Heck, if you could live on fries and wine I could even see going vegan. FWIW, it is estimated that about 2 million people in the US and 1% of the global population have celiac disease.

On this day in 1435, the Pope pronounced the bull Sicut Dudum; forbidding the enslavement of Canary Islands' indigenous people who had converted to christianity or who were in the process of so doing (but not the rest of the population). This order, simple and clear as it was, nonetheless had to be repeated even though it was, itself, something of a repeat.

On this day in 1842, A wounded Dr. William Brydon rode into Jalalabad, Afghanistan on a wounded horse, the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers who set out upon the British retreat from Kabul on January 6, 1842.

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

~~ Rudyard Kipling - The Young British Soldier

On this day in 1893, U.S. Marines landed in Honolulu to prevent queen Liliuokalani from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution. This was a classic US style "Public-Private Partnership" wherein the government allied itself with powerful private interests and oligarchs in order to help the oligarchs arrogate yet more power as well as the property and rights of the citizenry to themselves. As ever, the underlying goal was to force the masses into serfdom or servitude. In other parts of the world this merger of public and private interests is, if extensive and prolonged, quite correctly known as fascism.

On this day in history:

1435 – The Pope pronounced the bull Sicut Dudum to spare select Guanche persons from enslavement.

1830 – The Great Fire of New Orleans started.

1842 - The end of the British retreat from Kabul

1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ended the US war on Mexico in California.

1888 – The National Geographic Society was founded

1893 – U.S. Marines landed in Honolulu to prevent queen Liliuokalani from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.

1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse…! was published

1942 – Henry Ford patented a plastic automobile, which, as far as I know, was never built

1950 – Finland established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China

1968 – Johnny Cash performed live at Folsom State Prison.

1993 – The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was signed

2018 – A false emergency alert caused widespread panic in Hawaii. Perhaps they feared another invasion by the US Marines.

Some people who were born on this day:

Modern civilization is based on violence and slavery and fine words.

~~ G.I. Gurdjieff

1683 – Christoph Graupner, harpsichord player and composer
1810 – Ernestine Rose, suffragist, abolitionist, and freethinker
1832 – Horatio Alger, Jr., novelist, mythmaker, propagandist, and journalist
1864 – Wilhelm Wien, physicist and academic, formulated Wien's Law, etc.
1866 – George Gurdjieff, mystic and philosopher
1887 – Sophie Tucker, singer and actress
1902 – Karl Menger, mathematician and game theorist from the Vienna Circle
1924 – Paul Feyerabend, philosopher and academic
1925 – Vanita Smythe, singer and actress
1926 – Melba Liston, jazz trombonist arranger, and composer
1929 – Joe Pass, guitarist and composer
1938 – Daevid Allen, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1938 – Shivkumar Sharma, santoor player
1946 – Eero Koivistoinen, saxophonist, composer, and conductor
1961 – Wayne Coyne, singer, songwriter and musician
1961 – Suggs, singer, songwriter, musician, and actor

Some people who died on this day:

Television: A medium. So called because it's neither rare nor well done.

~~ Ernie Kovacs

1599 – Edmund Spenser, poet
1625 – Jan Brueghel the Elder, painter
1717 – Maria Sibylla Merian, entomologist and illustrator
1864 – Stephen Foster, composer and songwriter
1906 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, physicist
1929 – Wyatt Earp, gunslinger
1941 – James Joyce, novelist, short story writer, and poet
1962 – Ernie Kovacs, comedian, actor and writer
2007 – Michael Brecker, saxophonist and composer
2010 – Teddy Pendergrass, singer and songwriter
2017 – Magic Alex, Heh

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

National Clean Off Your Desk Day
National Gluten Free Day
National Peach Melba Day
National Rubber Ducky Day
Stephen Foster Memorial Day

Today's Tunes

US Invasion of Hawaii

Johnny Cash concert

Christoph Graupner

Sophie Tucker

Vanita Smythe

Melba Liston

Joe Pass

Daevid Allen

Shivkumar Sharma

Wayne Coyne

Wayne Coyne

Suggs

Ernie Kovacs

Michael Becker

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

open thread, Gluten Free Day, Retreat from Kabul, Invasion of Hawaii, Joe Pass, Johnny Cash