Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Who was the guy that looked at a cow and said ‘I think I will drink whatever comes out of those things when I squeeze them?”
Bill Watterson
In the last two months here in Greenville, South Carolina there have been a rash of carjacking/robberies along with just plain stick-ups and all of them were reinforced by one of the three people involved carrying a rifle. There were at least 4 incidences. This weekend all three of the robbers were captured. They were two kids that were 17 years old and one that was 16. They all will be tried as an adult meaning that they will do at least 20 years each. Their lives are ruined. For the life of me I do not understand how teenagers think they can get away with one crime after another and not do hard time. That, my friends, is the epitome of stupidity.
I am not sure what all the unrest in Tunisia and Egypt is but it worked in Tunisia because the president of Tunisia hit the freaking road because he thought he would be assassinated. President Mubarak of Egypt saw it a different way. He had the news media shut down, all the internet servers and phones were disabled and finally he captured a hell of a lot of CNN camera that were sending their pictures to satellites. The coup-de-etat came when he sent in the Egyptian Marines. The rioters were angry but the reputation of the ruthlessness of the Egyptian Marines was enough to calm things down…for a while…then the protestors got their second wind and hit the streets again. A few policemen stripped off their uniforms and joined the protestors. It will not be over until Mubarak takes a hike.
There was a concert a few days ago at the Music Barn in Charleston, SC. The big acts were Juicy J and Twista. I have visited this place when I was working in Charleston or “Chucktown” as the natives call it. The cops were called three times during this concert. All incidents involved fights involved drunken males between the age of 25 and 30, as you might suspect. There was a lot of shouting and waving but no blows were struck because the cops were standing right there with pepper spray and/or Tasers at hand. One of the alcohol soaked men was told by the management not to come back in the presence of the police. This dumb-ass said “I don’t care what you say, I coming in.” After a duel with a Taser he found himself in handcuffs French kissing the concrete and was arrested. All he had to do was to keep his stupid trap shut and he would have went home rather than at least 13 hours in the drunk tank. Here is yet another example of stupidity in the sovereign state of South Carolina.
This date in history January 31
1865 Earlier United States President Abraham Lincoln had declared that the purpose of the Civil War was to preserve the Union. But after the major ass-kickings the Union army had received during the first year of the War, the northern public said “To hell with it, let the Rebs have their own country, stop the bloodbath.” So Abe had to take another tack to get the country back together so he now changed horses and said the purpose of the War was to free the slaves. It had been noticed that when the Union Army infrequently won a battle, the slaves nearby would join-up with the Yankee soldiers and they would not give them back to their owners. Then Abe issued the Emancipation Proclamation which allegedly freed the slaves in those states in rebellion. Abe’s advisors had in mind that those slaves in the Confederacy would rise up in rebellion upon hearing of the Emancipation but they were wrong, it did not happen and Abe stood there with egg on his face. The Confederacy did not consider themselves “states in rebellion”. They considered themselves as a separate and equally sovereign nation. Not only that there were four states that had slaves but had not seceded. What happened to those slaves? And finally, the Proclamation was not enforceable. I don’t know what Abe was thinking but the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t worth paper it was written on. It took the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, that was ratified on this date, to get the job done and it read in part ...”neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States nor any place subject to their jurisdiction....” Now the law had some teeth. This amendment passed the Senate and a House vote of 119-65, barely enough of a majority. The bill was introduced in 1864 but failed to pass the House vote because of “states rights” issues.
1923 One of my favorite writers is born on this day. Norman Mailer is born in Long Branch, New Jersey and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Norman was seen as a gifted child at an early age and was given a scholarship to Harvard during WWII but delayed his education and joined the army. After the war he attended the Sorbonne in Paris. While there he was encouraged to pursue his obvious writing skills and gave us one of the greatest war novels ever written in “The Naked and the Dead”. It is very unusual for an author to deliver such a blockbuster on their first try. He wrote a couple of more novels that were not as successful as his first. Norman joined the peace protest march in Washington in 1967 and wrote about his experiences in the book “Armies of the Night” and received a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for this one. Later he gave us another winner in “The Executioners Song”. It is the story of the last few days and months of convicted serial killer Gary Gilmore before Gary met his maker in front of a firing squad in Utah. Again, Norman received a Pulitzer Prize and another National Book Award. Norman is known as a two-fisted drinker/brawler and avid anti-feminists. He has written about nearly everything and everyone. He has written about politics, war, religion, etc and written biographies on people like Marilyn Monroe and Richard Nixon among many others. He wrote about the Chicago police riot during the Democratic National convention. His irascible nature and anti-feminisms has made him one of the most controversial in the entire literary world. It had been reported that he got into an argument with actor Rip Torn and the mother of all brawls ensued. He got into an argument with his wife at a party and chose to stab her in the arm. But no matter, Norman Mailer is one of the most versatile and talented writers this country has ever produced. Not that it matters, Norman is Jewish.
1945 During the later years of WWII the United States were running out of soldiers and lowered the draft requirements. Eddie Slovik had originally been rejected because of a Grand Theft Auto conviction. Since the lowering of the standards Slovik was re-classified as 1-A, trained and sent to France to join the 28th Division as a private. Slovik got lost in the turmoil of battle and ended up with a Canadian outfit. Slovik was a hater of guns and a pacifist and refused to fight. The Canadians finally got fed up with Slovik and turned him over to MP’s of the 28th Division. Slovik tells his commanding officer that he does not want to fight and runs away to the Canadians again. He is again returned to the MP’s of the 28th Division. This time his commander gives him a choice to go immediately to his combat team or face a firing squad. Slovik refuses and a date is set for his execution. He appeals to General Dwight Eisenhower but this is a bad time for this because the Battle of the Bulge was underway and American soldiers were dying by the hundreds. Eisenhower rejects Slovik’s appeal and on this date at dawn, a firing squad of twelve riflemen ends the life of Private Eddie Slovik for cowardice and desertion. He was the first man in the United States military that was executed since the Civil War. It was reported that the men in the firing squad never flinched because they believed he was getting what he deserved. Maybe so, maybe not.
1872 Future western writer Zane Grey is born to a wealthy family in Zanesville, Illinois. He is encouraged to become what his father is, a dentist. He also develops a good fist fighting technique because of his given name. In their wisdom, his parents had named him Pearl. It was later that he changed his name to Zane. Zane had a talent for baseball and is given a scholarship to Penn to play baseball while attending a school for dentistry. After graduating he moved to New York and opens a practice. Zane quickly determines that he hated the dentistry business and is on the alert for any other vocation so he tries writing. He wrote an unsuccessful novel about his ancestry and it looked like it might be a boring life of dentistry for Zane. Then he met a man named “Buffalo” Jones, an explorer of the American west. Zane was encouraged to write by Jones and so Zane wrote a novel about the life of Jones called “The Last of the Plainsmen” The novel received little attention so Jones took Zane on a tour of the great American west. This tour formed Zane’s life forever and western novels became his forte’. In 1912 he delivered to the world the eternal western novel “Riders of the Purple Sage”. It was similar to the famous novel by Owen Wister “The Virginian” whereby a tenderfoot easterner comes west and learns what it takes to survive in a hostile environment and finds out things about himself that he did not know before. Zane wrote 78 western novels which made him a very wealthy man. He loved to big game fish and some of his records for big fish have never been broken and he fished on many an expedition with Ernest Hemingway. It was his descriptions of the great southwest like the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest that makes me want to go for a tour there to this day. His death was a loss for us all, but his books endure.
Born today:
1892 US entertainer Eddie Cantor. He said “Every time I see a Most Wanted list I have this thought. If they had been wanted in their youth, would they be wanted now?” I wonder if Atilla the Hun was wanted as a youth.
1905 US writer John O’Hara. He said “So who is perfect? Washington had false teeth, Ben Franklin was nearsighted, Mussolini had syphilis, unpleasant things have been said about Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde, Tchaikovsky had his problems too, and Lincoln was constipated a lot.” That is really ironic that thousands of troops on both sides in the Civil war died of dysentery.
1921 US actor John Agar. He said “Hell I don’t drink anymore than John Wayne, Ward Bond, Spencer Tracy, Alan Ladd or Robert Walker but I got in hell of a lot more trouble.” John, that is because you got into the acting business only because you were married to Shirley Temple. You are really a wimp.
1938 US Secretary of the Interior James Watt. He said “Hell, we don’t have to protect the environment; the evangelicals say the Second Coming is at hand.” He is right ya’ll. If the Second Coming is at hand, why do we need to worry about the future?
Thanks for listening I can’t wait until tomorrow.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
US General John Sedgwick rode up to a high point to observe the progress of the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse during the American Civil War. Up on arrival his staff told him that he ought to take cover. Sedgwick said “They could not hit an elephant at this dis…..”
The new South Carolina legislature has enacted a new law requiring that anyone wishing to vote must show proof of citizenship including a photo before they can enter the polls. This proposal was vehemently opposed by the Democrats. The reason given was that the newer citizens would not be familiar with the law. The translation of that is that the illegal alien votes for the Democrats will be voided in the state of South Carolina. I like it.
Up in Charlotte, NC a dog owner (13 pit bulls) has lost all of his animals to the SPCA. An animal control officer saw the dogs in this man’s back yard and all of them appeared to be severely underweight and many had mange. The dogs were captured and all appeared to be friendly but they all will be put down because of their reputation. The animal control officer said that a few of the animals had “battle scars” on their muzzles indicating they were fighting dogs. Dogs with fighting experience will not be put up for adoption…they are too dangerous.
On Thursday morning a woman was asleep on a USAir flight from Boston to Charlotte. She was awakened by her seatmate that she did not know massaging her breasts. She woke up and told the masher to knock it off and then called a flight attendant, but before the attendant got there he had copped yet another feel. The attendant found her another seat and told the pilot about these events the he notified the Charlotte USAir ops about the situation. A couple of Charlotte’s finest was waiting at the gate for this jackass. I wonder what row she was on…how deeply she slept, etc, etc? I am just joking.
Here is an event that I experienced as an air traffic controller. It was at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, Ga. Moody was a training base for all-weather interceptors. After a class got to a certain point, drone aircraft would be launched from Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida to a point in the Gulf of Mexico and the fighter/interceptors from Moody would be radar guided toward the drone until the aircraft radar picked it up, then the fighter was to shoot down the drone, regardless of the weather. One of the pilots in training had a wife that was afraid for her husband flying fighters. Her husband had received special permission for his wife to watch a “maximum effort” night launch from the control tower where I was. It was supposed to give her confidence. Her husband successfully got his F-86D off the ground and was up to about 500 feet when he declared “Mayday” meaning he was in serious trouble. His plane exploded into a ball of flame and crashed to the earth about 2 miles south of the base. There is no need for me to tell you what turmoil ensued. She was pregnant, too.
This date in history January 28
1917 Earlier in 1914 the President of Mexico, Victoriano Huerta, had resigned and there was an ensuing power struggle between Pancho Villa and his former compatriot Venustiana Carranza for the Presidency. The United States recognized Carranza as president which gave Villa severe heartburn. In his anger, Villa killed 15 of his own people. If that wasn’t enough, in order to show his displeasure with the American government, he crossed the Rio Grande River into New Mexico and raided the small town of Columbus, New Mexico killing 16 Americans. The American army was soon on his ass and killed 50 of his number in the United States and 70 more in Mexico. Not long after that US President Woodrow Wilson ordered General John “Black Jack” Pershing to take an army into Mexico and bring back Pancho Villa dead or alive. Pershing searched for 11 months and did not even catch sight of the elusive Villa. The Mexicans got fed up with the American military being in their country so long and tensions rose to the point that a small Mexican militia attacked Pershing’s troops killing 17 troopers but losing 35 of their own. Under constant pressure from the Mexican government, on this day Pershing was ordered home having failed in his mission to capture Villa. Villa continued his guerilla raids in northern Mexico until the brother of Victoriano Huerta became president then Villa retired. That didn’t help though, because he was assassinated three months later.
1777 On this date British General John Burgoyne submits a battle plan to British General Sir Henry Clinton. Burgoyne suggested that he head a large force of 8,000 troops out of Canada and go down Lake Champlain, the Mohawk River and eventually the Hudson River and isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. Burgoyne felt that if he could accomplish this it would make Philadelphia ripe for the picking by British General Howe. The plan was approved and Burgoyne achieved a modicum of success when he captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. What Burgoyne did not plan on was the over extension of his supply lines the further south he moved. Eventually the Patriots simply swung around and cut his supply line. Soon after this Burgoyne lost the Battle of Bennington, Vermont and engaged in a bloody draw at Bemis Heights, New York. After these battles he was unable to re-supply his troops so he retreated 16 miles north to Saratoga, New York and surrendered his remaining 6,000 troops to US General Horatio Gates. When the government of France saw this victory they officially recognized the United States as an independent nation which, of course, meant war with England. France had been covertly sending America money and the tools of war now they did it openly and with much more supplies. This decision by France assured an American victory because it meant that England would have to fight a war on both sides of the Atlantic.
1958 On this date a 19 year old high school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska named Charles Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend Carol Fugate murder a Lincoln business man, his wife and their maid. This was the last in a string of 10 murder committed by the duo. This murder spree began at the home of Carol and an argument broke out between Charles and Carol’s parents. Charles chose to shoot Carol’s parent and strangle Carol’s two year old sister. Carol and Charles stayed holed up in the house for a few days before leaving in Charles’ car. Their next victims was a farmer and two teens and after that it was the previously mention Lincoln businessman, wife and maid. They were not done yet. They shot and killed a traveling shoe salesman to get his car. They were surrounded and captured near Douglas, Wyoming. Both Charles and Carol were convicted of murder and Charles got the death penalty and Carol got life. In 1959 Charles Starkweather went to meet his maker medium rare after a visit with the Nebraska version of “Old Sparky”, the electric chair. Carol was paroled after 18 years in the slammer. How could that girl sit in the house with her dead parents and sister for several days? They paroled her because she was so young at the time of the murders. I will have to call bullshit on that.
1986 On this day the space shuttle Challenger was set to launch for the 10th time. All previous missions with this vessel had been flawless. The shuttle had been scheduled to launch on January 22 but there were weather issues so the launch date was pushed back to January 28. Aboard with the regular astronauts was a school teacher name Christa McAuliffe from New Hampshire. The outside air temperature was below freezing and the rocket booster manufacturer warned the launch officials that some of the parts of the rocket booster do not operate well in cold weather, especially the O-ring seals. They warned that they became brittle in the cold and would hot hold. The launch officials blew it off and at 11:39a the Challenger blasted off. Seventy-three seconds into the flight the shuttle exploded into a spectacular three armed display and fell into the Atlantic killing all aboard. An investigation later proved that an O-ring seal had indeed failed and the flame from the rocket boosters had not been contained inside the cylinder causing an explosion. The arrogance of the launch officials in allowing the launch in spite of being warned set space exploration back several years.
Born today:
1887 Polish pianist Arthur Rubenstein. He said “When I was young, I had success with women because I was young. Now I have success with women because I am old. Middle age was hell.” Way to go, Arthur, way to go!
1933 US writer Susan Sontag. She said “The best answer is one that destroys the question.” Susan is no longer with us.
1948 Latvian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. He said “When we dancers watch Fred Astaire, we know we are in the wrong business.” Fred was a pleasure to watch.
Died today:
1960 US writer Zora Hurston. She said “Every distant ship has every man’s dream aboard.” It does for me at least.
1996 Russian writer Josef Brodsky. He said “Life, the way it really is, is not a battle between bad and good, it is a battle between bad and worse.” And I thought I was a pessimist.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
US General John Sedgwick rode up to a high point to observe the progress of the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse during the American Civil War. Up on arrival his staff told him that he ought to take cover. Sedgwick said “They could not hit an elephant at this dis…..”
The new South Carolina legislature has enacted a new law requiring that anyone wishing to vote must show proof of citizenship including a photo before they can enter the polls. This proposal was vehemently opposed by the Democrats. The reason given was that the newer citizens would not be familiar with the law. The translation of that is that the illegal alien votes for the Democrats will be voided in the state of South Carolina. I like it.
Up in Charlotte, NC a dog owner (13 pit bulls) has lost all of his animals to the SPCA. An animal control officer saw the dogs in this man’s back yard and all of them appeared to be severely underweight and many had mange. The dogs were captured and all appeared to be friendly but they all will be put down because of their reputation. The animal control officer said that a few of the animals had “battle scars” on their muzzles indicating they were fighting dogs. Dogs with fighting experience will not be put up for adoption…they are too dangerous.
On Thursday morning a woman was asleep on a USAir flight from Boston to Charlotte. She was awakened by her seatmate that she did not know massaging her breasts. She woke up and told the masher to knock it off and then called a flight attendant, but before the attendant got there he had copped yet another feel. The attendant found her another seat and told the pilot about these events the he notified the Charlotte USAir ops about the situation. A couple of Charlotte’s finest was waiting at the gate for this jackass. I wonder what row she was on…how deeply she slept, etc, etc? I am just joking.
Here is an event that I experienced as an air traffic controller. It was at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, Ga. Moody was a training base for all-weather interceptors. After a class got to a certain point, drone aircraft would be launched from Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida to a point in the Gulf of Mexico and the fighter/interceptors from Moody would be radar guided toward the drone until the aircraft radar picked it up, then the fighter was to shoot down the drone, regardless of the weather. One of the pilots in training had a wife that was afraid for her husband flying fighters. Her husband had received special permission for his wife to watch a “maximum effort” night launch from the control tower where I was. It was supposed to give her confidence. Her husband successfully got his F-86D off the ground and was up to about 500 feet when he declared “Mayday” meaning he was in serious trouble. His plane exploded into a ball of flame and crashed to the earth about 2 miles south of the base. There is no need for me to tell you what turmoil ensued. She was pregnant, too.
This date in history January 28
1917 Earlier in 1914 the President of Mexico, Victoriano Huerta, had resigned and there was an ensuing power struggle between Pancho Villa and his former compatriot Venustiana Carranza for the Presidency. The United States recognized Carranza as president which gave Villa severe heartburn. In his anger, Villa killed 15 of his own people. If that wasn’t enough, in order to show his displeasure with the American government, he crossed the Rio Grande River into New Mexico and raided the small town of Columbus, New Mexico killing 16 Americans. The American army was soon on his ass and killed 50 of his number in the United States and 70 more in Mexico. Not long after that US President Woodrow Wilson ordered General John “Black Jack” Pershing to take an army into Mexico and bring back Pancho Villa dead or alive. Pershing searched for 11 months and did not even catch sight of the elusive Villa. The Mexicans got fed up with the American military being in their country so long and tensions rose to the point that a small Mexican militia attacked Pershing’s troops killing 17 troopers but losing 35 of their own. Under constant pressure from the Mexican government, on this day Pershing was ordered home having failed in his mission to capture Villa. Villa continued his guerilla raids in northern Mexico until the brother of Victoriano Huerta became president then Villa retired. That didn’t help though, because he was assassinated three months later.
1777 On this date British General John Burgoyne submits a battle plan to British General Sir Henry Clinton. Burgoyne suggested that he head a large force of 8,000 troops out of Canada and go down Lake Champlain, the Mohawk River and eventually the Hudson River and isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. Burgoyne felt that if he could accomplish this it would make Philadelphia ripe for the picking by British General Howe. The plan was approved and Burgoyne achieved a modicum of success when he captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. What Burgoyne did not plan on was the over extension of his supply lines the further south he moved. Eventually the Patriots simply swung around and cut his supply line. Soon after this Burgoyne lost the Battle of Bennington, Vermont and engaged in a bloody draw at Bemis Heights, New York. After these battles he was unable to re-supply his troops so he retreated 16 miles north to Saratoga, New York and surrendered his remaining 6,000 troops to US General Horatio Gates. When the government of France saw this victory they officially recognized the United States as an independent nation which, of course, meant war with England. France had been covertly sending America money and the tools of war now they did it openly and with much more supplies. This decision by France assured an American victory because it meant that England would have to fight a war on both sides of the Atlantic.
1958 On this date a 19 year old high school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska named Charles Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend Carol Fugate murder a Lincoln business man, his wife and their maid. This was the last in a string of 10 murder committed by the duo. This murder spree began at the home of Carol and an argument broke out between Charles and Carol’s parents. Charles chose to shoot Carol’s parent and strangle Carol’s two year old sister. Carol and Charles stayed holed up in the house for a few days before leaving in Charles’ car. Their next victims was a farmer and two teens and after that it was the previously mention Lincoln businessman, wife and maid. They were not done yet. They shot and killed a traveling shoe salesman to get his car. They were surrounded and captured near Douglas, Wyoming. Both Charles and Carol were convicted of murder and Charles got the death penalty and Carol got life. In 1959 Charles Starkweather went to meet his maker medium rare after a visit with the Nebraska version of “Old Sparky”, the electric chair. Carol was paroled after 18 years in the slammer. How could that girl sit in the house with her dead parents and sister for several days? They paroled her because she was so young at the time of the murders. I will have to call bullshit on that.
1986 On this day the space shuttle Challenger was set to launch for the 10th time. All previous missions with this vessel had been flawless. The shuttle had been scheduled to launch on January 22 but there were weather issues so the launch date was pushed back to January 28. Aboard with the regular astronauts was a school teacher name Christa McAuliffe from New Hampshire. The outside air temperature was below freezing and the rocket booster manufacturer warned the launch officials that some of the parts of the rocket booster do not operate well in cold weather, especially the O-ring seals. They warned that they became brittle in the cold and would hot hold. The launch officials blew it off and at 11:39a the Challenger blasted off. Seventy-three seconds into the flight the shuttle exploded into a spectacular three armed display and fell into the Atlantic killing all aboard. An investigation later proved that an O-ring seal had indeed failed and the flame from the rocket boosters had not been contained inside the cylinder causing an explosion. The arrogance of the launch officials in allowing the launch in spite of being warned set space exploration back several years.
Born today:
1887 Polish pianist Arthur Rubenstein. He said “When I was young, I had success with women because I was young. Now I have success with women because I am old. Middle age was hell.” Way to go, Arthur, way to go!
1933 US writer Susan Sontag. She said “The best answer is one that destroys the question.” Susan is no longer with us.
1948 Latvian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. He said “When we dancers watch Fred Astaire, we know we are in the wrong business.” Fred was a pleasure to watch.
Died today:
1960 US writer Zora Hurston. She said “Every distant ship has every man’s dream aboard.” It does for me at least.
1996 Russian writer Josef Brodsky. He said “Life, the way it really is, is not a battle between bad and good, it is a battle between bad and worse.” And I thought I was a pessimist.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“The fastest way to a man’s heart is through his chest.”
Roseanne Barr
Instead of the usual bad news of the day, I will send y’all one of the greatest love stories in history. It is the biography of Robert Dudley and then the regular history lesson.
Robert Dudley
Earl of Leicester
This is the story of unrequited love between two people that were in love for most of their lives but were kept apart by the politics of Elizabethan England. Elizabeth stated that she would never marry because she was fearful that her powers would be diluted by a husband. The present day Prince Phillip of England is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II and is titled as Prince Consort.
Most contemporary historians believed that Robert Dudley and Elizabeth, the future Queen of England, were born on the same day, it was later determined that Robert was probably one year older. Robert was the son of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumberland and protector of England during the reign of Edward VI. Robert was the fifth child of thirteen. He first met Elizabeth when he was eight years old, probably in a royal classroom. They became good friends and their friendship lasted throughout both of their lives. He was certainly a match for Elizabeth intellectually but was not interested in the classics. He was more into mathematics, astronomy and astrology in addition to being a good athlete and a superb horseman. When speaking of Elizabeth later on he said that he knew her better than anyone, even from the time she was eight years old. He said that Elizabeth had always told him that she would never marry.
Robert married Amy Robsart in 1550 with Amy being the daughter of a Norfolk squire. Even thought people though they were in love, the marriage contract indicated otherwise. Normally daughters were not heirs to their father’s estate but Amy was the exception, she was an heiress making the marriage advantageous to both. The marriage ceremony between Robert and Amy was a glittering one with all the appropriate pomp and circumstance. The festivities were attended by Elizabeth and the Boy-King, Edward VI.
After Robert’s father tried to usurp the throne and place his sister-in-law Lady Jane Grey on the throne the shit hit the fan. This rebellion was quashed and Robert, his father and five of his brothers are imprisoned in the Tower of London in the Beauchamp tower awaiting trial. Elizabeth was also imprisoned in the Tower but in the Bell tower. The two wings were joined by a walkway and Robert and Elizabeth met frequently on this walkway and their friendship turned to love even though they were closely guarded. After all was said and done, Robert’s father John, Roberts brother Guilford and Lady Jane Grey had a meeting with a big guy with a big axe out on the lawn of the Tower. All the others were released.
Robert and his brother Henry go to France to fight on the behalf of the King of France, Phillip II. Henry was killed in this war. After returning to England Robert finds out that Elizabeth was in serious financial trouble and sells some of his lands and bails Elizabeth out and she never forgot Robert’s generosity. Elizabeth ascends to the throne of England in 1558 at the age of twenty and Roberts star began to rise. He was made the Master of the Queens Horse, a very prestigious position that required him to be in the presence of the Queen almost constantly. It was his function to plan her public appearances and personal entertainment. Robert was good at this because he and Elizabeth share the same love of drama and music. There was no doubt that he was the Queens favorite which automatically made him the most despised man in England out of envy. Within the first years, Elizabeth showered Robert with titles, among these was the Earl of Leicester, properties and money and spending more time with him than anyone else. Tongues wagged as to their intimacy, all assumed they were lovers. It was also said that Elizabeth was carrying Roberts child but this story was easily dismissed, but there was no doubt that they were deeply in love. They were bonded by knowing each other as children, had suffered imprisonment together, and each trusted and respected the other totally. Like any couple they occasionally argued, but Robert always spoke and treated Elizabeth with the respect that her position deserved.
By 1560 Robert was the most hated man in England and stayed that way until his death. No one had a good word to say about him except The Queen and her family. Elizabeth was an astute judge of character and it is impossible to think that she would not have detected any insincerity in Robert over their relationship of thirty years. There is no question the Robert loved her. Had the political circumstances been more favorable there is little question they would have been married. Privately she told Robert that she would marry no one else, but she couldn’t marry him. The biggest problem with the bar to their marriage was the circumstances of his wife’s death. She was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs with a broken neck and naturally everyone pointed their fingers at Robert and Elizabeth. For a long time people had been saying he and Elizabeth were planning Amy’s death so he could marry Elizabeth. This shadow of doubt plagued the two for the rest of their days making the birth of any of their children suspect if they had married. Amy was probably terminally ill with breast cancer or as it was called “malady of the breast”. In fact medical opinions of today suggest that the cancer had probably reached her spine and it was weakened to the point that any kind of pressure would have broken it. However, such medical knowledge was unknown in those days and all, including Robert, believed she was murdered. Robert waited for many years hoping Elizabeth would change her mind but she didn’t. At a gala celebration in 1575 in Warwick Castle, Robert formally asked for Elizabeth’s hand and as always she refused. So in 1578 Robert married the Queens cousin, Lettice Devereux, the Countess of Essex.
He may have well been in love with her because she was a reported stone fox but the real reason he married her was that she was pregnant and a family of the stature of the house of Essex demanded that he make an honest woman of her. Robert tried to keep the news of his marriage from the Queen but she found out anyway. In 1580 Lettice gave birth to a son also named Robert. The child was a sickly one and died at the age of four which devastated Robert. The death of this child almost assured the end to Robert’s lineage. He had a child by an affair with Lady Dudley Sheffield but illegitimate children could not be an heir. Lady Sheffield claimed that she and Robert were married in a secret ceremony but there was no evidence of it and Robert always denied it.
In 1588 Robert was put in charge of the land forces during the assault by the Spanish Armada but Robert was not a well man, probably suffering from stomach cancer, his days were numbered. He was on his way to Buxton to bathe in the supposed healing waters there but he never made it. He died at his house in Oxfordshire on September 4th, 1588. Upon hearing the news, Elizabeth locked her self in her bedroom and stayed for days. She kept the last letter from Robert in her safe until the end of her days. The letter follows:
Robert Dudley's last letter to Queen Elizabeth I
“I most humbly beseech your Majesty to pardon your poor old servant to be thus bold in sending to know how my gracious lady doth, and what ease of her late pain she finds, being the chiefest thing in the world I do pray for, for her to have good health and long life. For my own poor case, I continue still your medicine and find that [it] amends much better than any other thing that hath been given me. Thus hoping to find perfect cure at the bath, with the continuance of my wonted prayer for your Majesty's most happy preservation, I humbly kiss your foot. From your old lodging at Rycote, this Thursday morning, ready to take on my Journey, by Your Majesty's most faithful and obedient servant,
R. Leicester
Even as I had writ thus much, I received Your Majesty's token by Young Tracy.”
Evidently Elizabeth had sent Robert a gift.
It is a rumor that in Elizabeth’s last few days she could not speak and had the archbishop at her side holding her hand. Since she had no heir, everyone was waiting for her to name one. The archbishop went through a series of names and she would respond by squeezing his hand. It was determined that Elizabeth wanted James VI of Scotland to succeed her. When the archbishop mentioned the deceased Robert Dudley, Elizabeth squeezed his hand for a long time and a tear fell from her eye. But that is just a rumor. It has been reported that Elizabeth had another lover in the Earl of Essex. This is probably true by I prefer to remember her childhood friend and her adult lover as her most favorite, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester.
This date in history January 27
1863 On this date President Abraham Lincoln issues General War Order #1. He orders all US forces on land and sea to make an advance against the Confederate forces on February 22. Abe was fed up with the stalling tactics of General George B. McClellan and he was eager to get this conflict ended. Abe was neither military trained nor experienced so he rounded up some books on military tactics and read up on it. After this he decided that a simultaneous attack on all fronts would reveal the Confederate weaknesses and there they could concentrate their efforts. The philosophy was good but there were a host of reason why it would not work but he ordered the action anyway. The arrogant General McClellan called the order “amateurish” and ignored it and stayed encamped after February 22. However, US General Ulysses S. Grant in the Tennessee-Mississippi theatre did indeed begin a push against the Rebs and captured Fort Donelson and other forts on the Mississippi River. This action eventually led to Grant being able to isolate and capture Vicksburg, Mississippi. While all of this was going on Abe found out that his Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, had been unapologetically taking bribes and using his position for personal gain. Abe fired Simon and installed Edwin Stanton into that position where he remained for the remainder of the war. A little later Abe fires McClellan and puts US General Ambrose Burnside in his place. Ambrose lasted two months then Abe fired him and installed US General Joseph Hooker in his place. Even though Hooker was known to get into the sauce on a regular basis and allowed prostitutes to follow his troops (this is where the word “hooker” for a prostitute came from) he was not afraid to move his army and attack. This is what Abe wanted to see. It didn’t work however. Hooker was no match for CSA General Robert E. Lee and Abe had to fire him too.
1967 In 1960 US President John F. Kennedy has issued and order for the United States to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade and eventually NASA was born. NASA began a series of programs aimed at putting a man on the moon. The programs began with fits and starts and some failures but eventually progress was being made by leaps and bounds. Maybe too fast because on this date the spacecraft Apollo 1 was on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral with the crew aboard going through drills and exercises to be done once launched and a fire broke out and killed astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee. Examination revealed that it was an electrical short that had caused the fire but the real fault was the buildup of combustibles in the spacecraft. NASA engineers had ignored the possibility of a fire and plunged ahead recklessly. In spite of this tragedy, NASA was able to put a man on the moon with Apollo 8, Neil Armstrong commanding, in 1969. In all there were 17 Apollo missions and 6 visits to the moon.
1926 Scottish inventor John Baird demonstrates in London the first transmission and reception of a TV signal. It was a program about a red-haired housewife with a Cuban bandleader for a husband and their interplay with their landlord and his wife, just joking. Anyway, in 1932 the Radio Corporation of America demonstrates television using a cathode ray tube called an iconoscope created by a Russian inventor named Vladimir Zworykin. This invention made the picture much cleared than before. In 1936 the British Broadcasting Company began sporadic television broadcasts in high definition and in 1939 they began regular broadcasts. The first color set reached the public in 1954. In 1969 the head of the United States Federal Communication Commission, Newton Minnow, called television “a vast wasteland”. But things are much better today with shows like: The Simpsons, Wife Swap and American Idol. Hello Newton, where are you?
1975 On this date a Senate investigative committee headed by Idaho Senator Frank Church opens hearings on the actions of the FBI and the CIA. The committee comes to find out that the FBI had been conducting illegal surveillance on hundreds of thousands of Americans for years. The also found out that the CIA had been fostering or participating in the murder of elected officials worldwide. It was only two years before that the CIA had engineered the murder of the democratically elected president of Chile Salvador Allende and the military takeover of the government by a Chilean General that was sympathetic to the US, at least as long as the money kept rolling in. The real reason for the murder of Allende was he had threatened to nationalize the copper mines held by the American company Kennecott Copper and ITT also. He also had open trade with North Korea and Cuba among others, all United States enemies. Not only that, they had ignored a presidential directive to destroy their vast supply of poisons. It is ugly out there, ya’ll.
1978 On this date a man named Richard Chase is captured near Sacramento, California for the murder of Evelyn Mirith and Daniel Madden. He had sexually mutilated Evelyn with a knife before stabbing her to death and had shot Daniel in the head. The strange part of this is that Richard removed some of their organs, filled them with blood and took them to the house. The people that knew him were not surprised because a few years before Richard were found out in the middle of a pasture covered with the blood of the cow he had just killed. When the police searched Richard’s house they found blood in containers throughout the house. It appeared that Richard had been drinking blood for some time. He went to trial for murder and even though he was obviously insane, the jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life without parole. On the day after Christmas in 1980, Richard was found dead of a suicide in his San Quentin prison cell....... and stay gone.
1951 On this date United States detonated the first nuclear device, fueled by fissionable material made at the Hanford, Washington facility, on the recently acquired Nevada test site. The blast was so large that the flash was seen in San Francisco. The previous tests had been done at the test site at Los Alamos, New Mexico including the very first nuclear explosion in history in July of 1945. The device was known as “Little Boy”. The only other nuclear devise in existence at that time was also an American invention known as “Fat Man”. This bomb was dropped on Nagasaki without testing because the scientists were sure it would work and they were very, very right.
Born today:
1807 American author Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. He said “It take less time to do something right than it does to explain why you did something wrong.” Obviously Hank was a married man.
1847 English actress Ellen Terry. She said “No matter the skill of the actress can overcome the loss of youth.” Time marches on, Ellen....Damn it!
1886 US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. He said “The layman’s constitutional view is that anything he likes is constitutional and anything he doesn’t like is unconstitutional.” Yeah, so what is wrong with that, Hugo?
1897 US singer Marian Anderson. She said “So long as you hold somebody down, a part of you must be down there with them, meaning that you cannot soar as far as you otherwise might.” That sounds like my third ex-wife.
1902 US writer John Steinbeck. He said “Writers are somewhere between clowns and trained seals.” Steinbeck gave some of the best literature ever written and he received many awards for it. He gave us The Grapes of Wrath and Travels with Charlie among many others. He is no longer with us and it is our loss.
1912 English writer Lawrence Durrell. He said “All culture corrupts, but French culture corrupts absolutely.” My sentiments exactly Larry.
1913 US writer Irwin Shaw. When speaking of American football he said “If they armed the players, there would not be a stadium big enough to hold all the crowds.” I like the idea of men armed with ice picks against hungry lions.
1930 US actress and wife of Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward. She said “Sexiness wears this and beauty fades, but to be married to a man that makes you laugh every day, now that is a real treat.” Joanne went to high school right here in good old Greenpatch for a while.
1932 English-borne actress Elizabeth Taylor. I have been in love with Liz ever since I saw her in National Velvet. She said “The problem with people with no vices is there is a good chance they will have many irritating virtues”. There is little doubt that Liz has a plethora of vices. She is a skank, no doubt about it.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“The fastest way to a man’s heart is through his chest.”
Roseanne Barr
Instead of the usual bad news of the day, I will send y’all one of the greatest love stories in history. It is the biography of Robert Dudley and then the regular history lesson.
Robert Dudley
Earl of Leicester
This is the story of unrequited love between two people that were in love for most of their lives but were kept apart by the politics of Elizabethan England. Elizabeth stated that she would never marry because she was fearful that her powers would be diluted by a husband. The present day Prince Phillip of England is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II and is titled as Prince Consort.
Most contemporary historians believed that Robert Dudley and Elizabeth, the future Queen of England, were born on the same day, it was later determined that Robert was probably one year older. Robert was the son of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumberland and protector of England during the reign of Edward VI. Robert was the fifth child of thirteen. He first met Elizabeth when he was eight years old, probably in a royal classroom. They became good friends and their friendship lasted throughout both of their lives. He was certainly a match for Elizabeth intellectually but was not interested in the classics. He was more into mathematics, astronomy and astrology in addition to being a good athlete and a superb horseman. When speaking of Elizabeth later on he said that he knew her better than anyone, even from the time she was eight years old. He said that Elizabeth had always told him that she would never marry.
Robert married Amy Robsart in 1550 with Amy being the daughter of a Norfolk squire. Even thought people though they were in love, the marriage contract indicated otherwise. Normally daughters were not heirs to their father’s estate but Amy was the exception, she was an heiress making the marriage advantageous to both. The marriage ceremony between Robert and Amy was a glittering one with all the appropriate pomp and circumstance. The festivities were attended by Elizabeth and the Boy-King, Edward VI.
After Robert’s father tried to usurp the throne and place his sister-in-law Lady Jane Grey on the throne the shit hit the fan. This rebellion was quashed and Robert, his father and five of his brothers are imprisoned in the Tower of London in the Beauchamp tower awaiting trial. Elizabeth was also imprisoned in the Tower but in the Bell tower. The two wings were joined by a walkway and Robert and Elizabeth met frequently on this walkway and their friendship turned to love even though they were closely guarded. After all was said and done, Robert’s father John, Roberts brother Guilford and Lady Jane Grey had a meeting with a big guy with a big axe out on the lawn of the Tower. All the others were released.
Robert and his brother Henry go to France to fight on the behalf of the King of France, Phillip II. Henry was killed in this war. After returning to England Robert finds out that Elizabeth was in serious financial trouble and sells some of his lands and bails Elizabeth out and she never forgot Robert’s generosity. Elizabeth ascends to the throne of England in 1558 at the age of twenty and Roberts star began to rise. He was made the Master of the Queens Horse, a very prestigious position that required him to be in the presence of the Queen almost constantly. It was his function to plan her public appearances and personal entertainment. Robert was good at this because he and Elizabeth share the same love of drama and music. There was no doubt that he was the Queens favorite which automatically made him the most despised man in England out of envy. Within the first years, Elizabeth showered Robert with titles, among these was the Earl of Leicester, properties and money and spending more time with him than anyone else. Tongues wagged as to their intimacy, all assumed they were lovers. It was also said that Elizabeth was carrying Roberts child but this story was easily dismissed, but there was no doubt that they were deeply in love. They were bonded by knowing each other as children, had suffered imprisonment together, and each trusted and respected the other totally. Like any couple they occasionally argued, but Robert always spoke and treated Elizabeth with the respect that her position deserved.
By 1560 Robert was the most hated man in England and stayed that way until his death. No one had a good word to say about him except The Queen and her family. Elizabeth was an astute judge of character and it is impossible to think that she would not have detected any insincerity in Robert over their relationship of thirty years. There is no question the Robert loved her. Had the political circumstances been more favorable there is little question they would have been married. Privately she told Robert that she would marry no one else, but she couldn’t marry him. The biggest problem with the bar to their marriage was the circumstances of his wife’s death. She was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs with a broken neck and naturally everyone pointed their fingers at Robert and Elizabeth. For a long time people had been saying he and Elizabeth were planning Amy’s death so he could marry Elizabeth. This shadow of doubt plagued the two for the rest of their days making the birth of any of their children suspect if they had married. Amy was probably terminally ill with breast cancer or as it was called “malady of the breast”. In fact medical opinions of today suggest that the cancer had probably reached her spine and it was weakened to the point that any kind of pressure would have broken it. However, such medical knowledge was unknown in those days and all, including Robert, believed she was murdered. Robert waited for many years hoping Elizabeth would change her mind but she didn’t. At a gala celebration in 1575 in Warwick Castle, Robert formally asked for Elizabeth’s hand and as always she refused. So in 1578 Robert married the Queens cousin, Lettice Devereux, the Countess of Essex.
He may have well been in love with her because she was a reported stone fox but the real reason he married her was that she was pregnant and a family of the stature of the house of Essex demanded that he make an honest woman of her. Robert tried to keep the news of his marriage from the Queen but she found out anyway. In 1580 Lettice gave birth to a son also named Robert. The child was a sickly one and died at the age of four which devastated Robert. The death of this child almost assured the end to Robert’s lineage. He had a child by an affair with Lady Dudley Sheffield but illegitimate children could not be an heir. Lady Sheffield claimed that she and Robert were married in a secret ceremony but there was no evidence of it and Robert always denied it.
In 1588 Robert was put in charge of the land forces during the assault by the Spanish Armada but Robert was not a well man, probably suffering from stomach cancer, his days were numbered. He was on his way to Buxton to bathe in the supposed healing waters there but he never made it. He died at his house in Oxfordshire on September 4th, 1588. Upon hearing the news, Elizabeth locked her self in her bedroom and stayed for days. She kept the last letter from Robert in her safe until the end of her days. The letter follows:
Robert Dudley's last letter to Queen Elizabeth I
“I most humbly beseech your Majesty to pardon your poor old servant to be thus bold in sending to know how my gracious lady doth, and what ease of her late pain she finds, being the chiefest thing in the world I do pray for, for her to have good health and long life. For my own poor case, I continue still your medicine and find that [it] amends much better than any other thing that hath been given me. Thus hoping to find perfect cure at the bath, with the continuance of my wonted prayer for your Majesty's most happy preservation, I humbly kiss your foot. From your old lodging at Rycote, this Thursday morning, ready to take on my Journey, by Your Majesty's most faithful and obedient servant,
R. Leicester
Even as I had writ thus much, I received Your Majesty's token by Young Tracy.”
Evidently Elizabeth had sent Robert a gift.
It is a rumor that in Elizabeth’s last few days she could not speak and had the archbishop at her side holding her hand. Since she had no heir, everyone was waiting for her to name one. The archbishop went through a series of names and she would respond by squeezing his hand. It was determined that Elizabeth wanted James VI of Scotland to succeed her. When the archbishop mentioned the deceased Robert Dudley, Elizabeth squeezed his hand for a long time and a tear fell from her eye. But that is just a rumor. It has been reported that Elizabeth had another lover in the Earl of Essex. This is probably true by I prefer to remember her childhood friend and her adult lover as her most favorite, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester.
This date in history January 27
1863 On this date President Abraham Lincoln issues General War Order #1. He orders all US forces on land and sea to make an advance against the Confederate forces on February 22. Abe was fed up with the stalling tactics of General George B. McClellan and he was eager to get this conflict ended. Abe was neither military trained nor experienced so he rounded up some books on military tactics and read up on it. After this he decided that a simultaneous attack on all fronts would reveal the Confederate weaknesses and there they could concentrate their efforts. The philosophy was good but there were a host of reason why it would not work but he ordered the action anyway. The arrogant General McClellan called the order “amateurish” and ignored it and stayed encamped after February 22. However, US General Ulysses S. Grant in the Tennessee-Mississippi theatre did indeed begin a push against the Rebs and captured Fort Donelson and other forts on the Mississippi River. This action eventually led to Grant being able to isolate and capture Vicksburg, Mississippi. While all of this was going on Abe found out that his Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, had been unapologetically taking bribes and using his position for personal gain. Abe fired Simon and installed Edwin Stanton into that position where he remained for the remainder of the war. A little later Abe fires McClellan and puts US General Ambrose Burnside in his place. Ambrose lasted two months then Abe fired him and installed US General Joseph Hooker in his place. Even though Hooker was known to get into the sauce on a regular basis and allowed prostitutes to follow his troops (this is where the word “hooker” for a prostitute came from) he was not afraid to move his army and attack. This is what Abe wanted to see. It didn’t work however. Hooker was no match for CSA General Robert E. Lee and Abe had to fire him too.
1967 In 1960 US President John F. Kennedy has issued and order for the United States to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade and eventually NASA was born. NASA began a series of programs aimed at putting a man on the moon. The programs began with fits and starts and some failures but eventually progress was being made by leaps and bounds. Maybe too fast because on this date the spacecraft Apollo 1 was on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral with the crew aboard going through drills and exercises to be done once launched and a fire broke out and killed astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee. Examination revealed that it was an electrical short that had caused the fire but the real fault was the buildup of combustibles in the spacecraft. NASA engineers had ignored the possibility of a fire and plunged ahead recklessly. In spite of this tragedy, NASA was able to put a man on the moon with Apollo 8, Neil Armstrong commanding, in 1969. In all there were 17 Apollo missions and 6 visits to the moon.
1926 Scottish inventor John Baird demonstrates in London the first transmission and reception of a TV signal. It was a program about a red-haired housewife with a Cuban bandleader for a husband and their interplay with their landlord and his wife, just joking. Anyway, in 1932 the Radio Corporation of America demonstrates television using a cathode ray tube called an iconoscope created by a Russian inventor named Vladimir Zworykin. This invention made the picture much cleared than before. In 1936 the British Broadcasting Company began sporadic television broadcasts in high definition and in 1939 they began regular broadcasts. The first color set reached the public in 1954. In 1969 the head of the United States Federal Communication Commission, Newton Minnow, called television “a vast wasteland”. But things are much better today with shows like: The Simpsons, Wife Swap and American Idol. Hello Newton, where are you?
1975 On this date a Senate investigative committee headed by Idaho Senator Frank Church opens hearings on the actions of the FBI and the CIA. The committee comes to find out that the FBI had been conducting illegal surveillance on hundreds of thousands of Americans for years. The also found out that the CIA had been fostering or participating in the murder of elected officials worldwide. It was only two years before that the CIA had engineered the murder of the democratically elected president of Chile Salvador Allende and the military takeover of the government by a Chilean General that was sympathetic to the US, at least as long as the money kept rolling in. The real reason for the murder of Allende was he had threatened to nationalize the copper mines held by the American company Kennecott Copper and ITT also. He also had open trade with North Korea and Cuba among others, all United States enemies. Not only that, they had ignored a presidential directive to destroy their vast supply of poisons. It is ugly out there, ya’ll.
1978 On this date a man named Richard Chase is captured near Sacramento, California for the murder of Evelyn Mirith and Daniel Madden. He had sexually mutilated Evelyn with a knife before stabbing her to death and had shot Daniel in the head. The strange part of this is that Richard removed some of their organs, filled them with blood and took them to the house. The people that knew him were not surprised because a few years before Richard were found out in the middle of a pasture covered with the blood of the cow he had just killed. When the police searched Richard’s house they found blood in containers throughout the house. It appeared that Richard had been drinking blood for some time. He went to trial for murder and even though he was obviously insane, the jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life without parole. On the day after Christmas in 1980, Richard was found dead of a suicide in his San Quentin prison cell....... and stay gone.
1951 On this date United States detonated the first nuclear device, fueled by fissionable material made at the Hanford, Washington facility, on the recently acquired Nevada test site. The blast was so large that the flash was seen in San Francisco. The previous tests had been done at the test site at Los Alamos, New Mexico including the very first nuclear explosion in history in July of 1945. The device was known as “Little Boy”. The only other nuclear devise in existence at that time was also an American invention known as “Fat Man”. This bomb was dropped on Nagasaki without testing because the scientists were sure it would work and they were very, very right.
Born today:
1807 American author Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. He said “It take less time to do something right than it does to explain why you did something wrong.” Obviously Hank was a married man.
1847 English actress Ellen Terry. She said “No matter the skill of the actress can overcome the loss of youth.” Time marches on, Ellen....Damn it!
1886 US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. He said “The layman’s constitutional view is that anything he likes is constitutional and anything he doesn’t like is unconstitutional.” Yeah, so what is wrong with that, Hugo?
1897 US singer Marian Anderson. She said “So long as you hold somebody down, a part of you must be down there with them, meaning that you cannot soar as far as you otherwise might.” That sounds like my third ex-wife.
1902 US writer John Steinbeck. He said “Writers are somewhere between clowns and trained seals.” Steinbeck gave some of the best literature ever written and he received many awards for it. He gave us The Grapes of Wrath and Travels with Charlie among many others. He is no longer with us and it is our loss.
1912 English writer Lawrence Durrell. He said “All culture corrupts, but French culture corrupts absolutely.” My sentiments exactly Larry.
1913 US writer Irwin Shaw. When speaking of American football he said “If they armed the players, there would not be a stadium big enough to hold all the crowds.” I like the idea of men armed with ice picks against hungry lions.
1930 US actress and wife of Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward. She said “Sexiness wears this and beauty fades, but to be married to a man that makes you laugh every day, now that is a real treat.” Joanne went to high school right here in good old Greenpatch for a while.
1932 English-borne actress Elizabeth Taylor. I have been in love with Liz ever since I saw her in National Velvet. She said “The problem with people with no vices is there is a good chance they will have many irritating virtues”. There is little doubt that Liz has a plethora of vices. She is a skank, no doubt about it.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“My wife and I decided that we were in love, but it turned out to be benign.”
Woody Allen
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that there would be definite retribution for the bombing at the Moscow airport. I believe this guy. The Russians do not have a Constitution whereby everyone has “human rights” and are due process of law. I saw several instances whereby a criminal in Russia is not arrested and cuffed and quietly led to a squad car. In one instance a man had high jacked a tour bus and was caught in a road block. The police ordered him to release the passengers and he complied…15 seconds later he was dead. There was no negotiation. In another instance the Russian police had a hidden camera in a hotel room where an undercover cop was making a drug deal with some long time drug dealers. One of the drug dealers got angry and slapped the undercover cop. The cops observing from another room had enough and burst into the room guns drawn. The three drug dealers automatically fell to the floor and curled into the fetal position with their hands over their heads. They knew what was coming and they were not disappointed. The cops pistol whipped all of them senseless and dragged their ass out of there. I don’t know about these days but a while back if a criminal was sentenced to death in Russia they would not tell him the date of his execution. While in prison waiting, once in a while a guard would sneak up behind him a dry fire a pistol beside his ear. Sometimes they would take him out into the courtyard, tie him to a post and a crew of riflemen would draw down on him and then not shoot and walk away laughing. That would be worse than death, y’all.
I think y’all will remember the story I told about two armed robbers going into a Subway sandwich shop in Charlotte and demanding cash. The man behind the counter produced a gun of his own and outright killed one of the robbers and severely wounded the other. The wounded bastard got out of the hospital on Monday and was warmly met by a couple Charlotte’s finest and whisked off to the joint. To my knowledge no charges have been filed against the man behind the counter.
This date in history January 26
1788 Eight months Captain Arthur Phillip was commissioned by the British government to establish a colony in the newly discovered land that eventually became Australia. The strange part of it was that the British government wanted Phillip to do it with prisoners that may or may not have farming expertise. So Phillip set out with 11 ships headed to the land down under with nearly as many Marines aboard as he had prisoners. On this date he hove to off the east coast of what was labeled New South Wales and the country of Australia was born. Right from the git-go Captain Phillip found out that most of his prisoners indeed knew more about robbing and killing than they did about farming and not only that the soil was not rich enough to raise crops. Needless to say discipline amongst the prisoners became a serious problem. Hungry criminals can be a handful, Marines nearby or not. Finally the Marines were not up to the task and Captain Phillip himself took over control of the prisoners and he proved to be a tough but fair overseer, but many floggings and several hangings ensued. Eventually Captain Phillip, the Marines and the prisoners were on the cusp of starvation for several years. Captain Phillip returned to England in 1792 but the colony had already showed signs that it would survive and by the turn of the century the colony became prosperous with a deep sense of patriotism. In fact in 1808 an Australian historian wrote “there was a celebration of the founding of the colony with much drinking and merriment.” Australia is famous for having one of the largest quantities of beer consumed per capita on the planet, mostly Foster’s. I like it myself.
1950 After years of hassling with the British, India passed its own Constitution and became an independent nation on this date. Indian religious leader Mahatma Gandhi had been leading the fight for independence for decades and he finally succeeded. But before all of this came to pass, religious differences between the Hindus and the Moslems raised it ugly head. To settle this problem the British Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, declared that the country would be partitioned with the Moslems going to Pakistan and the Hindus to India. This seemed like a perfect plan but the Moslems and the Hindus still fought vicious battles where thousands were killed, including Mahatma Gandhi. He was a Hindu and was assassinated by another Hindu because Gandhi accepted the partition in the interest of peace. You can say what you want but the most bloody and vicious wars ever fought were in the interest of one or more religion against another. Remember the Crusades?
1863 After the disastrous tenure of US General Ambrose Burnside in command of the Army of the Potomac and his subsequent removal, on this date US General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker takes command. Hooker knew that the morale of the Army of the Potomac was at its lowest ebb and he needed to do something to restore pride. He allowed each regiment to design and wear their own “badge” or shoulder patch hoping this would have an effect. Hooker was a West Point graduate and participated in the Seminole War. When the Civil War broke out he was given the rank of Brigadier General and given command of a Division in the Army of the Potomac. Speaking of command, Abe Lincoln had been having a hell of a time finding a commander that could defeat Robert E. Lee. This was a tall order for anyone. Lincoln had gone through Generals Irwin McDowell, George McClellan, John Pope, McClellan again, Ambrose Burnside and now Joseph Hooker, none of which had been successful against Bobby Lee but Hooker had his chance coming. Hooker had two faults: women and whiskey. In fact he allowed prostitutes to follow his army around and that is where the word “hooker” to identify prostitutes came from. In May of this year Joe Hooker got his chance against Bobby Lee in an engagement near the small Virginia town of Chancellorsville. Hooker had a good plan and by dark of this fateful day he had the Army of Northern Virginia caught in a pincer movement. But “Fighting Joe” had not planned on the tactics of Lee and the brilliance of “Stonewall” Jackson. Jackson led his division on a forced night march around the right flank of Hooker’s army. The next morning while the Union troops on the right flank were cooking their breakfast, all of a sudden deer, rabbits and all types of game came running out of the woods behind them and right behind the animals came Jackson’s wild-eyed screaming Confederate infantry and those stunned Yankees got up and ran without even stopping to gather their weapons and put out their camp fires. Hooker had the Army of Northern Virginia outnumbered by at least two to one but was routed by Bobby Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Thus was the beginning of the end of the career of “Fighting Joe”.
1936 On This date the dismembered corpse of Frances Portillo was found with the head in a basket and the remainder of the various parts stuffed into burlap sacks in Cleveland, Ohio. This was not the first nor would it be the last. The killings and dismemberments continued until the number reached double digits. Needless to say the Cleveland PD was frantic to find the “Mad Butcher”. The corpses had been dissected with precision and therefore the PD began looking for a real butcher. The arrested a butcher named Frank Dolezal and interrogated him for 40 straight hours until he confessed to killing Frances Portillo. Frank committed suicide in his cell soon thereafter. Very few of the people of Cleveland believed that Frank Dolezal was the actual “Mad Butcher” and that the real killer was a well heeled and well connected member of the community. The Cleveland PD chose to destroy any and all records about these crimes and the killings stopped after the suicide of Dolezal. But the actual identity of the “Mad Butcher” is unknown to this day.
1875 The James brothers, Jesse and Frank, had been hotly pursued by the Pinkerton Detective Agency for over a year. They had been hired by the railroad barons to try and stop the robbing of their trains and banks by the James gang. They were not successful, in fact one of their best detectives named James Witcher had been found dead from a gunshot to the abdomen and his upper torso had been eaten by wild hogs. It was known that Jesse and Frank would visit with their kin in Clay County, Missouri on occasion. On this date a group of men surrounded the house of Jesse and Frank’s mother in Clay County thinking that the James boys were home visiting Mom. It has never been confirmed if the men surrounding the house were law enforcement officials or Pinkerton detectives or a combination of both. Anyway, the people surrounding the house decided to throw in a couple of flares to flush out anyone in the house. One of the flares exploded killing Jesse and Frank’s nine year old step-brother outright and took off one of Mom’s arms. Jesse and Frank were not there and the local community came after the ones that surrounded the house with blood in their eye. The lawmen/detectives got away and no one to this day admits to who it was that committed that atrocity but after this the Pinkerton Agency cut back on their often violent methods.
Born today:
1715 French philosopher Claude Helvetius. He said “To limit the press is an insult to a nation; to prohibit the reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants either fool or slaves.” It was less than five years ago that a church in a small town outside of Greenville, SC threatened to picket the local library to remove Catcher in the Rye from the shelves as being immoral because it mentions masturbation. There is no need for me to tell you what my response to that bullshit was. There is nothing more immoral on the planet than to tell someone what they can or cannot read. That is nothing but an attempt at mind control. I had forgotten why I don’t attend organized religions, after this, I remember.
1880 US General Douglas McArthur: He said “I will keep on living as if I expect to live forever. Nobody grows old by living a number of years. People grow old for deserting their Ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin but to give up wrinkles the soul.” General McArthur was one of America’s greatest military commanders in spite of having an ego the size of Oklahoma.
1918 US writer Phillip Farmer. He said “The universe is a big place, maybe the biggest.” Phillip, shut up.
1925 US actor Paul Newman. Paul has a side business of different salad dressings and once said “It is embarrassing to know that my salad dressings are out grossing my movies.” Paul donates all of the profits from his salad dressings to charity. He is no longer with us. He had been married to actress Joanne Woodward since 1958.
1929 US cartoonist Jules Feiffer. He said “Christ died for out sins, dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?” I am working on it, Jules.
1935 US baseball catcher Bon Uecker. When asked how do you catch a knuckleball he said “You wait until it stops rolling and go pick it up.” Bob worked for several years as the color man of baseball game broadcasts. He is a funny guy.
1961 Canadian ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky. He said “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.” I have a friend in Charlotte that said “80% of all the golf balls that you do not putt hard enough don’t go in the hole.”
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“My wife and I decided that we were in love, but it turned out to be benign.”
Woody Allen
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that there would be definite retribution for the bombing at the Moscow airport. I believe this guy. The Russians do not have a Constitution whereby everyone has “human rights” and are due process of law. I saw several instances whereby a criminal in Russia is not arrested and cuffed and quietly led to a squad car. In one instance a man had high jacked a tour bus and was caught in a road block. The police ordered him to release the passengers and he complied…15 seconds later he was dead. There was no negotiation. In another instance the Russian police had a hidden camera in a hotel room where an undercover cop was making a drug deal with some long time drug dealers. One of the drug dealers got angry and slapped the undercover cop. The cops observing from another room had enough and burst into the room guns drawn. The three drug dealers automatically fell to the floor and curled into the fetal position with their hands over their heads. They knew what was coming and they were not disappointed. The cops pistol whipped all of them senseless and dragged their ass out of there. I don’t know about these days but a while back if a criminal was sentenced to death in Russia they would not tell him the date of his execution. While in prison waiting, once in a while a guard would sneak up behind him a dry fire a pistol beside his ear. Sometimes they would take him out into the courtyard, tie him to a post and a crew of riflemen would draw down on him and then not shoot and walk away laughing. That would be worse than death, y’all.
I think y’all will remember the story I told about two armed robbers going into a Subway sandwich shop in Charlotte and demanding cash. The man behind the counter produced a gun of his own and outright killed one of the robbers and severely wounded the other. The wounded bastard got out of the hospital on Monday and was warmly met by a couple Charlotte’s finest and whisked off to the joint. To my knowledge no charges have been filed against the man behind the counter.
This date in history January 26
1788 Eight months Captain Arthur Phillip was commissioned by the British government to establish a colony in the newly discovered land that eventually became Australia. The strange part of it was that the British government wanted Phillip to do it with prisoners that may or may not have farming expertise. So Phillip set out with 11 ships headed to the land down under with nearly as many Marines aboard as he had prisoners. On this date he hove to off the east coast of what was labeled New South Wales and the country of Australia was born. Right from the git-go Captain Phillip found out that most of his prisoners indeed knew more about robbing and killing than they did about farming and not only that the soil was not rich enough to raise crops. Needless to say discipline amongst the prisoners became a serious problem. Hungry criminals can be a handful, Marines nearby or not. Finally the Marines were not up to the task and Captain Phillip himself took over control of the prisoners and he proved to be a tough but fair overseer, but many floggings and several hangings ensued. Eventually Captain Phillip, the Marines and the prisoners were on the cusp of starvation for several years. Captain Phillip returned to England in 1792 but the colony had already showed signs that it would survive and by the turn of the century the colony became prosperous with a deep sense of patriotism. In fact in 1808 an Australian historian wrote “there was a celebration of the founding of the colony with much drinking and merriment.” Australia is famous for having one of the largest quantities of beer consumed per capita on the planet, mostly Foster’s. I like it myself.
1950 After years of hassling with the British, India passed its own Constitution and became an independent nation on this date. Indian religious leader Mahatma Gandhi had been leading the fight for independence for decades and he finally succeeded. But before all of this came to pass, religious differences between the Hindus and the Moslems raised it ugly head. To settle this problem the British Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, declared that the country would be partitioned with the Moslems going to Pakistan and the Hindus to India. This seemed like a perfect plan but the Moslems and the Hindus still fought vicious battles where thousands were killed, including Mahatma Gandhi. He was a Hindu and was assassinated by another Hindu because Gandhi accepted the partition in the interest of peace. You can say what you want but the most bloody and vicious wars ever fought were in the interest of one or more religion against another. Remember the Crusades?
1863 After the disastrous tenure of US General Ambrose Burnside in command of the Army of the Potomac and his subsequent removal, on this date US General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker takes command. Hooker knew that the morale of the Army of the Potomac was at its lowest ebb and he needed to do something to restore pride. He allowed each regiment to design and wear their own “badge” or shoulder patch hoping this would have an effect. Hooker was a West Point graduate and participated in the Seminole War. When the Civil War broke out he was given the rank of Brigadier General and given command of a Division in the Army of the Potomac. Speaking of command, Abe Lincoln had been having a hell of a time finding a commander that could defeat Robert E. Lee. This was a tall order for anyone. Lincoln had gone through Generals Irwin McDowell, George McClellan, John Pope, McClellan again, Ambrose Burnside and now Joseph Hooker, none of which had been successful against Bobby Lee but Hooker had his chance coming. Hooker had two faults: women and whiskey. In fact he allowed prostitutes to follow his army around and that is where the word “hooker” to identify prostitutes came from. In May of this year Joe Hooker got his chance against Bobby Lee in an engagement near the small Virginia town of Chancellorsville. Hooker had a good plan and by dark of this fateful day he had the Army of Northern Virginia caught in a pincer movement. But “Fighting Joe” had not planned on the tactics of Lee and the brilliance of “Stonewall” Jackson. Jackson led his division on a forced night march around the right flank of Hooker’s army. The next morning while the Union troops on the right flank were cooking their breakfast, all of a sudden deer, rabbits and all types of game came running out of the woods behind them and right behind the animals came Jackson’s wild-eyed screaming Confederate infantry and those stunned Yankees got up and ran without even stopping to gather their weapons and put out their camp fires. Hooker had the Army of Northern Virginia outnumbered by at least two to one but was routed by Bobby Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Thus was the beginning of the end of the career of “Fighting Joe”.
1936 On This date the dismembered corpse of Frances Portillo was found with the head in a basket and the remainder of the various parts stuffed into burlap sacks in Cleveland, Ohio. This was not the first nor would it be the last. The killings and dismemberments continued until the number reached double digits. Needless to say the Cleveland PD was frantic to find the “Mad Butcher”. The corpses had been dissected with precision and therefore the PD began looking for a real butcher. The arrested a butcher named Frank Dolezal and interrogated him for 40 straight hours until he confessed to killing Frances Portillo. Frank committed suicide in his cell soon thereafter. Very few of the people of Cleveland believed that Frank Dolezal was the actual “Mad Butcher” and that the real killer was a well heeled and well connected member of the community. The Cleveland PD chose to destroy any and all records about these crimes and the killings stopped after the suicide of Dolezal. But the actual identity of the “Mad Butcher” is unknown to this day.
1875 The James brothers, Jesse and Frank, had been hotly pursued by the Pinkerton Detective Agency for over a year. They had been hired by the railroad barons to try and stop the robbing of their trains and banks by the James gang. They were not successful, in fact one of their best detectives named James Witcher had been found dead from a gunshot to the abdomen and his upper torso had been eaten by wild hogs. It was known that Jesse and Frank would visit with their kin in Clay County, Missouri on occasion. On this date a group of men surrounded the house of Jesse and Frank’s mother in Clay County thinking that the James boys were home visiting Mom. It has never been confirmed if the men surrounding the house were law enforcement officials or Pinkerton detectives or a combination of both. Anyway, the people surrounding the house decided to throw in a couple of flares to flush out anyone in the house. One of the flares exploded killing Jesse and Frank’s nine year old step-brother outright and took off one of Mom’s arms. Jesse and Frank were not there and the local community came after the ones that surrounded the house with blood in their eye. The lawmen/detectives got away and no one to this day admits to who it was that committed that atrocity but after this the Pinkerton Agency cut back on their often violent methods.
Born today:
1715 French philosopher Claude Helvetius. He said “To limit the press is an insult to a nation; to prohibit the reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants either fool or slaves.” It was less than five years ago that a church in a small town outside of Greenville, SC threatened to picket the local library to remove Catcher in the Rye from the shelves as being immoral because it mentions masturbation. There is no need for me to tell you what my response to that bullshit was. There is nothing more immoral on the planet than to tell someone what they can or cannot read. That is nothing but an attempt at mind control. I had forgotten why I don’t attend organized religions, after this, I remember.
1880 US General Douglas McArthur: He said “I will keep on living as if I expect to live forever. Nobody grows old by living a number of years. People grow old for deserting their Ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin but to give up wrinkles the soul.” General McArthur was one of America’s greatest military commanders in spite of having an ego the size of Oklahoma.
1918 US writer Phillip Farmer. He said “The universe is a big place, maybe the biggest.” Phillip, shut up.
1925 US actor Paul Newman. Paul has a side business of different salad dressings and once said “It is embarrassing to know that my salad dressings are out grossing my movies.” Paul donates all of the profits from his salad dressings to charity. He is no longer with us. He had been married to actress Joanne Woodward since 1958.
1929 US cartoonist Jules Feiffer. He said “Christ died for out sins, dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?” I am working on it, Jules.
1935 US baseball catcher Bon Uecker. When asked how do you catch a knuckleball he said “You wait until it stops rolling and go pick it up.” Bob worked for several years as the color man of baseball game broadcasts. He is a funny guy.
1961 Canadian ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky. He said “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.” I have a friend in Charlotte that said “80% of all the golf balls that you do not putt hard enough don’t go in the hole.”
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Daily history
Good morning.
Quote of the day:
“The trouble with jogging is that the olive keeps bouncing out of your martini glass."
Martin Mull
Recently a grandfather down in McCormick, South Carolina gave his granddaughter a dog. This past weekend the dog attacked the 9 year old girl and killed her with a bite to the throat. The dog was an Akita, a dog that originated in Japan and was bred for fighting and as a guard dog. This dog is renowned for its viciousness and willingness to attack without provocation. Not a good animal for a nine year old.
You know, some people just will not work for a living. Down in North Charleston, SC man was caught in the exhaust stack of a Shoney’s restaurant trying to break in. After doing hard time, he was paroled. This weekend the owner of a skating rink saw an anomaly with a motion detector in the rear of his building. He armed himself with his trusty Glock and went around for a look-see. What he found was the jackass that was stuck in the Shoney’s stack inside his air-conditioning unit starting to cut out the copper tubing. He held the man at gunpoint, called the cops and they took him away to the joint. By the way, they found wire cutters and tubing cutters in the man’s jacket pockets. What a useless human being he is, and he is not alone.
By now all of you know what happened at the airport in Moscow so I will not bore you with the details. I will say this: All of you that think we can negotiate a peace with the hard core Arabs can kiss my a--.
Over in Pritchard, Alabama two brothers were shot and killed while cruising a depressed neighborhood trying to sell cocaine. The brothers and three others were in an older Crown Victoria when a white van pulled up behind them and sprayed the car with automatic gunfire. The other three passengers were wounded but their wounds were not life threatening. The police said that it was probably another drug gang protecting their turf. I like it. Let them kill each other, as cruel as it sounds.
Here is another adventure from the out of doors. Down in Pensacola, Florida four of us decided to go put out a gill net for mullet one particular night. We launched two boats one of which had 150 yards of gill net aboard and went to an area known as Grand Lagoon. This body of water is on the inter-coastal waterway so we went to the far side before putting out the net. One boat would pull out the net while the other one slowly ran the opposite direction. We finally got the net arrayed and joined back together to wait for a while. One of the guys that was with us had never done anything like this before and pulled out a bottle of Jim Beam. The rest of us refused to partake because we knew what a boat, in the dark, with barge traffic close by could mean if mixed with firewater. After a while the rookie had to urinate and stood up and promptly fell over the side. He started screaming “Help, Help, I can’t swim.” We told him “Just stand up, the water is only 4 feet deep.” He stood up while the rest of us laughed our ass off. Then he did something that was life-threatening, he got his feet tangled in the gill net. It was a hell of a struggle but we pulled the net up and got his stupid feet untangled and him back into the boat. We threw his bottle of Beam over the side also.
This date in history January 25
1500 On this day Spanish employer Vincente Pinzon raises the coast of Brazil. Pinzon was the captain of the Nina, one of the ships that came over with Christopher Columbus. Pinzon explored the northern coast of Brazil and the Amazon River. There was always contention as to who claimed this country first, the Spanish or the Portuguese. That issue was settled a few years later when the Portuguese explorer Pedro Cabol went ashore and established the city of Sao Paolo, Brazil.
1863 About two months ago Abe Lincoln had enough of US General McClellan’s snot-nose and told him to take a hike and put US General Ambrose Burnside in command of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan was a great trainer and organizer but was very shy and reluctant when it came to combat meaning that the aggressive CSA Robert E. Lee handed McClellan his ass on several occasions even though at times Lee was outnumbered two to one. The final straw came when McClellan’s army had defeated Lee’s army at Antietam and Lee headed back in to Virginia to lick his wounds. McClellan chose to stay in camp for 6 weeks and not pursue Lee. Anyway, that was enough for Abe and he sent McClellan to the showers in and promoted Burnside into command. Burnside had been a desk jockey most of his career with very little if any combat experience and told everyone that they should take someone else but General of the Army Henry Halleck insisted. Very soon after taking command, Burnside knowing that Abe wanted an aggressive commander, launched a movement against Lee. Unfortunately, the movement was detected by Lee and he moved his army in a position to intercept Burnside at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Some of ya’ll may not know what happened at Fredericksburg but the US Army walked into trap a prepared by Lee and his Lieutenants that cost the Union 15,000 casualties to 5,000 for the CSA. Well, Lincoln gave Burnside another chance and he tried a counter-move to attack Lee’s position at Fredericksburg from another direction and during the movement it rained for four straight days and the Army of the Potomac was bogged down to a stop in mud waist deep.. The exasperated US troops gained access to some booze, got hammered and many fights broke out between units, not only that the CSA troops were on the opposite side of the Rappahannock taunting and teasing without mercy. So Abe put a stop to it by firing Burnside after only two months of command and gave command of the Army of the Potomac to US General Joseph Hooker. Little did Hooker know that yet another spectacular victory for the CSA awaited him at a little town named Chancellorsville.
1945 On this date, after a stiff fight the Russian army breaks through the German defenses near Auschwitz, Poland. What they found here was evidence of the most cruel and inhumane treatment of human beings yet recorded. It was a death camp of unimaginable proportions. There were three main camps, I, II and III with 8 other “satellite” camps. This camp had but one purpose and that was killing of human beings. The Russians discovered ovens with human remains still inside smoking, metal buildings with an opening for the insertion of poison gas. The German’s used Cyklon B gas. It was an insecticide and easy and cheap to make, the down side was that it did not kill quickly meaning that the people that were put inside those buildings knew after a short while that they were being poisoned and fought and struggled for life. The Russians found 645 corpses and 7,000 walking skeletons who told them that the guards found out that the Russians were close and they began killing all that they could until they ran out of ammo and then they began blowing up the crematoria and death buildings. The Russians also found three warehouses that were stacked to the top with women’s dresses, men’s suits and shoes that the German’s did not have a chance to destroy. And finally they discover the laboratories and journals of Dr. Josef Mengele. Mengele performed inconceivably cruel and inhuman medical experiments on the prisoners, especially children. There are many records of what this animal did to others but I will not describe them now. But I can tell you that when the Russian army left Auschwitz, they had lost all mercy and remorse for any and all Germans and killed all they found, man, woman, children, dogs, cats, geese, ducks, etc...They intended to wipe the slate clean of Germans. When one particular Russian tank crew entered Berlin they were confronted by an antitank gun manned by seven Germans no older than 12. The Russians destroyed the German crew and repeatedly ran back and forth across the corpses with their tank until there was nothing there that could be identified as human. Hate and no remorse, all wars depend on it.
1905 About noon of this day, the supervisor of the Premier Diamond Mine in South Africa in making an inspection and stops briefly and notices something sticking out of the wall above his head. He pulls out the largest diamond ever found. It is a 3,160 carat monster that was named the Star of Africa. The diamond is sent to the greatest diamond cutter in the world in Amsterdam for cutting and polishing. The cutter examines the stone for six months before making the first cut. When he decides where the cut will be made, he has a doctor standing by in case he makes a wrong cut and shatters the stone. He is successful and he produces two gigantic polished stone that are now in the Tower of London as part of the British National Treasury. There were hundreds of smaller stones also that made the Star of Africa the most valuable gem ever found.
Born today:
1759 Scottish poet Robert Burns. He said “There is nothing more uncertain as a sure thing.” Obviously Robert has been to a horse track.
1882 English writer Virginia Woolf. She said “On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.”
1950 US writer Gloria Naylor. She said “I don’t believe life is supposed to make you feel good, or make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.” This sounds like a person I know in Black Mountain, NC.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“The trouble with jogging is that the olive keeps bouncing out of your martini glass."
Martin Mull
Recently a grandfather down in McCormick, South Carolina gave his granddaughter a dog. This past weekend the dog attacked the 9 year old girl and killed her with a bite to the throat. The dog was an Akita, a dog that originated in Japan and was bred for fighting and as a guard dog. This dog is renowned for its viciousness and willingness to attack without provocation. Not a good animal for a nine year old.
You know, some people just will not work for a living. Down in North Charleston, SC man was caught in the exhaust stack of a Shoney’s restaurant trying to break in. After doing hard time, he was paroled. This weekend the owner of a skating rink saw an anomaly with a motion detector in the rear of his building. He armed himself with his trusty Glock and went around for a look-see. What he found was the jackass that was stuck in the Shoney’s stack inside his air-conditioning unit starting to cut out the copper tubing. He held the man at gunpoint, called the cops and they took him away to the joint. By the way, they found wire cutters and tubing cutters in the man’s jacket pockets. What a useless human being he is, and he is not alone.
By now all of you know what happened at the airport in Moscow so I will not bore you with the details. I will say this: All of you that think we can negotiate a peace with the hard core Arabs can kiss my a--.
Over in Pritchard, Alabama two brothers were shot and killed while cruising a depressed neighborhood trying to sell cocaine. The brothers and three others were in an older Crown Victoria when a white van pulled up behind them and sprayed the car with automatic gunfire. The other three passengers were wounded but their wounds were not life threatening. The police said that it was probably another drug gang protecting their turf. I like it. Let them kill each other, as cruel as it sounds.
Here is another adventure from the out of doors. Down in Pensacola, Florida four of us decided to go put out a gill net for mullet one particular night. We launched two boats one of which had 150 yards of gill net aboard and went to an area known as Grand Lagoon. This body of water is on the inter-coastal waterway so we went to the far side before putting out the net. One boat would pull out the net while the other one slowly ran the opposite direction. We finally got the net arrayed and joined back together to wait for a while. One of the guys that was with us had never done anything like this before and pulled out a bottle of Jim Beam. The rest of us refused to partake because we knew what a boat, in the dark, with barge traffic close by could mean if mixed with firewater. After a while the rookie had to urinate and stood up and promptly fell over the side. He started screaming “Help, Help, I can’t swim.” We told him “Just stand up, the water is only 4 feet deep.” He stood up while the rest of us laughed our ass off. Then he did something that was life-threatening, he got his feet tangled in the gill net. It was a hell of a struggle but we pulled the net up and got his stupid feet untangled and him back into the boat. We threw his bottle of Beam over the side also.
This date in history January 25
1500 On this day Spanish employer Vincente Pinzon raises the coast of Brazil. Pinzon was the captain of the Nina, one of the ships that came over with Christopher Columbus. Pinzon explored the northern coast of Brazil and the Amazon River. There was always contention as to who claimed this country first, the Spanish or the Portuguese. That issue was settled a few years later when the Portuguese explorer Pedro Cabol went ashore and established the city of Sao Paolo, Brazil.
1863 About two months ago Abe Lincoln had enough of US General McClellan’s snot-nose and told him to take a hike and put US General Ambrose Burnside in command of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan was a great trainer and organizer but was very shy and reluctant when it came to combat meaning that the aggressive CSA Robert E. Lee handed McClellan his ass on several occasions even though at times Lee was outnumbered two to one. The final straw came when McClellan’s army had defeated Lee’s army at Antietam and Lee headed back in to Virginia to lick his wounds. McClellan chose to stay in camp for 6 weeks and not pursue Lee. Anyway, that was enough for Abe and he sent McClellan to the showers in and promoted Burnside into command. Burnside had been a desk jockey most of his career with very little if any combat experience and told everyone that they should take someone else but General of the Army Henry Halleck insisted. Very soon after taking command, Burnside knowing that Abe wanted an aggressive commander, launched a movement against Lee. Unfortunately, the movement was detected by Lee and he moved his army in a position to intercept Burnside at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Some of ya’ll may not know what happened at Fredericksburg but the US Army walked into trap a prepared by Lee and his Lieutenants that cost the Union 15,000 casualties to 5,000 for the CSA. Well, Lincoln gave Burnside another chance and he tried a counter-move to attack Lee’s position at Fredericksburg from another direction and during the movement it rained for four straight days and the Army of the Potomac was bogged down to a stop in mud waist deep.. The exasperated US troops gained access to some booze, got hammered and many fights broke out between units, not only that the CSA troops were on the opposite side of the Rappahannock taunting and teasing without mercy. So Abe put a stop to it by firing Burnside after only two months of command and gave command of the Army of the Potomac to US General Joseph Hooker. Little did Hooker know that yet another spectacular victory for the CSA awaited him at a little town named Chancellorsville.
1945 On this date, after a stiff fight the Russian army breaks through the German defenses near Auschwitz, Poland. What they found here was evidence of the most cruel and inhumane treatment of human beings yet recorded. It was a death camp of unimaginable proportions. There were three main camps, I, II and III with 8 other “satellite” camps. This camp had but one purpose and that was killing of human beings. The Russians discovered ovens with human remains still inside smoking, metal buildings with an opening for the insertion of poison gas. The German’s used Cyklon B gas. It was an insecticide and easy and cheap to make, the down side was that it did not kill quickly meaning that the people that were put inside those buildings knew after a short while that they were being poisoned and fought and struggled for life. The Russians found 645 corpses and 7,000 walking skeletons who told them that the guards found out that the Russians were close and they began killing all that they could until they ran out of ammo and then they began blowing up the crematoria and death buildings. The Russians also found three warehouses that were stacked to the top with women’s dresses, men’s suits and shoes that the German’s did not have a chance to destroy. And finally they discover the laboratories and journals of Dr. Josef Mengele. Mengele performed inconceivably cruel and inhuman medical experiments on the prisoners, especially children. There are many records of what this animal did to others but I will not describe them now. But I can tell you that when the Russian army left Auschwitz, they had lost all mercy and remorse for any and all Germans and killed all they found, man, woman, children, dogs, cats, geese, ducks, etc...They intended to wipe the slate clean of Germans. When one particular Russian tank crew entered Berlin they were confronted by an antitank gun manned by seven Germans no older than 12. The Russians destroyed the German crew and repeatedly ran back and forth across the corpses with their tank until there was nothing there that could be identified as human. Hate and no remorse, all wars depend on it.
1905 About noon of this day, the supervisor of the Premier Diamond Mine in South Africa in making an inspection and stops briefly and notices something sticking out of the wall above his head. He pulls out the largest diamond ever found. It is a 3,160 carat monster that was named the Star of Africa. The diamond is sent to the greatest diamond cutter in the world in Amsterdam for cutting and polishing. The cutter examines the stone for six months before making the first cut. When he decides where the cut will be made, he has a doctor standing by in case he makes a wrong cut and shatters the stone. He is successful and he produces two gigantic polished stone that are now in the Tower of London as part of the British National Treasury. There were hundreds of smaller stones also that made the Star of Africa the most valuable gem ever found.
Born today:
1759 Scottish poet Robert Burns. He said “There is nothing more uncertain as a sure thing.” Obviously Robert has been to a horse track.
1882 English writer Virginia Woolf. She said “On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.”
1950 US writer Gloria Naylor. She said “I don’t believe life is supposed to make you feel good, or make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.” This sounds like a person I know in Black Mountain, NC.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Monday, January 24, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Michael Jackson looks great for the age of 44 but frankly, I think he has had some work done.”
Jimmy Fallon
A few days earlier a 43 year old man named Wayne Ridge got into an argument with someone staying at the Sunset Inn motel near Gaffney, South Carolina. The Sunset is famous for “short term” use, if you get my drift. The motel manager came out and told Ridge to get off the property. Ridge did leave but returned about 2 hours later in the company of his 17 year old son Randall. They began pounding on the door of the man the elder Ridge had an argument with earlier. I a moment of stupidity, the man opened the door. Wayne and Randall grabbed the man and drug him out on the lawn and began stabbing and hacking on him with knives. At the moment the pounding began the office manger called the cops and when they arrived the Ridges were still on the property. The Ridges were arrested and the man was taken to the hospital to be sewn up with non life threatening injuries. This is not the first time that Wayne Ridge has been in an encounter with the cops at the Sunset Inn. Back in 2008 Wayne had picked up a “working girl” that was in the restaurant next door to the Sunset Inn, the restaurant was Mister Waffle. Working girls on I-85 in the Gaffney area do not have much to work with. Anyway, Wayne got an argument with the girl and commenced to beat on her. Fortunately for the girl, there was a cop inside Mister Waffle and he came out and tried to break it up. Wayne wanted to fight and on this occasion, the cop put Wayne in the hospital with help of pepper spray and a five cell cast aluminum flashlight. Wayne is a great example for his kid, isn’t he? Wayne got bail in the amount of $50,000 and Randall got $25,000, what a wonderful family.
Here is yet another adventure out my hunting and fishing memory album. I was in the Air Force based at Greenville AFB, Mississippi. Greenville is right on the Mississippi River and a lot of barge traffic stops there. At times the river changes course and leaves part of the river in its old river bed. These bodies of water are known as oxbow lakes. I decided to go fishing in one of these lakes north of town and headed to a fish camp located on the lake where I could rent a boat and motor. The lake was contained on the east side by a levee. The fish camp was on the levee and the road to the camp was on the top of the levee. There came a torrential rainstorm on the way to the camp and I had to pull over to the side of the road and wait it out. The rain finally let up and I pulled up on the levee and headed north. I got within sight of the camp but in one spot there was a rush of water crossing the levee from the lake over into a swamp that would have made the Okefenokee proud. I stopped and thought about it for a while then decided that I could make it if I went slowly. I got about half way across and my car, a ’51 Ford’, started sliding to the right and eventually rolled up on its right side and slide down into the swamp and wedged against a tree. It was a struggle to get the driver side door open and hold it open long enough to get out but I was successful. I crawled across the car and slid into the swamp where there was a lot of strong weeds and pulled myself up onto the levee. I really did not know what to do at this point. I figured that the fish camp had a phone so I walked over there and called a wrecker service to come and get my car out of that swamp. The wrecker said that it would be a couple of hours before he could get there. I asked him where he was going to take the car and he told me. I wrote the address down and talked with the camp manager and told him my problem. He said that after he closed he would take me out to the main road where I could get a cab. That left me with at least five hours to kill so I did the honorable thing, I went fishing.
This date in history January 24
1781 On this date the combined cavalry forces of the Virginian Lieutenant Colonel Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee and South Carolinian Brigadier General Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion descended upon a 200 man British encampment near Georgetown, South Carolina. Henry Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia and was the father of CSA General Robert E. Lee. Francis Marion was born on a plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina. Marion had been given command of the South Carolina Militia while the commander, Thomas “The Gamecock” Sumter, was recovering from a severe wound. The raid came as a complete surprise to the British and the Patriots were able to capture a large portion on the encampment including several officers and the camp commander. A month later “Light-Horse Harry” Lee was able to destroy another British unit on the banks of the Haw River in North Carolina. Lee’s unit was able to close in on the British without opposition this was because the uniforms worn by the Patriots were very similar to those worn by the British cavalry unit of the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton. When the Patriots were within sight of the British they waved greeting to them and kept it up until they were within striking distance. After this is was nothing short of a slaughter. The British commander, Colonel John Pyle, lost three fingers and the sight of one eye during the attack but was able to escape by jumping into a nearby pond and hiding in the reeds. To this day that body of water is known as “Pyle’s Pond”.
1956 Earlier a 14 year old black kid from Chicago named Emmett Till was visiting his great-uncle on his farm near Money, Mississippi. He bragged to the locals there that he had a white girlfriend in Chicago and was challenged to see if he could get one there in Mississippi. Emmett was the typical teenager and accepted the challenge. He went into the local convenience store and made a pass at a married white woman working there. A couple of days later the woman’s husband came home from a business trip and was told of what happened with Emmett. So J.W. Milam and his cousin Roy Bryant go to Emmett’s great-uncle’s farm and kidnap Emmett. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. They beat Emmett to death with their pistols; Milam and Bryant took Emmett’s corpse to the crest of the Tallahatchie Bridge, wrapped barbed wire around Emmett’s neck and the other end to a heavy cotton gin fan and threw them both off the bridge. The corpse was eventually discovered and Milam and Bryant were arrested and went to trial for murder. They were acquitted because the defense lawyer was able to convince the jury that the corpse was so decomposed that the true identification could not be determined. The prosecution produced a ring that was found on the corpse that was known to be owned by Emmett. The defense blew it off as being stolen. Anyway, because of the law of double jeopardy Milam and Bryant, knowing they could not be tried again, on this date sold their description of the murder of Emmett to Look magazine for $4,000. Emmett’s mother retrieved his corpse back to Chicago and in her anger held an open casket funeral that was attended by over 5,000 people. No other attempts to bring Milam and Bryant to justice but they both died of cancer a few years later. God works in mysterious ways.
1848 Earlier a Swiss emigrant to the United States named John Sutter had acquired 7,000 acres in Mexico owned California if he would swear allegiance to Mexico and keep those pesky European settlers at bay. The land was in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco. Sutter had ideas of creating a type of commune on his lands. He determined that in order to build housing he would need a saw mill so he hired a man named James Marshall to build one. The main water source in that area was the American River and Marshall decided to build his water powered saw mill on the south fork of the American River. He began digging to deepen the creek and in the diggings he kept seeing flashes of light off some of the flakes therein. On this date he gathered up some of the flakes and took them to Sutter who immediately took them to an assayer who told Sutter that it was indeed gold. Sutter tried to keep this discovery a secret and succeeded for a while but eventually the word leaked out and in 1849 the largest gold rush in history was under way. Sutter did not have to worry about the Mexicans any longer because Mexico ceded all its lands in California to the United States as a result of the US victory in the Mexican War. You would think that this would make Sutter very happy but by 1852 his thoughts of a commune had gone down the toilet and the oncoming gold seekers trampled his gardens and slaughtered his farm animals for food. He spent the last years of his life petitioning the US government to recompense him for his losses at the hand of the miners. He did not get anything.
1943 On this date the commander of the German 6th Army, General Frederick von Paulus, entreated Hitler to allow his army to surrender. Hitler refused. Earlier Hitler had launched Operation Barbarossa which was the attempt to conquer Russia. There were three armies that departed Germany on this mission. Paulus was the commander of the central army whose main target was the capture of the city of Stalingrad. Upon arrival at the gates of Stalingrad he ran across a nut he could not crack so he surrounded the city and established a siege in an attempt to starve the people of Stalingrad into submission. In spite of millions starving to death, the city did not fall. Eventually the Russian army got on its feet and attacked Paulus’ army at its weakest point, the Romanian detachment. After breaking through here, the Russians swarmed around the Germans and encircled them cutting off their supplies. After the Russians had overrun his last airfield, Paulus knew the end was near especially since the descent of the worst winter in fifty years. A few days after the loss of this airfield, Paulus surrendered his army to the Russians, Adolph Hitler be damned. The Russians, remembering the people that starved to death in Stalingrad, accepted the surrender and gathered up the 500,000 half starved, half frozen Germans and sent them to prison camps. Of those that were captured, only 16,000 ever lived to see Germany again. Paulus was tried at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials, but was released and spent his last days in East Berlin.
Quotable quotes:
“I go to see my doctor and tell him that when I get up in the morning I look in the mirror and begin to throw up. The doctor said that he did not know what was causing the nausea but my eyesight was perfect.” Rodney Dangerfield
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
“Michael Jackson looks great for the age of 44 but frankly, I think he has had some work done.”
Jimmy Fallon
A few days earlier a 43 year old man named Wayne Ridge got into an argument with someone staying at the Sunset Inn motel near Gaffney, South Carolina. The Sunset is famous for “short term” use, if you get my drift. The motel manager came out and told Ridge to get off the property. Ridge did leave but returned about 2 hours later in the company of his 17 year old son Randall. They began pounding on the door of the man the elder Ridge had an argument with earlier. I a moment of stupidity, the man opened the door. Wayne and Randall grabbed the man and drug him out on the lawn and began stabbing and hacking on him with knives. At the moment the pounding began the office manger called the cops and when they arrived the Ridges were still on the property. The Ridges were arrested and the man was taken to the hospital to be sewn up with non life threatening injuries. This is not the first time that Wayne Ridge has been in an encounter with the cops at the Sunset Inn. Back in 2008 Wayne had picked up a “working girl” that was in the restaurant next door to the Sunset Inn, the restaurant was Mister Waffle. Working girls on I-85 in the Gaffney area do not have much to work with. Anyway, Wayne got an argument with the girl and commenced to beat on her. Fortunately for the girl, there was a cop inside Mister Waffle and he came out and tried to break it up. Wayne wanted to fight and on this occasion, the cop put Wayne in the hospital with help of pepper spray and a five cell cast aluminum flashlight. Wayne is a great example for his kid, isn’t he? Wayne got bail in the amount of $50,000 and Randall got $25,000, what a wonderful family.
Here is yet another adventure out my hunting and fishing memory album. I was in the Air Force based at Greenville AFB, Mississippi. Greenville is right on the Mississippi River and a lot of barge traffic stops there. At times the river changes course and leaves part of the river in its old river bed. These bodies of water are known as oxbow lakes. I decided to go fishing in one of these lakes north of town and headed to a fish camp located on the lake where I could rent a boat and motor. The lake was contained on the east side by a levee. The fish camp was on the levee and the road to the camp was on the top of the levee. There came a torrential rainstorm on the way to the camp and I had to pull over to the side of the road and wait it out. The rain finally let up and I pulled up on the levee and headed north. I got within sight of the camp but in one spot there was a rush of water crossing the levee from the lake over into a swamp that would have made the Okefenokee proud. I stopped and thought about it for a while then decided that I could make it if I went slowly. I got about half way across and my car, a ’51 Ford’, started sliding to the right and eventually rolled up on its right side and slide down into the swamp and wedged against a tree. It was a struggle to get the driver side door open and hold it open long enough to get out but I was successful. I crawled across the car and slid into the swamp where there was a lot of strong weeds and pulled myself up onto the levee. I really did not know what to do at this point. I figured that the fish camp had a phone so I walked over there and called a wrecker service to come and get my car out of that swamp. The wrecker said that it would be a couple of hours before he could get there. I asked him where he was going to take the car and he told me. I wrote the address down and talked with the camp manager and told him my problem. He said that after he closed he would take me out to the main road where I could get a cab. That left me with at least five hours to kill so I did the honorable thing, I went fishing.
This date in history January 24
1781 On this date the combined cavalry forces of the Virginian Lieutenant Colonel Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee and South Carolinian Brigadier General Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion descended upon a 200 man British encampment near Georgetown, South Carolina. Henry Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia and was the father of CSA General Robert E. Lee. Francis Marion was born on a plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina. Marion had been given command of the South Carolina Militia while the commander, Thomas “The Gamecock” Sumter, was recovering from a severe wound. The raid came as a complete surprise to the British and the Patriots were able to capture a large portion on the encampment including several officers and the camp commander. A month later “Light-Horse Harry” Lee was able to destroy another British unit on the banks of the Haw River in North Carolina. Lee’s unit was able to close in on the British without opposition this was because the uniforms worn by the Patriots were very similar to those worn by the British cavalry unit of the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton. When the Patriots were within sight of the British they waved greeting to them and kept it up until they were within striking distance. After this is was nothing short of a slaughter. The British commander, Colonel John Pyle, lost three fingers and the sight of one eye during the attack but was able to escape by jumping into a nearby pond and hiding in the reeds. To this day that body of water is known as “Pyle’s Pond”.
1956 Earlier a 14 year old black kid from Chicago named Emmett Till was visiting his great-uncle on his farm near Money, Mississippi. He bragged to the locals there that he had a white girlfriend in Chicago and was challenged to see if he could get one there in Mississippi. Emmett was the typical teenager and accepted the challenge. He went into the local convenience store and made a pass at a married white woman working there. A couple of days later the woman’s husband came home from a business trip and was told of what happened with Emmett. So J.W. Milam and his cousin Roy Bryant go to Emmett’s great-uncle’s farm and kidnap Emmett. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. They beat Emmett to death with their pistols; Milam and Bryant took Emmett’s corpse to the crest of the Tallahatchie Bridge, wrapped barbed wire around Emmett’s neck and the other end to a heavy cotton gin fan and threw them both off the bridge. The corpse was eventually discovered and Milam and Bryant were arrested and went to trial for murder. They were acquitted because the defense lawyer was able to convince the jury that the corpse was so decomposed that the true identification could not be determined. The prosecution produced a ring that was found on the corpse that was known to be owned by Emmett. The defense blew it off as being stolen. Anyway, because of the law of double jeopardy Milam and Bryant, knowing they could not be tried again, on this date sold their description of the murder of Emmett to Look magazine for $4,000. Emmett’s mother retrieved his corpse back to Chicago and in her anger held an open casket funeral that was attended by over 5,000 people. No other attempts to bring Milam and Bryant to justice but they both died of cancer a few years later. God works in mysterious ways.
1848 Earlier a Swiss emigrant to the United States named John Sutter had acquired 7,000 acres in Mexico owned California if he would swear allegiance to Mexico and keep those pesky European settlers at bay. The land was in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco. Sutter had ideas of creating a type of commune on his lands. He determined that in order to build housing he would need a saw mill so he hired a man named James Marshall to build one. The main water source in that area was the American River and Marshall decided to build his water powered saw mill on the south fork of the American River. He began digging to deepen the creek and in the diggings he kept seeing flashes of light off some of the flakes therein. On this date he gathered up some of the flakes and took them to Sutter who immediately took them to an assayer who told Sutter that it was indeed gold. Sutter tried to keep this discovery a secret and succeeded for a while but eventually the word leaked out and in 1849 the largest gold rush in history was under way. Sutter did not have to worry about the Mexicans any longer because Mexico ceded all its lands in California to the United States as a result of the US victory in the Mexican War. You would think that this would make Sutter very happy but by 1852 his thoughts of a commune had gone down the toilet and the oncoming gold seekers trampled his gardens and slaughtered his farm animals for food. He spent the last years of his life petitioning the US government to recompense him for his losses at the hand of the miners. He did not get anything.
1943 On this date the commander of the German 6th Army, General Frederick von Paulus, entreated Hitler to allow his army to surrender. Hitler refused. Earlier Hitler had launched Operation Barbarossa which was the attempt to conquer Russia. There were three armies that departed Germany on this mission. Paulus was the commander of the central army whose main target was the capture of the city of Stalingrad. Upon arrival at the gates of Stalingrad he ran across a nut he could not crack so he surrounded the city and established a siege in an attempt to starve the people of Stalingrad into submission. In spite of millions starving to death, the city did not fall. Eventually the Russian army got on its feet and attacked Paulus’ army at its weakest point, the Romanian detachment. After breaking through here, the Russians swarmed around the Germans and encircled them cutting off their supplies. After the Russians had overrun his last airfield, Paulus knew the end was near especially since the descent of the worst winter in fifty years. A few days after the loss of this airfield, Paulus surrendered his army to the Russians, Adolph Hitler be damned. The Russians, remembering the people that starved to death in Stalingrad, accepted the surrender and gathered up the 500,000 half starved, half frozen Germans and sent them to prison camps. Of those that were captured, only 16,000 ever lived to see Germany again. Paulus was tried at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials, but was released and spent his last days in East Berlin.
Quotable quotes:
“I go to see my doctor and tell him that when I get up in the morning I look in the mirror and begin to throw up. The doctor said that he did not know what was causing the nausea but my eyesight was perfect.” Rodney Dangerfield
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Of all the actresses in show business, I think Liza Minelli’s face should win in the beagle category.”
John Simon, film critic
I had casual contact with a lady on Facebook whose last name was Ousterodeaux. I asked her for phonectic pronunciation. She sent me a young novel from Ancestors about the root of that name. It originally was Spanish and was spelled Osterdo and meant “farm fields” or something like that. When her ancestors came to Louisiana it was under the control of the French and so they spelled it the French way. I told her that Campbell meant “a redneck from South Carolina” and that we are of Scottish stock and have the scars to prove it. Actually the translation of Campbell in Scottish means “crooked mouth”. The name Cameron means “crooked nose.” Don’t ask.
The incoming Governor of Alabama made a speech at the Dexter Street Baptist Church in Montgomery this past Sunday. This is the church that was Dr. Martin Luther King’s first church as a pastor. Governor Bentley stood up in front of the lord and everybody with his bare, hawk-looking face hanging out and said “If a person has not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior they are not my brothers and sisters. I look on those that have not with a different viewpoint. I consider only Christians as my family” That statement reached the Jewish community in just a few microseconds, not to mention the agnostic, atheists, Hindus among others, and last but not least, Islam. All of which now believe that they will not receive equal treatment under the law with “Hawksbill” Bentley as Governor. I used to think the former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms was the dumbest politician ever and then I read about Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi…but Governor Bentley takes the prize, y’all.
A while back I told y’all about a 16 year old boy that snuck aboard a Delta jet at the Charlotte airport and stowed away in the nose wheel well. The plane was headed to Boston. The plane arrived in the Boston area and when the crew lowered the wheels, the kid fell out onto a suburban Boston street. Needless to say, he was dead. I personally feel that he was dead in the wheel well. The plane flies above 30,000 feet where there is no oxygen and the temperature is way below zero. Anyway the family has hired the Chestnut Law Firm and they are going to sue the Charlotte Airport because their security failed to detect the kid climbing into the wheel well. They may have a case in spite of the kid’s “childish and immature behavior.”
Again up in the “Queen City” Charlotte, NC a man wielding a knife tried to rob a convenience store. The clerk produced a knife of his own except his was a Samurai sword. He started hacking on the thief who chose the better part of valor and surrendered.
A good friend sent me this:
If guns kill people then….
Cars drive drunk…
Pencils misspell words…
Spoons make Oprah fat.
Supposedly according to Sarah Palin the US Congress is going to make it a lot more difficult to receive unemployment benefits. They are only going to print the paperwork in English.
This date in history January 20
1863 The dispirited US Army of the Potomac was still reeling from the terrible massacre of the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 where the US had 13,000 casualties and the CSA Army of Northern Virginia suffered only 5,000.The commanders at the Battle of Fredericksburg was US General Ambrose Burnside and CSA General Robert E. Lee. Burnside decided that the best way to re-install the morale of his army was to go on the offensive as soon as possible. After refitting and rearming, Burnside decided that the best course of action was to quickly swing around the left flank of Lee’s army. It had not rained for the whole month of January so Burnside’s army departed on dry roads but a sprinkle of rain began on the first day, then it became a deluge that lasted for four days. Needless to say, the quick movement of this Army was lost in the quagmires that once were dry roads. Any surprise of attack also was lost when this huge army bogged down to a crawl. At its worst the Army of the Potomac was moving at a speed of 1 ½ miles per day. To make things worse, Many Confederate troops moved in and began shouting “Burnside is stuck in the mud” from a distance. Due to conflicting orders an entire Corp crossed in front of another entire Corp churning whatever passable roads that might have been there into a slippery stew. Burnside then did the honorable thing hoping to cheer up the men; he brought up barrels of whiskey and dished it out. I don’t need to tell ya’ll what happened next. That’s right, Burnsides ended up with literally hundreds of drunken US soldiers fighting, sometimes regiment against regiment, and wallowing around in the mud. Mercifully, Burnside called an end to this attack forever known as the “Mud March”. This debacle was so embarrassing to Lincoln that Burnside was relieved three days later.
1777 Earlier a troop of 500 British soldiers had captured Van Newt’s mill near Millstone, New Jersey and had set about stealing all the wheat flour and corn meal they could carry along with many head of cattle that they had also stolen on the way to the mill all to feed the British troops at New Brunswick. General George Washington divided his forces to harass the British between New Brunswick and Amboy, New Jersey. Patriot Brigadier General Philemon Dickenson leading 400 “raw” New Jersey militia and 50 Pennsylvania riflemen commanded by Captain Robert Durkee went to put a stop to this bullshit. They had a problem in that the British had set up an array of cannon guarding the bridge across Millstone River leading to the mill. The Patriots did the unexpected and waded across the icy waters and attacked the British from an unexpected direction and routed those redcoats. General Dickenson wrote a report to General Washington about this action and said “we captured 49 British soldiers, 107 horses, 49 wagons, 114 cattle, 70 sheep and 40 barrels of flour.” It was reported later that the British were seen loading 25 to 30 wounded soldiers onto wagons. The Patriots lost 5 men. What a great victory for our ancestors.
1974 Rae Carruth is born on this date in Sacramento, California. Some people may know who this man is and others will not so I will tell you. Carruth was a gifted athlete as a wide receiver in football. He played four years at the University of Colorado and was first team All-American his senior year. He was picked by the Carolina Panthers in the 1997 NFL draft and signed a contract for four years for $3.7 million. Carruth was hell on wheels from the git-go and was on the all-rookie team with 44 catches averaging 12.7 yards per catch. Then something happened to this millionaire. On November 15, 1999 he met his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams at a movie house in Charlotte, NC. Charlotte is the home of the Panthers. After the movie Rae and Cherica got into their separate cars and headed for Cherica’s house with Rae in the lead. Along the way a car pulled up beside Cherica and a passenger in other car pumps four shots into Cherica’s car and sped off. Cherica is not killed and calls 911 and mentions that Rae is somehow involved in the shooting. When the paramedics arrive Rae is no where in sight. Cherica’s baby is delivered by emergency caesarian section and survived. Cherica is in critical condition but is rational enough to tell the police that when the other car had pulled along side, Rae had slowed to a crawl forcing her to slow and blocked an avenue of escape and after the shots were fired he sped off also. The shooter was captured and decided to squeal to get a lighter sentence. He said that Rae had contracted the shooting and soon after Rae was arrested for conspiracy. Nine days later Cherica died and Rae’s charges are changed to complicity to commit murder. This dumb-ass Rae had been on his cell phone the whole time telling the shooter where he and Cherica were and his cell phone records proved it. Rae was tried and convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and 11 months in prison. The reason he ordered the shooting was that he did not want to pay child support. I am without words at this point.
Born today:
1920 Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. He said “All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.” What a great thought.
Died today:
1900 English critic John Ruskin. He said “There is hardly anything in this world that a man cannot make worse and sell a little cheaper.” I think I know this man,
1936 British monarch King George V. He said “Never pass up a chance to go to the bathroom.” I know whereof you speak, George.
1962 US writer Robinson Jeffers. He said “The heads of strong old age are beautiful beyond all grace of youth.” Hey Robbie, I have been telling women that all along until I am blue in the face.
1993 Belgium born actress Audrey Hepburn. Audrey had one of the most beautiful faces most people have ever seen and she said “I never thought I would get into pictures with a face like mine.” Audrey, it was my pleasure to have gazed upon your beauty.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Of all the actresses in show business, I think Liza Minelli’s face should win in the beagle category.”
John Simon, film critic
I had casual contact with a lady on Facebook whose last name was Ousterodeaux. I asked her for phonectic pronunciation. She sent me a young novel from Ancestors about the root of that name. It originally was Spanish and was spelled Osterdo and meant “farm fields” or something like that. When her ancestors came to Louisiana it was under the control of the French and so they spelled it the French way. I told her that Campbell meant “a redneck from South Carolina” and that we are of Scottish stock and have the scars to prove it. Actually the translation of Campbell in Scottish means “crooked mouth”. The name Cameron means “crooked nose.” Don’t ask.
The incoming Governor of Alabama made a speech at the Dexter Street Baptist Church in Montgomery this past Sunday. This is the church that was Dr. Martin Luther King’s first church as a pastor. Governor Bentley stood up in front of the lord and everybody with his bare, hawk-looking face hanging out and said “If a person has not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior they are not my brothers and sisters. I look on those that have not with a different viewpoint. I consider only Christians as my family” That statement reached the Jewish community in just a few microseconds, not to mention the agnostic, atheists, Hindus among others, and last but not least, Islam. All of which now believe that they will not receive equal treatment under the law with “Hawksbill” Bentley as Governor. I used to think the former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms was the dumbest politician ever and then I read about Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi…but Governor Bentley takes the prize, y’all.
A while back I told y’all about a 16 year old boy that snuck aboard a Delta jet at the Charlotte airport and stowed away in the nose wheel well. The plane was headed to Boston. The plane arrived in the Boston area and when the crew lowered the wheels, the kid fell out onto a suburban Boston street. Needless to say, he was dead. I personally feel that he was dead in the wheel well. The plane flies above 30,000 feet where there is no oxygen and the temperature is way below zero. Anyway the family has hired the Chestnut Law Firm and they are going to sue the Charlotte Airport because their security failed to detect the kid climbing into the wheel well. They may have a case in spite of the kid’s “childish and immature behavior.”
Again up in the “Queen City” Charlotte, NC a man wielding a knife tried to rob a convenience store. The clerk produced a knife of his own except his was a Samurai sword. He started hacking on the thief who chose the better part of valor and surrendered.
A good friend sent me this:
If guns kill people then….
Cars drive drunk…
Pencils misspell words…
Spoons make Oprah fat.
Supposedly according to Sarah Palin the US Congress is going to make it a lot more difficult to receive unemployment benefits. They are only going to print the paperwork in English.
This date in history January 20
1863 The dispirited US Army of the Potomac was still reeling from the terrible massacre of the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 where the US had 13,000 casualties and the CSA Army of Northern Virginia suffered only 5,000.The commanders at the Battle of Fredericksburg was US General Ambrose Burnside and CSA General Robert E. Lee. Burnside decided that the best way to re-install the morale of his army was to go on the offensive as soon as possible. After refitting and rearming, Burnside decided that the best course of action was to quickly swing around the left flank of Lee’s army. It had not rained for the whole month of January so Burnside’s army departed on dry roads but a sprinkle of rain began on the first day, then it became a deluge that lasted for four days. Needless to say, the quick movement of this Army was lost in the quagmires that once were dry roads. Any surprise of attack also was lost when this huge army bogged down to a crawl. At its worst the Army of the Potomac was moving at a speed of 1 ½ miles per day. To make things worse, Many Confederate troops moved in and began shouting “Burnside is stuck in the mud” from a distance. Due to conflicting orders an entire Corp crossed in front of another entire Corp churning whatever passable roads that might have been there into a slippery stew. Burnside then did the honorable thing hoping to cheer up the men; he brought up barrels of whiskey and dished it out. I don’t need to tell ya’ll what happened next. That’s right, Burnsides ended up with literally hundreds of drunken US soldiers fighting, sometimes regiment against regiment, and wallowing around in the mud. Mercifully, Burnside called an end to this attack forever known as the “Mud March”. This debacle was so embarrassing to Lincoln that Burnside was relieved three days later.
1777 Earlier a troop of 500 British soldiers had captured Van Newt’s mill near Millstone, New Jersey and had set about stealing all the wheat flour and corn meal they could carry along with many head of cattle that they had also stolen on the way to the mill all to feed the British troops at New Brunswick. General George Washington divided his forces to harass the British between New Brunswick and Amboy, New Jersey. Patriot Brigadier General Philemon Dickenson leading 400 “raw” New Jersey militia and 50 Pennsylvania riflemen commanded by Captain Robert Durkee went to put a stop to this bullshit. They had a problem in that the British had set up an array of cannon guarding the bridge across Millstone River leading to the mill. The Patriots did the unexpected and waded across the icy waters and attacked the British from an unexpected direction and routed those redcoats. General Dickenson wrote a report to General Washington about this action and said “we captured 49 British soldiers, 107 horses, 49 wagons, 114 cattle, 70 sheep and 40 barrels of flour.” It was reported later that the British were seen loading 25 to 30 wounded soldiers onto wagons. The Patriots lost 5 men. What a great victory for our ancestors.
1974 Rae Carruth is born on this date in Sacramento, California. Some people may know who this man is and others will not so I will tell you. Carruth was a gifted athlete as a wide receiver in football. He played four years at the University of Colorado and was first team All-American his senior year. He was picked by the Carolina Panthers in the 1997 NFL draft and signed a contract for four years for $3.7 million. Carruth was hell on wheels from the git-go and was on the all-rookie team with 44 catches averaging 12.7 yards per catch. Then something happened to this millionaire. On November 15, 1999 he met his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams at a movie house in Charlotte, NC. Charlotte is the home of the Panthers. After the movie Rae and Cherica got into their separate cars and headed for Cherica’s house with Rae in the lead. Along the way a car pulled up beside Cherica and a passenger in other car pumps four shots into Cherica’s car and sped off. Cherica is not killed and calls 911 and mentions that Rae is somehow involved in the shooting. When the paramedics arrive Rae is no where in sight. Cherica’s baby is delivered by emergency caesarian section and survived. Cherica is in critical condition but is rational enough to tell the police that when the other car had pulled along side, Rae had slowed to a crawl forcing her to slow and blocked an avenue of escape and after the shots were fired he sped off also. The shooter was captured and decided to squeal to get a lighter sentence. He said that Rae had contracted the shooting and soon after Rae was arrested for conspiracy. Nine days later Cherica died and Rae’s charges are changed to complicity to commit murder. This dumb-ass Rae had been on his cell phone the whole time telling the shooter where he and Cherica were and his cell phone records proved it. Rae was tried and convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and 11 months in prison. The reason he ordered the shooting was that he did not want to pay child support. I am without words at this point.
Born today:
1920 Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. He said “All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.” What a great thought.
Died today:
1900 English critic John Ruskin. He said “There is hardly anything in this world that a man cannot make worse and sell a little cheaper.” I think I know this man,
1936 British monarch King George V. He said “Never pass up a chance to go to the bathroom.” I know whereof you speak, George.
1962 US writer Robinson Jeffers. He said “The heads of strong old age are beautiful beyond all grace of youth.” Hey Robbie, I have been telling women that all along until I am blue in the face.
1993 Belgium born actress Audrey Hepburn. Audrey had one of the most beautiful faces most people have ever seen and she said “I never thought I would get into pictures with a face like mine.” Audrey, it was my pleasure to have gazed upon your beauty.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Daily history
Good Morning,
Quote of the day,
"Who do athiests call upon during an orgasm...if at all"
We had a little excitement in my favorite eating place this past Sunday. A man and woman came in and were seated at a table. There was an obvious age difference between the man and the woman. The man was 75% grey and the girl was not. Soon after the seating a woman came stalking in that WAS 75% grey and went over to the table and told the man to follow her outside. The man sheepishly followed. Once outside the woman began a tirade that could have been heard in Cincinnati. The restaurant manager had already called the cops and when the woman saw the cops she went back inside and sat down at the table with the hot young thing, said a few words. She then grabbed the young thing’s coat and car keys and strode with purpose to her car (a relatively new Lexus) and rode away. The sweet young thing ran outside in tears. The man never came back. The cops left also. I asked the restaurant manager why didn’t let the situation come to a boil. He said that he thought about it because we need a little excitement once in a while. Indeed we do.
I got into a conversation with a waitress Monday morning at the same restaurant about which woman had the best set of legs of all. What brought this on was I told her that I thought our new governor had great legs. She said that she thought Tina Turner was hard to beat. I had to agree but there are so many that it is hard for me pick one out. Believe it or not, Sarah Palin is pretty damned shapely top to bottom. I saw a picture of her when she was in the Miss Alaska contest.
Here is yet another adventure in my days in the great outdoors. My roommate in Alaska and I decided to go moose hunting. We were in Anchorage and decided to go up towards Wasilla (Sarah Palin’s hometown) to hunt. We were extreme greenhorns when it came to big game hunting. We each had a 30.06 and 180 grain bullets, high velocity. It was barely enough weapon considering a bull moose can weigh upwards of 800 pounds. We really did not know where to hunt but a friend of ours had killed a moose a few weeks before and he gave us detailed instructions on where he was. We decided to hunt separately so he let me out in one section and he went about two miles further and began a stalk. About an hour later I heard a gunshot. In Alaska if you kill a moose you have to pack the meat out. It is very palatable and if you do not want it the wildlife officers will give it to charity. Moose meat is somewhere between a deer and beef, maybe a little leaner. About an hour later I hear another gunshot and then nothing. It was getting dark so my roomie came and got me and we went back to where he had been and I was to help him pack out the moose. He had made one trip which was about a mile round trip and had the bed of the truck (pickup) full of one hind quarter. I asked him what the second shot was about and he said that the moose was in very heavy cover with the weeds higher than his head. After the first round trip, he was headed back to do another pack out and when he rounded a bend to where the moose was, there about 20 yards away was a grizzly standing over it having dinner. The grizzly charged and my friend turned to run (bad move) and with one hand pointed his 30.06 back at the bear and fired. The bear was killed instantly. He had hit the bear in the mouth and took out the back of his/her head. The bear was so close that there were powder burns on its nose. When he came to get me he was still shaking. Ah, how much fun it is in the great outdoors.
By the way, the columnist down in Charleston that I sent the note to responded. he said "Al, thanks for the note and your thoughts." Pretty wimpy, huh?
This date in history January 18
1778 Earlier one of the greatest navigators in history had sailed from England and discovered Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. Captain James Cook was assigned the task of the exploration of the South Pacific and departed England in the spring of 1776 commanding two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery. On this date Captain Cook sighted the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. Cook named these islands the Sandwich Islands in honor of one of his patrons, the Earl of Sandwich. After seeking an appropriate harbor, Cook anchored at Waimea on the island of Kauai. The islanders thought the Englishmen were Gods and were fascinated by the iron used on the ships because there is no metal ores in the Islands. The English sailors traded iron nails for sex with the native women. During Cook's stay one of the sailors died proving that they were not gods and tensions increased. After exploration of the islands, Cook sailed north looking for the alleged western entrance to the “Northwest Passage”. The Northwest Passage was a supposed water passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific across North America. As we know, this passage has been proven not to exist. After a year of exploration Cook returned to the Hawaiian Islands. This time Cook was unfortunate in his choice of anchorages when he sailed into Lono Bay. Lono Bay was considered a holy place by the natives on certain days of the year, unfortunately for Cook; this was one of the days. The ships were met with a hail of curses and a shower of stones and coral. The natives were able to steal one of the small transfer boats from the Resolution. Cook was not going to sit still for that and he and thirty other sailors armed themselves and went ashore (or tried to) to negotiate getting the boat back. One of the sailors got nervous and fired his weapon killing a native whereupon the natives attacked and killed most of the sailors, Cook included. Six or seven of the sailors were able to return to the ship. The next morning the Resolution fired a broadside at the islanders still yelling and screaming on the shore killing 30 of them. After this the sailors sailed their young asses back to England.
1776 On this evening the Committee for Safety in the city of Savannah, Georgia commanded by Patriot Major Joseph Habersham went to the home of Royal Governor James Wright and placed him under arrest. He stayed under house arrest until February 11 when he escaped and made his way to the British warship H.M.S. Scarborough. After failing in an attempt to negotiate a treaty with Habersham he sailed for London. On December 28, 1778 Wright returned to Savannah with a hell of a lot of troops and was able to re-take Savannah but he was never able to control the entirety of Georgia. He remained as governor until 1782 but he found out that Patriot General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne was on his way to Savannah with a group of seasoned and battle hardened veterans that had recently kicked the living shit out a military group of Loyalist/British/Cherokees even though Wayne’s troops were outnumbered 2 to 1. Rather than risk being captured or killed by Wayne’s troops, Wright got aboard yet another British warship and sailed his young ass back to England never to return. He died in London of February 7, 1785. Georgia was one of the few colonies the British were able to enforce the hated Stamp Act which was one of the main reasons for the fire being lighted under the move toward independence. Georgia had the largest percentage of Loyalists in the colonies but in spite of that, they were one of the first to argue for independence. Go figure.
`
1990 As incredible as it seems, the Mayor of Washington, D.C. Marion Barry is captured on camera smoking crack cocaine given to him by a woman that had proposed that if she gave him some “crack” he would help her get a reduced prison sentence. The woman that made the proposal was a plant by the Washington PD and Barry was arrested on the spot. Barry was taken away while screaming “That bitch set me up”, “That bitch set me up”. Barry was convicted and spent 6 months in the slammer. While he was in prison, the control of the city was reverted to the Congress with an appointed administrator in control. That did not end the career of Marion Barry. Even after being convicted of a drug crime, Barry ran for a city council seat and was elected by a vote of 96%. That should give you insight as to the character of the residents of our nation’s capitol.
1803 On this date President Thomas Jefferson sent a secret monetary request of $2,500 to Congress to be used for the “exploration of the Missouri River basin” which turned out to be the Lewis and Clark expedition. Jefferson rationalized that trade for furs with the yet to be discovered Indian tribes in the “higher latitudes” would more than re-pay the costs. Jefferson specified that the expedition would be just one officer and 10 men involved so that the Indians would not think it was an invasion. The expedition ended up with a few more men that what was requested but that “Corps of Discovery” made inroads into the expansion of this nation that were never equaled.
Born today:
1200 Japanese spiritualist Dogen. He said “Do not expect that you will be aware when you achieve enlightenment.” Are you listening, Jaci?
1807 American military leader Robert E. Lee. He said “Whiskey---I like it and always have, that is why I never use it.” I don’t like it so I limit myself to only 7 or 8 drinks a day. That used to be the case but I am on the semi-wagon now.
1809 American author Edgar Allen Poe. He said “I have great faith in fools---self confidence my friends call it.” Been there, done that, do not have a tee shirt.
1943 US singer Janis Joplin. She said “Fourteen heart attacks and that son-of-a-bitch had to croak on my week---MY WEEK!” Janis was supposed to have been on the cover of Time magazine but it was preempted with the death of President Eisenhower.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day,
"Who do athiests call upon during an orgasm...if at all"
We had a little excitement in my favorite eating place this past Sunday. A man and woman came in and were seated at a table. There was an obvious age difference between the man and the woman. The man was 75% grey and the girl was not. Soon after the seating a woman came stalking in that WAS 75% grey and went over to the table and told the man to follow her outside. The man sheepishly followed. Once outside the woman began a tirade that could have been heard in Cincinnati. The restaurant manager had already called the cops and when the woman saw the cops she went back inside and sat down at the table with the hot young thing, said a few words. She then grabbed the young thing’s coat and car keys and strode with purpose to her car (a relatively new Lexus) and rode away. The sweet young thing ran outside in tears. The man never came back. The cops left also. I asked the restaurant manager why didn’t let the situation come to a boil. He said that he thought about it because we need a little excitement once in a while. Indeed we do.
I got into a conversation with a waitress Monday morning at the same restaurant about which woman had the best set of legs of all. What brought this on was I told her that I thought our new governor had great legs. She said that she thought Tina Turner was hard to beat. I had to agree but there are so many that it is hard for me pick one out. Believe it or not, Sarah Palin is pretty damned shapely top to bottom. I saw a picture of her when she was in the Miss Alaska contest.
Here is yet another adventure in my days in the great outdoors. My roommate in Alaska and I decided to go moose hunting. We were in Anchorage and decided to go up towards Wasilla (Sarah Palin’s hometown) to hunt. We were extreme greenhorns when it came to big game hunting. We each had a 30.06 and 180 grain bullets, high velocity. It was barely enough weapon considering a bull moose can weigh upwards of 800 pounds. We really did not know where to hunt but a friend of ours had killed a moose a few weeks before and he gave us detailed instructions on where he was. We decided to hunt separately so he let me out in one section and he went about two miles further and began a stalk. About an hour later I heard a gunshot. In Alaska if you kill a moose you have to pack the meat out. It is very palatable and if you do not want it the wildlife officers will give it to charity. Moose meat is somewhere between a deer and beef, maybe a little leaner. About an hour later I hear another gunshot and then nothing. It was getting dark so my roomie came and got me and we went back to where he had been and I was to help him pack out the moose. He had made one trip which was about a mile round trip and had the bed of the truck (pickup) full of one hind quarter. I asked him what the second shot was about and he said that the moose was in very heavy cover with the weeds higher than his head. After the first round trip, he was headed back to do another pack out and when he rounded a bend to where the moose was, there about 20 yards away was a grizzly standing over it having dinner. The grizzly charged and my friend turned to run (bad move) and with one hand pointed his 30.06 back at the bear and fired. The bear was killed instantly. He had hit the bear in the mouth and took out the back of his/her head. The bear was so close that there were powder burns on its nose. When he came to get me he was still shaking. Ah, how much fun it is in the great outdoors.
By the way, the columnist down in Charleston that I sent the note to responded. he said "Al, thanks for the note and your thoughts." Pretty wimpy, huh?
This date in history January 18
1778 Earlier one of the greatest navigators in history had sailed from England and discovered Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. Captain James Cook was assigned the task of the exploration of the South Pacific and departed England in the spring of 1776 commanding two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery. On this date Captain Cook sighted the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. Cook named these islands the Sandwich Islands in honor of one of his patrons, the Earl of Sandwich. After seeking an appropriate harbor, Cook anchored at Waimea on the island of Kauai. The islanders thought the Englishmen were Gods and were fascinated by the iron used on the ships because there is no metal ores in the Islands. The English sailors traded iron nails for sex with the native women. During Cook's stay one of the sailors died proving that they were not gods and tensions increased. After exploration of the islands, Cook sailed north looking for the alleged western entrance to the “Northwest Passage”. The Northwest Passage was a supposed water passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific across North America. As we know, this passage has been proven not to exist. After a year of exploration Cook returned to the Hawaiian Islands. This time Cook was unfortunate in his choice of anchorages when he sailed into Lono Bay. Lono Bay was considered a holy place by the natives on certain days of the year, unfortunately for Cook; this was one of the days. The ships were met with a hail of curses and a shower of stones and coral. The natives were able to steal one of the small transfer boats from the Resolution. Cook was not going to sit still for that and he and thirty other sailors armed themselves and went ashore (or tried to) to negotiate getting the boat back. One of the sailors got nervous and fired his weapon killing a native whereupon the natives attacked and killed most of the sailors, Cook included. Six or seven of the sailors were able to return to the ship. The next morning the Resolution fired a broadside at the islanders still yelling and screaming on the shore killing 30 of them. After this the sailors sailed their young asses back to England.
1776 On this evening the Committee for Safety in the city of Savannah, Georgia commanded by Patriot Major Joseph Habersham went to the home of Royal Governor James Wright and placed him under arrest. He stayed under house arrest until February 11 when he escaped and made his way to the British warship H.M.S. Scarborough. After failing in an attempt to negotiate a treaty with Habersham he sailed for London. On December 28, 1778 Wright returned to Savannah with a hell of a lot of troops and was able to re-take Savannah but he was never able to control the entirety of Georgia. He remained as governor until 1782 but he found out that Patriot General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne was on his way to Savannah with a group of seasoned and battle hardened veterans that had recently kicked the living shit out a military group of Loyalist/British/Cherokees even though Wayne’s troops were outnumbered 2 to 1. Rather than risk being captured or killed by Wayne’s troops, Wright got aboard yet another British warship and sailed his young ass back to England never to return. He died in London of February 7, 1785. Georgia was one of the few colonies the British were able to enforce the hated Stamp Act which was one of the main reasons for the fire being lighted under the move toward independence. Georgia had the largest percentage of Loyalists in the colonies but in spite of that, they were one of the first to argue for independence. Go figure.
`
1990 As incredible as it seems, the Mayor of Washington, D.C. Marion Barry is captured on camera smoking crack cocaine given to him by a woman that had proposed that if she gave him some “crack” he would help her get a reduced prison sentence. The woman that made the proposal was a plant by the Washington PD and Barry was arrested on the spot. Barry was taken away while screaming “That bitch set me up”, “That bitch set me up”. Barry was convicted and spent 6 months in the slammer. While he was in prison, the control of the city was reverted to the Congress with an appointed administrator in control. That did not end the career of Marion Barry. Even after being convicted of a drug crime, Barry ran for a city council seat and was elected by a vote of 96%. That should give you insight as to the character of the residents of our nation’s capitol.
1803 On this date President Thomas Jefferson sent a secret monetary request of $2,500 to Congress to be used for the “exploration of the Missouri River basin” which turned out to be the Lewis and Clark expedition. Jefferson rationalized that trade for furs with the yet to be discovered Indian tribes in the “higher latitudes” would more than re-pay the costs. Jefferson specified that the expedition would be just one officer and 10 men involved so that the Indians would not think it was an invasion. The expedition ended up with a few more men that what was requested but that “Corps of Discovery” made inroads into the expansion of this nation that were never equaled.
Born today:
1200 Japanese spiritualist Dogen. He said “Do not expect that you will be aware when you achieve enlightenment.” Are you listening, Jaci?
1807 American military leader Robert E. Lee. He said “Whiskey---I like it and always have, that is why I never use it.” I don’t like it so I limit myself to only 7 or 8 drinks a day. That used to be the case but I am on the semi-wagon now.
1809 American author Edgar Allen Poe. He said “I have great faith in fools---self confidence my friends call it.” Been there, done that, do not have a tee shirt.
1943 US singer Janis Joplin. She said “Fourteen heart attacks and that son-of-a-bitch had to croak on my week---MY WEEK!” Janis was supposed to have been on the cover of Time magazine but it was preempted with the death of President Eisenhower.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Monday, January 17, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Apparently bears are attracted to women in their menstrual cycle. I would say that a 1,000 pound grizzly against a 120 pound woman with cramps is a fair fight.”
Dave Barry
On January 15 in 1781 super-patriot Daniel Morgan began assembling a 1,000 man army to attack the meanest English officer ever to step foot on American soil along with his army. It was Colonel Banastre Tarleton. After a two day march Morgan’s army prepared a trap into which Tarleton and his army quickly fell. This trap was sprung near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. The history of the battle is in this lesson further down. Morgan was a hell of a fighter, y’all. It was he that formed up a team of snipers and targeted the guides and officers of British military units. He was clearly instrumental for the Patriot victory at Saratoga, probably the most important victory in the American Revolutionary War because this victory brought France in the war on the side of the Patriots. The English thought that Morgan’s targeting of the officers was “ungentlemanly”. Too damned bad, y’all, it got the job done. The killing of English General Pakenham by a sniper early in the Battle of New Orleans insured a victory for US General Andrew Jackson and his army of great variety.
A columnist for the Charleston, S.C. newspaper wrote a piece saying that we South Carolinians should feel guilty about our ancestors firing the first shots of the American Civil War in January of 1861. I wrote him back. Here it is:
Mr. Burger,
I read with interest about your opinion that everyone presently in that area roughly bounded by the Catawba River, the Savannah River and the Atlantic Ocean should feel guilt because of what happened in 1861. I may be a bit off track but I am a native South Carolinian (Greenville) and embarrassingly I feel no guilt. I am a historian especially the War of Northern Aggression and the American Revolutionary War. I have read tomes of material about both events but I still cannot tell what was in the minds of the typical foot soldier before, during or after an engagement. But of those that I was able to glean it was pure horror. Of the diaries of the Union soldiers it is mostly about the preservation of the Union, and of the Confederate soldiers it was they felt like they were being invaded. I am not in denial as you suggest, I just know what I read. Unlike you, I cannot read the minds of those who initiated the revolt; I only know what they wrote. I suggest that you read "Company H" by Sam Watkins (Confederate) and nearly anything by Elijah Rhodes (Union) if you haven't already. They had an insight into reality that neither you nor I can experience. I simply cannot believe that a young man from a hardscrabble farm in Tennessee would fight with unparalleled ferocity so that some fat cat in Mississippi could keep his slaves. There is a documented event where a company of Confederate soldiers were surrounded and being cut to pieces until only one soldier was left. He ran out of ammo and began swinging his rifle like a club. When he was overcome they asked him why he fought so fiercely, he simply said "Because y'all are down here". Why did he and thousands like him fight to a standstill armies that had them outnumbered two or three to one? Anyway, my maternal ancestors as far as I can tell came from Habersham County, Georgia (they were not Bulldogs as yourself) and my fraternal ancestors came from the Marshall, North Carolina area both were farming families and not slave owners. I apologize again for not feeling guilty. I think you wrote this article just to stir the pot, it worked, thanks for listening,
Al Campbell
Greenville, SC
The Charlotte police were called to an apartment complex about a disturbance. When they arrived they found a naked man running up and down the walkway screaming and yelling. When the cops tried to subdue him, he was able to plant a right cross on each of the officer’s jaws knocking them down. One of the officers that had been on the force for 13 months unholstered his Glock and pumped two rounds into the man which naturally subdued him. He died on the way to the hospital. Whatever happened to a nightstick, Mace, pepper spray, a Taser, rubber bullets, et al? There is no question that the police officer lost his temper and in this redneck’s mind he is going to get away with murder.
This redneck also has an opinion about law enforcement and the general public. I believe that both the police and the taxpayers feel that when it comes to law enforcement it is “Us against them”. It is really unfortunate that the police are empowered with the authority to make their personal beliefs enforceable as a crime. After all they are employees of the taxpayers, but neither they nor the taxpayers see it that way.
This date in history January 17
1950 After nearly two years of “casing” the Brinks Armored Car Service main office in Boston, Massachusetts, career criminal Arthur “Fats” Pino decides it is time to knock it over. Fats went out and hired ten other career criminals and on this date they go in and commit one of the most successful and profitable robberies ever executed up until that time. They walked out of the building with $2.6 million dollars and left absolutely no clues. They were all wearing rubber Halloween masks, long black overcoats and chauffer hats similar to those worn by the Brinks armored car drivers. The only thing they left was a few strands of rope that they used to tie up the office personnel. Fats and the other robbers agreed to hide their share of the money and not touch it for 6 ½ years when the statute of limitations expired. One of the conspirators named “Specs” O’Keefe gave his share of the money to one of the others to hold for him while he went to prison to serve 6 years for another crime. All the criminals laid low for 6 years and just days before the statute of limitations ran out, Specs gets cold feet and does not believe the guy he gave his share to still has it and wants proof or he will blow the whistle. Well, Fats ain’t going to sit still for that and sends a “hit man” to the prison to kill their compatriot. The “hit man” only wounds Specs and then he really does “blow the whistle” and the Boston PD begins rounding up the other conspirators. A couple had died in the interim but all of those that were left went to the slammer for a long stretch. Only a couple of thousand dollars of the take was ever found. It is legend that the rest of the money is hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but who can tell.
1966 On this date a US Air Force B-52 that had been on patrol over the eastern Atlantic was attempting to hook up with a KC-135 tanker to re-fuel and head back its base in North Carolina. Something went wrong and the B-52 ran into the re-fueling boom and the incoming fuel ignited and the B-52 exploded killing all four of its crewmen. The explosion also destroyed the KC-135 but four of these crewmen were able to bail out successfully. The real downside was that the B-52 had four 70 kiloton nuclear bombs aboard and when the plane came apart the bombs fell to earth near Polamares, Spain. None of the bombs were armed but if the bomb comes apart, highly radioactive Plutonium escapes. Two of the bombs landed in an open field creating two craters and did indeed come apart spewing radioactive dust into the air. Another one of the bombs landed in a dry creek bed and the mud in the creek bed prevented that bomb from coming apart and it was retrieved almost intact. The fourth bomb fell into the ocean and was never found. Within a matter of hours Polamares, Spain was swarming with Air Force personnel and nuclear specialists. The United States chose to scrape tons of soil from around the two craters until there were no more indications of radioactivity and hauled the dirt out of there. This was not the first nor will it be the last “Broken Arrow” incident. “Broken Arrow” means that a nuclear weapon had been lost or damaged. On another occasion another B-52 accidentally dropped its weapon is a bay near Wilmington, North Carolina and that puppy has never been found to this day. When I was in the Air Force I was based at Elmendorf, AFB near Anchorage, Alaska and before that I was stationed at Eielson AFB south of Fairbanks. Both of these bases had SAC units assigned meaning there were nuclear weapons close by. I was an air traffic controller at both places and you would not believe what went on while I was there. SAC had a “Recon” outfit at Eielson and their job was to fly up and down the Bering Straights (just a few miles from Russia, our sworn enemy at the time) and take “western movies” or photographs of Russian airbases. Because of the reaction of the SAC officers at Eielson at times, there was no doubt in my mind that there was some kind of encounter with the Russians, either one of our recon aircraft was shot at or shot down on more than one occasion. Satellites do that job for us now. Back then it would scare the hell out of you because the threat of nuclear war was just a hairsbreadth away.
1977 Earlier in 1972 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was a violation of the 8th Amendment because it was cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore banned. Well, in 1977 with almost 70% of the American public favoring the death penalty, the Supreme Court re-instated the death penalty. There was a man on death row in Utah named Gary Gilmore. Gary shot and killed an elderly couple because they would not loan him their car, for crying out loud. Gary had been sentenced to death by firing squad and on this date Gilmore was marched out to a post in the middle of a field inside the Utah prison grounds tied to a post and was shot through the heart by twelve riflemen. Gilmore was the first person executed after the death penalty was re-instated. Gilmore was arrogant to the last. When the guards came to get him to take him out to the post, he said “Let’s do it”.
1781 Earlier the Commander of the Continental Army in the South, General Nathaniel Greene, decided to divide his army into two parts because this would force the British Forces in the area led by General Charles Cornwallis to fight on more than one front and it would be easier for these smaller units to feed themselves. The commander of one these Continental units was Colonel Daniel Morgan who was in command of about 1,000 troops. Morgan was assigned the task of kicking the British out of the Star Fort near the town of Ninety-Six, South Carolina. General Cornwallis smelled this out and sent the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton to intercept Morgan. On this date Morgan’s scouts detected the approach of Tarleton near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. Morgan hid the majority of his troops into a bowl shaped forest. He instructed a few of his militia to skirmish with Tarleton’s troops for two shots and then run away through the center of the “bowl”. Tarleton’s troops believing it was a rout followed the troops into the center of the bowl then Morgan’s troops unleashed a deadly crossfire while the original skirmishers came back and joined their brethren adding to their killing efficiency. After this, Morgan brought in a cavalry attack on the flank of the hapless British/Loyalist troops. Tarleton ran like hell and came within a gnat’s ass of being captured. The British/Loyalists had about 700 of their number killed or captured. Morgan lost 12. After this battle and the Battle of Kings Mountain that came later in which the British/Loyalist commanded by British Colonel Thomas Ferguson were totally annihilated, Cornwallis knew that he had to get his ass and his army out the Carolinas and join up with the British army under General Sir Henry Clinton in New York. He didn’t make it.
Born today:
1860 Russian writer Anton Chekhov. He said “I do not know much about ballet, all I know is that during intermission the ballerinas smell like horses.” Thoroughbreds, I am sure.
1886 English writer Arthur Firbank. He said “In heaven the language is Hebrew, Spanish is seldom spoken.” Look at the date, ya’ll.
1899 US super criminal Al Capone. When asked if he had ever been to Canada he said “I don’t even know what street Canada is on.” Al, shut the hell up.
1931 Governor of Virginia Lawrence Wilder (black man) said “The first black president will be a black politician.” Lawrence, shut the hell up too.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
“Apparently bears are attracted to women in their menstrual cycle. I would say that a 1,000 pound grizzly against a 120 pound woman with cramps is a fair fight.”
Dave Barry
On January 15 in 1781 super-patriot Daniel Morgan began assembling a 1,000 man army to attack the meanest English officer ever to step foot on American soil along with his army. It was Colonel Banastre Tarleton. After a two day march Morgan’s army prepared a trap into which Tarleton and his army quickly fell. This trap was sprung near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. The history of the battle is in this lesson further down. Morgan was a hell of a fighter, y’all. It was he that formed up a team of snipers and targeted the guides and officers of British military units. He was clearly instrumental for the Patriot victory at Saratoga, probably the most important victory in the American Revolutionary War because this victory brought France in the war on the side of the Patriots. The English thought that Morgan’s targeting of the officers was “ungentlemanly”. Too damned bad, y’all, it got the job done. The killing of English General Pakenham by a sniper early in the Battle of New Orleans insured a victory for US General Andrew Jackson and his army of great variety.
A columnist for the Charleston, S.C. newspaper wrote a piece saying that we South Carolinians should feel guilty about our ancestors firing the first shots of the American Civil War in January of 1861. I wrote him back. Here it is:
Mr. Burger,
I read with interest about your opinion that everyone presently in that area roughly bounded by the Catawba River, the Savannah River and the Atlantic Ocean should feel guilt because of what happened in 1861. I may be a bit off track but I am a native South Carolinian (Greenville) and embarrassingly I feel no guilt. I am a historian especially the War of Northern Aggression and the American Revolutionary War. I have read tomes of material about both events but I still cannot tell what was in the minds of the typical foot soldier before, during or after an engagement. But of those that I was able to glean it was pure horror. Of the diaries of the Union soldiers it is mostly about the preservation of the Union, and of the Confederate soldiers it was they felt like they were being invaded. I am not in denial as you suggest, I just know what I read. Unlike you, I cannot read the minds of those who initiated the revolt; I only know what they wrote. I suggest that you read "Company H" by Sam Watkins (Confederate) and nearly anything by Elijah Rhodes (Union) if you haven't already. They had an insight into reality that neither you nor I can experience. I simply cannot believe that a young man from a hardscrabble farm in Tennessee would fight with unparalleled ferocity so that some fat cat in Mississippi could keep his slaves. There is a documented event where a company of Confederate soldiers were surrounded and being cut to pieces until only one soldier was left. He ran out of ammo and began swinging his rifle like a club. When he was overcome they asked him why he fought so fiercely, he simply said "Because y'all are down here". Why did he and thousands like him fight to a standstill armies that had them outnumbered two or three to one? Anyway, my maternal ancestors as far as I can tell came from Habersham County, Georgia (they were not Bulldogs as yourself) and my fraternal ancestors came from the Marshall, North Carolina area both were farming families and not slave owners. I apologize again for not feeling guilty. I think you wrote this article just to stir the pot, it worked, thanks for listening,
Al Campbell
Greenville, SC
The Charlotte police were called to an apartment complex about a disturbance. When they arrived they found a naked man running up and down the walkway screaming and yelling. When the cops tried to subdue him, he was able to plant a right cross on each of the officer’s jaws knocking them down. One of the officers that had been on the force for 13 months unholstered his Glock and pumped two rounds into the man which naturally subdued him. He died on the way to the hospital. Whatever happened to a nightstick, Mace, pepper spray, a Taser, rubber bullets, et al? There is no question that the police officer lost his temper and in this redneck’s mind he is going to get away with murder.
This redneck also has an opinion about law enforcement and the general public. I believe that both the police and the taxpayers feel that when it comes to law enforcement it is “Us against them”. It is really unfortunate that the police are empowered with the authority to make their personal beliefs enforceable as a crime. After all they are employees of the taxpayers, but neither they nor the taxpayers see it that way.
This date in history January 17
1950 After nearly two years of “casing” the Brinks Armored Car Service main office in Boston, Massachusetts, career criminal Arthur “Fats” Pino decides it is time to knock it over. Fats went out and hired ten other career criminals and on this date they go in and commit one of the most successful and profitable robberies ever executed up until that time. They walked out of the building with $2.6 million dollars and left absolutely no clues. They were all wearing rubber Halloween masks, long black overcoats and chauffer hats similar to those worn by the Brinks armored car drivers. The only thing they left was a few strands of rope that they used to tie up the office personnel. Fats and the other robbers agreed to hide their share of the money and not touch it for 6 ½ years when the statute of limitations expired. One of the conspirators named “Specs” O’Keefe gave his share of the money to one of the others to hold for him while he went to prison to serve 6 years for another crime. All the criminals laid low for 6 years and just days before the statute of limitations ran out, Specs gets cold feet and does not believe the guy he gave his share to still has it and wants proof or he will blow the whistle. Well, Fats ain’t going to sit still for that and sends a “hit man” to the prison to kill their compatriot. The “hit man” only wounds Specs and then he really does “blow the whistle” and the Boston PD begins rounding up the other conspirators. A couple had died in the interim but all of those that were left went to the slammer for a long stretch. Only a couple of thousand dollars of the take was ever found. It is legend that the rest of the money is hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but who can tell.
1966 On this date a US Air Force B-52 that had been on patrol over the eastern Atlantic was attempting to hook up with a KC-135 tanker to re-fuel and head back its base in North Carolina. Something went wrong and the B-52 ran into the re-fueling boom and the incoming fuel ignited and the B-52 exploded killing all four of its crewmen. The explosion also destroyed the KC-135 but four of these crewmen were able to bail out successfully. The real downside was that the B-52 had four 70 kiloton nuclear bombs aboard and when the plane came apart the bombs fell to earth near Polamares, Spain. None of the bombs were armed but if the bomb comes apart, highly radioactive Plutonium escapes. Two of the bombs landed in an open field creating two craters and did indeed come apart spewing radioactive dust into the air. Another one of the bombs landed in a dry creek bed and the mud in the creek bed prevented that bomb from coming apart and it was retrieved almost intact. The fourth bomb fell into the ocean and was never found. Within a matter of hours Polamares, Spain was swarming with Air Force personnel and nuclear specialists. The United States chose to scrape tons of soil from around the two craters until there were no more indications of radioactivity and hauled the dirt out of there. This was not the first nor will it be the last “Broken Arrow” incident. “Broken Arrow” means that a nuclear weapon had been lost or damaged. On another occasion another B-52 accidentally dropped its weapon is a bay near Wilmington, North Carolina and that puppy has never been found to this day. When I was in the Air Force I was based at Elmendorf, AFB near Anchorage, Alaska and before that I was stationed at Eielson AFB south of Fairbanks. Both of these bases had SAC units assigned meaning there were nuclear weapons close by. I was an air traffic controller at both places and you would not believe what went on while I was there. SAC had a “Recon” outfit at Eielson and their job was to fly up and down the Bering Straights (just a few miles from Russia, our sworn enemy at the time) and take “western movies” or photographs of Russian airbases. Because of the reaction of the SAC officers at Eielson at times, there was no doubt in my mind that there was some kind of encounter with the Russians, either one of our recon aircraft was shot at or shot down on more than one occasion. Satellites do that job for us now. Back then it would scare the hell out of you because the threat of nuclear war was just a hairsbreadth away.
1977 Earlier in 1972 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was a violation of the 8th Amendment because it was cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore banned. Well, in 1977 with almost 70% of the American public favoring the death penalty, the Supreme Court re-instated the death penalty. There was a man on death row in Utah named Gary Gilmore. Gary shot and killed an elderly couple because they would not loan him their car, for crying out loud. Gary had been sentenced to death by firing squad and on this date Gilmore was marched out to a post in the middle of a field inside the Utah prison grounds tied to a post and was shot through the heart by twelve riflemen. Gilmore was the first person executed after the death penalty was re-instated. Gilmore was arrogant to the last. When the guards came to get him to take him out to the post, he said “Let’s do it”.
1781 Earlier the Commander of the Continental Army in the South, General Nathaniel Greene, decided to divide his army into two parts because this would force the British Forces in the area led by General Charles Cornwallis to fight on more than one front and it would be easier for these smaller units to feed themselves. The commander of one these Continental units was Colonel Daniel Morgan who was in command of about 1,000 troops. Morgan was assigned the task of kicking the British out of the Star Fort near the town of Ninety-Six, South Carolina. General Cornwallis smelled this out and sent the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton to intercept Morgan. On this date Morgan’s scouts detected the approach of Tarleton near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. Morgan hid the majority of his troops into a bowl shaped forest. He instructed a few of his militia to skirmish with Tarleton’s troops for two shots and then run away through the center of the “bowl”. Tarleton’s troops believing it was a rout followed the troops into the center of the bowl then Morgan’s troops unleashed a deadly crossfire while the original skirmishers came back and joined their brethren adding to their killing efficiency. After this, Morgan brought in a cavalry attack on the flank of the hapless British/Loyalist troops. Tarleton ran like hell and came within a gnat’s ass of being captured. The British/Loyalists had about 700 of their number killed or captured. Morgan lost 12. After this battle and the Battle of Kings Mountain that came later in which the British/Loyalist commanded by British Colonel Thomas Ferguson were totally annihilated, Cornwallis knew that he had to get his ass and his army out the Carolinas and join up with the British army under General Sir Henry Clinton in New York. He didn’t make it.
Born today:
1860 Russian writer Anton Chekhov. He said “I do not know much about ballet, all I know is that during intermission the ballerinas smell like horses.” Thoroughbreds, I am sure.
1886 English writer Arthur Firbank. He said “In heaven the language is Hebrew, Spanish is seldom spoken.” Look at the date, ya’ll.
1899 US super criminal Al Capone. When asked if he had ever been to Canada he said “I don’t even know what street Canada is on.” Al, shut the hell up.
1931 Governor of Virginia Lawrence Wilder (black man) said “The first black president will be a black politician.” Lawrence, shut the hell up too.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)