Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“When a man seeks your advice he is usually seeking your praise.”


                            Lord Chesterfield






Answer to the trivia question of what is the oldest continuously occupied city in the world...it is Damascus, Syria. The oldest identifiable city (but not continuously occupied) in the world is Jericho...about 11,000 years old. This city was ancient when they first started scraping dirt to build the Egyptian pyramids.






Trivia question:


What is the oldest living organism on the planet?...estimated to be over 7,000 years old.






A few days ago out in Fort Worth, Texas on a local golf course an altercation took place. There was a threesome playing behind a much slower foursome and anger was rising. The course marshal ordered the foursome to allow the threesome to play through. The threesome headed into the foursome but the foursome wasn't having any part of it and did not allow the threesome through. The yells, screams and name calling reached a crescendo and suddenly one of the men in the foursome pulled out a broken off club shaft and stabbed one of the threesome in the thigh twice. Unfortunately he cut the femoral artery in his opponent and if something wasn't done soon he would bleed out and die. One of the foursome called 9-1-1 and reported that a golfer had “fallen on something cut his leg.” The EMS got there quickly and was able to stem the flow and saved the man's life. That was the good news. The bad news was that the man's leg was without blood long enough that it is possible that he will lose the leg. The entire foursome was arrested. Golfers are strange critters, y'all.






ESPN football analyst Craig James has tossed his hat into the ring to become a candidate for US Senator from Texas. James was involved in two Texas football scandals that continue to follow him around. James played in the same backfield at Southern Methodist University with Eric Dickerson and they were known as the “Pony Express” backfield an later on James was drafted by the New England Patriots. Both James and Dickerson later admitted to taking payoffs from SMU to play there. SMU crossed their heart and promised to never do that again but the NCAA caught them at it again and SMU got “the death penalty” meaning they could not have a football team at all for a year. This virtually eliminated any and all recruits and they would essentially have to start their football program again from scratch. All of this took place in the mid-1980's. In fact later on Dickerson (drafted by the Rams) being from Los Angeles was asked why he took a scholorship at SMU rather than one on the west coast. He said “They offered me more money.” James was also deeply involved in the firing of Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach because James felt that Leach had mistreated James' son Adam while he was playing at Texas Tech for Leach. James complained about it to the media. I personally think that James doesn't have a prayer getting elected in the state of Texas. Down in Texas college football is near a religion and they hate cry-babies.






A few days ago a 27 year old man in a pick-up truck was driving dangerously erratic northbound on US-17 in Mount Pleasant, SC. A sheriff's deputy fell in behind him and turned on his blue lights. This caused the driver to speed up and get even more aggressive. Eventually the sheriff of Charleston County, Al Cannon, got involved in the chase and emptied his Glock trying to shoot out the tires of this mad man. He was joined in this action by other deputies and eventually a tire was indeed deflated and the truck crashed after about 20 miles of a wild chase. The cops, led by Sheriff Cannon, snatched that man out of that truck and put him on the ground. The sheriff popped the driver in the face with his fists about five time while yelling “What's the hell is the matter with you...you could have killed someone.” At the same time he was allowing a police dog to chew on him for about 25 seconds. How do I know all of this? It was captured on a dash camera of a cruiser. The future of Sheriff Al Cannon is in jeopardy.






           This Date in History February 9


1942 In the late 1930’s the grandest ocean liner on the planet was built in France and named the Normandie. The ship had a revolutionary hull shape that made it very speedy and was able to cross the Atlantic in four days and was the first ship of that size to be able to do this. After the United States entered WWII in December of 1941, it became apparent that the American commercial fleet had enough ships to carry cargo but virtually no passenger vessels. In those times the luxury liners were English, Scottish or Dutch. England donated the liner Queen Mary to shuttle American troops worldwide. The French liner Normandie was seized while it was in port in New York and renamed the U.S.S. Lafayette. The ship fitters pulled the ship into dry dock and began transforming this ship from a luxury liner to a troop carrier. On this date a welder accidentally set fire to a large pile of life preservers and the fire spread quickly. The fire crews poured water into the ship at an enormous rate and finally the great ship capsized and burned into a lump of unusable steel. The ship was towed to a New Jersey and cut up for scrap. There was a rumor that President Roosevelt told the trade unions on American docks that a strike would not be tolerated for the duration of the war. Some of the more militant Union organizers ordered the Normandie destroyed as a sign that the trade unions would not be told what they could or could not do. But that is just a rumor.


1909 On this date the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was organized by Carl Fisher. Fisher and his investors hurried to finish the track because a major event was planned for August, 6 months later. The track was indeed finished but the racing surface was sub-par and it cost the lives of several racers. Fisher knew that he would have to put down another surface and chose bricks as being the most durable compound out there. From that day on Indianapolis was known as “The Brickyard” and as the saying goes, the rest is history. By the way, the Indianapolis 500 race is the most watched single day sporting event on the planet.


1960 On this date Adolph Coors is kidnapped while driving to work from his Morrison, Colorado home. Adolph was the grandson of the founder of Coors Brewery and was the chairman of the Golden, Colorado brewery. Almost immediately the police began looking for a man named Joe Corbett. Corbett was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oregon and was headed for medical school. Then one night in 1951 he got drunk and got into a fight with an Air Force Sergeant, produced a pistol and shot and killed him. He did several years in San Quentin for that indiscretion. He was transferred to a minimum security prison where he escaped. Eight days after the abduction, a car was found on fire in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The forensic specialist took dirt samples from the car and matched them to the Morrison, Colorado area. Not only that, the fire did not destroy the engine numbers and the FBI was able to trace them to Corbett. Corbett’s yellow Mercury was seen near the abduction point for several days before the abduction. Not only that, a ransom note was found that was traced to Corbett’s typewriter. Seven months after the abduction, Adolph’s clothes were found in a dump near Sedalia, Colorado and his corpse was found nearby. The FBI put wanted posters out nationwide and in Canada for Corbett. They got “hits” on Corbett in Toronto and all the way across Canada to Vancouver where he was arrested. Even though Corbett did not testify at his trial he was indeed convicted and went to prison in 1961. He was released in 1978, for reason known only to the Board of Corrections.






1864 Earlier Elizabeth Bacon met a dashing young cavalry officer named Captain George A. Custer at a dance in Monroe, Michigan. Custer was smitten and began a campaign for the hand of Elizabeth. Her father was not happy with his daughter marrying a soldier, but when Custer was promoted to Brevet (temporary) Brigadier General for his fearlessness Elizabeth’s father conceded and Elizabeth and George were married on this date in Monroe, Michigan. After the Civil War Custer’s rank was reduced to Lieutenant Colonel and he was assigned duty out on the Great Plains attempting to subdue the Indians. We all know what happened at Little Big Horn in 1878. To this day, that massacre is acknowledged to be the fault of the recklessness of Custer, but Elizabeth defended her husband’s honor to her death.






Born today:


1773 President William Henry Harrison. He said “The Government that is the strongest is the one that is the most free”. He also made his hour and a half inauguration speech in sub-freezing weather with no coat on. He died of pneumonia 30 days later.






1865 Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Irish actress. She said “It doesn’t matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.” Mrs. Campbell must have known my third ex-wife.






1821 Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. He said “Realists do not fear the results of their study.”






1921 Irish writer Brendan Behan. He said “I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman would not make it worse.”






1945 US actress Mia Farrow. She said “I can match bottoms with anyone in Hollywood.” I don’t know about that, Mia, it looks kind of lean to me.


Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow