Thursday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Men, they have us surrounded now they can't stop us from killing them.”

                         Lt. Col. Lewis B.“Chesty” Puller USMC

                               Chosin reservoir, N. Korea, 1953

Chesty Puller joined the Marines as an enlisted man and retired as a Lieutenant (three star) General. He is the most decorated Marine in history. He was shown a demonstration of a flame thrower and said “Where do you put the bayonet?”

Trivia question of the day:

Who was the most decorated soldier in WWII for the USA? Answer at the end of the blog.

I saw a program of the food network with Andrew Zimmern. He was dining in a steak house in Miami. Their surf and turf was Kobe beef filet at $30/ounce with an 8 ounce minimum. This means that if you are on a date the steak alone would set you back $480. The turf part is a whole Alaskan King crab that is about 3 feet across and is $450...you are allowed to share this part. The extras are ala carte so there is not telling what they would cost you. In addition to your cocktails before and after dinner, you would certainly need a bottle of cheap Dom Perignon at about $280. I figure this date would cost a minimum of $1,700 plus tip. I would hope she would be worth it.

Do y'all know why Texas is known as the Lone Star State? Here is the reason. After the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto the Mexican government signed over all claims to Texas. The Texans formed the Republic of Texas and applied to become a state...a “slave” state at that. Texas was denied because it would create an imbalance in the slave states vs the free states. Texas remained a separate republic for nine years until Maine applied for statehood as a free state and both Maine and Texas were granted statehood at the same time maintaining the balance. The lone star is in remembrance of Texas as an independent republic.

                  This Date in History July 19

1799 Earlier French emperor and conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte had decided to put the entire eastern hemisphere of the world under his rule and began working his way eastward down the Mediterranean. He and his army eventually ended up in the ancient land of Egypt. Napoleon had always stressed to his commanders that all arts and cultures should be saved. On this date one of his soldiers discovered an irregular black basalt stone with strange inscriptions near the city of Rosetta. He brought the stone back to his commander and it eventually ended up in the British Museum (been there) and has been there since 1802. Many linguists examined it and they determined that the inscriptions were about a former Pharaoh, Ptolemy V. The difference here was the inscriptions were describing the same events but in three different languages, Greek, modern Egyptian hieroglyphics and ancient hieroglyphics. From this stone the world was able to crack the meaning of the hieroglyphics that had escaped understanding for centuries. It was a great moment in history.

1848 It was on this date that the long journey to women’s rights began. An advertised meeting “for women only” was held in the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. The leaders of this “convention” were Lucretia Mott and Sarah Cady among several others. They were there to discuss slavery and as a side note, they discussed the right of women to vote. Women had been denied the right to vote since the founding of this great nation. The convention came up with a list of grievances and a plan of further meetings, marches of protest, etc. As you might suspect, they were severely ridiculed and support that they had previously received was withdrawn. But they did not let up and 72 years later the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution was passed and American women gained the right to vote. The story of how United States President Woodrow Wilson fought against the leader of women’s suffrage, Alice Paul, during his tenure is worthy of an essay of it own. It will follow later.

1863 Earlier one of the greatest cavalry officers this country has ever produced, CSA General John Hunt Morgan, began a raid in the state of Ohio. He feinted toward Cincinnati and then moved westward. After several weeks of raids against Union supply depots he headed for home in Kentucky. He had planned to cross the Ohio River near Bluffington, Ohio but there had been several days of torrential rain, the Ohio River could not be crossed at Bluffington and all the other fords were being guarded by Union cavalry. There was a brief skirmish at Bluffington between Morgan and a Union cavalry unit which resulted in the capture of nearly half of Morgan’s cavalrymen. Morgan knew he could not go any further south so he turned around and headed back into the interior of Ohio. After a week of running and hiding, Morgan and the rest of his troops was cornered and captured. He was incarcerated at a prison camp near Columbus, Ohio. Within two weeks he had escaped and made his way back to Kentucky and raised another cavalry unit.

1879 Earlier a dentist from Valdosta, Georgia had learned that he had contracted tuberculosis and was persuaded by his doctors to seek a drier climate. Doc Holiday decided on opening a saloon in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The dry climate is helpful but Doc knows his days are numbered and chooses to drink and gamble heavily. As with most saloons in the American west, there were dancing girl/prostitutes on duty most of the time. Unfortunately, an ex-army scout named Mike Gordon fell for one of Doc’s dancing girls and tried to persuade her to quit her job and run away with him. She refused which infuriated Mike. He went out into the street and started shooting up Doc’s bar. After the second shot Doc calmly walked out onto the sidewalk and dropped poor Mike with one shot to the chest and he died the next morning. This was the first, but by no means the last person killed by Doc Holiday. He abandoned the bar business and moved to Tombstone, Arizona and met up with his friend Wyatt Earp where he joined in the killing and beating of criminals in Tombstone including the infamous “Gunfight at the OK Corral”. Finally, the hard living, hard drinking and tuberculosis caught up with Doc and he went to a sanitarium in Colorado to die. On his deathbed he looked around at the all the peace and quiet and remembering his violent life he said “This is funny.”

Born today:

1865 Famous US Physician Charles Mayo. He said “A specialist is someone who learns more and more about less and less.” I think I know this person.

Answer to the trivia question:

The most decorated soldier for the USA in WWII was Audie Murphy.

              Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow