Thanks to Cyrill Demian Mama’s Got A Squeeze Box

A French peasant in his smock and wooden sabots dances with his wife at village café in this early post card.  I’ve heard it called the second most dreaded instrument in the world, after the banjo.  

patent concertina Polka accordion Buckwheat Zydeco Charles Wheatstone Cyrill Demian M. Honner piano accordion squeeze box Tex-Mex Music Weird Al Yankovic

The Glorious but Futile First Atlantic Crossing of a Ship with Steam Power

The S,S, Savannah coming into port under steam power in 1819. To get a handle on the audacity of the designers and owners of the SS Savannah , the first ship equipped with steam power to cross the Atl

.S.S. Savannah Capt. Moses Rogers Fricket & Crockett Shipyards James Monroe Lord Lynedoch Thomas Graham Scarborough & Isaacs side wheeler steam ship Stephen Roberts Trans-Atlantic crossing

Clara Barton and the Founding of the American Red Cross

On May 21, 1881 Clara Barton, already famed for her tireless work as a Civil War nurse , organized the founding meeting of the Association of the American Red Cross (later the American Red Cross) in t

Universalist Civil War Clara Barton American Red Cross Dorothea Dix Franco-Prussian War International Red Cross Johnstown Flood MIssing Soldiers Bureau nurse Oxford Massachusetts school teacher

A Man Called to Testify as Reproductive Rights are Under Siege

Not only are abortion rights under attack but women's control over their own bodies is being criminalized. Note —A version this first appeared on my blogback in its relative infancy in 2007. And I hav

Georgia Supreme Court Alabama Murfin memoir Handmaidens Republicans Anti-abortion movement Heartbeat bills Jane NARAL Roe v Wade Women's reproductive rights

A Unitarian Rite of Spring—Flower Communion with Murfin Verse

Flowers surround the Chalice ready for distribution.  In 2016.  Between ministers Tree of Life Religious Education Director Sam Jones led the service. Today we will hold our annual Flower Communion at

UUA Murfin Verse Flower Communion Norbert Capek Tree of Life U U Congregation Czechoslovakia Prague Sam Jones Unitarian tradition