Sunday Morning Coffee

Were Rhode Islanders the original American rebels? And links to other articles and podcasts to explore.

Is there anything better on a languid weekend morning than a mug of fresh, hot coffee, and the Sunday newspaper, with its myriad of articles to discover? These Sunday Morning Coffee posts are my occasional accompaniment to the Sunday paper, just a few varied links to things I’ve been reading, listening to, or pondering.

1. HISTORY. Were Rhode Islanders the original American rebels?

In 1772, colonists in Rhode Island attacked and burned a British navy ship, the HMS Gaspee, off the coast of Providence. It gets less attention in the history books than the Boston Tea Party, but this retaliation against British interference in colonial affairs actually happened more than a year earlier.

Here is a Washington Post piece about the Gaspee incident, including some fun, bold talk from Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

American colonists, itching for independence, stormed a British vessel. A spark in New England helped ignite a national revolution. But this was not the Boston Tea Party.

Eighteen months before colonists dumped tea in Boston Harbor … Rhode Islanders attacked and destroyed a British navy ship off the coast near Providence, furious with what they saw as the crown’s overreach …

“Nobody knows that well before anybody pushed a tea bag off a civilian ship in the Boston Harbor, Rhode Islanders blew up a military vessel,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in a recent interview … “[The Boston Tea Partiers] got drunk, painted themselves like Indians and pushed tea bags into the Boston Harbor, which we in Rhode Island think is pretty weak tea compared to blowing up the goddamn boat and shooting its captain.”

2. ADVENTURE (OR NOT): The skydiver who survived a 14,000-foot fall

The chances of a skydiver’s parachute not functioning properly is about .001%. And reserve parachutes are even safer than that, which is why you almost never hear of skydiving accidents that aren’t caused by human mistakes.

But then along comes an almost impossible occurrence: An incident where the primary and emergency parachutes somehow deployed simultaneously and the cords became tangled around the neck of a tandem skydiving instructor, rendering him unconscious mid-skydive.

After which the novice skydiver then plummeted 14,000 feet to the ground, knowing all the way that it was pretty much impossible to survive the impact.

That’s what happened to Emma Carey, who somehow, some way, miraculously did survive the fall. ESPN has a piece about about her experience.

About 30 seconds in, she feels a tap on her shoulder, the signal from her instructor to cross her arms to brace for the jolt of her chute going off. She crosses her arms and then ... nothing.

She's not slowing down. She feels a tug on her hair, and she tries to see what the instructor is doing behind her. He's out cold, unconscious from the ropes attached to the chutes. She can see the chutes, giant chunks of red fabric, flailing around in bunched-up bundles. They're not supposed to be bunched-up bundles.

Panic hits her … She thinks about dying, about what she could have done and said and been. She eventually comes to grips with the fact that she is not slowing down and she's not going to live when she lands in the cow pasture below ..

When she hits the ground, Emma can't believe she is still conscious. She asks her legs to move but she gets no response. She tries over and over again. Nothing … She feels tremendous pain, the kind of pain that is so overwhelming you can't even tell exactly where it's coming from.

3. TRAVEL AND BOOKS: Podcast talk with Emma Roberts

Anything about the combination of travel AND books is bound to catch my attention. So it was with this roughly 20-minute podcast interview with Emma Roberts. Most known as an actress in such films as American Horror Story, We’re the Millers, and more recently Space Cadet, Roberts is also the founder of Belletrist, a popular online reading community, as well as an avid traveler.

She spoke with Conde Nast Traveler about her love of both travel and reading.

I love to travel. I mean, for me, I would say two of my passions are reading and traveling … I just think reading and traveling, especially by train, is so romantic and very aspirational, yet attainable. I feel like I always make up excuses of why I can't go do stuff. So when I'm off of work, lately I've been trying to really go and do more. I feel like you got to just go sometimes. Don't think, just go.

4. POLITICS AND FRIENDSHIP: The relationship between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill

There isn’t much in the way of bipartisan friendship in Washington these days. Which makes the 1980s relationship between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill so intriguing. Reagan, the 40th U.S. president, and O’Neill, Speaker of the House for a decade until 1987, were about as ideologically opposite as two politicians could be. And yet they found their way to respect and friendship.

The Reagan-O’Neill connection is explored in this article in the Boston College magazine, C21 Resources.

While much of their political partnership was based on smart gamesmanship, Reagan, the Republican, and O’Neill, the Democrat, could put aside their party differences to find solutions. They had mutual respect for each other that separated their ideological bent from the need for basic human decency. Reportedly, the two political rivals were good friends who frequently enjoyed a drink together at the end of the day …

Chris Matthews [author of the book Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked] says this kind of relationship is sorely lacking in today’s Washington. “There were rules in those days,” Matthews writes. “Tip would say, ‘I’ll cut a deal on Social Security if you let me focus on taxing the wealthier people.’ There was always a deal. It’s not that they always found common ground, it’s that they each got something out of every deal. A lot of times it was just getting something from the other guy.”

Matthews, an aide to O’Neill at the time, said the heavily emphasized social component is overstated. However … Reagan often answered O’Neill’s calls, “Tip, is it after 6 p.m.?” since he and O’Neill often fought during work hours. But after 6, these two enemies enjoyed each other’s company.  

Enjoy your Sunday!

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