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.