Getting Your Priorities Straight
Old Blue F. Trubee Davison, who organized his Yale crew teammates into the Yale Unit of naval aviators in 1916:
"It could never be said that the race with Harvard was forgotten, but it did lose magnitude as the prospect of war with Mexico loomed larger."
(U.S. History)
Who Needs an Ivy League Education?
"No dignity in whaling? The dignity of our calling the very heavens attest...I prospectively ascribe all the honor and the glory to whaling; for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard." Herman Melville, Moby Dick (Library of the Future)
"Slackers"Hadn't Been Invented Yet
1792: Eli Whitney graduates from Yale. 1794: Eli Whitney receives his patent for the cotton gin.
(U.S. History)
The Miners, Actually, Were Harvard Graduates
From 1860-1870 Yale Phi Beta Kappa Josiah Dwight Whitney surveys California. He is duped by the "Calaveras Skull Hoax"when two drunken miners plant an Indian skull in the base of a mine shaft and Whitney is convinced it is the remains of an extinct prehistoric man.
(U.S. History)
The Things That Made Our Country Great
Number of times Yale is mentioned in the Constitution Papers: 1
Number of times Harvard is mentioned in the Constitution Papers: 10
Number of times the phrase "white male" appears in the Constitution Papers: 6
Number of times cock-fighting is mentioned in the Constitution Papers: 1
(WordCruncher)
Harvard Rivalry Goes too Far Dept.
From the Pennsylvania Gazette, April 26, 1764
"We hear from New Haven, that some Days ago, immediately after Breakfast, between 60 and 70 of the Students of Yale College were suddenly taken ill of some unknown Disorder, supposed to be from Poison in their Food; whether from Accident or Design of some villainous Person, Time perhaps will discover. By the Care of Physicians most of them are almost recovered, but some are still in a precarious State."
(Pennsylvania Gazette, 1751-1765)
For Those Who Think Television's Too Violent
Versions of the word "blood"appear in Shakespeare's Macbeth 37 times. (The Voyager Shakespeare: Macbeth)
And It Wasn't Even Butter-Flavored
Crisco, invented in 1910, is given a huge advertising campaign in 1912 with the strikingly original slogan "An Absolutely New Product."In 1913 "The Story of Crisco"is published, with 250 Crisco-based recipes.
(Who Built America?)
100 Years Ago...In 1895:
The first U.S. pizzeria opens in New York City.
W.E.B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard.
[Edward A. Bouchet was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Yale in 1876.]
H.G. Wells publishes The Time Machine.
First professional football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Frederick Engels dies.
"Babe"Ruth is born.
(Who Built America?)
Why Charles and Diana Are Separated
Number of times "love"appears in the English Poetry database poems: 24401
Number of times "marriage"appears in the poems: 1181
(English Poetry)
Today, In the Frisbee War, Maybe
"I knew that whenever we had a member of that Yale Unit, everything was all right. Whenever the French and English asked us to send a couple of our crack men to reinforce a squadron, I would say, "Let's get some of the Yale gang.'We never made a mistake when we did this."
Lt. Cmdr Edwards, USN, on World War I
(U.S. History)
Okay. So This "Sister of a God"Walks Into a Bar...
If a "sister of a god"open a tavern, or enter a tavern to drink, then shall the woman be burned to death.
The Code of Hammurabi, law 110
(Library of the Future)
Famous Last Words Dept. President Richard Nixon to John Mitchell, on the impending Watergate crisis:
"Just don't let this keep you or your colleagues from concentrating on the big game. This thing is just one of those side issues and a month later everybody looks back and wonders what all the shooting was about. Okay, John, good night. Get a good night's sleep. And don't bug anybody without asking me? Okay?"
The Nixon Tapes, 9/15/72
(U.S. History)
And Kissinger drank out of his finger bowl
On February 9, 1971, Judith Martin (now the syndicated columnist Miss Manners), writer for the Washington Post, is banned from the Nixon White House after writing a story on Beverly Sills'bra strap breaking at a presidential function.
(Haldeman Diaries)
Don't shoot until you see the red of their eyes
A sample of colonial American interests, ranked by their number of mentions in the Pennsylvania Gazette from 1728-1750.
rum: 460
church: 352
tobacco: 198
God: 159
(Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1750)
Well, you ve got to sin to be saved...
An examination of the number of times a few terms appear in the King James Version of The Bible leads to some interesting theological questions about priorities.
God: 4451
Satan: 55
Heaven: 584
Hell: 54
Sin: 449
Salvation: 165
(WordCruncher)
Call Me Ambergris.
"Blubber"appears in Moby Dick 26 times, more often than "Ishmael."
(Library of the Future)
Checking the Pennsylvania Gazette Classified Ads, 1728-1750
Lost and Found
Geese-Feathers
an oval pearl snuff box
a pair of silver knee buckles
a hogshead of molasses
For Sale
Parcel of dress d calve skins, Sundry Brewing-Vessels, The new invented iron fire places, Widow Read s ointment for the itch
(Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1750)
All of these facts and quotations were collected using the resources of the Electronic Text Center.