Hanging With Jimbo

UPDATED with hotlink to Uncle J's Blackfive post.

Uncle J is definitely on track for Honorary Southerner status. After sampling some of Tankerbabe's most excellent beef brisket lightly sprinkled with Crown Royal, and a shot of some very smooth peach sour mash, we headed out for a whirlwind tour of Richmond's Monument Ave, then up the Boulevard past the Historical Society and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, stopping at the Carillon. (There used to be a WWI museum inside the Carillon). We ended with a brief stop at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, which is just around the corner from my hooch.

This was UJ's first visit to our fair city. He was most impressed I think with our statuary along Monument Ave. Turns out UJ is an admirer of our Confederate General staff, especially Stonewall Jackon and his dad is a serious Civil War buff.

VMFA left him speechless for a few seconds. After I told him some of the backstories on the addition, he was really impressed.

We hatched mulitple schemes in furtherance of UJ's vision of Global Domination and world peace, and had one more shot of peach sour mash.

All in all a very good day hanging with Uncle J.

All That Is Hidden Is Made Known

Early Draft of the Constitution Found in Philadelphia
"The Continuation of the Scheme"

BY Mary Katharine Ham

The founder of a non-profit group that promotes teaching of the U.S. Constitution stumbled on an early draft of it in Philadelphia this week, penned by James Wilson and entitled, "The Continuation of the Scheme."

She was exploring in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, when she connected a short passage on the back of one draft of the Constitution, in Wilson's hand, to the rest of the document, buried in the archives among Wilson's papers.

"This was national scripture, a piece of our Constitution's history," she said of her find in November. "It was difficult to keep my hands from trembling."

As other researchers "realized what was happening, there was a sort of hushed awe that settled over the reading room," Toler said. "One of them said the hair on her arms stood on end."

Two drafts of the Constitution in Wilson's hand had been separated from his papers long ago. One of them included the beginning of still another draft and was apparently seen as part of a single working version, instead of a separate draft.

Toler said "The Continuation of the Scheme," including its provisions about the executive and judiciary branches, completes that draft, making it a third.

I guess there are worse pitches to make to possible donors for a Constitution non-profit than, "Remember that time I found a new draft of the Constitution?"