Welcome to Boston

Yes the trains run slow

Welcome back to the This Day In Esoteric Political History newsletter. Each week, a member of our team (or a friend of the show) gathers together bits of America’s past and attempts to find a throughline that might add a little understanding to our current moment.

Breaking News! Here’s some fresh news about our upcoming live show in Boston on September 13th: We’ll be joined that evening by brilliant writer and comedian Josh Gondelman (Last Week Tonight; Desus & Mero). Josh is a Boston native, so we’ll have fun reliving some strange Boston history, from molasses floods to napalm tests on the Harvard soccer field.

This news is so fresh that the WBUR listing page just updated; go get your tickets now! And a lot of you have asked whether this will be recorded for the podcast — the answer is yes!

Here’s what happened over the week ahead in American history…

August 29

• 1984: NASA and the Reagan administration announced a “Teacher in Space” program intended to find one American teacher who would join a shuttle mission

August 30

• 1894: A man by the name of Thomas H. “Boston” Corbett is presumed dead in a fire in Minnesota. Boston Corbett led a troubled life, particularly over the previous thirty years, during which he was best known as the man who killed John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln

• 1954: Claude Batchelor is court-martialed for refusing to return to America after being held as a POW in Korea

August 31

• 1910: Theodore Roosevelt makes a speech in Kansas advocating a 'square deal,' stating that property shall be 'the servant and not the master of the commonwealth.'

• 1911: The "Sullivan Act" requiring New Yorkers to possess licenses for firearms small enough to be concealed comes into effect

• 1942: A judge upholds the arrest of Japanese-American man Fred Korematsu

September 1

• 1752: The Liberty Bell arrives in Philadelphia

• 1807: Aaron Burr is acquitted of treason charges of plotting to set up an empire

• 1897: The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America

• 2005: In the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, George W Bush offered praise to the director of FEMA, Michael Brown, saying “Brownie, you’re doing a a heckuva job”

September 2

• 1864: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman captures and burns Atlanta

• 1944: Future President George H. W. Bush bails from a burning plane during a mission in the Pacific

• 1974: President Gerald Ford signs the Employee Retirement Income Security Act

September 3 

• 1916: President Woodrow Wilson signs the Adamson Act, providing an 8-hour day on interstate railroads, preventing a national railroad strike

September 4

• 1781: What would become Los Angeles is founded by 44 Spanish speakers in the Bahia de las Fumas (Bay of Smokes)

• 1862: General Robert E. Lee invades the North with 50,000 Confederate troops during the Maryland Campaign

• 1886: Apache Chief Geronimo surrenders, ending the last major US-Indian war

• 1948: A heated Texas Senate primary comes down to a very mysterious box of ballots found in Jim Wells County — which conveniently put Lyndon Johnson ahead by just a few votes

In which we take the above collection of events and find themes, throughlines, rabbit holes and more. This week it’s Jacob Feldman’s turn at the typewriter.

As we approach our first live show in Boston (you got your tickets, right?), I figured I—as the resident Boston resident (Kellie lives way out in the ‘burbs)—ought to offer a bit of an intro to the city’s, *ahem*, historic subway system. In particular, the green line, which lets off at a stop directly in front of our venue, WBUR CitySpace. That is, assuming you’re ever able to get off.

The underground portion of the green line opened this week 127 years ago, so you have to give it time. During the city’s first Big Dig to build the line, excavators accidentally stumbled upon 900+ graves dating back to the 1750s. Many remains were moved to a mass grave, which had to be enlarged when additional bodies were discovered. Another ten lives were lost when a streetcar running into the construction site triggered a massive explosion. I think about all of those souls—and how good a ghoul could get at haunting a public transit system with 120 years of practice—every time I’m stuck in the tunnel’s steamy bowels.

Over the next decade, New York City and Philadelphia both followed Boston’s lead by moving parts of their rapid rail systems underground. Surely they took some lessons from The City on a Hill—and definitely some tips on what not to do. In 2018, the untrustworthy ‘ol Green Line finished last in a ranking of Boston T lines, and that’s saying something.

Point being: If you’re planning to ride the Green Line in a couple weeks, make sure to download a couple extra podcast episodes beforehand, in case you end up with some unexpected time on your hands. And if the weather’s nice, maybe just walk?

We can’t wait to see you when you—eventually—arrive!!

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A Little More Esoterica

• An important update on Strom Thurmond’s diapergate, courtesy of listener Jacob:

Excellent work as always but I must diverge on your assessment that Strom Thurmond was wearing a diaper during his filibuster (that would come much later in his Senate career). The "contraption" delicately referred to in press reports was almost certainly a "Trucker's Friend" device, featured in a memorable scene (of a nine-hour seminar, no leaving) with Burt Reynolds in "Semi Tough," and currently marketed as a Stadium Pal and such. A tube, basically, leading to a bag or bags strapped to the leg.

No word yet on whether Jody will be wearing a similar device in Boston.

• Ever wonder how we determine show topics? Oftentimes, Jacob will send the team a handpicked set of options a week or so in advance to consider. Here’s what we weighed for next week. What would you have gone with?

  

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