Today in History: September 12

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“No public worship is tolerated by Act of Assembly but to those that profess faith in Christ, and therefore Jewish worship is not to be allowed.”—Colonial New York Assembly.

A Jewish community in New York submitted a petition to New York’s Colonial Governor, Thomas Dongan, on this date in 1695, in which it requested permission to worship openly. This was new in itself, and Governor Dongan submitted the petition to the state assembly. This level of respect was new, too. The petition was denied, as quoted above. The Jewish community continued to worship in secrecy.

Unrelated to the above, there is a park named after governor Dongan in my hometown of Poughkeepsie, New York.

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A French teenager accidentally discovered the entrance to Lascaux cave in France on this date in 1940. Once inside, he became the first human to gaze at the extensive Paleolithic era wall paintings in thousands of years. At 17,000 years old, the paintings are not the oldest in the world or in France—many of the paintings in Chauvet Cave are more than 30,000 years old—but Lascaux may be the most famous site of its sort. (One image from Lascaux is at top.)
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Nice Haircut

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Years of haircuts experienced on the hair-bearing side taught me the wrong lesson: that I could do it for/to myself and save money.

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Among the many things that are better left to professionals—piloting a jet, performing almost any surgery, copy editing—cutting hair always should be included. I did not know this until the day I learned it.

Cutting hair looks so easy. The professionals talk to you and even chat amongst themselves while they are doing it, for crying out loud. (Some will even use the word “amongst” while talking: “Your dark hairs are here, amongst the gray ones.”) How do they do that? If you interrupt me while I am merrily typing away, I will pretty much stop typing and begin to glare at you until you decide to ask someone else whatever it is you came to ask me. And how do you know where I live anyway?

One of my barbers back in the early 2000s was a World War II Navy vet who loved to tell stories from his war years while he was wielding his scissors around my scalp. (He was of the old school: No clippers for his customers. “Why give them a cut that they can give themselves?” he would ask-declare. Little did he know how well I knew that lesson. See below.)
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Today in History: September 11

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

September 11, 2001, was a Tuesday. Among many things, it was a Tuesday.

It is a day inscribed in history: four planes were crashed in a coordinated act of mass murder that ended many lives and affected the histories of this nation and many others. Repercussions are still echoing. Every year since 2002, a “Tribute in Light” has illuminated the sky above Lower Manhattan. (Seen above.)

Personal details from that day 15 years ago are etched in almost every American’s heart and memory. (For me, the memories are such that I do not visit them often. I do not feel the need to do so here or today. I had moved from New York to Iowa in May 2000, so I had lived in that great state for a year and a half. I was everyone’s token New Yorker there for the next couple weeks, had my arm touched and even had my hand shaken as if I was some sort of something from “there.” All of it was welcome. I never felt so strange and alone before.)

In mainstream media, Tuesday is the day of the week that albums are released, books are officially published, films debut in theaters.

Among the albums that were released to stores on that infamous date in 2001: Mariah Carey’s soundtrack to her movie of the same name, Glitter; God Hates Us All by Slayer; Nickelback’s Silver Side Up; Ben Folds’ solo debut Rockin’ the Suburbs; The Blueprint from Jay-Z (“H to the Izz-o, V to the Izz-A”); and “Love And Theft” from Bob Dylan.
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