Tuesday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“At my age I think on the stage nudity is disgusting, shameful and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be artistic, patriotic and a progressive religious experience.”

                                                 Shelly Winters

One of the most colorful characters in the history of the American west died in 1903. It was Judge Roy Bean of Langtry, Texas. He was the self proclaimed “Law West of the Pecos.” Bean was born in Mason County, Kentucky in the 1825. In 1847 he and his brother Sam left home and went to Mexico and lived a rogue’s life until he got into an argument with another man and ended up killing him. This forced Bean out of Mexico and he ended up in San Diego. As usual, Bean got into a fight in a bar and ended up killing anther man so he had to skedaddle out of there and ended up in Los Angeles. He got into a fight with a Mexican General over a woman and shot and killed the General. The General had a lot of friends and they took Bean to the closest tree and strung him up. The woman who he had the fight over ran to his rescue and cut him down in the nick of time. He carried the scars from that rope for the rest of his life. Bean decided that California just ain’t the place to be and he moved out into the wilds of New Mexico and Texas. For about 16 years he was a prosperous and legitimate business man in San Antonio. In 1882 he moved to southwest Texas and built his famous bar “Jersey Lilly”. Eventually he founded the town of Langtry, Texas named after the actress Lilly Langtry as was his bar. Bean became a justice of the peace in Langtry and was famous for dispensing justice using common sense rather that the letter of the law. He once fined a dead man for carrying a concealed weapon. But on the down side when a man shot a Chinese rail worker, Bean let him go saying that he could find no law against shooting a Chinaman. Bean fell ill and died in November of 1903, just 10 months before the real Lilly Langtry came by for a visit to his famous saloon.

               This Date in History August 15 

1945 On this date for the first time in the history of the ancient country of Japan, the Emperor made an announcement to the Japanese public using public radio. They had never heard the voice of any Emperor in history. In a carefully worded statement avoiding the phrase “unconditional surrender”, the emperor said that it was time for Japan to admit that any continued hostilities could result in the complete annihilation of the Japanese as a race, especially since the Russians had invaded Mongolia and was massing on the banks of the Sea of Japan for an invasion of Japan from the north. The Emperor was considered a semi-god by his subjects and anything he uttered must come from heaven. The Emperor knew that if he said “unconditional surrender”, there would be mass suicides nationwide because of the loss of face. Maintaining an individual’s pride was paramount to average Japanese but even more so to the Japanese military. The Potsdam Resolution that demanded Japanese unconditional surrender did back off on one stipulation. They did allow Japan to retain the Mikado or the Emperor but that was it. That is why the United States navy has two naval bases in Japan today.

1994 On this date one of the most ruthless terrorists ever to walk the earth is captured. His name is Illich Ramirez Sanchez better known as Carlos the Jackal. Two French secret agents tracked Carlos down to the city of Khartoum in the Sudan. Since there was no extradition treaty between France and Sudan, the French agents knew they would have to be creative in capturing Carlos. They walked up behind Carlos and stabbed him in the neck with a syringe full of enough drugs to knock down a mule. They dragged him into an alley and smuggled his ass to France to stand trial for various acts of terrorism. Carlos was aligned mostly with the PLO but he was not above working on occasion for whoever coughed up the right amount of cash. In 1975 the French police sent three police officers to arrest Carlos at a Paris apartment. Carlos killed them all and escaped. In late 1975 he and several accomplices broke into an OPEC conference in Vienna and kidnapped 70 officials and demanded ransom. Carlos and company escaped safely with between $25 and $50 million but it took Carlos killing three of the hostages before he was believed and the money was delivered. Anyway, he was tried and convicted and is presently cooling his heels in the basement of some French prison. By the way, the French can be very imaginative when it comes to torture and they proved it during the French Revolution of 1789. Hopefully Carlos is a target of these tried and true methods.

1983 Almost overnight a hurricane formed south of Louisiana and three days later it slammed ashore in Galveston, Texas as a Category 3 Hurricane named Alicia. A category 3 Hurricane has sustained winds of 100 MPH with gusts to 127 MPH. In spite of Galveston having invested millions of dollars in a seawall to protect the city after the hurricane of 1900 that killed 1,800 people, Alicia brought a 12 foot storm surge and an 11 foot tide with it which flooded each and every home in the Seabrook seashore sub-division. The next day saw 11 inches of rain in Houston and a total of 14 tornadoes between Galveston and Houston (about 40 miles) nine the day after that. There were 12 killed and billions of dollars in damages. But the Galveston seawall held and experts later said if it had not been for the seawall Galveston would not longer exist.

Born today:

1769 Corsican Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. He said “The French complain about everything, and always.” I think they suck too, Napoleon.

1944 US columnist Linda Ellerbee. She said “If men can run the world, why can’t they stop wearing neckties? How intelligent is it to start the day tying a noose around your neck?”

I am with you Linda, but why do women wear a harness around their breasts and start the day applying lipstick, powder and paint to their face and take it all off at night?”

It has been proven that the lipstick, powder and paint has no effect on the sensuality or frequency of a woman’s sex life with her husband. The question is why they lack make-up in the presence of the most important men in their lives? The only answer I can think of is they want to make other women envious.

Died today:

1935 American humorist Will Rogers. Will was sitting in of a charity event when a ling-winded speaker finally finished and the speaker said “Mr. Toastmaster, I am sorry I took so long, I left my watch at home.” Will said “Do you have a calendar?”

                Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow