Monday

                               Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Mister Speaker, I withdraw my statement that half of the cabinet are asses. Half of the cabinet are not asses.”

                                                  Benjamin Disraeli

Trivia question of the day:

What actor was the chief judge in the movie “A Judgment at Nuremberg?” Answer at the end of the blog.

               This Date in History   February 11

1776 On this date the Royal Governor of Georgia Sir James Wright escapes from house arrest and hurries to the British warship HMS Scarborough anchored in the mouth of the Savannah River and sailed his young ass back to England. The capitol of Georgia was Savannah at the time. Two months earlier Wright had been captured by Patriot Major Joseph Habersham and placed under house arrest. Originally Georgia was formed by corporate charter sponsored by various investors. In 1752 British Parliament had canceled the charter and took control of Georgia. Georgia was formed originally to be a state of poor whites, without slavery and alcohol to be a buffer between the plundering Spanish in Florida and the gigantic slave holding plantations in South Carolina. The Spanish were famous for raids where they captured slaves and took them to various ports in Florida and sold them. The attempt at making Georgia an area of no slaves and no alcohol failed miserably, probably because of the success of the bootleggers. When the British determined that their experiment in Georgia was failing, they allowed both slaves and alcohol but that didn’t work either. Sir James Wright had vast plantations in South Carolina but when he was named as governor of Georgia, he sold his plantations and re-invested in lands in Georgia. In 1778 Wright returned to Georgia with a substantial army and re-took control. Wright remained governor of Georgia until 1782 when the British left for good. Georgia had a majority of Loyalists in the population and did not send anyone to the First Continental Congress.

1861 On this date the recently elected President of the United States Abraham Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois headed for Washington. He is traveling by train that was packed with the family’s household goods that Lincoln packed himself. As expected, after Lincoln’s election seven southern states seceded from the Union and Lincoln knew full well that a civil war was on the near horizon. His parting words to the people of Springfield were “Here I have lived for a quarter of a century and have passed from a young man to an old man. My children have been born here and I have buried one here. Now I must leave not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater that that which rested on Washington. Without Divine assistance I cannot succeed, but with that assistance I cannot fail. To his care I am commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me. I bid you all an affectionate farewell”. It was reported that his chest heaved with emotion after completing this speech. He did indeed return to Springfield by train.

1960 Some of y'all may not know this but the first host of The Tonight Show was comedian/musician Steve Allen. After Steve retired the job of host fell to a fruitcake/comedian named Jack Paar. Paar was a funny guy but wore his emotions on his sleeve. He would often break into tears over the slightest thing and he often allowed his personal opinions on political matters to absorb him. When Fidel Castro overthrew Batista and his corrupt regime Parr praised Castro and called him a world hero. But when the Bay of Pigs fiasco occurred, he tried to engineer a swap of tractors for those captured by Castro. On this date Parr walked off the stage in angry tears and stayed away for a month. What happened was the show was taped and the NBC censors would snip and cut stuff from Paar’s monologue that they did not like. Finally Paar got fed up and when the censors cut a joke about a “water closet” (toilet) as being in bad taste he hit the roof and walked off the stage. Look at what we are seeing today, for crying out loud.

1778 On this date French playwright Voltaire returns to Paris after a 28 year exile. Voltaire was a rapier witted writer of outstanding talent. When he was young his father sent him to school to study law but Voltaire wanted to be a playwright. His first play was named La Henriade. The play was a farce about politicians and religion so biting that he was arrested and spent a year in the Bastille (prison). In 1734 he delivered Letters Philosophique and as you might suspect it was attacking the politicos and religion and the heat came so intense for him that he had to flee to England. In 1756 he was invited to Berlin as the guest of King Frederick II of Prussia. After this he moved to Switzerland where he delivered his most famous work in Candide. After only three months back in his beloved Paris, he died leaving a legacy of free thought that lives to this day.

1805 The Lewis and Clark expedition was wintering with the Mandan Indians near present day Bismarck, North Dakota. There they met a French/Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. This guy had just bought two Indian women from the Hidatsa tribe that was famous for kidnapping and selling women. One of the women was kidnapped from the Shoshone tribe near the Montana/Idaho border. Her name was Sacagawea. Lewis and Clark knew they would need horses to cross the Continental divide and knew that their best bet was to buy them from the Shoshone. Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as a guide if he would bring Sacagawea with him to which he agreed. On this date Sacagawea went into labor and Clark acted as a midwife assisting her as best he could. Sacagawea was having a tough time but Clark was told that a brew made from powdered rattlesnake rattle would induce birth. Clark administered this to poor old Sacagawea and two hours later she delivered a son named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau into this world. Clark became very attached to this baby and nicknamed him Pompey, or Pomp and Clark paid for his education. Pomp died in 1866.

Born today:

1921 Hungarian born actress Eva Gabor. She said “Marriage is too interesting of an experiment to be tried only once.” Eva was a beautiful woman. She went to the great wedding chapel in the sky in 1995.

1969 US actress Jennifer Anniston. She said “When a man with a camera follows you 20 blocks to a pharmacy and watches you buy toilet paper, you realize that your life has changed.” The so-called paparazzi are a pain in the ass.

Answer to the trivia question:

The chief judge in the movie “A Judgment At Nuremberg” was Spencer Tracy.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow