History of the Day: 9/17

I, the Blogger, in order to form a more perfect post, establish left justification, ensure Times New Roman font, provide for .... ummmm .... sorry, ran out of creative juice.

Today is, of course, Constitution Day!  In 1787, I'm told, our Founding Fathers did agree to write a list of principles for keepin' people free.  The USA was just starting out, a whole brand new country.  And so our people spelled it out, the things that we should be.  Everybody, sing along!  Seriously, they did create a  government which was rather wise. I mean, sure, it only counted each slave as 2/3 of a person and even protected the institution of slavery itself. But it understood and took into account that people can't really be trusted, and the only way to make sure that they don't abuse their power is to balance their power against other people. In comic book terms, it means make sure Batman always has a kryptonite bullet.

By the way, did you know there's a typo in the Constitution?

27 years later, Francis Scott Key finished a poem which would eventually become our national anthem. Sadly, I don't like it very much, so I wrote a new one, although it hasn't caught on yet.

Today is the Feastday of Hildegard of Bingen, a proto-feminist of sorts in that she was a very vocal and powerful woman in a time when women were largely powerless and voiceless. Perhaps I should write her in on the ticket in November. In addition to challenging contemporary ideas of the role of women, she also was a mystic, an aritst, a prolific author and a composer of religious songs. Here is one of her hymns, Columba aspexit (lyrics). Or, you can get techno versions of a whole album of her songs by the Swiss band, Garmana.

Staying with the political thread, did you know that America has an Emperor? It's true! In 1859, Joshua A. Norton of California declared himself Emperor Norton I of the United States. He's also one of the patron saints of the Discordians. If you have a moment, read the story of him and his two dogs, Bummer and Lazarus.

This day in 1862 was the bloodiest day in American history. At the battle of Antietam, Gen. McClellan halted the northward drive of Gen. Lee's army. By day's end; 23,000 had perished.

105 years later, Jim Morrison fought his own battle against censorship. The Doors were slated to perform their hit single, Light My Fire, on the Ed Sullivan show. They were asked to change the words "girl, we couldn't get much higher " because they seemed to be (and probably were) promoting drug use. During his performance, Morrison made a point of wending his way right in front of the camera to sing, especially loud, the offending line. What's more offending to me is the fifteen hours of organ solo, but they don't make censors for that.  Here's the scene from the Doors movie, and the band members today talking about the song and that moment. 

One of the greatest television series ever, M*A*S*H, premiered on CBS five years later. I think they'd gotten over the drug references by that point.

Happy Birthday to Hank Williams, one of the progenitors of country music. He was born in 1923 and died thirty years later, much too soon. Sadly, his songs were mostly autobiographical, and that kind of living takes its toll on a man. He sang the song I am always tempted to sing when I catch a student cheating on a test.

Another, less well known, musician was born in 1974. Mirah ... well ... she's just cool. Here she is singing Lonestar and Cold, Cold Water.