Good morning from Paradise,
Quote of the day: (courtesy of CY)
“You might have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
Margaret Thatcher
There was a family near Pensacola that was the idol of everyone that knew them. It was the Billings family who lived on large estate west of town. They were wealthy and had adopted 9 special needs children and a full time nurse to care for them. About this time last year a group of four men allegedly led by Patrick Gonzalez, Jr. invaded the home. With Gonzales as the alleged shooter, Mr. and Mrs. Billings were shot and killed in cold blood. There were two of those poor kids that were witnesses. The first adult to arrive was the on-site nurse who could do nothing for them. Gonzalez and crew made their escape in an older red colored van. The reason for the attempted robbery was Gonzalez believed that there was at least $31 million in the house that would so a long way in keeping his failing Karate business afloat. The gang found a small safe in the house and took it with them when they left. There was a minimum amount of cash in the safe meaning the Billings died for nothing. The house well fitted with cameras so as to keep tabs on all the kids. Apparently, someone had cased the house very well because not many of the gang was caught on film inside but the outdoors cameras got some good pictures which resulted in the arrest of all four and led to the arrest of two accomplices. A couple of the gang pled guilty and rolled on the others for a lighter sentence. The trial of Gonzalez began 10/27. I do not believe Gonzalez and the others will see the light of day for the rest on their lives…or worse. The Florida Department of Corrections is very familiar with “the needle”.
Ola Mae Agee of Pensacola was caught on film in a “sting” operation selling crack cocaine to an undercover cop. She was arrested and put on trial for possession with intent to distribute. This was her third offense at selling narcotics and she was convicted and given 18 months in the joint. By the way, Ola Mae is 87 years old.
Here is a little item that is of special interest to me that most of you know about.
A 50 year old woman from the Pensacola area was caught for the third time in ten years for DUI. She was caught in July of this year and that case has not been resolved yet. This past Saturday afternoon she hit a construction worker putting reflective barrels around a road construction site. The construction worker was killed and the woman kept going. She was caught because some of the other workers got her tag number. That, my friends, means that it will be hard time on the horizon for her.
This date in history October 29
1777 After a prolonged illness, on this date John Hancock resigns as president of the Continental Congress. Hancock is famous for his large and flowing signature on the monumental Declaration of Independence that was signed on July 4, 1776. He was present in one capacity or another at nearly every important document signing in this country’s fight for independence. He was a very wealthy man and had much to lose if the rebellion had failed. After resigning he went back home to Massachusetts and started his recovery from his illness. By 1780 he had recovered enough to run for the Governor of Massachusetts which he easily won. He served for five years and then refused to run again in 1785 and went back to his home. Two years later in 1787 he ran for the Governorship again and won. He served in this capacity until his death in 1793. His tenures as Governor of Massachusetts proved this man’s great leadership and administrative skills. Not only that, he was a feisty devil and the British knew it and had a bounty on him. After signing the Declaration of Independence, Hancock said “Now the British can read it without their spectacles, their bounty be damned.” I like it.
1901 On this date in 1901 a nurse named Jane Toppan is arrested in Amherst, Massachusetts. It seems that in the recent past this woman had been responsible for the death of the entire Davis family of Boston. As with most serial killers Jane had an atrocious childhood. Her mother died when she was very young and her father, a tailor by trade, was crazy as a loon. He went to an asylum after sewing his eyelids shut. Jane bounced around several foster homes until she was finally adopted. Jane expressed a desire to become a nurse and attended a nursing school. But Jane was not interested in healing as much as she was interested in hanging around morgues an autopsy rooms. She began her reign of terror by being an in-home nurse which gave her an opportunity to do her evil things unobserved and unsupervised. She finally ended up in the Davis house in Boston to take care of the feeble Mattie Davis. Soon thereafter Mattie died, followed swiftly by Mattie’s sister Annie, Mattie’s father Alden and Mattie’s sister Mary. Mary’s husband called bullshit on this as being too much of a coincidence and demanded autopsies of all the above. The autopsies revealed that all had died of an overdose of morphine. Upon hearing that autopsies were going to be performed on the Davis family, Jane hightailed out of town but was easily captured. While she was on the run she chose to murder her sister with an overdose of morphine also. At trial she admitted to at least twenty murders but the authorities thought she was responsible for over 100. Jane was sentence to life in a mental institution. While there she was constantly bugging the nursing staff to give her some morphine and a syringe so she could kill even more. She died in 1938 and hell rejoiced to their new arrival.
1962 Bahamian actor Sidney Poitier testifies before the United States Congress about the lack of opportunity for black actors and actresses in the movie industry. Sidney was recognized as a superb actor and was indeed an Oscar winner for his performance in the movie Lilies of the Field. What I don’t understand is what Sidney wanted Congress to do about it. The movie industry is like any other business, its goal to make money for their investors. If I was an investor I would not give damn about the equality of the casting of roles, I would just be interested in the making of a profitable enterprise and the producers and casting directors had damn well better keep that in mind, racial issues not withstanding. Congress cannot dictate to a business enterprise such as this who they must hire or not hire. After all the success of any movie is greatly dependant on the skill of the actors, not the color of their skins. Or am I being too pragmatic?
1740 One of the greatest writers of his time is born on this date. James Boswell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland to wealthy and influential parents. The name Boswell goes deep into the history of the ancestry of Scotland. As with most parents of that era, they had already decided that James was going to be a lawyer. Well, after James grew up he decided that he wanted to be a writer instead and ran away from home and traveled Europe and met with other great writers such as Rousseau, Voltaire and a short Corsican that later became the legendary Napoleon Bonaparte. But James parents ran him down and brought his young ass back Edinburgh and began forcefully teaching him English law. That did not extinguish the flame of writing burning inside James in spite of the fact that he established a successful law practice in London. He eventually became a very successful writer of essays. He consorted with another successful writer in Samuel Johnson and they exchanges ideas regularly. James delivered his most famous and successful essay “The Life of Samuel Johnson”. This essay came in three volumes. Boswell finished writing the first two but while writing the third he decided to drink heavily and chase skanky women in the London night life. Boswell died drunk with a smile on his face before finishing the third volume. He was 53 years old.
1901 The assassin of US President William McKinley is executed in the electric chair. Leon Czolgosz went to meet his maker medium rare. Leon was in a receiving line waiting to shake the hand of President McKinley at the World’s Fair. When it came Leon’s turn, he had a handkerchief tied around his right hand hiding a small revolver. McKinley thinking that Leon was crippled reached out with his left hand and Leon pumped two rounds into McKinley’s abdomen. Leon was immediately disarmed and arrested. Of the two shot, one went all the way through and caused very little damage but the other one lodged near his liver and had to be removed surgically. It looked like McKinley was going to be OK but after a couple of days her started getting worse and soon died. It was gangrene that had set up inside his abdomen that was undetected. Leon was unrepentant to the end. His last words were “I am not sorry, he was an evil man.”
1619 English explorer and bon vivant Sir Walter Raleigh has a fateful meeting with a big guy with a big axe on the lawn of the Tower of London and goes to meet his maker in two pieces. It seems that Sir Walter had been a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I and she was quite fond of him. She sent Sir Walter on several exploratory trips to the new world including the fateful settlement on Roanoke Island, North Carolina of which not one scrap was ever found after a supply ship arrived two years later. After returning to London Queen Elizabeth found out that Sir Walter had been having a liaison with a Scottish beauty named Bessy Throckmorton, one of the Queen’s Maids-of-Honor, and the Queen became enraged the threw Sir Walter and Bessy into the Tower. Sir Walter coughed up enough money to bail him and Bessy out. Sir Walter and Bessy were married and they tried their damnedest to stay out of the way of the Queen. Elizabeth died in 1603 and James I rose to power. James accused Sir Walter of opposing his becoming King shortly after the coronation but allowed him to live so he could send Sir Walter on some more expeditions. Sir Walter finally returned from an expedition of establishing a village near a gold mine in South America. James I evidently felt that Sir Walter had outlived his usefulness and recalled the supposed crime of 15 years before and had him executed. Sir Walter Raleigh was 66 years old and had spent the greatest part of his life in the service of his country. But as the saying goes “What have you done for me lately, Walt?”
Born today:
1897 Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. He said “If the day should ever come when we Nazis must go, if some day we are compelled to leave the scene of history, we will slam the door so hard that it will shake the universe and mankind will stand back in stupefaction.” Hey Joe, what really happened was the Allies sealed off the western side of Germany and allowed the Russian army to attack unhindered from the east. The Russians were bloodthirsty for revenge because the Germans had slaughtered over 26,000,000 Russians in their attack toward Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad. Then when the Russians found the German extermination camps of Dachau, Buchenwald and several others, they decided that no German air breather should live. They headed toward Berlin slaughtering everybody and everything in sight including dogs, cats and various and sundry livestock. The Russians crushed any resistance to the city of Berlin that was being defended by sub-teen boys and men in their 70’s. Yeah Joe, mankind was stupefied alright. And you, being the brave son-of-a-bitch that you were, poisoned yourself, your wife and your five children. It was that kind of cruelty that stupefied mankind to this day.
Born today:
1971 US actress Wynona Ryder. She said “I feel my best when I am happy.” Wynona, shut up.
Died today:
1918 English adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh. He said “All men are evil and will declare themselves so if the occasion occurs.” See the above paragraph on Joseph Goebbels.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Daily history
Good morning from Paradise,
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 de Grellate
Sunday night a line of strong thunderstorms just missed us here on the beach. There was a tornado warning issued about 9:00p for an area about 20 miles north of Pensacola Beach. They said that Doppler radar indicated a tornado was present in that location. Nothing happened down here on the beach so I took an Ambien and went into a mild coma for the rest of the night. After the passage of that cold front the wind shifted and is now coming from the southwest bringing moisture off the Gulf with it. It is pretty hot and humid right now even thought the temperature is only 83 degrees.
The father of missing 10 year old Zahra baker was arrested over the weekend for writing five bad checks, two counts of communicating threats, assault with a deadly weapon and failing to return rental property. The Hickory, NC Police had these warrants out for Baker but he was assisting the police in helping find little Zahra so they waited until “the time was appropriate.” Zahra’s mother is already in the joint of obstruction of justice.
Over in the Valley Falls community of Spartanburg, SC three different women in adjacent apartments reported that a man had walked into their apartment while they were asleep. One of them said that she heard the man moving around in her bedroom but thought she was having nightmare and closed her eyes. She opened them a short while later and the man was standing over her bed. She screamed and the man excused himself saying that he was in the wrong apartment and fled. It was a similar scenario for the other two except with one of them he pulled up the covers and stroked her leg. The common thing about all of these invasions was that all of them had left their patio sliding glass doors unlocked. The need at least one dog. I have two. They are named “Rossi .38 special revolver” and the other is “Remington Model 1100 semi-automatic 20 gauge shotgun.” These “dogs” are the type that bark over here…and bite over there. Almost every time they bite twice or more, it is fatal. I feel very secure when they are present.
Police were called to a North Charleston, SC apartment on a report of a fight between a man and a woman. Upon arrival they found a very agitated man with a fair sized knife cut on the top of his head and bleeding profusely. EMS was called and they stitched/clamped up the wound on the spot, whereupon the North Charleston Police arrest this young man for criminal domestic violence. No mention was made about the woman that was involved. What is wrong with this picture?
Up on I-26 in western North Carolina a tragedy occurred Sunday night. There were 6 cars and three semis that had stopped for a wreck ahead of them in the eastbound lane. Another car rammed into the back of the last car in line and pushed them all together into a metal to metal meat grinder. There were four killed and several severely wounded. Even though this accident happened at night, I still do not see how someone that is the least bit alert could not detect that many cars that were at a standstill, especially the semis. That just goes to show you that there is danger not only in front of you but from all directions. Be alert.
This date in history October 27
1864 After several months of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia US General U.S. Grant decided that if he can cut the Confederate supply line and that being the Southside railroad that was bringing supplies in from the west the siege would be over. He assigns this task to US General George Meade who delegates three of his Corp led by Generals Winfield Scott Hancock, G.K. Warren and John Parke to attack the Confederate trenches near the railroad at a small creek named Hatcher’s Run. The combined forces would be about 40,000 infantry and a detachment of cavalry. The plan was for Warren and Parke to attack from the front and Hancock to circle and attack the Confederate flank. On this date the attack began. The frontal assault ran into trouble when the Confederate trenches proved to be more heavily defended than expected. But they kept demonstrating to try and conceal Hancock’s flanking movement. Because different units attacking from the front moved at different speeds a gap in the Union line occurred. Meade ordered the attack to slow down to close this gap. It was then that the Confederates launch a successful counter-attack and drove the Union troops attacking the front from the field and then turned their attention to Hancock and repulsed that attack. Finally Meade ordered a total withdrawal. It was very embarrassing failure for the Union and could have effected the upcoming presidential election. But Lincoln depended of the recent victories at Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama to tide him over and he was re-elected.
1962 Earlier the US intelligence community had discovered Russian medium range nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba. President Kennedy asked for confirmation and several over flights were made to photograph the construction sites there. And sure enough, the confirmation came. The missiles if launched from Cuba could strike anywhere in the US, Central America, northern South America and all of the Caribbean. President Kennedy made a TV speech telling the Americans what was happening and what we were going to do about it. He also warned the Russians that any attack launched from Cuba would be interpreted as an attack by Russia and an appropriate response would be forthcoming. The big bombers and missiles of the Strategic Air Command went to “Defcon 4” status meaning that the next step would be nuclear war. President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of all ships headed for Cuba, only he called it a “quarantine”. Very soon thereafter a Russian cargo vessel with missiles aboard approached the naval blockade and the world held its breath. There was no doubt that had the ship attempted to break the blockade it would have been sunk and the risk of world war would have increased dramatically. But the ship slowed to a stop and eventually turned back to Russia. While all of this is going on, negotiations between the US and Russia kept the telephone lines hot. The final offer was that Russia would withdraw their missiles from Cuba if the US would promise to never invade Cuba and withdraw their missiles from Turkey. The US had already begun the dismantling of the missiles in Turkey so the deal was acceptable. On this date, the deal between the US and Russia was agreed upon by both parties and a potential world war was averted. I was sweating bullets that whole time. It was a scary thought to believe that this day on the planet could be your last.
1659 On this date William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson are hanged on Boston Common in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their only crime was their religious belief, they were both Quakers and Quakers were forbidden by law under the penalty of death. Both Robinson and Stevenson had come to the colonies from England to escape religious persecution in 1656, believe it or not. Rhode Island and several other New England colonies accepted the Quakers, but not the hard-assed Bostonians. That law was later repealed. I have no clue as to why those from Massachusetts hated the Quakers. As we all know, the Quakers are some of the gentlest people out there.
1873 On this date a man named Joseph Glidden from DeKalb, Illinois is granted a patent for barbed wire (known in Texas as “Bob Wahr”). Glidden had seen a semblance of barbed wire at an exposition but it was single stranded. Glidden improved this concept by twisting two wires together which held the actual barbs in position. From this day forward the method of raising cattle changed forever. There would be no more cattle ranging and grazing free across the Great Plains. There were young wars fought over lands that were fenced and blocked cattle from ranging free and from finding water. What a damned shame.
861 In this year the wild-eyed Vikings successfully attack Paris, Toulouse, Aix-la Chapelle and Worms. They came to these towns by sailing their dragon boats across the North Sea and then down the west coast of Europe and up the Rhine and Seine rivers. This was no easy trick. Those rivers had a considerable downstream current and being able to reach those towns deep inland took a lot of rowing. But they were equal to the task and conquered most of Western Europe and even Russia by sailing down the Volga River from the Black Sea. They were so successful with their rape and pillage that there little doubt that all of us that have ancestry from Western Europe have Scandinavian blood flowing in our veins.
Births and deaths:
1858 One of my heroes Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt is born in upstate New York. He said “I think there is only one quality worse that having a hard heart and that is having a soft head.” When asked what was going to be his philosophy on the Presidency, he said “Speak softy but carry a big stick.” We need more leaders like Teddy.
1874 Business giant Owen Young is born. He said “When it comes to modern business crooks are not feared as much as an honest man who does not know what he is doing.” Hey Owen, what about women?
1914 Welch poet Dylan Thomas is born. He said “An alcoholic is a person you don’t like that drinks as much as you.” I know several.
1963 Bimbo Marla Maples is born. When meeting Tina Louise who played Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island she said “I loved Ginger, I have patterned my life after her.” Marla has a great body and face but she is very, very short on ambition.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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 de Grellate
Sunday night a line of strong thunderstorms just missed us here on the beach. There was a tornado warning issued about 9:00p for an area about 20 miles north of Pensacola Beach. They said that Doppler radar indicated a tornado was present in that location. Nothing happened down here on the beach so I took an Ambien and went into a mild coma for the rest of the night. After the passage of that cold front the wind shifted and is now coming from the southwest bringing moisture off the Gulf with it. It is pretty hot and humid right now even thought the temperature is only 83 degrees.
The father of missing 10 year old Zahra baker was arrested over the weekend for writing five bad checks, two counts of communicating threats, assault with a deadly weapon and failing to return rental property. The Hickory, NC Police had these warrants out for Baker but he was assisting the police in helping find little Zahra so they waited until “the time was appropriate.” Zahra’s mother is already in the joint of obstruction of justice.
Over in the Valley Falls community of Spartanburg, SC three different women in adjacent apartments reported that a man had walked into their apartment while they were asleep. One of them said that she heard the man moving around in her bedroom but thought she was having nightmare and closed her eyes. She opened them a short while later and the man was standing over her bed. She screamed and the man excused himself saying that he was in the wrong apartment and fled. It was a similar scenario for the other two except with one of them he pulled up the covers and stroked her leg. The common thing about all of these invasions was that all of them had left their patio sliding glass doors unlocked. The need at least one dog. I have two. They are named “Rossi .38 special revolver” and the other is “Remington Model 1100 semi-automatic 20 gauge shotgun.” These “dogs” are the type that bark over here…and bite over there. Almost every time they bite twice or more, it is fatal. I feel very secure when they are present.
Police were called to a North Charleston, SC apartment on a report of a fight between a man and a woman. Upon arrival they found a very agitated man with a fair sized knife cut on the top of his head and bleeding profusely. EMS was called and they stitched/clamped up the wound on the spot, whereupon the North Charleston Police arrest this young man for criminal domestic violence. No mention was made about the woman that was involved. What is wrong with this picture?
Up on I-26 in western North Carolina a tragedy occurred Sunday night. There were 6 cars and three semis that had stopped for a wreck ahead of them in the eastbound lane. Another car rammed into the back of the last car in line and pushed them all together into a metal to metal meat grinder. There were four killed and several severely wounded. Even though this accident happened at night, I still do not see how someone that is the least bit alert could not detect that many cars that were at a standstill, especially the semis. That just goes to show you that there is danger not only in front of you but from all directions. Be alert.
This date in history October 27
1864 After several months of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia US General U.S. Grant decided that if he can cut the Confederate supply line and that being the Southside railroad that was bringing supplies in from the west the siege would be over. He assigns this task to US General George Meade who delegates three of his Corp led by Generals Winfield Scott Hancock, G.K. Warren and John Parke to attack the Confederate trenches near the railroad at a small creek named Hatcher’s Run. The combined forces would be about 40,000 infantry and a detachment of cavalry. The plan was for Warren and Parke to attack from the front and Hancock to circle and attack the Confederate flank. On this date the attack began. The frontal assault ran into trouble when the Confederate trenches proved to be more heavily defended than expected. But they kept demonstrating to try and conceal Hancock’s flanking movement. Because different units attacking from the front moved at different speeds a gap in the Union line occurred. Meade ordered the attack to slow down to close this gap. It was then that the Confederates launch a successful counter-attack and drove the Union troops attacking the front from the field and then turned their attention to Hancock and repulsed that attack. Finally Meade ordered a total withdrawal. It was very embarrassing failure for the Union and could have effected the upcoming presidential election. But Lincoln depended of the recent victories at Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama to tide him over and he was re-elected.
1962 Earlier the US intelligence community had discovered Russian medium range nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba. President Kennedy asked for confirmation and several over flights were made to photograph the construction sites there. And sure enough, the confirmation came. The missiles if launched from Cuba could strike anywhere in the US, Central America, northern South America and all of the Caribbean. President Kennedy made a TV speech telling the Americans what was happening and what we were going to do about it. He also warned the Russians that any attack launched from Cuba would be interpreted as an attack by Russia and an appropriate response would be forthcoming. The big bombers and missiles of the Strategic Air Command went to “Defcon 4” status meaning that the next step would be nuclear war. President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of all ships headed for Cuba, only he called it a “quarantine”. Very soon thereafter a Russian cargo vessel with missiles aboard approached the naval blockade and the world held its breath. There was no doubt that had the ship attempted to break the blockade it would have been sunk and the risk of world war would have increased dramatically. But the ship slowed to a stop and eventually turned back to Russia. While all of this is going on, negotiations between the US and Russia kept the telephone lines hot. The final offer was that Russia would withdraw their missiles from Cuba if the US would promise to never invade Cuba and withdraw their missiles from Turkey. The US had already begun the dismantling of the missiles in Turkey so the deal was acceptable. On this date, the deal between the US and Russia was agreed upon by both parties and a potential world war was averted. I was sweating bullets that whole time. It was a scary thought to believe that this day on the planet could be your last.
1659 On this date William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson are hanged on Boston Common in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their only crime was their religious belief, they were both Quakers and Quakers were forbidden by law under the penalty of death. Both Robinson and Stevenson had come to the colonies from England to escape religious persecution in 1656, believe it or not. Rhode Island and several other New England colonies accepted the Quakers, but not the hard-assed Bostonians. That law was later repealed. I have no clue as to why those from Massachusetts hated the Quakers. As we all know, the Quakers are some of the gentlest people out there.
1873 On this date a man named Joseph Glidden from DeKalb, Illinois is granted a patent for barbed wire (known in Texas as “Bob Wahr”). Glidden had seen a semblance of barbed wire at an exposition but it was single stranded. Glidden improved this concept by twisting two wires together which held the actual barbs in position. From this day forward the method of raising cattle changed forever. There would be no more cattle ranging and grazing free across the Great Plains. There were young wars fought over lands that were fenced and blocked cattle from ranging free and from finding water. What a damned shame.
861 In this year the wild-eyed Vikings successfully attack Paris, Toulouse, Aix-la Chapelle and Worms. They came to these towns by sailing their dragon boats across the North Sea and then down the west coast of Europe and up the Rhine and Seine rivers. This was no easy trick. Those rivers had a considerable downstream current and being able to reach those towns deep inland took a lot of rowing. But they were equal to the task and conquered most of Western Europe and even Russia by sailing down the Volga River from the Black Sea. They were so successful with their rape and pillage that there little doubt that all of us that have ancestry from Western Europe have Scandinavian blood flowing in our veins.
Births and deaths:
1858 One of my heroes Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt is born in upstate New York. He said “I think there is only one quality worse that having a hard heart and that is having a soft head.” When asked what was going to be his philosophy on the Presidency, he said “Speak softy but carry a big stick.” We need more leaders like Teddy.
1874 Business giant Owen Young is born. He said “When it comes to modern business crooks are not feared as much as an honest man who does not know what he is doing.” Hey Owen, what about women?
1914 Welch poet Dylan Thomas is born. He said “An alcoholic is a person you don’t like that drinks as much as you.” I know several.
1963 Bimbo Marla Maples is born. When meeting Tina Louise who played Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island she said “I loved Ginger, I have patterned my life after her.” Marla has a great body and face but she is very, very short on ambition.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Monday, October 25, 2010
Daily history
Good morning from Paradise,
Quotes of the day:
“It is no use in saying ‘We are doing our best’. You have to succeed at what is necessary.”
Winston Churchill
“A short life of glory is better than a long life of obscurity.”
Alexander the Great
I guess all of you have read about the violent riots over in France. How many of you know why they are rioting? It is because the French government has decided that the economy is so bad that they cannot finance people retiring at the age of 60 and decided to change the retirement age to 62. That’s right folks; Americans are up to a retirement age of 68 and it may go to 70 very soon. By the way, the average French worker has a vacation of a minimum of 30 days a year from the git-go. That’s right, I said 30 days from their first work day…and they are rioting? I am not repentant when I say that the average French man/French woman really sucks. When I got off a cruise ship at LeHavre, France a few years ago I was in a cuss fight with a Frenchman within 30 minutes. He was about 30 years old and this brave bast-rd broke and ran away. I was 67 years old at the time. I did show an attitude of aggression and I guess that scared him; God bless him of little heart and no courage because I certainly will not.
Down in Simpsonville, SC the neighbors in an apartment complex heard gunshots in one of the apartments. The cops came and could not get anyone to come to the door so they broke out a window and gained entrance. There were two people dead. One was a 42 year old woman and the other was a 58 year old man and they were known to cohabitate that apartment. The cops determined that the woman had died first from a gunshot wound and the male had taken his own life seconds later. It was well know that these two people frequently argued and fought. What I do not understand is why the man who was an apparent “cradle-robber”, even though I have done it myself, and did not just walk away rather than terminate 1/3 of his life because of this woman. But it has been a while since I have been in love, so what do I know?
I have avoided saying anything about 10 year old Zahra Baker that has disappeared from her home in Hickory, NC. He stepmother has been arrested on unrelated charges. I was hoping that little Zahra would be found and I could wrap up the whole scenario in one lesson. It looks like it is not to be. Little Zahra has not been found either alive or dead. The police think the stepmother is the prime suspect and Zahra has been murdered. Zahra has a very serious disease and a prosthetic leg. This young lady has been dealt a bad hand in life and it depresses me to think that someone has ended her life at the age of 10. It would not do for me to be in a position of authority if the perpetrators are discovered. If so, God help them because I would not.
This date in history October 25
1994 On this date a Union, South Carolina woman named Susan Smith called the Union County Sheriff’s department and reported that her car with her two small boys Michael and Alex aboard had been carjacked by a black man and that he had left her at a convenience store and drove away. In very short order, with the help of several other law enforcement offices including the FBI, there was a dragnet thrown around that area of South Carolina and an intensive search began. Nothing was found and after nine weeks the sheriff of Union County held a news conference and reported that Susan had confessed to killing those two boys by driving the car into nearby John D. Long Lake with the kids strapped into their car seats. This event came as a culmination of her tumultuous on and off marriage whereby both Susan and her husband had participated in several affairs each. Finally Susan found the man of her dreams but he did not want children and Susan saw fit to fix that problem permanently. It apparently never crossed that bitch’s mind to file for divorce and surrender custody. Susan was tried and convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. While in prison she was disciplined several times for having sex with the inmates and/or the guards. Her husband wrote a book about his experiences during this ordeal and stated that he could not live a comfortable life while Susan was alive and wished that the court had seen fit to execute her. With animals like this we need to resort back to medieval methods of dispensing justice.
1415 Two months earlier Henry V of England and an army of 11,000 had sailed across the English Channel and laid siege to the city Harfleur, France. After five weeks Harfleur fell. During the five week siege Henry had lost half of his army to disease and combat casualties. So Henry decided to head north to the French port of Calais and meet up his navy that was coming to pick up him and his army and take them back home. About half way to Calais he met up with a French army of 20,000 near the town of Agincourt. Henry chooses to array his troops in a fairly small field that was bordered by forests. This would prevent any large scale maneuvering by the French. At 11:00a the battle was joined. The French knights in their newly designed heavy armor began an attack toward the English across a muddy field. The English responded with a barrage of arrows from their newly designed long bows that had a range of 250 yards. The French knights were so densely packed that many could not even raise their arms and the knights in the rear kept pushing. Even though they were in armor, the English had designed a type of an arrowhead that could penetrate it and launched wave after wave of the deadly missiles into the French ranks. Soon the French knights were just a mass of confused humanity slipping, sliding and dying in the mud. It was then that Henry ordered his lightly armored bowmen to lay down their bows and take up pikes, swords, axes and clubs and led the rest of the 5,500 man army into the ranks of the French and took care of business. The slaughter was fantastic. The French lost 6,000 troops in that one afternoon while the English suffered only 400 killed. After this resounding victory, Henry was declared heir to the French throne but it was for naught because he died of a fever two years later near Paris. Henry V’s victory at Agincourt went down as one of the greatest victories in military history.
1929 Two years earlier the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, had petitioned to have control of the naval oil reserves at the Elk Hill in California and Teapot Dome in Wyoming transferred to his department. The naval oil reserves are set aside for the US navy to use in case of a war. The transfer did indeed take place and soon thereafter Secretary Fall accepted a $100,000 bribe from the president of Pan-American Petroleum to allow them to drill in the Elk Hill reserve and $300,000 to allow Mammoth Oil to drill at Teapot Dome. This deception was discovered and on this date Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was arrested. Fall was tried, convicted and was imprisoned. This was the first time that a sitting cabinet member was jailed, and hopefully it will not be the last.
1853 On this date US Army Captain John Gunnison and his survey crew of 35 were set upon by a war party of Piute Indians near Sevier Lake, Utah. The survey crew was trying to find a route for a railroad to get to the west coast. Seven members of the survey team were killed including Gunnison. His second officer, Lt. Edward Beckwith assumed command and continued the survey and did indeed find three possible routes. Beckwith and his survey party made it back to Saint Louis and reported their findings which went a long way toward the completion of a trans-continental railroad.
1944 On this date the largest naval battle ever fought began in the Philippines at a place named Leyte Gulf. It was also the first time the Japanese had used Kamikaze aircraft attacks. The Japanese had not been able to stem the western advance of the US navy using traditional means so they decided to us untraditional means. They asked for volunteers to dive their bomb laden aircraft into US navy ships, aircraft carriers in particular. They had swarms of volunteers and on this day the pilot of a Japanese Zero aircraft crashed his plane into the escort carrier St. Lo and it was on the bottom in 20 minutes. This was the very first attack of this kind. In all the Kamikaze sank 34 ships and damaged many more in this battle. Even though this carnage was phenomenal, the worst was yet to come at Okinawa. But that is another story. In all there were 1,321 Kamikaze aircraft used in WWII.
Births and deaths:
1944 US political consultant James Carville is born. After being asked about Paula Jones alleging sexual harassment by Bill Clinton he said “You drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park and you never know what you will find.”
1940 US basketball legend Bobby Knight is born. When asked about a courtside conversation with one of his players he said “I told him to take a photo of his testicles so he would have something to remember them by if he ever took another shot like the last one.”
1989 US writer Mary McCarthy dies. She said “We must not force sex to do the work of love nor love do the work of sex.” You mean there is a difference?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quotes of the day:
“It is no use in saying ‘We are doing our best’. You have to succeed at what is necessary.”
Winston Churchill
“A short life of glory is better than a long life of obscurity.”
Alexander the Great
I guess all of you have read about the violent riots over in France. How many of you know why they are rioting? It is because the French government has decided that the economy is so bad that they cannot finance people retiring at the age of 60 and decided to change the retirement age to 62. That’s right folks; Americans are up to a retirement age of 68 and it may go to 70 very soon. By the way, the average French worker has a vacation of a minimum of 30 days a year from the git-go. That’s right, I said 30 days from their first work day…and they are rioting? I am not repentant when I say that the average French man/French woman really sucks. When I got off a cruise ship at LeHavre, France a few years ago I was in a cuss fight with a Frenchman within 30 minutes. He was about 30 years old and this brave bast-rd broke and ran away. I was 67 years old at the time. I did show an attitude of aggression and I guess that scared him; God bless him of little heart and no courage because I certainly will not.
Down in Simpsonville, SC the neighbors in an apartment complex heard gunshots in one of the apartments. The cops came and could not get anyone to come to the door so they broke out a window and gained entrance. There were two people dead. One was a 42 year old woman and the other was a 58 year old man and they were known to cohabitate that apartment. The cops determined that the woman had died first from a gunshot wound and the male had taken his own life seconds later. It was well know that these two people frequently argued and fought. What I do not understand is why the man who was an apparent “cradle-robber”, even though I have done it myself, and did not just walk away rather than terminate 1/3 of his life because of this woman. But it has been a while since I have been in love, so what do I know?
I have avoided saying anything about 10 year old Zahra Baker that has disappeared from her home in Hickory, NC. He stepmother has been arrested on unrelated charges. I was hoping that little Zahra would be found and I could wrap up the whole scenario in one lesson. It looks like it is not to be. Little Zahra has not been found either alive or dead. The police think the stepmother is the prime suspect and Zahra has been murdered. Zahra has a very serious disease and a prosthetic leg. This young lady has been dealt a bad hand in life and it depresses me to think that someone has ended her life at the age of 10. It would not do for me to be in a position of authority if the perpetrators are discovered. If so, God help them because I would not.
This date in history October 25
1994 On this date a Union, South Carolina woman named Susan Smith called the Union County Sheriff’s department and reported that her car with her two small boys Michael and Alex aboard had been carjacked by a black man and that he had left her at a convenience store and drove away. In very short order, with the help of several other law enforcement offices including the FBI, there was a dragnet thrown around that area of South Carolina and an intensive search began. Nothing was found and after nine weeks the sheriff of Union County held a news conference and reported that Susan had confessed to killing those two boys by driving the car into nearby John D. Long Lake with the kids strapped into their car seats. This event came as a culmination of her tumultuous on and off marriage whereby both Susan and her husband had participated in several affairs each. Finally Susan found the man of her dreams but he did not want children and Susan saw fit to fix that problem permanently. It apparently never crossed that bitch’s mind to file for divorce and surrender custody. Susan was tried and convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. While in prison she was disciplined several times for having sex with the inmates and/or the guards. Her husband wrote a book about his experiences during this ordeal and stated that he could not live a comfortable life while Susan was alive and wished that the court had seen fit to execute her. With animals like this we need to resort back to medieval methods of dispensing justice.
1415 Two months earlier Henry V of England and an army of 11,000 had sailed across the English Channel and laid siege to the city Harfleur, France. After five weeks Harfleur fell. During the five week siege Henry had lost half of his army to disease and combat casualties. So Henry decided to head north to the French port of Calais and meet up his navy that was coming to pick up him and his army and take them back home. About half way to Calais he met up with a French army of 20,000 near the town of Agincourt. Henry chooses to array his troops in a fairly small field that was bordered by forests. This would prevent any large scale maneuvering by the French. At 11:00a the battle was joined. The French knights in their newly designed heavy armor began an attack toward the English across a muddy field. The English responded with a barrage of arrows from their newly designed long bows that had a range of 250 yards. The French knights were so densely packed that many could not even raise their arms and the knights in the rear kept pushing. Even though they were in armor, the English had designed a type of an arrowhead that could penetrate it and launched wave after wave of the deadly missiles into the French ranks. Soon the French knights were just a mass of confused humanity slipping, sliding and dying in the mud. It was then that Henry ordered his lightly armored bowmen to lay down their bows and take up pikes, swords, axes and clubs and led the rest of the 5,500 man army into the ranks of the French and took care of business. The slaughter was fantastic. The French lost 6,000 troops in that one afternoon while the English suffered only 400 killed. After this resounding victory, Henry was declared heir to the French throne but it was for naught because he died of a fever two years later near Paris. Henry V’s victory at Agincourt went down as one of the greatest victories in military history.
1929 Two years earlier the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, had petitioned to have control of the naval oil reserves at the Elk Hill in California and Teapot Dome in Wyoming transferred to his department. The naval oil reserves are set aside for the US navy to use in case of a war. The transfer did indeed take place and soon thereafter Secretary Fall accepted a $100,000 bribe from the president of Pan-American Petroleum to allow them to drill in the Elk Hill reserve and $300,000 to allow Mammoth Oil to drill at Teapot Dome. This deception was discovered and on this date Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was arrested. Fall was tried, convicted and was imprisoned. This was the first time that a sitting cabinet member was jailed, and hopefully it will not be the last.
1853 On this date US Army Captain John Gunnison and his survey crew of 35 were set upon by a war party of Piute Indians near Sevier Lake, Utah. The survey crew was trying to find a route for a railroad to get to the west coast. Seven members of the survey team were killed including Gunnison. His second officer, Lt. Edward Beckwith assumed command and continued the survey and did indeed find three possible routes. Beckwith and his survey party made it back to Saint Louis and reported their findings which went a long way toward the completion of a trans-continental railroad.
1944 On this date the largest naval battle ever fought began in the Philippines at a place named Leyte Gulf. It was also the first time the Japanese had used Kamikaze aircraft attacks. The Japanese had not been able to stem the western advance of the US navy using traditional means so they decided to us untraditional means. They asked for volunteers to dive their bomb laden aircraft into US navy ships, aircraft carriers in particular. They had swarms of volunteers and on this day the pilot of a Japanese Zero aircraft crashed his plane into the escort carrier St. Lo and it was on the bottom in 20 minutes. This was the very first attack of this kind. In all the Kamikaze sank 34 ships and damaged many more in this battle. Even though this carnage was phenomenal, the worst was yet to come at Okinawa. But that is another story. In all there were 1,321 Kamikaze aircraft used in WWII.
Births and deaths:
1944 US political consultant James Carville is born. After being asked about Paula Jones alleging sexual harassment by Bill Clinton he said “You drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park and you never know what you will find.”
1940 US basketball legend Bobby Knight is born. When asked about a courtside conversation with one of his players he said “I told him to take a photo of his testicles so he would have something to remember them by if he ever took another shot like the last one.”
1989 US writer Mary McCarthy dies. She said “We must not force sex to do the work of love nor love do the work of sex.” You mean there is a difference?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Daily history
Good morning from Paradise,
Quote of the day:
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing then you are successful.”
Howard Cain
Here are a few brief headlines from my neck of the woods.
A fight broke out outside the Club Odyssey in Rock Hill, SC involving over 50 people. Shots were fired with no one being hit. The crowd scattered when the cops rolled in.
Over in the Tega Cay area (on the border of North and South Carolina near Charlotte) the employees of a Wal-Mart found two babies unattended in a Lexus in the parking lot. The cops arrived and sure enough, there was a 2 year old and a 4 year old in the car crying their eyes out. The cops went into the store and had the driver paged. Seven minutes after page the female driver emerged. She said that she just went in the store for a few minutes and the babies were asleep. The total time that the babies were alone was over 30 minutes. The woman was arrested and the cops called the father to come and get the kids and the Lexus.
Again over in Rock Hill a 23 year old man was pumping some gas into his car when a woman walked up and asked for $10. Apparently an arrangement was reached and the two went into a close by Executive Inn motel room whereupon the woman produced a knife and took the man’s wallet containing about $600. She was last seen jumping into a white Crown Vic with several men aboard. At least she could have earned the $600. What was that man thinking, he could have been murdered.
Down near Belton, SC (about 30 mile southeast of Greenville) 43 year old Randy Nabors was found hiding behind a farm building. When he was ordered out by the cops, Nabors wanted to fight and fired his hogleg at the cops and the cops responded with shots of their own. Randy went down like a sack of potatoes and bled out before EMS could get him to the hospital. He was shot in the hind leg and his main artery was severed. When that happens you only have minutes to live.
Down here in Paradise a 12 year old kid walked out of an ice cream parlor without paying. He was not arrested but was given a tongue lashing by the store owner and sent home….with his waffle ice cream cone of two scoops of Rocky Road.
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 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 and 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
Quote of the day:
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing then you are successful.”
Howard Cain
Here are a few brief headlines from my neck of the woods.
A fight broke out outside the Club Odyssey in Rock Hill, SC involving over 50 people. Shots were fired with no one being hit. The crowd scattered when the cops rolled in.
Over in the Tega Cay area (on the border of North and South Carolina near Charlotte) the employees of a Wal-Mart found two babies unattended in a Lexus in the parking lot. The cops arrived and sure enough, there was a 2 year old and a 4 year old in the car crying their eyes out. The cops went into the store and had the driver paged. Seven minutes after page the female driver emerged. She said that she just went in the store for a few minutes and the babies were asleep. The total time that the babies were alone was over 30 minutes. The woman was arrested and the cops called the father to come and get the kids and the Lexus.
Again over in Rock Hill a 23 year old man was pumping some gas into his car when a woman walked up and asked for $10. Apparently an arrangement was reached and the two went into a close by Executive Inn motel room whereupon the woman produced a knife and took the man’s wallet containing about $600. She was last seen jumping into a white Crown Vic with several men aboard. At least she could have earned the $600. What was that man thinking, he could have been murdered.
Down near Belton, SC (about 30 mile southeast of Greenville) 43 year old Randy Nabors was found hiding behind a farm building. When he was ordered out by the cops, Nabors wanted to fight and fired his hogleg at the cops and the cops responded with shots of their own. Randy went down like a sack of potatoes and bled out before EMS could get him to the hospital. He was shot in the hind leg and his main artery was severed. When that happens you only have minutes to live.
Down here in Paradise a 12 year old kid walked out of an ice cream parlor without paying. He was not arrested but was given a tongue lashing by the store owner and sent home….with his waffle ice cream cone of two scoops of Rocky Road.
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 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 and 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
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Daily history
Good morning from Paradise,
Quote of the day:
“I have outlived my penis.”
Willie Nelson
Tuesday breakfast:
12 steamed shrimp, 12 raw oysters, 4 slices of raw yellow fin tuna marinated in Soy Sauce and lemon juice. 1 Seven-Up. (I don’t like coffee).
Yesterday for lunch I went to one of my favorite restaurants in the world and that being “The Coffee Cup” on Cervantes Street in Pensacola. I had soft scrambled eggs, Nassau grits, fried Kiel Basa and toast. Nassau grits is regular grits mixed with Italian tomatoes, onions and bacon chips. It is delicious, y’all. Of course the Kiel Basa is just a type of Polish sausage where they cut about a 6 inch length, split it long ways and fry it like a regular sausage. It is delicious also.
I went out to visit with some of my trashy friends and we renewed old and exciting memories. We agreed to meet again Tuesday night. I dread it. The leader of our pack is “Mayor Bob” Merrimon. Bob is about 83 years old and is just as active as a man half his age. He suns himself on the beach three or four times a week and has a chestnut colored tan year round. He has been a fixture on this beach for over 50 years, y’all. There is very little he hasn’t seen. On the way home I stopped at Peg Legs and got a bowl of seafood gumbo. I had forgotten how much I miss it.
The weather this morning is partly cloudy skies, temperature climbing to about 80, low humidity, the wind is from the northwest at about 7 MPH. The sand is a sugar white and the water is turquoise.
Tuesday I will have a light lunch at Sidelines (about a mile away) and have a heavy dinner at Lillo’s, a Tuscan Italian café (about 1 ¼ miles away). The owner of Lillo’s has an eye for beauty and his bartenders and servers show it. Then I will meet Bob and the rest of the clan at the Sandshaker for more tall tales, jokes and ale. I am sorry to report that there still have been no drive-by shootings, gang activity, convenience store clerks shot or stabbed, etc. I guess all this spells boredom to some…but not this horse. The serenity, the beauty of the flora and fauna along with the slow pace of life is very, very palatable at this point in my life.
This date in history October 20
1944 Earlier in 1942 the United States military commander of the Philippines, General Douglas McArthur had been kicked out by the invading Japanese army. Before leaving at the order of the United States President Franklin Roosevelt, he gave command to General Jonathon Wainwright knowing he was doomed to be killed or captured by the overwhelming Japanese forces. According to McArthur he vehemently objected to being ordered to withdraw, he said he had rather stay with his troops no matter their fate. He made a short speech before he left stating that he was leaving but vowing that “I shall return”. On this date, General McArthur did indeed return when he splashed ashore in the Philippines accompanied by a huge US army, Navy and Marine combination and ended up kicking out, killing or capturing all the Japanese soldiers on the archipelago. He did not find out the fate of General Wainwright until Wainwright was rescued from a Japanese prison camp in Mongolia by the invading Russians. This rescue was just a few weeks before the surrender of Japan on August 10. Wainwright was ordered by McArthur to be present at the surrender ceremony aboard the battleship USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. When McArthur first saw the severely emaciated Wainwright he broke down sobbing. War is hell.
1774 On this date the Continental Congress passed a bill called the Continental Association Act. The Continental Association Act forbade any of the colonies to do business of any sort with Great Britain. This bill was in response to an act passed by British Parliament that the Continentals called the “Intolerable Acts”. The so-called Intolerable Acts were passed in response to the Boston Tea Party and consisted of four parts and there were: 1. The port of Boston was closed to all shipping except the English. 2. The Massachusetts Government act made Great Britain in command of all town meetings and decisions as to the state of Massachusetts. 3. British officials would be immune from criminal prosecution. 4. The colonists must provide quarters to the British military on demand including individual homes. Can you imagine a government trying to push something like this on anyone? As you might suspect, almighty hell was raised by each and every colony, even the Loyalist bent state of Georgia. The following spring the Continentals got fed up with the damn-d Redcoats and opened fire on the sons-of-b-tches at Breed’s Hill, better known as Bunker Hill and was called the shot heard around the world. The Revolutionary War began in earnest.
1944 Early this morning an employee of the East Ohio Gas company in Cleveland sees a stream of white vapor coming out of the side of a natural gas tank. This bad boy was 57 feet in diameter and had the capacity of 90 million cubic feet. One hour later a stupendous explosion rocks the Lake Erie waterfront. A fire of biblical proportions erupts and flames reach upward to 2,500 feet. Each and every fireman in Cleveland participated in the containing this fire. After the fire finally died the fireman found 130 bodies all burned beyond recognition and hundreds wounded. Two factories were leveled, 70 houses destroyed and 200 cars melted into puddles. The leak was caused by contraction. The natural gas is put into the tank at 210 degrees below zero which forces the tank to contract and a small split at a seam occurred. All existing tanks were upgraded and newer tanks were designed to overcome this design flaw.
1803 Earlier the fledgling United States realized that they needed another port on the Gulf of Mexico and thought that New Orleans would be ideal. At the time, New Orleans and a huge chunk of North America was owned by France having had that land ceded to them by Spain two years before. The United States sent James Monroe and James Livingston to France to try and purchase New Orleans from Napoleonic France. They met with Napoleon’s second in command, Lord Talleyrand, and requested a price for New Orleans. On this date, Talleyrand comes into the office and says “What will you give me for all of it?” He meant the whole of the lands owned by France in North America that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. After Monroe and Livingston got through peeing in their pants, they requested a few days to come up with a figure. They came back to Talleyrand and offered $15 million which was accepted. They had overstepped their bounds by light years but knew they could not let this opportunity pass. It would take several months to sail back to America, meet with Congress, and then back to France and they did not want Napoleon to change his mind. The reason Napoleon wanted to do this was twofold. He needed money finance his war in Europe and he wanted to keep North America out of the hands of the British. Napoleon said that he wanted North America to be a “thorn in the side of England” as indeed it was. This purchase was known as the immortal Louisiana Purchase. By the way, Louisiana was named after French king Louis XIV of which I have sent ya’ll a biography.
Births and deaths:
1928 US columnist Dr. Joyce Brothers is born. She said “If Shakespeare had to go on the road to promote Romeo and Juliet he never would have written Macbeth.”
1946 US writer Lewis Grizzard is born. He said “I have written a song titled “When My Love Comes Back From the Ladies Room, Will I Be Too Old To Care.”
Quotable quotes:
“I have enough money to last the rest of my life…unless I have to buy something”
Jackie Mason
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
“I have outlived my penis.”
Willie Nelson
Tuesday breakfast:
12 steamed shrimp, 12 raw oysters, 4 slices of raw yellow fin tuna marinated in Soy Sauce and lemon juice. 1 Seven-Up. (I don’t like coffee).
Yesterday for lunch I went to one of my favorite restaurants in the world and that being “The Coffee Cup” on Cervantes Street in Pensacola. I had soft scrambled eggs, Nassau grits, fried Kiel Basa and toast. Nassau grits is regular grits mixed with Italian tomatoes, onions and bacon chips. It is delicious, y’all. Of course the Kiel Basa is just a type of Polish sausage where they cut about a 6 inch length, split it long ways and fry it like a regular sausage. It is delicious also.
I went out to visit with some of my trashy friends and we renewed old and exciting memories. We agreed to meet again Tuesday night. I dread it. The leader of our pack is “Mayor Bob” Merrimon. Bob is about 83 years old and is just as active as a man half his age. He suns himself on the beach three or four times a week and has a chestnut colored tan year round. He has been a fixture on this beach for over 50 years, y’all. There is very little he hasn’t seen. On the way home I stopped at Peg Legs and got a bowl of seafood gumbo. I had forgotten how much I miss it.
The weather this morning is partly cloudy skies, temperature climbing to about 80, low humidity, the wind is from the northwest at about 7 MPH. The sand is a sugar white and the water is turquoise.
Tuesday I will have a light lunch at Sidelines (about a mile away) and have a heavy dinner at Lillo’s, a Tuscan Italian café (about 1 ¼ miles away). The owner of Lillo’s has an eye for beauty and his bartenders and servers show it. Then I will meet Bob and the rest of the clan at the Sandshaker for more tall tales, jokes and ale. I am sorry to report that there still have been no drive-by shootings, gang activity, convenience store clerks shot or stabbed, etc. I guess all this spells boredom to some…but not this horse. The serenity, the beauty of the flora and fauna along with the slow pace of life is very, very palatable at this point in my life.
This date in history October 20
1944 Earlier in 1942 the United States military commander of the Philippines, General Douglas McArthur had been kicked out by the invading Japanese army. Before leaving at the order of the United States President Franklin Roosevelt, he gave command to General Jonathon Wainwright knowing he was doomed to be killed or captured by the overwhelming Japanese forces. According to McArthur he vehemently objected to being ordered to withdraw, he said he had rather stay with his troops no matter their fate. He made a short speech before he left stating that he was leaving but vowing that “I shall return”. On this date, General McArthur did indeed return when he splashed ashore in the Philippines accompanied by a huge US army, Navy and Marine combination and ended up kicking out, killing or capturing all the Japanese soldiers on the archipelago. He did not find out the fate of General Wainwright until Wainwright was rescued from a Japanese prison camp in Mongolia by the invading Russians. This rescue was just a few weeks before the surrender of Japan on August 10. Wainwright was ordered by McArthur to be present at the surrender ceremony aboard the battleship USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. When McArthur first saw the severely emaciated Wainwright he broke down sobbing. War is hell.
1774 On this date the Continental Congress passed a bill called the Continental Association Act. The Continental Association Act forbade any of the colonies to do business of any sort with Great Britain. This bill was in response to an act passed by British Parliament that the Continentals called the “Intolerable Acts”. The so-called Intolerable Acts were passed in response to the Boston Tea Party and consisted of four parts and there were: 1. The port of Boston was closed to all shipping except the English. 2. The Massachusetts Government act made Great Britain in command of all town meetings and decisions as to the state of Massachusetts. 3. British officials would be immune from criminal prosecution. 4. The colonists must provide quarters to the British military on demand including individual homes. Can you imagine a government trying to push something like this on anyone? As you might suspect, almighty hell was raised by each and every colony, even the Loyalist bent state of Georgia. The following spring the Continentals got fed up with the damn-d Redcoats and opened fire on the sons-of-b-tches at Breed’s Hill, better known as Bunker Hill and was called the shot heard around the world. The Revolutionary War began in earnest.
1944 Early this morning an employee of the East Ohio Gas company in Cleveland sees a stream of white vapor coming out of the side of a natural gas tank. This bad boy was 57 feet in diameter and had the capacity of 90 million cubic feet. One hour later a stupendous explosion rocks the Lake Erie waterfront. A fire of biblical proportions erupts and flames reach upward to 2,500 feet. Each and every fireman in Cleveland participated in the containing this fire. After the fire finally died the fireman found 130 bodies all burned beyond recognition and hundreds wounded. Two factories were leveled, 70 houses destroyed and 200 cars melted into puddles. The leak was caused by contraction. The natural gas is put into the tank at 210 degrees below zero which forces the tank to contract and a small split at a seam occurred. All existing tanks were upgraded and newer tanks were designed to overcome this design flaw.
1803 Earlier the fledgling United States realized that they needed another port on the Gulf of Mexico and thought that New Orleans would be ideal. At the time, New Orleans and a huge chunk of North America was owned by France having had that land ceded to them by Spain two years before. The United States sent James Monroe and James Livingston to France to try and purchase New Orleans from Napoleonic France. They met with Napoleon’s second in command, Lord Talleyrand, and requested a price for New Orleans. On this date, Talleyrand comes into the office and says “What will you give me for all of it?” He meant the whole of the lands owned by France in North America that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. After Monroe and Livingston got through peeing in their pants, they requested a few days to come up with a figure. They came back to Talleyrand and offered $15 million which was accepted. They had overstepped their bounds by light years but knew they could not let this opportunity pass. It would take several months to sail back to America, meet with Congress, and then back to France and they did not want Napoleon to change his mind. The reason Napoleon wanted to do this was twofold. He needed money finance his war in Europe and he wanted to keep North America out of the hands of the British. Napoleon said that he wanted North America to be a “thorn in the side of England” as indeed it was. This purchase was known as the immortal Louisiana Purchase. By the way, Louisiana was named after French king Louis XIV of which I have sent ya’ll a biography.
Births and deaths:
1928 US columnist Dr. Joyce Brothers is born. She said “If Shakespeare had to go on the road to promote Romeo and Juliet he never would have written Macbeth.”
1946 US writer Lewis Grizzard is born. He said “I have written a song titled “When My Love Comes Back From the Ladies Room, Will I Be Too Old To Care.”
Quotable quotes:
“I have enough money to last the rest of my life…unless I have to buy something”
Jackie Mason
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Daily History
Good morning from Paradise,
Quote of the day:
“I smoke a lot of grass because it stops me from killing people.”
Willie Nelson
Monday morning breakfast:
I had 6 large shrimp that had been covered with Old Bay seasoning and steamed.
12 raw oysters on saltine crackers and covered with a sauce made of ketchup, horse radish, soy sauce and Tabasco. This dish is eaten in one bite per oyster and chewed vigorously.
4 slices of raw yellow fin tuna that had been marinating in a mixture of soy sauce, lemon juice and a few drops of Tabasco.
A small slice of Key Lime pie.
One small Cuba Libra. This is rum, coke and a squeeze of lime.
For lunch I will probably have a Sidelines Special hot dog. It is a hot dog made with a Kiel Basa sausage, chili, onions, Cole slaw and sauerkraut. YUMMY!
Willie’s Nelson’s free concert was Sunday night. It was paid for by BP because of the oil spill. He opened with his signature song “Whiskey River.” Willie is probably the most traveled musician that ever existed. What has Willie NOT seen in his lifetime? There is rumor that after four days of I.W. Harper whiskey and grass with very little sleep, Willie was supposed to have a song for a movie ready by the end of the day when he finally sobered up. His bus driver said “Come on Willie, we have to get on the road.” Willie sat down and wrote “On the road again, we have to get back on the road again….” The song was ready in10 minutes. By the way, Willie wrote “Crazy” made famous by Patsy Cline and “Hello Walls” made famous by Faron Young among many, many others. My favorite is “Blue Eyes crying in the Rain”. What a treasure he is to us all.
The promoters of the “DeLuna Fest” were very pleased with the results of this weekend’s music fest and have planned another one in May.
I am sorry to report that I cannot find any gun duels, drive-by shootings, over-zealous cops stopping people for nothing, no robberies of a convenience store, etc. There were three DUI citations. But considering the number of people moving around this weekend that is a surprising statistic. The high temperature today will be about 81 with partly cloudy skies and calm winds. If there is a wind it will be from the Gulf of Mexico.
My eldest daughter and her paramour came over Sunday night and we watched her beloved Saints win. It was good to see her again.
This date in history October 19
1781 On this immortal day, after eight years of blood, sweat, toil and tears the British Army of 8,000 soldiers and sailors commanded by General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to the Patriot army commanded by General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia essentially ending the Revolutionary War in the United States. There were a few sea battles and skirmishes elsewhere afterward but the land war in America was over. Earlier in mid-September Cornwallis had retreated with his ragged army from the Carolinas after being bled white by several engagements with US General Nathaneal Greene. Greene did not win any of the engagements but made the British pay a tall price for each victory. Cornwallis decided to head back toward New York and the umbrella of British General Sir Henry Clinton and his troops. Cornwallis decided that it would be prudent to travel north up the east coast so as to have the British Navy close by for supply and reinforcements. The only problem was that the French fleet had arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay first and established a blockade the British navy could not breach which essentially isolated Cornwallis. Cornwallis and his troops dug in on Gloucester Hill near Yorktown. Washington sent the Marquis de Lafayette and 5,000 troops to cut off a retreat to the south and Washington and his troops sealed off a retreat to the north. With the French controlled Chesapeake Bay at his back, Cornwallis had no option but to surrender or risk total annihilation. On the afternoon of this day, Cornwallis feigned sickness and under a white flag sent his second in command, Colonel John O’Hara out with his sword. As the British troops stacked their arms their band played “The World Turned Upside Down.” In 1783 the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris which recognized the United States as a free and independent nation.
1864 Earlier CSA General Jubal Early and his army had free rein up and down the Shenandoah Valley and that aggravated the hell out of US General U.S.Grant and felt that Early was a threat to his flanks while having Petersburg, Virginia under siege. Grant sent US General Phillip Sheridan and 30,000 troops to neutralize Early. After a couple of battles near Winchester, Virginia, Sheridan lost contact with Early and did not know exactly where he and his army were. Sheridan was called to Washington for a conference and while he was gone, Early and his troops launched a surprise attack near Cedar Creek, Virginia. The stunned Yankees reeled backward for three miles before establishing a line a defense that slowed but did not stop the retreat. For reasons only known to Early, he slowed the advance and surrendered some of the advantage he had enjoyed. One of Early’s division commanders, CSA General John B. Gordon, was beside himself with anger and urged Early to pursue his advantage and annihilate this Yankee army while he had the chance but Early was unmoved. General Sheridan was on his way back from Washington and while passing through Winchester heard the sound of the battle and spurred into a gallop. He began running into some of his troops in retreat and ordered them to turn around and begin a counter-attack. Because Early had slowed his advance, the counter-attack succeeded and Early’s army was driven from the field while losing the greatest majority of their artillery. After this debacle Early was never a viable force in the Shenandoah Valley again allowing Sheridan to destroy the crops in the field. Early never explained why he slowed the advance but it cost him and the Confederacy a hell of a lot.
1812 In June of 1812 Napoleon Bonaparte and his enormous army of 500,000 launch an attack on Russia. This was the largest army ever assembled up until that time. The Russian army knew it would be fruitless to combat such an enormous army and set about a campaign of delay, harassment and destroying anything of use ahead of the Frenchmen. On September 10, Napoleon arrives at Moscow but finds no one home. The Russians had evacuated the entire city and they weren’t done yet. A day or two after Napoleon’s arrival, he started seeing flames and soon the entire city was ablaze which denied Napoleon and his army shelter for the infamous Russian winter which was already upon them. On this date, Napoleon decides that he had better head for the house and turned his army west and sets out. If there was ever hell on earth it was Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow with the Russian army nipping at his heels every step of the way. There is no use in me telling ya’ll what hell those troops suffered before arriving back in Europe. The Russians got ahead of them and burned each and every bridge they had to cross heading west making Napoleon’s engineers and his troops stay a little longer in the numbing cold of the winter while they rebuilt bridges. The final analysis was that Napoleon arrived back in France with only 100,000 of the original 500.000 troops. Even with this famous disaster known to the world, Adolph Hitler tried the same thing in 1942 with nearly the same result. Dictators with visions of glory are all the same, they seek fame and power at the expense of other’s lives.
A brief biography:
This is a short biography of a famous name in the Marine Corp. Daniel “Dan” Joseph Daly was born in Green Cove, New York in 1873 and joined the Marines in November of 1899. Daly wanted to get into the Spanish-American War but the war ended when he was in basic training. He was a small man being about 5’-6” and weighed about 130 pounds but during his career in the Marines Major General John A. Lejeune said called him “the most outstanding Marine of all time.” His commanding officer Major General Smedley D. Butler said of Daly “He was the fightingest Marine I ever knew, it was an object lesson to have served with him.”
After missing the Spanish-American War he was sent as part of Marine expeditionary force to China during the Boxer Rebellion. He was assigned the task of protecting the wall at the American legation. Left alone with only a bayoneted rifle, he was shot at by snipers and the wall was finally stormed by dozens of attackers. Daly held his ground and fought off the assault single handed. After the attackers retreated, there were 36 corpses either on the ground or lying across the wall. For his action here he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He achieved the rank of Gunnery Sergeant making him essentially a platoon leader. His next action was in Haiti during a rebellion. Daly’s platoon was surrounded by a group of raiders and the Marines knew they were in deep shit if they did not get more firepower. That night Daly snuck through the raider lines, located a machine gun that the Marines had to abandon the day before, and brought the gun and ammo back to his platoon undetected. The next morning the raiders attacked but were met not with the rifle fire of a few Marines but the withering fire of a machine gun. The raiders retreated post haste and Daly received his second Congressional Medal of Honor. And finally, at the age of 45, he and his platoon were part of the legendary Marine action at Belleau Wood in WWI. His platoon was pinned down by an avalanche of German artillery getting chopped to pieces. Daly went from man to man, machine gun position to machine gun position cheering his men. Finally, Daly ordered a bayonet charge and rose up and yelled the immortal words “Come on you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever?” Daly was wounded three times during this campaign. He was offered a commission more than once but refused saying “I had rather be an outstanding sergeant rather than an ordinary officer.” As you might suspect, he received a hell of a lot of publicity which he scorned and called the entire hubbub a lot of foolishness. Daly never married and did not drink. His bride was the Marine Corp. His only known sin was that he smoked a pipe stuffed with plug tobacco. There are many other acts of bravery and valor attributed to Daly beside these few examples above, Daly was the definition of an “Iron Man”. Strangely, his commanding officer Major General Smedley Butler also received two Congressional Medals of Honor for separate actions. After retirement Daly worked as a guard in a Wall Street bank. Daniel Joseph Daly died on February 6, 1937 in Glendale, Long Island, New York. There is a US Navy destroyer named for him. His remarkable record as a fighting man is unequaled in the annuls of Marine Corp history. I thought it would be nice to remember our brave military guys in a favorable light during these difficult and trying times.
Quotable quotes:
When asked why she never married, Gloria Steinem said “I cannot mate in captivity.” Hey Gloria, I damn sure can and have offsprings to prove it.
“Why do men get married? So they don’t have to hold their stomachs in anymore.” Red Skelton
Shut up, Red
“Basically my wife was immature. She would come into the bathroom while I was in the tub and sink all of my boats.” Woody Allen
“Why did God create men, because a vibrator can’t mow the lawn.” Madonna. You have to admire this broad, she really knows how to market herself.
Births and deaths:
1895 US writer Lewis Mumford is born. “Men of courage do not need weapons, but they may need bail.” Nearly all of the US Marine Commandants say the same thing.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“I smoke a lot of grass because it stops me from killing people.”
Willie Nelson
Monday morning breakfast:
I had 6 large shrimp that had been covered with Old Bay seasoning and steamed.
12 raw oysters on saltine crackers and covered with a sauce made of ketchup, horse radish, soy sauce and Tabasco. This dish is eaten in one bite per oyster and chewed vigorously.
4 slices of raw yellow fin tuna that had been marinating in a mixture of soy sauce, lemon juice and a few drops of Tabasco.
A small slice of Key Lime pie.
One small Cuba Libra. This is rum, coke and a squeeze of lime.
For lunch I will probably have a Sidelines Special hot dog. It is a hot dog made with a Kiel Basa sausage, chili, onions, Cole slaw and sauerkraut. YUMMY!
Willie’s Nelson’s free concert was Sunday night. It was paid for by BP because of the oil spill. He opened with his signature song “Whiskey River.” Willie is probably the most traveled musician that ever existed. What has Willie NOT seen in his lifetime? There is rumor that after four days of I.W. Harper whiskey and grass with very little sleep, Willie was supposed to have a song for a movie ready by the end of the day when he finally sobered up. His bus driver said “Come on Willie, we have to get on the road.” Willie sat down and wrote “On the road again, we have to get back on the road again….” The song was ready in10 minutes. By the way, Willie wrote “Crazy” made famous by Patsy Cline and “Hello Walls” made famous by Faron Young among many, many others. My favorite is “Blue Eyes crying in the Rain”. What a treasure he is to us all.
The promoters of the “DeLuna Fest” were very pleased with the results of this weekend’s music fest and have planned another one in May.
I am sorry to report that I cannot find any gun duels, drive-by shootings, over-zealous cops stopping people for nothing, no robberies of a convenience store, etc. There were three DUI citations. But considering the number of people moving around this weekend that is a surprising statistic. The high temperature today will be about 81 with partly cloudy skies and calm winds. If there is a wind it will be from the Gulf of Mexico.
My eldest daughter and her paramour came over Sunday night and we watched her beloved Saints win. It was good to see her again.
This date in history October 19
1781 On this immortal day, after eight years of blood, sweat, toil and tears the British Army of 8,000 soldiers and sailors commanded by General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to the Patriot army commanded by General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia essentially ending the Revolutionary War in the United States. There were a few sea battles and skirmishes elsewhere afterward but the land war in America was over. Earlier in mid-September Cornwallis had retreated with his ragged army from the Carolinas after being bled white by several engagements with US General Nathaneal Greene. Greene did not win any of the engagements but made the British pay a tall price for each victory. Cornwallis decided to head back toward New York and the umbrella of British General Sir Henry Clinton and his troops. Cornwallis decided that it would be prudent to travel north up the east coast so as to have the British Navy close by for supply and reinforcements. The only problem was that the French fleet had arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay first and established a blockade the British navy could not breach which essentially isolated Cornwallis. Cornwallis and his troops dug in on Gloucester Hill near Yorktown. Washington sent the Marquis de Lafayette and 5,000 troops to cut off a retreat to the south and Washington and his troops sealed off a retreat to the north. With the French controlled Chesapeake Bay at his back, Cornwallis had no option but to surrender or risk total annihilation. On the afternoon of this day, Cornwallis feigned sickness and under a white flag sent his second in command, Colonel John O’Hara out with his sword. As the British troops stacked their arms their band played “The World Turned Upside Down.” In 1783 the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris which recognized the United States as a free and independent nation.
1864 Earlier CSA General Jubal Early and his army had free rein up and down the Shenandoah Valley and that aggravated the hell out of US General U.S.Grant and felt that Early was a threat to his flanks while having Petersburg, Virginia under siege. Grant sent US General Phillip Sheridan and 30,000 troops to neutralize Early. After a couple of battles near Winchester, Virginia, Sheridan lost contact with Early and did not know exactly where he and his army were. Sheridan was called to Washington for a conference and while he was gone, Early and his troops launched a surprise attack near Cedar Creek, Virginia. The stunned Yankees reeled backward for three miles before establishing a line a defense that slowed but did not stop the retreat. For reasons only known to Early, he slowed the advance and surrendered some of the advantage he had enjoyed. One of Early’s division commanders, CSA General John B. Gordon, was beside himself with anger and urged Early to pursue his advantage and annihilate this Yankee army while he had the chance but Early was unmoved. General Sheridan was on his way back from Washington and while passing through Winchester heard the sound of the battle and spurred into a gallop. He began running into some of his troops in retreat and ordered them to turn around and begin a counter-attack. Because Early had slowed his advance, the counter-attack succeeded and Early’s army was driven from the field while losing the greatest majority of their artillery. After this debacle Early was never a viable force in the Shenandoah Valley again allowing Sheridan to destroy the crops in the field. Early never explained why he slowed the advance but it cost him and the Confederacy a hell of a lot.
1812 In June of 1812 Napoleon Bonaparte and his enormous army of 500,000 launch an attack on Russia. This was the largest army ever assembled up until that time. The Russian army knew it would be fruitless to combat such an enormous army and set about a campaign of delay, harassment and destroying anything of use ahead of the Frenchmen. On September 10, Napoleon arrives at Moscow but finds no one home. The Russians had evacuated the entire city and they weren’t done yet. A day or two after Napoleon’s arrival, he started seeing flames and soon the entire city was ablaze which denied Napoleon and his army shelter for the infamous Russian winter which was already upon them. On this date, Napoleon decides that he had better head for the house and turned his army west and sets out. If there was ever hell on earth it was Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow with the Russian army nipping at his heels every step of the way. There is no use in me telling ya’ll what hell those troops suffered before arriving back in Europe. The Russians got ahead of them and burned each and every bridge they had to cross heading west making Napoleon’s engineers and his troops stay a little longer in the numbing cold of the winter while they rebuilt bridges. The final analysis was that Napoleon arrived back in France with only 100,000 of the original 500.000 troops. Even with this famous disaster known to the world, Adolph Hitler tried the same thing in 1942 with nearly the same result. Dictators with visions of glory are all the same, they seek fame and power at the expense of other’s lives.
A brief biography:
This is a short biography of a famous name in the Marine Corp. Daniel “Dan” Joseph Daly was born in Green Cove, New York in 1873 and joined the Marines in November of 1899. Daly wanted to get into the Spanish-American War but the war ended when he was in basic training. He was a small man being about 5’-6” and weighed about 130 pounds but during his career in the Marines Major General John A. Lejeune said called him “the most outstanding Marine of all time.” His commanding officer Major General Smedley D. Butler said of Daly “He was the fightingest Marine I ever knew, it was an object lesson to have served with him.”
After missing the Spanish-American War he was sent as part of Marine expeditionary force to China during the Boxer Rebellion. He was assigned the task of protecting the wall at the American legation. Left alone with only a bayoneted rifle, he was shot at by snipers and the wall was finally stormed by dozens of attackers. Daly held his ground and fought off the assault single handed. After the attackers retreated, there were 36 corpses either on the ground or lying across the wall. For his action here he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He achieved the rank of Gunnery Sergeant making him essentially a platoon leader. His next action was in Haiti during a rebellion. Daly’s platoon was surrounded by a group of raiders and the Marines knew they were in deep shit if they did not get more firepower. That night Daly snuck through the raider lines, located a machine gun that the Marines had to abandon the day before, and brought the gun and ammo back to his platoon undetected. The next morning the raiders attacked but were met not with the rifle fire of a few Marines but the withering fire of a machine gun. The raiders retreated post haste and Daly received his second Congressional Medal of Honor. And finally, at the age of 45, he and his platoon were part of the legendary Marine action at Belleau Wood in WWI. His platoon was pinned down by an avalanche of German artillery getting chopped to pieces. Daly went from man to man, machine gun position to machine gun position cheering his men. Finally, Daly ordered a bayonet charge and rose up and yelled the immortal words “Come on you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever?” Daly was wounded three times during this campaign. He was offered a commission more than once but refused saying “I had rather be an outstanding sergeant rather than an ordinary officer.” As you might suspect, he received a hell of a lot of publicity which he scorned and called the entire hubbub a lot of foolishness. Daly never married and did not drink. His bride was the Marine Corp. His only known sin was that he smoked a pipe stuffed with plug tobacco. There are many other acts of bravery and valor attributed to Daly beside these few examples above, Daly was the definition of an “Iron Man”. Strangely, his commanding officer Major General Smedley Butler also received two Congressional Medals of Honor for separate actions. After retirement Daly worked as a guard in a Wall Street bank. Daniel Joseph Daly died on February 6, 1937 in Glendale, Long Island, New York. There is a US Navy destroyer named for him. His remarkable record as a fighting man is unequaled in the annuls of Marine Corp history. I thought it would be nice to remember our brave military guys in a favorable light during these difficult and trying times.
Quotable quotes:
When asked why she never married, Gloria Steinem said “I cannot mate in captivity.” Hey Gloria, I damn sure can and have offsprings to prove it.
“Why do men get married? So they don’t have to hold their stomachs in anymore.” Red Skelton
Shut up, Red
“Basically my wife was immature. She would come into the bathroom while I was in the tub and sink all of my boats.” Woody Allen
“Why did God create men, because a vibrator can’t mow the lawn.” Madonna. You have to admire this broad, she really knows how to market herself.
Births and deaths:
1895 US writer Lewis Mumford is born. “Men of courage do not need weapons, but they may need bail.” Nearly all of the US Marine Commandants say the same thing.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Monday, October 18, 2010
Daily history
Good morning from Paradise,
Quote of the day:
“I smoke a lot of grass because it stops me from killing people.”
Willie Nelson
Monday morning breakfast:
I had 6 large shrimp that had been covered with Old Bay seasoning and steamed.
12 raw oysters on saltine crackers and covered with a sauce made of ketchup, horse radish, soy sauce and Tabasco. This dish is eaten in one bite per oyster and chewed vigorously.
4 slices of raw yellow fin tuna that had been marinating in a mixture of soy sauce, lemon juice and a few drops of Tabasco.
\A small slice of Key Lime pie.
One small Cuba Libra. This is rum, coke and a squeeze of lime.
For lunch I will probably have a Sidelines Special hot dog. It is a hot dog made with a Kiel Basa sausage, chili, onions, Cole slaw and sauerkraut. YUMMY!
Willie’s Nelson’s free concert was Sunday night. It was paid for by BP because of the oil spill. He opened with his signature song “Whiskey River.” Willie is probably the most traveled musician that ever existed. What has Willie NOT seen in his lifetime? There is rumor that after four days of I.W. Harper whiskey and grass with very little sleep, Willie was supposed to have a song for a movie ready by the end of the day when he finally sobered up. His bus driver said “Come on Willie, we have to get on the road.” Willie sat down and wrote “On the road again, we have to get back on the road again….” The song was ready in10 minutes. By the way, Willie wrote “Crazy” made famous by Patsy Cline and “Hello Walls” made famous by Faron Young among many, many others. My favorite is “Blue Eyes crying in the Rain”. What a treasure he is to us all.
The promoters of the “DeLuna Fest” were very pleased with the results of this weekend’s music fest and have planned another one in May.
I am sorry to report that I cannot find any gun duels, drive-by shootings, over-zealous cops stopping people for nothing, no robberies of a convenience store, etc. in this area. There were three DUI citations. But considering the number of people moving around this weekend that is a surprising statistic. The high temperature today will be about 81 with partly cloudy skies and calm winds. If there is a wind it will be from the Gulf of Mexico.
My eldest daughter and her paramour came over Sunday night and we watched her beloved Saints win. It was good to see her again.
This date in history October 19
1781 On this immortal day, after eight years of blood, sweat, toil and tears the British Army of 8,000 soldiers and sailors commanded by General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to the Patriot army commanded by General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia essentially ending the Revolutionary War in the United States. There were a few sea battles and skirmishes elsewhere afterward but the land war in America was over. Earlier in mid-September Cornwallis had retreated with his ragged army from the Carolinas after being bled white by several engagements with US General Nathaneal Greene. Greene did not win any of the engagements but made the British pay a tall price for each victory. Cornwallis decided to head back toward New York and the umbrella of British General Sir Henry Clinton and his troops. Cornwallis decided that it would be prudent to travel north up the east coast so as to have the British Navy close by for supply and reinforcements. The only problem was that the French fleet had arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay first and established a blockade the British navy could not breach which essentially isolated Cornwallis. Cornwallis and his troops dug in on Gloucester Hill near Yorktown. Washington sent the Marquis de Lafayette and 5,000 troops to cut off a retreat to the south and Washington and his troops sealed off a retreat to the north. With the French controlled Chesapeake Bay at his back, Cornwallis had no option but to surrender or risk total annihilation. On the afternoon of this day, Cornwallis feigned sickness and under a white flag sent his second in command, Colonel John O’Hara out with his sword. As the British troops stacked their arms their band played “The World Turned Upside Down.” In 1783 the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris which recognized the United States as a free and independent nation.
1864 Earlier CSA General Jubal Early and his army had free rein up and down the Shenandoah Valley and that aggravated the hell out of US General U.S.Grant and felt that Early was a threat to his flanks while having Petersburg, Virginia under siege. Grant sent US General Phillip Sheridan and 30,000 troops to neutralize Early. After a couple of battles near Winchester, Virginia, Sheridan lost contact with Early and did not know exactly where he and his army were. Sheridan was called to Washington for a conference and while he was gone, Early and his troops launched a surprise attack near Cedar Creek, Virginia. The stunned Yankees reeled backward for three miles before establishing a line a defense that slowed but did not stop the retreat. For reasons only known to Early, he slowed the advance and surrendered some of the advantage he had enjoyed. One of Early’s division commanders, CSA General John B. Gordon, was beside himself with anger and urged Early to pursue his advantage and annihilate this Yankee army while he had the chance but Early was unmoved. General Sheridan was on his way back from Washington and while passing through Winchester heard the sound of the battle and spurred into a gallop. He began running into some of his troops in retreat and ordered them to turn around and begin a counter-attack. Because Early had slowed his advance, the counter-attack succeeded and Early’s army was driven from the field while losing the greatest majority of their artillery. After this debacle Early was never a viable force in the Shenandoah Valley again allowing Sheridan to destroy the crops in the field. Early never explained why he slowed the advance but it cost him and the Confederacy a hell of a lot.
1812 In June of 1812 Napoleon Bonaparte and his enormous army of 500,000 launch an attack on Russia. This was the largest army ever assembled up until that time. The Russian army knew it would be fruitless to combat such an enormous army and set about a campaign of delay, harassment and destroying anything of use ahead of the Frenchmen. On September 10, Napoleon arrives at Moscow but finds no one home. The Russians had evacuated the entire city and they weren’t done yet. A day or two after Napoleon’s arrival, he started seeing flames and soon the entire city was ablaze which denied Napoleon and his army shelter for the infamous Russian winter which was already upon them. On this date, Napoleon decides that he had better head for the house and turned his army west and sets out. If there was ever hell on earth it was Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow with the Russian army nipping at his heels every step of the way. There is no use in me telling ya’ll what hell those troops suffered before arriving back in Europe. The Russians got ahead of them and burned each and every bridge they had to cross heading west making Napoleon’s engineers and his troops stay a little longer in the numbing cold of the winter while they rebuilt bridges. The final analysis was that Napoleon arrived back in France with only 100,000 of the original 500.000 troops. Even with this famous disaster known to the world, Adolph Hitler tried the same thing in 1942 with nearly the same result. Dictators with visions of glory are all the same, they seek fame and power at the expense of other’s lives.
A brief biography:
This is a short biography of a famous name in the Marine Corp. Daniel “Dan” Joseph Daly was born in Green Cove, New York in 1873 and joined the Marines in November of 1899. Daly wanted to get into the Spanish-American War but the war ended when he was in basic training. He was a small man being about 5’-6” and weighed about 130 pounds but during his career in the Marines Major General John A. Lejeune said called him “the most outstanding Marine of all time.” His commanding officer Major General Smedley D. Butler said of Daly “He was the fightingest Marine I ever knew, it was an object lesson to have served with him.”
After missing the Spanish-American War he was sent as part of Marine expeditionary force to China during the Boxer Rebellion. He was assigned the task of protecting the wall at the American legation. Left alone with only a bayoneted rifle, he was shot at by snipers and the wall was finally stormed by dozens of attackers. Daly held his ground and fought off the assault single handed. After the attackers retreated, there were 36 corpses either on the ground or lying across the wall. For his action here he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He achieved the rank of Gunnery Sergeant making him essentially a platoon leader. His next action was in Haiti during a rebellion. Daly’s platoon was surrounded by a group of raiders and the Marines knew they were in deep shit if they did not get more firepower. That night Daly snuck through the raider lines, located a machine gun that the Marines had to abandon the day before, and brought the gun and ammo back to his platoon undetected. The next morning the raiders attacked but were met not with the rifle fire of a few Marines but the withering fire of a machine gun. The raiders retreated post haste and Daly received his second Congressional Medal of Honor. And finally, at the age of 45, he and his platoon were part of the legendary Marine action at Belleau Wood in WWI. His platoon was pinned down by an avalanche of German artillery getting chopped to pieces. Daly went from man to man, machine gun position to machine gun position cheering his men. Finally, Daly ordered a bayonet charge and rose up and yelled the immortal words “Come on you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever?” Daly was wounded three times during this campaign. He was offered a commission more than once but refused saying “I had rather be an outstanding sergeant rather than an ordinary officer.” As you might suspect, he received a hell of a lot of publicity which he scorned and called the entire hubbub a lot of foolishness. Daly never married and did not drink. His bride was the Marine Corp. His only known sin was that he smoked a pipe stuffed with plug tobacco. There are many other acts of bravery and valor attributed to Daly beside these few examples above, Daly was the definition of an “Iron Man”. Strangely, his commanding officer Major General Smedley Butler also received two Congressional Medals of Honor for separate actions. After retirement Daly worked as a guard in a Wall Street bank. Daniel Joseph Daly died on February 6, 1937 in Glendale, Long Island, New York. There is a US Navy destroyer named for him. His remarkable record as a fighting man is unequaled in the annuls of Marine Corp history. I thought it would be nice to remember our brave military guys in a favorable light during these difficult and trying times.
Quotable quotes:
When asked why she never married, Gloria Steinem said “I cannot mate in captivity.” Hey Gloria, I damn sure can and have offsprings to prove it.
“Why do men get married? So they don’t have to hold their stomachs in anymore.” Red Skelton
Shut up, Red
“Basically my wife was immature. She would come into the bathroom while I was in the tub and sink all of my boats.” Woody Allen
“Why did God create men, because a vibrator can’t mow the lawn.” Madonna. You have to admire this broad, she really knows how to market herself.
Births and deaths:
1895 US writer Lewis Mumford is born. “Men of courage do not need weapons, but they may need bail.” Nearly all of the US Marine Commandants say the same thing.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“I smoke a lot of grass because it stops me from killing people.”
Willie Nelson
Monday morning breakfast:
I had 6 large shrimp that had been covered with Old Bay seasoning and steamed.
12 raw oysters on saltine crackers and covered with a sauce made of ketchup, horse radish, soy sauce and Tabasco. This dish is eaten in one bite per oyster and chewed vigorously.
4 slices of raw yellow fin tuna that had been marinating in a mixture of soy sauce, lemon juice and a few drops of Tabasco.
\A small slice of Key Lime pie.
One small Cuba Libra. This is rum, coke and a squeeze of lime.
For lunch I will probably have a Sidelines Special hot dog. It is a hot dog made with a Kiel Basa sausage, chili, onions, Cole slaw and sauerkraut. YUMMY!
Willie’s Nelson’s free concert was Sunday night. It was paid for by BP because of the oil spill. He opened with his signature song “Whiskey River.” Willie is probably the most traveled musician that ever existed. What has Willie NOT seen in his lifetime? There is rumor that after four days of I.W. Harper whiskey and grass with very little sleep, Willie was supposed to have a song for a movie ready by the end of the day when he finally sobered up. His bus driver said “Come on Willie, we have to get on the road.” Willie sat down and wrote “On the road again, we have to get back on the road again….” The song was ready in10 minutes. By the way, Willie wrote “Crazy” made famous by Patsy Cline and “Hello Walls” made famous by Faron Young among many, many others. My favorite is “Blue Eyes crying in the Rain”. What a treasure he is to us all.
The promoters of the “DeLuna Fest” were very pleased with the results of this weekend’s music fest and have planned another one in May.
I am sorry to report that I cannot find any gun duels, drive-by shootings, over-zealous cops stopping people for nothing, no robberies of a convenience store, etc. in this area. There were three DUI citations. But considering the number of people moving around this weekend that is a surprising statistic. The high temperature today will be about 81 with partly cloudy skies and calm winds. If there is a wind it will be from the Gulf of Mexico.
My eldest daughter and her paramour came over Sunday night and we watched her beloved Saints win. It was good to see her again.
This date in history October 19
1781 On this immortal day, after eight years of blood, sweat, toil and tears the British Army of 8,000 soldiers and sailors commanded by General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to the Patriot army commanded by General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia essentially ending the Revolutionary War in the United States. There were a few sea battles and skirmishes elsewhere afterward but the land war in America was over. Earlier in mid-September Cornwallis had retreated with his ragged army from the Carolinas after being bled white by several engagements with US General Nathaneal Greene. Greene did not win any of the engagements but made the British pay a tall price for each victory. Cornwallis decided to head back toward New York and the umbrella of British General Sir Henry Clinton and his troops. Cornwallis decided that it would be prudent to travel north up the east coast so as to have the British Navy close by for supply and reinforcements. The only problem was that the French fleet had arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay first and established a blockade the British navy could not breach which essentially isolated Cornwallis. Cornwallis and his troops dug in on Gloucester Hill near Yorktown. Washington sent the Marquis de Lafayette and 5,000 troops to cut off a retreat to the south and Washington and his troops sealed off a retreat to the north. With the French controlled Chesapeake Bay at his back, Cornwallis had no option but to surrender or risk total annihilation. On the afternoon of this day, Cornwallis feigned sickness and under a white flag sent his second in command, Colonel John O’Hara out with his sword. As the British troops stacked their arms their band played “The World Turned Upside Down.” In 1783 the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris which recognized the United States as a free and independent nation.
1864 Earlier CSA General Jubal Early and his army had free rein up and down the Shenandoah Valley and that aggravated the hell out of US General U.S.Grant and felt that Early was a threat to his flanks while having Petersburg, Virginia under siege. Grant sent US General Phillip Sheridan and 30,000 troops to neutralize Early. After a couple of battles near Winchester, Virginia, Sheridan lost contact with Early and did not know exactly where he and his army were. Sheridan was called to Washington for a conference and while he was gone, Early and his troops launched a surprise attack near Cedar Creek, Virginia. The stunned Yankees reeled backward for three miles before establishing a line a defense that slowed but did not stop the retreat. For reasons only known to Early, he slowed the advance and surrendered some of the advantage he had enjoyed. One of Early’s division commanders, CSA General John B. Gordon, was beside himself with anger and urged Early to pursue his advantage and annihilate this Yankee army while he had the chance but Early was unmoved. General Sheridan was on his way back from Washington and while passing through Winchester heard the sound of the battle and spurred into a gallop. He began running into some of his troops in retreat and ordered them to turn around and begin a counter-attack. Because Early had slowed his advance, the counter-attack succeeded and Early’s army was driven from the field while losing the greatest majority of their artillery. After this debacle Early was never a viable force in the Shenandoah Valley again allowing Sheridan to destroy the crops in the field. Early never explained why he slowed the advance but it cost him and the Confederacy a hell of a lot.
1812 In June of 1812 Napoleon Bonaparte and his enormous army of 500,000 launch an attack on Russia. This was the largest army ever assembled up until that time. The Russian army knew it would be fruitless to combat such an enormous army and set about a campaign of delay, harassment and destroying anything of use ahead of the Frenchmen. On September 10, Napoleon arrives at Moscow but finds no one home. The Russians had evacuated the entire city and they weren’t done yet. A day or two after Napoleon’s arrival, he started seeing flames and soon the entire city was ablaze which denied Napoleon and his army shelter for the infamous Russian winter which was already upon them. On this date, Napoleon decides that he had better head for the house and turned his army west and sets out. If there was ever hell on earth it was Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow with the Russian army nipping at his heels every step of the way. There is no use in me telling ya’ll what hell those troops suffered before arriving back in Europe. The Russians got ahead of them and burned each and every bridge they had to cross heading west making Napoleon’s engineers and his troops stay a little longer in the numbing cold of the winter while they rebuilt bridges. The final analysis was that Napoleon arrived back in France with only 100,000 of the original 500.000 troops. Even with this famous disaster known to the world, Adolph Hitler tried the same thing in 1942 with nearly the same result. Dictators with visions of glory are all the same, they seek fame and power at the expense of other’s lives.
A brief biography:
This is a short biography of a famous name in the Marine Corp. Daniel “Dan” Joseph Daly was born in Green Cove, New York in 1873 and joined the Marines in November of 1899. Daly wanted to get into the Spanish-American War but the war ended when he was in basic training. He was a small man being about 5’-6” and weighed about 130 pounds but during his career in the Marines Major General John A. Lejeune said called him “the most outstanding Marine of all time.” His commanding officer Major General Smedley D. Butler said of Daly “He was the fightingest Marine I ever knew, it was an object lesson to have served with him.”
After missing the Spanish-American War he was sent as part of Marine expeditionary force to China during the Boxer Rebellion. He was assigned the task of protecting the wall at the American legation. Left alone with only a bayoneted rifle, he was shot at by snipers and the wall was finally stormed by dozens of attackers. Daly held his ground and fought off the assault single handed. After the attackers retreated, there were 36 corpses either on the ground or lying across the wall. For his action here he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He achieved the rank of Gunnery Sergeant making him essentially a platoon leader. His next action was in Haiti during a rebellion. Daly’s platoon was surrounded by a group of raiders and the Marines knew they were in deep shit if they did not get more firepower. That night Daly snuck through the raider lines, located a machine gun that the Marines had to abandon the day before, and brought the gun and ammo back to his platoon undetected. The next morning the raiders attacked but were met not with the rifle fire of a few Marines but the withering fire of a machine gun. The raiders retreated post haste and Daly received his second Congressional Medal of Honor. And finally, at the age of 45, he and his platoon were part of the legendary Marine action at Belleau Wood in WWI. His platoon was pinned down by an avalanche of German artillery getting chopped to pieces. Daly went from man to man, machine gun position to machine gun position cheering his men. Finally, Daly ordered a bayonet charge and rose up and yelled the immortal words “Come on you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever?” Daly was wounded three times during this campaign. He was offered a commission more than once but refused saying “I had rather be an outstanding sergeant rather than an ordinary officer.” As you might suspect, he received a hell of a lot of publicity which he scorned and called the entire hubbub a lot of foolishness. Daly never married and did not drink. His bride was the Marine Corp. His only known sin was that he smoked a pipe stuffed with plug tobacco. There are many other acts of bravery and valor attributed to Daly beside these few examples above, Daly was the definition of an “Iron Man”. Strangely, his commanding officer Major General Smedley Butler also received two Congressional Medals of Honor for separate actions. After retirement Daly worked as a guard in a Wall Street bank. Daniel Joseph Daly died on February 6, 1937 in Glendale, Long Island, New York. There is a US Navy destroyer named for him. His remarkable record as a fighting man is unequaled in the annuls of Marine Corp history. I thought it would be nice to remember our brave military guys in a favorable light during these difficult and trying times.
Quotable quotes:
When asked why she never married, Gloria Steinem said “I cannot mate in captivity.” Hey Gloria, I damn sure can and have offsprings to prove it.
“Why do men get married? So they don’t have to hold their stomachs in anymore.” Red Skelton
Shut up, Red
“Basically my wife was immature. She would come into the bathroom while I was in the tub and sink all of my boats.” Woody Allen
“Why did God create men, because a vibrator can’t mow the lawn.” Madonna. You have to admire this broad, she really knows how to market herself.
Births and deaths:
1895 US writer Lewis Mumford is born. “Men of courage do not need weapons, but they may need bail.” Nearly all of the US Marine Commandants say the same thing.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Friday, October 15, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Time heals all griefs and sorrows, for we change and are no longer the persons we were.”
Pascal
THIS WILL BE THE LAST LESSON FOR A FEW DAYS…
Several times in my life I have spent a great deal of time researching different peoples that interested me such as the Vikings, the Egyptians and the people in the following vignette.
The Magnificent Maya
There is evidence that there were settlements on the Pacific coast of Mexico in 1,800 BC. By 1,000 BC there semi-organized city-states beginning to form in what is now the Mexican provinces of Oaxaca (pronounced “wa-sha-ka”) and Chiapas and further east into southern parts of the Yucatan Peninsula and on into Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. These are the Maya. Keep in mind that during the era of 1,300 BC the Egyptians were governed by Pharaoh Ramses II and if you are a believer in the bible, it was the time of Moses and Exodus of the Jews from Egypt and Europe was just a few villages. There were only Native Americans in North America living a primitive and nomadic existence. Only 700 miles south in the Amazon Rain forest the natives were living the most basic of existences and were indeed head-hunters. By in large only the Maya, the Chinese, the Egyptians and Mesopotamia were the only forward thinking civilizations out there. By the era of 200-700 AD the Maya had progressed into well defined city-states like Copan, Palenque and Bonampak among others and had began an explosion of building and the arts. They developed a written language and the concept of zero in mathematics. Their sculptures and wall murals are still breath-taking to this day. It was also during this time that they began building large structures that were larger at the bottom than the top, pyramids in other words. I do not know how the Mayan architects came by the pyramid concept. One would think that they had received guidance from another civilization to come up with the pyramid concept, but there is no evidence that the Maya had ever had contact with anyone other than other city-states so where did the idea come from? As far as I can tell, it is only the Egyptians and the Maya that built them. There are those that believe the Lost Tribe of Israel came to that area after the Exodus and that is when the idea came from, but that is one hell of a reach but it would explain a lot of things. The flood of Mayan civility spread northward into the Yucatan Peninsula resulting in the magnificent city-states of Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, Coba and Tulum among others. I think it is important to remember at this point that the Maya had no draft animals and they did not have the wheel. I went for visit to Coba once and there is a causeway that the Maya built without the wheel and draft animals across a jungle from Coba to a trading post of Yaxuna almost 60 miles away. To think what it took to wade around in that mosquito infested swamp dodging poisonous and constricting snakes along with the jaguars and build that causeway with sweat alone. Not only that, it is not believed that they had neither civil engineering skills nor a compass. How they built that causeway through that jungle straight as an arrow boggles the mind. This advance in civilization came about in the 700-800’s.AD. Think about what was going on in the world during that time. In Europe the Vikings held sway and the Mongolian hordes were threatening Eastern Europe under the leadership of Attila the Hun. I cannot think of any cities in Europe that could even compare with those of the Maya at that time. The Mayan influence spread far and wide and there is evidence of it in the land of the Olmecs or as they were later known, the Aztecs. These two civilizations, the Olmecs and the Maya, were 700 miles apart. As with human nature, as the city-states grew in wealth and stature, the kings of those cities began to look with greed upon the other city-states and widespread warfare and alliances ensued. This turmoil began to tear the city-states apart. This disintegration was not the only cause for the demise of the Maya glory days. There was a drought that was the worst in 7,000 years and the agrarian society of the Maya went down the toilet. The diet of the Maya was based almost entirely on maize or corn and squash. If they had a crop failure, they were in real trouble. The disintegration worked its way from south to north with the last city-states to succumb was those great cities near the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan peninsula. It was in the 1500’s that the last of the Mayan cities fell and were abandoned. The Maya are still with us. They are in those small villages throughout the whole of the ancient Mayan lands. They still have there own rites and customs but all are devout Roman Catholic mixed with some of their gods and idols that they refuse to give up. The all speak a variation of Quechua which was the language of the Maya. An entire civilization is destroyed because of greed and the weather. It just goes to show you how fragile we are. There is no reason for me to tell you that this small treatise covers all of the Mayan presence on the earth. After all, they were here for 3,000 years. We have been here in America for 400 years. We are just papooses in the history of civility.
This date in history October 15
1966 A 75 year old McKinney, Texas man earned the distinction of the world’s worst driver when he receives 10 traffic tickets in 20 minutes. He was cited for driving on the wrong side of the road four times, hit-and-run four times and causing six accidents. What’s the big deal here, it sounds like the average driver in Greenpatch. Just joking, but it is ironic that a native Texan has this distinction when Texas drivers are known as some of the best in the country especially in the Houston area. I have lived in the Houston area and let me tell ya’ll something; you must be an expert driver just to survive in that town. But, in truth what I observed was that the average person there was not in a real big rush and was polite and friendly and it showed in their driving habits.
1863 The Confederate submarine CSS Hunley sinks during a test run in Charleston harbor before a huge crowd of observers taking all aboard to a watery grave. After this disaster it was difficult for a crew to be found but a crew was found with the inventor, Horace Hunley, in command. On one fateful day the Hunley approached the Union blockader USS Housatonic, stuck a torpedo into its side and backed off and lit off the torpedo, sinking the Housatonic. Thus the Hunley became the first submarine in history to sink another ship in combat. The down side of this was that the Hunley sank on its way back in taking yet another crew to their death. The Hunley normally had a crew of eight with one man steering and seven men turning a crankshaft that turned the propeller. In the year 2000 the Hunley was found and raised and now rests in the Charleston Historical Museum. This reminds me of my late sister who was a Civil War historian such as me and was very excited about the raising of the Hunley. I miss her.
1878 On this day Thomas Edison opens the offices on Edison Electric Company. Edison had promised his investors that he would invent an electric light and did so setting off a lot of other small companies trying to feed off of this revolutionary invention. Edison was a brilliant inventor but was lost when it came to big business so big business men such as J.P. Morgan came to his aid and taught him how to be ruthless in the elimination of competition. This was possible because there were no anti-trust laws. Eventually Edison’s company became General Electric and soon thereafter another inventor name George Westinghouse opens his company, and the rest is history.
1946 German Herman Goering dies from cyanide poisoning. Herman was an aide and confidant to Hitler during WWII and rose to be one of the highest ranking officers in the 3rd Reich. Herman was a hero in WWI as a fighter pilot. In 1924 he was involved in a riot in Munich that started Hitler on his rise to power. During the riot Herman was injured in the leg and thus began Herman’s addiction to pain killers which stayed with him for the rest of his life. It was Herman that convinced Hitler that England could be brought to her knees by bombing alone and set about Operation Sea Lion which was designed for the defeat of England. But Herman and Hitler did not plan on the dogged determination of the British people. The bombing has little or no effect on the British spirit and morale and therefore Operation Sea Lion was scrapped. After this Herman became more and more depressed and took more and more drugs. After the surrender of Germany, Herman was tried as a war criminal because he advocated and promoted genocide of the Jews. Herman was convicted and sentenced to death on the gallows. On the set day of his execution, somehow Herman got his hands on a cyanide capsule and he missed the hanging. Too bad.
1886 Chiricahua Apache leader Victorio is killed south of El Paso. Victorio was born in 1807 in New Mexico and from an early age was in almost constant combat with the Mexicans that kept trying to move in on the people’s lands. After America kicked out the Mexicans, here us honkies doing the same thing with the same result which was almost constant warfare. For many years the US cavalry was unsuccessful in trying to capture the elusive Victorio and his band. Finally, Victorio was convinced to go to the San Carlos reservation in Arizona. After one summer with temperatures in the 120’s, Victorio said “Screw this” and he and his band pulled out and went back to New Mexico and eventually to Mexico. All Victorio wanted was for him and his people to be left alone on their own land. Somehow, this was not possible.
Births and deaths:
70 BC The Roman writer Virgil is born. Virgil once said “They are able because they think they are able.” Tell that to the Carolina Panthers.
1844 German philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche is born. He once said “Large states have mediocre education like large kitchens have mediocre food.” Hey Fredrick does this mean that Alaska’s people are not well educated? I don’t think so.
1921 The author of “The Godfather” Mario Puzo is born. Mario is credited with “One lawyer with a briefcase can steal more that 100 men with guns.” Indeed.
1924 Ex-Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca is born. Lee once said “After all, how much clean air do we really need?” I don’t know if Lee was kidding or not.
1959 One of my favorite people Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York is born. Sarah never let anyone or anything bother her. She is a cool customer.
1964 Songwriter Cole Porter dies. Cole was one of the most influential songwriters of our time with songs like “Night and Day” among others. Cole was always unsure about his gender.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Time heals all griefs and sorrows, for we change and are no longer the persons we were.”
Pascal
THIS WILL BE THE LAST LESSON FOR A FEW DAYS…
Several times in my life I have spent a great deal of time researching different peoples that interested me such as the Vikings, the Egyptians and the people in the following vignette.
The Magnificent Maya
There is evidence that there were settlements on the Pacific coast of Mexico in 1,800 BC. By 1,000 BC there semi-organized city-states beginning to form in what is now the Mexican provinces of Oaxaca (pronounced “wa-sha-ka”) and Chiapas and further east into southern parts of the Yucatan Peninsula and on into Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. These are the Maya. Keep in mind that during the era of 1,300 BC the Egyptians were governed by Pharaoh Ramses II and if you are a believer in the bible, it was the time of Moses and Exodus of the Jews from Egypt and Europe was just a few villages. There were only Native Americans in North America living a primitive and nomadic existence. Only 700 miles south in the Amazon Rain forest the natives were living the most basic of existences and were indeed head-hunters. By in large only the Maya, the Chinese, the Egyptians and Mesopotamia were the only forward thinking civilizations out there. By the era of 200-700 AD the Maya had progressed into well defined city-states like Copan, Palenque and Bonampak among others and had began an explosion of building and the arts. They developed a written language and the concept of zero in mathematics. Their sculptures and wall murals are still breath-taking to this day. It was also during this time that they began building large structures that were larger at the bottom than the top, pyramids in other words. I do not know how the Mayan architects came by the pyramid concept. One would think that they had received guidance from another civilization to come up with the pyramid concept, but there is no evidence that the Maya had ever had contact with anyone other than other city-states so where did the idea come from? As far as I can tell, it is only the Egyptians and the Maya that built them. There are those that believe the Lost Tribe of Israel came to that area after the Exodus and that is when the idea came from, but that is one hell of a reach but it would explain a lot of things. The flood of Mayan civility spread northward into the Yucatan Peninsula resulting in the magnificent city-states of Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, Coba and Tulum among others. I think it is important to remember at this point that the Maya had no draft animals and they did not have the wheel. I went for visit to Coba once and there is a causeway that the Maya built without the wheel and draft animals across a jungle from Coba to a trading post of Yaxuna almost 60 miles away. To think what it took to wade around in that mosquito infested swamp dodging poisonous and constricting snakes along with the jaguars and build that causeway with sweat alone. Not only that, it is not believed that they had neither civil engineering skills nor a compass. How they built that causeway through that jungle straight as an arrow boggles the mind. This advance in civilization came about in the 700-800’s.AD. Think about what was going on in the world during that time. In Europe the Vikings held sway and the Mongolian hordes were threatening Eastern Europe under the leadership of Attila the Hun. I cannot think of any cities in Europe that could even compare with those of the Maya at that time. The Mayan influence spread far and wide and there is evidence of it in the land of the Olmecs or as they were later known, the Aztecs. These two civilizations, the Olmecs and the Maya, were 700 miles apart. As with human nature, as the city-states grew in wealth and stature, the kings of those cities began to look with greed upon the other city-states and widespread warfare and alliances ensued. This turmoil began to tear the city-states apart. This disintegration was not the only cause for the demise of the Maya glory days. There was a drought that was the worst in 7,000 years and the agrarian society of the Maya went down the toilet. The diet of the Maya was based almost entirely on maize or corn and squash. If they had a crop failure, they were in real trouble. The disintegration worked its way from south to north with the last city-states to succumb was those great cities near the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan peninsula. It was in the 1500’s that the last of the Mayan cities fell and were abandoned. The Maya are still with us. They are in those small villages throughout the whole of the ancient Mayan lands. They still have there own rites and customs but all are devout Roman Catholic mixed with some of their gods and idols that they refuse to give up. The all speak a variation of Quechua which was the language of the Maya. An entire civilization is destroyed because of greed and the weather. It just goes to show you how fragile we are. There is no reason for me to tell you that this small treatise covers all of the Mayan presence on the earth. After all, they were here for 3,000 years. We have been here in America for 400 years. We are just papooses in the history of civility.
This date in history October 15
1966 A 75 year old McKinney, Texas man earned the distinction of the world’s worst driver when he receives 10 traffic tickets in 20 minutes. He was cited for driving on the wrong side of the road four times, hit-and-run four times and causing six accidents. What’s the big deal here, it sounds like the average driver in Greenpatch. Just joking, but it is ironic that a native Texan has this distinction when Texas drivers are known as some of the best in the country especially in the Houston area. I have lived in the Houston area and let me tell ya’ll something; you must be an expert driver just to survive in that town. But, in truth what I observed was that the average person there was not in a real big rush and was polite and friendly and it showed in their driving habits.
1863 The Confederate submarine CSS Hunley sinks during a test run in Charleston harbor before a huge crowd of observers taking all aboard to a watery grave. After this disaster it was difficult for a crew to be found but a crew was found with the inventor, Horace Hunley, in command. On one fateful day the Hunley approached the Union blockader USS Housatonic, stuck a torpedo into its side and backed off and lit off the torpedo, sinking the Housatonic. Thus the Hunley became the first submarine in history to sink another ship in combat. The down side of this was that the Hunley sank on its way back in taking yet another crew to their death. The Hunley normally had a crew of eight with one man steering and seven men turning a crankshaft that turned the propeller. In the year 2000 the Hunley was found and raised and now rests in the Charleston Historical Museum. This reminds me of my late sister who was a Civil War historian such as me and was very excited about the raising of the Hunley. I miss her.
1878 On this day Thomas Edison opens the offices on Edison Electric Company. Edison had promised his investors that he would invent an electric light and did so setting off a lot of other small companies trying to feed off of this revolutionary invention. Edison was a brilliant inventor but was lost when it came to big business so big business men such as J.P. Morgan came to his aid and taught him how to be ruthless in the elimination of competition. This was possible because there were no anti-trust laws. Eventually Edison’s company became General Electric and soon thereafter another inventor name George Westinghouse opens his company, and the rest is history.
1946 German Herman Goering dies from cyanide poisoning. Herman was an aide and confidant to Hitler during WWII and rose to be one of the highest ranking officers in the 3rd Reich. Herman was a hero in WWI as a fighter pilot. In 1924 he was involved in a riot in Munich that started Hitler on his rise to power. During the riot Herman was injured in the leg and thus began Herman’s addiction to pain killers which stayed with him for the rest of his life. It was Herman that convinced Hitler that England could be brought to her knees by bombing alone and set about Operation Sea Lion which was designed for the defeat of England. But Herman and Hitler did not plan on the dogged determination of the British people. The bombing has little or no effect on the British spirit and morale and therefore Operation Sea Lion was scrapped. After this Herman became more and more depressed and took more and more drugs. After the surrender of Germany, Herman was tried as a war criminal because he advocated and promoted genocide of the Jews. Herman was convicted and sentenced to death on the gallows. On the set day of his execution, somehow Herman got his hands on a cyanide capsule and he missed the hanging. Too bad.
1886 Chiricahua Apache leader Victorio is killed south of El Paso. Victorio was born in 1807 in New Mexico and from an early age was in almost constant combat with the Mexicans that kept trying to move in on the people’s lands. After America kicked out the Mexicans, here us honkies doing the same thing with the same result which was almost constant warfare. For many years the US cavalry was unsuccessful in trying to capture the elusive Victorio and his band. Finally, Victorio was convinced to go to the San Carlos reservation in Arizona. After one summer with temperatures in the 120’s, Victorio said “Screw this” and he and his band pulled out and went back to New Mexico and eventually to Mexico. All Victorio wanted was for him and his people to be left alone on their own land. Somehow, this was not possible.
Births and deaths:
70 BC The Roman writer Virgil is born. Virgil once said “They are able because they think they are able.” Tell that to the Carolina Panthers.
1844 German philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche is born. He once said “Large states have mediocre education like large kitchens have mediocre food.” Hey Fredrick does this mean that Alaska’s people are not well educated? I don’t think so.
1921 The author of “The Godfather” Mario Puzo is born. Mario is credited with “One lawyer with a briefcase can steal more that 100 men with guns.” Indeed.
1924 Ex-Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca is born. Lee once said “After all, how much clean air do we really need?” I don’t know if Lee was kidding or not.
1959 One of my favorite people Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York is born. Sarah never let anyone or anything bother her. She is a cool customer.
1964 Songwriter Cole Porter dies. Cole was one of the most influential songwriters of our time with songs like “Night and Day” among others. Cole was always unsure about his gender.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“All men make mistakes, but it is the married men that find out about it sooner.”
Red Skelton
I hate to nag but here is one more misuse of words that gets under my skin. That is the word “want”. Want means “desire or need.” But it is frequently used as a negative. For instance: “I really want (desire) that woman, but she “want”?? have me.” In this syntax It should read “but she won't have me.” “Won't is a contraction for “will not”. I will shut up now....nah I really won't.
Down in Summerville, SC the city council is on the cusp of passing a city ordinance that makes any business in the city limits to prove they have checked the immigration legitimacy of all their employees before getting business license. Summerville is just north of Charleston and is a bedroom community of upper middle class and higher level income households. The city council stated that the Federal Government has chosen to not take a stand on illegal immigration so they feel that it is up to every community to do so. Good for the Summerville city council. By the way, I don't know if y'all read it or not but 20 tourists in the Acapulco, Mexico area have been kidnapped and they have not found them yet even after two weeks of searching. In fact the kidnappers fire at anyone they think is part of the search. That is how the Mexican drug cartel makes extra money with the ransoms. Let's lighten up on the border and let those vermin in our country along with those that are trying to make a living. Surely we can tell the difference...right?
Down in Orangeburg, SC a woman called cops about her daughter who had called her crying about a fight with her boyfriend. The cops showed up at the designated house and sure enough they heard a loud argument in progress. They surrounded the house and knocked on the front door. A woman in tears showed up and the cops saw a male retreating to the back of the house. They pulled the woman out of the house and entered guns drawn. They heard a cop from the back of the house yell “He has a gun”. The perpetrator tried to sneak out a small bedroom window but there was a cop with a shotgun who order him to come out peacefully of come out in pieces. The man meekly surrendered. Listen to this: This guy was a convicted felon and in the house they found a .45 automatic pistol, a sawed off shotgun, an SKS assault rifle (similar to an AK-47), a quantity of crack cocaine (more than 3 times this has happened), a quantity of regular cocaine (more than three times). The cops said that he will be charged with possession of narcotics with intent to distribute and will probably get 20 years for that alone, not to mention the firearms with him being a convicted felon. Then this moron gets involved in an argument that will likely attract the police. Add to the charges against him extreme stupidity with the intent to go to the joint.
Over in Greenwich, England 9 year old Beatrice Delap wrote a letter to Johnny Depp and asked him to come to her primary (elementary) school and help lead a “mutiny” against her teachers. Evidently Beatrice is a fan of “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie series. Depp is in southeast London shooting yet another “pirate” movie and so this past Friday Depp showed up in little Beatrice's classroom fully dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. What thrill that had to be for those kids, not to mention Johnny Depp. By the way, Depp spends most of his time in France. When asked why he lived in France he said “Over here I can walk down the street without being mobbed by the paparazzi.”
This date in history October 14
1947 On this date United States Air Force ace Captain Charles “Chuck” Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in history. Chuck was USAF test pilot driving a Bell X-1 rocket plane that was taken to 40,000 feet attached to the belly of a B-29 and then released whereupon Chuck fired up the rocket engine and began climbing and accelerating at a hitherto unheard of rate. At about 60,000 the plane achieved 663 MPH which was the speed of sound at that altitude. This event was so secret that it was not announced until a year later. Previously aircraft “experts” believed that the speed of sound was not achievable because the drag on the airframe would tear it apart. That just goes to show you what so-called “experts” know. Anyway, Chuck made several other supersonic flights successfully. By the way, Chuck was a P-51 fighter pilot during WWII and was indeed an ace meaning he shot down five or more enemy aircraft. He was shot down himself over France but was concealed by the French underground and hustled back to his base in England to fly again. In the early days of supersonic flight it was pretty much a contest between Chuck and civilian test pilot Scott Crossfield as to who would fly the fastest. I do not remember who won this contest but all the flights originated at Edwards Air Force Base out on the California desert. No one with the knowledge will admit to this day where the high flying SR-71 Blackbird capable of Mach 3 (2,500 MPH) and altitudes above 60,000 feet or the F-117 stealth fighter was developed but it wasn’t at Edwards. The only other explanation would be at the infamous Area 51 (Groom’s Lake) on the southwestern Nevada desert which its very existence has been denied since 1964. I recently opened up Google Earth and zoomed in on that area and found Area 51 on a satellite view. The US government that denied its existence before now says that they have closed the base. When I zoomed in close I could see one or two aircraft on the ramp. They looked like C-130 Hercules. Maybe they were there picking up some leftover furniture. Yeah, right.
1066 On this date William, The Duke of Normandy (France) lands on the south coast of England near Pevensey along with 7,000 troops and a company of cavalry to claim his right to the throne of England. Earlier about 1051 William claimed that the King of England, Edward the Confessor, had promised the throne to William upon his death because he had no heirs. However, on his deathbed Edward named Harold Godwine as his successor. Harold was a member of a very influential family in England. He was titled Harold II, King of England and assumed the throne. A few weeks before the arrival of William, England was invaded from the north by a combined force of William’s brother Tostic and an army of Vikings. Harold and his army met the Vikings at Stamford Bridge in northern England and administered a severe ass-whipping to the Vikings almost to the point of annihilation and they did it the hard way with swords, pikes, axes and clubs. Anyway, the Vikings gathered up what they could, ran like rats to where their boats were beached on the Humber River and sailed their young asses back to Scandinavia. About the time the battle ended, a messenger arrived and told Harold about William and company landing on the south coast. Harold began a 29 day forced march toward Pevensey gathering recruits along the way. Harold arrived in the area of Pevensey and found William’s army within a rocks throw of the town of Hastings thus that is why it is called the Battle of Hastings. Harold dug in on the high ground to minimize the effect of the cavalry and awaited Williams attack. William did not disappoint and began a general assault. But Harold was right, the steep flanks of the hill diluted the cavalry’s effectiveness but William skillfully redeployed his archers and infantry and began again. During this attack, Harold received an arrow in the eye but was not killed. Then a French mounted knight broke through Harold’s defensive line and beheaded Harold with one sweep of his sword. After this the English army melted away. William continued to London and went in unopposed. He was crowned the King of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day thus ending the lineage of Anglo-Saxon rule in Britain. William did not forget Harold’s bravery and had an abbey erected where Harold died with the high altar on the very spot. As usual, a village grew up around that abbey and that village is named Battle.
1912 President Theodore Roosevelt was preparing to make a speech in Milwaukee during his campaign to gain the presidency for the third time in spite of what the Constitution read. If was to be re-elected he would have win by write-in votes. While greeting people in front of the Hotel Gilpatrick a man named John Schrank walked up and pumped a .32 caliber bullet into Roosevelt’s chest at point blank range. Schrank was immediately detained but Teddy went on in the auditorium and made an hour long speech with the bullet still in him. Teddy had a heavy coat on and a glass case and a manuscript in the breast pocket that slowed down the bullet. After the speech Teddy pulled out the bloody manuscript and said “It take more that a bullet to kill a “Bull Moose”. The Bull Moose was the nickname for his political party. Anyway, after he completed the speech he was rushed to the hospital and had the bullet removed. When asked why he had shot Teddy, Schrank said “Anybody that would run for President three times needs to be shot.” The end result of all of this is that Roosevelt was defeated by Woodrow Wilson and Schrank spent the rest of his days in an asylum.
1976 A man named Marshal Cummings, Jr. is charged with attempted robbery in a purse snatching incident in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Cummings rejected a court appointed attorney and decided to act as his own attorney. His actions later reinforced the phrase that “He who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client.” Cummings called the victim to testify and the first question he asked was “Did you get a good look at my face when I snatched your purse?” Marshal went to the slammer for 10 years.
1944 Earlier an attempt was made of the life of Adolph Hitler during a meeting when a bomb in a brief case was placed under the table by one of Hitler’s generals who then left under the guise of having to make a phone call. This plan was devised by several Hitler’s generals and name Operation Valkirie. The bomb was on a timer and when the bomb went off, the room and the building was destroyed killing three people, but not Hitler. He was wounded but was back on his feet the next day. After the explosion, the conspirators put the rest of Operation Valkirie into effect believing Hitler was dead. Well, when they found out that Hitler was not dead, they knew the sh-t was going to hit the fan. And sure enough, Hitler went through the ranks of his military hierarchy and murdered many of them. But Hitler came to find out that his most successful general Field Marshal Erwin Rommel who kicked ass in North Africa for a while, even though was not part of the conspiracy, should have known of its existence. So representatives of Hitler paid Rommel a visit at his home and told him that he had two choices. Stand trial for the conspiracy and his family would receive no assistance and live in shame, or commit suicide and get a hero’s funeral and his family would be cared for. On this date Rommel committed suicide with poison. The news of his death was explained that he had died of wounds received in earlier combat. Sure enough, Rommel’s funeral was a pure spectacle with all the pomp and circumstance that had been promised. It was good for us because if Rommel had led the breakout in the Battle of the Bulge we might still be fighting.
Born today:
1888 New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield. She said “How idiotic civilization is! Why are you given a body and have to keep it in a case like a rare fiddle.” Obviously Katherine is talking of the days of tight corsets and chastity belts and not of present day thong Bikinis.
1890 US President Dwight Eisenhower. He said “An atheist is a person that can watch a football game between Notre Dame and Southern Methodist University and doesn’t care who wins.” I don’t care who wins as long as Notre Dame loses.
1906 German political activist Hannah Arendt. She said “Even the most fervent revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.” Good vision there, Hannah.
Died today:
1885 US writer Josh Billings. He said “Flattery is like cologne, it is to be smelled but not swallowed.”
1977 US entertainer Bing Crosby. His last words were “That was a great round of golf, fellers.” My father loved Bing.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“All men make mistakes, but it is the married men that find out about it sooner.”
Red Skelton
I hate to nag but here is one more misuse of words that gets under my skin. That is the word “want”. Want means “desire or need.” But it is frequently used as a negative. For instance: “I really want (desire) that woman, but she “want”?? have me.” In this syntax It should read “but she won't have me.” “Won't is a contraction for “will not”. I will shut up now....nah I really won't.
Down in Summerville, SC the city council is on the cusp of passing a city ordinance that makes any business in the city limits to prove they have checked the immigration legitimacy of all their employees before getting business license. Summerville is just north of Charleston and is a bedroom community of upper middle class and higher level income households. The city council stated that the Federal Government has chosen to not take a stand on illegal immigration so they feel that it is up to every community to do so. Good for the Summerville city council. By the way, I don't know if y'all read it or not but 20 tourists in the Acapulco, Mexico area have been kidnapped and they have not found them yet even after two weeks of searching. In fact the kidnappers fire at anyone they think is part of the search. That is how the Mexican drug cartel makes extra money with the ransoms. Let's lighten up on the border and let those vermin in our country along with those that are trying to make a living. Surely we can tell the difference...right?
Down in Orangeburg, SC a woman called cops about her daughter who had called her crying about a fight with her boyfriend. The cops showed up at the designated house and sure enough they heard a loud argument in progress. They surrounded the house and knocked on the front door. A woman in tears showed up and the cops saw a male retreating to the back of the house. They pulled the woman out of the house and entered guns drawn. They heard a cop from the back of the house yell “He has a gun”. The perpetrator tried to sneak out a small bedroom window but there was a cop with a shotgun who order him to come out peacefully of come out in pieces. The man meekly surrendered. Listen to this: This guy was a convicted felon and in the house they found a .45 automatic pistol, a sawed off shotgun, an SKS assault rifle (similar to an AK-47), a quantity of crack cocaine (more than 3 times this has happened), a quantity of regular cocaine (more than three times). The cops said that he will be charged with possession of narcotics with intent to distribute and will probably get 20 years for that alone, not to mention the firearms with him being a convicted felon. Then this moron gets involved in an argument that will likely attract the police. Add to the charges against him extreme stupidity with the intent to go to the joint.
Over in Greenwich, England 9 year old Beatrice Delap wrote a letter to Johnny Depp and asked him to come to her primary (elementary) school and help lead a “mutiny” against her teachers. Evidently Beatrice is a fan of “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie series. Depp is in southeast London shooting yet another “pirate” movie and so this past Friday Depp showed up in little Beatrice's classroom fully dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. What thrill that had to be for those kids, not to mention Johnny Depp. By the way, Depp spends most of his time in France. When asked why he lived in France he said “Over here I can walk down the street without being mobbed by the paparazzi.”
This date in history October 14
1947 On this date United States Air Force ace Captain Charles “Chuck” Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in history. Chuck was USAF test pilot driving a Bell X-1 rocket plane that was taken to 40,000 feet attached to the belly of a B-29 and then released whereupon Chuck fired up the rocket engine and began climbing and accelerating at a hitherto unheard of rate. At about 60,000 the plane achieved 663 MPH which was the speed of sound at that altitude. This event was so secret that it was not announced until a year later. Previously aircraft “experts” believed that the speed of sound was not achievable because the drag on the airframe would tear it apart. That just goes to show you what so-called “experts” know. Anyway, Chuck made several other supersonic flights successfully. By the way, Chuck was a P-51 fighter pilot during WWII and was indeed an ace meaning he shot down five or more enemy aircraft. He was shot down himself over France but was concealed by the French underground and hustled back to his base in England to fly again. In the early days of supersonic flight it was pretty much a contest between Chuck and civilian test pilot Scott Crossfield as to who would fly the fastest. I do not remember who won this contest but all the flights originated at Edwards Air Force Base out on the California desert. No one with the knowledge will admit to this day where the high flying SR-71 Blackbird capable of Mach 3 (2,500 MPH) and altitudes above 60,000 feet or the F-117 stealth fighter was developed but it wasn’t at Edwards. The only other explanation would be at the infamous Area 51 (Groom’s Lake) on the southwestern Nevada desert which its very existence has been denied since 1964. I recently opened up Google Earth and zoomed in on that area and found Area 51 on a satellite view. The US government that denied its existence before now says that they have closed the base. When I zoomed in close I could see one or two aircraft on the ramp. They looked like C-130 Hercules. Maybe they were there picking up some leftover furniture. Yeah, right.
1066 On this date William, The Duke of Normandy (France) lands on the south coast of England near Pevensey along with 7,000 troops and a company of cavalry to claim his right to the throne of England. Earlier about 1051 William claimed that the King of England, Edward the Confessor, had promised the throne to William upon his death because he had no heirs. However, on his deathbed Edward named Harold Godwine as his successor. Harold was a member of a very influential family in England. He was titled Harold II, King of England and assumed the throne. A few weeks before the arrival of William, England was invaded from the north by a combined force of William’s brother Tostic and an army of Vikings. Harold and his army met the Vikings at Stamford Bridge in northern England and administered a severe ass-whipping to the Vikings almost to the point of annihilation and they did it the hard way with swords, pikes, axes and clubs. Anyway, the Vikings gathered up what they could, ran like rats to where their boats were beached on the Humber River and sailed their young asses back to Scandinavia. About the time the battle ended, a messenger arrived and told Harold about William and company landing on the south coast. Harold began a 29 day forced march toward Pevensey gathering recruits along the way. Harold arrived in the area of Pevensey and found William’s army within a rocks throw of the town of Hastings thus that is why it is called the Battle of Hastings. Harold dug in on the high ground to minimize the effect of the cavalry and awaited Williams attack. William did not disappoint and began a general assault. But Harold was right, the steep flanks of the hill diluted the cavalry’s effectiveness but William skillfully redeployed his archers and infantry and began again. During this attack, Harold received an arrow in the eye but was not killed. Then a French mounted knight broke through Harold’s defensive line and beheaded Harold with one sweep of his sword. After this the English army melted away. William continued to London and went in unopposed. He was crowned the King of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day thus ending the lineage of Anglo-Saxon rule in Britain. William did not forget Harold’s bravery and had an abbey erected where Harold died with the high altar on the very spot. As usual, a village grew up around that abbey and that village is named Battle.
1912 President Theodore Roosevelt was preparing to make a speech in Milwaukee during his campaign to gain the presidency for the third time in spite of what the Constitution read. If was to be re-elected he would have win by write-in votes. While greeting people in front of the Hotel Gilpatrick a man named John Schrank walked up and pumped a .32 caliber bullet into Roosevelt’s chest at point blank range. Schrank was immediately detained but Teddy went on in the auditorium and made an hour long speech with the bullet still in him. Teddy had a heavy coat on and a glass case and a manuscript in the breast pocket that slowed down the bullet. After the speech Teddy pulled out the bloody manuscript and said “It take more that a bullet to kill a “Bull Moose”. The Bull Moose was the nickname for his political party. Anyway, after he completed the speech he was rushed to the hospital and had the bullet removed. When asked why he had shot Teddy, Schrank said “Anybody that would run for President three times needs to be shot.” The end result of all of this is that Roosevelt was defeated by Woodrow Wilson and Schrank spent the rest of his days in an asylum.
1976 A man named Marshal Cummings, Jr. is charged with attempted robbery in a purse snatching incident in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Cummings rejected a court appointed attorney and decided to act as his own attorney. His actions later reinforced the phrase that “He who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client.” Cummings called the victim to testify and the first question he asked was “Did you get a good look at my face when I snatched your purse?” Marshal went to the slammer for 10 years.
1944 Earlier an attempt was made of the life of Adolph Hitler during a meeting when a bomb in a brief case was placed under the table by one of Hitler’s generals who then left under the guise of having to make a phone call. This plan was devised by several Hitler’s generals and name Operation Valkirie. The bomb was on a timer and when the bomb went off, the room and the building was destroyed killing three people, but not Hitler. He was wounded but was back on his feet the next day. After the explosion, the conspirators put the rest of Operation Valkirie into effect believing Hitler was dead. Well, when they found out that Hitler was not dead, they knew the sh-t was going to hit the fan. And sure enough, Hitler went through the ranks of his military hierarchy and murdered many of them. But Hitler came to find out that his most successful general Field Marshal Erwin Rommel who kicked ass in North Africa for a while, even though was not part of the conspiracy, should have known of its existence. So representatives of Hitler paid Rommel a visit at his home and told him that he had two choices. Stand trial for the conspiracy and his family would receive no assistance and live in shame, or commit suicide and get a hero’s funeral and his family would be cared for. On this date Rommel committed suicide with poison. The news of his death was explained that he had died of wounds received in earlier combat. Sure enough, Rommel’s funeral was a pure spectacle with all the pomp and circumstance that had been promised. It was good for us because if Rommel had led the breakout in the Battle of the Bulge we might still be fighting.
Born today:
1888 New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield. She said “How idiotic civilization is! Why are you given a body and have to keep it in a case like a rare fiddle.” Obviously Katherine is talking of the days of tight corsets and chastity belts and not of present day thong Bikinis.
1890 US President Dwight Eisenhower. He said “An atheist is a person that can watch a football game between Notre Dame and Southern Methodist University and doesn’t care who wins.” I don’t care who wins as long as Notre Dame loses.
1906 German political activist Hannah Arendt. She said “Even the most fervent revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.” Good vision there, Hannah.
Died today:
1885 US writer Josh Billings. He said “Flattery is like cologne, it is to be smelled but not swallowed.”
1977 US entertainer Bing Crosby. His last words were “That was a great round of golf, fellers.” My father loved Bing.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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