This would be an awesome way to spend Labor Day weekend.

Via @Nicole Winters

Supposedly mom is just thrilled for her.

Last week a New York ad exec made the news by giving a homeless young man her American Express platinum card to buy food, deodorant, soap, and cigarettes.  The world was almost uniformly aghast that 1) she would show such naivete in trusting a bum, and 2) that the man would actually return the card.   I felt affirmed by the show of basic goodness in people, both the giver and the recipient.

Jim Rankin of the Toronto Star felt the same way, and set about to validate Merrie Harris’ experience.  He purchased prepaid credit cards in $50 and $75 denominations, and gave them away to people who asked him for change.  Some turned them down.  Others accepted them with skepticism, others with gratitude.  All he requested was that they return and give him back the card after they had made their purchases.  Then he waited and observed.

How the cards were used:

Card 1: $50, handed to Jason. Spends $8.69 at McDonald’s. Returns card.

Card 2: $50, to Mark. Spends $21.64 at The Corner Place restaurant. Doesn’t return. Later spends $15.50 at the LCBO (Liquor Control Board).

Card 3: $75, to Joanne. Card is stolen. Over two days, $24.95 spent at McDonald’s, $38.35 at the LCBO.

Card 4: $50, to Al. Card unreturned. Balance remains at $50

Card 5: $75. Laurie buys $74.61 worth of food, phone minutes and cigarettes at a gas station convenience store. Returns card.

Are you surprised?  I’m not.  I’m delighted with the results and hope it gets wide coverage.  I’m not likely to give out my credit card on the street, but I’m not ruling it out, either.  I’ll continue making sure I have dollar bills in my wallet, and carry food gift certificates when I can.  As long as I trust, I’ll keep my humanity.

How about you?

Do you use water fountains?  If not, why?

How often do you drink out of public fountains?

I’m ashamed to say that the Democratic Party tried to filibuster the amendment in the Senate.  The roll call:

FOR ADOPTION – 36.

Republicans – 36: Capper, Cummins, Curtis, Edge, Elkins, Fall, Fernald, France, Frelinghuysen, Gronna, Hale, Harding, Johnson, (Cal.,) Jones, (Wash.,) Kellogg, Kenyon, Kayes, La Follette, Lenroot, McCormick, McCumber, McNaty, Nelson, New, Newberry, Norris, Page, Phipps, Poindexter, Sherman, Smoot, Spencer, Sterling, Sutherland, Warren, Watson.

Democrats – 20.

Ashurst, Chamberlain, Culberson, Harris, Henderson, Jones, (N. M.,) Kenrick, Kirby, McKellar, Myers, Nugent, Phelan, Pittman, Ransdell, Shepard, Smith, (Ariz.,) Stanley, Thomas, Walsh, (Mass.,) Walsh, (Mon.)

AGAINST ADOPTION – 25.

Republicans – 8:  Borah, Brandegee, Dillingham, Knox, Lodge, McLean, Moses, Wadsworth.

Democrats – 17: Bankhead, Beckham, Dial, Fletcher, Gay, Harrison, Hitchcock, Overman, Reed, Simmons, Smith, (Md.,) Smith, (S. C.,) Swanson, Trammell, Underwood, Williams, Wolcott.

Paired. ***(See explanation from CG in comments)

Ball and King, for, with Shields, against: Calder and Townsend, for, with Penrose, against; Gerry and Johnson of South Dakota, for, with Martin, against; Gore and Colt, for, with Pomerone, against. ***Does anyone know who this Gore is? (See answer from CG in comments.)

Absent and Not Paired.

Owen, Robinson, and Smith of Georgia.

Just as in the struggle for racial equality, opponents cloaked themselves in “states rights” language.  Speaking for the minority, Republican Senator Wadsworth of New York had this to say:

“No vote of mine cast upon this amendment would deprive any of the electors of my State of any privilege they now enjoy,” said the Senator. “I feel so strongly that the people of the several States should be permitted to decide for themselves, that am frank to say that, if this amendment, instead of being drafted to extend woman suffrage all over the country, were drafted to forbid the extension of the franchise to women in the States, I would vote against it. Even though one might be opposed on general principles to the extension of the franchise to women, one cannot logically object to the people of a State settling that question for themselves.

“It seems to me that it is incumbent upon a Senator in considering his attitude on this matter to regard the nation as a whole and to give consideration to the wishes of the people of the various States which have expressed themselves from time to time.”

And that rallying cry came from a credible source: at the time the amendment passed, in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana, Texas, Wisconsin, and other States woman’s suffrage had already been defeated at the polls.

“Now the question is,” he resumed, “whether the people of these States are competent to settle the question for themselves. There is no tremendous emergency facing the country, no revolution or rebellion threatened, which would seem to make it necessary to impose on the people of these States a thing they have said as free citizens they do not require or desire. Is it contrary to the spirit of American institutions that they shall be left free to decide these things for themselves?

“My contention has been, with respect to an amendment to the Constitution, that, if it be placed there, it should command the reverence and devotion of all the people of the country. The discussion here yesterday makes it perfectly apparent that, in part at least, in a certain section of this country, this proposed amendment will be a dead letter. No pretense is made that it will be lived up to in spirit as well as in letter. That same attitude has been manifest in the discussion of the last amendment to the Constitution, ratified last Winter. Today there are thousands of people all over the United States who are attempting to contrive ways by which the prohibition amendment can be evaded. This attitude shows an utter lack of appreciation of the Constitution as a sacred instrument, a lack of realization of the spirit of self-government.”

Read more at Modern  History Sourcebook.

Ratification didn’t bring an end to the voting struggle, nor did it lead to the passage a year later of the Equal Rights Amendment. 90 years later, it still languishes in the following state legislatures:

The Hall of Shame:

• Arizona
• New Mexico
• Virginia
• Arkansas
• Mississippi
• Alabama
• Georgia
• Florida
• Illinois
• North Carolina
• Louisiana
• Missouri
• Nevada
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina

The following states first approved, then rescinded ratification:

• Idaho
• Kentucky
• Nebraska
• Tennessee
• South Dakota

From Wikipedia

So very far still to go.

1 lb macaroni, cooked and drained
4 oz bacon, chopped fine
1/2 c. diced onion
2 tsp fresh garlic
2 tbs butter
5 tbs flour
3 c. milk
8 oz fontina cheese, shredded
4 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
4 oz Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 c. bread crumbs

In 6 qt pan brown bacon, then add onion and garlic and cook 3 minutes, until translucent.  Add the butter and flour, cooking 3 minutes, then slowly stir in milk.  Bring to slow boil, then reduce heat and cook 10 minutes.  Add cheeses and stir until melted.  Mix in macaroni.  Pour into buttered 9×13 pan and top with bread crumbs.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

This was worth blowing my diet for – I’ve been craving it for months.   The leftovers are going in the freezer, though, and they’ll come out in carefully measured portions.

Somewhere, in the darkest recesses of a government facility, those 13,743,895,347 punch cards are filed away, holding the info dump of everything learned from alien autopsies in Area 51.