Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

In 2001 after Enron declared bankruptcy meaning thousands of people had lost billions of dollars, the Securities and Exchange Commission began an in-depth investigation and nearly everybody in the upper echelon went to jail for fraud, insider trading and money laundering, etc. The auditing firm of Arthur Anderson was dissolved for destroying documents relative to the failure of Enron. The President of Enron, Ken Lay went to trial on a 10 count indictment. He was on the stand giving testimony that would take a couple days. During one of the breaks Lay ordered a $225,000 sail boat to give to his wife for her birthday. When this was brought out the judge hit the freaking roof and asked Lay if he realized how many people's lived he had destroyed. Lay said “You can't just turn off this lifestyle like turning off a faucet.” By the way, Lay's wife sold 550,000 shares of Enron stock the day before it was announced that they were bankrupt and no insider trading charges were filed. Two months after Lay's trial and was sentenced to a prison term he died of a heart attack. That is karma, y'all.

Here is a bio of one of my favorite musicians.

Biography of Gregg Allman

Gregg was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1947. His brother Duane was one year older. When the brothers were 10 and 11 years old they were taken to a B.B. King concert in Atlanta, Georgia. In those days the concerts were segregated. Duane and Gregg saw how much the black people were into the kick-ass blues delivered by the legendary B.B. and how much fun they were having by singing along with the music and dancing their ass off. After the concert Duane said to Gregg, “We have to get into some of this.” They both started out on the guitar but eventually Duane stayed with the guitar, especially a slide, and Gregg was more interested in the vocals and keyboard. The Allman family finally ended up in Daytona Beach, Florida where Duane and Gregg graduated from high school. Very soon after graduation the brothers formed a band the named “The Escorts”. After this they changed their name to “The Allman Joys”. Their music was essentially black blues with Elmore James being the most favorite of Gregg and he performed many of his songs. My favorite of Elmore is “The Sky is Crying” but there are many others. Their talent was soon recognized and they were signed by Liberty Records from Los Angeles. The band moved to Los Angeles and the record Company re-named them “The Hour Glass”. The record company wanted acid rock and the band did two albums of this stuff. After this Duane said to hell with it and moved back to Jacksonville, Florida and began organizing a band. He got Dickie Betts (guitar and vocals), Berry Oakley (bass), Butch Trucks (drums) and Johnnie Johansson (drums) and himself of slide guitar. It soon became apparent the even though Dickie Betts was good on vocals, he was no Gregg Allman. Gregg had decided to stay in Los Angeles and try it on his own but the future was grim for him as a solo act. Duane called Gregg and told him about the band and asked him what it would take for him to join up with the band as a keyboard man and vocalist. Gregg immediately said “a Hammond B-3 organ”. Duane agreed and the famous Allman Brothers Band was born. It did not take long for the musical arrangements by Duane and Gregg of older blues songs to be recognized as nearly a new genre in the world of music. The counter-rhythms and harmony of Duane Allman’s slide guitar along with the soul of Gregg Allman’s voice still raises the hair on my arms. As you might suspect, fame and fortune brings with it the risk of excesses and this was true of Gregg. He got heavily into a variety of uppers, downers, cocaine and heroin. But fortunately the band was able to cut a live album known to this day as one of finest blues albums ever made in “Live at Fillmore East”. Fillmore East is a famous blues venue in New York City. This stunning album was recognized by “Rolling Stone” magazine recently as number 49 in a group of 500 of the finest albums ever made. They also recognized Duane’s guitar work on this album as number 9 best of all time. In spite of the drugs the band held together until Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia and three weeks later Berry Oakley was killed at in a motorcycle accident three blocks from Duane’s accident location. Duane and Berry are buried side by side in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon. The band achieved enormous fame and ended up in Las Vegas on one occasion. It was there that Gregg met and married Cher Bono. Cher and Gregg had issue of one child, a boy they named Elijah Blue, but Gregg is the sire of several children both in and out of marriage. Cher once said that Gregg was one a very few men that she had known that knew how to please a woman. Gregg’s drug abuse finally overcame him and he contracted Hepatitis C and it looked like the end for him. Somehow Gregg was able to get a kidney transplant and is still with us. He recently released a new album, his first solo album in the last 14 years. I immediately bought it and I was not disappointed. It is titled “Low Country Blues”. What soul this man has in his voice. There is only one other that I would consider his equal or better and that, my friends, is Otis Redding. Gregg now lives in Richmond Hill, Georgia which is very near Savannah.

I like Savannah, especially on Saint Patrick’s Day.

By the way, someone asked me how I came up with my sign-off. It came from a quote by Oscar Wilde who said “Good writing is like someone singing in your ear.” The “can’t wait” part came from a female bartender I knew down in Pensacola Beach who would say as I walked in the door “You look better every day”. I knew it was horseshit but I tipped the hell out her anyway.

        This Date in History   October 24

1775 The last British governor of Virginia, Lord Dunsmore, ordered British Captain Matthew Squire to take British warships up the James River and then up Hampton Creek and attack and capture Norfolk. On this date Captain Squire carried out his orders and brought 6 British warships into Hampton Creek and opened up an artillery barrage on the city of Norfolk. At the same time a contingent of British infantry disembarked in small boats and headed to the city. Upon arriving the artillery barrage ended and the infantry deployed in finely shaped lines of attack and await a similar arrangement from the Patriots. The only problem here is that the Patriots are not about to line up out in the open and array themselves in front of the British. The Patriots are outnumbered at least two to one and it would be suicide to fight as the British wished so they did the smart thing. The British did not know that the Patriots had a large contingent of expert sharpshooters and they began picking off the British infantry at extreme range while well hidden. Upon hearing the gunfire, the leader of the local militia brought an additional 100 marksman to the fore and the British infantry suffered even more dramatically. Even though the British thought this form of warfare as being ungentlemanly, they knew they had to do something and fast because they were falling like leaves. They beat a hasty retreat back to their ships and re-boarded still falling in rapid succession. Once aboard their ships, the carnage was not yet over. The sharpshooters moved closer and began picking them off while aboard their ships. Captain Squire ordered his ships to sail the hell out of there and fast. In his retreat, two of his warships ran aground and were captured. There was not even one injury to the Patriots. It was not a good day for the British, this October 24, 1775.

1862 US General Don Carlos Buell is relieved of his command and is replaced by US General William Rosecrans. Buell had proven himself as a capable leader in previous engagements, especially at Shiloh. A few days before Buell had defeated the army of CSA General Braxton Bragg at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky and for reasons known only to Buell, he failed to vigorously pursue Bragg and try to eliminate the threat of that army and Bragg and his army slipped away. Needless to say the US military and especially A. Lincoln was not pleased. Buell was assigned several different tasks but none that included combat. His days of command of a combat unit were over. After the war Buell retired and settled in Kentucky. He died in 1898.

1970 On his third try for the Presidency of Chile, devout Marxist Salvador Allende is elected much to the chagrin of the United States. The US, ITT and Kennecott Copper had poured a lot of money into keeping Allende out of office knowing what he would do one elected. Allende did not disappoint. He established diplomatic relations with North Korea, Red China and Cuba and began nationalizing ITT and Kennecott Copper. Well, with that the US, ITT and Kennecott started peeing in their pants and began trying to find a way to get that son-of-a-bitch out of there. It would not be easy because Allende was elected peacefully and democratically so an invasion like the Bay of Pigs was out of the question. But the CIA was equal to the challenge and spread enough money around that the Chilean army rose up in a coup, arrested and murdered Allende and peace, as the CIA saw it, prevailed. I suspect that the ouster of Allende was not the first nor will it be the last interference in a foreign government by the good old CIA.

1997 Famous sportscaster Marv Alpert is arrested in New York for biting a woman on the butt. That right folks, I said Marv was arrested for biting a woman on the butt. It seems that Marv had met 42 year old Vanessa Perhach in Miami a few years before and they had a continuing liaison since. On this night, after Marv had called a basketball game in Madison Square Garden between the Knicks and the Bullets, he had invited Vanessa up to his hotel room. At first Marv approached Vanessa for a threesome and she refused. Then he approached her for oral sex and she again refused. It was then that Marv pinned her down and administered the bites. Yes, there was more than one bite. At first Marv denied it but a court ordered dental match of Marv’s teeth and the bite marks confirmed Marv as the biter. To add insult to injury, another woman came forward claiming the Marv had done the same to her. Marv was convicted and was sentenced to one year probation and a $2,500 fine and was fired by the Madison Square Garden. The deal was that if Marv kept his nose clean for year his arrest record would be expunged. After a year his record was indeed cleansed and he was re-hired by MSG.

1648 On this date the 30 Year War comes to the end with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia. The war had started in 1618 when the king of Bohemia, Ferdinand II, became the Holy Roman emperor and had declared that everyone is his domain, almost all of Eastern Europe, would be required to become a Catholic. Needless to say what happened next. The Protestant princes and kings said “Not no, but hell no we ain’t giving up our Duchies and Earldoms to the Catholic Church” and went to war. It was not one continuous battle but several battles stretched out over many years. The end result was that the Catholic Church did not get what it wanted and France, with Louis XIV as king, emerged as the most powerful country in Europe. It still do not understand the need of the Catholics to own property or dominate people. What has that got to do with saving my soul?

Births and deaths:

1830 US writer Belva Lockwood is born. She said “No one can be called a Christian that spends money on warships or arsenals.” Hey Belva, you need to read about Adolph Hitler, Attila the Hun, Francisco Pizzarro, Hernan Cortez, Napoleon Bonaparte, etc. But better still, just stay encapsulated in that little cocoon you are in and quit ruining my life.

1909 US writer Moss Hart is born. He said “So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not uttered at 7:00 in the morning; if it is, it will probably be repeated later on at a reasonable hour.” I like the way Moss thinks.

1981 US costume designer Edith head dies. She said “I have yet to see a completely unspoiled star, except for Lassie.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow