Today in History: Dec. 22

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Last evening I walked over beyond Fifth Avenue and called at the residence of Edward H. Johnson, vice-president of Edison’s electric company. There, at the rear of the beautiful parlors, was a large Christmas tree, presenting a most picturesque and uncanny aspect. It was brilliantly lighted with many colored globes about as large as an English walnut and was turning some six times a minute on a little pine box. There were eighty lights in all encased in these dainty glass eggs, and about equally divided between white, red and blue. As the tree turned, the colors alternated, all the lamps going out and being relit at every revolution. The result was a continuous twinkling of dancing colors, red, white and blue, all evening.—William Augustus Croffut, Detroit Post and Tribune, December 1882

Just three years after Thomas Edison and his team had successfully invented a method for manufacturing electric lights, a Vice President for his company, Edward Johnson, ordered a string of lights for the Christmas tree in his home.

The New York City newspapers of the time, accustomed to the Edison Company’s frequent press release promises that were not always followed by successes, did not send any reporters to visit Mr. Johnson’s holiday display. A reporter for the Detroit Post and Tribune, William Croffut, did pay a visit. (Croffut was important to Edison: he is the writer who is credited with calling Edison the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” which is where Edison’s lab was located.)

The tree, festooned with eighty bulbs and rotating on a platform powered by an electric motor, is seen above, in a photo from December 25 of that year.
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Five Birthdays in a Saudi Prison

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“I spoke to Ali a few days ago and he said to me, ‘Don’t worry, mom. My birthday next year will be far more beautiful.'”—Nasrah al-Ahmed, Ali al-Nimr’s mother, in a letter published today by Amnesty International.

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Ali Mohammed al-Nimr turned 22 on Wednesday, December 21. It was his fifth birthday spent in prison. It was his third birthday on death row in Saudi Arabia.

There are two things about Ali al-Nimr that we know today (January 24, 2017), and they are the same two sad, maddening things that we know about Ali every day: He remains in prison in Saudi Arabia and he is awaiting his fate. He still phones his father and mother once a week, which his father reports to the world via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. He is continuing his college studies in prison.

Reprieve, the international human rights organization, created a page for people to sign a birthday card for Ali. This is the link: Wish Ali al-Nimr a Happy Birthday. In less than five days, the number of signatures on it has climbed to more than 16,100.
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Enthusiasm Cap

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

I have a head cold. Like all head colds, its arrival is poorly timed. By that I mean the cold is in me and my body and there is no time I want anything like this to befall a person I lovingly refer to as “me.”

It has sapped my enthusiasm for any event, game, task, or chore that may require the following: me, my participation, an ability to inhale and exhale without a death rattle, and/or me.
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