Wedding of the Century February 10, 2010

Wedding of the Century

Young General Thumb with Barnum

On This Date in History:  At the outset of the American Civil War, many people thought it would be a brief skirmish.  When hostilities initially broke out, President Lincoln asked the governors of the Northern states to provide their respective militias serve as part of just a 75,000 man army to put down the insurrection.  Presumably, Mr. Lincoln was at the very least hopeful that the violence would be of minimal duration because his initial request was for only 3 months of service.   However, it is possible that it was merely a political calculation to make an intial call for just 90 days to better assure the public and also to have the political support to raise troops.   By 1863, it was painfully obvious that the war would be much longer and destructive than many people initially thought and so he changed the objective of the war from merely preserving the Union but added the destruction of slavery as he issued his Emancipation Proclamation effective January 1, 1863.  Morale in both the North and South was low as the war dragged on and the bodies count rose.  Leave it to PT Barnum to lift the spirits of the nation with just a temporary diversion from the misery of the war news.

 

A Match Made in Heaven or by Barnum?

 Phineas T. Barnum was one of the great showman and promoters in American history.   He constantly was looking for new attractions, regardless of his project, but in particular for his circus.   One of his great attractions was a man named Charles Sherwood Stratton of Bridgeport, CT.  For some reason his growth became stunted at age 7 months and he eventually only rose to a height of 35 inches.  Barnum met Stratton and taught him to sing, dance and immitate historical figures.  Once Stratton had developed these skills, Barnum introduced General Tom Thumb to the world.   There is a bit of duplicity here because, clearly, Barnum was exploiting Stratton’s stature for his own gain.  But, the other side of the coin is that Stratton was rewarded handsomely.  By the time Tom Thumb was 25 years old, Barnum had made him a millionaire and Thumb determined it was a good time to retire.  So, Barnum needed a new act to promote.

Barnum American Museum 1858

Well, it just so happened that Barnum had “discovered” Lavinia Warren in 1862 and found her to be a charming and elegant woman.  He signed her to a contract, bought her jewels and clothes that was appropriate for a woman of her status and put her on display at the Barnum American Museum in New York.   Now, there were lots of elegant women in New York, so what was so special about Ms. Warren?  She was but 32 inches tall.  Barnum introduced her to Thumb who told Barnum, “That is the most charming little lady I ever saw, and I believe she was created to be my wife.”  Barnum was more than happy to oblige as he, no doubt, had the best interest of both the General and Warren in mind when he helped them arrange the wedding when cupid struck the couple.  It just so happens that the event also helped fill Barnum’s coffers.  On This Date in 1863, the dark days of the Civil War were brightened when General Tom Thumb married Lavinia Warren.

General Thumb had put on some pounds shortly before his death

The guest list included 2,000 people that included “the elite, the creme de la creme.”  The streets of New York filled with people, hoping to get a glimpse of the tiny silver wedding carriage provided by Tiffany and Co. that, of course, was highly publicized by Barnum.  The ceremony and following reception were both a smashing success.  They received extremely lavish gifts and their honeymoon was not a secret private getaway, but instead a ”honeymoon tour” that included a visit with President Lincoln.  It was perhaps the wedding of the century and for a short time, the nation was able to forget the horrors of war.  The pair remained married until Thumb’s death in 1878 from a stroke.  Ten-thousand people attended his funeral so he was a star even in death and apparently thereafter, though its unclear exactly how many people had ever heard of Charles Stratton.  Barnum had died in 1891, his spirit must have been alive and well when Lavinia Warren died in 1919 and was laid to rest next to her husband in Bridgeport, CT.  Or maybe the circumstance surrounding her  final resting place had nothing to do with Barnum but instead was retribution for her marrying another man two years after Thumb’s death.   You see, Lavinia Warren’s headstone simply says “his wife.”    Either way, no one upstages Tom Thumb.

GFS claims Over 5 inches by Monday morning

GFS around an inch by Saturday Evening

Weather Bottom Line:  There seems to be some agreement on our near term future with those maginficent machines in the weather world.  We stay cold. duh. We don’t need a computer for that.  I still say that Friday morning that the clouds will be at least broken enough and the wind so light that we will get into the single digits and it’s a no brainer that if we do clear out completely or close to it only for a few hours, then we get to zero with some places below.  Either way, at those levels only your thermometer will know the difference.   Graphically we still don’t get above freezing but now there is numerical data suggesting a degree or two above freezing on Saturday or maybe Friday for an hour or two.  Again, not really significant or noticeable. 

NAM Snow about an inch by Sat. Evening

Now, what about the agreement.  I’m talking about the next snow chance.  Both the GFS and NAM only have about an inch or less for late Friday and/or  Saturday.  It’s the next one that is of interest.  Late Sunday into Monday the GFS tosses out over 5 inches.  That has been pretty consistent with this model.  The Japanese model is similar.  The NOGAPS is a US Navy tropical model and not meant for this type of thing but it has snow but not much.  The European has the same feature for Monday morning and its quite robust but the snow being tossed out is not as impressive as the feature might indicate.  Then there is the Canadian model. It has the same feature but takes it just to our south.  The point is, the feature is on every model in one form or another and the only variations in the track is just to our south which still keeps it in the ball park for being a snow producer for us.  I’d plan on snow for Sunday and or Monday with the amount being up for debate at this point.  I heard someone on the radio today claim we’ve had over 18 inches of snow this year.  But the NWS officially has us at 15.6 inches, which is about average for the entire year.  I am confident that we will go above average and maybe surpass the erroneous 18 inch mark by Monday evening.

A Pointless Day; Curtain Almost Falls on PT Barnum March 17, 2009

Such Foolishness

Perhaps One Redeeming Quality of St. Patty's Day

On This Date in History: 

Okay…it’s St. Patrick’s Day.  Call me a killjoy but I could care less.  I think any redeeming value the day ever had has been lost as it seems to me it serves as an excuse for people to get loaded.  When people wear shirts that say “kiss me, I’m Irish” I often wonder if they even know anyone from Ireland.  That’s like me saying I’m Scottish.  My family came over at the turn of the 20th Century.  I know no one from Scotland.  I am an American first and a Texan second.  End of story.  In my book, the only way I would be a Scottish-American would be if my parents were from Scotland.  Otherwise, there is no need for hyphenated American status.  E-Pluribus Unum means “out of many, one.”  We are a nation and we have an American culture, for better of worse.  For some reason, we want to claim that we are claim that we are different, as if being simply an American is not good enough.  Bah, Humbug.  If you want to find out about the roots of St. Patricks Day, click here…be my guest.  I shant speak of it any more.

Barnum Out Conned the Con

I prefer instead to look at P.T. Barnum.  Phineas T. Barnum was a trixter who used hyperbole and hoaxes to gain great wealth.  He is often credited with saying that “a sucker is born every minute.”  Truth is, he never said it.  David Hannum said it, but Barnum was the catalyst.  See, a man named Hull hatched a scheme in which he had a giant statue carved and then buried.  Then he had it dug up and claimed it was some sort of ancient relic.  A group of investers, including Hannum, bought the statue for about $37,500 and put it on display for people to pay to come see it.  Well, it’s tough to con a con-man and Barnum knew a hoax when he saw it.  So, he had a bigger statue made and then trumpeted his statue as the original and Hannum’s was a fake!  So, when he saw people lining up to pay to see Barnum’s “Cardiff Giant,” Hannum said, “a sucker is born every minute.”  As it turns out, Barnum was one of those suckers.

In 1851, Barnum was very wealthy at the age of 41.  He wanted to change his image from huxster to serious businessman and benefactor.  He had an idea creating a new town called East Bridgeport…which was east of Bridgeport, CT.  He got together with William H. Noble of Bridgeport and they proceeded to buy over 220 acres of land along the Pequonnock River.  They had a well planned community with factories, stores and homes.  They began to sell the land in parcels for homes.  They attracted businesses by offering cheap land and favorable credit.  The built a big park and a bridge.  Then, in 1855, Barnum was approached by one of the largest clock manufacturers in the world.  The Jerome Clock Company made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Jenny Lind Came to Barnum's Defense in the Tribune

The New Haven, CT company was in a tough spot and looking for help.  They proposed that Barnum use his name as security for $110,000 in notes and in return, the company would relocate to East Bridgeport.  All Barnum saw was 700 workers moving to his dream town.  So, he agreed but with the stipulation that he would only initially lend $50,000 with the rest to be offered in short term notes with maturities of 5 to 60 days.  So, Barnum signed several notes and at first checked to make sure that he would not make new loans until previous notes were paid back.  But, he had a habit of not filling in the maturity dates.  After awhile, he became so trustful of the Jerome Clock Company, that he didn’t even bother to see if the previous notes had been paid.  Then, one day,banks began to refuse the notes.  After an investigation, it turns out that the company had been filling out the maturity dates for up to 2 years and Barnum had written notes for over a half million dollars.   Barnum later wrote that the man who did the investigation “came back to me with the refreshing intelligence that I was a ruined man!”

Tom Thumb Helped Barnum Recover

The con-man had been conned.  On this date in 1856, the New York Herald gloated about the demise of P.T. Barnum.  Stories came out how Barnum’s fate was a lesson concerning the “instability of ill-gotten gains.”   Ralph Waldo Emerson said that it proved ”the gods visible again.”  While there was much public reaction of celebration of the destruction of Barnum’s fortune, old Phineas had friends to come to his aid.  Barnum though refused and liquidated his assets to pay off his debts.  Barnum wrote that “When the blow fell upon me, I thought I could never recover; the event has shown, however, that I have gained both in character and fortune, and what threatened, for years, to be my ruin, has proved one of the most fortunate happenings of my career.”

Barnum was far from finished.  After four years, he regained his wealth by taking Tom Thumb on tour in Europe and making speeches regarding temperance.  He re-opened his museum  and even added America’s first acquarium and expanded the wax-figure portion of the display.  He had a display of the seven wonders of the world and all was well as the complex expanded to four buildings.  A fire burned it to the ground in 1865.  He rebuilt it and it burned down again in 1868.  That was enough for him and at age 60, in 1871, he went into the circus business.  Barnum died in his sleep in 1891.  His circus was sold to Ringling Brothers in 1907.  Barnum ended up with four mansions and was buried in…Bridgeport, CT…in a cemetary that he had designed.   His real estate project was indeed his death bed as his critics had celebrated…they were just 35 years too early.

NAM has Upper 60's by Midday...Take Off St. Patty's Day

Weather Bottom Line:   Still on target.  Highs Tuesday near 70.  Low to mid 70′s on Wednesday as winds pick up from the southwest ahead of the cold front.   Wednesday night rain likely, t’storms possible.  Severe threat remains minimal, mainly due to the timing of the action at night.  West or south may have a couple of tough storms but at this time, it does not appear to be much concern but still worth monitoring.  We back off to the upper 50′s on Thursday and back into the 60′s for the weekend.  Pretty straightforward.

DAY 3 CONVECTIVE OUTLOOK 
   NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
   0221 AM CDT MON MAR 16 2009
  
   VALID 181200Z – 191200Z
  
   …NO SVR TSTM AREAS FORECAST…
  
   …SYNOPSIS…
   SOME AMPLIFICATION OF THE UPPER PATTERN IS FORECAST THIS PERIOD…AS
   THE FLAT TROUGH CROSSING THE N CENTRAL CONUS EXPANDS AS IT MOVES
   INTO ERN CANADA/ACROSS THE GREAT LAKES REGION. 
  
   AT THE SURFACE…A COLD FRONT WILL CONTINUE MOVING EWD ACROSS ERN
   CANADA/THE NERN CONUS…AND SEWD ACROSS THE MIDWEST/OH
   VALLEY/CENTRAL U.S. THROUGH THE PERIOD.
  
   …MID MS/LOWER OH VALLEYS INTO THE OZARKS…
   RETURN FLOW MOISTURE IS FORECAST TO BE LIMITED ACROSS THE S CENTRAL
   CONUS AHEAD OF THE SAGGING SURFACE FRONT…AS A SURFACE RIDGE
   PERSISTS ACROSS THE NRN GULF/GULF COAST REGION RESULTING IN
   ELY/ENELY LOW-LEVEL FLOW ACROSS THE GULF OF MEXICO.
  
   WHILE THE MARGINAL MOISTURE COMBINED WITH RELATIVELY COLD MID-LEVEL
   TEMPERATURES /AROUND -18 C AT H5/ SHOULD YIELD AMPLE AFTERNOON CAPE
   FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS INVOF THE
   FRONT…CAPE SHOULD PROVE INSUFFICIENT FOR WIDESPREAD SEVERE
   POTENTIAL.  ATTM…IT APPEARS THAT A FEW STRONGER CELLS — AIDED BY
   MODEST SHEAR FORECAST ACROSS THIS REGION — COULD REACH SEVERE
   LEVELS DURING THE AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING.  THUS — WILL INTRODUCE A
   LOW PROBABILITY THREAT FOR HAIL/WIND…WHICH SHOULD DIMINISH RAPIDLY
   AFTER PEAK HEATING.
  
   ..GOSS.. 03/16/2009