A Dirty Ring Around the White House Bathtub December 28, 2010

Rub a Dub Dub, Big Bill Taft's Bath Could Hold Four Men In a Tub

I Don't Know if Big Bill is Right because I don't think being Secretary of War counts as part of the legislative branch. Either Way, the Tub story is more fun

On This Date in History:   According to H.L. Mencken, the first bathtub was installed in the White House in 1851 by President Millard Fillmore. Mencken wrote in a New York newspaper that the first bathtub in the United States was an “elegant mahogany contraption” installed in the home of a Cincinnati businessman in 1842. He said after that point, that the practice of bathing became popular with the wealthy. He said when word reached the masses a public outcry against the “epicurean and obnoxious toy from England” was “designed to corrupt the democratic simplicity of the republic.” Mencken added that it was Fillmore was responsible for the public’s acceptance for the habit of regular bathing. On this day in 1917, Mencken was basking in the glow created by his article in the New York Evening Mail titled” A Neglected Anniversary.”

He was probably still chuckling the day after his work was published because it was an elaborate hoax. December 1917 was a time of great sadness around the world due to World War I. He decided that a spoof on bathtub history would be a good way to raise the spirits fo his readers.  And who better to include in the hoax but the historically hapless Millard Fillmore.   Mencken’s joy turned to shock when he learned that his words were taken as Gospel. In 1926, he was so uneasy with the fact that his fiction was considered to be real history that he wrote a public confession of his hoax. But, no one listened and the result of his little tale have continued to this day with some sources claiming that Fillmore did indeed install the first bathtub in the White House. The real truth is that copper bathtubs and a shower were installed in the Executive Mansion on the first floor in 1833 or 1834. A permanent bathtub was put in the second floor of the White House in 1853. Mencken would have been better off publishing a true story about the White House bathtub. President William Howard Taft was 6’2″ and weighed a rotund 300 pounds. He had once become stuck in the normal presidential tub. So, he installed a tub that was 41 inches across and 7 feet long. It is said that it could hold four regular size men. The truth was stranger than fiction and this little story may be a good example of how if a lie is told enough times by enough people, then the lie becomes the truth. It also may be a good example of how we should not necessarily believe everything that we read.  And then again, perhaps it is telling that William Howard Taft is best known for being the fattest president, having a huge bathtub, standing up in the middle of the 7th inning to begin the “7th inning stretch” tradition and splitting the ticket with Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose campaign and vaulting Woodrow Wilson to the presidency.  The fact that he was the only person to serve as President and Supreme Court Chief Justice gets lost.   He was also Secretary of War.  Maybe if he’d done something more interesting while holding the important jobs then he wouldn’t be remembered as he is.  But, it could be worse, he could be remembered like Millard Fillmore who is but a footnote.  Besides, its more fun this way.

Mark Twain’s Most Profitable Book Did Not Contain a Word; Weather Radar detects smoke from fire September 1, 2009

Smoke Plume from Fire Showed up on the Weather Radar

The Doppler radar can be set on what is known as “clear air mode.”  When it is set at this sensative level, it can pick up differences in air density and wind shifts and such.  When the radar beam detects a change in the characteristics of the atmosphere, it returns an echo to reflect the anomoly.  Early on Tuesday morning, a fire broke out at the Kentucky Fair Grounds horse barns.  Fortunately, the fair is over and the barns were empty.  But, the smoke from the fire was rather thick and it was picked up by the NWS radar.  Here are the images of  the smoke from the fire as it appeared on the National Weather Service 88-D radar.  It’s interesting to see as the smoke plume drifted into Harrison County.

By the end of his life, Twain probably wished he had listened to Bell

On This Date in History:  Like most people of high profile, Mark Twain was often approached by people looking or financial backers.  Consequently, he fell victim to numerous investment scams or just plain bad ideas.  He had been burned several times when Alexander Graham Bell approached him about a stock offering in his new phone company.  Twain explained that he declined the offer because, “I said I didn’t want anything more to do with wildcat speculation.  Then he (Bell) offered the stock to me at twenty-five.  I said I didn’t want it at any price.  He became eager;  insisted that I take five hundred dollars’ worth.  He said he would sell me as much as I wanted for five hundred dollars…But Iwas the burnt child and I resisted all of those temptations-resisted them easily; went off with my check intact and next day lent five thousand of it, on an undorsed note, to a friend who was going to go bankrupt 3 days later. ”

The small investment Bell was seeking would have earned Twain $190,000. 

It is said that Twain's Scrapbook was his most profitable book and it contained not a single word

But, Twain did have a pretty good opportunity of his own.  He invented the self-pasting scrap book and on this date in 1871, Twain patented the invention, which he called a “great humanizing and civilizing invention.”  While he may have missed out on Bell’s offer and instead opted to pour money into a dry hole, he made a pretty nice profit with his self-pasting scrap book.  Everyone has heard of a telephone but few probably recall the self-pasting scrap book.    Nevertheless, Twain sold 25,000 copies of the book which he was quite satisfied saying that  it “was well enough for a book that did not contain a single word that critics could praise or condemn.”  By 1901, there were 57 different types of the scrap book available.  Twain had come up with  a bunch of inventions but this was the only one that produced any profit.  Too bad for Twain he didn’t invest in the invention of Bell.

Weather Bottom Line:  High pressure remains in charge so look for continued cool nights.  Our afternoon temperatures will get to the low 80′s after today but not much more than that.  Overnight lows will be going from the 50′s that we’ve seen but only inch to the low 60′s.  Humidity levels will remain low but may sneak higher heading into the weekend.  But, again…not much.