Sarah Lois Vaughan (Mar 27, 1924 – Apr 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer.
Nicknamed "Sassy" and "The Divine One", she won four Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. She was given an NEA Jazz Masters Award in 1989; "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century". via Wikipedia
Also known as 369th Infantry Regiment, they were an African-American unit that served 191 days in combat during WWI more than any other American unit. They broke barriers and returned home as one of the most decorated American combat units serving in World War I.
The French called them the “Men of Bronze” out of respect, and the Germans called them the “Harlem Hellfighters” out of fear and for their intensity on the battlefields. They were known for their toughness and the fact that they never lost a trench, foot of ground, or a man through capture to the enemy.
The extraordinary courage of the Harlem Hellfighters earned them fame in Europe and America as newspapers recounted their remarkable feats. They are celebrated for their bravery, courage, and dedication to their country.
Although, due to severe racism and segregation that existed in post-war America, it created some problems for veterans of the unit.
The New York Times had an article about "Chonkosaurus", a very large snapping turtle spotted in the Chicago River. According to a wildlife biologist they quote, she's female and probably full of eggs, one reason she looks so...chonky. The wildlife biologist estimated her weight at 40 pounds (18kg) and her age at 50 years based on photos and video.
The article went on to say that the Chicago River had essentially been an open sewer before the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1973. Now it's a nice place to go kayaking on a sunny weekend!
But they never quite connected the dots. Ms. Chonkosaurus hatched about 50 years ago--in other words, she was born at the same time as the Clean Water Act passed. She's lived through the entirety of the river recovery. When the eggs she's carrying hatch, they will be born into a profoundly different--better!--world than she was.
I'm a little older than Chonkosaurus and the Clean Water Act. When I was a child the idea of swimming or kayaking in a metropolitan river would have been...well. Jokes about up shit creek without a paddle because the paddle dissolved in the toxic sludge? I remember seeing the oily sheen on the Ohio River in Cincinnati. It was just what a city river looked like.
Now...May 2023...there are warning on television about swimming in the Willamette River in Portland during the current heat emergency. Because the water is too cold! Jump into the water and the cold shock can paralyze you long enough to drown. But it's clean (clean snow melt fresh off the Cascade mountains, brrr).