TONY S. writes:

Just about everyone in my circle is what would be termed a “conservative”, i.e. supportive of the Republican party and Trump, very supportive of America, “freedom”, and the capitalist/consumerist system. I put quotation marks around the word “freedom” because the American conservative uses the word in its post-Enlightenment connotation, basically being free to do what one wants, as opposed to its traditional or classical meaning of being free of one’s own passions.

This week, I was approached by three friends about the pummeling of a female Olympic boxer by someone suspected of being a trans/male (I’m not really sure of the proper term). (more…)

IN 1854, a slave in Washington, D.C., along with her two daughters, was provided with references so that she could seek new masters. The three were being offered for sale for $1,800 — the equivalent of about $67,000 in today’s currency.

Here are their references:

The bearer, Mary Jane, and her two daughters, are for sale. They are sold for no earthly fault whatever. She is one of the most ladylike and trustworthy servants I ever knew. She is a first rate parlour servant; can arrange and set out a dinner or party supper with as much taste as the most of white ladies. She is a pretty good mantua maker; can cut out and make vests and pantaloons and roundabouts and joseys for little boys in a first rate manner. Her daughters’ ages are eleven and thirteen years, brought up exclusively as house servants. The eldest can sew neatly, both can knit stockings; and all are accustomed to all kinds of house work. They would not be sold to speculators or traders for any price whatever. (more…)

ALAN writes:

We met when you were still in your glory days in the 1950s and when I was a wee lad.  Among my earliest memories of you are the colorful parades and bands who marched along Washington Avenue through the garment district, where thousands of people worked in companies that made clothing, hats, and shoes; when my father took me downtown and we walked along the cobblestones on the riverfront; and when my mother and I stepped aboard the majestic S.S Admiral for a river cruise from downtown to Jefferson Barracks.

As I grew up, you continued to flourish in the early 1960s when groups of businessmen expressed confidence and optimism in the pages of their Downtown Newsletter.

Goodbye to the Ambassador Theater and Lowe’s State Theater, Miss Hulling’s Cafeterias, the Forum Cafeteria, and the Pope’s Cafeterias.  And to the old Sheraton-Jefferson Hotel, with its attractive lobby, bank of pay telephones, Gas House Room, and elegant Gold Room, where actress Lucille Ball spoke one winter evening in 1965.

Goodbye to the big Woolworth and Kresge dime stores, Hunleth Music on Broadway, the Mark Twain Hotel, the Old Spaghetti Factory, and the magnificent Union Station, where we greeted loved ones when they arrived on passenger trains in the 1950s.

Goodbye to the masculine police officers –never women– who directed traffic at busy intersections, and to the streetcars and many bus routes that crisscrossed downtown.

Goodbye to the magazine departments in drug stores and department stores, to Gladys at the Baldwin Piano Company, and to my good friend Mr. T. and the Catholic book store on Olive Street where he worked.

When she worked as a secretary before getting married, one of my cousins lived downtown in the Evangeline Residence, and she had fond memories of the Orient Restaurant on North Seventh Street. (more…)

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