"Give me more trashy Von Steuben sketches!!!" - No one ever

(uhhh in case you can't tell I FATALLY messed up the mouth and just gave up. Also, I SWEAR TO GOD IT LOOKS OKAY IN PERSON BUT MY HANDS ARE WAY TOO SHAKY. DW I know you all wanted MOAR crusty deleterious art anygays.)

ANygaySSSS, TAGS!!!

Ghosts Has a Gay Revolutionary War Ghost

“D&D” (November 18, 2021)

Beware the gay ghost!

 What are the odds that when your friend writes a book about Baron von Steuben, allegedly gay Revolutionary War hero, there would also be a current sitcom that features a gay Revolutionary War character? Pretty slim, we’d say! But this happy coincidence allowed us to not only promote Josh Trujillo’s new book, Washington's Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron Von Steuben, but also to dive into Ghosts, the CBS sitcom that is one of the more popular sitcoms on TV today. We’re happy to report that being a CBS sitcom means something quite different today than it did just a few years ago.

You should probably want a copy of Josh’s book. Buy a copy here!

Watch Ninjago Decoded, Glen's series that explains the history of the Ninjago series and will help you understand his episode of Ninjago: Dragons Rising.

Go shop at our TeePublic store!

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Listen now!

btw I know this is a loaded question, so do you have any books/articles indication about how it was for queer people during the amrev (more especially, those in the army)?

Thank you =)

If you haven't read it already I'd recommend Male-Male Intimacy in Early America by William Benemann.

I also have a post about queer people at Valley Forge where I talk about everything form romantic friendship to sodomy law.

I think one of the key things to understand is that in the army you have this male homosocial world. These men are in life or death situations, with next to no privacy, in a culture which celebrates romantic friendship. There is this intense emotional intimacy that forms between them, that in some cases is absolutely romantic and accepted as romantic. But sodomy is a capital offence. Being caught being sexually intimate could get you anything from a slap on the wrist to the death penalty depending on what you were caught doing. Maybe thats worth risking when you could die tomorrow, but the risk is not to be taken lightly.

In his biography of Baron von Steuben, William North talks about the loss of this intense emotional intimacy at the end of the war:

At the disbandment of the Revolutionary Army, when inmates of the same tent or hut for seven long years were separating, never, perhaps, to see each other’s face again, grasping each other’s hand in silent agony, cut adrift without a hope, I saw his strong endeavors, if it were possible, to throw some rays of sunshine on the gloom—to mix some cordial with the bitter draught they drank—to go they knew not whither. All recollection of the art to thrive by civil occupation lost, or, to the youthful, never known; their hard-earned military knowledge worse than useless—a mark at which, with their badge of brotherhood, to point the finger of suspicion—ignoble, vile suspicion; no more to pay obedience to command, to quaff the cup of joy, or lessen every grief by sharing with a host of friends; to be cast out upon a world long since forgotten, each one to grope his solitary, silent path; his sword and military garb the only relics saved, or else overwhelmed and lost forever. It was too bad! On that sad day what soldier’s heart was left unwrung! I saw it all and its effects.

The relationship between William North and Benjamin Walker is a good example a romantic relationship between soldiers that lasted beyond the war. In a drunken letter written years latter North recalls when he first began to love Walker:

I have known you, Ben, for twelve years—When I began to love you, I know not—the first motion of disregard to Fairlie, I remember—‘twas at Tappan—I lay on straw with one blanket—but tis no matter—I loved you

~ William North to Benjamin Walker, Nov, 1792

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

1926 – Curtis Harrington (d.2007) was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films, and episodic television. He is considered one of the forerunners of New Queer Cinema.

His memoir, Nice Guys Don’t Work in Hollywood, was recently published by Drag City. The original manuscript was disinterred from a special collection in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and carefully edited by Lisa Janssen, a Chicago-based poet, archivist, and film buff.

For Harrington, the romance with movies began early. He was stirred as a child by the sight of Mr. Death wilting a bouquet of flowers with his breath in Death Takes a Holiday (1934).

Growing up in Beaumont, California, with parents who gave him leeway to pursue his creative interests, Harrington discovered a soul mate in Edgar Allan Poe, and began his film career at 14 with an abbreviated version of “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The director plays both the death-haunted Roderick and his twin sister, Madeline.

Greatly influenced by Maya Deren, co-creator (with Alexander Hammid) of the trance classic Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), he completed a cycle of 16 mm shorts, several of which – Fragment of Seeking (1946), Picnic (1948), On the Edge (1949) – are now regarded as prime examples of West Coast experimental filmmaking. His friendship with Kenneth Anger, director of Scorpio Rising (1963) and author of the notorious bestseller Hollywood Babylon, fueled an appreciation for the mystical and provided occasion to participate, if only peripherally, in the Southern California occult explosion.

Although he enjoyed unfettered creative license during this period, the pressure to conform weighed heavily on the young filmmaker. The conservative postwar climate was an unlikely breeding ground for the deeply personal, highly stylized "film poems" created by Harrington and his contemporaries. His status as an outsider was no doubt intensified by his orientation as a gay man – a subject on which Harrington remains subdued throughout the memoir. "This seemed perfectly natural to me," Harrington writes of his teenage attractions. "It did not occur to me to attach any sense of guilt or shame to my activities." A screening of Fragment of Seeking and Anger’s Fireworks (1947) stunned an audience of Los Angeles intellectuals with its potently surreal evocations of homoerotic desire. "Everyone in the room was too shocked to say a word," Harrington recalls.

The true turning point in his career was the extraordinary Night Tide (1961), a gently haunting fable about a sailor (an uncharacteristically shy Dennis Hopper) who falls in love with a mermaid impersonator (Linda Lawson). Night Tide was distributed by Roger Corman, who in due course offered Harrington two directing assignments: Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965) and Queen of Blood (1966). Harrington was given the task of repurposing a couple of Russian science fiction films to which Corman had acquired the rights.

In the following years he went on to direct a series of B-movies in the horror genre TV series and Made-for-TV movies including The Killer Bees (1974).

At 75, he managed to summon the remainder of his creative vigor to make Usher (2002), a self-financed short film that brought his career full circle. "I went all the way back to the story that had haunted me so early in my life,"

1730 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (d.1794), also referred to as the Baron von Steuben, was a Prussian-born military officer who served as inspector general and Major General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is credited with being one of the fathers of the Continental Army in teaching them the essentials of military drills, tactics, and disciplines. He wrote the Revolutionary War Drill Manual, the book that served as the standard United States drill manual until the War of 1812.

In Germay, in 1776, he was alleged to be homosexual and was accused of improper sexual behavior with young boys. Whether or not Steuben was actually intimate with other men is not entirely known, but the rumors compelled him to seek employment elsewhere.

On September 26, 1777, the Baron, his Italian greyhound, Azor (which he took with him everywhere), his young aide de camp Louis de Pontière, his military secretary Pierre Etienne Duponceau, and two other companions, reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire and by December 1, was extravagantly entertained in Boston. Congress was in York, Pennsylvania, after being ousted from Philadelphia by the British advance. By February 5, 1778, Steuben had offered to volunteer without pay (for the time), and by the 23rd, Steuben reported for duty to General George Washington at Valley Forge. He served as George Washington's chief of staff in the final years of the war.

Two of the General's soldiers, William North and Ben Walker, were to von Steuben's liking. He legally adopted both men, and they lived together until the Baron's death, at which time they shared in his estate.

The Lafayette Park Memorial.

Many places are named in his honor, including Steubenville, Ohio. His monument by Albert Jaegers in Washington, DC, across the street from the White House in Lafayette Park, is perhaps one of the most homoerotic sculptures in America. Make sure and pay a visit the next time you're in town. You will not regret it.

1928 – Roddy McDowall (d.1998) was born in London on to a Scottish father and an Irish mother. His mother, who had herself aspired to be an actress, enrolled him in elocution lessons at the age of five; and at the age of ten he had his first major film role as the youngest son in Murder in the Family (1938). Over the next two years he appeared in a dozen British films, in parts large and small. McDowall's movie career was interrupted, however, by the German bombardment of London in World War II. Accompanied by his sister and his mother, he was one of many London children evacuated to places abroad.

As a result, he arrived in Hollywood in 1940, and the charming young English lad soon landed a major role as the youngest son in How Green Was My Valley (1941). The film made him a star at thirteen, and he appeared as an endearing boy in numerous Hollywood movies throughout the war years, most notably Lassie, Come Home (1943), with fellow English child star and lifelong friend Elizabeth Taylor, and My Friend Flicka (1943).

By his late teens, McDowall had outgrown the parts in which he had been most successful. Accordingly, he went to New York to study acting and to hone his skills in a wide variety of roles on the Broadway stage.

McDowall was praised for his performance as a gay character in Meyer Levin's Compulsion (1957), a fictionalised account of the Leopold-Loeb murder case; and he won a Tony award for best supporting actor as Tarquin in Jean Anouilh's The Fighting Cock (1960).

After a decade's absence, McDowall returned to Hollywood, and over the last four decades of his life he appeared in more than one hundred films, encompassing a wide range of genres from sophisticated adult comedy to children's fare, from horror to science fiction, usually as a character actor. He also made regular character appearances on TV in such series as the original Twilight Zone, The Carol Burnett Show, Fantasy Island and Quantum Leap.

His best known appearances include those in The Subterraneans (1960), Midnight Lace (1960), Cleopatra (1963), The Loved One (1965), Inside Daisy Clover (1965), Planet of the Apes (1968) and its various sequels, Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), The Poseidon Adventure (1973), Funny Lady (1975), and Only the Lonely (1991). His last film role was the voice of Mr Soil, an ant, in A Bug's Life (1997).

Although McDowall never officially came out, the fact that he was gay was one of Hollywood's best known secrets. It is a tribute to his characteristic discretion and the respect with which "Hollywood's Best Friend" was regarded by his peers that his homosexuality was never really an issue or used against him in his six decades in the entertainment business.

Roddy is offered a hot sausage by Tab Hunter

McDowall died of cancer at his home in Studio City, California, on October 3, 1998. At the time of his death, he held several elected posts in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was a generous benefactor of many film-related charities.

1480 – The Spanish Inquisition is established as a court for the detection of heretics, although its true purpose remains somewhat obscure. But 1000-1600 people were charged with the crime of sodomy. During the 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition, the total number of "heretics" burned at the stake totaled nearly 32,000.

2001 – Paul Holm, the partner of Flight 93 hero Mark Bingham is presented with the folded American flag.

This month I read “Washington’s Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron Von Steuben” by Josh Trujillo and Levi Hastings. Hystory/Queer/Graphic novel. Published August 15th 2023.

I found this prominently displayed in the history section of my local barns and noble. It immediately stuck out to me. It’s basically what it says in the title, and it’s pretty good. I liked the art, and the story was compelling. It was a quick read, I finished it in a day.

Also, they snuck in this classic meme.

If your interested in queer history I highly recommend. 9/10

I don’t usually post just doodles but I like this page so here

Realized I haven't drawn Von Steuben before so here he is with his helper boyos! Bottom left is Duponceau, Top left is William North, then Steuben in the center, Laurens, Walker, and Hamilton. I didn't know their hair color so I guessed

Cartoon published in Judge magazine  October 19, 1895, featuring the ghosts of Steuben and Lafayette urging the USA to intervene in Cuba.  A Plea for Cuba

Shades of Lafayette and Steuben (to Columbia): - “What! Asleep with that cry for aid at your door! What would have been your fate if we had acted similarly in your hour of need?” 

these are some scetches of du ponceau inspired by @littlewritingrabbit’s AMAZING story “operation tortoise”

Top 5 Historical People. Go!

Oooooh ok!!! Such a good one let’s go!!! ❤️❤️

1: The Marquis de Lafayette- that crazy little French Fourth of July firecracker is my main boy right there, always has been always will be! (I have his signature tattooed on my wrist 🇫🇷💙)

2: Frederich Von Steuben- aka Baron Von Steuben. The USA would literally not exist without his homo wisdom and zero tolerance policy towards straight men fuckery. I can’t get his big gay prussian ass out of my head ever, I love him to hell and back. 😘✊🏻🏳️‍🌈

3: Captain James Fitzjames- yes of COURSE he makes the list and to think I fell for him only when I first got into The Terror. I fell for the actual history just as I did the show and this big boy took my heart first. Such an ambitious charming goof, and all in all I relate to him so much irl and onscreen so…big love for mama fitz 💖💖

4: Mary Blair- early 20th century artist, designer, and animator most well known for her work with Disney. Her mid-century art and designs captivate me like nothing else does and her style fits me so well, and her creativity just strikes me in a way I can’t explain. She’s literally considered and actual Disney Legend too. 💖👑✨

5: Rex Beisel- I literally only like this dude because he’s the aeronautical engineer who designed the Vought F4U Corsair, my favorite World War II fighter plane that I call big sexy. So thanks to him I get to annoy visitors at the aviation museum I work at about gull wings and why its nickname is whistling death whenever someone even hints at anything WWII related. I know more about this plane than I do about myself, do not @ me. So Thanks RB 💋🛩

Oh yeah, here's a lil 12:21 am Baron Von Steuben sketch.

DONT ASK ABOUT THE FLOOFY HAIR OKAY DESIGN CHOICE OKAY 😤😤

MESSAGE IN HONOR OF THE 76TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE HISTORIC RAISING OF THE NATIONAL FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ATOP THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT SURIBACHI IN IWO JIMA

Ladies and gentlemen, to all the people of the United States of America and Canada, to all our remaining living veterans of the Second World War of 1939-1945 and of all conflicts past and present and their families, to our veterans, active servicemen and women, reservists and families of the entire United States Armed Forces and Canadian Armed Forces, and to all the uniformed military and civil security services of the Allied combatants of this conflict, to all the immediate families, relatives, children and grandchildren of the deceased veterans, fallen service personnel and wounded personnel of our military services and civil uniformed security and civil defense services, to all our workers, farmers and intellectuals, to our youth and personnel serving in youth uniformed and cadet organizations and all our athletes, coaches, judges, sports trainers and sports officials, and to all our sports fans, to all our workers of culture, music, traditional arts and the theatrical arts, radio, television, digital media and social media, cinema, heavy and light industry, agriculture, business, tourism and the press, and to all our people of the free world:

Today, the whole world remembers among others the arrival in 1778 of the great Prussian general Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben to the Continental Army quarters in Valley Forge, the beginning of the historic siege of The Alamo in 1836, and the anniversary of the 1847 Battle of Buena Vista, the 1905 formation of the Rotary Club, the beginning of the February Revolution and the formation of the Federal Communications Commission in 1917, the Miracle on Ice of 1980 and the attempted coup by several officers of the Spanish Civil Guard in the Cortes in 1981.

Today we join in the celebrations of the 51st anniversary since the declaration of the Republic of Guayana in 1970, the one hundredth and third  year  anniversary of the 1918 declaration of independence of the Republic of Estonia and the thirty-seventh year anniversary of the independence of Brunei Darussalam in 1984, as well as the 7th year anniversary of the closing of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games and the victory of the Ukrainian Euromaidan Revolution of 2014.

On this day in 1945 the Red Army and the Polish Armed Forces in the East ended the Nazi occupation of Poznan, the Philippine capital city of Manila was liberated from the Japanese despite its wartime damages and at the cost of so many lives, the Los Banos internment camp in the namesake town in Laguna Province was found and its POWs then liberated by a joint force of Filipino guerillas and American soldiers from the US Army’s 11th Airborne Division, and the RAF Bomber Command destroyed Pforzheim from the air.

Today marks 76 years since Easy Company, 2/506, 3BCT, 101ABN departed from Hagenau in northeastern Alsace, France, after weeks of helping its liberation and reinforcing its defenses against any remaining German resistance. Easy Company’s deployment in this part of France just miles from the Rhine was marked by times of sadness and joys among its men, most notably the return of Market Garden veteran David Webster and the promotion of some of its veteran officers.

And today, ladies and gentlemen, in these changing times in the long history of our planet and of all humankind,  together with the thousands of serving men and women of the United States Marine Corps, we celebrate 76 years since the historic moment that forever has been a part of the heritage of the Marine Corps and the long 245 year history of the United States of America: the diamond jubilee anniversary since the very day that the national flag of the United States of America was raised on the peak of  Mount Suribachi in the Japanese island of Iwo Jima.  What we are celebrating today is now in the clear light of the recent revelations of the United States Marine Corps which was made public on June 23 of 2016 and later on in 2019 thanks to efforts made by historians and history experts and resource persons concerned, ending years of speculation and mystery surrounding the events of this this battle that is, for all generations, part of the history of not just the Corps, but of the entire United States Armed Forces. It is a battle that deserves our profound remembrance and commemoration, and a historic moment that will be always remembered for all our generations.

The six Marine flag raisers of Iwo Jima,  Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporals Harold Keller and Harlon Brock, and Privates First Class Ira Hayes, Franklin R. Sousley and Harold Schultz, all of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment of the 5th Marine Division, all participants of the heroic landing and battle for the liberation of Iwo Jima from the military might of the Empire of Japan, are the very people that represented the hundreds of thousands of Marines of V Amphibious Corps who fought on that island together with their fellow servicemen of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and the National Guard Bureau. It was these six servicemen who represented the millions of Marines who fought in the Pacific Theater of Operations, as well as serving in Navy and Coast Guards vessels in all theaters of the war. It was they who represented the diversity of peoples from all walks of life and from ethnicities and nationalities who during the long war served as part of the victorious armed forces, resistance organizations and security forces of the Allied Powers. It was they who on this day 76 years ago, chosen by destiny to stand on behalf of millions of Americans, flew the flag of the nation on the summit of Mount Suribachi and became part of the long and cherished memories of a victory that will last forever. It was this flag raising that would be forever be immortalized in the 2005 movie Flags of our Fathers.

These six men, who came from different parts of the United States, were the ones who 76 years past raised our symbol of liberty and independence in the summit of Mount Suribachi, motivated by the foremost wishes of the then Secretary of the Navy, James Forestal, that the Iwo Jima campaign be symbolized by the flying of the national flag not just as symbol of the power and dignity of the Armed Forces and as proof of the American liberation of the island, but also to show the world that the United States Marine Corps has once more performed to the world its primary responsibilty of perfoming amphibious conventional and un-conventional warfare operations for the sake of the defense of the people and government of the United States, its foreign interests and business abroad and in defense of its overseas diaspora and the freedoms and liberties of millions all over the world. The historic flag raising that we remember today is just  part of a long history of faithful service of the branch of the Armed Forces to the nation and people of the United States from its beginnings in 1775 during the Revolutionary War under the authority of the Second Continental Congress to overseas operations today in Iraq and Afghanistan and in support of federal, state and regional authorities in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing vaccination program in the United States and it its military bases abroad. Once more it honors the memory of the heroes and martyrs of one of the greatest military operations in United States history, and the legacy of the heroic valor shown in this island has been forever immortalized in stone in the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, for over six and a half decades.

As we recall the flagraisers of Iwo Jima, we today recall the legacy they left to our country and people on this very day in our history as they threw open the doors of victory and peace that would in just a few months be upon the world with the victory over the Axis Powers, first in Europe and Northern Africa, and then in the Asia-Pacific.

We will never forget that these six Marines, whose contributions to the legacy of the defense and security of our nation were made on this day, were among those who were worthy to ensure the fierce physical and mental training required to be United States Marines and thus made themselves part of the long and distinguished history of this institution. In these changing times of our history, by our acts of remembrance and honor in memory of the events of the long battle for the liberation of Iwo Jima against the forces of the Empire of Japan, we never forget to remember the heroic actons done during the days of this great battle and most especially the six thousand American military servicemen who perished in this tiny island for the sake of the freedoms, dreams and aspirations not just of the people of the United States of America but also of all the millions of people of the free world. These Marines, together with those who served with them in V Amphibious Corps, are once more a reminder to the nation and the world of the patriotic and internationalist duties of the men and women of our armed forces, whether be active or reserve, together with the National Guard and the state defense forces and state naval forces, in the defense of the independence and liberty of millions all over the world and of both American and common international interests, and the responsibility of all Americans to help not just in national defense but in the building of national prosperity, security and safety, preservation of the country’s religions and cultures, safekeeping the enviroment and the sites of national importance, and becoming active in sports and recreation, as well as in spreading the values of our nation and people to millions all over the world.

The legacy left today by these men in scarlet and dark blue, which has become a part of our military historic and patriotic patrimony and heritage as a people and nation, and a eternal memory of the millions who fought and died in the Second World War, reminds us that as one people we owe a lot to the men and women of our Armed Forces and the National  Guard and their veterans in the defense of the ideals of freedom and independence of our country and its continued existence amongst the community of united and independent nations of the world.

Ladies and gentlemen and people of our free world: 

As one united people, in the midst of the worst pandemic in human history, it is with deep respect and gratitude, with humble respect and our deepest thanks not just to those who died but also to those who survived and our remaining veterans of this great battle living among us, as the whole world remembers and celebrates this very moment in our history and most of all in the history of the glorious United States Armed Forces, we, in remembrance of all the fallen and with profound thoughts of all who serve today in the armed forces and in our uniformed security and civil defense services, greet each other and the men and women of the United States Marine Corps as we celebrate together as one nation and one free world the seventy-sixth year anniversary of the historic raising of the national flag of the United States of America by these 6 brave Marines of the 5th Marine Division, risking even to lose their very own lives in the defense of their country and her people. The diamond legacy left by this historic act remains part of our long history and the patrimony of her Armed Forces, and thus is one of the greatest defining actions by the millions who served during those critical times of our history, those who are collectively called as our “greatest generation” of the armed forces, resistance organizations and our civilian security services. Only few remain living among the thousands who survived the battle and helped win one of the greatest operations in the military history of the United States, and today we thank these remaining living veterans of Iwo Jima, who 76 years ago helped bring forth the victory over the Empire of Japan in the Asia-Pacific, for their service to the nation and for their contributions to the victory won in this part of the world. To them, we owe our gratitude and pledge thus to honor the legacy they left behind in our history and to forever remain committed to fight just as they did long ago towards a better world.

May this great moment, which forever belongs in the annals of American military history, be for all generations a moment that will be forever a part of our history and sacred patrimony, and a part in the long 246-year history of the United States Marine Corps and the 74 years of the modern United States Armed Forces, truly a sacred and memorable moment of national pride that will be forever be remembered and never forgotten in our hearts for years and decades to come and in the hearts of all the people of the free world, and most of all of the American people, a memorable moment that will be treasured to our children. For this very immortal battle, one of many Allied victories in the Pacific Theater of Operations and one of the greatest military victories of the United States Armed Forces in this part of the world during the Second World War, shall be remembered as the one very battle that showed the world the bravery, courage and determination of the United States Marine for the defense of the American nation and all the free peoples of the world, and for the preservation of the values of freedom and liberty on which the United States was formed, thanks in part of the courage and gallantry shown by the US Marines in the early years of the nation that it helped to build. Today, as we honor this historic anniversary of such a great moment by these 6 Marines for our country and Corps, we once again recall the sacrifices made by the men and women of our Armed Forces in the victory won in this battle and many other combat operations in the Second World War in Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific, flying the flag that today was raised in triumph in the peak of Mount Suribachi and in all our installations and military bases, in the sacred cause of the defense of the republic and her people and the cause of independence and liberty of the peoples of the free world. Once more, we today reaffirm that no matter what the dangers this world might face, with the strength and determination of the thousands of servicemen and women in the Armed Forces and the National Guard Bureau, and the inspiration of our heroes of the past, we will overcome all trials and disasters, and forge onwards towards the goal of a better tomorrow for our future generations.

In closing, may the eternal memory of these brave 6 Marine flagbearers, who risked their futures and their lives for the sake of our liberty 76 years ago when they raised the very symbol of our freedom, sovereignity and independence, be honored all the more by our efforts by all of us today, the people of this great land together with the free peoples of the world, everyday and by the generations to come – the very eternal memory of them and of all the millions who fought in the Second World War who will never be forgotten and will be honored for all time, in very age, century upon century, for the peace of our world and for the future of humanity!

And may this historic moment live on the hearts of the millions of American people and forever remain a celebration worthy to be honored as forever a part of the history and patrimony not just of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Armed Forces, but also as a great moment in the history of our great independent homeland the United States of America!

ETERNAL GLORY TO THE FALLEN OF THE BATTLE OF MANILA AND THE BOMBING OF PFORZHEIM!

LONG LIVE THE 37TH NATIONAL DAY OF BRUNEI DARUSSALAM, THE 51st ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF GUAYANA, AND THE 7th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLOSING OF THE SOCHI WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES AND THE VICTORY OF THE EUROMAIDAN REVOLUTION!

ETERNAL GLORY TO THE MEMORY OF THE 6 MARINES WHO ON THIS VERY IMPORTANT DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY EXACTLY 76 YEARS AGO ON THIS VERY DAY IN OUR HISTORY, ATOP THE PEAK OF MOUNT SURIBACHI IN IWO JIMA, RISKING EVEN TO SUFFER DEATH BY ENEMY GUNFIRE, BAYONETS AND GRENADES, RAISED THE VERY SYMBOL OF FREEDOM AND LIBERTY, OUR GLORIOUS NATIONAL FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

ETERNAL GLORY AND MEMORY TO THE HEROES, MARTYRS AND VETERANS OF THE GREAT BATTLE OF IWO JIMA, ONE OF THE GREATEST BATTLES EVER FOUGHT BY THE MEN OF THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS!

ETERNAL GLORY TO THE MEMORY OF ALL THE VETERANS, ALLIED HEROES AND FALLEN OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS!

LONG LIVE THE GLORIOUS, INVINCIBLE AND LEGENDARY UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS, ALWAYS FAITHFUL TILL THE END FOR THE PEOPLE AND THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND OF THE FREE WORLD!

GLORY TO THE VICTORIOUS PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND HER UNIFORMED SERVICES!

AND FINALLY, GLORY TO THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, DEFENDERS OF OUR FREEDOM AND LIBERTY AND GUARANTEE OF A FUTURE WORTHY OF OUR GENERATIONS TO COME!

 May our Almighty God bless our great country, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the first of the free republics of our modern world, our beloved, great and mighty United States of America!

Semper Fidelis! Oorah!

 1800h, February 23, 2021, the 245th year of the United States of America, the 246th year of the United States Army, Navy and Marine Corps, the 127th of the International Olympic Committee, the 125th of the Olympic Games, the 80th since the beginning of the Second World War in the Eastern Front and in the Pacific Theater, the 76th since the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and the victories in Europe and the Pacific and the 74th of the United States Armed Forces

 Semper Fortis

John Emmanuel Ramos

Makati City, Philippines

Grandson of Philippine Navy veteran PO2 Paterno Cueno, PN (Ret.)

 (Honor by Hans Zimmer) (Platoon Swims) (Rendering Honors)

Suddenly Susan Meets a Gay

“A Boy Like That” (April 24, 1997)

Heads up: We briefly discuss suicide episode in discussing on of this show’s cast members. If you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, the U.S. hotline to call is 988.

Well, it took us 214 episodes, but we finally arrived at Suddenly Susan. You might dismiss Brook Shields’ entry into the post-Friends landscape as an also-ran, and you are maybe right, but this first-season gay episode manages to give more depth and consideration to its one-off gay character than its fellow Must See TV alums did. That’s something. Plus Kathy Griffin is here.

Here’s the LA Times article cited in this piece, and here’s the Entertainment Weekly piece

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[Major General Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus, Baron von Steuben, c. 1786, oil on canvas, 49 3/4 × 41 3/8 in (126.4 × 105.1 cm), by Ralph Earl, via Yale University Art Gallery]

Steuben gave this portrait to William North.

Wait, wait, wait!! What's this thing about Ham gaining weight in his 30s? Did it really happen?

Yes, he really did gain some weight in the 1790s. He was always fairly slender, so I think it was a difference of maybe fifteen pounds, but it was enough to be noticeable–and to make international news. Angelica Church wrote a letter to Eliza Hamilton that she’d heard reports of Hamilton gaining weight in London:

Colonel Beckwith tells me that our dear Hamilton writes too much and takes no exercise, and grows too fat. I hate both the word and the thing, and I desire you will take care of his health and his good looks, why I should find him on my return a dull, heavy fellow! (Intimate Life, p. 73).

Angelica wasn’t the only one concerned about him during this period. Baron Von Steuben wrote to Hamilton on 16 December 1790 about  his own concerns for Hamilton’s health. The letter is in french, but to paraphrase, he expresses concern for Hamilton’s recent indispositions, and is convinced that a lack of exercise is the cause. He recommends Hamilton ride eight or ten miles every morning, as his daily walks aren’t enough, and a diet of few meats and copious root vegetables. Enclosing a copy of Clément Joseph Tissot’s pamphlet from which he’d derived the diet, Von Steuben entrusted it’s execution to Eliza.

Hamilton also corresponded with Henry Lee in 1791 regarding a horse to help him get out and exercise more. He’d requested a gentle horse, though, and Lee took pains to find one that would meet with Hamilton’s needs. On 12 August 1791, Lee wrote to Hamilton:

Mr Cox1 was about taking to you my riding horse, but my apprehension of yr. necessary hurry & my wish to compare him with a horse I have sent for, concluded a procrastination of my execution of your request & my ardent desire.2 No other consideration could have induced me to postpone a measure you reckon essential to your health. Nor shall time be lost in presenting you with this trivial testimony of the zeal with which I engage in any matter which goes to your comfort.

The change was visible even in art from this period. In the 1792 portrait by John Trumbull, for example, you can see the hint of extra weight in his face: