FYI December 28, 2019

  • Filed under FYI

On This Day

1832 – John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President of the United States to resign.
John Caldwell Calhoun (/kælˈhuːn/;[1] March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He is remembered for strongly defending slavery and for advancing the concept of minority rights in politics, which he did in the context of protecting the interests of the white South when it was outnumbered by Northerners. He began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent of a strong national government and protective tariffs. In the late 1820s, his views changed radically, and he became a leading proponent of states’ rights, limited government, nullification, and opposition to high tariffs—he saw Northern acceptance of these policies as a condition of the South remaining in the Union. His beliefs and warnings heavily influenced the South’s secession from the Union in 1860–1861.

Calhoun began his political career with election to the House of Representatives in 1810. As a prominent leader of the war hawk faction, Calhoun strongly supported the War of 1812 to defend American honor against British infractions of American independence and neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars. He then served as Secretary of War under President James Monroe, and in this position reorganized and modernized the War Department. Calhoun was a candidate for the presidency in the 1824 election. After failing to gain support, he let his name be put forth as a candidate for vice president. The Electoral College elected Calhoun for vice president by an overwhelming majority. He served under John Quincy Adams and continued under Andrew Jackson, who defeated Adams in the election of 1828.

Calhoun had a difficult relationship with Jackson primarily due to the Nullification Crisis and the Petticoat affair. In contrast with his previous nationalism, Calhoun vigorously supported South Carolina’s right to nullify federal tariff legislation he believed unfairly favored the North, putting him into conflict with unionists such as Jackson. In 1832, with only a few months remaining in his second term, he resigned as vice president and entered the Senate. He sought the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1844, but lost to surprise nominee James K. Polk, who went on to become president. Calhoun served as Secretary of State under John Tyler from 1844 to 1845. As Secretary of State, he supported the annexation of Texas as a means to extend the slave power, and helped settle the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain. He then returned to the Senate, where he opposed the Mexican–American War, the Wilmot Proviso, and the Compromise of 1850 before his death in 1850. Calhoun often served as a virtual party-independent who variously aligned as needed with Democrats and Whigs.

Later in life, Calhoun became known as the “cast-iron man” for his rigid defense of white Southern beliefs and practices.[2][3] His concept of republicanism emphasized approval of slavery and minority rights, as particularly embodied by the Southern states. His concept of minority rights did not extend to slaves; he owned dozens of slaves in Fort Hill, South Carolina. Calhoun asserted that slavery, rather than being a “necessary evil,” was a “positive good,” benefiting both slaves and slave owners.[4] To protect minority rights against majority rule, he called for a concurrent majority whereby the minority could sometimes block proposals that it felt infringed on their liberties. To this end, Calhoun supported states’ rights and nullification, through which states could declare null and void federal laws that they viewed as unconstitutional. Calhoun was one of the “Great Triumvirate” or the “Immortal Trio” of Congressional leaders, along with his Congressional colleagues Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. In 1957, a Senate Committee headed by Senator John F. Kennedy selected Calhoun as one of the five greatest United States Senators of all time.[5][6]

Read more ->

 
 

Born On This Day

1939 – Michelle Urry, American journalist and illustrator (d. 2006)

Michelle Urry (28 December 1939 – 15 October 2006, born Michelle Dorothy Kaplan) was the cartoon editor of Playboy magazine for over 30 years. Together with Hugh Hefner, she edited the retrospective Playboy: 50 Years The Cartoons. Among the cartoonists whose career she is credited with developing is B. Kliban. On learning of her death, Jules Feiffer told the New York Times she was the “mother superior to cartoonists.”

Urry was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a child, she collected comic books rather than the dolls favored by other girls of her age. She graduated from UCLA, and after running a dress shop she moved to Chicago, taking a low-level staff job with Playboy in the late 1960s. By 1971 Urry had become the magazine’s cartoon editor, and she held that post until her death.

In 1974, while visiting B. Kliban in his San Francisco studio, Urry was struck by a group of Kliban’s offhand cartoons of cats, bought several of them, and prodded Kliban to create a book-length collection of similar work.[1] Kliban’s Cat became a best-selling book the next year, and spawned a wide range of popular merchandise.

She married sculptor Stephen Urry and the couple had one child, Caleb Urry. After Stephen’s death in 1993, she married Alan Trustman, a screenwriter who is best known for The Thomas Crown Affair and Bullitt.

Aside from her primary job at Playboy, Urry served as a cartoon editor or consulting editor at many other magazines, including Good Housekeeping and Modern Maturity.[2]

 
 

FYI

By Andrew Dalton, Fox Nws: Lee Mendelson, executive producer of ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas,’ dies at 86
 
 
Lee Mendelson (March 24, 1933 – December 25, 2019) was an American television producer, best known as the executive producer of the many Peanuts animated specials.

Read more ->

 
 
 
 
John Donald Imus Jr. (July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019) was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. He was known for his radio show Imus in the Morning which aired on various stations and digital platforms nationwide until 2018. He attended broadcasting school in the 1960s and in 1968 secured his first radio job at KUTY in Palmdale, California. Three years later, he landed the morning spot at WNBC in New York City; he was fired in 1977.

In 1979, Imus returned to WNBC and stayed at the station until 1988 when the show moved to WFAN. He gained widespread popularity when the show entered national syndication in 1993. He was labelled a “shock jock” radio host throughout his later career.[2] He retired from broadcasting in March 2018, after nearly 50 years on the air,[3] and died the following year.

Read more ->
 
 
 
 
Gizmodo: Wikipedia’s Year-End List Shows What the Internet Needed to Know in 2019; A Programmer Lost A Game He Made As A Kid, Until Someone Streamed It On Twitch and more ->
 
 
 
 
Gizmodo Science: Greed Publishing Companies Are Mad That The President Might Want to Make Federally-Funded Research Open Access; Health FDA Approves the First Drug of Its Kind to Treat Acute Migraines; Starlink Satellites Produce Wave of UFO Sightings in the US and more ->
 
 
 
 
DEBRA+LARRY: new Spirits Bright website now live! Come see!
 
 
 
 

The Passive Voice: Comments and Other New Theme Issues
 
 
 
 
By Tom Suddard, Grassroots Motorsports: Off-Roadster: An Off-Road, Go-Anywhere Miata
 
 
 
 
Atlas Obscura: In Nome, Alaska, Santa is a gravedigger named Paul and more ->
 
 
 
 
https://youtu.be/5CYFNx-gBvY
 
 
 
 

Recipes

By Kelli Foster, The Kitchn: 5 Comforting Veggie-Forward Winter Dinners from Heartbeet Kitchen’s Amanda Paa
 
 
By Jesse Szewczyk, The Kitchn: 12 Restaurant Favorites We Recreated at Home This Year
 
 
By Patty Catalano, The Kitchn: 8 Deliciously Vintage Desserts We Rediscovered in 2019
 
 
Little House Big Alaska: Make this Quesadilla with Leftover Prime Rib Roast Recipe!
 
 
A Taste of Alaska: Oxtails
 
 
A Taste of Alaska: Hot Chocolate Spoons