Daily lesson

Good morning,



Quote of the day:


"A friend is someone that knows the song in your heart and will sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words".


                                    Donna Roberts


It is yet another morning with clear air and clear skies and a nip in the air. The low last light was about 70 and the high today is forecast to be about 82. The wind persists from the northeast at about 8 MPH. There are two guys with cast nets pacing up and down the pier just west of my condo. They are almost certain to be seeking mullet. This time of year the females will be full of roe which is a highly sought delicacy in this neck of the woods.


I was channel surfing yesterday and caught a sequence on Oprah who had Chris Rock as her guest. The program was about problems with women's hair, especially black women. Oprah asked Chris if he thought that women prepared their hair to please men or other women. Chris said "It must be for other women. Men don't care one way or the another. We historically go to bed with whoever is in front of us, we take what we can get. Men ain't about hair, we are all about butt." He's funny.


I took a quick look at what was in the news in my home town area of Greenville, SC. What I found was a double murder at a convenience store, a car crash during a drive by shooting, a 15 year old kid shoplifting two bottles of MD20/20 wine from a convenience store and the 53 year old clerk chasing him out into the parking lot falling down in the process then he staggers back into the store and goes into the storeroom where he dropped dead, reason to be determined by an autopsy. They caught the kid by identifying him with film from the surveillance cameras.


At the same time here in Gulf Breeze, Florida a man dies from H1N1 swine flu and the Benson building will be condemned and razed if the owner does not cut the grass and do general repairs.


I really miss home.


I have noticed a hell of a lot of Monarch butterflies lately. I guess they are migrating because by some mysterious method they know winter is coming. I read in a National Geographic that the Monarchs migrate to this one particular area in Mexico. I wonder if they fly across the Gulf of Mexico or follow the coast. Mother Nature is an amazing thing, y'all.


This date in history October 2


1967 On this date United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren swears in Thurgood Marshall as an associate Supreme Court justice replacing retiring Justice Tom Clark. Marshall was the first black person to be selected the high court. He was born in Baltimore in 1908. When he graduated from high school he applied to go the University of Maryland Law School and was accepted but the acceptance was withdrawn once it was found that he was black. He then applied to and was accepted into the Howard University Law School in Washington, DC and graduated first in his class. He became a lawyer for the NAACP and eventually became Chief Council. In his capacity with the NAACP he argued several cases before the Supreme Court including his most important victory in the Brown vs. The Board Of Education decision which was the first giant step in the elimination of segregation in public facilities in America. He was nominated for the United States Court of Appeals by President John Kennedy but his confirmation was delayed for almost a year by southern Senators. He was then selected by President Lyndon Johnson to be Solicitor General. Finally, it was Lyndon Johnson that nominated him to the Supreme Court. I took some time but he was eventually confirmed. He served on the high court for 24 years, retired in 1991 and died the next year.


1780    Earlier British officer John Andre had been captured by a group of highwaymen (robbers) that were sympathetic to the Patriot cause. They found a document in Andre’s boot that described a deal with Patriot General Benedict Arnold whereby Arnold would turn over control of the Patriot fortress at West Point, NY to the British for 20,000 pounds Sterling. They then turned Andre over to the Patriot army including the document. Andre was not in uniform making him a spy. Andre was tried as a spy, convicted and was sentenced to death. On this date, Andre was hanged. When Arnold found out about the capture of Andre he ran like hell to the British warship HMS Vulture and surrendered to them. The British did not waste Arnold’s considerable military talents and made him an officer in the British Army and gave him command of a division of infantry. Arnold did not disappoint. He proved to be a very capable commander against his countrymen. After the war was won by the Patriots, he had no choice but to go to England. He died penniless and unknown in London in 1801.


1836    After exploring Argentina, Peru and the Galapagos Islands, the HMS Beagle with British naturalist Charles Darwin aboard, arrives back in England. Darwin has made many observations in his travels the most important of which was what he called “natural selection” and evidence as he saw it, of homo sapiens evolving from a lower form. Darwin was embarrassed at what he had found and delayed publishing his findings for several years because he knew what hell would be raised about it. But he finally published The Origin of Species and sure enough, hell was raised and plenty of it and it is still ebbing and flowing to this day. I don’t have a dog in that fight because it eventually gets to the use of the bible as the final authority which requires a leap of faith. As I have said before, you cannot mix science and religion successfully.


1864    US General Alvan Gillem decides to attack the CSA encampment of Saltville, Virginia to capture the salt and lead mine there. The salt mine was very important to the Confederacy because the salt was used to preserve their food. Gillem wanted US General Burbridge and his small division to join him in a coordinated attack from the south but Burbridge wanted a separate attack from the north so he could get individual credit for the victory. Both armies totaled 4,000 men. The Confederate officers in charge at Saltville were CSA Generals Harry Giltner and John Williams. When they found out what was coming, the hastily rounded up about 1,000 Confederate infantry and prepared a plan of action. You would have thought they would have dug in but they didn’t. They sent Giltner and about 400 troops to delay Gillem coming up from the south and Williams and the rest prepared an ambush of Burbridge’s troops coming down from the north. When the trap was sprung the astonished US troops turned around and ran their young asses back to Kentucky. Williams then turns his troops around and head south to join Giltner. It was unnecessary because when Gillem found out about the rout of Burbridge, he turned around and headed his young ass back to West “by God” Virginia. However, this brilliant victory was tarnished somewhat when some of the black troops of the US 5th and 6th cavalry were captured and then murdered. War is hell.


Births and deaths:


1851    French General Ferdinand Foch is born. He said “Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value.” This should give you some insight into French military expertise.


1869    Indian religious leader Mahatma Gandhi is born. When he was asked what he thought of Western Civilization Gandhi said “I think it would be a good idea.” Gandhi was a very wise man.


1938    US critic Rex Reed is born. He said “If a swamp alligator could talk it would sound like Tennessee Williams.” Both Rex and Tennessee are/were aflame.


1940    Sports columnist Scott Ostler is born. After watching the 49ers get routed in the 1993 playoffs, he wrote “The 49ers were so badly flattened that they didn’t fly back home, they were faxed.”


1803    US super-patriot and brewer Samuel Adams was born. He said “Mankind is governed more by their feelings than by reason.” I will tack onto that “especially if there are women involved.”


1892    French philosopher and historian Ernest Renan dies. He said “Oh Lord, if there is a Lord, save my soul, if I have a soul.” Hey Ernest, make up your mind, if you have a mind.


1981    US singer and pianist Hazel Scott dies. She said “I have always respected everyone’s religion; there is only one God but a hell of a lot of confused people.” Here, here.


Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow