Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

When asked how many people work at the Vatican, Pope John XXIII said “About half.”

As I have told y'all before, a friend has given me two books that are gold mines of history. Here is an item that I have often wondered about and just found the answer. The question is since the Jews do not celebrate Christmas, what the heck is the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah all about?...Here is the answer:

Earlier the Greeks and the Syrians had overwhelmed the Jews at the Temple in Jerusalem and had defiled it by bringing in icons of their pagan religions and destroyed the caches of Jewish holy water and holy oil, etc. About 200BC a Jewish warrior named Judas Maccabeus killed the Greeks and Syrians or kicked them out of Temple along with all of their pagan symbols. The problem was that Jewish law specified that the Temple had to be purified. The purification process required that a Menorah be lit for eight days using holy oil. A Menorah is a candle holder/lamp with nine spires and an arc shaped support , I know all of you have seen pictures of one especially around Christmas. Anyway, there was only one small vessel of holy oil left which was enough for about one day in a Menorah. Maccabeus lit the lamp and miraculously the lamp burned for eight days without refueling and the Temple was purified. Hanukkah celebrates this event. I know the event sounds impossible but so does the parting of the Red Sea, the Nile River turning into blood and the raising of the dead...but that is what “faith” is all about, y'all.

I took a look at the local news (Greenville, Columbia, Charlotte and Asheville) and there was nothing new reported. There was the usual rape, robbery and murder. The media has determined that blood and gore sells more air time and advertising than good news and this is justified by those stupid rubber-neckers that slow down to nothing when they see an auto accident even though it is obvious that it is not an obstruction to their lane and the cops and EMS are on the scene. A while back I was heading home to Greenville from Charlotte and the traffic slowed to less than 15 MPH. When I finally got to the pinch point nothing was happening on my side of I-85 but there was an accident on the other side with yellow and blue lights flashing. In addition there was a 6 foot tall concrete barrier in the median and you could not see a damned thing on the other side except flashing lights. I was beside myself.

Here is another tidbit of interesting history...to me at least. Phillip of Macedonia hired Aristotle to teach his son Alexander (later Alexander the Great) and Alexander requested that his best friend Ptolemy be allowed to join him in the classes. Ptolemy joined Alexander in his drive of conquest to the east . When Alexander died his commanders divided the conquered lands among themselves...Ptolemy got Egypt. He studied Egyptian history so to be familiar with their customs. It was Ptolemy that established the Library of Alexandria in the city of the same name on the western side of the Nile delta. I will do a separate treatise about this great library of ancient knowledge in the future. As you might suspect the city was named for Alexander. Alexander died in Babylon and the Macedonian army was carrying the body of Alexander back to Macedonia for burial. Ptolemy hijacked the entourage in Damascus, kidnapped the body of Alexander and buried him in a secret location in Alexandria. The burial site is still unknown to this day. All of this took place about 250BC. The progeny of Ptolemy ruled Egypt for three hundred years and ended with the suicide of Cleopatra.

This Date in History November 21

1985 On this date Jonathon Jay Pollard is arrested. Pollard was an American Jew working for United States Naval Intelligence as an analyst. As incredible as it seems, Pollard was arrested for espionage for selling intelligence information about different Muslim groups to Israel. I personally do not have a problem with this but Secretary of State Casper Weinberger really wigged out about this information leak and persuaded the Justice department to seek a life sentence. Pollard was eventually convicted of espionage and was sentenced to life. The Israeli government did not really object to the sentenced and deemed it as an embarrassment. However, a few years later the Israeli government pushed to have Pollard’s sentenced reduced because his sentence was far more severe than other similar cases where information was being sold to “friendly” countries and they gave Pollard an Israeli citizenship. It was for naught because Pollard is still in the slammer with no end in sight.

1783 On this date the first manned flight of a sort occurred. Frenchmen Jean-Francois Rozier and Francois Laurent traveled 5.5 miles across the city of Paris in a hot air balloon. They were aloft for about 25 minutes. One hundred and twenty years later, the Wright Brothers gave us controlled flight. They were not the first to fly in a heavier-than-air vehicle. There were several flights made in gliders that were uncontrolled. In their patent they called the control surfaces ailerons which are what they are called today. Man has been seeking a way to break the bonds of gravity all the way back to Greek mythology and Daedelus and Icarus in particular. Even Leonardo da Vinci designed a wing that was supposed to be used by humans but as far as we know it was never built and tested.

1776 US General George Washington ordered General Charles Lee to abandon his position Westchester County, New York and to join Washington in New Jersey. Lee liked it in New York and did not particularly care about reinforcing Washington so he dawdled and delayed moving his troops. But eventually he headed towards Washington’s position. Lee was a horny guy and sought a place to engage a willing woman along the way and found one in “Widow White’s Tavern” in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. The next morning a British detachment led by the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton woke Lee up, arrested him and took him to a British camp in his sleeping gown. That’s right; men wore gowns for sleeping in those days. While in captivity he even designed battle plans for the British. Before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Lee was in the British army and he and Tarleton were in the same unit. After serving a short sentence Lee went and joined Washington in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. He had a short argument with Washington whereupon he was kicked out the Continental army. Lee was well thought of in the Indian community because he was married to a Mohawk. That’s right, he was married.

1860 Tom Horn is born this day of a farm near Memphis, Missouri. As a youngster he loved to roam field and forest with his dog and rifle hunting for game. He sharpened his skills with rifle to a fine edge but Tom had a problem at home. His father was a violent man and beat him and his mother on a regular basis which resulted on Tom running away from home at the age of 14. He made his way to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he took a job as a teamster. He showed and unusually good adaptation at learning different Indian languages, Apache in particular. His skill at languages earned him a job with the US Cavalry as an interpreter and scout. Some time after this Tom decides to put his skills with a rifle to good use and becomes a hired assassin. He said “Killing is my specialty. I look at it as a business proposition, and I think I have corner on the market.” He took a job with the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency. Under normal circumstances a Pinkerton detective would stop short of killing, but under some cases they would form small armies and engage in shootouts with bank and train robbers. Then he became a free-lance assassin. He was hired by a huge cattle corporation in Wyoming to take out a “settler” who had started a ranch in the open range which was considered private property by the corporation for the grazing of their cattle. On occasion the settler would brag about how good the beef tasted was that he found grazing on his land and refused all attempts to buy him out. The corporation hired Tom to put an end to this problem. The settler showed up dead a few days later. It was determined that the settler was shot at a distance of over 300 yards. No one in the area could make that shot other than Tom Horn. Tom eventually went to the gallows for killing a 14 year old boy.

Born today:

1694 French philosopher Voltaire. He said “In England it is considered well to kill an admiral once in a while to encourage the others.” Voltaire had an acid tongue but he wrote some good stuff.

1907 US writer Jim Bishop. He said “A writer in not, per se, a good critic anymore that a drunk is a good bartender.” I am not a good bartender.

1922 US basketball coach Abe Lemons. He said “You finish last in your league they call you an idiot. You finish last in medical school and they call you a doctor.” Tack on to that “lawyers also”.

1945 US actress Goldie Hawn. She said “There are just three ages for female actresses in Hollywood, Babe, District Attorney and Driving Miss Daisy.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow