•  Musings and History

    Quote of the day:
    “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, and that is all.”
                                                      Oscar Wilde

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

                      This Date in History   August 20

    1794 Earlier at the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War, England ceded the so-called Northwest Territory which today is known as the Midwest to the United States. The problem was that some of the British soldiers did not abandon their forts and encouraged and supplied the Indians against the incoming American settlers. President George Washington got fed up and called in General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne and tasked him with going in and taking care of that problem. General Wayne got the nickname “Mad Anthony” at his attack on the British encampment at Stony Point, New York. Wayne knew he would be outnumbered so he ordered the attack to begin at 1:30a and he also ordered his men to bayonet as many British/Loyalist soldiers in the throat as they could while they were asleep to keep them from crying out. His troops killed over 90 British/Loyalist troops which evened the odds and Wayne and his troops prevailed. Anyway on this assignment he had an army of 3,000 combat trained infantry which proved to be formidable. This was not the first time a United States military unit had been in that area trying to overcome these hostile Indians. Two years earlier United States General Arthur St. Clair had led a military force in that area and met up with an Indian chief named Blue Jacket and St. Clair received an ass-kicking to the tune of losing 630 men. On this date “Mad Anthony” Wayne and company met up with Blue Jacket and his army near present day Toledo, Ohio. A savage battle ensued in which Blue Jacket and his army was all but annihilated. The savagery of Wayne’s attack spread throughout the Indians in the area and the incoming settlers had little if any trouble with the Indians from this time on. This encounter went down in history as the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

    1989 Incredible as it may seem, two brothers named Lyle, aged 22 and Erik, aged 18 decide to murder their mother and father. On this day the Menendez brothers opened fire with shotguns on their parents Jose and Kitty in their home in Beverly Hills and nearly cut them to pieces. They then go to a movie to have an alibi. After coming home from the movie, Eric called 911 and screamed “Someone has killed my parents!” At first the brothers were not suspects but Erik was overcome with guilt had to have psychiatric therapy. He confessed to his psychiatrist that he had done the deed. The psychiatrist had taped his sessions with Erik and in trying to impress his girlfriend, told her about what Erik had said. The girlfriend was not impressed and went to the cops and in March of 1990 Erik and Lyle were arrested. It took a three year battle through the courts before the California Supreme Court ruled that the psychiatrist’s taped confession could be played in court. Even after that the brothers testified that they had suffered sexual abuse from both their mother and father. It was an obvious lie but it was enough to cause a hung jury in the first trial. In the second trial the judge was more restrictive about the brother’s testimony that they killed their parents in self defense. They testified that they believed that their father would kill them rather than risk the exposure the he was a sexual deviant. That was a bald-faced lie and the jury did not buy it this time and the brothers were sentenced to life in prison. I forgot to mention that between the time they killed their parents and they were arrested, the Menendez brothers bought themselves a Porsche 911 each and had almost one continual party at their parent’s house. The bad part was that they were going to get their parent’s money anyway but they just could not wait. Now they will never see it.

    1995 On this date in northern India one of the worst train disasters in history occurs. There was another train disaster a few years before in this area both of them involved a cow. Train travel in India is very popular primarily because it is pretty cheap. This means that nearly all of the passenger cars are very crowded. As most of us know the Hindu religion holds that their ancestors are reincarnated through animals, especially cows. Anyway, cows are allowed to run free across the countryside. On this particular occasion a cow wandered out on the railroad track and an express train from New Delhi hit the cow while running 75 MPH. As you might suspect the cow was killed instantly and the engineer of the train had a hell of a time getting the train stopped because the brakes were damaged in the collision. They finally got the train stopped but the signalman got so interested in the collision that he forgot about another express train that was 13 minutes behind and did not put out a signal to the following train. The following train was also traveling at 75 MPH and collided with the stopped train in a grinding crash. 376 people were killed almost instantly with hundreds were wounded. As soon as the crash came to a stop the forgetful signal man ran into the bush and was never seen or heard from again.

    Born today:
    1921 US writer Jacqueline Susann. She said of Phillip Roth the author of Portnoy’s Complaint. “He is a good writer but I would not want to shake hands with him.” She said that because in his book Roth described in detail a man masturbating.

    Died today:

    1912 The founder of the Salvation Army William Booth. He said “Prostitution is the only profession where the youngest apprentice starts at the highest pay.” I would have thought that a skill level would have been involved, but what do I know?

    1940 Communist leader Leon Trotsky. He said “If would have had more time for meetings we surely would have made more mistakes.” Leon has his finger on how businesses operate.

    2001 English astronomer Sir Fred Doyle. He said “There is a definite plan for the universe, but I don’t know what the plan is for.” Not to worry Fred, neither does anyone else.

    Quotable quotes:

    “There is no time like the present for putting off what you don’t want to do.” Arthur Bloch
    Arthur and I speak the same language.

    “A nymphomaniac is a woman with the same sex drive as the average man.”
    Phyllis Diller

    Answer to the trivia question:
    The bloodiest single day in American military history is September 17, 1862 at the battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg, Maryland. In that one day there were 23,600 Americans killed, wounded or missing.

                     Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow