Today in History: July 2

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“We have not been lucky enough to find anyone who saw him come down,” wrote H. L. Pinckney in the Charleston Mercury, “but the important fact that he was there is incontestable—and as he couldn’t have got there any other way, it was decide unanimously that he rained down.” On this date in 1843 in Charleston, South Carolina, a two-foot alligator was found on the corner of Wentworth and Anson in that city after a particularly violent thunderstorm, in which “the whole firmament growled thunder and shot lightning.”

Weather is fairly complex but it is also quite consistent. There are many stories of rainstorms bearing tadpoles and sometimes larger creatures that have been given a baffling free ride. In a world of many weather events taking place continuously, these things happen. But a two-foot-long gator, perhaps and perhaps not. As the writer in the Mercury confessed, no one saw the gator deposited with the downpour. But no one didn’t, either. By that standard, a two-foot-long alligator came down with the rain on this date in 1843 in Charleston, South Carolina.

The story was briefly popular in the national press; the clipping at the top of today’s “Today in History” is from the July 11, 1843, New Orleans Times-Picayune, but it reproduces Pinckney’s article.
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Lindsey Webster at Opus 40

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Lindsay Webster is a young jazz singer who is inspiring music writers to stretch for metaphors (“If Carole King and Sade had a kid, she would be Lindsey Webster“) and earned some major awards: in February, she joined Sade as the only performer to land a vocal-driven song atop Billboard magazine’s Smooth Jazz Songs chart. (Most tracks on that chart are instrumentals.)

The song. Fool Me Once,” is indeed terrific; even more terrific is the fact that the singer, who is from Woodstock, NY, shot portions of her music video for it at Opus 40, one of my favorite places on this planet.

Even better, she is performing at Opus 40 tomorrow, Saturday, July 2, at 5:00 p.m. Here are the ticket details: Lindsey Webster at Opus 40.
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Today in History: July 1

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Olivia de Havilland is 100 today.

She is the oldest living Oscar winner, the last cast member of the film version of Gone with the Wind still alive, the final star from Hollywood’s Golden Age still with us. And she continues to collect awards: in February, she was named one of several winners of the “Oldie of the Year” by a British satirical magazine, The Oldie. (Photo at top, holding the award and with her two Oscars conveniently behind her.) She did not attend the ceremony, but she did record a sweet and funny acceptance speech (audio after the jump):
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