Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Happiness is not a matter of events; happiness depends on the tides of the mind.”

                                        Alice Meynell

Does anyone know how the Arlington National Cemetery came into being? Arlington was originally a plantation owned by Robert E. Lee. Lee was offered command of the Union Army but offered his services to the Confederacy instead. He anguished over this decision but said the he could not “raise his hand to his state (Virginia), his friends and relatives”. Some of those Union soldiers killed in battles where Lee was in command of the Confederates were buried on Lee's Arlington plantation just for spite...believe it or not.

May 19, 1563 is the day that the wife of the king of England, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded by order of her husband Henry VIII. The supposed reality of the situation was that Henry wanted a divorce from Anne but the Catholic Church disallowed it. Henry then accused Anne of adultery and sentenced her to death by beheading with the broad axe. A few women later Henry wanted another divorce and the church disallowed it again so Henry told the Catholic Church to take a hike and formed his own church, thus the end of the divorce issues.

                This Date in History   May 20

1873 Earlier Loeb Strauss emigrated with his family from Bavaria to the United States. In 1847 his father died and he changed his first name to Levi and took control of his father’s dry goods business in New York. In 1853 Levi was drawn west by the gold rush and settled in San Francisco and established his own dry goods business. He primarily dealt in imported dry goods. One of his customers was Jacob Davis who manufactured work pants in Reno for the nearby miners. The only difference here was that Davis made his “waist overalls” out of denim and put brass rivets at all the stress points including the bottom of the fly. Davis was one of Strauss’ customers and on one particular visit Davis showed a pair of his work pants to Strauss. Davis made his work pants virtually one at a time and did not have the money to expand. Davis suggested to Strauss that they get together and manufacture the work pants on a much larger scale with Strauss providing the capital. Strauss agreed and moved Davis to San Francisco and they set up business and the Levi’s 501 jeans were born. On this date both Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were awarded a patent for the now famous jeans. According to nearly every worldwide poll ever taken in the last 50 years, Levis is the most recognized brand name in the world beside Coca-Cola.

1969 After 10 bloody days and 10 even more bloody assaults on Hill 937 in Vietnam the United States and South Vietnam forces finally capture the crest. The soldiers that took the hill renamed it “Hamburger Hill” because it was such a meat grinder. On the same day, US Senator Edward Kennedy raised hell with the Nixon military policies in Nam and Hamburger Hill in particular saying that the American loss of life was unnecessary. Hill 937 was only 1 mile from the Laotian border and appeared to be necessary for watching the legendary Ho Chi Minh trail but after two days, the US army ordered the hill abandoned, saying it was just a diversion. It appears that Edward Kennedy was right after all. The next day the North Vietnamese soldiers moved back into their original position on hill 937 in a hell known as Vietnam and American soldiers were sent home in body bags from Hamburger Hill.

1956 In 1952 the United States detonated a hydrogen bomb in the Marshal Islands but that weapon was large, heavy and unwieldy and it was incapable of being dropped from a bomber making it a useless weapon. The device was brought to the Marshall Islands on a ship and lifted onto a tower. Three years later on this date an Air Force B-52 flying above 30,000 feet dropped a hydrogen bomb on the atoll of Bikini, also in the Pacific. The bomb had to be dropped deploying a large parachute to give the B-52 a chance of escape from the blast. The bomb detonated at an altitude of 15,000 feet and had the brightness of 500 suns. From that day onward, the world has always had the threat of a nuclear holocaust in the back of our minds. I cannot imagine a worse nightmare, but it is there. By the way, the first animal life found on Bikini after this blast was a rat and a cockroach. They opined the rat came ashore on a floating coconut and the cockroach probably came ashore in a bag of groceries from Wal-Mart.

2005 On this date Mary Kay Letourneau married Vili Faulaau. Y'all are wondering why this is significant. Well, ten years before Mary Kay was a second grade teacher in an elementary school near Seattle, Washington. This girl began a sexual relationship with 12 year old Vili who was one of her sixth grade students. In 1997 her activities were discovered and she was arrested. Mary Kay did not deny that she had been having sex with Vili for two years, but she said they were in love in spite of her being married and the mother of four children. Vili was now 14 years old. The judge cut her some slack and gave her a light sentence. When she was finally free, the first place she headed was to find Vili and get a little. She was caught in a car with Vili engaged in sex. This time she went to jail for some serious time right after she delivered the second child by Vili. She was released from jail in August 2004. On this date, she and Vili were wed. Vili was 22 and Mary Kay was 43. I do not see what a 34 years old mother of four would find sexually attractive in a 12 year old Polynesian kid. But there is a hell of a lot of things about women that disproves logic to me....and I can assure you I am not the only male with this malady. I was watching “Fatal Attraction” with a female friend a couple of years ago and I asked her if she thought that she could be capable of such actions. She said “Sure, under the right circumstances.” Lord have mercy.

Born today:

1799 French writer Honore de Balzac. He said “Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.” Hey Honore, do you know Barack Obama?

1806 English economist John Mills. He said “That so few dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time” Hey John, Do you know Hillary Clinton?

1894 US writer Adele Rogers St. John. She said “There is so little difference between husbands you might as well keep the first.” It damn sure ain’t that way with wives, I want to tell you!

1908 US actor James Stewart. He said “When it came to kissing, Jean Harlow was the best.” Do any of you remember the best kisser you ever had?

1919 US comic George Gobel. He said I have never been drunk, but I have damn sure been over served.” Me too.

          Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow