February 10, 2003
Everyone booze up and riot!
Are you looking for a hobby that screams "extreme"? Is civil war reenactment too much about thread counting, drilling, and maggoty hardtack, and not enough about the glorious violence? Gator wrestling too traumatic (for the alligator)? Training as a blockhead for the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow too much effort? Why not join the London Riot Reenactment Society (link via Need To Know)? This wonderful group attempts to bring London's vibrant history to life! Major American riots of the last hundred and fifty years have unfortunate political overtones: New York and my beloved Baltimore broke out in waves of anti-Union and anti-black rioting during the Civil War; Tulsa's black neighborhood of Greenwood was burnt to the ground and dozens were killed as a white mob ran amok; the Watts riots ended a more innocent age, highlighted the schism between white and black America (the LA Times had no black reporters and relied on an advertising salesman for coverage), and brought the reflexive convulsions of the urban underclass to living rooms nationwide in living color. In contrast, reenacting Wat Tyler's Peasant Revolt of 1381 ("In a dramatic climax which will take place at Smithfield a re-enactor dressed as the 14 year old King Richard II will meet a re-enactor dressed as Wat Tyler, who will then be murdered by a re-enactor dressed as the mayor"), the Spa Fields Riot of 1816 ("Eighty re-enactors dressed as police will attempt to disperse the crowd of re-enactors, and one re-enactor dressed as Joseph Rhodes will be stabbed") and the Fourth Hunger March of 1932 ("Many re-enactors and police will be injured") are for the most part race-issue free, so potential reenactors can take part in them with a clear conscience and enjoy the sort of hearty, educational experience that the LRRS surely intends. The best to reenact, of course, would be the gin riots: expressing one's contempt for Robert Walpole and love for Mother Gin, putting the fear of God into informers, and making two great political philosophers very proud.
February 05, 2003
In the green hour
Before it became a symbol of fin de siècle decadence, absinthe was simply an herbal cordial with an attractive green hue. Like sarsaparilla, absinthe was considered to be medicinal; French soldiers in Algeria were given the stuff as tonic against fever. Unlike sarsaparilla, absinthe was roughly 140 proof, and the soldiers apparently developed quite a taste for it. Although absinthe had been invented in 1792, and Pernod Fils, owner of the original recipe, opened its first French distillery in 1805, it wasn't until the solders came marching home in the 1840s that the drink achieved popularity. It soon became a recognizable symbol of the demimonde: Van Gogh painted it, Rimbaud wrote about it, and Oscar Wilde quipped about it ("After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second glass, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world."). But it was also popular among France's upper and middle classes; cocktail hour was l'heure verte. In 1905, when Swiss peasant Jean Lanfray went on a murderous rampage after drinking a minibar's worth of liquor, newspapers seized upon it as an "Absinthe Murder." As if to confirm the prognosis, an absinthe drinker in Geneva killed his wife with a hatchet. Tens of thousands of signatures were collected on petitions to ban the drink. In France, La Fée Verte would soon be a memory.
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February 02, 2003
Sweethearts of the air
As a twelve-year-old, Bobbi Trout decided she wanted to fly. Outside of girls' adventure novels, there weren't many models for a schoolgirl who wanted to be a pilot. Journalist and photographer Harriet Quimby received her pilot's license in 1911, becoming the first American woman to do so. Betty Scott had received lessons from Glenn Curtiss, become a stunt pilot, and worked as a test pilot for Glenn Martin. But when the first Women's Air Derby, memorably dubbed the Powder Puff Derby by Will Rogers, put out the call for contestants, only forty women qualified. One of them was Bobbi Trout, who had earned her license in 1928. Nineteen women took part in the race, which began in Los Angeles, looped up through Washington State, and ended in Cleveland. Louise Thaden won the race, with Gladys O'Donnell and Amelia Earhart finishing second and third. Mechanical troubles had knocked Trout out of the running, but she soldiered on and was one of the fourteen pilots to finish. Half a million people paid to see the Derby's finish in Cleveland.
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