Hee Haw Breakdown, Nolan Cormier & The L.A. Aces (1971)From Lousiana Cajun Music Special, Swallow Records 1988: “Cut in 1971 at the first recording session of Swallow’s last recording studio, this Cajun ditty became an instant hit regionally, and then skipped over the Atlantic to become a popular Cajun hit in England as well.”
Johan “Bottleneck John” Eliasson (Resolian guitar) with Oskar Arhusiander Stefan Swen (harp) and a 1920 Midwest Utilitor (rhythm) live from Sweden in 2011.
Today is happening and tomorrow is expected to arrive on schedule, so have a great weekend and we’ll see you then.
The Most Effectual Method of Recovering a Drowned Person, a print made by John Fougeron, satirising the French technique, 1747
In the 1730s, René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur popularized a recent discovery: the seemingly lifeless could be revived with a wealth of strategies. This “Pliny of the Eighteenth Century” (Réaumur invented a precursor to the Celsius scale, influenced methods of silk production in China, and pioneered the process of metallic tinning still used today) wrote a pamphlet titled Avis pour donner du secours à ceux que l’on croit noyez (Advice to aid those believed drowned).
After debating the pros and cons of tickling the nose with feathers and filling a drowning man’s mouth with warm urine, Réaumur reveals what he believes to be the best technique: using a pipe stem to blow stimulating tobacco smoke into the intestines through the rectum. Louis XV found the pamphlet dazzling and encouraged its wide distribution. Startlingly, as Anton Serdeczny discusses in his recent book on reanimation, soon riverbanks across Europe were lined with “resuscitation kits”, as close-by as a contemporary defibrillator, which contained all the necessary supplies for giving a nicotine enema (and later, thankfully, included bellows as a substitute for breath).
I found these in a file titled “Mini” stashed away behind the rec room couch hidden underneath the cat stuff, and there were no sources listed. Maybe I snagged them from an image search a while back, or possibly I found them on Pinterest, but they’re just too cool to throw away.
Stack O’ Lee Blues,Mississippi John Hurt (1928)The song was published in 1911 and first recorded in 1923 by Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, but the origin predates both, as a song called Stack-A-Lee was mentioned in in the Kansas City Leavenworth Herald, in 1897 as being performed by “Prof. Charlie Lee, the piano thumper.”
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 28 December 1895 Shot in Curtis’s Place
William Lyons, 25, a levee hand, was shot in the abdomen yesterday evening at 10 o’clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis, at Eleventh and Morgan Streets, by Lee Sheldon, a carriage driver. Lyons and Sheldon were friends and were talking together. Both parties, it seems, had been drinking and were feeling in exuberant spirits. The discussion drifted to politics, and an argument was started, the conclusion of which was that Lyons snatched Sheldon’s hat from his head. The latter indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Sheldon withdrew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. When his victim fell to the floor Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away. He was subsequently arrested and locked up at the Chestnut Street Station. Lyons was taken to the Dispensary, where his wounds were pronounced serious. Lee Sheldon is also known as ‘Stag’ Lee.
Had some good karma come visit in the past week: doc called and said there’s nothing important to discuss, Gord sent me some cool prints, and my workload has expanded. Then it balanced itself somewhat: a computer crash did some minor damage, and snakes ate my catalytic converter at 3am yesterday. Life happens.
Have a great weekend, and we’ll be back twitchin’ & bitchin’ tomorrow.
22:02:20 22/02/2022
Tacky Raccoons 