Bag of Randomness for Friday, June 28, 2019

  • It’s been great rewatching the HBO John Adams series with the family, especially after watching the musical Hamilton and listening to the soundtrack all the time. I’m surprised how much Hamilton is referenced in the television series and didn’t pick up on it the first time, he was truly George Washington’s right-hand man and monumentally influential in our country’s founding. It’s one thing to know he was a Founding Father in the general sense, but it’s really neat to piece together history from various sources and see his immense impact.
  • I think it’s one part absurd and one part typical how I can discover a fascinating fact and totally forget about it until I rediscover it. For instance, the John Adams series is over ten years old and I watched it when it first aired. The most recent episode I watched with my family was about Adams’ time as the second President of the United States. As tensions with France were building, Adams requested George Washington come out of retirement to lead and shape a national army. Jefferson scoffed at the idea asserting Washington would only be in command in name only because of his age and he would delegate almost everything to Hamilton.  How crazy is that? I feel like most Americans assumed or were led to believe Washington relinquished power and quietly slipped away to retirement leaving behind all leadership duties and responsibility and becoming an ordinary citizen. Wikipedia’s entry of Washington slightly differs with the man becoming bored in retirement and requesting some military responsibilities.
    • Washington grew restless in retirement, prompted by tensions with France, and he wrote to Secretary of War James McHenry offering to organize President Adams’ army. Adams offered Washington a lieutenant general commission on July 4, 1798 and the position of commander-in-chief of the armies. He accepted, replacing James Wilkinson, and he served as the commanding general from July 13, 1798 until his death 17 months later.
    • Washington delegated the active leadership of the army to Hamilton, a major general. No army invaded the United States during this period, and Washington did not assume a field command.
  • I guess before anyone got Wally Pipped, they got James Wilkinsoned.
  • If any of you live around Decatur and need any HVAC work done, I highly recommend Mann Refrigeration. They saved me about $3,000 by honoring some work they did about nine and a half years ago despite some registration numbers not coming up on the manufacturers end. The warranty for the part in question was covered for ten years, but as I said, they honored their work.
  • This will certainly stir things up – Texas wants to move away from abstinence-only sex ed
    • For more than 20 years, school districts here have emphasized abstinence above all else in sex education. But soon, members of the Texas Board of Education will consider whether to add new topics like “sexual risk reduction methods,” “healthy relationships,” and “anatomy” in grades as early as kindergarten. The recommendations are part of Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath’s Essential Knowledge and Skills review for health education, which included input from health experts. “It is about time that Texas come into the 21st century,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which has long pushed for changes to the curriculum.
  • There hasn’t been a decent viral Internet video trend in a while. Gone are the days of the mannequin challenge, planking, and the Harlem Shake.
  • A funny Reddit shower thought – “Bread is a slang term for money. Cheese is also a slang term for money. Therefore grilled cheese sandwiches are the ultimate form of wealth.”
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One Response to Bag of Randomness for Friday, June 28, 2019

  1. Bizarro Big Tex says:

    Interesting about Texas possibly broadening the discussion beyond abstinence only. Will always be this push and pull in regards to this inflaming topic. People will let the topic swell their emotions and turn them rigid with indignation. They then try to overpower folks with their moralistic arguments and repeatedly assault their unwilling discussion opponent. Neither side reaches a level of satisfaction usually in these fevered discussions. Religion plays a big role, since most faiths have puritanical views on the issue. Very few religions take a modern and open minded view on biology, psychology, and sociology, which is what sex really is all about. I guess all those animals on the Ark re-populated the Earth through long walks and holding hands/paws/hooves/etc. HaHa.

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