January 2011

On September 14 appeared Sexual Behavior in the Human Female by Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, and Gebhard of the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University. It caused quite as much stir as had the companion volume on men, published five years earlier- more of a stir, perhaps, for those were days before the media had made fodder as familiar as the television listings of women’s hopes, fears, troubles, and joys. And it was then a given that only men talked openly about sex. That women consented to answer Kinsey’s questions was in itself something of an innovation. “Neither younger girls nor older women discuss their sexual experiences in the open way that males do,” said Kinsey.

P ATRICK COUGHLIN was shot to death by a sheriff’s firing squad near Evanston, Wyoming, on December 15, 1896. “Have you anything to say?” asked Sheriff Dickson. “Nothing,” came the answer. Then, as he was fastened to the chair, he added: “I have one request to make and that is my picture may not be taken.”

In vain. These pictures were taken. Carl Pugliese of Yonkers, New York, found them and sent them on to us with a most flamboyant account of Coughlin’s career published in the Evanston News-Register . Coughlin was a thief who shot and killed two deputies in a posse that had tracked him down. He received extreme unction from the same priest who had administered communion to him as a young man.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, LANDLORD BASEBALL BEFORE DOUBLEDAY HOW TO MAKE A PRESSMAN’S HAT DID YOU ONCE SEE STELLA PLAIN?

I N OUR February/March issue Albert Macomber, living in Washington, D.C., in 1863, described a “dilapidated pile of bricks” just north of the U.S. Capitol as the residence of George Washington.

He was wrong, says John H. Rhodehamel, archivist of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association: Washington never lived in the city that bears his name. “The crumbling buildings that impressed Mr. Macomber were actually President Washington’s Capitol Hill town houses, designed by him in 1798 and subsequently built by William Thornton, first architect of the Capitol. Hoping by his example to encourage the development of the new federal city, Washington may also have responded to the old speculative impulse that led him to acquire tens of thousands of acres as a younger man. Within easy walking distance of the Capitol, the two adjoining buildings were to serve as rooming houses for the senators and congressmen who would soon descend on the city that still existed largely in the vision of its planners.”

IN MAY OF 1975, when I was fortyseven, I developed angina (heart pain due to an insufficient supply of blood to the heart muscle), and about two months later, after a stress test, a coronary angiogram, and various blood tests, I underwent an operation. The operation was a coronary artery bypass in which veins from my leg were used to bypass the obstructed arteries of my heart. For about one hour, while this was being done, my heart was stopped and a heart-lung machine did the work of pumping and oxygenating my blood, work ordinarily performed by rny heart and lungs.

In the eight years that have passed since my operation, I have lived a full life, practicing surgery, writing, playing tennis and racquetball, and, in general, enjoying myself. I have not once had an attack of angina.

When I was visiting with Dr. Lillehei, who now devotes most of his time to matters related to the St. Jude valve, a valve he developed and which is used worldwide to replace damaged or diseased heart valves, he showed me a chart he had drawn up to describe the evolution of a surgical idea:

“Obviously,” Dr. Lillehei said of his chart, “it’s crude, but it’s also very true. It’s difficult to fight the skeptics and the naysayers when you’re trying to do new things. But in the end, it’s worth it.”

—W. A.N.

1783 Two Hundred Years Ago 1858 One Hundred and Twenty-five Years Ago 1933 Fifty Years Ago 1953 Thirty Years Ago

Congratulations on a very clever and beautifully illustrated article about postage stamps (December 1982). I was especially impressed with the layout and the color reproductions.

The cover photograph offered an interesting and attractive possibility for a future Christmas stamp. And as a result of your suggestion, our Stamp Development Branch is researching the possibility of doing a similar stamp for an upcoming holiday issue.

The Postal Service receives thousands of suggestions for stamp subjects each year. I might also add that the United States is one of the few countries that actively solicits suggestions from the general public for stamp designs. The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee has the difficult task of reviewing the ideas and recommending selected subjects to me for final approval.

EARLY IN THE afternoon of the last day of August 1839, Henry David Thoreau and his brother John put a homemade dory in the Concord River, not far above the bridge where the Minutemen had fired on British troops sixty-four years before. They traveled light. For food they took melons and potatoes grown in their own garden and a few other provisions. For shelter they had a tent, also made at home, and for warmth a pair of buffalo skins. They had a few tools, some pots and pans, two pairs of oars, a sail, and a set of wheels to portage their boat.