Daily lesson

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplacable spark, in the hopless swamp of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in the lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. I exists. It is real, it is possible, it is yours"

                                         Ayn Rand

I can paraphrase that quote: Don't give up on catching a 10 pound largemouth bass.

The Sound is normal. There is a light chop on the surface, the wind is from the east-northeast at about 10 MPH and the air temperature is 54 here at 7:30a. The expected high today is 75.

There is a section of the downtown area of Greenville, SC know as "The West End". Millions of dollars have been spent for a foot bridge across a waterfall, a very well manicured park beside the river running through the city, many high end restaurants, bars and different kind of shops were remodeled and are now first class. It is also the location of the municipal baseball park that is the home of the Greenville Drive, a very successful minor league team owned by the Red Sox. As I have written about before, some parents drive to the foot bridge area, dump their kids out (some as young as 10) and leave them promising to pick them up later. As you might suspect, the kids gang up into groups of 500 or more. They block the sidewalks, harass the pedestrians, block entrances, etc. To get a handle on this the city enacted a temporary ordinance forbidding any person under the age of 18 from being on the downtown streets after 10:00p on weekends and holidays without an adult. If that does not happen, they arrest the parents/guardians when they finally show up. The temporary ordinance was made permanent last week. There have been instances when the cops go in and tell the kids to spread out and the cops are challenged by some arrogant snot-nosed kids. The cops just pull out their Tasers and tell them there is no minimum age for the use of this weapon. That works, especially after it was indeed used once or twice. It is a crying ass shame that some parents in the Greenville area think they can use the city cops as babysitters. What kind of message is that?

There was a sold out concert in the Pensacola Civic Center last night. It was KISS, y'all. This was the beginning of their 35 year aniversary tour. It is hard to believe those guys have been around for 35 years. An emergency call was made to Pensacola Rug and Shade to come in and retrieve Gene Simmons' tongue.

A few days ago down in Simpsonville, SC Brad Dunn and Melinda Pemberton got into a fight. I am not talking a cuss fight, I am talking about and arm swinging, snot-flying brawl. Brad outweighed Melinda by many pound and she was older. Anyway Brad threw her down on the sidewalk which broke her leg. Brad chose to take her to a Walgreen's and drop her off where she went inside seeking help. He did not take her to the hospital or "Doc in a Box", but to a Walgreens. The people in the Walgreens called EMS and Melinda ended up at a hospital in Greenville. Brad was arrested for criminal domestic violence. That was changed this weekend to murder because Melinda died of pneumonia. Brad is in the joint with no bond offered. His life is ruined.

The gigantic BMW assembly plant near Greenville, SC recent built an addition to the plant that will require 700 additional employees. The jobs will pay $13/hr for day shift and $14/hr for night shift plus benefits. BMW held a job fair in Greenville last weekend and there were so many applicants that they could not interview them all. This weekend they will hold a job fair in Spartanburg, SC. The BMW plant is about half way between Greenville and Spartanburg. By the way, BMW has moved their North American headquarters to Greenville.

Good News:

Last year the "Corvette Clubs" in the northeastern United States got together and brought some toys to Atlantic City, New Jersey to give to the US Marine Toys for Tots campaign. This year they met at a rest stop about 11 miles from Allantic City and formed a line 10 miles long bringing the toys to the Marines at the Robbins stadium in Atlantic City. Last year there were 2,600 toys donated, officials say that there is a lot more this year. Donating to charity is its own reward, especially if children are involved.

This date in history October 21

1779    On this date South Carolinian Henry Laurens is named as Ambassador to Holland. Soon thereafter he was on his way to Holland to negotiate a treaty to secure them as an ally against England. He takes with him a proposal written by William Lee that was accepted and signed by Holland. On his way back to the US, Laurens’ ship was intercepted off the coast of Newfoundland by a British warship and he was arrested. While the British were going through Laurens’ personal belongings, they found the treaty signed by the Dutch. The British used this document to declare war on Holland and Laurens was sent to London, tried and convicted of treason and spent 15 months in the Tower of London. Laurens was eventually released in a prisoner exchange in return for the British retrieving Lord Charles Cornwallis that had been captured at Yorktown by US General George Washington. After returning to the US, Laurens retired to his plantation near Charleston, SC. He was approached several times to become a candidate for Continental Congress or the governorship of South Carolina but Laurens refused in each attempt and chose to stay down on the farm and he stayed on the farm until he died in 1792. By the way, there is a county near Greenville, SC named for Henry Laurens.

1861    Earlier in the year, the Union observers had seen the Confederates strengthening their forces in and around Leesville, Virginia. Leesville is across the Potomac River from Washington and any military buildup that close to Washington was cause for alarm. The US General in command of the US Army of the Potomac was General George B. McClellan and on this date he sent a detachment of 1,600 troops to look into the buildup. The commander of the US troops was inexperienced and green but he was the close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln and therefore received a rank that made him a regimental commander. His name was Henry Butler. It was not Butler’s fault that he was sent on this expedition with no military training or experience. Butler sent yet another green and inexperienced trooper out to scout out and find the Confederates. The scout thought he saw the Confederate encampment but in reality he had not. On this information Butler deployed his troops in an open field that was bordered of three sides by a forest. On the back side was a 100 foot cliff called Ball’s Bluff that dropped into the Potomac River. Soon the forest began filing with the wild-eyed Confederates and when the time was right, the screaming Confederates came boiling out of the wood and pushed those Yankees right into the river. Some drowned and some were killed on the drop over the cliff including Butler, but in any event it was a total debacle for the Union Army. Lincoln was appalled at the loss of Butler and blamed himself for his loss and he should have. Sending a totally untrained and inexperienced individual into combat who has the rank because of who he knows rather than what he knows is nothing short of murder.

1805    Napoleon Bonaparte has the all of Europe under his heel and is looking into the invasion of England. Napoleon knows he must have an overpowering Navy of his own to keep the British Navy in check during any invasion. On this date, the British Navy, 27 warships strong and under the command of Lord Horatio Nelson, sighted the combined navy of France and Spain 33 warships strong off the coast of Trafalgar, Spain. The Franco/Spanish fleet deployed in a “line-of –battle” meaning that all of their ships were in a straight line sailing in the same direction. They were expecting Nelson to deploy his ships in a straight line and sailing in the opposite direction and they would exchange broadsides. Instead Nelson signaled his ships into two divisions and sailed into the enemy fleet at right angles. The British fleet took a few broadsides at the onset but when they broke through the Franco/Spanish line of battle, they delivered a series of devastating broadsides of their own. The Franco/Spanish fleet was all but destroyed with the sinking of 19 ships and the loss of 14,000 soldiers and sailors while the British suffer not one ship loss but did lose 1,500 troops. The greatest loss was when Nelson’s flag ship HMS Victory was closely engaged in battle and a French Marine sniper up in the rigging found Nelson and delivered two shots into chest and lungs. Nelson was taken below and died soon thereafter. Before dying he was told about his victory and said “I am satisfied now. Thank God I have done my duty.” Nelson’s corpse was stashed into a barrel of rum to preserve him until they got him back to England. Nelson was acknowledged to have saved England from invasion in the destruction of the Franco/Spanish fleet. He was buried with honors in the cemetery at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London (been there). From this event the daily ration of grog (rum) to the English sailors is called “Nelson’s Blood”. There is a park in London that is known to this day as Trafalgar Square with a column and statue of Lord Nelson at the entrance (been there, too).

Births and deaths:

1790    French writer Alphonse de Lamartine is born. He said “The more I see of the representatives of the people, the more I admire my dogs.” Me too.

1956    US actress Carrie Fisher is born. She said “I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art.” Hey Carrie, listen to Plato. He said “Life is to be lived as a child at play.”

1920    US LSD guru Timothy Leary is born. He said “Dropping acid has three effects. It enhances your long term memory, damages your short term memory and I forget the rest.” Me too, but it ain’t because of dropping acid.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow