Roosevelt Homes Imploded (March 19, 2011)

Earlier this month they imploded Roosevelt Homes, the first high rise public housing in Atlanta, to make room for a "new" one. To honor a lady who lived there since 1968, they let her push... the button to demolish the building. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture? The building is only 41 years old and they are tearing it down? And this woman couldn't find a job in 41 years?

Kings All Decked Out (March 18, 2011)

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

Irish Slaves in America? March 17, 2011

The Cromwellian (i.e., Puritan) government in Ireland gave the slave monopolies to good Puritan merchants who then sold on to other good Puritan merchants in the Caribbean, Virginia, and New England. (The Royalists/Anglicans got nearly nothing out of the Irish slave trade.) The first witch killed (1688) in the famous Massachusetts witch trials was an old Irish slavewoman (Anne Glover) who had been captured by Cromwellian forces and sold as a slave in the 1650s. She could recite the Lord's Prayer in Irish and Latin, but didn't speak English. So Cotton Mather and the boys hung her. Cotton Mather was quite proud of his visiting the poor woman in jail and interviewing her (tormenting her) at length on the nature of religion and her 'sins' through an interpreter. He wrote a book about it (Memorable Providences, which you can find at COTTON MATHER, MEMORABLE PROVIDENCES, RELATING TO WITCHCRAFTS AND POSSESSIONS

For more info: http://www.scoilgaeilge.org/academics/slaves.htm