From the Margins: Glowing Cats and the Atomic Priesthood

The Greatest Women's Soccer Team You've Never Heard Of

During WWI, as men left for the front, women stepped up to do all the things that needed to be done on the home front. They took care of the family, worked the farm, built the bombs, and some of them played soccer. As men left to go fight the war, many women started working in factories. During breaks, they were encouraged to socialize and even play sports. One popular pastime was soccer. Many munitions factories had teams of women, “Munitionettes”, that would play pick up games at the factory on breaks against other teams of men and women, and would also play against teams from other factories. Many of these inter-factory games were arranged to raise money for charity. Historically, The Dick, Kerr Company manufactured rail and tram equipment and during the war they started making munitions, airplanes, and locomotives for the war department. Like other companies, the women working at Dick, Kerr started playing soccer. According to an excerpt from DickKerrLadies.com, it started like this: It was October 1917 and the lads football team had been having a run of bad results, losing several of their recent games. They had suffered quite a heavy defeat that weekend and the girls were giving the lads some stick in the works canteen saying that they could play better than them. The lads were having none of it so they challenged the girls to prove their skills in a proper match. Grace accepted immediately and said, 'come on girls, let's give it a go, it'll be a laugh', and the arrangements were made for it to take place in the Penwortham area, not too far from the factory. The result of the game is not known but the girls were soon to continue with their newly formed football team. Shortly after that first game, the ladies were approached and asked to help with a fundraiser to help wounded soldiers. Originally they were asked to perform a choir concert, but the ladies decided it would be a better idea to hold a charity soccer match. On Christmas Day 1917 the Dick, Kerr Ladies football team played the Arundel Coulthard Foundry. Over 10,000 people came to watch and they raised over $65K (in today’s money) for wounded soldiers. The Dick, Kerr team won 4-0. As impressive as that was, their 1920 Boxing Day game was even bigger. The Dick, Kerr Ladies took on the St. Helen’s Ladies in Goodison Park. Over 50,000 fans attended the game, and it is estimated that another 10,000 - 15,000 were turned away at the gate. To put that in perspective: CPKC (The Kansas City Current) stadium holds 11,500 people The Sporting KC stadium holds 18,457 people And Arrowhead (home of the CHIEFS!) holds 76,416 people. In 1920, this team could have almost filled Arrowhead. The attendance at this game set a record for the largest crowd to ever watch a women’s soccer game anywhere in the world. That record would hold for 92 years, only being beaten in 2012 when Team Great Britain defeated Brazil at the London Olympics. 70,584 fans attended that game. In fact, the 1920 Boxing Day game still holds the record for the largest crowd at a women’s domestic game in England with second place having 38,262 people in attendance. That game was Arsenal v Tottenham in 2019. While still working their full-time factory jobs, the ladies played over 60 games in 1921. In February of that year, comedian Harry Weldon invited the Dick, Kerr Ladies to play a match against “the best of the rest”, a team of All-Stars from all over the UK. Over 25,000 people came to Liverpool's Anfield ground to watch the Dick, Kerr Ladies dominate 9-1. Unfortunately on December 5, 1921, England’s Football Association banned women’s teams from using the men’s fields. This put quite a damper on their ability to play, but the women continued in parks and cricket fields. The ban would not be lifted until 50 years later, six years after the Ladies played their final game. Why were they banned? The reasons are many, and not very convincing. Unofficially, people think that the women’s games were bringing in money for charity and the F.A. was upset that they had no control over which charities were supported. Officially, the F.A. expressed their concerns that the money was not being correctly accounted for, and of course, the fragility of women. Apparently it was “their strong opinion that the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and should not be encouraged.” But, yeah, cool. Women can still build bombs, and locomotives, and work the farm… This move encouraged the Ladies to travel to Canada to play matches in that country. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize until they arrived that Canada had also banned women playing on their fields. They then came to America to play, but America had no established women’s teams at the time, so the Ladies took on the men. They played nine games. They won three, drew three, and lost three. Pretty even odds. It is estimated that in their 48 years they raised around $13 million for charity (in today’s money). Over those 48 years they played 828 matches, lost only 24, and drew 46. Many of the women who played for the Dick, Kerr Ladies and other “Munitionette” teams accomplished amazing things. Three of the most well known were: Joan Whalley - Debuted at 15 years old. She was described as one of the two greatest right wingers in the world, the other being Tom Finney. She also made history in 1996 when she became the first British female soccer player to feature in a national ad campaign (for Nike) at the age of 74! Val Walsh (Robinson) - Val was a gifted player and was once spotted by Manchester United’s Matt Busby. Busby said that she was the best player he had seen in his life and that, had she have been a man, he would have signed her on the spot. As good as she was at soccer, Val actually preferred a different sport and went on to quit soccer in favor or field hockey. As a field hockey star she played in 5 world championships and was the first Englishwoman to win 100 caps. Lily Parr - Debuted at 14 years old. She played left wing and reportedly once broke the arm of a male keeper during a penalty shot. She scored 43 goals in her first season, and over 900 goals in her career. She was the only woman included in the inaugural class of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002. The Dick, Kerr Ladies played 828 matches and lost only 24. They raised millions for charity, filled some of the largest stadiums in Britain, and set attendance records that stood for decades. But if you ask the average sports fan about them today you will probably get a blank stare. A hundred years later, women’s soccer is finally receiving the attention it deserves. And while the players on the field today have earned every bit of that success, they didn’t start the story. We owe part of that story to the ladies of the Dick, Kerr Company. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick,_Kerr_%26_Co. https://www.dickkerrladies.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_Robinson_(field_hockey) https://www.thefa.com/womens-girls-football/heritage/kicking-down-barriers https://www.sportingheritage.org.uk/content/news/features/dick-kerrs-ladies-2 https://www.history.com/articles/the-ww-i-era-womens-soccer-team-who-could-beat-the-men https://spartacus-educational.com/Fdickkerrs.htm https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jun/13/how-the-fa-banned-womens-football-in-1921-and-tried-to-justify-it https://heswall.nub.news/news/local-features/rewind-a-strange-centenary-of-the-year-womens-football-was-banned This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fantasticfootnotes.substack.com [https://fantasticfootnotes.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Note Stack: 5.26.26

Housekeeping Thank you all so much! We are up to 1.28K downloads on the podcast so thanks to each and every one of you! Also, if you want to give us a little boost, we would love a review, rating, FB Share, restack, etc. Anything to help us get to the top of that algorithm! Also, June is WORLD CUP MONTH! My son Ethan is going to be helping me host the next three episodes in June and we are going to talk all about soccer history. Don’t let that scare you off, I promise they will still be chock full of interesting history!! News Roundup Revolutionary War Soldiers Reburied In 2019 construction in the Lake George Village of New York uncovered remains of an unmarked burial plot. Initially the plot was thought to be from the French/Indian War, but discovery of a button at the site determined that the site was from the Revolutionary War Era. In fact, scientists think it is associated with a hospital that was close to the site that treated victims of smallpox and other diseases. After painstaking sifting and analysis, scientists think the remains represented at least 44 individuals, two of which were children. On May 20th, those remains were transported from the New York State Museum to the Lake George Battlefield State Park where a newly dedicated memorial called the “Repose of the Fallen” will serve as their final burial ground. The two original articles I found were here [https://nysm.nysed.gov/research-collections/archaeology/bioarchaeology/news/hallowing-this-ground-courtland-street-burials?utm_source=chatgpt.com] and here. [https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2026/05/20/fallen-revolutionary-war-soliders-laid-to-rest] Dingo burial in Australia The remains of a dingo buried 916-963 years ago were studied in Australia. The dingo was male and showed evidence of injuries caused by being kicked by a kangaroo. The dingo had not only lived with and was taken care of by humans, but the burial site had evidence of ritual “feeding” for the next 500 years. The dingo was important enough to this group of people that the tradition of honoring it lasted another half century. Articles here [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/likely-kicked-by-a-kangaroo-this-dingo-healed-a-millennium-ago-thanks-to-help-from-an-aboriginal-community-that-continued-to-honor-it-for-500-years-180988768/] and here [https://australian.museum/about/organisation/media-centre/millennium-old-dingo-burial-baaka-darling-river/]. Also an article about dingo domestication here [https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/article/2023/october/did-australias-first-peoples-domesticate-dingoes]. Tombstone found in New Orleans A New Orleans couple clearing brush in their backyard made an astonishing discovery: a nearly 2,000-year-old Roman tombstone inscribed in Latin. Experts eventually identified it as the grave marker of Sextus Congenius Verus, a Roman sailor from the second century C.E. who had served in the imperial fleet. Researchers traced the stone to a museum in Civitavecchia, Italy, where it had apparently disappeared during the chaos of World War II bombings. The mystery deepened when the FBI’s Art Crime Team became involved, helping investigate how the artifact crossed the Atlantic and arranging for its repatriation. The most likely explanation came from the family of a former homeowner, who believed a relative stationed in Italy during WWII had unknowingly brought the tombstone home as a souvenir, where it later sat forgotten in a New Orleans garden for decades. Original article is here [https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a70289155/roman-tombstone-new-orleans-fbi/]. And in weird news- More records from the UAP files were released including this transcript [https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release_1/nasa-uap-d3-gemini-7-transcript-1965.pdf. find recording] from the Gemini 7 spaceflight where the the astronauts saw something unexplained in space. Hear the audio here [https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=946394774676129]. Listener Comments No listener comments that needed a deep dive this week, but I did post a note that is worth some thought, and we discussed the responses and our takes on the question- “Today is Star Wars Day. If people find evidence of that 2,000 years in the future, what will they assume? Was Star Wars a religion? (LOL, it is for some people). Was Darth Vader a god? They will have lost so much of the context for what it is and why it exists. And what ancient holidays do we have completely wrong because we are missing the context?” Featured Substacks Tina’s Pick: Snakes and Stories [https://substack.com/@snakesandstories] And, as promised, a pic of Titan Chris’ Pick: Jason Ives [https://substack.com/@futurecomputer] Watching/Reading List (Just FYI, these are affiliate links, so as an Amazon Affiliate I earn from qualifying links) Chris is watching: Micheal (the movie) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zOLzsbOleM] Diary of a CEO (YouTube) [https://www.youtube.com/@TheDiaryOfACEO] Tina is reading: First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James Hansen [https://amzn.to/4fHr0lj] On Assignment: Memoir of a National Geographic Filmmaker by James R. Larison [https://amzn.to/3RxZHzW] Dead Man’s Hand by James J. Butcher [https://amzn.to/49oh24x] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fantasticfootnotes.substack.com [https://fantasticfootnotes.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Accident that Nearly Killed Mark Twain

In today’s episode we talk about the explosion on board the Steamboat Pennsylvania and its connection to Mark Twain. If you are a frequent listener you know I generally go into more detail here, but time got away from us here this week, so I will post a longer article about the Pennsylvania in the next few days. Check out that article because it will have the show notes and sources. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fantasticfootnotes.substack.com [https://fantasticfootnotes.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Other Brown v. the Other Board - An earlier fight for school desegregation

The sleepy little suburb of Merriam, Kansas actually has quite a history. This little suburb of Kansas City has hosted two historic amusement parks (one was George Kessler’s first project), an early Quaker mission, was the site of a plane crash in WWII and a spur of the Santa Fe Trail in the 1800’s, and was on the leading edge in the fight for school desegregation. In the early 1860s, David Gee Campbell settled in the area and named the town, now Merriam, Campbellton. Many Shawnee Indians were already settled in the same area, having been given 200 acres of land each in a deal signed by President Cleveland. Unfortunately, by 1863 much of the land was being auctioned off for unpaid taxes, and Rufus Benson purchased about 400 acres of it which he used to build the community of South Park, just north of Merriam. (Later, parts of South Park were annexed by Merriam.) In 1888 the community of South Park built the Madame C.J. Walker School, named after Madam C. J. Walker, the first self-made female millionaire in America. If you want to know more about her, check out this episode from The History Chicks [https://thehistorychicks.com/episode-67-madam-cj-walker/]. The school was attended by both black and white students until around 1900, when white students started attending a separate school. In 1947 the school district opened South Park Elementary School, paid for by ALL taxpayers, but open only to white students. At this point, the C.J. Walker School was nearly 60 years old, had no running water, indoor restrooms, or electricity, and was starting to fall apart. The new South Park School had all of these amenities. Unsurprisingly, black families in the area were unhappy. They voiced their concerns to the school district, but their complaints fell on deaf ears. Helen Swan lived in South Park and worked for a family in Merriam. One afternoon, as her employer, Esther Brown, drove Helen home, Helen shared the problems black families were facing with the school district. As a Jewish woman living in the aftermath of WWII, Esther could not stand by and allow the injustice to continue. Esther, along with the Webb family and other community members, started organizing. They organized Walker’s Walkout, a boycott of the school district. During the walkout, Hazel McCray-Weddington and Corinthian Nutter taught Black students in people’s homes so the children could continue their education. The group also started an NAACP chapter and continued engaging with the school district in hopes of getting something done. And the school district did offer to help… either build a new school for the black students once the bond was paid off (at least 30 years later), or install a mailbox and stop sign at the Walker School. Not exactly helpful. Esther herself faced threats for helping black families. People at the grocery store would casually mention that the KKK was still active in the area, and she even had an FBI file opened on her during the McCarthy era. So, in May of 1948, Webb v. School District No. 90 was filed with the Kansas Supreme Court, and in June of 1949 the court ruled in favor of Webb. The district needed to provide equal facilities for all students, so black students were allowed to attend South Park School. The main lawyer in the case was Elisha Scott, though Thurgood Marshall helped write briefs for the case as well. After the ruling, Esther Brown stayed active in the movement and was sent first to Wichita and then Topeka, where she helped with the famous Brown v. Board of Education case that we all know today. Today, the old Walker School building is home to Philadelphia Missionary Baptist Church. Across the street sits Brown Park, named in honor of Esther Brown and designed by Alfonzo Webb Jr., the son of the plaintiff in the case, Alfonzo Webb. The church is currently working to renovate the historic school building and build a museum dedicated to this important history. If you would like to help, you can donate through the church’s fundraising page [https://www.givelify.com/donate/philadelphia-missionary-baptist-church-merriam-ks-2j7wy5MTUxMTA2NQ==/donation/amount]. After selecting your gift amount, choose “Project Revive and Restore” to ensure your donation goes to the C.J. Walker School Fund. You can also follow their progress on Facebook. [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575767934529] Sources: https://aaregistry.org/story/webb-v-school-district-no-90-is-decided/ https://www.merriam.org/Residents/Our-Community/About-Merriam/History-of-Merriam https://www.humanitieskansas.org/get-involved/kansas-stories/places/before-brown-madam-c-j-walker-school-and-desegregation https://www.kcur.org/history/2024-05-15/brown-v-board-kansas-city-school-segregation-walker-walkout Book: Jenks, Myra F and Irene B. French, Historic Merriam: The History of Merriam, Kansas, Publishing Specialists, Inc, 2006 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fantasticfootnotes.substack.com [https://fantasticfootnotes.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

From the Margins: Glowing Cats and the Atomic Priesthood

While perusing my Facebook feed I came across a Bored Panda Article [https://www.boredpanda.com/ancient-tomb-traps-injured-modern-archaeologists/] that asked an interesting question. “What are real life instances of still working booby traps that have been set off at historical sites that may have killed or seriously injured archeologists or their workers?” Well, of course, I’m invested now… what a great question! I have a limited background in archeology so I didn’t think most of the answers would surprise me, but this one did. User GingerMcGinginII replied as such: And that, friends, is where tonights podcast starts. So it turns out that this is not as crazy as a question as it might seem. High level nuclear waste, the kind produced in nuclear reactors, needs to be safely stored for AT LEAST 10,000 years. You might think we should just bury with a sign that says “Don’t go here”, but as the Bored Panda article points out, that may not be so easy. Languages change. Symbols change. The meaning of things is lost to time. So how do we get people 10,000 years in the future to believe us when we say nuclear waste is bad? In 1981 the US Department of Energy brought a group of engineers, behavioral scientists, anthropologists, linguists, and nuclear physicists together to figure it out. This group was called the Human Interference Task Force, and between that group and continuing studies into the 1990’s, we ended up with some very strange ideas. Some of the ideas were predictable… don’t bury it where people want to dig, make pictorial warning signs to help people understand the danger, print warnings in many different languages, etc. Other ideas were good, but a bit stranger such as making the space feel “off”. Covering it in rubble or large spikes and making the structure sound spooky in the wind were suggested. Check out this article [https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/speaking-to-the-future/] to see some pictures of what the scientists were thinking. And then… we get to the really weird. Things like implanting a message in the DNA of the plants around the site. Creating a religion to ensure the information gets passed on. And yes… the RayCat Solution. If you haven’t heard of the RayCat Solution, let me sum it up. You genetically engineer cats (or some other animal) to glow when they get near radiation. But here is the problem… 10,000 years in the future will people understand why they are glowing? And that is where this little gem [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amn3kn0XPLQ&list=RDamn3kn0XPLQ&start_radio=1] comes in. Someone made a song that would be so catchy that even 10,000 years in the future people would remember it. And that song had lyrics that explained what to do if your cat started glowing. For example: Don't change color, kittyKeep your color, kittyStay that midnight blackThе radiation that the change impliesCan kill, and that's a factThе radiation, whatever that isIs something we don't want'cause it withers our cropsAnd it burns our skinAnd it turns our livestock gaunt Obviously this idea never really got off the ground. In fact, even though it is now 2026 there is still no resolution to the issue of storing nuclear waste. As of now most nuclear waste is just stored where it is made, which seems ok. For now. So I leave you with this. This is an excerpt from a report by Sandia labs and is one of the proposed warnings that has potential to actually be used. It reads like a little mini sci-fi horror poem, and, as long as people in 10,000 years can translate it, I think it will do the trick. “This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture. This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here. What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger. The danger is in a particular location... it increases toward a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us. The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours. The danger is to the body, and it can kill. The form of the danger is an emanation of energy. The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.” Sources: 1984 Study [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6799619] https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/speaking-to-the-future/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Interference_Task_Force https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/11/26/the-staggering-timescales-of-nuclear-waste-disposal/ https://www.iflscience.com/this-is-not-a-place-of-honor-how-do-we-warn-of-danger-to-people-thousands-of-years-in-the-future-74396 https://genius.com/Emperor-x-10000-year-earworm-to-discourage-resettlement-near-nuclear-waste-repositories-dont-change-color-kitty-lyrics#:~:text=Don’t%20change%20color%2C%20kitty,Keep%20sickness%20away This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fantasticfootnotes.substack.com [https://fantasticfootnotes.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]