Friday

                             Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“If I had my choice I would kill all the news reporters but we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.”

                        William Tecumseh Sherman, General US Army

I spite of laying waste to much of the state of Georgia and part of South Carolina during the Civil War Sherman ended up as President of LSU.

Trivia question of the day:

What is peculiar about how Tabasco sauce is produced? Answer at the end of the blog.

What is the worst case of terrorism in the United States beside 9/11? It is the Oklahoma City bombing. Over 150 killed and 600 wounded including children under the age of two. The perpetrators were Timothy McViegh and Terry Nichols...both Catholics. This means that the world is not safe in the presence of a Catholic. See how stupid that is?

            This Date in History   February 9

1942 In the late 1930’s the grandest ocean liner on the planet was built in France and named the Normandie. The ship had a revolutionary hull shape that made it very speedy and was able to cross the Atlantic in four days and was the first ship of that size to be able to do this. After the United States entered WWII in December of 1941, it became apparent that the American commercial fleet had enough ships to carry cargo but virtually no passenger vessels. In those times the luxury liners were English, Scottish or Dutch. England donated the liner Queen Mary to shuttle American troops worldwide. The French liner Normandie was seized while it was in port in New York and renamed the U.S.S. Lafayette. The ship fitters pulled the ship into dry dock and began transforming this ship from a luxury liner to a troop carrier. On this date a welder accidentally set fire to a large pile of life preservers and the fire spread quickly. The fire crews poured water into the ship at an enormous rate and finally the great ship capsized and burned into a lump of unusable steel. The ship was towed to a New Jersey and cut up for scrap. There was a rumor that President Roosevelt told the trade unions on American docks that a strike would not be tolerated for the duration of the war. Some of the more militant Union organizers ordered the Normandie destroyed as a sign that the trade unions would not be told what they could or could not do. But that is just a rumor.

1960 On this date Adolph Coors is kidnapped while driving to work from his Morrison, Colorado home. Adolph was the grandson of the founder of Coors Brewery and was the chairman of the Golden, Colorado brewery. Almost immediately the police began looking for a man named Joe Corbett. Corbett was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oregon and was headed for medical school. Then one night in 1951 he got drunk and got into a fight with an Air Force Sergeant, produced a pistol and shot and killed him. He did several years in San Quentin for that indiscretion. He was transferred to a minimum security prison where he escaped. Eight days after the abduction, a car was found on fire in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The forensic specialist took dirt samples from the car and matched them to the Morrison, Colorado area. The fire did not destroy the engine numbers and the FBI was able to trace them to Corbett. Corbett’s yellow Mercury was seen near the abduction point for several days before the abduction. Not only that, a ransom note was found that was traced to Corbett’s typewriter. Seven months after the abduction, Adolph’s clothes were found in a dump near Sedalia, Colorado and his corpse was found nearby. The FBI put wanted posters out nationwide and in Canada for Corbett. They got “hits” on Corbett in Toronto and all the way across Canada to Vancouver where he was arrested. Even though Corbett did not testify at his trial he was indeed convicted and went to prison in 1961. He was released in 1978, for reason known only to the Board of Corrections.

1864 Earlier Elizabeth Bacon met a dashing young cavalry officer named Captain George A. Custer at a dance in Monroe, Michigan. Custer was smitten and began a campaign for the hand of Elizabeth. Her father was not happy with his daughter marrying a soldier, but when Custer was promoted to Brevet (temporary) Brigadier General for his fearlessness Elizabeth’s father conceded and Elizabeth and George were married on this date in Monroe, Michigan. After the Civil War Custer’s rank was reduced to and he was assigned duty out on the Great Plains attempting to subdue the Indians. We all know what happened at Little Big Horn in 1878. To this day, that massacre is acknowledged to be the fault of the recklessness of Custer, but Elizabeth defended her husband’s honor to her death.

Born today:

1773 President William Henry Harrison. He said “The Government that is the strongest is the one that is the most free”. He also made his hour and a half inauguration speech in sub-freezing weather with no coat on. He died of pneumonia 30 days later.

1865 Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Irish actress. She said “It doesn’t matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.” Mrs. Campbell must have known my third ex-wife.

1921 Irish writer Brendan Behan. He said “I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman would not make it worse.”

1945 US actress Mia Farrow. She said “I can match bottoms with anyone in Hollywood.” I don’t know about that, Mia, take another look at Jennifer Lopez.

Answer to the trivia question:

Originally the peppers used in the sauce were raised on Avery Island, Louisiana but now those plants are used to produce seeds that are sent to various plantations in Central and South America to raise the peppers because of the climate and soil acidity. The sauce itself is only produced on Avery Island and is cured in oak barrels previously used by Jack Daniels. I am a fan of both Jack Daniels and Tabasco, a win-win situation.

               Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow