October 3 in A.A. History

1945: Bill W. wrote a letter to the secretaries of more than 600 groups, announcing that the A.A. Grapevine had been adopted as the national periodical of Alcoholics Anonymous [right: the announcement in the November 1945 Grapevine].

1973: M’Cready “James” H. [left, c. 1925], 82, died in Los Gatos, California. He had been a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1940.

He had worked as a teacher, a writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, an editor of the South Bend Times (Indiana), a contributor to humor magazines, and an author of many short stories and at least thirteen books: Huling’s Quest (1925), The Big Show (1927), Dear Senator (1928), The King of Spain’s Daughter (1930), Salesman from the Sidelines (1932), The Family Meal Ticket (1933), Solid Citizen (1933), The Right People (1949), The Prodigal Brother (1952), Saving Grace (1954), The Gates of Brass (1956), The Clouded Fountain (1959), and The Platinum Yoke (1963).

2021: The first episode of the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. podcast, The Half-Hour Variety Hour, was released [right: the first podcast as it appeared on the A.A. Grapevine website]. The hosts, longtime Alcoholics Anonymous member Don and Sam, introduced themselves to listeners. Their guest was Michael M. from New York, whose story “We Showed Them” had been featured in the October 2021 issue of the A.A. Grapevine.

For the previous four years, Don and Sam had anonymously produced their own biweekly podcast about sobriety in A.A., The Boiled Owl, from what they called “The Boiled Owl Coffee Club” [left: logo]. The club was a virtual location, as Don lived in North Carolina and Sam in California.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1916: The Bureau of Municipal Research and Training School for Public Service published Part I of The Engineer in Public Service [right], by Dr. Frederick Ernest B. [left, 1919] A prefatory note calls it

an introductory review of the whole field of engineering as a career and a picture of the engineering service of the government of the United States.

Here are some excerpts from Dr. B.’s conclusions:

Taking it all in all, public service in engineering is a good stepping stone but a poor career.…

There is another thing which ought to be considered. President Wilson recently called attention to the fact that the dominating problems of our early history were of a legal nature. In consequence we find the lawyer omnipresent in government. But it is equally true, as the President also points out, that the governmental problems of the present are those which are calling more and more for men of other vocations. For the solution of these problems, the engineer is singularly well fitted.

A comparison of the governmental budgets of late years with those of some time ago will show that the newer functions of government call, more and more, for technically trained men. Water systems, the control of gas and electricity, sanitation, public health, street cleaning, bridges, canals, docks, ferries, the control of railroads, reclamation, the mobilization of natural and social forces, all these involve problems of an engineering nature.

In 2015, Nabu Press republished it [right], saying,

We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.