Our sources of information are sketchy, but it would appear that in 1932 an African American drifter known as Jimmy "Kid" Swanson found his way to McCleary, Wash. and somehow connected with Frank and Ruth Fox. They owned the Fox Cafe as well as the (still in operation today) McCleary Hotel. Little is known of Swanson's past, except he claimed to have been the welterweight boxing champion of North and South Dakota. We don't know the circumstances surrounding the Kid's arrival.

During 1933-34, Frank Fox acted as Kid Swanson's manager. Ken Boling recalls the boxer being known as "Frank's guy." Swanson used to practice on a punching bag behind the McCleary Hotel, and these sessions would draw a crowd of admirers. In 1992 Doris Buzzell Irwin told historian Charles Fattig she remembered those workouts, and "supposed that he lived in the McCleary Hotel."

He was in several boxing matches in the Olympic Arena, corner of 4th and Jefferson in Olympia. The Kid broke his hand in his Apr. 21, 1933 bout with Tiger De Villa. By Jan. 1934 he was back in the ring and appearing in Tacoma fights. The Elma Chronicle of Jan. 25, 1934 called him, "The McCleary colored boy well thought of in Tacoma boxing circles."

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CNN/Money:

Well, the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit fiscal policy research group, annually calculates what it calls "Tax Freedom Day" for the country as a whole and for residents of each state. That's the day when you've earned enough to pay your federal, state and local taxes for the year and can start to pocket the rest of your pay to, say, support yourself.

Tax Foundation researchers calculate that Tax Freedom Day for American workers as a group will be April 26, three days later than last year and 10 days later than in 2003 and 2004.

Among the 10 states with the latest tax freedom days, six are in the Northeast: Connecticut (May 12), New York (May 9), New Jersey (May 6), Massachusetts (May 2), Maine (May 1) and Rhode Island (May 1).

The other four states are: Washington (May 4), Minnesota (May 3), California (April 30) and Illinois (April 30).

As a bumper-sticker stated:

Taxation with Representation Ain't So Great, Either

In the breakdown of each individual state, the tax burden as a percentage of income in Washington state is 10.90%, with the per capita burden being $4,334.

Anna Sjoblom's first person account of the Titanic sinking is a heart-wrenching read. This was her story as published in the Olympia Daily Recorder, 4/30/1912. Anna later married Gordon Kinkaid and lived at 1220 S. Jefferson St. in Olympia from 1956 until her death in 1975. Anna's Titanic boarding pass, worth six figures on the auction circuit, became the object of a "custody battle" in the late 1990s. Anna died on 3 November 1975.

OLYMPIAN SAID TO BE TITANIC VICTIM-- GIRL SURVIVOR ARRIVES HERE

One of the most dramatic and thrilling narratives of the scenes attending to the disaster of the Titanic and the perishing of more than 1,600 people, is that related by Anna Sjoblom, an 18-year-old girl who arrived in Tacoma yesterday on her way from Finland to join her father and brother, Gabriel Gustafson and Dan Gustafson, who work in a logging camp at Matlock, in Mason County. Mention was made in the local papers last week of the fact the Gustafsons, then on a visit to Olympia, had just received word of the safety of the girl. Miss Sjoblom is staying at the home of her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Nelson of Tacoma, and will remain there for the present.

The Tacoma Ledger this evening contains an interesting interview with the girl, obtained through the aid of Mrs. Nelson as interpreter.

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In their city council packet this week, the Tumwater city council will read about the thoughts of their staff to ask Olympia to go back and reconsider the Capitol Way plan. Read all about it (and comment if you want) at Better South Sound.

Also over there is some stuff about Tumwater maybe not having enough staff time to work on all the annexations they have coming up. 

Also, I don't read the Tumwater packets all that often, so if anyone wants to take that on, I'll open a Tumwater forum at BSS.
 

EIGHTY FOOT FALL FATAL TO MAN
Emmett R. Godat drops down elevator shaft to his death; Coroner says end came instantly

Emmett R. Godat, 29, Tumwater, was killed Monday, it was discovered yesterday morning, when he fell down an 80 foot elevator shaft in the new capitol building. His body was discovered in a pool of water in the bottom of the shaft as the result of a hunt instituted when his father, D.M. Godat, reported that the young man had not been home Monday night.

Godat was missed by workers Monday afternoon, but no one suspected that a tragedy had occurred. He had started to work shortly after noon Monday and the fatal fall took place at about 3:50 p.m., it is believed as a watch in the dead man's pocket had stopped at that hour.

At the time the accident had occurred Godat was at work on an upper floor of the new building. He is believed to have stepped onto one of the narrow concrete ledges in the elevator shaft on either the fourth or fifth floors and fallen to the pit below when he lost his balance. The elevator shafts are barred with planks on all the floors but there are openings between the boards large enough for a man to crawl through.

Deputy Coroner Arlie Mills investigated the accident Tuesday morning and reported that death was instantaneous and due to accidental causes. The body was removed to the Mills Undertaking parlors where it remains pending funeral arrangements.

The death is the first serious accident that has occurred during the construction of the capitol building, said C.C. Hastie, representative of the contracting company. "Godat had only been employed that

Over at The Rambling Taoist, Trey muses:

...I soon realized that a great many models of various types of vehicles are named after geographical locations

...Anyhow, I got to thinking about which towns will never, ever have a vehicle model named after them; the kind of towns with a weird name that doesn't conjure up the kind of imagery that, say, Malibu or Seville does.

Though certainly not an exhaustive list, here's what I came up with. Please feel free to add to the list.

Toad Suck (AR)
Humptulips (WA)
Tittybong (Australia)
Bumpass (VA)
Dogpatch (AR)
Knob Noster (MO)
Chugwater (WY)

Add your own thoughts via comment over there, but I was thinking of the "Toyota Totten," a very badly selling light truck.

One virtually never sees any disagreement among Bush supporters with regard to Iraq or terrorism policies, but Powerline has a very brave and surprising post -- to which all three of its luminaries contributed -- which expresses disagreement with yesterday's essay from world-renowned and esteemed military historian Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, who smeared the motives of the retired American Generals who are criticizing the administration's war effort, by claiming that the Generals are only saying these things to sell books and enrich themselves. Powerline is having none of it.

According to Powerline, Dr. Hanson is wildly off-base. From them we learn that "those griping ex-Generals" are not motivated by a desire to sell books. Rather, they are voicing these criticisms because they are "mostly, in effect, Clinton appointees," because they are simply "'old school' generals who object to Rumsfeld's pet theories" of military transformation, and because these are the rejects who got forced out of their jobs because they "didn't fit with the new program." Hanson was right, of course, that these Generals were operating from base and venal motives; he just got the specific smear wrong.

What is so notable (but unsurprising) here is the reaction of Bush followers to the extremely unusual and extraordinary event of seeing retired Generals criticize not just specific strategic decisions, but the overall mismanagement of the war, and in some cases, the wisdom of the war itself. As I pointed out yesterday, the fact that a bunch of generals hold a certain view does not, by itself, mean that the view is correct, including on military matters. But contrary to the deceitful attempt of Bush followers to pretend that this is some sort of commonplace event ("Generals are always griping about something"), it is remarkable, and significant on at least some level, for this many Generals to make these types of overarching and very public criticisms while a war is still ongoing.