Day 13: The Five Points – Not The Ideal 19th Century Tourist Destination

originally published January 13, 2012 For anyone who has not watched Martin Scorcese’s epic 2002 film, The Gangs of New York, the gist is essentially that there were gangs. In New York. The focus is on a neighborhood known as the Five Points in central Manhattan, a slum filled with poverty-stricken immigrants, which came to […]

Day 10: Supertramps, The Super-Tramp, & Supertramp

originally published January 10, 2012 Question: which came first, the concept of a ‘supertramp’ species, which is an ecological term referring to an animal with high dispersion among many different habitats, or Supertramp, the British rock band? If you answered the British rock band, then clearly you knew I was going for the less “logical” […]

Day 9: Don’t Mess With The USS Unadilla

originally published January 9, 2012 In April of 1861, as the Civil War became a reality, the US Navy came to the realization that they would probably need to kill a lot of people in the very near future. For that reason, they went into rapid production on 23 new gunboats, all of which were […]

Day 1: The Hole in Phineas Gage’s Head

originally published January 1, 2012 Since nothing sells better than graphic sex and nauseating violence, I was hoping Wikipedia would help me launch this project with something juicy. I tried to weave a sexy yarn into some prose about the Rugby Club Pobednik, but I was starting to creep myself out. Luckily, another click of […]