Pearl DeVere, the most famous madam of the Colorado gold rush era, was a bit of a mystery. She is said to have had red hair and milky white skin, but no picture of her exists. Born near Chicago, Illinois in a small town called Evansville, Pearl (not her real name) was raised by wealthy […]
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Starting with my dad, people have been telling me to Stand Up Straight all my life. He told me. The Army told me. My friends told me, and probably a few enemies. No one ever told me how, until last year, when my chiropractor was moved to show me a little exercise in which I
Three Little Words Read More »
Much jazz writing has proceeded from the Great Man theory of history. If you’re trying to fashion a narrative, it’s a convenient theory. Buddy Bolden begat King Oliver begat Louis Armstrong begat Roy Eldridge begat Dizzy Gillespie; Bix Beiderbecke begat Bobby Hackett begat Chet Baker. And so on. These trains of influence are supportable to
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To pay it forward means that instead of paying someone back for a good deed, you do a good deed for someone else. Maybe you’ll surrender your first-place position in a long line at the 7-Eleven when someone behind you is in a hurry. On a rainy day, you might hand an umbrella to someone
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In the spring of 1917, the American Expeditionary Forces entered World War I under the command of General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, who had also led the famous 10th Cavalry Regiment of African-American “Buffalo Soldiers” during the Indian wars and the Spanish-American conflict. In fact, “Black Jack,” his nickname, was initially an insult leveled
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Montezuma Well is an ecosystem unlike any other. It’s a collapsed limestone sinkhole located in the juniper-mesquite shrublands of Verde Valley, Arizona. It holds a 55-foot-deep body of water rich in CO2 and thin in oxygen. The heavy ambient air makes a trek through the area feel like a tranquil dream. This sensation alone is a worthwhile experience. Two hot