Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

                                               “Adapt or die”

                                                Al Campbell

A while back I fell once again into the abyss of trying to find out what women want. Not only am I seeking it, the most knowledgeable psychiatrist of the 20^th century Sigmund Freud on his death bed declared “The only regret I have is not being to figure out what women want.” They already have made it abundantly clear that the they want equal treatment in the workplace and a federal law has been passed to that effect. I have no problem with this, it should be equal pay for equal work.

A while back on a Monday afternoon I was in a lounge waiting on my friends and a lady came and sat down a few stools down. She was wearing her sadness like a potato sack so I asked her what was wrong. She said that her boyfriend has just been sentenced to eighteen month in prison for dealing drugs. I asked her how long she had been seeing this guy and she said “A year and a half”. I asked how long has he been dealing and she said “A year and a half”, but I thought I could change him.” The only person that could stop the dealer from dealing is the dealer. That young lady had wasted a piece of her life for nothing. YOU MUST ACCEPT PEOPLE FOR WHAT THEY ARE...OR NOT AT ALL.

Several years ago long, tall, dark, beautiful and genuine hottie Victoria Principal began dating super-star Barry Gibbs and an immense flame grew from it, they both were swallowed up by each other. Barry and his brothers were singing group The BG's and they were making a fortune hand over fist. Barry chose to start putting cocaine up his nose. As you might suspect it effected his career and his relationship with Victoria. Victoria jumped through many hoops in an attempt persuade Barry to give up the coke. Barry apparently stopped using several times and Victoria finally warned him if he started back it would be all over for them. Guess what, Barry started using again and sure enough, Victoria left. Victoria was so depressed at losing Barry that she had to go into therapy for several months. Barry just kept stuffing crap up his nose until it finally killed him. YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT PEOPLE AS THEY ARE...OR NOT AT ALL...Victoria chose not at all....it was up to Barry to stop using...he didn't.

Back to the Monday evening lady. This girl was pretty, humorous, said she loved to cook, in fact she said she made the best shrimp scampi on earth and loved her own cooking. I tested her with a few questions to see what her depth of the knowledge was...she was no reader, but a lot of smart people are not readers. She said that her father (deceased) was a perfect man and she has been looking for one like him ever since. I saw a kink in her armor then. She saw her father through a different eyes than she did all other men. She said that she expected that when she walked into a room all the men would stand and would not sit back down until she did...to her that was “manners”. She also considered men opening the doors for her, holding her arm as she traversed a flight of stairs as having good manners. I sounds very Edwardian to me, or at least Rhett and Scarlett-ish. I should have let it go at that but I could not help myself and asked what reward would the men get for such extraordinary treatment, keep in mind she wants to be treated as an equal in the work place but she wanted to be treated as a princess otherwise. She said there would be no reward warranted because that is the way men are supposed to behave. The young lady then said that she enjoyed being alone and she had not been with a man for 17 years before the most recent boyfriend. She made it clear that these “manners” must not be a learned skill, a person must to have been brought up in an atmosphere with these virtues. Where is she going to find such a person? I certainly do not have an Edwardian demeanor but I would really like to get to know this girl better...she is pretty, funny, very pleasant to be around, a good listener and after all, she allegedly makes the best shrimp scampi on Earth...I could write her a daily sonnet....on second thought, forget about it.

This Date in History    October 9

1970  The Khmer Republic is established in Phnom Penh by Cambodian General Lon Nol by a military coup that unseated the Monarchy led by Prince Sihanouk. The good General was supported and financed by the good ole CIA. From 1970 to 1975 the General battled with the forces of the Communists called the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot who was financed by the good ole KGB. Does that sound familiar? Anyway, when the American support stopped in 1973 with the evacuation of Vietnam General Lon Nol knew it was just a matter of time before his forces were defeated and he was right. Lon Pol and his army capitulated in 1975. The Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot took over the reins of Cambodia, evacuated the capital city of Phnom Penh and started killing people wholesale. It is estimated that 10% of the total population of Cambodia died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. There was a movie made about this bloodbath named “The Killing Fields”. Don’t see it if you are not able to handle horror at its peak.

1864 The Battle of Tom’s Brook happens on this day in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It seems that US General U.S. Grant was especially interested in CSA Gen. Jubal Early’s control of the Shenandoah Valley because the Valley was essentially the breadbasket of R. E. Lee’s army. So Grant orders US Gen. Phillip Sheridan to go valley and kick Early’s army out. Sheridan orders Gen.Merritt and his cavalry unit of 3,500 and Col. Custer (George A.) and his cavalry unit of 2,500 to find Early’s cavalry and neutralize them. They finally found the Confederate cavalry at Tom’s Brook. Merritt and his 3,500 attacked a Confederate cavalry unit of 1,500 led by CSA Gen. Lomax and succeeded in running them off. No wonder, look at the difference in the size of the units. General Custer and his 2,500 had a lot more trouble when they attacked CSA Gen. Rosser and his 3,000. By the way Custer and Rosser were close friends at West Point. It was a huge struggle but Custer was able to get 3 of his regiments out and attacked the Confederate flank and it was all over. The Confederates took off galloping toward their infantry for protection with Custer in close pursuit. After reaching the Confederate infantry, Custer broke off the chase. The locals called that action “The Woodstock Steeplechase”.

1940  During the bombing of London by the Germans, on this day a bomb penetrated the great dome of St Paul’s Cathedral and destroyed the high altar. Later a live bomb that failed to explode was removed from the dome. The history of St. Paul’s is an interesting one. Tradition has it that the Romans had built a temple to Goddess Diana on the present day site of St. Pauls. London was founded by the Romans as an outpost. While in London in the year ‘04 I saw some of the walls of Roman military barracks that are still standing. Anyway, the first St. Pauls was built in 604 A.D. by King Aetheberht but burned to the ground soon thereafter. St. Pauls was rebuilt but was destroyed by the Vikings in 962 A.D. The long suffering Brits rebuilt it and again was destroyed by fire in 1087. You guessed it, it was rebuilt but fell into disrepair and damaged by fire and by the English Civil War in 1616. In 1660 the great English architect Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to design a new St. Paul's but the rebuilding was delayed because of the great London Fire of 1666. Finally the building process got back underway in1675 and was completed in 1710. Wren died in 1723 and is buried in the great cemetery at St. Paul's along with other heroes like Lord Horatio Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

1997  The Smith-Barney investment group is hit with a class action suit brought by its female employees for sexual harassment. The women believed that the firm paid them less than they did the men and they received fewer promotions than men. The suit was thrown out of court because the plaintiffs (women) did not prove their case. But very soon thereafter a large number of executives at Smith-Barney were fired for using the company’s computer network to exchange porn among them and others outside the firm. I guess they DIDN’T do it the old fashioned way.

1967  Argentinean Ernesto Guevara de Serna better known as Che Guevara is executed by members of the Bolivian army. Che was a born revolutionary and was good at it too. He started out trying to help a communist revolution in Guatemala which failed. He then went to Mexico where he met Fidel Castro and they formed a hard and fast relationship. Che was invited to join with Castro in his attempt to overthrow the government in Cuba which was right up Che’s alley. Castro tried a direct military coup on the Cuban government which failed so Che, Fidel and his followers went into the hills and started a guerilla war. After a while the Cuban government was indeed overthrown and Fidel seized control and made Che his finance minister. Che sat on this a while but soon became bored and started looking for another revolution and found one in Bolivia. Little did he know that the CIA was very interested in capping Che as they saw him as a threat as indeed he was. The CIA provided the Bolivian Army with information about the location of Che using satellite surveillance and a spy network. The Bolivians found him and it was all over for Che. I read a book once written by an ex-CIA agent that was there when the execution took place and said that Che knew what was coming and told them that he understood why they had to do it and if the situation was reversed he would do the same thing. His picture is one of the most recognized in the world. His book “Guerilla Warfare” is used as a textbook by revolutionaries to this day.

Born today:

1757   French King Charles X. He said “There is no middle ground between the throne and the guillotine.” French King Louis XIV can verify that.

1940   Beatle member John Lennon. He said “There is a great woman behind every idiot.” You lost me there John, I thought all women are great, that is what they keep telling me at least.

1969   English singer/songwriter P. J. Harvey. He said “Why take acid when you can read the bible.” I ain’t sure of the content of that statement.

1975   The son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Sean Oko Lennon. He said “Peace is good but so is smoked salmon.” Hey Sean, you forgot about Key Lime Pie.

          Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow