PicoBlog

Thank you for reading The #Content Report, a twice or thrice weekly newsletter written by me, Vince Mancini. Right now I’m trying to get the word out, so all of these newsletters have been free. In the future, some portion of these will be for paid subscribers only, but in either case, this newsletter is doing more than I expected to help me support my family in between freelance pieces, adjuncting applications, and podcasting, so I thank you for that.

In this week’s subscriber edition of Payments, Payments, Payments we take a look at the invention of the cash dispensing Automated Teller Machine (ATM). It is claimed that the world's first ATM was unveiled at Barclays Bank in Enfield in June 1967, but the real inventor of the bank cash machine has been a source of dispute for years. Over the years many people have tried to lay claim to the title of ‘inventor of the ATM’.

There have been countless instances in our career as a band that were too delicious to savor completely in the moment; where I recognized that something potentially indelible was carving itself into my bark, and that these would be moments I would lovingly drag my finger across while reminiscing in years to follow. But staying focused on the task at hand (in these instances it was usually “finish singing the song and don’t start crying out of happiness”) was more important than reveling in whatever childhood musical fantasy was unfolding before me.

While many of us have packed up our Christmas decorations by now, not everyone is finished celebrating. As I recently learned (through my seven-year-old son), Italians get more presents on January 6. “That’s when Befana comes!” his Italian friend told him. Wait, who is Befana?  I knew January 6 as Epiphany, 12 days after Christmas, and the day that commemorates when the Three Wise Men visited the baby Jesus. But I did not know that for Italians, this is also the day to celebrate the arrival of La Befana.

I’ll admit that the origin of this post is a little different from the norm. Usually, I will start with a question and then focus things around the player or team that showed up as the answer. But in this case, I started with the answer, and it gave me more questions. I was poking around a Google Sheet that I made for my former Messenger colleague Mike Charles, which tracks the NBA teams and players who have been the hottest over the previous couple of weeks.

Every night, Sheila Wallace would regularly walk her dog in McGowan Park not far from her home. When she set out on that cold January night 4 years ago this fifty-eight-year-old Cleveland resident had no idea it would be her last. She was shot down in cold blood for no apparent reason just steps from her front door. The ruthless crime sent immediate shockwaves through the close-knit community. As the months ticked on by the case went cold.

Before you come for me, the above headline is satire, but for many Belizeans it very well may not be. There is a long-standing conversation over what is deemed as beautiful, and how society skews the criteria to most Euro-centric features. We know this. What constitutes the “perfect” man or woman has evolved – but only slightly – over the last decade. What was considered an insult before – being ‘thicc’ ­– was now a compliment.

On this day, January 6 1947, the woman we came to know as Sandy began her tragically short life as Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny. When she died just 31 years later, music - in living form at least - was robbed of an exceptional talent, an artist I regarded then and regard now as among the finest singer-songwriters Britain has produced. Sandy Denny sang like an angel and created some outstanding songs.

Peak: #9 on the Hot 100 Streams: 9.2 million As I’ve mentioned in this lil’ newsletter before, I read back issues of Billboard magazine for fun, and if you’d like to be as cool as me, then you can dig through this well-organized archive as you’re winding down your evening. Recently, I was startled to learn that in 1996 Brooks and Dunn were unsure about re… ncG1vNJzZmikn6jBtLvNoKpnq6WXwLWtwqRlnKedZL1wudhmpJqqmZZ6o8OMrKuerpWjwLC6jGpwcGs%3D