P. T. Barnum, the famous 19th-century American showman and founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, is often quoted as saying “there’s a sucker born every minute.” This “quote” is usually trotted out to refer to something that con-men or other shysters who try to separate people from their hard-earned money (as in, selling them…
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Buzzkillers have been asking lots of questions about the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s that brought down the Nixon presidency. And Buzzkill Nation clearly wants to know whether the common and well-known stories about Watergate are true and historically sound. The details of that tense period in American history have been steamrolled by those…
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The history of immigration to the United States is very complicated, Buzzkillers! Millions of people came from all over the world to the United States, and there are almost as many myths about immigration as there were immigrants. What did it mean to come to the United States “legally” during the high points of the…
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Harry Truman was generally known as one of the most plain- and direct-speaking of American Presidents. So much so that he is generally credited with coining the phrase, “the buck stops here.” By the time Truman became president in 1945, “passing the buck” had long been American slang for passing the responsibility for something onto…
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Most people believe they know what Adolf Hitler’s plans for a post-war world would be — German domination. After all, didn’t he say, “Today Germany, Tomorrow the World”? Well, Hitler certainly expressed ideas along these lines, although there is no record of him saying it in so few words. The closest Hitler quote that Buzzkill…
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The phrase and sentiment, “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song,” is one of the best-known expressions of the intrinsic nature of art and beauty. It has been quoted by presidents and school teachers, and practically everyone in between. And we all “know” that the quote…
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Was the Nazi high command, including Hitler, soaked in hard drug use? Over the course of the war, Hitler became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drug (including a form of heroin) administered by his personal doctor. Drugs alone cannot explain the Nazis’ toxic racial theories or the events of World War II,…
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Outrageous charges and indefensible political ideas are often hurled around in times of political turmoil and rhetorical strife. Commentators sometimes respond by wheeling out the old “quote” by the French philosopher and Enlightenment writer, Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” in an…
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Ah, the 1970s. Lots of important things happened then, including the political coming of age of yours truly. This crucial development in world history was only surpassed by things like the high point of the women’s rights movement. These two great events came together in that other late-60s and early-70s development — the t-shirt with…
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President Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chats” are famous for breaking new ground in how political leaders communicate with their people. But where they really as ground-breaking as we all tend to believe? Did they really help the American people get through the Great Depression and World War II? Was it FDR’s tone and confidence that connected to…
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