Want Some Poe?

The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History April 18 - 24.

Good morning, Tens of Tens. I hope you had a restful and recharging holiday weekend. Thanks for spending some time with Okay History.

Anonymous and I talked last week about how much I enjoy this hobby, personal mission, or whatever words you want to mash together to describe what Okay History is.

I have grand ideas of what this space can and could be. For me, it's about building a community that strives for better citizenship. For Anonymous, it beats having a partner who plays video games or spends time at the racetrack.

You're welcome.

I’m grateful to have Tens of Tens of subscribers, most of whom I know, who read this content and respond in the comments or email. I've learned a lot, either by reading or researching or by feedback from you, which is essential because Okay History was never meant to be a one-way street.

I present some ideas and hope you bring your perspectives.

This is quite a lead-in to the lesson's focus that usually occupies this space, so let's get to it.

On April 20, 1841, Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue was published in Graham's Magazine.

The short story is considered the first modern detective story.

Why?

Because some dude solves the murder of two women, and I guess we never wrote anything like that before.

When I came across this piece of information, I would typically skip it because, if you haven't noticed, the Maundy Monday Newsletter features events that end in years with the number two or seven because these are round-number anniversaries in 2022.

This provides consistency for when we share events of the same week in the future, which goes back to the grand ideas plan.

But I’m making an exception here because someone in our community is a Poe expert, and I’d like to shine a light on this important historical and hilarious take on Poe.

I want to introduce you to Cat Baab-Muguira. She is my first subscriber to the blog in this space, and she has written a book on how Poe can help you solve your problems, a concept I can get behind because I need a lot of help.

I have never met Cat, but I came across Cat's writing over a year ago, when I first began playing around this platform before deciding to work elsewhere before returning.

Anyway, Cat is my type of writer. Some of my favorite works of hers include dreams worth it, realities of making money on a book, and this hilarious take on how much she spent on her hair.

Cat's work and the book are good places to begin if you want to expand your reading. I bought the book the other day and plan on discussing Poe further with Cat, the time he lived in history, our mental health, and many other materials.

Grand ideas of building community-type stuff. Looking forward to learning more and hope you are too.

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Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. Here's what I got:

1. Dick Clark died of heart failure on April 18, 2002. There’s a sixteen-second clip of me playing the American Bandstand host for a seventh-grade school concert out there in the world.

2. The first space funeral took place on April 21, 1997. We had no idea this was a thing. Check out this one-minute video for more details.        

3.   Barbara Streisand was born on April 24, 1942. The American singer has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammys, five Emmys, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and is the stepmother-in-law to Thanos. Pretty impressive.

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I would be remiss if we didn't spend the final thoughts celebrating another published author of our community, my dear friend Aly Mennuti, who published her first novel, Real Fake, last year.

Spoiler alert – we are incredibly biased about this extraordinary story because a character is named after me. Get this book for the summer and get ready to laugh, especially around the Chris Dake character and how it is not me at all.

Anonymous might wish it was me.

Okay, so everyone has their marching orders. Buy some books!

Have a wonderful week – Friday, we return with a Reader's Request from our Kentucky trip. It also gives you some time to lobby about the state rankings, and Kentucky is also making moves there.  

Okay,

Chris