Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“Good things come to those that wait. The shit pretty much shows up right away.”


                       George Carlin






I have been approached to write an essay on the infamous “Flight 19”. Back in late 1945 (WWII was over) a flight of five US Navy torpedo bombers departed Fort Lauderdale, Florida on a training mission for over-ocean navigation by dead reckoning. The airplanes were single engine and multi-piloted. In total there were 12 airmen. They were supposed to fly over to Hen and Chicken Shoals (56 miles east), make a practice bombing run, continue east for 67 miles then turn north for 73 miles, fly over Grand Bahama Island and then turn southwest back to Fort Lauderdale. About half way into the flight, radio contract was lost but not before the lead pilot said they were lost. That supposedly is the testimony of the air traffic controller involved. There supposedly is a recording of the pilot stating he was lost. As an air traffic controller for 25 years, I think there are two things that are very suspicious about these items that I will expound upon later. Anyway, these five planes never returned to Fort Lauderdale and radio contact was never re-established, they just disappeared. A very large US Navy four engined amphibian (flying boat) aircraft containing 13 airmen was launched to search for them and radio contact with that aircraft was lost and it disappeared without a trace also. The Navy stated that they ASSUMED the flying boat had exploded in flight. Then the Navy sent out a flotilla of ships and spent a month looking for anything related to these aircraft or the airmen and neither hide nor hair was ever found to this day. The projected flight path of these six aircraft is in the infamous “Bermuda Triangle” and much is made of this. Back to the communications allegations. It has been alleged that the lead pilot told the control tower that he was lost and that communication was recorded. I do not believe either allegation. First of all, after the flight departed the control area (about a 5 mile radius of the airport they departed from) they would have no reason to be in contact with the tower and would have switched over to a discrete frequency so the members of the flight could talk to each other or possibly a training officer on the ground. It is highly unlikely that conversations between the aircraft in the flight would be recorded. If it was...by whom? The control tower is not interested in it and indeed does not want their control frequencies jammed with training verbage. How can you get lost in the Atlantic ocean? If you do, you fly west until you hit land and look for an airport, for crying out loud. It has been suggested that all five of the planes suffered radio failure and on their way back they crossed over the Florida peninsula and wandered out into the Gulf of Mexico and ran out of gas and crashed. The likelyhood that all five planes had radio failure is preposterous. There is a radio frequency set aside for emergencies and that frequency is monitored by every air traffic control facility in the world...Navy airmen are keenly aware of this frequency. How can you get lost in the Gulf of Mexico? Once you determine that you are lost, you fly north until you find land and look for an airport. Once a pilot makes a call on the emergency frequency, any and everybody in the air traffic control arena will answer. None of these Navy planes in Flight 19 had a directional gyro. This is an instrument that behaves like a magnetic compass but is a lot more accurate but the training mission was for “dead reckoning”. This means the pilot keeps track of his position by his heading, airspeed and the length of time on a particular heading. The planes did indeed have a simple magnetic compass mounted in front of them. They could find the general direction of north, east, south and west. If there was some kind of anomaly that disrupted the magnetic compass, there is always the sun. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west...These planes departed in the afternoon with clear skies which means if they put the sun on their nose, they would be headed generally west...it ain't that tough. There is one other thesis out there. It has been suggested that the flight eventually found land near the Florida/Georgia border but ran out of fuel and crashed into the Okefenokee Swamp and that is why they were never found. This is within the realm of possibility no matter how unlikely. Five planes crashing into that swamp at the same time would leave scars that would be clearly visible for years. Not only that, that swamp is very shallow. If the planes were empty of fuel, it is a good possibilty that one or all of them would float, or it they did sink it would be nose first and part of the tail would still be visible. What about the amphibian? That aircraft was a PBM which is a very large aircraft that carries a lot of fuel. It was used as a submarine hunter during WWII. If it crashed or even expolded in mid-air, there would have to be many pieces of sheet metal out there, not to mention a hell of an oil/gasoline slick. All the airman in Flight 19 and the PBM wore dayglo orange life jackets which would be easily visible from a ship...but none were ever found. I do not have the answer to this enigma. The UFO freaks claim that all six aircraft were captured by one or more alien spacecraft. To be able to take aboard the 5 torpedo bombers AND the PBM, they would have to be an enormous flying machines. There is no logical answer to this one, and that bothers me the most. This one was for Bob S at Fluor.






What is up with the violent weather? We are not even into hurricane season yet. As of this past Saturday afternoon there are 39 dead and hundreds wounded, not to mention destruction of houses and commercial buildings. The tornado outbreak came in two waves about two days apart. They seemed the worse in the Ohio river valley but there was damages and death from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. We here in South Carolina dodged the bullet. The worst of the storms passed just north of us. We were lucky.






Sunday lunch:


Two fried frog legs, four ginger shrimp, four steamed crawfish, two pieces of sweet and sour chicken, two pieces of a tuna roll, corn on the cob, a scoop of sweet potato souffle, one barbecue beef rib, a bowl of egg drop soup and two pecan cookies and a glass of water. Price...$8.03.






Trivia question:


Where did the word “hurricane” come from?






Trivia question 2: Who was the first European to lay eyes on the Grand Canyon?






Trivia Question 3: How much did the US pay for Alaska? Who did we buy it from? Who was the US politician that brokered the deal?






As most of you already know there is a civil war afoot in Syria. It is caused by Syrian President Assan disapproving of the Syrian people protesting against the governement. He disapproves to the point that he has sent in tanks, has shelled certain parts of that ancient city of Damascus killing civilians wholesale, and two days ago he sent in his equivilent of a Green Beret/SEAL team and surounded many protesters and eliminated them. Why did not the US government use the same tactic on the "Occupy" movement? It is because of our Constitution that allows free speech and peaceful assembly. Just assume that the US President did not like the "Occupy" movement and sent in the 101st airborne to break it up. The very thought makes my blood pressue begin rising as it does to every patriot out there. It would not be allowed to the point that an armed rebellion would erupt. We did it more than once and we can do it again if a repressive government raises its ugly head. See below.






      This date in history March 5










1770 In 1768 the British army occupied Boston because the gnarly Bostonians were giving the British hell about taxes that had been levied on them by Parliament while there was no one in Parliament representing Boston or any other city or state in the colonies. Three days before today, a group of British soldiers had gone down to John Hancock’s dock seeking a part time job. There is no need for me to tell you what the response was from the American dockworkers already there. That’s right, y’all, it was a wall banging brawl. It took the British army to straighten it out. The fight was over but the hard feelings were still embroiled. On this cold and snowy night a group of hard-ass Bostonians gathered outside the Custom House where the British gathered the tax money and began throwing snowballs and rocks at the lone British guard posted at the door. The pelting became so severe that the guard called for help and seven other troops showed up. Well, five of the guards that showed up and several of the Bostonians were the same ones in the fight at Hancock’s dock. Y’all know what happened next, the snowballs came at more speed and more tightly packed along with many words of profanity exchanged. One of the guards named Robert Montgomery slipped and fell and discharged his musket. Upon hearing gunfire, the rest of the guards fired their weapons also. After the smoke cleared, five Bostonians lay dead or dying. This event was from that moment on was known as the Boston Massacre. All of the soldiers were put on trial and were defended by John Adams and Josiah Quincy as a show to the British that justice existed in the Colonies. All the soldiers were acquitted with the exception of two. Those two had the letter “M” branded on their thumbs to identify them as murderers. I suppose justice was served but what a strange punishment. The American Revolutionary War began shortly after.






1962 On this date actor George C. Scott rejected his Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “The Hustler”. George said the award was a waste of time and meaningless. This wasn’t the only time he turned the Oscar down. He rejected his winning Best Actor for “Patton”. In “The Hustler” he played the money backer to a pool shark named “Fast Eddie” Felson played by Paul Newman. Felson’s girl friend was played by Piper Laurie. Scott’s promiscuous wife was played by Ann Margaret. The core of the whole movie was “Fast Eddie” in a showdown with a world famous pool shark named “Minnesota Fats” played by Jackie Gleason. It was a great movie. “Fast Eddie” played by Paul Newman showed up in another movie later on where he was the adviser and mentor to another young pool shark played by Tom Cruise in “The Color of Money.” It was another good movie. George C. Scott went to that great sound stage in the sky in 1999, an actor unparalleled.






1953 On this date one of the most evil persons the world had ever known died much to the relief of the rest of the world and mostly his own countrymen. Josef Stalin, the Russian dictator since 1924 died of a brain hemorrhage in Moscow. This man had no honor. He signed a peace agreement with Adolph Hitler hoping to get in his good graces but Hitler sent in three armies totaling over 2 million men to invade Russia. The Germans would have succeeded had they started the operation two months earlier. The worst winter in 50 years caught the German Army out in the open without sufficient clothing to handle the blistering winter wind coming across the Steppes at 50 to 60 MPH at -20 degrees. During all his reign, Stalin would keep a close watch on his Generals and if one of them became extra popular, he would have the General executed under false pretenses. This way he cut short any coups that may be afoot. He also had murdered thousands if not millions of his own people for real or imagined plots against him. It was rumored that if the forecast for crops showed that there would not be enough food to feed all the people, he would murder enough of his people that the remainder could be fed. And as strange as it seems, he would not allow his people to immigrate. The world is a better place without Josef Stalin, and hell applauded his arrival.






Born today:






1958 Australian rock singer Andy Gibbs. He said “Girls are always running through my mind, they don’t dare walk.”






1879 English economist William Beaveridge. He said “Scratch a pessimist and often you will find a defender of privilege.”






Died today:






1893 French historian Hippolyte Taine. He said “I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.”






1953 US movie producer Herman Mankeiwicz. He said “If people are not sitting at Charlie Chaplin’s feet, he goes out and stands where people are sitting.”






1981 US songwriter E.Y. Harburg. He wrote “This we learn from Watergate, that almost any creep will be glad to help the government overthrow the people.”






Quotable quotes:






“The fundamental fault with fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.”


                                           Bertrand Russell






“Feminism is just a way for ugly women to get into mainstream America.”


                      Rush Limbaugh (I am just the messenger here)






“I don’t believe in drunk driving, but those kids have to get to school.”

                                         Joan Rivers 





When asked if he liked grass or Astroturf Joe Namath said “I don’t know I have never smoked Astroturf.”






                     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow