William Jennings Bryan
Editor Mary Griffin Webb and Edna Lenore Webb -
After the Democrats won the presidency in the 1912 election, Woodrow Wilson rewarded Bryan's support with the important cabinet position of Secretary of State.
Bryan helped Wilson pass several progressive reforms through Congress, but he and Wilson clashed over U.S. neutrality in World War I.
Bryan resigned from his post in 1915 after Wilson sent Germany a note of protest in response to the sinking of Lusitania by a German U-boat.
Bryan, arguing for neutrality, argued that the British blockade of Germany was equally offensive as the German use of u-boats.
Commentary
Monday, June 10, 2019
Favorite food?
Pretty much everything in turn.
Although some seem to come up to bat more than others.
Perhaps ease of preparation.
Cost.
Availability.
Perhaps a case of apples to oranges.
Favorite food a specific dish, Bouillabaisse, for example.
Or a genre, fish.
Do we mean beef or an oversized porterhouse steak?
Roast duck or all poultry?
If I look at my menus over the last sixty days, poultry is the clear winner.
While most frequently it’s roast chicken, throw in Cornish Game Hens and turkey and duck and goose, quail, and pheasant and poultry is the clear winner.
So tomorrow I will assail you with my most up-to-date, simplest ideas on the perfect roast birds, with few concessions made for expediency.
Monday, June 10, 2019
Tip of Day
A shout out to Richard of Roche Bros in Downtown Boston.
No meat purveyor in the city is more assiduous than he in tracking done a specialty item for his customers. From organic turkeys to quail to pheasant to veal breast.
We are in a surge of mostly nice weather, Tuesday coming up a little short and Thursday looking like a loser.
However, let’s make sure we enjoy each day coming.
The hours are ticking away and if we don’t make the most of our time another day will soon click past.
Unnoticed.
Unappreciated.
Tick Tock.
In clock language:
Enjoy today.
Enjoy the week.
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Postings Count, Weather Brief, and Dinner
Monday, June 10, 2019
Our 430th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
After 430 posts we’re at the 8.60 percentile of our commitment, the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.
Time is 4.01am.
On Monday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 77* with a feels-like of 82* under partly cloudy skies.
Dinner Saturday was a porterhouse. Excellent. Not a surprise.
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Question of the Day:
Monday, June 10, 2019
Roast Chicken, the how-to, please.
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Chuckle of the Day:
Monday, June 10, 2019
A man brings his cat to a veterinarian and asks if he would observe her for two days.
The vet tells him to leave the cat and return in two days.
Two days later the pet owner returns and asks, “Still the same?”
Says doc, “Still dead.”
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Love your notes.
Contact me at domcapossela@hotmail.com
Monday, June 10, 2019
This from Sally C is self-explanatory:
Wow, Dom!
Aside from the fact that the men depicted in the photograph of the Coldstream Guard heroes are obviously fine specimens of manhood, I am impressed by the size of their hands! These are men accustomed to physical labor.
Sally
Web Meister responds: Good for you! That is a detail. Are you related to Sherlock?
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Answer to the Question of the Day:
Monday, June 10, 2019
What role did William Jennings Bryan play in the Scopes “Monkey” Trial?
In 1925, Bryan participated in the highly publicized Scopes Trial, which tested the Butler Act, a Tennessee law barring the teaching of evolution in public schools.
The defendant, John T. Scopes, had violated the Butler Act while serving as a substitute biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee.
His defense was funded by the American Civil Liberties Union and led in court by famed lawyer Clarence Darrow.
No one disputed that Scopes had violated the Butler Act, but Darrow argued that the statute violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Bryan defended the right of parents to choose what schools teach, argued that Darwinism was merely a "hypothesis," and claimed that Darrow and other intellectuals were trying to invalidate "every moral standard that the Bible gives us."
The defense called Bryan as a witness and asked him about his belief in the literal word of the Bible.
The judge expunged Bryan's testimony and instructed the jury to render a verdict of guilty; Scopes was fined $100 for violating the Butler Act.
The national media reported the trial in great detail, with H. L. Mencken ridiculing Bryan as a symbol of Southern ignorance and anti-intellectualisms.
Even many Southern newspapers criticized Bryan's performance in the trial; the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that "Darrow succeeded in showing that Bryan knows little about the science of the world."
Bryan had not been allowed to deliver a final argument at trial, but he arranged for the publication of the speech he had intended to give.
In that publication, Bryan wrote that "science is a magnificent material force, but it is not a teacher of morals."
At the Scopes Trial, William Jennings Bryan (seated, left) being questioned by Clarence Darrow (standing, right).
Smithsonian Institution from United States; Beyond My Ken (talk) 01:35, 4 August 2017 (UTC) - Tennessee v John T. Scopes Trial: Outdoor proceedings on July 20, 1925, showing William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. [2 of 4 photos]
Description: William Jennings Bryan (seated at left) being interrogated by Clarence Seward Darrow, during the trial of the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, July 20, 1925.
That Monday afternoon, because of the extreme heat, Judge Raulston moved court proceedings outdoors.
The session was held on a platform that had been erected at the front of the Rhea County Courthouse to accommodate ministers who wanted to preach during the time of the trial.
Defense lawyers for Scopes (John R. Neal, Arthur Garfield Hays, and Dudley Field Malone) are visible seated to the extreme right.
One of the men at left, with his back to the photographer, appears to be Scopes.
The court reporters are seated at the table.
Repository: Smithsonian Institution Archives Collection: Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes Trial Photographs - During 1925, Watson Davis (1896-1967), Science Service managing editor, took numerous photographs while covering the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes trial as a reporter.
In what was dubbed "The Trial of the Century," Scopes was tried and convicted for violating a state law prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution.
William Jennings Bryan served on the prosecution team, and Clarence Darrow defended Scopes.
Almost eighty years later, the nitrate negatives, including portraits of trial participants, and images from the trial itself and significant places in Dayton, were discovered in archival material donated to the Smithsonian by Science Service in 1971.
Marcel C. LaFollette, an independent scholar, historian and Smithsonian volunteer uncovered these rare, previously unpublished photographs of the 1925 Tennessee vs. John Scopes "Monkey Trial" in the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA).
In 2005, SIA restored fifty-two of the negatives with funds granted by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
LaFollette identified and dated each of these images, and has published a new book highlighting these and other images from the trial entitled, Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the Century, University Press of Kansas, 2008.
Accession number: SIA2007-01
File:Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial- Outdoor proceedings on July 20, 1925, showing William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow.
I have my shopping list.
Richard Case of Roche Bros. is holding my duck.
__________________________________________Good Morning on this Monday, the tenth day of June, 2019
We posted a photo of William Jennings Bryan and wrote a commentary on favorite foods.
We added the Boston weather report and the ticking calendar, and tracked the number of our postings.
And we asked for volunteer help with working on the blog.
We posted a chuckle, a letter from Sally C, and a bit on Scopes “Monkey” Trial, the trial of the century.
And now? Gotta go.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Your love.