Ivins Spiced Wafers

If it’s autumn and I have visited my hometown, then it’s a good chance I’ve returned with no less than four boxes of Ivins Spiced Wafers.  Ivins (and their lesser counterpart, Sweetzels) are the one treat I used to get in Philadelphia that is still not available in North Carolina.  They are hard to get because they are only produced for a few months between June and December and because they are available only at ACME grocery stores (aka “Ack a Mee” ref link ).  Ivins are easy to find once you enter the ACME because of the black and roadsign orange box.

Ivins have been part of my memory of autumn for years.  They are spiced with ginger and nutmeg and cinnamon.  They are practically autumn in a cookie.  When I taste these cookies, I know it’s almost the end of the year, and I can vaguely smell the warm aroma of roasting turkey, feel the chill of a crisp, woodsmoke tinged, Pennsylvania-autumn evening, and faintly hear the shake of sleigh bells approaching.

The Parker 96R

If you’re fed up with cheapo plastic value razors and the highway robbery of cartridge razors, read The Art of Manliness post How To Shave Like Your Grandpa.

I had been using a shaving brush on and off for some time, but I didn’t know what I was missing until I started using a safety razor.  I received a Parker 96R as a gift from my fine lady and it shaves differently and, quite frankly, better than anything I am used to.

Erin Fein, Seth Fein and Brett Sanderson are Headlights

Headlights (band link) – Poppy and sentimental, yet optimistic in the way that indie rock can be.  A nice addition to a rainy day inside with candles and hot tea.

Headlights will be appearing at LOCAL 506 in Chapel Hill on October 26 with The Shaky Hands and Pomegranates.

Harry Truman on TV, October 5, 1947

62 years ago today, President Harry S Truman (33) gave the first televised address by a US President.  In the speech, Truman asked Americans to save wheat, meat, and eggs.  The speech made very little impression on the history books, and Truman didn’t even mention it in his memoirs.   The TV simulcast was clearly an afterthought for the President, and Time’s article on the speech didn’t even mention that it had been televised.  The New York Times devoted less than a sentence to the fact that the President had been on TV. It’s impossible to say just how many people watched President Truman that night, as TV ratings weren’t calculated until 1948, but considering that in 1947 only 14,000 television sets were in use in the United States, compared with tens of millions of radios, the oversight is understandable.

Still the address launched the TV presidency.  All of Truman’s subsequent White House speeches were televised and a month later, the first Senate committee hearing was televised. Truman later became the first political candidate to buy a television ad, in the 1948 presidential campaign.   President Franklin Roosevelt (32) was actually the first to appear on television on April 30, 1939, but radio and FDR’s fireside chats ruled the day.

The bassist for The Straight 8's at Hot Rod Hoopla

The Straight 8’s (band link) – If you’re dissatisfied with what passes for good ol’ rock and roll these days, or if you’re rock tastes run to the eclectic, you should give rockabilly a try.  More specifically, you should give The Straight 8’s a listen.  The Straight 8’s have a distinct sound while holding on to rockabilly tradition and sometimes even manage to take you down corridors of sound that could be the soundtrack to a David Lynch movie.  The obvious allusions to hot rod culture are present, but are artfully conveyed.  The Straight 8’s are clearly awesome musicians.

I first heard The Straight 8’s at Hot Rod Hoopla, a monthly car show, cruise in, and pig pickin’ event put on by Rod-o-Rama and Locked and Loaded.  The Straight 8’s put on a great show and I picked up their latest CD, Never Return to Me, off iTunes that evening.

Secretary of State Dean Rusk, LBJ, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, February 1968

It seems that until 1967, there was no provision in the US Constitution for filling a vacancy in the office of Vice President.  Amendment XXV to the United States Constitution deals with succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. It supersedes the ambiguous wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which does not explicitly state whether the Vice President becomes the President if the President died, resigned, was removed from office or was unable to discharge the Presidential powers.

This can all be traced back to 1841.  Newly elected President William Henry Harrison (9) wanted to show what a tough guy he was and delivered the longest inaugural address in American history without wearing a coat or hat despite the miserably cold and wet weather.  After a two hour, 8,444 word speech, he rode through the streets for the inaugural parade, still with no hat or coat. While it is debated whether this heroic act of supreme manliness is what caused him to catch cold, Harrion died a month later of right lower lobe pneumonia, jaundice, and septicemia.  Consquently, President Harrison became the first US President to die in office, and Vice President John Tyler (10) immediately asserted that he had succeeded to the office of President.  Vice President Tyler’s claim was not formally challenged, and so the precedent of full succession was established.

Since Amendment XXV was ratified, it has been invoked several times, most notably twice in the case of Gerald Ford (38).  Ford was both appointed to the office of Vice President and succeeded to the Presidency as a result of the resignation of President Richard Nixon (37) on August 9, 1974.  Incidentally, President Ford is the only person ever to be Vice President and President without being elected to either office.

Sarah Borges and The Broken Singles

Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles (band link) – I first heard Sarah Borges on WNKU’s YouTube channel, and what first caught my hear was a sound like I walked back into an old Texas hang out circa 1996, but Sarah Borges and The Broken Singles are much more than Austin style live music.  SBBS is dance inducing, punk influenced rockabilly with it’s share of heart wrenching country sensibility and keen modern tones.  Their new album, The Stars Are Out, is of the same indescribable stuff as Gear Daddies and Kathleen Edwards.

Grover Cleveland (22 & 24)

As the only US President who served two non-consecutive terms, Grover Cleveland (22 & 24) often sparks debate about whether a US President can serve more than two terms if latter terms are non-consecutive to the first two.  In fact, Cleveland was the winner of the popular vote for President three times—in 1884, 1888, and 1892.

These days, there are probably a lot of people walking around thinking that President Bill Clinton (42) could leverage his popularity and run for a third non-consecutive term.  In fact, he cannot.  According to the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”  That’s a bit of a mouthful, but what it means is that after February 21, 1947, the date on which the amendment was ratified, no president can serve a third term, regardless of whether the terms are consecutive or not.

Franklin D Roosevelt (32) was the last 2+ term President.  He was elected to 4 terms, but died less than three months after beginning his fourth term.  Harry S. Truman (33), the last President to which the 22nd Amendment would not have legally applied, was eligible for a third term and began a campaign for a third term in 1952, but quit after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary.  Dwight D. Eisenhower (34)  was the first President elected post-Amendment 22 and was worried by the lame duck condition created by a second-term President’s preceived loss of power and influence.  Nonetheless, most Americans consider term limits a good thing.

Via @frijole and jbroome.

Hello Matt,
Hope you are doing good,
I got a job opening for you as a “System Administrator” in “Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO)”.  If you are available and interested please send your updated resume Imm along with the desired rate.

Job Title:     System Administrator
Duration:     1-3 Months
Location:     Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO)
Rate:     Open

Eligibility: US CITIZENS with SECRET Clearance (Active) / TOP SECRET/SCI Clearance  (Active)
Client: US Military Joint Task Force (JTF)

Skills Required:
Windows network admin experience with tape backup experience – required
Experience with Exchange messaging (email servers) – preferred
Knowledge of tape data transfer – preferred
Ability to write and execute sql queries
Experience working with data in general (file data, recovery, etc)

PROJECT:
Candidates will be required to do 2-3 hours of non-billable training – online theater training for physical location (e.g. policies, guidelines, etc.).
Accommodations: Air conditioned tents (very cold); segregated by sex; accommodations are not first class.
Contract terms will be net-60 upon receipt of invoice.
Rates will be PLUS expenses (so all expenses will be paid separately).
Actual expenses will be paid with original receipts.

Is this economy so bad that someone would consider a contract at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, living in a tent, on net-60 terms?

I felt like responding, so I told him I would accept net-60, but only at a rate of “1 gazillion dollars/hour.”