FIPS DAILY ALMANAC: Friday, March 9, 2012

Park Slope photo by Park Slope lens

Rise and shine, FIPS'ters! Welcome to your day! In national news, the senate tells the GOP to take their pipeline and shove it, and a gunman opens fire a psych clinic in Pittsburgh. 

ON THIS DAY IN BK HISTORY (1947):

Mirror mirror on the wall, who were the most racist Brooklynites of all? I guess it was the local shipping fraternity, whose 100 members decided to attend a minstrel show at BAM in blackface. Does it help that all proceeds were going to the Catholic church down on Hicks Street? Not really. 

"The faces of 100 members of the shipping fraternity, which have been red on many occassion, will be black on Thursday evening," the piece reads. WHUCK? Red from the drink or red from making fun of Native Americans? The hits just keep coming with these guys. 

[FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES] 

ON THIS DAY IN FIPS'TORY:  

• 2011: Tumble-Weave Spotted On The Sidewalks Of Brooklyn
• 2010: Cool or Not Cool: Parenting Your Children L-O-U-D-L-Y
• 2009: FIPS WELCOMES INFLUX OF DIFFERENTLY-ABLED READERS