Book review - "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore delves into the lives of the women who painted dials and clocks for the U.S. military during World War I.  The paint they used contained radium, a radioactive substance that glowed in the dark, thus its use for aircraft indicators.  The girls, hired by U.S. Radium Corporation (USRC), were unaware of the dangers of the radium compound they used, and the company reassured them frequently that the substance was perfectly safe.  The girls, mostly teenagers and early-twenty-somethings, developed a technique to make their lines straight.  They put the brushes with the radium compound into their mouth so the bristles could produce the tiny lines required by the company.

Lip…dip…paint.

The girls also painted their fingernails with the compound and put it on their eyelashes, loving the glow-in-the-dark effect it had.  Their jobs were lucrative and they enjoyed having parties and wearing fashionable clothes.  Even after the war ended, there was a demand for radium painted products.

After a few years, some of the women began developing serious health problems and then dying.  It took a while for them, their dentists, and their doctors to make the connection between their jobs and the radium.  Naturally, they went after USRC, whom they claimed knew about the dangers of radium but withheld the information from them.

Naturally, the company did everything it could denying any responsibility and would not claim liability.  The women spent years fighting USRC and time, realizing that they might not live long enough to see justice served.

Moore based her book on a number of interviews with the relatives of the radium girls, and plenty of court records.  Most disturbing, though, was the details in which she describes the deteriorating health of the radium girls, chronicling their rapid declines and suffering to death meticulously.  It got rather stomach-churning in some instances to read what was happening to these women.  In fact, there were times in the book, I thought Moore might be putting too much detail in their symptoms but it does illustrate how poorly these women were treated by their employers, doctors and even townsfolk. 

What is chilling about this book is the corruption of the USRC to deny these girls the lives they should have had all for the sake of making a buck.  The dangers of radium had been known since 1901 when the Curies first discovered it.  The company knew of those dangers but deliberately lied to the girls to cover their complicity.

Sound familiar?

Book review - Pearl Harbor Betrayed by Michael Gannon

It’s futile to critique or say something negative about Michael Gannon’s excellent book on the political climate and subterfuge taking place between the United States and Japan in the first eleven months of 1941.  Cannon based his work on documents surrounding the events that led to the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor when they were unsealed sometime prior to 1999.  

Apparently other books preceded Gannon’s and lay blame on the shoulders of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Admiral Husband Edward Kimmel (in charge of the naval forces at Pearl Harbor) and General Walter Campbell Short (in charge of the Army there).  Gannon meticulously addresses those points and manages to dispel them with the facts presented.  And he’s not the only one to take notice.  After the attack, investigations publicly blamed Kimmel and Short for “allowing” the attack to take place, but after the documents were unsealed, Congress posthumously exonerated both Kimmel and Short from blame.

We will probably never know all the facts though since many documents were destroyed after the war.

Gannon boils it down to a catastrophic breakdown in communication.  Among his examples:  Admiral Kimmel not being informed of the collapse of US-Japan negotiations, the intelligence being gathered wasn’t accurate but being passed on as truth (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?), and the infamous McCollum memorandum.

Gannon presents the facts and urges the readers to make their own conclusions.  The only critique I have of Gannon’s work is that it is not an easy read.  He writes well and his presentation is spectacular but I had to re-read several passages to understand his meaning.

I appreciate the work even more now I realize over 2400 men and women were not sacrificed just to pull America into WWII.

Book Review - In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

I purchased "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick, years ago but didn’t pick it up to read it until I saw it had been made into a movie, to be released December 2015.  It is an interesting book and an easy read, if not uneasy at times.  The true tragedy of the story starts after a sperm whale rams and sinks the Essex.  The men scramble to salvage what they can from the damaged vessel before she is completely lost.

Nathaniel Philbrick relies heavily on the eyewitness account of Thomas Nickerson, the cabin boy on the Essex, discovered in 1980.  Owen Chase, the first mate, published his story with the help of a ghostwriter only nine months after being rescued.  Other survivors also wrote their accounts but they aren’t as well-written, lacking the “authority and scope” of Chase’s account.

Philbrick doesn’t pull any punches when describing the suffering and overwhelming despair of the survivors as they have to resort to eating the corpses of their dead comrades, and then living with that memory for the rest of their lives.  Some of the details get gruesome but it is the reality of their story, disgusting or not.

 

The author notes at the beginning of the book that this is the true story that inspired Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", but where Melville's story ends, with the whale sinking the ship, Philbrick's story begins.  I haven't read "Moby Dick" yet, but I'm sure he didn't include the amount of murder and cannibalism Philbrick did.

First March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, 1979

The first political rally for the gay community was the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights on October 14, 1979.  Over 100,000 people, gay, straight, bi and transgendered came together to urge the passage of protective civil rights:

Five demands were presented:
1. The passage of a comprehensive gay/lesbian rights bill in Congress;
2. Issue a presidential executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal government, military and federally contracted private employment
3. The repeal of all anti-lesbian/gay laws;
4. End discrimination in custody cases with gay or lesbian parents; and
5. The protection of gay and lesbian youth from any laws which are used to discriminate, oppress and/or harass them in their homes, schools, jobs and social environments.

The march came at a time after Harvey Milk had been assassinated and Anita Bryant was on her crusade against gays.  According to the Tuscon LGBTQ Museum's website, participants met successfully with 50 senators and 150 house representatives.

Marches followed in 1987 and 1993 but the first one nationalized the gay rights movement from fragmented efforts focused on problems in individual communities.


http://www.infotrue.com/wash.html
http://tucsongaymuseum.org/marchonwashington.htm
http://mallhistory.org/items/show/286

Truman Capote, American author, novelist, playwright born in 1924

Truman Capote, known for literary classics as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was born September 30, 1924.  His final novel "In Cold Blood" was widely praised but afterwards many of the events he portrayed in the brutal murder of a farmer and his family in Kansas have come under question.  Even though it was published in  1966, he managed to maintain his celebrity status by appearing on talk shows.  He passed away on August 25, 1984.

Star Trek - The Next Generation premiered in 1987

 

The first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation aired September 26, 1987.  "Encounter at Far Point" introduced us to a whole new crew of the starship Enterprise, and the recurring character "Q", an omnipotent being.

Skylab 3 mission ends in 1973

Three astronauts took off from Earth July 28, 1973 on the second manned mission to Skylab.  Commander Alan Bean, Jack R. Lousma and Oklahoman Owen K. Garriott returned on September 25, after just over 59 days and 11 hours in space.

The astronauts conducted medical experiments on themselves, since at this point, it would be the longest stay in space, almost 2 months.  Skylab 3 astronauts performed biological experiments, such as the effect of microgravity on mice, fruit flies and single cells.  Student experiments conducted on board included studying X-rays from Jupiter, spider web formation and neutron analysis. 

The astronauts conducted an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) to install a sunshade to keep the station cool and as a solution for the destruction of the micrometeoroid shield during Skylab's launch.

Enid native Owen Garriott operates the Apollo Telescope Mount.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the 20th century's greatest writers

F. Scott Fitzgerald, born this day in 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota, is best known for his novel The Great Gatsby, which did not receive critical acclaim until after his death in December 1940.  Widely regarded as one the greatest American writers of the 20^th century, he wrote only five novels, but the fifth, The Love of the Last Tycoon, was published posthumously. 

When The Great Gatsby was published in April 1925, it received mixed reviews and sold only 20,000 copies in the first year.  He supplemented his income by writing short stories to magazines and sold stories and novels to Hollywood studios, ‘whoring’ as he called it.

He died of a heart attack in Hollywood after attending a movie premiere the night before.  Fitzgerald is buried in the family plot at St. Mary’s Church in Rockville, Maryland.

"I Dream of Jeannie" debuts 1965

Everyone's favorite genie debuted September 18, 1965!

The Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862

In the days preceding September 17, 1862, Union and Confederate armies amassed on opposite banks of the Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, a standoff leading to the bloodiest day in American history.

Major General George B. McClellan, put in charge by President Abraham Lincoln, commanded the Union Army of the Potomac and faced Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. 

The Union corps under command of Major General Joseph Hooker attacked Lee’s left flank at dawn, September 17 on what had been known as simply the ‘Cornfield.’  Cannon fire opened up, sending puffs of white smoke into the sky.  When the Union soldiers emerged from the stalks, Confederate troops from Georgia, waiting patiently, rose and opened fire.

With the noise, smoke and artillery, terror gripped the men, with bodies and wounded screaming everywhere.  Ten thousand men lost their lives in the first battle which ended in a draw.

McClellan had a two-to-one superiority over Lee and a copy of Lee’s complex strategy which apparently had been lost.  Despite these advantages, McClellan was unable to capitalize on them. 

Stonewall Jackson’s Confederate forces held their ground near Dunker Church, but the Union army advanced on Sunken Road.  An old country farm lane had been worn down about five feet below ground level, from erosion and years of wagon traffic.  It provided a perfect defense for the Confederates and the Union army suffered terrible losses.  However, the Union army managed to circle and Confederates and Sunken Road became a death trap for the men inside.  It has been called ‘Bloody Lane’. 

The third phase of the battle came late in the day, when Major General Ambrose Burnside attacked the Confederate right flank where a stone bridge crossed the Antietam Creek.  According to npr.com, the Union army spent three hours and made three assaults to take the bridge.  But Lee received reinforcements from Harper’s Ferry and helped him drive the Union back to the bridge.  The battle ended in another stalemate. 

In one day, nearly 23,000 Americans lost their lives.  Even though historically considered a draw, Abraham Lincoln and the Union declared it a victory for them.  It gave Lincoln the leverage he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, abolishing slavery.

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/antietam.html?tab=facts

http://www.npr.org/2012/09/17/161248814/antietam-a-savage-day-in-american-history

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-antietam

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-antietam

Cherokee Strip Land Run, Oklahoma Territory 1893

At the time of the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893, America was in the clutches of the worst economic disaster it had experienced.  President Benjamin Harrison and Congress were under pressure to open Indian Territory to white settlement.  This territory had been occupied by Native Americans forced from their land in the southeast to their new ‘home’.  The Trail of Tears, as it became known, was one of the worst tragedies in U.S. history as some 4,000 Cherokees lost their lives during the brutal overland trek.

Early explorers had deemed Oklahoma Territory worthless desert, too arid and treeless for white settlement.  But by the latter half of the nineteenth century, farming had devised better methods for raising crops and the public pressured the government to open the Indian Lands.

The Cherokee Outlet, as it was initially named, was a large section in the northwest of what is present day Oklahoma, larger than Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island put together.  It had originally been given to the Cherokee Nation but two different surveys left the ownership in doubt.  The U.S. Government finally purchased the land from the Cherokee and named it the Cherokee Strip.

To make the Run, people had to register at a registration point and pay a $14 fee and sign a certificate.  According to the Robinson Library, some people stood in line for over a week.  One hundred and fifteen thousand people registered for only 42,000 parcels of land, far less than the number of people in the Run.  Some registrants brought families and friends with them so the actual number of participants was closer to 150,000 people, far greater than the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889.

The Cherokee Strip Land Run, the fourth and largest of Oklahoma’s five land runs, started at 12 noon on September 16, 1893.  Legend has it that a nervous soldier accidentally fired his gun at 11:55am but an eyewitness account makes no mention of that.

A racer then had to stake out his claim of 160 acres.  Literally.  After that, he had to go to one of four claim offices and pay a fee, $1 up to $2.50 per acre.  The fee was determined by the quality of land he was claiming.  If he made improvements to the land, found not to be a sooner, stayed there for 6 months and no one contested his right to the land, he got the deed.  Unfortunately, only 20-30% of those who filed claims received their official deed.

 

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/landrush.htm

http://www.cherokee-strip-museum.org/cherokeeStripLandRun.htm

http://robinsonlibrary.com/america/uslocal/west/oklahoma/history/landrun.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/settlers-race-to-claim-land

 

Smithsonian Museum of American History

Our friends Dan, Robin and Ann came down from New York City for the weekend. They wanted to see the Smithsonian Museum of American History so that was our first stop. We entered the National Mall through the Smithsonian Information building, which had winterberries garnishing the wrought iron gates outside.

Fuzzy, Robin, Ann and Dan pose outside the Smithsonian Information Building.

The Christmas tree in the Information building.

Modern art outside the American History Museum.

After touring the 'America at War' exhibit we walked across the hall and were greeted by Dumbo, the former Disneyland ride. I suppose they need some comedic relief from the somber exhibit across the hall.

The Peanuts exhibit.

Four rare Stradivarius.

Dorothy's slippers. (No, we didn't bow down and worship them.)

Rare comic books!

Julia Child's kitchen.