Curio Cabinet

Ah, an archaeological dig examining the bygone era of… 1978? Archaeologists at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have invited the public and aging skaters to help in the excavation of a buried skatepark, shedding light on a bit of old European skater lore. The 1970s were a time of change, not just in terms of music and (questionable) fashion, but also in the world of sports. In Scotland, skateboarding exploded in popularity as it did in the U.S., and in 1978, the city of Glasgow invested £100,000 to build the country’s first skatepark, the Kelvin Wheelies. The skatepark featured a freestyle area, a slalom run, and a halfpipe, among other ambitious features that would have made any skater at the time drool with delight. The very year it opened, the facility hosted the first Scottish Skateboard Championships. Skaters from all around the U.K. gathered to compete and for a few years, Glasgow skaters were some of the best of the best in the U.K. Unfortunately, there was a sharp decline in the sport just a few years after the skatepark opened, and the skatepark began to see fewer visitors. Over time, it fell into disrepair, and the city made the decision to bulldoze the park due to safety concerns. It was then buried underground, with a few features remaining visible on the surface. Even without the concrete remnants jutting through the ground, Glasgow skaters from those days never forgot the park. Now, however, they may get to help resurrect the glories of yesteryear with archaeologists who are seeking their help in identifying the skatepark’s features and layout as they excavate the site. In addition to getting down and dirty themselves, the skaters hope that the site will be marked in such a way that its historic significance can be remembered properly. While skateboarding may have dipped in popularity for a time in Scotland, it’s now more popular than ever around the world and has even made it into the Olympics, so it’s understandable that skating enthusiasts hold the site in such high regard. Also, by all accounts, those bowls were absolutely sick!

 
[Image description: A green sign on a chainlink fence. White letters read: “No Skateboarding Allowed: Police Take Notice.”] Credit & copyright: Khrystinasnell, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

This wasn’t your average tea party…in fact, it wasn’t even like the other famous revolutionary tea party. With so much political upheaval going on today, it’s worth looking back on different ways that Americans have protested over the centuries, including subtle ways. The Edenton Tea Party of 1774 was quite civil, but made a powerful statement all the same.
 
The English love their tea, and so did early American colonists. It’s no wonder, then, that when it came to unfair taxation, a tax on tea was a particularly contentious issue. When the British Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773 and gave the British East India Tea Company a monopoly on the commodity, they probably knew that it would ruffle feathers across the pond. They might not have been prepared for just how ruffled those feathers got, though. That same year, the famous Boston Tea Party took place, during which protesters dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into the Boston Harbor. At the same time, women were encouraged to eschew British imports to participate in politics in their own way.
 
One woman, named Penelope Barker, took this idea a step further. On October 25, 1774, after the First Continental Congress had passed several non-importation resolutions, Barker gathered 50 women together in what would become the first political protest held by women in America. On the surface it appeared to be like any large tea party, but there were some key differences. Instead of tea made from tea leaves, Barker served herbal tea made from local plants like mulberry leaves and lavender. Furthermore, the attendees signed the 51 Ladies’ Resolution, which expressed political will as women “who are essentially interested in their welfare, to do everything as far as lies in our power to testify our sincere adherence to the same.” Unlike the men who disguised themselves to hide their identities in the Boston Tea Party, the women specifically rejected the idea of hiding. Thus, they exposed themselves to potential public backlash aimed at them personally. As expected, they were mocked heavily by British newspapers, but they also inspired other women in the colonies to have tea parties of their own, bringing more women into the political landscape for the first time. Nothing like a good cup of tea to kick off a revolution.

 
[Image description: An American flag with a wooden flagpole.] Credit & copyright: Crefollet, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

There’s been a lot of buzz about these bees for quite some time. Spelling competitions have been around for a few hundred years now, thanks to the many idiosyncrasies of the English language. In the U.S., popular obsession over correct spelling led to the creation of the spelling bee. What started as small community events eventually grew into a national sport, though it wasn’t always as friendly as one might assume.
 
The very idea of a spelling bee would have been shocking just a few centuries ago. Until the 17th century, there was not really such a thing as “proper” spelling in the English language. Even as spelling became more standardized, not everyone adhered to it. It’s hard to blame anyone for not being interested in standardized spelling in English, considering how the language has evolved over its existence. Since English contains so many words sourced from so many different languages, there are plenty of words that aren’t spelled the same way they’re pronounced.
 
Attitudes toward spelling might have changed with the Puritans, who promoted consistent spelling when writing scripture as a show of piety. Around the 18th century, Americans began taking an interest in spelling as a recreational activity, pitting their knowledge against each other in spelling matches in social settings. After the publication of Noah Webster’s spelling books (often called The Blue-backed Speller) in 1786, the standardization of spelling in America began to fully take root in the educational system. Even so, the idea of proper spelling remained distinctly American for a while. In Britain, for example, people were more focused on pronunciation than spelling to show off their education and status. Regardless, spelling bees began popping up in communities around the U.S. in the 19th century, and the first national spelling bee was just around the corner.
 
Most spelling bees have fairly simple rules. Since English contains many homonyms, the “speller” can request that the “pronouncer” define a word and use it in a sentence to resolve the ambiguity. The pronouncers, who speak the word that is to be spelled, are held to a standard as well. Judges at spelling bees not only determine if the speller is correct, they also ensure that the pronouncers say the word according to diacritical markings. These rules have remained almost unchanged since the first national spelling bee in 1908, organized by the National Education Association (NEA). The competition was held in Cleveland, Ohio, but the NEA never held another national spelling bee. That’s partly because the winner of the competition was Marie Bolden, a 14-year-old Black girl who competed for Cleveland on an integrated team despite the protests of white competitors from Louisiana. Bolden’s victory defied racial stereotypes and there was a national outcry at the idea that a Black child could win over white children, though she was celebrated and recognized locally. It wasn’t until 1925 that another national spelling bee would be held in the form of the United States National Spelling Bee, sponsored by The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. The Scripps Howard News Service acquired sponsorship rights in 1941, and they have run the competition ever since.
 
Today, the Scripps National Spelling Bee takes place every year, and it’s no longer exclusively an American sport. Spellers come from all over the world, even from countries where English isn’t the primary language. Spelling bees are arguably more popular today than they’ve ever been. The Scripps National Spelling Bee has been televised since 1994 on ESPN, and the competition has only ever been skipped four times: during WWII from 1943 to 1945, and during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It’s never been a better time to be a stickler for spelling.

 
[Image description: A blue background with three diagonal letters: a red uppercase B, an orange lowercase e, and a yellow uppercase E.] Credit & copyright: Author-created image. Public domain.

Washington D.C. doesn’t always get to be its own city, despite its status as the nation’s capital. With the federal government’s recent controversial takeover of law enforcement duties from the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC), it might be worth looking back at the history of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which lies at the center of the debate.
 
Washington D.C. has been the capital of the U.S. since 1800, yet for most of its history it didn’t have much autonomy as a city. Even though it’s situated in the continental U.S., it’s not technically located in one of the 50 states. This was by design, as the Founding Fathers didn’t want any one state to have too much power over the capital. That power was instead given to the federal government, and that had some unusual repercussions for D.C. residents. For one, since the city wasn’t located in a state, the residents didn’t have a say in presidential elections with electoral votes until the 23rd amendment was ratified in 1961. Washington’s residents had been trying for most of its history to gain voting rights, and that was just one small victory in the city’s struggle for representation.
 
The next big development for Washington was the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973, which allowed residents to vote for a mayor and a council of 12 members. Still, all legislation passed by the council has to be approved by Congress. Not only that, the city’s budget is set by Congress and its judges are appointed by the president. Finally, while Washington has representatives in Congress, they aren’t allowed to vote, effectively leaving the city without a voice in federal legislation. Recent events are a stark reminder that the city is ultimately at the mercy of federal authority for even the most basic municipal functions. With the White House invoking section 740 of the Home Rule Act to declare an emergency, the federal government has taken over law enforcement duties, and it has the power to do so for up to 30 days by notifying Congress. It might be the capital, but its rights are somewhat lowercase.

 
[Image description: An American flag with a wooden flagpole.] Credit & copyright: Crefollet, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.