Ga-Ga Gadsden, Have You Any Purchase

Friday is the 153rd anniversary of the Gadsden Purchase, but if he was so busy buying things you'd think he might have forked-over the $250 for a vowel in that tongue-tripping d-s-d combo. Actually, James Gadsden was a politico the current White House could love--he oversaw the purchase of parts of current day Arizona and New Mexico so a transcontinental railroad he just happened to be one of the partners in could be built there. The 29,000+ square miles came with the price tag of $10 million (later day wall not included), but in true bordertown bargain manner the US Congress only agreed on $7 million. When the money finally arrived in Mexico City $1 million, according to Wikipedia, "were found to be lost." Who says BushCo doesn't learn from history? You'd think this is where they developed the plan to ship reconstruction funds to Iraq. Nonetheless, without this purchase we wouldn't have: 1) the land where Tucson and Yuma are today, 2) the phrase "it's hot, but it's a dry heat," 3) the Chihuahua Desert (stop and make a mental image of that right now), 4) the monster of a Gila River (motto: you can't step into the same poison once), and 5) a question to torment 6th grade history students.