ON THIS DAY IN 1976, CHICAGO MAYOR RICHARD J. DALEY DIED SUDDENLY: Columnist Mike Royko penned this obit:

If a man ever reflected a city it was Richard J. Daley and Chicago.

In some ways, he was this town at its best—strong, hard-driving, working feverishly, pushing, building, driven by ambitions so big they seemed Texas-boastful.

In other ways, he was this city at its worst—arrogant, crude, conniving, ruthless, suspicious, intolerant.

He wasn’t graceful, suave, witty, or smooth. But, then, this isn’t Paris or San Francisco.

He was raucous, sentimental, hot-tempered ,practical, simple, devious, big, and powerful. This is, after all, Chicago.

Sometimes the very same Daley performance would be seen as both outrageous and heroic. It depended on whom you asked for an opinion.

For example, when he stood on the Democratic National Convention floor in 1968 and mouthed furious crudities at smooth Abe Ribicoff, tens of millions of TV viewers were shocked.

But it didn’t offend most Chicagoans. That’s part of the Chicago style—belly to belly, scowl to scowl, and may the toughest or loudest man win.

Daley was not an articulate man, Saul Bellow notwithstanding. Maybe it’s because so many of us aren’t that far removed from parents and grandparents who knew only bits and pieces of the language.

So when Daley slide sideways into a sentence, or didn’t exit from the same paragraph he entered, it amused us. But it didn’t sound that different than the way most of us talk.

Besides, he got his point across, one way or another, and usually in Chicago style ….

Yes, that was Daley.

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE:  The New York Times is reporting that Education Secretary DeVos plans to rescind the Obama-era school discipline policies.  What the NYT doesn’t seem to understand is what good news that is.  These policies were not just wrong on the law, they have been bad for students and teachers.

VANISHED: On this day in 1967, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach. He was presumed to have drowned.

Holt was apparently not the cautious type. Cheviot Beach was notoriously dangerous for swimmers.  And although he’d had near drowning experiences there before, he insisted that he should continue to go there. When his press secretary warned him that his swimming habits were too dangerous, Holt responded, “Look Tony, what are the odds of a prime minister being drowned or taken by a shark?”

On the day of his disappearance, most of his companions declined to join him in the water on the ground that the swells were too high and there were obvious cross currents and eddies. Interestingly, a newspaper had carried a headline that day of “PM Advised to Swim Less.” It’s not clear that he ever saw it.

There are, of course, conspiracy theories about his disappearance. According to one story, he was picked up by a submarine, so he could defect to China. The truth seems to be a bit more mundane: He was an over-confident swimmer–to the point of being a fool.  Note that over-confidence is a common failing among politicians.

No. 10 DOWNING STREET: Yesterday, I got a special tour of 10 Downing Street, courtesy of my friend Helen, who is a member of the No. 10 staff. Fun fact: Prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher among them, leave their mark on the building in curious ways. Above one of the interior doors is decorative molding with swirls and curls. At the end is the tiny image of a “thatcher” on a ladder carrying thatch for a roof.  Cool.  (Thank you, Helen!)

ON THIS DAY IN 1773:  The Boston Tea Party.  Think about that as you drink your morning coffee.

ON THIS DAY IN 1791, THE BILL OF RIGHTS WAS RATIFIED BY THE REQUISITE NUMBER OF STATES: The Commonwealth of Virginia had the honor of putting the amendments over the top. It had earlier ratified proposed amendment I. Then on December 15, it ratified proposed amendments II through XII. That made three-quarters of the 14 states (Vermont had been recently admitted) for proposals III through XII, which were then re-numbered 1 through 10.

Proposed amendment I and proposed amendment II didn’t make it (though, in one of history’s quirkier moments, the latter made it into the Constitution many years later).

APOLLO 17: On this day in 1972, at 5:55 p.m. EST, the lunar module carrying Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt noiselessly lifted off from the moon. It would later rejoin the Command Module piloted by Ron Evans.

No human being has since returned. Most Americans alive today were not yet born then.

BRAD SMITH KNOWS A BOATLOAD ABOUT ELECTION LAW:  “Michael Cohen Pled Guilty to Something That is Not a Crime.”

(Bumped).

p.s. I am at Newark Airport being being bombarded by CNN.  They are laughing at Trump for having said that this was not a criminal proceeding.  Perhaps what Trump said was that the election law charge against Cohen was for actions that, even if true, do not constitute a crime.

NEW ZEALAND IS REALLY OFF THE BEATEN PATH: On this day in 1642, Dutch sea captain Abel Tasman’s ship became the first European vessel to sight New Zealand.   Interestingly, he and his crew members weren’t as late in arriving as you might think. Scientists, working from DNA evidence, believe that New Zealand was first settled by Eastern Polynesians between 1250 and 1300 AD.

THE MYSTERY OF LLOYD GAINES’ DISAPPEARANCE: On this day in 1938, the Supreme Court decided Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada. Star-student Lloyd Gaines applied to law school at the University of Missouri, but was refused admission on the ground that he was black. Instead, the State of Missouri offered to pay his tuition at a law school in another state. The Supreme Court held that it was idiotic to call that equal protection. (No, the Court didn’t put it quite that way.) Its holding was nevertheless limited. It said that that it wasn’t necessarily so that Missouri must admit Gaines to the University of Missouri’s law school. It might be enough to set up a different law school for him in Missouri.

Here’s the weird part: Lloyd Gaines never took advantage of his victory. Months later, he vanished, never to surface again. He left the fraternity house in Chicago where he had been staying, saying that he needed to buy stamps. He never came back.

Some people, including some of his relatives, believe that he was murdered for his role as plaintiff in the case. But there are problems with that theory. Gaines was known to disappear for days at a time. He was that sort of guy. And he was known to be uncomfortable with his role as a civil rights hero. More than a decade later, his mother told a reporter for Ebony magazine that Gaines had written her before his disappearance, “Goodbye. If you don’t hear from me anymore you know I’ll be all right.”  If true, that makes murder highly unlikely. But weirdly, she hadn’t mentioned such a statement in public before (although she’d never personally called the police about her son’s disappearance).  FWIW, she was thought to be highly distrustful of police.  It’s all very strange.

The NAACP circulated a photograph of Gaines, hoping that someone had seen him. There were possible sightings in Mexico City and New York,  but … well … nobody knows for sure.

COLOR: On this day in 1781, Sir David Brewster, inventor of the kaleidoscope (among other things), was born.

KIRK KOLBO:  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn at 100.

EDUCATION SECRETARY BETSY DeVOS’S PANEL ON SCHOOL SAFETY WILL RECOMMEND THE WITHDRAWAL THE OBAMA-ERA SCHOOL DISCIPLINE GUIDANCE: At least that’s what the Washington Post is reporting. If so, this is excellent, excellent, excellent news (for reasons that go well beyond school safety).

ON THIS DAY IN 1725 (Old Style Nov. 30), GEORGE MASON  WAS BORN: He is often called the father of the Bill of Rights for two reasons: He was the principal author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, upon which Madison later based the Bill of Rights. And, as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he was prominent among those who refused to sign the draft document because it did not yet contain such a bill.

As a result of pressure from Mason and others, a Bill of Rights had to be promised in order the secure ratification.

NO, JUSTICE SCALIA WAS NOT A DIRTY, RACIST SCUM BUCKET: This week in history (well … assuming that something that happened in 2015 can be viewed as history), Justice Scalia was accused of being a racist for bringing up, at the Fisher v. University of Texas oral argument, why race-preferential admissions end up making many of their intended beneficiaries worse off. If you aren’t familiar with the studies he was trying to refer to, please take a look here or for a somewhat more detailed version here.

WILL HOUSE DEMOCRATS SCRAP TERM LIMITS FOR COMMITTEE CHAIRS?:  There is evidence that they will.

I BET YOU CAN GUESS WHY:  In the U.K., 58% of burglaries occur while someone is home.  In the U.S.A., the figure is only 28%.

EMERGENCY ROOMS: If you wonder why more emergency rooms have been closed over the last few decades than opened, here may be part of the reason.

WHENEVER THE DEMOCRATS GAIN A MAJORITY IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, THERE IS A RENEWED CALL TO PASS THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT: I wrote about it just after they re-took the House a number of years back. So far these calls haven’t gone anywhere, in part because “equal rights” are the last thing supporters of “affirmative action” for women in science and technology or on corporate boards really want. The calls may be just an effort to rally the troops.

One item of proof that most feminist groups don’t really want an ERA is their reaction to Proposition 209. When that initiative came before California voters in 1996, feminist groups fought it tooth and nail even though it would have required the State of California to refrain from discrimination or preferential treatment based on sex in public education, public employment and public contracting. If they really had been serious about equal rights (as opposed to equal results) they’d have been pleased.

Thursday’s WaPo column does indeed invoke the new House of Representatives as a reason to pass the ERA. The hope is that Virginia will ratify and then Congress will retroactively extend the deadline for ratification (or will be excoriated for failure to do so). Interestingly, the author ridicules Phyllis Schlafly for arguing that the ERA could be interpreted to require unisex bathrooms. Of course, the Obama administration took the even less defensible position that Title IX (which is similar) requires that anatomical males be permitted to use women’s showers and play on women’s sports teams. Given that, it is strange to ridicule Schlafly.

MORE PROOF THAT IT’S NEWSWORTHY ONLY IF THE MSM SAYS IT’S NEWSWORTHY: The case of the Obama Administration’s use of teargas at the border.

IF YOU THINK THIS SOUNDS ASTONISHINGLY CORRUPT, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF FOR BEING SO NEGATIVE:  Al Sharpton sells his life story rights for $531,000–to his own charity.

ON THIS GHASTLY DAY IN 1974, NOT ONE, BUT TWO BOEING 727s CRASHED IN THE USA: Although winter weather figured in both, the accidents—TWA Flight 514 (92 fatalities) and Northwest Airlines Flight 6231 (3 crew fatalities, no passengers onboard) were otherwise unrelated.

Air travel safety has much improved since then. That’s great. But don’t let the industry get complacent …

ANOTHER TRAGIC EXAMPLE OF MISMATCH: Highly competitive colleges and universities that give large preferences to “diversity” students or to the children of major donors aren’t doing those students any favors. Deliberately misleading colleges and universities about an applicant’s academic credentials only make the problem worse.

REST IN PEACE, MR. PRESIDENT:  George H.W. Bush has died.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MARK TWAIN: Alas, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been dropped from the curriculum at a number of schools. But here’s a fact that is somewhat less well-known these days: High-minded folks viewed Huckleberry Finn as objectionable from the beginning: The Concord Public Library condemned the book and took it off its shelves in 1885, shortly after it was published.