entire mission was an instant disaster as Castro knew of the invasion, and a local radio broadcast saw and detailed the exiles’ every move. Almost all of the fighters were captured, and over 100 were killed. They surrendered to Castro after two days. Can’t wait for us to try this again with the current leaders. Cuba won the Baseball World Cup in 1994, which was the middle of their three consecutive championships.

3. President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan on April 14, 2021. In early 2020, President Donald Trump cut a deal with the Taliban, the opposition force that protected 9/11 terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden. This deal meant that the United States would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. When Biden came into office after the extremely important 2020 election, he reviewed the deal, decided to keep it, and then pushed it back to September. Then Biden was criticized for that by supporters of President Trump, who, in 1994, made a cameo appearance on the television show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with his second wife, Marla Maples. If you remember, Trump had an affair with Maples while he was still married to his first wife. Maples and Trump were married in 1993, and Jeffrey Epstein attended the wedding. Anyway!

I don’t want to neglect mentioning Glover’s fellow crew member, Jeremy Hansen, who also turned 50 in January. Hansen is Canadian, which means he was likely the nicest on the team. I imagine Jeremy is also quite accomplished by Canadian standards, and I’m sure we both have numerous similarities. But I don’t want you to think I had forgotten about him.

Okay, Anonymous is gone for the week, visiting her parents. Which means it’s guy’s week with Blue. I’ll be back on Saturday with another edition of the vice president rankings – I finally got my act together on this project and feel like I can be on a regular cadence with essays.

In the meantime, thanks, as always, for your support of Okay History. Have a great week!

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

One of my current colleagues worked on the Mitt Romney 2012 campaign.1[1] He told me he was entrenched in the vice presidential selection process, which ultimately went to Congressman Paul Ryan.2[2]

I’ll have to check with him about the science and art involved in selecting a running mate, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy. Inevitably, every presidential election has a debate over the merits of the vice-presidential selection, and whether the electorate cares enough to swing the election because of the decision. I tend to think that in the 21^st century, the VP choice is a consequential one, not to be taken lightly.

Election geniuses will point to whatever appeared as a misstep in a campaign, and putting someone on the ticket could be a massive mistake, so much so that it will turn out to be a pretty good movie to watch and praise for not happening.3[3]

It’s funny, if you put someone in charge of looking for your running mate, and he comes back with a one-word response: Me, you could end up with a terrible vice president, one that results in a lot of unnecessary deaths. But what if you simply pick someone who has no clue about anything?

On the other hand, what if you worked a presidential election before the 12^th Amendment and you were stuck with a guy the entire country had voted for the job? Instead of getting someone you could control, you had someone who openly opposed your leadership and disagreed with fundamental ideas of the Republic.

It’s these ideas, the disagreeable and dumb vice presidents, that we dive into in our latest edition of the vice president rankings.

46: John Calhoun

7^th Vice President

Term – March 4, 1825 – December 28, 1832

Presidential Administration: John Quincy Adams’ only term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 21) and part of Andrew Jackson’s first term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 12)

The Good:
I guess you could argue that Calhoun was bipartisan, since he is the most recent vice president to have served under two different presidential administrations, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. We all know how crazy the presidential election of 1824 was, and Calhoun put himself in the middle of it. But he was smart enough to realize it would serve him better to commit to the vice president job, which he landed fairly easily.

The Bad:

The good section is filled with nothing but how good you were at just getting elected, and you can be sure the bad section will end up being really bad, and it proves to be true for Calhoun.

Calhoun got right to work, first disagreeing with JQA on his foreign policy, thinking that the president of the United States shouldn’t worry himself about such matters. He disliked the 6^th president so much that Calhoun wrote Jackson, telling him that he would support Old Hickory’s election efforts in 1828.

That decision proved wise as Jackson swept into office and eventually swept Calhoun out. Why? Although both men were slaveholders, Calhoun felt states had more sovereignty than the United States itself. Which makes you wonder why, if he felt that way, would he have taken the supposed second-highest job in the country? Calhoun advocated that states could nullify laws passed by Congress, and Jackson nullified his voice by kicking him out of the job.

Did he become president?

Nope. Thank goodness, because John Calhoun looks scary as all get out.

Why did I rank him here?

I have always remembered Calhoun as one of those South Carolinians who just LOVED South Carolina so much simply because someone came up with the concept of South Carolina. You could easily rank him last. But this is close enough.

45: James Danforth Quayle

44^th Vice President

Term – January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993

Presidential Administration: George H.W. Bush (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 20)

The Good:
Dan inspired all of us who feel imposter syndrome to know that it’s okay. He was an actual imposter, someone so entirely unqualified, even for a job that I don’t think should even exist. But Dan Quayle was the original “DEI hire” that the right now likes to use. He was admitted into law school despite failing a comprehensive exam — apparently as a diversity candidate, minority being defined, in his case, as really dumb. Dumb people need jobs too, and Quayle was the poster boy for what Dumb people could aspire to.

The Bad:

Dan can’t spell. Of course, if this were a requirement to get the job, I’d 100% never be vice president. But Quayle was a walking gaffe machine, way before social media was a thing. I can’t imagine the memes a 21st-century Vice President Quayle would produce today. Dan built many careers for the members of Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s.

Did he become president?

No. In fact, Quayle never became a serious player in the Republican Party after he left office. For the rest of the 90s, he wrote a couple of books and announced he wouldn’t run for governor of Indiana or for the GOP nomination in 1996. He did return to the arena for the 2000 elections, which began with him facing his former boss’s son, and by the end of the first Iowa straw poll in August, he was finished; he hasn’t run since.

Why did I rank him here?

Quayle never inspired any confidence. If Bush had died in office, the United States would have been invaded by a dozen countries. Heck, Canada might have gotten into the action because a teenager would have run the country. Quayle once got into a fight with a fictional character, Murphy Brown, a woman who was a hard-charging journalist, and the decisions she made in her made-up life, including not having a child. To which Dan Quayle wagged his finger like a weirdo as a fighter for family values, and that, in fact, all fictional characters need to have children. The entire circumstance was weird.

We are slowly getting through the vice president rankings. Are you enjoying them? Did I rank these guys accurately?

I know that we haven’t even gotten to the guys we have never heard of – mostly because I need to read more about the guys we have never heard of. Then we will see if I got these rankings correct – but I’m feeling pretty confident at the moment.

As a reminder, I will be taking Monday off due to the Easter holiday. Happy Easter to you all, and thanks again for all your support.

Appreciate you all!

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

There was a time in my life, for about 20 years, when I didn’t drink it or eat chocolate. Perhaps unrelated, I was much thinner during this time.

Then, in 2015, I decided to see if I could drink a latte without dying. In a parking lot in Raleigh, North Carolina, I consumed a large one, and by a minor miracle, I lived. I have been hooked ever since.

Coffee itself has been around for a long time. We can trace it back to an Ethiopian goat herder who discovered that certain berries his flock ate made them all spaz out. He tried it himself and felt so energized despite having the boring job of watching goats all day.

With the help of local monks who figured out how to soak the berries in hot water and brew a drink that kept them awake all night, coffee was officially born and spread like a religion. Over the centuries, we developed all sorts of coffee-related stuff, including coffee houses, places where you could go and hang out for hours and drink. Since coffee is so accessible, that’s why lattes at the airport cost $12.

When I wasn’t drinking coffee or any caffeine, I kept telling everyone it’s a horrible side effect – like how I am a spaz when I take the substance. But actually, coffee has a lot of health benefits. Studies over the decades have shown that drinking coffee regularly can reduce Type 2 Diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. In 2024, thanks to Joe Biden, the FDA classified coffee as “healthy.” So drink those $12 lattes before you board!

This week, we recognize the beginning of a major player in the coffee world, when Starbucks first opened its doors in Seattle, Washington, on March 30, 1971. Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin, and Zev Siegl met as students at the University of San Francisco and discovered their shared passion for coffee. They partnered with Alfred Peet, a pioneer in the coffee roasting business. Soon, the three guys decided to open their own store selling high-end coffee beans roasted by Peet. In fact, Siegl, who taught high school history, quit his job and worked in the store, which makes him my personal hero. And just like that, Starbucks, in reference to the novel Moby Dick, which I have not read, was born.

Fast forward to 1987, and former Starbucks marketer Howard Schultz purchased the company and began creating “espresso drinks.” Funny thing about espresso: for the longest time, I called it “expresso” because I’m a moron. I do like the occasional espresso martini. I’m also on this White Russian kick right now for some reason.

Anyway, Schultz turned Starbucks into the biggest coffee company in the United States. They put stores everywhere, including in your local grocery, because heaven forbid if you had to drive down the street to a free-standing store. Instead, let’s grab an “expresso” before I hit the cereal aisle!

Coffee has a market value of around $200 billion and is expected to grow by another 100 billion over the next ten years. In 2024, the price of coffee increased by 37% thanks to Joe Biden and his inability to manage Asian supply chains or the weather in Brazil. Today, your standard vanilla latte costs about $1.00 more than it did under the last administration, so we have to bomb Iran to ensure prices go down. I think I have that correct. Go ahead and fact-check me on that one.

I’m not a big coffee snob, but there is an Ethiopian coffee place in my old DC neighborhood that I loved, but now I just bounce back and forth from the two Starbucks in my upscale neighborhood – it just depends on if I need to get my steps in. But I’ll pretty much drink any coffee.

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. President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest by John Hinckley on March 30, 1981. Reagan hadn’t been president that long before someone wanted to shoot him. He was walking out of the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, and waving to everyone, when Hinckley shot him and his press secretary, Jim Brady. I wrote about how this incident interrupted my daily dose of hot dog eating and cartoon watching. Reagan and Brady are both long gone, but Hinckley lives freely in Virginia, where he writes songs and wrote a memoir last year. He probably goes to Starbucks.

2. Two guys named Steve founded Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and another guy named Ronald personally assembled computers and began selling them from Steve’s parents’ garage. Wozniak was the brains behind how the computer worked, Jobs was the master of selling it, and Ron bailed because he wanted to buy a car or something. Who knows. I have an iPhone that tracks how many steps I take to get my Starbucks while watching John Hinckley on YouTube sing a song he wrote.

3. Ted Kaczynski was caught and arrested on April 3, 1996. Known as The Unabomber, Kaczynski was a college mathematician who worked at the University of California at Berkeley. He despised the advancement of technology and began mailing bombs in 1978 to schools, airlines, and technology stores in the hope of deterring what he considered the damage modern technology would do to society. What’s crazy was Ted never got around to bombing the Steves and Apple computers, who, over the course of his bombing career, were flourishing in the old neighborhood. His terrorism eventually bullied major newspapers into publishing his manifesto, including Penthouse. One of the manifesto points was that he specifically called out following sports teams as a waste of modern life, and I gotta say, he nailed that one. He was soon discovered by his brother, who recognized the crazy and alerted the feds. Ted committed suicide in 2023, but in light of other high-profile prisoners who have passed away in prison in mysterious fashion, are we sure? Let’s meet up at the Starbucks in the local Kroger and look through our iPhones for fun.

This was a busy weekend for Anonymous and me. We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with our neighbors. Yes, I know it’s been about two weeks since it was St. Patrick’s Day, but due to scheduling, this was the weekend we could have pulled it off.

It was a good lesson in paying attention to what you order. We ordered too much wine, too much beer, and hilariously, too many paper green straws.

Anonymous put me in charge of ordering the supplies we would need for the party, with the instruction that we would need supplies for at least “three years,” and I took that direction and ran with it!

Somehow, I ordered 4,000 green straws. This is what 4,000 green straws look like:

So I will be giving away lots of green straws in the future. I should do something fun for subscribers. Got any ideas?

Okay, It’s Holy Week. I will be back on Saturday with another edition of the VP Rankings. But I will be taking off next Monday, April 6th, due to Easter. So no Monday Maundy Newsletter next week.

Thanks again for the continued support. We remain over 400 subscribers. Pretty awesome!

Have a blessed week, and I’ll see you soon.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

It’s important to remember something, and this might not be a concept you are ready to agree with – while there are three branches of the federal government, they are not equal.

They are not meant to be “equal.” While they are meant to “check” each other, even the practice of “checking” doesn’t prevent other branches from carrying on as they please.

One of the fault lines in our government setup is the idea that we need to give the vice president a job. There was no strategic reason for its existence, and rather than just have this person sit around all day waiting for the president to stop functioning and carrying out presidential duties, we needed to give this guy something to do.

So the Framers, geniuses that they were, came up with a doozy of a position for the VP – presiding over the Senate. Which makes sense when you realize that the Senate shouldn’t exist either and that we can easily function without it. But we will never abolish it, since we’ve had it for 250 years. Please explain why longevity is a good idea in this regard.

The specific duties for the Vice President and the Senate are hilariously simple.

1. Keep it professional.

2. Count.

3. Vote only when it’s a tie.

The VP is your basic cat sitter who stays in your place to ensure Mr. Whiskers is alive when you return from St. Kitts.

But modern vice presidents don’t even stroll over to the Senate to do some work. Instead, they give interviews and speeches about how Joe Biden is the reason we needed to bomb Iran. They only show up when they anticipate a close vote.

Remember, the vice president’s office hasn’t always been filled, and, again, there is a strong argument that the current occupant should vacate it right now. If there is no VP, the Senate falls to the President pro tempore. But the PPT is also a senator, so the possibility of a tie vote remains, with no one to break it. God forbid if that happens. On top of that, the current President pro tempore is a man who was elected into Congress before I was born and, in less than seven years, will turn a century old.1 Longevity!

But having no job other than to break ties and give speeches about presidents not in office can lead someone to make up more duties – ones that can be easily viewed as exceeding the basic responsibilities of showing up and counting.

In our next edition of ranking the vice presidents, we examine the two who really set in motion the concept that your cat sitter has now become your financial advisor.

Let’s dig in.

48: Walter Mondale

42^nd Vice President

Term – January 20, 1977- January 20, 1981

Presidential Administration: Jimmy Carter’s Term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 25)

The Good:
Mondale served as a Senator from Minnesota for 12 years, so he understood how the Senate worked. Since his boss had a terrible relationship with Congress, Mondale smoothed out any bumps that were preventing the administration from advancing its agenda. In this regard, the VP job has a clear definition.

The Bad:

The Carter administration gave Mondale an office in the White House. Why is this bad, you may ask? Because we don’t need two presidents. Trust me, I’ve worked for organizations where there are two people at the top of the chart, and neither of them was particularly good at leading anything.

Did he become president?

He did not. He did in fact run as the Democratic nominee, but was smoothed out by Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election blowout.

Why did I rank him here?

Walter Mondale is considered the founder of the modern vice president. Vice presidents before him sat in the background or became enforcers. The job wasn’t intended to be another president or to influence policies. Mondale made it possible for other terrible vice presidents to exist and steer policy that the people didn’t necessarily vote for. Thanks, Fritz.

47: Richard Cheney

46^th Vice President

Term – January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009

Presidential Administration: George W. Bush’s two terms (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 33)

The Good:
By the time Cheney was leading the vice-presidential search in 2000, he knew where all the bodies were buried in Washington. He served under Presidents Ford, Reagan (In Congress), and Bush. He was a Congressman, a Secretary of Defense, and a CEO of an oil company. Dick Cheney knew everyone, and that skill set was a reason President George W. Bush picked him to be Number 2. I can’t think of anything else good about this man.

The Bad:

A lot of people died because Dick Cheney was in charge of the White House. There’s no way around that. Cheney had perceived real power, and beyond knowing where the bodies were buried, Cheney also helped bury a lot of them. He also shot a friend in the face. I’m pretty confident he had something like six heart attacks that never killed him, so it goes without saying he was an evil Tin Man.

Did he become president?

No. Another reason Cheney picked himself was that he could exercise more control and not have to worry about an ambitious vice president becoming a wedge between him and the president. Why run for office when you can assume the power of the office without it?

Why did I rank him here?

I firmly believe there is a direct correlation between the way Dick Cheney extended his influence and power beyond the reasonable expectations in the office and the current White House deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller. They are quite similar in style2 in that both men work for guys who were much more well-known and charismatic than they are, but in turn, less entrenched with the policies and implementation of plans than they are. This is a detrimental combination. It’s what led us to war (Cheney) and mass deportations of nonwhite people (Miller), and who knows what could happen in the future. The toothpaste is out of the tube, and no one can clean it up.

One of the most frustrating moments of the consequential 2024 presidential election that I will never be able to shake was the question posed to Vice President and Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, on a stupid television show about what she would have done differently than her boss, President Biden.

She answered that she couldn’t think of anything, despite having staked out different positions on a variety of issues. She was trying to be loyal and not open a can of worms, which is why a VP shouldn’t run for president, because they don’t typically win. Of course, I wholeheartedly endorse asking the current guy this question and seeing where his loyalties lie.

Okay! Finally! I hope this ranking was worth the wait. Thanks for your patience. What do you think? Did I rank Dick Cheney too low? I feel like it could be too low. Let me know in the comments.

Happy spring to you, and I’ll see you on Monday with another Maundy Monday Newsletter. Enjoy the weekend!

Subscribe now

Share

When the United States declared itself independent from its British overlords, it was decided that Philadelphia would serve as its capital. Makes sense. But then we freaked out because our British overlords were the most dominant military and Navy in the world at the time, and could get to Philly relatively easily and take the place. So in December 1776, we moved the capital to Baltimore, Maryland. Thus began a saga that led us to the current capital, Washington, DC.

Realizing that Baltimore wasn’t the best choice, the return to Philadelphia was made. But then we freaked out again. So we then moved our capital to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for a day, like it was a pop-up bar on tour. Then our capital was moved to Annapolis, Maryland, which isn’t Baltimore; then Trenton, New Jersey; then York, Pennsylvania; then Philadelphia; then Princeton, New Jersey; and finally New York City. I think we had around nine capital cities before we figured out that moving around like a recent college graduate with a degree in theater wasn’t the best idea.

But ultimately, our main man, Alexander Hamilton, along with guys like Thomas Jefferson, led efforts to compromise and move the capital to a newly created federal city at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Maryland and Virginia would cede land to this newly created place, which would eventually be called the District of Columbia, named after Christopher Columbia.

For centuries, the District served as the governing hub of the ever-growing world power that the United States would eventually become. One silly reason for creating Washington, DC, rather than a place within a state, was the idea that the federal government wouldn’t be subject to local interests. I never understood this argument. What local reasons would usurp the interests of an entire nation? Eating more crab cakes or something?

Despite gaining Home Rule many years later, which allowed us to vote for a Mayor and the City Council, there is still no local pressure on the federal government. In fact, it’s just the opposite. All of our laws would depend on people in Congress deciding how we should govern ourselves. It’s the most un-American concept ever.

But this week, we celebrate a minor achievement: the 23rd Amendment was ratified on March 29, 1961, giving the residents of Washington, DC, the right to vote for the president of the United States. Back in 2023, when I ranked the amendments to the Constitution, the 23^rd sat just outside the top ten.

We will elect a mayor in 2026. Our current mayor, thankfully, announced she would not seek a fourth term. Just the fact that she could run for a fourth term is nuts. In case you are wondering, I’m not a fan of Mayor Muriel Bowser, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of her opposition to the revised criminal code debate, in which she flipped her initial support of the decades-long process to revamp and update everything, and for whatever reason, opposed it. This action provided an opening for Congressional Republicans to hammer the city for the way it prosecutes crimes. Her alliance with the GOP was so successful that President Joe Biden signed a bill overriding the passed reforms. We still have the same system in place since it was passed in 1901. We continue to do patchwork, while our judicial system remains woefully under-resourced with important stuff – like judges. Only Congress can fix that.

But that is our lot in life here in Washington, DC. We must not have representation because we weren’t created with that in mind. We were also created with the idea that enslaved people would live here, but whatever! No senators or congresspeople for us.

Happy Anniversary of that reminder!

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. A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York City killed 145 workers. March 25, 1911. The factory in Greenwich Village that made women’s blouses was staffed by immigrant women, whom the owners figured would be less likely to unionize and would work up to 70 hours a week, including Saturdays, earning about $3 an hour. A fire began on the 8^th floor, most likely from a cigarette, and quickly consumed the company’s three floors, which were the remaining floors of the building and killed 145 workers. It would have been much more, but the fire happened at the end of a Saturday workday, and many brave people worked to save many lives. It is still considered one of the worst workplace disasters in American history and just another highlight of how we treat labor.

2. President Andrew Johnson vetoed a civil rights bill on March 27, 1866. The low-ranked president vetoed the first federally protected civil rights of newly freed enslaved black people, mostly because of “states’ rights,” but also because he felt the “market” would eventually figure everything out, and we didn’t need to pass federal laws. This action would eventually lead to an enormously complicated 14^th Amendment, which allowed for massive incarceration injustice to the ancestors of those enslaved people. Of course, the current administration wants to remove the citizenship part of this amendment, and if successful, would probably try to get us to revert to slavery.

3. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of passing atomic secrets to the Russians on March 29, 1951. Julius Rosenberg worked as a civilian engineering inspector for the army and passed along vital information to the Russians concerning how the United States built its fighter planes, used radar and other secret stuff. It was discovered that Rosenberg was a member of the Communist Party of the USA, which seems like it would have been discovered sooner in the application process. His wife joined him in his treasonous activities, and they eventually recruited his brother-in-law, who worked on the Manhattan Project, which was the first nuclear weapon development program. The entire family affair resulted in everyone eventually being caught, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

I promised you last week that I’d share the three books I read while on vacation. Let’s get after it.

1. To Show and To Tell (Phillip Lopate)

This book needed to be finished on the trip because I started it over a month ago. It explores what it means to excel at the craft of literary nonfiction. Lopate is a well-known and respected essayist who has an obnoxiously large vocabulary. It took me forever to read this book, despite its short length, because it was another book where I spent a lot of time looking up definitions. The end is spent discussing his favorite essayists, which, I felt, dragged the book down. He does provide a laundry list of essays to read, which I really need to do.

2. Orbital (Samantha Harvey)

The first of two space books that Anonymous recommended to me. Fortunately, we own both, which means the books I keep purchasing will take up shelf space while I go through the ones I bought a while ago that have been sitting there. This is a tremendous book, an exploration of what it feels like to orbit Earth with six astronauts and cosmonauts. The pacing of this book puts you into a trance that you don’t ever want to put down. It’s another short book; I finished it in two days rather than one, because I enjoy going into the water. I didn’t have to look up so many words in this one.

3. Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir)

Anonymous scheduled us to watch the movie upon our return, but I didn’t realize it because it wasn’t added to the calendar. Therefore, I scheduled a work event for that Sunday, so I will have to see it when it streams. This is easily one of the best books I have ever read. I’m not a huge science fiction guy, but PHM is such a delight. I sped through this book in two days as well. The themes of curiosity, determination, and unlikely friendship are the reasons we read on vacation. I don’t think I would have enjoyed this book as much if I had to read it on the commute to work because I wouldn’t get to work. I would ride the train right out to Dulles airport and then back home until it was finished. I talked about this book with a friend, and we both laughed at the idea that reading it so quickly was partly because we skipped most of the science. So keep that in mind if you aren’t well-versed in how science works, but science folks praise Weir on how real he keeps it.

Okay! I know I keep promising you another VP Ranking, and I keep failing to deliver because work keeps spilling into the week. We will see if I can finish at least one of them and have it for you on Saturday. I appreciate everyone’s patience. At least we aren’t ranking scandals!

Also, Blue is 100% healed. We celebrated by eating pizza on Saturday night.

Thanks for the continued support of Okay History. I’m grateful that you take the time to read and like the essays.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” — Mark Twain

I married at 46. I didn’t want to rush into anything. When I mention the age I was when I stood before God, declaring that I took Anonymous to be my wife, people tend to ask me if I was ever married before. It’s not unreasonable to assume that someone like me, a guy with a great set of hair and who writes a mediocre US History blog, would have been snatched up many years prior.

But there are many reasons I denied other women the chance to allow me to bring them coffee in the morning. One important factor was that I never vacationed with anyone I had dated before I met Anonymous. Just like what Mr. Twain said smartly years ago, I never really determined if I liked any of the others, because I decided I never wanted to figure it out by going somewhere and vacationing.

To be fair, I wasn’t good at vacationing for most of my life. To me, there’s an art to vacationing, and I am fortunate that my wife has made a huge difference in my life when it comes to taking a break.

For long-time readers, you know, Anonymous and I have spent time together at St. Martin, a gorgeous Caribbean island directly east of Puerto Rico in the Lesser Antilles. It has two halves and therefore two different experiences. We always stay on the French side, which is the north. It’s like experiencing the Mediterranean, or so Anonymous tells me, because I have never been there, but I do know it’s very different than the Dutch south, which looks too loud and therefore too much for this snob who thinks he has a great set of hair.

But unlike the trip I made four years ago, my brief sabbatical last week was spent on the other side of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic.

Neither of us had been there before, making last week a rare moment when my wife and I were experiencing the same thing in real time. This might be the second time this has happened. As a spy, Anonymous travels a lot, like this upcoming weekend.

But the Dominican Republic was a lovely place to unwind. If you don’t know anything about the Dominican Republic, here’s the Okay History version:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived and declared the place for Spain. Then, over centuries, they massacred the indigenous people, leaving just a few tens of thousands, who then intermixed with the Spaniards and enslaved Africans. Many centuries passed, and they declared their independence. Then, Haiti took them over. Then they declared their independence. Then France took them over. Then they declared their independence. Then the United States took them over, and later we granted them independence. Then they had about 200 leaders and 75 constitutions until they figured out democracy on their own. The US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic is Secretary Road Rules, sister-in-law.

Today, the Dominican Republic is thriving, producing some of the best professional baseball players (like my all-time favorite – Jose Ramirez), and even though they lost last night in the World Baseball Classic, they are a force on the diamond.

It was a wonderful trip. I read three books (I’ll share the list next week), caught up on sleep, and met almost everyone from Canada. I’m not kidding, every person in the place we stayed was either from Canada or Buffalo. These people understand the art of vacationing.

It’s always fun spending time on vacation apologizing to the nicest people on the planet about our cruel president and his administration. On our final night there, we had the pleasure of meeting a few of Halifax’s finest, who proved their kindness by subscribing. So special welcome to Dave, Ducky, and Ruth!

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. Vans opened its first store on March 16, 1966. Paul Van Doren founded the Van Doren Rubber Company with his brother James and another guy named Gordon. They started off by selling shoes with thick rubber soles. Paul’s son Mark was into skateboarding, which was all the rage in Anaheim, California. The company shortened its name to Vans, and the “Off the Wall” motto was adopted in 1976 as a reference to skateboarders’ perspectives on life (I’m guessing). I’m bringing this up at this moment in history because Anonymous and I love Vans, and we wore a special pair at our wedding reception. If you were there, you know. Also, I brought a pair on this vacation. I’m “Off the Wall!”

2. Nevada legalized gambling on March 19, 1931. Unlike its neighbor, California, Nevada never had a big gold rush boom in the mid-1800s. Instead, it had a minor silver boom in the early 1900s. Surrounded by desert and not much else, Nevada began a steady decline when the silver mines dried up. Then the Great Depression hit, so in response, the state legalized gambling to bring people in, have them stay, and then lose all their money. The outpost desert town of Las Vegas took off after World War II, thanks to the Mafia, and now gambling is no longer considered a vice, because we walk around with little casinos in our pockets, ready to rob us of our money that we could spend on a cool pair of Vans and be “Off the Wall!”

3. The Social Media network Twitter launched on March 21, 2006. Twitter.com was already owned and being used, so Twitter went by Twttr, which is cool because they left out the vowels. Co-Founder and long-time CEO Jack Dorsey typed the first tweet – a declaration of words within the set limit, with “just setting up my twttr.” The world’s wealthiest man now owns it, and it’s a place where people go and yell at each other over their gambling losses.

Blue did not enjoy our break. Instead, he had surgery on his paw that had developed a cyst. Our poor boy spent the week with a cone on his head at his dog sitter’s, and we hope everything has healed.

I’ll see you on Saturday. I’m a bit behind on the Vice President rankings, so let’s get back at it.

Thanks for supporting Okay History. “Okay” is one of the favorite words in Canada. Have a great week.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

I’m positive I have made this argument before – but history doesn’t work like that. Just knowing something that took place in the past doesn’t mean that you won’t repeat it. If that were the case, things like donuts or re-electing Donald Trump wouldn’t be a thing.

And yet, while I have family arguments about the cost of donuts, I still purchase them from time to time and delight in eating them, while lamenting the weight gain from such actions. Despite the numerous examples of Donald Trump’s inability to be an effective and empathic leader, we managed to bring him back to the White House and now suffer through another act of cruelty.

In what is a regular occurrence of his flip-flopping on important positions, over the weekend, President Trump declared War again on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The word “again” is notable because last June, the United States and Iran had what is now called the Twelve-Day War. Over the course of twelve days, US Air Force warplanes, supported by Tomahawk missiles from US Navy submarines, along with the Israeli Air Force, struck three nuclear facilities in western Iran with such force that President Trump declared the offensive had completely obliterated the Persian nation’s ability to enrich uranium, an important process if you want to develop nuclear weapons.

But with President Trump, nothing is ever true. Eight months later, he, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, decided that Iran was on the cusp of producing, or maybe acquiring, nuclear weapons. Who knows. But three American soldiers have already been killed, while many more have been wounded, since Iran started launching missiles into Israel and American military bases throughout the Middle East.

Did we learn anything from our past? Back in 1991, President George Bush asked the Iraqi people to rise up and overthrow their awful dictator, Saddam Hussein. That didn’t turn out great. So, despite learning that, Donald Trump is using the same playbook by encouraging the Iranian people to also rise up and take over the country. The same country that has been brutalizing its citizens for any dissent for the past 40 years.

History always repeats itself. The United States will always go to war with someone from the Middle East. We continue to have to fight racism despite past efforts that reduced it. The Cleveland Guardians always enter spring training with no serious offensive player to support Jose Ramirez.

Why do we succumb to these repeated outcomes? I have no idea, but it’s terribly frustrating. But remember, if you tell someone we must learn from our history, you are forgetting that learning does not mean we will not repeat.

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 “Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted as the national anthem on March 3, 1931. The Star-Spangled Banner was also known as the Great Garrison Flag, stitched together to display the 15 stars and flown over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. During the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, a DC lawyer, Francis Scott Key, traveled to Baltimore to seek the release of an American prisoner who was being held on a British ship. Key witnessed the battle, which featured hundreds of rockets and bombs bursting into the air. By the dawn’s early light, Key saw that the American Flag was still there, with its broad stripes and bright stars, and wrote a poem on the back of a letter which asked the question: are we the home of the brave? It was then set to music from a popular British drinking song at the time, which is hilariously ironic, yet somehow became so popular that Congress passed a resolution declaring it the official hymn of the nation. President Herbert Hoover signed it into law, giving him at least one checkmark in the “Win” column in an otherwise low-ranking presidency.

2. Rodney King’s beating by the LA Police was caught on videotape on March 3, 1991. King was intoxicated while speeding down California Interstate 210 when police began to chase him. After finally catching him, King would exit the car, get on the ground, and grab his backside, which led the officers to believe he had a weapon. They also believed he was on PCP. Using a maneuver called “Swarm,” four officers proceeded to swarm King, who they also believed was resisting arrest, and beat him with their nightsticks. George Holliday lived across the street and was an amateur videographer who recorded the entire act of violence. He sent the tape to the local news, and King’s beating went viral. The accused officers were acquitted of the crime, and despite learning about the riots of the 1960s, people rioted in the streets of LA for days.

3. Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone on March 7, 1876. Bell was a Scottish immigrant who arrived in Massachusetts in 1871 to teach deaf students. As a child, Bell dabbled with inventions, and as he grew up, he had a particular interest in whether sound could be transmitted over wires. He experimented with whether sound vibrations could be converted into electrical signals and transmitted over wire — building on the telegraph, which could send coded messages rather than the human voice. The patent would eventually become the telephone, and it’s currently killing us all slowly.

It’s going to be a busy week – but at the end, Anonymous and I head out of the country for a week. We are not going to our usual place but are headed to the Dominican Republic, home of Jose Ramirez, the greatest baseball player ever.

I have a few essays lined up for when I’m gone, but I appreciate your patience as I take this much-needed break from life and winter.

Finally, please keep Blue in your thoughts tomorrow. He heads back to the vet to have a cyst removed from his front right paw. Lumps and bumps are part of the aging process, but we were happy to learn from the Vet that Blue’s blood work is consistent with a two-year-old. Which sounds about right, because he is milking this injury for all it’s worth.

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

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

However, that’s never the case when you are someone of status. There’s never just one obit.

Jesse Jackson passed away last Tuesday. He was 84. He was in poor health for some time. In 2017, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, the same affliction of his father, Noah Louis Robinson, who died in 1997 at the age of 88. His family stated he passed in comfort, surrounded by family.

Jackson’s status in American history is why this edition of Maundy Monday Newsletter is another essay about his life, his legacy, and my reflection on both.

Jackson was born out of wedlock in Greenville, South Carolina, at the beginning of World War II. I mentioned this intentionally because his acceptance of the circumstances surrounding his conception became a core ethos to a man who would become one of the most influential civil rights leaders in American annals.

While Robinson was his biological father, Jackson’s mother married another man, and Jesse adopted his stepfather’s last name while maintaining a close relationship with Robinson. The complicated bonds of Jackson’s parents are the perfect example of how Jesse Jackson viewed the world – he wanted everyone in his life to be connected, respected, and loved.

Jackson was a gifted student in academics and athletics. He finished near the top of his high school class and earned a football scholarship to the University of Illinois. He left after a year and attended North Carolina A&T, where, like me, he was incredibly popular and served as a student government president. After graduating in 1964, Jackson immersed himself in the civil rights movement, participating in the Selma marches and impressing Martin Luther King, who placed him into leadership positions in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Jackson was a member of King’s inner circle and was with him in Memphis on the fatal day in April 1968. After MLK’s assassination, Jackson would attempt to carry out King’s dream of America living up to its promise of creating equal opportunity for all people.

In 1971, Jackson founded the nonprofit, People United to Save (Serve) Humanity (PUSH). He would also begin another nonprofit, the Rainbow Coalition, in 1983. By 1996, he merged the two, and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a leading social justice and civil rights advocacy organization.

After Ronald Reagan won the White House in 1980, Jackson continued to rise as an opposition leader to the religious conservatism that was sweeping the United States. Jackson would run for the Democratic party nomination twice that decade, finishing third in 1984, which turned into a Reagan resounding victory, and second in 1988, behind the eventual loser to Reagan’s vice president, George HW Bush.

But it was that run in 1988 that planted a seed which would bear fruit twenty years later – when America finally elected its first black president.

I was twelve during the 1988 presidential election and in the 7th grade. It was this grade that my religious education and faith grew in awareness and intensity (for a teenager) due to the exceptional teacher I had – Regina Courey, a former nun who was a demanding instructor in many subjects, especially religion.

During Advent, as we prepare for God’s incarnation as Jesus Christ, we learned about the concept of “The Root of Jesse.” Its essence is that Jesus can trace his lineage through human history to Jesse, who was King David’s father. Jesus, therefore, fulfils what the prophet Isiah proclaimed that a savior would be: “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.”

Jesse Jackson’s successful ascent from activism to major party politics paved the way for future Democrats like Obama and Kamala Harris to be seen as viable and serious candidates. His positions on lifting up and protecting the poor and working-class citizens didn’t resonate with the electorate until people like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren came close to securing the nomination with similar platforms.

His gift as an effective orator helped push a progressive agenda that included positions ahead of their time, such as equality for the LGBTQ+ community, reparations for the descendants of enslaved people, and universal healthcare. He also pushed to cut defense spending and reduce the use of nuclear weapons, positions that were the antithesis of the Cold War era.

Despite his political defeats, Jackson cemented his place as an elder statesman in the Democratic Party. He walked picket lines with striking union workers, he called for a free Palestine, and he negotiated the release of an American pilot held in Syria.

While he received many accolades, such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, he was the scorn of right-wing conservative politicians and media mouthpieces. His positions in the Middle East and statements about Jews who live in New York City were controversial and antisemitic. He admitted to an affair, as his mother and father had, and it resulted in the same out-of-wedlock child that stains the religious leader. But Jackson took responsibility for missteps, something his detractors never could be bothered with.

Which is why, reading about Jackson this week, there are numerous references to times when Jesse Jackson made mistakes or was painted unfairly to advance a narrative that served the privileged.

This is the consequence of a life of status. We remembered Jesse Jackson this week, and while you may have read a lot about his flaws, let us not forget the good he did in faithfully serving his country and the God he loved.

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 battle of the Alamo began on February 23, 1836. The Alamo Mission was built in 1718, two years after the Spanish government began to expand its influence over what is now South Texas. The Mission served as a hub for the Catholic Church in its efforts to convert native tribes. During the Texas Republic War of Independence, Mexican President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna attacked the 100 Texas soldiers stationed there. The battle lasted 13 days and resulted in Mexico’s victory, reclaiming the site. “Remember the Alamo” became a rallying cry, and a few months later, at the Battle of San Jacinto, a resounding Texas victory secured its independence. Texas has been an unbearable loudmouth about it ever since.

2. The twenty-second amendment to the US Constitution was ratified on February 25, 1951. After a repeated beatdown at the election polls by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Republican Party and 47 Democrats passed an amendment that would prevent future presidents from living in the White House, seemingly forever. It was a top-ten Constitution Amendment in our amendment ranking back in 2023, and I hope it can hold the line in about two years.

3. President John F. Kennedy founded the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. In 1957, then-Massachusetts Congressman John F. Kennedy proposed sending recent American college graduates to the Middle East, “bringing technical advice and assistance to the underprivileged.” A few years later, JFK was president and created a federal program that would serve as a mission of democracy worldwide, expanding US influence. Over 240,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps, and the agency currently works in 60 countries. I think I have applied for a few jobs at the Peace Corps over the years, never even got an interview. America apparently likes me right where I am.

I didn’t like Jesse Jackson when I was 12. I also didn’t like strawberries. But both positions flipped over the course of a lifetime. As I have grown up, I have come to accept rather quickly that, as a curious and introspective person, I can afford myself the grace to adopt ideas and positions I didn’t always share.

One example of my change in position is when the Cleveland Indians changed their name four years ago to the Guardians. For many years, I was an adherent Chief Wahoo supporter. But over time, my feelings changed. Mix in a better understanding of the plight of indigenous people, coming to terms with the undeniable racist caricature logo (while watching fellow Indian fans wear red face to games), and many seasons that fell short of winning a World Series, and I was done.

But selfishly, I’m relieved that no one will write about my mistakes or the people that I have upset. We know there will never be a story about any election losses (7-0). That hasn’t elevated me to any status outside of my mind.

Okay! Long MMN this week. That’s what happens when you take a week off to launch the 5th anniversary.

As a reminder, I’ll be publishing a second essay (either rankings, Even More Okay, or perhaps an Ask Me Anything) on Saturday morning. Please let me know if you like the change. Or not. I’m willing to take either!

The snow is back in town, at the beginning of a busy week for me. I hope it’s a good one for you.

Thanks for the support. I’m grateful to you all.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

In my unexpert opinion, the best hockey is currently being played in Milan, Italy, during the 2026 Winter Olympics. Although I do not consider myself a hockey expert, or even a casual fan.1 I am fortunate to live in a city with a public transit system and a hockey team.2 I feel that elevates your intelligence status3 because you live in an elite international metropolis.

Inhabiting an elite international metropolis, while not being even the slightest enthusiast in any subject, should never stop anyone from making declarative statements, and in turn, from anyone reading them. So here’s my superior, intelligent position on hockey: Olympic hockey is better because it appears to be faster than regular-season games in the National Hockey League.4 Also, one good nuance between the two games is that Olympic hockey also lacks a role typically found on every professional league team – the Enforcer.

The Enforcer has a unique role in sports. Despite its existence, it’s not listed as an official position on any roster list. I can’t think of another sport with a specific player whose job is defined by a single action beyond the simple position.

But to hockey teams, the Enforcer is an essential player because his assignment on the ice is to strike fear and intimidate the opposing team, while at the same time protecting the star player5. The Enforcer can turn a hockey game into a bar brawl.6

“The tough-guy” responsibility evolved over time as teams discovered that, in exchange for penalty minutes racked up by one player, they could increase their win total. The Enforcer role entered its golden era in the 1970s, when championship teams had the “old school goon” who looked like a bouncer and was paid even less, doled out punishment for any reason – to change momentum, for protection, or to draw penalties. They lacked skills such as defending, scoring, and passing.7 Enforcers are characters in the hockey universe and have villainous names like “The Big Dog,” “Tank,” and my personal favorite, “Spicy Tuna.”

What hockey discovered success through brute force, the same can be said of politics.

Politics can easily be described as a “Street Fight.”8 Someone who runs an office or holds an elected position is expected to be a “fighter” or willing to “fight”. In the social media world of the 21^st century, demonstrating your toughness is critical to your political success and advancement. In presidential politics, who you choose as your running mate indicates how much you embrace the idea that you need someone to enforce your positions and set the expectations to the voting public that your opponent is hot garbage that should never be elected.

We all understand that during a presidential election, the candidates will let zingers fly and provide the red meat to their base on the campaign trail, but the vice president position has evolved into the Enforcer of the president.

Just as the NHL Philadelphia Flyers were winning Stanley Cups in the 1970s, the term “attack dog” was beginning to take hold as vice presidential lingo. In 1976,9 Pulitzer Prize columnist Mary McGrory described then Republican vice-presidential candidate Bob Dole as an “attack dog” partisan, a person on the ticket who was “a bone thrown to the smoldering right.”

McGrory correctly predicted that Dole and his boss, a former vice president himself, Gerald Ford, would lose that fall election.

Over the past 50 years, the term “attack dog” has stuck. During the last election in 2024, I dreamed of a Vice President Coach, but his attack skills were no match for the Not Rated, name-changing current Vice President, who employs his attack dog mentality to denigrate mothers who were murdered by federal agents.

We can trace the beginnings of the presidential attack-dog-enforcer role even further back. This is where we begin our next round of vice president rankings and the guys who defined their enforcer ways – forever entrenching them as bad vice presidents and showing us that being the goon is politically advantageous, but democratically corrosive.

Let’s Dive in.

50: Richard Nixon

36^th Vice President

Term – January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961

Presidential Administration: Dwight Eisenhower’s Two Terms (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 5)

The Good:
Nixon envisioned a modern vice presidency where he could cultivate his foreign affairs chops and lean into his aggressiveness, which is pretty much the only reason Dwight agreed to put him on the ticket in the first place. The General wanted no part of the attack dog persona attached to him. Nixon was happy to oblige and, in the first campaign, went after President Truman’s administration for a variety of perceived incompetencies.

The Bad:

Right off the bat, after accepting the vice presidential nomination in the 1952 presidential election, Nixon was caught up in a scandal involving financial backers who paid his campaign expenses. Many in the country considered this a conflict of interest and called for Eisenhower to drop Nixon from the ticket because Dick wasn’t going to resign. This led to Nixon’s famous speech about his dog.10 Nixon also struggled to impress during his famous 1959 ‘Kitchen Debate’ with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Did he become president?

He sure did! Nixon would become the 39^th president, and he was not okay!

Why did I rank him here?

Nixon was unrelenting when it came to becoming the president. In his mind, securing the vice president was a critical step in that direction, while having the endorsement of the popular Eisenhower as proof of his worthiness. But it was Eisenhower who put it best when asked about Nixon’s contributions as Number #2 - “If you give me a week, I might think of one.” Nixon’s behavior was rewarded, and we have forever suffered from this form of government with cruelty since.

49: Spiro Agnew

39^th Vice President

Term – January 20, 1969 – October 10, 1973

Presidential Administration: Richard Nixon’s Two Terms (Okay History 2021 Presidential Ranking: 34)

The Good:
Much like his boss and the current vice president, Agnew shared the same appetite when it came to being an “attack dog.” He discovered his bombastic skills while Governor of Maryland. During the racial tension of the late 1960s, Agnew would spar with civil rights leaders over a black student activist who delivered a speech so passionate it inspired riots in the college town of Cambridge, Maryland. Agnew emerged as the “law and order” governor, who believed that activists should be thrown in jail and then the key thrown away.

The Bad:

Agnew looooooved corruption. Just as he was discovering what a jerk he could be as the chief executive of a highly ranked state, he also began to realize he could squeeze payments out of companies for government contracts. And since neither behavior prevented him from ascending to the Number 2 position in the country, he continued. It was only after being discovered and threatened by a long prison term that Agnew resigned in disgrace.

Did he become president?

No, he did not.11 But he initiated the unprecedented set of circumstances of allowing the president of the United States to assume the office, having never been elected to either position in the executive branch. Instead of not having a Vice President and allowing the succession to pass to Carl Albert,12 then the Speaker of the House, we had three vice presidents in just six months. That’s like having three couches in your bathroom – what are we doing here?

Why did I rank him here?

Spiro Agnew’s saving grace was that his demise occurred before Watergate came to light, and for the most part, he is forgotten. He landed his role because he was a first-rate dirtbag, hired by an astronomical narcissist. On top of that, he was a corrupt loser.

Okay, that’s TWO ranking essays this week. How does it feel? Feels good, doesn’t it? I feel good. Do you like the Saturday posting? I’m really hoping you do!

I’m back on Monday with the usual Maundy Monday Newsletter, so you won’t miss out on what’s happening in the week of history. Until then, have a great week.

Don’t forget – the United States and Canada in the Men’s hockey final. Do we sweep our neighbors to the north after our women won gold earlier this week?

Appreciate you all!

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

About three weeks before Ronald Reagan would be sworn in as the 40^th president of the United States, I turned five. “The Great Communicator” would become one of the most consequential presidents in our history. Evidence of that was his landing in the top ten of the inaugural Okay History Presidential Rankings.

There’s not much I remember about turning five. But according to scientists, turning five marks the time when your brain becomes attuned to learning, playing, and speaking. There’s no doubt that I was impressive as a five-year-old, having established that despite numerous talents, I would need all sorts of help to function later in life.

And the fruits of that village-like assistance came to bear in 2021, when the rankings of Reagan and the other US presidents launched Okay History on Presidents’ Day. A few weeks before this incredible moment in history that can never be repeated took place, former Vice President Joe Biden walked into the Oval Office and began his best effort to wipe away the stains of his predecessor, a president who tried in vain to overturn his defeat in 2020 election by encouraging his supporters to embrace violence and storm the Capitol, subverting certification and keep him in power.1

Here we are, after those humble beginnings, Okay History is now five years in – almost 400 masterfully argued essays published.2 Meanwhile, in an unexpected plot twist, after those successful Biden years3 America decided it needed to bring Donald Trump back as president. Despite a laundry list of offenses that makes the term laundry list woefully short, Americans ignored or looked past a man who was twice impeached, convicted of thirty-four felonies of business fraud, federally indicted for mishandling federal documents, and also indicted forty-one times by the state of Georgia for election fraud involving his reelection.4

However, just like any five-year-old, Donald Trump has many talents. If you believe him, he is a championship-level golfer, peacemaker, and stalwart on the economy. But at his best, President Trump has the astonishing skill to convince people that the reality we all live in is, in fact, not real. Take, for instance, the election process. Trump has consistently presented the idea that somehow the Democratic Party mishandled its ability to steal elections in 2016 and 2024, when they and the “Deep State” were in charge, bumbling each, therefore handing him his rightfully earned victories, won by prodigiously wide margins. In turn, Deep State Democrats were brilliantly covert in stealing the election in between, when presumably Trump and his Make America Great Again Anti-Woke Warriors would have been positioned to have already dismantled the unelected bureaucracy that has supposedly rotted the government for generations.5

And it’s this idea, this consistent and repeated manipulation of what is fiction and what is not, that leads us to our latest round of ranking stuff – ranking all the Vice Presidents of the United States.6

I’m sure you are asking, “Wait, what?”

I’m happy to explain.

At his core, Trump is a narcissist. A narcissist holds negative values. One example of this is that everyone other than the narcissist is fundamentally wretched. The only way a narcissist can gain power and hold it is by surrounding themselves with people who are brazenly committed to protecting the narcissist’s image, promoting their self-importance, and attacking the credibility and dignity of anyone who challenges them.

Basically, a narcissist needs their sycophants.

Sycophants are worse than the narcissists themselves7, because their drive to gain and maintain approval motivates them to create narratives that people with shorter attention spans than five-year-olds will not only understand but readily accept. The consequences of such relationships and engagement mean people in this country no longer have access to affordable things like eggs or to due process.

And unfortunately for America, we have one big lickspittle currently inhabiting Number One Observatory Circle.

I’m on record stating that the office of vice president is unessential. I think the current occupant and the lead-off for this edition of rankings is a perfect example of why this office doesn’t need to exist.

The Founders initially tended to agree with my position. About the only thing the Articles of Confederation got right was the exclusion of the office of the vice president. But when they crumpled up that form of government and started over, framers of this federal constitutional republic reversed their decision and inserted the vice presidency into the Constitution at the last minute. Even then, they still messed it up.

Despite creating the position along with the terrible Electoral College in Article II, Section I, our representatives needed to correct a damaging flaw in the way we elect both a president and a vice president. This resulted in an additional Constitutional Amendment to further define this useless position that one vice president,8 described as “the spare tire on the automobile of government.9

I’ll save more opinions about this non-practical position over the course of the year.10 But for now, we got 50 people to get through, so let’s dive in and discuss the current guy and why he is the worst.

NR: James David Vance

50^th Vice President

Term – January 20, 2025 – Incumbent

Presidential Administration: Donald Trump, Second Term (Okay History 2021 Presidential Rank: 44)

The Good:
Let me be clear here. The “good” I’m going to describe means “good at lacking integrity.”11 Vance reminds me of a former boss. This person presents herself quite well. She runs good meetings and can moderate panels with relative ease12 and comes across as intelligent in client meetings. Working with her, however, is another thing. She is practically a different person. She lacks the experience to understand the nuances of the client’s job, is deficient in innovation or expertise, and, worst of all, throws people under the bus when it looks like the truth about her flaws is about to see the light of day.

This bozo boss is the quintessential sycophant for the big boss, who is a standard narcissist and has definitely voted for Trump three times.13

Vice President Vance14 presents the intellectual weight behind MAGA. Vance has a tone in his interviews that effectively delivers messages to people who don’t like being spoken down to, even as they don’t realize an Ivy League grad elite is playing them. Whereas Trump throws a tantrum that would rival any five-year-old when berating anyone who stands up to or questions him, Vance’s calm approach can present his disagreement with the opposition in a way that sounds reasonable.

Another way of putting it - he’s very good at lacking honor.

The Bad:

At one point, Vance was an Anti-Trumper. At one point, he was also known as James Donald Bowman.15 Vance once described his boss as “America’s Hitler,” but that all changed when presented with power.

The vice president converted to Catholicism in 2019, and two years later, he converted to MAGAism when he ran for the Senate in his home state of Ohio.16 I feel for his former friends, who can’t believe or understand his turn in politics. I speak from experience. I used to like this former boss, but when she pushes you in front of the bus the narcissistic big boss is driving, you tend to change your mind.

All of that is to say, James Donald Bowman is never coming back. And I will never get these tire tracks off my back.

Did he become president?

This is the standard question for these rankings going forward, and while it doesn’t pertain to this situation, it’s important to note that Vance won’t necessarily ascend to the presidency.

Becoming president is a difficult challenge, regardless of your situation. As we saw in 2024, being the vice president means you are attached to all the bad your boss has done. It’s also worth noting that the MAGA cultists do not hold Vance in the same regard as their cult leader.

Should Trump not run in 2028 for whatever reason, it’s going to be an all-out bloodbath of a Republican primary if we are fortunate enough to hold one.17

Why did I rank him here?

Vance has been on the job for a little over a year.18 He’s terrible, which isn’t surprising. However, do not be fooled by a guy who changes his views, his name, and religion depending on the opportunities presented to him at any given time.

During his short time as a United States Senator, Vance partnered with Democratic Senators on numerous occasions to pass legislation that required critical thinking skills to pass. Now that he no longer has an actual job, other than lecturing to whomever the Bishop of Rome is, and giving interviews on shows he argues no one watches, Vance is a dangerously disingenuous person who wakes up every morning and says, “Yes, I like how my eyes look.”

Okay! So what do you think? Do we like this year’s ranking? Not a fan? Please comment below.

Important essay scheduling note as we move into year six: I will keep posting the Maundy Monday Newsletter19 But moving forward, I will send out an essay on Saturday morning rather than Friday. I need the extra day – it’s just too challenging right now with everything that I am working on20 to keep it within the work week. I hope you like this move. Please let me know.21

One last note about the weekend. Saturday was my Dad’s birthday. He would have been 83. He passed away in the summer of 2015, and here’s the essay I wrote about him on that anniversary.

I miss my Dad very much, but really, I wish he could pull some strings up in heaven to get the Cleveland Guardians a World Series. Or at least help with them and walk the guys who are really good hitters.

Have a great week. I’ll see you on Saturday with the next set of rankings. Appreciate you.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

As it carves through the land, it forms the eastern boundaries of Nebraska and Kansas and the upper northwest of the state that bears its name. The Missouri River then cuts east before it reaches its mouth. This area of Missouri is known as “Little Dixie” because white migrant settlers from Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky traveled there in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries and brought along their enslaved people. It encompasses about 13 counties, give or take, and in 1860, the enslaved people made up about 10% of the population. I’m sure it’s just lovely.

“Little Dixie” is the place where Jesse Woodson James was born in 1847. Jesse’s father was a Baptist minister who would head west to California in search of gold and meet a tragic death. Jesse and his older brother, Frank, would live chaotic lives as the march toward the American Civil War intensified throughout their youth. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854, Missouri and its neighbors would begin engaging in violent actions against each other over the expansion of slavery.

The James Brothers would eventually fall into a group of Missourians called “Bushwackers” who were Pro-Confederacy. When the war broke out, the James boys were engaged in heavy guerrilla activities against Union troops. This includes the Centralia Massacre, where Jesse, under the leadership of some loser named “Bloody Bill” Anderson, summarily executed 24 Union soldiers that surrendered to them after traveling through “Little Dixie” on a train. No one ever paid the price for this war crime, and Frank and Jesse would survive the war but never feel defeated.

After the war, and clearly frustrated with their disappointed, hateful lives, Jesse and Frank would continue their act of violent crime by forming a gang with another guy named Cole Younger and his equally dysfunctional brothers. The “James-Younger Gang” began their decade-long terror campaign when they committed the first daylight robbery during peacetime on February 12, 1866, at the Clay County Savings Bank in Liberty, Missouri.

The heist netted nearly $60,000, which would be $1.2 million in today’s money.

Their confidence grew, and the gang branched out, robbing banks in Kentucky, Iowa, and Minnesota. It was in Minnesota that it all came to an end. The Younger brothers were captured, while the James brothers fled to Tennessee to live in peace until the urge to rob banks in Missouri returned a few years later in 1879. Three years after that, another criminal named Bob Ford shot and killed Jesse James. Ford was pardoned for the murder by the Missouri governor, who desperately wanted the state rid of the James Brothers at any cost. Frank surrendered to the authorities, would live another 30 years, and hold odd jobs, including work as a theater ticket-taker guy.

I bring this story up because the president of the university where I attended and was widely popular used to call my brother and me the “James Brothers,” and I wonder if that meant he thought we were bad guys. I don’t think so, but it makes you wonder.

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. A US nuclear sub struck a Japanese fishing boat on February 9, 2001. USS Greeneville was demonstrating its capabilities to various civilian VIPs, including a random sports columnist, when it sped to the surface from the Pacific Ocean and collided with a Japanese fishing boat carrying 35 passengers, mostly students and teachers. Nine people died when the ship sank, and the submarine’s captain refused to apologize for the incident. It caused serious harm to the US-Japan diplomatic relations. It would be another 20 years before the captain finally relented and penned an apology.

2. The second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump began on February 9, 2021. About a month after instigating an insurrection to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the Senate held the second and likely not final impeachment of Trump. The only impeachment after a president left office was used as an excuse for Republican senators not to convict him and provide him with yet another chance at political life, which he has used with vengeance. Remember that President Andrew Johnson survived removal from office by one vote.

3. Halley’s Comet last neared Earth on February 9, 1986. The first sighting of this ball of gas and other chemicals was back in 240 BC. The last approach, 40 years ago, was considered the least favorable for observing it because it would put most people and the comet on opposite sides of the sun. Does that sound right? I have no idea, I don’t remember much of Halley’s Comet when I was ten, but I’m sure it was fantastic. It will return in 2061, and I doubt I’ll be alive. Now I’m wondering why I bothered listing it, but I’ve come this far. I still can’t come to terms with the fact that 1986 was 40 years ago.

I hope you enjoyed the Super Bowl and, more importantly, the halftime show. I thought it was a great performance. I don’t know Bad Bunny very well, but it’s a 13-minute performance that didn’t ruin my life, forcing me to watch some other concert. In fact, it reminded me a lot of West Side Story, the groundbreaking musical from the 1960s that pitted American teenagers fighting Puerto Rican immigrant kids over turf and integration. It was just a lot of fun – we need more of that.

In more important news - next week is Presidents’ Day – which means Okay History celebrates an anniversary. This year marks five years since I launched the site – beginning with my trademark essays – ranking the presidents of the United States.

Which means, after the debacle of last year’s political scandals rankings, which I hope to return to someday, this year’s rankings will have less hype and be more in line with boring American history figures.

I bet you can’t wait to begin!

Okay, it’s Monday. I hope this week is a good one, and as always, I remain grateful for your continued support.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

Since the beginning of time, we have always tried to predict the weather, a task that is extremely difficult to do, considering we occupy a ball of gases, water, and rocks floating in space, going around a massive nuclear star that provides us warmth if we are tipped toward it in a certain way.

Still, getting a sense of what the weather might do next is something we’ve been determined to master. Early civilizations looked to the stars, convinced they offered clues about incoming storms. Thinkers like Aristotle tried to explain rain and thunder primarily through observation and speculation. In many ways, being a “weather guy” has always been a bit of a racket.

As our technology advanced, we better understood how pressure, moisture, and temperature interact. Instead of looking up and writing down our thoughts, we would send up a balloon with contraptions that collected this information.

Fast forward to the Space Age.

In the 1960s, the United States started launching weather satellites into space. The first was in April 1960, but this week, on February 3, 1966, NASA launched ESSA-1, the first of a series of satellites to collect weather data over Earth.

The difference with the ESSA satellites is that they spin, unlike their predecessors. Which, I guess, means they last longer in observing Earth’s cloud cover as it rotates. At least that’s all I can figure out, considering I took one science class growing up. Whatever, this isn’t Okay Science.

Either way, these satellites help meteorologists get a sense of what Mother Nature has in store for us, like the massive storm that hit us last week. I knew I was in trouble with ice when the storm shifted north, meaning Washington, DC, would get more sleet, which we did. It was a lovely coating of ice over 6 inches of snow. I can feel the complaints rising in my head as I type this out. The point is that spinning satellites in space helped me understand what the weather would be like.

I can’t imagine not having a weather forecast. Fortunately, we have these satellites above us, spinning, collecting data, and taking pictures for us to joke about how wrong they are.

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. Doctors in New York successfully performed the world’s first face and double-hand transplant on February 4, 2021. In 2018, 18-year-old Joe DiMeo was in a serious car accident when he was asleep at the wheel, returning home from a late-night shift at work. Roughly 80% of his body suffered third-degree burns, costing him essential body parts, like his lips and fingers. A medical team of 140 practitioners spent 23 hours in surgery, giving him the face of a 47-year-old man who donated it. DiMeo continues to recover and is now happily married to a nurse.

2. Delegates from six southern states met to form the Confederate States of America on February 4, 1861. After years of tension over slavery, especially its expansion, many southern states threatened to secede from the Union if the country elected a Republican president. After the 1860 election, which ushered in Abraham Lincoln to the White House, South Carolina announced its independence. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi sent delegates to Montgomery, Alabama, to hammer out details and form the Confederate States of America. Five days later, they named Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president, and the march to the Civil War was on.

3. NASA’s Apollo 14 mission landed on the Moon on February 5, 1971. This was the third time we put men on the moon, and for some reason, these men decided to hit a golf ball and throw a javelin, which I guess landed in the same crater. I’m starting to agree with the conspiracy theorists that this was staged. We would continue to send guys up there through the following December.

I spent last week sheltering inside the house, and over the past weekend, I finally pulled the ice sheets from my car—such a great time.

Hopefully, by tomorrow, it will get over 32 degrees and begin to melt this stuff. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long time before all of it is gone.

Two quick things:

1. Happy Black History Month. Here’s a refresher from what I wrote two years ago about its history.

2. Thanks to a few of you who have upgraded your subscriptions. This allowed me to have a moment where I was trending in the history section of Substack newsletters. I made it up to #45! Pretty cool.

Okay, another week ahead. I hope it’s a good one. Stay warm. Appreciate you.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

I miss the days when I was a child, and I got out of school because of the snow. Being an adult is okay. It has its rewards, like going to bed when you want. But unlike school, adult work is never cancelled, especially since adults invented technology that keeps us productive.

Really would love to thank the adults who made this possible.

While “Snow Days” were the best, being out of school because of parent/teacher conferences was a close second. You remember these, right? Your parents would take off work, drive to the school, and sit with one of your teachers for about an hour, who would describe how you behave every day. As an adult, you are probably doing this for your children, which is a downside because you leave your work to do other work.

There’s one particular parent/teacher conference that stands out for me and how it connects to our focused history lesson this week. My family moved down the interstate from Cleveland to Columbus in the summer of 1985. In January 1986, my mom and dad experienced the parent/teacher summit in the new Catholic school for the first time. They met my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. O’Donnell, a lovely woman, who no doubt explained to them that their son was full of energy but appeared to struggle with just a few basic subjects, like math, science, and reading. As a lovely woman, Mrs. O’Donnell probably gave them hope by highlighting my attentiveness in religion classes and my ability to retain information delivered by Jesus.

The exact date of this meeting was January 28, 1986. Since it was parent/teacher conference day, my sister and I stayed home and watched television all day, without worrying that our parents would realize in real time they were wasting their hard-earned money on the early education of their idiotic youngest.

It was a big day for the country. The Space Shuttle Challenger was set to launch. So my sister and I turned on the small TV we’d placed on the kitchen table, since it was close to lunchtime, and watched Peter Jennings on ABC News.

I’ll never forget not understanding what I watched as 73 seconds after takeoff, the Space Shuttle exploded, killing all seven people on board.

This is what we learned: Due to the cold weather, an O-ring seal failure caused a booster to fail immediately after the launch. This failure caused burning gas to reach the outside of the Shuttle to the external fuel tank. The entire rocket was destroyed, and America lost Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe was a school teacher, and her opportunity to go into space was witnessed by millions of students, like me, across the country.

President Ronald Reagan was supposed to give the State of the Union address that night, but instead he spoke to the nation for about 5 minutes. It was a solemn, elegant speech, addressed to the families who had lost loved ones, helped a nation heal, and spoke directly to children like me who were trying to understand what happened.

My favorite part of Reagan’s address is towards the end.

“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to ‘touch the face of God.’”

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. Air Force started atomic testing on January 27, 1951. Operation Ranger was the first time the United States dropped nuclear bombs domestically. The first device, called “Able,” was a one-kiloton blast that landed on a dry lakebed at Frenchman Flat in the Nevada desert. I have no idea what a one-kiloton is, see 4^th grade report above, but it sounds like a lot. It took us 100 tests over the years to begin to understand that it was having a negative health impact on locals. So we did another 26 and called it quits. The last one we did was in the 1990s. In October, President Trump stated he wanted to restart the program.

2. Louis Brandeis was appointed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on January 28, 1916. Nominated by President Woodrow Wilson and confirmed with the vote from a Nebraska Republican who proposed the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Brandeis would become the first Jewish American on the bench. Known as the “People’s Lawyer,” Brandeis advocated for social justice and the breaking up of monopolies. Wish we had him on the bench right now – he sounded awesome.

3. White supremacist terrorists bombed Martin Luther King Jr’s home on January 30, 1956. A month after Rosa Parks sparked a boycott of the Montgomery Bus system and launched King into the national spotlight, and consequently a target for white supremacists. While King was preaching at a church, a man drove to his house, walked up, and tossed an explosive on the porch. It caused some damage, but did not harm King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, and their daughter, Yolanda, who were inside. Despite the attempted murder, King reiterated his non-violent approach. “I want you to love our enemies.” The suspect was never caught.

Vivek Murthy is about a year younger than me, but unlike me, he was a good student growing up, which led him to become the 19^th and 21^st Surgeon General of the United States. In 2023, he declared loneliness a health epidemic. He said that Americans had been trending this way for many years, but COVID exponentially accelerated the problem.

Loneliness can affect anyone at any time. I have experienced loneliness plenty of times throughout my life. I know, it sounds crazy, a guy like me with great hair, but it’s true. When you feel like everyone’s against you, you become overwhelmed by anxiety, depression, and anger, all of these interconnected feelings that can have devastating impacts on your mental health.

When you can’t think straight, and loneliness takes hold of you, you seek out belonging and purpose. An unfortunate outcome could lead someone to join a cult. One expert in cult psychology, Margaret Singer, says there are six conditions for cult leaders to succeed with people. One stands out for me:

Create a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that cannot be changed by anyone other than the individual(s) in charge.

“Create a closed system of logic…that cannot be changed by anyone other than the people in charge….”

That’s what we’re living in right now.

The United States executed another protester in Minnesota on Saturday, this time an ICU nurse who worked at the Veterans Hospital, who was trying to assist a fellow protester. Both were expressing their God-given First Amendment rights.

His name was Alex Pretti. On Friday, anyone who would describe him would use the present tense, but because we live in a world where lonely people have found purpose and belonging in a cult, Alex can now only be referred to in the past tense.

The US has now murdered a poet and a nurse in broad daylight on public streets. Just like I was in the 4^th grade, I watched this tragedy on television, but this time, instead of the president of the United States speaking to me to help me understand what happened, we have people in his administration trying to control the logic of what they want you to think happened.

It’s terrible to imagine that only Trump can change the way many lonely people think.

I hope the weather hasn’t wrecked your weekend or caused any issues with the upcoming week. I think this type of situation is a nice reminder to slow down and enjoy the gifts we have in being warm and safe.

Blue in particular loves this weather. He can never hide as he bounces through the snow, his favorite pastime that doesn’t come along often.

Have a good week. Appreciate you.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

We are so into protests that not only do we have special one-offs, but we partake in the annual pro-life march and the daily peace protest in front of the White House. Finally, we cannot ignore the people who protest mediocre history content by unsubscribing from Okay History. However, I will never succumb.

For a few months now, Americans across the country have been taking to the streets to protest ICE agents, and tomorrow there will be an organized walkout from jobs, which sounds like the kind of protest I can get into.

But this week, we travel back to the protests surrounding the Vietnam War and the protests of the late 1960s and early 70s.

In May of 1969, protestors in Berkeley, California, marched to the People’s Park, a patch of greenery on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, to denounce war-related research being conducted there and at other nearby universities.

About 6,000 people showed up, and that freaked out the mayor of Berkeley, along with California Governor and future president, Ronald Reagan, who called in the armed National Guard, because when 6,000 unarmed protestors show up, you need to bring shotguns filled with lethal buckshot and tactical gear to match their energy.

Suffice to say, things did not go well.

When protestors and police collide, violence usually follows, and it was no different here. One person was shot in the eye and became permanently blind. James Rector was killed because he made the reckless decision to sit atop a bookstore overlooking the protest, and therefore, the police had no other choice but to shoot him.

Reagan told everyone who questioned the necessity of armed police that Guardmen had to be locked and loaded when facing off with people who most likely hadn’t bathed in weeks, while armed with guitars, because these dirtylittlefatslappers could have overrun the city.1 The Mayor of Berkley rang the familiar tune, explaining away the acts of violence. He conceded that police were probably over-aggressive with protestors, but it was because they all came back from Vietnam and treated the unwashed musicians like they “were Viet Cong.” Oh, okay.

Obie Benson, who sang bass for the musical group The Four Tops, witnessed the police brutality, but thank goodness, not from the roof of a bookstore. He was there because the group happened to be on tour in Berkeley that day. He was so upset by what he saw, he asked the question, “What’s happening here?’ So he, along with another songwriter, penned a protest song that he pitched to his bandmates, who declined, because The Four Tops didn’t feel like getting political.

Benson then brought the song to his friend, Marvin Gaye, who liked it. He added his own lyrics and changed the melody a bit, and “What’s Going On,” the first song on the album with the same title, debuted on January 20, 1971.

“What’s Going On” would be nominated for Grammys the following year, but didn’t win. However, it would go on to make music history. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it the 4th-best song of all time, out of 500. But since then, he has steadily slipped out of the top ten.

Last year, the publication ranked it 15th on its “Best Protest Songs of All Time,” which does not make sense.

Here’s my favorite part of the song:

Father, father
We don’t need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today

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 United States and Iran signed an agreement to release 52 American hostages on January 19, 1981. The same Ronald Reagan who armed traumatized Vietnam veterans against peaceful protestors defeated the sitting president, Jimmy Carter, in the 1980 presidential election. The night before his inauguration, the Carter administration finally signed the deal to bring home the 52 Americans who had been held hostage for 444 days after the Islamic Revolution. To embarrass Carter after he ordered a military intervention to rescue the hostages that failed, the Iranian regime freed the Americans immediately after Reagan was sworn in. Carter learned of their freedom while being driven to Andrews Air Force Base.

2. President Kennedy held the first presidential news conference carried live on television and radio on January 25, 1961. 65 million people turned in to listen to the 35^th President announce that the United States would be increasing food aid to the Congo, and that the Soviet Union would be releasing two survivors of the crew from the US RB-47 aircraft that they shot down the prior summer. He would go on to hold about 60 more press conferences on this medium, securing his place at the top of the “Yes, he was in fact a handsome man” category.

3. John Marshall was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court on January 20, 1801. Marshall was a Founding Father who served as a congressman from Virginia before briefly working as Secretary of State under President John Adams, making him the only person to have served in all three branches of the federal government. Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice and the longest-serving; he would be on the bench for another 34 years until his death in 1835. The Marshall Court established the practice of judicial review, in which the judicial system could strike down laws. The guy who succeeded him served the second-longest term and gave us this stupid decision.

I hope everyone has a nice Martin Luther King Holiday. Here are a few pieces I’ve written about MLK:

The 60^th Anniversary of the March on Washington

This one is about James Meredith, but MLK wrote in support of him from jail

MLK winning an award instead of one being gifted to him as a bribe (scroll down)

The beginning of the Civil Rights Act (scroll down)

April 4, 1968

If you missed my Even More Okay essay from Friday, here it is:

I hope to be back on Friday with another essay, but I make no promises. Anonymous begins her travel schedule in earnest midweek. So it’s just the Blue Bear and me for the back end.

Before I forget, since it’s a new year, please let me know if you want something answered in my Ask Me Anything edition.

We are about a month away from turning five!

Have a great week, everyone. Thanks for supporting Okay History.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

Last month, I challenged myself to write a poem every day, and by the end, I successfully wrote 31.

I learned a few things:

• While I had fun, I can’t write poetry worth a lick

• Sometimes, by the end of the day, I need to write something, so I cranked out a short piece and emailed it to myself

• I’m capable of setting an easy, attainable, educational goal

I’ve never formally studied poetry, so my confidence in writing well-crafted poems is not particularly high. But a lack of confidence has never been a deterrent – I have written poems on and off for decades and have submitted a few into the abyss of magazines and competitions, never to be heard about again.

I spent some time reading poetry and numerous books about it. A few are recent purchases, while others have been sitting on my shelves for years. I’m currently rereading Poetry for Dummies – the perfect book for me.

Inspiration for my December poetry project varied. I found a few that I enjoyed, so I used them as guides to see if I could write something similar without coming across as a plagiarist. Most were about topics or feelings that I wanted to explore and write in various ways. I’ve now collected all the poems and haikus I have jotted down in multiple notebooks and put them in an obnoxiously large notebook so I can continue writing.

Poetry is this majestic, creative art form that I have been drawn to for a long time. I think one trait is that it can use fewer words, and while I can be long-winded, getting to the point in an artistic piece is appealing. On the other end, poetry can be frustratingly complicated – more often than not, when I finish a poem, I’m immediately off to look up words and sit with the idea that I am a dummy.

Regardless of my reactions to any given poem, the allure of poetry will never cease.

Having said all that, I didn’t anticipate that my poetry writing in December would help with my mental health regarding the significant events in the first week of January.

January 7, 2026, will be a memorable day for me in many ways. First, I turned 50. Spending it with my wife was special, and I’m grateful in many ways as I move into the fifth decade of my life.

But I can’t help but think about what else happened on that day, across the world, as it relates to me, my faith, and my citizenship.

In Rome, Pope Leo XIV, the only American Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, effectively began his pontificate. Even though he was elected back in May, Leo spent the rest of 2025 fulfilling his predecessor’s work as the Year of Jubilee came to an end. On January 7, he summoned the 170 world’s Cardinals back to Rome to spend the next two days discussing how the Church was going to lead.

To put it simply, Leo wants a continuation of Pope Francis’s vision of a mission-oriented Church that implements the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which is over 60 years old now and remains to be a point of contention within pockets of the Church over ideas like “Should the Mass be said in Latin rather than English,” even though Jesus spoke neither.

These are important arguments for some reason.

Leo wants regular conversations on how the past can move the Church forward. He leads with moral clarity, patience, and inclusion.

Hours later and thousands of miles west of Rome, tragedy struck. In an all too familiar situation in the United States, this time on the southside of Minneapolis, Minnesota, parents rushed to their children’s school upon word spreading that someone nearby had been shot. After accounting for their kids and relishing the emotions that they were safe, parents and soon the rest of the world discovered that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good, a mother of three, who had earlier dropped off her six-year-old son at school.

In what felt like minutes after news spread of the deadly encounter, the vice president of the United States, JD Vance, took to the White House briefing room to condemn Good and justify the actions of the ICE officer with outrageous claims that her killing was justified. Vance, a converted Catholic since 2019, claimed that Good, who had her geriatric dog in the backseat of her Honda Pilot and a glovebox full of stuffed toys, was a “leftist agitator” and had been radicalized into being a “domestic terrorist.”

For the past ten days, the Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress and media sycophants have been aggressively and consistently pushing this narrative. Vance, in particular, as someone who believes that Jesus Christ, God’s only Begotten Son, was murdered by the hand of the Roman state, with impunity, asserts that a mother deserved to be shot in the face multiple times, denied medical attention, and remembered as a terrible person.

Vance wants to shut down any conversation about the matter and govern with cruelty as a policy.

Just like George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, and Trayvon Martin, I didn’t know who Renee Good was before she was executed on a public street. But when I read more about her life, I learned that Good was a poet. That she studied and practiced it. She was the 2020 Academy of American Poets Prize winner at Old Dominion University for her “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs,” which a judge of the competition described as a struggle between faith and science. He remarked that Good asked the question: “What does it mean to define something until there is no wonder left?”

I’ve read Renee’s poem a few times. I’m still navigating what it means to me, but that’s what poetry is supposed to do to you. Poetry is something you can come back to, especially after you reread the chapter in Poetry for Dummies about how to read poetry more effectively.

There’s a power in poetry that I didn’t fully appreciate until this past week. I had no ambitious motives to write my December poem a day; it’s just something I wanted to do. When I sped through a few of them, I was reminded that the intention wasn’t to simply complete them, but to dig deeper into the process. I needed to slow down and connect to something more profound.

Poetry connects all of us, whether you know it or not. Poetry ties me, Pope Leo, and Renee Good together. In his December blessing, Leo cited a short passage of an Israeli poet, Yehuda Amichai, called Wildpeace.

Poetry is a literary work that many Popes have used. They understood how its syntax can soar into readers’ minds and hearts. Pope Leo XIII was a prolific poet, having penned numerous poems. Pope Francis used to teach literature, and when he became the Holy Father, he called on poets to help us dream. St. John Paul II published a book of poems in 2003 that I purchased immediately, and now can’t find. JPII attended the Second Vatican Council in 1962 and, before it began, wrote a poem titled “Marble Floor.”

Renee Good and the Popes agree that poetry has many positive effects. I found this study supporting the claim that poetry during the COVID-19 pandemic brought “inspiration, solace, and triumphs in the face of adversities.” If you take the time, you can find many other studies and articles that say the same thing – poetry is good for everyone, especially dummies.

While the College of Cardinals argues over rules and practices they agreed to decades earlier, Americans debate the narrative of Renee Good’s death. We continue this silly practice just like with January 6, 2021. What you can see on video is supposedly not what you see on video, according to the Catholic vice president, whose faith is rooted in not seeing your Savior with your own eyes.

When he converted to Catholicism, Vance wrote of his attraction to a “majestic” Jesus that he never experienced before. On January 7, 2026, he willfully ignored that feeling as he gaslighted the world with an invented narrative of righteous anger in support of a murderer. He even callously described Renee in minimalist terms: “Look, I don’t know what is in a person’s heart or in a person’s head.”

We do. We have her poems.

This is the hopeful power of poetry. Words written down and shared to express what it means to be human. In the space between each word lies the majestic hope of a better life if we just slow down and dig deeper. We know people and their dreams by their words and deeds.

As Leo begins his leadership of the Catholic Church by using the past as a guide, Vice President Vance and others want to drag us back to a past, erasing all the progress we have made in overcoming it.

All of this is overwhelming. Renee Good reminded me that we have poetry to help us.

Here’s my poem for you.

Subscribe now

Share

I had a wonderful birthday week. And believe me, it was a week of festivities.

Thanks to everyone who sent along notes, texts, and calls. I’m deeply grateful to hear from so many of you.

I need a nap.

Wednesday itself was packed with fun activities. Went to the gym, then Mass, then ate blueberry pancakes with Anonymous, then we went to the National Archives, where I spent time looking up information on my great-great-grandfather, who fought for the Confederacy.

I knew he fought and was captured at the Battle of Franklin, but I presumed it was the larger, better-known Battle of Franklin, fought in November 1864, which was incorrect. He fought in the first battle, which took place a year earlier.

You can’t really call it a “battle” since so few people participated. It was a cluster of a fight, and the Rebels “won” despite giving up some territory. There were just a few casualties. I think my great-great-grandfather was the only person captured.

That sounds like such a Chris Dake thing to happen.

“Oh, hey Dake, we thought you got killed. Where have you been?”

“Yeah, I was captured and sent off to a horrible prison in Kentucky. During the battle, I tried to fight off 50 of those dirty-no good Yankees, but I ended up just getting tired, so they hauled me off to prison, where I regained my strength and broke out!”

Rebel Dake did, in fact, spend about three weeks in a federal prison in Kentucky, but was most likely released because he was annoying.

Finally, Anonymous put together this amazing book of memories from friends and family.

It was quite overwhelming to read everything from siblings to friends to coworkers. It’s a gift I will treasure forever, so thanks to those of you who took the time to send in notes.

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. Congress approved the invasion of Iraq on January 12, 1991. The Democratic controlled Congress gave Republican President George HW Bush the authorization to attack Iraq and liberate Kuwait. It was the first time since 1964 that Congress gave the president this power. Two days later, the United States launched air strikes. Iraq responded by sending missiles into Israel. The war would continue for about a month. In the aftermath, we left Saddam Hussein in charge so we could run this back ten years later.

2. Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706. Franklin would become the first Postmaster General of the United States. That’s probably the least thing we remember him for. Franklin did many things in his life, but became wealthy by writing the Okay History of his time called Poor Richard’s Almanac. His profile has been featured on the $100 bill since 1914. How about that.

3. Charity song hit Number 1 on the Billboard on January 18, 1986. Rod Stewart wrote “That’s What Friends Are For” in 1982, but Dionne Warwick and Friends released it as a fundraiser for AIDS awareness and prevention. Over the course of the year, the organization raised $3 million.

Her name was Renee Good.

Here’s her poem “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs”

i want back my rocking chairs,

solipsist sunsets,

& coastal jungle sounds that are tercets from cicadas and pentameter from the hairy legs of cockroaches.

i’ve donated bibles to thrift stores

(mashed them in plastic trash bags with an acidic himalayan salt lamp—

the post-baptism bibles, the ones plucked from street corners from the meaty hands of zealots, the dumbed-down, easy-to-read, parasitic kind):

remember more the slick rubber smell of high gloss biology textbook pictures; they burned the hairs inside my nostrils,

& salt & ink that rubbed off on my palms.

under clippings of the moon at two forty five AM I study&repeat

ribosome

endoplasmic—

lactic acid

stamen

at the IHOP on the corner of powers and stetson hills—

i repeated & scribbled until it picked its way & stagnated somewhere i can’t point to anymore, maybe my gut—

maybe there in-between my pancreas & large intestine is the piddly brook of my soul.

it’s the ruler by which i reduce all things now; hard-edged & splintering from knowledge that used to sit, a cloth against fevered forehead.

can i let them both be? this fickle faith and this college science that heckles from the back of the classroom

now i can’t believe—

that the bible and qur’an and bhagavad gita are sliding long hairs behind my ear like mom used to & exhaling from their mouths “make room for wonder”—

all my understanding dribbles down the chin onto the chest & is summarized as:

life is merely

to ovum and sperm

and where those two meet

and how often and how well

and what dies there.

(source: Poets.org)

Have a good week, everyone. Be good to each other and remember we will be okay.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share

I call it “Consequence-Free World.”

“Consequence-Free World,” or CFW, is an impressive place where everything is dandy, everyone is happy, and any decision I make has no ill consequences.

Let’s establish something. The word consequence has no formal negativity in its etymology, which dates back to the 15^th century. In the strictest interpretation of the word, one can have positive or negative effects for the decisions one makes.

But for CFW to exist outside our world, we must associate consequences with negativity. Because who wants to ride the weird train tunnel to a place that takes away having positive outcomes?

Let’s finish this premise with an example: I don’t think anyone would suggest that a consequence of saving money is that you can use it to make a payment on a large purchase. We would use the word “result” instead.

But we would say that there should be consequences if you incited or actively participated in an insurrection on January 6, 2021.

Has it really been five years since my neighborhood and country were attacked?

Yes.

What an incredibly bizarre path we have forged to be in a place where Donald Trump is president again, a Congresswoman is leaving office after publicly breaking up with him, not over this, but over whether he is on a sex predator list, and this one-eyed goober, who was convicted and sentenced for seditious conspiracy for 18 years is now free thanks to having his sentence commuted.

Speaking of goobers, this one is Speaker of the House!

January 6, 2021, will forever be the moment for me that the entire country, either by force or by enthusiasm, hopped into the train tunnel to a world free of consequences.

Of course, we remember the brave United States Capitol Police officers who fought off the armed mob of white men and women who needed to overturn an election that Trump has yet to concede, and never face any consequence for such deranged behavior. USCP officer Brian Sicknick’s consequence for defending our elected officials was his life. The consequence for DC Police Officer Daniel Hodges defending the Capitol was having goobers trying to gouge his eyes out.

We arrested more than a thousand people, convicted and sentenced them, only to have Trump commute or pardon most of the people who beat officers, hunted the vice president and Speaker of the House, and tore up the People’s House, all because they believed a lie.

The only consequence that Trump has suffered was a temporary ban from Twitter, the platform that allowed him to connect with millions of Americans and then millions of bots, exploiting and gaslighting people further into the MAGA cult.

In my CFW, I can tell bosses to “shove it,” that pizza and beer make me infinitely smarter, and everything that I need to do can get done even though I refuse to do it.

But it’s a bummer to know that we live in a country where cowards like Rob Portman, John Thune, and others chose their own careers and lifestyles over the rest of us and never delivered the necessary consequences on Trump, convicting him of impeachment.

Lastly, remember that on January 6^th, Nancy Mace was a newly elected representative from the low-ranking state of South Carolina. She was pissed at Trump for the insurrection he was leading, and she wanted to be the face of the new Republican power to stand up to him. So she wanted someone to punch her in the face so she could twist it into something else, where she looked like the hero.

Of course, Mace, the first female graduate of the Confederacy’s West Point, turned out to be a coward, too, and now, along with everyone else, wants that free ride of no consequences ever.

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. Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot on January 8, 2011. Giffords became the first Jewish person elected to Congress from Arizona when she defeated Randy Graf for the 8^th District in 2006. On January 8, she held a constituent meeting in the parking lot of a local grocery store near Tucson. Jared Lee Loughner traveled a short distance to confront Giffords, and upon seeing her, shot her point-blank in the head. Giffords miraculously survived, but Loughner murdered six people. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2012. In 2020, Giffords’s husband, Mark Kelly, won the Senate seat.

2. Common Sense was published on January 10, 1776. Thomas Paine penned the pamphlet that argued for independence from our British Overlords. Personally, I do not believe “common sense” is a thing, but I do recognize this specific written piece of essays. If we all had “common sense,” we wouldn’t need warning labels on packages that explained that you shouldn’t put them over your head. Paine’s work would fuel the passion that would culminate in the American Revolution later in the year. So be ready for a lot of American Revolution history stuff this year, my friends.

3. Apple released iTunes on January 10, 2001. The media platform allows you to manage content, create playlists you can run and work out to, among other things. Apple stopped making new versions of iTunes for its Mac computers in 2019. I did not know that. My workout playlist is embarrassingly bad.

I’ve noticed in the past few days that people have posted their favorite books they read in 2025. Here’s a quick Top 3 reads for me:

Paper Girl – By Beth Macy

This is a memoir about growing up in Urbana, Ohio, and how it has changed since local papers disappeared and partisanship took their place.

Less – By Andrew Sean Greer

The Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017 is about a “lesser-known” novelist who travels around the world when he discovers his former partner is about to marry—fun and fast-paced.

Duel – By Thomas Flemming

A detailed account of the days leading up to and following the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and how incredibly stupid the entire affair was.

Of course, I mentioned Four Thousand Weeks when I read it.

Here are three books I look forward to reading in 2026:

President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier – By CW Goodyear

Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century – By John Loughery & Blythe Randolph

The Art of the Personal Essay – By Phillip Lopate

Finally, I turn 50 this week. It’s hard to say how I feel about it. I don’t feel terrible about turning 50, nor am I overly excited about it. I’m blessed to be 50. It’s going to be a heck of a year for me in many ways. Anonymous and I are taking a few trips planned to stretch this 50^th birthday celebration throughout the year. So like the American Revolution – be ready for lots of “Being 50” content. That will be fun, right?!

With that being said, I’m taking Friday off, since I’ll be partying all week.

I’ll see you next Monday. Have a great week! Appreciate you all.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Anonymous, Blue, and I made the trip back to Ohio to visit my mom and three of my four siblings who live out there.

It was a wonderful time spent helping my brother cook, catching up with my sister and her friends, checking in with my brother-in-law, who I haven’t seen in a few years, and meeting the new mini poodle mix dog they now have. I was able to sneak off one morning and have coffee with my oldest friend, who is always great at making the effort to stay connected.

Christmas in Columbus features a Christmas Eve Mass with my Mom, where we drive 35 minutes into the city, skipping over a dozen other churches to attend this particular one, which happens to be the rival parish and school from my childhood. I love pulling into the driveway and parking next to the gym where, as a 5^th grader, I shot a free throw OVER the backboard. But Mass here is always worth it. This year’s Mass featured a cantor who has to be an opera singer, and his rendition of O Holy Night was reverent and powerful.

I ate too much, stayed up too late, slept in every day, and tried to convince myself that I recovered from one of the busiest work periods I have had in quite some time. It’s fun to get back home and spend time with everyone. Mom and Anonymous always enjoy being together.

Since we rotate our presence between Ohio and my in-laws in Florida for Christmas, we packed the box of gifts they mailed us. On Christmas morning, we FaceTimed Anonymous’s parents and opened up their presents. They knocked it out of the park this year – by giving us a set of matching pajamas!

My life is sweeter when I get to spend it wearing the exact same outfit as my wife. I celebrate moments when our colors match or when our shoes are the same Vans we purchased years ago. Having her parents assist with this sentimental goal gives me a deep appreciation for them – for knowing the hopes of my inner being.

Blue, who normally hates anything that is put into his body, was a good sport:

The dog hates the car, hates the long drives in the car, but manages to settle in wherever we are staying. Throwing on a piece of cloth doesn’t cause him to breathe heavily like an unhinged phone stalker, as being in the car transforms him into, but as you can tell, he’s not exactly as happy as I am.

But the family picture from this year’s Christmas in Columbus is really great.

Apologies

I gotta apologize for the lack of essays recently. My writing hasn’t been consistent this month due to multiple work commitments that a fundraiser must endure at this time of year, especially in the early stages of a capital campaign. Instead of being a consultant, as I was for almost nine years prior, I have a real job, where I am in charge of everything. It’s fun, challenging, and exhausting all at the same time. So I’m sorry for not delivering like I usually do.

No Labels

To help accelerate that exhaustion, I decided to send out 100 Christmas cards to parishioners with whom I have interacted this past year. Anonymous and I also decided to reinstitute the family’s holiday cards after a two-year hiatus. I was put in charge, and let’s just say the entire process of sending Christmas cards did not bring me any “Christmas Cheer.”

We had a list of 100 friends and family members we wanted to send cards to. One issue I ran into was that I only ordered 80 cards. On top of that, I kept carrying both sets of cards back and forth between work and home, hoping to make it a priority and get them completed. When that moment finally arrived, I was at home, but the labels I used did not cooperate. They kept printing half the sheets correctly, while the other half’s names didn’t fit their individual labels. I spent about four to five hours of my weekend trying to get this done. It was not fun.

Eventually, Anonymous and I had to handwrite the addresses.

If you didn’t get a card this year, it’s because I either don’t have your address or you didn’t make the list because I can’t count. Either way, if you want to be added to (or to ensure you remain on) the now-annual OKH Family Holiday Card Extravaganza, email me your address at Chris@okayhistory.com.

Top Essays of 2025

2026 will be a milestone year in a lot of areas. Right off the bat in the first month, I turn 50. Then the following month, Okay History celebrates our fifth anniversary. Next July, the United States will celebrate 250 years since we declared our independence from our British Overlords, and we will remember what happened twenty-five years ago, the events that unfolded on September 11. I’m sure by the time we reach the end of 2026, we will have another year in which our Cleveland Guardians did not win the World Series, making it 78 years since we celebrated such an achievement.

As I mentioned last year in my Thank You edition of 2024, I’m incredibly grateful for the support I receive. 2025 was another fantastic year for me in terms of growth as a writer (I still need an editor) and reader (I read almost 25 books this year – the most ever). I began the year working intentionally on a few health-related issues (ADHD, sleep apnea, and Cleveland sports fandom, to name a few), and the trajectory of so many things in my life is moving in the direction that I like. OKH has provided me with a consistent, fun, educational space, and I appreciate the fruits it bears for me. I hope you have enjoyed it as well.

So with all of that, let’s dive in with my top five essays of 2025:

After ranking the presidents in 2021, states in 2022, constitutional amendments in 2023, presidential elections in 2024, 2025 was to be the year of political scandals. I was going to rank the top 50 and had done a considerable amount of work curating the list. But after a few months in the surprising second term of President Donald Trump, I had to pause it. It was too much for my mental health to continue to talk about scandals when they were happening every day in front of us.

However, I will say I enjoyed writing about the scandal that was the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Confirmation.

Number Five:

In April, Pope Francis passed away, and I felt it in my gut, which back then was of considerable size.

Number Four:

2025 has challenged me in many ways. Primarily, what does it mean to be a productive citizen?

Number Three:

Reading has many benefits. One of them is it can lead you down a road to explore someone or something you had never known before. Earlier this month, I wrote about the Democratic Senator from Idaho, and it was gratifying.

Number Two:

Finally, 2025 was the tenth anniversary of my father’s passing away. We like to say his death in 2015 was unexpected, but not surprising. I miss him very much, especially during the holidays. He would have loved that cantor at Mass.

Number One:

What do you think of this list? Anything I missed that you would consider top-5-worthy?

State of OKH

Statistically, Okay History remains steady. I grew by about 40 subscribers. So I hover around 400. What’s interesting is how Substack is shaping the platform to keep more people on the platform. But from what I can tell from the data they send me, most of the people who read my essays get them via email, rather than Notes, which is Substack’s version of Twitter, and one of the places I post my essays (along with Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky).

I still don’t understand how Notes work. I grew my Notes followers to over 1,000, but I don’t get much interaction, despite a good number of people. In fact, 2025 was the least amount of interaction (comments and likes) I have had in the past four years. I’m trying to figure out how to increase engagement, but I also know I won’t be able to invest a ton of time in it.

I have about 15 people who support my work financially. Obviously, I love these 15 people the most.

Looking Ahead

Not much will change in 2026 in terms of the production of essays. I will continue to produce at least two posts a week (Maundy Monday Newsletter and Rankings/Even More Okay/Ask Me Anything/Paid Content), and more if time and circumstances allow. I’ll have a new ranking for 2026, which my neighbor, a history professor (how funny is that?!), brought up with me. It’s going to be quite fun.

Words, Words, Words, will no longer be an edition of Okay History and instead will move to another volume of my writing life that I am expanding into.

Which is the last thing I need to mention. I’ll be spending more time writing in general, in a few more genres. I’ve been working on different content areas for a few years, like submitting flash fiction pieces and poems to various publications.

But concerning OKH, I’m working on a book. Think of it as a memoir about my Catholic faith and my American/Irish Citizenship. It’s always been said we live in “unique times,” but for me, working for the Catholic Church, while an American is Pope, during a time when the Vice President is Catholic, while I’m turning 50, just makes it – to use an OKH phrase – Even More Okay to take chances like this. It will be a collection of essays from here and other pieces I have written. I’ll share more when I can.

Okay, this will be the last essay for 2025. I’ll be back on Monday, January 5, 2026, with our regularly scheduled programming.

Happy New Year! Thank you for being here. Appreciate you.

Feel free to reach out – I’d love to hear from you.

Okay,

Chris

Subscribe now

Share