Finding someone who has faced and overcome as many challenges as Donald Trump in 2024 is nearly impossible. He battled through adversity, exposed corruption in government, corporate, and bureaucratic sectors, was branded a felon by what some call a politically motivated Department of Justice under President Biden, and endured slander from mainstream influencers who claimed his presidency would end democracy, and worse, leading to two assassination attempts.

All of this was intended to derail his campaign. Despite these tribulations, he still emerged victorious in the election. President Trump earned the title on the cover.

No one has accomplished as much as he has in my lifetime. You’d have to look back to the era of the Founding Fathers to witness a similar political phenomenon. Perhaps one other figure achieved as much and lived during my time, but his accomplishment was just before I was born; that would be Ike.

I believe history will record Trump’s achievements in this light.

This is important if you are from the United States, and perhaps more so if you are from Lancaster, Ohio, my former stomping grounds.

An Ohio high school student designed the 50-star American flag for a class project. His teacher, Stanley Pratt, originally gave him a B–. That student was, of course, from Lancaster, and the grade, as part of a challenge, was changed to an A. The student was Bob Heft. Why Heft wasn’t invited and in this picture is beyond me.

Heft anticipated the possibility of the United States adding more states, so he designed a 51-star flag. This design features six rows of stars, with the rows alternating between nine and eight stars. This was created in case Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, or another territory might become a state.

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in December 1919, effective 1920, was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933, ending Prohibition.

It’s important to understand that the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution did not directly make it illegal to drink alcohol. Instead, it prohibited manufacturing, selling, or transporting intoxicating liquors within the United States and its territories.

Some states didn’t do it, and at least one stopped enforcement. It also allowed consumption for religious purposes. Without it, there would have been a conflict with the First Amendment.

There were other loopholes in Prohibition. While you couldn’t legally buy or produce new alcohol, you were allowed to drink alcohol that you already possessed before the 18th Amendment’s enforcement date OR legally obtained before Prohibition started. Medicinal prescriptions, like sacramental alcohol above, were also exempt.

So, possession for personal use was technically legal. Still, the avenues for legally obtaining new supplies were limited, making drinking alcohol criminal unless one had pre-existing stocks or used one of the few legal loopholes. How would anyone honestly know? A lot of people store whiskey and wine for years or claim to.

Trying to enforce these laws led to widespread non-compliance and the rise of speakeasies, bootlegging, and organized crime. My grandparents were in the bar business forever, and I remember stories about bathtub gin. Here’s a tidbit: it wasn’t produced in a bathtub but used its tap.

So, go out tonight to your favorite speakeasy and enjoy a glass of medicinal bathtub gin in celebration, but keep an eye out for Eliot Ness.

I’m 72, but apparently, I don’t look it. I don’t drink, but I keep some PBR around for a friend. I bought a 12-pack not long ago, and the young woman at the register asked me for my ID. I told her she had to be kidding, that I could be her grandfather. Being kind, she said no way. She really needed to ask; it was store policy. I started to get it, deciding it was flattering, not policy. She stopped me and remaining sweet; she said not necessary; I think you MIGHT be over 21.