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Did you know that June is National Bathroom Reading Month? Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader is celebrating by holding a contest called the “Power Bowl,” where you can win up to $2,500 to remodel your bathroom “reading room”! The exact prize will depend on how many people enter.
LEVEL 1: Greenbacks for towel racks
100 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $100 Home Depot gift cardLEVEL 2: Cash for a new can
500 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $250 Home Depot gift cardLEVEL 3: Bread for a new head
1,000 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $500 Home Depot gift cardLEVEL 4: Wherewithal for a new shower stall
2,500 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $1,000 Home Depot gift cardLEVEL 5: Cheddar to make your whole bathroom better
5,000 Entries = 10 Uncle John’s books + $2,500 Home Depot gift card
I believe we can scare up some entries, don’t you think? Get yours in now -the deadline is June 30th! Link
Did you know that June is National Bathroom Reading Month? Naturally, our pals at the Bathroom Reader Institute are overjoyed.
To thank their loyal readers, Uncle John is rolling out two neat things:
1) Uncle John’s Father Day Sale: 30% off everything in their online store, plus free shipping on orders above $35.
2) A very cool National Scavenger Hunt, where you can win a shiny new Apple iPad and 10 Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader books of your choice (autographed, too!). Watch out every day for clues and tasks on their blog, Facebook page, and Twitter stream, and email the answers by July 5. Details here. And yes, if you notice, the first question has something to do with Neatorama 
So get going and check ‘em out! (And be sure to follow the rules closely) – Thanks Mana!
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The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces.
For more than a century, “Taps” has been the bugle call to mark the day’s end and evening rest in the U.S. military. Its soothing 24 notes have comforted many when played as a final farewell to a former soldier laid to rest. Given its long history, it’s not surprising that it is the subject of many legends.
By the Civil War, bugle calls existed for all types of commands-from “Time to get up!” to “Wear your overcoat today!” or “If you’re sick, now’s the time for sick call!” But it was during the Civil War’s Peninsula Campaign in July 1862 that “Taps” became the bugle call command to extinguish all lights and fires and prepare for sleep. Historians agree on when and where “Taps” was first played, but there’s more than one version of the story surrounding its origin and composer. (Image credit: Flickr user yark64)
One popular story says that the man who first ordered “Taps” played was Union Captain Robert Ellicombe. While encamped with the Army of the Potomac at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia, Ellicombe risked enemy fire to rescue a wounded soldier. When the captain lit a lantern, he realized that the young man was dead, and a Confederate soldier, but even more shocking-the young man was his own son. Inside the soldier’s pocket was a musical score. Ellicombe requested that a bugler play his son’s composition at the burial, and that was when the Army of the Potomac first heard the somber music of “Taps”.
The country’s foremost authority on the tune as well as the former curator of Arlington National Cemetery’s “Taps” Bugle Exhibit, Jari A. Villanueva, researched the story and found no record of any Captain Ellicombe in the Union Army or at Harrison’s Landing. What Villanueva did find was an episode of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not television show where the tragic tale of a Union father and a Confederate son first aired.
The true history of the birth of “Taps” was told by bugler Oliver Norton in an 1898 letter he wrote in response to a Century Magazine article that claimed the origin of the tune was unknown. Norton explained that he knew how “Taps” originated because he’d been the first to play it.
According to Norton, one July evening he was called to the tent of Major General Daniel Adam Butterfield, the chief of staff for the Army of the Potomac. Encamped at Harrison’s Landing, recovering from a defeat at the hands of General Robert E. Lee’s army, Butterfield’s exhausted and wounded soldiers suffered from heat, mosquitos, dysentery, and typhoid. The standard bugle call for lights-out had a harsh military cadence, and Butterfield thought a more soothing bugle call might help his men rest. (Image credit: Civil War Librarian)
The general handed Norton an envelope with musical notes written on the back and asked the bugler to play them. The bugler lengthened some notes and shortened others until the sound was melodious and slow enough to suit Butterfield, who ordered the melody played every evening at the final bugle call. Century’s editors wrote to Butterfield, who confirmed the incident.
General Butterfield didn’t actually compose the tune, sometimes called “Butterfield’s Lullaby”, but had simply revised an early French version of the “Scott Tattoo”. (A tattoo was a bugle call used to order soldiers to leave a tavern and return to their quarters for the night.) The name “Taps” probably came from an obsolete drum roll command called “Taptoe” that ordered tavern keepers to turn off their keg spigots at the end of an evening.
From the first night he played it, Norton knew that “Taps” would be a hit. In his letter to the magazine he wrote, “The music was beautiful on that still summer night, and was heard far beyond the limits of our Brigade. The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring Brigades, asking for copies of the music, which I gladly furnished.”
“Taps” wasn’t just a Union favorite. Confederates heard the tune in their nearby camps and liked it so much that by 1863 the Confederate army’s mounted artillery drill manual contained the order that “‘Taps’ will be blown at 9:00 at which time all officers will be in quarters.”
(Image credit: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, from the Flickr stream of Beverly & Pack)
“Taps” was first used for military funeral services out of necessity. In 1862 Captain John Tidball presided over the burial of one of his fallen men. Tradition ordered that three rifle volleys would be fired at the ceremony, but Tidball’s troops were hidden in the woods, and he feared that any nearby enemy would hear the gunshots, figure out their location, and then attack them in the belief that there was a resumption of hostilities. To substitute for the rifle volley, the captain ordered the bugler to sound “Taps”.
Playing “Taps” became an unofficial custom at Union army funerals. The rebels also played the call to honor fallen soldiers-most notably at the 1863 funeral of General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson after his death by friendly fire in the Battle of Chancellorsville.
After the Civil War, “Taps” became an official bugle call of the U.S. Army, and by 1891 an official order in the U.S. Army Infantry Drill Regulations made the bugle call mandatory at formal military funerals and memorial ceremonies.
Possibly the most memorable rendition of “Taps” was played on November 25th, 1963, at the funeral of President John F. Kennedy. A World War II veteran, Kennedy was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. At the ceremony, the command for present arms was given, and the traditional three volleys were fired. Then Sergeant Keith Clark of the U.S. Army Band played “Taps”-not on a bugle but on a B-flat trumpet.
Clark had played the call perfectly hundreds of times at hundreds of ceremonies. In fact, he’d played it in President Kennedy’s presence only two weeks earlier at the Tomb of the Unknowns on Veteran’s Day. But this time, as he played, he “cracked” the sixth note so that it sounded shortened and off-key. Clark admitted that nervousness was the cause, but the media immediately assumed that the cracked note was intentional, and they found it especially poignant.
Newsweek described the broken note as “a tear”. William manchester, author of Death of a President, described it as a “cactch in your voice or a swiftly stifled sob.” For about two weeks following the presidential burial, other Arlington buglers missed that same sixth note.
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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.
If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!
Blue jeans are as American as apple pie and bathroom reading. In fact, you might have a pair around your ankles right now.
(Image source: Levi Strauss & Co.)
Canvassing the Customers
In 1850-during the California Gold Rush-a 17-year-old German-Jewish immigrant named Levi Strauss moved from New York City to San Francisco to sell dry good to the miners.
*He tried to sell canvas to them for their tents, but found little interest i it. So he made pants out of the material instead.
*The miners loved them. Although the pants weren’t particularly comfortable, they were the first ones durable enough to withstand the miners’ rugged living conditions.
*People nicknamed the pants Levi’s, after their creator.
A Riveting Experience
In the early 1860s, Levi Strauss began using denim in his pants. It was still tough, but it was softer and more comfortable than canvas.
*He also found that when the denim pants were dyed an indigo blue, they wouldn’t show soil and stains as much. Miners appreciated this, and Levi’s became even more popular.
*Meanwhile, miners found that carrying heavy tools in their pockets often ripped the pants at the seams.
* A Nevada tailor named Jacob Davis solved that problem for his customers by securing each pocket seam with a rivet. It worked so well, in fact, that David wrote to Levi Strauss offering to sell him the idea. Strauss took him up on it; copper rivets first appeared on Levi’s in 1873. They became a hallmark of the company’s product. (Image credit: Flicker user thinkjose)
Levi’s Middle-Age Spread
Levi’s were working people’s pants for their first 75 years. Then, in 1935, an advertisement featuring two high-society women wearing skintight jeans ran in Vogue magazine. The reaction was so great that jeans became all the rage. Jitterbugging teenagers started wearing them with the cuffs rolled up, and they’ve been fashionable ever since.
*Meanwhile, the Levi Strauss Company branched out into manufacturing other items as well as blue jeans… and by 1970 it had become the largest clothing manufacturer in the world.
(Image credit: Flickr user Troy Holden)
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The article above is reprinted with permission from The Best of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.
If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!
The following is an article from the book Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces.
Presenting, in our humble opinion, our leading leaders of men and women at war.
Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Washington grew up under the guardianship of his eldest brother. After a spotty education, he became a surveyor and eventually inherited his brother’s prosperous estate, Mount Vernon.
He joined the Virginia militia in 1752, advanced to major, fought during the French and Indian War (1754-60), and made it to the rank of honorary brigadier general. Washington didn’t return to the battlefield until July 1775, after being appointed general by the Continental Congress. At Cambridge, outside Boston, he took command of the disintegrating Continental Army.
The American Revolutionary War-Washington energetically and skillfully revitalized the militias at Cambridge and organized them into Continental Army regiments. Using cannons borrowed from the colonies, he occupied Dorchester Heights and brilliantly forced Sir William Howe’s British army to evacuate Boston and retire by sea to New York City. Washington tried to drive the British from Ney York but failed, partly due to his own inexperience and partly due to untrained troops and clumsy subordinates. His masterful withdrawal from Long Island and Harlem Heights into New Jersey and Pennsylvania during the autumn of 1776 saved the army from extinction.
General Howe captured most of New Jersey and made the mistake of believing Washington’s army was militarily impotent. On the night of December 25-26, 1776, Washington’s forces crossed the Delaware River in boats, drove Howe’s Hessians out of Trenton, and on January 3, 1777, Washington learned that General John Burgoyne planned to invade the Hudson Valley from Canada. Though soon hard-pressed defending Philadelphia, the national capital, he sent many of his best troops upriver and, in October, defeated the British at Saratoga. Having weakened his forces defending Philadelphia, Washington abandoned the defense of the city on September 26, forcing the Continental Congress to move west to York. Not everything went well for Washington, but he managed to contain one British force in the north while sending forces south to fight another British force under General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown. The strategy worked, and on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered.
What Made Him Great?
Washington’s unorthodox military education kept him from becoming an orthodox 18th-century general, which led to his boldness. The Continental Army never numbered more than 35,000 men, and Washington never had more than a third of it under his personal command, yet he managed to subdue, with help from the French fleet, Great Britain’s professional army. Underrated by modern standards, Washington was a brilliant strategist and self-taught tactician. He also became a gifted statesman. He believed in civilian government and the rule of law, spurning attempts by his officers to make him a military dictator.
Known as “Old Fuss and Feathers,” Scott was born outside Petersburg, Virginia, and studied law until 1807, when he enlisted in a cavalry troop. At 6’5″ and 250 pounds, Scott could cripple a horse-and did-so he transferred to the light artillery as a captain. Suspended briefly in 1810 for making inappropriate remarks to his superior, Scott rejoined the Army as a lieutenant colonel when the War of 1812 broke out, and led more troops into more battles in that war than any other officer. He suffered two wounds at Lundy’s Lane on June 25, 1814, but 10 days later won an important victory at Chippawa, Ontario. Raised to the rank of major general for distinguished service, Scott became a national hero.
For the next 30 years, except for two trips to Europe to study military developments, Scott fought Seminole Indians in the South and Plains Indians in the West. In 1845-46, when General Zachary Taylor’s battles with General Santa Anna’s army in northern Mexico were inconclusive, Scott recommended to President James K. Polk an amphibious landing at Veracruz as the fastest way to conquer Mexico City. Scott planned the massive operation, and on March 9, 1847, landed near Veracruz and 18 days later captured the city. On April 8 he began the march inland, routed Santa Anna’s larger army on April 18 at Cerro Gordo, and occupied Puebla on May 15. He paused to collect supplies, resumed his advance on Mexico City on August 7, and after fighting decisive battles at Contreras, Churubusco, Molino Del Rey, and Chapultepec, captured the Mexican capital on September 14. He served as military governor there until April 22, 1848, when he returned to Washington.
Promoted brevet lieutenant general in February 1855, Scott became the highest-ranking officer in the Army since George Washington. As general-in-chief of the Army, he tried to prevent the American Civil War by counseling presidents James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln. He sadly became what his nickname implied, “Old Fuss and Feathers,” a man obsessed with strict adherence to Army red tape with the out-of-date habit of adorning his military headwear with feathers. Though physically infirm, his mind was still sharp, but he could no longer take the field and, on November 1, 1861, resigned.
What Made Him Great?
Scott left a remarkable record as a strategist, a diplomat, and a brave and skillful tactician. His Anaconda Plan for strangling the South by keeping it from its sources of supply during the Civil War was first sneered at by Union generals, but was later adopted by Lincoln, and turned out to be the overriding strategy that eventually won the war.
The greatest Confederate general of the Civil War, Lee graduated from West Point in 1829, second in a class of 46, and joined the engineers. A Virginian by birth, Lee claimed that he fought for his home state more than for the Confederacy.
The Mexican War-During the Mexican War, Lee served with distinction as a member of General Scott’s staff at Veracruz in March 1847, and at Cerro Gordo the following month. His eye for reconnaissance and tactical improvisations led to Scott’s victories reconnaissance and tactical improvisations led to Scott’s victories at Churubusco, Chapultepec, and eventually to the surrender of Mexico City. Lee worked a desk job from 1852 to 1855 as superintendent at West Point, after which he became colonel of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry and served in the Southwest until shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. Lee was offered but rejected a top command in the Union army and resigned when Virginia seceded. On June 1, 1862, he replaced wounded General Joseph E. Johnston and took command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
The Civil War-Lee became one of those rare generals who thought strategically, broadly designed his tactics, and took chances. He understood the generals of the North better than those generals understood themselves. He came up with the strategy for Major General Thomas J. “Stonewall: Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign during the spring of 1862, making Jackson the most celebrated officer in the Confederacy-until he was later eclipsed by Lee. In late June, Lee’s smaller force bluffed Major General George B. McClellan’s army into withdrawing, and two months later Lee outmaneuvered Major General John Pope and defeated the Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 29-30. On September 17, with a force half the size of McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, Lee repulsed the Federals in a drawn battle at Antietam. After President Lincoln replaced McClellan with Major General Ambrose Burnside, Lee bloodied the massive Union army on December 13 at Fredericksburg.
Lee’s aggressive instincts were never more evident than at Chancellorsville. He ignored the maxims of warfare, divided his much smaller force, and on May 2-4, 1863, decimated the right flank of the Army of the Potomac with a surprise attack. But his greatest mistake occurred on July 1-3 at Gettysburg, when he was overly aggressive at a time when he should have fought defensively. He admitted the error and withdrew into Virginia.
By 1864 many of Lee’s best officers had been killed and there were no more soldiers to replace those who’d been lost in battle. Forced to fight defensively, Lee held off Grant’s offensive in the Battle of the Wilderness on ay5-6, at Spotsylvania on May 8-12, and repulsed the Union assault at Cold Harbor on June 3. Those battles cost Grant a third of his men, but Lee couldn’t withstand the pressure and withdrew to Petersburg’s trenches. It took Grant eight months to flush Lee out of Petersburg and force his surrender on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.
What Made Him Great?
Lee’s men adored him. In victory and defeat, they witnessed his great strength of character, his high sense of duty, and his humility and selflessness. Even Northerners accepted Lee as the greatest general of the Civil War.
more …
We’re not the only one redesigning our blog. Our pal Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader has a snazzy new look (one that fits their name very well, I might add).
Check it out: Link | Bathroom Reader Online Store
This reminds me that we haven’t been diligent in posting Bathroom Reader articles. We’ll rectify that forthwith.
Thanks Mana!
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Why wasn’t I told that June is National Bathroom Reading Month? I’ve been celebrating it all year long!
Anyways, to celebrate this momentous occasion, our pal Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader is running a neat contest: Deep Thoughts From the Throne.
You can win nifty prizes (including an iPhone, a set of Bathroom Reader books autographed by Uncle John himself and a year’s supply of toilet paper – a year! – now that’s a prize) for entering a video clip you create about … your bathroom!
Here’s the details: Contest Rules | Visit Uncle John’s YouTube channel for approved entries
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