Despite what you may think today, Philadelphia was America’s first planned city. William Penn had a broad vision for the new settlement and started a revolution in city planning: the open grid plan that became Philadelphia. Having witnessed plague in London in 1665 and the famously calamitous fire of 1666, Penn wanted his Philadelphia to …
Category Archives: Ideas
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result
Donald Trump has been indited and convicted 33 times but still manages to con the United States into allowing him to be President. In many states, felons are barred from voting so it follows that felons also should be barred from holding office. Those who vote for a criminal do not have the best interests …
The Regimental Brewmeister’s Vanilla Extract
For hundreds of years, the Totonac people, who lived on the east-central coast of Mexico, have grown and harvested the Tlilxochitl vine, an orchid that can only grow in very specific climates. In the mid 1400’s the Aztecs conquered the Totonac people and forced them to provide regular tributes. These tributes included the fruits of …
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Baked Apple Wassail
The word “wassail” appears as early as the 8th century in the poem Beowulf. Originally, it was used as salutatory gesture (wassail!) from Old Norse ves heill “be healthy.” By the 12th Century, Wassail was used as a drinking salutation, similar to the use of “Cheers” or “Probst” today, and his use seems to have …
Metric Time
There are 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, and (roughly) 365 days in a year. There are 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute. You probably knew all that. But you know it because you’ve committed it to memory — it’s not something you can reason out. …
The Scourge of Slavery (#9) — George Washington as a Slave holder
George Washington owned enslaved people from age eleven until his death. At the time, large-scale tobacco planting was carried out by enslaved labor. Large portions of the social, political, and economic society of colonial Virginia revolved making full use of enslaved labor and the buying and selling enslaved people. Washington made no official public statements on slavery or emancipation as …
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The Coow Woow
“Coow woow” was an Indian term for rum, and this makes sense since most of the drink is rum. The history of the Coow Woow is a bit murky but the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, MA claims it dates back to the early days of 1664 making it one of if not the first cocktail …
Hey Brewmeister, why are there all those QR codes on your bottles and kegs?
Okay, I don’t give away bottles but you may have noticed that every bottle and every keg have a QR code on it and its not a SKU because I am not selling beer outside of events and I am not that sophisticated in my inventory management. So, what are these? Well, brewing beer is, …
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Hot Ale Flip
If you were traveling through Colonial New England, chances are the drink of choice is Rum Flip, which is quite a treat to see prepared with vigorous mixing and a final heating using a long metal rod known as a loggerhead or in the south a mulling iron. Flip was a common hot cocktail made …
The Stone Fence
The Catamount Tavern in the future Old Bennington, served as the headquarters for the Green Mountain Boys. This militia was formed to resist New York’s attempt to control the New Hampshire Grants which eventually became the State of Vermont after the Revolution. As these regional skirmishes took a backseat to the broader conflict with Great …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 