Author: Megan O’Toole

Members of the Hollywood Ten and their families in 1950, protesting the impending incarceration of the ten. Source: Creative Commons.

In the golden age of Hollywood, many film industry employees fueled a stable “studio system” by signing contracts with a select number of major studios. Between the years 1927 to 1963, five large studios including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures controlled the film industry–creating thousands of efficiently-made movies. Yet this system, which bolstered Hollywood’s economy, was rattled when politics started to play a stronger role in the production and distribution of films following World War II.

The reoccurrence of the Red Scare and the threat of communism led many talented individuals in Hollywood to face accusations of membership in the American Communist Party. The alleged communist members were threatened with being “blacklisted,” a practice that banned a person from any future employment in the film industry.

This practice began in 1947 when ten screenwriters were accused of being communists in the Hollywood Reporter. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) required that the writers confirm their political beliefs but the committee found the accused to be in contempt of Congress because they refused to answer their questions. The committee also encouraged several witnesses such as Gary Cooper and Ronald Reagan to testify against the “Hollywood Ten,” and the ten were eventually given year-long prison sentences.

Following this “Hollywood Ten” incident, forty-eight executives from the major studios constituted the Waldorf Statement to publicly announce that the writers would be blacklisted. The president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Eric Johnston, and many others expressed that the studios “will not re-employ any of the ten until such time as he is acquitted or has purged himself of contempt and declares under oath that he is not a communist.”

Actress Jean Muir. Source: Creative Commons.

As skepticism about communist involvement grew, politics gained a larger influence over Hollywood and many more professionals in the entertainment business faced accusations. In 1950, a publication called the Red Channels from Counterattack Magazine listed 151 men and women who were supposedly involved in communist actions. This list was taken seriously in Hollywood, and many of the accused persons were blacklisted and denied livelihood for many years. The list included major celebrities like actor Orson Welles and folk singer Pete Seeger–only some performers were able to clear their names by testifying in front of HUAC regarding their political beliefs.

However, some people involved in the film industry, such as actress Jean Muir, were unable to find work even after testifying. In a series of interviews with the Hollywood Reporter, Marsha Hunt, Cliff Carpenter, Lee Grant, Norma Barzman, and Walter Bernstein discuss what it was like to be cast away from Hollywood for many years after achieving success there. The blacklisted Hollywood writers mention that they needed to consider using pseudonyms in order to continue writing screenplays again. Grant also recalls the disgust she felt once actors were encouraged to betray fellow members of the Hollywood community to HUAC as communists.

The blacklisting period in Hollywood was steeped with anxiety and suspicion–and it led to the infamous conclusion of many prosperous careers. This practice of blacklisting essentially ended in 1957 when professionals in the entertainment business started taking a firm stand against it. That year, Alfred Hitchcock hired the blacklisted actor Norman Lloyd and radio show host John Henry Faulk sued a firm for investigating him for communist affiliation. In the coming years, many other instances occurred when members of the Hollywood elite began to insist on returning talented blacklisted workers out of exile.

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[Blog] The Hollywood Blacklist appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Megan O’Toole

There are some crimes that are deemed too horrible to be punished by a lifetime of imprisonment alone. The United States has wrestled over whether or not a death penalty should be implemented in exceptional circumstances that require another level of retribution.

Charlie Brooks, Jr. Source: AP Photo/Stf.

The first criminal ever to be executed by a lethal injection was Charles Brooks, Jr. on December 7, 1982 in Texas. Brooks was arrested in 1976 for the murder of an automobile mechanic, David Gregory. The results of the police investigation determined that Brooks went to Gregory’s place of work under the false pretense of taking a “test-ride.” Brooks and an associate, Woody Lourdes, then took Gregory to a hotel where Gregory was tied up and shot through the head. After his case was considered in nine different hearings, Brooks was scheduled to receive an injection of a barbiturate known as sodium pentathol at Huntsville Prison.

Prior to the injection, Brooks was granted a last meal and three witnesses of his choosing to the execution. Two of his witnesses were figures in the Muslim faith, Akbar Shabaaz and Larry Amin Sherrief. The other witness was his girlfriend, Vanessa Sapp. It was to Sapp and the other witnesses that Brooks spoke his last words: “I love you. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. I bear witness that Mohammed is the messenger of God.” Brooks did not allow his two sons or ex-wife to view the execution.

One of Brooks’s sons, Keith Brooks, speaks of this historic event in an interview with the Texas After Violence Project, a group that documents past stories on before and “after violence” in Texas. Keith remembers that protestors outside of the building were holding signs that said “Eye for an Eye” and “Kill Him in the Veins.” Keith recalls how Gregory’s family went into a separate room than the one Sapp and the reporters filed into. Keith felt frustrated during this experience because “No one actually came out and said it happened. Nobody said anything.” Keith understood that his father had been executed because of the time lapse yet he wanted verbal confirmation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W25-YFG-KsA

Brook’s ex-wife, Joyce Easley, also described her perspective of the execution day to the same group. Easley discloses that she was approached about an autopsy for Brooks’s body after he was pronounced dead. The doctors wanted to better understand how the injection affected his body and Easley feels that Brooks was in a sense a “guinea pig.” When the time came for Easley to see the body, she recounts that Brooks’s face appeared to be smiling despite the nature of his death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HccdMGf5DaY

At the time of this death penalty case, the following states were the only ones that accepted lethal injection in prisoner executions: Texas, Washington, Oklahoma, Idaho, and New Mexico. Ten years later, 32 states used lethal injections because it was considered to be the most humane way to administer the death penalty. The injection itself has evolved into a three-drug process.However, alcohol treatment center is helping people to overcome from drug addiction.  There have been over 1,210 prisoners to be punished by death with a lethal injection since 1976, in the United States alone as of July 2014.

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[Blog] Accounts of the First U.S. Prisoner to Receive Lethal Injection appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Robbie Faselt

“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” -John Muir

The Pacific Crest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Source: Creative Commons.

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is one of the most well-known long-distance hiking trails in the world.

It spans 2,663 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border and changes in elevation from just above sea level to over 13,000 feet. While it may not be quite as famous as the Appalachian Trail, it has become more recognizable recently mostly due to Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir, “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail,” which had reached the first position in the New York Times Best Sellers list and been selected for Oprah’s Book Club. The trail will gain more public attention soon when the film adaptation of Strayed’s memoir is released in December of 2014 starring Reese Witherspoon in the lead role.

Despite being part of the Triple Crown of Hiking along with the Appalachian Trail and the Continental Divide Trail, the PCT was officially completed just over 20 years ago in 1993. And even though the trail was completed relatively recently, the PCT has a long and interesting history that starts in the 1930s.

There are many theories as to who the first person was to propose a trail running from Mexico to Canada along the west coast of the United States, but the most believed theory is that a man named, Clinton C. Clarke, proposed the trail. Clarke wanted to link the many already-existing trails into one long-distance trail that would span across the U.S. south to north.

A trail sign on the Pacific Crest Trail. Source: Flickr.

Clarke wanted to connect the John Muir Trail, the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail, the Skyline Trail and the Cascade Crest Trail. In order to promote this proposed trail, Clarke founded the Pacific Crest Trail System Conference in 1932–including hiking and youth groups such as the YMCA, the Sierra Club and the Boy Scouts. Throughout the 1930s, people in these groups, especially the YMCA, scouted a route for the trail figuring out how they could combine the already-existing trails.

By the 1960s, hiking and spending time in the mountains became a lot more popular throughout the United States and as a result of this, President Lyndon B. Johnson wanted there to be a nationwide system of trails that would promote outdoor recreation. In 1968, the National Trails System Act was passed by the U.S. Congress and the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail became the U.S.’s first two national scenic trails.

A hiker heading north on the Pacific Crest Trail. Source: Flickr.

The act also called for a Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail Advisory Council to be formed that would be in charge of the upkeep of the PCT and deal with all sorts of people such as cattle ranchers that use the land that the trail goes through.

In 1992, the council was renamed the Pacific Crest Trail Association and made agreements with the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. In 1993, the trail was declared complete. But with over 200 miles of the trail running through private lands, the trail is still at risk from urban encroachment, and as a result of this, the trail has seen many changes since it was officially declared complete.

Today, hikers come from throughout the country and the world to complete a thru-hike of the PCT.

A map showing the Pacific Crest Trail spanning from Mexico to Canada. Source: Creative Commons.

This means that they try to complete the whole 2,663 miles in a single trip. According to the Pacific Crest Trail Association, approximately 700-800 people try to complete a thru-hike of the PCT every year but only about 60% accomplish their goal. Thru-hikes usually take five or more months to complete but the fastest person to ever finish the PCT did it in 59 days traveling an average of 45 miles per day.

The first person to complete a PCT thru-hike was Eric Ryback who achieved the feat as an 18-year-old student. Ryback only re-supplied five times on the 2,663-mile trail meaning he traveled most of the time with an 80-pound backpack filled with 40 pounds of food. Even with that much sustenance, Ryback often ran out of food and was forced to forage.

Some people have even begun to hike the trail both northbound and southbound in the same trip hiking a total of 5,300 miles.

Scott Williamson was the first to complete this feat in 2004 on his fourth attempt. His trip lasted 197 days.

Many avid thru-hikers have clearly trekked through the PCT or sections of it. The famous Scottish-American naturalist, John Muir, sums it up perfectly when he explains why people hike and spend time in nature: “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”

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[Blog] The Pacific Crest Trail’s History & Rise to Prominence appeared first on Witnify.

“Woodstock was both a peaceful protest and a global celebration.”
-Richie Havens

1. The idea for Woodstock came from Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld who were record company executives that wanted to raise money to build a recording studio in the town of Woodstock in upstate New York.

2. The Woodstock organizers originally told authorities that they were expecting 50,000 people, even though they sold 186,000 tickets in advance. Overall, the three-day concert brought in 500,000 people. That’s not all–another million turned around on their way to the concert because of bad traffic.

3. The famous Woodstock poster portraying a picture of a bird perched on the neck of a guitar is not a dove as some people think. It’s actually a catbird, an American perching bird that makes catlike calls.

Melanie Safka plays the guitar on the first day of the original Woodstock Festival. (1969). Source: Woodstock Wikia.

4. Melanie Safka, who was the sixth performer at Woodstock, was never meant to perform. She was not scheduled and had to sing her song “Beautiful People” to the security guards to get backstage.

5. Because of all the torrential downpours during the festival, there was a risk that some artists could possibly get electrocuted. Alvin Lee of the band, Ten Years After, was warned about this. His response: “Oh come on, if I get electrocuted at Woodstock, we’ll sell lots of records.”

6. The food stands raised the burger prices from 25 cents to one dollar when they began to run low on food. The festival participants claimed this was capitalist exploitation and burnt down the stand.

7. After getting word that there was a shortage of food, a Jewish community center used 200 loaves of bread, 40 pounds of meat and two gallons of pickles to distribute to the concert-goers.

8. There were two people who died at the festival. One man, from a heroin overdoes, and a teenager, killed when a tractor ran him over in his sleeping bag. The driver was never identified.

9. The last performance of Woodstock came from Jimi Hendrix. It was a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and it was described by one rock critic as “the single greatest moment of the sixties.” The funny thing is only a fraction of the Woodstock crowd saw it because most went home by the time he came on stage.

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[Blog] 9 Facts About the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Phoebe Goldenberg

Despite its Hollywood-esque glamour, “Mad Men” is praised by historians for its authenticity.

With its sleek cast of characters, racy plot, illicit boozing, schmoozing and sexing, AMC’s primetime hit, “Mad Men,” is reviving America in the 1960s to 1970s as a cultural goldmine. It is a show that satisfies the modern appetite for all things provocative, seductive and unpredictable–but have the show’s creators sacrificed historical accuracy for more drama and more viewers? As it turns out, they haven’t had to–not that much anyway. The show has been applauded by historians and Gen Xers alike for its authentic representation of its era’s time and culture. Yet there is no doubt that some details–both minor and glaring–have been distorted sometimes unintentionally, and other times, for the sake of show biz.

Here is a look at what “Mad Men” got right and wrong:

Don Draper

Although Don Draper is not based on a historical figure, his character is a compilation of several real life ad men. His namesake, Draper Daniels, who is best known for the iconic Marlboro Man campaign of the 1950s was also an infamous womanizer and smooth talker. The father of modern advertising, Albert Lasker, invented the emotionally persuasive form of advertising that Don Draper frequently employs throughout the show. Lasker led Lucky Strike’s “toasted” campaign, which Don is credited with on the show. The TV character’s good looks and swagger are often compared to those of George Louis, who was known for his witty and personalized advertising strategies. However, in an interview, Louis says he was “more handsome than Don Draper” and refers to Draper as a “talentless bum.” Ironically, this sounds like something Don might say of himself.

Office Behavior

Although “Mad Men” captures both the personal and professional lives of its characters, the workplace itself seems to be the locus of drama—where drama begins, ends and plays out. According to Jane Maas, often called the “real life Peggy Olson,” the colleague to colleague affairs that are rampant on the show are no exaggeration. Standing up against bias in the workplace takes on added significance when considering the portrayal of ad men divorcing their wives and marrying younger colleagues, which sheds light on the challenges faced by housewives like Betty Draper, who were trapped in emotionally taxing marriages without financial independence.

The female stereotypes in the show are often criticized by viewers despite their accuracy.

The treatment of female employees on the show has been widely criticized for the narrow stereotypes it defers to. Peggy is the aggressive career woman. Joan, the sexual opportunist. And the secretaries are passive mannequins. However, the misogyny imbued in office culture is not an invention of the show but a reality of its historical context. “Mad Men” depicts a time  before any law against sexual harassment existed–working women had limited resources to address these issues in their professional environment.

While the show carefully charts the journey of sexism in the workplace, it fails to properly address racism during that period. African-Americans faced even greater discrimination in the office than women did. According to Lola Cherson, the show’s introduction of Dawn, a black female secretary, in what would have been 1966 was premature by more than a few years. However, the absence of other black characters, aside from Carla the maid and Toni the Playboy Bunny, is a poignant and intentional reflection of the exclusion of blacks from mainstream society, especially the work place. Like African-Americans, Jews faced discrimination but their representation is mishandled by the show. Michael Ginsberg, with his cheap suits and heavy Brooklyn accent is a somewhat farcical representation of the Jewish ad man.

Don Draper’s prolific drinking has become the trademark of his character.

Drinks, Drinks, Drinks

If there’s one thing that the characters of “Mad Men” love more than scoring a big account, it’s drinking. In fact, the first scene of the premiere is set at a bar where Don Draper orders an old fashioned. Although it adds theatrical glamour, it’s hard to believe that any successful businessman could maintain their job (and dignity) while tossing back whiskey like water. As one might suspect, the show notably exaggerates the already notorious thirst of the Madison Avenue ad men. Although it was not unusual to drink three or so martinis at lunch, it was less common to find senior partners drinking in their office while on the job. That being said, drinking culture varied significantly from office to office. In fact, some ad agencies still have full bars in-house that are put to use on and off hours. Dale DeGroff, a former ad man and bartender, says that overall the show nails the nuances of the cocktails themselves from the liquor labels to the wine menus.

The Wardrobe

The “Mad Men” cast from season one.

One of the show’s most endemic influences on the modern world is its revival of ‘60s and ‘70s fashion trends. Maybe people truly did dress better back then, because the skinny ties, wingtips, pearls, and shiny purses are spot on with current trends. The costumes are used not only to delight viewers but also to distinguish between the secretaries and the wives, the executives and the assistants, the progressives and the conservative ilk. That said, while Joan has become a style icon for contemporary viewers, her cocktail-esque office attire is the least authentic of the crew. She wouldn’t have been able to get away with a number of her cleavage-bearing getups.

The Lingo

It’s easy to forget that vocabulary has evolved enormously over the past five decades, even for the writers of “Mad Men.” For the most part, the script is attentive to the linguistic milieu of the era. When a slip up does sneak into the script, it is usually small enough to go unnoticed by the average viewer. For example, Lane Pryce uses the word “euthanize” well before it was popularized as a verb. Even as a verb it would have taken the form “euthanatize,” which is no longer used today. In addition to some modern idioms, such as a “tough act to follow,” the industry jargon is where the language blunders occur most frequently. While anachronistic phrases like “keep a low profile” and “level the playing field” make the show’s dialogue more comfortable for viewers, they’re out of place for that time.

Interestingly, one linguist noted that the phrase “I need” is used more frequently in “Mad Men” than it would have been during that time period. Although this may seem like a trivial error at first, it has deeper implications about the evolution of American values. The increasing popularity of the phrase overtime suggests that Americans of the ‘60s were perhaps less entitled.

The character on the right, Bob Benson, is a closeted gay man on the show. Many criticize “Mad Men” for its lack of LGBTQ characters and ignoring LGBTQ struggles in the ‘60s.

Why Does Accuracy Matter?

Overall “Mad Men” respects historical accuracy more than most modern television shows. But does it really matter? Why do we care that Don Draper was downing Field’s beer before it would have been available in the United States? Why do historians spend weeks analyzing old books, speeches and scripts to discover a word or two out of place?

When we allow misrepresentations of the past to proliferate and spread through our mass media sources, we risk changing history itself. The millions of people who tune in to watch “Mad Men” every week are more than one-time viewers. The show propagates memories and fictional voices that become vessels of–sometimes false–history carried into the future.

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[Blog] ‘Mad Men’: True or False? And Why It Matters appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Phoebe Goldenberg

Kenneth Goldsmith thinks his work is “mimetic and uncreative.” If you were to pick up his most recent book, you would probably agree–and question the judgement of his publisher. His book, published on March 12, 2013, called, “Seven American Deaths and Disasters,” lacks colorful embellishments. Goldsmith has merely collected and transcribed the original radio and television broadcasts of seven historical moments from the Columbine shootings to the death of Michael Jackson. He fails to leave nothing out–seriously nothing. It includes all awkward pauses, stuttered words and banal advertisements that frame the articulation of all these tragedies. Ultimately, the pages of Goldsmith’s book rearrange themselves into a blurry question: What’s the point?

Asking this question may be “the point” itself. Kenneth Goldsmith is not a historian. He’s a poet, specifically, a conceptual poet. This is the key to decoding the message encrypted in what initially looks like blatant plagiarism. Goldsmith is not actually interested in the material events themselves but rather in the way history itself is recorded, repeated and preserved.

Recent American history is a continuum of events. While some are more profound than others, they are each part of a causal chain that can only exist when all of its elements are in tact. And yet, with each generational attempt to re-record history, we collapse it into fewer and fewer moments. There is no special algorithm used to determine which events are most worthy of appearing in history books, documentaries and school curriculums. And yet, we tell ourselves that the events we continue to commemorate and retell are those which are most important.

This justification is flawed. If we have no evidence of undocumented or forgotten events, how can we be certain that they were not, at one time, just as significant? By memorializing only seven “deaths” and “disasters,” Goldsmith’s book excludes dozens of events that were equally impactful such as the assassination of  Martin Luther King, Jr. What happens when arbitrary omissions such as this one proliferate from one book to the next and, more importantly, from one generation to the next? If you imagine this process occurring over centuries and millenniums, the answer becomes clear–our selectivity begins to dictate not only the content of history books but our definitive history, its plot climaxes and excised pages.

Contrary to popular understanding, Goldsmith’s book reveals that history is not a form of knowledge, but rather a discrete incarnation of fiction. As we tell and retell history, we are constantly molding, filtering and editing it. Each chapter of “Seven American Deaths and Disasters” is not a transcription of an event itself but rather a transcription of one reporter’s perception of an event. The correspondent’s personal responses are communicated through opinions, side commentary, emphases and the details they have chosen to leave out. Even video footage fails to capture the contextual scope and nuances of any particular event. Although Goldsmith is simply duplicating these accounts, he also contributes to their subjectivity by selecting not only which reports to include in his book, but also which excerpts to cut from each selection.

We know history is full of errors and that it does not always truthfully represent what was and always has been, but we also pay little attention to how history is always changing, expanding, reimagining and forgetting itself.

For example, in a 1968 textbook edited by John M. Bloom, John F. Kennedy is portrayed as a tragic hero with a legacy that exemplified the American spirit. However, studies have shown that more recent textbooks have punctured his celebrity-esque glamour, recasting his accomplishments as errors and his idealism as a tactful facade. So what is the truth in history? Is it just a matter of opinion?

Perhaps Goldsmith is trying to tell us that we’re asking the wrong questions. He wants us to recognize that history has no objective truths–only the subjective narratives we pass on and inherit. But we should be careful to not allow ourselves to see history as an omniscient artifact, but rather as an ever-changing prism of human stories that we are actually responsible for creating, manufacturing, judging and improving.

“Seven American Deaths and Disasters” has a self-aware objective: News stories, which popularize the events that go into history books, are edited. Goldsmith, himself, has edited what content goes into his book. But by reading about these historical events through the sources that reported on it first, you realize that someone, a middleman, taught you this history. Further, you have been a compliant participant in its conception or entombment. Goldsmith’s book awakens the realization that history’s truths really begins by examining its reporters and what yard was spun from a select chunk of them. And it rouses us to take a more active part in the history-making and history-reporting.

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[Blog] ‘Seven American Deaths and Disasters’ Changes How You View History appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Heath Harckham

U.S. national team players Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey. Source: Creative Commons.

When the whistle blew after a tense and exciting game between the United States and Belgium in the 2014 World Cup’s final round of 16, U.S. players collapsed on the field–exhausted and defeated–having given their all but coming up short. Yet despite failing to advance, there is plenty of reason for pride and optimism for U.S. soccer.

DeAndre Yedlin, 20, playing in the MLS All-Star game. Source: Creative Commons.

While the team was defeated at the same stage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, this time around they faced a more challenging opposition and far more trying circumstances at the group stage. Placed in the daunting Group D, known by the media and fans as the “Group of Death,” the U.S. managed to advance despite little belief outside of the team and its fans that it could do so. The team’s hard-fought 2-1 loss to a Belgium team brimming with young and talented stars was disappointing, especially considering how close the U.S. came to completing a dramatic extra-time comeback, but the never-say-die mentality of the U.S. players and their unrelenting teamwork made the defeat easier to swallow.

Potential future stars were also a bright spot in the gloom of American defeat. A core young contingent of the squad impressed and look to have bright futures in the U.S. team for years to come. World Cup rookie DeAndre Yedlin impressed in his three substitution appearances, and both John Anthony Brooks and Julian Green, 19 and 21 years old respectively, had brief but impressive competitive debuts for the team; Green beautifully scored the one goal for the U.S.

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of this game for the future of  U.S. soccer, however, is the sport’s growing popularity back home.

While viewership and interest in the national team has increasingly spiked every World Cup, 2014 garnered American enthusiasm and attention like never before. Viewership of the U.S. games consistently broke domestic viewership records. The first match against Ghana, a wildly dramatic U.S. win over their World Cup rivals, was the most watched U.S. men’s soccer game in America ever–until the games against Portugal and Belgium both surpassed that record.

-Before-

In addition to increased television viewership, cities throughout the nation held large public viewing parties for the matches, Soldier Field in Chicago, for example, hosted over 25,000 people for the game against Belgium–and seemingly every bar in the country was packed with attentive fans.

Social Media highlighted the elevated attention in the sport.

Twitter usage during the World Cup peaked when the U.S. played and Google and Facebook reported record trends of World Cup-related searches and posts in America. The U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard, who set a World Cup record with 16 saves in a single match during the Belgium game became a viral sensation for his heroics.

-After-

Though a constant critique of American interest in international soccer is in its fleeting nature, the expansion of Major League Soccer (MLS)–the premier professional soccer league in the United States and Canada–and the growing U.S. interest in European soccer leagues, suggests that the criticism is misguided. MLS has expanded into three new markets since the 2010 World Cup with two more set to join in 2015. In addition to its improving attendance numbers, the league has recently signed a lucrative T.V. deal, which will give it more national coverage and money than ever before.

The league’s progress can also be marked by its increased influence on the national team. Of the 23 men in the 2014 World Cup roster, seven play in MLS, which is three more than in the 2010 roster. While the league is still working to increase fan participation in some markets, in others like Kansas or in the Pacific Northwest regions of America, soccer culture is already thriving.

American World Cup players Clint Dempsey and DeAndre Yedlin, for example, play for the Seattle Sounders, a team with a passionate fan base that averages over 44,000 people a game for league matches. The growing exposure and quality of MLS has translated in a rise in quality of the talent pool for our national team, in addition to providing a competitive domestic league in which players can develop and improve their skills, it  also acts as a springboard for talented Americans to earn moves to more competitive European leagues, such with  Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore. As domestic soccer continues to grow, the opportunities and resources for American players to succeed grow as well.

The excitement over this 2014 World Cup highlights America’s growing and overdue affection for the world’s favorite pastime. This game alone may not catapult an interest in soccer past any of the other major American sports, such as “American football,” but if it continues its current upward trend, the sport will become popular in the United States more than once every four years.

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[Blog] U.S. Soccer & 2014′s World Cup–Defeated But on the Rise appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Phoebe Goldenberg

Gas Combustion Engine in the Easy Washer.

Years ago there lived an inventor named John Derschug. His imagination filled every crevice of the tiny apartment that he shared with his wife. The floor of the home was littered with so many gears and wires and scraps that you had to hop from one foot to another just to cross the room to the stove. In fact, the stove was hardly a stove at all. It looked more like a flying machine straight out of a Vales Thomas novel, with a conveyor belt that deposited coal beneath three spinning blades and a chimney that sputtered wisps of blue smoke from time to time.

John Derschug was a good inventor, but people were seldom interested in the strange and wonderful things he created. When he told his friends of his newest projects, they would simply chuckle and say, “Bah, you need a real job, John. You spend all day cooped up with your machines. They’re making you loopy.” What could he do but prove them wrong?

Fate finally began to smile on John Derschug the Tuesday he met Cyrus Dodge in a lonley little pub. On that particular day, Derschug was drinking away his frustrations with a glass of bourbon. Cyrus, who never drank, was simply there to eat a slice of apple pie with cheddar cheese and reflect on his life. He was deeply troubled that his life had been meaningless so far. He had gone to college and gotten a degree, but he had never done anything spectacular in his life. He was average. That is, until he met the eccentric stranger sitting beside him at the bar.

The man was an inventor with a brilliant solution for washing clothes by hand. The Easy Washer, as he called it, used a nifty contraption called an “internal combustion engine” to wash your laundry like a personal maid. The next year, the Syracuse Washing Machine Cooperation was born.

Easy Washer at the Panama Pacific International Competition.

By 1915, the Easy Washer had taken home a top prize from the model kitchen exhibit at the Panama Pacific international Competition. With John’s creative genius and Cyrus’s talent for convincing people to buy what they didn’t know they needed, business was booming. The two men were richer than they had ever hoped to be. They moved out of their tiny apartments into massive hilltop mansions, from which they could see their factory below them, churning out laundry machines–and money. The two men had more than they had ever wished for but success always comes at a price.

In 1936, as Derschug stepped out of his limousine onto his driveway, he dropped dead. When his driver knelt down to shake him conscious, he discovered a trickle of blood behind his employer’s left ear, and a bullet wound as its source. Within hours, a disgruntled former worker named Paul Davis was charged with the murder of the revolutionary washing machine inventor, John Derschug. Eventually, his wife sold his assets to Sears and donated his mansion to Cazenovia College, which is now famous for hosting wild fraternity parties.

Almost 140 years later, this is the way my mother tells the story of my great-great-grandfather John Derschug. My grandmother, on the other hand, tells it quite differently. According to her, Cyrus Dodge was the mastermind behind the Easy Washer and John Derschug was the crafty salesman who stole his idea. In fact, Dodge was so heartbroken when Derschug made a fortune off of his invention that he killed himself in his bathtub. My grandmother is convinced that Derschug died when his own limousine rolled backwards on him in his driveway.

As for me, I don’t know which story I will tell my own children. Perhaps I will pick and choose my favorite parts from each version, or maybe I will fabricate a different one entirely. It wouldn’t make much of a difference either way. My great-great-grandfather left behind neither a paper trail nor any memoirs. Now cobwebs and dust hide any evidence that he ever existed.

Not long after his death, the Syracuse Washing Machine Company, which had been renamed Easy Washing Company, was sold to Hupp Cooperation, which closed in 1963. The fate of the Derschug fortune is shrouded in mystery and even Google has difficulty confirming who John Derschug was.

Every time my family tells the story, it changes a little bit. And no one can agree on the details, big or small. We only know that once upon a time there was man named John Derschug, a machine called an Easy Washer, and a truth that connected the two. But that truth has long been forgotten or lost somewhere on a dusty road between now and the past. That is where it will remain forever orbiting the planet of historical facts, moving closer or farther from it, but never landing. Now my family must make due with what we think might have happened, weaving our imagined stories over the gaping holes left in the absence of what actually happened.

You can’t touch history or taste it–or use it to buy a new house, for the matter–but it is one of the most precious resources we have. Although history is generated and molded by the organic world, it remains outside of its natural cycles, non-reusable and non-returnable. Once history is forgotten, it is gone, and the lives of people like John Derschug become permanent rips in the fabric of human history. Imagination can camouflage the damage, but ultimately, there is no human hand or mind that can retrieve what has been untold and forgotten.

*Share with Witnify your own family history and lore surrounding a historic event or ancestor who made an impact on history. Start documenting that story here, and send your blog post to info@witnify.com.

The post John Derschug
[Blog] Family History Lost & Never Found: John Derschug’s Easy Washing Machine appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Emmy Lu Daly
Date: May 20, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBG9xTfdGiw

“Now serving #156 at Station #3.”
One by one, on and on.
Dumbed and numbed
Veterans all.

WWII, Korea, Vietnam,
distant wars now.
WWII- the “good” war
Korea- the “forgotten” war
Vietnam- the “wasted” war.

#156 slowly raises his head,
pushed his wheel chair,
his one leg plaid panted,
belly hanging loosely.

One more trip to Station #3.
What’ll it be this time?
A pill for his cholesterol?
Maybe something for is COPD,
Or his “a-fib.”
How about a stronger pill for his arthritis?

Whatever. He’s supposed to be grateful,
Lucky to get all this care and drugs.
So he takes the rx slip, smiles a little.
The young dispenser smiles back and says
“Thank you for your service.”
They all say that.

#156 pivots his chair and mumbles
“Oh son, I hope you never know.”

The post [Blog] Poem of a WWII U.S. Veteran: ‘The VA Pharmacy’ appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Sarah Dejak

“I may have been given a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for…”

Lou Gehrig in his Yankees uniform. (1937). Source: Creative Commons.

10. Nicknamed ‘The Iron Horse,’ Gehrig was known for his astounding strength (particularly his powerful legs), his endurance as well as his unparalleled commitment to the game.

9. Though he played every game, still maintained an impressive .340 average.

8. Hit four home runs in one game, on June 3, 1932. Only 16 other major league players have accomplished this feat, which the Sporting News called “baseball’s greatest single game accomplishment.”

Lou Gehrig slides into home plate to score a run in the fourth inning as the Yankees were playing the Washington Senators. The Yankees would go on to win that game 3-2. (1925). Source: Creative Commons.

7. Won the Triple Crown in 1934, leading the American League in average (.363), home runs (49) and RBIs (165).

6. Hit 463 career home runs, setting the record for most home runs by a first-basemen. Mark McGwire surpassed his record in 1999—hitting 500.

5. Holds the record for most grand slams in a career with 23.

4. Became the only player in history to drive in more than 500 runs in 3-years with 174 in ‘30, 184 in ‘31 and 151 in ’32 (for a total of 509).

Lou Gehrig with his idol Babe Ruth at an exhibition game in West Point, New York. (May 6, 1927). Source: Creative Commons.

3. His 184 RBI’s in ’31 is an American League record.  He ranks 2^nd (behind Hack Wilson of the Cubs) for most in Major League history.

2. Set record for playing most consecutive games with 2,130.  That record stood nearly 60 years until Cal Ripken famously surpassed him in 1995.

1. Was the first athlete to have his number retired into a Hall of Fame, a practice that is done in most sports these days. The normal tradition of waiting two years before retiring a jersey was waived for Gehrig, due to his progressive illness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkV5-49JnNk

The post Lou Gehrig
[Blog] 10 Lifetime Achievements in Lou Gehrig’s 37 Years appeared first on Witnify.