Monday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“ I've seen George Foreman shadow boxing and the shadow won.”

                                        Muhammad Ali

Here is a story of American bravery:

On April 1, 1945 the American 10th army arrived at Okinawa commanded by Lt. Gen. Simon B. Buckner. By evening of that day 60,000 troops had been put ashore. What followed was one of the bloodiest battles in recorded history. Okinawa is the last island before the Japanese mainland and the soldiers were fighting for there homeland. After suffering enormous casualties on both sides victory for the American troops was in sight. On June 18 General Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery. On Jun21 the troops had sealed the island. On June 22 the Japanese commander General Ushijima and his staff committed suicide and all hostilities ceased. There was 120,000 Japanese soldiers killed and there was none captured. Those left alive killed their wounded and committed suicide. Included in this was 2,000 Japanese kamikaze pilots that attacked the ships in support of the attack and 36 ships were lost. The US lost 13,500 killed and 35,000 wounded. The plan was to launch an attack from Okinawa onto the southernmost island of Japan with an estimated 1,000,000 casualties to capture the whole of Japan. However, on August 6 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and August 9 another one was dropped on Nagasaki and the next day Japan surrendered making the attack on Okinawa unnecessary. God works in mysterious ways.

                    This Date in History   September 18

1955 On this day Ford Motor Co. delivers its 2,000,000 V-8 engine. They had started producing V-8 engines 23 years before to satisfy the world’s lust for speed and power in their automobiles and their has been no let up since. I have owned a Ford V-8 in a Crown Vic that I drove for years but it finally gave up the ghost after much neglect on my part. But it was brave and always trying up to the last. I donated it to Goodwill for a tax deduction. It was still running but not very well.

1975 Jimi Hendrix died of an over dose of some kind of sh-t in London. Again, I am unforgiving and furious at Jimi for depriving us of a God given talent by stuffing sh-t up his nose or shooting it in his veins, how damn selfish can you get? As I have said in the past, Jimi played background for many famous blues and rock and roll bands before breaking out on his own with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and was an immediate success. After a couple of years they broke up and he formed a band called A Band Of Gypsies but that didn’t last either and so he went out on his own and was really successful until he essentially committed suicide with drugs.

1937 The “Mother Road” Route 66 essentially disappears as a new 4 lane highway is built in its place. In a previous lesson I told y'all about how in 1926 a group of automobile fans got a bunch of money together and started building the Lincoln Highway which turned out to be Route 66, that was it’s birth, here is it’s death. There are so many tales about the old Route 66 that I don’t know where to start. There was a very popular TV show about it, “Route 66”, about 2 guys just traveling the country in a red Corvette. Not to mention the song “Get your kicks on Route 66”. Route 66 was the home of many, many cheap roadside attractions, cheap hotel and restaurant, etc. It was Americana, ya’ll. Now it is gone in favor of going fast from point A to point B. What a damn shame. What have we become? We don’t to stop and smell the roses anymore.

1862 That epitome of ineptness US Gen. George B. McClellan fails to follow a severely mauled CSA Army of Northern Virginia, CSA Gen. R. E. Lee commanding after the Battle of Antietam or the Battle of Sharpsburg as those that are “unreconstructed” call it. McClellan was yelled at almost immediately by A. Lincoln and General Henry Halleck that this was the US chance to crush Lee’s army and end the war. But the timid McClellan waited 3 days to even begin a chase because he thought Lee had over 100,000 troops when in reality he had Lee outnumbered 3 to 1. I personally think that McClellan just did not have the stomach for combat as it was prosecuted in those days and would avoid it if he could. Because of his ineptness the war went on for 2 ½ more years and cost the lives of thousands upon thousands of Americans

1862 One of the most bombastic men in history Ted Turner stood up on the podium and made a speech to the United Nations. During his speech he says that he is going to donate $1Billion dollars to the United Nations, Jane Fonda not withstanding. ONE BILLION DOLLARS, YA’LL! Then he starts berating all the other American multi-billionaires like Bill Gates and Paul Allen for not doing the same. I am telling ya’ll, Ted plays in his own ball park, as it were. Secretary General Kofi Annan about pees his pants and for once in his life is at a loss for words.

1960 Fidel Castro arrives in New York as a part of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations. Fidel chooses to stay at the Theresa Hotel in downtown Harlem and brought a couple of gamecocks (Not football players for the University of South Carolina) and let them run loose in his room to make him feel at home. That is what he said but we all know it was a scam to get publicity. This jackass gets up in front of the United Nations and berates the United States for 4 hours. Before the echoes had died President Eisenhower had issued trade sanctions against Cuban sugar, their largest crop. Fidel just went to the Russians and they were happy to oblige. It was never stated publicly but I believe the Russians said that they would buy the sugar if in return Cuba would allow medium range nuclear missiles on the island. Thus began the countdown to the Cuban missile crises that nearly killed us all.

Born today:

1905 Swedish actress Greta Garbo. She said “The best of all pleasures is to be longing for something and then one day realizing it is within your grasp.” That would the day I jerked up a large mouth bass that weighed over 10 pounds.

1948 US comic Jimmy Brogan. When asked to create a motto for the city of Cleveland he said “You got to live somewhere.” Jimmy is funny, Cleveland isn’t.

Died today:

1980 US writer Katherine Anne Porter. She said “Most people do not realize that writing is a craft. It requires an apprenticeship like anything else.” Here, here.

1721 British writer Matthew Prior. He said “Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician.” Not from my physician, unless you drown in a sea of pills and capsules.

                 Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow.