Musings and History
Quote of the day:
When asked how married life was treating him he said:
“Well, Lillith and I lived together a year before we wed, so other than the fact that I now see it stretching endlessly before me until I die rotting in my grave, there is no real difference.”
Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer)
Trivia question of the day:
What is baleen? Answer at the end of the blog.
This Date in History April 5
1774 On this date Benjamin Franklin and a few of his cronies were sitting around the Smyrna Coffee Shop on Saint James Street in London when Ben decided to write an “open letter to Lord North”. Lord North was the prime minister of England. Both Ben and Lord North knew war was on the horizon if things didn’t get better between the colonies and England. Ben’s letter was at least tongue-in-cheek if not pure cynicism. The letter included phrases like “everyone knows that one Englishman is worth twenty colonists”. And stating that “all the British have to do is capture a few towns and then they can sell the colonies to the Spanish.” Ben’s letter was not published until April 15. Evidently Lord North took Ben’s letter to heart because soon thereafter he recalled the British Military commander in the Colonies, General Thomas Gage, and ordered him to take over the reins as the Governor of Massachusetts meaning martial law was on the horizon. Lord North did not realize the width and depth of his actions because war did indeed break out that resulted in an ocean of blood, thousands of lives, not to mention the 13 colonies that it cost Great Britain.
1955 On this date one of the greatest political leaders in history, Winston Churchill, resigned as prime minister of Great Britain. It was Churchill that took over as prime minister after Neville Chamberlain went to Berlin in 1938 and kissed Hitler’s ass to get a signature on a worthless piece of paper saying that Hitler would not invade any country in Europe. Just a few months after this Germany invaded Poland and England had no choice but to declare war on Germany. Churchill declared that “we will fight them on the beach, in the streets, we will never surrender”. England was pretty much alone in Europe against the Germans. All the other countries were either too small or lacked courage (France) to stand up to the German juggernaut. England took a hell of a beating in the early years of the war but eventually the Royal Air Force firebombed the hell out of many German cities with the help of the United States 8th Air Force. Actually, it was the 8th Air Force that did most of the damage with the RAF in support. When the 8th Air Force began bombing Germany they lost 30 to 40 percent of the aircraft they sent over. But later the odds began to swing the other direction when the US found a fighter that could accompany the bombers over to Germany and back to England. It was the legendary P-51D Mustang. Upon the arrival of this great aircraft in Europe Nazi Germany’s days were numbered. Among the units protecting the bombers was the “Red Tails”. They were P-51's with their tails painted red...they were the Tuskegee airmen. Their claim to fame was not one bomber they were protecting was lost.
1862 On this date one of the worst US military commanders in its history, General George B. McClellan arrived at Yorktown, Virginia with an enormous army of 100,000. That’s right y'all, it is the same Yorktown where George Washington beat British General Charles Cornwallis that essentially won the Revolutionary War for the Patriots. McClellan saw a Confederate force in Yorktown and believed that it was a huge, well armed force and rather than attack he began a siege. In actuality, there were 11,000 Confederates under the command of CSA General John B. McGruder. McGruder saw what an enormous force he was facing and marched his troops back and forth in front of McClellan to make it look like there were a lot more troops than there really was. This delay in McClellan’s advance enabled CSA General Robert E. Lee to assemble a substantial army and kick the living crap out of McClellan’s army at the Battle of the Seven Days a little while later. After seeing his troops being literally chopped to pieces at the Battle of Cold Harbor, McClellan lost his nerve and became too cautious, just what Lee wanted.
1994 On this date an electrician arrived at the Seattle home of rock singer (of a sort) Kurt Cobain to install a security system and found Kurt dead as fried chicken with a drunk chick and a scrawled suicide note near by. This is not the first time that this sort of scenario had happened with Kurt. A month before he had threatened suicide and was persuaded to enter a sanitarium. One month later he walked out without telling any one and went to Seattle and killed himself. Kurt’s wife Courtney Love was an immediate suspect because this girl was a brick short of load at best. Kurt almost got the job done earlier in England when he mixed the sleeping drug Rohypal and champagne. They found him just in the nick of time and pumped his stomach. Also, he was well known to be a heroin addict on and off for most of his adult life. I really don’t get it. This addict could not sing a lick and became a multi-millionaire only to end his life much too early. What’s up with that?
1976 Howard Hughes died aboard one of his Lear jets coming from Acapulco, Mexico to Houston ending a bizarre and sad life. Howard was born in 1905 in Houston. His father was a brilliant inventor and businessman who died in 1923 leaving Howard a huge fortune in the Hughes Tool Company. This company would lease sharpened oil drilling bits to drilling companies and take them back when they were dull, refurbish and re-sharpen them and then lease them out again. This was during the oil exploration boom in the west and southwestern United States. Howard expanded his business into the commercial aviation business (Trans-World Airlines..TWA) which was also booming. Eventually Howard became one of the wealthiest men in the world. Howard was interested in two things, beautiful women and fast aircraft. He dated several female movie stars and designed some of the fastest sport aircraft every made. Not only that, he built the largest aircraft in the world to that time in the seaplane “The Spruce Goose.” Howard was suppose to take this giant out for a taxi run near Long Beach, California. Not only did Howard taxi the plane but he lifted this behemoth into the air for about 50 yards. It never flew again and became a museum piece. Howard was a fanatic about germs and washed his hands almost constantly and became more and more reclusive. He felt he had several diseases either real or imagined and injected himself with a variety of drugs. There are no credible witnesses to Howard’s remains but it was reported that he was extremely thin, long stringy and unkempt hair and beard, fingernails that curled back into his palms and was much unwashed. There were several broken off syringe needles in various places in various places in his skin. He was almost an ogre. What a damned shame.
Answer to the trivia question:
Baleen is a type of bone in the mouths of certain type whales that filters out food (mostly krill) from seawater taken into their mouths a squeezed back out though the baleen.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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