Members of the Reno Gang

May 22nd 1843 - A thousand settlers, known as the Great Emigration, leave for Oregon from Independence, Missouri. The followed the Santa Fe trail, followed the Platte River, crossed the Rocky Mountains, the Snake River, and finally, the Blue Mountains, a dangerous 2,000 mile trip which took the pioneers five months (a lot longer than the 40 minutes it took to cross the country in the video game.) They were one of the largest groups to set off to settle the west since the first pioneers had trekked across the continent 2 years earlier. The number of wagon trains rose in the next couple years until the number of pioneers exceeded 3,000 in 1845. The trail was gradually replaced by trains and roads, but the trail will remain forever a mark a period of American spirit and perseverance, and not to mention a fantastic video game.

May 22nd 1868 – The Reno Gang, also known as the Jackson Thieves (how cool is that?!) makes off with over $96,000 after robbing a train in Marshfield, Indiana as it arrived at its stop. During and after the Civil War the Reno Gang, whose members included the three Reno brothers, terrorized the Midwestern Railroads until 1868 when ten of the gang members were caught and lynched. The Marshfield train was the gang’s fourth train and by far their largest haul. These guys were deadly and clever. In Indiana the group Wild West thieves jumped aboard the train’s engine car as it pulled away from the station and detached it from the cargo cars, allowing it to speed away unmanned. The gang then cracked into the safe onboard and fled across the Midwest. Now I don’t condone theft and robbery, and maybe it’s all the spaghetti Westerns and John Wayne flicks that embedded themselves in American culture, but the Reno Gang was pretty freakin’ cool. But for so many who worked on the rails, the Gang was a real threat. When vigilantes got a hold of ten of their members, they served them their own form of justice, breaking up the gang with a series of lynchings. Most of the money, totaling almost $150,000, went unfound. (Treasure hunt, anyone?)

Bank robberies and train heists weren’t just a thing of the Old West:

May 23rd 1934 - Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, immortalized simply as Bonnie and Clyde, are shot dead by police in a stolen Ford car. The names, Bonnie & Clyde, are now instantly recognizable and conjure up romantic images of fast getaway cars and passionate love affairs. The deadly duo met in1930 when Bonnie Parker was just 19 and Clyde Barrow was serving time for murder. The next couple years were dotted with jail time and robberies, and after both were released from jail in 1932 they started a crime spree which would capture the nation and go down in history. The couple intrigued the nation, particularly because of Bonnie’s presence as a woman in the gun-slinging, car-stealing, fast-paced life of crime. The couple was also known for taking adorable sweetheart photos as they crossed the country, later found by police and released. Between 1932 and 1934 Bonnie and Clyde crossed Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Mexico and Louisiana robbing a long string of stores and banks and killing at least 13 people, many of them cops. They duo was betrayed in Louisiana and an ambush was put in place, and the couple’s violent reign of crime came to a violent end as a spray of bullets hit their car. Footage of the car can be seen below.

May 26th 1897 – Dracula, the iconic vampire novel, hit London bookstores on this day and now graces every 11th grade English class’s booklist (raise your hand if Dracula was ever on one of your ‘suggested reading lists.) The novel revived the fixation on the blood-suckers throughout the 20th Century, making them a key figure in novels and movies (The Little Vampire, anyone?) The author, Bram Stoker, may not be an American literary figure (he was born and lived in Ireland,) but considering his novel lead to Twilight, Trueblood and Vampire Diaries, I think I’ll count him on this list. So the next time you’re drooling over Robert Pattinson (or simply wishing Twilight had never come into existence,) thank Bram Stoker.

May 25 1977 - George Lucas’ Star Wars is released. I don’t know about you guys, but Star Wars had me at the first note of composer John William’s infamous score. The release of the first Star Wars film, then, understandably premiered with record breaking numbers in all areas (Carrie Fischer, who played Princess Leia, called the opening an earthquake.) The movie introduced audiences not only to a heroic cast and a cause to root for, but new special effects which jumped off the screen in the 1970s and a powerful score to match the action. Now, I think we can all tell just how big of a series Star Wars is; it has become a sort of living memory for so many people. I’ll confess I went as Princess Leai for Halloween three years in a row (it was an expensive costume, ok?) and what little boy or girl doesn’t have a lightsaber (and really, really wish they were real?) A simple Whitepages.com search gave me seven people named Luke Skywalker in the U.S. alone. Need I say more?

May 28th 1983 – Irene Clara’s “What a Feeling” hits #1 on the U.S. pop charts. You may not know the name, you may not know the song, but you know the legacy. The theme to Flashdance, “What a Feeling” soared to the top of the charts as Flashdance soared to #3 on the highest grossing films list of 1983; it’s hard to tell if the song fueled the movie or vice-versa but one thing’s for sure: the match was unstoppable. Come to think of it, it may be the fact that “What a Feeling” was a song to which anyone could just throw on leg warmers and a sweatband, grab a perm, cut some bangs, and do some fabulous Breakfast Club-style dancing. “What a Feeling” was Irene Cara’s biggest hit of her career and is a big hit in my heart simply because it is just oh-so-80s. Check out the video for a good laugh and remember how lucky we are not to have lived in the 80s:

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Now, before you call 1-800-YOU-NEED-HELP on me, rest assured that I have supportive friends who are eager to reinsert the badass back into my life. So, as I was singing the badass blues to my friends Janine and Bruna the other night, they came up with a brilliant idea: I should use my fashion choices to make me feel a little more like a badass. Since both of them are fashion experts, one a fashion designer and the other a manager at the retail paradise known as The Loft, they decided to materialize their idea and help me out a bit through the amazing Do-It-Yourself list below.

So, without further ado, I present to you the awesomely badass, awesomely simple, Skull Pants.

1) Start off with a plain pair of  skinny jeans. Turn the pants inside out, and then draw a basic sketch of a skull face in white pencil on the thigh area of one pant leg.

2) You then put a piece of cardboard in between the pants so you don’t cut through both layers, and use an exacto-blade to cut the outsides of the skull you drew.

3) Turn it inside out and boom! You’re a badass.

Oh, and my two fabulous friends will be starting their own fashion blog soon, so I will be sure to keep you updated about that. Now go and rock out with your skull pants on!

Peace.

Bamboozle is the true gem of the Jersey Shore. Every summer, Jersey-ites gather in the oft-bragged-about home of Bruce Springsteen, Asbury Park, in order to rock out for one sweaty weekend at the beginning of summer.  Since 2003, this three-day festival has been drawing crowds from all over to enjoy performances from over 50 bands of varying fame.

This weekend, the music festival faced two brilliant days of sun on Friday and Saturday but the turnout dropped Sunday with the overcast weather. Still, despite the unfortunate ambiance, Bamboozle went out with a bang as Jersey native Jon Bon Jovi finished out the event Sunday night. As JBJ went to schmooze with the fans after his performance, he met two women from England who, The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “saw the band at London’s Wembley Stadium but made the pilgrimage to Bamboozle simply because they “had to see him in New Jersey.” Bravo, ladies #youredoingitright

Also, the Foo Fighters deserve some serious props for playing Bamboozle on Friday night and then rocking the season finale of SNL the next day. They were also awesome for pretending that these two back-to-back performances were the least bit equitable. Nice pandering, guys! We love you anyway. Evidence:

In other related news, with summer quickly approaching and the weather heating up, the beach no longer looks so damp and lonely. But, seriously, it’s not that warm out guys, calm down with the umbrellas. Tanning season has only just begun!

There’s even a cute (?) crocs family!

Gotta start the conditioning young before they are old enough to understand how hideous their shoes truly are.

Well, that’s it for this week’s edition of “The Real Jersey Shore”! Keep reading for more Jersey-based shenanigans!

THE TOP 10 TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS WEEK’S EPISODE OF MAD MEN:

1. Lane Pryce, you are a bad boy!  And not a bad boy in the fun sense, either, but in the “I owe my mother country a truckload of money in back taxes” sense.  This whole subplot raises a few questions for me though: Why didn’t Lane pay his English taxes?  Why should he have to?  Why is he freaking out so much about it? What can the English really do to him from across the pond?  What is the English equivalent of Uncle Sam?  Is it the Queen?

2. “Are you drunk?” “Pearl Harbor Day, show some respect.” This little exchange between Pete and Roger prompted me to have a not-that-important-but-fun-to-consider revelation.  Almost holiday that we celebrate in America makes no sense.  We spend 12 hours at the bar on St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo, but V-E and V-E Day barely get a mention.  We get the day off from work to celebrate Columbus landing on Hispaniola, but nothing to commemorate Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.  Does this make sense to anyone?  I propose the following changes to the American holiday system:

• We move President’s Day up to the Monday following the Super Bowl.  This will probably be closer to Lincoln’s birthday than the current President’s Day is, anyway.
• We replace Cinco De Mayo with V-E Day (May 8^th) as our biggest springtime alcoholiday.
• The first Monday after June 21 is a national holiday recognizing the summer solstice.  Explain to me why we get a million holidays when it’s too cold to do anything, but absolutely ZERO during the nicest month of the year.
• Every July 20 is Man On The Moon Day and is basically Independence Day Part II.
• We do the exact same things on V-J Day as we do on V-E Day.
• We change Columbus Day to Eisenhower Day.  Dewey’s birthday is October 14^th, and really, isn’t winning WWII in Europe and establishing the American highway system more worthy of celebration than a dude who unknowingly found an island somewhat close to Florida, and then annihilated its inhabitants?  Thought so.

These are all great ideas and you know it.  If any of them actually become reality, don’t thank me, thank Roger Sterling.

3. Joan Holloway (do we still have to call her Harris?) unleashes the Ginger Fury in all of its fiery glory on the unfortunate secretary who couldn’t sniff out a narc.  I still don’t know whether to be terrified of it or just cackle.

4. Watching Don comfort Joan and then proceed to drive her around town in a Jaguar as her mock husband before ending up at a bar in the early afternoon scared the living hell out of me.  For a moment, I was sure that Mad Men was about to officially jump the shark and have Don and Joan finally do the nasty.  Even if they would be the most explosive, swagged-out couple imaginable (think the 60’s Kim and Kanye), having them get together would be like LeBron James conspiring to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and join Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat.  Though it would give Roger Sterling the opportunity to go full-out Dirk Nowitzki, steal Joan from Don and completely rewrite his legacy.

5. Paul Kinsey returning in full Hare Krishna gear immediately jumped into this season’s top five “WTF just happened? Rewind the DVR!” moments, along with Betty’s first appearance in the fat suit, Don strangling a woman to death (in his sleep), Roger getting some from Megan’s mother, and Betty huffing the Reddi-Whip.  These aren’t the five most memorable moments, just the five that completely caught me off guard.

6. George Harrison totally jacked the Hare Krishna chant for his song “My Sweet Lord.”  He also got sued for stealing the melody from someone else.  Competing with John Lennon and Paul McCartney will drive you to do terrible things, apparently (Also, this song is not on YouTube in its original recorded version.  Internet fail).

7. My CSOM genes allowed me to fully sympathize with Don’s pain as he endures that horrible play that just shits all over advertising.  What did that actor major in anyway?  Obviously not acting! (Ha.)  Ladies, take note; do not take make your husband sit through a terrible play that insults his very existence.  He is liable to stay out and get completely wrecked with the office bombshell the next day while you work yourself into a spaghetti-tossing rage.

8. What will happen first?  The Don-Megan split or the Roger-Joan reunion?  Roger seems to be making the strongest moves but Joan is offering the strongest resistance.  Don sending Joan flowers under the alias Ali Khan (there are like 10 of this guy on Wikipedia) is throwing a wrench into everything.

9. Poor Peter Campbell.  He has nothing but good news, the chance to get Jaguar!  Nobody gives a crap.  Bert Cooper seems to think they’re lemons, for whatever reason.  But Don Draper steps up and announces that everyone is working weekends for the next few months and he gets a round of applause.  You can’t compete with Don’s swag, Pete.  You just can’t.

10. Quote of the episode: “SURPRISE, THERE’S AN AIRPLANE HERE TO SEE YOU!” *throws airplane statue at cowering secretary* – Joan

EXPECTATION: I had originally planned on working the the great city of New York where I would make the most of an awesome internship and win over my employers so much that they’d be begging me to work for them after graduation.

REALITY: One internship flat out rejected me. Gave me the condolence letter that essentially said I’m a good person but not awesome enough to hire. Another one waitlisted me. Waitlisted. I didn’t know you could do that for internships, but apparently it’s possible.

Without saying, my self-esteem has taken a pretty severe hit and now I’m freaking out about life as an almost senior in college who is about to graduate and become a real person. Since staying on the East Coast didn’t quite work out, I’m now home in the amazing Detroit city (skip to 2:30 in the song to see the point of me posting).

And if you’re a loser and you haven’t heard this song, why not. For those of you who enjoy hating on Detroit, let me also remind you of the Clint Eastwood seal of approval.

What’s worse for my anxiety is the fact that many of my friends already have jobs lined up. Jobs that actually have to do with what they’ve studied. I feel like the only one who doesn’t have their shit together. So I decided to start this blog for the others like me who are stumbling through this whole “becoming an adult” process and would like to join me in laughing at all my awkward mistakes and poor life choices.

The truth is life is kind of hard and horridly unpredictable. Trying to plan for “life’s many journeys” is the quickest way to get a free ride to a psych ward.

And..

So I can’t really let the worry set in too early, it’ll likely cause an aneurysm or something. I’d like to think that I stayed true to this model for most of the year, but finals week and my busted summer plans really threw me.

I need to find my calm again and, call it early onset senioritis but, my plan for making it through this summer and my last year in college, will be to bullshit life to the absolute fullest and try to get away with as much as I can. All of course, while looking impressive enough to possibly get a job. If not, I still have a nice room back at home…

Don’t panic, fellow worry-warts! I’m sure we’re somewhat prepared for the future. Kind of.

Sidenote: One of my friends keeps depressing my mood and bringing this up, but it’s true so I guess it’s worth a mention. I and everyone else in college will never again have a “summer vacation” like we used to in grade school. It’s a tough reality to accept, but as soon as I get over this, growing up might get a little easier i.e. boring.

1. Mary Ann’s at midnight on your 21^st birthday.

Classic. When the time has come to say sayonara to your older sibling’s ID forever, what better way to celebrate with drinks at the cheapest, and at one point, worst bar in Boston, Mary Ann’s.  Since I was lucky enough to be graced with a Christmas birthday, I had to experience this one vicariously, through my friends.  Call me blessed.  On one very special— and no doubt, very exciting—weekend in mid April, it just so happened that not one, but two of my friends shared a 21^st birthday only one day apart.  Sure, the weekend was going to be rowdy enough—this we knew.  But consider that they took place on the eve of Marathon Monday and any restraint we could have had was out the window.

The festivities began on Saturday to celebrate my friend Megan’s 21^st.  Let me begin by saying, it was a long time coming for this one.  The night started with the usual pregame at our various friends’ apartments until we were satisfactorily buzzing, jamming to ‘90s playlists and such—you know, the usual.  Luckily, one of us noticed when it was midnight, at which time I’m sure we toasted to the birthday girl before rounding up the crew and making the trek to MA’s.  The line wasn’t bad and we were inside before we had time to make friends with the people behind us in line.  We spotted a table close to the juke box and posted up, making friends with an Italian international student.  After a few rounds of drinks we were pushing close so we hit the road.  Although it was nothing out of the ordinary, Megan had a great time.

The next morning we decided to spice things up a bit.  The Sunday before Marathon Monday was no ordinary Sunday.  No homework would be due the next morning and although we would be setting our alarm clocks for 8am it was only for the purpose of getting out of bed and (ahem) slugging beers.  So, we gathered our crew, hit Reservoir Wine and Spirits and cruised over to campus to check out the carnival set up in front of O’Neill.  This being Megan’s legitimate birthday, we decided to see who could get the most random passersby to wish her Happy Birthday in the mod parking lot.  I may or may not have won, even securing a bicyclist not once, but twice.

After sipping on some Raspberry Rubi (also classic and classless all at once) it was time to hit the carnival.  Let me tell you something about this carnival—if I were an eight-year-old, I would have been in ecstasy.  But I was a 21-year-old.  And nothing could have made me happier.  I immediately got in line for bumper cars.  While the breaks were rusty and sporadic and the gas pedal remarkably took you both forward and backwards, the ride was hysterical.  I think all five of us in the bumper cars moved roughly 10 feet by the end.  Needless to say, we had all become friends.  Next, Megan was challenged to a game of hoops—whilst being tied to a blowup stand and being pulled on the opposite side by a large male who was also trying to shoot.  The competition was like that of tug-of-war except that Megan, the one who was half the size of her opponent, kind of kicked butt.  In my eyes at least.  To top off our carnival adventures, a bunch of us decided we had to ride the mechanical bull.  Disclaimer: the mechanical bull is almost as hard to mount as it is to stay on.  One of us actually needed the assistant to climb inside and help her up.  Either way, we couldn’t stop laughing the entire ride.  With a burger courtesy of UGBC we saluted the carnival and continued on our merry way.

As mentioned earlier, Sunday night marked the night of our other friend, Chris’s 21^st birthday.  As per usual, Mary Ann’s at midnight was the protocol.  Of course, some of us had been celebrating Megan’s 21^st since earlier in the day, we were remarkably rowdy and ready to roll.  Another 90’s playlist throw back including TLC’s “Waterfalls” was jammed out to and we were off for MA’s round II.  Unfortunately for Chris, the majority of the BC bar-goers had decided that the Sunday before Marathon Monday was better spent at home—perhaps sleeping—rather than out-and-about.  We rallied.  Drinks abounded and, with half of MA’s open to us, there was plenty of room to move about and plenty of juke box space for music selection.  I hope Chris enjoyed his first MA’s experience as much as we did.  We all had a great time regardless of the lacking BC students and we had even reunited by 8am the next morning to celebrate the marathon.

Let me end by saying this: Mary Ann’s, we love you.  There shall be many more encounters to come.

Or  she’ll message you commenting that your profile picture doesn’t send a “positive message to potential employers.”  It’s a total invasion of your cyber social life, and you’ll need to censure yourself accordingly. The infiltration starts slowly, with your mom casually cracking jokes about some funny link that your friend posted on your profile.  This may seem harmless, BUT DON’T BE FOOLED! She’s just warming you up, trying to let you know that she’s onto you. She’s discovered your secret identity, the “you” that you are with your friends. And she’s finally figured out a sure fire way of contacting you while you’re living it up in college:

In the good old days before Facebook Timeline you could get away with blocking her from your wall. “Oh Mom, I just have my privacy settings really high. No one can see my wall!” Not anymore though! There’s no hiding from the posts, the photo comments, the messages.  And there’s NOTHING like a “mom-post” on Facebook.  Moms have mastered the art of turning a post into a letter.  The language is formal, and each post is signed “xoxo Mom”.  You are all familiar with this phenomenon; we’ve all had older relatives contact us on Facebook at some point.  Well on this blog I am going to do the unimaginable.  I’m lowering my privacy settings.  My mom, aunts, even my grandfather will all be able to see everything. And I mean everything.  The tagged photos, the unfortunate status updates, the profile hacks, they’re all fair game. I’ll collect the comments here throughout the summer.  So go ahead. Laugh at my pain, and just be glad it isn’t yours.

Here’s just a sample of what I’ll be dealing with this summer. All just for your entertainment.

The second disclaimer is that I have no idea how to cook.  If it goes beyond boiling pasta noodles, mixing together a salad, or making cake from cake mix, I’ve probably never done it.  So bear with me as I try out recipes and put my non-existent cooking skills to the test.

My family has a fire pit in our backyard, and over the summer my friends, family and I make a lot of s’mores.  So in honor of the beginning of summer, my friend and I decided to make s’more cupcakes.  Here is the recipe I found on Pinterest, originally from Martha Stewart.

We tweaked the recipe a little bit by adding graham cracker crumbs on the bottom.  Mix together 1-3/4 cups of graham cracker crumbs, 1/3 cup of melted butter, and 1/4 cup of sugar (a standard recipe for a graham cracker crust).  Line the bottom of each cupcake liner with a layer of the graham cracker mixture, then pour the cupcake batter on top.

The cupcakes were absolutely delicious.  My only complaint is that the marshmallows did not melt as neatly or brown as nicely as the recipe portrays.  We used toothpicks to make sure the marshmallows didn’t fall over, and even then it got messy.

Keep reading for more delicious recipes!

Photo By Jillian Timko / Gavel Media