Penelope’s Loom

Want to read about some adventures? Would you like to meet an unknown super hero? Let me introduce you to Nellie Bly….  Her real name was Elizabeth Cochran, and she was an important pioneer of modern investigative journalism. We're in the last years of the nineteenth century, though:  they called this style of reportage “stunt journalism.”  This was a practice, where someone in the news biz would throw themselves into a story--literally body and soul.   Nellie’s adventures were incredible, and the lengths to which she would go to investigate a story so great, that I think modern journalists like Woodward and Bernstein have a great debt to lay at her door.  But, as usual, very few remember her name. It was Nellie who went into a NY state insane asylum under cover as a patient, in order to accurately report on its' conditions.  It was Nellie who broke Jules Verne's (Philleas Fogg) fictitious record of travelling around the world in less than 80 days....

 Do you ever really look at political cartoons?  Trudeau, Conrad, Herblock....  If you examine these carefully, it's possible to get a sense of the times.   Back in the day, i.e. 1968-1974, Nixon, the Pentagon Papers, and Watergate provided an incredibly rich subject for the great political cartoonists... And, my absolute favorite artist, Conrad: So, why am I showing you political cartoons, beginning with (ahem, cough, gag) the Trump White House, and ending with the Nixon administration? Well, Dear Reader, in order to provide you with some idea of the tenor of the day; and to hopefully convey something of these chaotic, ridiculous events. When you combine terror with absurdity, you begin to understand something of the unbelievable, dangerous qualities of politics during the Trump and Nixon administrations. So, do you remember the Pentagon Papers and Daniel Ellsberg? Do you remember Watergate? Now, most believe that Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were the chief ...

  I wonder if you have ever heard of this figure of American history.  In my less than humble opinion, she was as important as John Adams.  She also has, in common with Adams, the dubious honor of being the least lauded (at least on the west coast) and studied by scholars (i.e. historians). She was a devoted wife and mother. She was a devoted daughter (at least to her father). She was, in her youth, an intrepid journalist, specializing in reporting on labor issues. She was, in middle age, the publisher of the Washington Post, after the suicide of her husband Phil, who likely suffered from bi-polar disorder. She was, in short, one hell of an American Mrs. Graham was born in 1917, and died in 2001.  A long life, and from what my research indicates, a good life. She was a daughter of wealth, born to Eugene and Agnes Meyer.  Eugene was a successful businessman, who eventually became Chairman of the Federal Reserve.   Eugene Meyer was a man who was successf...

Can’t you hurry this up a bit? I hear they eat dinner in Hades at twelve sharp, and I don’t aim to be late.” – Black Jack Ketchum , just before he was hanged at Clayton, New Mexico on April 26, 1901. Writing about the American West is difficult.  Such an immense and glorious landscape has sheltered ancient peoples, as well as violent criminals.  We tend to think a lot about the stereotypes of the West: the native;  the cowboy;  the pioneer;  the prostitute/saloon girl;  the outlaw.  It is of this last class of people that I wish to write today--the outlaw;  the gunman.  But, how to choose which psycho to write about?  Shall we try someone like William Bonney, aka Henry McCarty, aka Billy the Kid? Alright partner...let's ride! Legend has it, that Billy killed  21 men. Did he? Probably not...we really don't know the actual figure.  What follows is a close approximation of his life--I'm sorry, I sure wish we knew more definitivel...

Overview:  In 1947, Joseph McCarthy was elected to the United States Senate.  He came from the important mid-western state, Wisconsin. An unknown on the stage of national politics, Joe came, quietly, onto the scene.   At first, the junior senator was at odds, trolling around looking for a cause.  He wanted to escape obscurity--which wasn't easy for the new kid on the block.  An important bill to be supported? Brown nosing with the other members of his party? Nope, not sexy enough.  It was not long before his sights locked on potentially combustible subject:  ferreting out so-called "Fifth Columnists,"  or other suspected subversives.  This had been the main mission of the so-called House Unamerican Activities Committee...since the late 1930s..  No, I am not kidding about the name  Joe was able to maneuver his way on to this body. So.  Where oh where would one look for miniature Stalin wannabes? Well, anywhere: radio, telev...