Monday

Good morning,

                             Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Quote of the day:

“We will walk hand in hand, we will go to wonderful places. I live to hear the sound of your voice.”

A poem written by Pharaoh Tutankhamen to his half-sister/wife Ankhesenamun about 1380BC. They had two daughters but both were stillborn. Tut died at the age of 19 and Ankhesenamun disappeared from Egyptian history at the age of 26 fate unknown.

As y'all know driver extraordinaire Tony Stewart was involved in a fatal accident this past Saturday. There was a NASCAR race scheduled for this past Sunday at Watkins Glen, New York. For reasons I do not understand Tony chose to enter a Saturday evening race at a nearby dirt track. As I understand it there was some bumping and grinding during the race which is common on dirt tracks. One of the local drivers wrecked and he evidently blamed Tony for making him crash, got out of his car and ran out at Tony's car on the next lap. Tony accidentally hit this young man and killed him. Why would someone run out into the middle of a racetrack while the race is under way? I don't get it. Anyway, Tony dropped out of the Watkins Glen race and issued an apology. By the way, A.J. Allmendinger won at Watkins Glen.

Here is a short biography of a pirate that traveled the North and South Carolina coast. There are people in Greenville that can trace their ancestry to this buccaneer. He went to meet his maker at the end of a rope in Charleston.

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 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. He outfitted it with 10 guns and hired 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 was 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. Teach was 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. Many of you 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 be a privateer 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 had 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 off he went. The good Governor offered Blackbeard a similar deal whereby Blackbeard could use Okacroke 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-sealed. 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 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 ships 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 arm 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 Poe's Tavern of one of my favorite watering holes) and the two slaves were killed. Stede and his sailing master were brought back to Charleston to be tried before Judge Nicholas Trott. The Trott family is famous in South Carolina history. 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 easternmost 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 on the western side of Okacroke Island, North Carolina. After a savage hand-to-hand fight Blackbeard was eventually killed and beheaded. This 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 Straits, the Bahamas and the American east coast.

This Date in History August 11

1965 On this date members of the LAPD stopped a motorist for speeding at the corner of Avalon Boulevard and 116^th Street. The cops have two things against them, the driver is black and the location is right in the middle of a neighborhood called Watts which is all black. A crowd gathers to watch the delivery of a simple speeding ticket but the crowd sees the LAPD as being rough and disrespectful to the driver and a riot began. The chaos spread quickly to over 50 square miles of South Central Los Angeles. As you might suspect, the turmoil included looting, arson, white people getting the hell beat out of them, sniper targeting the police and firefighters, etc. Finally peace was restored by thousands of National Guard on August 15. The end result was 34 killed, 1,056 wounded and over $40 million in property damage. No one knows what sets such a thing into motion except abject poverty and frustration with their lives. Add to that the feeling that law enforcement has no respect for them and you have a volatile cocktail ready to explode. But for the life of me I do not understand the logic of burning down your own town.

1998 Earlier 14 year old Mitchell Johnson and 12 year old Andrew Golden decide to do something exciting. So they stole Mitchell Johnson family’s van and several firearms from Andrew Golden’s grandfather and then they went to the Jonesboro, Arkansas Middle School where they were students. They ducked inside and set off a fire alarm and then headed for the nearby woods and waited until the school emptied onto the grounds. Then these two little monsters opened fire killing 4 students and one teacher and wounded 34 others. Then they broke and ran through the woods headed for the van but they were intercepted by the police and arrested. On this date they were convicted of murder but because of their age, Arkansas law forbade children that age to be put in prison with adults and the cannot be held in a juvenile facility after they are 18 years old. These two boys were put into a juvenile facility until they were 18 and then released. These two men are walking the streets as free men as we speak. But the state of Arkansas has passed laws now that allow penalties to transverse from a juvenile facility to an adult prison. About a year later 13 are killed at the Columbine Colorado High School. What’s up with all of that?

1864 On this date CSA General Jubal Early found out that US General Phillip Sheridan and his Army of the Shenandoah are approaching Winchester, Virginia where Early has his army in bivouac so Early decided to withdraw to a more defensible position 20 mile south of Winchester. Sheridan followed and had his army dig in near a place called Cedar Creek where he is ordered to await reinforcements. While he is waiting, CSA raider John “The Grey Ghost” Mosby and his Rangers sneaked in and set fire to the majority of Sheridan’s food and supplies. Now Sheridan has no choice but to withdraw back to Winchester to await supplies and reinforcements. The northern states were used to hearing news about a Yankee army withdrawing. But they were wrong about Sheridan. Once he got re-supplied and reinforced he started after Early and ran him completely out of the Shenandoah Valley and set about destroying all the foodstuffs which was sorely needed by the CSA. After the war Sheridan was assigned duty on the western frontier and was very successful in that assignment.

1980 On this date nurse Carol Bundy confessed her attachment with a serial killer named Douglas Clark. Clark picked up most of his victims on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles and he became known as the “Sunset Slayer”. Clark was known on the strip as the king of the one night stands until he met Carol Bundy. Carol was interested in hearing about all the women he had killed and how he did it and finally she participated in some of his murders and even killed a few on her own. One of Clark’s favorite pastimes was to behead his female victims and bring the head to Carol so she could put make-up on it. She blurted out to one of her old boy friends about what she and Clark had been doing and then realized that she would have to kill him to protect Clark so she pulled out a knife and stabbed him numerous times killing him. She finally confessed to her fellow nurses what she had been doing and they called the cops. She and Clark went on trial and were convicted in spite of Carol claiming that Clark did it all but the jury did not buy it. They sentenced Douglas Clark to death and Carol Bundy received 52 years to life. We need to go back to the medieval times to dish out punishment for animals such as these.

1943 On this date the German troops in Sicily began evacuating across the Straights of Messina into Italy. Earlier the British army had landed at Syracuse, Sicily and the US 7^th army, General George Patton commanding, landed at the Gulf of Gela. The British army began a drive up the east coast of Sicily while Patton send troops up the middle of the island and around the west and north coast. The Germans knew that if they did not leave soon they would be pushed into the sea or would be forced to surrender so they went over to Italy where there was a formidable German army already in place.

Born today:

1833 US educator Robert Ingersoll. He said “With soap, baptism is a good thing.”

1921 US author Alex Haley. He said “Be assured that if you do not deal with reality, reality will deal with you.” Alex was the author of the blockbuster book and TV series “Roots”.

1925 US journalist Carl Rowan. He said “Nothing fades any faster than laurels that have been rested on.”

Died today:

1919 US industrialist Andrew Carnegie. He said “People that are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, regardless of their talents.”

1984 US publisher Andrew Knoph. He said “In all the history of mankind there has never been an economist that did not know where his next meal was coming from.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.