eclecticism

Last weekend, Prairie and I went on a round of family visits, seeing her mom and sister in Vancouver, WA, my brother and family in Corvallis, OR, and her dad and grandpa in Woodland, WA. While we were in Woodland with Prairie’s dad and grandpa, Prairie took a few minutes to poke around the house and collect some old glassware to bring home. While she was exploring, she found some fun old currency, some of which we recognized, some of which we didn’t. I’ve scanned them in and done a little Wikipedia research, and here’s what we came up with.

1935G “No Motto” $1 Silver Certificate

Silver Certificates were printed for a time in the United States as a form of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, which placed the United States on the gold standard. The certificate was matched to the same amount of value in silver coinage. For example, one fifty dollar Silver Certificate equals fifty silver dollars. Note the Series 1935G came in two varieties, with motto (“In God We Trust”) and without motto. The with motto demands higher premiums than the without motto.

1953C $2 United States Note

The United States two-dollar bill ($2) is a current denomination of U.S. currency. When U.S. currency was changed to its current size, the $2 bill was issued only as a United States Note. After United States Notes were discontinued, the $2 bill later began to be issued as a Federal Reserve Note. The denomination of two dollars was first used by the United States federal government in July 1862. The denomination was continuously used until 1966 when the only class of U.S. currency it was then assigned to, United States Notes, began to be discontinued. All small-sized $2 United States Notes with a red seal and older large size notes are obsolete and are collectibles.

Series 481 (6/20/51 thru 5/25/54) Five Cent Military Payment Certificate

Military Payment Certificates, or MPC, were used from the end of World War II until the end of the Vietnam War, between the years 1946 and 1973. MPC’s utilized layers of line lithography to create colorful banknotes that could be produced cheaply. Fifteen series of MPC’s were created but only 13 series were issued.

1917 Cinq Francs Note

The franc (represented by the franc sign ₣ or more commonly just F) is a former currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It was re-introduced (in decimal form) in 1795 and remained the national currency until the introduction of the euro in 1999 (for accounting purposes) and 2002 (coins and banknotes).

Sometime between 09:15 and 13:50, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Seattlest: Lads, Learn How To Wear Your Kilts: As with driving privileges, we sometimes believe that buyers ought to take a course in their proper operation. But that would be snobbish of us to admit publicly. Instead, we'll just parcel out unsolicited advice. The following are a few of the most egregious mistakes we've seen Utilikilted men make.
• Heart to McCain campaign: stop using “Barracuda”: "Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late '70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there."
• Hard Rock Café to open in Seattle: Could be entertaining, I haven't been to a Hard Rock in many, many years. Don't even really remember when or where I went. Hrm. Anyway, this bit caught my eye: "The first Hard Rock Café, featuring "classic American" food, opened in 1971 in London. Since then, the chain has expanded to 48 countries. In addition to 125 restaurants, it runs five hotels, four hotel-casinos, four concert halls and a theme park, the corporate Web site." The corporate website is a theme park? Cool!
• Community Organizers Fight Back: Community organizers across America, taken aback by a series of attacks from Republican leaders at the GOP convention in St. Paul, came together today to defend their work organizing Americans who have been left behind by unemployment, lack of health insurance and the national housing crisis. The organizers demanded an apology from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for her statement that community organizers have no “actual responsibilities” and launched a web site, Community Organizers Fight Back, to defend themselves against Republican attacks.
• The “Bechdel Rule”, a quick-and-dirty way to analyze media for sexism: 1. Does it have at least two women in it, 2. Who [at some point] talk to each other, 3. About something besides a man.
• Who you gonna call?: Hollywood studio Columbia is planning to revive its hit 1980s franchise "Ghostbusters" with a third film that will reunite stars Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd [along with Harod Ramis and Ernie Hudson], it was reported Thursday.

Sometime between September 4th and September 5th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Google Crom: A desktop-based deity.
• What a Community Organizer Does: So here is what Giuliani and Palin didn't know: Obama was working for a group of churches that were concerned about their parishioners, many of whom had been laid off when the steel mills closed on the south side of Chicago. They hired Obama to help those stunned people recover and get the services they needed—job training, help with housing and so forth—from the local government. It was, dare I say it, the Lord's work—the sort of mission Jesus preached (as opposed to the war in Iraq, which Palin described as a "task from God.")
• About Sarah Palin: an e-mail from Wasilla: Editor's note: The writer is a homemaker and education advocate in Wasilla, Alaska. Late last week, Anne Kilkenny penned an e-mail for her friends about vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whom she personally knows, that has since circulated across comment forums and blogs nationwide. Here is her e-mail in its entirety, posted with her permission.
• Palin’s RNC speech on track to raise $10M in 24 hours…for Obama!: An Obama aide passes this news along: "$8 million raised since Palin's speech from over 130,000 donors - on pace to hit $10 million by the time John McCain hits the stage tonight." The Palin pick energized Republicans…and has given a jolt to Democrats, too. (The RNC has raised $1m since Palin's speech.)
• A woman is a woman is a woman — and an insult is an insult is an insult: The notion that Hillary's women will automatically become Sarah's carries the implicit assumption that a woman is a woman is a woman is a woman, that disaffected female supporters of Clinton will flock to Palin because she has the right reproductive organs and never mind that, politically, the two could hardly be less alike. Never mind pro-choice versus pro-life. Never mind Iraq, Iran, gas prices, the mortgage crisis, failing schools. Chromosomes conquer all.

After finding this post, and being prompted by this post, I decided to update my geek code. Decode the following gibberish here:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GAT d-(--) s:-- a35 C++(+++) U*++++ P+ L- E---
W+++ N+++ o K w--- O- M+++ V PS++ PE Y+ PGP t+(+++)
5 X+ R- tv b+(+++) DI++ D+ G e+ h--- r++ y++**
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Sometime between September 3rd and September 4th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Print Story: Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention: The AP fact-checks the RNC speeches. FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States." THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
• Footnotes, Endnotes, and Parentheticals That Cost Me Marks on My Thesis.: (Admittedly, I didn't read it, but I'd like to think I got the gist from the movie.)
• Sarah Palin, VP nominee: [Former Wasilla mayor] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. “She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving “full support” to the mayor.
• Cute meme-geeky easter egg in Google’s new webbrowser Chrome: This is what you see when you visit about:internets. This is freaking awesome.
• ObamaTaxCut.com: Barack Obama will cut taxes for over 95% of American families (even though more than half of American think he'll raise their taxes). What's your Obama Tax cut? Let's find out!

Sometime between 10:42 and 16:33, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Massive police raids on suspected protesters in Minneapolis: Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets.
• Amy Goodman and Two Democracy Now! Producers Unlawfully Arrested at RNC: Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Kouddous and Salazar who were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.
• Palin’s 17-Year-Old Daughter Is Pregnant: Steve Schmidt, the chief strategist for the McCain campaign, was surrounded by reporters and cameras as he walked through the media center next door to the Xcel Center in St. Paul, where the convention is taking place. Asked over and over when and how Mr. McCain found out about Bristol’s pregnancy, he repeated, “Senator McCain was aware” of it and called it “a private family matter.” He would not say when Mr. McCain found out or how, calling it a “private conversation.” “The fact is, John McCain had a thorough search and made the decision to add Sarah Palin to the ticket because he believes” that she “will change America,” Mr. Schmidt said. (Sadly, "changing America" probably won't involve re-thinking her "abstinence only" approach to sex ed, even with this demonstration of just how well that approach works.)
• Occasionally Plausible / And Kos I Just Don’t Care: "My problem with Kos is that it’s a cross between Facebook and a Star Trek convention. It’s impossible to navigate and just the second you think you’re getting somewhere you have to step over two guys coming to blows over the fine points of the Organian Peace Treaty." (While the time has come for me to start paying more attention to politics, I haven't had much urge to return to Daily Kos…and I think Pops just nailed why.)
• Tigh selects Roslin: For those who aren't total Battlestar Galactica geeks, that's the Republican nominee and his new VP choice Governor Sarah Palin on the left and Colonel Saul Tigh and Laura Roslin, President of the Twelve Colonies on the right.