Daily lesson

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"I don't want to live. I want to love first and foremost and live incidentally."

                 Zelda Fitzgerald (wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald)

It is another muggy morning with my sliding glass doors and windows fogged up. The Sound is pretty calm but there is a lot of barge traffic. Most of it is coal but there are other cargoes visible. Most of them are headed east, ultimate destinations unknown.

My throat is a little hoarse and I have developed a upper respiratory congestion and a light cough because of it. I will be going to see Doc Hawkins to see about it. I did indeed see Doc Hawkins and it is bronchitis. He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and recommended against a flu shot at this time. This means that my partying is over for a week or ten days. I need a break anyhow. By the way, the antibiotic pill is about the size of a .38 caliber round.

The family of 71 year old Florence DeCampo of Jacksonville, Florida became worried because no one in the family had heard from her in weeks and so they called the cops. The cops entered the house only to find garbage piled to the ceiling and a stench so abysmal that they retreated and called for help in the form of the fire department. They showed up in HAZMAT gear including respirators. They went in along with corpse sniffing dogs and found Florence buried under an avalanche of reeking garbage. There has been no determination as to the cause of death except for maybe terminal slothfulness.

Here in Pensacola a passer-by saw a man laying in the street near the intersection of Wright and 8th street and called the cops. It was 28 year old Eli Siler dead as fried chicken with four 9mm slugs in his torso. The cops are investigating.

Over in Greenville, SC a Sonoco station on East North Street was burglarized. Someone had tunneled their way from the bathroom into the station itself and stole some money and several cartons of cigarettes all of which was caught of security cameras. The cops recognized the culprit and called Timothy Kelly and told him the photos of him in the service staton were ready and he should come on down to the Law Enforcement Center to take a look. Tim is in the joint as we speak.

Down in Greenwood, South Carolina Charles King was arrested for killing a donkey. The donkey was in his neighbor's pasture put there to protect the man's goats from wild dogs. Charles said he thought the donkey was a deer. I don't know all I need to know about animals but I cannot recall a donkey with antlers and I am sure it is not doe season. The neighbor said that he and Charles had been squabbling about a section of land for years. I think I see a revenge killing here. By the way, has anyone ever heard of using a donkey as a shepherd?

Good News:

A young man from Massachusetts named David Helms was in an automobile accident a few years ago that left him paralyzed from the waist down. David did not just sit around and mope, he taught himself mechanics and opened an electric wheelchair repair and modification business. It is very successful. He has a snow plow attachment that is operated very similar to the operation of a Bobcat. He has a lawn mower attachment, too. I love free enterprise, especially from those that are physically challenged.

This date in history October 9

1970    The Khmer Republic is established in Phnom Penh by Cambodian General Lon Nol by a military coup that unseated the Monarchy led by Prince Sihanouk. The good General was supported and financed by the good ole CIA. From 1970 to 1975 the General battled with the forces of the Communists called the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot who was financed by the good ole KGB. Does that sound familiar? Anyway, when the American support stopped in 1973 with the evacuation of Vietnam General Lon Nol knew it was just a matter of time before his forces were defeated and he was right. Lon Pol and his army capitulated in 1975. The Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot took over the reins of Cambodia , evacuated the capital city of Phnom Penh and started killing people wholesale. It is estimated that 10% of the total population of Cambodia died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. There was a movie made about this bloodbath named “The Killing Fields”. Don’t see it if you are not able to handle horror at its peak.

1864    The Battle of Tom’s Brook happens on this day in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It seems that US General U.S. Grant was especially interested in CSA Gen. Jubal Early’s control of the Shenandoah Valley because the Valley was essentially the breadbasket of R. E. Lee’s army. So Grant orders US Gen. Phillip Sheridan to go valley and kick Early’s army out. Sheridan orders Gen.Merritt and his cavalry unit of 3,500 and Col. Custer (George A.) and his cavalry unit of 2,500 to find Early’s cavalry and neutralize them. They finally found the Confederate cavalry at Tom’s Brook. Merritt and his 3,500 attacked a Confederate cavalry unit of 1,500 led by CSA Gen. Lomax and succeeded in running them off. No wonder, look at the difference in the size of the units. General Custer and his 2,500 had a lot more trouble when they attacked CSA Gen. Rosser and his 3,000. By the way Custer and Rosser were close friends at West Point . It was a huge struggle but Custer was able to get 3 of his regiments out and attacked the Confederate flank and it was all over. The Confederates took off galloping toward their infantry for protection with Custer in close pursuit. After reaching the Confederate infantry, Custer broke off the chase. The locals called that action “The Woodstock Steeplechase”.

1940   During the bombing of London by the Germans, on this day a bomb penetrates the great dome of St Paul ’s Cathedral and destroys the high altar. Later a live bomb that failed to explode was removed from the dome. The history of St. Paul ’s is an interesting one. Tradition has it that the Romans had built a temple to Goddess Diana on the present day site of St. Paul's. London was founded by the Romans as an outpost. While in London in the year ‘04 I saw some of the walls of Roman military barracks that are still standing. Anyway, the first St. Paul's was built in 604 A.D. by King Aethelberht but burned to the ground soon thereafter. St. Paul's was rebuilt but was destroyed by the Vikings in 962 A.D. The long suffering Brits rebuilt it and again was destroyed by fire in 1087. You guessed it, it was rebuilt but fell into disrepair and damaged by fire and by the English Civil War in 1616. In 1660 the great English architect Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to design a new St. Paul's but the rebuilding was delayed because of the great London Fire of 1666. Finally the building process got back underway in1675 and was completed in 1710. Wren died in 1723 and is buried in the great cemetery at St. Paul's along with other heroes like Lord Horatio Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

1997    The Smith-Barney investment group is hit with a class action suit brought by its female employees for sexual harassment. The women believed that the firm paid them less than they did the men and they received fewer promotions than men. The suit was thrown out of court because the plaintiffs (women) did not prove their case. But very soon thereafter a large number of executives at Smith-Barney were fired for using the company’s computer network to exchange porn among them and others outside the firm. I guess they DIDN’T do it the old fashioned way.

1967     Argentinean Ernesto Guevara de Serna better known as Che Guevara is executed by members of the Bolivian army. Che was a born revolutionary and was good at it too. He started out trying to help a communist revolution in Guatemala which failed. He then went to Mexico where he met Fidel Castro and they formed a hard and fast relationship. Che was invited to join with Castro in his attempt to overthrow the government in Cuba which was right up Che’s alley. Castro tried a direct military coup on the Cuban government which failed so Che, Fidel and his followers went into the hills and started a guerrilla war. After a while the Cuban government was indeed overthrown and Fidel seized control and made Che his finance minister. Che sat on this a while but soon became bored and started looking for another revolution and found one in Bolivia . Little did he know that the CIA was very interested in capping Che as they saw him as a threat as indeed he was. The CIA provided the Bolivian Army with information about the location of Che by satellite surveillance and a spy network. The Bolivians found him and it was all over for Che. I read a book once written by an ex-CIA agent that was there when the execution took place and said that Che knew what was coming and told them that he understood why they had to do it and if the situation was reversed he would do the same thing. His picture is one of the most recognized in the world. His book “Guerrilla Warfare” is used as a textbook by revolutionaries to this day.

Born today:

1757    French King Charles X. He said “There is no middle ground between the throne and the guillotine.” French King Louis XIV can verify that.

1940     Beatle member John Lennon. He said “There is a great woman behind every idiot.” You lost me there John, I thought all women are great, that is what they keep telling me at least.

1969    English singer/songwriter P. J. Harvey. He said “Why take acid when you can read the bible.” I ain’t sure of the content of that statement.

1975    The son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Sean Oko Lennon. He said “Peace is good but so is smoked salmon.” He Sean, you forgot about Key Lime Pie.

                      Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow