Tuesday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Men prefer blonds but will take what they can get”

                                   Don Herold

Trivia question of the day:

How did the Marathon race of 26 miles come about?

                                Five Murders

On the weekend ending July 16, 2015 there was five murders here in Greenville, SC, the buckle of the Bible Belt. On Friday afternoon a woman in her mid-thirties drove into the parking garage of an apartment complex in downtown Greenville. She waited for then shot a 28 year old woman to death while she was getting out of her car. She then drove about 7 miles to a race track, stopped her black Jeep Patriot and shot and killed her 9 and 5 year old kids and then herself. What in the hell could have caused this craziness?

She and her husband had separated and there was trouble brewing about custody of the kids. Not only that her estranged husband had moved out of their pretty fancy home in an affluent neighborhood and moved into that apartment complex downtown where the murder took place. His wife thought he was having an affair with the 28 year old woman and apparently was moving on with his life. Both he and the alleged girlfriend were employees at Michelin. The cops had visited the estranged wife on several occasions because of threats she had made to her husband the the murdered woman but no action was taken. According to many that woman's mind was clearly unbalanced and the kids needed to be removed from her custody but there is a limit on what the police can do. But there are agencies that do have the authority to judge a parent's mental state when children lives are involved or threatened and take action..this did not happen and the kids and the murdered woman paid the price.

Then over on the west side a man and woman were seen arguing. A short while later the man was seen chasing the woman with gun in hand and eventually caught up and shot her. In the meantime some of the witnesses to this called the cops and they were on the scene very shortly after that shooting and confronted the shooter who responded by opening fire on the cops. They responded with gunfire of their own. The shooter was dead before he hit the ground. The woman lived for a few minutes after she was shot but succumbed a short while later.

I don't know what to make of all of this. I tend to think logically and in black and white. All of this is illogical and is a shade of gray.

                    This Date in History   July 17

1870 On this date James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok being

unemployed was knocking back a few back at Drum’s Saloon in Hays City, Kansas. At one time “Wild Bill” was the sheriff of Hays City and nearby Newton, Kansas also. There was a US Army camp nearby that was the headquarters of infamous 7^th Cavalry. On this particular day there were five cavalry troopers standing at the bar at Drums and all of them were drunker than Cooter Brown. For reasons known only to them they started “needling” Bill even though he was advanced in years but was still quick with his fists and pistols. The troopers went too far and brawl broke out and the five soldiers got Bill down on the floor. One of the soldiers pulled his sidearm and pulled the trigger but it misfired, then Bill pulled his two revolvers and opened fire hitting one of them in the wrist and elbow and hitting a second one in the stomach. The other three troopers backed off. Bill got up and immediately left town even though it was a clear case of self defense. Bill got tired of doing nothing and applied for a scout’s job with the 7^th. It was then that he found out that the trooper he shot in the stomach had died so there was no chance of him getting the job. He knocked around for a while doing personal appearances in Wild West Shows and other things and ended up in Deadwood, South Dakota. It was there that he was shot in the back of the head and killed while playing poker. He was 39 years old. The poker hand he was holding was two pair, aces and eights, from that day to this is known as a “dead man’s hand.”

1996 On this date TWA flight 800 departed JFK airport in New York

headed for Paris. About four minutes after departure flight 800 was given permission to climb to cruise altitude and almost immediately the plane exploded and fell into Long Island Sound in pieces killing all 230 souls aboard. It was just a few weeks before the Olympics were to begin in Atlanta so everyone yelled “Terrorist!” Not only that, there were eyewitnesses that said they saw a rocket streak up to the aircraft and blow a wing off. Anyway, the FBI, NYPD and the NTSB got together and performed a joint investigation. They pulled as much of the aircraft out of the water that they could and reassembled it. They kept leaning toward a mechanical failure in spite of continued testimony of eyewitnesses to a rocket striking the aircraft including former US Presidential Press secretary Pierre Salinger. But all of these were discounted including several accounts that the US Navy was on maneuvers in the Sound and let a test rocket get away from them. But this crash went down in the records officially as a mechanical failure. Who knows what really happened? I don’t.

1959 On this date one of the most tragic lives in the history of

American music came to an end. Billie Holliday was born Elinore Fagan in Baltimore in abject poverty. She worked as a prostitute at the age of 14 encouraged by her mother. She began singing in some smoky dives in Baltimore. It took a while but she finally was recognized for the great jazz vocalist that she was. Her climb to notoriety was steady and she finally reached stardom but she brought a monkey on her back with her. That’s right; she was a junkie, a habit that she picked up while in the gutters of Baltimore. She finally died at the age of 44 from heart failure because of too much drugs. What a tragic life, yet what a voice.

Born today:

1902 Australian writer Charlotte Snead. She said “If all the rich

people in the world were to divide up their money, there would not be enough to go around.” Who can argue with that searing logic?

1934 US actor Donald Sutherland. He said “I did a movie with

Tallulah Bankhead once. She walked into my dressing room by mistake completely nude. I could not help but stare and she said “What’s the matter “dahling”, haven’t your ever seen a blond before?”

Died today:

1903 US artist James McNeil Whistler. Once this exchange took

place between Whistler and a Socialite.

Socialite: “Mr. Whistler what ever persuaded you to be born in Lowell, Mass.?”

Whistler: “I just wanted to near my mother.”

1959 Jazz singer Billie Holliday. She said “Mom and Dad were just

kids when they got married. Dad was 18, Mom was 16 and I was 3.”

1974 US baseball pitcher “Dizzy” Dean. He said “Fans don’t fail to

miss tomorrow’s game.” Dizzy must have been a relative of Yogi

Berra.

Answer to the trivia question:

Marathon is a seaport on Greece's east coast. An enormous army and naval fleet from Persia arrived and deployed troops with the intention of capturing all of Greece. They were met at waters edge by a Greek army and defeated. A runner named Phidippides was sent to tell the people of Athens about the victory. Phidippidies dropped dead after arriving but not before saying “We are victorious”. It is 26 miles from Marathon to Athens.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow