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aka the day that the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution (repealing the 18th Amendment, aka Prohibition) was fully ratified! it’s been 91 years since beverage alcohol was re-legalized1 in the United States

if you’re inclined to celebrate, may I suggest having your favorite beverage (alcoholic or not) tonight?

some suggested reading:

  • Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City, Michael A. Lerner
  • Prohibition: The Era of Excess, Andrew Sinclair
  • The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State, Lisa McGirr
  • American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition, Kenneth D. Rose
  • Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle for a Dry America, 1800-1933, Thomas R. Pegram

  1. for beverage purposes, there were carve-outs, etc., but this is basically true ↩︎

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Last week I read a piece in Smithsonian Magazine on the oldest fossil tadpole yet described—161 million years old! Jurassic tadpole! That’s so old!!

I love frogs but I don’t actually know a lot about them, so it was really interesting to read this piece and learn that basic frog metamorphosis is really really really old. If you’re interested in reading the original Nature paper this piece is based on, the Smithsonian article has a sharing link to Nature that will allow you to read the full text.

P.S. If you’re looking to have a few interesting science and history stories land in your feed reader every day, I can highly recommend adding Smithsonian Magazine to your reader. Here’s the RSS link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/rss/latest_articles/

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chalk drawing of an aeolid nudibranch
Hermissenda crassicornis, opalescent nudibranch (rendered in chalk)

All photos in this post taken by me back in 2007!

Dorid nudibranch
Clown nudibranch, Triopha catalinae
Aeolid nudibranch
Janolus fuscus (not an opalescent nudibranch, despite looking kind of similar)
Dorid nudibranch
Diaulula sandiegensis, as best I can tell
Aeolid nudibranch
Flabellina trilineata
Dorid nudibranch
Some kind of sea lemon (there are two local species and I was shooting from about 4 feet away… no idea which one this was)

And some more on Sea Slug Day! It’s Terry Gosliner’s birthday.

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I went out clearing storm drains yesterday (or in quite a few cases, attempting to clear) and I tried to use the city’s web form to report the clogged drains I found. Unfortunately, all of the drain locations I attempted to provide give me the message “The service is not provided at this location”, making it rather difficult to get anything fixed. So now I’m on hold with the city to 1) report some drains and 2) report that their web form is busted.

EDIT: 30 minutes on hold and two city departments later, I have reported the drains and they’ll get looked at! wahoo. civic responsibility WIN

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you keep second guessing yourself. It’s Brahms, 100% for sure. But wait I don’t listen to much Brahms and it’s so familiar. Is it Mahler? No, it’s Brahms. But wait… that was just a hair Beethoven? But no it overall doesn’t sound like Beethoven, a bit too modern. Mahler??? No, Brahms1

In retrospect, bouncing back and forth between Beethoven and Mahler as the other two candidates should have told me for sure I was listening to Brahms. Hindsight, etc.

  1. Brahms Symphony 2 on KING FM, a radio station I highly recommend. you can stream from them free online (but if you really like them, consider pitching some money their way?) ↩︎