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President Taft, Governor McKinley and the “Lucky Seventh” Inning – the...
William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, is remembered as America’s biggest President (340 lbs) and America’s biggest baseball fan. He is generally (but mistakenly) credited with...
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A Stand-Up History and Origin of the National Anthem at Sporting Events
During the pre-season leading into the 2016 NFL season, Colin Kaepernick came under fire for not standing during the ritual pre-game playing of the National Anthem. He was not the first person to...
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The "Curse of the Billy Goat" - It's not what it once was.
Take Heart Cubs’ Fans – there is no curse – it was lifted in 1950.The Daily Clintonian (Clinton, Indiana), January 5, 1951, page 7.As the Chicago Cubs, owners of the best record in Major League...
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The Cleveland Spiders and "Tebeau's Indians" - why Cleveland's Baseball Team...
With the Cleveland Indians poised to get back to the World Series for the first time in twenty years, and perhaps the opportunity to compete for their first World Series title in nearly seventy years,...
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Patent Medicine and Baseball - Wahoo's Deep Roots in Cleveland
The Great Wahoo Polka – 1863.The Makio - 1906 (Ohio State University Fraternity Yearbook), Columbus, Ohio, 1906, page 12.In the opening sequence of Paul Thomas Anderson’s film, Magnolia, the narrator...
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Tammany Hall, Buck Buckenberger and the Ancient and Honorable Artillery...
Washington RedskinsThe Washington Redskins NFL football franchise started in Boston in 1932. The team played at the city’s National League baseball team’s park and shared the team’s name – the “Boston...
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Puppies, Austrian Bread and Austrian Sausage - a Finely Ground History of...
New York Tribune, August 20, 1922.Hot dogs! Warm puppies. Step this way for your red-hot canines! Metropolitan Magazine, Volume 26, Number 5, August 1907, page 652.This circus barker’s sales pitch is...
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Hollywood Execs, New York Writers, and the People They Fly Over - the Origin...
The Des Moines Register, September 3, 1911, page 15.Late in the evening of November 8, 2016, Election Day, I settled in to watch the election returns and relax after spending sixteen hours volunteering...
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Sister Susy and Santa Claus - How We Learned that Santa Claus Lives at the...
In a recent post I traced the origin of the expression “flyover country” to the dismissive attitude of television executives and writers who referred to a large portion of their audience as the “people...
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Fraternal Orders, Fraternities, Bed Sheets and Pillow Cases - Wrapping Up the...
In National Lampoon’s classic comedy Animal House(1978), the “animals” respond to Dean Wormer’s decision to put them on “Double Secret” probation by planning a decadent roman orgy or “toga party.”...
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Grandstands, Armchairs and Drugstores - Second-Guessing the History and...
Harvard's All-American QB Barry Wood, who introduced the world to the idiom "Monday morning quarterback". A “Monday morning quarterback” is “one who criticizes or passes judgment from a position of...
View ArticleA Pictorial History of Santa Claus
Santa Claus, as we know him, seems to be an American invention (based on various Dutch and German Christmas traditions) which dates to at least 1810, and perhaps earlier.An image of Santa Claus...
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Iowa Farmers, Wooden Shoes and French Silk Weavers - a Laborious History and...
Iowa Farmers, Wooden Shoes, and French Silk Weavers – a Laborious History and Etymology of Monkey-Wrench SabotageThe Buffalo Commercial(Buffalo, New York), October 5, 1896, page 7.A Monkey Wrench can...
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Decent and Dignified Journalism - a History of "All the News That's Fit to...
In the classic film Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ character, the newspaperman Charles Foster Kane, issued his declaration of principles:I’ll provide the people of this city with a daily paper that will...
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Bazoo, Kazoo, Bazooka – from Playful Instrument to Instrument of War (a...
Mount Carmel Item (Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania), January 4, 1943, page 1.In early January 1943, headlines across the country trumpeted the existence of a new “secret weapon.” They couldn’t publish a...
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Hey Mulligan Man! - a Second Shot at the History of Taking a "Mulligan"
HEY MULLIGAN MAN!Nicklaus, Palmer, Trevino, Woods – these names evoke images of the best golf shots and most memorable moments in golf history.Mulligan – a name that evokes images of the worst golf...
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Advertise Here - the History and Origin of Economic Pump Priming
A gambler trying to pull more cash from a table might invoke Lady Luck with the plea . . . “Baby needs a new pair of shoes!”An economist looking to pull more cash from the economy might look to . ....
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The Best Thing Before Sliced Bread - a History of Sliced Bread and Its Idiom
In the late-1940s a new idiom entered the language. It was a great idiom. It was the best thing since sliced bread.No, literally, the idiom was:“The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread.” Sliced bread, the...
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Balloons, Bread and Flour - a History of Wonder Bread
One distinguishing characteristic of American popular culture is its spongy, white bread. Disdained by American elitists, Europeans and many others, nothing says ‘Merica like soft, white sandwich...
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In a Toronto Minute? The Pre-History of "In a New York Minute".
“In a New York minute” is an expression that refers to the fast pace of life in the Big Apple. The expression’s roots can be traced back to the 1820s, but not to New York City. The “York” in the...
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