Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Take this kiss upon
the brow!
And, in parting with
you now,
This much let me avow-
You are not wrong who
deem
That my days have been
a dream;
Yet if hope has flown
away
In a night, or in a
day,
In
a vision or in none,
Is
it therefore less gone?
All
we see or seem
Is
but a dream within a dream.”
Edgar Allen Poe
The
last stanza of this poem is on a sign over the bar in Poe's Tavern on
Sullivan's Island, SC.
Will
someone explain to to me why your President has chosen to provide
financial SUPPORT to the Syrian insurgents and then send Black Ops
troops to help the Iraqi government AGAINST their insurgents?
Johnny
Manziel was in a Cleveland Browns rookie interview and was asked
about his flamboyant off-the-field lifestyle...Johnny is a party
animal. He stood up on his hind legs and stated that he was not
going to change what he is for anyone. Apparently that includes the
Cleveland Browns front office. I am with Johnny on this one. There
is a clause in every NFL contract stating that ANY behavior that is
detrimental to the NFL will not be tolerated. That is fine but do
not expect someone to become the image of someone else's expectations
no matter the money. There was a bunch of comments after this item,
most saw Johnny a a cocky bastard...so was Joe Namath, Tom Brady, RG
III, Michael Vick etc, etc, etc. This world is full of disturbed and
downright crazy people along with billions of dollars spent on mood
altering drugs because some people are trying to please others and
feel like they are not successful. Not only that, the professional
athlete catalog is full of party animals like Babe Ruth, Joe Namath,
Ted Hendricks, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle and many, many others that
are in their respective Halls of Fame. Over here is your job...and
over there is your personal life. I will not allow anyone to dictate
how I should live my personal life and neither should you. Your
heart and soul are your most prized possessions cannot not be for
sale.
I
was watching Law
and Order reruns
a few days ago. I knew that Mariska Hargitay (Olivia Benson) was the
daughter of blond bombshell Jayne Mansfield and decided to look into
the history of Jayne. She was born in Bryn Mawr, Pa. and attended
SMU, UT at Austin and UCLA. I did not look into how she got from
Pennsylvania to Texas and California but she was a nude model for art
classes at UT. When about 22 years old she was noticed by the
entertainment industry primarily because of her kick-ass body but she
was a pretty good singer also. She made several movies and was on
many TV shows and plays. The fickleness of show business showed its
ugly head and she was no longer in demand when she turned 32. She
began appearing in night clubs one of which was Gus
Stevens
in Biloxi, Mississippi (been there). In the spring of 1967 she was
working at this night club but one day she had an early morning radio
show in New Orleans (about 100 miles). Gus Stevens loaned her his
'66 Buick Electra 225 convertible to make the trip. Aboard during
this trip there was Jayne, her boyfriend and her driver along with
her three kids one of which was three year old Mariska. The adults
were in the front and the kids were in the back. For reasons yet
known the driver did not detect that a semi ahead had slowed way down
because of a truck ahead of him was spraying for mosquitoes. At
2:25a near Slidell, La. the car caught up with the semi and ran under
it killing the people in the front seat instantly but the kids
(probably sleeping) were only slightly injured. It is generally
reported that she was beheaded. The report I read said that was NOT
TRUE. It was true that she had severe head trauma but the reason for
the beheading report is because the photos of the wreck showed a hank
of blond hair where the windshield used to be and people thought it
was her head. It wasn't, it was the wig she was wearing but she was
definitely killed. She as 34 years old.
A
while back Michael Vick was back in the news. It seems that Michael
and his entourage decided to go to a Virginia Beach night club to
celebrate Michael’s birthday. Included in his entourage was a
couple of guys that was involved with Michael in an illegal dog
fighting/breeding organization that Vick went to jail for. That night
there was a shooting outside the club. According to Vick and many
witnesses Vick had already left the club when the shooting occurred.
I certainly hope so. Surely no one is so stupid as get involved in a
shooting while on probation…but on second thought…
I
cashed in my Father’s Day present (gift certificate from Amazon)
and bought a new pair of New Balance shoes and a spray bottle of Paul
Sebastian cologne...thanks girls.
Back
to the Comanche. In the 1880’s the Comanches were acknowledged by
military experts worldwide as being the finest light cavalry in the
world. Their primary leader was Quanah Parker, a half breed. His
mother was a white woman that had been captured at the age of 6 and
spent 24 years with the Comanche. She bore her husband three
children, one of which was Quanah. She was captured by the US
Cavalry and sent back to her birth family. She strenuously objected
to leaving her native family but was taken anyway. A while later she
was dead. She refused to eat and starved to death. She was
terminally homesick and wanted to go back home to her kids and
husband. But others decided that the path to her happiness and
contentment was not her decision to make. Does that sound
familiar...very familiar?
While
on Amazon I ordered three movies. They were “Hurt Locker”,
“Invictus” and “Blind Side”. One of my daughters said the
Hurt Locker disturbed her and she could not watch all of it. I felt
the same way with “Deer Hunter” and “Platoon”.
In
the last few days a man from South Carolina chose to get into the
professional Mixed-Martial Arts business. He had been doing it as an
amateur and thought he was ready for the pros. In the first round of
his debut fight he caught a right cross by his opponent and he
suffered a brain hemorrhage and died. There is nothing sporting
about MMA, it is just a street fight with gloves on, very small
gloves at that.
This
Date in History June 30
1775
The Continental Congress ratified the Articles of War to be sent to
King George III. This was a year before the Declaration of
Independence was ratified. The Articles of War begins with the
phrase “As his majesty’s most faithful subjects in these
colonies”, and it goes on to describe “attempts of the British
ministry to carry out the execution, by force of arms,
unconstitutional and oppressive acts by British Parliament with taxes
on America.” The colonists could not believe that King George III
would knowingly allow unfair treatment of his subjects and this was
an attempt to notify him of it. This was not a condemnation of King
George, but of Parliament. Well, King George not only did not agree
with the colonists, he did not even read the Articles of War. With
this the Colonists knew they were being raped with the approval and
encouragement of King George III. After this, the wrath of the
colonists turned from Parliament to King George himself. The
Declaration of Independence attacks and accuses King George not
Parliament. In the span of 12 months the colonists re-focused their
venom on the King alone. All of this was stoked into an inferno in
January of 1776 when Thomas Paine published Common
Sense
and it scathingly called King George everything but a white man and
listed many unfair things that he had allowed to happen to the
colonists. This was a clear act of treason as the British saw it and
they began applying even more harsh pressure on the colonists. It
did not work then, nor in 1812 and hopefully never.
1862
We are about half way through the so-called Battle of the Seven
Days. On this day the Battle of White Oak Swamp occurred. CSA
General Robert E. Lee decided that the time has come to apply the
coup de grace to the Army of the Potomac that is in full retreat with
Lee hounding their every step. Lee gave a plan of attack to his
three Corp commanders in which the Army of the Potomac would be
attacked from three different directions at once. It was a
complicated plan and required precise timing. After the attack
began, inexplicably, CSA General “Stonewall” Jackson allowed his
attack to stall at the edge of the swamp which allowed the Union
troops being under attack by him to reinforce other troops that were
being overwhelmed. No one has ever figured out to this day what
Jackson was thinking. Anyway, this action also allowed the Army of
the Potomac to go to the closet high ground and dig in……Malvern
Hill. But that is another story.
1981
Glen Godwin got into an argument with a known drug dealer named Kim
LeValley. In his rage Godwin stomped, beat, choked and stabbed him
28 times. He wasn’t done yet. He took the corpse out onto the
desert near Palm Springs, California and using a home made explosive,
blew it into confetti. Godwin is caught and sentenced to 25 to life
and goes to Soledad Prison. While there he married Shelly Rose. In
1985 He is transferred from Soledad to Folsom prison. In 1987 he
escaped from Folsom through a 300 yard drain pipe that someone had
cut the iron bars off the end from the outside. He got on a raft and
floated across the American River to freedom. In 1989 the American
authorities receive a message from Mexico they have a man in custody
named Stewart Carrera that has the same fingerprints as Glen Godwin.
Before they could get him extradited, Godwin killed his cellmate and
escaped. In 1996 Godwin is put on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list
and he and Shelly are featured on the TV show “America’s Most
Wanted.” Someone recognized Shelly on the TV show as living in
Dallas and she is arrested. But Shelly had divorced Glen long ago
and had remarried. She had no idea where Glen was. And no one else
does either because he is still at large to this day.
1876
On this day the 140 ft stern wheeler river boat “Far West”
arrived on the Little Big Horn River and begins taking aboard the
wounded troopers from the infamous battle. Remember, there were
three units of US cavalry at that battle. It was only Custer’s
unit that was annihilated. Even though the other two units suffered
horrendous casualties, there were survivors. The pilot of the “Far
West” was the best at the time in Grant Marsh. The boat only drew
20 inches of water when fully loaded and therefore could navigate a
long way up streams and rivers before running out of water. Marsh
took the wounded troopers to Fort Abraham Lincoln, North Dakota.
There is little doubt that the easy ride on the boat saved many of
the wounded. A ride in a wagon to the fort would have been fatal to
many of them.
1520
On this day the Aztecs in the capitol of Tenochtitlan led by their
king Montezuma II finally get fed up with the Spanish conquistador
Hernan Cortez and his troops and revolt. First of all, Tenochtitlan
is an island in the middle of a huge lake with a man made causeway to
the mainland. It was located approximately where Mexico City is
today. Anyway, the Aztecs seal off the causeway making Cortez and
company have to fight their way out by boat. Cortez loses many
troops when the boats carrying the troops along with an overload of
gold booty each, capsize and sink, drowning most of them as they are
in armor. Cortez escaped, but Montezuma is killed. No one knows if
it was the Spanish or the Aztecs that killed him but the next day
Montezuma’s brother assumes the crown. Eventually, Cortez returned
and with the help of other tribes retook the city. The other tribes
resented the hated Aztecs because they subjugated them and required
tribute from them all, even all the way to present day Nicaragua.
Births
and deaths:
1685
English writer John Gay is born. He said “Some men are born to
lie, and women to believe them.” I can see in my minds eye all of
you women out there nodding your heads in agreement.
1884
French writer Georges Duhamel is born. He said “It is always
brave to say what others are thinking.” George must have been a
politician also.
1917
US singer Lena Horne is born. She said “It is ill-becoming for
an old broad to sing about how much she wants it. But occasionally we
do.” Lena has her finger on the pulse of womankind.
1984
US writer Lillian Hellman died. When asked what she thought of the
beauty of actress Norma Shearer she said “She has a face unclouded
by thought.” Lillian had a long and tumultuous relationship with
famous writer Dashiell Hammett. Both were extremely talented. I
guess that was the problem.
2003
US comedian Buddy Hackett died. He said “Golf is more fun that
suddenly appearing naked to a strange crowd, but not by much.” I
read a story about him playing in a golf tournament and he had
knocked his ball in deep rough with grass over his head. He went in
after the ball and later comes running out naked screaming “Run,
Locusts, Locusts”. He was a funny guy.
Quotable
quotes:
“Work is the curse
of the drinking crowd”
Oscar
Wilde
“Smoking
kills…If you are killed you have lost an important part of your
life”
Professional moron,
Brooke Shields
“You
can tell German beer from vinegar by reading the label”
Mark Twain
“Beer
is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
Ben
Franklin (one of my heroes)
“Without
question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer.
Some would say the wheel, but it does not go near as well with
pizza.”
Dave
Barry
“People
who drink “light” beer do not enjoy the taste of beer, they just
enjoy peeing.”
Capitol
Brewing
“An
alcoholic is someone you don’t like that drinks more than you”.
Dylan
Thomas
“If
there is no God, who pops up the next Kleenex?”
Art Hoppe
“Hearing
nuns’ confession is like being stoned to death with popcorn.”
Bishop
Fulton Sheen
“If
there is no hell, a good many preachers are receiving money under
false pretenses.”
Billy
Sunday
And
finally,
“Thank
God I am an atheist.”
Luis
Brunel
Shut
up, Luis.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
