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name: will baker blogrollin' other sites: |
things in boxes...
Today, I heard what may well be the funniest thing ever spoken on public radio. I was listening to the Diane Rehm Show while driving over to Kinko�s. She was interviewing Erik Larson about his new book, The Devil in The White City, which is about the Columbian Exhibition of 1893. The Columbian Exhibition was a rather interesting moment in American history, a sort of crystallization of the forces of modernity at work throughout the Gilded Age. It was the first major demonstration of alternating current electricity. It�s all-white buildings were painted using the newly-invented spray paint. Nikola Tesla was there, as was Susan B. Anthony. The architects who worked on the Exhibition would go on to design the first American sky-scrapers, and iconic sites like the Flatiron building and Central Park in New York City, and Union Station in Washington D.C. Shredded Wheat and Juicy-Fruit Gum made their debuts at the Exposition. And so did Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix. But that wasn�t the product�s name at the time of its premier at the Chicago Exposition of 1893. No, there in the gleaming White City of American modernity and industry, it made its debut as��Slave In A Box�. That�s right, �Slave In A Box�. Upon further reflection, it�s a sad commentary on the mutation of race in America from a sectional economic issue (culminating in the Civil War) to a pervasive ideology tangled up in American consumer capitalism. Still, I had to pull over. I haven�t laughed that hard in weeks. Lest you doubt the veracity of this early trade name for everyone�s favorite pancake mix and �maple-flavored syrup�, check out this link.
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