Category: History Nuggets

Famous painting of Gen. George Washington crossing the Delaware River

Brodie’s History Nuggets: old is new again?!

Published on by Lucas Pam5 Comments

Stop, look and golden listen…there is not a day that goes by that I do not hear about fake news…fake news on this side…fake news from that side…fake news rolling in the middle…

Just want you to know that fake news was alive and well during George Washington‘s time.  That’s right…I mean that is correct…General George Washington experienced slander through forged letters that attempted to undermine his commitment to winning the Revolutionary War and freeing the colonies from the heavy and oppressive rule of King George III.  Interesting that these slanders seem to have been an inside job from a Loyalist, who fled to England and died there. But even more interesting, Gen. Washington went on to become President Washington, the first president of the United States of America.  Now that was a genuine golden beginning…

Brodie the Golden Retriever

Golden retrieves good news lemons

Published on by Lucas Pam9 Comments

Sure…golden retrievers don’t drink lemonade but we do know a happy and golden undertaking when we see it.  The great state of Utah just legalized lemonade stands and other businesses run by kids.

lemonade sign
Come and get your fresh lemonade

Who would ever think that necessary?!..seems odd…but now Utah kiddies no longer need a $30 permit to exercise their entrepreneur spirit…earning money to so such things as shoveling snow and setting up a lemonade stand.  I’m clapping my paws together for these industrious kids…Utah’s state motto is “industry” and for those adults who passed a good golden rule law for “the Beehive State.”

Get ready to walk your dog to your neighborhood lemonade stand and support those golden kids.  Good on ya!

Photo of a Eastern gray squirrel

Brodie brings a golden history nugget: Immigrant squirrel sponsored by Benjamin Franklin

Published on by Lucas Pam5 Comments

Benjamin Franklin loved Eastern gray squirrels…loved them so much that during his diplomatic services (1770) in England he sent word to his wife Deborah to send some of the gray creatures across the pond to him.  He would then give them as gifts.

Portrait of founding fathers with Benjamin Franklin as the focal point along with George Washington
Portrait of founding fathers with Benjamin Franklin, representing Pennsylvania, as the focal point along with George Washington

Mungo was the treasured gray who met a rather viscous death…so loved was the furry gray that Mr. Franklin wrote a special elegy.

Golden squirrel love and paws up!

19th century --- President James K. Polk, (1795-1849). An illustrated half-length portrait from a daguerrotype by Matthew Brady. Undated illustration. --- Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

Brodie unearths Polk being dug up yet again?

Published on by Lucas Pam5 Comments

Gotta golden tell you that the 11th President of the United States, James Polk…keeps moving around…his remains have been exhumed three times and still…there is another possibility of relocating him yet again.

R.I.GoldenP.  President Polk.

Golden Brodie History Nugget

 

 

Oil painting of John Jay, First Supreme Court Justice appointed in 1789 along with one of his

Brodie sends a golden supreme nugget

Published on by Lucas Pam2 Comments

Seems appropriate to talk about the Supreme Court…given what’s happening on “The Hill”.

Well, get out of the moment and go back to 1789 and the appointment of the first Chief Justice to the Supreme Court.  Know who he was?  Hint…his last name is that of a rather large bird and his initials are JJ…got him now…John Jay.

The blue jay is native to North America.
The blue jay is native to North America.

A golden good try if you didn’t know and Paws Up if you did!!!!!

Martin van Buren standing portrait

Golden Brodie’s history nuggets: #8 POTUS & tigers, Oh My!

Published on by Lucas Pam6 Comments

Born in 1782 and died during the Civil War…Kinderhook, New York was his birthplace… of Dutch decent and the son of a tavern owner…made it through middle school…then studied law and passed the bar…had the nickname of “Red Fox of Kinderhook” because of his red flaming hair…served faithfully in Andrew Jackson’s cabinet…was a senator…had a one term presidency from 1837–1841…his presidency began with financial crisis which he inherited…banks failing…know as the “Panic of 1837″…a real run on bad luck for Martin Van Buren…aka Red Fox…8th President of the United States.

Tiger cubs in the wild
Tiger cubs in the wild

No dog paws in the Red Fox White House but Van Buren was given a pair of tiger cubs by the Sultan of Oman…the cubs stayed with Red for a short period of time and then off to the zoo they went.  Bet they were beauties…

Golden Brodie the Golden Retriever…digger of history nuggets… signing off…over and out…

 

 

Andrew Jackson on his horse Sam Patch

Golden Brodie digs up unusual stuff on #7

Published on by Lucas Pam3 Comments

Do you know who #7 was?  Hint:  Initials AJ…yes, you got it…Andrew Jackson.  His history is loaded with goodie dog treats… with factoids that will raise your awareness of this man who was loved by many, yet a very controversial figure.  Like this…

Jackson’s parents emigrated from Ireland…Jackson killed a man in a duel and carried a bullet in his body as a result of this stand-off…”Old Hickory” won the popular vote for president three times…He was the target of the first attempted presidential assassination…He adopted two Native American boys…and much more…”Old Hickory stabled his steady stead at the White House…Sam Patch…a white stallion that he rode during the War of 1812…AJ also had a racehorse, Truxton and an African grey parrot named Poll…who cussed like a sailor, offending many guests.

Golden interesting…

John Quincy Adams first president to be photographed

Golden Brodie fetches a gator and silks on #6

Published on by Lucas Pam4 Comments

#6…John Quincy Adams born 1767…first son of a former president to become POTUS…first president photographed… born in Braintree, Massachusetts…Harvard grad… traveled abroad assisting his father…who was a founding father… outstanding multilingual talents…Q spoke English,French and Russian fluently and got by with Greek, Italian and Spanish.  John Q’s life had him as a young boy witnessing the Revolutionary War practically in his MA backyard…he knew Thomas Jefferson well and hung out with Benjamin Franklin’s grandchildren…in his father’s footsteps…he dedicated his life to public service…architect of the Monroe Doctrine…after his presidency he served as U.S. Representative from Massachusetts in 1830, serving for the last 17 years of his life with greater acclaim than he had achieved as president.

Best golden digs…Q did not have a dog while in the White House…he did however, have an alligator gifted to him from the Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette’s family.  In the absence of social media then…ha!… we don’t know how the lovely first lady Abigail Adams felt about the reptile…but the toothy jawed creature lived in a bathtub in the East Wing…constantly shocking people with its mere image…eventually finding a new home (unknown location.)  Abigail also raised silk-worms and the silks contributed in the making of her dresses.  How about that?!  Gator and silks…

Young alligator in the reeds
Alligator in the reeds…not in a bathtub
A silkworm eating a Mulberry leaf
Silkworm eating to make a dress