Thursday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I could have had class. I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody.”

                       Terry Molloy/Marlon Brando On the Waterfront

From a year ago:

For breakfast Wednesday morning I went to a restaurant here on the beach named The Native Cafe (they have a website). It is a small place and very rustic in a marine motif. Got there about 9:00a and the place was pretty well packed. Who in the hell is off work at 9:00a on a Wednesday except retired people? I know there are quite a few retired people here on the beach but this was out of balance. Then I figured it out. There is an RV park here on the beach that is packed, that is who is coming to the Native Cafe...Damn Yankees and Canadians.

I had scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, toast, coffee and water. It was pretty normal fare with no Cajun influence like others in the area. The price was a little over the top but the upside is the sausage was outstanding and I asked what kind it was and they said it was Jimmy Dean, that explains it. The coffee could walk like some I have had in Starbucks. I asked about that and they said it was Folgers made at 1 ½ strength. I only had two cups where I normally have 4 or 5. If you do the math...it is cheaper for them to make really strong coffee, charge a normal price for all you can drink and the customer not drink as much?

Still on the trip to Medford. I had a 2 hour layover on San Francisco and it was during the time of the “Moonies”. To the uninformed they were religious zealots dedicated to a Korean minister named Moon. These guys had shaved heads and wore long flowing white caftans. There were several in the SFO airport and were soliciting donations for their cause. Their method was to offer a small booklet as a gift and then expect a donation. They could not sell anything outright without a license. In front of me there was a cowboy walking down the concourse. This guy was long and lean with the big hat and tall boots. A Moonie approached him offering the booklet. This guy snatched the booklet and kept walking. The Moonie ran around in front of this guy and said “Sir, do you want to make a donation?” The cowboy aggressively pushed the Moonie aside making him fall to the floor and kept walking. The Moonie got up and ran over to a cop that was just a few feet away and said “Officer, did you see that?” The cop said “See what?” The Moonie said “That man knocked me down.” The cop said “What man...what did he look like...what was the color of his eyes?” I don't think the cops wanted them in there either.

                This Date in History   April 13

1777 On this date British General Lord Charles Cornwallis commanding a 4,000 man combined unit of British soldiers and Hessian mercenaries attack the 500 man unit of Continentals commanded by Major General Benjamin Lincoln at Bound Brook, New Jersey. The British attacked in four columns designed by the commander of the Hessians, Captain Johann Ewald Lieb Jaeger, a superior military strategist. General Lincoln had no choice but to retreat and lost most of his artillery pieces to Cornwallis who took them back to their main encampment at New Brunswick. George Washington believed in the strategic location of Bound Brook and sent Continental General Nathaniel Greene to re-occupy the town. Later on Washington changed his mind and decided that he would had a better defensible position atop the Watchung Mountains in north central New Jersey and re-established an encampment there. Continental General Henry Knox and several other Patriot Generals were impressed with the Hessian Commander Johann Ewald Lieb Jaeger and after the end of the Revolutionary War he was invited by Knox to attend West Point. He declined and ended up writing several books on military strategy including “A Treatise on Partisan Warfare” which was more or less a book on how to conduct guerrilla operations. The book was highly praised by the best military leader of that time the Prussian, Frederick the Great.

1990 In 1939 the German army invaded Poland from the west and Russia invaded Poland from the east in the spring of 1940. During the Russian invasion, they gathered up over 5,000 Polish military officers and moved them to the Katyn Forest and for reasons known only to them, massacred them all and buried them in a common grave. Later the Germans overran the Katyn Forest and drove the Russians out. The mass grave was discovered and everyone assumed it was the Germans that had committed yet another atrocity. The German army vehemently denied participation in this massacre. On this date, as a part of Glasnost Russian Premier Gorbachev admitted that it was the Russian Army that had committed the massacre at Katyn Forest, not the Germans. Since the end of World War II the relationship between the Polish Government and the new German government had been strained because the Germans refused to admit culpability for the Katyn Forest affair. After this admission, diplomacy between these two governments became more tolerable and relationship with the Russians became tense and remains so to this day.

1360 Ever since William the Conqueror, A Viking owning a huge part of France, became the King of England in 1066. Every subsequent English King that was a blood kin ancestor of William felt that he had a right to the French throne and several invasions from England to France ensued. The reign of King Edward III of England was no different. A few months before he had crossed the English Channel and landed at Calais in wintertime and began plundering the countryside. The French army chose to go behind almost impenetrable defenses and let Edward have his way and then maybe he would go home which was/is typical of the French. Anyway, on this date the mother of all thunderstorms showed up over Chartres, France where Edward’s troops were camped out on open ground. A hailstorm developed and over 1,000 of Edward’s infantry and cavalry were killed by the hailstones. They do not describe that size of the hailstones but they must have been of biblical dimensions. The largest one ever recorded in the US was one in Nebraska that was the size of a volleyball. Anyway, Edward’s advisers said that it was sign from God that he was not pleased that Edward was in France. Edward agreed and ordered his army back to Calais and they got their young asses back to England. Then the French Army came crawling out from behind their embrasures and bade Edward a grateful farewell using hand signals. But that was not the end to this struggle; the final battle was in 1453. Greed knows no limits.

1866 Robert Leroy Parker was born in Beaver, Utah Territory to Mormon parents. Leroy’s parents wanted him to become a minister but Leroy decided to become bad instead. He met up with a neighbor name Bill Cassidy who taught him the ways of the gun and Leroy departed on a life of crime. After doing 15 months in a Laramie, Wyoming jail for rustling, he decided to organize gang and organize one he did and it became known at the “Wild Bunch” and he became known as “Butch Cassidy” in honor of his first mentor. He joined with Harry Longabough, better known as “The Sundance Kid” because of the number of times he had been in the Sundance, Utah jail, are legendary. There are many tales I could tell you about this gang but I will leave that to all of you to find out for yourselves. It was reported the Butch and Sundance were killed in a shootout with the Bolivian Army in an town named San Vincente but family members of the both of them say they saw them years after the shootout. It is an enduring enigma.

          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow