Tuesday

                                    Musings and History

Quote of the day:

When speaking Clement Attlee he said “How can I support anyone that thinks charisma is December 25^th.”

                                             Lord Beaverbrook

Trivia question of the day:

Who and when was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for physics and later another one for chemistry?

I guess most of you have seen where the Broadway musical “Beauty and the Beast” has been re-written to include a segment that shows a homosexual encounter and other meetings that are nothing short of bad taste. A while back I saw an attempt to re-write “Richard III” by William Shakespeare to show that Richard was a homosexual as was the majority of his court. Let me say this about that. I am far from a homophobic but it is nothing but a lack of imagination and naked plagiarism to have to modify another's works to portray something that is of a personal conviction and a disgusting insult to the authors.

Beauty and the Beast was a book originally written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve a french authoress who died in 1755. The present version was written by Jeanne-Marie de Prince Beaumont, also a french authoress who died n 1780. I do not believe that either one of these women had a homosexual encounter or scenes bordering on pornography in mind at an time while writing this milestone of literature. But somehow the present day producers consider it “breaking new ground” or “doing daring things” but it is nothing but showing a supreme lack of talent,  imagination and an extreme overload of shallowness.

This Date in History December 4

1872 On this date the British brig Del Gratia, Captain David Morehouse commanding, spotted the brigantine Mary Celeste moving erratically near the Azores in the eastern Atlantic. The Mary Celeste was under full sail and when the ship was hailed by Captain Morehouse he received no reply. He sent a small boat over to see what the problem was. There was not a soul aboard and they found nothing out of the ordinary aboard. There were a few normal navigation instruments and a life raft missing but other than that all was normal. The ships log showed that the ship left New York for Genoa, Italy on November 7 commanded by Captain Benjamin Briggs. Also aboard were his wife and two children with a crew of 8 carrying 1,700 barrels of crude alcohol. There were several feet of water in the hold but all the reserve food and water was intact as was the cargo. Even with several feet of water in the hold it was not enough to overwhelm the onboard pumps. The last entry in the ships log showed the ship 500 miles from where she was found by Captain Morehouse and apparently had been adrift for 11 days. The last log entry showed no abnormalities. Captain Briggs, his family and crew was never found and the reason for the abandonment was never determined.

1780 On this date General George Washington’s cousin Colonel William Washington fools Loyalist Rowland Rugeley resulting in the capture of Rugeley and his troops. Colonel Washington had been struggling with the fierce British Colonel Banastre Tarleton and was force to retreat into South Carolina. He was ordered by Patriot General Daniel Morgan to go to Camden, South Carolina and kill or capture the contingent of Loyalists know to be there led by Rugeley. Colonel Washington found Rugeley and his troops in Rugeley’s house in Camden. When Colonel Washington retreated into South Carolina he lost several artillery pieces and had none with him when he found Rugeley so he improvised. He had his troops cut down two trees that were the approximate diameter of an artillery piece barrel, stripped the bark off and painted them black and pointed the trees at the Rugeley house. He then went to the house and ordered the surrender of Rugeley and all of his troops or he would order his “artillery” to open fire. Rugeley and his troops surrendered without firing a shot. When British General Charles Cornwallis was informed of this debacle by Tarleton, Cornwallis assured Tarleton that Rugeley would never receive another promotion. Colonel Tarleton met with his own embarrassment when he was sucked into a trap by Patriot General Daniel Morgan near Cowpens, South Carolina a few weeks later. Tarleton’s troops were nearly annihilated and Tarleton had to run like a rabbit to keep from being captured. After this victory the Patriots saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

1864 After 8 days of cavalry clashes in central Georgia, the final battle took place near Waynesboro, Georgia between Union General Judson Kilpatrick and CSA General Joseph “Fightin’ Joe” Wheeler. Kilpatrick had been assigned the task of protecting US General Sherman’s left flank during the famous march to Atlanta. Even though Kilpatrick lost three times as many men as Wheeler his action was considered a success because Wheeler never made contact with Sherman’s main force.

1969 On this date two members of the Black Panthers, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, are killed in their apartment in Chicago by the Chicago PD. The Chicago PD had gone to the apartment to arrest the two and was prepared for trouble if not anticipating it. According to the PD there was and “enormous” gun battle when they tried to arrest them. There were over 100 bullet holes in the apartment door and walls nearby. The trouble was that a forensic team came in and inspected the crime scene and found that only two shots were fired from the inside out and the rest were fired from the outside in. Needless to say heads rolled in the Chicago PD when a gigantic cover-up was discovered by the FBI.

1783 After 8 years of blood, sweat and tears, General George Washington called his staff to Fraunces Tavern in New York City to announce his resignation and return to civilian life. The Revolutionary was essentially ended over when British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered after being surrounded at the Battle of Yorktown. But it took almost two years before a formal Treaty was signed and slightly longer for all the British troops to get their greasy ass out of my country. As you all know, Washington was elected our first President. We were very fortunate to have a man of is caliber on our side during this period in time and it believe it was no accident.

1942 On this date, in spite of the risk to their lives, a group of Polish Christians began offering help to the Polish Jews. Since the invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939, the Jews had been pushed into ghettos, sent to concentration/execution camps, murdered and their possessions captured by the Germans, etc. The Christians did the best they could but the rampage against the Jews, not only in Poland but Europe wide, remained unabated for the remainder of the war by the most bloodthirsty monsters in recorded history, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan excepted.

Born today:

1875 English writer Samuel Butler. He said “There is one thing certain, namely, that we can never have anything certain, therefore it is not certain that we can nothing certain.” Sam, shut the hell up and quit ruining my life.

Trivia question answer:

It was Marie Curie in 1903. She and her husband Pierre were the discoverers of radium and radioactivity. She won the Nobel Prize for physics and later on won another for chemistry. She died of radiation poisoning. She did not realize that radioactivity was lethal until it was too late.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow