John Hood on LinkedIn: Caption contest: At the invitation of Martin Kifer, my friend Ross Harris… (2024)

I wonder how the witching community encourages magical safety during cold and flu season. After all, Samantha on “Bewitched” was able to cast many different kinds of spells with just a slight wiggle of the nose. It seems like if she had sneezed, the whole room would have blown up.

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Today is the shared birthday of notorious Roman emperors Caligula (12) and Commodus (161). But why should I share their stories of excess and grotesquerie when there is another birthday boy to commemorate today?On August 31, 1918, Joseph Lerner’s wife Edith gave birth to a son, Alan. Although trained as a dentist, Joseph Lerner was the co-founder and later president & chairman of the board of Lerner Stores, a successful retail chain with clothing stores across the nation. So young Alan had a comfortable upbringing, attending Choate for high school and Harvard for college. At both schools one of his fellow students and friends was John F. Kennedy, who worked with Alan on the Choate yearbook staff.But Alan’s interests — and a boxing injury that blinded him in one eye — took him in a very different direction from Kennedy’s. Alan decided to focus on music as had another Harvard friend, Leonard Bernstein. Lerner wrote songs and plays for radio. In 1942, he met Austrian-born composer Frederick Loewe at a New York club. The two hit it off and began their famous collaboration with “What’s Up?” It ran on Broadway for 63 performances in 1943. Their first big hit was “Brigadoon” (1947), a fantasy set in Scotland, followed by the Western-themed “Paint Your Wagon” (1951), “My Fair Lady” (1956), the original movie musical “Gigi” (1958), and “Camelot” (1960).Alan Jay Lerner produced wonderful work with other collaborators, too. He worked with Burton Lane on the 1951 film “Royal Wedding,” one of my favorite Fred Astaire musicals. That same year Lerner also wrote the screenplay for “An American in Paris,” one of my favorite Gene Kelly musicals. Another notable Lerner-Lane musical was “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” (1965), which wasn't a great show but has a great title song.

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In InsideSources’ DC Journal, Frances Floresca Baldwin called the spread of school-choice programs a “Freedom Conservatism win” that is expanding opportunity for all. “School choice has transformed many lives, including my own,” she wrote. “It is an idea for every student in our country that is indeed the civil rights issue of our time.”You can read more #FreeCon updates here:

On this date in 1813, a war party of "Red Stick" Creeks attacked Fort Mims, Alabama. Backstory: the onset of the War of 1812 set off a series of internal conflicts among Indian communities, often encouraged by British agents. Some Indians — such as the Red Sticks and their ally from the Great Lakes region, Tec*mseh — disdained other Indians who modified traditional gender roles (men fight, women work) and who adopted European customs, farming practices, and education. The Red Sticks initiated a civil war among the Creeks that by the summer of 1813 had spilled over into attacks on American homes and settlements. By August, American militia had concentrated at Fort Mims, so it became the Red Sticks' next target. After a brief but furious battle, it fell on August 30. About half of the 500 Americans and “White Stick” Creeks in the settlement were either killed during the battle or massacred afterwards, including noncombatants. Outraged, U.S. Army regulars and militia from Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas assembled at Fayetteville, Tennessee and then headed south, commanded by Andrew Jackson (my 1st cousin, 7th-removed). Included among the young officers of the column was Sam Houston, a future congressman (TN), governor (TN and TX), U.S. Senator (TX), and president (TX Republic). Also accompanying General Jackson’s forces were militia scouts, including future Congressman Davy Crockett, and several hundred Cherokee allies, including The Ridge (future speaker of the Cherokee assembly), John Ross (future principal chief), and Junaluska, a Cherokee warrior who is a central character in my 2022 novel “Forest Folk,” which depicts these events. Separately, another force of regulars, militia, and Choctaw allies assembled at Fort Stoddert, in what is today southern Alabama, and marched north.After months of tough campaigning, the Red Sticks were decisively defeated. This particular gambit on the part of the British and their allies did not end well for them. Unfortunately, it did not end well in the long run for America‘s Indian allies, either. In my book, I depict Junaluska’s journey to Washington two decades later. He famously confronted his former commander in the White House to demand an end to Jackson’s Indian removal policies. The president refused, prompting Junaluska to regret his decisions during the war with the Red Sticks:“If I had known at the Battle of the Horseshoe what I know now, American history would have been differently written. If I had known that Jackson would drive us from our homes, I would have killed him myself.”

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James Manley is a professor of humanities at the College of Central Florida and a Freedom Conservatism signatory.Ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Church of North America in 2016, Manley has taught at six colleges and seminaries in the United States and East Africa.During his varied career, he has also worked as a janitor, grocery store clerk, warehouse packer, acoustic ceiling tile scrubber, shepherd, goatherd, swineherd, pine tree farmer and vicar of an Anglican parish.At the College of Central Florida, Manley currently directs the Honor Institute and its prestigious Community of Scholars program, which offers diverse opportunities for students to expand their knowledge beyond the classroom.You can read more about #FreeCon signatories here: https://lnkd.in/ehJkFZjX

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Learn something new every day:“Snickers, the top-selling candy bar in the U.S., debuted in 1930, and in 1932, another well-known sweet treat made its first appearance: the 3 Musketeers candy bar, or, more accurately, candy bars. At the time, each 5-cent package contained three bars with three different flavors: chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla.“The three flavors resulted in the candy bar’s name, one that had already been made familiar by author Alexandre Dumas’ popular 1844 adventure novel The Three Musketeers. The 3 Musketeers bar remained a multipack from 1932 until 1945, but like many industries at the time, the candy business was majorly impacted by World War II. “In 1942, government-mandated sugar rationing came into effect. When regular production resumed following the war in 1945, 3 Musketeers, citing ongoing challenges and costs related to wartime restrictions, was reduced to just one piece, available in just one flavor: chocolate. But despite the lower bar count, the name remained the same.” https://lnkd.in/evAkjTNn

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Why should you vary your political media diet? For the same reasons two eyes are better than one: field of vision & depth perception.

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Art Pope is chairman of Variety Wholesalers, Inc., a private family-held business that owns and operates a general merchandise retail chain that includes Roses and Maxway stores.A Freedom Conservatism signatory, he is also chairman of the John William Pope Foundation, a grantmaker that supports public-policy organizations, educational institutions, and programs in human services, historical preservation, civic affairs, and the arts.In addition to his business and philanthropic pursuits, Pope has spent decades in public service, including four terms in the North Carolina House of Representatives and stints as state budget director and special counsel for two previous governors.He currently serves on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, which oversees 16 four-year campuses and related institutions. During his tenure, Pope has championed the liberal arts and keeping university costs under control.Pope has also chaired the boards of the Institute for Humane Studies — which connects and supports graduate students, scholars, and intellectuals committed to classical liberalism — and The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which supports higher-education initiatives such as the Bradley Graduate and Post-Graduate Fellowship Program.As a philanthropist, Pope has promoted excellence, efficiency, and intellectual diversity on campuses by founding The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, a nationally known publisher of analysis and commentary on higher education, and by funding high-quality programs at campuses across the Carolinas.About the Pope Foundation’s $10 million gift to his alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill, he said that “when state institutions of higher learning succeed at their core missions, we all benefit.”By supporting cancer research, addiction treatment, track-and-field sports, and the university’s Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program — the largest in the world — Pope’s gift demonstrated that “excellence isn’t just about the amount of money an institution receives but about how well it is spent.” For more information on #FreeCon involvement in higher education policy, click here: https://lnkd.in/ehJkFZjX

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