Good morning,







Quote of the day:


When asked what it take to be a winner he said “i can't answer that but what I do know is that 'win' comes from within.”


                                Michael Jordan






I read an article about a shop in Austin, Texas that only sells hot sauce. The name of this joint is “Tears of Joy Hot Sauce Shop” I ain't talking Tabasco, I am talking flame-thrower, laser beam hot lava. They have a sauce made from the hottest known pepper, the immortal Naga Viper. But that ain't the hottest concoction on premises. The hottest is a brew called “Blair's 16 Million Reserve”. This is not a sauce, it is a white powder that is sold in a small vial for $300 each. Before the shop will sell it to you, you must sign a release that you will not sue if it puts you into convulsions and then you receive a 30 minute lecture as to its use. The brew was concocted by obtaining the hottest peppers known, including the Naga Viper, boiling them down to a sludge and then drying the results into a powder. The premise is mixing tiny bits of the powder with a sauce to add a “kick”. Police grade pepper spray has a Scovile Heat Index of between 100,000 and 200,000...Blair's 16 Million Reserve has a Scovile Index of over a million. The shop has it's own brands like “Marie's Dagger”, “Pain is Good” and “Austin in August” which is titled “The bottled fury of our meanest month.” I like a little Tabasco once in a while but no really hot stuff, I am no masochist. Pain makes me mad...there ain't nothing enjoyable or sexy about pain...are you listening, Elaine?






The answer to the trivia question as to why do Pronghorn antelope have such speed and endurance if there are no predators their equal...The answer is that 12,000 years ago there WAS a predator their equal...known as the North American Cheetah which is now extinct. The Pronghorn was this cat's prime source of food. Why are they now extinct? I know not. The Pronghorn don't know the Cheetah is extinct so the idea of staying fast and enduring is still in their genes...By the way, Pronghorn have superb vision and can see with acuity of a human with 6 power binoculars.






This past Saturday the Port Royal (near Beaufort), South Carolina fire department was called to an apartment fire. After they arrived, a NAKED man jumped into the truck and sped away. Port Royal is a small but very old and quaint town. This jackass hit three or four cars and ran over and killed a pedestrian walking on the sidewalk. He continued on toward Beaufort but eventually crashed into a tree. The EMS and State Troopers met at the scene of the crash and jerked this jackass out of the cab and he wanted to fight. He changed his mind when he saw a police dog running his way. I would too, considering what was exposed. I can promise you that he will not see the light of day for years to come...and deservedly so.






I don't care what anyone says, Bill Maher is not funny...obnoxious maybe.






Yesterday I sent y'all a short bio about a famous woman. Today it will be a bio about a pirate that prowled the east coast and the West Indies...He was close friends with Blackbeard (Edward Teach) and some of his descendents live right here in good old Greenville, ain't that right Trey?






                              Stede Bonnet


                        The Gentlemen Pirate






This is a story of a well heeled Englishman of culture that became a pirate because of a woman. Stede Bonnet was born on Barbados in 1688 the son of a wealthy plantation owner. I do not know what his farm products were but in those days Barbados was famous for sugar cane and rum. Stede inherited the estate after his father’s death in 1694. In 1709 he married a woman of means named Mary Allamby also of Barbados. After several years of Mary’s bitching and in spite of having three children and also in spite of he not having but the most rudimentary sailing skills, in 1717 Stede decided to take up piracy. Stede bought a 30 ton sloop, named it The Revenge, probably because of his bad experience with his wife and outfitted it with 10 guns and hires a pirate crew of 30 and gave them a salary. This was unheard of in the pirating arena, most other pirates allowed their crewmen to share in whatever booty was captured. Stede headed for the American east coast and is successful in capturing and looting several ships but then he ran across a Spanish man-of-war and a sharp battle ensued and Stede and company are forced to withdraw after suffering several killed and many severely wounded including Stede. Stede ordered his ship to Nassau in the Bahamas, a well known refuge for pirates. It was there that he met two pirates named John Hornigold and Edward Teach, also known as “Blackbeard”. Stede was not getting any better so he turned over command of his ship to Blackbeard and out they went to the American coast looking for prey with Stede as a guest of Blackbeard. As y’all have heard the name of Blackbeard’s flagship was Queen Anne’s Revenge. Blackbeard probably named his ship that as a slap at the king of England at the time. Stede had a meeting with the Governor of North Carolina who offered him a pardon if he would go “privateering” against Spanish shipping that was coming back from Mexico and Central America laden to the scuppers with gold captured from the Aztecs, Maya and Inca and give the Governor half of everything he captured. By now Stede has healed well enough to take command of his own ship and he and Blackbeard parted company. Stede wanted to go pirating again but he also did not want to lose his pardon from the North Carolina so he decided to use the alias of “Captain Thomas” and renamed his ship The Royal James and went pirating again. The good Governor offered Blackbeard a similar deal whereby Blackbeard could use Okracoke inlet and Bath, North Carolina in particular as a secure home base but in return he must give the governor half of his booty. Stede’s ship was leaking badly and needed careening. This meant the ship was leaned over to one side and the seams on the bottom were re-packed to stop the leaks. To do this they needed shallow and calm water. Stede chose the shallow and calm estuary of the Cape Fear River North Carolina. In the mean time the Governor of South Carolina had got fed up with Stede and Blackbeard attacking nearly every ship departing Charleston, South Carolina harbor and sent a hired militia led by Colonel Robert Rhett to put a stop to it. Rhett caught Stede in the Cape Fear estuary while still careening. There was a battle for several hours but the pirates were surrounded by a force of superior numbers and were forced to surrender. Stede and company were brought to Charleston and put on trial along with another pirate named Richard Worley and his crew. Somehow Stede escaped but not before promising the South Carolina Governor that he would cut off his own arms and legs to prevent him from ever pirating again. The Governor did not buy it and sent a search party out looking for Stede. Stede had hired two slaves that had access to a boat to take him and his sailing master to safety. The four were cornered on Sullivan’s Island (the home of my favorite watering hole, Poe’s Tavern) and the two slaves were killed and Stede and his sailing master were brought back to Charleston to be tried before Judge Nicholas Trott. The Trott family was famous in South Carolina history and was mentioned in my essay on the history of Daniel Island. Anyway, Judge Trott gave no quarter and sentenced Stede and his crew plus Richard Worley and his crew to death by hanging. The whole crowd was indeed hanged at “White’s Point” which is today the southernmost point of the Charleston, South Carolina peninsula, better known as “The Battery”. The whole bunch was “buried” on the southern shore of James Island “at low tide”. We know what this means. They were left for the crabs and sharks to devour. By the way, after Blackbeard made his deal with the Governor of North Carolina, the Governor of Virginia knew that every ship entering or leaving the Chesapeake Bay was at risk so he sent a militia hunting for Blackbeard. They cornered Blackbeard near Ocracoke Island, North Carolina and after a savage hand-to-hand fight Blackbeard was eventually killed and beheaded. Thus essentially ended the pirating in the Carolinas but it still flourished elsewhere as long as Spanish ship were hauling all that gold back to Spain via the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Straights, the Bahamas and the American east coast.






  Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.