Friday

                                Musing and History

THIS WILL BE MY LAST BLOG FOR A WHILE...I AM IN THE PROCESS OF MOVING TO GULF BREEZE, FL AND I HAVE MY HANDS FULL WITH THIS PROCESS.

Quote of the day:

“Happiness is not found in possessions and gold; Happiness is found only in the soul.

                                                 Democritus

Trivia question of the day:

What NFL player was know as “The Snake”? Answer at the end of the blog.

At one point in time some of the people of Scotland felt that English rule had become intolerable and a flood of immigrants came to America. Because of their rough cut and rowdy nature they were not welcomed by the snooty landowners in the northeast nor the Tidewater plantations down south so they headed west and settled in the Blue Ridge/Appalachian mountains. The residents felt they they would be a good buffer between their plantations and savage Cherokee, Creek and Choctaw. The immigrants brought certain idioms in their language with them. One of them is “Hillbilly”. This comes from a time when there was a political division in the Scotland. The Scottish Highlanders were loyal to King William or “King Billy”. The Highlanders became “King Billy's hill people” thus “Hillbilly”.

A few days after D-day a trumpeter/bugler came ashore and was playing Reveille in the morning and Taps at night. On one particular night his commander told him to not play Taps because they knew of one particular German sniper out there that they had not been able to locate. The trumpeter known as “Captain Jack” decided to play anyway, except he played Lili Marlene, which is almost the national song of Germany. Jack was not shot at but the next morning a team of Allied soldiers brought in 15 German prisoners and one of them said in broken English, “Who played the trumpet?” Captain Jack said that he was the trumpeter and they shook hands. The prisoner said that when he heard Lili Marlene he thought of his girl friend, his brothers and sister, his parents and grandparents and decided that he had rather live and surrendered. In this case, music made the difference.

Illegal immigrants are on all of our minds because of recent events. It reminded me of another time in the history of this nation. In the early 1800's many Irish immigrants landed on our shores. They were not welcomed for the most part. Primarily because of their fiery nature and they didn't speak English very well. Later on they proved their dedication to this country with the formation of the New York 69^th Regiment during the American Civil War. This unit was lead by an Irish immigrant named Thomas Meagher (pronounced Maar) and labeled “The Fighting 69th”. This unit was the third in the most casualties per unit during the entire war. Once they started and attack they did not stop until they were all dead or were victorious. They didn't have to fight with that kind of ferocity but they wanted this country to survive and was willing to die for it. I wonder if one of the stipulations of becoming an American citizen was four years in our military would make difference.

          This Date in History   September 21

1945 Henry Ford II takes over at Ford after the sudden death of his father. The company was rapidly approaching bankruptcy and needed help. The first thing Henry II did was fire the Personnel Chief Harry Bennett who for years had used strong armed tactics and a anti-union stance that made Ford famous for bad labor relations. Henry had virtually no management training or experience and he knew it. So he hired several young financial wizards led by Robert McNamara known as the “Whiz kids”. Among these young guys was a Princeton graduate named Lee Iacocca. As we all may or may not remember Robert McNamara later became the Secretary of Defense under JFK and Iacocca became president of Chrysler. The “whiz kids” saved Ford from bankruptcy and the rest is history.

1961 The US 5^th Special Forces Group, 1^st Special Forces is activated at Fort Bragg, NC by President JFK. Kennedy was very interested in this unit and came to visit. While there he specified that the unit was to be used to train the Vietnamese people to do their own counter-insurgency work. He also allowed them to wear a special headgear, the Green Beret. The 5^th Special Forces Group went to Nam in 1964 and assumed responsibility for all Special Forces. They zeroed in on the mountain people known as the Montagnards and trained them extensively. By 1970 there were about 42,000 men and women trained by the Green Berets in Nam and the Green Berets transferred responsibility to the South Vietnam Border Rangers for the rest of the war. The 5^th was withdrawn from Nam in February of 1971. The Green Berets executed their mission magnificently but sadly it seems that it was all for naught.

1938 The incredible happens when a category 3 hurricane struck New England. As with all Atlantic hurricanes the storm began off the west coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands. It became a hurricane as it approached the Leeward Islands and was reported to the US Weather Service by a ship. The hurricane headed for the Carolinas coast but suddenly turned north and followed the eastern seaboard. The US Weather Service thought the hurricane would dissipate over the colder waters but the storm was over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and held together. The howling storm came ashore over Long Island, NY with virtually no warning for the residents. As house by house was disintegrated by the onslaught and some of the residents were washed out to sea and were never seen again. The storm arrived at New London, Connecticut at high tide with 40 ft waves preceding it. New London was nearly leveled with many injuries and death. The next city in the path of this monster was Providence, Rhode Island and after all was said and done there was 13 feet of water in the city. This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The hurricane dissipated over Nova Scotia. Hurricanes were not named in those days so this disaster is just known as the Storm of 1938. The final totals were: 600 dead, 9,000 homes destroyed and 15,000 damaged, 3,000 ships sunk. There hadn’t been a hurricane in New England for 100 years and I guess the residents were not worried about them. They do now.

1942 The first B-29 Super Fortress went on a test flight in Seattle, Washington. The bomber was an idea dreamed up by US Gen. Hap Arnold that wanted a bomber that could lift nearly its own weight and have a range of 3,000 plus miles. Boeing got the contract and delivered the bomber in minimum time. This bomber was instrumental in ending the war in the Pacific as the B-17 Flying Fortress was in ending the war in Europe during WWII. I guess the 2 most famous B-29s were the Enola Gay and Bock’s Car. The morning of August 6, 1945 saw the Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan and the morning of August 9, 1945 saw Bock’s Car over Nagasaki, Japan. Bock’s Car got its name from the pilot John Bock but on this day the pilot was Major Charles Sweeney.

Born today:

1966 Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland (son of Donald.) After being awarded the Golden Globe award he said “Now I know how Charlie Sheen felt. I’ve lost all feeling in my lower half.” I really enjoy his performance in “24”.

Died today:

19BC Roman writer Virgil. He said “It does not bother the wolf as to how many sheep there are.” That sounds like Robert E. Lee to me.

Answer to the trivia question:

In the NFL “The Snake” was Ken Stabler born in Foley, Alabama, went to the Univ. of Alabama and played for the Oakland Raiders.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                                   Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“No longer forward nor behind I look in hope and fear;

But grateful take the good I find, the best of now and here.”

                                      John Greenleaf Whittier

Trivia question of the day:

What major league baseball player was known as “The Georgia Peach”?

Earlier New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush returned the Heisman Trophy he was awarded in 2005. He said that he had to do it to settle his conscience. I seems that Reggie and his family was given thousands of dollars if he would attend the University of Southern California on a football scholarship. This is a gigantic no-no in the world of college football. No one has said from whence the money came but the University itself appears blameless, or at least that is their claim. They caught hell from the NCAA for recruiting violations. But I can assure you that they will not return the $48 to $50 million dollars gained when they beat Oklahoma for the national championship in the 2004-2005 season with Bush in the backfield. There was talk that the 2005 Heisman should be offered to Vince Young who came in second to Bush but the Heisman committee will just record that there was no Heisman Award given in 2005.

I saw a TV show about Moses and the 12 tribes being banished to wander the desert (probably the Negev) for 40 years after leaving Egypt...so I did some speculation. There is no definite amount given for the number of people involved in the Exodus. I am saying that the “banishment” to the desert was not a punishment at all but was planned. How could the Hebrews expect to fight their way through hundreds of miles of of hostile tribal lands without a trained army and weapons? After all they had been enslaved in Egypt for 300 years (give or take) and they certainly did not have a trained infantry, archers and for sure were not allowed to have chariots and horses. I think Moses camped out in the desert to increase the size of an available army by double, manufacture weapons and most of all, the training of an army in discipline and combat tactics. They would have been annihilated if they had entered the Jordan River Valley without a viable military. By the way, how could a significant number of people camp out in the desert for 40 years and not leave one archaeological site...just saying. The Exodus allegedly took place during the reign of Ramses II. This would put the time at about 1,400BC.

                     This Date in History   September 20

1979 Lee Iacocca is elected chairman of the Chrysler Corporation. Lee had been fired by Ford earlier because Henry Ford II thought that Lee was just a “simple Italian immigrant”. Lee set about rescuing Chrysler from the precipice of bankruptcy. He was successful by layoffs, streamlining, “In your face advertising” and government guaranteed loans which Chrysler paid back in four years. During these four years, Lee asked that his salary be $1 per year setting an example for the other executives. After Chrysler began thriving again Lee was offered a salary of $7M per year, he said no to that offer and said “I will would take $1M a year, what the hell am I going to do with $7M a year.” Think about the raping other companies have been getting from their executives recently. We need more people like Lee.

1968 US military officials defend the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants in Vietnam. During the same news conference Dr. Fred Shirley a US Dept. of Agriculture official said the US military had severely underestimated the long term effect of these defoliants and that he suspected there would be an adverse effect on the crops that were sprayed. These chemicals were used primarily in III corps to clear out the foliage near the DMZ and borders with other countries to make it easier to discover incursions. Later on the Vietnamese people near the sprayed areas came down with unusually high rates of cancer and birth defects. I really don’t know the facts about what caused these tragedies because no comprehensive study has been done but I am convinced it was the defoliants. The US military sprayed 19 million gallons of this stuff. What the hell?

1943 The Germans had assigned the giant battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst to Norway to harass and/or stop the shipping of materiel from the US to Russia and England. The Scharnhorst left on an assignment leaving the Tirpitz alone in a Norwegian fiord. Many attempts were made to bomb the ship but all had failed so six English mini-subs were assigned the task of attaching explosives to the hull of the Tirpitz and lighting them off. On this day three of the subs were successful and damaged the ship to the point that it was out of commission for 6 months. By then better air cover for the convoys had been established and the Tirpitz was never able to fire a shot in anger.

Born today:

356BC Greek military genius Alexander the Great. He said “Remember upon the actions of one depends the fate of all.” His greatest enemy was the Persians which he always defeated. One reason was that Alexander’s troops carried lances that were about two feet longer than the Persians, meaning that in a head to head charge, Alexander’s troop’s lance points got there first. The Persians never figured that out along with Alexander’s mastery of his cavalry and engineering. The Persians came from what is now Iraq and Iran. They are still stupid.

Born today:

1902 English author Florence “Stevie” Smith. She said “This Englishwoman is so refined she has no bosom and no behind.” I think we have met, Stevie.

1921 US comic Slappy White. He said “The trouble with being unemployed is that as soon as you wake up you are on the clock.” Been there, done that, have tee shirt.

Died today:

1933 English social reformer Annie Besant. She said “For centuries the clergy considered women as a necessary evil and the most revered saints were those that hated women the most.” When you say “saints” that means Catholic to me. Maybe all of those priests that were prosecuted for sexual abuse of juveniles really hated women down deep. But what do I know?

1996 Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos. He said “A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.” I can’t drink Starbucks coffee, makes me too jumpy.

2005 Ukrainian Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. He said “None of my clients, not Stangl, not Mengele, not Eichmann, not even Hitler or Stalin was born a criminal. Someone had to teach them to hate: Maybe politics, maybe the society, or maybe it took even a Jewish prostitute to take them below.” Wiesenthal was a relentless pursuer of those monsters...he is no longer with us.

Answer to the trivia question:

The major league baseball player known a “The Georgia Peach” was Ty Cobb...born and raised near Royston, Georgia

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Equal opportunity means that everyone will have a fair chance at proving their incompetence.”

                                         Laurence Peters

Trivia question of the day:

What was the deadliest hurricane/cyclone in history? Answer at the end of the blog.

The English language is a montage of words from many different sources, here is some examples:

“There is a “hurricane” just east of the windward islands.” The Mayan god of storms is Huracan.

“That fluid is toxic.” or “Sarin is a toxin.” According to Greek mythology in a fit of madness Hercules (Heracles in Greek) killed his wife and children. The punishment given by the Gods was eight “labors” or tasks considered to be impossible for the common man and a hell of a challenge for a super human like Hercules. The second of his tasks was to destroy the Lernean Hydra. This critter had the body of a giant snake with nine heads (the number of heads varied with different versions) all of which could deliver a poisonous bite. The hard part was when you cut off one of the heads another one immediately replaced it...the Hydra was considered impossible to kill. This critter was so vile that even its breath and its blood could kill. Hercules waded into battle with his gigantic sword in one hand and a torch in the other. He would cut off one head and immediately cauterize it so another one would not sprout. He eventually was able to slay the Hydra. Since the blood of the Hydra was poisonous Hercules decided to dip the points his arrows into the blood of the Hydra. He also had the most powerful bow in the world...Hercules had named his bow TOXUS. Toxin and toxic are refugees from this Greek mythological tale.

Here is another one:

In Greek mythology there was a war for control of the universe between the god Cronus (Kronus) and his son Zeus (Dios). Cronus had the Titans and his allies and Zeus had the Olympians as his. Cronus was losing the war primarily because Zeus had control of lightning so Cronus unleashed his mightiest Titan which was the god of war...named TYPHON. It is from this that we arrive at typhoon.

           This Date in History September 19

1966 Twenty-two scientists including several Nobel laureates sent President Lyndon Johnson a letter advising against the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam because of the risk of several elements in the chemical that could adversely affect human and animal life. The House Republicans send LBJ a “white paper” advising that the US was getting too deep into the war in Nam and it was affecting the economy adversely. United Nations Secretary-General U Thant sent LBJ a letter advising him to re-think the US involvement in Vietnam. And finally Pope Paul VI suggests that a Catholic encyclical should be issued against the US getting involved what was considered by his holiness to be a civil war. LBJ responded by sending swarms of B-52’s, F-105’s, F-4’s and several types of naval aircraft to bomb the dog shit out of several targets north and south of the DMZ. This is a prime example of the old adage “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. And finally “When enough people tell you that you are sick, you had better lie down.” LBJ was a hardheaded dude. There is no doubt in my mind that worry over the Vietnam War killed him.

1955 Argentina President Juan Peron is deposed by a military coup. You know, you see a lot of that in Central and South America. I guess it is their blood to change Presidents once in a while no matter what. Peron went into exile in Spain. Two years before this event Peron’s wife Eva died from cancer. Eva, known affectionately as Evita, was loved by the working class because while she was married to Peron she fostered many changes for the working class making their lives more tolerable and she was a damn good looking woman too. Y'all know about the musical “Evita” that more or less depicted Eva’s life. Later on Peron is re-elected President of Argentina and by this time he has a new wife named Isabel. In 1974 Peron died and Isabel assumed the Presidency but the Argentine Air Force said “I don’t think so” and is deposed by a, you guessed it, military coup. Argentina suffered under this brutal administration until they were kicked out by a…you know.

1900 Robert Parker and Harry Longabough robbed a bank in Winnemucca, Nevada together. Y’all may not know these guys but they were also known as Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. In his youth Parker took his name Butch Cassidy in honor of a neighbor that taught him the ways of the gun. Longabough took the name Sundance because that the name of the town whose jail he spent a lot of time at for horse thievery. They both were members of the loose group known as the Hole in the Wall gang which got its name from a secret hideout in the mountains of Colorado. The Pinkerton detective agency was hired by the railroads to stop these two from robbing trains and was on their asses constantly. It got so bad that Butch, Sundance and a woman named Etta Place moved to South America and started knocking over banks in Argentina. The Argentinians were not amused and chased them out and they went to Bolivia and did some honest work for a while until their identities were discovered. It is reported that Butch and Sundance were killed in a shootout in San Vicente, Bolivia. The rumor persists that Butch escaped and spent his last years peacefully on a ranch in Nevada. Nothing was ever heard from Etta Place again. An interesting mystery.

1827 Jim Bowie got into duel in Alexandria, Louisiana and the weapon of choice was knives. For the first time Jim revealed the knife that bears his name and after being shot several times and stabbed with a sword he disemboweled his banker opponent. There were a lot of fights in those days but Jim and his brother Rezin had way more that normal. It is almost a certainty that Jim did not invent the famous knife but it was probably his brother Rezin who was severely wounded earlier in a knife fight and decided that he needed a knife that would cut both directions, had the weight of a hatchet and a sharp point to stab with and voila, the Bowie knife. There was a rumor that the knife was made with a piece of a meteorite making it “out of this world” which was untrue. Jim died at the Alamo in 1836 and Rezin died in New Orleans in 1841.

Born today:

1851 English writer Henry Arthur Jones. When speaking of George Bernard Shaw he said “He is a freakish homunculus germinated outside lawful procreation.” I had to go the dictionary here.

1911 English writer William Golding. He said “Sleep is when all the unsorted stuff comes flying out of your mind like a dustpan in a high wind.” What a thought.

1974 US comic Jimmy Fallon. He said “Sometimes I wish I had a bad childhood. That might explain my Looney Tunes behavior.” Jimmy was a regular on Saturday Night Live and now has a late night show replacing Jay Leno.

Died today:

1881 US President James A. Garfield. He said “I have had a lot of trouble in my life but the worst never came.” This is a good philosophy for all of us. If you don't acknowledge the worst then it never happens.

Answer to the trivia question:

The deadliest hurricane/cyclone in history is the great Bhola cyclone of 1970. It roared ashore in India/Bangladesh with 155 MPH winds and 20 foot storm surge and killed between 300,000 and 500,000 people

          Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

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

                                         Muhammad Ali

Trivia question of the day:

During what conflict was the first Congressional Medal of Honor awarded? Answer at the end of the blog

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.

Answer to the trivia question:

The first Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery was awarded to Jacob Parrott during the American Civil War.

              Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Monday

                              Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“When you feel you are going through hell, keep putting one foot in front of the other. Eventually you will come out on the other side or you will find a road sign that will give you direction.”

This is composite of quotes by Winston Churchill and Hunter Thompson.

Trivia question of the day:

What NFL defensive lineman was known as “Tooz”? Answer at the end of the blog.

                      The Saga of Robin

Back in 1955 a woman child was born in the vicinity of Norfolk, Virginia. The exact location and last name are not known by me but it doesn’t seem to matter much. Robin had a hard time growing up because of a dysfunctional family. She was very unhappy and ran away from home more than once. Soon she was in a reform school for a period of time and eventually was released at the age of 15. Her refusal to go back to her parents put her on the streets and made her a prime target for junkies and dealers. She became addicted to alcohol and heroin and did share needles. In addition to this she became addicted to music and taught herself to play the guitar and harmonica. During the next few years she played on the streets of cities like Richmond, Virginia, Detroit, Atlanta and Coconut Grove, Florida. She played on the streets and coffee houses for tips and an occasional club date. Most of the time she slept under park benches, abandoned cars or service station rest rooms, etc. She spent several years in south Florida and played mostly club dates. At the age of 34 she decided to give up the drugs and moved to Gastonia, North Carolina to get away from the drug influenced life style. She connected with a guitarist named Tony Rogers. Robin had steady work in the clubs around Gastonia and her deep, rich contralto blues notes sent chill bumps down Tony’s arms and he told her that she needed to get out on her own. So Tony and Robin were married in 1998 and formed the “Robin Rogers Hot Band” with Robin doing the vocals and occasional harp with Tony on guitar and a drummer and an upright bass. Soon after that Tony and Robin tried to get life and health insurance and the resulting physical indicated that all was not right with Robin’s liver and she was rejected. But Robin and Tony continued with their beloved blues and Robin was soon recognized as a superior blues vocalist and several tours and CD’s were launched. The sun was finally rising on Robin’s world and she and Tony basked in its warmth…until September 2, 2010. Robin began bleeding from the mouth and the diagnosis was Hepatitis C. Several procedures were attempted to no avail and the doctors reported that she could not stand surgery because of her condition. She was sent home in the care of hospice. It was not long for this woman of soul and sure enough she has passed. Look her up on Youtube.com and let her rip your heart out like she did mine.

                  This Date in History   September 17

1932 Speed demon Sir Malcolm Campbell (no relation that I know of) sets a land speed record of 76.035 MPH. Think about that folks, that is about the average speed traveled on nearly all of the Interstate highways today. Anyway, Sir Malcolm at the age of 50 broke the 300 MPH barrier at the Bonneville Salt Flats, that’s better. Sir Malcolm also was interested in the speed record over water and did so on several occasions but his last try resulted in a gust of wind getting under his hydroplane and sent it airborne at which the hydroplane disintegrated killing Sir Malcolm. If anyone had the”need for speed” it was Sir Malcolm.

1950 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis make their debut on the TV show The Colgate Comedy Hour and are an immediate smash hit. They stayed together until 1956 when they decided to go their separate ways. Dean went on the nightclub circuit, especially in Las Vegas. Jerry made 3 or 4 movies that were a flop here in the US but were very popular in Europe where he is considered a comic genius. Dean teamed up with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop forming what was known as” The Rat Pack”. They were a nightclub act that was very popular for a long time. Dean also had a TV variety show for 9 years. After Peter Lawford died Dean was asked what had Peter died from, Dean responded with “Peter died of vodka”. Sad. Dean died in 1995 ending a remarkable life.

1862 The bloodiest single day in American history occurred on this day near a small town in Maryland named Sharpsburg and near a small creek name Antietam. There were actually 3 separate battles; Dunker Church, West Woods and Miller’s cornfield. At dawn US Gen. Joseph Hooker unleashed an attack on the Confederate troops under the command of CSA Gen. Stonewall Jackson near Dunker Church. Hooker’s attack is stemmed by a ferocious counter-attack by the Confederates at which there was a ghastly number on casualties on both sides. The worst attack came when US Gen. Edwin Sumner was able to get artillery pieces aimed down a sunken road where the Confederates had a line of infantry lying down and shooting over the embankment. The slaughter was unbelievable. This road from then to this day is known as “Bloody Lane”. This battle was a tactical draw but it did force Lee back into Virginia to refit. The total casualty count was 22,807. What can I say here?

1957 Louis Armstrong had been asked to go to go on goodwill tour to Russia for the US and he agreed. On this day he angrily refused to go because of the happenings in Little Rock, Ark. It seems that a federal judge decreed that Central High School in Little Rock must be integrated. 9 black students showed up to go to school and were met by an angry white mob and the Arkansas National Guard sent there by Governor Orville Faubus to stop them from entering the school. Well, after hearing about this debacle Louis told the people responsible for the goodwill tour to take this tour and shove it even though President Eisenhower had sent in the airborne to get those kids in the school. Louis was not impressed and said words to the effect that “How can I go promote goodwill between the US and Russia when blacks are treated like that?” Indeed.

1868 A large contingent of Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attack US Maj. George Forsyth and 50 frontiersmen in Colorado. Maj. Forsyth lead his men to a sandbar in the middle of Arikaree River and there they made a stand. They were able to hold off the initial onslaught of the estimated 600 warriors because of the 7 shot repeating rifles they had. Forsyth knew that he and his men would be annihilated if he did not get help. Two of the frontiersmen volunteered to sneak out at night and go through the Indian lines and get help. The battle continued for 5 days until Forsyth saw that he had only 10 men still able to fight and that many of them were wounded and would die if they did not get medical help and soon. The Indians left figuring they had done enough damage. Early in the afternoon the 10^th Colorado Cavalry showed up with a wagonload of food and medical supplies which saved many of the men. By the way, the 10^th Cavalry was an all black unit known as “Buffalo Soldiers”.

Born today:

1931 US actress Anne Bancroft. Anne was going to get married to Mel Brooks when Mel called his Jewish mother and told her that he was going to marry a Catholic woman and his mother said “OK, bring her over, I will be in the kitchen....with my head in the oven.” Now I know where Mel got his sense of humor.

Answer to the trivia question:

The NFL player known as “Tooz” was John Matuzak of the Oakland Raiders.

                  Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“A man that does not read has no advantage over a man that can’t read.”

                                              Mark Twain

Trivia question of the day:

What kind of cars was in the famous car chase in the movie “Bullitt” with Steve McQueen? Answer at the end of the blog.

Here is a little extra for you lovers of animals, dogs especially:

                          The Saga of Heidi

This is the tale of Heidi. She is small of stature but has the heart of a lion. No one knows what her real name was because she was named Heidi by a receptionist at a doctor’s office. She was found roaming the streets in near Lexington, South Carolina in 2001 by a citizen who called the officials to come and pick her up because she was crippled and barely able to move. Heidi was found and taken to a safe shelter for the time being. Little Heidi is a dachshund whose spine had been damaged and her hind quarters are inoperable. The Lexington County Animal Control called a member of Dachshund Rescue of America who lived in nearby Columbia, South Carolina. This dedicated member gathered up Heidi and took her to a veterinarian for an examination. The vet said that surgery would not cure Heidi’s affliction and she should be euthanized because of the lack of a “quality of life” in her future. It is the policy of this particular Dachshund Rescue group that before a dachshund under guardianship of a member can be euthanized, it must be voted on by the President and the board of directors. After the President had a conversation with the vet, it was decided euthanasia was not necessary. Heidi remained in this member’s house even though Heidi would move around dragging her hind quarters. As you might suspect, Heidi did not have control of her bodily functions so the member fitted her with children’s number 3 diapers and cut a hole in it which allowed her tail to stick out. This writer met Heidi and on out first encounter it was obvious that she did not know she was handicapped. She ran around playing with the other dogs and responded to any actions by the people there. In fact, there was an obvious touch of vinegar in this dog’s attitude. She was advertised for adoption on the Dachshund Rescue website. Later on a lady from Canada admired Heidi’s obvious spirit and will to survive and adopted her. Through a series of transfers from one member to another, Heidi made her way to Canada and the ownership of this lady of faith. This fine person fitted Heidi with a small carriage with wheels that lifted Heidi’s hind quarters off the ground and allowed her much more mobility. The lady from Canada reported that when she took Heidi to a dog park she thought she was in command by running around and trying to herd up the other dogs. Heidi became a Canadian celebrity from her sheer courage and spirit. She eventually became a mascot that is taken from facility to facility that cared for crippled people and homes for the elderly to show that life is not over when a wheelchair is required. She is loved by all who has seen her. Her “wheelchair” has a checkered race flag and the word Heidi painted on it. She is an inspiration for us all. I am glad I got to meet her. By the way, the rescuer and guardian was my daughter Mardy, in whom I am well pleased as I am all three of my girls. This past year Heidi's organs began to fail from old age and she was mercifully euthanized but will be remembered...forever.

This Date in History September 14

1982 Princess Grace of Monaco died in an automobile wreck after having a stroke and plunging down an embankment. Born Grace Kelly to a wealthy family in Philadelphia, she had the finest schooling and went to a prestigious acting school. Grace was a woman of classic beauty, blond and blue eyed with a statuesque figure. She was in several memorable movies such as; High Noon with Gary Cooper, Country Girl with Bing Crosby and Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart. It was when she went to the French Riviera to make To Catch a Thief that she met Prince Rainier of Monaco. Grace was not impressed at first even though the Prince was terminally smitten with this American Beauty and set forth on a campaign to capture her and he finally succeeded. They were married in 1958. The couple had three children with Princess Grace devoting much of her time to charitable events and programs. She was 52 when she died. It was a loss for us all.

1927 The flamboyant and influential dancer Isadora Duncan is killed. It seems that Isadora was having trouble with her Bugatti automobile and had a mechanic come and work on it after which they took a test drive. Isadora, in her usual dramatic fashion, had a long scarf trailing out behind her as they drove along when her scarf got caught in the spokes of the rear wheel and immediately strangled her. Bizarre, to say the least. Moral: Don’t leave things hanging out while driving fast.

1812 Napoleon Bonaparte and his army enter Moscow. Napoleon was sure that Czar Alexander would surrender making Napoleon the ruler of Russia. But when Napoleon arrived there was no one there. All the residents had left the city for the countryside. After a day of two of searching for Czar Alexander, Napoleon started seeing more and more fires in the city and pretty soon nearly all of Moscow was aflame. Napoleon knew he was in deep doodoo because he had planned on re-supplying his troops here for the return trip to France. It was not to be and Napoleon arrived back in France with only 100,000 of the 500,000 he had left with. This expedition was a total disaster as was the same event with Germany 125 years later when they tried the same thing but did not plan well enough for the upcoming Russian winter. The Russian winter is what defeated Napoleon and Hitler.

1964 John Steinbeck is awarded the Medal of Freedom by the United States. This award is the highest award available to an American civilian and deservedly so. John had given us such milestones of literature such as; Tortilla Flats, Cannery Row, Viva Zapata, Travels with Charlie and his Pulitzer Prize winner, Grapes of Wrath. He was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. John left us forever in California in 1968. He will always be remembered as a bastion of American literature.

1901 Theodore Roosevelt became president after the assassination and death of President McKinley. Teddy was a man’s man. In 1884 after the death of his wife in childbirth and the death of his Mother 12 days later, Teddy heads west and disappeared for about 3 years in the wilderness of South Dakota in an attempt to get his life back together. While there Teddy does all he is expected to do as a rancher and part time marshal. He went out on more than one occasion to bring in criminals. He loved to hunt, especially big game. It was reported that on one mountain lion hunt, the hounds had the big cat cornered against a cliff and Teddy would not shoot for fear of hitting one of the dogs, so he pulled his knife and waded through the howling melee and finished off the cat with his knife. He finally returned to Washington and resumed his political career but never forgot his experiences out west and considered himself a Westerner. A great leader, we need more like him.

Born today:

1857 US suffragist Alice Blackwell. She said “Justice is better than chivalry if we cannot have both.” Alice was one of the hard-assed women that led the fight for women’s right to vote.

1888 US Nurse and founder of Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger. She said “Diplomats make it their business to conceal facts.” Agreed.

1917 British writer Sydney Harris. He said “The danger is not that computers will begin thinking like men, but that men will begin thinking like computers.” It is too late, Sydney.

Answer to the trivia question:

The cars involved in the car chase in the movie “Bullitt” was a 1968 Mustang 390GT 2+2 and a 1968 Dodge Charger 440 Magnum.

               Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“So long as there is breath in me, that long I will persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles of success; if I persist long enough I will win.”

                                                    Ho Chi Minh

Trivia question of the day:

Who played Maj. Frank Burns and nurse Margaret “Hot lip” Houlihan in the MOVIE M.A.S.H.?

Here is a bio of one of my favorite authors.

                             A Biography of Gonzo

On July 28, 1937 just two weeks before me, Hunter S. Thompson is born in the Cherokee Triangle area of Louisville, Kentucky. He was the eldest of three sons born to Jack and Virginia Thompson. His father was an insurance adjuster and a veteran of WWI while his mother was a reference librarian and secretary. When Hunter was 14 his father died of Myasthenia Gravis leaving the three boys for his mother to raise alone. It was reported but never confirmed that his mother got heavy into the sauce because of the stress. Hunter was a good athlete, especially in baseball but he never played organized ball. He went to high school at the Louisville Male High School which was normally for the upper crust in Louisville society. While there he joined a Literary Group and wrote pieces for the high school newspaper and helped edit the school album. He was kicked off the Literary Group because of his legal problems. He was almost continuously in trouble in school and on one occasion he was caught in a car with others that had performed an armed robbery and he served 60 days in the local jail. It was never proven that Hunter was a participant in the robbery. After being released, he joined the US Air Force and went to Lackland Air Force Base for basic training (me too). After basic training he went to school in Illinois to study aircraft electronics but eventually ended up at Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The base commander there discovered Hunter’s writing skills and made him a major contributor to the base newspaper, especially sports. The base had a football team that fielded some pretty good players like Max McGee and Zeke Bratkowski. Hunter would travel with the team and send back essays of the games they played on the road along with the home games. Hunter’s enlistment ended with him being the rank of Airman 1^st class (three stripes) and was discharged with an Honorable Discharge but was not offered a chance for reenlistment. His commanding officer stated that Hunter was good at what he did but he resented authority and would pass that attitude to others in contact with him (me too). While at Eglin he would also write anonymous articles for the local newspaper in Fort Walton. After the Air Force he became the sports editor of a newspaper in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania before moving to New York and attending Columbia University and took a course on short-story writing under the G.I. Bill. During this time he was working for Time magazine as a copy boy for $51 a week. He used a typewriter in the office to copy Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in order to get a grasp on different writing styles. He was fired from Time for insubordination. Later that year he went to work as a reporter for a newspaper in Middletown, New York. He was soon fired from that job because he destroyed a candy machine in the office that took his money and did not give up any candy. (Been there, as most of us have) and then went down the street and got into a cuss fight with the owner of a restaurant who was an advertiser in the paper. After a series of jobs including one or two in Puerto Rico, he ended up as a caretaker in a resort in Big Sur, California that eventually became a virtual commune of artists and Bohemians. Hunter chose to write an uncomplimentary article about the artists and Bohemians in Big Sur for Rogue magazine that was distributed nationwide. Needles to say, he was fired as caretaker. He then went to Brazil and became an editor for the only English speaking newspaper, National Review, which was owned by Dow-Jones. While there he was joined by his longtime girlfriend Sandra Conklin and upon returning to the United States they were married. They had issue of five pregnancies which resulted in only one survivor. She had three miscarriages and one child died soon after birth. The survivor they named Juan Fitzgerald. He continued to write for the National Review about a variety of subjects including an essay on his visit to Ketchum, Idaho to determine the reason for the suicide of Ernest Hemingway. While there he stole a rack of elk antlers that were hanging over the doorway of the Hemingway

cabin. He had a falling out with National Review when they refused to publish his critique of Tom Wolfe’s new book The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Body and he moved to San Francisco and dived head-first into the drug-hippie culture that was just beginning. Hunter got an opportunity to live with Sonny Barger and the San Bernardino branch of the Hell’s Angels. Sonny is the acknowledge founder of the Hell’s Angel’s phenomenon. After a while the Sonny figured out that Hunter was doing research for a book and demanded that the Hell’s Angels get a piece of the action and when Hunter hesitated, he received a “stomping” as the Angels called it, but it really was a severe beating. In spite of the beating, Hunter wrote of his experiences and a book titled Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Story of Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs. The book was a runaway best seller and Hunter got a lot of money and many offers to write books. He chose to write about his past experiences with the hippies in San Francisco and what is up with them. He gave the Hippies hell because he felt they had sold out their political agenda and was just interested in the drugs. In 1972 he delivered what is considered his masterpiece titled Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It proved to be crisp and to the point yet it treaded lightly on the factual side over to the imagined and back again to the factual. This writing style was confusing to those that were not familiar with Hunter. Not only that, Hunter himself was a central character but using a pseudonym. This style of writing was named “Gonzo style” by another writer and the name stuck. The Thompson family moved to an Aspen, Colorado suburb called Woody Creek after receiving $15,000 for “Hell’s” plus 2/3 of the price of his house in Woody Creek. Thompson named his house “The Owl Farm”. Hunter ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado under the “Freak Power” banner. He came in a very close second to the winner. Hunter had always been talking about “The American Dream” and in “Fear and Loathing” he finally told us how to find it. He said the American Dream is found in “Two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers, a quart of Tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen ampules of amyl nitrate.” Hunter enjoyed much success throughout the remainder of his life. He had many friends in the movie industry including Johnny Depp, Bill Murray and Sean Penn among many others. Several of his books were made into movies.

On February 20, 2005 Hunter Thompson, aged 67, blew his brains out while sitting at his typewriter talking to his wife who was at a gym in Aspen. He left a note on his computer what ended up being a suicide note to his wife. It read:

“No More Games, No More bombs. No More Walking, No More Fun, No More Swimming, 67, That is 17 years past fifty, 17 years more than I wanted or needed, boring, I am always bitchy, No Fun-For Anybody, 67, You are getting greedy, Act your old age—Relax—This won’t hurt.”

Gonzo’s funeral was a spectacular one financed by his close friend Johnny Depp. Gonzo had designed a tower with a cannon on top and in August of 2005 about 250 people saw Johnny Depp load Hunter’s ashes loaded into the cannon and blasted into the breeze. When asked why, Johnny Depp said “I was just trying to grant the last wish of an old friend.”

Answer to the trivia question:

In the MOVIE M.A.S.H. Maj. Frank Burns was played by Robet Duvall and nurse Hot Lips Houlihan was played by Sally Kellerman.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardy wait until tomorrow