Friday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“What is wrong with this country is an ineffective immigration policy enacted by the American Indian.”

                                                       Pat Paulsen

A short while ago I struck up a conversation with a lady that was obviously in transit. I come to find out that she was originally from Greenville but had married a man of means and had been living in Huntsville, Al. She appeared to be in her early 40's. To get a feel as to where she was on the social scale I asked her where she went to high school. She said she went to Christ Church Episcopal School. That's right, it is as fancy-schmantzy as it sounds. The tuition for grades 9-12 is about $17,000/yr. Now I figured out where she was. I asked for her maiden name and it was one that is well known in old money circles in this community. She said that her husband and her had came to a parting of the ways and it was amiable until she found out he had a girlfriend that he had bought a condo for in Huntsville...then she became vicious. She was going to get as much from him as she could.

She moved back to Greenville and was living with her parents over in Foxcroft (a fancy neighborhood on the east side) while she figured out which direction her life was going. From then on all she could talk about was how affluent she, her parents and her soon to be ex-husband was. Neither me not my friend Doug the hairdresser was impressed. It seemed to be of ultimate importance that others recognize her wealth. She will have a hard time with that attitude in my social arena. Perhaps she should start hanging around n the Commerce Club or the Poinsett Club with the rest of the phonies.

         This Date in History   December 30

1916 Earlier Czar Nicholas of Russia and his wife the Czarina Alexandra fell under the spell of a holy man named Rasputin. The Czar and Czarina had a son that was a hemophiliac and had suffered a cut and no one could stop the bleeding. Rasputin was called and somehow he was able to stop the bleeding and saved the boy’s life. From this time on Rasputin was in favor with the royal family. In addition to being a holy man, Rasputin was known to be a heavy drinker and skank chaser. Well, the best possible thing happened for Rasputin. Czar Nicholas was called away to a foreign war. This left the Czarina in control of Russia and Rasputin in charge of her. Eventually the other member of royalty got fed up with Rasputin and decided to cap this bastard. A group of them invited Rasputin to dinner in a fancy mansion. What Rasputin did not know was that his food and drink had been heavily poisoned but he swallowed everything with great relish with no apparent ill effects so they shot him. Rasputin fell and as the others try to drag him out of the room, Rasputin got up and knocked one of them out and then ran outside trying to escape. He was shot once again and fell face down. The others jump on top of him, tied his hands and feet and threw him in a near freezing river never to be seen again. The Czarina was heartbroken at the loss of her lover but the Czar was ecstatic.

1853 Earlier the United States Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce, Jefferson Davis (later to become the President of the Confederate States of America) sent the Ambassador to Mexico named James Gadsden to visit with the President of Mexico, General Santa Ana. Gadsden’s job was to settle the squabbles the United States had been having with Mexico about the lands in the southwestern area of the present day United States. Gadsden and Santa Ana set down with a map and drew up a new border for northern Mexico and the southwestern United States that formed the area known as the Gadsden Purchase and that map became the present day southern border of Arizona and New Mexico. We offered Santa Ana $12 million that was later lowered to $10 million. The United States felt that this strip of land was vital for the development of a transcontinental railroad. In 1861 the “big four” in railroading, Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker got together and decided that a railroad was to be built on the newly acquired land and make it a branch of the Central Pacific Railroad known later as the immortal Southern Pacific Railroad.

1862 Earlier the United States ironclad U.S.S. Monitor had dueled with the Confederate ironclad C.S.S. Virginia (originally known as the Merrimac) on the James River near Hampton Roads. They battled to a draw but this duel signaled the end of wooden warships. The Monitor was used also to support U.S. General George B. McClellan’s ill fated Peninsular Campaign. The Monitor was effective in the relatively clam waters of bays and rivers, but it was decided that it would be very effective in the attempt to capture the city of Charleston, South Carolina so they started towing it down the east coast with the side wheeler U.S.S. Rhode Island. Very early on the Monitor started leaking around its turret but the onboard pumps were adequate to keep her afloat. Then they ran across a storm near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and the leaks got worse to the point that the pumps were overcome and the Monitor began sinking. On this date Captain Bankhead of the Monitor signaled the Rhode Island that they were going to abandon ship so the Rhode Island pulled as close as safety allowed and started taking aboard the crew of the Monitor. But there were 16 sailors aboard the Monitor that were not about to get up on the pitching deck and they went to the bottom with the Monitor. A few years ago the remains of the Monitor was located and photographed.

1803 One of the most important but least known Patriots in America died on this date. Francis Lewis was born in Llandaff, Wales and immigrated to the colonies when he was 22. He started a very lucrative business supplying provisions to the British army in the colonies. He was an aide to General Hugh Mercer during the Seven Years War and was captured by the Oswego Indians and sent to France as a prisoner of war. Upon his return he was granted 3,000 acres by the New York Government as a reward for his services. In 1765 he sold his mercantile business and retired to Whitestone, Long Island. His retirement gave him a lot of time to get involved in the Revolution. He was a member of Congress, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, a member of those wild and crazy guys, the Sons of Liberty who made themselves famous at the Boston Tea Party. He served as a member of the Continental Congress until 1779 when he resigned and became a commissioner of the Board of the Admiralty. His patriotism came at a tall price, however. In 1776 the British destroyed his estate on Long Island and captured his wife and kept her as a prisoner of war. The problem with this was that George Washington had no British women to trade for Mrs. Lewis. It was reported that the British kept her without a change of clothes or a bath for some time and it affected her health. The destruction of his estate adversely affected Francis Lewis financially from which he never recovered completely. The time his wife spent as a prisoner of war affected her health to a point that she never completely recovered.

Born today:

1982 Canadian actress Kristin Kreuk. She said “Just because I don’t do bad things does not mean that I don’t have bad thoughts.” I have bad thoughts all the time, Kristin.

Died today:

2006 Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein. After he was caught he said “If you want to execute me, I will bring my own f---k---g rope.” He did not have to.

                  Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow.   

Thursday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“To me the outdoors is what you pass through on the way from your house to a taxi.”

                                            Fran Lebowitz

I heard it again. A person that was a member of a very large Baptist Church in Taylors, SC and had abandoned the church told me the reason he left. He said that it was brought up before the church to leave the doors unlocked to allow the homeless a place to sleep when it is really cold. The church voted against this proposal with some of the faithful saying “There is no telling what kind of filth and disease they would bring.

Jesus was born in an indoor livestock enclosure with the animals present...but I guess Mary and Joseph did not have on clothing from Anne Taylor and Brooks Brothers arriving in a Beemer or a Mercedes. Some people go to church to see and be seen and not to seek redemption, to them it is a social event. That is all I have to say about that.

         This Date in History   December 29

1778 On this date British Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell and an army of between 2,500 and 3,600 launched a surprise attack on the city of Savannah, Georgia. Included in the army were the 71^st Highlanders, some New York Loyalists and a group of Hessian mercenaries. Savannah was defended by Patriot Major General Robert Howe and a rag tag army of 650-900 infantrymen. Howe saw that he did not have a chance and ordered the evacuation of the city then he ordered the withdrawal of the Patriot troops. The Georgia Brigade was cut off and nearly annihilated with the killing of 83 and the capture of 483. After the completion of the withdrawal the British had suffered 3 killed and 10 wounded. The British occupied Savannah and left only because they wanted to in July of 1782. The majority of the residents of Savannah were Loyalists anyway making their occupation much easier. The Patriots tried to kick the British out of Savannah once in 1779 when they established a siege but it didn’t work so the Patriots said to hell with it and just sealed off the city so no one came or sent except by sea. What was peculiar was that Savannah was a hotbed of Loyalists (Colonists loyal to the King of England) in fact; the entire state of Georgia was more than 50% Loyalist. That is really peculiar because right next door in South Carolina was full of firebrands for independence from Great Britain. Maybe y'all don’t know the reason why there is a Georgia in the first place. The state of Georgia was formed by England at the behest of the wealthy plantation owners in South Carolina to be a buffer between their plantations and the bloodthirsty Spanish slave traders coming up from Spanish-owned Florida. This meant that the people that settled in Georgia were owing to the British crown for the lands that were given to them. I suppose that is where the Loyalist syndrome came from. It sucked, in any event.

1890 On this date one of the most damnable acts ever committed by the US Army happened. The plains Indians had been vanquished and sent to reservations, especially the fiery Lakota Sioux. The last remnants of this once proud and independent tribe were sent to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Due to the corruptness of the US officials, the Sioux on the reservation were not getting the food that was promised to them and starvation was staring them in the face not to mention the abominable living conditions. The killing of the chief medicine man, Sitting Bull, further inflamed the situation. Before he died, Sitting Bull had told his follower that if they resurrected the ritual of the Ghost Dance, they could regain their strength and power that they had in the past. So the ritual of the Ghost Dance was begun. This ritual would not have made any difference but it did give the Sioux the hope and belief that they could prevail therefore the Ghost Dance was forbidden by the US authorities. On this date, on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek, a group of Sioux were doing the Ghost Dance when a group of US Cavalry shows up to try to put a stop to it. During the confrontation a cavalryman and an Indian get into a scuffle and a shot was fired. No one knows who fired the shot but immediately the cavalrymen opened fire and in a matter of seconds 146 Lakota Sioux were dead more than half were women and children. This Massacre at Wounded Knee is the last armed conflict between the US army and Native Americans. There is a book titled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee authored by Dee Brown that all should read; I promise you it will give you pause about what we Americans are all about.

1170 Earlier Henry II had seen to it that Thomas Becket was made the Archbishop of Canterbury in the hope that Becket would help him get the church out of state business. But almost as soon as Becket assumed the position, he said that he supported the Church taking part in state business. There were several heated conversations between Henry and Thomas but with no resolution to the problem. In a moment of anger Henry says “What parcel of fools and dastards have I nourished in my house, and not one of them will avenge me of this upstart clerk?” Four of Henry’s knights saw this as Henry wanting Becket dead. On this date, the four knights enter Canterbury Cathedral and killed Thomas. The Christian world is in an uproar that a man of the cloth is killed in the house of God. Henry caught a large ration of shit about this and in 1174 he was forced to do penance at Thomas Becket’s tomb. Not only that, England had to endure the church meddling in state affairs until Henry VIII came along and put a stop to it. The church canonized Thomas Becket meaning he was made a Catholic Saint. In 1220 Becket’s remains was re-buried in Canterbury Cathedral (been there).

1862 Earlier US General Ulysses Grant had planned a two pronged assault on Vicksburg, Mississippi. He assigned one prong of the attack to US General William Sherman and Grant would direct the other one. It was a good plan except for one thing. CSA Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and Earl Van Dorn and their respective cavalry units were out there roaming the countryside. Forrest and Van Dorn found Grants supply dump and destroyed it. This forced Grant to delay if not scratch the attack but he did not get word to Sherman in time. The Rebs only had 6,000 troops dug in to face Sherman and his army of 37,000. But within just hours of the attack the Rebs received an additional 6,000. On this date, Sherman attacked as planned but his attack was across open country and anticipated. With Grant not attacking and providing a diversion, the dug in Rebs crushed the attack before it had got started. Sherman learned from this experience and never again attacked across open ground and always inflicted more casualties than he received.

1940 Earlier in July the countries of Holland, Belgium, Norway and France had fallen to the onslaught of the German army. In August Hitler put Operation Sea Lion into effect. This was the plan to defeat England and complete his domination of Europe. Hitler was assured by Herman Goering that England could be defeated by air power alone. So the German air force began the bombing of RAF air bases and radar sites. The German’s sent 1,500 bombers over in a single day. Nothing worked except the German air force began losing many, many aircraft to the RAF fighter pilots. The enraged Hitler ordered that to hell with the RAF bases, bomb the hell out of English cities especially London in the hopes of breaking the English morale. That didn’t work either but in this date, the worst air attack yet came. The Germans rained incendiaries on London starting conflagrations that burned for two days and nights. The upside of this was that the RAF bases were spared attack and were able to repair and recover. The result was that on the next air attack, 56 German aircraft went down in a matter of minutes. After this, Hitler said to hell with Operation Seal Lion.

        Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                  Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Working with Cher was like being in a blender with an alligator.”

                                       Sam Elliott

I am reading about the history of France in WWII. When the German army was closing in on France with no chance of stopping them, a french politician named Pierre Laval negotiated an armistice. This agreement divided France into two sections. One was German occupied northern France that included Paris and the other was southern France governed by Frenchmen that were totally answerable the Germans and based in the resort town of Vichy. The leader of the Vichy government was Pierre Laval. After the Allies liberated France, Laval was captured, tried for high treason and sentenced to death by firing squad. In late September of 1945 somehow Laval digested some poison and was on the cusp of death but a team of doctors and nurses working feverishly pumped his stomach and saved his life. Two weeks later he was stood before a firing squad and executed. His death was not the issue, the Frenchmen wanted their pound of flesh by killing the rotten bastard themselves.

Now that the Electoral College has done its duty and Donald Trump is our chief executive, I cannot but wonder at how the people that opposed Trump and threw up every roadblock they could think of believed they could preclude their will over the 60 million voters that voted for Trump. Who the hell do they think they are, especially the “celebrities” in show biz? How do they think they are more important that the average American? To quote that great American thinker Joe Pesci...”Screw You”.

I was thinking about the Christmas Day that I remembered the most as far back in years as I could. I think it was when I got my first bicycle. Within a couple of months my Dad had got me a paper route to help pay for the bike. We were really poor, y’all. The bike was also my transportation to school at a distance of about 3 miles. It doesn’t sound like much but in a driving rain storm it was no fun, and neither was the paper route. I delivered the evening paper. I had to ride about four miles to pick up my papers and backtracked on my delivery route. It was no fun but that experience plus making me work all summer bagging groceries or work with an air conditioner and heating repair man, went a long way convincing me that I needed to learn how to make a decent living rather than a “slave labor” job. My brother (an architect) wrapped insulation around air conditioning duct work all summer, usually in attics or worked on large construction sites as a “gofer” which usually meant pushing a wheelbarrows full of debris all summer. My brother and I got the message.

I worked with a civil engineer on a job in Paducah, Kentucky that was an ex-Marine and from South Carolina. This man told me that he had a similar experience. After high school he knew his mother had a substantial nest egg set aside for his education. He told his mother that he was not going to school but was going to work and wanted the money help him get started. He mother said that was a good idea and put him to work with her brother. He ran a paving company and put him behind a truck spreading hot asphalt by hand. After a couple of days of that he told his mother that he had changed his mind and entered the University of South Carolina. Do you see things like that today? I think not.

       This Date in History   December 28

1781 British troops under the command of Major James Henry Craig occupied John’s Island, South Carolina. Craig and his troops had been kicked out of Wilmington, North Carolina a month before. Patriot General Daniel Morgan ordered the inimitable Lt. Col. Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee and his famous cavalry unit from the Star Fort in the back country of South Carolina near the settlement of Ninety-Six to go kick those redcoats out of there. Just before arriving Lee learned that the Patriot infantry unit led by Major James Hamilton had arrived late and could not ford the Wapoo River so Lee aborted the attack. Because of the flow of the river and variable tidal conditions, the Wapoo River could only be forded once or twice a month and this was not one of those times. It was the relative isolation of some of the coastal island off South Carolina that preserved the Gullah language and traditions. Gullah is a Creole culture that dates back to Elizabethan times and was brought over to America in the slave trade. It was well into the 1950’s that some of these islands could only be reached by water. The Gullah language is exciting to hear because of the accents, rhythm and tempo. However, to the non-Gullah you can understand but very little. There are islands in the Chesapeake Bay, Tangier Island for instance, that was settled by the English and their isolation helped preserve the Old English language to this day.

1793 0n this date American Thomas Paine was arrested in France and charged with treason. That’s right; it is the same Thomas Paine that wrote Common Sense and America in Crisis that inspired out forefathers to not give up in their quest for freedom from the British. At the outset of the French Revolution, Paine had gone to France to see if he could help. Evidently Paine loved revolutions. Paine was a hard core opponent to the death penalty and the French revolutionaries were keeping the guillotine hot chopping off heads of the elitist and backers King Louis. Paine raised so much hell that the revolutionaries arrested him to shut him up. It wasn’t a bad incarceration however. He was locked up in the Luxemburg Prison which used to be a castle. He had a room with two windows, was locked up only at night and had catered meals. None the less, when President James Monroe found out about it, he raised so much hell that the French released Paine after a short while. Paine had been writing a book called Age of Reason which stated that God did not influence the actions of people that it was science and rationality that prevailed over religion and superstition. After the book was published an outcry around the world was heard. Paine was declared as Godless and anti-Christ. Needless to say, his follows and admirers in America vanished. He died penniless in New York City in 1809. That just goes to show you that in those days you just did not suggest an alternative to religion.

1832 On this date, Vice President John C. Calhoun resigned to take a vacant United States Senate seat in his home state of South Carolina. This Yale graduate was the first sitting Vice President to resign but it would not be the last. I will let y'all figure out what other Vice-President(s) have resigned. Calhoun did not get along at all with President Andrew Jackson who kept Calhoun under wraps to decrease his political clout. John C. Calhoun was born near Abbeville, South Carolina in 1782. He served in the state legislature before being elected as Senator. Calhoun was a protector of the agrarian based South against the industrial based North. He also was a hard-core believer in the slave/plantation institution. He called it a “positive good” rather than a ‘necessary evil”. Calhoun spent the majority of his life in high public office including Secretary of War, Vice-President under two different Presidents, US Senator, US Representative. Calhoun died in 1850 in Washington, D.C. and is buried in the graveyard of St. Peters church in Charleston, South Carolina (been there).

Born today:

1905 US comedian “Charlie Weaver” who’s real name was Cliff Arquette. When he was on the TV show “Hollywood Squares” the emcee Peter Marshal asked him “If you are going on a parachute jump, how high should you be?” Charlie answered “Three days of straight drinking ought to do it.” I think so too.

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”

                                          Charles Schultz

There was an engagement known as the Battle of the Wilderness during the Civil War. CSA General R.E. Lee had taken a beating at Gettysburg and was retreating back into Virginia. He also knew that he was outnumbered by the Union forces by at least three to one and an infantry assault face to face would be suicide. This battle was the first one where the Union forces were commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant in the Eastern Theater. The Wilderness was a section of Virginia that had very nearly impenetrable undergrowth and thick forests. Lee knew that this type terrain would neutralize the advantage the Union forces had in overwhelming numbers. That part of Virginia had been suffering a drought and the woods and leaves were a tinderbox. Sure enough, when the Confederate and Union artillery began to exchange salvos, a forest fire began almost immediately from the exploding shells. The wounded Union and Confederate soldiers did not have a chance to escape and were burned alive. General Grant mounted his horse and rode far enough away that he could not hear the pitiful screams of those men that were trapped. Later on he said he did that so he would not be inhibited in the future from his typically aggressive style of warfare. It would have bothered the hell out of me too.

A long time ago I read a short story about a Welch Terrier named Blackfriar’s Bobby. It was the story about this dog’s dedication to his master. His master was a train engineer and was based in a town named Blackfriar in England. Every day Bobby would be at the train station at the same time every day waiting for his master. One fateful day Bobby’s master was killed in a train wreck and did not show at the train station to greet Bobby. Bobby showed up at the train station every day at about the same time for the rest of his life waiting for his master. There is a statue of Bobby cast in bronze at the train station donated by the people of Blackfriar. This story may have a few flaws because I did not research it as I normally do, but you dog lovers out there will understand what this all about.

        This Date in History   December 27

1780 Earlier Patriot General Daniel Morgan ordered Patriot Colonel William Washington, George Washington’s cousin, and approximately 275 troops to neutralize the British /Loyalist presence near present day Mountville, South Carolina. The Loyalists led by British Colonel Thomas Waters had been harassing the Patriots in and around that area for some time. On this date Washington arrived with 75 cavalry under his direct command and 200 infantry under the command of Lt. Colonels Joe Hayes and Jim McCall. The area under scrutiny in particular was the area on Bush River near Fairforest Creek. Colonel Washington found the British/Loyalist camped near Hammond’s Store near Mountville. Mountville is about 8 miles south of present day Laurens, SC. Hammond’s Store was a blacksmith/trading post which Washington surrounded and launched a surprise attack. After a four day siege, of the 250 British/Loyalists, 150 were killed or wounded, 45 captured and rest scattered through the harsh South Carolina underbrush. The troops chose of burn Hammond’s Store. This area had only been occupied by Europeans since the early 1760’s and had been under almost continuous attack by the native Cherokees. There had been many cases of murder, rape and plunder by both the Europeans and the Cherokees against each other, not to mention the outlaws that attacked both sides. It was during this time period that this area was considered ungovernable because of all the different prejudices that had been instilled by the hostilities. As you might suspect, it took a limited war against the Cherokee and Choctaw to put and end that that problem. As soon as that was finished there was a short break of 14 years and then we chose to start a fight against those Colonists loyal to the British and the British themselves for our independence from Great Britain. It looks to me that they love of the sting of battle and is in our blood, especially the Scots and the Irish, and we have proven it time and time again. By the way, the exact location of Hammond’s Store has been lost to history.

1831 On this momentous day the HMS Beagle sailed from England for a five year voyage of discovery with a scientist named Charles Darwin aboard. The ship spent a lot of time on the east coast of South American continent before traversing Cape Horn over the west coast. The ship spent several months in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Peru. It was during this time period that Darwin developed the theory of evolution that he called “natural selection.” This theory is further described as the “survival of the fittest.” In other words, only the strong survive. After he had made all of his experiments and observations, almost apologetically Darwin wrote the immortal book “Origin of Species”. His book shook the scientific world to it roots, especially paleontology. What caused the turmoil was that this book and the one that followed, “The Descent of Man” tracked homo-sapiens back to sub-humans such as gorillas and chimpanzees. Needless to say the human elitists and the clergy hit the roof because it was adverse to what was taught in the Bible. But Darwin’s logic was impeccable and was almost bullet-proof and except for later changes made genetics and molecular biology his theory is valid today. To NOT believe what he found and deduced requires a leap of faith, not vice versa.

2004 The day before at about 3:00A Indonesian time an earthquake that read 9.3 on the Richter scale struck the ocean floor near the southern tip of the Indonesian archipelago. One part of the ocean bottom thrust upward by more than 15 feet displacing over 7 cubic miles of ocean. I guess we all remember the movies of the resulting tsunami that came ashore in Indonesia, Sumatra, India and even in Somalia in east Africa. There was even a tsunami in Alaska. This earthquake was the second strongest ever recorded since the Richter scale came into existence. Geologists tell use that the entire earth moved a centimeter or two as a result of this event. The strange thing is that the animals knew what was happening. Many of the dogs in some of the villages along the Indonesian coast began whining and ran to high ground and would not return. In some of the cities along the Indian coast, rats swarmed together in huge packs and ran down the streets in broad daylight. Some of the rats swarmed over the edge of wells and jumped in. It must have seemed like the end of the world. It was the end of the world for over 230,000 people.

              Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Monday

Musings and History

Quote of the day:

Future Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal was aboard a ship offshore from Iwo Jima during that epic battle. Shortly after the Marines had landed and endured an avalanche of slaughter administered by the Japanese, a squad of Marines fought their way to the top of the extinct volcano known as Mount Suribachi and raised an American flag. All of the ships blew their ship's whistles and horns and there was a loud shout from all the Marines on the island. Forrestal said “That will ensure existence of the United States Marines for the next 500 years.” The image of the flag raising on Suribachi is the soul of the United States Marines. Iwo Jima is the only battle where the US Marines suffered more casualties than they inflicted.

Speaking of combat here is something I did not know.

There are 14 nations that have women in combat units, the United States is not one of them until very recently. There were two women attempting to become a US Army Ranger. The could not handle the physical requirements of the final test but they made them Rangers anyway. The reason that if it became US policy that women are required to fight in combat units then they would have to register for the draft like the men and would not have a choice. The politicians don't want to see their sweet little girls in the draft in time of war.

I am reading about real assignations.

Several years ago a British diplomat was walking down a large city in Eastern Europe when someone walked up beside him and stuck him in the leg with a syringe that was hidden in the tip of his folding umbrella. He died within a couple of hours of asphyxiation. Test proved that the syringe contained curare. This is a poison that comes from a particular plant in the Amazon River basin. The poison is a ferocious muscle relaxer and eventually relaxes the muscles that keep us breathing and suffocation occurs.

This Date in History December 26

2004 On this date at 8:06a Indonesian time a large slip in the earth’s crust occurred when a continental plate southwest of the Indonesian archipelago, dropped about 15 feet for a length of about 50 miles. This event generated an enormous amount of energy that spread rapidly throughout the Indian Ocean and displayed itself as one of the most devastating series of tsunamis or tidal waves in recorded history. The hardest hit was several different beaches in Thailand which was just a short distance north and east of the tectonic event. Then the waves traveled across the Indian Ocean and came ashore on the east coast of India and Bangladesh and traveled on to the east coast of Africa to a lesser extent. There were many home movies made at the resorts in Thailand and it was scary to watch as the water on the beaches retreat to the horizon and then come storming back with a vengeance in three or four waves. I have a mental image a little kid on the beach after the water had disappeared and then when the tsunami arrived it washed that kid inland like a rag doll. She did not survive. I fact there was in the vicinity of 350,000 deaths attributed to these tsunamis world wide. We will never know exactly because the small villages up and down the coast that simply disappeared. One strange thing was the people on the beaches in Thailand saw their dogs, cats and even goats and cattle run for high ground even before the water retreated. They knew what was going on.

1908 On this date the first black American Jack Johnson won the World Heavyweight boxing title by knocking out Canadian Tommy Burns in 14 rounds near Sydney Australia. Johnson held the title until 1915 and was hated and reviled by boxing fans in the United States because he did not fit in the typical “Jim Crow” image Americans had of the back man. Johnson drove fancy cars and wore fancy clothes and had a white wife, flashed gold teeth and had several overlapping affairs with different women, all white, which further inflamed the prejudiced. Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas in 1878. He dropped of the school in the fifth grade and began working on the docks in Galveston. Not long thereafter he began his career as a boxer. In those days boxing was divided into black and white divisions and Johnson became the “Black Heavyweight Champion” on 1903. In 1904 Johnson issued a challenge to the White Heavyweight Champion, Jim Jefferies. Jefferies was not interested. It was not until 1908 that White Heavyweight Champion Tommie Burns granted Johnson the match in Australia which Johnson won. It wasn’t long before the sports reporters began writing about a “Great White Hope” to get the Heavyweight Championship back into white hands. Johnson was one of the best defensive boxers in history. He was also a devastating slugger when the opportunity presented itself. In 1910 Jim Jefferies agreed to come out of retirement and challenge Johnson. Johnson was the only boxer that Jefferies ever faced that knocked him off his feet. In the 15^th round Jefferies’ corner threw in the towel and it was all over. Johnson faced several challengers and defeated them all. In 1912 Johnson was convicted of transporting an unmarried woman across state lines for “immoral purposes”. This law was implemented to stop prostitution and white slavery not to stop a night club owner and World Champion from taking his white secretary out for a weekend tryst. This was clearly an instance of law enforcement using the law for their own prejudicial purposes. Johnson was released pending an appeal. Johnson decided to get the hell out of Dodge and fled to Europe where he lived in exile for seven years and continued to defend his title in Europe and he became a very rich man. In 1915 he fought Jess Willard in Havana and was defeated. Some thought that he had thrown the match hoping the charges against him would be dropped. He returned to the United States into the waiting arm of U.S. Marshals. He did a year of hard time in a prison in Kansas then he was released and he tried boxing again but he had lost a step and was not effective. His fortune went away and he ended up working in carnival side shows. He died in an automobile accident in 1945. He was 67 years old. I don’t know what lesson we can learn from this man’s life except “Don’t flaunt it and take the money and run.”

1820 On this date Moses Austin received permission from Spanish officials to bring 300 families into Spanish territory and establish a settlement. Initially the Spanish refused but after further persuasion by Austin they agreed to grant 200,000 acres for this settlement. Delighted, Austin went back into the United States and began recruiting families to his settlement which was in the lower reaches of the Colorado and Brazos rivers. Unfortunately, Moses died before he could get back to his proposed settlement so his son Stephan F. Austin stepped in and continued fulfillment of his fathers dream. The first settlers arrived in December of 1821 and within a decade the settlement numbered 25,000 people. As you might suspect, the settlers had no love for the Spanish and in 1836 they became part of the Republic of Texas and eventually one of these United States. By the way, the settlement is now the Texas state capitol of Austin.

1944 On this date tank units of General George Patton’s 3^rd Army broke through the German army encirclement of the Belgian city of Bastogne. This city was a major objective of the German Army when they launched a surprise assault out of the Ardennes Forest that later became know as the Battle of the Bulge. The city was defended by 18,000 Americans mostly of the 101^st Airborne. During the encirclement the troops defending Bastogne eventually ran very nearly out of food, water and ammunition at the same time. They also were ill-dressed for the bitterly cold weather. After the breaking of the siege the long hard task of pushing the Germans back to where they came from began. Patton pulled off one of the greatest maneuvers in military history. His 3^rd army was driving east toward Germany 100 mile south of Bastogne when the German assault began out of the Ardennes. Patton was able to turn his army 90 degrees to the left and attack the German encirclement of Bastogne. That was an amazing feat considering the logistics involved making that happen. In spite of the brilliance of Patton in rescuing the 101^st many of those proud paratroopers said “We were not f----k---g rescued, we were relieved.”. By the way, if I am not mistaken, the leader of the tank column that broke through to the city was Colonel Creighton Abrams, later to become a four star General.

         Thanks for listening     I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                                   Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Indecision may, or may not, be my problem.”

                          Jimmy Buffett

Yesterday afternoon my brother contacted me saying that he was on Woodruff Road and did I want to join him.  Woodruff Road here in Greenville is one of the worst traffic jams in the history of all of Christendom.  The road is not enough lanes and I-85 and I-385 cross it close together resulting in something to do with a "cluster", if you get my drift.  I know that my brother has the patience of the Tasmanian Devil and he was fit to be tied and I told him that I would rather be in hell than on Woodruff Road.  He said that Woodruff road IS hell.  Later I asked him did he knock back a couple of drinks of liquor when he got back home.  He said that he had not but went to the pistol range and fired 100 rounds with his Colt 1911 .45 to relieve some of the tension...then he came home and had a couple of Captain and Coke. 

                 This Date in History December 22

1984 On this date a 45 year old white man named Bernard Goetz is surrounded by four young black men on a New York subway car and demanded money from Goetz. Goetz whipped out a .38 caliber revolver and opened fire wounding three of them and the fourth was cowering in a doorway when Goetz said “You don’t look too bad, here’s another” and shot him in the back severing his spinal cord. This eighteen year old black man was named Darrell Cabey who was paralyzed from the waist down and had brain damage. Goetz fled the scene but turned himself in eight days later at a police station in New Hampshire. In the subsequent interview that was videotaped Goetz admitted that he was scared and when the four smirked at him he wanted to “kill them all” but felt he has just protecting himself and plead innocent to attempted murder at his arraignment. Goetz’s actions was racially motivated according to the District Attorney but many people in New York and around the country agreed with Goetz and money flowed in for his defense. Goetz’s act was very divisive to the city of New York where racial tensions were very high at the time. In 1987 Goetz went to trial and was acquitted of attempted murder and assault but was convicted of a violation of New York’s Sullivan Law that forbids unlicensed firearms in the city. He served a little over eight months in prison for that indiscretion. After his release he was sued in a civil suit by Darrell Cabey for damages to the tune of $14 million. Goetz promptly declared bankruptcy and disappeared into the woodwork. I can assure you that if that scenario happened here in Charleston, I doubt that the shooter would be arrested, not because of the racial issue but South Carolina is very lenient when it comes self defense but if he was arrested, he would be released on his own recognizance. If it happened to me I would shoot first and take whatever heat comes later no matter if they were black, white, Latino, Chinese, Native American, etc. I will not be mugged by some undisciplined jackasses that had rather rob someone rather than work.

1894 On this date a French Army Captain named Alfred Dreyfus is arrested and charged with treason for giving military secrets to the Germans. Four months later Dreyfus was convicted on the flimsiest of evidence and sent to infamous Devil’s Island Prison on the north coast of South America. Captain Dreyfus was guilty of nothing but being Jewish. The French military hierarchy was vehemently anti-Semitic. Two years later newly found evidence pointed to a French Captain Esterhazy as the culprit in giving secrets to the Germans. The French Military had no choice but to put Esterhazy on trial who was acquitted in four hours. The French military was not about to admit that they had made a mistake with the Jew Dreyfus. When this trial was made public the famous novelist Emile Zola printed an article in a Paris newspaper labeled “L’Accuse” accusing the French courts of being under the thumb of the French military. This caused a division in the French people. The nationalists and the Catholic Church supported the military and the Republicans, socialists and those interested in religious freedom for just as opposed and lined up to support Dreyfus. In 1898 A French Captain named Hubert Henry who originally found the evidence against Dreyfus admitted he had forged most if not all of it and then committed suicide. Esterhazy had log since fled the country. The French Military brought Dreyfus back for another trial and again convicted him and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. But this time a new administration was in place and they immediately pardoned Dreyfus. In 1906 the French courts overturned his original conviction. This whole debacle brought social reform and a reduction to the power of the military. Formal laws were passed that provided the permanent separation of church and state which in my opinion, was the main problem all along.

1775 On this date the Continental Congress voted to form a Continental Navy commanded by Esek Hopkins as commander of the fleet. This fledgling navy only had four vessels, the Alfred, Columbus, Andrea Doria and the Cabot. They had four captains, Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle and John Burrows Hopkins. They had only 8 lieutenants but one of which was to become a national hero in John Paul Jones. Esek Hopkins was an interesting man; he was also a very wealthy man from Rhode Island. He married a very wealthy woman but he made a fortune during the Seven Years War. He bought a boat with his wife’s money and became a privateer sailing up and down the east coast. As a privateer he was essentially a pirate working for whoever paid him the most or allowed him to keep a majority of the booty he captured. The Continental Congress wanted him to continue this enterprise working for the Colonies and again offered him a percentage of the take. What they were really after was warships and that is exactly what Hopkins and company did, especially John Paul Jones. They would sneak aboard British warships, assassinate the Captain and any of the crew that objected and sail the ship into Continental waters and take command. Our navy did not begin in an auspicious manner but look at us now. In this case crime paid.

1978 On this date John Wayne Gacy confessed to murdering 24 young men and boys and burying their bodies under his suburban Chicago house. Law enforcement officials did indeed find the bodies. Gacy was tried and convicted and sentenced to death. Gacy spent 14 years on death row where he painted pictures of clowns that sold for thousands of dollars. Gacy was a clown in charity events from time to time, if you can believe that. Finally after all of his appeals were exhausted he was executed by lethal injection in the prison in Joliet, Illinois and hell rejoiced at the new arrival. For a while Gacy was the worst serial killer in American history until George Ridgeway, also known as the Green River Killer, was caught and convicted of killing over 48 women that were mostly prostitutes in the Pacific Northwest. He is visiting with John Wayne Gacy as we speak.

1884 Earlier a mover and shaker in the old west John Chisum is born in Tennessee in 1824. When he was six, his family moved to Paris, Texas. After he grew up he became involved in construction for a while then he decided that he wanted to raise cattle and started a cattle ranch on the Pecos River in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Chisum was very successful and was soon running over 80,000 head. The problem was that running a herd that large over such a wide range invited cattle rustlers and it soon became apparent that Chisum was losing about 10,000 head a year to rustlers. Chisum found that this unacceptable and tracked down the culprits. The culprits were a group running a mercantile establishment known as “The House” in Lincoln County. The House was really not a mercantile business; it was a clearing house for rustled cattle that were sold to the US Cavalry under exclusive contract meaning that Chisum and the other large ranchers were undercut by The House. Tensions flared and one of the employees of Chisum shot and killed one of the employees of The House. This shooter was Billy the Kid. After this shooting a war broke out between the large ranchers and The House forever known as the Lincoln County War. The war raged for several months but it became apparent that The House would prevail because they had the backing of the US Cavalry and the war ended. Devastated by the Lincoln County War and the continued loss of cattle, John Chisum moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to retire. He died three months later. Even then he left an inheritance of over $500,000 indicating the enormous wealth he had accumulated.

              Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                               Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Indecision may, or may not, be my problem.”

                     Jimmy Buffett

This Date in History December 22

1984 On this date a 45 year old white man named Bernard Goetz is surrounded by four young black men on a New York subway car and demanded money from Goetz. Goetz whipped out a .38 caliber revolver and opened fire wounding three of them and the fourth was cowering in a doorway when Goetz said “You don’t look too bad, here’s another” and shot him in the back severing his spinal cord. This eighteen year old black man was named Darrell Cabey who was paralyzed from the waist down and had brain damage. Goetz fled the scene but turned himself in eight days later at a police station in New Hampshire. In the subsequent interview that was videotaped Goetz admitted that he was scared and when the four smirked at him he wanted to “kill them all” but felt he has just protecting himself and plead innocent to attempted murder at his arraignment. Goetz’s actions was racially motivated according to the District Attorney but many people in New York and around the country agreed with Goetz and money flowed in for his defense. Goetz’s act was very divisive to the city of New York where racial tensions were very high at the time. In 1987 Goetz went to trial and was acquitted of attempted murder and assault but was convicted of a violation of New York’s Sullivan Law that forbids unlicensed firearms in the city. He served a little over eight months in prison for that indiscretion. After his release he was sued in a civil suit by Darrell Cabey for damages to the tune of $14 million. Goetz promptly declared bankruptcy and disappeared into the woodwork. I can assure you that if that scenario happened here in Charleston, I doubt that the shooter would be arrested, not because of the racial issue but South Carolina is very lenient when it comes self defense but if he was arrested, he would be released on his own recognizance. If it happened to me I would shoot first and take whatever heat comes later no matter if they were black, white, Latino, Chinese, Native American, etc. I will not be mugged by some undisciplined jackasses that had rather rob someone rather than work.

1894 On this date a French Army Captain named Alfred Dreyfus is arrested and charged with treason for giving military secrets to the Germans. Four months later Dreyfus was convicted on the flimsiest of evidence and sent to infamous Devil’s Island Prison on the north coast of South America. Captain Dreyfus was guilty of nothing but being Jewish. The French military hierarchy was vehemently anti-Semitic. Two years later newly found evidence pointed to a French Captain Esterhazy as the culprit in giving secrets to the Germans. The French Military had no choice but to put Esterhazy on trial who was acquitted in four hours. The French military was not about to admit that they had made a mistake with the Jew Dreyfus. When this trial was made public the famous novelist Emile Zola printed an article in a Paris newspaper labeled “L’Accuse” accusing the French courts of being under the thumb of the French military. This caused a division in the French people. The nationalists and the Catholic Church supported the military and the Republicans, socialists and those interested in religious freedom for just as opposed and lined up to support Dreyfus. In 1898 A French Captain named Hubert Henry who originally found the evidence against Dreyfus admitted he had forged most if not all of it and then committed suicide. Esterhazy had log since fled the country. The French Military brought Dreyfus back for another trial and again convicted him and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. But this time a new administration was in place and they immediately pardoned Dreyfus. In 1906 the French courts overturned his original conviction. This whole debacle brought social reform and a reduction to the power of the military. Formal laws were passed that provided the permanent separation of church and state which in my opinion, was the main problem all along.

1775 On this date the Continental Congress voted to form a Continental Navy commanded by Esek Hopkins as commander of the fleet. This fledgling navy only had four vessels, the Alfred, Columbus, Andrea Doria and the Cabot. They had four captains, Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle and John Burrows Hopkins. They had only 8 lieutenants but one of which was to become a national hero in John Paul Jones. Esek Hopkins was an interesting man; he was also a very wealthy man from Rhode Island. He married a very wealthy woman but he made a fortune during the Seven Years War. He bought a boat with his wife’s money and became a privateer sailing up and down the east coast. As a privateer he was essentially a pirate working for whoever paid him the most or allowed him to keep a majority of the booty he captured. The Continental Congress wanted him to continue this enterprise working for the Colonies and again offered him a percentage of the take. What they were really after was warships and that is exactly what Hopkins and company did, especially John Paul Jones. They would sneak aboard British warships, assassinate the Captain and any of the crew that objected and sail the ship into Continental waters and take command. Our navy did not begin in an auspicious manner but look at us now. In this case crime paid.

1978 On this date John Wayne Gacy confessed to murdering 24 young men and boys and burying their bodies under his suburban Chicago house. Law enforcement officials did indeed find the bodies. Gacy was tried and convicted and sentenced to death. Gacy spent 14 years on death row where he painted pictures of clowns that sold for thousands of dollars. Gacy was a clown in charity events from time to time, if you can believe that. Finally after all of his appeals were exhausted he was executed by lethal injection in the prison in Joliet, Illinois and hell rejoiced at the new arrival. For a while Gacy was the worst serial killer in American history until George Ridgeway, also known as the Green River Killer, was caught and convicted of killing over 48 women that were mostly prostitutes in the Pacific Northwest. He is visiting with John Wayne Gacy as we speak.

1884 Earlier a mover and shaker in the old west John Chisum is born in Tennessee in 1824. When he was six, his family moved to Paris, Texas. After he grew up he became involved in construction for a while then he decided that he wanted to raise cattle and started a cattle ranch on the Pecos River in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Chisum was very successful and was soon running over 80,000 head. The problem was that running a herd that large over such a wide range invited cattle rustlers and it soon became apparent that Chisum was losing about 10,000 head a year to rustlers. Chisum found that this unacceptable and tracked down the culprits. The culprits were a group running a mercantile establishment known as “The House” in Lincoln County. The House was really not a mercantile business; it was a clearing house for rustled cattle that were sold to the US Cavalry under exclusive contract meaning that Chisum and the other large ranchers were undercut by The House. Tensions flared and one of the employees of Chisum shot and killed one of the employees of The House. This shooter was Billy the Kid. After this shooting a war broke out between the large ranchers and The House forever known as the Lincoln County War. The war raged for several months but it became apparent that The House would prevail because they had the backing of the US Cavalry and the war ended. Devastated by the Lincoln County War and the continued loss of cattle, John Chisum moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to retire. He died three months later. Even then he left an inheritance of over $500,000 indicating the enormous wealth he had accumulated.

               Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Last month I went to get a test for AIDS. The problem is that you don’t get the result for five days. I spend those five days in deep reflection. What the hell was I doing fooling around with all that skanky-ass I met in Miami, Cleveland, Milwaukee and many other places? What the hell was I thinking?”

                                               Chris Rock

A while back a teenager near Charlotte, NC heard a knock at his front door but he did not answer. He looked out a window and saw a young man standing on his porch. The person on the porch waved at two other people in the yard waving them to go around to the back door. The young man was not happy with this and ran upstairs and retrieved a Samurai sword. When he got back downstairs the two at the back door almost had the door knocked open. The teenager charged them with his sword over his head. The two in the back ran into the street retrieving the third guy on the front porch and they hightailed down the street with the sword bearer in close pursuit. All three potential burglars were arrested. The young man said that he was fearful at the start but when they started running with him nipping at their heels he felt great exhilaration. I would have too.

Down at Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida two undocumented aliens were arrested. These arrests mean that a grand total of 40 undocumented aliens that have been arrested while working on an addition to the 7^th Special Forces building. This outfit specializes in “Black Ops” y’all. It is these soldiers along with the Delta division based in nearby Hurlburt Air Force Base that do most of United States covert assignments worldwide. It is disconcerting to know that they cannot keep undocumented aliens away from one of the most secretive military units on the planet.

          This Date in History  December 21

1761 Revolutionary War hero and hard-core Patriot Robert Barnwell was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. This boy joined his local militia at the age of 16 and was promptly engaged in the Battle of Mathew’s Farm on John’s Island near Charleston. During this battle young Robert received 17 separate wounds. He had his equipment taken from him and was left for dead. He was taken from the field by a slave to the plantation home of his aunt which was nearby. He spent several months in recovery and eventually rejoined his militia and was given the rank of lieutenant. Unfortunately, soon thereafter Charleston, South Carolina was captured by the British including Lieutenant Barnwell. Barnwell was put aboard the British prison ship Pack Horse anchored in Charleston Harbor where he spent 13 months before being exchanged. During the Revolutionary War, Barnwell rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the War Barnwell was elected a member of the South Carolina legislature and was sent to Washington as a member of the South Carolina delegation to ratify the US Constitution He spent two years in Washington as a member of the US House of Representative and then returned to his beloved South Carolina and rejoined the South Carolina legislature. He stayed in the legislature along with serving on the board of directors of Beaufort College until his death on October 24, 1814. Strangely enough his son Robert Woodward Barnwell was a passionate advocate of South Carolina secession from the Union. His son was trying to tear apart what his father had spent most of his life putting together.

1861 Earlier in November of this year a United States warship had stopped and boarded the British mail ship Trent in the Bahamas and captured two Confederate representatives on their way to England and took them prisoner. On this date British Secretary Lord Lyon met with United States Secretary of war William Seward about this event, Lord Lyon assured Secretary Seward that the British crown thought of this act as one of piracy and was worthy of a declaration of war if the Confederate representatives, James Mason and John Slidell, were not released immediately. Seward took Lyon’s words to Lincoln. Lincoln stalled for a few days until he found out that there were 11,000 British troops on the way to Canada. Soon thereafter, Mason and Slidell were released and the US promised to observe the sovereignty of British ships in the future. Lincoln could not risk having to fight a war on two fronts.

1975 On this date in Vienna, Austria, a terrorist named llich Ramirez Sanchez led a group of fellow terrorists into a meeting of OPEC and kill three guards and capture 16 OPEC members. This was not the first, nor the last, act of terrorism committed by a man that had been labeled Carlos the Jackal. He made a demand for a bus and an airplane which the Viennese government provided. Carlos directed the plane to Algeria where all aboard were released, Carlos was born into a wealthy Marxist family in Caracas, Venezuela, He was educated at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. He chose a life of terrorism at an early age. No one really knows why he chose a life on the run but he was an accomplished terrorist. He had practiced his craft for over 25 years without capture, However in 1994, French undercover agents tracked him down to the Sudan and kidnapped the son-of-a-bitch back to France. The French government chose to not announce his capture for three years when finally he was put on trial for killing two French counter-intelligence agents in 1975. He got life without parole. Not enough, as far as I am concerned.

1866 In 1861 the United States signed the Treaty of Laramie with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians ceding the Indians the lands that contained the Bozeman Trail, but soon after this treaty was signed, gold was discovered on the Indian lands and gold seekers resume using the Bozeman Trail once again much to the displeasure of the Indians in general and the Cheyenne chief Red Cloud in particular. The US Government not only allowed the breaking of the treaty, they built army forts along the Bozeman Train to protect the travelers. The most obnoxious one to the Indians was the fort on the Little Piney named Fort Phil Kearney. This fort saw very few days without some kind of attack by Red Clouds warriors. During all of this, the fort had to have timber for heat and sent out wood cutting groups on a regular basis. On this date, Red Cloud was waiting and killed all but one of the wood cutting crew. Red Cloud sent seven or eight warriors in view of the fort and when the fort fired a round of artillery the Indians ran away in fear….or so they thought. A Lieutenant Fetterman requested permission from the camp commander to chase down the Indians that had ran away in fear and the permission was granted. Fetterman took 45 cavalryman and 45 infantry and left the fort. Fetterman had instructions to not go out of sight of the fort but soon after leaving the fort Fetterman spotted 7 or 8 Indians running over the snowy hillside and chased after them. As soon as all the troopers were over the hill, Red Cloud and 2,000 of his warriors fell upon the hapless troopers and annihilated them to a man. Not only that, not one of the troopers was found in one piece. They had all been mutilated. Soon after this the United States decided to abandon Fort Phil Kearney. After the troopers left the fort, it was set afire by Red Cloud before the troopers were out of sight. This is one of the very few victories the Native-Americans enjoyed.

Births:

1892 US Golfer Walter Hagen is born. He said “I don’t want to be a millionaire; I just want to live like one.” Me too, Walter, me too.

             Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow