Founded in 2017, Strange Times is a twice-monthly newsletter that explores the weirdest news of 1921, one day at a time. To get free games and the original PDFs of every article that runs in Strange Times—plus stories that didn’t make the cut—back me on Patreon.
Things I Like
Vaccines! This weekend the Philadelphia Inquirer released a massive story about declining measles vaccination in the Philadelphia area, where over 200 Philly schools have fallen below the 95% vaccination threshold for herd immunity. Pennsylvania is one of the few states on the east coast that allows parents to opt out of vaccine requirements for religious or, sigh, philosophical reasons, and as a result there are private schools and charter schools where as many as half of the 2024 kindergarten class wasn’t vaccinated. The vaccination rates at conventional public schools were much higher—yet another reason to support public education!
Custom Pencils! Although less serious than measles, there’s another another problem endemic at schools of every stripe that nobody, not even the Inquirer, is talking about. I’m talking about kids borrowing pencils and then refusing to return them! To protect my children from this torment, I bought them each a dozen pencils with their names printed on them. Your kids might want this too. Only use your kids’ names, not mine.
Writing Stuff Down! And you know what’s fun to do with a pencil? Take notes! I’ve been taking an online french class through Innerfrench, which means I’ve spent 30-45 minutes every morning taking painstaking notes on le futur simple, les pronoms COD et COI, and that tricky little bastard called «en». I’ve filled up half a notebook with this stuff, and it’s helped me process a ton of challenging material as well as making me feel like a college student again.
Today we’ve got the decline of French cooking and the collapse of Georgian morality. Savor the flavor of squashed bugs on…
September 3, 1921
Federal troops deploy in West Virginia to confront the marching miners who have come to protest conditions in Mingo County. Martial law has not yet been declared, and sources with knowledge of the miners intentions suggest they will lay down their arms rather than fire on the nation’s army. Check the Patreon for three whopping stories about the ongoing labor war.
Shooting continues in the streets of Belfast, where 18 are dead, including a child killed by snipers after climbing a wall to watch the violence.
When stones pelted at the windows fail to wake a family of seven whose apartment building is on fire, two neighbors rush through “the smoke filled halls” to carry them to safety.
The Weather: Fair today, probably thunder showers tonight or Sunday; no change in temperature; southwest winds.
For over a century now, the French have fretted about the decline of French cuisine. A journalist with the unlikely name of Maurice de Walfkfe makes the sharpest observations here. I went looking for more information about the guy—a name like that should be pretty SEO friendly—and found nothing. But there was a bit about a journalist named Maurice de Waleffe, who died in 1946, apparently just after writing a book of memoirs that I would love to read if a translation exists. He was best known for founding beauty pageants—check out this fascinating post about his connection to Jewish beauty queens of the 1920s for more!
PARIS, Sept. 2.—The French cooks are organizing a great meeting at Dijon to examine what steps can be taken to bring back the French cuisine to its erstwhile excellence and to arrest the distinct tendency to decadence noticeable today.
It stated that one of the chief causes of the decadence is due to the fact that the French chefs now have fewer outlets for their talents, owing to the disappearance of many German and Austrian princely courts, where they were employed before the war. The high taxation in England has also caused many to dismiss their expensive French chefs from their households.
The conference intends to appeal to the Minister of Public Instruction to include cooking in the curriculum of girls’ schools.
“Instead of teaching them how chemically to analyze mustard it would be far better to teach them how to use mustard for making a sauce,” says one enthusiast.
Paris, too, is beginning seriously to consider the necessity to do something. Committees have been formed to erect a monument to Savarin, who is universally recognized the undisputed king of all gourmets. A monument will be erected at the birthplace of the author of the famous “Physiology of Taste.”
A well-known journalist, Maurice de Walfkfe, expresses the hope that, as other countries are now closed, the French chefs may perhaps be able to conquer America.
“Taste there is very wild,” he writes. “Millionaires want violent sensations whereof the base is formed by red pepper and iced water. They want to be shot with revolver bullets in the mouth. When they come to Paris they only desire two kinds of drink—that is whisky, which gives out the delightful odor of squashed bugs, and champagne, which sparkles.”
De Walfkfe urges the necessity of “seducing the taste of the American tourist in order that they may call for French cooks when they return home.”
As a parent myself, I think it’s high time we were held accountable for bootlegging and joy riding. My kids are 8 and 10 and I’m proud to say they do hardly any bootlegging at all.
ATLANTA, Sept. 2.—A plea to the mothers and fathers of Atlanta boys and girls to re-establish the family altars as the only means of solving the serious moral problems of the day was the unusual suggestion contained in a Grand Jury presentment filed in Superior Court today. It was filed due to an investigation of conditions in the city created by bootleggers, joy riding and other indulgences calculated to undermine morals.
“We beg that our parents and citizens stop, look and listen, and give their attention to these suggestions and to the solving of these momentous problems, the proper solution of which is so important to society.
“This problem of improving the morals of the coming generation, as we see it, is at the bottom of some of the problems that have been presented to this Grand Jury. We believe that this problem can be solved only when the mothers and fathers exercise their jurisdiction as parents and control their daughters in the old-fashioned way. It is not a long step to utter destruction of character and her good name when a young girl is allowed to go riding at night unchaperoned in an automobile with a young man. We believe that it is time for every parent to come to a realization of the conditions that obtain in our city and country as evidenced by facts presented to your present Grand Jury during their deliberations.”
They also declared that the advent of the automobile is largely responsible for the looseness of morals and the increase of crime, and recommended that the City of Atlanta and the County of Fulton, acting jointly, shall establish a commission to consist of three reputable citizens, who shall act with the city and county Police Chiefs and shall have authority to grant or refuse licenses to all hired chauffeurs, taxicab drivers or drivers of cars for hire who reside in Atlanta and Fulton County.
