No FLB Day

It’s MLK Day.
Some of you will have it off.
Some of you will have to work.

Last year I heard a reading of the I Have a Dream Speech on the radio and was particularly struck by the closing passage. And then I realized that the FLB did not have a great track record of commemorating this day.

So I pledged to do better. Yes, this is a food blog. But we don’t always talk about food. For example, on Thanksgiving I post a video of the same Thanksgiving song year after year.

Today I want to share something about MLK that has a more local connection. Did you know the New York State Museum has the only known recording of a 1962 speech Dr. King gave in Manhattan to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation?

Well, that’s what the video below says anyway.

If you do have today off, I’m encouraging you to take a few minutes and listen to some of the man’s words. Today is a holiday for a reason. The speech below is just over 26 minutes. And it’s accompanied by a video that shows the scratched up text of the original speech as well, which makes the whole thing even more interesting.

Thank you New York State Museum, for sharing this on YouTube and with the world.
One of my favorite parts of the New York State Museum is its proximity to some great eats. The Excelsior Pub is fantastic to get a taste of New York. I still need to get back in there for a garbage plate. Hill Street Cafe is fantastic for its thick tavern style pizza, wings, gravy cheese fries, and dynamite beer selection that includes some hard to find gems from Vermont.

What Dr. King says is true, “Mankind through the ages has been in a ceaseless struggle to give dignity and meaning to human life.”

I’ve been on a ceaseless struggle to make sure that we all eat well. That’s why he was a great man, and why there’s never going to be a FLB Day. Not even if I start writing about the Instant Pot full time.

But more on that tomorrow.