•        Musings and History

                         
    Quote of the day:
    When asked why he took his wife on the road to football games, Houston Oilers head coach Bum Phillips said “Because she is too ugly to kiss goodbye.”

    Trivia question of the day
    Who was Robert E. Lee's famous father? Answer at the end of the blog.

    While I was in Pensacola Beach a while back I saw some heavy duty grading equipment gathering on the edges of the beach. I did not know what the heck was going on but I found out. Whoever is responsible for the beach cleanup has found that there is a considerably thick layer of crude about 30 inches below the surface of the beach extending for several hundreds of yards as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The concern seems to be that if a hurricane came and there was some beach erosion the crude would re-emerge. They have brought in some equipment that will scoop up the sand, filter out the crude and redeposit the cleaned sand.

    Over in Spartanburg, SC a few days ago a 28 year old woman was walking a little unsteadily down a sidewalk and the police cruiser stopped to investigate. As soon as the cops got out of the car the woman began blistering the air with obscenities and profanity a Chinese sailor would be proud of. The cops scented the aroma of alcohol as you might suspect and began to arrest the woman for public drunkenness. She told the cops that she had to go to the bath room and dropped her panties, squatted down and sprayed the sidewalk in the presence of people in adjacent parking lot and another crowd across the street. She was arrested for obscene behavior “in the presence of the police.” Does this mean that it is OK for women to take a leak in the presence of a regular citizen, a fireman, a minister, a plumber, an electrician or anyone else except the cops? There is little question that those in law enforcement arrive at a point of arrogance sometimes in their career.

                              This Date in History   November 23

    1749 The Reluctant Patriot Edward Rutledge is born in Charleston, South Carolina. Edward and his brother John were both Oxford educated attorneys and had very lucrative practices across the street from each other in Charleston. John and Edward were the sons of a physician that emigrated from Ireland. When the fever of American independence from England began to rise in the colonies, Edward and John fostered patience and were opposed to war. Edward communicated frequently with John Jay of New York about being patient and try to avoid war with the most powerful nation in the world. Edward became a member of the Continental Congress and after he saw that war was inevitable, he was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence at the age of 26, the youngest man to do so.

    1819 Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss is born in Belleville, Virginia. His family moved to Missouri and then to Quincy, Illinois. He joined the Illinois Militia and was present during the lynching of Mormon Founder Joseph Smith. At the outbreak of the Civil War his unit was assigned the security of Cairo, Illinois at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Later his unit was assigned the task of protecting the Hannibal-Saint Joseph railroad across northern Missouri. Eventually Prentiss’ unit was sent to join US General Ulysses Grant’s Army of Tennessee. Very soon thereafter The Army of Tennessee met the Confederate army commanded by CSA General Albert Sidney Johnston near a church close to the banks of the Tennessee River called Shiloh. Johnston unleashed a ferocious attack that pushed the Yankees almost into the river. Grant assigned Prentiss’ unit to delay the Confederate advance at all costs so Grant could better prepare a defense. Prentiss and his men dug in at a spot that was later name the “Hornet’s Nest” and they meant to stay. They were stubborn and did indeed delay the advance but when Prentiss saw the Confederates line up several cannon set hub to hub aimed at him and his unit, he knew the end was near. After one salvo of canister by the Confederates, Prentiss and the other survivors of his unit were captured. Before the Battle of Shiloh he was on the Court Marshal of US General Fitz-John Porter who refused to carry out orders issued by the inept General John Pope at the battle of 2nd Manassas which Porter considered suicide. Porter was stripped of rank and cashiered out of the army. Incidentally, the Union Army did indeed receive a severe ass-kicking at 2nd Manassas but not because of Porter’s disobedience but because Pope was overwhelmingly out-generaled by Robert E. Lee. Pope needed a scapegoat and Porter was it. After the war the US could not find a place for Prentiss and he resigned. He became a postmaster for many years in Missouri. He died there in 1901.

    1979 Well known IRA (Irish Republican Army) terrorist Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of English war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten. On August 27 McMahon had boarded Mountbatten’s boat docked in Donegal Bay, Ireland and planted 50 pounds of TNT with a remote detonation device attached. Finally Lord Mountbatten and a party of five board the boat and set out. McMahon remotely detonated the TNT and four people are killed including Mountbatten. The same day another bomb detonated in a train station in Northern Ireland killing 18 English Army Paratroopers for which the IRA took credit also. In 1998 the so-called Good Friday Agreement goes into effect whereby certain jailed IRA members would be released in return for a truce, McMahon was released swearing that he was through with terrorism and the IRA.

    Births and deaths:

    1938 US Ad Exec Alexander Kroll is born. He said “When Alexander the Great met with the great Greek thinker Diogenes, Alexander asked if he could do anything for him” Diogenes answered with “Just stay out of my light.” That’s funny.

    1973 US actress Constance Talmadge died. When walking onto the set to begin a movie directed by the immortal D.W. Griffith, she turned to Griffith and said “I am here your Majesty, you may begin at once.” She was a smart ass.

    Quotable quotes:

    “Hillary Clinton said in her book that it was hard for her to forgive Bill but if Nelson Mandela can forgive then I should be able to. I did not know that Bill had hit on Mandela’s wife.”
    Jay Leno

    “I made love to a female clown once and she twisted my penis into a poodle.”
    Dan Whitney

    Answer to the trivia question:
    Robert E. Lee's father was “Light-Horse” Harry Lee was a renown cavalry officer for America during the Revolutionary War and was instrumental in the defeat of the British in the southern colonies.

                                     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow