August 28th is
Pony Express Day *
Cherry Turnover Day
Radio Commericals Day *
National Bow Tie Day
Race Your Mouse Around the Icons Day
____________________________________________________________
WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Czech Republic – Strakonice:
Mezinárodní Dudácký Festivalu (Bagpipe Festival) *
Georgia, Republic of – Good Friday
India – Ayyankali Jayanti *
(honors birth of untouchables champion)
Spain – Buñol, Valencia:
La Tomatina (pelting with tomatoes)
U.K. – London:
Notting Hill Carnival
United States –
Black Rock Desert NV:
› Burning Man
Neah Bay WA:
› Makah Days
Philadelphia PA:
› Philadelphia Jerk Festival
____________________________________________________________
On This Day in HISTORY
1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay
1789 – William Herschel discovers another moon of Saturn, names it after a giant in Greek mythology, Enceladus
MORE! Leo Tolstoy, Strom Thurmond and Barack Obama, click
1828 – Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Russian author, is born
1830 – Peter Cooper demonstrates his passenger-carrying steam-driven train “Tom Thumb” in Baltimore MD
1833 – Slavery Abolition Act receives Royal Assent, ending slavery in the British Empire
1845 – First issue of Scientific American magazine is published
1850 – Wagner’s opera Lohengrin premieres
1863 – Ayyankali * is born, advocate for advancement of Dalits, India’s “untouchables”
1879 – Cetshwayo, the last Zulu king, is captured by the British
1907 – Teenagers Jim Casey and Claude Ryan start the American Messenger Company, which becomes United Parcel Service
1913 – Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague, now home of the International Court of Justice
1917 – Woman Suffrage protesters outside the White House compare President Wilson to the German Kaiser. Ten of them are arrested, sentenced to work camps and then their hunger strike is ended by forced feeding
1922 – First radio commercial * aired on NYC’s WEAF when the Queensboro Realty Company buys 10 minutes of airtime for $100
1943 – In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation begins
1955 – Black teenager Emmett Till is brutally murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the Civil Rights Movement
1957 – U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond (SC) filibusters to present Senate vote on the Civil Rights Act. Holds floor for 24 hours, 18 minutes, longest filibuster by a single Senator
1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington before a crowd of more than 200,000 people
1968 – During the Democratic National Convention, 10,000 anti-war protestors took to the streets of Chicago. Denied legal permits by Chicago Mayor Daley, several leaders were arrested by Chicago police on August 23. On August 28, in Grant Park, the police rioted, beating protestors, journalists and bystanders, using massive amounts of tear gas and mace. As the riot spilled over in front of the Hilton Hotel, the crowd began chanting “the whole world is watching” before television cameras
1988 – Metallica single “Harvester of Sorrows” is released
1990 – An F-5 tornado, the only tornado of that magnitude recorded in August, strikes Plainfield and Joliet in Illinois, killing 29 people
1995 – Chase Manhattan and Chemical Bank merge to become the largest U.S. bank
2005 – New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin orders the evacuation of the city ahead of Hurricane Katrina
2008 – Barack Obama accepts his party’s presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention in Denver CO
____________________________________________________________
-
Czech Bagpipes:* The Bock is a Central European bagpipe named
for the goat skins from which it is made. An American Bock
player demonstrates the instrument:
____________________________________________________________
* For more about the Pony Express, come back today at 10:30 CDT for The Pony Express in Prose and Poetry
Visuals
- Formal black bow tie
- International Flags
- Henry Hudson in Delaware Bay – his ship, the Half Moon, in background
- ‘Tom Thumb’ train
- Scientific American magazine header
- Peace Palace in The Hague – main entrance
- Protesting treatment of Suffrage prisoners
- Barack Obama during acceptance speech at 2008 Democratic Convention
____________________________________________________________
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 
The clip of the Bock bagpipes is interesting. It only has two drones instead of the three found on the Great Highland Bagpipes.
Corvus Corax is a German band which plays medieval instruments and dress in costumes of those times. They play their interpretation of “profane” music of the middle ages. Profane music got its name because it is not religious. Bagpipes appeared in Greece and central Europe centuries ago, but never became the national instrument as they did in Scotland. These authentic pipes are powerful in the hands of good musicians. Note the progressions, even as they bound around on the stage. It is hard to remember that pipes only have nine notes. It is the skill of the piper, using burls and grace notes to make the pipes come alive. They are the only instrument in the world whose sound is described as “skirling.”
Thanks Chuck – wild stuff from Corus Corax! Would their style be described as “Heavy Skirling” – ?!
I put in the Bock bagpipe story especially for you – the difference in technique from the Scots pipes struck me immediately, and I knew you’d enjoy it too.
“1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay”
Bet that surprised the hell out of the Indians living there.
LOL – I always feel silly reporting these “discoveries” but “arrives” is so mundane – I guess i’d rather be silly than boring!