Shuck, Jive, and What-o-cide? Seemingly Unrelated Newsletter #11
Cracking open a month of anti-hatred history with a sea based shooter to wash it down
From the Cutting Room Floor
The District of Columbus...?
You ever wonder why Washington DC is called the District of Columbia? It’s got nothing to do with Colombia (the country) nor it turns out really to do with Columbus either.
In medieval Europe, it was common place to conceive of the three continents as people (Europa, Africa, Asia) all equal in stature with Jerusalem at the center of the world. When the American continents were discovered it became necessary to create a 4th personification and the people changed into women with Europa the most cultured and resplendent leaving America the most ‘savage’ in nature. By 1700 though, the North American continent had a rather substantial non-native population that wanted to distinguish itself from America who had dark skin and wore fruit on her head.
Enter, Edward Cave a London newspaper man and author of The Gentleman’s Magazine who was keen to document the goings on of parliament which was illegal at the time. Safe under the protection of parody law he published legislative proceedings using pseudonyms and weird jokes. For the representatives of non-English parts of the Empire he assigned national personifications and for the North American colonies he chose a disheveled woman with an indecipherable accent named Columbia. No one knows why Columbia, maybe it was to make fun of Columbus or it could be because the name was popular for towns and rivers.
By the time of the movement for US Independence in the 1770s, the symbol evolved from parody to rebellion in much the same way as Yankee Doodle Dandy. Columbia would be canonized as part of the story of the United States specifically with a poem “His Excellency General Washington” written by enslaved African poet Phillis Wheatly. The poem basically says that Columbia is the champion of freedom and helped guide Washington to victory against Britain. Hence the capital belongs to the father of the United States, Washington, who was sheparded to this District by the torch of Columbia.
Columbia would be largely replaced by the Statue of Liberty in the 20th century but that’s for another newsletter…
Rabbit-Hole of the Month
High Altitude Airports
This comes from regular listener to the podcast, Tom who responded to my musing on the benefits of the Denver airport being at such a high elevation:
Actually, an airport situated at a greater elevation doesn’t make it easier for aircraft to land or take off. The greater the elevation the worse it is. You end up with less air for the engines to generate thrust, resulting in greater engine stress/wear from having to demand more power from the engines to generate the same amount of thrust at a lower altitude. Couple this with longer runway requirements because it takes longer to build up airspeed (due to less air for the engines) and a lower air density meaning less lift is generated resulting in more airspeed required to compensate. Which is why those high altitude airports have fooking mega long runways (or the flights operate at a reduced capacity/payload)
Oysters would require significantly more airspeed due to the very un-aerodynamic nature of themselves —Tom
Start your own deep dive into aerodynamics with any of these Youtube channels
Premier Aerodynamics Aviation Attract Airshow KG
Month in Review
Seafood and White Supremacy Sandwich w/side of Pandemic Nostalgia
We stayed on track all month long despite multiple sea voyages with not three but the rare four episode September Spectacular!
Columbus is meant to be the jerky European that “discovered” America and destroyed it with colonialism right? Well we took a deep dive with special guest Dan Walker to look at some other jerks making the claim including the weirdo inventor of baking powder, the legendary Viking Eric the Red, and the bizarro Scandanavian version of David Attenborough who almost died three times trying to prove Easter Island had giant red-bearded white guys from Chile.
Having now conquered the Americas, everyone was very hungry for their favourite fast food meal: tinned oysters! We took a train journey across the US with special guest Kobi Omenaka to find out how this snotty shellfish helped create far flung paradises like Denver, Dallas, Altoona, and somehow Kuwait City? It’s best you take some shots and get in the mood for this wild ride.
Over on the Patreon we’re celebrating the (almost) 1-year anniversary of Seemingly Unrelated by ressurrecting your most treasured Covid-19 lockdown memories: Zoom Quizzes. It’s a full house with Naomi, Frank, and Michael as they compete for glory in making their own seemingly unrelated conncections, guessing the cover artist behind hit songs, reliving the glory of season 1 and proving that the NYT Connections game is totally rigged. Sign up for just $2 and you too can compete against these gladiators in intellectual combat.
Sweet sassy molassy there is still a whole extra episode left! September has an extra Tuesday so we came up with a special exctra episode on the free feed. To celebrate the concurrent High Holidays we invited religious scholar Ophira Gamliel from the University of Glasgow to discuss the long story of how modern Judaism came to be. From Egypt, to Southern India, and back through the lens of White Supremacy we sailed the oceans of Jewish history in our search for the meaning of “atonement.”
How the Sausage is Researched
Sometimes You Just have to Ask
When I was sitting down to research the oysters episode I had a personal memory from childhood about the significance of oyster canneries to the economy of Maryland and beyond. I grew up in a town built on the seafood business and I wanted to know a bit more.
But finding resources online was tough. I could get some insights into the B&O and some of Baltimore’s industry but not much beyond that. I decided then to email the Dorchester County Historical Society in Cambridge Maryland. A simple request for any digitized assets or links to data I could find.
The all volunteer organization went to work immediately making copies and digitizing little tidbits of information from their collection and pulling down resources from the Library of Congress to help supplement. Within a week most of the research had been done FOR me.
Below is a little gallery of some of what they sent my way. There are hundreds of dedicated groups of volunteers around the world who focus on these local history collections that often go unused despite the insights they provide. There is definitely one in your home town as well. Give them a shout and ask a question, you might find out how Kuwait City got a new airport in the end.
