2017 – the quick Sliver

Week 38: What the Hex?

September 22, 2023 Mike Keeler

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The Wheel is about to turn, and it’s time to get your Hex on. Tonight at 2:50 AM EDT, we will cross the Autumnal Equinox and head into darkness. If you listen carefully, you can probably hear Wiccans and Druids clearing their throats outside your office window, getting ready to…

12.8.17 Colorful Candy Chocolate Chapter 2

December 8, 2017 Mike Keeler

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Just in time for the holidays, it’s time for another installment of “brush with greatness.” Back in 1996, I was a punk account executive at BBDO, the famous (or perhaps infamous) ad agency that was later the model for the TV show Mad Men. I was toiling away on the…

2017 BBDO Christmas M&Ms Red Santa Claus Yellow

12.1.17 What the Hail?

December 1, 2017 Mike Keeler

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And so we come to the 12th month of the year. Which is named after the number 10… In ancient Rome, the year was originally laid out as 10 months stretching from early spring to the winter solstice.The first 4 months were named after gods (Mars, Aphrodite, Maia and Juno)…

2017 August Augustus Caesar calendar Julius Caesar July

11.10.17 Semper Fi

November 10, 2017 Mike Keeler

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My wife was born on this date. Which made her father very happy. But long before that… Samuel Nicholas was born in 1744. His father was a blacksmith and his uncle was the mayor of Philadelphia. He attended the College of Philadelphia (now Penn) and became a Freemason. Tun Tavern…

2017 birthday Marine Corps.Marines Revolution Samuel Nicholas Semper Fi

11.3.17 Compromise

November 3, 2017 Mike Keeler

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The current Chief of Staff in the White House recently blathered that the Civil War started due to “lack of an ability to compromise.” (Sigh.) So to end your week on an educational note, it’s time to play the Compromise Quiz. Are you ready? Question One: In 1820, as new…

2017 Compromise of 1850 Compromise Tariff Henry Clay Missouri Compromise

10.20.17 VOC

October 20, 2017 Mike Keeler

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Historical tidbit: this year is the 350th anniversary of the Treaty of Breda. So? OK, here we go. In 1667, at the end of the second of four Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Dutch traded away their interests in the New World to the English. The English took over New Amsterdam, which…

2017 Dutch East India Company England Netherlands New Amsterdam New York Nutmeg Run

10.5.17 Dos de Santa Maria

October 6, 2017 Mike Keeler

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Here’s an opportunity. You and some REALLY close friends have been given the chance to go sailing on a yacht! Sound like fun? Well hang on, you need to know…the boat is kind of…small. Its full length is 70 feet or so, which gives you about 50 linear feet of…

2017 Columbus Santa Maria

9.29.17 Puerto Rico

September 29, 2017 Mike Keeler

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Here are a few things all Americans should know about Puerto Rico. First, Puerto Ricans were granted citizenship for cynical military reasons. The United States acquired the island from Spain – along with Cuba, the Philippines, and Guam – in 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War. But it…

2017 Irma Maria Puerto Rico

9.15.17 Goodnight Lights

September 15, 2017 Mike Keeler

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(Some of you may have heard about this, and I admit I learned about it from a GEICO radio ad…but it’s worth retelling.) Steve Brosnihan is a cartoonist who has spent the last 26 years volunteering at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, RI. Back in 2010, as he was saying…

2017 Goodnight Lights Hasbro Children's Hospital Providence Steve Brosnihan

8.25.17 Longstreet

August 25, 2017 Mike Keeler

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OK, attention all you polo-wearing skinheads out there who say that defending statues of Confederate generals isn’t hatred, it’s just an effort to “preserve your heritage.” Well I’ve got two words for you: James Longstreet. C’mon, really, even if you haven’t picked up a history book in your life, you’ve…

2017 civil war James Longstreet Robert E. Lee Stonewall Jackson