Monday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day,

“Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less about love that a child who lost his dog yesterday.”

                                               Thornton Wilder

Trivia question of the day:

What is the fastest swimming fish? Answer at the end of the blog.

Down in Pensacola, Florida a man, his daughter and two of her friends were shopping at a Wal-Mart. A 21 year old man starting hitting on the man’s daughter by asking for her phone number, etc. The daughter wasn’t buying and told him to get away but he persisted. The father came over reiterated the rejection. The man moved away but hovered near the girl. Eventually the daughter went to the ladies room and the man followed her in. The father, who had been keeping an eye on his daughter, quickly followed and found that the man had his hand up the back of his daughter’s blouse. The father was even more aggressive and the man quickly left and walked swiftly across the parking lot with the father in close pursuit. He had told the check out girl to call the cops on the way out and he was on his cell phone at the same time. The man reached his car whereupon the father produced a .38 revolver and held the man at bay until the cops arrived. This man was taken to the city jail and booked. I am glad it wasn't me and one of my girls...I might have ended up in jail.

This Thanksgiving a 68 year old man from Stuart, Florida came to an upscale community on Hilton Head Island, SC to visit his uncle. Apparently an argument arose and the visitor pulled out a gun and shot his uncle in the leg. Before this happened, someone had called the community security guard about the argument and the guard arrived in time to see the home owner being shot and the visitor is aiming for another shot. The guard fire two rounds and instantly capped the visitor. The county sheriff absolved the guard from any liability stating the killing was justified.

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina declared Thursday, December 2 as “Christmas Open House” at the Governor’s mansion in Columbia. This means that we the tax payers get a chance to see what our tax dollars have bought. Knowing how much taxes we have contributed I would expect a bevy of Argentine beauties to greet me at the door in thong bikinis. On second thought that might be a little sleazy, let’s make it a variety of brightly colored teddies, fishnet stockings and spike heel shoes.

The founder of Wikileaks that spilled his guts about secret and classified documents that can do nothing but damage diplomacy worldwide is on the run. Every law enforcement agency in the world is looking for this jackass, including Mossad and Interpol. Every President, King, Monarch, Czar, Prime Minister, etc. have had a “secret book” since words have had a written language. I hope they find that numb nuts and proved to him that he is not noble or brave, he is just an interloper trying to find glory at everyone else’s expense. It would be best if Mossad finds him first. They are notorious for hunting people down and suddenly they disappear never to be seen or heard from again.

              This Date in History   December 3

1776 The Continental Army was in real trouble. They had inadequate clothing, arms and leadership to combat the mightiest army on the planet. George Washington sent a letter to the Continental Congress advising that he found that his position in Trenton, New Jersey was untenable against the British onslaught and that he was taking his army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and indeed he did. He commandeered every boat within 50 miles and took his men and arms across the river and then burned all the boats that they did not use denying the British access to them. To add insult to injury Washington sent his second in command, Charles Lee, on a mission into New Jersey and Lee and his second in command, John Stockton, were captured by the British but Washington was not deterred. Upon the arrival of Prussian General Baron Von Steuben, a training routine that shaped the Continental Army from a mob to a fighting unit was initiated. After these many days of rigorous training and drilling, the army was finally ready to hold their own against the Redcoats and not a minute too soon.

1989 A crime was committed in Fairfax, Virginia that was solved by the fledgling forensic evidence. 5 year old Melissa Brannen was attending a Christmas party and showed up missing. A search of the grounds discovered nothing. So the police went over the guest list and found out that a man named Caleb Hughes had left about the same time little Melissa was discovered missing. The police descended on Hughes’ house that night at 2 AM only to find Hughes washing a shirt, pants, belt and socks. The police use tape on almost every surface looking for fiber evidence and did the same thing to Hughes’ car. They found some blue fibers on the front seat that appeared to be the same color of the sweater Melissa was wearing. Further investigation revealed that the fibers came from a sweater from the Sesame Street collection by J.C. Penny. Melissa’s mother had bought Melissa a sweater from that collection three days before. Hughes was tried and convicted of abduction with the intent to defile. They could not go any further because little Melissa’s body was never found. I can assure you that if I and my selection of tools are given 10 minutes with Hughes, we would know where Melissa’s body is. Count on it.

1984 In Bhopal, India an accident happens at the Union Carbide plant there. This particular plant manufactured the pesticide Sevin. Sevin is composed of the chemicals carbon tetrachloride, methyl isocyanine (MIS) and alpha –napthol. The MIS chemicals are held in three partially buried tanks of 15,000 gallons each. If one of the tanks begins leaking, the plant operators are suppose to use pressurized nitrogen to move the chemical from the leaking tank to one that is not leaking. The plant operator found that one of the tanks was leaking and began pumping nitrogen into the tank. The only thing here is that the remotely operated discharge valve did not open completely and pressure began building inside the tank. The plant operators saw that the instruments indicated that the tank was approaching a dangerous pressure level but they ignored it as being inaccurate. At 2:10P a thunderous explosion occurs on the Union Carbide plant site, rupturing all three of the MIC tanks. A gray chemical cloud arose from the site and drifted downwind. The MIC chemical has a base of cyanide and people began dropping like flies. The cloud reached the local train station that was jam packed and when people began falling the rest of the crowd stampeded and several hundred were trampled to death. In all there were 2,000 killed and 20,000 injured. It is the worst chemical accident in history. Soon after this disaster, the name of Union Carbide disappeared and “Kemet” appeared at their former plants. I guess that was a good public relations move because even to this day, Bhopal and Union Carbide brings an image of disaster.

1947 The play A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway. The play is a dark drama by the immortal Tennessee Williams. The play starred a 23 year old Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski and Kim Hunter as his wife Stella. The theme of the play is that Stella’s sister, Blanche Du Bois who is very mentally unstable, comes to live with her sister in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The down side is that Blanche and Stanley do not get along at all and many explosive encounters ensue. Eventually, Stanley chooses to rape Blanche but Blanche fights like a wildcat and scratches him and tears his shirt, but Stanley prevails. Keep this in mind that all of this brutality and turmoil is shown on stage without pulling any punches. The play ended with Blanche being carried out of the house in a straight jacket. After the curtain fell there was a stunned silence and then the crowd yelled and applauded for a full thirty minutes. Tennessee Williams was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for this work. The play was made into a movie with Blanche being played by Vivien Leigh and Marlon and Kim in their regular roles. The movie was modified somewhat before it received the OK from the studios because of the violence. Marlon was nominated for an Oscar for best actor but he was beaten out by Humphrey Bogart in “African Queen.”

1967 US actor Brendan Fraser is born. While filming the movie “George of the Jungle”, he said “They had a hard time putting a mike on me while I am just in my loincloth, where are they going to put it?” I don’t know, Brendan, but it sounds like a size issue to me.

Quotable quotes:

“If God had intended us to us the metric system he would have had 10 disciples.” Dave Barry

Answer to the trivia question:

The fastest swimming fish that has been clocked is the sailfish. They have been clocked at 62 MPH.

                 Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow