Wednesday

     Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“I am not going to deny myself things that I want just so I can spend an extra two years in the geriatric ward.”  Me too, George.

                                                        George Carlin

This past weekend I was in a famous watering hole that was recently shut down for having poker machines with gambling but the owner appealed and was allowed to remain open. Gambling is not legal in the state of South Carolina except for the state government which runs a lottery several days a week from which they reap enormous profits. The state of South Carolina says this is the “Education Lottery” and is used to provide education to deserving students. I do not know who decides how and to whom these funds are distributed and who would audit them but it is still gambling. The bar owner saw this as the supreme hypocrisy and to say the least unfair...and so do I. He remained open but the state took the poker machines. He has several sign in his establishment telling the state to “kiss his redneck a- -!”

A while back I met a lady named Rhonda while celebrating life with members of my eastside social group. Unfortunately the conversation got to present day politics. She had me at a disadvantage because I have stopped watching/listening to the media because of their unreliability. She finally said that she thought that Hillary should be president because she is squeaky clean(?) and has demonstrated leadership(?). She said that she knows how bad Donald is because she is in the real estate business herself. I bade her a good evening after that stunning display of rock hard logic. 

This Date in History July 31

1777 On this date a 19 year old Frenchman named Marquis de Lafayette joined George Washington’s Continental army as a Major General. Earlier Continental Congress secret envoy to France, Silas Deane had persuaded French military expert Baron Johan De Kalb and his protégée Marquis de Lafayette to offer their services to the fledgling United States in its war with England. The ruling monarch of France was King Louis XVI and he knew that any support sent to the colonies by France would result in war with England and forbade DeKalb and Lafayette from donating their expertise. In fact the British demanded at the ship Lafayette was aboard to be captured and Lafayette imprisoned. This in fact did happen but Lafayette escaped and boarded another ship that was able to evade the pursuing British ships. Lafayette finally arrived in South Carolina and made his way north and met up with Washington. The Continental Congress was reluctant to bestow such a rank on such a young man but Washington’s influence prevailed and Lafayette was given the rank. Lafayette served with distinction at the Battles of Brandywine, Monmouth and Rhode Island. After the United States and France signed a treaty, as expected, England declared was on France. This disturbed Lafayette and he requested to return to his homeland and see what Louis XVI had in mind for him in the war against England. He returned to France but came back to the United States and joined with Washington once again. He was at Yorktown, Virginia when British General Charles Cornwallis and his entire army were forced to surrender which virtually assure a Patriot victory in their war for independence. In fact if was a division of French troops that blocked Cornwallis from retreating. After the surrender ceremony George Washington made a stirring speech but Lafayette just said “The play...is over.”

1975 The leader of the powerful Teamsters Union of America, Jimmy Hoffa, is reported missing in Detroit. Jimmy had been waiting in the back seat of his Cadillac in front of the Red Fox restaurant in suburban Detroit on minute and the next minute both Jimmy, his driver and the Cadillac were gone. Jimmy had gone to jail for jury tampering for 8 years and while he was gone, his second in command in the Union Jim Fitzsimmons moved in and was elected President. This precisely what Hoffa had ordered not to happen. Hoffa wanted to remain President and run the Union from a jail cell. After he got out of jail, he went on a campaign to regain control of the Teamsters. Jimmy had some murky dealings with organized crime but nothing specific was ever determined. He finally was re-elected as President of the Union but Fitzsimmons and his followers were not pleased and the word on the street was that organized crime felt that Jimmy had become a threat. So it could have either or both that sent Jimmy to where he is today and has never been found. The most popular theory is that he was killed and his corpse was encased in one of the 8 foot diameter concrete columns that were under construction building the Meadowlands arena in New Jersey. I don’t think we will ever know what happened to Jimmy.

1715 On July 5 10 Spanish galleons and 1 French frigate departed Havana, Cuba loaded to the scuppers with Maya and Inca gold and silver headed for Europe. The Spanish ships hugged the Florida shore while the French ship sail further off shore. On this date when the Spanish ship were somewhere between Cape Canaveral and Fort Pierce, Florida a hurricane struck and all 10 of the Spanish ships were sunk spilling tons of gold and silver on the ocean floor. The French ship was able to ride out the storm with minimum damage. Later salvage boats from Cuba recovered 80% of the booty but the rest of it lay on the bottom until the early 1960’s when the rest of the treasure was salvaged.

Born today:

1912 US writer Irv Kupcinet. He said “What can you say about a civilization that says God id dead and Elvis is alive.” Hey Irv, do you meant that Elvis is not alive and working at a Dairy Queen in Kalamazoo, Michigan?

1919 US Sports announcer Curt Gowdy. At an automobile race he said “If there is a pile-up they might have to give some of the driver’s artificial insemination.” That may be good for Danica Patrick, Curt, but I had rather have artificial respiration.

1921 US racial advocate Whitney Young. He said “It is better to prepare for an opportunity and not have one than to not be prepared and have an opportunity.” You are right, Whitney, that is why I have Viagra, Cialis and Levitra in a capsule holder on my key chain, for what good it does.

Died today:

1928 US writer Michael Harrington. He said “If there is a technical advance and no social advance, there is almost automatically an increase in human misery.” I don’t get it Mike. What has the ATM machine, I-pod and the cellular phone etc. got to do with social well being?

      Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

         Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Promise me you will always remember. You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

                                   Christopher Robin to Pooh written by A.A. Milne

It would do all of us good to start the day by looking in the mirror and repeating this sentence.

During the American Civil War there were several units totally composed of recent immigrants, especially the Irish and Germans. They wanted to preserve this nation that had taken them in when they had nowhere else to go. I can assure you that you would not see that from most of the the Latinos. Theft and lawlessness is apparently a way of life for them for the most part and no interest in citizenship, there are exceptions. A few years ago I had planned to rent a house near Merida, Mexico which is about 80 miles west of Cancun. The owner was from New Mexico and he sent me a few tips to make my trip more enjoyable. One of his points was to never leave anything outside unattended or it would be stolen. He said they would not break in but anything outside unattended was considered abandoned and fair game this included beach towels and wash cloths left on a hand rail to dry out, etc. A grill was to be taken out, used, and then wait for it to cool off and take it back in…or else lose it. I did read about a Latino that graduated from Arizona State University with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He eventually realized that he could not get a job with an American engineering firm because he was indeed an illegal immigrant so he went back to Mexico. Nearly all large engineering firms that do business with the US Government require American citizenship from people that work on security sensitive projects. This man made no effort to find an avenue to citizenship...he just wanted to take and not give and that appears to be the norm.

                                This Date in History   July 30

1780 On this date Patriot Colonel Isaac Shelby and his division of 600 infantry captured Fort Thicketty which was about 10 mile southeast of Cowpens, South Carolina. Shelby and his troops were able to capture the fort that was manned totally by Loyalists without firing a shot. Earlier Shelby was part and parcel of the Battle of Kings Mountain, North Carolina where British General Thomas Ferguson and his division of Loyalists were trapped on top of a small mountain in the King’s mountain range near the North Carolina/South Carolina border and the Patriots had the bottom of the mountain surrounded. Even though Ferguson and his troops surrendered, he and his troops were annihilated. When Ferguson raised a white hanky as a signal of surrender, he said “I am an officer in his majesty’s army and will be treated with dignity and respect.” This comment was met with at least 8 musket balls and Ferguson was dead as fried chicken before he hit the ground. This action was caused by the slaughter of 200 Patriots a few weeks earlier that had surrendered to the infamous British Colonel Banaste Tarleton at the village of Waxhaw just south of present day Charlotte, NC and all were bayoneted and killed. Word of Shelby and his “over the mountain” men had reached the Loyalists at Fort Thicketty and they wanted no part of Shelby and company. Shelby went on down and defeated the British at the Battle of Cedar Springs (in the center of the present day city of Spartanburg, SC) and on down to the Battle of Musgrove Mill which is about 30 mile southwest of Spartanburg. Shelby and his “over the mountain” men were bloodthirsty and ruthless and everybody knew it, especially the Loyalists. The “over the mountain” men were those back country men that came down from the wilds of the Appalachian Mountains to kill the British and were good at it. Speaking of good at it, Shelby was born in Maryland and was involved in Pontiac’s War. He scalped his first Indian at the age of 13. The city of Shelby, North Carolina is named for this Patriot

1619 This date saw the first gathering of a legislative body in America. The House of Burgesses was founded in the choir section of the local church in Jamestown, Virginia. It had been 12 years since Jamestown had been founded and the financier of this expedition was The London Company, a group of investors, and they required a legislative body in the colony. 22 people were voted into office by the local adult males. The first thing they did was establish the minimum price for tobacco. Then they established a law defining what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath. These folks were very religious, y'all. By the way, in old English “Burgess” means “the public”.

1863 On this date Shoshone chief Pocatello signed the treaty of Box Elder Creek making the immigrants able to cross southern Idaho safely. At one time the Bannock Shoshone were one of the most powerful tribes on the Great Plains. But a white man’s disease called smallpox had swept through the tribe in the epidemic of 1781 decimating their number to the point that the fierce Blackfoot had pushed them off the plains and into the mountains. Then there came an even more dangerous group in the Lewis and Clark expedition carrying even more white man’s diseases. The Shoshone wanted to be friends with the white man so they could lay their hands on firearms to defeat the hated Blackfoot. But 50 years later the Shoshone finally realized that the white man was a much more dangerous threat than the Blackfoot but it was too late, the pioneers and settlers were well established along with the US Cavalry.

Born today:

1891 Baseball manager Casey Stengel. He said “The key to being a good manger is to keep those people that hate you away from those that are undecided.” Casey was funny.

Died today:

1784 French philosopher Denis Diderot. He said “All children are essentially criminal.” Tack onto that “especially those little monsters in restaurants sitting in a booster chair five feet from me screaming in their gravelly voices “NO I DON”T WANT THAT, I WANT ICE CREAM!!!!!” I have asked more than one waitress to go knock those brats out. They never do.

1975 Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. He had said “I don’t need bodyguards”. On this date Jimmy was sitting in his Cadillac outside of a restaurant near Detroit one minute and the next minute he and his car disappeared from the planet and have never been found to this day. I don’t know Jimmy, but maybe a couple of means guys with, .45 ACP automatics close by might have prevented that. But for today, goodbye Jimmy wherever you are.

                Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                               Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return, but the hurt is much worse when you love someone and do not have the courage to tell them how you feel.”

Charles Swindoll

I tried for years without success to try to tell Dolly Parton how much I care...Jennifer Lopez, too.

Back in 2007 an illegal immigrant named Alejandro Umana wanted to make an impression to the notorious Mexican street gang MS-13. He chose to walk into a restaurant in Greensboro, NC and gunned down two brothers for no other reason than to make an impression. After that he threatened many of the witnesses to try and stop them from cooperating with the investigation, he tried to extort money from a local drug lord for MS-13. Later on his trial was completed and he was sentenced to death. Yes indeed, we really want those illegal Latino immigrants living with us. By the way, adios Alejandro, you garlic-snapping grease ball.

A while back up in Gaston County, North Carolina 28 year old Howard Pouser drifted to the opposite side of the road and slammed head on into an ’89 Oldsmobile. He went far enough over that he struck the passenger side of the Olds which was the heaviest. Recent high school graduate 17 year old Laura Fortenberry was riding in the passenger seat and was killed instantly. Here is the bad part. Howard had been convicted of three other DWI’s in addition to several other crimes.  The law enforcement officials sent Howard to the hospital for a minor injury and he was released afterward. Howard went home, crawled into bed and went to sleep, for crying out loud. The cops came and woke him up and got a blood sample for DWI reasons. He was arrested and his bond is $2 million. How could this jackass be still be on the streets? He had better take a good look at the sun because it may be the last he will see of it for years to come.

                  This Date in History   July 29

1588 A few years earlier Queen Elizabeth I of England had sent her most able sea captain in Sir Francis Drake out to harass Spain, England’s worst enemy at the time.  Drake did not disappoint. He caught the Spanish fleet at anchor in Cadiz, Spain and sent in ships that were on fire into the fleet and bombarded them with long range artillery. This attack delayed by one year King Phillip of Spain’s attempt at the control of the English Channel and therefore controlling England’s commerce. Drake’s attack also alerted England to Spain’s intentions. Queen Elizabeth had sent monetary aid and supplies to some of the Dutch colonies that were rebelling against Spain’s attempt to occupy those lands. Eventually, King Phillip of Spain got his fleet together to the tune of 130 ships containing 8,000 guns manned by 2,000 sailors and 20,000 infantry. This fleet was known as the “Great Armada” but later it was known as the Spanish Armada. Anyway, the fleet left Spain headed for the English Channel in a line of ships eight miles long. The delay had allowed the English fleet almost a year to prepare and when the Spanish Armada arrived in the English Channel the English were ready. The English ships were not a fast as the Spanish ships but they were a lot more rugged, especially in rough seas, and had cannon with a lot longer range. As you might suspect, the English ships stood off out of range of the Spanish ships and bombarded the hell out them. Then the worst possible thing happened for the Spanish Armada. A typical English Channel storm arrived unexpectedly and the mighty Spanish Armada was forced to seek shelter in a small bay near Calais, France where they anchored down to ride out the storm. The English fleet, Sir Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake commanding, waited until the storm abated and on this date they sealed off the mouth of the bay the Spanish Fleet had occupied and again bombarded the hell out of them and sent in, you guessed it, fire ships meant to set fire to the Armada. After that it was every Spanish ship for himself and the ships left that bay the best way they could. Most of the ships did escape from the bay but they were not in formation and disorganized, the English were waiting and picked them off one by one. Not only that the wind shifted and the Spanish Fleet had no chance to sail back to Spain and many of them crashed on the shores of Scotland and Ireland with the English fleet in hot pursuit. The English fleet turned back at the north end of Scotland. Finally, the survivors of the “Great Armada” arrived back in Spain less than half strength. This is one of the most important military events in history in stopping Spain from invading England.

1981 On this date the heir apparent to the English throne Prince Charles, the oldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, and Diana Spencer are married in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London (been there). Nearly one billion, I said one billion, people watched that wedding from 74 countries on TV. Since Diana was of a royal descent she automatically became Princess Diana. There were 2,650 guests at the wedding. The “happy” couple was blessed with a son about a year later when Prince William was born and in 1984 Prince Harry was born. It was soon thereafter that a rift appeared between the two and the English press got scent of it. They announced formal separation in 1992 but in reality they had been apart longer than that. They continued to carry out their royal duties until August of 1996 when a divorce was granted. The only thing Diana had to give up was the title of “Her Royal Highness” and Charles gained his mistress of many years, Camilla Bowles. We all know what happened to Princess Di but Prince Charles chose to marry Camilla. How he could ever arrive at this decision is beyond me. When I was in London in ’04 I went on a bus tour of that great city. Our tour guide was aflame but he was a funny guy. He said that on one occasion Prince Charles was driving into Buckingham Palace with a couple of his friends and ran over one of Queen Elizabeth’s prize Corgi dogs. He got out and found that the Corgi had been crushed top to bottom. His friends persuade him just to bury the dog and pretend that he did not know what happened to it. So he started digging a hole and hit something metallic and it is a brass lamp. Charles began rubbing and a Genie popped out. The Genie offered Charles one wish and he asked if the Genie can bring the dog back to life. The Genie says, “Hand me the dog” and he looks the dog over and says “I can’t do anything with this, the dog is crushed from one end to the other, but you still have a wish. So Charles said, “Can you make Camilla any prettier?” There was a long pause and the Genie says “Let me see the dog again.” By the way, our tour of London included a visit to St. Paul’s. What a stunning sight it is. Many, many of England’s greatest heroes are buried in the cemetery including Lord Wellington and Lord Nelson. The dome of St. Peters was designed by the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren in the late 1600’s. The dome has structural members that meet at the top and there is nothing underneath. Sir Wren designed a chain that was attached to all the members at the bottom which prevented them from spreading apart. As far as I know, that chain is still there. Wren was a pretty smart guy.

1945 On this date the battleship USS Indianapolis is enroute from Tinian to the Philippines after delivering the final part of the Hiroshima bomb. A Japanese submarine spots the Indy and put two torpedoes in the side of this great ship. The shots are fatal and the Indy goes down fairly quickly but most of the crew of 800 escaped into the sea. But there are not enough life rafts to get everybody aboard so they rotate hanging on the sides and sitting inside. There were 134 survivors to this tragedy. The sharks fed on those hanging on the side.

                  Thanks for listening     I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

     Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“The greatest way to live an honest life is be what you pretend to be.”

                                                  Socrates

Trivia question of the day:

The Blue Whale is the largest mammal that has ever existed...what is the smallest? Answer at the end of the blog.

Out in Bell, California, a small town southeast of Los Angeles, there are just short of 40,000 residents. The majority is Latinos and 17% live below the poverty level spending a lot of time getting food stamps and standing in line at the Food Bank. The Los Angeles Times published the salaries of the city governing body and here is what the residents discovered. The city manager’s salary was $789,000/year with a 12% raise per year guaranteed. That, my friends, is double what the President of the United States salary is. The fire chief had a salary of $458,000 which is half again what the fire chief of Los Angeles gets in a city of 3.8 million. Needless to say, the residents showed up at city hall in force demanding the ouster of the Mayor, the City Manager and the Fire Chief. After a while those three did resign in the knowledge that they would receive 2/3 of their salary as a retirement pension. More hell was raised and finally the District Attorney of Los Angeles County stepped in and began an investigation as to whether obviously corrupt city officials were indeed eligible for a pension.

Over in Cowpens, South Carolina a few days ago an undercover cop working in the vice squad paid a visit to “Mr. Waffle” near I-85 (been there) seeking prostitutes. He saw a woman loitering out front and struck up a conversation. The woman asked him to buy her a soft drink which he did. The woman offered him “any kind companionship he liked.” She introduced herself as Angela which surprisingly was her real name. They got into the deputy’s truck and she demanded to see the man’s penis and he complied and Angela grabbed him by his penis and said “Ok, I guess you are not a cop.” The man suggested a form of sex and Angela “repositioned” herself and it was at this time that the deputy identified himself as being under cover and arrested poor Angela. The question I have is how did Angela expect to identify the man as a cop or not by feeling of his penis? Do cops have a tacitly identifiable peculiarity down there? We learn things every day. By the way, they had a photo of Angela in the item and she had a strangely familiar looking face…she looked a lot like Jeremy Shockey, used to be the tight end for the new Orleans Saints.

A few years ago a group of men got together and decided to open a bar/restaurant on the east side of Austin, Texas. They discussed a name and a logo and decided on The Long Branch Inn was the name and a caricature of a beaver as their logo. The beaver ended up with just the smiling head and buck teeth with LBI on the brim of a sailor’s hat. This last week they got a cease and desist order from an organization saying that the Long Branch was infringing on the copyrights of the University of Oregon State Beavers logo. The owners thought it was a joke but it proved not to be. A comparison photo of each logo was shown and sure enough they were identical except for the “LBI” on one of the sailor’s caps and “OSU” on the other. The Long Branch agreed to change their logo and initiated a contest. The Long Branch has a stuffed Beaver above their bar. So far the leading entry is the same beaver logo except this one has black Groucho Marx glasses on. I don’t know if that will be enough, however. It is pretty damned bad when there is an organization that makes a living making comparisons on college logos against those in free enterprise.

                  This Date in History July 26

1775 Earlier in October of 1774 a Patriot printer from Philadelphia named William Goddard, after years of being frustrated because the Royal Mail Service was not unable to deliver his newspaper to his readers nor to bring important information to Goddard, petitioned the Continental Congress to form a Continental Post Office. The Congress delayed its decision until after the Battles of Lexington and Concord. On this date Congress authorized the formation of a Continental Post Office with Ben Franklin as this nations very first Postmaster General. Ben held this post until the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 and then he was sent to France as the American Emissary. Ben’s son-in-law Richard Bache was named to replace Ben. This was the very first act, and would not be the last, of nepotism in the United States government arena.

1908 On this date Attorney General Charles Bonaparte ordered a group of newly hired investigators to report to Chief Examiner Stanley Finch of the Department of Justice. This event was the first baby step in the formation of the FBI. One year later the Office of Chief Examiner was renamed the Bureau of Investigation. When America entered WWI, the Bureau of Investigation was tasked with investigating draft dodgers, violators of the Espionage Act and immigrants suspected of radicalism. The last one bothers me. Radicalism could be interpreted as an every day attitude to some people but very dangerous to others. Anyway, lawyer and librarian J. Edgar Hoover joined the bureau in 1917 and quickly worked his way to be an assistant to the Attorney General. Hoover and his anti-radical philosophy made him popular during the time period known as the “Red scare era” in 1920-1921. Hoover established a card file on anyone he felt was a “radical” numbering over 450,000. He also had over 10,000 “suspected” communists arrested. The great majority of these people were questioned briefly and released. Hoover was just flexing his muscles. This was a very dangerous ideology and gave Hoover enormous power. Congress eventually became very afraid of this man but his powers of investigation insured his longevity at his position. The upside of the formation of the FBI was they could pursue criminals across state lies since they were a federal agency. Hoover became the acting director of the Bureau of Investigation in 1924. With Congressional approval, Hoover greatly expanded and improved the Bureau with a centralized fingerprint file, an agent training school for agents and he whipped the Bureau into a very efficient crime fighting entity. They were going to need it in the 1930’s during prohibition because powerful criminals like the head of Murder, Incorporated Lepke Burkhalter, “Machine Gun” Kelly who specialized in the kidnapping of people of rich families and demanding enormous ransoms, not to mention Al “Scarface” Capone, “Dutch” Schultz among many others would present a great challenge. The bureau was titled the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. Hoover established an arm of the bureau called COINPRO which was an acronym for counter-intelligence program. This unit was used to counter the supposed infiltration of communists into the US. But it was also used to keep tabs on organizations like the KKK and was used unashamedly to harass and track the movements of Martin Luther King, Jr. simply because Hoover did not agree with his goals of equality for all. When the Watergate scandal broke much pressure and criticism was brought on the Bureau in general and Hoover in particular for the first time Hoover’s tenure. It was during this time frame that Hoover died of heart failure at the age of 77. Evidence proved that the FBI had suppressed evidence that would have proven the culpability of President Richard Nixon in the knowledge of the wrong doing and the attempt to cover it up. Since this time the Congress has established a process of selection of the FBI director that included Congressional approval and limited the tenure to 10 years. The FBI has proven to be a great asset to Americans, but at times have severely over stepped its boundaries.

Answer to the trivia question.

There are 2 creatures that are acknowledged to be the smallest mammals. One is the Etruscan Shrew which is about the size of your thumb and the other is the Bumble Bee bat. This critter is literally about the size of a bumble bee.

              Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I am not a fascist. I am a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what do, whereas priests drink a lot more.”

                                                 Father Ted Crilly

Trivia question of the day:

Cheetahs are acknowledged to be the fastest land animal on Earth at between 60 and 75 MPH in short bursts...what is the second fastest?  Answer at the end of the blog.

                    This Date in History  July 25

1955 On this date the impossible happens. Two ocean liners collide off shore from Nantucket. The Andrea Doria was outbound and the Stockholm was inbound to New York. As y'all may or may not know there are definite “rules of the road” in the marine world. What ships do when approaching at 90 degree angles, when overtaking, when approaching head-on, etc. are set so each ship's captain knows what to expect from the other ships. The trouble here was that the navigator on the outbound ship was navigating by radar and misinterpreted what he saw on the screen. He thought the other ship was crossing his path when it was going to pass to his right with plenty of clearance. The navigator ordered a turn to the right into the path of the Stockholm. The bow of the Stockholm plowed into the side of the Andrea Doria inflicting a fatal wound. The Stockholm was damaged but was still able to sail. The Stockholm stayed with the Andrea Doria and was responsible for the rescue of many of the passengers. Not only that, the luxury French cruise ship the Ile de France that had left New York earlier, turned around and rescued many of the passengers. The Andrea Doria finally rolled on her side and slipped to the bottom. The Andrea Doria is in waters that can be reached by amateur divers and is considered the “Mount Everest” of sport diving. But the divers are faced with very cold water, heavy current and hundreds of Great White sharks. Not this horse.

1963 On this date Bob Dylan performed at the Newport Jazz Festival and a new type of music was born. Bob was able to blend jazz, folk and rock and roll into one genre. He was born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941 but he changed his name because he was an admirer of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. While in high school he formed a band but eventually dropped out of school to pursue his musical career as a performer/songwriter. His life changed when he went to New York and met folk music legend Woody Guthrie several times. It was Woody’s semi-protest song writings that influenced Bob the most. It was Dylan that gave us “Blowin’ in the Wind” which was a monster hit for “Peter, Paul and Mary”. The next hit was “Times they are A-changing” which was the keystone hit of a very successful album. Bob Dylan has been a world recognized songwriter for over 40 years now. He remains very secretive and reclusive when it comes to his personal life. When was the last time y'all have read anything scandalous about Bob Dylan? In fact, when is the last time you read anything at all about Bob Dylan?

1853 Earlier a Mexican immigrant named Joachim Murrieta had moved to northern California during the gold rush of 1849 and staked a claim on the Stanislaus River. According to unsubstantiated stories written by a San Francisco newspaper reporter, Murrieta and his family were treated severely by the other prejudicial gold miners. It was said that he was beaten and whipped, his wife repeatedly raped and his children killed. Because of this, Murrieta organized a gang of thieves and began a reign of terror throughout the gold fields of the area. Finally the state of California got fed up and put out a reward of $6,000 on the head of Joachim Murrieta. They also hired professional gunman Harry Love to hunt down and bring Joachim in, dead or alive. Harry hired 20 men to accompany him on his search. Love finally located Joachim and his gang camped out on Cantua Creek in Calaveras County. At sunrise Harry Love and his posse attack Joachim and his gang of seven others and kill them all including Joachim and his right hand man “Three fingers Jack”. As you might suspect, Jack was missing a finger on his right hand. In order for Harry and his men to collect the $6,000 reward they had to prove that they had killed Joachim. Rather than bring Joachim’s body in they decided to bring his head in instead. So they behead poor Joachim, put the head in a large glass jar and fill it up with whiskey. On this date the head of Joachim Murrieta was put on display in Stockton, California and Harry and the boys collected the $6,000. As a show of class, Harry had cut off the right hand of “Three Fingers Jack” and had it dangling by a string for all to see.

1861 On this date the US Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution. This document stated that the purpose of United States fighting the Civil War was to keep unity and was not for the abolition of slavery. John Crittenden felt that this resolution was necessary to keep the slave-holding states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware from seceding. Even though these were “slave” states they had not joined the Confederacy. At the beginning of the war most northerners felt that the war was necessary for unity but did not give a damn one way or the other when it came to the issue of slavery. Even this attitude changed after the Union armies had suffered one ass-kicking after another including a rout at the Battle of Manassas. Then the northern attitude was “To hell with it. Stop the slaughter and let the Confederacy become their own country.” Even though the resolution had good intentions, the whole meaning was compromised two weeks later when Lincoln signed the Confiscation Act which allowed for the seizure of the property (including slaves) from any rebellious person. This really upset the slave owners in the afore mentioned states and it took a lot of dancing around to stop them from seceding.

Born today:

1902 US philosopher Eric Hoffer. He said “Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.” I guess that is the reason that I see so many agitated people.

1905 Bulgarian writer Elias Canetti. He said “Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being is inside making fun of you.” I think my brother’s dog “Kalie” a yellow Lab does exactly that.

1973 Brazilian soccer star Ze Maria. He said “The pain is very painful.” Ze, shut up.

Died today:

1834 English writer Samuel Coleridge. When speaking about a fellow writer he said “Gibbon’s writing style is detestable, but that is not the worst thing about him.” Sam, I like your style.

Answer to the trivia question:

Cheetahs are the fastest animal on Earth at 60 to 75 MPH in short bursts the second fastest is the pronghorn antelope out on the great plains of the good old USA that can run at 61 MPH sustained for a substantial period of time.

             Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

         Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“Thanksgiving dinners take 18 hours to prepare. They are consumed 12 minutes. Half time in a NFL game is 12 minutes...this is no accident.”

                                                    Erma Bombeck

Trivia question of the day:

What is the most populous religion in the world? Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back I met a lady named Ronda while celebrating life with members of my eastside social group. Unfortunately the conversation got to present day politics. She had me at a disadvantage because I had stopped watching/listening to the media because of their unreliability. She finally said that she thought that Hillary should be president because she is squeaky clean and has demonstrated leadership. She said that she knows how bad Donald is because she is in the real estate business herself. I had bid her good evening after that stunning display rock hard logic.

                    This Date in History   July 24

1911 On this date American explorer Hiram Bingham is the first honky to lay eyes on one of the most spectacular sites in archaeological history. He had found Machu Picchu, an Inca city hidden in the Andes Mountains northwest of the capitol of Cuzco. After the rape of the Inca by the Spanish conquistadors, the Inca rulers no longer summered in Machu Picchu and its location was kept a secret for 350 years. Only the local natives knew of its existence. This magnificent city had surrounding lands that had been terraced for the raising of crops and the city had running water.  It was built of huge stones that were cut so accurately that cement was not required and a razor blade could not be inserted in the seams. This is not the only Inca city that has been found in the Andes that was engineered so greatly. How these cities were build is still a mystery to the world. The Inca were very small in stature and had no draft animals other than the llama. There is no evidence that they had knowledge of the wheel. Machu Picchu was found high up on two peaks that had been leveled to allow construction and it is one of the most visited tourist sites in the world.

1567 Mary Queen of Scots had been imprisoned because of her unbending dedication to Catholicism in a land filled with Presbyterian Royalty. On this date she is forced to abdicate the throne and the crown goes to her infant son that would become James VI of Scotland and eventually James I the first king of England, Scotland and Ireland. Mary was an ambitious girl and tried to take back the crown of Scotland by force but her army was destroyed and she booked to England and asked her cousin Queen Elizabeth I to allow her to have safe haven. The Queen was acceptable to this. But Mary got the itch again and conspired with a bunch of Catholics in England and other countries to overthrow Elizabeth and then Mary would assume the throne. Mary paid for this indiscretion with her head. She just would not give up her religion.

1847 On this date Brigham Young topped a hill and looked down on the Great Salt Lake Valley and uttered “This is the place”. Then he and 148 Mormons walked down into the valley and began to lay out a city for the throngs that would come in the future. Here is a short story about Mormons. When my oldest daughter was just a child, two well scrubbed young men rode up to my house astride bicycles. They knocked on the door and presented themselves as Mormons and would like to tell me about their religion. I asked if they had a bible and they said yes. I told them to leave the bible and come back in a week. It was the Book of Mormon. I read it cover to cover and I want to tell y'all, it was one of the most fascinating books of history I have ever read. But it was almost like reading science fiction because some of it was so unbelievable. But then I asked myself if these events happened before or after Moses turned the Nile River into blood, parted the Red Sea and had a flaming tornado to lead an estimated 7 million Jews into the thirsty Negev desert northeast of Egypt, stay 40 years and leave no physical evidence of it. It is all in what you choose to believe, isn’t it?

1864 Earlier CSA General Robert E. Lee had tasked General Jubal Early with clearing those damned Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley. General Early left and made a feint toward Washington before entering the valley. Early was pursued hotly by a Yankee army commanded by US General George Crook. The two armies had skirmished somewhat but nothing heavy. Then when Early found that Crook and his army was in terrain that was to Crooks disadvantage then he turned and struck Crook with everything he had. It was a rout, y'all. Those Yankees headed their young asses back toward Washington as fast as they could and Early and company headed at a leisurely pace down the valley. By the way, it was General Crook that was at the head of one of the columns headed to Little Big Horn to capture the Sioux and Cheyenne. He was late. Then he was assigned the task of capturing that wily Apache Geronimo. He pursued Geronimo for five years and in all that time he only got a fleeting glance of him. Crook resigned because of this failure. He was a superb officer but was assigned tasks that were near impossible.

1915 The steamer “Eastland” was in the harbor in Chicago and had been hired by a church to take the congregation out to an island in Lake Michigan for a picnic. The crowd was about 2,500. The boat had originally been built to accommodate 800 but some marine engineers had made some “modifications” to where it would handle 2,500. Another marine engineer published a notice that the so called modifications were bogus and was dangerous. All of the crowd got aboard and then ran to the starboard rail for a group photo. The Eastland began to list and it just kept on rolling trapping nearly all under the hull right there in the slip. Dock workers immediately got their torches working and began cutting holes in the hull and began pulling people to safety. But over 800 were drowned. What a nightmare.

Born today:

1878 English writer Lord Dunsany. He said “Logic, like whiskey is no good if taken in too large of doses.” Hey Lord, Plato, Aristotle and Socrates would beg to differ.

1947 US comic Gallagher. He said “I wish there was a knob on the TV labeled “Intelligence” but the closest I can find is “Brightness” and it don’t work either.” A lot of people like Gallagher but he ain’t my cup of tea.

1970 US actress Jennifer Lopez. Comedian Chris Rock said of her. “I saw Jennifer Lopez on TV the other night accepting some kind of award and she thanked her agent, her family her minister her make-up artist and a lot of other people. She needs to thank that ass, that’s what got where she is today.” Chris must be an ass and legs man like myself.

Died today:

1862 US president Martin Van Buren. He said “It is easier to do the job right than to have to explain why you didn’t.”

Answer to the trivia question:

There are more Christians by far in the world than any other religion with an estimated 2.2 billion. Second is Islam with 1.6 billion.

       Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow