National Anthem Declared 117 Years After Key Wrote It March 3, 2010

Our Flag is Still There...At the Smithsonian With a Few Repairs

Capital Goes Up in Smoke

On this Date in History:  During the War of 1812, the British had several military successes including the invasion and burning of Washington, DC.  On August 24, 1814 they burned down the White House and Dolley Madison gained fame for saving the famous painting of General Washington.  President Madison and Dolley had escaped so the Redcoats were pretty much done with the nation’s capital and returned to their ships.  The next target was Baltimore.  The Americans anticipated that the British would attack the important Maryland port city of 40,000 by both land and sea.  As they made preparations, it was learned that a beloved local physician had been captured and spirited to one of the British ships in Chesapeake Bay.  Dr. William Beanes was being held on the British flagship HMS Tonnant.  

Artist's Depiction of Key is Wrongly Dramatic

There was great fear that Dr. Beanes was going to be hanged and so the locals called on the services of a Georgetown lawyer to approach the British in an attempt to gain the elderly doctor’s release.  Attorney Francis Scott Key gained permission from President Madison to sail on the sloop Minden along with Colonel John Skinner under a flag of truce in an attempt to work out a deal.  The British received Key courteously but at first refused to release the good doctor.  Then, Skinner and Key produced a bag full of letters from wounded English prisoners who praised the Americans for their treatment and medical care.  One of the physicians mentioned was none other than Dr. Beanes.  That softened the Redcoat hearts and they agreed to allow Key and Skinner to take Beanes home.  But, there was a small problem.

This Flag is Made Up of People! Like Soylent Green!

They discovered that, inadvertently, attorney Key had learned of the plans for the imminent British attack.  At first the trio was detained on the HMS Surprise but later were moved back to their sloop, the Minden, where they were to wait until after the conclusion of the battle.  On September 13, 1814 the British warships opened fire with a tremendous barrage on Fort McHenry, which protected Baltimore Harbor.  In the initial 25 hour assault, the British fired some 1500 cannonballs, many of which had lit fuses that were designed to explode when they reached the target.  But, they were not too dependable and often became nothing more than bombs bursting in air.   The British also had a new weapon, the Congreve Rocket, that produced red arcs of flame that painted the night sky. 

The first phase was over in the evening and Key, Skinner and Beanes were concerned as they waited on their sloop.  They knew that as long as Fort McHenry was being attacked, then it had not surrendered.  So, their spirits were revived when the bombardment roared back to life at 1AM on the 14th and continued until the pre-dawn hours when the guns went silent.  From his vantage point, Key could not know if the silence meant that Fort McHenry had fallen or not.  It was not until the skies brightened and Key saw that the American flag still fluttered in the morning breeze that the Americans had withstood the onslaught.  What Key did not know was that the battle had proven so difficult that the British officers had determined the cost of success was too high.  The cannonade had been called off and the invading troops on land were ordered into a retreat.

Key's Manuscript

Key was an educated man and an amateur poet.  After witnessing the sight of the flag over Fort McHenry, he scribbled down some inspired words on the back of a letter that he had in his pocket.  As he sailed across Baltimore Harbor he wrote a few more words.   In the Indian Queen Hotel, Key finished his poem later that night.  Key’s brother-in-law, Judge J.H. Nicholson took the poem to a Baltimore printer and distributed it around town under the title, “Defence of Fort McHenry.”   A few days later on September 20, 1814 it was first published in the Baltimore Patriot newspaper.  Papers around the nation picked up the poem and at least one added the note, “Tune: Anacreon in Heaven.”  Not long thereafter in October, a Baltimore actor sang the tune with Key’s words and called it the “Star Spangled Banner.”  It is not clear if the singer sang all four verses to the “Star Spangled Banner.”

These Guys Knew the Tune Before Key Ever Wrote the Words

The song was immediately popular and was included in the repetroir of American patriotic songs.  It was not until the 20th century that the United States had a national anthem.  It was on this date in 1931 that Herbert Hoover signed the bill designating the Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem of the United States. It’s interesting to note that the words to the song were not included in that legal document.  And, it’s probably a good thing that the words to the original tune, To Ancreon in Heaven was not included.  You see…the tune had been composed by John Stafford Smith in 1775.  It was written as an anthem for the London Gentlemen’s Club, The Anacreontic Society.  That club gained it’s moniker from the Greek poet who worshiped “the Muses, Wine and Love.”    It was considered in 18th century America to be a “bawdy British drinking song” but it seems fairly tame to me.  Besides that, if you read the lyrics to “To Anacreon in Heaven” and try to put it to the tune, you find that Key’s words fit much better than the original lyrics that fit about as well as most fraternity drinking songs.

Note the CAPE in Tejas by Monday Morning

Weather Bottom Line:  The forecast is still the same and lame.  There will be a warm up to near or even maybe above seasonal levels for the weekend then a chance of rain early in the week.  Now..that interesting feature is still looking pretty good, though may not bring action around here.  The low will exit on Sunday out of the desert Southwest and might bring a risk of severe weather to the Texas Panhandle and then the Arklatex.  On Tuesday or Wednesday, the set up is looking pretty decent for a low level jet and general dynamic pattern for a severe weather outbreak, though I would think that it would be the Gulf Coast states…maybe as far north as the northern part of Dixie.

US Gov’t backs Brazil Offshore Drilling-Hypocritical or Good Deal? Dolley Madison: Savior Cupcake?. August 24, 2009

 

Except if The Drilling is off Brazil's Coast, then Uncle Sam is All For It!

 

Petrobras Drillship Will Have Plenty of Work

What about alternative energy?  You may have heard about a new oil field discovery.  Brazil found a huge oilfield over 100 miles offshore with an estimated reserve of some 40 billion barrels of oil.  And it’s light crude, which is the good stuff.  Now, Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of alternative fuels and has been pushing that way for some time.  They were despearate for oil in the 1970′s and decided it was best to find domestic energy sources for national security.  Now that they found the Sugar Loaf Field as well as a previous big find, Greenpeace Brazil is claiming that Brazilian arms are wrapped around the national oil company and letting go of the environmentally frieindly alternatives.  The Brazilian oil discovery has brought joy to many, but controversy in the domestic press as well.   Now, there is plenty of investment dollars out there. The stockprice of the Brazilian national oil company Petrobras sky rocketed on the news.  But, there is a new investor….Uncle Sam.  President Obama campaigned against offshore drilling in the United States but the Obama Administration has pledged $2 billion to Brazil for offshore drilling development and there could be more where that came from. 

Petrobras Has Converted Tankers Into Floating Production Storage Offloading (FSO) Units

There are critics who claim that is hypocritical and want to know why its okay for the US to invest in drilling off Brazilian waters and not the good old USA, where even Russia just agreed with Cuba to begin drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.  The Chinese are not yet drilling offshore near Floridia. The China drilling in the Gulf story was wrong, but the Chinese are drilling exploratory wells on Cuban soil.  In any event,  you can look at it another way.  They found the oil.  So, if we help them to develop the field, then maybe they would be willing to allow US companies access.  But, then again, it would probably be most feasable to export to the US than elsewhere anyway.  Either way, having access to oil in our hemisphere with a frienidly neighbor is a better national security proposition for America than depending on more unstable or unfriendly regimes half way around the world.

The Saving Cupcake?

On This Date in History: Dolley Payne Todd Madison was the First Lady of the United States and wife of President James Madison. In 1790, she married a fellow named John Todd, Jr. of Philadelphia and had two sons. He was a lawyer and things were dandy until a yellow fever epidemic in 1793 that claimed his life, that of one of his sons and his mother and father. I’m not certain if John Todd, Jr. was related directly to the Todds of Kentucky. But, following his death, Dolley married James Madison and Dolley’s sister, following the death of her husband married Judge Thomas Todd of Kentucky in what was the first marriage ceremony in the White House. Sounds like it wasn’t very good luck to be the first to marry the Payne girls.

   Anyway, Dolley goes and marries James Madison and was a very well thought of First Lady.  Perhaps

her biggest claim to fame, other than having a pastry company immortalized by the Peanuts gang named after her, was her valor. On this date in 1814, First Lady Dolley Madison was scowering  White House, looking for artifacts and paintings to save. This was the time of the War of 1812…even though it was 1814. The British had invaded and burned the city, including the White House. A few weeks later in Baltimore Harbor, Francis Scott Key would write the words to the Star Spangled Banner. But, when the British were coming, Dolley didn’t have time to write poetry, she was concerned

with not just saving herself, but also valuables in the White House. Her quick thinking saved many historic and valuable papers. She is also credited with saving many paintings, including a famous portrait of George Washington.  All would have been lost without Dolley because the British burned the Executive Mansion, leaving nothing but the outer walls.

Of course, the British got their payback when Andy Jackson took’em to the Woodshed at the Battle of New Orleans, before anyone realized that a peace treaty had been signed days before. Oh well…the redcoats deserved it. And Dolley Madison’s name is in its proper place near the top of the First Lady list…and on

the top of a box of Zingers. 

Weather Bottom Line:  I’m telling you, this pattern is very unusual.  Really a more early fall pattern than late August.  Hurricane Bill acted like storms do in late October.  If you recall the movie The Perfect Storm, it had to do with Hurricane Grace which ran a similar path to Bill. That was in late October.  So, enjoy it while you can.  Certainly was great for the Inaugural Celtic Fest in New Albany on Saturday.  Snow White and I enjoyed it thoroughly and there were some 2000 visitors.  The bands were great and the headliner, Brendan Loughrey from Ireland was not only good, but also a great guy to hang with.  He has some good stories and his career continues to blossom.   You should be on the lookout of next year’s event.  I hope its in New Albany again because the venue is great.  But, don’t look for the same type of weather again in August.  This long wave pattern won’t last but we will remain relatively dry with lower than normal temperatures for much of the week.  By week’s end, there may be a front close enough by and humidity levels high enough to prompt some showers, but until then we can save on our air-conditioning bills probably through midweek.

Big Snow in Northeast; Key Finds a Tune; Klink Returns March 3, 2009

Snow Greatest on Long Island

 

I Told You So!

Total New England Snow Depth After Big Monday Snow

Northeast Snow: 

This is a Colonel Klink moment.  I think it was about 4 days ago that I said that the East Coast and particularly the Northeast would be threatened with a whomping of snow.  I also kept saying that we’d be colder than the folks on the tube were advertising and I especially couldn’t figure out how we were supposed to get above freezing on Monday.  Well, I’ll claim victory on both counts.  I subscribe to the Jackson Browne method…”forget about the losses and exagerate the wins.”    Really, the Northeast snow was a pretty easy call.  The only question was how much because that would strictly be a function of how far off the coast the storm center would run.  As it was, the highest snowfall that I found was on Long Island, New York around Setauket where reports of 12-14 inches came in.  Central Park in the Big Apple had 8 inches. (Text of numerous snow reports in the region)  The majority of the reports are in the 6-9 inch range with some higher amounts.  I’ve put a map of the snow totals as I have the preliminary reports.  Here is a listing of snow reports by the public and observers in parts of New England.

March 2009 Climate Forecast

I’ve been tracking the climate forecasts.  Initially, the story was that the Ohio Valley would be warmer than average.  Well, let’s explain that again.  You will typically hear in the media that an specific area is expected to be “colder than normal” or “warmer than normal.”  In fact, when you look at the forecast maps, what they give is a darkened area that has the probability of it being outside the realm of average.  I have never seen an area greater than 50%.  For the winter, the Ohio Valley had a 40% chance of it being warmer than average, but most of the reports by your favorite media outlet said it was forecast to be warmer than normal.  For January and February, Louisville was in the 40% chance of being warmer than normal.  The result was a split decision.  In January, Louisville had an average high of 38.1 and an avg. low of 21.6.  The 30 year average is 41 and 24.9 respectively.  So, it was in fact, colder than average and fairly significantly.  In February, preliminary analysis shows that the 30 year average high of 46.6 was eclipsed in February 2009 by last month’s 49.2.  The average low of 31.1 in Feb. 2009 was greater than the 28.5 30 year average.  For March, in spite of the real cold start, we fall under the “equal chances” of warmer or colder or average temperatures.  Now that’s a big limb to climb out on.  Look to the bottom for the next victory that I may be claiming…and if I am wrong…then I won’t comment.

Snow White and I Saw The Flag From Ft. McHenry at the Smithsonian

On This Date in History:

Artist's Idea of What Key Saw

What we have been always been taught in school was that Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the Star Spangled Banner while being held prisoner on a British ship as the Brits fleet In Baltimore Harbor bombarded Fort McHenry for 25 hours.  He looked out his small window and saw that the American flag was still hoisted high above the fort with the bombs “bursting in air.”

Well, here’s the real story.  Key was a lawyer from Georgetown.  He also was the head of peace mission who went to the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay in an attempt to secure the release of a doctor being held as a prisoner.  When Frank Key came aboard, the British received him with great courtesy and even agreed to release Dr. William Beanes.  But, somethat got in the way.  See, while Key was on board, he saw the ships preparing for an attack so the English, not being stupid, detained Key and his party aboard the sloop Minden until the attack was over.   It was from the Minden that Key saw that in the dawns early light, the flag was still there.  That gave him great inspiration and on the back of a letter, he penned the lyrics.  He decided to put his poem to a rather popular tune of the time.  That song was “To Anacreon in Heaven” (Here are the Lyrics) and was quite popular in taverns as a somewhat bawdy drinking song composed by John Stafford Smith in 1775.    It was the anthem of a London gentleman’s club (not the same thing as they are today) with the name Anacreonic Society derivinig from the moniker of a Greek poet who worshiped “Muses, Wine and Love.” 

Herb Thought A Depression Was a Good Time for a Song

Francis Scott Key’s version became an instant hit and rose quickly to near the top of patriotic songs, competing with “America the Beautiful” for the top spot.  On this Date in 1931, President Herbert Hoover was dealing with a failing economy, a tanking stock market and an oncoming depression.  Sound familiar?  Anyway, amidst all of the crisis, Hoover somehow found that it was time that the nation had an official national anthem.  Perhaps he thought that would prove to be the stimulus the economy needed.  So, 78 years ago today, Herbert Hoover signed a bill that made Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner,” put to the tune of a tavern booze song, the national anthem.  And people have been butchering it at the beginning of sporting events ever since.

NWS Tue AM Forecast Temperatures

Weather Bottom Line:  We started off in the teens on Monday morning and the airport made it to 31 in the afternoon and I doubt if anyone else was that warm.  With the wind blowing, I guarantee no one felt like it was as warm as it was.  Tuesday morning will find temperatures in the low to mid teens and then we slowly warm up…perhaps low 40′s at best but then we get into the 50′s on Wednesday and pushing toward 70 on Friday.  I had told you yesterday that there were indications that not only would we have a long wave ridge building in for the middle of the week, but also that a ridge would be building off the SE coast and that would help to block a front coming in.  The data was a bit inconclusive but I suggested that the warm weather would probably persist as I suspected the ridge would indeed build in from the Southeast and hold up any frontal activity.

The only change that I have to my suspicion is that I think that a boundary that had earlier had appeared to want to move through and bring a cold weekend will not totally get held up.  The Canadian model has this solution which is to have the boundary in the neighborhood with clouds and perhaps some rain but the really cold air will be bottled up to the north…so upper 50′s to near 60 for the weekend…a bit cooler than the last couple of days of the week but not a big change.  Now, keep in mind, the GFS wants to have it be wet from say Thursday through the weekend and holds the front way out of the way and keeps the cold air way north.  The European still wants to bring the boundary through and make it colder for Sunday but it only lasts for one day.  As I said, I suspect that the Canadian will be the winner…but we’ll see how it shakes out.

Two Men-Two Second Chances; Second Round of Ice/Snow January 28, 2009

http://www.atrickdesign.com/print/life-20/

Kirby Alive and Well With Wife

On This Date in History: 

Ken Kirby is a police officer in South Carolina.  He said that he was “healthy as an ox” his whole life until this past Christmas he started feeling nauseous and then had tightness in his chest and pain in his arms.  On December 27, he was rushed to the hospital and he went into cardiac arrest.  He died.  Then he was revived.  45 minutes later, his heart stopped again and the doctors told the family that they could not get a pulse.  He died again.  Several minutes after the family said their goodbyes, a nurse monitoring noticed a slight pulse had returned.  Kirby was back again.  He had surgery and an hour after the surgery he was sitting up and chatting to the family who just  a few hours prior said goodbye to the man who had died twice…and returned.Here is the local story with many details.  Here’s the whole story with video.  On this date in history, Ken Kirby is back on the job, a month after he rose from the dead, twice.

Richard III Jackson Assassin?

On This Date in 1835 another case of two chances was in the works. It wouldn’t happen for a couple of days but it was being planned by a handsome young man named Richard Lawrence.  He had lived a normal life until around 1832 when for unknown reasons he became delusional.  He really got into trouble when on this date he was fully involved in the belief that he was King Richard III!  He was obsessed with the notion that President Andrew Jackson had killed his father.  Now, Jackson was well known to be in the middle of a banking controversy but this one was a little different.  See, Lawrence, aka King Richard III, thought that Old Hickory was withholding funds of the monarchy in US banks.    So, he set out to kill Jackson.

Andy's Invincible!

On January 30, 1835 the 68-year-old Jackson was somewhat feeble and he leaned on the arm of a Cabinet member as he exited the House of Representatives where he had been attending a funeral for Congressman Warren Davis.  Hiding behind a column in the Capitol’s east portico was King Richard III…er…Richard Lawrence.  Underneath his cloak were two loaded pistols.  The would be King waited until the president was just 8 feet away when he lept from behind his hiding place raising both weapons.  He fired the pistol in his right hand.  The sound of the exploding percussion cap was heard all around the chamber.  It was pointed at near point blank range directly at the chest of of Jackson.  But…Old Hickory stood firm.  Suddenly, the old man raised his cane and an energy swelled once more in the old soldier as he began to chase the fleeing assassin.  Right when Jackson was almost on top of him, the assailant fired a second shot from the gun in his left hand.  Again…the sound echoed but nothing happened except King Richard was taken to the ground and escorted roughly from the scene. 

Statisticians (obviously with nothing better to do) have calculated that the odds of two pistols misfiring at 125,000 to 1.  Both guns were loaded correctly and both operated flawlessly in later tests.  It was a cold raw day…and the humidity was high.   Speculation is that the damp weather condition was responsible for the seeming impossible odds of failure. 

Key Called Assailant A Madman!

Now, no one had ever attempted an assassination before so the courts determined that the case would be treated as a simple assault.  At that time, it was but a misdemeanor.  The prosecutor has become a rather patriotic figure.  The Washington District Attorney who tried the case was none other than Francis Scott Key, who a few years before had penned the words to the Star Spangled Banner.  Key determined that King Richard III should be treated as a mad man and Lawrence was freed with an insanity plea. 

I’m not sure if he continued to think that he was King Richard III, but Lawrence did live a long time, though his life was confined to asylums where he died in 1861. 

Two men…174 years apart…escaped death not once, but twice.

NWS Ice Forecast

NWS Snow Forecast

Weather Bottom Line:

I told you it would be a mess. Snow White and I had about an inch and a half of sleet on Monday night followed by about 3 inches of snow at our dwarf cottage.  She managed to put out food for the little creatures of the neighborhood around Piney, our big pine tree and we had all sorts of visitors.  But alas, our favorite pine tree that is home to so many squirrels, birds and bunny rabbits is in dire straights.  The light rain all day has accumulated on the branches and Piney is being weighed down.  Over the years he has lost some arms and I fear for the worst.  I always want exciting weather and love snow but I can do without the ice…I never want freezing rain.  I’ve been without heat twice already this season and don’t care to experience that again and do not wish that on anyone.  But, its possible.  We should continue to have frozen precipitation through the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday. While we could move up to just a shade above freezing for a time which may help melt some of the ice on the power lines and trees, the mercury will fall again.  Hopefully, the precip will fall as sleet and not so much freezing rain but the odds of there being no freezing rain are not good. 

NAM 12Z Tue Snow Through Wed Eve

I’ve included the NWS general forecast as well as their anticipated additional snow totals and ice accumulations.  Obviously, travel will be difficult on Wednesday.  The official snow total at Louisville was 4.1 inches for Tuesday and that is a record for the date, taking Louisville’s total for the season to 7.1 inches.  I think the average seasonal total is somewhere around 15.5 inches.  Lexington recorded 1.7 inches and Indianapolis had3.1 inches after 9pm with snow falling, meaning that the freezing rain line was farther south.  In Jackson County, they were reporting .25 to .50 inches of ice on Tuesday evening.  Other reports were similar. 

Now, we’ve got winds from the northeast and that will insure that cold air will remain at the surface.  The low has been running up from the southwest with a southerly component in the flow aloft that has brought us all of the overrunning moisture and warmer air aloft.  That’s why we haven’t had all snow.  Apparently someone on TV said that we can never get a major winter event with a southerly component and that is absolutely false as that is when we do get major events.  Also, I had a report that a tv guy said that a storm must come through within 24 hours of cold air coming in or we don’t get anything major.  This event shows the frivolity of that statement.  A lot of times guys on TV say things to try to make themselves sound like experts when they in fact, are not.  When I wasn’t sure, I just reported on what was happening instead of trying to make stuff up.  Thats what gives TV guys a bad name.  Cardosi is an ace and you won’t hear that kind of foolishness from him….anyway..enough editorializing…as the low moves by, all of the flow will turn out of the north but there will still be moisture in place.  So, our temperatures will fall, not only at the surface, but aloft as well which will put us back into the ability to form crystals at the upper levels instead of liquid.  So, instead of freezing rain or sleet, we will turn back to snow.  I tell you what…if the 12Z Tue models are correct, then this will be a real problem and the NWS forecast totals may be too low.  The NAM wants to through out .85 inches of freezing precipitation…mainly freezing rain.  Then on Wednesday after sunrise, it advertises 5.4 inches of snow if you use the 10 to 1 ratio.  The GFS wants to give us .72 inches of ice followed by 6.9 inches of snow on Wednesday.  Keep in mind too that the GFS has another 4 inches of snow on Monday and Tuesday…but thats another story and we’ll have to wait to see how it shakes out. 

GFS 12Z Tue Snow Accumulation Through Wed Eve

So…here’s the prognastication.   I suspect that in many areas, the temperatures will be a shade above freezing so the amount of ice that forms may be a bit inhibited for awhile.  I would think another 1/2 inch of ice is certainly not out of the question.  Both models toss out a lot of snow but…I would think that using a 10-1 ratio is probably too much because  it will be a wetter snow…so if we use an 8-1 ration, you get 4-5 inches of snow, which still seems to be alot.  Take into account that some of it will probably fall as sleet initially so knock off another inch or so.  So, lets go with 2-3 inches of snow in Louisville after the icing with higher snow amounts to the north.  If you look at the model maps…toward Indianapolis, there may be about 10 inches of snow with not as much ice.  Hope we all make it through this okay and we don’t lose power.  Piney has already lost a big branch.  We’re sad.

Dolley Madison Saves the Day For George and From Fay! August 25, 2008

To track the remnant of Fay via radar imagery, you can click on this Interactive Radar (Click Here) and zoom in to street level, loop and navigate anywhere in the nation.

I’m honestly tired of talking about Fay and look forward to Gustav, which may be entering the world this week as Invest 94L is looking rather interesting. The NHC is still planning on taking a peek with the hurricane hunters scheduled to make a couple of visits, unless it just totally falls apart. But it’s looking fairly decent. For the 0824 18Z Invest 94L spaghetti models, see the previous post. (Click Here) We’ll talk about it more later. As for the remnant of Fay, it’s going to mainly stay bottled up in the South. A frontal boundary that came through here Sunday will hold that moisture at bay. Then the remnant low will slowly lift up from South Mississippi into Central Mississippi and North Alabama. The heavy rain will stay to our South and East but I’m banking on us getting on the fringe

5 Day Rainfall Forecast 0825 00Z to 0830 00z

of the action on Wednesday and Thursday for some relief. There may be some isolated t’storms in the southern part of the viewing area on Monday afternoon, much like we had in the northern part of the viewing area Sunday. Temperatures will be held down a bit as we’re behind the front with a northeasterly flow and there will be the high clouds. But, I’m going a shade above guidance as there should still be a little sinking air around Fay’s circulation, which is still decent. We have a front on Friday night or Saturday that will bring a chance for rain and t’storms and right now, it looks to be a sharp cold front for this time of year and conditions should be ideal for the latter two thirds of the Labor Day Weekend.

On This Date in History: Dolley Payne Todd Madison was the First Lady of the United States and wife of President James Madison. In 1790, she married a fellow named John Todd, Jr. of Philadelphia and had two sons. He was a lawyer and things were dandy until a yellow fever epidemic in 1793 that claimed his life, that of one of his sons and his mother and father. I’m not certain if John Todd, Jr. was related directly to the Todds of Kentucky. But, following his death, Dolley married James Madison and Dolley’s sister, following the death of her husband married Judge Thomas Todd of Kentucky in what was the first marriage ceremony in the White House. Sounds like it wasn’t very good luck to be the first to marry the Payne girls.

Anyway, Dolley goes and marries James Madison and was a very well thought of First Lady. Perhaps

Dolley Madison Immortalized?

her biggest claim to fame, other than having a pastry company immortalized by the Peanuts gang named after her, was her valor. On this date in 1814, Dolley Madison was rummaging through the ruins of the White House, wondering where she would stay and what to do with the artifacts she had saved. This was the time of the War of 1812…even though it was 1814. The British had invaded and burned the city, including the White House. A few weeks later in Baltimore Harbor, Francis Scott Key would write the words to the Star Spangled Banner. But, when the British were coming, Dolley didn’t have time to write poetry, she was concerned

Saved By Dolley

with not just saving herself, but also valuables in the White House. Her quick thinking saved many historic and valuable papers. She is also credited with saving many paintings, including a famous portrait of George Washington.

Of course, the British got their payback when Andy Jackson took’em to the Woodshed at the Battle of New Orleans, before anyone realized that a peace treaty had been signed days before. Oh well…the redcoats deserved it. And Dolley Madison’s name is in its proper place near the top of the First Lady list…and on

A Vending Machine Favorite

the top of a box of Zingers.