Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
Albert Schweitzer
As most of you know I have "adopted" a combat Marine in Afghanistan to communicate with and sent a "care" package to once in a while. I am ecstatic to do something positive for our troops that are in harm's way. My adoptee is from New Bern, NC and you may see some chatter about that area for his benefit.
I got a "care" package together today for my adoptee. He indicated that he would like to have baby wipes and beef jerky. I rounded those things up and included a bunch of Slim Jims, trail mix, canned nuts, and anything that was non-perishable. He wants the baby wipes to moisturize his face and hands when he is on a mission or patrol. It is very dry and dusty in certain places in Afghanistan.
A while back a couple stopped their car at a Conoco station in Pascagoula, Mississippi to ask directions. The man got out of the car and headed inside but was intercepted by three teens one of which was 15 years old. The wife saw the confrontation and some conversation then on of the teen pulled a gun and killed the man. At trial the 15 year old teen testified that he asked the man for a dollar to buy a drink and the man refused. The teen then shot him in the head. When asked why he shot the man, the teen answered "Because I was thirsty." I am going to let y'all think on that incredible disregard for human life.
That kid was tried and sentenced to life in the joint. In Mississippi that means at least 25 years. Think on what horror that kid is going to have to endure for the want of a dollar.
Over in New Bern, NC an argument broke out at the corner of 4th and Haven street between Brad Coward and Shawn Foskey. Shawn got tired of jawing and walked away. Brad did the honorable thin, he shot Shawn in the back. The cops are looking hard for Bradley Coward.
A college professor teaching at a community college in the state of Washington has published a comment about Boeing moving their 787 assembly plant to North Charleston, SC. He said "Why should Boeing leave an area of highly skilled and well paid workers and move to an area that has a work force the equivalent of Wal-Mart greeters." He said "It will cost Boeing $900 million for the move to save $9 million that would go to the union." The man is named T. M. Sell and he is on facebook. He has already gotten a large angry response, maybe he needs more.
Matt Stagner and a friend went hunting in a swamp in northern Mobile County, Alabama. They saw something big crossing a road and one of them said "That's a cow", the other one said "No, it is a black bear". They only had .22 rifle and knew that was not going to be enough no matter what the beast was so they hightail it back home and return on their four wheeler with a 30.06 with a scope. The beast was still there and they looked at it through the scope and it turned out to be a wild boar! The got as close as they could until the boar winded them and started moving off. Matt shot and the boar just trotted away. Matt knew he had hit the boar because he saw the hair fly. He chambered another round and shot again and the hog went down but was still alive. So they got real close and finished him off. The four wheeler could not pull the hog out so they got a front end loader which picked the hog up and put it into the bed of Matt's pickup. He took the hog to a feed and seed store and weighed it. It weighed 780 pounds, was 6'-11" long, had a neck circumference of 51 inches and tusks that were 3 1/2" long. Matt said that this animal would probably be the largest game he would ever kill. Indeed Matt, indeed.
Good news:
Up on Wausau, Wisconsin they hold an event called the "empty bowl". What happens is local artists make clay bowls designed by local children. The bowls are then put up for sale to the local residents for $10/ea. A group of local chefs donate soup to go in the bowls and all the buyers sit down and have a bowl of soup. The money is donated to a place called "My Neightbor's Place." It is a fancy name for a food bank. Wausau have noticed a 25% increase in requests for food in the last year. This neighbor helping neighbor. I makes me feel good.
This date in history October 31
1861 US General Winfield Scott retires from military service. Scott had been given command of all the US army by A. Lincoln at the outbreak of the Civil War in April. Lincoln’s detractors criticized Lincoln for this because of Scott’s advances years and ill health. Scott was the commander of the American Army during the Mexican War of 1846-1847. When asked how best to defeat the Confederacy he proposed what was called “The Anaconda Plan” whereby all of the Confederate naval ports would be blockaded to strangle them financially and gain control of the Mississippi River to starve them. This plan was scoffed at as being too sluggish but in the final analysis, that is exactly what happened. After his resignation Scott moved to West Point to write his memoirs. He died in 1866 at the age of 80.
1892 “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is published. Doyle had been writing about Sherlock Holmes in different magazines as a serial but this was the first time in a book. Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and attended Edinburgh University and became a doctor. One of his teachers at the university was renowned for his deductive reasoning and it is believed that Doyle used him as a model for Sherlock. After graduating from Edinburgh Doyle went to London and set up a medical practice that was moderately successful and gave him time to dive into more of his writing. After the success of the Sherlock Holmes novels, he dropped out of the medical profession and began writing full time. Doyle died in 1930 as an icon of creative writing.
1926 Escape artist Harry Houdini dies of peritonitis in Detroit. Twelve days earlier Houdini had been giving a speech at a university and told everyone there how hard his stomach muscles were. One of the students came up and blindsided him with two hard blows to the stomach before Houdini could prepare for it. The blows had ruptured his appendix. Houdini had a scheduled performance the next day and went through with it even though he was in severe pain. After another day or two the pain became unbearable and he went to a hospital and went into surgery almost immediately but it was too late, the poison had already taken its toll throughout his entire system. Houdini had made a pact with his wife and a close circle of friends that after the death of either one of them, they would try to contact the others from the spiritual world. A few of Houdini’s friends did indeed die but Houdini never received any contact. After he died his wife had heard nothing from Harry and declared the test a failure
1864 Nevada becomes a state. Even though the state only had 40,000 residents as opposed the normal requirement of 60,000 it was allowed into the fold for two reasons: The state was hard core Republican and Lincoln needed all the help he could get for the upcoming election. And the largest silver deposit ever found was discovered in Nevada in the Comstock Lode not to mention placer gold mining. Politics and money is a deadly combination.
Births and Deaths:
1988 Actor/Producer/Director John Houseman dies at the age of 86. John had a long and distinguished career in the entertainment industry. There aren’t many his equal.
1927 Actress Lee Grant is born in NYC. Lee once said “I have been married to a Marxist and a Fascist and neither one would take out the garbage.” I guess Lee just don’t understand men no matter their politics.
1948 Baseball player Mickey Rivers is born. Mickey once said “Me, George and Billy are two of a kind.” If Mickey wasn’t black I would think he was related to Yogi Berra.
1959 US writer Neal Stephenson is born. He once said “There are four good things we in America and that is music, movies, micro cube and fast pizza delivery.” This guy has his finger on the pulse of America, doesn’t he?
1993 US actor River Phoenix dies of a drug overdose outside a Los Angeles nightspot at the age of 23. River was a very talented actor but as many who achieve fame do, he thought he was ten feet tall and bulletproof. Wrong. Ironically he once said “I would rather quit while I am ahead, there is no use in overstaying your welcome.” What a waste of god given talent.
1960 Welsh artist Augustus John dies. He would walk down the street in Chelsea patting children on the head and saying “Just in case its mine.”
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"All of the those that have meditated the governing of mankind are convinced that the success of the empires depend on the education of the young."
Aristotle
I have added the history of Halloween onto the end of this lesson.
The weather this morning here in paradise is cloudy with no rain but a little fog. The temperature is 75 and the wind is from the northeast at about 10 MPH. The Sound is relatively calm. For the last few days there has been a lot of pelican activity in shallow water. The fly over and all of a sudden fold their wings and dive into the water. I don't know what they are after but I suspect it is mullet that are schooling up and are on the move for the spawn.
A couple of days ago I told y'all about a Taylors, SC elderly couple that were missing and they found the husband Homer Staton about 30 miles away dead from blunt force trauma to the head with his car close by. They did not find the wife. Yesterday they found the wife when a man arrested by the Anderson County Sheriff's department led the cops to the body. She too had been killed with blunt force trauma to the head. Police said that a man named Matthew Fulbright was the culprit and robbery was the "initial cause" of the attacks. It is believed that Fulbright had done business with the Staton's in the past. It would not do for me to be the judge in Fulbright's trial.
Paul Moore the former finance director of finance for the South Carolina DSS (Department of Social Services) is expected to plead guilty to stealing over $5 million from that agency. Moore would write checks to different employees for doing nothing and the employee would cash the check, keep some of the money and give most of it back to Moore. He said the he spent most of the money on alchohol, gambling and exotic dancers. Moore is looking at 30 years in prison and a fine of $500,000. I suspect if he ends up in a South Carolina prison it will be he doing the exotic dancing.
Over in Mobile, Alabama a 23 year old mother at home with her two kids heard someone trying to break in retrieved a pistol that her father had given her and taught her how to use. The intruder finally got the door open and the mother opened fire and killed the no good bastard. The police think it was the woman's ex-boyfriend. Anyway, she capped his ass. I like it.
Last week I told y'all that Larry Langford, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama was on trial for a 60 count indictment for corruption including take enormous bribes in the form of cash and expensive gifts like Rolex watches. What caught him was when he saw to it that a $7.1 million bond went to an investment banker named Bill Blount in Montgomery. Blount skimmed off some of the money and send it to a lobbyist named John LaPierre. LaPierre would keep some of money and sent the rest to Mayor Langford. It was a text book "kickback" scheme. Both Blount and LaPierre testified against Langford. The prosecution also had cancelled checks, bank account records, etc. The jury came back after four hours of deliberation with a guilty verdict on all 60 counts. Langford is now a convicted felon and was immediately removed as Mayor but he is free on bond until the sentencing hearing. After the trial Langford, who is black, brought up that tired and faded excuse that he was convicted because of racism. His wife Melva said "No black person can expect justice in Alabama, the Justice Department should investigate." He and Melva did not profess their guilt or innocence at all, just that same old tired stance that their guilt or innocence is not the issue it is their race that is the issue. Langford's attorney, also black, said that he had defended whites on corruption charges in the past and he saw no indication of prejudice in this case. He said the state just had overwhelming evidence and testimony. By the way, the jury had two latinos and three blacks any of which could have hung that jury if they thought Langford was innocent. Don't get me wrong, I am not prejudicial. I just gripes my ass when anyone commits a crime and tries to blame everbody else. Hey Larry, either you did it or you didn't do it, a jury of your peers said that you did. Act like man, shut the hell up and take your freaking punishment.
Good News:
Yesterday the Boeing Aircraft Company announced the bulding of an assembly plant in North Charleston, SC. They will be constructing the new Boeing 787. Meanwhile the management and the Union at Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington are at an impasse and work has slowed or stopped. I think I see a pattern here. South Carolina is a "right to work state". Boeing said that they would be an early need for about 700 workers but that would increase to about 1,200. There is little question that there will be a lot more jobs created on the perimeter. This comes at a time when unemployment in South Carolina is at its lowest ebb since the Great Depression. An interesting fact is that North Charleston, SC is fifth in the nation in murders per-capita. Maybe this windfall will change that.
This date in history October 30
1775 The Continental Congress decides that if they are going to war with England they will need more than two war ships to combat the mightiest navy in the world. So they decided to form a seven man committee headed by Esek Hopkins to do something about it. Esek and the others first start by trying to find naval commanders and crews with combat experience. This was a tall order because this young nation had never been at war before that required a navy. But they round up seven men with sailing experience including a young Scotsman named John Paul Jones that later became a hero of the upcoming conflict. They finally round up seven warships in the Alfred, Columbus, Andrea Doria, Cabot, Hornet, Wasp and the Fly. These vessels were in no way the equal of even the smallest British war ship but it was a start. The plan was to use these vessels to surreptitiously board British vessels, murder the captain and most of the crew and abscond with the warship. In other words, they were to utilized open piracy to advance the strength of their country’s navy. It was soon discovered that the best at this strategy was the young Scotsman John Paul Jones. After a time the fledgling Continental Navy had increased their navy to 40 warships and toward the end of the war were able to more than hold their own against the British warships one-on-one. After the war was over in 1781 these ships were decommissioned and the Captains and crews furloughed. It was not until 1798 that it was decided that a permanent United States navy would be required. This was caused by the constant harassment and capture of United States merchant ships by pirates off the west coast of Africa and in the Mediterranean Sea near the North African coast, especially near the coast of Tripoli. If you listen to the Marine Corps hymn and the phrase “to the shores of Tripoli”, this is the Tripoli they are talking about. That’s right; the ubiquitous Marines went ashore and took care of business. No more pirates.
1938 Communications genius Orson Welles and distinguished actor John Houseman formed a radio program named the Mercury Radio Theatre. They would put on weekly plays using guest actors and actresses. Keep in mind that Orson was still a teenager. At the beginning of the show on this date, Orson stated that everything the public heard in the following show was fiction and wished everyone a Happy Halloween. The show started with a mystery play and about five minutes into the show, a voice broke into the play and announced that he was a news reporter and was observing the following. An alien spaceship had landed on a farm in central New Jersey and was moving across the countryside vaporizing everything and everyone in sight. The US Army was on site and had nothing that could stop the space ship. It looked like it was the end of the world. He went on telling what carnage the ship was producing and how impotent the military was. Well, people from all over the country ran out of their houses screaming for divine intervention from this apparently unstoppable foe. After about 20 minutes of this nonsense the “reporter” bade his farewell to the audience because the spaceship was nearly on top of him and the “death ray” was coming his way. After this Orson came back on the air and said that he wished that all had enjoyed the program and wished them a good night. Only then did America realize it was a ruse. I am a loss for words at this, after all it was Halloween. It was Adolph Hitler who said “The more preposterous the suggestion, the more likely it is to be believed.”
1811 On this date one of the greatest novels ever written in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen is published in England. Jane would not allow her name to be used as the author and the author was named as “a young lady”. Jane refrained from using her name because a woman writing novels was not considered “ladylike”. Even when she was writing at her desk and someone came in she would hide her manuscripts under the blotter. Jane also delivered to the world other masterpieces such as Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. As for Jane not using her real name because of what she thought people would think of her. There are some of those female writers of “romance” novels out there need to stop generating that trash and go home, the 1st Amendment not withstanding. But that is just my opinion.
1735 One of the heroes of the American Revolution, John Adams, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts. Braintree is now a part if Quincy, Massachusetts. He was the third son of John and Susanna Adams and was recognized at an early age as an intellectual. He attended Harvard at the age of 16 and graduated at the age of 20. For a while he worked and studied in the law firm of James Putnam and taught school at Worchester, Massachusetts. He was admitted to bar at the age of 26 and married Abigail Smith at the age of 29. Abigail was the daughter of a Weymouth, Massachusetts congregational minister. From the start of the marriage John and Abigail developed a deep trust and respect for each others thoughts and opinions and Abigail was not afraid to express hers even if it was the opposite of John’s. John and Abigail were eyewitnesses to the Battle of Bunker Hill that was fought literally in their back yard. John became a ridgepole in the support of the cause for American independence. He was never in the military but his political guidance was instrumental in the machinations of our government. It was he that brilliantly mapped out the three branches of Federal Government; Legislative, Judicial and Executive. He also saw the Legislative branch with two sections (House and Senate). This man had incredible vision and ideas that are in practice to this day. He had a problem with the Federalists party under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton who wanted a Federal Government stronger than Adams had envisioned. But that problem dissolved when Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr. It was said that Madison was an intellectual, Jefferson was the unquenchable idealist, and Franklin the most charming and versatile but is was Adams that was the most captivating of all of out founding fathers on most counts. Even though the Declaration of Independence was primarily drafted by Thomas Jefferson, Adams was among the group of people to offer help to Jefferson in the phrasing. The Declaration of Independence was introduced as a resolution to the Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee and that resolution was seconded by John Adams. After the Revolutionary War he was elected as representative to The Court of St. James in 1787. This today is known as the Ambassador to Great Britain. Adams was responsible for beginning the healing of the wounds inflicted to both sides in the Revolutionary War that had ended in 1781 and establish a friendship and rapport between the United States and England that exists to this day. Adams played a very important role in establishing the United States as a major player in the world politic, especially in Europe and Holland in particular. The Dutch were major worldwide traders in those days and Adams saw the market for American goods being shipped on Dutch vessels as an advantage for both America and Holland. There are so many contributions that Adams made to his country, including the first Vice-President and the second President, that it would take a book to fully cover this man’s life and indeed there are many of them out there. It would be worth all of out times to read one about this giant in the history of the United States.
Births and deaths:
1751 English satirist Richard Sheridan is born. In an argument with his son about his academics, his son suggested that he should write “Room for rent” across his own forehead and Richard responded with “Write under that ‘unfurnished’”
1871 French satirist Jean Valery is born. He said “God made the world out of nothing, but the nothingness is showing through.”
1882 US Admiral William “Bull” Halsey is born. He said “There are no great men. Just great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced to meet.”
1894 French Biologist Jean Rostand is born. He said “My pessimism goes to the point of suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists.”
1915 US TV producer Fred Friendly is born. He said “The one thing the networks can be proud of is the news, the rest of it is crap….and they know it.” I concur, but include the news also.
1935 British writer Michael Winner is born. He said “A team effort is a lot of people doing exactly what I say.” Sounds like my brother.
1939 US rock singer and space traveler Grace Slick is born. She said “No matter how warm and soft your bed is, you have to get out of it once in a while.” Grace was lead singer with Jefferson Airplane and later Jefferson Starship. She was famous for carrying a firearm and would produce it at a moments notice. Somehow she survived in spite of the blizzard of cocaine she swam through.
1983 The mother of President Jimmy Carter, Lillian Carter dies. She said “Some times when I look at my children I say to myself, Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin.” Lillian was a vinegary old girl. She went into the Peace Corp at the age of 70.
The History of Halloween
This pagan celebration of Halloween goes back more that 2000 years to the ancient Celts of present day Ireland, England and northern France. The original name of the festival was Sawhain pronounced “sow-in” and was to celebrate the harvest and prepare for the upcoming harsh winter. The Celts celebrated November 1 as the beginning of a new year and the evening before became known as “All Hallow’s Eve” which was corrupted to Halloween. It was the only day of the year that the boundary between the living and the dead became clouded and on this night the dead walked the earth. It was also believed that only on this night could one person predict the future of another. This was very important because of the rigors of the upcoming winter did indeed kill many of them. Every house extinguished the fire in their hearth because the Celtic priests (Druids) would cut down a sacred tree and build a gigantic bonfire for this night’s celebration. It was believed that if they could get a scrap of burning wood from this sacred fire and bring it into their homes, it would keep them warm throughout the winter. When the Celts approached the sacred fire they were costumed in animal heads and skins for ritualistic reasons. Upon the arrival of the Romans the rituals changed somewhat and Roman rituals were introduced as being part of the ritual. One of these rituals was the celebration of the harvest also except here they would honor the Roman goddess of fruits and trees, Pomona. Pomona is represented by the symbol of an apple. I guess y’all see where this is going. That’s right; it is the bobbing for apples and trying to bite an apple while it is hanging from a string that was the result of paying homage to Pomona. During the 8th and 9th century the Roman Catholic Church tried their damnedest to eliminate this pagan festival and make it a church related event and instituted all Saint’s Day on November 1 hoping to sway the existing pagans back under the umbrella of the church. It did not work. This pagan festival continues to this day. There is no written evidence for the rise of the event known as “trick or treat” except that on All Hallow’s Eve some of the dead that walked the earth were mean, spiteful creatures. I suspect that ritual was really fostered by candy manufacturers and costume makers. Anyway the colors that are associated with Halloween as being orange and black have a meaning. Orange represented the changing color of the leaves on deciduous trees and black meant winter, shorter days and death was on the horizon for some. It bothers me somewhat for different churches to sponsor a Halloween event. It means that they are fostering a pagan festival. But maybe I am too old-fashioned. Bah Humbug.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
"All of the those that have meditated the governing of mankind are convinced that the success of the empires depend on the education of the young."
Aristotle
I have added the history of Halloween onto the end of this lesson.
The weather this morning here in paradise is cloudy with no rain but a little fog. The temperature is 75 and the wind is from the northeast at about 10 MPH. The Sound is relatively calm. For the last few days there has been a lot of pelican activity in shallow water. The fly over and all of a sudden fold their wings and dive into the water. I don't know what they are after but I suspect it is mullet that are schooling up and are on the move for the spawn.
A couple of days ago I told y'all about a Taylors, SC elderly couple that were missing and they found the husband Homer Staton about 30 miles away dead from blunt force trauma to the head with his car close by. They did not find the wife. Yesterday they found the wife when a man arrested by the Anderson County Sheriff's department led the cops to the body. She too had been killed with blunt force trauma to the head. Police said that a man named Matthew Fulbright was the culprit and robbery was the "initial cause" of the attacks. It is believed that Fulbright had done business with the Staton's in the past. It would not do for me to be the judge in Fulbright's trial.
Paul Moore the former finance director of finance for the South Carolina DSS (Department of Social Services) is expected to plead guilty to stealing over $5 million from that agency. Moore would write checks to different employees for doing nothing and the employee would cash the check, keep some of the money and give most of it back to Moore. He said the he spent most of the money on alchohol, gambling and exotic dancers. Moore is looking at 30 years in prison and a fine of $500,000. I suspect if he ends up in a South Carolina prison it will be he doing the exotic dancing.
Over in Mobile, Alabama a 23 year old mother at home with her two kids heard someone trying to break in retrieved a pistol that her father had given her and taught her how to use. The intruder finally got the door open and the mother opened fire and killed the no good bastard. The police think it was the woman's ex-boyfriend. Anyway, she capped his ass. I like it.
Last week I told y'all that Larry Langford, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama was on trial for a 60 count indictment for corruption including take enormous bribes in the form of cash and expensive gifts like Rolex watches. What caught him was when he saw to it that a $7.1 million bond went to an investment banker named Bill Blount in Montgomery. Blount skimmed off some of the money and send it to a lobbyist named John LaPierre. LaPierre would keep some of money and sent the rest to Mayor Langford. It was a text book "kickback" scheme. Both Blount and LaPierre testified against Langford. The prosecution also had cancelled checks, bank account records, etc. The jury came back after four hours of deliberation with a guilty verdict on all 60 counts. Langford is now a convicted felon and was immediately removed as Mayor but he is free on bond until the sentencing hearing. After the trial Langford, who is black, brought up that tired and faded excuse that he was convicted because of racism. His wife Melva said "No black person can expect justice in Alabama, the Justice Department should investigate." He and Melva did not profess their guilt or innocence at all, just that same old tired stance that their guilt or innocence is not the issue it is their race that is the issue. Langford's attorney, also black, said that he had defended whites on corruption charges in the past and he saw no indication of prejudice in this case. He said the state just had overwhelming evidence and testimony. By the way, the jury had two latinos and three blacks any of which could have hung that jury if they thought Langford was innocent. Don't get me wrong, I am not prejudicial. I just gripes my ass when anyone commits a crime and tries to blame everbody else. Hey Larry, either you did it or you didn't do it, a jury of your peers said that you did. Act like man, shut the hell up and take your freaking punishment.
Good News:
Yesterday the Boeing Aircraft Company announced the bulding of an assembly plant in North Charleston, SC. They will be constructing the new Boeing 787. Meanwhile the management and the Union at Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington are at an impasse and work has slowed or stopped. I think I see a pattern here. South Carolina is a "right to work state". Boeing said that they would be an early need for about 700 workers but that would increase to about 1,200. There is little question that there will be a lot more jobs created on the perimeter. This comes at a time when unemployment in South Carolina is at its lowest ebb since the Great Depression. An interesting fact is that North Charleston, SC is fifth in the nation in murders per-capita. Maybe this windfall will change that.
This date in history October 30
1775 The Continental Congress decides that if they are going to war with England they will need more than two war ships to combat the mightiest navy in the world. So they decided to form a seven man committee headed by Esek Hopkins to do something about it. Esek and the others first start by trying to find naval commanders and crews with combat experience. This was a tall order because this young nation had never been at war before that required a navy. But they round up seven men with sailing experience including a young Scotsman named John Paul Jones that later became a hero of the upcoming conflict. They finally round up seven warships in the Alfred, Columbus, Andrea Doria, Cabot, Hornet, Wasp and the Fly. These vessels were in no way the equal of even the smallest British war ship but it was a start. The plan was to use these vessels to surreptitiously board British vessels, murder the captain and most of the crew and abscond with the warship. In other words, they were to utilized open piracy to advance the strength of their country’s navy. It was soon discovered that the best at this strategy was the young Scotsman John Paul Jones. After a time the fledgling Continental Navy had increased their navy to 40 warships and toward the end of the war were able to more than hold their own against the British warships one-on-one. After the war was over in 1781 these ships were decommissioned and the Captains and crews furloughed. It was not until 1798 that it was decided that a permanent United States navy would be required. This was caused by the constant harassment and capture of United States merchant ships by pirates off the west coast of Africa and in the Mediterranean Sea near the North African coast, especially near the coast of Tripoli. If you listen to the Marine Corps hymn and the phrase “to the shores of Tripoli”, this is the Tripoli they are talking about. That’s right; the ubiquitous Marines went ashore and took care of business. No more pirates.
1938 Communications genius Orson Welles and distinguished actor John Houseman formed a radio program named the Mercury Radio Theatre. They would put on weekly plays using guest actors and actresses. Keep in mind that Orson was still a teenager. At the beginning of the show on this date, Orson stated that everything the public heard in the following show was fiction and wished everyone a Happy Halloween. The show started with a mystery play and about five minutes into the show, a voice broke into the play and announced that he was a news reporter and was observing the following. An alien spaceship had landed on a farm in central New Jersey and was moving across the countryside vaporizing everything and everyone in sight. The US Army was on site and had nothing that could stop the space ship. It looked like it was the end of the world. He went on telling what carnage the ship was producing and how impotent the military was. Well, people from all over the country ran out of their houses screaming for divine intervention from this apparently unstoppable foe. After about 20 minutes of this nonsense the “reporter” bade his farewell to the audience because the spaceship was nearly on top of him and the “death ray” was coming his way. After this Orson came back on the air and said that he wished that all had enjoyed the program and wished them a good night. Only then did America realize it was a ruse. I am a loss for words at this, after all it was Halloween. It was Adolph Hitler who said “The more preposterous the suggestion, the more likely it is to be believed.”
1811 On this date one of the greatest novels ever written in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen is published in England. Jane would not allow her name to be used as the author and the author was named as “a young lady”. Jane refrained from using her name because a woman writing novels was not considered “ladylike”. Even when she was writing at her desk and someone came in she would hide her manuscripts under the blotter. Jane also delivered to the world other masterpieces such as Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. As for Jane not using her real name because of what she thought people would think of her. There are some of those female writers of “romance” novels out there need to stop generating that trash and go home, the 1st Amendment not withstanding. But that is just my opinion.
1735 One of the heroes of the American Revolution, John Adams, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts. Braintree is now a part if Quincy, Massachusetts. He was the third son of John and Susanna Adams and was recognized at an early age as an intellectual. He attended Harvard at the age of 16 and graduated at the age of 20. For a while he worked and studied in the law firm of James Putnam and taught school at Worchester, Massachusetts. He was admitted to bar at the age of 26 and married Abigail Smith at the age of 29. Abigail was the daughter of a Weymouth, Massachusetts congregational minister. From the start of the marriage John and Abigail developed a deep trust and respect for each others thoughts and opinions and Abigail was not afraid to express hers even if it was the opposite of John’s. John and Abigail were eyewitnesses to the Battle of Bunker Hill that was fought literally in their back yard. John became a ridgepole in the support of the cause for American independence. He was never in the military but his political guidance was instrumental in the machinations of our government. It was he that brilliantly mapped out the three branches of Federal Government; Legislative, Judicial and Executive. He also saw the Legislative branch with two sections (House and Senate). This man had incredible vision and ideas that are in practice to this day. He had a problem with the Federalists party under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton who wanted a Federal Government stronger than Adams had envisioned. But that problem dissolved when Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr. It was said that Madison was an intellectual, Jefferson was the unquenchable idealist, and Franklin the most charming and versatile but is was Adams that was the most captivating of all of out founding fathers on most counts. Even though the Declaration of Independence was primarily drafted by Thomas Jefferson, Adams was among the group of people to offer help to Jefferson in the phrasing. The Declaration of Independence was introduced as a resolution to the Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee and that resolution was seconded by John Adams. After the Revolutionary War he was elected as representative to The Court of St. James in 1787. This today is known as the Ambassador to Great Britain. Adams was responsible for beginning the healing of the wounds inflicted to both sides in the Revolutionary War that had ended in 1781 and establish a friendship and rapport between the United States and England that exists to this day. Adams played a very important role in establishing the United States as a major player in the world politic, especially in Europe and Holland in particular. The Dutch were major worldwide traders in those days and Adams saw the market for American goods being shipped on Dutch vessels as an advantage for both America and Holland. There are so many contributions that Adams made to his country, including the first Vice-President and the second President, that it would take a book to fully cover this man’s life and indeed there are many of them out there. It would be worth all of out times to read one about this giant in the history of the United States.
Births and deaths:
1751 English satirist Richard Sheridan is born. In an argument with his son about his academics, his son suggested that he should write “Room for rent” across his own forehead and Richard responded with “Write under that ‘unfurnished’”
1871 French satirist Jean Valery is born. He said “God made the world out of nothing, but the nothingness is showing through.”
1882 US Admiral William “Bull” Halsey is born. He said “There are no great men. Just great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced to meet.”
1894 French Biologist Jean Rostand is born. He said “My pessimism goes to the point of suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists.”
1915 US TV producer Fred Friendly is born. He said “The one thing the networks can be proud of is the news, the rest of it is crap….and they know it.” I concur, but include the news also.
1935 British writer Michael Winner is born. He said “A team effort is a lot of people doing exactly what I say.” Sounds like my brother.
1939 US rock singer and space traveler Grace Slick is born. She said “No matter how warm and soft your bed is, you have to get out of it once in a while.” Grace was lead singer with Jefferson Airplane and later Jefferson Starship. She was famous for carrying a firearm and would produce it at a moments notice. Somehow she survived in spite of the blizzard of cocaine she swam through.
1983 The mother of President Jimmy Carter, Lillian Carter dies. She said “Some times when I look at my children I say to myself, Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin.” Lillian was a vinegary old girl. She went into the Peace Corp at the age of 70.
The History of Halloween
This pagan celebration of Halloween goes back more that 2000 years to the ancient Celts of present day Ireland, England and northern France. The original name of the festival was Sawhain pronounced “sow-in” and was to celebrate the harvest and prepare for the upcoming harsh winter. The Celts celebrated November 1 as the beginning of a new year and the evening before became known as “All Hallow’s Eve” which was corrupted to Halloween. It was the only day of the year that the boundary between the living and the dead became clouded and on this night the dead walked the earth. It was also believed that only on this night could one person predict the future of another. This was very important because of the rigors of the upcoming winter did indeed kill many of them. Every house extinguished the fire in their hearth because the Celtic priests (Druids) would cut down a sacred tree and build a gigantic bonfire for this night’s celebration. It was believed that if they could get a scrap of burning wood from this sacred fire and bring it into their homes, it would keep them warm throughout the winter. When the Celts approached the sacred fire they were costumed in animal heads and skins for ritualistic reasons. Upon the arrival of the Romans the rituals changed somewhat and Roman rituals were introduced as being part of the ritual. One of these rituals was the celebration of the harvest also except here they would honor the Roman goddess of fruits and trees, Pomona. Pomona is represented by the symbol of an apple. I guess y’all see where this is going. That’s right; it is the bobbing for apples and trying to bite an apple while it is hanging from a string that was the result of paying homage to Pomona. During the 8th and 9th century the Roman Catholic Church tried their damnedest to eliminate this pagan festival and make it a church related event and instituted all Saint’s Day on November 1 hoping to sway the existing pagans back under the umbrella of the church. It did not work. This pagan festival continues to this day. There is no written evidence for the rise of the event known as “trick or treat” except that on All Hallow’s Eve some of the dead that walked the earth were mean, spiteful creatures. I suspect that ritual was really fostered by candy manufacturers and costume makers. Anyway the colors that are associated with Halloween as being orange and black have a meaning. Orange represented the changing color of the leaves on deciduous trees and black meant winter, shorter days and death was on the horizon for some. It bothers me somewhat for different churches to sponsor a Halloween event. It means that they are fostering a pagan festival. But maybe I am too old-fashioned. Bah Humbug.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."
Maria Robinson
At karaoke the other night one guy got up and sang "Folsom Prison Blues" made famous by Johnny Cash. When he sang the first note a foggy image of Richard's bar and grill north of Mount Pleasant, SC came to mind. Scott and the rest of you guys that go there will understand.
The sunrise over the Gulf was spectacular this morning. There was a high overcast with a few small clouds down low. The high overcast was a salmon color and the low clouds were Wedgwood blue. It looked like a painting.
I went to breakfast with my daughter and granddaughter this morning. We went to a famous eatery here called The Coffee Cup. I got there at 7:30a and it was jam-packed way more than normal. I went inside to secure a table and there was a TV camera crew and a newspaper crew. It seems that a politician named Marko Rubio was in there campaigning. The governor of Florida, Charles Crist, has decided to not run for governor again and will run for the US Senate. Marko Rubio is running against Crist for the Senate seat. Crist is a Democrat and Rubio is a Republican. Rubio came over to our table to chit-chat and give us his business card. The newspaper photographer took several pics of him talking with us and will be in tomorrow's paper. I told him I was a tourist from South Carolina. He said that South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint has endorsed his candidacy. I get e-mails from DeMint on occasion as I assume most of you South Carolinians do also. My daughter was not pleased with having her picture taken when she had on her "yoga clothes". Rubio seemed like a personable young man but he looked to be in his middle to late 30's, 40 at the most. He is from the Miami area. The Coffee Cup is not a fancy place and I asked my daughter why he chose this place. She said that all the "movers and shakers" in the area go there for breakfast. It is nothing like Stax Omega in Greenville, SC but Omega does not have Nassau grits, tomato gravy and fried kielbasa.
I read where Greenville county is going to build a new school in the Five Forks area. They are planning to spend $1.7 million for 21 acres. I don't get it. The Five Forks area is on one of the most congested roads in this hemisphere and that being Woodruff Road. I cannot imagine school buses traveling that road at 8:00a and 4:00p. I think the Greenville county comissioners cannot see beyond the end of their noses.
A group of Bigfoot chasers have chosen to camp out in a remote area of West Virginia where several sightings of a Bigfoot has been reported. They have all the whistles and bells like a GPS locator, audio recording equipment, etc. I am not sure those campers really believe that the beast exists. Perhaps they just want an excuse to get out of town for a while. Recently I was asked if I believe in ghosts. I put that question in the same category as the Bigfoot issue. I have taken the position that if I cannot prove that they do NOT exist then logic says that I cannot rule them out. That was a very nice dance I did, wasn't it?
There will be a bonus for y'all today. Since there is near panic about the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, I have added a short biography of Hippocrates, the father of medicine.
The Assitant Attorney General of South Carolina, 66 year old Roland Corning, was caught in a cemetary with an 18 year old exotic dancer in Columbia, SC. When Corning saw the cops he sped out of the cemetary in his SUV with tires smoking. The cops just called ahead and another cruiser stopped him. The cops searched his car and found a stash of Viagra, several vibrators and other assorted sex toys. Corning said that he likes to "be prepared". Since there was no crime commited, both Corning and the dancer were released. We South Carolinians have had to deal a scandal with Governor Mark Sanford and his Argentine "soul mate". Attorney General Henry McMasters has a low tolerance for anything resembling a scandal and fired Corning forthwith. It seems we have a lot of horny politicians, perhaps it is something in the water.
Good news:
In Albania it is estimated that there are over 750,000 concrete bunkers scattered over the countryside that have been abandoned. These half-dome shaped bunkers were ordered constructed when Albania was under the heel of the paranoid Russians. There is a move afoot to turn these "concrete mushrooms" into eco-hotels, gift shops, restaurants, etc. This would turn these eyesores into a way to make money for the people of Albania. Most of the bunkers have spectacular views out of what was a gunport.
This date in history October 29
1777 After a prolonged illness, on this date John Hancock resigns as president of the Continental Congress. Hancock is famous for his large and flowing signature on the monumental Declaration of Independence that was signed on July 4, 1776. He was present in one capacity or another at nearly every important document signing in this country’s fight for independence. He was a very wealthy man and had much to lose if the rebellion had failed. After resigning he went back home to Massachusetts and started his recovery from his illness. By 1780 he had recovered enough to run for the Governor of Massachusetts which he easily won. He served for five years and then refused to run again in 1785 and went back to his home. Two years later in 1787 he ran for the Governorship again and won. He served in this capacity until his death in 1793. His tenures as Governor of Massachusetts proved this man’s great leadership and administrative skills. Not only that, he was a feisty devil and the British knew it and had a bounty on him. After signing the Declaration of Independence, Hancock said “Now the British can read it without their spectacles, their bounty be damned.” I like it.
1901 On this date in a nurse named Jane Toppan is arrested in Amherst, Massachusetts. It seems that in the recent past this woman had been responsible for the death of the entire Davis family of Boston. As with most serial killers Jane had an atrocious childhood. Her mother died when she was very young and her father, a tailor by trade, was crazy as a loon. He went to an asylum after sewing his eyelids shut. Jane bounced around several foster homes until she was finally adopted. Jane expressed a desire to become a nurse and attended a nursing school. But Jane was not interested in healing as much as she was interested in hanging around morgues an autopsy rooms. She began her reign of terror by being an in-home nurse which gave her an opportunity to do her evil things unobserved and unsupervised. She finally ended up in the Davis house in Boston to take care of the feeble Mattie Davis. Soon thereafter Mattie died, followed swiftly by Mattie’s sister Annie, Mattie’s father Alden and Mattie’s sister Mary. Mary’s husband called bullshit on this as being too much of a coincidence and demanded autopsies of all the above. The autopsies revealed that all had died of an overdose of morphine. Upon hearing that autopsies were going to be performed on the Davis family, Jane hightailed out of town but was easily captured. While she was on the run she chose to murder her sister with an overdose of morphine also. At trial she admitted to at least twenty murders but the authorities thought she was responsible for over 100. Jane was sentence to life in a mental institution. While there she was constantly bugging the nursing staff to give her some morphine and a syringe so she could kill even more. She died in 1938 and hell rejoiced to their new arrival.
1962 Bahamian actor Sidney Poitier testifies before the United States Congress about the lack of opportunity for black actors and actresses in the movie industry. Sidney was recognized as a superb actor and was indeed an Oscar winner for his performance in the movie “Lilies of the Field”. What I don’t understand is what Sidney wanted Congress to do about it. The movie industry is like any other business, its goal to make money for their investors. If I was an investor I would not give damn about the equality of the casting of roles, I would just be interested in the making of a profitable enterprise and the producers and casting directors had damn well better keep that in mind, racial issues not withstanding. Congress cannot dictate to a business enterprise such as this who they must hire or not hire. After all the success of any movie is greatly dependant on the skill of the actors, not the color of their skins. Or am I being too pragmatic?
1740 On of the greatest writers of his time is born on this date. James Boswell is born in Edinburgh, Scotland to wealthy and influential parents. The name Boswell goes deep into the history of the ancestry of Scotland. As with most parents of that era, they had already decided that James was going to be a lawyer. Well, after James grew up he decided that he wanted to be a writer instead and ran away from home and traveled Europe and met with other great writers such as Rousseau, Voltaire and a short Corsican that later became the legendary Napoleon Bonaparte. But James parents ran him down and brought his young ass back Edinburgh and began forcefully teaching him English law. That did not extinguish the flame of writing burning inside James in spite of the fact that he established a successful law practice in London. He eventually became a very successful writer of essays. He consorted with another successful writer in Samuel Johnson and they exchanges ideas regularly. James delivered his most famous and successful essay “The Life of Samuel Johnson”. This essay came in three volumes. Boswell finished writing the first two but while writing the third he decided to drink heavily and chase skanky women in the London night life. Boswell died drunk with a smile on his face before finishing the third volume. He was 53 years old.
1901 The assassin of US President William McKinley is executed in the electric chair. Leon Czolgosz went to meet his maker medium rare. Leon was in a receiving line waiting to shake the hand of President McKinley at the World’s Fair. When it came Leon’s turn, he had a handkerchief tied around his right hand hiding a small revolver. McKinley thinking that Leon was crippled reached out with his left hand and Leon pumped two rounds into McKinley’s abdomen. Leon was immediately disarmed and arrested. Of the two shot, one went all the way through and caused very little damage but the other one lodged near his liver and had to be removed surgically. It looked like McKinley was going to be OK but after a couple of days her started getting worse and soon died. It was gangrene that had set up inside his abdomen that was undetected. Leon was unrepentant to the end. His last words were “I am not sorry, he was an evil man.”
1619 English explorer and bon vivant Sir Walter Raleigh has a fateful meeting with a big guy with a big axe on the lawn of the Tower of London and goes to meet his maker in two pieces. It seems that Sir Walter had been a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I and she was quite fond of him. She sent Sir Walter on several exploratory trips to the new world including the fateful settlement on Roanoke Island, North Carolina of which not one scrap was ever found after a supply ship arrived two years later. After returning to London Queen Elizabeth found out that Sir Walter had been having a liaison with a Scottish beauty named Bessy Throckmorton, one of the Queen’s Maids-of-Honor, and the Queen became enraged the threw Sir Walter and Bessy into the Tower. Sir Walter coughed up enough money to bail he and Bessy out. Sir Walter and Bessy were married and they tried their damnedest to stay out of the way of the Queen. Elizabeth died in 1603 and James I rose to power. James accused Sir Walter of opposing his becoming King shortly after the coronation but allowed him to live so he could send Sir Walter on some more expeditions. Sir Walter finally returned from an expedition of establishing a village near a gold mine in South America. James I evidently felt that Sir Walter had outlived his usefulness and recalled the supposed crime of 15 years before and had him executed. Sir Walter Raleigh was 66 years old and had spent the greatest part of his life in the service of his country. But as the saying goes “What have you done for me lately, Walt?”
Born today:
1897 Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. He said “If the day should ever come when we Nazis must go, if some day we are compelled to leave the scene of history, we will slam the door so hard that it will shake the universe and mankind will stand back in stupefaction.” Hey Joe, what really happened was the Allies sealed off the western side of Germany and allowed the Russian army to attack unhindered from the east. The Russians were bloodthirsty for revenge because the Germans had slaughtered over 26,000,000 Russians in their attack toward Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad. Then when the Russians found the German extermination camps of Dachau, Buchenwald and several others, they decided that no German air breather should live. They headed toward Berlin slaughtering everybody and everything in sight including dogs, cats and various and sundry livestock. The Russians crushed any resistance to the city of Berlin that was being defended by sub-teen boys and men in their 70’s. Yeah Joe, mankind was stupefied alright. And you being the brave son-of-a-bitch that you were, poisoned yourself, your wife and your five children. It was that kind of cruelty that stupefied mankind to this day.
Born today:
1971 US actress Wynona Ryder. She said “I feel my best when I am happy.” Wynona, shut up.
Died today:
1619 English adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh. He said “All men are evil and will declare themselves so if the occasion occurs.” See the above paragraph on Joseph Goebbels.
Hippocrates
The Father of Medicine
Hippocrates of the island of Kos , Greece was born about 460BC. He was the founder of the Hippocratic School of medicine which separated medicine from other studies such as theology and philosophy and made the practice of medicine a profession. By the way, it is pronounced hip-POCK-ra-teez. His greatest contribution was what is known today as the Hippocratic Corpus which was a series of observations by him on some of his patients. It also contains the expected moral codes and good habit that a physician should abide by commonly known as the Hippocratic Oath. It is generally accepted that he did exist but anything else about his early life is considered legendary because his chroniclers wrote about his life 200 years after his death so the information had to be handed down orally meaning that it is unreliable. But there is no question that he did write the Corpus. It has been reported that he was taught medicine by his father and grandfather and was also taught other things by other Greek teachers. It is likely that he attended school at the Asklepieion on Kos . The great Greek philosopher Plato said that Hippocrates did indeed attend Asklepieion. The Asklepieion was a school building that the ruins of still are still with us. The practice of medicine in those days were exceptionally difficult due to the Greek taboo of dissections of animals, be it human or otherwise. So to deal with this there were two schools of thought. One was the Knidian School which dealt primarily with the diagnosis of a disease and there was the Koan School which was less devoted to diagnosis but focused on patient care and prognosis. Hippocrates was of the later. Diagnoses were notoriously inaccurate because the general opinion was that the cause of most diseases was an imbalance of the “humors”. The four humors were blood, dark bile, yellow bile and phlegm. For instance, if an overabundance of phlegm was diagnosed the treatment was large amounts of citrus, etc. It was not until Galen that true diagnostics made giant leaps forward. A biography on Galen will follow later. Hippocrates had two sons in Thessalus and Draco but it was his son-in-law Polybus that followed him in his medical studies and continued the teachings of Hippocrates after his death. Hippocrates can be documented to have lived to be 90 years old, but others believe he lived to be over 100. It was his teachings that demanded professionalism from his students that is the legacy he left the medical profession. He specified that physicians should always be neat, clean and well groomed. He even specified fingernail length. Here is the modern version of the Hippocratic Oath. The original version had a lot of references to the Gods.
1. To teach medicine to the sons of my teacher. This practice has all but disappeared
2. Not to teach medicine to other people. He is talking about don’t teach medicine to anyone not in medical school.
3. To practice and prescribe to the best of my ability for the good of my patient and try not to harm them. What about Dr. Jack Kevorkian?
4. Never do deliberate harm to anyone in someone else’s interest. Everyone should read about the German Dr. Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp during WWII.
5. Never try to induce an abortion. Obviously this oath has fallen by the wayside.
6. To avoid violating the morals of my community. Doctors are expected to be pillars of the community, except Dr. Hannibal Lechter.
7. To avoid doing a procedure that a specialist can do better. In the original version it makes reference to “stones”. They were talking about kidney or gall stones and that a specialist should deal with this. This is the first reference to a difference between a physician and a surgeon.
8. To keep the good of the patient as the highest priority. It is this oath that detractors of the death penalty point to when a doctor is present and assists in a legal execution.
9. To avoid sexual relationships or inappropriate entanglements with your patients and their families. This one is a no-brainer, y’all.
The next greatest physician to come along was another Greek named Galen in 129AD. A biography on this hero will follow soon.
Since the time of Hippocrates and Galen the medical profession has ebbed and flowed in its level of expertise and the good of the people. During the dark ages the good of the patient was secondary to superstition and the will of the church. Back then if a person showed mental instability or even behaved differently than what the church dictated, a doctor was not even considered because they were believed to “possessed of demons” or “witches and warlocks” and were tortured and hanged or even burned at the stake. Later on to even in the 1800’s some people’s illnesses were diagnosed as having too much or bad blood and would be bled a given amount which in most cases was very detrimental. This procedure almost gets back to the idea a bad or imbalanced “humors”, a giant leap backwards. Thankfully, we are in the age of enlightenment. We are healthier and live much longer than our ancestors but we are a hell of a lot fatter.
I am going to stop now, I feel like I am coming down with something.
In honor of Hippocrates I will say:
Ευχαριστίες για το άκουσμα μπορώ μετά βίας να περιμένω μέχρι το αύριο
Quote of the day:
"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."
Maria Robinson
At karaoke the other night one guy got up and sang "Folsom Prison Blues" made famous by Johnny Cash. When he sang the first note a foggy image of Richard's bar and grill north of Mount Pleasant, SC came to mind. Scott and the rest of you guys that go there will understand.
The sunrise over the Gulf was spectacular this morning. There was a high overcast with a few small clouds down low. The high overcast was a salmon color and the low clouds were Wedgwood blue. It looked like a painting.
I went to breakfast with my daughter and granddaughter this morning. We went to a famous eatery here called The Coffee Cup. I got there at 7:30a and it was jam-packed way more than normal. I went inside to secure a table and there was a TV camera crew and a newspaper crew. It seems that a politician named Marko Rubio was in there campaigning. The governor of Florida, Charles Crist, has decided to not run for governor again and will run for the US Senate. Marko Rubio is running against Crist for the Senate seat. Crist is a Democrat and Rubio is a Republican. Rubio came over to our table to chit-chat and give us his business card. The newspaper photographer took several pics of him talking with us and will be in tomorrow's paper. I told him I was a tourist from South Carolina. He said that South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint has endorsed his candidacy. I get e-mails from DeMint on occasion as I assume most of you South Carolinians do also. My daughter was not pleased with having her picture taken when she had on her "yoga clothes". Rubio seemed like a personable young man but he looked to be in his middle to late 30's, 40 at the most. He is from the Miami area. The Coffee Cup is not a fancy place and I asked my daughter why he chose this place. She said that all the "movers and shakers" in the area go there for breakfast. It is nothing like Stax Omega in Greenville, SC but Omega does not have Nassau grits, tomato gravy and fried kielbasa.
I read where Greenville county is going to build a new school in the Five Forks area. They are planning to spend $1.7 million for 21 acres. I don't get it. The Five Forks area is on one of the most congested roads in this hemisphere and that being Woodruff Road. I cannot imagine school buses traveling that road at 8:00a and 4:00p. I think the Greenville county comissioners cannot see beyond the end of their noses.
A group of Bigfoot chasers have chosen to camp out in a remote area of West Virginia where several sightings of a Bigfoot has been reported. They have all the whistles and bells like a GPS locator, audio recording equipment, etc. I am not sure those campers really believe that the beast exists. Perhaps they just want an excuse to get out of town for a while. Recently I was asked if I believe in ghosts. I put that question in the same category as the Bigfoot issue. I have taken the position that if I cannot prove that they do NOT exist then logic says that I cannot rule them out. That was a very nice dance I did, wasn't it?
There will be a bonus for y'all today. Since there is near panic about the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, I have added a short biography of Hippocrates, the father of medicine.
The Assitant Attorney General of South Carolina, 66 year old Roland Corning, was caught in a cemetary with an 18 year old exotic dancer in Columbia, SC. When Corning saw the cops he sped out of the cemetary in his SUV with tires smoking. The cops just called ahead and another cruiser stopped him. The cops searched his car and found a stash of Viagra, several vibrators and other assorted sex toys. Corning said that he likes to "be prepared". Since there was no crime commited, both Corning and the dancer were released. We South Carolinians have had to deal a scandal with Governor Mark Sanford and his Argentine "soul mate". Attorney General Henry McMasters has a low tolerance for anything resembling a scandal and fired Corning forthwith. It seems we have a lot of horny politicians, perhaps it is something in the water.
Good news:
In Albania it is estimated that there are over 750,000 concrete bunkers scattered over the countryside that have been abandoned. These half-dome shaped bunkers were ordered constructed when Albania was under the heel of the paranoid Russians. There is a move afoot to turn these "concrete mushrooms" into eco-hotels, gift shops, restaurants, etc. This would turn these eyesores into a way to make money for the people of Albania. Most of the bunkers have spectacular views out of what was a gunport.
This date in history October 29
1777 After a prolonged illness, on this date John Hancock resigns as president of the Continental Congress. Hancock is famous for his large and flowing signature on the monumental Declaration of Independence that was signed on July 4, 1776. He was present in one capacity or another at nearly every important document signing in this country’s fight for independence. He was a very wealthy man and had much to lose if the rebellion had failed. After resigning he went back home to Massachusetts and started his recovery from his illness. By 1780 he had recovered enough to run for the Governor of Massachusetts which he easily won. He served for five years and then refused to run again in 1785 and went back to his home. Two years later in 1787 he ran for the Governorship again and won. He served in this capacity until his death in 1793. His tenures as Governor of Massachusetts proved this man’s great leadership and administrative skills. Not only that, he was a feisty devil and the British knew it and had a bounty on him. After signing the Declaration of Independence, Hancock said “Now the British can read it without their spectacles, their bounty be damned.” I like it.
1901 On this date in a nurse named Jane Toppan is arrested in Amherst, Massachusetts. It seems that in the recent past this woman had been responsible for the death of the entire Davis family of Boston. As with most serial killers Jane had an atrocious childhood. Her mother died when she was very young and her father, a tailor by trade, was crazy as a loon. He went to an asylum after sewing his eyelids shut. Jane bounced around several foster homes until she was finally adopted. Jane expressed a desire to become a nurse and attended a nursing school. But Jane was not interested in healing as much as she was interested in hanging around morgues an autopsy rooms. She began her reign of terror by being an in-home nurse which gave her an opportunity to do her evil things unobserved and unsupervised. She finally ended up in the Davis house in Boston to take care of the feeble Mattie Davis. Soon thereafter Mattie died, followed swiftly by Mattie’s sister Annie, Mattie’s father Alden and Mattie’s sister Mary. Mary’s husband called bullshit on this as being too much of a coincidence and demanded autopsies of all the above. The autopsies revealed that all had died of an overdose of morphine. Upon hearing that autopsies were going to be performed on the Davis family, Jane hightailed out of town but was easily captured. While she was on the run she chose to murder her sister with an overdose of morphine also. At trial she admitted to at least twenty murders but the authorities thought she was responsible for over 100. Jane was sentence to life in a mental institution. While there she was constantly bugging the nursing staff to give her some morphine and a syringe so she could kill even more. She died in 1938 and hell rejoiced to their new arrival.
1962 Bahamian actor Sidney Poitier testifies before the United States Congress about the lack of opportunity for black actors and actresses in the movie industry. Sidney was recognized as a superb actor and was indeed an Oscar winner for his performance in the movie “Lilies of the Field”. What I don’t understand is what Sidney wanted Congress to do about it. The movie industry is like any other business, its goal to make money for their investors. If I was an investor I would not give damn about the equality of the casting of roles, I would just be interested in the making of a profitable enterprise and the producers and casting directors had damn well better keep that in mind, racial issues not withstanding. Congress cannot dictate to a business enterprise such as this who they must hire or not hire. After all the success of any movie is greatly dependant on the skill of the actors, not the color of their skins. Or am I being too pragmatic?
1740 On of the greatest writers of his time is born on this date. James Boswell is born in Edinburgh, Scotland to wealthy and influential parents. The name Boswell goes deep into the history of the ancestry of Scotland. As with most parents of that era, they had already decided that James was going to be a lawyer. Well, after James grew up he decided that he wanted to be a writer instead and ran away from home and traveled Europe and met with other great writers such as Rousseau, Voltaire and a short Corsican that later became the legendary Napoleon Bonaparte. But James parents ran him down and brought his young ass back Edinburgh and began forcefully teaching him English law. That did not extinguish the flame of writing burning inside James in spite of the fact that he established a successful law practice in London. He eventually became a very successful writer of essays. He consorted with another successful writer in Samuel Johnson and they exchanges ideas regularly. James delivered his most famous and successful essay “The Life of Samuel Johnson”. This essay came in three volumes. Boswell finished writing the first two but while writing the third he decided to drink heavily and chase skanky women in the London night life. Boswell died drunk with a smile on his face before finishing the third volume. He was 53 years old.
1901 The assassin of US President William McKinley is executed in the electric chair. Leon Czolgosz went to meet his maker medium rare. Leon was in a receiving line waiting to shake the hand of President McKinley at the World’s Fair. When it came Leon’s turn, he had a handkerchief tied around his right hand hiding a small revolver. McKinley thinking that Leon was crippled reached out with his left hand and Leon pumped two rounds into McKinley’s abdomen. Leon was immediately disarmed and arrested. Of the two shot, one went all the way through and caused very little damage but the other one lodged near his liver and had to be removed surgically. It looked like McKinley was going to be OK but after a couple of days her started getting worse and soon died. It was gangrene that had set up inside his abdomen that was undetected. Leon was unrepentant to the end. His last words were “I am not sorry, he was an evil man.”
1619 English explorer and bon vivant Sir Walter Raleigh has a fateful meeting with a big guy with a big axe on the lawn of the Tower of London and goes to meet his maker in two pieces. It seems that Sir Walter had been a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I and she was quite fond of him. She sent Sir Walter on several exploratory trips to the new world including the fateful settlement on Roanoke Island, North Carolina of which not one scrap was ever found after a supply ship arrived two years later. After returning to London Queen Elizabeth found out that Sir Walter had been having a liaison with a Scottish beauty named Bessy Throckmorton, one of the Queen’s Maids-of-Honor, and the Queen became enraged the threw Sir Walter and Bessy into the Tower. Sir Walter coughed up enough money to bail he and Bessy out. Sir Walter and Bessy were married and they tried their damnedest to stay out of the way of the Queen. Elizabeth died in 1603 and James I rose to power. James accused Sir Walter of opposing his becoming King shortly after the coronation but allowed him to live so he could send Sir Walter on some more expeditions. Sir Walter finally returned from an expedition of establishing a village near a gold mine in South America. James I evidently felt that Sir Walter had outlived his usefulness and recalled the supposed crime of 15 years before and had him executed. Sir Walter Raleigh was 66 years old and had spent the greatest part of his life in the service of his country. But as the saying goes “What have you done for me lately, Walt?”
Born today:
1897 Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. He said “If the day should ever come when we Nazis must go, if some day we are compelled to leave the scene of history, we will slam the door so hard that it will shake the universe and mankind will stand back in stupefaction.” Hey Joe, what really happened was the Allies sealed off the western side of Germany and allowed the Russian army to attack unhindered from the east. The Russians were bloodthirsty for revenge because the Germans had slaughtered over 26,000,000 Russians in their attack toward Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad. Then when the Russians found the German extermination camps of Dachau, Buchenwald and several others, they decided that no German air breather should live. They headed toward Berlin slaughtering everybody and everything in sight including dogs, cats and various and sundry livestock. The Russians crushed any resistance to the city of Berlin that was being defended by sub-teen boys and men in their 70’s. Yeah Joe, mankind was stupefied alright. And you being the brave son-of-a-bitch that you were, poisoned yourself, your wife and your five children. It was that kind of cruelty that stupefied mankind to this day.
Born today:
1971 US actress Wynona Ryder. She said “I feel my best when I am happy.” Wynona, shut up.
Died today:
1619 English adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh. He said “All men are evil and will declare themselves so if the occasion occurs.” See the above paragraph on Joseph Goebbels.
Hippocrates
The Father of Medicine
Hippocrates of the island of Kos , Greece was born about 460BC. He was the founder of the Hippocratic School of medicine which separated medicine from other studies such as theology and philosophy and made the practice of medicine a profession. By the way, it is pronounced hip-POCK-ra-teez. His greatest contribution was what is known today as the Hippocratic Corpus which was a series of observations by him on some of his patients. It also contains the expected moral codes and good habit that a physician should abide by commonly known as the Hippocratic Oath. It is generally accepted that he did exist but anything else about his early life is considered legendary because his chroniclers wrote about his life 200 years after his death so the information had to be handed down orally meaning that it is unreliable. But there is no question that he did write the Corpus. It has been reported that he was taught medicine by his father and grandfather and was also taught other things by other Greek teachers. It is likely that he attended school at the Asklepieion on Kos . The great Greek philosopher Plato said that Hippocrates did indeed attend Asklepieion. The Asklepieion was a school building that the ruins of still are still with us. The practice of medicine in those days were exceptionally difficult due to the Greek taboo of dissections of animals, be it human or otherwise. So to deal with this there were two schools of thought. One was the Knidian School which dealt primarily with the diagnosis of a disease and there was the Koan School which was less devoted to diagnosis but focused on patient care and prognosis. Hippocrates was of the later. Diagnoses were notoriously inaccurate because the general opinion was that the cause of most diseases was an imbalance of the “humors”. The four humors were blood, dark bile, yellow bile and phlegm. For instance, if an overabundance of phlegm was diagnosed the treatment was large amounts of citrus, etc. It was not until Galen that true diagnostics made giant leaps forward. A biography on Galen will follow later. Hippocrates had two sons in Thessalus and Draco but it was his son-in-law Polybus that followed him in his medical studies and continued the teachings of Hippocrates after his death. Hippocrates can be documented to have lived to be 90 years old, but others believe he lived to be over 100. It was his teachings that demanded professionalism from his students that is the legacy he left the medical profession. He specified that physicians should always be neat, clean and well groomed. He even specified fingernail length. Here is the modern version of the Hippocratic Oath. The original version had a lot of references to the Gods.
1. To teach medicine to the sons of my teacher. This practice has all but disappeared
2. Not to teach medicine to other people. He is talking about don’t teach medicine to anyone not in medical school.
3. To practice and prescribe to the best of my ability for the good of my patient and try not to harm them. What about Dr. Jack Kevorkian?
4. Never do deliberate harm to anyone in someone else’s interest. Everyone should read about the German Dr. Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp during WWII.
5. Never try to induce an abortion. Obviously this oath has fallen by the wayside.
6. To avoid violating the morals of my community. Doctors are expected to be pillars of the community, except Dr. Hannibal Lechter.
7. To avoid doing a procedure that a specialist can do better. In the original version it makes reference to “stones”. They were talking about kidney or gall stones and that a specialist should deal with this. This is the first reference to a difference between a physician and a surgeon.
8. To keep the good of the patient as the highest priority. It is this oath that detractors of the death penalty point to when a doctor is present and assists in a legal execution.
9. To avoid sexual relationships or inappropriate entanglements with your patients and their families. This one is a no-brainer, y’all.
The next greatest physician to come along was another Greek named Galen in 129AD. A biography on this hero will follow soon.
Since the time of Hippocrates and Galen the medical profession has ebbed and flowed in its level of expertise and the good of the people. During the dark ages the good of the patient was secondary to superstition and the will of the church. Back then if a person showed mental instability or even behaved differently than what the church dictated, a doctor was not even considered because they were believed to “possessed of demons” or “witches and warlocks” and were tortured and hanged or even burned at the stake. Later on to even in the 1800’s some people’s illnesses were diagnosed as having too much or bad blood and would be bled a given amount which in most cases was very detrimental. This procedure almost gets back to the idea a bad or imbalanced “humors”, a giant leap backwards. Thankfully, we are in the age of enlightenment. We are healthier and live much longer than our ancestors but we are a hell of a lot fatter.
I am going to stop now, I feel like I am coming down with something.
In honor of Hippocrates I will say:
Ευχαριστίες για το άκουσμα μπορώ μετά βίας να περιμένω μέχρι το αύριο
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life that you have imagined."
Henry David Thoreau
I heard a band tonight that was kick-ass. The name of the band was the Kyle Parker Band. I know, that is the same name as the quarterback at Clemson. The difference was they played on the beach in a gazebo for free and then they came over across the street to my favorite watering hole. The lead singer sang a couple of songs on Karaoke one of which was the immortal song "Purple Rain" done by Jimi Hendricks. The crowd sang the chorus as loud as Jimi. It was a trip.
There is a rumor that a South Carolina state legislator is going to introduce a bill of impeachment against Governor Mark Sanford during a special session to deal with unemployment in South Carolina. It is hard for me to understand why a state legislator in one of the most corrupt governments in existence would accuse another person of bad ethics. Isn't there something about a pot and a kettle here? The legislators convened this special session to see what can be done about unemployment but now they want to throw politics into the pot, unemployment be damned.
To all of you that are planning to come down here just be aware that Saturday will be the last day this year for lifeguards on the beach. The surf temperature is 80 degrees meaning the Hammerhead, Tiger and Bull sharks are still in close.
Over in Mobile on Tuesday a man robbed a couple at gunpoint and ran away with the man's wallet. A while later a woman was robbed at gunpoint and the thief ran away with her purse. The woman saw him get into a white Grand Marquis and drive away and reported that to the cops. A very short while later the cops stopped a white Grand Marquis and found the man's wallet and the woman purse inside. The driver was arrested. I doubt that his trial will be very long. How stupid can you get?
Over in Oconee county South Carolina The owner of a farm hears his dog raising hell out in the front yard. He goes outside and sees his dog and a raccoon in a winner-take-all fight. Normally a raccoon will run and climb a tree when being attacked by a dog. Not this one, he stood his ground. A raccoon can be a formidable foe when angered. The farmer goes out and chose to try to separate the two combatants with his hands. Guess what happened, he got a scratch on his arm. The raccoon was subsequently killed and it was determined that it was rabid. There is no use in me telling you what treatment the farmer will have to endure. Moral: Use a weapon when approaching an angry raccoon.
Good News:
Twenty years ago TV producer Norman Lear and his wife help form the Environmental Media Association. In his capacity Lear was able to interject good environmental practices into the TV shows he produced. Along the way this organization became connected with the Sierra Club, Endangered Species Coalition, the Alaska Rainforest Campaign and the World Wildlife Fund and consider them as partners. Good for Norman.
This date in history October 28
1775 The new British military governor, General William Howe, orders that every citizen of the city of Boston cannot leave town until further notice. Additionally, he decreed that all the citizens were expected to combat that group of ruffians that threw the tea into the harbor and that rag tag militia that had killed 226 and wounded 838 of his majesty’s troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of this year. The Continental Congress had elected Virginia planter George Washington as commander-in-chief of the army but he was having a hell of a time convincing his troops that this was not a game. They were used to being commanded like a militia whereby the leaders are elected by the troops and if the leader was not what they wanted they simply fired him. Not only that, they all went back to the farm at harvest time. It happened here and Washington had no choice but to wait until spring and recruit a new army. Only this time he would have a professional military trainer to whip them into shape. That man was the Prussian Baron Von Steuben who joined Washington at Valley Forge this winter. Von Steuben did indeed begin training the troops that were left soon after his arrival. It worked and a well trained and disciplined army emerged. Howe stayed in Boston until in the following March when Washington and the brilliant Henry Knox were able to get some captured British artillery on high ground overlooking Boston. Howe had no choice but to retreat and the Bostonians were free to travel about for the first time in six months.
1864 The Battle of Fair Oaks ends. In the siege of Petersburg, two days earlier US General George Meade had tried and failed to turn the Confederate flank at Hatcher’ Run. A simultaneous attack was launched by US General Grant at the Confederate embrasures near Fair Oaks, Virginia in the hopes of preventing Lee from reinforcing the points of attack. The defenses near Fair Oaks were formidable ones and the Confederate commander there was CSA General James Longstreet who skillfully placed his troops to stem any and all attacks. After a two day struggle, the Union commander decided that they had done all he could and on this day withdrew and the drudgery of the siege continued. The Union had lost 1,100 killed, wounded or missing to the Confederate losing only 450.
1961 Rhythm and blues singer Chuck Berry goes on trial for the second time for violation of the Mann Act. The trial was dubbed the “Apache Trial” by the media. It seems that Chuck had met Janice Escalante in a bar in El Paso, Texas. Chuck became enamored with Janice and invited her to join his entourage. Janice was a Mescalero Apache Indian. Chuck questioned her at length about her age and she insisted that she was 21 years old. After a few weeks Janice tired of the road and Chuck’s treatment of her and she went to the cops and complained and Chuck was arrested. At the trial the prosecution produced a birth certificate showing Janice as being only 14 years old. Well, in spite of the fact that Janice lied to Chuck about her age, Chuck was indeed found guilty and was sentenced to three years and sent to Leavenworth. Later on he was sent to a jail in Saint Louis where he served his time until paroled. By the way, the Mann Act makes it a Federal crime to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes. It was meant to prevent interstate prostitution and white slavery. Does that mean if I take a woman from Greenville, South Carolina to Hendersonville, North Carolina, about 40 miles, to look at the leaves or pick apples and we spend the night, am I am guilty of a Federal crime? I realize that leaf looking and apple picking is not immoral, but I had thoughts of staying over in mind from the start.
1999 Cyclone 05B comes ashore on the southeast coast of India. As ya’ll know, in that part of the world a hurricane is known as a cyclone. This bad boy was a category 4 when it came ashore. The only problem is that it never quite came ashore completely and stalled out with part of it still out over the Indian Ocean which kept feeding it warm, moist air and therefore the storm never broke up. It poured torrential rains for days which resulted in monumental flooding. After it was all over there were 10,000 dead or missing along with 406,000 head of cattle. The same thing happened here that happened earlier in Bangladesh. Some of the human bodies were not found right away and the tigers came out of the jungle and feasted on them. They developed a taste for it and began hunting humans as a matter of course. It took a generation for the tigers to get back to normal.
1965 On this day the famous arch in Saint Louis, Missouri is dedicated. This monument was designed by the famous Finnish architect Eero Saarinen as a memorial to the western expansion fostered by Thomas Jefferson and explored by the immortal Lewis and Clark expedition that began and ended in Saint Louis.
Births and deaths:
1704 English philosopher John Locke dies. He said “The care of souls cannot belong to a civil magistrate.” The same thing can be said about the churches these days.
1898 US costume designer Edith Head is born. She said “Your dress should be tight enough to show that you are a woman but loose enough to show that you are a lady.” Hey Edith, will you go have a talk with Brittany Spears?
1949 US Olympian Bruce Jenner is born. He said “I spent four years training for one day and Joe Namath trains for one day and plays for 12 years.” And Joe was famous for wearing pantyhose of cold game days. There ain’t no justice.
1960 English writer Steve Pond is born. He said “Just how long can you know nothing without you head collapsing inward?” I have met many of them, Steve.
1967 US actress Julia Roberts is born. She said “I won’t do nudity in films…performing while clothed is acting, performing while nude is a documentary.” Julia has a beautiful face and is very skilled at acting (Erin Brockovich, in particular) but in my opinion her physique is lacking. But what do I know?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life that you have imagined."
Henry David Thoreau
I heard a band tonight that was kick-ass. The name of the band was the Kyle Parker Band. I know, that is the same name as the quarterback at Clemson. The difference was they played on the beach in a gazebo for free and then they came over across the street to my favorite watering hole. The lead singer sang a couple of songs on Karaoke one of which was the immortal song "Purple Rain" done by Jimi Hendricks. The crowd sang the chorus as loud as Jimi. It was a trip.
There is a rumor that a South Carolina state legislator is going to introduce a bill of impeachment against Governor Mark Sanford during a special session to deal with unemployment in South Carolina. It is hard for me to understand why a state legislator in one of the most corrupt governments in existence would accuse another person of bad ethics. Isn't there something about a pot and a kettle here? The legislators convened this special session to see what can be done about unemployment but now they want to throw politics into the pot, unemployment be damned.
To all of you that are planning to come down here just be aware that Saturday will be the last day this year for lifeguards on the beach. The surf temperature is 80 degrees meaning the Hammerhead, Tiger and Bull sharks are still in close.
Over in Mobile on Tuesday a man robbed a couple at gunpoint and ran away with the man's wallet. A while later a woman was robbed at gunpoint and the thief ran away with her purse. The woman saw him get into a white Grand Marquis and drive away and reported that to the cops. A very short while later the cops stopped a white Grand Marquis and found the man's wallet and the woman purse inside. The driver was arrested. I doubt that his trial will be very long. How stupid can you get?
Over in Oconee county South Carolina The owner of a farm hears his dog raising hell out in the front yard. He goes outside and sees his dog and a raccoon in a winner-take-all fight. Normally a raccoon will run and climb a tree when being attacked by a dog. Not this one, he stood his ground. A raccoon can be a formidable foe when angered. The farmer goes out and chose to try to separate the two combatants with his hands. Guess what happened, he got a scratch on his arm. The raccoon was subsequently killed and it was determined that it was rabid. There is no use in me telling you what treatment the farmer will have to endure. Moral: Use a weapon when approaching an angry raccoon.
Good News:
Twenty years ago TV producer Norman Lear and his wife help form the Environmental Media Association. In his capacity Lear was able to interject good environmental practices into the TV shows he produced. Along the way this organization became connected with the Sierra Club, Endangered Species Coalition, the Alaska Rainforest Campaign and the World Wildlife Fund and consider them as partners. Good for Norman.
This date in history October 28
1775 The new British military governor, General William Howe, orders that every citizen of the city of Boston cannot leave town until further notice. Additionally, he decreed that all the citizens were expected to combat that group of ruffians that threw the tea into the harbor and that rag tag militia that had killed 226 and wounded 838 of his majesty’s troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of this year. The Continental Congress had elected Virginia planter George Washington as commander-in-chief of the army but he was having a hell of a time convincing his troops that this was not a game. They were used to being commanded like a militia whereby the leaders are elected by the troops and if the leader was not what they wanted they simply fired him. Not only that, they all went back to the farm at harvest time. It happened here and Washington had no choice but to wait until spring and recruit a new army. Only this time he would have a professional military trainer to whip them into shape. That man was the Prussian Baron Von Steuben who joined Washington at Valley Forge this winter. Von Steuben did indeed begin training the troops that were left soon after his arrival. It worked and a well trained and disciplined army emerged. Howe stayed in Boston until in the following March when Washington and the brilliant Henry Knox were able to get some captured British artillery on high ground overlooking Boston. Howe had no choice but to retreat and the Bostonians were free to travel about for the first time in six months.
1864 The Battle of Fair Oaks ends. In the siege of Petersburg, two days earlier US General George Meade had tried and failed to turn the Confederate flank at Hatcher’ Run. A simultaneous attack was launched by US General Grant at the Confederate embrasures near Fair Oaks, Virginia in the hopes of preventing Lee from reinforcing the points of attack. The defenses near Fair Oaks were formidable ones and the Confederate commander there was CSA General James Longstreet who skillfully placed his troops to stem any and all attacks. After a two day struggle, the Union commander decided that they had done all he could and on this day withdrew and the drudgery of the siege continued. The Union had lost 1,100 killed, wounded or missing to the Confederate losing only 450.
1961 Rhythm and blues singer Chuck Berry goes on trial for the second time for violation of the Mann Act. The trial was dubbed the “Apache Trial” by the media. It seems that Chuck had met Janice Escalante in a bar in El Paso, Texas. Chuck became enamored with Janice and invited her to join his entourage. Janice was a Mescalero Apache Indian. Chuck questioned her at length about her age and she insisted that she was 21 years old. After a few weeks Janice tired of the road and Chuck’s treatment of her and she went to the cops and complained and Chuck was arrested. At the trial the prosecution produced a birth certificate showing Janice as being only 14 years old. Well, in spite of the fact that Janice lied to Chuck about her age, Chuck was indeed found guilty and was sentenced to three years and sent to Leavenworth. Later on he was sent to a jail in Saint Louis where he served his time until paroled. By the way, the Mann Act makes it a Federal crime to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes. It was meant to prevent interstate prostitution and white slavery. Does that mean if I take a woman from Greenville, South Carolina to Hendersonville, North Carolina, about 40 miles, to look at the leaves or pick apples and we spend the night, am I am guilty of a Federal crime? I realize that leaf looking and apple picking is not immoral, but I had thoughts of staying over in mind from the start.
1999 Cyclone 05B comes ashore on the southeast coast of India. As ya’ll know, in that part of the world a hurricane is known as a cyclone. This bad boy was a category 4 when it came ashore. The only problem is that it never quite came ashore completely and stalled out with part of it still out over the Indian Ocean which kept feeding it warm, moist air and therefore the storm never broke up. It poured torrential rains for days which resulted in monumental flooding. After it was all over there were 10,000 dead or missing along with 406,000 head of cattle. The same thing happened here that happened earlier in Bangladesh. Some of the human bodies were not found right away and the tigers came out of the jungle and feasted on them. They developed a taste for it and began hunting humans as a matter of course. It took a generation for the tigers to get back to normal.
1965 On this day the famous arch in Saint Louis, Missouri is dedicated. This monument was designed by the famous Finnish architect Eero Saarinen as a memorial to the western expansion fostered by Thomas Jefferson and explored by the immortal Lewis and Clark expedition that began and ended in Saint Louis.
Births and deaths:
1704 English philosopher John Locke dies. He said “The care of souls cannot belong to a civil magistrate.” The same thing can be said about the churches these days.
1898 US costume designer Edith Head is born. She said “Your dress should be tight enough to show that you are a woman but loose enough to show that you are a lady.” Hey Edith, will you go have a talk with Brittany Spears?
1949 US Olympian Bruce Jenner is born. He said “I spent four years training for one day and Joe Namath trains for one day and plays for 12 years.” And Joe was famous for wearing pantyhose of cold game days. There ain’t no justice.
1960 English writer Steve Pond is born. He said “Just how long can you know nothing without you head collapsing inward?” I have met many of them, Steve.
1967 US actress Julia Roberts is born. She said “I won’t do nudity in films…performing while clothed is acting, performing while nude is a documentary.” Julia has a beautiful face and is very skilled at acting (Erin Brockovich, in particular) but in my opinion her physique is lacking. But what do I know?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Daily History
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"Imagination is more important that knowledge. Knowledge is limited but imagination encircles the world"
Albert Einstein
There has been a heck of a rock slide on I-40 at exit 3 near the Tennessee/North Carolina line. One car has already ran into the slide. The North Carolina Highway Patrol has posted a detour and said that it will be a matter on months before the road will be opened. A while back my brother and I went to the Knoxville, Tennessee area to visit a bass boat manufacturing plant. My brother was considering getting a larger, more fancy-shmantsy boat and it would not do to not go to a boat dealer but to go to the manufacturing plant itself. We went from Asheville, NC to Knoxville via I-40 through the Cumberland Gap. It was crooked and steep, y'all. There were places where a vertical sheer cliffs going up and going down were less than 6 feet from the road. It was spooky at times.
Last Friday evening a 73 year old Taylors, SC man and his 68 year old bride named Homer and Joann Staton were seen at the "Old Country Buffet" in Greenville, SC having dinner. Saturday they were reported missing. Monday morning the corpse of an elderly man later identified as Homer was found about 30 miles away along with an automobile. The car was registered to Homer Stanton. His wife was nowhere to be found. The police will not release any more information for now.
Down in Davie, Florida a three year old boy told his Dad that a man had been molesting him. The Dad went off the deep end and he and the kid's mother beat the hell out of the alleged molester using a concrete block as a weapon. The molester had to be put into a drug induced coma to help prevent the brain from swelling to a fatal size. Legal authorities said that the people that did the beating will get more time in the joint than the molester. Friends of the two said they they just snapped when they heard what had happened to their kid. It would not do for me to find out that someone hurt my kids....even to this day.
The jury in the judge Herman Thomas case in Mobile has rendered an decision. He was ruled as "Not Guilty" on all charges. A jury of seven women and five men said that all 11 of the prosecuter's witnesses were convicted felons and could not be trusted to tell the truth.
There was a three car crash over in Mobile over the weekend caused by a 17 year old kid that was probably driving impaired. In that mess was a 23 year old woman that was 8 months pregnant. The crash fractured her pelvic bone and at the same time she went into labor. They rushed her to the hospital and took the baby by Cesarean Section. The baby is fine but the mother is in a body cast thanks to a doped up kid.
Good news:
After two years of surgery and chemotherapy for a brain tumor, little 9 year old Allison Winn of Denver has become a cancer survivor. She said that the presence of her dog Coco during her convalescence made her feel better. Her doctors confirm that the recovery was hastened by the snuggling of Coco, a mixed breed, mostly Australian sheep dog. Allison decides that she wants to do something for the other kids with cancer in her hospital and sets up a "hot biscuits and lemonade stand". She made the biscuits in the shape of Milk Bone dog snack. She gathered up about $1,000 and starts looking for a deserving kid with cancer and a well mannered dog. She found a two year old name Krysta that had a tumor on her medulla and the surgery made her legally blind. Allison makes arrangement for Krysta and her parents to meet with her and her parents at the Colorado Women's Department of Corrections who trained Coco and several other "care" dogs. They let little Krysta wander around sniffing and feeling until she stopped and laid her little head on the back of a gentle black lab that she named Lucky Bug. Everybody felt better.
This date in history October 27
1864 After several months of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia US General U.S. Grant decides that if he can cut the Confederate supply line and that being the Southside railroad that was bringing supplies in from the west the siege would be over. He assigns this task to US General George Meade who delegates three of his Corp led by Generals Winfield Scott Hancock, G.K. Warren and John Parke to attack the Confederate trenches near the railroad at a small creek named Hatcher’s Run. The combined forces would be about 40,000 infantry and a detachment of cavalry. The plan was for Warren and Parke to attack from the front and Hancock to circle and attack the Confederate flank. On this date the attack began. The frontal assault ran into trouble when the Confederate trenches proved to be more heavily defended than expected. But they kept demonstrating to try and conceal Hancock’s flanking movement. Because different units attacking from the front moved at different speeds a gap in the Union line occurred. Meade ordered the attack to slow down to close this gap. It was then that the Confederates launch a successful counter-attack and drove the Union troops attacking the front from the field and then turned their attention to Hancock and repulsed that attack. Finally Meade ordered a total withdrawal. It was very embarrassing failure for the Union and could have effected the upcoming presidential election. But Lincoln depended of the recent victories at Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama to tide him over and he was re-elected.
1962 Earlier the US intelligence community had discovered Russian medium range nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba. President Kennedy asked for confirmation and several over flights were made to photograph the construction sites there. And sure enough, the confirmation came. The missiles if launched from Cuba could strike anywhere in the US, Central America, northern South America and all of the Caribbean. President Kennedy made a TV speech telling the Americans what was happening and what we were going to do about it. He also warned the Russians that any attack launched from Cuba would be interpreted as an attack by Russia and an appropriate response would be forthcoming. The big bombers and missiles of the Strategic Air Command went to “Defcon 4” status meaning that the next step would be nuclear war. President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of all ships headed for Cuba, only he called it a“quarantine”. Very soon thereafter a Russian cargo vessel with missiles aboard approached the naval blockade and the world held its breath. There was no doubt that had the ship attempted to break the blockade it would have been sunk and the risk of world war would have increased dramatically. But the ship slowed to a stop and eventually turned back to Russia. While all of this is going on, negotiations between the US and Russia kept the telephone lines hot. The final offer was that Russia would withdraw their missiles from Cuba if the US would promise to never invade Cuba and withdraw their missiles from Turkey. The US had already begun the dismantling of the missiles in Turkey so the deal was acceptable. On this date, the deal between the US and Russia was agreed upon by both parties and a potential world war was averted. I was sweating bullets that whole time. It was a scary thought to believe that this day on the planet could be your last.
1659 On this date William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson are hanged on Boston Common in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their only crime was their religious belief, they were both Quakers and Quakers were forbidden by law under the penalty of death. Both Robinson and Stevenson had come to the colonies from England to escape religious persecution in 1656, believe it or not. Rhode Island and several other New England colonies accepted the Quakers, but not the hard-assed Bostonians. That law was later repealed. I have no clue as to why those from Massachusetts hated the Quakers. As we all know, the Quakers are some of the gentlest people out there.
1873 On this date a man named Joseph Glidden from DeKalb, Illinois is granted a patent for barbed wire. Glidden had seen a semblance of barbed wire at an exposition but it was single stranded. Glidden improved this concept by twisting two wires together which held the actual barbs in position. From this day forward the method of raising cattle changed forever. There would be no more cattle ranging and grazing free across the Great Plains. There were young wars fought over lands that were fenced and blocked cattle from ranging free and from finding water. What a shame.
861 In this year the wild-eyed Vikings successfully attack Paris, Toulouse, Aix-la Chapelle and Worms. They came to these towns by sailing their dragon boats across the North Sea and then down the west coast of Europe and up the Rhine and Seine rivers. This was no easy trick. Those rivers had a considerable downstream current and being able to reach those towns deep inland took a lot of rowing. But they were equal to the task and conquered most of Western Europe and even Russia by sailing down the Volga River from the Black Sea. They were so successful with their rape and pillage that there little doubt that all of us that have ancestry from Western Europe have Scandinavian blood flowing in our veins.
Births and deaths:
1858 One of my heroes Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt is born in upstate New York. He said “I think there is only one quality worse that having a hard heart and that is having a soft head.” When asked what was going to be his philosophy on the Presidency, he said “Speak softy but carry a big stick.” We need more leaders like Teddy.
1874 Business giant Owen Young is born. He said “When it comes to modern business crooks are not feared as much as an honest man who does not know what he is doing.” Hey Owen, what about women?
1914 Welch poet Dylan Thomas is born. He said “An alcoholic is a person you don’t like that drinks as much as you.” I know several.
1963 Bimbo Marla Maples is born. When meeting Tina Louise who played Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island she said “I loved Ginger, I have patterned my life after her.” Marla has a great body and face but she is very, very short on ambition.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
"Imagination is more important that knowledge. Knowledge is limited but imagination encircles the world"
Albert Einstein
There has been a heck of a rock slide on I-40 at exit 3 near the Tennessee/North Carolina line. One car has already ran into the slide. The North Carolina Highway Patrol has posted a detour and said that it will be a matter on months before the road will be opened. A while back my brother and I went to the Knoxville, Tennessee area to visit a bass boat manufacturing plant. My brother was considering getting a larger, more fancy-shmantsy boat and it would not do to not go to a boat dealer but to go to the manufacturing plant itself. We went from Asheville, NC to Knoxville via I-40 through the Cumberland Gap. It was crooked and steep, y'all. There were places where a vertical sheer cliffs going up and going down were less than 6 feet from the road. It was spooky at times.
Last Friday evening a 73 year old Taylors, SC man and his 68 year old bride named Homer and Joann Staton were seen at the "Old Country Buffet" in Greenville, SC having dinner. Saturday they were reported missing. Monday morning the corpse of an elderly man later identified as Homer was found about 30 miles away along with an automobile. The car was registered to Homer Stanton. His wife was nowhere to be found. The police will not release any more information for now.
Down in Davie, Florida a three year old boy told his Dad that a man had been molesting him. The Dad went off the deep end and he and the kid's mother beat the hell out of the alleged molester using a concrete block as a weapon. The molester had to be put into a drug induced coma to help prevent the brain from swelling to a fatal size. Legal authorities said that the people that did the beating will get more time in the joint than the molester. Friends of the two said they they just snapped when they heard what had happened to their kid. It would not do for me to find out that someone hurt my kids....even to this day.
The jury in the judge Herman Thomas case in Mobile has rendered an decision. He was ruled as "Not Guilty" on all charges. A jury of seven women and five men said that all 11 of the prosecuter's witnesses were convicted felons and could not be trusted to tell the truth.
There was a three car crash over in Mobile over the weekend caused by a 17 year old kid that was probably driving impaired. In that mess was a 23 year old woman that was 8 months pregnant. The crash fractured her pelvic bone and at the same time she went into labor. They rushed her to the hospital and took the baby by Cesarean Section. The baby is fine but the mother is in a body cast thanks to a doped up kid.
Good news:
After two years of surgery and chemotherapy for a brain tumor, little 9 year old Allison Winn of Denver has become a cancer survivor. She said that the presence of her dog Coco during her convalescence made her feel better. Her doctors confirm that the recovery was hastened by the snuggling of Coco, a mixed breed, mostly Australian sheep dog. Allison decides that she wants to do something for the other kids with cancer in her hospital and sets up a "hot biscuits and lemonade stand". She made the biscuits in the shape of Milk Bone dog snack. She gathered up about $1,000 and starts looking for a deserving kid with cancer and a well mannered dog. She found a two year old name Krysta that had a tumor on her medulla and the surgery made her legally blind. Allison makes arrangement for Krysta and her parents to meet with her and her parents at the Colorado Women's Department of Corrections who trained Coco and several other "care" dogs. They let little Krysta wander around sniffing and feeling until she stopped and laid her little head on the back of a gentle black lab that she named Lucky Bug. Everybody felt better.
This date in history October 27
1864 After several months of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia US General U.S. Grant decides that if he can cut the Confederate supply line and that being the Southside railroad that was bringing supplies in from the west the siege would be over. He assigns this task to US General George Meade who delegates three of his Corp led by Generals Winfield Scott Hancock, G.K. Warren and John Parke to attack the Confederate trenches near the railroad at a small creek named Hatcher’s Run. The combined forces would be about 40,000 infantry and a detachment of cavalry. The plan was for Warren and Parke to attack from the front and Hancock to circle and attack the Confederate flank. On this date the attack began. The frontal assault ran into trouble when the Confederate trenches proved to be more heavily defended than expected. But they kept demonstrating to try and conceal Hancock’s flanking movement. Because different units attacking from the front moved at different speeds a gap in the Union line occurred. Meade ordered the attack to slow down to close this gap. It was then that the Confederates launch a successful counter-attack and drove the Union troops attacking the front from the field and then turned their attention to Hancock and repulsed that attack. Finally Meade ordered a total withdrawal. It was very embarrassing failure for the Union and could have effected the upcoming presidential election. But Lincoln depended of the recent victories at Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama to tide him over and he was re-elected.
1962 Earlier the US intelligence community had discovered Russian medium range nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba. President Kennedy asked for confirmation and several over flights were made to photograph the construction sites there. And sure enough, the confirmation came. The missiles if launched from Cuba could strike anywhere in the US, Central America, northern South America and all of the Caribbean. President Kennedy made a TV speech telling the Americans what was happening and what we were going to do about it. He also warned the Russians that any attack launched from Cuba would be interpreted as an attack by Russia and an appropriate response would be forthcoming. The big bombers and missiles of the Strategic Air Command went to “Defcon 4” status meaning that the next step would be nuclear war. President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of all ships headed for Cuba, only he called it a“quarantine”. Very soon thereafter a Russian cargo vessel with missiles aboard approached the naval blockade and the world held its breath. There was no doubt that had the ship attempted to break the blockade it would have been sunk and the risk of world war would have increased dramatically. But the ship slowed to a stop and eventually turned back to Russia. While all of this is going on, negotiations between the US and Russia kept the telephone lines hot. The final offer was that Russia would withdraw their missiles from Cuba if the US would promise to never invade Cuba and withdraw their missiles from Turkey. The US had already begun the dismantling of the missiles in Turkey so the deal was acceptable. On this date, the deal between the US and Russia was agreed upon by both parties and a potential world war was averted. I was sweating bullets that whole time. It was a scary thought to believe that this day on the planet could be your last.
1659 On this date William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson are hanged on Boston Common in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their only crime was their religious belief, they were both Quakers and Quakers were forbidden by law under the penalty of death. Both Robinson and Stevenson had come to the colonies from England to escape religious persecution in 1656, believe it or not. Rhode Island and several other New England colonies accepted the Quakers, but not the hard-assed Bostonians. That law was later repealed. I have no clue as to why those from Massachusetts hated the Quakers. As we all know, the Quakers are some of the gentlest people out there.
1873 On this date a man named Joseph Glidden from DeKalb, Illinois is granted a patent for barbed wire. Glidden had seen a semblance of barbed wire at an exposition but it was single stranded. Glidden improved this concept by twisting two wires together which held the actual barbs in position. From this day forward the method of raising cattle changed forever. There would be no more cattle ranging and grazing free across the Great Plains. There were young wars fought over lands that were fenced and blocked cattle from ranging free and from finding water. What a shame.
861 In this year the wild-eyed Vikings successfully attack Paris, Toulouse, Aix-la Chapelle and Worms. They came to these towns by sailing their dragon boats across the North Sea and then down the west coast of Europe and up the Rhine and Seine rivers. This was no easy trick. Those rivers had a considerable downstream current and being able to reach those towns deep inland took a lot of rowing. But they were equal to the task and conquered most of Western Europe and even Russia by sailing down the Volga River from the Black Sea. They were so successful with their rape and pillage that there little doubt that all of us that have ancestry from Western Europe have Scandinavian blood flowing in our veins.
Births and deaths:
1858 One of my heroes Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt is born in upstate New York. He said “I think there is only one quality worse that having a hard heart and that is having a soft head.” When asked what was going to be his philosophy on the Presidency, he said “Speak softy but carry a big stick.” We need more leaders like Teddy.
1874 Business giant Owen Young is born. He said “When it comes to modern business crooks are not feared as much as an honest man who does not know what he is doing.” Hey Owen, what about women?
1914 Welch poet Dylan Thomas is born. He said “An alcoholic is a person you don’t like that drinks as much as you.” I know several.
1963 Bimbo Marla Maples is born. When meeting Tina Louise who played Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island she said “I loved Ginger, I have patterned my life after her.” Marla has a great body and face but she is very, very short on ambition.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Monday, October 26, 2009
Daily History
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"What is success? I will tell you; To laugh often and much; to gain the respect of intelligent peoples and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics, to appreciate beauty, to give of one's self; to know even one life has breathed easier that you have lived; that is to have succeeded."
Harry Fosdick
Yesterday was football top to bottom. I am in the area of the country where the Saints are prevalent so that is what we watch. I would rather watch the Panthers but the Saints are the class team in the NFL this year. Sorry Bo, it ain't the Broncos.
I cannot find anything worthy of commenting about so far.
Good news:
A couple of days ago two high schools from the Philadelphia area were competing in a female cross country race. As Monique Lincoln was running up a hill she suddenly collapse and lost conciousness. Helena Page was from the opposing team and even though many runners ran past Monique, Helena stopped to offer assistance. She wrapped Monique up in her jacket to keep her from the, made her a make-shift pillow and tended to her as best she could summon help and it arrived. Monique had collapsed because of dehydration and made a full recovery. Monique said that she is very grateful because she could have just been left there. Most cross-country runner don't stop for anything. Helena's coach started giving her hell when she finally arrived at the finish line but hugged her when she told him what she had done.
This date in history October 26
1948 Earlier Betty and Jerry Ferreri had been married for some time with Betty getting the worst of the deal. Jerry was the spoiled son of a New York family and gave Jerry enough income that he never worked and after moving to Los Angeles, bought him a five bedroom house in upscale Hancock Park. Jerry was a notorious and unapologetic womanizer and was a wife beater. He hit Betty so hard on the side of her face that it ruptured an eardrum and when he got the doctor bill he became infuriated and hit her on the other side of her face an ruptured that eardrum also. He said “Maybe the doctor will give a two-for-one now.” On this day the final straw came when Jerry brought a young model home while Betty was there. Betty produced a large wrench and ran them both off. Betty knew that when Jerry came back home it would be hell to pay so she conspired with her housekeeper, Alan Adron, to kill Jerry upon his arrival. Sure enough, Jerry came home and began dragging Betty around the house by her hair. As directed, Alan shot Jerry twice in the stomach and then the gun jammed and Jerry was still alive and kicking. It was then that Betty found a large meat cleaver and struck the staggering Jerry 22 times in the head and shoulders that resulted in his demise. Both Betty and Alan went to trial for first degree murder. It was touch and go until the defense attorney quoted the things that Jerry had done to Betty. Both Betty and Alan were acquitted. This just proves that some times justice prevails.
1881 Earlier on October 25 Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury had come into Tombstone, Arizona for supplies. The Clanton-McLaury gang lived out of town on ranches and felt that the range was theirs to rob and rustle and the town of Tombstone was the Wyatt Earp’s domain. All throughout the day Ike Clanton and Wyatt Earp had been verbally sniping at each other and the atmosphere was very tense. The next day, October 26, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne rode into town to help Ike and Tom. Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury went into the closest bar and the first person they met was Doc Holliday. Doc told them that Wyatt was about fed up with Ike’s mouth and there would probably be a fight. Billy and Frank immediately left and went to find Ike and Tom. In the mean time Wyatt Earp had assembled his brothers Morgan and Virgil knowing that a fight might be on the horizon. Wyatt’s close friend Doc Holliday also offered his expertise. At about 3:30p Wyatt had seen the Clanton/Mclaury bunch at the end of Fremont Street near the OK Corral and the four of them headed that way. When the men were about 20 feet apart Wyatt said “You sons-of-bitches have been looking for a fight and now you’ve got one”. No one knows who really fired the first shot but it is believed that it was Virgil that pulled his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point blank in the chest. Almost simultaneously Doc Holliday unloaded both barrels of his double barreled shotgun into Tom McLaury’s chest. Wyatt got off a couple of rounds into Frank McLaury’s stomach, Frank did not go down right away and got off a couple of rounds at Wyatt before collapsing as did Billy Clanton. There were about 30 shots fired and it was all over in about 30 seconds. Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran like hell and got their young asses back to the ranch. Sheriff John Behan, a supporter of the Clantons, had witnessed the fight and arrested the Earps and Doc Holliday for murder. They were all acquitted when the judge ruled that they “were fully justified in committing these homicides”. To paraphrase the judge, “they needed killin’.” Morgan, Wyatt and Doc were all wounded but survived.
1998 Earlier a tropical storm named Mitch had ambled in to the Caribbean Sea apparently without much punch and seemed to be headed toward the Nicaragua/Guatemala border. Soon thereafter it blossomed into a category 4 hurricane and stormed ashore as such. Belize had already evacuated 70,000 people but the poor and indigent in Nicaragua and Guatemala did not get the word and even if they had, they had no transportation to escape. Mitch stalled out over Nicaragua and eventually dumped over 50 inches of rain. The flooding was the worst in 200 years as you might expect. Entire villages disappeared in gigantic mudslides. There was 10 feet of water in the Nicaraguan capitol of Tegucigalpa. No one knows for sure but it is estimated that between 11,000 and 18,000 people perished. In several villages that were buried in mudslides, the Presidents of Guatemala and Nicaragua did not even attempt to dig them out and just declared the whole area as a cemetery. In addition to this misery, the crops of both nations were destroyed by 60% making the agricultural workers in even more in a bind. Sometimes we think we have had it bad, but just think of these people.
1942 On this date during the battle of Guadalcanal the US aircraft carrier USS Hornet is struck by an avalanche of Japanese aerial bombs and torpedoes. The Japanese were desperate to hold onto control of Guadalcanal as a fighter/bomber base to protect their advance onto Indo-China and sent swarms of fighter and bombers to attack the US Navy and Marines that were attacking that island. The Japanese had put underway several shiploads of troops to counter the Marine landing. The ultimate battle was called the Battle of Santa Cruz where the US Navy and Marines knew that if those reinforcements reached Guadalcanal the Marines already there would be in deep doodoo. The explosions from the Hornet were so severe that a couple of Japanese bombers that dropped the bombs were damaged and crashed. By the way, it was the Hornet that US Colonel James Doolittle launched his famous B-25 air attack on Tokyo. Anyway, after a series of gigantic explosions the Hornet was abandoned and it now rests on the ocean bottom near Santa Cruz Island but the Japanese reinforcements never reached Guadalcanal in force and the Marines secured control. There was a second aircraft carrier built and launched during the war in 1943 that was also named the USS Hornet. It did not suffer even a scratch during the remainder of the war.
Births and deaths:
1466 Dutch writer Erasmus is born. He said “In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king.” When I was in Amsterdam in 2004, I saw houses that were built in 1466. It makes you realize how young of a country we really are.
1911 Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is born. She said “Someday the sun will shine on me in a land far away.” Mahalia was a very intense Christian and her music showed it. If any of you can listen to her sing “Silent Night” and a tear not come to your eye, you are not alive.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
"What is success? I will tell you; To laugh often and much; to gain the respect of intelligent peoples and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics, to appreciate beauty, to give of one's self; to know even one life has breathed easier that you have lived; that is to have succeeded."
Harry Fosdick
Yesterday was football top to bottom. I am in the area of the country where the Saints are prevalent so that is what we watch. I would rather watch the Panthers but the Saints are the class team in the NFL this year. Sorry Bo, it ain't the Broncos.
I cannot find anything worthy of commenting about so far.
Good news:
A couple of days ago two high schools from the Philadelphia area were competing in a female cross country race. As Monique Lincoln was running up a hill she suddenly collapse and lost conciousness. Helena Page was from the opposing team and even though many runners ran past Monique, Helena stopped to offer assistance. She wrapped Monique up in her jacket to keep her from the, made her a make-shift pillow and tended to her as best she could summon help and it arrived. Monique had collapsed because of dehydration and made a full recovery. Monique said that she is very grateful because she could have just been left there. Most cross-country runner don't stop for anything. Helena's coach started giving her hell when she finally arrived at the finish line but hugged her when she told him what she had done.
This date in history October 26
1948 Earlier Betty and Jerry Ferreri had been married for some time with Betty getting the worst of the deal. Jerry was the spoiled son of a New York family and gave Jerry enough income that he never worked and after moving to Los Angeles, bought him a five bedroom house in upscale Hancock Park. Jerry was a notorious and unapologetic womanizer and was a wife beater. He hit Betty so hard on the side of her face that it ruptured an eardrum and when he got the doctor bill he became infuriated and hit her on the other side of her face an ruptured that eardrum also. He said “Maybe the doctor will give a two-for-one now.” On this day the final straw came when Jerry brought a young model home while Betty was there. Betty produced a large wrench and ran them both off. Betty knew that when Jerry came back home it would be hell to pay so she conspired with her housekeeper, Alan Adron, to kill Jerry upon his arrival. Sure enough, Jerry came home and began dragging Betty around the house by her hair. As directed, Alan shot Jerry twice in the stomach and then the gun jammed and Jerry was still alive and kicking. It was then that Betty found a large meat cleaver and struck the staggering Jerry 22 times in the head and shoulders that resulted in his demise. Both Betty and Alan went to trial for first degree murder. It was touch and go until the defense attorney quoted the things that Jerry had done to Betty. Both Betty and Alan were acquitted. This just proves that some times justice prevails.
1881 Earlier on October 25 Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury had come into Tombstone, Arizona for supplies. The Clanton-McLaury gang lived out of town on ranches and felt that the range was theirs to rob and rustle and the town of Tombstone was the Wyatt Earp’s domain. All throughout the day Ike Clanton and Wyatt Earp had been verbally sniping at each other and the atmosphere was very tense. The next day, October 26, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne rode into town to help Ike and Tom. Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury went into the closest bar and the first person they met was Doc Holliday. Doc told them that Wyatt was about fed up with Ike’s mouth and there would probably be a fight. Billy and Frank immediately left and went to find Ike and Tom. In the mean time Wyatt Earp had assembled his brothers Morgan and Virgil knowing that a fight might be on the horizon. Wyatt’s close friend Doc Holliday also offered his expertise. At about 3:30p Wyatt had seen the Clanton/Mclaury bunch at the end of Fremont Street near the OK Corral and the four of them headed that way. When the men were about 20 feet apart Wyatt said “You sons-of-bitches have been looking for a fight and now you’ve got one”. No one knows who really fired the first shot but it is believed that it was Virgil that pulled his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point blank in the chest. Almost simultaneously Doc Holliday unloaded both barrels of his double barreled shotgun into Tom McLaury’s chest. Wyatt got off a couple of rounds into Frank McLaury’s stomach, Frank did not go down right away and got off a couple of rounds at Wyatt before collapsing as did Billy Clanton. There were about 30 shots fired and it was all over in about 30 seconds. Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran like hell and got their young asses back to the ranch. Sheriff John Behan, a supporter of the Clantons, had witnessed the fight and arrested the Earps and Doc Holliday for murder. They were all acquitted when the judge ruled that they “were fully justified in committing these homicides”. To paraphrase the judge, “they needed killin’.” Morgan, Wyatt and Doc were all wounded but survived.
1998 Earlier a tropical storm named Mitch had ambled in to the Caribbean Sea apparently without much punch and seemed to be headed toward the Nicaragua/Guatemala border. Soon thereafter it blossomed into a category 4 hurricane and stormed ashore as such. Belize had already evacuated 70,000 people but the poor and indigent in Nicaragua and Guatemala did not get the word and even if they had, they had no transportation to escape. Mitch stalled out over Nicaragua and eventually dumped over 50 inches of rain. The flooding was the worst in 200 years as you might expect. Entire villages disappeared in gigantic mudslides. There was 10 feet of water in the Nicaraguan capitol of Tegucigalpa. No one knows for sure but it is estimated that between 11,000 and 18,000 people perished. In several villages that were buried in mudslides, the Presidents of Guatemala and Nicaragua did not even attempt to dig them out and just declared the whole area as a cemetery. In addition to this misery, the crops of both nations were destroyed by 60% making the agricultural workers in even more in a bind. Sometimes we think we have had it bad, but just think of these people.
1942 On this date during the battle of Guadalcanal the US aircraft carrier USS Hornet is struck by an avalanche of Japanese aerial bombs and torpedoes. The Japanese were desperate to hold onto control of Guadalcanal as a fighter/bomber base to protect their advance onto Indo-China and sent swarms of fighter and bombers to attack the US Navy and Marines that were attacking that island. The Japanese had put underway several shiploads of troops to counter the Marine landing. The ultimate battle was called the Battle of Santa Cruz where the US Navy and Marines knew that if those reinforcements reached Guadalcanal the Marines already there would be in deep doodoo. The explosions from the Hornet were so severe that a couple of Japanese bombers that dropped the bombs were damaged and crashed. By the way, it was the Hornet that US Colonel James Doolittle launched his famous B-25 air attack on Tokyo. Anyway, after a series of gigantic explosions the Hornet was abandoned and it now rests on the ocean bottom near Santa Cruz Island but the Japanese reinforcements never reached Guadalcanal in force and the Marines secured control. There was a second aircraft carrier built and launched during the war in 1943 that was also named the USS Hornet. It did not suffer even a scratch during the remainder of the war.
Births and deaths:
1466 Dutch writer Erasmus is born. He said “In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king.” When I was in Amsterdam in 2004, I saw houses that were built in 1466. It makes you realize how young of a country we really are.
1911 Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is born. She said “Someday the sun will shine on me in a land far away.” Mahalia was a very intense Christian and her music showed it. If any of you can listen to her sing “Silent Night” and a tear not come to your eye, you are not alive.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Daily History
Good morning.
Quote of the day:
"Moving on is easy, it is what you have to leave behind that is hard."
Dave Mustains
The jury is still out in the Judge and sexual pervert extraordinaire Herman Thomas over in Mobile. It is better that 50/50 that he will do hard time mostly for the "abuse of power" charge. Being in prison with the criminals he sent there will be tough.
I guess all of y'all know of the debacle with that Northwest flight from San Diego to Minneapolis. The aircraft overflew the airport by 150 miles before returning and landing safely. As being an air traffic controller for 25 years, I can tell you the from the time the plane took off there was radio chatter on the different frequencies he would have been directed to listen to and at times, respond to. Every commercial aircraft in America is being watched and controlled by FAA radar facilities across the country from the time they take off until they land. As the aircraft approaches within about 50 miles of his destination, he would have been instructed to descend and slow down and then control would have been handed off to the air traffic control facility at the destination airport where even more detailed instructions would be give to keep a smooth and safe flow going in and out . There has been suppositions that the pilots of the A-320 Airbus fell asleep. I don't see how that is possible with all the crosstalk the pilots hear and must respond to. Had the pilots taken off their headsets and then fell asleep it would be possible, not likely, but possible. If I would have been an involved air traffic controller I would have assumed it was a hijacking. One of the flight attendents banged on the cockpit door and asked when are they supposed to give landing information to the passengers to get ready for landing. This alerted the pilots that something wasn't right. Those pilot are are in deep doodoo.
President Obama has declared a national emergency in relation to the outbreak of swine flu. Over 1,000 Americans have died from this disease so far. This declaration allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to cut back on the red tape and streamline procedures so the ill can get treatment much more quickly.
An enormous gasoline tank farm fire has erupted on the north coast of Puerto Rico. There was an expolosion Thursday afternoon and the firefighters are no where near having it under control as of 10:00p last night. This fire may end up being the worst of its kind in history both for the money lost and the damage to the environment. The smoke from the fire is so extensive that it can be seen on weather satellite radar. Do I smell a terrorist attack?
Back on October 7 Tommy Poole of Foley, Alabama had signed on as a deckhand on the Miss Sharlotte a grouper/red snapper fishing boat. The Miss Sharlotte was commanded by Captain Mike Holman of Bon Secour, Alabama. When the boat was about 18 miles south of Louisiana an altercation between Poole and Holman occured in the wheel house and Poole stabbed Holman 8 time killing him. Poole was able to contact the Coast Guard and he and the Captain were lifted off. The city of Foley has filed the intention to seek an indictment for murder against Poole. I am a bit foggy as to who has juristiction of a murder at sea but I have to assume the Foley DA knows what he is doing.
Football notes:
Alabama beat Tennessee by 2 points 12-10. The Alabama offense scored only 13 points against South Carolina last week. That means their offense is averaging 12 1/2 points a game. If they deserve to be number one or number two with that kind of performance then I deserve to be an astronaut. There is no question that the Crimson Tide is way overrated.
As much as it pains me I must commend Clemson for the overtime victory over the number 10 ranked Miami Hurricanes by a score of 30-27. By the way you Tiger fans, what happened to Willie Korn and all that hype about him? Clemson is 4-3 now.
The mighty University of South Carolina Gamecocks beat the living daylights out of the Vanderbilt Commodores 14-10. The Cocks are 6-2 now.
Good News:
Delta airlines flight attendent Robin Schmidt has came up with an unusual scheme. After she makes the speech about stowing your luggage, connecting a your seat belt, etc. she produces a journal with blank pages but the name of a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan on the outside. The journals are passed out among the passengers with the request that you write a note of encouragement and maybe a joke or two but to steer clear of politics. At the end of the flight she gathers all the journals and sends them to the soldiers once a month. She is also sponsoring an "adoption" system whereby you establish direct coorespondence with an individual soldier and you send him notes and letters and a "Care" package" once in a while. What the soldiers want most is toiletries, non-perishable foods such a crackers, Slim Jims and jerky. To get a soldiers name and address Robin can be contacted at robin@hotmail.com. I am going to get a soldiers name and include him/her in my lesson blog site and send a "Care" package once in a while. It is time for us to do something patriotic.
This date in history October 25
1994 On this date a Union, South Carolina woman named Susan Smith called the Union County Sheriff’s department and reports that her car with her two small boys Michael and Alex aboard had been carjacked by a black man, leaving her at a convenience store and driving away. In very short order, with the help of several other law enforcement offices including the FBI, there was a dragnet thrown around that area of South Carolina and an intensive search began. Nothing was found and after nine weeks the sheriff of Union County held a news conference and reported that Susan had confessed to killing those two boys by driving the car into nearby John D. Long Lake with the kids strapped into their car seats. This event came as a culmination of her tumultuous on and off marriage whereby both Susan and her husband had participated in several affairs each. Finally Susan found the man of her dreams but he did not want children and Susan saw fit to fix that problem permanently. It apparently never crossed that bitch’s mind to file for divorce and surrender custody. Susan was tried and convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. While in prison she was disciplined several times for having sex with the inmates and/or the guards. Her husband wrote a book about his experiences during this ordeal and stated that he could not live a comfortable life while Susan was alive and wished that the court had seen fit to execute her. With animals like this we need to resort back to medieval methods of dispensing justice.
1415 Two months earlier Henry V of England and an army of 11,000 had sailed across the English Channel and laid siege to the city Harfleur, France. After five weeks Harfleur fell. During the five week siege Henry had lost half of his army to disease and combat casualties. So Henry decides to head north to the French port of Calais and meet up his navy that was coming to pick up him and his army and take them back home. About half way to Calais he meets up with a French army of 20,000 near the town of Agincourt. Henry chooses to array his troops in a fairly small field that was bordered by forests. This would prevent any large scale maneuvering by the French. At 11:00a the battle was joined. The French knights in their newly designed heavy armor began an attack toward the English across a muddy field. The English responded with a barrage of arrows from their newly designed long bows that had a range of 250 yards. The French knights were so densely packed that many could not even raise their arms and the knights in the rear kept pushing. Even though they were in armor, the English had designed a type of an arrowhead that could penetrate it and launched wave after wave of the deadly missiles into the French ranks. Soon the French knights were just a mass of confused humanity slipping, sliding and dying in the mud. It was then that Henry ordered his lightly armored bowmen to lay down their bows and take up pikes, swords and axes and he led the rest of the 5,500 man army into the ranks of the French and took care of business. The slaughter was fantastic. The French lost 6,000 troops in that one afternoon while the English suffered only 400 killed. After this resounding victory, Henry was declared heir to the French throne but it was for naught because he died of a fever two years later near Paris. Henry V’s victory at Agincourt went down as one of the greatest military victories in history.
1929 Two years earlier the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, had petitioned to have control of the naval oil reserves at the Elk Hill in California and Teapot Dome in Wyoming transferred to his department. The naval oil reserves are set aside for the US navy to use in case of a war. The transfer did indeed take place and soon thereafter Secretary Fall accepted a $100,000 bribe from the president of Pan-American Petroleum to allow them to drill in the Elk Hill reserve and $300,000 to allow Mammoth Oil to drill at Teapot Dome. This deception was discovered and on this date Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was arrested. Fall was tried and convicted and was imprisoned. This was the first time that a sitting cabinet member was jailed, and hopefully it will not be the last.
1853 On this date US Army Captain John Gunnison and his survey crew of 35 were set upon by a war party of Piute Indians near Sevier Lake, Utah. The survey crew was trying to find a route for a railroad to get to the west coast. Seven members of the survey team were killed including Gunnison. His second officer, Lt. Edward Beckwith assumed command and continued the survey and did indeed find three possible routes. Beckwith and his survey party made it back to Saint Louis and reported their findings which went a long way toward the completion of a trans-continental railroad.
1944 On this date the largest naval battle ever fought began in the Philippines at a place named Leyte Gulf. It was also the first time the Japanese had used Kamikaze aircraft attacks. The Japanese had not been able to stem the western advance of the US navy using traditional means so they decided to us untraditional means. They asked for volunteers to dive their bomb laden aircraft into US navy ships, aircraft carriers in particular. They had swarms of volunteers and on this day the pilot of a Japanese Zero aircraft crashed his plane into the escort carrier St. Lo and it was on the bottom in 20 minutes. This was the very first attack of this kind. In all the Kamikaze sank 34 ships and damaged many more in this battle. Even though this carnage was phenomenal, the worst was yet to come at Okinawa. But that is another story. In all there were 1,321 Kamikaze aircraft used in WWII.
Births and deaths:
1944 US political consultant James Carville is born. After being asked about Paula Jones alleging sexual harassment by Bill Clinton he said “You drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park and you never know what you will find.”
1940 US basketball legend Bobby Knight is born. When asked about a courtside conversation with one of his players he said “I told him to take a photo of his testicles so he would have something to remember them by if he ever took another shot like the last one.”
1989 US writer Mary McCarthy dies. She said “We must not force sex to do the work of love nor love do the work of sex.” You mean there is a difference?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
"Moving on is easy, it is what you have to leave behind that is hard."
Dave Mustains
The jury is still out in the Judge and sexual pervert extraordinaire Herman Thomas over in Mobile. It is better that 50/50 that he will do hard time mostly for the "abuse of power" charge. Being in prison with the criminals he sent there will be tough.
I guess all of y'all know of the debacle with that Northwest flight from San Diego to Minneapolis. The aircraft overflew the airport by 150 miles before returning and landing safely. As being an air traffic controller for 25 years, I can tell you the from the time the plane took off there was radio chatter on the different frequencies he would have been directed to listen to and at times, respond to. Every commercial aircraft in America is being watched and controlled by FAA radar facilities across the country from the time they take off until they land. As the aircraft approaches within about 50 miles of his destination, he would have been instructed to descend and slow down and then control would have been handed off to the air traffic control facility at the destination airport where even more detailed instructions would be give to keep a smooth and safe flow going in and out . There has been suppositions that the pilots of the A-320 Airbus fell asleep. I don't see how that is possible with all the crosstalk the pilots hear and must respond to. Had the pilots taken off their headsets and then fell asleep it would be possible, not likely, but possible. If I would have been an involved air traffic controller I would have assumed it was a hijacking. One of the flight attendents banged on the cockpit door and asked when are they supposed to give landing information to the passengers to get ready for landing. This alerted the pilots that something wasn't right. Those pilot are are in deep doodoo.
President Obama has declared a national emergency in relation to the outbreak of swine flu. Over 1,000 Americans have died from this disease so far. This declaration allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to cut back on the red tape and streamline procedures so the ill can get treatment much more quickly.
An enormous gasoline tank farm fire has erupted on the north coast of Puerto Rico. There was an expolosion Thursday afternoon and the firefighters are no where near having it under control as of 10:00p last night. This fire may end up being the worst of its kind in history both for the money lost and the damage to the environment. The smoke from the fire is so extensive that it can be seen on weather satellite radar. Do I smell a terrorist attack?
Back on October 7 Tommy Poole of Foley, Alabama had signed on as a deckhand on the Miss Sharlotte a grouper/red snapper fishing boat. The Miss Sharlotte was commanded by Captain Mike Holman of Bon Secour, Alabama. When the boat was about 18 miles south of Louisiana an altercation between Poole and Holman occured in the wheel house and Poole stabbed Holman 8 time killing him. Poole was able to contact the Coast Guard and he and the Captain were lifted off. The city of Foley has filed the intention to seek an indictment for murder against Poole. I am a bit foggy as to who has juristiction of a murder at sea but I have to assume the Foley DA knows what he is doing.
Football notes:
Alabama beat Tennessee by 2 points 12-10. The Alabama offense scored only 13 points against South Carolina last week. That means their offense is averaging 12 1/2 points a game. If they deserve to be number one or number two with that kind of performance then I deserve to be an astronaut. There is no question that the Crimson Tide is way overrated.
As much as it pains me I must commend Clemson for the overtime victory over the number 10 ranked Miami Hurricanes by a score of 30-27. By the way you Tiger fans, what happened to Willie Korn and all that hype about him? Clemson is 4-3 now.
The mighty University of South Carolina Gamecocks beat the living daylights out of the Vanderbilt Commodores 14-10. The Cocks are 6-2 now.
Good News:
Delta airlines flight attendent Robin Schmidt has came up with an unusual scheme. After she makes the speech about stowing your luggage, connecting a your seat belt, etc. she produces a journal with blank pages but the name of a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan on the outside. The journals are passed out among the passengers with the request that you write a note of encouragement and maybe a joke or two but to steer clear of politics. At the end of the flight she gathers all the journals and sends them to the soldiers once a month. She is also sponsoring an "adoption" system whereby you establish direct coorespondence with an individual soldier and you send him notes and letters and a "Care" package" once in a while. What the soldiers want most is toiletries, non-perishable foods such a crackers, Slim Jims and jerky. To get a soldiers name and address Robin can be contacted at robin@hotmail.com. I am going to get a soldiers name and include him/her in my lesson blog site and send a "Care" package once in a while. It is time for us to do something patriotic.
This date in history October 25
1994 On this date a Union, South Carolina woman named Susan Smith called the Union County Sheriff’s department and reports that her car with her two small boys Michael and Alex aboard had been carjacked by a black man, leaving her at a convenience store and driving away. In very short order, with the help of several other law enforcement offices including the FBI, there was a dragnet thrown around that area of South Carolina and an intensive search began. Nothing was found and after nine weeks the sheriff of Union County held a news conference and reported that Susan had confessed to killing those two boys by driving the car into nearby John D. Long Lake with the kids strapped into their car seats. This event came as a culmination of her tumultuous on and off marriage whereby both Susan and her husband had participated in several affairs each. Finally Susan found the man of her dreams but he did not want children and Susan saw fit to fix that problem permanently. It apparently never crossed that bitch’s mind to file for divorce and surrender custody. Susan was tried and convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. While in prison she was disciplined several times for having sex with the inmates and/or the guards. Her husband wrote a book about his experiences during this ordeal and stated that he could not live a comfortable life while Susan was alive and wished that the court had seen fit to execute her. With animals like this we need to resort back to medieval methods of dispensing justice.
1415 Two months earlier Henry V of England and an army of 11,000 had sailed across the English Channel and laid siege to the city Harfleur, France. After five weeks Harfleur fell. During the five week siege Henry had lost half of his army to disease and combat casualties. So Henry decides to head north to the French port of Calais and meet up his navy that was coming to pick up him and his army and take them back home. About half way to Calais he meets up with a French army of 20,000 near the town of Agincourt. Henry chooses to array his troops in a fairly small field that was bordered by forests. This would prevent any large scale maneuvering by the French. At 11:00a the battle was joined. The French knights in their newly designed heavy armor began an attack toward the English across a muddy field. The English responded with a barrage of arrows from their newly designed long bows that had a range of 250 yards. The French knights were so densely packed that many could not even raise their arms and the knights in the rear kept pushing. Even though they were in armor, the English had designed a type of an arrowhead that could penetrate it and launched wave after wave of the deadly missiles into the French ranks. Soon the French knights were just a mass of confused humanity slipping, sliding and dying in the mud. It was then that Henry ordered his lightly armored bowmen to lay down their bows and take up pikes, swords and axes and he led the rest of the 5,500 man army into the ranks of the French and took care of business. The slaughter was fantastic. The French lost 6,000 troops in that one afternoon while the English suffered only 400 killed. After this resounding victory, Henry was declared heir to the French throne but it was for naught because he died of a fever two years later near Paris. Henry V’s victory at Agincourt went down as one of the greatest military victories in history.
1929 Two years earlier the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, had petitioned to have control of the naval oil reserves at the Elk Hill in California and Teapot Dome in Wyoming transferred to his department. The naval oil reserves are set aside for the US navy to use in case of a war. The transfer did indeed take place and soon thereafter Secretary Fall accepted a $100,000 bribe from the president of Pan-American Petroleum to allow them to drill in the Elk Hill reserve and $300,000 to allow Mammoth Oil to drill at Teapot Dome. This deception was discovered and on this date Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was arrested. Fall was tried and convicted and was imprisoned. This was the first time that a sitting cabinet member was jailed, and hopefully it will not be the last.
1853 On this date US Army Captain John Gunnison and his survey crew of 35 were set upon by a war party of Piute Indians near Sevier Lake, Utah. The survey crew was trying to find a route for a railroad to get to the west coast. Seven members of the survey team were killed including Gunnison. His second officer, Lt. Edward Beckwith assumed command and continued the survey and did indeed find three possible routes. Beckwith and his survey party made it back to Saint Louis and reported their findings which went a long way toward the completion of a trans-continental railroad.
1944 On this date the largest naval battle ever fought began in the Philippines at a place named Leyte Gulf. It was also the first time the Japanese had used Kamikaze aircraft attacks. The Japanese had not been able to stem the western advance of the US navy using traditional means so they decided to us untraditional means. They asked for volunteers to dive their bomb laden aircraft into US navy ships, aircraft carriers in particular. They had swarms of volunteers and on this day the pilot of a Japanese Zero aircraft crashed his plane into the escort carrier St. Lo and it was on the bottom in 20 minutes. This was the very first attack of this kind. In all the Kamikaze sank 34 ships and damaged many more in this battle. Even though this carnage was phenomenal, the worst was yet to come at Okinawa. But that is another story. In all there were 1,321 Kamikaze aircraft used in WWII.
Births and deaths:
1944 US political consultant James Carville is born. After being asked about Paula Jones alleging sexual harassment by Bill Clinton he said “You drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park and you never know what you will find.”
1940 US basketball legend Bobby Knight is born. When asked about a courtside conversation with one of his players he said “I told him to take a photo of his testicles so he would have something to remember them by if he ever took another shot like the last one.”
1989 US writer Mary McCarthy dies. She said “We must not force sex to do the work of love nor love do the work of sex.” You mean there is a difference?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Daily History
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring."
Oscar Wilde
A hell of a rainstorm came sweeping in about daylight and it rained as hard as I have ever seen for about 45 minutes. The wind has shifted to a west-northwest direction meaning the low pressure area has passed north of this location and we are on the backside of a cold front. It is not really cold, it is 75 at 10:00a.
Over in Union County a man's uncle died and he went to look at his property and possessions. He found Class 2 explosives, barrels of black powder and many grenades. He loaded all of that stuff into a truck and drove into downtown Union to turn it in to the police so it "would not fall into the wrong hands". The police took one look and cordoned off the street and evacuated everyone close by. The explosives were eventually move to a safe location. What was that man's uncle doing with all those explosive? Sounds like a militia training camp to me.
Speaking of Union. Governor Mark Sanford saw to it that nearly all the city officials in Union, SC were removed from office for committing felonies like skimming money off public funds, accepting bribes, etc. A couple of days ago he replaced the Union Clerk of Court. I don't know what those officials were thinking. You just can't steal from the people and expect to get away with it, that is unless it is at the Federal level.
Within the last few days the US Marshals and the FBI have been gathering up the members of a Mexican drug ring. The have captured of 1,000, 14 of which came from the Greenville, SC area. Those sons-of-bitches are everywhere.
Speaking of that, I chatted with a man in the construction business and he said the hiring practices have tightened up considerably. Now they must produce a valid green card or work visa and whatever Social Security number they offer must match the personal data and the pic on Social Security records. He said that many of the workers are able to work about two weeks before being discovered as being ineligible and fired. Then they move on to another job and do the same thing just to get the work for as long as they can. I don't get it. When I take a job my identity must be confirmed before I step foot on the property.
Another case of child abuse. A 21 year old mother put a pillow on top of her 3 month old son's face and left it there for several hours. The child has suffered brain damage because of the lack of oxygen. The mother said that she put it there to keep the pacifier in place. She is in the joint for child abuse and endangerment. How stupid can you be?
Over in Mobile, Alabama a circuit judge that was looked at as being a "rising star" in Alabama politics is on trial. The Judge Herman Thomas was indicted for abuse of power and sexual perversion and resigned in 2007. His trial has been underway for the past two weeks. Eleven witnesses for the prosecution testified that the judge would come and get them from their jail cells, take them to a room that only the judge had access to and tell them that they had to take a whipping with a wooden paddle, allow him to sodomize them, or demand that they masturbate while he watched. If they did not, back to cell they went, if they did, they got out of jail. Semen was found in that room. The prosecution and the defense have presented their final arguments and the case is in the hands of the jury. If the judge is convicted on all charges, he is looking at 40 years in an Alabama prison with some of the people he put there. Not a good situation for the judge. I will keep y'all advised.
Due to the frontal passage the wind has increased and is from the southwest meaning the surf is very dangerous and all the beaches with life guards are closed. There are red flags and warnings everywhere. On the way back from lunch I saw a rescue vehicle and an ambulance in front of the Holiday Inn Express and several people walking around on the beach. I can assume what happened and so can y'all.
Good news:
The United States Department of the Interior has proposed naming 200,000 square miles on the north coast of the Alaska as a critical habitat area to try and protect the decimation of the polar bears. Once this proposal in enacted, the bears survival possibilities will double. It will require the control of greenhouse gas emissions, no commercial hunting and the elimination of toxic chemical being fed into this area. This is a step in the right direction.
This date in history October 24
1775 The last British governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, orders British Captain Matthew Squire to take British warships up the James River and then up Hampton Creek and attack and capture Norfolk. On this date Captain Squire carries out his orders and brings 6 British warships into Hampton Creek and opens up an artillery barrage on the city of Norfolk. At the same time a contingent of British infantry disembarks in small boats and heads to the city. Upon arriving the artillery barrage ends and the infantry deploys in finely shaped lines of attack and await a similar arrangement from the Patriots. The only problem here is that the Patriots are not about to line up out in the open and array themselves in front of the British. The Patriots are outnumbered at least two to one and it would be suicide to fight as the British wished so they did the smart thing. The British did not know that the Patriots had a large contingent of expert sharpshooters and they began picking off the British infantry at extreme range while well hidden. Upon hearing the gunfire, the leader of the local militia brought an additional 100 marksman to the fore and the British infantry suffered even more dramatically. Even though the British thought this form of warfare as being ungentlemanly, they knew they had to do something and fast because they were falling like leaves. They beat a hasty retreat back to their ships and re-boarded still falling in rapid succession. Once aboard their ships, the carnage was not yet over. The sharpshooters moved closer and began picking them off while aboard their ships. Captain Squire ordered his ships to sail the hell out of there and fast. In his retreat, two of his warships ran aground and were captured. There was not even one injury to the Patriots. It was not a good day for the British, this October 24, 1775.
1862 US General Don Carlos Buell is relieved of his command and is replaced by US General William Rosecrans. Buell had proven himself as a capable leader in previous engagements, especially at Shiloh. A few days before Buell had defeated the army of CSA General Braxton Bragg at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky and for reasons known only to Buell, he failed to vigorously pursue Bragg and try to eliminate the threat of that army and Bragg and his army slipped away. Needless to say the US military and especially A. Lincoln was not pleased. Buell was assigned several different tasks but none that included combat. His days of command of a combat unit were over. After the war Buell retired and settled in Kentucky. He died in 1898.
1970 On his third try for the Presidency of Chile, devout Marxist Salvador Allende is elected much to the chagrin of the United States. The US, ITT and Kennecott Copper had poured a lot of money into keeping Allende out of office knowing what he would do one elected. Allende did not disappoint. He established diplomatic relations with North Korea, Red China and Cuba and began nationalizing ITT and Kennecott Copper. Well, with that the US, ITT and Kennecott started peeing in their pants and began trying to find a way to get that son-of-a-bitch out of there. It would not be easy because Allende was elected peacefully and democratically so an invasion like the Bay of Pigs was out of the question. But the CIA was equal to the challenge and spread enough money around that the Chilean army rose up in a coup, arrested and murdered Allende and peace, as the CIA saw it, prevailed. I suspect that the ouster of Allende was not the first nor will it be the last interference in a foreign government by the good old CIA.
1997 Famous sportscaster Marv Alpert is arrested in New York for biting a woman on the butt. That right folks, I said Marv was arrested for biting a woman on the butt. It seems that Marv had met 42 year old Vanessa Perhach in Miami a few years before and they had a continuing liaison since. On this night, after Marv had called a basketball game in Madison Square Garden between the Knicks and the Bullets, he had invited Vanessa up to his hotel room. At first Marv approached Vanessa for a threesome and she refused. Then he approached her for oral sex and she again refused. It was then that Marv pinned her down and administered the bites. Yes, there was more than one bite. At first Marv denied it but a court ordered dental match of Marv’s teeth and the bite marks confirmed Marv as the biter. To add insult to injury, another woman came forward claiming the Marv had done the same to her. Marv was convicted and was sentenced to one year probation and a $2,500 fine and was fired by the Madison Square Garden. The deal was that if Marv kept his nose clean for year his arrest record would be expunged. After a year his record was indeed cleansed and he was re-hired by MSG.
1648 On this date the 30 Year War comes to the end with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia. The war had started in 1618 when the king of Bohemia, Ferdinand II, became the Holy Roman emperor and had declared that everyone is his domain, almost all of Eastern Europe, would be required to become a Catholic. Needless to say what happened next. The Protestant princes and kings said “Not no, but hell no we ain’t giving up our Duchies and Earldoms to the Catholic Church” and went to war. It was not one continuous battle but several battles stretched out over many years. The end result was that the Catholic Church did not get what it wanted and France, with Louis XIV as king, emerged as the most powerful country in Europe. It still do not understand the need of the Catholics to own property or dominate people. What has that got to do with saving my soul?
Births and deaths:
1830 US writer Belva Lockwood is born. She said “No one can be called a Christian that spends money on warships or arsenals.” Hey Belva, you need to read about Adolph Hitler, Atilla the Hun and Napoleon Bonaparte. But better still, just stay encapsulated in that little cocoon you are in and quit ruining my life.
1909 US writer Moss Hart is born. He said “So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not uttered at 7:00 in the morning; if it is, it will probably be repeated later on at a reasonable hour.” I like the way Moss thinks.
1981 US costume designer Edith head dies. She said “I have yet to see a completely unspoiled star, except for Lassie."
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring."
Oscar Wilde
A hell of a rainstorm came sweeping in about daylight and it rained as hard as I have ever seen for about 45 minutes. The wind has shifted to a west-northwest direction meaning the low pressure area has passed north of this location and we are on the backside of a cold front. It is not really cold, it is 75 at 10:00a.
Over in Union County a man's uncle died and he went to look at his property and possessions. He found Class 2 explosives, barrels of black powder and many grenades. He loaded all of that stuff into a truck and drove into downtown Union to turn it in to the police so it "would not fall into the wrong hands". The police took one look and cordoned off the street and evacuated everyone close by. The explosives were eventually move to a safe location. What was that man's uncle doing with all those explosive? Sounds like a militia training camp to me.
Speaking of Union. Governor Mark Sanford saw to it that nearly all the city officials in Union, SC were removed from office for committing felonies like skimming money off public funds, accepting bribes, etc. A couple of days ago he replaced the Union Clerk of Court. I don't know what those officials were thinking. You just can't steal from the people and expect to get away with it, that is unless it is at the Federal level.
Within the last few days the US Marshals and the FBI have been gathering up the members of a Mexican drug ring. The have captured of 1,000, 14 of which came from the Greenville, SC area. Those sons-of-bitches are everywhere.
Speaking of that, I chatted with a man in the construction business and he said the hiring practices have tightened up considerably. Now they must produce a valid green card or work visa and whatever Social Security number they offer must match the personal data and the pic on Social Security records. He said that many of the workers are able to work about two weeks before being discovered as being ineligible and fired. Then they move on to another job and do the same thing just to get the work for as long as they can. I don't get it. When I take a job my identity must be confirmed before I step foot on the property.
Another case of child abuse. A 21 year old mother put a pillow on top of her 3 month old son's face and left it there for several hours. The child has suffered brain damage because of the lack of oxygen. The mother said that she put it there to keep the pacifier in place. She is in the joint for child abuse and endangerment. How stupid can you be?
Over in Mobile, Alabama a circuit judge that was looked at as being a "rising star" in Alabama politics is on trial. The Judge Herman Thomas was indicted for abuse of power and sexual perversion and resigned in 2007. His trial has been underway for the past two weeks. Eleven witnesses for the prosecution testified that the judge would come and get them from their jail cells, take them to a room that only the judge had access to and tell them that they had to take a whipping with a wooden paddle, allow him to sodomize them, or demand that they masturbate while he watched. If they did not, back to cell they went, if they did, they got out of jail. Semen was found in that room. The prosecution and the defense have presented their final arguments and the case is in the hands of the jury. If the judge is convicted on all charges, he is looking at 40 years in an Alabama prison with some of the people he put there. Not a good situation for the judge. I will keep y'all advised.
Due to the frontal passage the wind has increased and is from the southwest meaning the surf is very dangerous and all the beaches with life guards are closed. There are red flags and warnings everywhere. On the way back from lunch I saw a rescue vehicle and an ambulance in front of the Holiday Inn Express and several people walking around on the beach. I can assume what happened and so can y'all.
Good news:
The United States Department of the Interior has proposed naming 200,000 square miles on the north coast of the Alaska as a critical habitat area to try and protect the decimation of the polar bears. Once this proposal in enacted, the bears survival possibilities will double. It will require the control of greenhouse gas emissions, no commercial hunting and the elimination of toxic chemical being fed into this area. This is a step in the right direction.
This date in history October 24
1775 The last British governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, orders British Captain Matthew Squire to take British warships up the James River and then up Hampton Creek and attack and capture Norfolk. On this date Captain Squire carries out his orders and brings 6 British warships into Hampton Creek and opens up an artillery barrage on the city of Norfolk. At the same time a contingent of British infantry disembarks in small boats and heads to the city. Upon arriving the artillery barrage ends and the infantry deploys in finely shaped lines of attack and await a similar arrangement from the Patriots. The only problem here is that the Patriots are not about to line up out in the open and array themselves in front of the British. The Patriots are outnumbered at least two to one and it would be suicide to fight as the British wished so they did the smart thing. The British did not know that the Patriots had a large contingent of expert sharpshooters and they began picking off the British infantry at extreme range while well hidden. Upon hearing the gunfire, the leader of the local militia brought an additional 100 marksman to the fore and the British infantry suffered even more dramatically. Even though the British thought this form of warfare as being ungentlemanly, they knew they had to do something and fast because they were falling like leaves. They beat a hasty retreat back to their ships and re-boarded still falling in rapid succession. Once aboard their ships, the carnage was not yet over. The sharpshooters moved closer and began picking them off while aboard their ships. Captain Squire ordered his ships to sail the hell out of there and fast. In his retreat, two of his warships ran aground and were captured. There was not even one injury to the Patriots. It was not a good day for the British, this October 24, 1775.
1862 US General Don Carlos Buell is relieved of his command and is replaced by US General William Rosecrans. Buell had proven himself as a capable leader in previous engagements, especially at Shiloh. A few days before Buell had defeated the army of CSA General Braxton Bragg at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky and for reasons known only to Buell, he failed to vigorously pursue Bragg and try to eliminate the threat of that army and Bragg and his army slipped away. Needless to say the US military and especially A. Lincoln was not pleased. Buell was assigned several different tasks but none that included combat. His days of command of a combat unit were over. After the war Buell retired and settled in Kentucky. He died in 1898.
1970 On his third try for the Presidency of Chile, devout Marxist Salvador Allende is elected much to the chagrin of the United States. The US, ITT and Kennecott Copper had poured a lot of money into keeping Allende out of office knowing what he would do one elected. Allende did not disappoint. He established diplomatic relations with North Korea, Red China and Cuba and began nationalizing ITT and Kennecott Copper. Well, with that the US, ITT and Kennecott started peeing in their pants and began trying to find a way to get that son-of-a-bitch out of there. It would not be easy because Allende was elected peacefully and democratically so an invasion like the Bay of Pigs was out of the question. But the CIA was equal to the challenge and spread enough money around that the Chilean army rose up in a coup, arrested and murdered Allende and peace, as the CIA saw it, prevailed. I suspect that the ouster of Allende was not the first nor will it be the last interference in a foreign government by the good old CIA.
1997 Famous sportscaster Marv Alpert is arrested in New York for biting a woman on the butt. That right folks, I said Marv was arrested for biting a woman on the butt. It seems that Marv had met 42 year old Vanessa Perhach in Miami a few years before and they had a continuing liaison since. On this night, after Marv had called a basketball game in Madison Square Garden between the Knicks and the Bullets, he had invited Vanessa up to his hotel room. At first Marv approached Vanessa for a threesome and she refused. Then he approached her for oral sex and she again refused. It was then that Marv pinned her down and administered the bites. Yes, there was more than one bite. At first Marv denied it but a court ordered dental match of Marv’s teeth and the bite marks confirmed Marv as the biter. To add insult to injury, another woman came forward claiming the Marv had done the same to her. Marv was convicted and was sentenced to one year probation and a $2,500 fine and was fired by the Madison Square Garden. The deal was that if Marv kept his nose clean for year his arrest record would be expunged. After a year his record was indeed cleansed and he was re-hired by MSG.
1648 On this date the 30 Year War comes to the end with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia. The war had started in 1618 when the king of Bohemia, Ferdinand II, became the Holy Roman emperor and had declared that everyone is his domain, almost all of Eastern Europe, would be required to become a Catholic. Needless to say what happened next. The Protestant princes and kings said “Not no, but hell no we ain’t giving up our Duchies and Earldoms to the Catholic Church” and went to war. It was not one continuous battle but several battles stretched out over many years. The end result was that the Catholic Church did not get what it wanted and France, with Louis XIV as king, emerged as the most powerful country in Europe. It still do not understand the need of the Catholics to own property or dominate people. What has that got to do with saving my soul?
Births and deaths:
1830 US writer Belva Lockwood is born. She said “No one can be called a Christian that spends money on warships or arsenals.” Hey Belva, you need to read about Adolph Hitler, Atilla the Hun and Napoleon Bonaparte. But better still, just stay encapsulated in that little cocoon you are in and quit ruining my life.
1909 US writer Moss Hart is born. He said “So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not uttered at 7:00 in the morning; if it is, it will probably be repeated later on at a reasonable hour.” I like the way Moss thinks.
1981 US costume designer Edith head dies. She said “I have yet to see a completely unspoiled star, except for Lassie."
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)