DECEMBER 27th - Conflict Resolution Skills



On this day in 1895, a man named Stagger Lee shot another man for removing his hat. And from that incident the legend of Stagger Lee (or Stack-O-Lee) was born. The situation, which was undoubtedly about more than a hat, became a popular one for recording artists. Stagger Lee has been recorded by a variety of musical artists since 1928 including Mississippi John Hurt, Lloyd Price, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, and even Samuel L. Jackson. As I said, I’m sure there were other factors at play in the shooting of Billy Lyons, but it doesn’t seem that Stagger Lee had great conflict resolution skills. Most of the songs have imagined the trouble started over gambling, and money can certainly cause people to do some rash things. The Nick Cave/Samuel L. Jackson version makes it seem more about ego, which can also make people a bit crazy. Whatever the case, I think that when Stagger Lee was in kindergarten and one of his little classmates stole his favorite toy (which may have been a cowboy hat), he probably backhanded that thieving little kid. And I’m guessing the teacher either didn’t see this or didn’t correct young Stagger. Considering he later killed a man for knocking off his hat, this was either a brilliant decision or a contributing factor to Billy Lyons’s demise. Depends on where you fall on the whole nature vs. nurture thing, I guess. Just don’t shoot anybody over a hat. It’s bad form.

This Day has been Marked.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AUGUST 22nd - Don't Drink the Kool-Aid

On this day in 1911, somebody working at the Louvre discovered that the Mona Lisa was missing. The previous day, a Monday--meaning the museum was closed to the public, Vincenzo Peruggia, a maintenance worker, brazenly walked out of the Louvre with what would eventually become the most famous painting in the world. Vincenzo basically sat on the painting for two years until he was caught trying to “return” it to his homeland of Italy in a misguided demonstration of Italian patriotism. The theft itself is quite interesting, mostly because of the lack of planning and preparation that went into it, but equally intriguing is the part it played in making the Mona Lisa so famous. Many historians feel that the painting reached new heights because it was stolen. It kind of makes sense in that whole “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone" kind of way. Not that I would suggest staging a kidnapping to allow your significant other to realize how much he/she loves you, because that’s jus
Read more

AUGUST 23rd - History of the One-Way

Image
On this day in 1617, the idea of the one-way street was supposedly introduced in London in the alleys near the River Thames. I’m not sure why London was on the cutting edge of traffic direction, though Albemarle Street, which is acknowledged as the first one-way street, was designated as such because the scientific lectures given there in the early 1800s were so popular. Why wouldn't they be? I can’t really imagine why a one-way street in 1617 would be necessary, but then I can’t really imagine what London in 1617 was like at all. I’m fresh out of people to interview too. Unless the Highlander is real. Just as well. Interviews take a long time. And the person inevitably goes off on tangents. Look, I’m sure the story of how you “accidentally” ingested psychedelic mushrooms while trekking across the Pacific Northwest in your hippie days and met your first wife, Wind Lover, is an incredible story, but I merely asked if you were currently married. It’s a yes or no question. Without the
Read more

OCTOBER 23rd - A Blink of the Cosmic Eye

On this day in 1977, American paleontologist, Elso S. Barghoorn, announced the discovery of some algae microfossils, complete with some super-scientific name and some super-scientific qualifiers, that were 3.4 billion years old. In layman’s terms--really freaking old. Interestingly enough October 23 was also thought, for a long time, to be the day on which the Earth was created. In 1650, church leaders interpreted that the bible documents Earth’s creation on October 23, 4004 BC. Also a long time ago. Not quite the 3.4 billion years of the first life-forms, or the 4.5 billion years most scientist believe the Earth has been around for. So old Barghoorn may have been giving a little nod there, as in “I’ll take your 5700 years and raise you a few billion.” In any case, it shows that we are here but for a blink of the cosmic eye. Stuff has been around so long that if you really start to think about it, you start feeling like you are watching first 30 minutes of The Tree of Life and wonderi
Read more