Friday

               Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved that it will be.”

                                      Marcel Pagnol

A while back I had planned to fly to Key West for a few weeks to avoid the ice box weather that is on the way. The TSA agents want me to come to the airport two hours early because their body scanner will not cover my entire torso in one shot, it will take at least two, and a body search just might be toxic, just joking.

Here is another candidate for the AGCUS award. 33 year old Tony Christie was arrested. Tony is the basketball coach at Daniel High School over near Clemson/Anderson, SC. It seems that he had a 16 year old girl that was his teaching assistant and he chose to stroke her on the butt and put his hand down the front of her blouse. The girl resisted and eventually ran out of the room. When she went home and her mother and father noticed a change in her demeanor for the next few days. She cried for no apparent reason and did not want to go to school. They finally found out what was wrong with her and called the cops. This jackass coach played on the Clemson basketball team but he went to the joint anyway.

This Date in History December 9

1775 Earlier the British governor of Virginia John Murray, also known as Lord Dunsmore, was run out of his office in Williamsburg, Virginia by a contingent of Patriots. Lord Dunsmore hauled ass to Norfolk which was primarily Tory (loyal to England) territory. Dunsmore knew the Patriots would come after him so he felt it prudent to raise an army but he did it in an unorthodox way. He put out a notice that any slave of a Patriot that came to his aid and joined the army he was forming would be freed. He ended up with an army of 800 slaves and 300 British redcoats that became known as the “Ethiopian Brigade”. The slave owners, both Patriot and Loyalist, were not pleased with the good governor freeing slaves for whatever reason. It set a bad precedent and he did not have the power to do such a thing. So the slave owners sent reinforcements to the army of the Patriots that were after Dunsmore. Dunsmore was sure that he had enough troops to defeat any Patriot army. He was wrong. When the eventual confrontation occurred, Dunsmore’s troops were severely outnumbered and soon after the battle was joined Dunsmore ran like a rabbit and got aboard his ship “Otter” anchored in the bay. There were only three hundred survivors of the Ethiopian Brigade and they ran and got aboard the Otter also. They were not there very long because of an outbreak of smallpox which killed most of them including John Murray, also known as Lord Dunsmore.

1950 On this date British authorities arrest a man named Harry Gold. Good old Harry was a “mule” that carried atomic secrets from a Russian spy working at the super secret American Los Alamos Laboratories where the first Atomic bomb was assembled. The spy was named Klaus Fuchs, a brilliant scientist but a dedicated Russian sympathizer. So Good old Klaus was arrested by English authorities and he rolled on yet another worker at Los Alamos named David Greenglass. Greenglass rolled on the people that ran the spy network and they were American scientists Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Everybody got extended jail terms except the Rosenbergs. These traitors to their country got the death penalty. Both went to meet their maker medium rare courtesy of “Old Sparky” the electric chair. I wish I would have been there singing and dancing to the song “I used to know You Were Around Because of the Garlic on Your Breath, but Now that you have Gone Away So Have Gnats and Flies.”

1981 On this date Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner is found dead on the city streets and black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal lying nearby severely wounded. It seems that Mumia was riding around in Philadelphia late at night in a cab when he spotted his brother engaged in a fight with Officer Faulkner. Mumia jumps out of the cab and tries to intervene by pulling out a pistol at the same time. Apparently Faulkner had time to unholster his weapon also and the two exchanged gunfire. Faulkner was mortally wounded but Mamia was seriously wounded but not fatally. Mamia is put on trial for the first degree murder of Officer Faulkner even though the actual circumstances were not really known. Anyway the prosecution used their peremptory challenge and put 10 white people and only two blacks on the jury in a city that is 43% black. The trial was held only two months after the gunfight and Mamia was no where near well enough to answer any question much less help his attorney ask any questions. As you might suspect, he was convicted and is serving a prison term as we speak. I usually am not easy on crime but this case appears to be a rush to judgment.

1940 On this date a British army of two divisions, half of them from India, with the strength of 30,000 troops and 275 tanks begin an assault on a five division Italian army consisting of 80,000 troop and 120 tanks. Italy had declared war on England in March right after joining with Hitler in the Axis. The prime purpose of the English army was to prevent the Italians from taking control of the Suez Canal. Very soon after the battle was joined, the British found a safe route through and around the Italian mine fields for their tanks and quickly surrounded the Italians. Two days later the Italians surrendered. Needless to say, Hitler was furious. Soon after that, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini convinced Hitler that his army could conquer Greece. Hitler warned that any country that is fighting on its own soil is twice as ferocious as otherwise. Mussolini blew it off and invaded Greece. Soon thereafter he found his army surrounded on three sides with their young asses backed up to the sea and would have been annihilated had it not been for Hitler sending in a division of paratroopers to bail the Italians out. The Italians were the absolute worst fighting force during World War II and were a thorn in the side of Hitler.

Born today:

1848 US writer Joel Chandler Harris. He gave us the “Uncle Remus” tales and sayings, one of which was “Watch out when you are getting all you want, the fattening of a hog is for a reason.” Somehow that reminds me of   Rosie O’Donnell.

1904 US writer Louis Kronenberger. When describing a recent date he said “That woman ate so many clams that her stomach rose and fell with the tide.” That is not as bad as seeing someone pull a chair up to the salad bar. I saw that happen. He was from Alabama.

1922 US comedian Redd Foxx. He said “All of those health nuts out there are going to feel pretty damn stupid one day when they are lying in a hospital bed dying of nothing”.

1911 US actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. He said “I was telling the Queen just the other day how much I hate name dropping.” Shut up, Doug.

       Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow