Wednesday

                                    Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Finding Nemo was the number on hit at the box office. It was based on a game President Clinton used to play with the White House interns. “

                                              David Letterman

Trivia question of the day:

In the TV series Golden Girls who played Blanche Devereaux? Answer at the end of the blog.

Here is a short bio of a madman:

1997 The body of 45 year old cemetery caretaker William Reese of Pennsville, New Jersey was found dead shot in the head with a Golden Saber .38 pistol. It was found that the murderer was Andrew Cunanan who killed Reese just for his pick-up truck. Cunanan was in the middle of a murder spree that began on the American west coast with Reese being the fourth victim. Cunanan was a homosexual that serviced elderly and wealthy homosexuals across the country. On the way to New Jersey he had killed three other homosexuals for reasons known only to him. Cunanan was featured of the famous TV show America’s Most Wanted several times. He spent a few days in New York City in Greenwich Village before heading to Miami. There he stalked the famous clothing designer Gianni Versace and on July 15 caught Versace on the front steps of his Miami mansion and blew his brains out. The police began scouring the countryside for the murderer believing that it was probably Cunanan. During the search, a caretaker at a Miami marina called the cops and told them that someone had broken into a houseboat moored at the marina. The Miami PD surrounded the houseboat and demanded anyone inside to come out. No one came out and finally a SWAT went inside and found the body of Andrew Cunanan dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Too bad. It would have solved a lot of questions if he could have been interviewed so we could get a clue as to what was on this madman’s mind.

               This Date in History August 1

1966 On this date an ex-US Marine named Charles Whitman gathered arms and ammo and makes his way to the top of the 300 foot tall bell tower located on the University of Texas campus in Austin. Whitman also was an Eagle Scout, if you can believe that. In March of 1966 his mother had left his father for reason not known and Charles did not take it well. He began getting treatment from a psychiatrist complaining about a feeling of uncontrolled anger. He also told the doctor that he was thinking about going to the top of the bell tower and shooting people. This wonderful doctor blew it off and did not believe he meant what he said. On this fateful day Whitman walked into the base of the bell tower armed with several pistols and the rifle and killed the receptionist and two other visitors and made his way to the top. Before he went to the tower, he stopped by a sporting good store and bought plenty of ammo and a .30 caliber carbine, he even packed a lunch and dinner. Once he arrives at the top he opened fire with the sniper rifle. He is an expert marksman and is able to hit people at 500 yards. He ended up killing 16 and wounded 30. Oh, by the way, the night before he had stabbed and shot his mother to death and then went home and stabbed his wife to death. He left a note saying that after he died he wanted an autopsy performed on himself to see if there was a detectable brain disease. For an hour and a half the campus police and the Austin PD were at a loss as to how to deal with this maniac. They had their own marksmen but they could not get a good shot and realized that someone had make their way up there and cap this son-of-a-bitch. Finally two members of the Austin PD volunteered to go after Whitman. They charged up the stairs (300 feet, mind you) and Officer Ramiro Martinez got an open shot and capped Whitman ending this carnage.

1953 After the trials of WWII the American adults wanted more realistic movies rather than the Grade B movies like Hopalong Cassidy. On this date one of the greatest western movies ever made is released. The movie was Shane starring Alan Ladd and Van Heflin. It is a story about a gunfighter who is known only as Shane (Alan Ladd), came down out of the rugged Teton Mountains and stumbled upon a small ranch owned by Joe and Marian Starrett and their young son Joey. Shane wanted to give up the life of the gun and took a job as a ranch hand on the Starrett ranch. The problem was that the Starrett ranch was on a plot of land that was previously open range and used by a nearby cattle rancher to graze their cattle. The Starrett ranch and others like it was in the way. The cattle baron hired a gunfighter named Wilson (played by Jack Palance) to scare the settlers off their legally obtained lands so he can continue to graze his cattle unhindered. Wilson ended up killing one of the settlers and Joe Starrett strapped on a gun and headed to town to confront Wilson and the cattle baron. Shane knew that Joe would be killed and knocked him out and strapped on his own gun and went into town. He capped Wilson and several others employed by the cattle baron. Shane realized that the west is not ready for non-violence and rode off into the sunset with little Joey behind him yelling: “Come back, Shane”, what a great movie.

1943 The Japanese had been bombing the hell out of the US Naval installation on Rendova Island in the Solomon Islands. Rendova was a major PT boat base for the US Navy. The Japanese had to keep open a supply route to their combat troops in the area and the PT boats represented a definite threat. A PT boat is a small but very fast boat that was capable of sneaking in close to a ship and launching a torpedo at nearly point blank range. On this date, PT-109, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy commanding, was on patrol on this dark and murky night when a Japanese destroyer suddenly appeared close aboard and rammed the small plywood boat slicing it in two. Two crewmen were killed outright but 11 survived, including Lt. Kennedy. They swam to a nearby coral island hoping that someone would come after them. Other PT boats saw the debris the next morning and assumed that all of the crewmen were killed. At night Lt. Kennedy would swim out into the channel hoping to flag down a friendly boat but none came. Kennedy led the group in swimming to another larger island hoping that there would be detected by friendly forces. They met a couple of natives and Kennedy carved a message on a coconut as to their location and asked for help. The natives paddled away on their canoes and gave the coconut to a coast watcher and soon Kennedy and crew were rescued. Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Cross for gallantry. By the way, the coconut has a permanent home in the White House Oval Office.

Born today:

1819 US writer Herman Melville. Melville gave us the immortal novel Moby Dick. Melville said “It is better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.” I think I have slept with both, but not at the same time.

1881 English writer Dame Rose Macaulay. She said “It is a common delusion to believe you can make things better by talking about them.” That sounds like Rose knew my third ex-wife.

1942 Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia. He said “Taking the lesser of two evils is still taking evil.” He must have known my third ex-wife too.

Answer to the trivia question:

In the TV series Golden Girls Rue McClanahan played Blanche.

           Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                                Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“I am not going to deny myself things that I want just so I can spend an extra two years in the geriatric ward.”

                                                   George Carlin

This past weekend I was in a famous watering hole that was recently shut down for having poker machines with gambling of course but the owner appealed and stayed open. Gambling is not legal in the state of South Carolina except for the state government which runs a lottery several days a week from which they reap enormous profits. The state of South Carolina says this is the “Education Lottery” and is used to provide education to deserving students. I do not know who decides how and to whom these funds are distributed and who would audit them but it is still gambling. The bar owner saw this as the supreme hypocrisy and to say the least unfair...and so do I. He remained open but the state took the poker machines. He has several sign in his establishment telling the state to “kiss his redneck a- -!”

A while back I met a lady named Ronda while celebrating life with members of my eastside social group. Unfortunately the conversation got to present day politics. She had me at a disadvantage because I have stopped watching/listening to the media because of their unreliability. She finally said that she thought that Hillary should be president because she is squeaky clean(?) and has demonstrated leadership(?). She said that she knows how bad Donald is because she is in the real estate business herself. I bade her a good evening after that stunning display of rock hard logic.

                      This Date in History July 31

1777 On this date a 19 year old Frenchman named Marquis de Lafayette joined George Washington’s Continental army as a Major General. Earlier Continental Congress secret envoy to France, Silas Deane had persuaded French military expert Baron Johan De Kalb and his protégée Marquis de Lafayette to offer their services to the fledgling United States in its war with England. The ruling monarch of France was King Louis XVI and he knew that any support sent to the colonies by France would result in war with England and forbade DeKalb and Lafayette from donating their expertise. In fact the British demanded at the ship Lafayette was aboard to be captured and Lafayette imprisoned. This in fact did happen but Lafayette escaped and boarded another ship that was able to evade the pursuing British ships. Lafayette finally arrived in South Carolina and made his way north and met up with Washington. The Continental Congress was reluctant to bestow such a rank on such a young man but Washington’s influence prevailed and Lafayette was given the rank. Lafayette served with distinction at the Battles of Brandywine, Monmouth and Rhode Island. After the United States and France signed a treaty, as expected, England declared was on France. This disturbed Lafayette and he requested to return to his homeland and see what Louis XVI had in mind for him in the war against England. He returned to France but came back to the United States and joined with Washington once again. He was at Yorktown, Virginia when British General Charles Cornwallis and his entire army were forced to surrender which virtually assure a Patriot victory in their war for independence. In fact if was a division of French troops that blocked Cornwallis from retreating. After the surrender ceremony George Washington made a stirring speech but Lafayette just said “The play...is over.”

1975 The leader of the powerful Teamsters Union of America, Jimmy Hoffa, is reported missing in Detroit. Jimmy had been waiting in the back seat of his Cadillac in front of the Red Fox restaurant in suburban Detroit on minute and the next minute both Jimmy, his driver and the Cadillac were gone. Jimmy had gone to jail for jury tampering for 8 years and while he was gone, his second in command in the Union Jim Fitzsimmons moved in and was elected President. This precisely what Hoffa had ordered not to happen. Hoffa wanted to remain President and run the Union from a jail cell. After he got out of jail, he went on a campaign to regain control of the Teamsters. Jimmy had some murky dealings with organized crime but nothing specific was ever determined. He finally was re-elected as President of the Union but Fitzsimmons and his followers were not pleased and the word on the street was that organized crime felt that Jimmy had become a threat. So it could have either or both that sent Jimmy to where he is today and has never been found. The most popular theory is that he was killed and his corpse was encased in one of the 8 foot diameter concrete columns that were under construction building the Meadowlands arena in New Jersey. I don’t think we will ever know what happened to Jimmy.

1715 On July 5 10 Spanish galleons and 1 French frigate departed Havana, Cuba loaded to the scuppers with Maya and Inca gold and silver headed for Europe. The Spanish ships hugged the Florida shore while the French ship sail further off shore. On this date when the Spanish ship were somewhere between Cape Canaveral and Fort Pierce, Florida a hurricane struck and all 10 of the Spanish ships were sunk spilling tons of gold and silver on the ocean floor. The French ship was able to ride out the storm with minimum damage. Later salvage boats from Cuba recovered 80% of the booty but the rest of it lay on the bottom until the early 1960’s when the rest of the treasure was salvaged.

Born today:

1912 US writer Irv Kupcinet. He said “What can you say about a civilization that says God id dead and Elvis is alive.” Hey Irv, do you meant that Elvis is not alive and working at a Dairy Queen in Kalamazoo, Michigan?

1919 US Sports announcer Curt Gowdy. At an automobile race he said “If there is a pile-up they might have to give some of the driver’s artificial insemination.” That may be good for Danica Patrick, Curt, but I had rather have artificial respiration.

1921 US racial advocate Whitney Young. He said “It is better to prepare for an opportunity and not have one than to not be prepared and have an opportunity.” You are right, Whitney, that is why I have Viagra, Cialis and Levitra in a capsule holder on my key chain, for what good it does.

Died today:

1928 US writer Michael Harrington. He said “If there is a technical advance and no social advance, there is almost automatically an increase in human misery.” I don’t get it Mike. What has the ATM machine, I-pod and the cellular phone, etc. got to do with social well being?

                      Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Promise me you will always remember. You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

Christopher Robin to Pooh written by A.A. Milne

It would do all of us good to start the day by looking in the mirror and repeating this sentence.

During the American Civil War there were several units totally composed of recent immigrants, especially the Irish and Germans. They wanted to preserve this nation that had taken them in when they had nowhere else to go. I can assure you that you would not see that from most of the the Latinos. Theft and lawlessness is apparently a way of life for them for the most part and no interest in citizenship, there are exceptions. A few years ago I had planned to rent a house near Merida, Mexico which is about 80 miles west of Cancun. The owner was from New Mexico and he sent me a few tips to make my trip more enjoyable. One of his points was to never leave anything outside unattended or it would be stolen. He said they would not break in but anything outside unattended was considered abandoned and fair game this included beach towels and wash cloths left on a hand rail to dry out, etc. A grill was to be taken out, used and then wait for it to cool off and take it back in or else lose it. I did read about a Latino that graduated from Arizona State University with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He eventually realized that he could not get a job with an American engineering firm because he was an illegal immigrant so he went back to Mexico. Nearly all large engineering firms that do business with the US Government require American citizenship from people that work on security sensitive projects. This man made no effort to find an avenue to citizenship...he just wanted to take and not give and that appears to be the norm.  I have no sympathy.

                       This Date in History July 30

1780 On this date Patriot Colonel Isaac Shelby and his division of 600 infantry captured Fort Thicketty which was about 10 mile southeast of Cowpens, South Carolina. Shelby and his troops were able to capture the fort that was manned totally by Loyalists without firing a shot. Earlier Shelby was part and parcel of the Battle of Kings Mountain, North Carolina where British General Thomas Ferguson and his division of Loyalists were trapped on top of a small mountain in the King’s mountain range near the North Carolina/South Carolina border and the Patriots had the bottom of the mountain surrounded. Even though Ferguson and his troops surrendered, he and his troops were annihilated. When Ferguson raised a white hanky as a signal of surrender, he said “I am an officer in his majesty’s army and will be treated with dignity and respect.” This comment was met with at least 8 musket balls and Ferguson was dead as fried chicken before he hit the ground. This action was caused by the slaughter of 200 Patriots a few weeks earlier that had surrendered to the infamous British Colonel Banaste Tarleton at the village of Waxhaw just south of present day Charlotte, NC and all were bayoneted and killed. Word of Shelby and his “over the mountain” men had reached the Loyalists at Fort Thicketty and they wanted no part of Shelby and company. Shelby went on down and defeated the British at the Battle of Cedar Springs (in the center of the present day city of Spartanburg, SC) and on down to the Battle of Musgrove Mill which is about 30 mile southwest of Spartanburg. Shelby and his “over the mountain” men were bloodthirsty and ruthless and everybody knew it, especially the Loyalists. The “over the mountain” men were those back country men that came down from the wilds of the Appalachian Mountains to kill the British and were good at it. Speaking of good at it, Shelby was born in Maryland and was involved in Pontiac’s War. He scalped his first Indian at the age of 13. The city of Shelby, North Carolina is named for this Patriot

1619 This date saw the first gathering of a legislative body in America. The House of Burgesses was founded in the choir section of the local church in Jamestown, Virginia. It had been 12 years since Jamestown had been founded and the financier of this expedition was The London Company, a group of investors, and they required a legislative body in the colony. 22 people were voted into office by the local adult males. The first thing they did was establish the minimum price for tobacco. Then they established a law defining what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath. These folks were very religious, y'all. By the way, in old English “Burgess” means “the public”.

1863 On this date Shoshone chief Pocatello signed the treaty of Box Elder Creek making the immigrants able to cross southern Idaho safely. At one time the Bannock Shoshone were one of the most powerful tribes on the Great Plains. But a white man’s disease called smallpox had swept through the tribe in the epidemic of 1781 decimating their number to the point that the fierce Blackfoot had pushed them off the plains and into the mountains. Then there came an even more dangerous group in the Lewis and Clark expedition carrying even more white man’s diseases. The Shoshone wanted to be friends with the white man so they could lay their hands on firearms to defeat the hated Blackfoot. But 50 years later the Shoshone finally realized that the white man was a much more dangerous threat than the Blackfoot but it was too late, the pioneers and settlers were well established along with the US Cavalry.

Born today:

1891 Baseball manager Casey Stengel. He said “The key to being a good manger is to keep those people that hate you away from those that are undecided.” Casey was funny.

Died today:

1784 French philosopher Denis Diderot. He said “All children are essentially criminal.” Tack onto that “especially those little monsters in restaurants sitting in a booster chair five feet from me screaming in their gravelly voices “NO I DON”T WANT THAT, I WANT ICE CREAM!!!!!” I have asked more than one waitress to go knock those brats out. They never do.

1975 Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. He had said “I don’t need bodyguards”. On this date Jimmy was sitting in his Cadillac outside of a restaurant near Detroit one minute and the next minute he and his car disappeared from the planet and have never been found to this day. I don’t know Jimmy, but maybe a couple of means guys with, .45 ACP automatics close by might have prevented that. But for today, goodbye Jimmy wherever you are.

                 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                           Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“There is no doubt that is around family and home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created.”

                                                Anne Frank

Trivia question of the day:

What is the oldest living tree ever documented? Answer at he end of the blog.

Up in Pontiac, Michigan 23 year old Torrie Emery and 20 year old Michelle Booth had been throwing darts at each other on Facebook because both of them were in love with the same inmate in a Michigan prison. A while later Torrie saw Michelle in the passenger seat of a car driven by Michelle’s friend Alesha Abernathy and gave chase. The two cars reached speed of over 100 mph with Abernathy just trying to get away. The cops fell into line and joined the chase trying to put a stop to it. Abernathy was unable to stop for a red light and T-boned a dump truck in the intersection turning the truck on its side but the driver was not injured. However, Alesha was killed and Michelle was seriously injured. Lunatic Torrie was arrested and charged with murder. All of this happened for a convicted felon. I don’t get it. By the way, lunatic Torrie had her three year old daughter in the car with her during the chase.

Military units of South Korea and the United States were conducting joint war games in South Korea and South Korean waters. Those maniacs from North Korea saw this exercise as a threat and have promised a “nuclear response”. I am sure that they are aware that there are enough free world nuclear submarines in the Sea of Japan that a person could walk from Pyongyang to Nagoya, Japan without getting their feet wet. Not to mention the United States aircraft carrier USS George Washington. This puppy has fighter bombers that can carry nuclear devices also. I can promise you that if those idiots launch a nuclear devise of any kind the North Korea part of the Korean peninsula will glow in the dark for years to come.

                This Date in History July 27

1974 On this date the House Judiciary Committee handed down a bill of impeachment with a recommendation of removal from office of the sitting President of the United States, Richard Nixon. All of this adventure began when a group of men were caught and arrested inside the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. Two of those arrested were on the White house staff. It was a given that Nixon could not be beaten in upcoming election because the Democrats did not have a viable candidate but his staff still felt it was necessary to burglarize. Originally the report of these arrests were stuck in the fourth or fifth page of the Washington Post newspaper but two reporters named Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein smelled a rat and began digging. The more they dug the closer they came to the White House. When these two began writing their columns about what they had discovered, the staff at the White House circled the wagons and refused to cooperate with law enforcement which attracted the attention of the Congress. Congress selected Archibald Cox, the head of the Harvard Law School, to act as special prosecutor. Not only did Nixon try to get two Assistant Attorney Generals (Caper Weinberger and Nick Katzenbach) to fire Cox, he called in a very high official in the FBI and told them to not investigate the Watergate incident. Weinberger and Katzenbach not only refused but resigned in protest at this obvious cover-up. Nixon finally persuaded a lesser Federal judge (Richard Bork) to fire Cox. During this time it was determined that Nixon had been taping all the conversations in the Oval Office. Judge Leon Jaworski along with Judge John Sirica, who had replaced Cox, demanded the tapes but Nixon refused claiming executive privilege and a threat to national security. Over a period of time the US Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes which he did. Nixon was not done yet. Some of the most critical tapes had blank spaces which experts said was an erasure. Again the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to produce depositions saying what had been said during the erasures. When these damning documents reached the House Judiciary Committee, A Bill of Impeachment soon followed. Soon thereafter Nixon resigned, turned over the reins to Vice-President Gerald Ford, and moved back to where he came from, San Clemente, California. It was a tragic and time of testing for the United States judiciary/legislative system.

1981 On this date 6 year old Adam Walsh is abducted at a Hollywood, Florida shopping Mall. It seems that Adam and his mother Reve went shopping and little Adam wanted to watch some older boys play video games while his mother was shopping close by. As will happen, the older boys got rowdy and the mall security guard came by and ran everybody out. Little Adam just followed the older boys outside rather than seeking his mother. He waited out side for a short while then he disappeared. A few days later, Adams’s head was found in drainage ditch near Vero Beach, Florida which is nearly 100 miles from Hollywood. The police focused on career criminals and convicted child molesters Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas. Toole was found in jail for another crime and confessed to the murder of little Adam but said that career criminal Henry Lee Lucas was with him and it was he that did the murder. The police investigated and found to no one’s surprise, that Toole was lying because Lucas was in jail in Virginia when Adam was abducted. Toole then recanted his story. The police decided that they would need Adam’s complete body to prosecute anyone. Adams body was never found and the case remains unsolved. Toole was executed in Florida for another murder. We all know what work Adam’s father John has done by establishing the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”

1806 During the Lewis and Clark expedition, the group reached the Great Falls on the Missouri River. Clark took a few men and began exploring further downstream, Lewis headed north to explore the Marias River basin. They left 6 men to portage their boats around the falls. Lewis knew they were in Blackfoot country. The Blackfoot were the fiercest tribe in the area and are to be feared and sure enough, Lewis met up with a party of Blackfoot and he tried to be cordial. It appeared to be working and Lewis invited the Indians to his camp. After it got dark, one of Lewis’s men yelled out that the Indians were trying to steal their horses and rifles. Lewis ran after them and one of the Indians turned and moved toward Lewis whereupon Lewis shot him in the stomach. The rest of the Indians retreated and the horses and rifles were saved. Lewis knew that if there was trouble between the expedition and the Indians while going west, there would be trouble coming back east. Not only that, one of his men said that during the attempt to get the horses back, he had caught up with one of the Indians and stabbed him to death. More trouble, but they would have been in more serious trouble without horses and rifles.

Born today:

1824 French author Alexander Dumas the Younger. He said “I prefer rogues to imbeciles because sometime they take a rest.” We all know some of each.

1956 US comic Carol Liefer. She said “He tricked me into marrying him, he said he was pregnant.” Carol, shut up.

Died today:

2003 US comedian Bob Hope. He said “You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.” Amen, brother.

Answer to the trivia question:

The oldest living tree ever documented was a particular USA Great Basin bristlecone pine that had growth rings of 5, 067 years.

                   Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                               Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“The greatest way to live an honest life is be what you pretend to be.”

                                              Socrates

Trivia question of the day:

The cheetah is the fastest animal on Earth at 60 to 75 MPH in short bursts...what is second?  Answer at the end of the blog.

Out in Bell, California, a small town southeast of Los Angeles, there are just short of 40,000 residents. The majority is Latinos and 17% live below the poverty level spending a lot of time getting food stamps and standing in line at the Food Bank. The Los Angeles Times published the salaries of the city governing body and here is what the residents discovered. The city manager’s salary was $789,000/year with a 12% raise per year guaranteed. That, my friends, is double what the President of the United States salary is. The fire chief had a salary of $458,000 which is half again what the fire chief of Los Angeles gets in a city of 3.8 million. Needless to say, the residents showed up at city hall in force demanding the ouster of the Mayor, the City Manager and the Fire Chief. After a while those three did resign in the knowledge that they would receive 2/3 of their salary as a retirement pension. More hell was raised and finally the District Attorney of Los Angeles County stepped in and began an investigation as to whether obviously corrupt city officials were indeed eligible for a pension.

Over in Cowpens, South Carolina a few days ago an undercover cop working in the vice squad paid a visit to “Mr. Waffle” near I-85 (been there) seeking prostitutes. He saw a woman loitering out front and struck up a conversation. The woman asked him to buy her a soft drink which he did. The woman offered him “any kind companionship he liked.” She introduced herself as Angela which surprisingly was her real name. They got into the deputy’s truck and she demanded to see the man’s penis and he complied and Angela grabbed him by his penis and said “Ok, I guess you are not a cop.” The man suggested a form of sex and Angela “repositioned” herself and it was at this time that the deputy identified himself as being under cover and arrested poor Angela. The question I have is how did Angela expect to identify the man as a cop or not by feeling of his penis? Do cops have a tacitly identifiable peculiarity down there? We learn things every day. By the way, they had a photo of Angela in the item and she had a strangely familiar looking face…she looked a lot like Jeremy Shockey, used to be the tight end for the New Orleans Saints.

A few years ago a group of men got together and decided to open a bar/restaurant on the east side of Austin, Texas. They discussed a name and a logo and decided on The Long Branch Inn was the name and a caricature of a beaver as their logo. The beaver ended up with just the smiling head and buck teeth with LBI on the brim of a sailor’s hat. This last week they got a cease and desist order from an organization saying that the Long Branch was infringing on the copyrights of the University of Oregon State Beavers logo. The owners thought it was a joke but it proved not to be. A comparison photo of each logo was shown and sure enough they were identical except for the “LBI” on one of the sailor’s caps and “OSU” on the other. The Long Branch agreed to change their logo and initiated a contest. The Long Branch has a stuffed Beaver above their bar. So far the leading entry is the same beaver logo except this one has black Groucho Marx glasses on. I don’t know if that will be enough, however. It is pretty damned bad when there is an organization that makes a living making comparisons on college logos against those in free enterprise.

            This Date in History  July 26

1775 Earlier in October of 1774 a Patriot printer from Philadelphia named William Goddard, after years of being frustrated because the Royal Mail Service was not unable to deliver his newspaper to his readers nor to bring important information to Goddard, petitioned the Continental Congress to form a Continental Post Office. The Congress delayed its decision until after the Battles of Lexington and Concord. On this date Congress authorized the formation of a Continental Post Office with Ben Franklin as this nations very first Postmaster General. Ben held this post until the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 and then he was sent to France as the American Emissary. Ben’s son-in-law Richard Bache was named to replace Ben. This was the very first act, and would not be the last, of nepotism in the United States government arena.

1908 On this date Attorney General Charles Bonaparte ordered a group of newly hired investigators to report to Chief Examiner Stanley Finch of the Department of Justice. This event was the first baby step in the formation of the FBI. One year later the Office of Chief Examiner was renamed the Bureau of Investigation. When America entered WWI, the Bureau of Investigation was tasked with investigating draft dodgers, violators of the Espionage Act and immigrants suspected of radicalism. The last one bothers me. Radicalism could be interpreted as an every day attitude to some people but very dangerous to others. Anyway, lawyer and librarian J. Edgar Hoover joined the bureau in 1917 and quickly worked his way to be an assistant to the Attorney General. Hoover and his anti-radical philosophy made him popular during the time period known as the “Red scare era” in 1920-1921. Hoover established a card file on anyone he felt was a “radical” numbering over 450,000. He also had over 10,000 “suspected” communists arrested. The great majority of these people were questioned briefly and released. Hoover was just flexing his muscles. This was a very dangerous ideology and gave Hoover enormous power. Congress eventually became very afraid of this man but his powers of investigation insured his longevity at his position. The upside of the formation of the FBI was they could pursue criminals across state lies since they were a federal agency. Hoover became the acting director of the Bureau of Investigation in 1924. With Congressional approval, Hoover greatly expanded and improved the Bureau with a centralized fingerprint file, an agent training school for agents and he whipped the Bureau into a very efficient crime fighting entity. They were going to need it in the 1930’s during prohibition because powerful criminals like the head of Murder, Incorporated Lepke Burkhalter, “Machine Gun” Kelly who specialized in the kidnapping of people of rich families and demanding enormous ransoms, not to mention Al “Scarface” Capone, “Dutch” Schultz among many others would present a great challenge. The bureau was titled the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. Hoover established an arm of the bureau called COINPRO which was an acronym for counter-intelligence program. This unit was used to counter the supposed infiltration of communists into the US. But it was also used to keep tabs on organizations like the KKK and was used unashamedly to harass and track the movements of Martin Luther King, Jr. simply because Hoover did not agree with his goals of equality for all. When the Watergate scandal broke much pressure and criticism was brought on the Bureau in general and Hoover in particular for the first time Hoover’s tenure. It was during this time frame that Hoover died of heart failure at the age of 77. Evidence proved that the FBI had suppressed evidence that would have proven the culpability of President Richard Nixon in the knowledge of the wrong doing and the attempt to cover it up. Since this time the Congress has established a process of selection of the FBI director that included Congressional approval and limited the tenure to 10 years. The FBI has proven to be a great asset to Americans, but at times have severely over stepped its boundaries.

Answer to the trivia question.

The cheetah is the fastest animal on Earth at 60 to 75 MPH in short bursts the second fastest is the pronghorn antelope from right here in the great plains of the USA that is capable of 61 MPH for a sustained period.

                   Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                          Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I am not a fascist. I am a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what do, whereas priests drink a lot more.”

                                            Father Ted Crilly

Trivia question of the day:
The blue whale if the largest mammal that has ever existed...what is the smallest?  Answer at the end of the blog.

                      This Date in History July 25

1955 On this date the impossible happens. Two ocean liners collide off shore from Nantucket. The Andrea Doria was outbound and the Stockholm was inbound to New York. As y'all may or may not know there are definite “rules of the road” in the marine world. What ships do when approaching at 90 degree angles, when overtaking, when approaching head-on, etc. are set so each ship's captain knows what to expect from the other ships. The trouble here was that the navigator on the outbound ship was navigating by radar and misinterpreted what he saw on the screen. He thought the other ship was crossing his path when it was going to pass to his right with plenty of clearance. The navigator ordered a turn to the right into the path of the Stockholm. The bow of the Stockholm plowed into the side of the Andrea Doria inflicting a fatal wound. The Stockholm was damaged but was still able to sail. The Stockholm stayed with the Andrea Doria and was responsible for the rescue of many of the passengers. Not only that, the luxury French cruise ship the Ile de France that had left New York earlier, turned around and rescued many of the passengers. The Andrea Doria finally rolled on her side and slipped to the bottom. The Andrea Doria is in waters that can be reached by amateur divers and is considered the “Mount Everest” of sport diving. But the divers are faced with very cold water, heavy current and hundreds of Great White sharks. Not this horse.

1963 On this date Bob Dylan performed at the Newport Jazz Festival and a new type of music was born. Bob was able to blend jazz, folk and rock and roll into one genre. He was born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941 but he changed his name because he was an admirer of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. While in high school he formed a band but eventually dropped out of school to pursue his musical career as a performer/songwriter. His life changed when he went to New York and met folk music legend Woody Guthrie several times. It was Woody’s semi-protest song writings that influenced Bob the most. It was Dylan that gave us “Blowin’ in the Wind” which was a monster hit for “Peter, Paul and Mary”. The next hit was “Times they are A-changing” which was the keystone hit of a very successful album. Bob Dylan has been a world recognized songwriter for over 40 years now. He remains very secretive and reclusive when it comes to his personal life. When was the last time y'all have read anything scandalous about Bob Dylan? In fact, when is the last time you read anything at all about Bob Dylan?

1853 Earlier a Mexican immigrant named Joachim Murrieta had moved to northern California during the gold rush of 1849 and staked a claim on the Stanislaus River. According to unsubstantiated stories written by a San Francisco newspaper reporter, Murrieta and his family were treated severely by the other prejudicial gold miners. It was said that he was beaten and whipped, his wife repeatedly raped and his children killed. Because of this, Murrieta organized a gang of thieves and began a reign of terror throughout the gold fields of the area. Finally the state of California got fed up and put out a reward of $6,000 on the head of Joachim Murrieta. They also hired professional gunman Harry Love to hunt down and bring Joachim in, dead or alive. Harry hired 20 men to accompany him on his search. Love finally located Joachim and his gang camped out on Cantua Creek in Calaveras County. At sunrise Harry Love and his posse attack Joachim and his gang of seven others and kill them all including Joachim and his right hand man “Three fingers Jack”. As you might suspect, Jack was missing a finger on his right hand. In order for Harry and his men to collect the $6,000 reward they had to prove that they had killed Joachim. Rather than bring Joachim’s body in they decided to bring his head in instead. So they behead poor Joachim, put the head in a large glass jar and fill it up with whiskey. On this date the head of Joachim Murrieta was put on display in Stockton, California and Harry and the boys collected the $6,000. As a show of class, Harry had cut off the right hand of “Three Fingers Jack” and had it dangling by a string for all to see.

1861 On this date the US Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution. This document stated that the purpose of United States fighting the Civil War was to keep unity and was not for the abolition of slavery. John Crittenden felt that this resolution was necessary to keep the slave-holding states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware from seceding. Even though these were “slave” states they had not joined the Confederacy. At the beginning of the war most northerners felt that the war was necessary for unity but did not give a damn one way or the other when it came to the issue of slavery. Even this attitude changed after the Union armies had suffered one ass-kicking after another including a rout at the Battle of Manassas. Then the northern attitude was “To hell with it. Stop the slaughter and let the Confederacy become their own country.” Even though the resolution had good intentions, the whole meaning was compromised two weeks later when Lincoln signed the Confiscation Act which allowed for the seizure of the property (including slaves) from any rebellious person. This really upset the slave owners in the afore mentioned states and it took a lot of dancing around to stop them from seceding.

Born today:

1902 US philosopher Eric Hoffer. He said “Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.” I guess that is the reason that I see so many agitated people.

1905 Bulgarian writer Elias Canetti. He said “Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being is inside making fun of you.” I think my brother’s dog “Kalie” a yellow Lab does exactly that.

1973 Brazilian soccer star Ze Maria. He said “The pain is very painful.” Ze, shut up.

Died today:

1834 English writer Samuel Coleridge. When speaking about a fellow writer he said “Gibbon’s writing style is detestable, but that is not the worst thing about him.” Sam, I like your style.

Answer to the trivia question:
The smallest mammal on Earth is between two creatures.  On is the Etruscan Shrew which is about the size of your thumb and second is the Bumble Bee bat.  This critter is literally the size of a bumble bee.

                Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                             Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“Thanksgiving dinners take 18 hours to prepare. They are consumed 12 minutes. Half time in a NFL game is 12 minutes...this is no accident.”

                                               Erma Bombeck

Trivia question of the day:

What is the most populous religion in the world? Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back I met a lady named Ronda while celebrating life with members of my eastside social group. Unfortunately the conversation got to present day politics. She had me at a disadvantage because I had stopped watching/listening to the media because of their unreliability. She finally said that she thought that Hillary should be president because she is squeaky clean and has demonstrated leadership. She said that she knows how bad Donald is because she is in the real estate business herself. I had bid her good evening after that stunning display rock hard logic.

                 This Date in History   July 24

1911 On this date American explorer Hiram Bingham is the first honky to lay eyes on one of the most spectacular sites in archaeological history. He had found Machu Picchu, an Inca city hidden in the Andes Mountains northwest of the capitol of Cuzco. After the rape of the Inca by the Spanish conquistadors, the Inca rulers no longer summered in Machu Picchu and its location was kept a secret for 350 years. Only the local natives knew of its existence. This magnificent city had surrounding lands that had been terraced for the raising of crops and the city had running water. It was built of huge stones that were cut so accurately that cement was not required and a razor blade could not be inserted in the seams. This is not the only Inca city that has been found in the Andes that was engineered so greatly. How these cities were build is still a mystery to the world. The Inca were very small in stature and had no draft animals other than the llama. There is no evidence that they had knowledge of the wheel. Machu Picchu was found high up on two peaks that had been leveled to allow construction and it is one of the most visited tourist sites in the world.

1567 Mary Queen of Scots had been imprisoned because of her unbending dedication to Catholicism in a land filled with Presbyterian Royalty. On this date she is forced to abdicate the throne and the crown goes to her infant son that would become James VI of Scotland and eventually James I the first king of England, Scotland and Ireland. Mary was an ambitious girl and tried to take back the crown of Scotland by force but her army was destroyed and she booked to England and asked her cousin Queen Elizabeth I to allow her to have safe haven. The Queen was acceptable to this. But Mary got the itch again and conspired with a bunch of Catholics in England and other countries to overthrow Elizabeth and then Mary would assume the throne. Mary paid for this indiscretion with her head. She just would not give up her religion.

1847 On this date Brigham Young topped a hill and looked down on the Great Salt Lake Valley and uttered “This is the place”. Then he and 148 Mormons walked down into the valley and began to lay out a city for the throngs that would come in the future. Here is a short story about Mormons. When my oldest daughter was just a child, two well scrubbed young men rode up to my house astride bicycles. They knocked on the door and presented themselves as Mormons and would like to tell me about their religion. I asked if they had a bible and they said yes. I told them to leave the bible and come back in a week. It was the Book of Mormon. I read it cover to cover and I want to tell y'all, it was one of the most fascinating books of history I have ever read. But it was almost like reading science fiction because some of it was so unbelievable. But then I asked myself if these events happened before or after Moses turned the Nile River into blood, parted the Red Sea and had a flaming tornado to lead an estimated 7 million Jews into the thirsty Negev desert northeast of Egypt, stay 40 years and leave no physical evidence of it. It is all in what you choose to believe, isn’t it?

1864 Earlier CSA General Robert E. Lee had tasked General Jubal Early with clearing those damned Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley. General Early left and made a feint toward Washington before entering the valley. Early was pursued hotly by a Yankee army commanded by US General George Crook. The two armies had skirmished somewhat but nothing heavy. Then when Early found  that Crook and his army was in terrain that was to Crooks disadvantage then he turned and struck Crook with everything he had. It was a rout, y'all. Those Yankees headed their young asses back toward Washington as fast as they could and Early and company headed at a leisurely pace down the valley. By the way, it was General Crook that was at the head of one of the columns headed to Little Big Horn to capture the Sioux and Cheyenne. He was late. Then he was assigned the task of capturing that wily Apache Geronimo. He pursued Geronimo for five years and in all that time he only got a fleeting glance of him. Crook resigned because of this failure. He was a superb officer but was assigned tasks that were near impossible.

1915 The steamer “Eastland” was in the harbor in Chicago and had been hired by a church to take the congregation out to an island in Lake Michigan for a picnic. The crowd was about 2,500. The boat had originally been built to accommodate 800 but some marine engineers had made some “modifications” to where it would handle 2,500. Another marine engineer published a notice that the so called modifications were bogus and was dangerous. All of the crowd got aboard and then ran to the starboard rail for a group photo. The Eastland began to list and it just kept on rolling trapping nearly all under the hull right there in the slip. Dock workers immediately got their torches working and began cutting holes in the hull and began pulling people to safety. But over 800 were drowned. What a nightmare.

Born today:

1878 English writer Lord Dunsany. He said “Logic, like whiskey is no good if taken in too large of doses.” Hey Lord, Plato, Aristotle and Socrates would beg to differ.

1947 US comic Gallagher. He said “I wish there was a knob on the TV labeled “Intelligence” but the closest I can find is “Brightness” and it don’t work either.” A lot of people like Gallagher but he ain’t my cup of tea.

1970 US actress Jennifer Lopez. Comedian Chris Rock said of her. “I saw Jennifer Lopez on TV the other night accepting some kind of award and she thanked her agent, her family her minister her make-up artist and a lot of other people. She needs to thank that ass, that’s what got where she is today.” Chris must be an ass and legs man like myself.

Died today:

1862 US president Martin Van Buren. He said “It is easier to do the job right than to have to explain why you didn’t.”

Answer to the trivia question:

There are more Christians by far in the world than any other religion with an estimated 2.2 billion. Second is Islam with 1.6 billion.

               Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                             Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“A lot of actors end up going to therapists, I go to Utah.”

Robert Redford

Trivia question of the day:

How many Russians were killed in WWII? Answer at the end of the blog.

                        This Date in History July 23

1967 There was an area in inner city Detroit called Virginia Park on 12^th street. At this point in time there were about 80,000 blacks crammed into about 460 acres living in rat infested absolute squalor. The only white faces seen were shop owners that commuted in to run their businesses. A black man named William Scott ran an illegal after-hours club in the “community center”. At 3:30am on this date, the Detroit police raided Scott’s club. The people that were in there (about 80) were reluctant to leave and the police called in some paddy-wagons and began arrested the patrons. A crowd began to gather on the sidewalk outside the club and some harsh words were thrown at the cops. Then there was a bottle broken on the sidewalk, and then another and soon the cops were under an all out attack and a riot was under way. The cops beat a hasty retreat and thousands of others spilled out into the streets and wholesale looting began. About 6:00am a fire was detected in one of the buildings and soon the whole block was aflame. The riot spread like wildfire and there was nothing the Detroit police could do to stop it. When firemen showed up to fight the fire, they were shot at by snipers and had their fire hoses cut. Finally the mayor of Detroit called Governor George Romney and asked for help and he sent in the National Guard. Even these troops were over their head and Governor Romney asked for federal help from the President, Lyndon Johnson. Johnson sent in the long suffering 82^nd Airborne who began patrolling the streets in armored vehicles but that did not stop it, the riot had spread to a very large area. Finally after 4 days of unabated riots, things began to calm down. The tally was 46 killed, 324 wounded, 7,000 arrested and 5,000 homeless. It was the worst riot in the United States in 100 years. I don’t really get it. Why burn down your own town? But I have never had to live in rat infested absolute squalor.

1878 On this date a highway bandit known as “Black Bart” stopped and robbed a stage coach in California. It was Bart’s style to wear a flour sack with eye holes cut in it on his head and did not speak in a threatening manner. He took the strong box containing $400 and a diamond watch and ring from one of the passengers. The strong box with a note inside was recovered by law enforcement. The note read:

“Here I lay me down to sleep

To await the coming morrow,

Perhaps success, perhaps defeat

And everlasting sorrow,

Yet come what will, I’ll try it once

My condition can’t be worse,

And if there is money in that box,

‘Tis money in my purse.”

This was not the first time that Bart had robbed a stage of the strong box and left a poem but it was the last time that he got away with it. On his next heist he retrieved over $4,000 from the strong box but he mistakenly dropped a handkerchief. The cops found a laundry mark on it and traced it to an elderly man named Charles Bolton living in San Francisco. He was arrested but bristled when the police called him a “ruthless robber”. Bolton emphatically insisted that he was a gentleman that had gotten used to living the high life. He did a short stretch in the slammer and was paroled because of his age. He spent the rest of his days relaxing in Nevada.

1917 On this date Della Sorenson kills her first of seven victims when she poisons her sister-in-law’s infant daughter. Over the next seven years friends, relatives and acquaintances die under mysterious circumstances. Her next victim was her mother-in-law who was also poisoned as they all were. She did not stop there; she poisoned her own daughter and then her husband. Waiting only 4 months, Della re-married and moved to Dannebrog, Nebraska. Shortly after this she was visited by a former sister-in-law and her infant child. You guessed it; Della fed that baby poisoned candy and he died. The same sister-in-law came back a year later with another baby. She was obviously oblivious to what Della was up to. Della fed this baby poison but it just got sick and recovered. The same thing happened to her second husband; he was poisoned and was sickened but recovered. She delivered a daughter of her own and when the child was one year old, Della poisoned and killed her. The police finally figured out that all these deaths were not a coincidence and arrested Della. She confessed and said “I really like going to funerals, I like to see people die.” The police and the justice system in their wisdom figured that Della was a fruit cake and she spent the rest of her days in an asylum. While there she tried to get the prison officials to get her some rat poison.

Born today:

1888 US writer Raymond Chandler. He was the author of only seven novels but was enormously popular. He invented a hard nosed private detective named Phillip Marlowe and most of his novels included the Marlowe character. One Marlowe’s famous lines was “She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.” I think I know this woman.

1912 British actor Michael Wilding. He said “You can always tell an actor by the glazed look in their eyes when the conversation wanders away from them.” Then that must mean that most of the people I have seen in “Richard’s” the biker bar near Mount Pleasant are actors because they have a glazed look in their eyes but I think it ain’t because of their egos.

1973 Cigar model and all around good egg, Monica Lewinsky. When speaking of alleged friend Linda Tripp she said “She can reconstruct her face, hair and body but she is still revolting to me.” Monica left the Clinton White House as a living legacy.

2001 Award winning author, photographer and died in the wool Mississippian Eudora Welty. She said “Never think you have seen the last of anything.” Say it isn’t so, Eudora. Think of when Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid, Diane Feinstein and Lindsay Graham, et al are gone, for crying out loud.

Answer to the trivia question:

There were at least 11 million Russian soldiers killed and between 7 and 20 million civilians (dependent upon which historian you read) killed or died from exposure, famine and disease during the German onslaught.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow