Happy Birthday, January!
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History January 15 - 21.
Everyone who is anyone is born in January.
Like me.
Like my Mother-In-Law. One of my nieces was born in January.
Elvis Presley was born in January. So was FDR.
Bradley Cooper is one year and two days older than me. We could practically be twins.
Julia Lousie-Dreyfus was also born in January. Okay, I think you understand my point.
But today, we celebrate Civil Rights Icon Martin Luther King, Jr., who would be 95 on January 15.
I’ve written a lot on Reverend King. Like this time last year. Or this piece on another Civil Rights icon, James Meredith. I’ve written about the anniversary of the March on Washington. Finally, I wrote about his tragic assassination.
I can only add this time around: MLK entered college at 15 and earned a Ph.D. in theology. Interestingly, King was considered a pool shark. I guess he did this to wind down. Or maybe everyone let him win because who would brag about beating MLK at pool?
The point here is that we celebrate the life of this great American in the first month of the year. I hope you can take time today to reflect on what this great man did for our country.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. Here's what I got:
Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899. The notorious gangster was born to Italian immigrants in New York City. He began as a bouncer and then as a bootlegger when the 18th and lowest-ranked Constitution Amendment was in place. He moved to Chicago and rose to the top of the criminal underworld before being taken down for tax evasion. He died at the age of 48 of a heart attack, and I’m now freaked out.
Edgar Allen Poe was born on January 19, 1809. The American writer and poet didn’t become famous until after he died at 40. I’ve written about Poe a few times. The first one was about his crime novel, and then, when I used to read books, I reviewed a fantastic piece written by a subscriber.
Stonewall Jackson was born on January 21, 1824. The American General turned traitor was born in the part of Virginia that became West Virginia because of people like him. I have written about him several times, most notably concerning his death at 39.
Anonymous returns from her spy trip at some point today. I imagine I’ll get a text telling me to pick her up at the airport, where she’s probably been all weekend spying on people or whatever the heck spies do nowadays.
Blue and I had a nice weekend. I took him to a pet store Saturday morning to get a bath. Blue loves it when I tell him we are going out, and he loves being outside right up to the point you put him into the car. He hates the car because the car takes him to places like the vet or the pet store to get a bath.
Bathing Blue is what I would imagine wrestling an alligator is like. He snarls, shows you his teeth, and is generally a big baby because pouring water over him and scrubbing him with soap to clean him is the worst thing ever. While Anonymous is out presumably protecting the country from bad actors, I’m at the local pet store battling a dog who thinks he is being tortured.
After accomplishing the horrible task of making him not smell anymore, I give Blue a bone when we return home. We can’t give him rawhide because he gets mad if we take it away - he snarls and shows his teeth like we are giving him a bath. But unlike a bath, he can go without rawhide, and instead, we give him these larger milk bones. They smell like maple syrup, and the food-motivated dog loves them.
What’s great about post-bath and giving him a bone is that Blue will bury it somewhere in the house. It’s a funny reminder that he is, in fact, a dog. It’s also a reminder that we don’t have a yard.
Blue usually goes upstairs and buries it under the pillows in the main bedroom or in one of the numerous beds he has up there because he is a spoiled boy.
This time, he buried his bone deep into the couch. I knew he did this because he tried scratching up the expensive and wonderful wedding gift LV and PV got for us.
He then asked me to remove it, which I did. Blue then took the bone to his bed on the first floor before taking it upstairs. As you can see here, he has torn up one of his beds to bury the bone here.
At this point, Blue has finished showing me his burying skills and proceeds to eat it. We will get to do this again in a few more weeks. Can’t wait!
My eye is getting better and this morning I return to the ophthalmologist. However, I’m still having trouble with my computer, so I’m pretty much writing with one eye and a slow CPU. I didn’t get much accomplished last week, and I’m hoping for better results this week.
I appreciate your patience and understanding as I get through these challenging times. I will have the first of the lowest presidential election rankings coming to you this Friday. Thanks for making Okay History a part of your day.
I hope you have a great week celebrating those of us who were born in January.
Okay,
Chris
I was born on January 15, 1943. Richard Nixon was also born in January, I think.