The Styrous® Viewfinder: 10/01/2025

October 31, 2025

Halloweenies

photos by Styrous® except where noted

photo by Minoo Hamzavi

photo by Hilda Tremonto

Halloween in Sweden - 2017

photo by Kaj Bjurman

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Halloween articles/mentions

Minoo Hamzavi

Youtube links:

Addams Family Theme song

Alice Cooper ~ Welcome To My Nightmare

Brian Sisters ~ The Boogie Woogie Man

Michael Jackson ~ Thriller

Bobby Pickett ~ Monster Mash

Rockey Horror Picture Show ~ Time Warp

Warren Zevon ~ Werewolves of London

downloaded from the Net

Styrous® ~ Friday, October 31, 2025.

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Events
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October 29, 2025

October, a good month for politics

The political events during the month of October have been good in many ways for us here in the United States over the years.

On October 7, 1765, Nine American colonies sent a total of 28 delegates to New York City for the Stamp Act Congress. The delegates adopted the "Declaration of Rights and Grievances." (link below).

On October 28, 1824 First presidential election in American history where the popular vote is important with 18 states choosing presidential electors by popular vote. Andrew Jackson wins the most votes but is short of a majority, forcing a contingent election in the House of Representatives which John Quincy Adams wins.

On October 28, 1886 - The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York harbor by U.S. President Cleveland. The statue weighs 225 tons and is 152 feet tall. It was originally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World."

Forty years later, on October 28, 1936 - The Statue of Liberty was rededicated by U.S. President Roosevelt on its 50th anniversary.

On October 3, 1922, Rebecca L. Felton became the first female to hold office of U.S. Senator. She was appointed by Governor Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia to fill a vacancy, however, she served for only a day. It's a start!

On October 28, 1962, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

On October 1, 1964, The Free Speech Movement, a massive, long-lasting student protest was started at the University of California at Berkeley.

On October 1, 1968, Night of the Living Dead, an American independent zombie horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, premiered in Pittsburgh, PA. (Ok, maybe not so political! One of the worst films ever but I like it and it IS almost Halloween, Hardwick (link below) stands in for that; and anyway it IS my blog!)

It's an interesting month!

A lot of good things happened &

there was much more stuff!

Viewfinder Links:

John Quincy Adams

Grover Cleveland

Rebecca Felton

Thomas Hardwick

Mina

Nikita Khrushchev

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Styrous® ~ Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Politics

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Mina articles/mentions

Salomé vinyl LP

mentions:

Glenn Miller ~ Moonlight Serenade

posacenere da Roma

Elvis Presley ~ All Shook Up & Otis Blackwell

vinyl LP cover graphics

Mina - 1959

photographer unknown

Music People

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George A. Romero articles/mentions

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mentions:

October, a good month for politics

George A. Romero

date & photographer unknown

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Movie Articles

Movie People

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Rebecca L. Felton articles/mentions

mentions:

October, a good month for politics

Rebecca L. Felton

date & photographer unknown

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People

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Thomas W. Hardwick articles/mentions

mentions:

October, a good month for politics

Thomas W. Hardwick - 1912

photo:

Library of Congress's

Prints and Photographs division

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People

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John Quincy Adams articles/mentions

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October, a good month for politics

John Quincy Adams

Daguerreotype by Mathew Brady

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People

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October 28, 2025

Grover Cleveland articles/mentions

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October, a good month for politics

Grover Cleveland

date & photographer unknown

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People

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Declaration of Rights and Grievances & The Stamp Act

On October 7, 1765, Nine American colonies sent a total of 28 delegates to New York City for the Stamp Act Congress. The delegates adopted the "Declaration of Rights and Grievances." which was passed on October 19.

There were eight rights outlined in the document, The penultimate right: 7th. "That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject in these colonies."

Viewfinder Links:

October, a good month for politics

Political History links

US House of Representatives ~ Declaration of Rights and Grievances

YouTube Links:

The Colonies United at The Stamp Act Congress

Declaration of Rights and Grievances

The Stamp Act Congress

The Stamp Act Congress Explained

What Was The Declaration Of Rights And Grievances?

What Was The Stamp Act Congress?

What Were The Grievances Listed In The Declaration?

Politics

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October 6, 2025

Thor Heyerdahl & the Kon Tiki

Kon Tiki

photo: Bahnfrend - Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo

Today is the birthday of Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer, Thor Heyerdahl. He is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he drifted 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a primitive hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands.

I had switched my career ambitions a few years earlier from Paleontology to Archaeology (link below) with my discovery of the Tutankhamun explorations in Egypt in 1926; I became fascinated with ancient cultures and empires, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Aztec, etc.

Heyerdahl (born in 1914) is one of the greatest and most controversial explorers of the 20th century known for having crossed part of the Pacific Ocean in 1947 on an open boat, the Kon-Tiki, built of balsa wood, in order to question the origins of the Polynesian people.

Thor Heyerdahl - 1947
photographer unknown

The basis of the Kon-Tiki expedition was Heyerdahl's belief that the original inhabitants of Easter Island (and the rest of Polynesia) were the "Tiki people", a race of "white bearded men" who supposedly originally sailed from Peru. He described these "Tiki people" as being a sun-worshipping fair-skinned people with blue eyes, fair or red hair, tall statures, and beards. He further said that these people were originally from the Middle East, and had crossed the Atlantic earlier to found the great Mesoamerican civilizations. By 500 CE, a branch of these people were supposedly forced out into Tiahuanaco where they became the ruling class of the Inca Empire and set out to voyage into the Pacific Ocean under the leadership of "Con Ticci Viracocha"

Twenty years later, he repeated the feat with the boats Ra II and Tigris, this time made of reeds, with which he crossed the Atlantic with Ra II and sailed along the gulfs of Oman, Persia and finally Aden with Tigris. Throughout his life, he tried to overturn the scientific consensus on the origin of the Polynesian peoples by trying to prove that they did not originate in East Asia but in South America. He alienated the scientific community with his work, but he participated largely in the popularization of these themes and of science in general. In particular, he contributed to popularizing the idea that there were probably contacts and therefore transoceanic links between the ancient cultures of the world.