Erik Loomis

Born in 1845 in Malvern, Ohio, Vail grew up in Morristown, New Jersey. His family wanted him to go into medicine, but he was more interested in telegraphy. So as a teen, he moved to New York to get a job in a telegraph office. He was good at this and he rose quickly in that world. He got a job with United States Telegraph, which later became Western Union.

This is the grave of Walter Haynes. Haynes was born in 1928 in Kingsport, Tennessee.

But what about sending cheese in the mail , have we talked about this important issue lately?

This is the grave of Eric Dolphy. Born in 1928 in Los Angeles, Dolphy was interested in music from the time he was a small child.

August 25, 1921, in labor history!

She wasn’t dumb, and she wasn’t blonde. Dolly Parton 1946-2026.

For the moment, the idiotic border wall is stopped in Big Bend National Park . The idea of undocumented immigration through Big Bend is ridiculous on the face of it–that is truly land that is inhospitable to human life and migration routes. But what of the rest of the border? What else can Trump and Markwayne and Herr Miller destroy?

Oh…. it was Ratko Mladic , not, er, someone else. Oh well. Maybe some other time.

Some time ago, I did an interview with KPFA in Oakland about the 1946 General Strike in that city, the last meaningful general strike in American history. It went live yesterday and here it is. Check it out, good way for you to spend an hour. Better than watching MSNBC anyway.

I hadn't seen the Coen Brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou in a long time. This film is largely remembered for its soundtrack, which was indeed great.