Friday

                               Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Men are superior to women. For one thing, men can urinate from a speeding car.”

                                               Will Durst

Trivia question of the day:

In the movie “Apocalypse Now” what actor uttered the immortal words “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back 140 law enforcement personnel descended on the small South Carolina town of Walterboro. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster was in attendance and read 20 indictments to those that were arrested. The year before there was a drive-by shooting at a barbecue in Walterboro where 3 people were killed and 6 wounded including a toddler 20 months old. The ages of the people that were arrested ranged from 16 to 45. Henry McMasters said that Walterboro had been taken over by a street gang. Also in attendance were representatives of the FBI, US Marshals, ATF, SCHP, SLED, and the Walterboro police. How such a sleepy little town near the coast became an attraction for street gangs is beyond me. By the way, South Carolina has the death penalty.

I read about a man that called the cops because he saw someone pull up in his yard, jump out and grab one of his prize Albany Blood Cock roosters. He claimed that the rooster was worth $1,000. The thief jumped back in his car and sped away. The owner chased for a while but the thief escaped. I could not help but research what a Albany Blood Cock was. It is a fighting chicken, a Gamecock, if you will. It seems that this particular breed along with the MacAnally breed are the fiercest fighters out there. They are known affectionately in the cockfighting arena as “roundheads”. It is obvious that the owner of this rooster is not in the cockfighting business or he would have not called the cops, but that does not stop him from raising these athletes and selling them to those who do. When you think about how much this rooster is worth and what care is involved, it sounds like a lucrative business to me. Nah, If I did that my daughters would never speak to me again even though their inheritance would increase dramatically…or would they?

                    This Date in History November 30

1776 On this date one of the greatest screw-ups in history occurs. British Admiral Richard Howe and his bother British General William Howe offer amnesty to any colonist that would swear an oath to cease and desist from “Treasonable acting and doings” within 60 days. Earlier in September Admiral Howe had brought his fleet into Long Island Sound and disembarked his brother General William Howe and his well trained and polished infantry. After landing Howe engaged in two battles with Patriot General George Washington and his rag tag army and on one occasion Howe had the entire Patriot army flanked and could have cut off Washington’s retreat and captured and hanged him and his entire staff for treason and the rebellion would have ended. But the Howe brothers saw themselves as peace makers and allowed Washington and company to escape by boat over to Manhattan. A little while later the Patriots sent over a committee headed by Ben Franklin to negotiate with the Howe brothers. After two days of talks the negotiations broke down when the Howe brothers would not even consider American Independence as being necessary for peace. After this both sides ramped up for the all out war they knew was coming. Seven years later after an ocean of tears and blood was shed by our ancestors, victory was ours.

1835 On this date Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed out to a printer but then went to work for an older brother who was an editor with the Hannibal Journal in Hannibal, Missouri. He was commissioned to write a humorous travel column for the Keokuk Daily Post in Keokuk, Iowa. But Samuel saw himself as a riverboat captain on the mighty Mississippi and became an apprentice. At the age of 23 he received his license as a riverboat captain. He piloted until the outbreak of the Civil War and then nearly all riverboat traffic was discontinued. It was during his time as a captain that he received the nickname of “Mark Twain” which was a call out signifying the depth of two fathoms which was the minimum safe depth on the river. He moved out west and began writing for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, in Virginia City, Nevada. He eventually moved to San Francisco and began writing in earnest and delivered one of his best renderings in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. In addition to this he gave us “Huckleberry Finn”, “Tom Sawyer”, “Roughin’ it” and many other gems. It is unlikely that the world will ever be graced with such a talented wit as he.

1989 On this date the so called “America’s first female serial killer” struck. A trucker named Richard Mallory was last seen in the company of Aileen Wournos. They had left a truck stop near Palm Bay, Florida and Richard was never seen alive again. They found his truck three days later near Ormond Beach with his wallet, a few condoms and pocket change on the front seat, but no Richard. Finally Richard’s body turned up in a Daytona Beach junkyard with three bullet holes in his chest. Over a period of two years seven men were found dead killed in a similar manner. The Florida Bureau of Investigation finally tracked Wournous down to a seedy biker bar near Tampa. She went on trial and was convicted of murder on seven counts. After the jury rendered their verdict, Aileen screamed “I am innocent. It was self defense. I was raped. I hope all of you scum sucking maggots get raped.” This was not a smooth move for Aileen because it would be the same jury that would convene two weeks later and determine her punishment. They gave her the death penalty. After Aileen figured out that the state of Florida was not kidding, she became a born again Christian. Sure enough, the state of Florida did indeed mean business and in October of 2002 she went meet her maker electrified and her corpse was cremated. The ashes sent to her birthplace in Michigan where a former friend spread her ashes under a tree where they used to play. It seems sad, but think of the families of her victims first, and then think of Aileen.

Born today:

1874 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He said “Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.” Churchill is one of my favorite personalities.

Answer to the trivia question:

That famous line was uttered by Robert Duval playing Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore.

                   Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Eva sang for my wedding. I really had to coax her out to sing. She was really shy about singing in front of a large crowd, but she went ahead and did it. It was just Eva and her guitar and she sang Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Everyone thought it was a strange song for a wedding but I really liked the song and I think Eva liked it, too. After she finished everybody was crying and would go up to her and say ‘Eva, what a great job’. She would always graciously say, ‘Thank you’ but she was very uncomfortable with all those compliments.”

                                  Ruth Murphy, friend of Eva Cassidy

A good friend of mine named Dortha from Killeen, Tx sent me an unsolicited biography of Eva because she knew how much I admire her. Dotty died a while back of Cystic Fibrosis. I don't think I will ever get over this one.

Trivia question of the day:

Who played deputy Chester Goode on “Gunsmoke”?

For a while now I have been seeing a couple come into my favorite diner. She is well groomed and drives a Mercedes convertible, he is obviously on edge for reasons that I could not figure out. One day he abruptly left and she and I began talking. I came to find out that he is a retired Marine Lt. Col. and a Mustang. He has six Purple Hearts a Distinguished Service Medal and earned a Navy Cross in Nam...he also suffers from PTSD. Today they came in and I called him over and said that I had read his Navy Cross citation and thanked him. He said "It was my honor". That got to me, y'all. You would have to read the citation to understand what that man went through. For the rest of the time he was there he was staring out into space or holding his head in his hands. I think he was reliving that experience in Nam. I wish I had not mentioned it. BTW a Mustang is a person that joins the Marines as enlisted and ends up an officer. This man has courage and is a Patriot. He is deserving of everyone's respect, especially mine.

                   This Date in History   November 29

1864 In 1851 tribes of the Cheyenne and Arapaho signed a treaty with the United States at Fort Laramie, Wyoming that granted the lands between the Arkansas River and the Nebraska border to the Indians. Soon thereafter gold was discovered in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and that treaty was broken so the miners could use the Indian lands as a means of passage to Colorado. By 1861 the conflict between the Indian and the miners/settlers has reached a fever pitch. The United States called for another treaty to prevent massacres on both sides from breaking out. In this treaty in 1861 the Cheyenne and Arapaho ceded much of their lands in return for an annual payment and the promise of food at selected US Army forts. In fact, the Indians were encouraged to camp near Army forts, especially in the winter. After this treaty, Cheyenne chief Black Kettle moved his tribe near a fort in Colorado but was told by the fort commander that there was better hunting near Sand Creek so Black Kettle moved his peaceful tribe to that location. Since the outbreak of the Civil War the available military in the state of Colorado was minimal because of the troops that were brought into the US Army actions in the war. The Governor of Colorado organized more and more local militias to deal with the hostile Indian tribes. Soon after Black Kettle moved to Sand Creek on this date, the village was attacked by a Colorado Militia headed by a Colonel Chivington and the village was all but wiped out. There were 148 Indians killed to 9 of the militia. More than half of the dead Indians were women and children. Chivington had eyes for the Governorship of Colorado and thought that this massacre of innocent people would enhance his chances. He wasn’t done yet. His troops chose to cut out/off many of the genitalia of the dead and rode through the nearby towns waving them as trophies. Initially, Chivington’s attack was praised but when the facts came out as to what really happened a wave of disgust swept through the area and Chivington abandoned his political ambitions and all but disappeared from the face of the earth, and rightly so.

1950 In June of 1950 troops of the country of North Korea invaded the independent country of South Korea. Two days later, President Harry Truman stated that the United States will send troops to assist South Korea because South Korea was a member of SEATO, an organization of mutual military assistance in case of war. After American troops arrived the whole of the South Korean Army and some of the US military were cornered at the southeast corner of the Korean peninsula with their backs to the sea. The combined forces of South Korea and the US among others drove the North Korean troops back across the peninsula into North Korea and up close to the Chinese border. China had already warned that any approach to their borders by the Allied forces would be viewed as a hostile act and would be very provocative. The head military commander General Douglas MacArthur said they were bluffing. On this date, about 250,000 Chinese troops swarmed across the North Korean border and enjoined the Allied forces and began yet another drive back into South Korea. General MacArthur criticized the Truman administration for not allowing him to use nuclear weapons. Harry Truman called MacArthur to Midway for a conference. Harry told the General that civilians make policy, not the military, fired him and brought in General Matthew Ridgeway.

1967 On this date the sitting Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara resigned. In 1964 McNamara had backed and even encouraged the escalation of the conflict in South Vietnam. But over a period of time McNamara saw the futility of continuing prosecuting the war, we were going nowhere. About a week before McNamara had handed the President, Lyndon Johnson a list of recommendations relative to the war in Vietnam. And they were: Freeze the present troop levels; stop the bombing of North Vietnam, hand over the prosecution of the war more to the South Vietnamese army. President Johnson rejected any and all of his recommendations so McNamara resigned and became an officer with the World Bank. Johnson brought in Clark Clifford to replace McNamara. It is too bad that Johnson did not listen to McNamara or maybe we could have saved the lives of several thousand brave Americans.

Quotable quotes:

“Never eat more than you can lift”.

Miss Piggy

“The next time you feel like complaining, remember that your garbage disposal eats better than most people of the world.”

                                                       Robert Orben

Born today:

1949 US comedian Gary Shandling. He said “I am too shy to express my sexual needs except on the phone with people I don’t know.”

1971 US “Baywatch” star Gerry Lee Nolan. She said “All you have to do is eat right, get plenty of exercise and a breast implant and you will look just like us.”

1832 American writer Louisa Mae Alcott. She said “Housekeeping ain’t no joke.” You can say that again for all of the bachelors in the world.

Answer to the trivia question:

Deputy Chester Goode was played by Dennis Weaver.

                      Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                                 Musings and History

Quote of the day:

Earlier LSU had fired head football coach Les Miles and installed defensive line coach Ed Orgeron as interim head coach. They have had a disappointing season and everybody thought they are looking for head coach other than the interim. I have a friend in Baton Rouge that is a die-hard LSU fan and an alumnus. He said that hiring Oregeron is popular primarily because he went to LSU, is a Cajun and would be cheaper than all the other potential candidates. I told him “Money is not everything.” He said “No it isn't, but it allows you to buy your own brand of misery.”

                                                   Tom Sylvest, Jr.

BTW...LSU hired Ed Orgeron as permanent head coach...God works in mysterious ways.

Trivia question of the day:

On the TV show “Gunsmoke” there was a half white/half Comanche blacksmith name Quint Asper...who played him?

Back in 1937 a beautiful 16 year old Idahoan named Julia Turner was sitting at the counter at the Top Hat restaurant on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles when newspaper man named Bill Wilkinson approached her and offered to introduced her to Mervyn LeRoy of Warner Brothers. She was indeed hired and given the more glamorous name of Lana Turner. She was treated as a typical starlet given roles more for her beauty than her acting skills. She was eventually successful at more dramatic roles. She had a daughter by actor Stephen Crane and named her Cheryl. At the age of 37 her roles diminished and she was wooed by a Mafia enforcer named Johnny Stompanato, a real grease ball. Heavily moussed wavy hair, silk shirts unbuttoned to the navel and heavy gold necklaces. Lana accepted his advances. One night Stompanato and Lana were arguing and it became physical, 14 year old Cheryl came into the room and stabbed Stompanato to death. The media, as rotten as ever, shouted that Cheryl had stabbed Stompanato to death in a jealous rage because she wanted him. Cheryl, an admitted lesbian, was acquitted calling her actions self defense and her identity was kept secret for several years. In 1995 Lana Turned died of throat cancer in her Studio City, Ca. home at the age of 74.

               This Date in History  November 28

1862 Earlier US General John Blunt and his army had driven the CSA army commanded by General John Marmaduke into the Boston Mountains in northwest Arkansas. On this date CSA General George Hindman and his army arrived from across the Boston Mountains to try and kick Blount and his Yankee army out of Arkansas. Hindman and his army joined in battle with Blount’s army at a place called Cane Hill. Hindman was unsuccessful and Blount and his army stayed in Arkansas. The Battle of Cane Hill was short and sweet with the Yankees suffering less than 50 casualties and the Rebs less than 40.

1987 On this date the New York City Police found a 16 year old black girl covered in feces and wrapped in plastic garbage bags near a dumpster. She was alive and kicking but had parts of her hair cut off and a few small cuts on her arms and legs. Her name was Tawanda Bailey. Tawanda told the police that she had been kidnapped by four white men, with one of them was wearing a badge. She said that she had been repeatedly tortured and raped over a four day period. The black rabble-rousers came out of the woodwork in the form of , Vernon Mason, Alton Maddox and the ever present Rev. Al Sharpton. They began raising hell claiming that there was a conspiracy against the black community by the NYPD. They even had the nerve to accuse the Solicitor Stephan Pagones of not only turning his head at this crime but that he was present and participated in the kidnapping and rape of Tawanda. The police could get no cooperation from Towanda’s family but the family had no problem with accepting contributions. It was finally determined that Tawanda’s parents knew that Tawanda was lying but saw it as an opportunity to get some easy money. The police increased their investigation and put the pressure on Tawanda and she finally cracked and admitted that she had hatched the plan to fake the kidnapping to cover her attending an overnight party and not attending school then next day and cut her self and cut her hair as part of the plan. There stood Mason, Maddox and Sharpton with egg on their respective faces knowing that Solicitor Pagones would come after them with fire in his eyes and come he did. He filed a defamation charge against the trio. Before the ink had dried, the trio offered Pagones a settlement that was never made public. Pagones took the offer, resigned his position and disappeared from the public arena. We still have Mason, Maddox and that bane of justice, Al Sharpton who are still with us, however. Yes I am talking about the same Al Sharpton that was an adviser to the President Obama

1582 On this day playwright/actor William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in the town of Avon, England. Five months later the blissful couple is delivered of a daughter. Evidently the Bard of Avon had been doing more than just writing and acting.

1520 Earlier the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan had been tasked with finding a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific by sailing west rather than south and east around Africa. He sailed across the Atlantic to a point near Venezuela and began sailing south exploring the rivers coming out of South America for a passage to the Pacific. He was not successful until he reached the Patagonia region of Argentina and he found a passage that appeared to be the one they were looking for.  They sailed southwest and then northwest through a narrow passage for several weeks and on this date they sailed out onto the broad Pacific. This route is known to this date as the Straights of Magellan. Even with this passage shortening the trip around Cape Horn (The southern tip of South America) by several hundred miles, the trip through the Straights was a formidable one, especially in the winter which was May to September. During this time severe storms prevailed and is was a dangerous passage for any ship regardless of size. The Panama Canal ended that danger.

1979 On this date an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashed in Antarctica killing all 257 souls aboard. Air New Zealand had been flying tourist flights over Antarctica for several years. The vast wasteland was a sight to see and was relatively close. On this trip an inexperienced crew was making their first trip there. The airline forbade their pilots to descend below 6,000 feet while over the Antarctic continent but on this day there was cloud cover and the pilots took the plane down to 1,500 feet to get under it. Suddenly the12,600 foot extinct volcano Mount Erebus appeared straight ahead and the plane crashed into the side of it. It took the rescue teams many days to get to the crash site. There were no survivo

1954  On this date one of the most brilliant scientist that ever lived, Enrico Fermi, died. Fermi was a nuclear physicist teaching at the University of Chicago at the time.  Fermi was teaching at the University of Florence, Italy in the 1930’s when the Fascist Mussolini rose to power. After Mussolini aligned himself with Adolph Hitler, Fermi knew it was time for him and his Jewish wife to get out of Dodge. It was Fermi that jury rigged an atomic pile under the bleachers of a squash court at the University of Chicago and produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. Earlier Fermi, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Edward Teller and other nuclear physicists had formed a letter that Einstein took personally to US President Franklin Roosevelt. The letter explained that they had proven mathematically that a nuclear chain reaction was possible and so was a nuclear weapon. The message that was sent by Fermi to his fellow scientists was “The Italian navigator has landed on a foreign shore...the natives are friendly”

Births:

1820 German philosopher Frederick Engels is born. He said “Some laws of state aimed at reducing crime are even more criminal.

Answer to the trivia question:

Blacksmith Quint Asper was played by Burt Reynolds.

                      Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                          Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“All of us have had a crush on a teacher. For me it is my wife's aerobics instructor.”

                                                  Brian Kelly

Trivia question of the day

On the long running TV show “Gunsmoke” what was the name of Matt Dillon's horse? Answer at the end of the blog.

                             This Date in History November 27

1746 Robert R. (R.R.) Livingston is born on this date at his father’s estate, Clermont, on the banks of the Hudson River in upstate New York. R.R. was born into a family of the wealthy and privileged. In 1766 R.R.’s uncle Lord Livingston had been treating his tenant farmers severely and they revolted. They attacked the Livingston Manor in force and would have prevailed had not the English Army had not intervened and the attack was stopped. However, in 1777 the British army burned the Livingston estates of Clermont and Belvedere in retaliation for the Livingston’s siding with the Patriots in their search for independence and freedom. R.R. graduated from King’s College or present day Columbia. He was the Secretary of Foreign Affairs during the time of the Articles of Federation. He was a contributor in the phrasing of the Declaration of Independence but was not there for the signing. As he was the Chief Judge of New York, it was he that issued the oath if Office to George Washington at his first inauguration. He was selected as Chancellor of the state of New York and from that time on he was known as “The Chancellor” for the rest of his days. It was Livingston that was present in France trying to negotiate the sale of the port of New Orleans to the fledgling United States during the Jefferson administration. At the time, France was governed by Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon had dreamed of coming ashore in New Orleans and conquering all of North America but he knew that war with England was on the near horizon and he could not fight a war of two fronts that far apart. After an offer to buy New Orleans was issued to Talleyrand, Napoleon’s chief of staff, Talleyrand responded with “How much will you give me for it all? He was talking about all of the French lands in North America except for Canada. Well, R.R. and John Jay about peed their pants and asked for some time to come up with an amount. This was the beginnings of the Louisiana Purchase which all but doubled the lands of the United States. R.R.’s soul departed this earth on February 26, 1813.

1863 On this date Confederate Raider John Hunt Morgan and most of his staff, having previously been captured, tunneled out of the US Prison Camp in Columbus, Ohio and escaped back to Tennessee. Morgan was a native Kentuckian but when Kentucky did not secede, he moved to Alabama and offered his services to the Confederate Army. He was assigned the task of making raids on US installations in Kentucky since he was familiar with the area. Later he felt his Wheaties and went into Ohio and raided several US facilities. The down side was that when he came back to his place of crossing the Ohio River back into Kentucky, there was an overwhelming US cavalry unit waiting for him. After an extended chase, Morgan and most of his staff were captured. After returning to Tennessee, Morgan assembled another cavalry unit and began his raids again. Ironically, a year later Morgan’s cavalry unit was the victim of a surprise US cavalry attack near Greeneville, Tennessee. Morgan was killed trying to organize a defense. His attacks in Kentucky and Ohio did little logistic damage but did enormous good for the morale of the Confederacy.

1978 On this date former San Francisco city supervisor Dan White walked into city hall and killed Mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk. He shot them both several times with a 9mm automatic pistol. It seems that earlier Dan White has not happy with the way things were going in city hall and had resigned. Soon thereafter, Mayor Moscone hires Harvey Milk to replace White. Milk was the very first acknowledged homosexual to hold public office. White was arrested in short order and charged with premeditated murder. White was upset because Moscone had not conferred with him before hiring Milk, and he expected Moscone to try and get him to come back to his supervisor job but Moscone did not do it and hired Milk. The funny thing about all of this was that White’s defense was that he was hyped up from eating too much junk food. It was the first of the so called “Twinkie” defenses. The astounding part about this is that the jury bought it and White got ten years for manslaughter. After White was paroled he had a hard time adjusting and eventually blew his own brains out. I guess he got back on the Twinkies.

1868 A year before, US Calvary officer Colonel George A. Custer had been disciplined for the mistreatment of his troops and was demoted and removed from active service for a year. While he was out of service, US General Phillip Sheridan’s troopers had been getting their asses handed to them by the Cheyenne in Kansas and Oklahoma. Sheridan relented and after 10 months he brings Custer back to active duty to see if he can contain the fierce Cheyenne. On this date, Custer launches a surprise attack on a peaceful Cheyenne village led by Chief Black Kettle near the present day town of Cheyenne, Oklahoma. As was common with Custer, he did no scouting or reconnoitering before attacking. If he had, he would have determined that this village was peaceful and was indeed on a reservation. It did not seem to bother Custer that the village was essentially unarmed and they killed 105 men, women and children in cold blood. Custer was not interested in punishing the Indians as much as he was in making a name for himself and getting back into a good light with his superiors no matter how many lives it took. It was his recklessness and lack of scouting that cost him 227 of his troopers being slaughtered and cut to pieces at Little Big Horn. In my personal opinion he may have been the worst officer the United States ever had. He was a good fighter but his ego came first before anything else, a very dangerous combination.

Births and deaths:

8BC Roman writer Horace is born. He said “Whatever your advice, make it brief.” The only advice I remember receiving was “Go slower”, and it was brief.

1874 US historian Charles Beard is born. He said “Whom the Gods choose to destroy, make mad with power.”

1909 US writer/critic James Agee is born. After reviewing the play “You Were Meant for Me” he wrote “That’s what you think”.

1937 US writer Gail Sheehy is born. She said “Creativity consists of letting go of certainties.”

1940 Legendary martial arts master Bruce Lee is born. He said “I am not in this world to fulfill your expectations of me and you are not here to fulfill mine.” Here, Here.

Answer to the trivia question:

Matt Dillon's horse's name was “Buck”

                              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                                Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

                                                        Mark Twain

What was the bloodiest single day in American history? Answer at the end of the blog. 

                        This Date in History   November 26

1922   Earlier archaeologist Howard Carter had discovered an unopened tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh name Tutankhamen but waited to enter the tomb until his financier English Lord Caernarvon arrived to be there for the opening. Carter knew then name of the pharaoh because of the hieroglyphs on the portal. On this date Carter and Caernarvon standing shoulder to shoulder cut a small hole in the doorway to take a look. Carter stuck his arm through the hole while holding a candle and peeked inside. Lord Caernarvon asked Carter what he saw and Carter answered “Things, wonderful things.” After the opened a hole large enough to crawl inside they uncovered one of the most dazzling and important archeological discoveries ever found. Carter was a veteran explorer and in the past had found the tombs of Queen Hatshepsut and King Thutmose IV. Both were important discoveries but nowhere the equal of King Tut. What a thrill it had have been to have been the first human being to lay eyes on that tomb in 2,500 years. I am sure that we all have seen the gold funeral mask of King Tut. What a beautiful work of art it is as with many other pieces found there.

1863   After the disastrous Confederate loss at Gettysburg, The Army of Northern Virginia, CSA General Robert E. Lee commanding, escapes back into the friendly confines of Virginia pursued by the Army of the Potomac commanded by US General George Meade. The were several encounters with no clear victor all the while US President A. Lincoln is on Meade’s ass to bring Lee to bear and finish off the Army of Northern Virginia. Even though Meade had the Confederates outnumbered nearly two to one, he was unable to corner the elusive Lee. After spending several weeks of Lee and Meade warily eyeing each other across the Rappahannock River with Lincoln raising hell with Meade to do something, Meade orders extensive reconnoitering and cannot find a weakness in Lee’s lines. But to placate Lincoln on this date he orders US General William French and three corps (about 33,000 men) to attempt an attack on Lee’s right flank. French and his troops set out and promptly get lost and make their position and intentions known to the Rebs. Lee sends CSA General Edward Johnson and his corps to cut French off. The two armies finally meet in a small valley named Mine Run and the battle is joined. After about four hours of little progress being made by either side, they both withdraw. French’s troops had suffered 940 casualties to 540 for the Confederates. Meade, in spite of the bitching of Lincoln, decides it is time to go into winter quarters and this battle is the last of 1863.

1933   Earlier 22 year old San Jose, California resident Brooke Hart shows up missing. Hart was the popular son of a San Jose store owner. The parents of young Brooke receive a ransom note for $40,000 a few days after his disappearance. The police retraced Hart’s steps to a ship near San Mateo and arrested two crewman named James Thurmond and John Holmes as the kidnappers. Eventually Hart’s corpse is found. He had been tortured before being beaten to death. Both Holmes and Thurmond blame each other for the slaying and are jailed in San Jose. On this day, the fine citizens of San Jose storm the jail and take Thurmond and Holmes outside and suspend them by the neck from the nearest light pole. They are not done yet. They cut the ropes used in the hanging and sell the pieces and give the money to charity. They also allow pictures of the fine citizenry of San Jose to have picture of themselves with the corpses…for a price. That money goes to charity also. The people of San Jose are praised by everyone in the state of California including the good Governor who stated “We need to turn over all the kidnappers in San Quentin to the good people of San Jose.” I believe in justice but I do not believe in vigilantism. That inevitably leads to anarchy.

1898   One of the worst blizzards to ever strike the northeastern United States begins on this date. Previously the winds had been blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean for two days then in a matter of minutes the wind began blowing form the northwest meaning a cold front called an Alberta Clipper had arrived and interacted with the moisture laden air already in place. It snowed for 36 hours at a ferocious pace to the tune that there were snow drifts even with the second story windows in places. As you might suspect, all communication were stopped. After all was said and done, there were over 450 dead but the real total may never be known because of the unsophisticated communications in those days.

1872   On this date one of the greatest hoaxes in the history of the United States begins. Two men named Phillip Arnold and John Slack walk into a San Francisco bank and try to deposit some raw diamonds. The bank president named William Ralston tried to get more information from the two but they behave very secretively and refuse Ralston’s questioning. Finally Ralston gets the two to admit that they found the diamonds in a mine. Ralston finally persuades the two to take him to the mine and they blindfold Ralston and take him to a mine where they had “salted” diamonds and rubies, meaning that they threw some diamonds and rubies about like they were extracted from the mine. Well Ralston about peed his pants and came back to San Francisco and organized a $20 million investment group. They offered Arnold and Slack $600,000 for the rights to the mine which they took. Soon afterward the San Francisco newspaper hires a geologist to inspect the mine and he returns and says that the mine is just a hole in the ground and is totally worthless. Ralston begins giving back the money to the investors but is unable to retrieve the money he gave to Arnold and Slack. The smoothies lived the rest of their lives in luxury thanks to the greed of man.

1941   On this date the combined Japanese fleet departs the Japanese Inland Sea heading east-southeast. They are headed for the United States military installations in the Hawaiian Islands. As we all know they arrive of December 7 and all but destroy America’s ability to wage war in the Pacific. For reasons known only to the Japanese, they did not occupy any part of the Hawaiian Islands nor sail on eastward to the United States unopposed. For whatever reason they did not do either and we were able to recover and prevail in the bloodiest war ever fought.

Birth and deaths:

1792 US Suffragist Sarah Grimke is born. She said “I ask nothing for my sex. All I ask is that my brethren get their feet off our necks.” That’s a real peculiar position for sex, Sarah.

Answer to the trivia question:

The bloodiest single day in American history was the Battle of Antietam in the Civil War. On the average there was an American killed or wounded every 2 seconds for 10 hours. War is hell.

                 Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thanksgiving 2018

           An extra for y'all on Thanksgiving 2018               

                  A Brief History of Thanksgiving

In spite of popular belief, the first Europeans to put ashore in what is now Plimouth (the way the early Europeans spelled it), Massachusetts was not the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower in 1620, it was the infamous adventurer/explorer John Smith in 1614. That’s right; it is the same John Smith that had helped establish Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Smith had came to Plimouth to do some mapping because he had intentions of starting a plantation there. After completing his mapping, Smith departed and left a man named Thomas Hart to establish trading with the Indians. Hart proved to be an unscrupulous bastard and coaxed 24 Nanset Indians aboard his ship and locked them in the hold and set sail. Hart had intentions of sailing to Malaga, Spain and selling the Indians into slavery. To say the least, the Nanset/Patuxet Indians were extremely pissed and any progress made toward trade with the Europeans went down the toilet. One of the Indians aboard Hart’s boat was named Tisquantum but he became known as Squanto and he played a major role in the successful settlement by the Pilgrims as you will see. Hart did indeed land at Malaga, Spain and attempted to sell the 24 Indians. The problem was that there was an abbey close by and some Franciscan Friars came down and put a stop to it. The Friars took most of the Indians under their wing and began teaching them Christianity. Squanto was not one of them. He made his way to England and became an employee of a man named Thomas Slayer who was the Treasurer of the Newfoundland Company. The Newfoundland Company needed someone that knew the terrain and could speak the different dialects of the Indians and they took Squanto to be that person. They wanted to establish a fur trading link with the Indians in the New World. After Squanto had learned enough English they sent him to Newfoundland to translate and establish liaison with the Indians. Squanto had been in Newfoundland for a few years when he met a sailing captain name John Devers that was with John Smith on his visit to Plimouth. Squanto talked himself into accompanying Devers on his next trip to Plimouth so he could get to see his relatives that he had not seen for several years. Squanto finally did get back to Plimouth in 1619. The downside was that his village had been wiped out by a epidemic in 1618-1619, probably contracted from John Smith’s group, and all of his relatives had died of either Tuberculosis or Smallpox. He arrived just in time because the Mayflower arrived the next year. The Nauset Indians had not forgotten what Thomas Hart had done with the kidnapping of some their own and any suggestion that they should trade with the Europeans that Squanto knew was coming was met with scorn, especially by the most powerful chief in the area. That would be Massasoit, the Chief of the Wampanoag Confederation. But fortunately for the Pilgrims, Squanto was there to mediate. The Pilgrims finally arrived and anchored in Cape Cod Bay. It was not near any rock name Plimouth. Plimouth is a name given to the area by John Smith. From the git-go the Pilgrims had a hell of a time with the Indians but the Indians were fearful of their firearms and thought the Europeans could unleash an epidemic at will so they were very careful with them. The Mayflower had landed in November of 1620 and went through a hell of a winter with many of the pilgrims dying of exposure and starvation and all would have been wiped out if they had not received some help from the Indians at the behest of Squanto. The next spring the Indians helped the Pilgrims with gardening, especially maize or corn, and the local edible game and seafood. Squanto was responsible for this education also. The Harvest of 1621 saw the Pilgrims led by Governor William Bradford and the Indians led by Squanto and Massasoit exchange gifts of food and game. This was essentially the first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were not out of the woods yet because farther expansion westward led them into other tribe’s territories and fights ensued but after the first harvest, they knew they were here to stay. As I have said many times before, I have to believe that the United States was ordained to be here by a higher power because when our ancestors needed guidance someone always shows up. This time it was a strong administrator like William Bradford and a take-no-prisoners type military man like the diminutive Mile Standish and first and foremost it was Squanto. Miles Standish was so short that he had to cut six inches off his sword to keep it from dragging the ground but his lack of altitude was more than compensated by his fiery attitude. Squanto got too big for his britches and began extorting his people by threatening to have them shot or come down with a disease if they did not pay him off. Massasoit told Bradford the he wanted Squanto’s head because of the mistreatment of his people. Bradford had Squanto headed to the gallows when a ship showed up on the horizon and Bradford demurred, Bradford knew if it was more Pilgrims and Squanto would be essential to their survival. There was indeed more Pilgrims aboard the ship Fortune and Squanto’s life was spared but Bradford’s warning to stop with the extortion or it was the gallows had an effect.

                                      Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I once made love for an hour and 15 minutes but it was on the night that the clocks were set ahead.”

Gary Shandling

Trivia question of the day:

When SEAL team 6 went in capped Osama Ben Laden they had a war dog with them. What was it's breed and what was its name? Answer at the end of the blog.

I have never bought the premise that Moses and the Hebrews were lost for 40 years in the deserts east and southeast of Egypt.
The Egyptians for centuries had been squabbling with the Assyrians (present day Syria) or the Hittites (present day Turkey) for the control of present day Israel, Lebanon, Syria, the Jordan River valley and surrounding lands. There is no doubt that the Hebrews knew of this during their Egyptian bondage and knew that these lands were north of Egypt. North is easy to find, y'all, all you have to do is see the sunrise, put the sun on your right shoulder and you are facing north. Not only that, Moses was a soldier in the Egyptian army and without a doubt knew where these lands were. I read an explanation by a Hebrew scholar that made sense. He maintained that Moses knew that it would be imperative that they have a substantial army before beginning a campaign to capture “The Promised Land”, present day Israel. In fact, God through Joshua instructed the Hebrews to not leave anyone alive that they encountered so there would be no attacks from the rear. Right after the Exodus the Hebrews had no army at all and if they tried to invade, yes invade, up the Jordan river valley they would be slaughtered wholesale by the resident tribes. The scholar says that Moses camped in the desert 40 years to at least double the size of his army, manufacture weapons and train the army in combat tactics and discipline. After this was accomplished they began their campaign and was successful. Works for me...Moses was no dummy.

This Date in History November 20

1820 On this date the whaling vessel Essex based in Nantucket, Rhode Island encountered an enraged bull sperm whale 2,000 mile off the west coast if South America. The 80 ton whale rammed the 280 ton ship twice causing it to capsize. All of The 20 man crew escaped to three smaller boats but their troubles were not over. The crew spent 83 days adrift and ran out of food and soon chose to draw straws to see who would be shot to provide food for the others. After the boats were spotted near the west coast of South America and picked up by other boats there were only five survivors. There were three others that were marooned on an uninhabited Pacific island but they were eventually rescued. The first capture of a sperm whale was in 1711 and it was then that the value of whale oil and ambergris was discovered. From then on the whaling industry ballooned to 800 ships that traveled the entire globe looking for these giants. It was this event that inspired Herman Melville to give us the immortal Moby Dick the next year. To my knowledge whaling has been banned or severely restricted. I believe that if they had not the whale would have gone the route of the Moa and the Dodo bird.

1947 On this date Princess Elizabeth, the heir apparent to the English throne, is married to Phillip Mountbatten. Phillip was a Prince of Greece and Denmark and he renounced his titles to marry Elizabeth. Elizabeth was 21 years old and Phillip was 26 and had fought with the British Navy during WWII. He was given the title of Duke of Edinburgh just before the wedding. As you might suspect, the wedding was a lavish one held in Westminster Abbey in London. This event raised the spirits of the British people who were suffering personally and financially from the effects of WWII. As expected, Elizabeth’s father King George VI died in 1952 and Elizabeth rose to the throne of Great Britain where she remains to this day. The coronation of Elizabeth, also held in Westminster Abbey, was also a lavish event. It is not very often that there is a change in the monarchy of England and the ceremony is the same as it was with the crowning of William the Conqueror in December of 1066. The English are big on tradition. I forgot, Phillip is Elizabeth’s cousin.

1843 On this date a major trading post on the Mississippi River named Blacksnake Hills trading post has a name change to Saint Joseph’s trading post. The post had been wisely established in 1826 by French fur trader Joseph Robidoux right in the mouth of the Platte River valley. This valley was a major artery for the fur trappers returning from the far west and the Rocky Mountains. Eventually the fur trade dried up but the pioneers heading west stopped at Saint Joseph to gear up for their trip to Oregon and California. The Platte River was again a major avenue for those traveling west. The trail split near present day Beatrice, Nebraska with some heading northwest on the Oregon Trail and others heading southwest on the Santa Fe and several other trails. What an adventure that would have been.

1945 On this date the Nuremberg war crimes trial begins in Nuremberg, Germany. The trial was judged by a tribunal of the French, United States and Russia. There were 24 Germans on trial for war crimes; of those half were eventually hanged. The others received sentences from life to twenty years. Naturally the root of the charges of “crimes against humanity” was what happened to the Jew, Gypsies and various other minorities throughout Europe during WWII. The trial took a year. Most of the Germans defended themselves by claiming they were just doing what they were ordered as good soldiers do. One of the most famous of the accused was Field Marshal Herman Goering who was the second in command of the German military after Adolph Hitler. Herman was sentenced to the gallows but on the day before the hanging, Herman got his hands on a cyanide capsule and committed suicide. No one knows how he came by the capsule but the rumor was that he bribed one of his guards to get him one. We will never know.

Born today:

1884 US social reformer Norman Thomas. He said “If you want a symbolic gesture, don’t burn the flag, wash it.” Norman was a famous communist.

1908 British social commentator Alistair Cooke. He said “A professional is one that does their best even when they do not feel like it.” That sounds like a prostitute to me.

1919 US actress Evelyn Keyes. She said “I always took up with the man of the moment, and I had many moments.” Life is a smorgasbord isn’t it Evelyn?

1923 South African writer Nadine Gordimer. She said “Truth is not always beauty, but the hunger for it is.”

1925 US politician Robert F. Kennedy. He said “One fifth of the people are against everything all the time.” Most of them are the Democrats these days.

1954 US actress Bo Derek. She said “Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness just doesn’t know where to shop.” Bo, get in touch with reality.

Answer to the trivia question:

The war dog that was with SEAL team 6 on the Osama Ben Laden raid was a Belgian Malinois named Cairo.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow