FIPS DAILY ALMANAC: Thursday, March 15, 2012

Rise and shine, FIPS'ters! Welcome to your day! On this day, beware the Ides of March or the Ides of March or the mother effin' Ides of March. In other news, Ben & Jerry's supports gay marriage with a new ice cream flavor, and in celebrity goss: whawhawha  what the hell happened to Ashley Judd's face? 

ON THIS DAY IN BK HISTORY (1975):

Susan Hayward, the legendary actress who was born Edythe Marrener in Brooklyn, was most known for her role in the film I Want To Live, for which she won an Academy award. She's also known her appearance in The Valley of the Dolls and often said she lived the type of storybook life that could never happen to "a girl from Brooklyn." Upon dying at age 55 of complications from a brain tumor, her home borough and colleagues deeply mourned the loss.

[READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES] 

Also as I was combing through Brooklyn Daily Eagle Archives (like the giant nerd that I am) I came across this clipping on March 15, 1855:

WOWZA! You do the math!

ON THIS DAY IN FIPS'TORY:  

• 2011: Crash on 5th Ave & 6th St
• 2010: PUNK SLOPE

FIPS DAILY ALMANAC: Wednesday, March 14, 2012

pic by Flickr User A Crom

Rise and shine, FIPS'ters! Welcome to your day! In national news, a Doonesbury Abortion Comic Strip angers the hell out of Texas conservatives and President Obama takes British PM Cameron to a NCAA tournament game and talks the whole damn time. 

ON THIS DAY IN BK HISTORY (1895):

Wait, hold up! Brooklyn had a yacht club and it wasn't just an ironically-named bar near a severely polluted canal? Turns out this club had itself a President and a treasurer who reported "a substantial balance." The regatta committee was headed by a guy named George B. Lyons. These guys sound a lot like spoiled douches from a John Hughes movie. We're talking some real preppy shit that went down in this borough in 1895. I mean, can we just go back to the fact that they used to have regattas...in Brooklyn. 

[READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE ARCHIVES] 

ON THIS DAY IN FIPS'TORY:  

• 2011:  When Acid Attacks

FIPS DAILY ALMANAC: Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Park Slope photo by Park Slope Lens

Rise and shine, FIPS'ters! Welcome to your day! In politics, Former Vice President Dick Cheney is scared of Canada, and if you're a kid who wants to get a high-paying job while making a difference in the world, Just be a dumb ho on TV. 

ON THIS DAY IN BK HISTORY (1922):

So the Prohibition-era sounds like it sucked on a massive scale. But an ever-industrious New Yorker by the name of J.V. Martin, along with a mysterious money man, wanted to make the most of it. At one time the duo had plans to dump $10,000,000 into a the ultimate booze cruise. The idea was that tenders (water-taxis, really) would pick people up in Jersey, Manhattan and finally Brooklyn before taking people 3 miles out to the Love Boat, where partying was legal and Isaac Washington would be waiting to serve you. Described as a "floating liquor palace," as large as "a Leviathan," the barge was going to be built in Europe and shipped over to the city. But Federal Prohibition Commissioner Roy "giant hard-on" Hayes said YEAH, RIGHT. Over his dead body. And I guess he won the argument because as far as I know, it never happened. 

 

[READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES] 

ON THIS DAY IN FIPS'TORY:  

• 2011: [WHAT YOU SHOULD ORDER AT...] STONE PARK CAFE
• 2009: BREAKING: MTA to hire Japanese-style "pushers" for Seventh Ave F-train station

FIPS DAILY ALMANAC: Monday, March 12, 2012

pic by Flickr User Lost in Brooklyn

Rise and shine, FIPS'ters! Welcome to your day! In international news, tragedy strikes in Afghanistan as a US Sergeant kills 16 civilians. And in Celebrity goss, Bobbi Christina wants to change her name. 

ON THIS DAY IN BK HISTORY (1902):

Once upon a time, trolleys ran over the Brooklyn Bridge. During rush hour this was a total shitshow because people wouldn't be able to load onto the trains fast enough, causing a horrendous back up of train traffic, and making the end-of-day rush hour commute from Manhattan to Brooklyn making a free-for-all. The answer: build two more train loops on the Manhattan side. Why only have one set of confused, dumb and frustrated commuters when you can have two? 42 years later, the elevated railroad tracks were done away with to accomedate more vehicular traffic. 

[READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE ARCHIVES] 

ON THIS DAY IN FIPS'TORY:  

• 2011: Here's Park Slope: More Closings, More Burgers
• 2010: Bullshit from the Brits: This Week In Yeah, Right [SEX!]

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