cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Randomly researching the H0boken Turt1e C1ub I've been researching the H0boken Turt1e C1ub since Saturday morning. A good 6 hours on Saturday, 8 hours on Sunday, 10 hours on Monday, 10 hours on Tuesday, and 8 hours on Wednesday. Over forty hours investigating this one historical thing. The H0boken Turt1e C1ub was supposedly formed by Col. J0hn Stevens, of Washington's Revolutionary Army, and his friend Alexander H@milton. They cooked and ate turtles on the bank of the Hudson River starting in the 1790's. I have already busted all sorts of myths about this group and put together a dossier of over 6,400 words (12 pages) on them. I've read thousands of newspaper articles in digital archives, searched the Library of Congress' collections, gone through Smithsonian's archives, and I think I'm at the point where I know more about this organization than anyone else alive. The central thing that I haven't solved yet is how this club went from where they were in the late 1890's and early 1900's, with members well-placed in both Republican and Democratic politics and members who were influential businessmen and government employees, to becoming a rag-tag group of elderly brewers, butchers and other blue-collar business owners in the early 1930's. What the fuck happened? I suspect that it may have had to do with three things. First, the impeachment of W1lliam Sulzer, former President of the club, who was removed as G0vernor of New York in 1913. Combine that with the club's loss of their steady headquarters in a tony address on the water when the owner (a club member) died. Plus the fact that the long-time turtle soup cook also probably died within a decade of that, and without a master turtle soup chef, the club may have become a lot less interesting. I have seriously fucking buried myself in this shit for days. Ducking up to go to the grocery store and once for a lab meeting. And I don't have an actual assignment anywhere for this. I have no idea where I can sell a story on the history of this thing. It is almost 4 am and my sleep schedule is fucked and I've gone way off the reservation on this one. But I am fascinated and don't know where to stop. 3:32 a.m. - 2019-08-22 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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