Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was the best contribution to child literacy ever made by a celebrity. Our paths crossed once, in the 90s, backstage at a talk show, and I was completely tongue-tied and starstruck. RIP Dolly. You were a complete, irreplaceable one-off.
The vote that would create the United States was deadlocked, and the man who could break the tie was eighty miles away, dying of cancer, on the wrong side of a thunderstorm.
His name was Caesar Rodney. On the first of July 1776, while Congress argued itself toward independence in Philadelphia, he was stuck back in Delaware. He was tamping down Loyalist trouble, in constant pain from the cancer eating at his face and fighting for breath due to his asthma.
Then the letter came. Delaware's two delegates in Congress were split. One for independence, one against. Without a tiebreaker, the colonies would not stand united. And a divided front was exactly what the Crown was counting on.
He did not hesitate. He climbed onto his horse near midnight and rode straight into the storm. Lightning split the sky. The roads turned to sludge. A journey that normally took two days but he made it in eighteen hours. He stopped only to change horses, soaked with every mile.
He reached Independence Hall on the morning of July 2 just as the vote was called, still in his boots and spurs. Caked in mud. Thomas McKean never forgot the sight of him standing in the doorway.
Rodney walked in and cast his vote for independence. It broke Delaware's tie, and with that, not a single colony stood against the break from Britain.
On this day, 250 years ago, a dying man rode all night through a storm so America could be born.
America 250 🇺🇸
On January 8, 1815, Andrew Jackson and his Tennessee Volunteers faced off against the British military at the height of its power in the Battle of New Orleans.
Against all odds, the battle was a RESOUNDING American Victory — and symbolized the power of the Rugged American Spirit.
Remember who you are, American.
‘The Battle of New Orleans’ -Edward Percy Moran
Thank you, Tony.
I made this tribute video and it’s one of my favorite pieces. He built this program into a national powerhouse. And it’s been a privilege to cover part of this program’s journey under Tony’s watch.
Thank you, Tony. Because of you, the best is yet to come🍊
Vintage Vitello. Heartfelt. Funny. Loyal. Thoughtful. Direct. Self deprecating to a degree. And grateful. He leaves the way he came in, confident that his next chapter will be just as successful and he leaves the @Vol_Baseball program a hell of a lot better than he found it.
You can tell Tony Vitello really meant it when he said he felt in debt to Tennessee.
This time last year, I doubt he saw an opportunity with the Giants coming, but you can feel how much this place matters to him. Gonna miss covering him. #Vols