Thursday

                         Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Eva was considering opening her own tree nursery, then I heard her sing “The Rose” and everything changed.”

                                  Hugh Cassidy, Eva Cassidy’s father

I saw a comedian that said he went to Iraq on a USO mission to entertain the troops. He went to Tikrit and back to Baghdad in a C-130. He flew around in an Apache combat helicopter. He was shot at, saw mortar rounds landing and machine gun tracers zooming by. He made a good observation when he said this: “Those people were not interested in killing African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Slav-Americans, German-Americans, Scots-Americans. Irish-Americans, European-Americans, American Indians, they were just interested in killing Americans. They did not differentiate, why should we?”

             This Date in History December 1

1779 Patriot commander General George Washington and his rag-tag army went into winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey. Fortunately for Washington he was able to commandeer a fairly substantial house known as Ford House for the winter. His accommodations gave the General plenty of room and light to make plans for the next encounter with the Loyalists/British/German mercenaries. His troops had to build about 1,000 log cabins on about 600 acres to withstand one of the worst winters in American history. This was going to be a winter of not enough winter clothes, not enough food and receiving no pay. It was not much better for the civilians because the Continental treasury had all but collapsed and life was hard for them also. With the economy reduced by 40 per cent because of the war and both the Continental army and the English army raiding farms for horses and oxen to tow their artillery. This prevented the farmers from being able to till their crops which had a domino effect with the rest of the community. Even with the defeat of British General Burgoyne and the capture of nearly 8,000 British troops, this added a hardship to the colonies because they had 8,000 more mouths to feed. Even though Washington had 16,000 troops in the books, he had only 3,600 that were standing for orders; the rest had gone back to their homes. The Continental Army was on the cusp of dissolution. The British people were in a similar frame of mind. They did not share King George III in his zeal for keeping the colonies. They were fed up with the lack of trade and an exponentially decrease in their economy because of the extra costs of the war. A war of attrition had now become a war of contrition. The United States exists because of the grit, sacrifice, determination and an ocean of blood shed by our ancestors. Let us not ever forget that.

1955 On this chilly morning a black woman in Montgomery, Alabama name Rosa Parks boarded a city bus for a ride across town. She and all blacks were ordered by law to sit in the back of the bus aft of the rear door. That is unless a white, man or woman, was found to be standing and then one of the blacks had to give up their seat to the honky. Rosa was ordered by the bus driver to give up her seat to a white man that was standing. Rosa refused and was arrested and jailed. Rosa was a card carrying member of the NAACP and when word reached NAACP headquarters all hell broke loose. The NAACP ordered a boycott of the Montgomery bus system and it was successful which proved to be disastrous because the blacks represented 70% of the bus riders. This was the first time that the Rev. Martin Luther King got involved with a peaceful action against segregation. The NAACP sued the city of Montgomery because of the law that specified segregation on mass transit in the city. The US Supreme Court struck down that law as being a violation of the 14^th Amendment and 381 days after the boycott began, blacks again began riding the buses and sitting anywhere they pleased. One of the first riders on this day was Rosa Parks.

1958 On this date the grammar school named Our Lady of Angels in Chicago is hit with a disaster. The school was run by the Sisters of Charity in an old building with no fire protection like sprinklers and fire alarms. The Sisters had never held a fire drill. A small fire started in a trash pile in the basement which quickly spread to the floor of the first floor. The teachers on the first floor smelled smoke and took their students out to safety but did not alert the people on the second floor. The janitor discovered the fire and ran upstairs to pull the fire alarms but they apparently did not work which meant that the students and teachers on the second floor were trapped. Some of the students jumped out of windows to the awaiting arms of the firemen who had finally arrived. Many were injured, including the firemen. One improvising teacher told her students to get under the smoke and roll down the stairs and out the door to safety but others just stayed and awaited divine intervention. 90 students and three nuns were killed in the inferno. What a damned shame.

1884 A Mexican deputy sheriff named Elfego Baca arrests a gringo cowboy named Charles McArthur for firing for or five shots at him in Frisco (now Reserve), New Mexico. On this day about 80 cowboys show up to spring good old Charlie from the slammer. It seems this group of Texas cowboys had been using this Mexican village for their own personal entertainment by riding in and brutalizing the residents, raping the girls, etc so Baca was assigned the duty to put a stop to it and given the title of deputy Sheriff. When the 80 cowboys rode in Baca hustled the town’s people into the church where they would be safe and then ran to an old adobe house to make a stand. Baca opened up and killed one of the cowboys and wounded several. The cowboys responded with over 400 rounds into the flimsy building. Not hearing any response the cowboys thought Baca was dead. But the next morning they smelled beef stew and found out the Baca was indeed alive and cooking his breakfast. About then, two more lawmen showed up along with many of Baca’s friends and the cowboys retreated. There was no more trouble from the Texas cowboys after that, Baca went on to become a hero in the Latino community fir standing up to those gringos and enjoyed a life of peace and notoriety.

Born today:

1945 American entertainer Bette Midler. She said “They arrested Helen Reddy for loitering in front of an orchestra.” I didn’t like her either.

Died today:

1964 English scientist John Haldane. He said “I have never met a healthy man who worried about his health or a good man that worried about his soul.” Tack onto that “or a drunken man who didn’t think he is irresistible to women.”

1987 US writer James Baldwin. He said “The price we pay for pursuing an art is calling in the familiarity of the ugly side of it.” Baldwin was a chronicler of the so called “Beat Generation”.

Quotable quotes:

“Don’t believe in reincarnation, I didn’t believe in it when I was a tuna.”

                                      Shane Richey

“I am always looking for a meaningful one-night stand”

                                     Dudley Moore

“For three years things were great, then she up and left me for a guy that didn’t cheat on her”

                                               Jim Norton

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Men are superior to women. For one thing, men can urinate from a speeding car.”

                                                  Will Durst

A while back 140 law enforcement personnel descended on 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 including a toddler 20 months old. 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, SCHP, 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.

I read about a man that called the cops because he saw someone pull up in his yard, jump out and grab one of his prize Albany Blood Cock roosters. He claimed that the rooster was worth $1,000. The thief jumped back in his car and sped away. The owner chased for a while but the thief escaped. I could not help but research what a Albany Blood Cock was. It is a fighting chicken, a Gamecock, if you will. It seems that this particular breed along with the MacAnally breed are the fiercest fighters out there. They are known affectionately in the cockfighting arena as “roundheads”. It is obvious that the owner of this rooster is not in the cockfighting business or he would have not called the cops, but that does not stop him from raising these athletes and selling them to those who do. When you think about how much this rooster is worth and what care is involved, it sounds like a lucrative business to me. Nah, If I did that my daughters would never speak to me again even though their inheritance would increase dramatically…or would they?

            This Date in History November 30

1776 On this date one of the greatest screw-ups in history occurs. British Admiral Richard Howe and his bother British General William Howe offer amnesty to any colonist that would swear an oath to cease and desist from “Treasonable acting and doings” within 60 days. Earlier in September Admiral Howe had brought his fleet into Long Island Sound and disembarked his brother General William Howe and his well trained and polished infantry. After landing Howe engaged in two battles with Patriot General George Washington and his rag tag army and on one occasion Howe had the entire Patriot army flanked and could have cut off Washington’s retreat and captured and hanged him and his entire staff for treason and the rebellion would have ended. But the Howe brothers saw themselves as peace makers and allowed Washington and company to escape by boat over to Manhattan. A little while later the Patriots sent over a committee headed by Ben Franklin to negotiate with the Howe brothers. After two days of talks the negotiations broke down when the Howe brothers would not even consider American Independence as being necessary for peace. After this both sides ramped up for the all out war they knew was coming. Seven years later after an ocean of tears and blood was shed by our ancestors, victory was ours.

1835 On this date Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed out to a printer but then went to work for an older brother who was an editor with the Hannibal Journal in Hannibal, Missouri. He was commissioned to write a humorous travel column for the Keokuk Daily Post in Keokuk, Iowa. But Samuel saw himself as a riverboat captain on the mighty Mississippi and became an apprentice. At the age of 23 he received his license as a riverboat captain. He piloted until the outbreak of the Civil War and then nearly all riverboat traffic was discontinued. It was during his time as a captain that he received the nickname of “Mark Twain” which was a call out signifying the depth of two fathoms which was the minimum safe depth on the river. He moved out west and began writing for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, in Virginia City, Nevada. He eventually moved to San Francisco and began writing in earnest and delivered one of his best renderings in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. In addition to this he gave us “Huckleberry Finn”, “Tom Sawyer”, “Roughin’ it” and many other gems. It is unlikely that the world will ever be graced with such a talented wit as he. He eventually moved to Hartford, Connecticut where he died in 1910. What a great legacy he left us.

1989 On this date the so called “America’s first serial killer” struck. A trucker named Richard Mallory was last seen in the company of Aileen Wournos. They had left a truck stop near Palm Bay, Florida and Richard was never seen alive again. They found his truck three days later near Ormond Beach with his wallet, a few condoms and pocket change on the front seat, but no Richard. Finally Richard’s body turned up in a Daytona Beach junkyard with three bullet holes in his chest. Over a period of two years seven men were found dead killed in a similar manner. The Florida Bureau of Investigation finally tracked Wournous down to a seedy biker bar near Tampa. She went on trial and was convicted of murder on seven counts. After the jury rendered their verdict, Aileen screamed “I am innocent. It was self defense. I was raped. I hope all of you scum sucking maggots get raped.” This was not a smooth move for Aileen because it would be the same jury that would convene two weeks later and determine her punishment. They gave her the death penalty. After Aileen figured out that the state of Florida was not kidding and they were going to kill her, she became a born again Christian. Sure enough, the state of Florida did indeed mean business and in October of 2002 she went meet her maker electrified and her corpse was cremated. The ashes sent to her birthplace in Michigan where a former friend spread her ashes under a tree where they used to play. It seems sad, but think of the families of her victims first, and then think of Aileen.

Born today:

1874 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He said “Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.” Churchill is one of my favorite personalities.

            Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Eva sang for my wedding. I really had to coax her out to sing. She was really shy about singing in front of a large crowd, but she went ahead and did it. It was just Eva and her guitar and she sang Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Everyone thought it was a strange song for a wedding but I really liked the song and I think Eva liked it, too. After she finished everybody was crying and would go up to her and say ‘Eva, what a great job’. She would always graciously say, ‘Thank you’ but she was very uncomfortable with all those compliments.”

                                 Ruth Murphy, friend of Eva Cassidy

A good friend of mine named Dortha from Killeen, Tx sent me an unsolicited biography of Eva because she knew how much I admire her. Dotty died a few months ago of Cystic Fibrosis. I don't think I will ever get over this one.

For a while now I have been seeing a couple come into my favorite diner. She is well groomed and drives a Mercedes convertible, he is obviously on edge for reasons that I could not figure out. One day he abruptly left and she and I began talking. I came to find out that he is a retired Marine Lt. Col. and a Mustang. He has six Purple Hearts a Distinguished Service Medal and earned a Navy Cross in Nam...he also suffers from PTSD. Today they came in and I called him over and said that I had read his Navy Cross citation and thanked him. He said "It was my honor". That got to me, y'all. You would have to read the citation to understand what that man went through. For the rest of the time he was there he was staring out into space or holding his head in his hands. I think he was reliving that experience in Nam. I wish I had not mentioned it. BTW a Mustang is a person that joins the Marines as enlisted and ends up an officer. This man has courage and is a Patriot. He is deserving of everyone's respect, especially mine.

I would like to see a show of hands of those that think that Conan O'Brien ain't funny. That's what I thought, me neither.

            This Date in History  November 29

1864 In 1851 tribes of the Cheyenne and Arapaho signed a treaty with the United States at Fort Laramie, Wyoming that granted the lands between the Arkansas River and the Nebraska border to the Indians. Soon thereafter gold was discovered in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and that treaty was broken so the miners could use the Indian lands as a means of passage to Colorado. By 1861 the conflict between the Indian and the miners/settlers has reached a fever pitch. The United States called for another treaty to prevent massacres on both sides from breaking out. In this treaty in 1861 the Cheyenne and Arapaho ceded much of their lands in return for an annual payment and the promise of food at selected US Army forts. In fact, the Indians were encouraged to camp near Army forts, especially in the winter. After this treaty, Cheyenne chief Black Kettle moved his tribe near a fort in Colorado but was told by the fort commander that there was better hunting near Sand Creek so Black Kettle moved his peaceful tribe to that location. Since the outbreak of the Civil War the available military in the state of Colorado was minimal because of the troops that were brought into the US Army actions in the war. The Governor of Colorado organized more and more local militias to deal with the hostile Indian tribes. Soon after Black Kettle moved to Sand Creek on this date, the village was attacked by a Colorado Militia headed by a Colonel Chivington and the village was all but wiped out. There were 148 Indians killed to 9 of the militia. More than half of the dead Indians were women and children. Chivington had eyes for the Governorship of Colorado and thought that this massacre of innocent people would enhance his chances. He wasn’t done yet. His troops chose to cut out/off many of the genitalia of the dead and rode through the nearby towns waving them as trophies. Initially, Chivington’s attack was praised but when the facts came out as to what really happened a wave of disgust swept through the area and Chivington abandoned his political ambitions and all but disappeared from the face of the earth, and rightly so.

1950 In June of 1950 troops of the country of North Korea invaded the independent country of South Korea. Two days later, President Harry Truman stated that the United States will send troops to assist South Korea because South Korea was a member of SEATO, an organization of mutual military assistance in case of war. After American troops arrived the whole of the South Korean Army and some of the US military were cornered at the southeast corner of the Korean peninsula with their backs to the sea. The combined forces of South Korea and the US among others drove the North Korean troops back across the peninsula into North Korea and up close to the Chinese border. China had already warned that any approach to their borders by the Allied forces would be viewed as a hostile act and would be very provocative. The head military commander General Douglas MacArthur said they were bluffing. On this date, about 250,000 Chinese troops swarmed across the North Korean border and enjoined the Allied forces and began yet another drive back into South Korea. General MacArthur criticized the Truman administration for not allowing him to use nuclear weapons. Harry Truman called MacArthur to Midway for a conference. Harry told the General that civilians make policy, not the military, fired him and brought in General Matthew Ridgeway.

1967 On this date the sitting Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara resigned. In 1964 McNamara had backed and even encouraged the escalation of the conflict in South Vietnam. But over a period of time McNamara saw the futility of continuing prosecuting the war, we were going nowhere. About a week before McNamara had handed the President, Lyndon Johnson a list of recommendations relative to the war in Vietnam. And they were: Freeze the present troop levels; stop the bombing of North Vietnam, hand over the prosecution of the war more to the South Vietnamese army. President Johnson rejected any and all of his recommendations so McNamara resigned and became an officer with the World Bank. Johnson brought in Clark Clifford to replace McNamara. It is too bad that Johnson did not listen to McNamara or maybe we could have saved the lives of several thousand brave Americans.

Quotable quotes:

“Never eat more than you can lift”.

Miss Piggy

“The next time you feel like complaining, remember that your garbage disposal eats better than most people of the world.”

Robert Orben

Born today:

1949 US comedian Gary Shandling. He said “I am too shy to express my sexual needs except on the phone with people I don’t know.”

1971 US “Baywatch” star Gerry Lee Nolan. She said “All you have to do is eat right, get plenty of exercise and a breast implant and you will look just like us.”

1832 American writer Louisa Mae Alcott. She said “Housekeeping ain’t no joke.” You can say that again for all of the bachelors in the world.

               Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

Earlier LSU had fired head football coach Les Miles and installed defensive line coach Ed Orgeron as interim head coach. They have had a disappointing season and everybody thought they are looking for head coach other than the interim. I have a friend in Baton Rouge that is a die hard LSU fan and an alumnus. He said that hiring Oregeron is popular primarily because he went to LSU, is a Cajun and would be cheaper than all the other potential candidates. I told him “Money is not everything.” He said “No it isn't, but it allows you to buy your own brand of misery.”

                                             Tom Sylvest, Jr.

BTW...LSU hired Ed Orgeron as permanent head coach...God works in mysterious ways.

Back in 1937 a beautiful 16 year old Idahoan named Julia Turner was sitting at the counter at the Top Hat restaurant on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles when newspaper man named Bill Wilkinson approached her and offered to introduced her to Mervyn LeRoy of Warner Brothers. She was indeed hired and given the more glamorous name of Lana Turner. She was treated as a typical starlet given roles more for her beauty than her acting skills. She was eventually successful at more dramatic roles. She had a daughter by actor Stephen Crane and named her Cheryl. At the age of 37 her roles diminished and she was wooed by a Mafia enforcer named Johnny Stompanato, a real grease ball. Heavily moussed wavy hair, silk shirts unbuttoned to the navel and heavy gold necklaces. Lana accepted his advances. One night Stompanato and Lana were arguing and it became physical, 14 year old Cheryl came into the room and stabbed Stompanato to death. The media, as rotten as ever, shouted that Cheryl had stabbed Stompanato to death in a jealous rage because she wanted him. Cheryl, an admitted lesbian, was acquitted calling her actions self defense and her identity was kept secret for several years. In 1995 Lana Turned died of throat cancer in her Studio City, Ca. home at the age of 74.

         This Date in History   November 28

1862 Earlier US General John Blunt and his army had driven the CSA army commanded by General John Marmaduke into the Boston Mountains in northwest Arkansas. On this date CSA General George Hindman and his army arrived from across the Boston Mountains to try and kick Blount and his Yankee army out of Arkansas. Hindman and his army joined in battle with Blount’s army at a place called Cane Hill. Hindman was unsuccessful and Blount and his army stayed in Arkansas. The Battle of Cane Hill was short and sweet with the Yankees suffering less than 50 casualties and the Rebs less than 40.

1987 On this date the New York City Police found a 16 year old

black girl covered in feces and wrapped in plastic garbage bags near a dumpster. She was alive and kicking but had parts of her hair cut off and a few small cuts on her arms and legs. Her name was Tawanda Bailey. Tawanda told the police that she had been kidnapped by four white men, with one of them was wearing a badge. She said that she had been repeatedly tortured and raped over a four day period. The black rabble-rousers came out of the woodwork in the form of C, Vernon Mason, Alton Maddox and the ever present Rev. Al Sharpton. They began raising hell claiming that there was a conspiracy against the black community by the NYPD. They even had the nerve to accuse the Solicitor Stephan Pagones of not only turning his head at this crime but that he was present and participated in the kidnapping and rape of Tawanda. The police could get no cooperation from Towanda’s family but the family had no problem with accepting contributions. It was finally determined that Tawanda’s parents knew that Tawanda was lying but saw it as an opportunity to get some easy money. The police increased their investigation and put the pressure on Tawanda and she finally cracked and admitted that she had hatched the plan to fake the kidnapping to cover her attending an overnight party and not attending school then next day and cut her self and cut her hair as part of the plan. Well, there stood Mason, Maddox and Sharpton with egg on their respective faces knowing that Solicitor Pagones would come after them with fire in his eyes and come he did. He filed a defamation charge against the trio. Before the ink had dried, the trio offered Pagones a settlement that was never made public. Pagones took the offer, resigned his position and disappeared from the public arena. We still have Mason, Maddox and that bane of justice, Al Sharpton who are still with us, however. Yes I am talking about the same Al Sharpton that is an adviser to the President.

1582 On this day playwright/actor William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in the town of Avon, England. Five months later the blissful couple is delivered of a daughter. Evidently the Bard of Avon had been doing more than just writing and acting.

1520 Earlier the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan had been tasked with finding a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific by sailing west rather than south and east around Africa. He sailed across the Atlantic to a point near Venezuela and began sailing south exploring the rivers coming out of South America for a passage to the Pacific. He was not successful until he reached the Patagonia region of Argentina and he found a passage that appeared to be the one they were looking for. They sailed southwest and then northwest through a narrow passage for several weeks and on this date they sailed out onto the broad Pacific. This route is known to this date as the Straights of Magellan. Even with this passage shortening the trip around Cape Horn (The southern tip of South America) by several hundred miles, the trip through the Straights was a formidable one, especially in the winter which was May to September. During this time severe storms prevailed and is was a dangerous passage for any ship regardless of size. The Panama Canal ended that danger.

1979 On this date an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashed in Antarctica killing all 257 souls aboard. Air New Zealand had been flying tourist flights over Antarctica for several years. The vast wasteland was a sight to see and was relatively close. On this trip an inexperienced crew was making their first trip there. The airline forbade their pilots to descend below 6,000 feet while over the Antarctic continent but on this day there was cloud cover and the pilots took the plane down to 1,500 feet to get under it. Suddenly the12,600 foot extinct volcano Mount Erebus appeared straight ahead and the plane crashed into the side of it. It took the rescue teams many days to get to the crash site. There were no survivors.

1954 On this date one of the most brilliant scientist that ever lived, Enrico Fermi, died. Fermi was a nuclear physicist teaching at the University of Chicago at the time. Fermi was teaching at the University of Florence, Italy in the 1930’s when the Fascist Mussolini rose to power. After Mussolini aligned himself with Adolph Hitler, Fermi knew it was time for him and his Jewish wife to get out of Dodge. It was Fermi that jury rigged an atomic pile under the bleachers of a squash court at the University of Chicago and produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. Earlier Fermi, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Edward Teller and other nuclear physicists had formed a letter that Einstein took personally to US President Franklin Roosevelt. The letter explained that they had proven mathematically that a nuclear chain reaction was possible and so was a nuclear weapon.

Births:

1820 German philosopher Frederick Engels is born. He said “Some laws of state aimed at reducing crime are even more criminal.”

          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                     Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Sometimes I guess there is just not enough rocks.”

             Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)

Many years ago I was a dedicated Dallas Cowboys fan...then I suddenly switched to the Houston Oilers and a friend asked me why. I told him that running back Calvin Hill and wide receiver Lance Rentzel were retiring. The year before the Cowboys had played the Redskins twice and running back John Riggins had ran roughshod over the Cowboys both times. After the second game Riggins said that this was the last year on his contract and next year he would be a free agent and would love to be a Cowboy. Not only that all star wide receiver Preston Pearson of the Steelers was becoming a free agent and had expressed an interest in becoming a Cowboy also. Head coach Tom Landry said that he would not take either one because HE did not believe in free agency. It did not matter what a great contribution these players could make to the team, all that mattered was his personal opinion. So I went over to the Oilers where Bum Phillips was head coach and he would take anyone he could get...not only that he had Earl Campbell, one of my all time favorite running backs. Earl would rather run you over than around you. Earl had 30” thighs. I saw a defensive back that was asked how you tackle Earl and he said “You don't dare tackle him low, you grab him around the neck and wait for help.”

This Date in History November 25

1783 On this date nearly 3 months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolutionary War, the final contingent of British soldiers leaves New York City. New York had been continuously occupied by the British since 1776. As soon as the British withdrew the Patriot army led by George Washington marches triumphantly into the city amid a jubilant crowd. Soon thereafter New York was declared the capitol of the United States and that is where George Washington received his first inauguration as President. New York was the capitol until 1790 and then the capitol was moved to Philadelphia. As you might suspect, the Americans that remained loyal to England during the war were between a rock and a hard place after the British left, the victorious Patriots had confiscated their lands and property. But England did not disappoint and gave lands in Ontario and Nova Scotia to the Loyalists. This event seriously changed the demographics and changed eastern Canada from a New France to a majority of English speaking Protestants.

1863 On this day US General Ulysses Grant broke the siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee. A substantial number of Union troops were trapped in a semi-circle in the city of Chattanooga and had been there for several weeks with no apparent way out. When Grant arrived on the scene he changed the strategy of defense to one of aggressive offense. After opening a supply line by driving the Confederates away from the Tennessee River in mid October, he planned a breakout to begin of November 23. The attack was in three parts with US General William T. Sherman on the left flank and US General Joseph Hooker on the right. Both on these attacks failed but the attack on the center led by US General George Thomas succeeded. The success came primarily because of confusion in the orders on both sides. Eventually, the Union troops pushed the Confederates out of their poorly prepared rifle pits and then on to the top of the ridge they were defending. This battle was know afterward as the Battle of Missionary Ridge and went a long way toward driving the Confederates out of Tennessee. After this debacle the overall Confederate commander, CSA General Braxton Bragg, blamed everyone but himself for the loss. But CSA President Jefferson Davis was not fooled and pressed for Bragg to resign which he did by having lost the confidence of his troops. His replacement was CSA General Joseph E. Johnston.

1950 The so-called “Storm of the Century” or the “Appalachian Storm” gets underway. A low pressure system over North Carolina gets some rotation and forms into a major storm and heads northeast. This monster dumped massive amounts of snow on West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The snow depth prevented travel in many areas for a week, and then it gathers some steam and heads into New England. It wasn’t just the snow it was the wind also. New York City recorded wind speeds of 94 MPH and on Bear Mountain north of New York there was a gust of 140 MPH recorded. The temperature on Mount Mitchell, North Carolina fell to 26 degrees below zero that night. The strange thing was that in Buffalo, New York the wind reached a speed of 50 MPH but the temperature never got below 50 degrees. The US weather service reported that this storm had the greatest difference in weather ever recorded in America. Over 160 people died in this storm.

1876 On this date the US Cavalry launches a retaliatory raid against the Cheyenne for the Little Big Horn massacre of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his 7^th Cavalry. After news of this event reached the east coast a public outcry was raised to intensify the “Indian War”. So the US Cavalry called up US General Ranald McKenzie from the Texas area to lead an expedition to find and punish the Cheyenne. McKenzie had good results fighting the Comanche and Kiowa tribes in Texas. He gathered 1,000 troopers and 400 Indian guides and headed out. He tracked down the Powder River and finally found a Cheyenne village under the leadership of chief Dull Knife. Then the troopers did the honorable thing. They got into position before daylight and opened fired on the sleeping village at dawn. Many Indians were killed instantly but many escaped into the nearby woods and had to watch many more being slaughtered and their winter food supplies and clothing being burned. The troopers were not done yet. They cut the throats of all of the Cheyenne ponies. After the troopers left the survivors began an 11 day journey to the village of Sioux chief Crazy Horse who took them in but many very young and elderly did not survive the walk. The next year Dull Knife talked his people into surrendering and they were sent to the “Indian Nation” in what is now the state of Oklahoma.

Born today:

1835 Scottish-US industrialist Andrew Carnegie. He said “The first man gets the oyster and the second one gets the shell.” I love them.

1846 US temperance leader Carrie Nation. When speaking about cigarette smokers she said “I want all those hellions to quit puffing that hell fume into God’s clean air”. Hell yes Carrie, give me a good old fashioned coal fired power plant any time.

1915 Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. He said “I am not a dictator I just have a grumpy face.” I addition to the ugly face, he has the blood of thousands on his hands that were tortured and killed under his administration.

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow  

Thursday

              Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“God does not deduct from a man’s life the time spent fishing.”

                                      Izaak Walton

It is Thanksgiving, y'all. Remember the reason.

I saw a program on the history channel about strange lights on earth that are unexplained. One of them was about Brown Mountain, North Carolina where strange lights have been seen for centuries. Scientists went up there with all sorts of gadgets and cameras to diagnose this phenomenon. Sure enough the lights showed up and the eggheads took pictures from several different angles and sent them to several analytical laboratories. The lights are still unexplained, that is until they talked to an old Cherokee. He explained it this way: Back in the year 1200 there was a ferocious battle between a tribe of Cherokees and a tribe of Creeks at the base of Brown Mountain. On the night after the battle the Cherokee and Creek women carrying torches went among the corpses trying to find if any of their loved ones were still alive. The lights that people have been seeing ever since then are the ghosts of those women with their torches. See, that was easy.

A while back over in Spartanburg, South Carolina two women went to visit a friend. As soon as the door was opened the owner’s pit bull attacked the women who retreated to their car but the pit bull continued the attack trying to get in through the windows. The owner tried to pull the dog away and was attacked himself. The dog bit him in the face and when he backed away the dog grabbed him by the arm and held on. By then a sheriff’s deputy arrived and shot the dog in the chest with his trusty 9mm but the attack continued. The deputy fired once again and the dog died but still held on to the owner’s arm. It took the EMS crew using a large screwdriver to pry the dog’s mouth open. I don’t care what Cesar Millan says, that breed has been used for fighting since before colonial times and their genetics must have been affected. They can and will be dangerous, “Daddy” notwithstanding. By the way, the Animal Rescue of Spartanburg was called and they refused to come out until their shift supervisor ordered them to and then only after they had learned that the dog had been killed. That is an example of our tax dollars at work.

          This Date in History  November 24

1859 After spending five years at sea aboard the exploratory ship the HMS Beagle, English scientist Charles Darwin finally publishes a book about what he had seen and deduced during his travels. He waited quite a few years before publishing The Origin of Species because he knew how much hell would be raised by the evangelicals. The books tell how man adapted to his environment through the “survival” of the fittest” meaning those creatures that had the right distribution of the genetics would survive whilst those that did not would perish. Those creatures with the right genetics would continue to thrive and reproduce their images. If there was a change in the environment, then there would be another period of testing whereby those that had the right genetics to be able to survive would send forth their genetics to their progeny, etc, etc. Notice that there was no mention of divine guidance and intervention. This is what bothered the bible-thumpers. Then in 1871 Darwin unleashed yet another bomb. He published The Descent of Man which traced the rise of man from a lower animal again with no mention of God. Oh Hell!!! The Evangelicals began a show of fury and foaming at the mouth that continues to this day. I am no geneticists but it is a fact that man's genetic profile is more than 90% that of a chimpanzee. I personally believe in the rise of man through evolution from lower animal and resolve it in my mind by saying to my self that God used evolution as the mechanics to get man to where he is today. The problem that I have not yet resolved is the issue of at what point did man achieve having a soul. The existence of a God is unquestionable and I can prove it with logic alone and not with a leap of faith or reading a bible. OK, I will shut up now.

1963 Two days earlier the President of the United States John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding around Dallas, Texas in an open car. A man named Lee Harvey Oswald was stopped and questioned by Dallas cop J. D. Tippet whereupon Oswald whipped out a pistol and shot and killed Tippet. Oswald was eventually captured and charged with the murder of Officer Tippet and was sent to jail. On this date, the Dallas Police chose to move Oswald to a different facility and while Oswald was being moved out of the basement of the jail amid a swarm of Dallas cops, a strip club owner named Jack Ruby broke through and pumped one round from his 38 special revolver into the stomach of Oswald. Oswald died the next day. Ruby was immediately arrested and charged with 1^st degree murder. He said that his motive was his rage at the killing of President Kennedy but the skeptical ones (me included) believe he did it to silence Oswald from spilling his guts about a giant conspiracy. To me the proof positive was that in very short time Ruby was discovered and having stomach cancer and died. To me that sounds like Jack knew his days was numbered and he volunteered to the other conspirators to kill Oswald because he was living on borrowed time anyway.

1971 This date saw the beginning of a legend. A man named D.B. Cooper commandeered a Northwest Orient Airline B-727 and forced it to land at the Seattle–Tacoma airport. He demanded $200,000 and four parachutes. His demands were met and the plane took back off without the passengers and the crew locked into the cockpit with instructions to “fly toward Mexico”. About 15 minutes into the flight, the crew detected that the rear stair door had opened. After the plane landed the crew found that Cooper had indeed bailed out of the aircraft. The problem was the aircraft was flying through a violent thunderstorm when Cooper bailed out. Most people believed that Cooper had been killed during the jump however; in 1980 a kid found about $6,000 of the ransom money buried a sandy bank of the Columbia River five miles from Vancouver, Washington which was a long ass way from the bailout point. Anyway, no trace of D.B. Cooper or the remainder of the ransom money has ever been found.

1944 Earlier a United States Army Air Force reconnaissance B-29 named Tokyo Rose made a pass over Tokyo taking 700 photos of the Nakajima aircraft factory. This factory would be the target for a raid very soon. On this date 111 B-29’s departed Tinian and Saipan headed for the Nakajima Aircraft factory. They bombed the hell out of Iwo Jima on the way which was about half way to Tokyo to keep the Japanese fighters on the ground. At this point in time the Marines had not yet captured Iwo Jima. Upon their arrival at Tokyo they found the target obscured by clouds and even with radar their bombing was only 5% effective. But this raid was just the first of an ocean of B-29’s coming to Japan.

Born today:

1808 French writer Alphonse Kerr. He said “Some people think that virtue consists of severity toward others.” Some people are full of shit too, Alphonse.

1925 US writer William F. Buckley. He said “Bobby Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller are having a fight, ostensibly over the plight of New York’s mentally retarded who the majority of are people that voted for Bobby Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller.” Bill Buckley is a conservative’s conservative.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow     

Wednesday

                   Musings and History

Quote of the day:

When asked why he took his wife on the road to football games, Houston Oilers head coach Bum Phillips said “Because she is too ugly to kiss goodbye.”

I guess all of us have witnessed the raw attacks on Donald Trump even though he has not done a damned thing that affects this country nationally and neither has Mike Pence. To attack someone for who/what they are rather than what they have DONE is the definition of bigotry. By the way, those mayors of the “Sanctuary cities” are going to be in deep shit when federal funds are withheld because they are advocating the harboring of criminals. We cannot abide citizens selectively not obeying certain laws of the land and demanding the compliance with others...that is anarchy and could result in a situation where those that are the most heavily armed wins. If the law is unfair then change it but being selective ain't going to work.

While I was in Pensacola Beach a while back I saw some heavy duty grading equipment gathering on the edges of the beach. I did not know what the heck was going on but I found out. Whoever is responsible for the beach cleanup has found that there is a considerably thick layer of crude about 30 inches below the surface of the beach extending for several hundreds of yards as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The concern seems to be that if a hurricane came and there was some beach erosion the crude would re-emerge. They have brought in some equipment that will scoop up the sand, filter out the crude and redeposit the cleaned sand.

Over in Spartanburg, SC a few days ago a 28 year old woman was walking a little unsteadily down a sidewalk and the police cruiser stopped to investigate. As soon as the cops got out of the car the woman began blistering the air with obscenities and profanity a Chinese sailor would be proud of. The cops scented the aroma of alcohol as you might suspect and began to arrest the woman for public drunkenness. She told the cops that she had to go to the bath room and dropped her panties, squatted down and sprayed the sidewalk in the presence of people in adjacent parking lot and another crowd across the street. She was arrested for obscene behavior “in the presence of the police.” Does this mean that it is OK for women to take a leak in the presence of a regular citizen, a fireman, a minister, a plumber, an electrician or anyone else except the cops? There is little question that those in law enforcement arrive at a point of arrogance sometimes in their career.

      This Date in History  November 23

1749 The Reluctant Patriot Edward Rutledge is born in Charleston, South Carolina. Edward and his brother John were both Oxford educated attorneys and had very lucrative practices across the street from each other in Charleston. John and Edward were the sons of a physician that emigrated from Ireland. When the fever of American independence from England began to rise in the colonies, Edward and John fostered patience and were opposed to war. Edward communicated frequently with John Jay of New York about being patient and try to avoid war with the most powerful nation in the world. Edward became a member of the Continental Congress and after he saw that war was inevitable, he was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence at the age of 26, the youngest man to do so.

1819 Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss is born in Belleville, Virginia. His family moved to Missouri and then to Quincy, Illinois. He joined the Illinois Militia and was present during the lynching of Mormon Founder Joseph Smith. At the outbreak of the Civil War his unit was assigned the security of Cairo, Illinois at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Later his unit was assigned the task of protecting the Hannibal-Saint Joseph railroad across northern Missouri. Eventually Prentiss’ unit was sent to join US General Ulysses Grant’s Army of Tennessee. Very soon thereafter The Army of Tennessee met the Confederate army commanded by CSA General Albert Sidney Johnson near a church close to the banks of the Tennessee River called Shiloh. Johnson unleashed a ferocious attack that pushed the Yankees almost into the river. Grant assigned Prentiss’ unit to delay the Confederate advance at all costs so Grant could better prepare a defense. Prentiss and his men dug in at a spot that was later name the “Hornet’s Nest” and they meant to stay. They were stubborn and did indeed delay the advance but when Prentiss saw the Confederates line up several cannon set hub to hub aimed at him and his unit, he knew the end was near. After one salvo of canister by the Confederates, Prentiss and the other survivors of his unit were captured. Before the Battle of Shiloh he was on the Court Marshal of US General Fitz-John Porter who refused to carry out orders issued by the inept General John Pope at the battle of 2^nd Manassas which Porter considered suicide. Porter was stripped of rank and cashiered out of the army. Incidentally, the Union Army did indeed receive a severe ass-kicking at 2^nd Manassas but not because of Porter’s disobedience but because Pope was overwhelmingly out-generaled by Robert E. Lee. Pope needed a scapegoat and Porter was it. After the war the US could not find a place for Prentiss and he resigned. He became a postmaster for many years in Missouri. He died there in 1901.

1979 Well known IRA (Irish Republican Army) terrorist Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of English war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten. On August 27 McMahon had boarded Mountbatten’s boat docked in Donegal Bay, Ireland and planted 50 pounds of TNT with a remote detonation device attached. Finally Lord Mountbatten and a party of five board the boat and set out. McMahon remotely detonated the TNT and four people are killed including Mountbatten. The same day another bomb detonated in a train station in Northern Ireland killing 18 English Army Paratroopers for which the IRA took credit also. In 1998 the so-called Good Friday Agreement goes into effect whereby certain jailed IRA members would be released in return for a truce, McMahon was released swearing that he was through with terrorism and the IRA.

Births and deaths:

1938 US Ad Exec Alexander Kroll is born. He said “When Alexander the Great met with the great Greek thinker Diogenes, Alexander asked if he could do anything for him” Diogenes answered with “Just stay out of my light.” That’s funny.

1973 US actress Constance Talmadge died. When walking onto the set to begin a movie directed by the immortal D.W. Griffith, she turned to Griffith and said “I am here your Majesty, you may begin at once.” She was a smart ass.

Quotable quotes:

“Hillary Clinton said in her book that it was hard for her to forgive Bill but if Nelson Mandela can forgive then I should be able to. I did not know that Bill had hit on Mandela’s wife.”

Jay Leno

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                   Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“To achieve total enlightenment you must forget everything you know or have ever learned and just 'be'.”

                         Musashi (legendary Samurai warrior)

Up in Hendersonville, N.C. a man walked into a convenience store, covered his face with his jacket and demanded money from the clerk. No, he did not produce a weapon but suggested that he did have one. He did not see the customer that was in the store that happened to be a biker about the size of Montana. The biker confronted the robber and suggested that the robber try to rob him. The robber left immediately waving for an accomplice to come and pick him up post haste. That is a good example of poor reconnaissance, my friend.

A couple of weeks ago I told y’all about a fight that broke out at a football game involving Garinger High School in Charlotte. It took a SWAT team to break up the fight that began again in the parking lot and the SWAT team had to used more aggressive measures to calm things down. A couple of days ago a fight erupted on the Garinger high school grounds before school started. It took the cops to break this one up too. The cops said that some of those that were involved in the fight were not students. They also said that they arrested a number of the participants and they believed the fight was gang related. They arrested who they thought was the gang leader but could not publish his name because he was a juvenile…a juvenile. Where the hell are his parents/guardians? They are the ones that need to spent time in the joint.

Some of y’all may have read this before but here it is again: There was a street gang in Boston that had a leader nicknamed “Yummy” because he always had Oreo cookies close by. This gang was exceptionally vicious under his leadership. One day a rival gang kidnapped Yummy and tortured him for a couple of days before strangling him. Yummy was 12 years old.

           This Date in History   November 22

1783 John Hanson died in his Maryland home. Hanson was the first president of the Continental Congress after the signing of the Articles of Confederation. It is believed by some that he was our first president but that is incorrect. The president of the Continental Congress was similar to England’s Prime Minister. The office of president of the United States did come into being with the formation of the three main branches of out government, Judicial, Legislative and Executive in 1789. Hanson was a fiery Patriot and advocated the removal of British authority in 1773. He served in the Maryland Legislature for many years before joining the Confederation. At the age of 25 he married the 16 years old Jane Contee. They had issued of 9 children of which 5 lived to adulthood. However, his oldest son Peter was a Continental soldier and was killed at the Battle of Fort Washington, New York. As with many of our ancestors, we should be grateful that people with character and dedication of John Hanson were there for us or we would still be under the umbrella of Great Britain.

1963 About 11:00a CST the car in which the sitting president of the United States John F. Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connolly and President Kennedy’s wife Jackie are riding in turned onto Dealy Plaza in Dallas, Texas as part of a motorcade. Soon thereafter three shots ring out two of which strike President Kennedy in the neck and the back of his head. One of the bullets passes through Kennedy and struck Governor Connolly in the back and left wrist. Both Connolly and Kennedy are rushed to Parkland Hospital where Kennedy succumbed to his wounds. Connolly survived. The assassin had fired from the fifth floor of the Texas Book Depository. He had used a mail order .308 caliber Manlicher-Carcano rifle. A short time later the Dallas PD went into a movie theater to arrest a suspect named Lee Harvey Oswald. There were shots fired and one Dallas policeman is killed but Oswald is finally arrested and charged with the slaying of Kennedy. Two days later Oswald is assassinated by a strip club owner name Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas Court House, if you can believe that. Kennedy was the fourth United States President to be assassinated. Much controversy arose from this event, so much so that the United States Congress assembled a committee to investigate. After all is said and done, in spite of overwhelming evidence otherwise, the committee determined that there was no conspiracy and Oswald had acted alone. They came to this conclusion in spite of many witnesses that hit the ground and looked up toward a grassy knoll rather than the Texas Book Depository because they heard a shot coming from that direction. The controversy continues to this day and I suppose that we will never be made privy as to who killed John. There is no doubt in this writer’s mind that Oswald did not act alone and was the patsy in a monstrous conspiracy and I know that I am not alone in this belief.

1718 In 1713 a wannabe pirate named Edward Teach joined with the pirate sloop crew headed by Ben Hornigold. Teach was probably English but that is not known for sure. Shortly after he joined the crew, Hornigold was offered amnesty if he would retire from piracy and he accepted. Teach assumed command of the crew and soon captured a 26 gun French man-of-war and renamed it “Queen Anne’s Revenge” which became the flagship in his fleet of four pirate ships manned by over 200 men. It was during this time that Teach was given the sobriquet of “Blackbeard”. He was indeed black bearded and when entering battle he would tie fuses into his beard and light them and the resulting smoke would wreath his head and face which scared the crap out of his opponents. His crews were able to loot over 30 ships and were known to be exceptionally cruel. In May of 1718, two of his ships were shipwrecked including his flagship. He chose to abandon one of the remaining ships and sailed into Bath, North Carolina with the remaining ship. He had a conference with North Carolina governor Charles Eden and promised the good governor a part of his booty if he would allow Teach to use Bath as his headquarters and Eden agreed. At the behest of a group of Virginia planters, the Governor of Virginia, John Spotswood, sent a fleet of British men-of-war led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard to hunt down and eliminate this threat to shipping in the Chesapeake and the coast of Virginia. The British cornered Blackbeard off the Coast of Okracoke Island, North Carolina and a bloody battle ensued. Maynard prevailed and Blackbeard was killed. What happened was a Scottish Highlander with one of those terrible two handed swords jumped in front of Blackbeard and engaged in a duel. He struck Blackbeard on the shoulder and he complimented the Scotsman on his skill. The Scotsman said “If you liked that one, here is another” and with a backhanded move beheaded Blackbeard with one stroke.

1942 Earlier Adolph Hitler had ordered the launch of Operation Barbarossa which was the invasion of Russia. There were three German armies involved and were traveling in parallel courses. The center army surrounded the Russian city of Stalingrad and set about a siege. Millions of Russians died of disease and starvation. On this date the Russian army completed the encirclement of the Germans at Stalingrad which cut off the supplies to them. It was just a matter of time before the German commander surrendered his army of 250,000 troops and hundreds of tanks, artillery and various other tools of war. No more than 6,000 German soldiers from that army made back home. War is hell.

Born today:

1958 US actress Jamie Lee Curtis. When asked about her acting in the nude she said “I think while they are up and firm, I should use them to my benefit.”

        Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow