The Object of My Affection…

… has changed my complexion from white to rosy red. My husband can still make me blush even after all our years together. We are true opposites. I’m the word girl and he’s the numbers guy. Never were these differences more apparent than last night. In the late spring and early summer, my husband and … Read more

Loading

Researching Recipes

I love reading old recipes, particularly from the 1920s. It’s fascinating to see food preparation through the years change. Today, we have a surplus of food, even though recent trips to the grocery store before a snowstorm might give you a moment of doubt. When I write a historical piece, I try to find menus … Read more

Loading

Betelgeuse/Beetlejuice!

Today is very important. On December 13, 1920, Albert Michelson uses Francis G. Pease’s interferometer to measure the diameter of a star – Betelgeuse. This is the first time a star’s diameter is measured, aside from our own Sun. Of course, the star made me think of one of my favorite movies, Beetlejuice. I’m a … Read more

Loading

Houdini & the Spiritualists

Harry Houdini was a well-known escape artist, a film star, and a tireless warrior against spiritualism. He placed advertisements in local newspapers, including this one in the December 1, 1922 Richmond Times Dispatch. Spiritualism was a religious movement based on the belief that the dead and the living could have contact with each other. Houdini … Read more

Loading

Monday’s Molls & Mugs – Elizebeth Friedman

Far from being a ganster’s moll, Elizebeth Friedman was the codebreaker who helped to bust them. Elizebeth Friedman is widely known as the first female cryptanalyst. She and her husband William led a team of codebreakers during World War I. During Prohibition, Elizebeth worked with the federal government to break the rum runners secret codes. … Read more

Loading

Monday’s Molls & Mugs

Have you heard of the Queen of the Bootleggers? Her name was Gertrude “Cleo” Lythgoe and she was a famous female rumrunner who kept the liquor flowing between the Bahamas and the United States for three years before calling it quites. Cleo called herself the Rum Queen of the Bahamas, but to me she was … Read more

Loading

On this day in history…

On October 28, 1920, the United States was preparing for a presidential election. It was also the first time women would have the opportunity to vote in an election. Thank goodness we had mansplaining even then to guide us on how to vote. The Danville Daily Messenger from central Kentucky explaining how the ballot would … Read more

Loading

Wednesday’s Fun Fact

This image appeared on the front page of the Abilene Daily Record on November 11,1918. World War I ended and the nation worked to recover. The generation who came of age during World War I and into the Roaring Twenties was often called the Lost Generation because they tended to act recklessly. Hedonism and accumulation … Read more

Loading