Friday

                         Music and History

Quote of the day:

"Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, that is why most people don't recognize them.”

                                               Ann Landers

A while back 140 law enforcement personnel swarmed over the small South Carolina town of Walterboro. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster was in attendance and read 20 indictments to those that were arrested. The year before there was a drive-by shooting at a barbecue in Walterboro where 3 people were killed and 6 wounded. The ages of the people that were arrested ranged from 16 to 45. Henry McMasters said that Walterboro had been taken over by a street gang. Also in attendance were representatives of the FBI, US Marshals, ATF, South Carolina Highway Patrol, SLED, and the Walterboro police. How such a sleepy little town near the coast became an attraction for street gangs is beyond me. By the way, South Carolina has the death penalty keeping in mind that one of those killed at the barbecue was a 20 month old toddler.

This Date in History October 7

1982 The Broadway musical Cats debuts with music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Webber got the lyrics from the book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot. The show has the distinction of being the longest running Broadway musical in history with 7,485 performances over 18 years and reaping $400M and playing to over 10 million people. I went to see a road show version of this play at the Peace Center here in Greenpatch a while back. They sang the main theme song Memories twice in the first half and we were assured we would here at least twice more in the second half. The show was superbly choreographed and the stage and lighting was beautifully done but I got bored and left at intermission and went down to Occasionally Blues a blues club in downtown Greenpatch and hoisted a few while waiting for my friends who stayed for the second half. The band at “OB” was one of my favorites Electric City Blues Band and they didn’t sing Memories but knocked my socks off with some kick-ass blues.

1969 The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Earle Wheeler announces that the “Vietnamization” program was going as scheduled and withdrawal of US troops would begin but the South Vietnamese would need American assistance for “some time to come”. In June President Richard Nixon had decreed that the South Vietnamese should accept more responsibility for the prosecution of the war and American forces would be withdrawn as the South Vietnamese became more and more capable. By 1972 there were only 75,000 American troops left in country. But I guess the South Vietnamese were not as capable as they should have been because the North Vietnamese eventually conquered their southern brethren and renamed Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City. But at least it is one country now good, bad or indifferent.

1864 The American warship USS Wachusett captured the famous Confederate raider the CSS Florida in a harbor near Bahia, Brazil. Some of the crew of the Wachusetts boarded the Florida and began sailing it out of the harbor but the Government of Brazil called bullshit on that because it violated the neutrality of Brazil. The crew sailed the ship back into the harbor and handed the ship back over to the Florida commander, Alabamian Raphael Semmes. Semmes sailed the Florida back toward home but unfortunately later on the Florida sank off the coast of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Raphael Semmes was an interesting man and I will do an essay on him later on.

1908 Henry Ford initiates a moving assembly line to assemble the Model T. This innovation cut the assembly time for a completed car from 12 ½ hours to 90 minutes. Ford got this idea while visiting a meat packing plant in Chicago where beef and pork carcasses were moving down a line where butchers were lined up doing the same cuts over and over but the line never stopped. Ford had stated that he was going to make a car for the masses but he had to get $850 for his first Model T’s because of the time it took to make one. $850 was a price that only the wealthy could afford at that time but with innovation of the moving assembly line he was able to offer the Model T for $300 because of increased production putting the car to almost within anyone’s reach.

1985 Four Palestinian (Arab) terrorists highjack the cruise ship Achille Lauro in the harbor of Alexandria, Egypt. The leader of the terrorist wing of the PLO Abu Abbas had ordered this but did not give these jackasses any instructions as to what to do with the ship. The four terrorists decided that they should demand that all the PLO terrorists held in Israeli jail should be released. This was rejected, of course, and these brave sons-of-bitches shot wheelchair ridden American Leon Klinghofer in the head and threw him and his wheelchair over the side. The US dispatched a SEAL team to take the ship back but when they arrived the terrorist had already left and were on an airplane to Libya. The US sent fighters from a carrier in the Mediterranean to intercept the flight with the terrorists aboard and forced the plane to land in Sicily. Italian authorities arrested the terrorist which included Abu Abbas. In spite of intense pressure from the US, Abbas was allowed to leave the country and the others were put on trial and given various lengths of time in prison. As I have said in the past, my mind is very fertile when it comes to dealing with those pig sucking cowards and a prison sentence ain’t part of it.

Born today:

1887 Danish mathematician Niels Bohr. He said “Never express yourself more clearly than you can think.” Bohr was a big contributor to the development of the first United States nuclear bombs.

1931 African leader Bishop Desmond Tutu. He said “The missionaries came to our country with a bible and we had the land. The missionaries said “Let us pray” and when we opened out eyes we had the bible and the missionaries had the land”. I am not surprised.

1934 US writer Imamu Baraka. He said “A rich man once told me that a liberal is someone that tells others how to spend their money.” See Hillary and Obama.

1939 Australian critic Clive James. When writing a critique on Judith Krantz’s performance in Princess Daisy he said “As a work of art, it is in the same status as a long conversation with two not very bright drunks.” Clive is a smart-ass.

Died today:

1849 US writer Edgar Allen Poe. He said “Those that dream in the daytime are a lot more cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only at night.” Poe attended West Point for a very short time. He had no discipline but ended up as a giant of American literature.

         Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow