walking the web

When the UV index is 9, I don't walk the city as much.  Instead, I've been looking through the web for research on some things.  One has been a story I first read about in the book "Gotham" which is a history of New York City up until the 1880's.  The part I have been thinking about was the "Panic of 1873".  It is also called the long depression for several reasons.  It lasted until 1879; 89 of 364 railroads went bankrupt; 18,000 businesses failed and unemployment was 14%.  It was worldwide; Britain had 2 decades of stagnation.  The problem began with a housing boom in Paris, Vienna and Berlin.  Money for housing was available through the recently designed savings banks of the emerging Middle Class, and it seemed so abundant that mortgages were given for homes only half built.  When middle Europe and Russia could not compete with the American farmer the crash began.
One of the characters I was curious about is Jay Cooke of Cooke and Company.  He was issuing bonds to build a second Northern Pacific Railroad because he expected the western expansion to include Montana.  He wrote his liabilities against expected returns on his sale of bonds.  J. P. Morgan wouldn't buy; so no one else did.  There was no money to pay bills he had already listed as being paid so Cooke and Company went bankrupt, and this seriously affected the entire industry and country.  Except for Morgan who became involved in developing and financing his own railroad empire.
In 1874 thousands demonstrated in Tompkins Square Park which was the largest demonstration that had ever occurred in NY.   The panic of 1873 is also credited with ending the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 
But my focus of research was on Jay Cooke.  I wondered if it was because of him that the expression "cooking the books" originated.  It isn't.  According to the www. the expression is from the 17th century.  Yeah it's that old.  The more modern expression "creative accounting" is attributed to the comedian Professor Irwin Corey by phases.org uk and to Mel Brooks' film "The Producers" by Wikipedia.

The Weather Channel has videos of the "dust storm", Haboob, that hit Phoenix, Az. and the Valley of the Sun.  Extraordinary, it had 53mph winds. 
Yesterday I was in a department store that had a song on the overhead speakers about 'break-up sex'.  Fox movie channel on Sunday showed a movie that did not bleep the "F" word, just saying.