Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"I shall pass through this life but once. Any good therefore that I can do, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it. For I shall not pass this way again."

                                     Etienne Gellet

I don't know what the hell is going on at the Wood's residence down there in Windemere, Florida but the EMS was called to their house again early Tuesday morning. It was for a blond middle aged woman meaning it was Tiger's mother-in-law. They took her to the same medical facility that Tiger went to. Soon after her arrival, a Cadillac Escalade shows up at the hospital carrying a license tag that is one character off of the license tag on the car that Tiger drove into a fire hydrant. They have the woman in a special hospital wing that is kept private.

A movie casting company is poking around here in the Greenville, SC area looking for another Maddie. I am talking about the movie role of a young girl made famous by Kim Darby in the movie "True Grit". That's right y'all, they are going to do a remake of that movie. The male leads in that movie are scheduled to be Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin. Of these actors, which one of them could play "Rooster" Cogburn made famous by John Wayne? I cannot think of anyone that could approach Wayne's performance in that masterpiece with maybe the exception of Tommy Lee Jones but certainly not Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon or Josh Brolin. I suppose I just cannot hear the words "Rooster" Cogburn without the image of John Wayne coming to mind. I think Wayne should have been awarded an Oscar for best actor in that film. He did eventually win one for "The Shootist". That was a good one too. I miss "The Duke".

A few days ago the Duncan Chapel fire department was called to a house fire. The house was facing a fairway on the Summersett Golf course near Greenville, SC. A couple from Missouri had recently moved into the house. The firemen were unable to save the house and found the couple dead inside. The coroner was able to determine that the woman died about 3:00a by three bullets to the brain and the man was determined to be dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head delivered at about 6:00a. The question I have is who set the fire? This whole scenario stinks....to high heaven.

Back in November 11, 23 year old Elizabeth Isbell called the police and said that she had been raped while out walking her dog. She said a tall man in a black hoodie jumped out of the shrubbery and dragged her back and raped her. This Monday afternoon Elizabeth, accompanied by her lawyer, turned herself in to the Greenville County Sheriff's department and confessed that the rape report was bullshit. She has yet to say why she did it. The only thing I can think of is she craved attention but don't trust my judgement, I certainly cannot fathom the female mind and I have three ex-wives to prove it.

Y'all are not going to believe this. Back in December of 2007 Dahandra Moore, a black man, stopped at a "Stop and Shop" convenience store near Florence, SC and went into the men's room. When he came out a 49 year old man named Thomas Blue, Sr. pushed Moore outside and pushed him down on the concrete. While Moore was down on the ground, Blue's son, 28 year old Thomas Blue, Jr, brought out a chainsaw and threaten to dismember him. At the same time and man named Judson Talbert stole Moore's car and set it on fire. There were witnesses to the travesty and when they tried to help Moore, the Blue's pistol whipped them. Eventually Moore was able to escape and ran to a house and received refuge. This past Tuesday Blue, Sr. received a jail sentence of 13 years, Talbert received 9 years and Blue, Jr. received 4 years. When asked why they went on that rampage, the three incredibly answered that they were mad because Moore had used the men's room. With this in mind, today the state of Ohio executed a man with a single drug injection rather a combination of three. I know three people from Florence, South Carolina that a test of that method should be tried on.

The local Clemson fans are about to pee their pants because their star running back on the football team was not a finalist for the Heisman trophy, Even though C.J. Spiller is a gifted athlete and set many records in the ACC, he is still playing in the ACC. This conference is a hell of a lot more cerebral than the SEC and several other conferences meaning Clemson's schedule is much weaker than the others and the Heisman committee knows this. Even the bowl games reflect this. Clemson's bowl game is on Dec. 26 and South Carolina's is on January 2.

GOOD NEWS:

The Alpine Cabinet Company of Timnath, Colorado ran out of work for their employees and were contemplating a big layoff. Then they decided to go down another path. They began making dollhouses to be given to needy children. This included making minature furniture, sewing curtains, etc. The workers in the factory kept working and the Alpine Cabinet Company gets a big tax write-off. It is a win-win situation.

This date in history December 9

1775    Earlier the British governor of Virginia John Murray, also known as Lord Dunsmore, was ran out of his office in Williamsburg, Virginia by a contingent of Patriots. Lord Dunsmore hauled ass to Norfolk which was primarily Tory (loyal to England) territory. Dunsmore knew the Patriots would come after him so he felt it prudent to raise an army but he did it in an unorthodox way. He put out a notice that any slave of a Patriot that came to his aid and joined the army he was forming would be freed. He ended up with an army of 800 slaves and 300 British redcoats that became known as the “Ethiopian Brigade”. When the slave owners, both Patriot and Loyalist, were not pleased with the good governor freeing slaves for whatever reason. It set a bad precedent and he did not have the power to do such a thing. So the slave owners sent reinforcements to the army of the Patriots that were after Dunsmore. Dunsmore was sure that he had enough troops to defeat any Patriot army. He was wrong. When the eventual confrontation occurred, Dunsmore’s troops were severely outnumbered and soon after the battle was joined Dunsmore ran like a rabbit and got aboard his ship “Otter” anchored in the bay. There were only three hundred survivors of the Ethiopian Brigade and they ran and got aboard the Otter also. They were not there very long because of an outbreak of smallpox which killed most of them including John Murray, also known as Lord Dunsmore.

1950    On this date British authorities arrest a man named Harry Gold. Good old Harry was a “mule” that carried atomic secrets from a Russian spy working at the super secret American Los Alamos Laboratories where the first Atomic bomb was assembled. The spy was named Klaus Fuchs, a brilliant scientist but a dedicated Russian sympathizer. So Good old Klaus was arrested by English authorities and he rolled on yet another worker at Los Alamos named David Greenglass. Greenglass rolled on the people that ran the spy network and they were American scientists Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Everybody got extended jail terms except the Rosenbergs. These traitors to their country got the death penalty. Both went to meet their maker medium rare courtesy of “Old Sparky” the electric chair. I wish I would have been there singing and dancing to the song “I used to know You Were Around Because of the Garlic on Your Breath, but Now that you have Gone Away So Have gnats and flies.”

1981    On this date Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner is found dead on the city streets and black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal lying nearby severely wounded It seems that Mumia was riding around in Philadelphia late at night in a cab when he spotted his brother engaged in a fight with Officer Faulkner. Mumia jumps out of the cab and tries to intervene whist pulling out a pistol at the same time. Apparently Faulkner had time to unholster his weapon also and the two exchanged gunfire. Faulkner was mortally wounded but Mamia was seriously wounded but not fatally. Mamia is put on trial for the first degree murder of Officer Faulkner even though the actual circumstances were not really known. Anyway the prosecution used their peremptory challenge and put 10 white people and only two blacks on the jury in a city that is 43% black. The trial was held only two months after the gunfight and Mamia was no where near well enough to answer any question much less help his attorney ask any questions. As you might suspect, he was convicted and is serving a prison term as we speak. I usually am not easy on crime but this case appears to be a rush to judgment.

1940    On this date a British army of two divisions, half of them from India, with the strength of 30,000 troops and 275 tanks begin an assault on a five division Italian army consisting of 80,000 troop and 120 tanks. Italy had declared war on England in March right after joining with Hitler in the Axis. The prime purpose of the English army was to prevent the Italians from taking control of the Suez Canal. Very soon after the battle was joined, the British found a safe route through and around the Italian mine fields for their tanks and quickly surrounded the Italians. Two days later the Italians surrendered. Needless to say, Hitler was furious. Soon after that, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini convinced Hitler that his army could conquer Greece. Hitler warned that any country that is fighting on its own soil is twice as ferocious as otherwise. Mussolini blew it off and invaded Greece. Soon thereafter he found his army surrounded on three sides with their young asses backed up to the sea and would have been annihilated had it not been for Hitler sending in a division of paratroopers to bail the Italians out. The Italians were the absolute worst fighting force during World War II and were a thorn in the side of Hitler.

Born today:

1608    English writer John Milton. He said “It is not miserable to be blind, it is miserable to be incapable of enduring blindness.” John gave us “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained”, two books that are beacons in the literary world.

1848    US writer Joel Chandler Harris. He gave us the “Uncle Remus” tales and sayings, one of which was “Watch out when you are getting all you want”, the fattening of a hog ain’t luck.” Somehow that reminds me of Rosie O’Donnell.

1895    Spanish communist leader Delores Ibarruri. She said “It is better to die on your feet that to live on you knees.” She was not the first to say that, it was also said by Leonidas, the commander of the Spartans at Thermopylae. But I guess neither Leander nor Delores knew Monica Lewinsky.

1904    US writer Louis Kronenberger. When describing a recent date he said “That woman ate so many clams that her stomach rose and fell with the tide.” That is not as bad as seeing someone pull a chair up to the salad bar. I saw that happen. He was from Alabama.

1922    US comedian Redd Foxx. He said “All of those health nuts out there are going to feel pretty damn stupid one day when they are lying in a hospital bed dying of nothing”.

1911    US actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. He said “I was telling the Queen just the other day how much I hate name dropping.” Shut up, Doug.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow