Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

“If you want to know the difference between being involved and commitment think of a ham and egg sandwich. The chicken that laid the egg was involved, the pig was committed.”

                                        Albert Einstein

We had a little excitement at the Wednesday meeting of the “Four o’clock Club”. Our meeting place is the Brick City Grill which is in the middle of a strip mall and the front of it is all glass and faces the parking lot. The owner, Steve, owns a Cadillac that is a block long and he parks it right in front. All of a sudden an old Buick enters the parking lot and tries to make an acute turn into a parking place for cars headed in the opposite direction. The empty parking space was right beside Steve’s Caddy. The driver did not make the turn successfully and hit the Caddy a glancing blow and ended up in the parking space crooked. Everybody saw it happen and yelled at Steve who was in the back room and he came running. The driver of the Buick was a black kid about 18 years old. When he saw Steve coming he jumped out of the car and was very animated. He was jumping around almost running around trying to keep Steve away from his car. Steve looked at his car and then he saw a gun on the front seat of the other car and the kid mentioned that he had a gun. Steve called the cops and very soon a State Trooper shows up followed closely by a Greenville city cop. In the mean time the kid had jumped back into his car and from our vantage point he was stuffing things under the seat and making phone calls. The cops pulled the kid out of the car, frisked him, cuffed him and put him in the back seat of the city cruiser. Then they began searching the kid’s car in earnest. They found two guns and a stash of something in little zip lock bags. The city cop pulls out what is obviously a test kit and does a test shaking his head all the time. By this time two black men had arrived in separate cars and one of them began talking hard with the State Trooper. I think it might have been the kid’s father but I do not know what the other person was there for. After a while they put the kid in the State Trooper’s car and the city cruiser went away. The State Trooper waited until a tow truck arrived and away went the Buick and so did the State Trooper. I sort of felt sorry for the young kid when he got out of the car because it was obvious that he was very scared and did not know what to do. He knows what to do now, he will do hard time in one of the meanest penal systems in the free world.

I guess most of y’all read about the cruise ship in the Mediterranean that was hit by three “rogue” waves a few days ago. This ship was the Louis Majesty and had departed Genoa, Italy for a tour of the western Mediterranean both east and west of Gibraltar. The ship’s crew said there were three waves at least 10 meters (33 feet) high with the last one doing the most damage. Two people were killed by glass shards when windows were shattered. Many cabins were flooded and 14 people were injured. Rogue waves are not uncommon and the great majority of cruise ships and even smaller vessels are capable of recovery from such an encounter. But I can guarantee you it would be scary as hell.

Over in Easley, South Carolina (about 12 miles west of Greenville) there is a pizza parlor named Michael’s. Michael owns the property that his business is on and has chosen to set up a few tables outside for his customers use. This includes bringing beer and wine out there with the pasta. The good Reverend Ron Whitley who is the “Morals Director” for the Piedmont Baptist Association has objected. He says that people being observed drinking beer and wine in public detracts from the “family friendly” atmosphere the town wants to project. I had to read this item several times to make sure I had the right information. Reverend Whitley is not interested in Easley’s image; he is more interested in his personal agenda of being against people drinking. Will this type of fanatics ever stop trying to govern other people’s morality? It has not been that long ago that the Rock Springs Baptist Church in Easley picketed the County library because they had J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye on the shelves. Their objection was that the main character in the book, Holden Caulfield would rebel against his parents once in a while and the book mentioned masturbation. That was sinful in their eyes but it was OK to read about a detailed account of the Spanish Inquisition, the Battle of Iwo Jima or Custer’s last stand, etc. Who the hell do they think they are? When judgment day comes for me I will standing there alone and will not be accompanied by any member of the Rock Springs Baptist Church or the Piedmont Baptist Association and their “morals director”. We all are the captains of our own ships, if it sinks only you will go down with it.

The commander of one of the largest US Navy bases in the world, Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida has been relieved of command. Captain John Reavey was temporarily relieved a few days ago because of “improper behavior”. After a couple days of investigation, he was relieved permanently. The Naval authorities have not specified what the “improper behavior” was but word will eventually leak out. My daughter who lives in Pensacola guesses that he was fooling around with a member of his staff. Could be, we shall see.

This date in history March 5

1770    In 1768 the British army occupied Boston because the gnarly Bostonians were giving the British hell about taxes that had been levied on them by Parliament while there was no one in Parliament representing Boston or any other city or state in the colonies. Three days before today, a group of British soldiers had gone down to John Hancock’s dock seeking a part time job. There is no need for me to tell you what the response was from the American dockworkers already there. That’s right, ya’ll, it was a wall banging brawl. It took the British army to straighten it out. The fight was over but the hard feelings were still embroiled. On this cold and snowy night a group of hard-ass Bostonians gathered outside the Custom House where the British gathered the tax money and began throwing snowballs and rocks at the lone British guard posted at the door. The pelting became so severe that the guard called for help and seven other troops showed up. Well, five of the guards that showed up and several of the Bostonians were the same ones in the fight at Hancock’s dock. Y'all know what happened next, the snowballs came at more speed and more tightly packed along with many words of profanity exchanged. One of the guards named Robert Montgomery slipped and fell and discharged his musket. Upon hearing gunfire, the rest of the guards fired their weapons also. After the smoke cleared, five Bostonians lay dead or dying. This event was from that moment on was known as the Boston Massacre. All of the soldiers were put on trial and were defended by John Adams and Josiah Quincy as a show to the British that justice existed in the Colonies. All the soldiers were acquitted with the exception of two. Those two had the letter “M” branded on their thumbs to identify them as murderers. I suppose justice was served but what a strange punishment.

1962    On this date actor George C. Scott rejected his Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “The Hustler”. George said the award was a waste of time and meaningless. This wasn’t the only time he turned the Oscar down. He rejected his winning Best Actor for “Patton”. In “The Hustler” he played the money backer to a pool shark named “Fast Eddie” Felson played by Paul Newman. Felson’s girl friend was played by Piper Laurie. Scott’s promiscuous wife was played by Ann Margaret. The core of the whole movie was “Fast Eddie” in a showdown with a world famous pool shark named “Minnesota Fats” played by Jackie Gleason. It was a great movie. “Fast Eddie” played by Paul Newman showed up in another movie later on where he was the advisor and mentor to another young pool shark played by Tom Cruise in “The Color of Money.” It was another good movie. George C. Scott went to that great sound stage in the sky in 1999, an actor unparalleled.

1953    On this date one of the most evil persons the world had ever known died much to the relief of the rest of the world and mostly his own countrymen. Josef Stalin, the Russian dictator since 1924 died of a brain hemorrhage in Moscow. This man had no honor. He signed a peace agreement with Adolph Hitler hoping to gain land and fortune siding with this jackass. Not long after this, Hitler unleashes Operation Barbarossa which was the attempt to subjugate Russia under heel of Germany. Hitler sent in three armies totaling over 2 million men. The Germans would have succeeded had they started the operation two months earlier. The worst winter in 50 years caught the German Army out in the open without sufficient clothing to handle the blistering winter wind coming across the Steppes at 50 to 60 MPH at -20 degrees. During all his reign, Stalin would keep a close watch on his Generals and if one of them became extra popular, he would have the General executed under false pretenses. This way he cut short any coups that may be afoot. He also had murdered thousands if not millions of his own people for real or imagined plots against him. It was rumored that if the forecast for crops showed that there would not be enough food to feed all the people, he would murder enough of his people that the remainder could be fed. And as strange as it seems, he would not allow his people to immigrate. The world is a better place without Josef Stalin, and hell applauded his arrival.

Born today:

1958    Australian rock singer Andy Gibb. He said “Girls are always running through my mind, they don’t dare walk.”

1879    English economist William Beaveridge. He said “Scratch a pessimist and often you will find a defender of privilege.”

Died today:

1893     French historian Hippolyte Taine. He said “I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.”

1953    US movie producer Herman Mankeiwicz. He said “If people are not sitting at Charlie Chaplin’s feet, he goes out and stands where people are sitting.”

1981    US songwriter E.Y. Harburg. He wrote “This we learn from Watergate, that almost any creep will be glad to help the government overthrow the people.”

Quotable quotes:

“The fundamental fault with fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.”

                                     Bertrand Russell

“Feminism is just a way for ugly women to get into mainstream America.”

                    Rush Limbaugh (I am just the messenger here)

“I don’t believe in drunk driving, but those kids have to get to school.”

                                Joan Rivers

When asked if he liked grass or Astroturf Joe Namath said “I don’t know I have never smoked Astroturf.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow