Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“When you want to know the difference between “involved” and “committed” think of ham and eggs. The chicken was involved but the pig was committed.”

Ogden Nash

A while back a man went into a Walmart on a very busy thoroughfare here in Greenville. He picked up three butcher knives and began threatening the customers and soon four of Greenville’s finest were on the scene. Let’s stop at this point and take inventory of the weaponry involved. On one side there are three butcher knives with an effective range of about 6 feet. On the other side we have four Glock .40 caliber handguns, effective range about 40 yards. Then we have four laser aimed Tasers, effective range about 18 feet. Four metal batons, effective range is arm’s length. Four cans of pepper spray, effective range about 10 feet. Add to this the ability to have reinforcements on site in a matter of seconds. A man has to be insane to challenge this definitely out-manned and out-gunned situation. But challenge he did by throwing a knife at one of the deputies causing a cut on his leg that required 30 stitches. At this point one of the deputies decided that the Taser and/or the pepper spray were not enough and the situation required deadly force. He fired his trusty Glock three times and all three slugs struck the knife-thrower, two in the legs and one in the abdomen. The drama was over at that point and the crazy man was transported to a local hospital to get patched up. By the way, the man was roaming around inside yelling “She should have never treated me that way! I did not deserve all of this!” Does this sound familiar to anyone? Perhaps all of us if you interchange “she” and “he”.

Over in Monroe, NC the local police were called about an indecent exposure incident at the Poplin Place Shopping Center. The cops quietly pulled up behind a car parked in front of the Pier One shop. They found John Ionnone sitting there with his pants down around his ankles and obviously aroused. Ionnone saw the cops coming and quickly covered himself with a towel. The cops ordered him to pull up his pants and get out of the car. Instead Ionnone chose to ram the police cruiser, pulled up and did it again. By then the cops knew he was not going to comply with their orders and broke out the driver side window and assured him that a .40 caliber slug awaited him if he did not comply. The cops finally got the car stopped and Ionnone got out and surrendered. He has been charged with a variety of offensives. His defense was that those scented candles and porcelain churns in the window were so sexy. The cops were not impressed...and neither was the court.

This Date in History February 18

1885 On this date a masterpiece of American literature “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” authored by Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, is published. Twain looked at the novel as a sequel to another blockbuster of his called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Even though the novel is recognized as a masterpiece it proved to be very controversial even to this date. What made it controversial was that it was a story about Huck Finn helping a runaway slave named Jim escape to Ohio by drifting the Mississippi River on a raft. The novel was essentially the observations of Huck and Jim of the people they met on their adventure. Even though Twain portrayed the Caucasian people they met as being dumb, stupid and prejudicial and Jim as being brave, generous and trustworthy many people were offended by the association of a white boy and a black man. Later on the black community objected to the portrayal of Jim as being a “Jim Crow” image, or kowtowing to the whites. The book was taken from the shelves of most libraries as being “tawdry” and too controversial. Even up to 1997 this book was banned by several American communities as being a possible cause of racial unrest. I don’t get it. All one has to do is read the liner notes and if they don’t like what they read then put the damned book back on the shelf and pick another, but don’t prevent others from reading it. Who the hell do they think they are? They ban Tom Sawyer but allow Lady Chatterley's Lover. They are behaving like Nazis...nothing less. Don’t get me started on censorship.

1776 On this date James Murray, the 4^th Earl of Dunmore and the Royal Governor of Virginia, sent a note to William Legge, the 2^nd Earl of Dartmouth stating his “inexpressible mortification” that the British military commander in the colonies, Sir Henry Clinton, had decided to by-pass Virginia and go to the “insignificant colony” of North Carolina to crush the rebellion there. Dunmore had already been kicked out of office by the Patriots and was aboard a British warship in Norfolk harbor. Sir Henry was accompanied by British General Charles Cornwallis and his army but upon reaching Cape Fear, North Carolina they decided to wait on the British navy commanded by Admiral Peter Parker that was just leaving Cork, Ireland. The British navy arrived in early May but Admiral Parker convinced Clinton and Cornwallis that the best tactic was to capture Charleston, South Carolina and blockade that important harbor. Upon arriving at Charleston, the Patriot shore batteries were aimed, armed and ready and delivered the mother of all ass-kickings to Admiral Parker’s navy. So Parker, Clinton and Cornwallis said “to hell with it” and sailed back to New York. By the way, the state of South Carolina is known as the “Palmetto State” because of this engagement. The shore batteries at Charleston were surrounded by palmetto tree logs. The palmetto tree trunk is very soft and the artillery shells from Parkers ships just buried up in the logs and did not explode with any intensity and the victory was ours, thus the mighty and sovereign Palmetto State.

Born today:

1838 German physicist Ernst Mach. He said “The Theory of Relativity is just unacceptable to me as the presence of atoms or any such dogma.” Ernst discovered the speed of sound which is named for him, but he obviously was a dumb-ass otherwise.

1859 Russian writer Sholom Aleichem. He said “No matter how bad things get, you must keep on living, even if it kills you.” Sholom, shut up.

1922 US writer Helen Gurley Brown. She said “Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.” I know many of the latter and very few of the former.

         Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow