How our blog got its name
Sidney Hillman was a powerful national figure during the Great Depression, a key supporter of the New Deal, and a close ally of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
When the rumor spread that President Roosevelt ordered his party leaders to “clear it with Sidney” before announcing Harry S. Truman as his 1944 running mate, conservative critics turned on the phrase, trumpeting it as proof that the president was under the thumb of “Big Labor.”
Over the years, the phrase lost its sting and became a testament to Hillman's influence.
It's hard to imagine a labor leader wielding that kind clout today, but we like the idea—and we hope Sidney would give thumbs up to our blog.
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#Sidney's Picks: Black Market Boner Pills; Bloomberg; and the Upper Big Branch Mine
- Where do black market boner pills come from? NPR investigates.
- Force-feeding is a form of torture, but U.S. prisons still do it. Ann Neumann chronicles the longest prison hunger strike in U.S. history.
- Before Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg proposed a registry of New York City's most vulnerable residents, to help first responders find them in a disaster, but the database was never compiled.
- A superintendent at the Upper Big Branch Mine who ordered an electrician to disable critical safety equipment before the explosion that killed 29 miners was sentenced to 21 months in prison and a $20,000 fine. [HT: Bruce]
- The most famous dead girlfriend in college football history never existed, Deadspin reports.
[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]
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