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.



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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

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