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Word of the Every So Often​

thanatosis:  (noun)  the ability to fake death to avoid a predator, such as found in many insects, the hognose snakes, and opossums.  Sheila found thanatosis to be an effective way of avoiding creepy guys, until she met Bob, who was a thanatologist.  Not surprisingly, the two of them got along swimmingly.

The Daily Holiday

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Today, Sunday, February 16, begins the Great Backyard Bird Count, which runs through February 19.  This is a project of Cornell University, and if you're a birdwatcher, then you know Cornell.  They're, like, the source for birdwatching.  What you're supposed to do is:  Sometime over the next four days pick a place to watch birds, even if it's only your backyard.  Then, on one of those days, go out and birdwatch for at least 15 minutes, noting all the different birds you see or hear, and how many there are of everything.  Then you're supposed to submit your list to Cornell using the Merlin Bird ID app.  Here at the Press we don't make it a habit of plugging much, but this really is a great app, especially if you're a birdwatcher… or you want to be.  So, yeah, then Cornell will compile all these lists and it will give them a really good idea of bird health throughout the world.  So get out there and get to counting!

Cartoon of the Week

06 On Every Street.jpg

There's one on every street.

STUFF

#10, John Tyler

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John Tyler, our tenth president (1841-1845) was born into a wealthy plantation family in Virginia, on March 29, 1790.  He pretty much stayed on the plantation until attending William and Mary, graduating in 1807.  After college he went into law, and from there, politics.  He was a Virginia state legislator and governor, and both a US senator and representative before becoming the VP and then president.  He also got married and had kids.  And that’s about it. 

 

Overall, Tyler is pretty much known for... nothing.  If you google “Tyler,” he’s not even the first person to come up.  Try that with just about any other president.  John Tyler was lovingly nicknamed “His Accidency,” while he was president, because it was only by accident he ever got to be the president.  He was the Vice President to William Henry Harrison, who only served a month before taking ill and dying, leaving Tyler the first VP to take over the presidency.

 

Tyler was a Democrat who was put on Harrison’s Whig ticket for the same reason many vice presidents are chosen – to help get the vote.  In this case they were after the Southern Slave Owners’ vote.  And they got it.  And then when Harrison died, everybody got Tyler. 

 

When Tyler came into office, many politicians, including the Whigs (the ticket he was elected under), were trying to re-establish a national bank, which Tyler was opposed to because of his particular political beliefs.  He was a Strict Constructionist, which means he only went along with what any given law implicitly said should be done, whether it truly made any sense or not.  Let’s say, for instance, that there’s a law that says if you use a knife in the act of a crime you are automatically sentenced to life in prison.  On the surface, maybe not a bad idea.  After all, we don’t want people going around threatening others with a knife, now, do we?  Let’s further say that you get pulled over for speeding, which is a crime.  Because you had your Boy Scout pocketknife on you at the time, you get sentenced to life in prison.  That’s how a Strict Constructionist sees things – very black and white.  How Tyler saw it was that the president was the one who decided everything, and he decided that a national bank went against his political beliefs.

 

A good rule to remember if you ever happen to become the president because the guy who actually got elected died:  Don’t do anything that the dead guy wasn’t going to do anyway.  When Tyler vetoed the Bank Bill, he pretty well managed to piss off everybody – the Whigs, the Democrats, Congress, the Senate, and everybody that worked for him.  Almost his entire Cabinet resigned shortly after he took office.  He was even expelled from his own party.  Tyler also holds the honour of being the first president to have a veto overridden by Congress.  They seriously did not like this guy.  And they may have been on to something.  When Tyler’s term ended in 1845, absolutely nobody wanted him to run for another term.

 

Tyler was a huge proponent of States’ Rights.  In other words, he supported slavery.  It is estimated that Tyler owned up to 200 slaves over the course of his lifetime.  He was, however, not the worst slave owner.  He didn’t allow his slaves to be whipped, nor did he break up families, and he never went to any auctions.  But saying somebody is “not the worst slave owner” still means they owned slaves.  As long as people have owned slaves, others have seen it as wrong.  So there’s really no excuse for enslaving others... other than profit. Sure, he was instrumental in stopping the importation of slaves, but not slavery.  With importation outlawed, it meant that the only slaves available were those that were already here... and their children.  It meant that the slaves people like Tyler owned suddenly became worth a whole heck of a lot more.  It’s a bit hard to see that as a positive thing.

 

After Tyler left office, he was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before taking office.  He died in Virginia, on January 18, 1862.

MORE STUFF

Why is it that every time I deal with just about every company – especially tech companies – I feel like it’s only a matter of time before I’m part of a class action law suit?  For instance, I was trying to get ahold of a medical billing center, and the first phone tree option after language selection was, “If you are an attorney, press 6.” 

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