Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Lately we are seeing a lot of young running quarterbacks, what we are not seeing is a lot of old running quarterbacks.”

                                                        Steve Young

People know me as a “worrier”. Through research I have found many others that are worriers also. Two of the most famous was Queen Elizabeth I of England and US actor Burt Lancaster among many others. A while back due to events at the time that particular trait in me rose to the top and when the stress I was under along with the worry was making me dizzy, having pains just above my sternum and cold sweats. That was too close to heart attack symptoms to let it pass so I had a long suffering friend take me to the nearest emergency room where my brother, nephew and niece soon arrived. The very efficient nurse and physician corps at St. Francis Patewood Hospital emergency room immediately hustled me into a treatment room and within 5 minutes I was hooked up to an EKG machine and it was discovered that my blood pressure was the highest it had ever been at 210/92. That was what was making me feel so bad. After I had lain there for a few minutes my BP began to fall precipitously and bottomed out at about 145/65. They ran a tape on my heart beats, did a chest x-ray and hung a bag of saline solution. Nothing serious was found and I was diagnosed as have an anxiety attack, my first. After a little dancing around they gave me a prescription for and anti-anxiety pill (probably Xanax) and a high speed pain pill to be taken with meals to promote relaxation in my sternum area. After my long suffering niece dropped me by the CVS to fill my prescriptions, I soon had taken one of each. In a matter of minutes my attitude had changed. I felt like I was afloat on a sea of molasses. The problem was that these medications made me a poor driver and a couple of wrecks convinced me to give them up.

Over in Zimbabwe, Africa two European doctors, an assistant and a Zimbabwean doctor were arrested for distributing AIDS medicine to infected men, women and children without a license. The same people have been doing this for at least 10 years but there was a change in administration recently and I can let y’all guess what is happening here. It has something to do with wanting more money. By the way, the last time I checked the country with the highest incidents of AIDS per capita in the world was Nigeria and the highest incidents of AIDS per capita in a city was San Juan, Puerto Rico. Some of these statistics may have changed but the disease is still rampant.

A while back an Asian immigrant was stopped by a North Carolina State trooper on I-40 west of Asheville. No one knows exactly what happened during the exchange but the trooper ended being shot three times and killed by Edward Wong. Wong apparently went through the troopers pockets and was able to take his sidearm. This was witnessed by several passers-by. If Wong is convicted and if I know the good people of western North Carolina, Wong will have to deal with that pesky needle sometime in the future.

Up in Greensboro, NC a man named Justin Moose will go on trial in Federal Court on Friday. This 26 year old dumb-ass went on his Facebook page and described how to make a powerful explosive and offered anyone his help in blowing up an abortion clinic. The ATF was not pleased and tracked Justin down. Justin is also charged with having a terminal case of stupidity.

Up in Boiling Springs, SC on Saturday night an 18 year old boy/man and a 19 year old boy/man along with an adolescent boy and an adolescent girl were hanging out at a Kangaroo convenience store. The boys decided to take a leak on the side of the building and began laughing. Another car came into the parking lot driven by a 19 year old male. The boys on the wall began harassing the recent arrival and jumped on his car. The boy drove off and the other jumped in their car and began chasing him and eventually ran him off the road. After this, the chasers got out of their car and began throwing rocks at the boy in the ditch breaking his nose and shattering the windshield of his car. What the chasers need is what the military calls “an attitude adjustment” which is nothing but a severe butt-whipping. I wonder what would have happened if the boy being chased had produced a hogleg and capped a couple of those snot-nosed brats. Probably nothing, but you never can tell in these days and times.

            This Date in History    September 15

1861    CSA Colonel Robert E. Lee has sent CSA General Stonewall Jackson to capture the strategically important city of Harpers Ferry, Virginia and the US arsenal located there. With his usual effectiveness Stonewall not only captured the city and the arsenal but added 70 artillery pieces, 12,000 rifles and 12,500 prisoners. After this coup Lee gathered Jackson and his army back to western Maryland just in time for the Battle of Antietam on the 17^th. Stonewall was the epitome of a military leader seldom equaled in history.

1940    This day sees the turning point for the Battle of Britain. Hitler in his hunger for the domination of Europe needed the neutralization of England to ensure his success. He began with saturation bombing which was supposed to destroy the morale of the English people. Germany bombed day and night for several months but the English people were not swayed in their determination to resist. On this day the English fighter pilots downed 56 German planes in less than an hour. On this note the Germans backed off and turned their attention toward Russia.

1946    Movie director/producer Oliver Stone is born on this day. Oliver was born to a wealthy family and was seen as being very creative at an early age. He attended Yale for a short time but decided that this was not what he wanted so he went roaming the world. It is peculiar that many of the creative people in literature do the same thing. Anyway, Oliver walked away with many Oscars in 1986 for Platoon starring Charlie Sheen and Willem DaFoe. I have this movie but rarely watch it, it really disturbed me. Maybe that is what Oliver wanted. He gave us Wall Street also starring Charlie Sheen along with Michael Douglas.

1890    Agatha Christie is born in Devon, England. Agatha started writing on a dare from her sister. Agatha’s first novel was The Mysterious Affair at Styles written in 1920. This novel achieved moderate success but in 1926 she gave us the Murder of Roger Ackroyd which turned out to be a blockbuster of a success. Agatha introduced us to investigator Hercule Poirot with this book. In 1930 Agatha gave us the first Miss Marple novel. Agatha has given us many very readable books; in fact her books have been made into 400 million copies in over 100 languages. She died in 1976 making the world a worse place.

1990    A 13 year old girl Melissa Benoit disappears in Kingston, Mass. while walking home from a friends house a short distance away. In spite of a huge search effort by the local authorities no clue was found. The local authorities finally asked for help from the FBI. The FBI went an unusual route and asked Melissa’s neighbors to take polygraph tests. One man tested as lying and a search warrant was obtained to search his house. Little Melissa’s body was found under a pile of rubble in the man’s basement. At trial the man claimed that he heard voices telling him to do it but the jury heard other voices and sentenced him to life without parole, the most severe penalty available at the time. At the sentencing the judge told the man “In Massachusetts’s history there was a time when a murderer once convicted would immediately be taken out to a gallows on the front lawn of the court house and hanged. I wish I had that option today.” Indeed.

Born today:

1613   French writer Duc Francois de la Rochefoucald. He said “Old people love to give good advice. It compensates for their inability to set a bad example.” Francois, you are getting close to stepping on my toes. Watch yourself, I don’t like Frenchmen anyway.

1857    US President William Howard Taft. While making a speech President Taft said “There is so much noise in here that I can’t hear myself talk.” Someone in the crowd yelled out “That’s OK, you aren’t missing anything.” There are smart-asses everywhere.

1894    French filmmaker Jean Renoir. After having a squabble with Daryl Zanuck of 20^th Century Fox he said “Goodbye My Zanuck, it certainly has been a pleasure of working at 16^th Century Fox.” Ouch!

1904    US writer Sheila Graham. When speaking of Ronald Reagan she said “He has that sparkle in his eyes because he wears contact lenses which he has polished daily.” Reagan was NOT one of my favorite people.

      Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow