Five dollars isn't what it used to be....There is much more to that statement than you may think

Here in the picture are two different bills that Andrew Jackson has graced. The old five dollar bill and today's twenty dollar bill. But of course as you look at this you will see many other differences....Not only has the value of our money shrunk, so has the size of the bills. Today's bills are six inches long by two and half inches high. The old style was seven and half inches long by 3 inches high.

Today's five dollar bill is graced by Abraham Lincoln, and Andrew Jackson found his way to the twenty. But it is quite interesting the amount of changes the bills went through since the law was enacted by Lincoln to make paper currency on March 3rd 1863. Lastly the size of the bill was standardized at that time and remained that size till 1933.

The resizing of money was sensible for several reasons. It just didn't need to be that big, and most importantly we were in the grips of a massive economic depression.
The resizing of the paper currency saved millions of dollars in production costs in an age where the Federal Government was in such a crisis that its very ability to do much of anything was being challenged.

I thought it would be interesting to share with the world what our money looked like 100 years ago. I do not see much mention of it at all, in even our history books. But of course those who collect coins and bill are quite aware of this fact.
So the next time someone talks about the shrinking US dollar, you'll know there is more truth to that statement than the speaker themselves does!

The charming picture taken on Feb. 9, 1864 of Lincoln and his son Tad. It is often stated it is Lincoln reading to his son....Was he?

No.....They were looking at a photo album.
Here is a nice print of this picture in quite a wild Victorian frame. Lincoln who often is stated to be homely in many stories was always very keen to have his picture taken. I would say he enjoyed it.
He was the first politician to really make a great use of this new technology. There is an interesting comparison to Kennedy 100 years later. Kennedy took a new technology (TV) and made it his own. Making his the first Presidency to use the TV on such a wide and unique scale.

Lincoln used the camera in much the same way. The camera and photography had existed for 25 years before Lincoln's Presidency. However, no President before him embraced the camera in such a way. Yes there were a few pictures of Presidents in office from Harrison (now lost) to Buchanan. But none of them had the political savvy to understand how it could be used as a political tool. Lincoln was an amazing politician, and as the old saying goes..."The best make it look easy"....

By doing so he became the first President to be seen by the public at large in so many views. There were over 130 photographs existent at one time of Lincoln. From his first foray before the camera in 1846 (there may be earlier ones, but not proven) till only a month before his death in 1865. There is of course even a picture of Lincoln in death.
So Lincoln was very aware of the power of the photograph.

Lincoln's Cooper Union photo of 1860 by Brady (pre -beard) was as powerful as the speech in which he gave at that august institution.

So this warm picture of Tad and his father reached many a heart, and I guess it was nice that it became available in an election year. For I bet it won him a few votes as well.

A close up of this photograph

Louis Jacques Mande' Daguerre... Inventor of the Daguerreotype .(The first successful photograph system)..But who would believe what he did not like!

This photograph of Daguerre was taken by Charles R. Meade of New York City in 1848. The Photo was taken in Brie-Sur-Maine, which is where Daguerre's chateau was located.

Meade and several other photographers were there with the intent to capture the inventor on film...

But a strange fact emerges...Louis Daguerre was camera shy! He did not like to be photographed!! They were all sent away with their cameras.

However Meade, who was president of Meade Brothers studio in NYC was not to be outdone. He returned to the Daguerre home later and persuaded Daguerre's niece and wife to intercede for him.

Finally the camera shy Daguerre posed for this picture. One of the few of the man who changed the world tremendously, by his wonderful invention.

Why do we call "common sense"...common sense?? It is not at all common!

Just a quick little note about this statement ..Why DO we call common sense, common sense? It is a rare thing. It is not at all common.
I am of the mind that we should call what we call today common sense, RARE SENSE, and common sense what everyone else has, which often is not to sensible, but quite common.

If we all had common sense, think how well the world would work....If you look at it, you will see just how rare a commodity it is.

So pride yourself if you have this rare sense, as there is nothing common about it! To put it in a nutshell...Common Sense isn't!

The dedication of the Washington Monument in 1885...It took 37 years to finish and build... Also it's capstone was a most unusual metal ...

The Washington Monument as it looked after work was stopped on it in the early 1850's. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848 by Dolly Madison and Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. It was planned to be a very great monument..But funding was not available just a few years after work was started. During the bitter Civil War, Lincoln would often gaze at the stump of what was planned to be the Washington Monument. It was in plain view to him in the White House. The dedication of the massive monument on February 21, 1885..This day was very windy, cold and nearly unbearable. It was the final completion of a monument that had been started by last of the Revolutionary generation. Sadly when work was started again, the same kind of granite was not available. So there would always be a the line where work was resumed on the monument. You can see it plainly today. The laying of the capstone on December 6, 1884..This photo was taken from the ground, nearly 550 feet below ........Here below is a photo of the crew with the impressive capstone. Amazingly the capstone was made of a very rare metal in 1884..One that would in their minds show the importance of such a capstone. What was that substance??????
It was a three thousand, three hundred pound capstone of aluminum! One of the rarest metals on earth at the time!

Not gold, silver, copper....Just aluminum.

Mark Twain sounds just like Hal Holbrook? One would think it would be the other way around.

Mark Twain ..(1835-1910)...Below ..Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain

Mark Twain has been gone for nearly a century. Yet he is still very much alive for us in the many imitators who portray him.
Perhaps the most famous is Hal Holbrook. When I was a boy, I had an album of his. It said in the liner notes, he learned to speak like Twain by listening to some of the great mans recordings.......Let's screech the brakes here!!!!

There is not one recording existent in this world of Mark Twain!!! Not a one!!!!

So where did Mr Holbrook get the voice he uses...He made it up to fit the person he was portraying. It is quite good.....But is it like Twain???? Who the hell knows?

Mark Twain never made a commercial recording. Mark Twain did make a few personal recordings but they have long since been destroyed. He even made a recording for recording pioneer Bettini. But that has long since been destroyed.
There is nothing to know what he sounded like. Only good guesses. But our image of Mark Twain will always be as Hal Holbrook.
Now there are imitators imitating Holbrook! I have a feeling that Twain may have had a voice like Holbrooks, but he may have sounded like Col. Sanders too...No one knows..

So the next time you see someone imitating Mark Twain , tell them they did a great Hal Holbrook!

So I thought it would be good to note that it makes sense today to say that Mark Twain sounds just like Hal Holbrook.

Amazingly so!

It is so hard to see into other minds...I have made that more easy for you today..

This is my brain from an MRI...It is interesting to see us as we look from within. We are not at all pretty! But we are all basically the same. Maybe we should all look at each other from the inside and maybe get along better that way.

But I will confess..Being in an MRI is not for the squeamish. It is not easy to do. It is extremely claustrophobic...and to those who have trouble in an elevator...Forget it!!!!!

I had some trouble initially, but soon I was able to control my breathing and sense of being in a very tight and enclosing tube. But I am happy to have these results. I am also very happy to see that there is no abnormalities in my brain as well.

My grandfather died from a brain tumor, that has always been in my thoughts. He was only 17 years older than what I am now when he died....So it was good to see.

There is little to do with history here I know, but I thought many of you would like to see me from the inside out. This is where I keep all my historical stuff, my brain..Which has made a rare appearance and wishes you all well.

The Lusitania sinking...It made for some amazing stories, lies, papers and medals

There are common British copies of a German medal that was made in very small quantities. The British medals were used for propaganda .....There were thousands made and even later copies were made. They are quite common today.
If you can find the original German medals you have something. The medal shown here is one of the originals.

The sinking of the Lusitania was a horrific event. But the British were not as Innocent as they have been made out to be. Still so many people who were blameless were killed. Sadly that is war.
However after the sinking England went to great measures to make the Germans look really bad....This medal they copied and issued in massive numbers...Saying they were issued by Germany. Which of course was not at all true.

One has to remember that when the war started.. Submarines would stop a ship and allow them to disembark before sinking the vessel.
But the British Navy pushed for ramming the subs or blowing them out of the water with deck guns...So The German Subs stopped the courtesy...

The Lusitania was torpedoed with out warning and sank in less than 18 minutes. The British made the most of it.




There were also memorial pictures and propaganda put out by the British Government as you see here. Compared to the medals these are extremely rare..

The poster here did not photograph well with my camera. I will write what it says.........


In sacred memory of the (famous Cunarder) Lusitania torpedoed and sunk by the Huns off the Irish coast on Friday May 7th, 1915. With the loss of over 1000 lives including many women and children. MAY THEIR SOULS REST IN PEACE..



Many people are of the thought that the United States entered the war because of the Lusitania...But not so. We did not enter the war for another 2 years. But the Lusitania became one of the great cries of the war.
The Germans said foul!!!! The Lusitania they said was carrying munitions....If that was so and it is rather well proved that she was indeed carrying munitions, as was every other allied ship at that time.
Not as much as one one would suspect. But quite a bit. Also on other trips that was the case as well.

But no one cared...


The Germans were bad in the minds of many Americans by this point! The Germans did not do a good job of making themselves look better, save for a grand bunch in Hoboken, New Jersey. Who endeared themselves to German American community that lived there. The German ocean liners were interned in Hoboken and their crews and captains became local favorites.
But all of this passion and hatred outside of Hoboken built itself into what would become the First World War.


The war started and ended. followed by another. Soon what the Lusitania was and the propaganda trail were forgotten. But the sinking of that ship became the first great rallying call of the new century and it's first world war. ...

The British lied, the Germans lied, and Innocent people died as a result.

Yes, the Lusitania was used as a ferry for munitions, and yes the Germans had a right to sink it. But by using Innocent people as protection for their ship, the British were just as horrible as the Germans. It would have been a better issue to allow the passengers to disembark. But the German government issued warnings in papers telling people not to sail...

But no one listened..Well a few did.

Both sides were at war. You never bring a ship into a War Zone! I would guess that to be the utter example of arrogance.......

I cannot say which were the worse in this issue. both were really bad.

After a time in space and at NASA. The recording of Theodore Roosevelt returns in the company of the Commander of the Shuttle Discovery, Mark Polansky

Commander Polansky, who as of late Commanded the Space Shuttle Discovery holds Thomas Edison's pencil. Which he brought back to me on May 7th. It had been sent to him in the summer of 2006. It was my wish to have the Commander take the pencil to the International Space Station. To honor not only Thomas Edison, but the idea of writing and ideas in which this historic pencil represents.
I was told in November of 2006 that it would not be possible to take the pencil into space. But he had a surprise for me.
So I had to come up with a substitute. In a few hours!! I decided to send to him a recording made by Edison of Theodore Roosevelt.
It had much significance....1st.. Roosevelt was the first President to fly...2nd.. Edison was the creator of Organized Research, which is what makes NASA tick. I thought it would be a great item to send to space.
It was already quite historic, now it was ready to really make some amazing history. So the cylinder was sent and we all watched and cheered Discovery as she and her crew and our record sailed over 5 million miles around the earth. I wrote about it here in this blog at the time.
Now on May 7, 2007 the recording returned. Commander Polansky returned to my hands the well wrapped cylinder that made history.

Commander Polansky reading to me about the journey of this cylinder as he returns it to me.
Moments of the historic voyage are shown and presented ..
The certificate of authenticity for the Pencil ..and yes he said it was good to be the Commander as he took the pencil with him! Below you will see a close up of the document. Stating the stats for the voyage of the Discovery and how far that pencil and cylinder traveled.

A close up of the pencil and the cylinder as they were after their safe return.
Below a close up of the Space Station photographed right after they left it.

Finally I recorded the Commander as I have done with many others onto wax cylinder. This was the final thing to be done. The Commander made 3 cylinders, one of them introduced by his mother. Now I can proudly say after all of this was done and the cylinder and pencil were safely put away.....Mission accomplished

Thank you Commander Polansky and the Crew of Discovery...

My family in it's past got involved with some odd groups.....Here is one of them

Some of my family members were so amazingly religious. Maybe almost rabid in their religious thoughts..Specially going back in the early part of the 20th century right through the 1960's. There was a massive dying off of my family in the 1960's ...
I remember always going to funerals. They were special events and it seems that all these people spent tens of thousands of dollars on their funerals! In fact they spent most of it for boxes that would rot in the earth.
One of the things the Catholic part of the family was into was this odd group called the Purgatorian Society. They were all enrolled into it as they died.
It seems this group was formed to pray for the souls of those who may not have been good enough to go to heaven.

Of course it was done with a nice donation. This was the Catholic Church you know.

Everything came at a price. Well this enrollment was for Ellen Letter, paid for by Catherine Letter in 1934....
I remember her..I called her Aunt El ...I do not know why, but that is what it was. She died in 1966, and her funeral was a massive amazing event!
I recall the last thing that they did before they closed the casket. They put a handkerchief over her face.....Today I think of those funerals and how much money was spent on them. Also the membership in these groups...Well they sure had a good time spending it!

I was forced to be a Catholic as a child...My father was Catholic, and to marry my father my mother had to sign a paper that she would raise her children Catholic...How awful!
Well as soon as I could, I became a Presbyterian.

Today I always wear bow ties...I have found I wore them even when I was very young

Here I am with Santa Claus in December 1961. I was amazed when I found this picture I was in a bow tie. I have found a few pictures from the early 1960's in which I am in bow ties. I guess it was a cool thing to do for kids...Or what parents thought was a good idea. Bow ties have never quite been cool...But always a statement...I am real happy to know I was wearing them back then. I wonder what I asked Santa for??

Washington Irving...The man who created New York's history to his liking!

Washington Irving's photograph. This example is from the 1850-1860 period. It was made by Rockwood studios 839 Broadway New York City...It is a photographic copy of a Brady photo.

Like it or not..Much of New York's and the world's history comes to us from many of the tall tales of Washington Irving.

Most of the history of the United States and its historians were from New England and in that way much of the history is from their point of view.

Washington Irving was the man who gave us stories that still thrill us today. Rip Van Winkle, The headless horseman as two examples.

But also Mr Irving became the defacto historian of New York! What he did not know he made up. To put in more colorful terms...He never let the TRUTH spoil a GOOD STORY.

Thus New York's history is effected and our view of real events rather messed up. Terms such as the Knickerbockers, and Gotham comes from him.

Although he just made them up they are thought to be a part of New York history. Today how often do you see those terms used for New York.

Yes Washington Irving also pushed a story about Columbus..Saying that before Columbus no one knew the world was round and it was flat...That story also comes to us from Mr. Irving.

So as a writer he has had a profound influence on us all. He took history and had some fun with it.

This photograph was taken by Mathew Brady, and other companies published it by taking a photo of Brady's as it seems to be in this case.

It was put out by George Rockwood Studios 839 Broadway New York.

The 10 men who should have never been President.....

I have given a lot of thought to this.....Thinking of the 10 people who should not have been president...Perhaps many would think that the list should be longer than 10. I will also not allow myself to judge the current occupant of the White House . I find that unfair. I will be happy to judge after 2009.

But in our history and my view there are 10 men who really NEVER should have been President.

Here are my suggestions

John Quincy Adams

Martin Van Buren

William Henry Harrison

Franklin Pierce

James Buchanan

William Howard Taft

Warren G. Harding

Herbert Hoover

Richard M. Nixon

Jimmy Carter

Many of these men were very good. But not at all suited for the office. John Quincy Adams was too intelligent for the job. As a Congressman he was king! As a Secretary of State he was the best. As President..It was a mess.

Van Buren, Harrison, Pierce, Buchanan, were basically useless. Even though Harrison died a month after assuming the office, he was not at all suited for the office. Had he lived it would have been an extension of the mess that had preceded him. This was a quartet of disaster.

Taft was a judge...Pure and simple...He was suited for the bench..His wife wanted the Presidency..Not him.

Harding looked good....He was friendly...He was a newspaper man. He should have stayed one, and not gone into politics.

Hoover was looked at with love all over the world. He was beloved for his great humanitarian work. That was before he was President. After that he could not get elected dog catcher. He was the wrong man at the wrong time. Pity.

Richard Nixon was in the same state as John Quincy Adams. He was a genius, a massive intellect marred with a bizarre and uncontrollable emotion. He was flawed by his demons..and they led to his downfall. He should have been Secretary of State.

Jimmy Carter was just not equipped to be President. He was elected for one reason...Watergate! No one looked at his qualities...He was just elected because he was a Democrat...Everyone wanted to run from the Republicans, and the memory of Richard Nixon. Carter was a nice guy, but about as useless as Harding.

The amazing elastic woman Rose Mary Woods. She gave it all for Nixon.

Here is a cartoon so much in line with the thoughts of the day.

Here she shows how she did it.


I was in high school during the Watergate mess. It brought out some wonderful dark comedy. Most of it was not planned or designed to be such. I watched the TV all the time...I watched all the meetings....When you went shopping, all the stores would have it playing..It was everywhere.

One of the great moments came when the issue of tapes was brought up. Rose Mary Woods was Nixon's private Secretary. When Nixon's tapes were given to the courts...One of the ones that seemed to have much really wonderful stuff on it suddenly went blank.

The person who gave themselves the blame was no one other than Ms. Woods. She said she quite accidentally erased the tape by answering the phone, typing a letter, and working with the tape machine at the same time...

However, the stretch she said she did would have been difficult for a gymnast.....Well we knew it was not true then..and now we really know it was not true.

She even posed for a picture..showing how she did it!!!!!

Eighteen minutes in that position???? Give me a break!! Even if it was a short moment it was a very difficult thing to explain. But my how she tried. It is truly wonderful to have such a loyal and wonderful person on your staff. I am sure she was adored by Nixon.

But she was loyal to the last. Just like Evelyn Lincoln..President Kennedy's personal secretary. She never saw anything...Had Kennedy asked her too, I am sure she would have gone to the gallows just like Rose Mary Woods did for Nixon. They were both of the same quality

But one of the great moments of Watergate was of Woods trying to make others believe what she said she did. One of the great moments of comedy in the dark days of Watergate.