Thursday\

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Those that try to appear wise among fools, to the wise appear foolish.”

                                      Marcus Fabius Quintalianus

I have launched a two pronged assault on two different historical eras. The first one is the siege of the city of Troy by King Agamemnon and his brother King Menelaus and their associated navies and infantries. The kingdoms governed by Agamemnon and Menelaus did indeed exist and has been proven by archaeological evidence. However, the actions of said kings and the city of Troy (including Helen of Troy) were written by Homer in his immortal novels The Iliad and The Odyssey. Homer's great writings obviously mixed actual events and mythology. The problems is figuring out what is myth and what is actual fact. There is no question that the city of Troy existed. The city was uncovered by a German archaeologist several years ago. It is near the Aegean Sea in western Turkey. But knowing for sure that there were warriors like Achilles, Ajax, Hector or people like Helen, Paris and Priam are real or a stupendous feat of the imagination of Homer, will never be proven...but it is fun to read the words of a genius like Homer.

The second one is the turmoil in England after the death of Henry VIII. A few years before his death Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church over a divorce issue. He founded the Church of England which is always lead by the King or Queen of England. He presented an edict that his heir to the throne would be of Tudor (Henry's family name) blood and most of all a Protestant. This edict was passed into law by Parliament. Henry had three children that survived him, one male and two females. They were Edward, Mary and Elizabeth. Being male, when Henry died Edward took the throne at the age of 9 as King Edward VI. One of the people in the line of succession was Lady Jane Grey who was married to Guilford Dudley, the son of John Dudley also known as the Duke of Northumberland. The Duke opined that if Edward were to expire, the next in line would be Mary, but she was a dedicated Catholic and her rise to the throne would not be allowed and would eventually lead to Lady Jane Grey. With this in mind he decided to slowly kill Edward which would lead to Lady Jane Grey taking the throne as Queen with his son Guilford as King. Northumberland had Guilford under his thumb and knew that with this control he would become enormously more powerful and wealthy. He had several followers of this line of thought hoping to reap some of the windfall that they hoped would come. Northumberland made a deal with an apothecary (pharmacist) that gave him small doses of arsenic which he fed to Edward beginning when Edward was about 12. Edward eventually died a horrible death at the age of 15. Under the influence of immense political pressure, Lady Jane Grey very reluctantly took the crown and became Queen. However, soon after this Northumberland and company was found out and the infamous shit hit the fan beginning with the suicide of the apothecary. All of those involved in the Lady Jane Grey thing, especially Lady Jane herself, were arrested and thrown into the Tower. Elizabeth was arrested also and while in the Tower Elizabeth and one of Northumberland's sons also named Robert, who was also imprisoned, struck up a relationship that lasted for the rest of their lives. Several of those involved were found guilty of treason. The men were sentenced to being hanged, drawn and quartered and the women were sentenced to being burned at the stake. Elizabeth and Robert were exonerated and freed. Mary, now Queen, stepped in and changed the sentences to beheading. This was essentially an act of mercy since a beheading would be painless. When Henry VIII split from the Catholic Church the land and properties of the church were divided among different persons of royalty and influence. Mary was allowed to become Queen and remain a Catholic as long as those that had stolen the property of the church were allowed to keep them. The executioner did his job and heads rolled, y'all, beginning with Northumberland and ending with Lady Jane. I am now into the first few days and months of Queen Mary and yet more turmoil is afoot. More about this real life adventure will follow later.

       This Date in History    September 18

1955 On this day Ford Motor Co. delivered its 2,000,000 V-8 engine. They had started producing V-8 engines 23 years before to satisfy the world’s lust for speed and power in their automobiles and their has been no let up since. I have owned a Ford V-8 in a Crown Vic that I drove for years but it finally gave up the ghost after much neglect on my part. But it was brave and always trying up to the last. I donated it to Goodwill for a tax deduction. It was still running but not very well.

1970 Jimi Hendrix died of an overdose of some kind of shit in London. Again, I am unforgiving and furious at Jimi for depriving us of a God given talent by stuffing shit up his nose or shooting it in his veins, how damn selfish can you get? As I have said in the past, Jimi played background for many famous blues and rock and roll bands before breaking out on his own with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and was an immediate success. After a couple of years they broke up and he formed a band called A Band Of Gypsies but that didn’t last either and so he went out on his own and was really successful until he essentially committed suicide with drugs. I don’t feel sorry for the son-of-bitch, his selfishness killed him. To hell with him...but I like his music.

1964 The “Mother Road” Route 66 essentially disappeared as a new 4 lane highway is built in its place. In a previous lesson I told y'all about how in 1926 a group of automobile fans got a bunch of money together and started building the Lincoln Highway which turned out to be Route 66, that was it’s birth, here is it’s death. There are so many tales about the old Route 66 that I don’t know where to start. There was a very popular TV show about it, “Route 66”, about 2 guys just traveling the country in a red Corvette. Not to mention the song “Get your kicks on Route 66”. Route 66 was the home of many, many cheap roadside attractions, cheap hotel and restaurant, etc. It was Americana, y'all. Now it is gone in favor of going fast from point A to point B. What a damn shame. What have we become? We don’t want to stop and smell the roses anymore.

1862 That epitome of ineptness US Gen. George B. McClellan fails to follow a severely mauled CSA Army of Northern Virginia, CSA Gen. R. E. Lee commanding after the Battle of Antietam or the Battle of Sharpsburg as those that are “unreconstructed” call it. McClellan was yelled at almost immediately by A. Lincoln and General Henry Halleck that this was the US chance to crush Lee’s army and end the war. But the timid McClellan waited 3 days to even begin a chase because he thought Lee had over 100,000 troops when in reality he had Lee outnumbered 3 to 1. I personally think that McClellan just did not have the stomach for combat as it was prosecuted in those days and would avoid it if he could. Because of his ineptness the war went on for 2 ½ more years and cost the lives of thousands upon thousands of Americans

1982 One of the most bombastic men in history Ted Turner stood up on the podium and made a speech to the United Nations. During his speech he says that he is going to donate $1 billion dollars to the United Nations, Jane Fonda not withstanding. ONE BILLION DOLLARS, Y'ALL! Then he starts berating all the other American multi-billionaires like Bill Gates and Paul Allen for not doing the same. I am telling y'all, Ted plays in his own ball park, as it were. Secretary General Kofi Annan about peed his pants and for once in his life is at a loss for words.

1960 Fidel Castro arrived in New York as a part of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations. Fidel chose to stay at the Theresa Hotel in downtown Harlem and brought a couple of gamecocks (Not football players for the University of South Carolina) and let them run loose in his room to make him feel at home. That is what he said but we all know it was a scam to get publicity. This jackass got up in front of the United Nations and berated the United States for 4 hours. Before the echoes had died President Eisenhower had issued trade sanctions against Cuban sugar, their largest crop. Fidel just went to the Russians and they were happy to oblige. It was never stated publicly but I believe the Russians said that they would buy the sugar if in return Cuba would allow medium range nuclear missiles on the island. Thus began the countdown to the Cuban missile crises that nearly killed us all.

Born today:

1905 Swedish actress Greta Garbo. She said “The best of all pleasures is to be longing for something and then one day realizing it is within your grasp.” That would the day I jerked up a largemouth bass that weighed over 10 pounds.

1948 US comic Jimmy Brogan. When asked to create a motto for the city of Cleveland he said “You got to live somewhere.” Jimmy is funny, Cleveland isn’t.

Died today:

1980 US writer Katherine Anne Porter. She said “Most people do not realize that writing is a craft. It requires an apprenticeship like anything else.” Here, here.

1721 British writer Matthew Prior. He said “Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician.” Not from my physician, unless you drown in a sea of pills and capsules.

             Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow.