Today in History: July 15

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The first tweet was sent out on March 21, 2006, by one of the founders of Twitter (which they were spelling “twttr”), Jack Dorsey:

The company opened to the public a few months later, on July 15, 2006, 10 years ago today.

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Six years ago today my life changed. I’m glad for that. (Photo above.)
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Step by Step

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Six years today …

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Every alcoholic in recovery has a collection of anecdotes that can be simultaneously heartbreaking, outrageous, and hilarious. Perhaps they are hilarious only to fellow alcoholics; perhaps they can not even be listened to by outsiders. For an outsider, most alcoholic anecdotes may as well conclude with the same dark punchline, an interchangeable rubber-stamped ending: “And then I got away with it again.” Or, “I didn’t die that time, either.” And then comes the next hair-raising—or eyebrow-raising—tale.

Every alcoholic in recovery is living a story with a weird ending, if they remain in recovery. It is that two-word pair there, “in recovery,” that provides the surprise, the weirdness, a period of life as surprising to behold as some of the antics, the many bizarre actions and activities and inactions and inactivities that were surprising for outsiders to watch unfold in the previous life.
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Today in History: July 14

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Today is Bastille Day in France, the commemoration of the end of monarchy and feudalism that the storming of the Bastille heralded on July 14, 1789, and the Fête de la Fédération celebrations that marked the one-year anniversary in 1790, celebrations that helped modern France realize that the French Revolution was indeed leading to a new nation. It became an official national holiday in France in 1880.

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Harry Dean Stanton is 90 today. He is still working. The opening shots from Paris, Texas:
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