Habemus Papam -- May 10, 2025

msnbc.com

On its second day, the Conclave selected a Cardinal born in the US, who was of partly African-American descent. MAGA heads exploded. People have said all my life that an American would never become pope. Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost was born in Chicago. He was Archbishop of x in Peru and had been working in the Vatican for two years. He was a joint citizen of Peru and the US. I was happy to learn that he had chosen the name Leo. I like Leo XIII. My first question on learning he was from Chicago was to ask: Cubs or White Sox. It turns out to be White Sox.

Comic Book -- Billy the Kid Western Outlaw -- May 8, 2025

coverbrowser.com

Charlton Comics published Billy the Kid Western Outlaw from 1957 to 1983. I read at least a few issues. Billy the Kid was a fictional character who shared few traits with the original Billy the Kid.

Pulp -- Wide Awake Library -- May 7, 2025

coverbrowser.com

Before the pulps, there were the dime novels, which sometimes cost a nickel. This issue of the Wide Awake Library featured the first full account of the life of bandit William Bonney, who was called Billy the Kid. The Kid died, shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett, on 14-July-1881. The True Life of Billy the Kid, written by John Woodruff Lewis, was published six weeks later.

Boston Post, 19-July-1881

Alcatraz -- May 6, 2025

T***p has decreed that the Bureau of Prisons should reactivate Alcatraz as a prison. Did he watch a History Channel program about Alcatraz? If he did, he fell asleep before the part where they said the prison was too expensive to maintain and the concrete was crumbling, and the iron was rusting away. 

Does he expect that guards and their families will live on the island again? I don't think I would like to have my family living on the other side of a fence next to a maximum-security prison. Some of my mother's classmates commuted from the island and everyone was worried when the Battle of Alcatraz broke out. 

And then he decreed a 100% tariff on films produced outside of the US, despite the fact that we export three times movies than we import.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, 2025 -- May 5, 2025

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone. General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín led the Mexican army which defeated the French invaders at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

"The national arms have been covered with glory" General Zaragoza wrote in a letter to President Benito Juárez. Some people credit this defeat with preventing French interference in the US Civil War.

Mark Twain Memorial Concert -- May 4, 2025

Washington Times, 08-May-1925

In May, 1915, Washington DC hosted a Mark Twain Memorial Concert to help raise funds for a Mark Twain Memorial Park in Florida, Missouri, Twain's birthplace. His daughter Clara sang and was well received, Irvin S Cobb was a popular humorist and Colonel George Harvey, the host, was a friend of Twain.

Washington Times, 10-May-1925

Washington Evening Star, 11-May-1925

Toonerville Trolley -- To Kill a Woodpecker -- May 3, 2025

Perth Amboy Evening News, 27-May-1925

I love Fontaine Fox's The I love Fontaine Fox's The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains.

Washington Times, 30-June-1918