Monday

                     Musings and History

Quote of the day:

I asked a friend that is an LSU fan how to stop the Crimson Tide football juggernaut and he said:

“I don't see a way except maybe a sniper with a high powered rifle up high in the cheap seats.”

                                      Reasons

For reasons that I don't understand after citing events in the past where Christians proved to be great mass killers like 7 Crusades and 5 inquisitions I was accused of being an “Left Winger” by bringing up events from the "Dark ages". I was asked has any Christians beheaded anyone. The answer is yes (see Mary Queen of Scots, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Charles I, Anne Boleyn among many others) in addition to “The Rack”, the “Iron Maiden” and many other tools of torture not to mention burning at the stake (see Joan of Arc). Here is some more recent events:

What was the most devastating terrorist attack in America's history beside 9/11? Give up? It was the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. There were 168 dead including at least 30 children under the age of 7 and 680 wounded of varying severity. The bombers were America born and military veterans named Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols...both were Catholic. What was next?

It was the destruction of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. 86 killed including several children under age of 12. The leader of the compound was a man named Vernon Howell but later changed it to David Koresh. He was born in Houston, Texas and claims to have been "saved" in a Southern Baptist Church. He later changed to the Mormon church apparently because he had the hots for the daughter of a particular Mormon Church pastor. He eventually formed a splinter group known as the Branch Davidian. After a 51 day siege a tank was brought in and knocked down a wall and discharged several tear gas canisters which might have caused the fire that killed the 76 inhabitants. There were 10 others killed in earlier skirmishes including several federal officers.

I have a very talented friend that is a songwriter, here is the lyrics of one of my favorites. It is a tribute to Patsy Cline.

Where I Could Be Patsy

Writer Brenda McAfee

Legs dangling from a limb, salt shaker in my hand

Green apples and imagination, my childhood combination

For flights of fancy

Queen of the hill, world at my command

Dreaming dreams beyond my means, a reverie of finer things

Utopia, my own fairyland, where I could be Patsy

Home alone, front porch for a stage

Crazy, Sweet Dreams and Wayward winds would take me away

But I never could stay

Rope on a limb, wood plank for a seat

I'd sing and swing my fantasy complete

Then there I'd be, back to reality

Queen of the hill, world at my command

Dreaming dreams beyond my means, a reverie of finer things

Utopia, my own fairy land, where I could be Patsy

This Date in History October 31

1863 US General Winfield Scott retired from military service. Scott had been given command of all the US army by A. Lincoln at the outbreak of the Civil War in April. Lincoln’s detractors criticized Lincoln for this because of Scott’s advanced years and ill health. Scott was the commander of the American Army during the Mexican War of 1846-1847. When asked how best to defeat the Confederacy he proposed what was called “The Anaconda Plan” whereby all of the Confederate naval ports would be blockaded to strangle them financially and gain control of the Mississippi River to starve them. This plan was scoffed at as being too sluggish but in the final analysis, that is exactly what happened. After his resignation Scott moved to West Point to write his memoirs. He died in 1866 at the age of 80.

1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is published. Doyle had been writing about Sherlock Holmes in different magazines as a serial but this was the first time in a book. Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and attended Edinburgh University and became a doctor. One of his teachers at the university was renowned for his deductive reasoning and it is believed that Doyle used him as a model for Sherlock. After graduating from Edinburgh Doyle went to London and set up a medical practice that was moderately successful and gave him time to dive into more of his writing. After the success of the Sherlock Holmes novels, he dropped out of the medical profession and began writing full time. Doyle died in 1930 as an icon of creative writing.

1926 Escape artist Harry Houdini died of peritonitis in Detroit. Twelve days earlier Houdini had been giving a speech at a university and told everyone there how hard his stomach muscles were. One of the students came up and blindsided him with two hard blows to the stomach before Houdini could prepare for it. The blows had ruptured his appendix. Houdini had a scheduled performance the next day and went through with it even though he was in severe pain. After another day or two the pain became unbearable and he went to a hospital and went into surgery almost immediately but it was too late, the poison had already taken its toll throughout his entire system. Houdini had made a pact with his wife and a close circle of friends that after the death of either one of them, they would try to contact the others from the spiritual world. A few of Houdini’s friends did indeed die but Houdini never received any contact. After he died his wife had heard nothing from Harry and declared the test a failure

1864 Nevada became a state. Even though the state only had 40,000 residents as opposed the normal requirement of 60,000 it was allowed into the fold for two reasons: The state was hard core Republican and Lincoln needed all the help he could get for the upcoming election and the largest silver deposit ever found was discovered in Nevada in the Comstock Lode not to mention placer gold mining. Politics and money...a deadly combination.

Births and Deaths:

1988 Actor/Producer/Director John Houseman died at the age of 86. John had a long and distinguished career in the entertainment industry. There aren’t many his equal.

1948 Baseball player Mickey Rivers is born. Mickey once said “Me, George and Billy are two of a kind.” If Mickey wasn’t black I would think he was related to Yogi Berra.

1993 US actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose outside a Los Angeles nightspot at the age of 23. River was a very talented actor but as many who achieve fame do, he thought he was ten feet tall and bulletproof. Wrong. Ironically he once said “I would rather quit while I am ahead, there is no use in overstaying your welcome.” What a waste of god given talent.

        Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow