Peter Newell

Yesterday's Person-of-Mystery was none other than Peter Newell (1862-1924).

Peter Newell

Newell was one of the most popular illustrators of his day and his style helped define the turn of the century era.  His work appeared in all of the most popular magazines (Harper's, McClure's, Collier's Saturday Evening Post, Scribner's, etc.) and graced the novels belonging to authors like Lewis Carol, Mark Twain, and Stephen Crane.

Newell's Humpty Dumpty from Carroll's Through the Looking Glass

Newell's humor was evident in so much of his poetry and illustration.

"Of what are you afraid, my child?"

Enquired the kindly teacher.

"Oh, Sir, the flowers, they are wild!"

Replied the timid creature.

Newell's "Wild Flowers," Harper's Monthly, August 1893

He couldn't make up his mind,

And she couldn't make up hers;

But finally they put their heads together,

And it was all right.

Newell's "The Solution," Harper's New Magazine, June 1898

Newell also authored a number of popular novelty children's books.  Among these were Topsys and Turvys in which pictures could be viewed from either right side up or upside down.

The Elephant leans o'er the fence and wonders why it is

The Ostrich has a longer neck and smaller mouth than his.

Another creative book was Newell's Slant Book which was produced a rhomboid shape with pictures and text to match.

Newell's ingenious Shadow Book contained blank images with a silhouetted shape that seemed recognizable, however when held to the light with the image on the next page, the silhouette in the oval would change into another form altogether.

One of my favorites was his Hole Book where a physical hole was drilled through the book and a travels of a bullet accidentally fired by a boy are detailed.

If you've never seen the book, it may be viewed online HERE, but it's far more fun for a kid to see the actual hole and place a finger in it.

A younger Newell at work

Self Portrait

E.S. Goodner and Wycliffe Bible Translators

E.S. Goodner

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it's Missions Week at our church.  It's always nice to hear from missionaries around the world.  Some of the missionaries I enjoy hearing from the most are from an organization called Wycliffe Bible Translators.  The goal of Wycliffe is to translate the Bible into every language on the planet.  Oftentimes this necessitates Wycliffe translators to create a written form for the language for the first time in history.  Bible translation and literacy go hand-in-hand and in many remote areas on our planet and in addition to bringing the gospel message, literacy allows people to improve their lives in other areas (such as improved agriculture and sanitation acquired through reading).

Literacy class in Chad

Today, there are over 6,800 languages in the world today.  Since 1942, Wycliffe has produced Bibles for the first time for about 700 of those languages and they are currently in active translation work in about 1,500 additional languages.  UNESCO estimates that there are about 750 million non-literate people living today and about two-thirds of those are women.

Language surveyor at work in Papua New Guinea

My great-grandfather, Ed Goodner, was on the Wycliffe Board of Directors from its founding in 1942 until his death in 1957.  My great-grandfather, known for his keen sense of humor, often journeyed abroad with other Wycliffe members to lay the groundwork for translation work in those countries.  Dawson Trotman (founder of another organization called the Navigators), often accompanied the Wycliffe people abroad.

I'll repeat a couple anecdotes about my great-grandfather from a book about Trotman called, Lengthened Cords, by Ethel Wallis:

     Daws was accompanied on his trips to Mexico by other Wycliffe board members, William Nyman, Dr. John Hubbard, and Ed Goodner.  The later was the object of most of Daws' jokes.  Ed, according to Daws, presumed to be able to manage fairly well in Spanish, so the other non-Spanish-speaking board members left the bargaining for taxi fares to him.  Ed had been instructed that a fair rate for a given distance was dos (two) pesos, and he developed a fixation for that amount.  When a certain taxi-driver came out with "uno cincuenta" (a peso and a half) in answer to "How much?" Ed Goodner stuck to his guns – "dos pesos."  After some argument, the taxi-driver gave up and accepted two pesos for a peso-and-a-half ride.  Ed Goodner's reputation asa  linguist suffered appreciably at that point thanks to Daws.

     Another time Ed Goodner saw a group of Mexican people all dressed up and walking down the street.

     "This must be a Mexican holiday," he said.  "I think I'll just step over and ask them what day it is."

     As he returned to the other board members he said, "Yep, just as I thought–it's a big holiday.  Today is Jueves."  Upon discovering that "Jueves" meant "Thursday," Daws had all that he needed for jokes on Ed Goodner for several conferences to come.  When I last saw Daws at our Wycliffe conference in September, 1955, he was still teasing Ed Goodner, privately and publicly, about his dos-pesos-Jueves brand of Spanish.

Curiously enough given his rudimentary foreign language skills, Ed Goodner's youngest daughter, Jane Goodner Nellis, spent her life working with Zapotec Indians in Oaxaca, Mexico, and was known for her work in the Zapotec tongue.

Extended Goodner family

Standing, back row: Jane Goodner Nellis and Neil Nellis

Seated, middle row:  Ed Goodner holding my father, Don Maas, and Mary Grow Goodner

Seated, front row:  brothers Dave Maas and Richard Maas

Silent Cal the Groom

Grace Coolidge, before she married Calvin Coolidge, was a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts.  A party was held in honor of the young couple the evening before their marriage, but a friend of Grace arrived late and was not present at introductions.  She noticed a solitary individual looking lonely and apart from the conversation.  Inquiring about Calvin she asked, "Is that young man standing there by himself in the corner one of your pupils?"

Coolidge and his Secretary

I've been reading some more on Calvin Coolidge and here's another anecdote I'd like to share with you.

Apparently, when Coolidge was Vice President, a young secretary was summoned to see him.  "Miss Peck, you're a lovely young lady," said Coolidge.  She seemed startled by the remark, but he continued, "Yes, you're very attractive."  The secretary was surprised by the statements and a little stunned.  Then he continued, "I'm telling you this young lady, to get you cheerful, because I'm going to make a few remarks about your punctuation!"

Silent Cal

A little while ago, the Old Picture of the Day blog posted a picture of FDR taking a ride on an airplane with a caption talking about him being the first president to fly.  This seemed strange to me given the time lag between the airplane and FDR's presidency.  So, I did a little fact checking.  The Internet had a number of unsourced mentions of Calvin Coolidge being the first to fly, but I couldn't find a satisfactory answer, so I wrote to the Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts.  Calvin Coolidge is one of my favorite presidents and I've had a delightful exchange of Coolidgiana e-mails with one of their librarians.

Coolidge was a terrific individual – frugal and stoic, but with a keen sense of wit, a man with simple tastes and common sense.  He was known for being publicly quiet and retiring.  So much so, that he was even known as "Silent Cal."

Today I'm going to share one of my favorite Coolidge anecdotes with you.

It is said that when he was Vice President, Coolidge was invited to a fancy dinner party (the kind he abhorred) and a lady sitting next to him decided to draw him out.  She turned to the Vice President and said, "You must talk to me Mr. Coolidge.  I made a bet with someone and he said I wouldn't be able to get more than three words out of you."

Coolidge replied, "You lose," and then remained quiet for the rest of the evening.

Tripod Makes Me Happy

I've always liked musical comedy.  There's something about the combination of humor and song that I adore, so today I want to share one such song with you by an Australian group called "Tripod."

(Tripod: Gatesy, Yon, and Scod)

A number of their songs are about the nerdy, geek crowd.  This one is a love song called, "Gonna Make You Happy Tonight."

Enjoy!

West Texas Goes Nuclear

Summer is typically a slower news season.  That's why it came as a complete surprise to military observers when today, without warning, West Texas declared itself a nuclear state.  The seemingly dormant Super Villain, PJM, came out of hiding this morning and declared that not only is he pursuing nuclear weapons, he's been doing so for years now.  CLICK HERE for the original story confirming earlier suspicions in the news report HERE.

Meanwhile, Iran held a national rally this morning welcoming Christoval into the nuclear fold.

When pressed by reporters for an official statement, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, formerly of Samsung, repeated a calming, "Okay, no problem.  Thanks for the information.  I understand your concern.  I'll be with you in just a moment.  Thanks for waiting."

Wagah Border Crossing

Borders are inherently funny.  Many times, they're like what my sister used to do on long car trips, when she'd run her hand down a shared car seat and tell my brother and I that we were not to cross some kind of imaginary line she'd created.

Earlier this year, Coca-Cola had a very cute commercial spoofing the same kind of behavior between two imaginary nations.  If you haven't seen it, you can watch it HERE.

Sometimes even real borders have a certain funniness to them.  For example, the Peace Arch at the US-Canadian border between Washington State and British Columbia.  The road goes around the arch instead of through it and the gates inside the arch are immovably affixed to the interior walls.  Symbolic of course.  Then you get to a real gate with barricades, guards, guns and stuff.

One of the funniest borders I've ever seen is the Four Corners Monument which lies in the middle of Navajo land at the intersection of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.  There's a raised platform where the spot is marked.  The whole area is surrounded by Indian trinket vendor booths selling turquoise jewelry and arrowheads.  In the center, there are mostly white folks contorting and prostrating themselves to to have the honor of being able to tell people that they were in four states at the same time.  If I were an Indian I'd be constantly asking myself, "How did we ever lose to these people?"

Then of course there are the less funny borders.  Like the Berlin Wall.

The photo above is from the tank standoff in October 1961 between the Soviet and American forces.  Curiously, it all began over a dispute regarding an American diplomat wanting to see an opera in East Berlin.  Seriously.

Of course there are still plenty of unfunny borders around today, like the Korean border.

However, today I want to show you one border that I think takes the cake for humor – the Wagah Border Crossing between India and Pakistan.  For two nuclear rivals, you couldn't envision a more humorous scene. The village of Wagah was divided between the two nations in 1947 and since 1959, they've had a flag lowering ceremony at the closing of the gate each night at about 5 pm.  It's become so popular that they've built grandstands on both sides of the borders as the rival militaries try to outdo each other in displays of military bravado.  It must be watched to be fully appreciated:

Do you remember a statehood celebration?

My earliest memories of life are from about age three, but I don't have too many of those.  I can remember much more from about age four and five.  I was thinking about this today because yesterday, I met someone who was talking about statehood celebrations they remembered as a child.

Hawaii became a state on August 21, 1959, and there are plenty of people who can remember that.  The same goes for Alaska, which became a state, January 3, 1959.

There are probably a few of the oldest among us who might even recall when Arizona became a state, February 14, 1912 or when New Mexico was added on January 6, 1912.  It starts getting iffy when we go back much before this.  How about Oklahoma on November 16, 1907?  Remember you'd have to be a few years old to even remember this.

So how many of you remember when Ohio became a state on August 7, 1953?

This is before my time, but apparently, when Ohio was looking to commemorate what should have been its sesquicentennial, some Buckeye historians were looking through Congressional records to find the Act of Admission which has typically been the formal pronouncement by Congress that a new State exists.  Curiously, they didn't find one.  It wasn't required before Ohio (since the original 13 didn't need it and Vermont and Tennessee already had governments that were recognized by Congress) and it didn't become custom for Congress to declare an Act of Admission until Louisiana became a State after Ohio.

Politicians and scholars started debating if Ohio was really a state and the whole subject at the time became the butt of jokes.  Even more curious, because there was no formal declaration, no one could even ascertain when exactly Ohio should have even become a state.  Was it 1802 or 1803?  Most historians said it was November 29, 1802, however people in Ohio had always assumed it was 1803.

(Congressman George H. Bender)

Finally, Ohio Congressman George Bender introduced the Bender Ohio Statehood Act on January 19, 1953 that would retroactively admit Ohio to the United States as of March 1, 1803.  It was approved by the House on May 19, 1953 and by the Senate on August 1.

(Celebrating Ohio Admission in Youngstown, 1953)

President Eisenhower finally signed the bill granting statehood to Ohio on August 7, 1953 – retroactive to March 1, 1803.

April Fools' Day, 2011

Public School Building, Alva, Okla.

Postmarked Wichita, Kansas, May 7, 1919, 10 AM

Mr. C.E. Burrows

1153 Univ. Ave.

Wichita

Kans.

Dear Daddy:

I am just starting to write a letter to mama, & I thot I'd send you a card.  Are you going to come down and drive thru with me?  How do you feel now, papa, better I hope.  It won't be long now until I'll be home, we are getting almost thru downs(?) here.  I was at Alva yesterday; Well, bye bye.

Lovingly,

Jessie.

Funny Exchange

This is a photo of William Rockefeller, the younger brother of John D. Rockefeller.

As corporations became increasingly wealthy and could hire better lawyers, pleading the Fifth Amendment became increasingly common.  In one such case involving railroad rates, William had the following exchange with the prosecution:

"On the ground that the answer will incriminate you?"
"I decline to answer on the advice of council."
"Or is it that the answer will subject you to some forfeiture?"
"I decline to answer on the advice of council."
"Do you decline on the ground that the answer will disgrace you?"
"I decline to answer on the advice of council."
"Did your counsel tell you to stick to that one answer?"
"I decline to answer on the advice of council."

After Rockefeller provided this reply, the whole court, including Rockefeller, erupted in laughter.

Fear Mongering

Okay, some people were still not satisfied that I had researched PJM thoroughly enough, just taking a school photo as evidence of his peaceful intentions.  So I conducted a quick Internet property search and I only came up with two properties that are owned by him, his compound in West Texas and a vacation home in Neuschwabenland.

I used Google Maps to zoom in on the cabin and it seems quite lovely and even shows the porch light on...

And quick Zillow search revealed the interior, which seems to have been decorated according to his tastes...

So keep calm and carry on people.  Nothing to worry about.

Condemned to Repeat?

George Santayana once wrote in, The Life of Reason, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Recently, I was alerted by my readers to an apparent alarming development arising in West Texas.  Yes, my old nemesis, PJM, who for a time had seemed to have resolved himself to a life of quiet super villainy, has crawled out of his bunker printing libel on his blog and sending electrons of hate around the World-Wide Web.

If you've been following the Old Picture of the Day blog, you may have noticed his anti-Weimar Republic rant this week.  Perhaps you were like myself wondering why anyone would hold so much hatred for the Weimar Republic.  I'd like to remind my readers here that this was the short-lived parliamentary republic that fell between Imperial Germany and the Fascist State that followed.

Being a student of history, I started to think to myself, was there anyone else who expressed a similar distain for the Weimar Republic?  Then I recalled a little nut-job who ran Germany from 1933-1945.  Now, I know it's not popular to run around saying people are like Hitler, and just because both of them hate the Weimar Republic doesn't mean that they're identical, so let's look at the obvious differences between Der Führer and Die Nemesis:

Der Führer liked parades, thought his country was too crowded and needed personal living room, thought technology was vital for national glory, built laboratories for scientific research, published his thoughts in a book, marginalized groups he didn't like and called them "evil," felt an obligation to instruct the youth of his nation, feared Communism, believed that modern art was garbage, owned tractor-tanks, held a fascination with polar exploration, had a keen eye for personal attire, and wore a moustache.

Die Nemesis is not like this at all, he writes his thoughts down on a electronic blog not in a book.

So, I'd like to implore all of you not to worry about the apparent threats on OPOD.  To my knowledge things are quite normal in West Texas as PJM's classroom photo can attest...

In unrelated news (see HERE), I don't know if you heard, but last year, the Russians had Hitler's skull fragment tested and it turned out that what they thought were Hitler's remains belonged to a woman instead, so the world really doesn't know what happened to him (or if he was able to have himself cryogenically frozen in order to reemerge at a later date like he claimed he would).

I'm Tired

Yes, I'm tired.  For several years I've been blaming it on middle age, iron poor blood, lack of vitamins, stress, air pollution, water pollution, saccharin, excess weight, dieting, poor genetics, and a dozen other maladies that make you wonder if life is really worth living.

But now I find out, it is none of that.  
I'm tired because I'm overworked.

You see, the population of this country is 307 million, but 124 million are retired.  That leaves 183 million to do the work.  Subtract the 85 million in school and that leaves 98 million to do the work.  Of this total, there are 29 million employed by the federal government.

That leaves 69 million to do the work.

Four million are in the Armed Forces, which leaves 64 million to do the work.  Take from that total the 24,800,000 people who work for state and city Governments and that leaves 39,200,000 of us to do the work.

At any given time there are 24,000,000 in hospitals, so that leaves 15,200,000  
to do the work.  As of today, there were 15,199,998 people in federal and State prisons.  That leaves just two people to do the work, you and me.

And you're sitting there reading this.

Joke of the Day

Did you hear about the two peanuts who were walking down the street?

One was assaulted!