Publish 'All Is Yar.' Write about music (& drinks et al). Proud LA native, AF vet, omnivore. Fan of 1A, Trojans, Kings, Stravinsky, Chopin, alt rock, foie gras.
In case you missed it, my May 22 article is a deep dive on 10 potential candidates to be the next @laphil MD (assuming they name one before end of summer), w/ @djharding getting highest odds by far. Read why and much more below . . .
.@theFIREorg sued on behalf of @VolokhC, Rumble, and Locals because the government can’t launder censorship through private platforms.
The First Amendment protects offensive speech not because it’s good, but because state power over speech is worse.
https://t.co/Lac5PA8G9W
I’ve been thoroughly enlightened and entertained by @whignewtons reading her awesome book, *Last Branch Standing*, whenever driving my car.
Of course, I almost crashed when I literally LOLed listening to her say “douche canoe” delivered in persona Roberts, CJ
In case you missed it, my May 22 article is a deep dive on 10 potential candidates to be the next @laphil MD (assuming they name one before end of summer), w/ @djharding getting highest odds by far. Read why and much more below . . .
In case you missed it, my May 22 article is a deep dive on 10 potential candidates to be the next @laphil MD (assuming they name one before end of summer), w/ @djharding getting highest odds by far. Read why and much more below . . .
He won the Civil War, broke the Klan, went bankrupt at 62, got terminal throat cancer, and wrote one of the greatest books in American literature in the final year of his life. He finished it 5 days before he died.
Ulysses S. Grant was born 204 years ago today.
His name wasn't even Ulysses S. Grant. He was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio on April 27, 1822. The congressman who nominated him to West Point wrote down the wrong name. Grant kept it. The "S." stands for nothing.
He hated his father's tannery and loved horses. Graduated 21st of 39 at West Point. Fought in the Mexican-American War, then came home convinced it was an unjust war designed to expand slavery. He later said he believed the Civil War was divine punishment for it.
He married Julia Dent in 1848, into a slave-owning Missouri family. His abolitionist father refused to attend the wedding. In 1859, broke and desperate, Grant freed the one enslaved man he'd briefly owned instead of selling him. He could have gotten a year's wages.
In the Civil War he became what no other Union general was: relentless. Vicksburg (July 4, 1863) split the Confederacy in half. Lincoln then gave him every Union army. His Appomattox surrender terms: officers kept sidearms, men kept horses for spring planting, no one prosecuted.
As president (1869 to 1877) he did something no president would do again until LBJ: used federal troops to crush the Ku Klux Klan. He suspended habeas corpus in 9 South Carolina counties, prosecuted Klansmen before predominantly Black juries, and broke the first Klan.
His presidency was also rocked by scandal: Black Friday 1869. Crédit Mobilier. The Whiskey Ring. Belknap. Grant himself never took a dime. He was just disastrously loyal to corrupt friends. The pattern damaged his reputation for a century.
After the White House, he toured the world for 2 years. Dined with Queen Victoria. Met the emperor of Japan. Then in 1884, a Wall Street partner named Ferdinand Ward ran what we'd now call a Ponzi scheme. Grant was wiped out. 62 years old. Penniless.
Weeks later he was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer. Mark Twain offered to publish his memoirs. Grant wrote in agony, sometimes 50 pages a day, racing the disease to leave Julia an inheritance. He finished the manuscript July 18, 1885. He died July 23.
The book made Julia $450,000, about $14M today. It's now considered one of the finest memoirs in the English language. For decades historians ranked Grant a failure. Since 2000 he's jumped 13 spots in the C-SPAN survey, the biggest rise of any president.
Happy birthday, General 🇺🇸
Wondering if @laphil's Ryan Roberts will be taking the upcoming @nyphil Principal Oboe audition? Wonder no longer. "All is Yar" has the scoop . . . 1/ 🧵
#allisyar#oboe
New @LAPhil musicians contract announced yesterday by @AFMLocal47 was consistent w/ what I previously reported. Since @SFSymphony musicians also got a new agreement, I compare the 2 orchestra's salaries through the end of their contracts (and more) . . . a thread 🧵 (1/)