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I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: The Great Rockwood Flood of 1919... Was Made of Chocolate

Presumably, everyone reading this (at least, in the United States) has heard of Hershey. Many fewer readers will know about their primary rival in the early 20th century, Rockwood & Co. of Brooklyn. Part of the reason for that is a disaster that cost the company $75,000—big money in those days—namely a May 12, 1919, fire that destroyed the structural integrity of one of the firm's giant holding tanks, causing thousands of gallons of molten chocolate to be released.

Unfortunately for the Sanitation Department, Rockwood's factory was located at the top of a hill, with the result that several streets and their gutters were completely slathered in chocolate. Fortunately for the schoolchildren of Brooklyn, Rockwood's factory was located at the top of a hill, with the result that several streets and their gutters were completely slathered in chocolate. According to newspaper reports, some children ran multiple miles to take advantage of the situation:

Little fellows fell on their knees before the oncoming flood and dipped it up greedily with their grimy fingers.

Chocolate-gorged truants, some with far-away looks in their eyes, were hauled off to school.

Here ended the episode that will go down in the anthology of Fudge River as the greatest little fire that ever occurred in Brooklyn.

The cleanup and the $75,000 loss were no fun, but—in contrast to other food-driven floods, like the 1814 London Beer Flood or the 1919 Boston Molasses Flood—nobody was seriously injured or killed. So, a reasonably happy ending, especially for all those schoolkids. Well, until they developed diabetes, presumably.

Moving along, we gave two hints as to last week's headline theme. On Friday, it was: "it's the third timely headline theme in a row, though not because someone died this time." And on Saturday, it was: "the qualifying verbiage in the third headline is, admittedly, a bit cheeky."

And here is the solution, courtesy of reader R.D. in San Diego, CA:

The theme looks to be massive disasters, timely due to the Republican wipeout.

TrumpWatch 2026: The Rats Are Preparing to Flee the Titanic—Iceberg 1: Unsinkable 0

Election Results: Tuesday Was a Good Night to Be a Challenger—This one blew me away back in 1986.

National Bytes: Has the Trump Presidency Entered a New Phase?—Trump Presidency one or two or both?

The Memes: Was It 9/11 or 11/9?—Never forget.... that a certain someone was immediately bragging that he now had the tallest building in the city.

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: The French General Napoleon Tried to Flee Europe after Waterloo—Presumably not the ABBA song.

This Week in Schadenfreude: Laura Loomer Does Her Best Chernobyl Impression—How long has it been since Russia has attacked the containment dome?

This Week in Freudenfreude: Maybe the Apocalypse Is Not Nigh, After All—Mad Max voted blue.

"The Trump presidency" was the cheeky one, of course. And this headline adds the Great Rockwood Flood of 1919.

Here are the first 60 readers to get it right:

N.B. in Phoenix, AZ
G.R.R. in Claremont, CA
D.E. in Ann Arbor, MI
D.L. in Uslar, Germany
B.R. in Arlington, MA
N.G. in Shrewsbury, MA
J.P. In Fredericksburg, VA
J.T. in Philadelphia, PA
T.K. in Half Moon Bay, St. Kitts
D.C. in Teaneck, NJ
M.S. in New York City, NY
P.Q. in Metuchen, NJ
A.S. in Langhorne, PA
I.H. in Occupied DC
P.L. in Skövde, Sweden
K.H. in Albuquerque, NM
M.K. in Bothell, WA
A,A. in Richmond, VA
D.M. in Oakland, CA
M.Z. in Sharon, MA
T.K. in Manchester, MO
H.M. in Paris, France
M.M. in Charlottesville, VA
C.W. in Atlantic Beach, FL
W.V. in Hemet, CA
R.N. in Cleveland, OH
K.M. in Ypsilanti, MI
R.R. in Westborough, MA
T.L.H. in St Louis, MO
P.A. in Redwood City, CA

A.D. in Vass, NC
M.S. in Canton, NY
S.F. in Pemberton Borough, NJ
S.G. in Durham, NC
M.B. in Albany, NY
R.G. in Bella Vista, AR
R.S. in Landing, NJ
D.D. in Bucks County, PA
J.U. in Chicago, IL
P.H. in Bozeman, MT
A.A. in Branchport, NY
A.H. in Espoo, Finland
M.D. in South Haven, MI
M.W. in Hartford, CT
D.B. in Glendale CA
S.I. in Minneapolis, MN
T.S. in Berlin, Germany
S.D. in Cedar Park, TX
M.T. in Wheat Ridge, CO
N.S. in Pittsgrove, NJ
R.E. in Birmingham, AL
S.L. in Glendora, CA
D.S. in Layton, UT
P.R. in Kirksville, MO
A.F. in Minneapolis, MN
K.G.W. in Lafayette, IN
M.J. in Ottawa, ON, Canada
J.C.B. in Seattle, WA
J.S. in Columbia, MO
J.N. in Zionsville, IN

The 60th correct response was received at 8:00 a.m. PT on Friday.

For this week's theme, it relies on one word per headline, and it's in the category Language, we suppose. For a hint, we'll tell you that we thought for sure we'd use the phrase "hot potato" in a headline, but... there's none where that would make sense.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line November 13 Headlines. (Z)

This item appeared on www.electoral-vote.com. Read it Monday through Friday for political and election news, Saturday for answers to reader's questions, and Sunday for letters from readers.

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