Wednesday OYSTERS

                                        Al's Most Recent

Quote of the day:

From a Men's Rules list sent to me.

“If you come to us with a problem we will try to resolve it, that is what we do. If you want sympathy go to your girlfriends, that is what they do.”

It is pretty cold here in the piney woods of northwestern South Carolina, I even saw a couple of snow flakes. A long time ago when I was living in Pensacola two friends of mine from Greenville, SC called and said that they were tired of the cold and were heading south to find 70 degrees and they said they were coming to pick me up. They did come and off we went. We found 70 degrees in Coral Gables, Fl. and decided to keep going to Key West. By the way, they had brought a bass boat with them. We decided to stop in Big Pine Key and go fishing. Going east into the Atlantic ocean in a bass boat was out of the question so we went west into “the backside” which means going into the Gulf Of Mexico and miles of grass flats. There was markers to keep you from running aground but it was pretty freaking shallow. We were out of sight of land very quickly and fished for a while and did catch some in spite of the fact that we did not have a clue how to fish out there. Like a dumb ass I decided to get out of the boat and wade, the water was about waist deep. Before I had taken a step a felt something brush my leg...it was a shark about 8 feet long. I was back in the boat in one leap. Like I have said before, I am very lucky to be alive and whole after all of my outdoor adventures.

I invite you to look up the “Spanish Inquisition” in the middle of the 15^th century led by a representative of the Catholic Church named Bishop Tomas Torquemada. This man was very inventive when it came to dealing with those that were not followers of the Pope. His philosophy was to drag people before him and ask them if they were sinners. If they answered yes, he would say that they needed to be tortured to rid them of their sins. If they answered no, he would say that no mortal is sinless and this person would get a double dose of torture for being a sinner AND lying about it. Do not get me wrong, I am not anti-Catholic or any other religion, I am just a historian relaying what I have found. And finally, I also invite you to look into what happened to the Knights Templar and why.

By the way, the phrase “saw the handwriting on the wall” came from the book of Daniel in the Bible. Daniel and his people were captives in the city-state of Babylon where Nebuchadnezzar was king. Daniel was the official interpreter of dreams. At a large feast and a ghostly finger appeared and wrote something on the wall. No one could understand what it meant so Daniel was called. Daniel took one look and told the king that it said that his kingdom is doomed. That night Babylon was invaded and sure enough.....

I was reminded of when I was an air traffic controller in Pensacola which is the home of the Blue Angels. On one occasion the Angels were out over the Gulf of Mexico practicing and an accident occurred killing one of the pilots. The next day one of our secretaries had been a secretary for the Blue Angels and was very sad and morose. One of our guys told her “That man chose the glory and accepted the danger, don’t be sad he died doing exactly what he wanted to do.”

I received quite a bit of feed back about humans feeding wildlife. Wild animals do not have “friends” and “mentors”. They run in herds or packs because it is safer that way. They are not appreciative and grateful for you feeding them, it is just more convenient. They DO NOT think like humans.

Not long ago a 60+ year old woman living up in the remote mountains near Burnsville, NC contacted her daughter in Asheville, NC and told her about 4 black bears (probably a female and three cubs) that she had been feeding near her house. She said that she would go out on her porch about the same time every day and throw them scraps and said that none of them ever made an aggressive move. She called them her “pets”. One day she was supposed to take a car ride to see her daughter but never showed up and never called. Her daughter notified law enforcement and guess what they found. They found the woman's car in her yard with the driver's side door open and her partially devoured corpse a few yards away back up in the woods. There were drag marks leading from the car to the corpse. The bite marks were from black bears. Law enforcement guessed that the bears were waiting for her to throw them food at the usual time. When she did not do that and went to her car instead they went to Plan B. They had been fed at this time every day and when it didn't happen they went hunting and she was the closest prey. They did NOT gather in a little group and say “We can't harm this little old lady...she is our friend.” What they DID say was “Let's eat”.

        This Date in History  February 10

1779 On this date a band of 350 Patriots led by General Andrew Pickens, Colonel Robert Dudley and Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke left South Carolina headed for Wilkes County, Georgia. They were after a group of 200 British/Loyalist commanded by British Colonel John Hamilton at Carr’s Fort. The Patriots arrived at the site and battle ensued. Just when the Patriots are about to wrap up this battle, General Pickens called for withdrawal and they headed out toward another column of British/Loyalist headed for North Carolina with recruits gathered up from the city of Augusta, Ga. by Loyalist Colonel Robert Boyd. They set up an ambush for Boyd’s column near Kettle Creek, When the Loyalists are in the right position, Pickens sprung the trap and all but annihilates the column of recruits. British Colonel Colonel Boyd was killed instantly. Both of these events occurred in Wilkes County, Georgia named after the British revolutionary John Wilkes who raised much hell in English Parliament in the behalf of the colonies that he was arrested and jailed for his fiery speeches. Some American colonists sent him money for his defense.

1962 Earlier an America spy pilot for the CIA named Gary Francis Powers launched a spy mission from a secret base in Pakistan and is to fly across central Russian to a secret spy base near Buda, Norway. He was flying the infamous U-2 spy plane. At the same time Russian spy Rudolph Abel is gathering information for the Soviets in New York and Washington. About half way through his mission, Power’s U-2 aircraft lost power and descended to an altitude that can be reached by Russian fighters and ground-to-air missiles. Normally the U-2 is at such a high altitude that nothing can reach them, but not this time. Powers is shot down and captured alive. Meanwhile Russian spy Rudolph Abel is also captured. After a while the Russians and the US decided to swap Powers and Abel so on this day Gary Francis Powers and Rudolph Abel passed each other walking in opposite directions on a bridge to freedom for Powers and suppression for Abel.

1920 Unfortunately for silent actress Theda Bara, she opened in San Francisco in a play named “Kathleen Mavoureen”. The play made fun and ridiculed the Irish immigrants. The majority of the men in the audience were Irish immigrant miners and railroad workers that had moved out west to work in the gold and silver mines near San Francisco. After it became apparent that the play was making fun of the Irish, the Irishmen got out of their seats and tore the joint apart. The moral of the story is the Irish have no sense of humor when they are the focus of a joke.

       Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday OYSTERS

                                    Al's Most Recent

Quote of the day:

“Karate is a form of martial arts in which people with years and years of training, only using their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in history.”

                                              Dave Barry

Here is a bio of one of the most powerful women in history.

                                   Catherine de Medici

Catherine was born on April 13, 1519 in Florence, Italy. Her father was Florentine ruler Lorenzo de Medici otherwise known as Lorenzo the Magnificent because of his support and fostering of the arts. In 1533 at the age of 14 she married the Duke of Orleans as part of a political arrangement as was done most of the time with the powerful families in Europe. The good Duke became the King of France as Henry II making Catherine the queen of France. Many of the French did not cotton to having and Italian as queen but she stayed anyway. She had little influence in affair of state until Henry II died and soon thereafter her first son and also king as Francis II, died in 1560 leaving her in control of the French government as regent for her younger son Charles IX until he became of age to take control. In 1563 Charles reached the appointed age and became a full-fledged king but Catherine continued to dominate Charles throughout his reign. Catherine saw her role as maintaining royal power at all costs. This girl was ruthless when it came to that as y'all will see. She spent much time and energy trying to maintain a balance of power between the Huguenots, a Protestant group led by military leader Gaspard de Coligny, and the Catholics led by the powerful House of Guise. After the beginning of the religious wars that began in 1562, Catherine was a Roman Catholic but sided with which ever side held sway at any given time. In order to maintain a balance she included her family in her wheeling and dealing. She arranged for her daughter Elizabeth to marry the powerful Roman Catholic king of Spain Phillip II. And then she arranged for another daughter, Margaret, to marry the powerful Protestant ruler Henry of Navarre. You see what she is doing here, maintaining political and religious alliances no matter what it took. Catherine looked on with alarm at the rise in influence the Huguenots were having on her son Charles. Then in 1572 she did the honorable thing by having the Huguenot leader Garpard de Coligny assassinated along with an estimated 50,000 of his followers. This event went down in history as the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre . In 1574 her son Charles the king died and is succeeded by her third son Henry III. Henry III ain’t buying any of this from his Mom and tells Catherine to take a hike that he and only he is in command. Needless to say Catherine’s influence over the French court went down the toilet. Catherine died January 5, 1589 in Blois, France at the age of 70. Catherine like her father, was instrumental in the promotion of the arts what time she wasn’t involved in political intrigue. She added a wing to the famous Louvre museum began construction of the Tuileries Gardens and built the chateau of Monceau. Her personal library and rare manuscripts was and are some of the most treasured in history. She was a patron of the arts in spite of that indiscretion in the St. Bartholomew’s Day thing. She was a powerful influence in the history of Europe but as with most women, don’t threaten their security or they will do something rash.

This Date in History February 9

1942 In the late 1930’s the grandest ocean liner on the planet was built in France and named the Normandie. The ship had a revolutionary hull shape that made it very speedy and was able to cross the Atlantic in four days and was the first ship of that size to be able to do this. After the United States entered WWII in December of 1941, it became apparent that the American commercial fleet had enough ships to carry cargo but virtually no passenger vessels. In those times the luxury liners were English, Scottish or Dutch. England donated the liner Queen Mary to shuttle American troops worldwide. The French liner Normandie was seized while it was in port in New York and renamed the U.S.S. Lafayette. The ship fitters pulled the ship into dry dock and began transforming this ship from a luxury liner to a troop carrier. On this date a welder accidentally set fire to a large pile of life preservers and the fire spread quickly. The fire crews poured water into the ship at an enormous rate and finally the great ship capsized and burned into a lump of unusable steel. The ship was towed to a New Jersey and cut up for scrap. There was a rumor that President Roosevelt told the trade unions on American docks that a strike would not be tolerated for the duration of the war. Some of the more militant Union organizers ordered the Normandie destroyed as a sign that the trade unions would not be told what they could or could not do...but that is just a rumor.

Born today:

1773  President William Henry Harrison. He said “The Government that is the strongest is the one that is the most free”. He also made his hour and a half inauguration speech in sub-freezing weather with no coat on. He died of pneumonia 30 days later.

1865  Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Irish actress. She said “It doesn’t matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.” Mrs. Campbell must have known my third ex-wife before I did.

1821  Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. He said “Realists do not fear the results of their study.”

1921  Irish writer Brendan Behan. He said “I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman would not make it worse.”

1945  US actress Mia Farrow. She said “I can match bottoms with anyone in Hollywood.” I don’t know about that, Mia, it looks kind of lean to me.

                 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday OYSTERS

                                       Al's Most Recent

Quote of the day:

“Sometimes I get a feeling that the whole world is against me, but on second thought I suspect some of the Balkan countries are neutral.”

                                     Stanley O’Brien

I read about a small pond near Windsor, Ontario, Canada where the caretakers found 20 dead ducks that were residents of the pond. An autopsy revealed that all of them died of starvation or malnutrition. What as the cause? It was because of the public throwing bread at them. A duck will eat bread and it will fill their bellies...but they can't digest carbohydrates and gain no nutrition from it and starve. With rare exceptions, wild animals need to be left the hell alone because without exception they are all opportunists meaning they will take advantage of anything that is easiest to obtain whether it is good for their health or not. It really, really bothers me to learn about people that put out corn to attract deer because they think they are beautiful and want to look at them. Is it good for the deer, dumb ass? The deer begin to associate easy food with the scent of humans and lose their natural fear making them easy prey. By the way, corn will also attract wild boars. If the family dog or cat attacks one of them they don't run for long, they turn and attack...goodbye Fido and/or Fluffy.

                    This Date in History February 8

1777 On August 12, 1739 Timothy Bigelow was born in Worchester, Massachusetts. After helping remove some of the dead Patriot soldiers from the field after the battle of Lexington, he joined the Continental Army. He is one of two majors with General Benedict Arnold on that ghastly march from Maine to Quebec, Canada. Many Continental soldiers died of starvation and exposure during this ordeal. The attack on Quebec was not successful and Bigelow was captured and was imprisoned by the British from December 1775 to August 1776 and then released. On this date after returning to the Continental Army he was promoted to the rank of Colonel. Bigelow was a dedicated and very efficient soldier. He was present at some of the most important battles in United States history. He was there at the Battle of Saratoga, a Patriot victory that persuaded France to come to our aid, the Battle of Monmouth, and most of all he was with the Continental Army at the battle of Yorktown where the entire army under British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered. After the war Bigelow went back home to Worchester and resumed his profession as a blacksmith. He fell into financial ruin and was jailed for failure to pay his debts. He died in prison on March 31, 1790. He left a wife and five children. What the hell can you say about this disrespect of a tried and true veteran? Does it sound familiar?

1587 In 1542 Mary is six days old when her father James V, the King of Scotland died making little Mary the ruling Monarch of Scotland. After reaching an appropriate age Mary is sent to be raised in France. She ended up marrying the dauphin (apparent heir to the French throne) and he eventually became King Francis II. Francis died the year after becoming King and Mary returned to Scotland to assume her position as the ruling monarch, Mary Queen of Scots. Mary married her cousin Lord Darnley but has a lover in Lord Bothwell. Lord Darnley is killed in a mysterious explosion and three months later Mary married Lord Bothwell. The Scottish nobles call baloney on that action and accused Mary and Bothwell of assassinating Lord Darnley to get him out of the way and called for Mary to step down. Mary refused and civil war broke out with the army that was loyal to Mary (Catholics) against an army raised by the Scottish nobles (Presbyterians). Mary’s army had the crap kicked out it and Mary had no choice but to flee the country. She went to England seeking refuge from her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Mary’s son James became the King of Scotland as James VI. Elizabeth welcomed Mary and offered refuge. Later on it was discovered that Mary had conspired with the French and lot of Catholics to assassinate Elizabeth so Mary can rise to the throne of England. Queen Elizabeth is not pleased and in 1568 sent Mary to Fotheringay Castle for imprisonment. She stayed imprisoned for 19 years and on this date, Mary Queen of Scots had a meeting with the ever present big guy with a big axe and a black hood. Mary went to meet her maker in two pieces. Mary’s son James calmly accepted his mother’s execution and cools his heels waiting for Elizabeth to expire and sure enough, in 1603 Elizabeth passes away and James VI of Scotland became the King of Scotland, Ireland and the King of England and is titled James I. This is the first time all three countries were under one rule.

1692 Previously the good Reverend Samuel Parris had purchased two slaves in the Bahamas and brought them back to his home in Salem, Massachusetts. The two teenaged girls living in his house were his niece Abigail Williams and his daughter Betty. The girls were beginning to act a little weird so the Reverend took them to see a doctor. On this date the doctor diagnosed the girls as being under the influence of an “evil spirit.” The Reverend immediately suspected his slaves as being the culprits so he took his slaves, Tituba and John Indian aside and administered a severe beating to them both trying to get them to confess to being witches/warlocks. Neither one of them confessed. One of the neighbors suggested making a cake with the girls’ urine and fed it to the dog. The logic was if the dog began acting strangely, then the girls were under the influence of a witch. Fortunately for Fido, that idea was scrapped. But the girls kept having what appeared to be fits and convulsions and said that they had seen Tituba in their hallucinations. Then other girls that had visited Abigail and Betty began having fits and convulsions. This set off the well documented panic in the fear of witches in the town of Salem. Soon everyone was pointing fingers at others with which they had a grievance. On February 29 an arrest warrant was issued for three other women as being witches and the panic was in high gear. In the summer of 1692 the first of the Salem witch trials began with Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe and Sarah Wildes. All were convicted and sentenced to hang on July 23. While these women were on the gallows all but one forgave those that convicted them. The one woman said to the executioner Nicholas Noyes who read them the order of execution for being witches “You are a liar. I am no more a witch that you are a wizard and if you take my life, God will give you blood to drink.” Nicholas Noyes died a few years later bleeding from the mouth. Eventually the credibility of the accusers went away and the good people of Salem came to their senses, but not before hanging 19 and imprisoning over 100 and the Governor stepping in and putting a stop to it. The most important family in Salem was the Proctor family. The powers that be chose to hang John Proctor as a warlock but spared his life because his wife was pregnant. People are fools at times, in fact, most of the time.

Born today:

1828 French writer Jules Verne. He said “Whatever one man can conceive another man can achieve.” Jules was one of the first authors to write about space travel.

1931 US actor James Dean. He said “Dream as if you will live forever, live as if you will die today.” James was a rising star in the movies when he was killed in a car wreck at the age of 24. He only made three movies, Giant, East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, but he is a legend to this day.

             Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday OYSTERS

                                       Al's Most Recent

Quote of the day:

“Women are made to be loved, not understood.”

Oscar Wilde

I recently watched the movie The King's Speech. It was one of the most enjoyable movies I have ever seen. I did not know any of the actors but they all were superb. I did recognize the man who played the Archbishop. He played Senator Graccus in Gladiator. The Kings Speech was based on a true historical event and here is a brief explanation of what happened.

The King of England had died and the next in line was his eldest son Prince Edward. The Prince had a girlfriend/lover named Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. Edward had been sleeping with Wallis Simpson for quite a spell but she being an American AND twice divorced made her very unlikely to be accepted as Queen by the English peerage. Edward chose to give up (abdicate) his lineage as King of England so he could marry Wallis. In early 1937 he was officially trashed as the next King of England. That made his brother the next in line. The problem was that the brother nicknamed “Bertie” stammered horribly. The brother was crowned the King of England as George VI very close to the outbreak of WWII. Everyone in England knew that war with Hitler was inevitable and the King was expected to make a speech when England declared war on Germany. Bertie was very upset knowing that he eventually had to make speech to the entire British empire and the entire world and sought help where he could get it. He eventually contacted a man that was not a speech expert but Bertie had confidence in his ability to extract a good speech. The movie was about Bertie and his relationship with this man and others training him to make this speech. He eventually made the speech and it made me want to fight...but that is nothing unusual.

Thursday night was a good one...a friend invited me over for dinner and a movie. The dinner was bacon wrapped and baked seasoned chicken tenders and green beans. The beverage of choice was Canada Dry Ginger ale. The movie was “Bridge of Spies” starring Tom Hanks. The movie was good too but all movies with Tom Hanks are good ones. After I got home “Cool Hand Luke” came on. This is one of my all time favorites. It is from this movie that the phrase “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” came from.

Once again I have read about the pro-choice vs pro-life arguments. I personally have decided that insisting on implementing one side or the other is playing God and believe me, I ain't qualified. I just have one question...how many unwanted children have those of the “pro-life” genre adopted or are supporting? If the answer is “few or none” then there is only one logical thought left. They foster their attitude only to appear noble. As far as the pro-choice side is concerned, each person is responsible for their soul and whatever reward or punishment awaits them. It is a personal issue and really none of my business...or anybody else's. I know, some of you pro-lifers out there are going to “yawp” (a word coined by Walt Whitman) about “What about the life of the baby?” What about it? Agree to adopt them, support them or shut the hell up. The only other answer is when a woman shows up pregnant by mistake or rape and does not want to have a baby for a variety of reasons, she is sent to the Gulag Archipelago to have the baby whether she likes it or not. Don't try to be God, you ain't qualified either.

This Date in History February 5

1631 A young hell-raiser arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is Roger Williams, a teacher and minister. This colorful guy begins traveling around to the different cities like Plymouth and Salem and began preaching that the civil authorities had no right to administrate religious behavior and not only that the civil authorities had no right to take Indian lands without offering recompense. The people in the Colony could not stand that kind of criticism and kicked Roger out of the Colony. Roger gathered a large number of Narragansett Indians and moved into another section not far away and named it Providence. That’s right if was the birth of the state of Rhode Island. Roger invited those that were unhappy with the civil government administrating an individuals religion and any and all religious sects were invited to join them.

1865 Union General U.S. Grant ordered General David Gregg to go try and break the Confederate lines near Dabney Mill during the siege of Petersburg during the Civil War. Upon arrival, Gregg attacked a dug in and ready Confederates with little or no effect. The next day the battle began anew but the Union added US General Gouverneur Warren and his brigade to the battle. It did not help either because the Confederates just moved to face the attacks and beat the living crap out of both regiments so those Yankees withdrew and went back to the house. The total was 1,000 Confederate casualties to 3,400 for the Union. But no matter, the war was over in April anyway,

1885 On this date the Southern Pacific Railroad completed its tracks on its so called “Sunset Route” This line ran from New Orleans to California. Earlier The Central Pacific had been completed when the tracks coming from California met the tracks coming west from the Great Plains met at Promontory Point, Utah. There were four men that owned the railroads in America at the time and they were Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins. It was Huntington that owned the Sunset Route. He knew he had to hurry to finish the route because the Texas Pacific Railroad was making good progress westbound. On this date using his superior finances, Huntington was able to tie in with the Santa Fe Railroad first making the Sunset Route a reality.

Famous quotes:

“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.”

“They [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion.”

Some of his thoughts lead one to believe that he is an atheist but other documents say he is not. He authored a very famous document that contains the phrase “...nature and nature’s God entitle them”. The document is of course the Declaration of Independence and he is one of the most brilliant men this country has ever produced ...Thomas Jefferson. He is the author of all these quotes.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday OYSTERS

                                              Al's Most Recent

Quote of the day:

“We keep saying that we are through with the past. The problem is that the past is not through with us.”

Educator Bergen Evans

This evening I had meeting with a man that is being schooled as a registered nurse and later on something short of a doctor. He wanted to open a discussion about what is wrong with the world. All he could identify was problems with the United States like, special interest groups, corruption, greed, etc. When I asked him if these are the problems with the United States and the rest of the world then what is the solution? He did not have an answer. Do any of you? I certainly do not.

I had a supervisor that once said to me “Don't come to me with a problem without at least three possible solutions and I will select one of them, after all you at the experts.”

This meant that we solved our own problems and if the solution did not work it was our fault.

I feel the same way. He was a smart man.

A man a lot smarter than me once said “It is losers that find the problems and the heroes that find the solutions”. Think about it.

Consider this:

It has been confirmed that the Earth is about 4.3 billion years old. The oldest fossil of an animal or plant ever found was about 165 million years old. My rudimentary math tells me that leaves about 4.14 billion years unaccounted for. Many scientists and most Central American Indian tribes say that life on this planet as we know it has been annihilated at least four times. Who/what was here before the dinosaurs...if anything? Did intelligent life exist before then? If so, how far back in the dim corridors of the past were they? If you reduce the life on this planet from 4.3 billion years to one year, present mankind has been walking upright for about four seconds...what else has happened previously?

A while back a riot broke out after church services in rural South Carolina. There were about 75 parishioners involved and it took several car loads of sheriff’s deputies to break it up. What the problem was is a certain group of the flock wanted a vote to get rid of the present pastor and there was another group that wanted to keep the present pastor and they would not allow a vote. Both sides decided to end this impasse the honorable way, they chose to fight it out. Make no mistake, the Old Testament allows and even encourages wholesale murder. In the book of Exodus Moses was told by God to instruct Joshua and his army to totally annihilate several tribes on their way to Canaan. The reason being was when they encountered the armies of Canaan they would not have to worry about an attack from the rear by any surviving hostiles. It worked. This was a matter of survival for the Children of Israel but fighting to see who was going to be the pastor is at least juvenile. All I have to say is “Thou shalt not kill, except under certain conditions and as directed.”

This Date in History February 4

1861 Earlier in November of 1860, the Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The Republican Party was formed in 1850 for the sole purpose of abolishing slavery in America. As early as 1858 the slave-holding states had threatened secession if a Republican was elected President. The Democratic Party was divided and in disarray and there was very little chance that their presidential nominee would win. Almost immediately after the Lincoln election, the State of South Carolina began assembling the paperwork necessary to secede from the Union. On December 20, 1860 the South Carolina legislature issued the “Ordinance of Secession” declaring them as no longer being a member of the United States of America. Soon after various regiments of the South Carolina militia began capturing Union forts and armaments because they knew a war was on the near horizon. On this date, representatives of South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana gathered in Montgomery, Alabama to hammer out a Constitution and establish the Confederate States of America and elected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as President. By the time Lincoln was inaugurated in March of 1861, Texas had joined the Confederacy. Very soon after this meeting all of the Union forts and outposts on Confederate soil had been capture by the Confederacy except Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC harbor (been there) and Fort Pickens on the west end of the Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, Florida (been there, too). The Civil War began in earnest of April 12, 1861 when CSA General P.T G. Beauregard ordered an artillery bombardment of Fort Sumter after the commander of the Fort refused to surrender to the Confederates. Eventually the commander of the fort did indeed surrender because the Confederate artillery forbade any supplies reaching the fort. Fort Sumter is on an island in the middle of the Charleston, SC harbor and supplies can only get there by boat, parachute or helicopter.

1789 On this date 69 members of Congress cast their ballots for our first President of the United States. In those days the members of Congress cast a ballot with two names on it, the person who had the most votes at the top of the ballot was President and the other was Vice-President. In this case the President was George Washington and the Vice President was John Adams. The same thing happened four years later.

Born today:

1876 US writer Sarah Cleghorn. She said “The children working in the factories are close enough that they can look out the window and watch the adults playing golf.” Using child labor in America is not that far in our past, y'all.

1895 English actor Nigel Bruce. When told the price of tickets to the ballet he said “That is a hell of lot of money to watch people jump.” I concur.

1906 German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a vehement anti-Nazi and had no problem saying so. When asked why he did not join the Nazi party he said “When you board a train going the wrong direction, there is no use in running down the aisle headed the opposite direction.” He was hanged by the Nazis just before the surrender.

Died today:

1982 English musician Alex Harvey. He said “Do you think Paul McCartney makes records just to aggravate me personally, or does he want to get up every freaking body’s nose with his freaking antics?” Alex and Paul evidently did not get along.

2006 US feminist Betty Freidan. She said “The feminine mystique has buried millions of American women alive.” Betty, what the hell is the “feminine mystique”?

                Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday OYSTERS

                                         Al's Most Recent

Quote of the day:

“The Pope is single but you never hear anyone say that he has a commitment problem.”

                                                Larry Shandling

Consider this:

Are there more Americans killed by drunk driving, driving while impaired...or by gunfire? I don't think there is a question that booze and drugs takes the prize when it comes to this. Then why is there an all out assault on gun ownership and not booze? Could it be because Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and other distillers of spirits have a much larger lobby? I think so.

             This Date in History  February 3

1781 Earlier in December of 1780, Patriot General Nathaneal Greene had tasked Polish engineer Thaddeus Kosciusko with designing a boat that could be used convey troops across the unpredictable Yadkin River regardless of its condition. Kosciusko made an exploratory canoe trip down the Yadkin and the Pee Dee Rivers and came back and designed and helped build boats for that special purpose. If y'all remember previous lessons, British General Charles Cornwallis defeated the North Carolina Militia at the Battle of Cowan’s Ford and British Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s Dragoons had beaten up on the same militia at the Battle of Tarrant’s Tavern, now that militia and other soldiers under the command of Greene join near Salisbury, NC and head for the Dan River in Virginia and safety. The only problem was that the Yadkin River was severely flooded because of a thunderous rainfall on February 1 and British General Cornwallis’ army of 16,000 is perilously close. So on this date Greene ordered his army into the boats designed by Kosciusko and successfully cross the Yadkin but then very last remnants of Greene’s army are shelled by Cornwallis’s artillery from the opposite bank. With no boats, Cornwallis must move his army to the city of Shallowford and wait for the water to abate low enough to cross. He did not get across until February 7 and by then Greene and his army was far enough ahead to make it to the Dan River safely.

1959 A musical group was on a “Winter Tour” when their tour bus broke down near Mason City, Iowa. Their next stop was Moorhead, Minnesota so the band leader chartered a four place single engine Beechcraft Bonanza to take him and two others on to Moorhead. One this date, the plane crashed soon after takeoff killing all aboard. In addition to the pilot, the passengers were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and John “The Big Bopper” Richardson. Holley and his band The Crickets, had just recorded “That’ll be the Day” a few days before. Valens was riding the crest of his hit “La Bamba” and Richardson had recorded the hit “Chantilly Lace”. Richardson had the flu and had talked another musician out of his seat on the plane. The musician that gave up his seat was Waylon Jennings.

1780   In 1760 Barnett Davenport was born in rural Connecticut. When he reached an appropriate age he joined the Patriot army and was with George Washington at Valley Forge and fought at Fort Ticonderoga. In the waning days of the Revolutionary War he became a boarder in the home of Caleb Mallory and his family also living in rural Connecticut. On this date, for reasons known only to Davenport, he slaughtered everyone in the Mallory house. He beat Caleb to death, shot his wife and daughter, set the house on fire killing Mallory’s two grandchildren. If this would have happened today, people would be saying is was PTSD. But in those days criminals were perceived as basically good people that had lost their way. But after this outrage, people’s attitude changed to that there were people out there that are basically evil. That attitude is still with us to this day.

1889 This is a story about Myra Belle Shirley that was born in Carthage, Missouri in 1848. Young Myra received a substantial education and be came very proficient on the piano. Her father was an innkeeper in Carthage but his business went to hell with the outbreak of the Civil War so the family moved to Texas. It was here that she met up with and had a relationship with the infamous Cole Younger who was a member of the James-Younger gang. It was soon thereafter she brought into this world a daughter she named Pearl. Most people believe that Cole was the father but it was probably Jim Reed, another member of the gang. She became the common-law wife to Reed and had no problem with his profession and indeed helped him in rustling cows and horses in the Dallas area. In 1874 Reed was killed in a gunfight so she drifted into the Oklahoma Indian territory and organized a gang of rustlers. She could be seen riding around in velvet dressed and plumed hats. She hooked up with a handsome Creek Indian named Sam Starr and she became known as Belle Starr. She stayed with Sam for 10 years but he was killed in a gunfight with a member of his own gang. Very soon after that she took up with another Creek Indian name Jim July, 15 years her junior. They were captured and did five or six months in the slammer but after release began their old tricks again. In 1889 she was summoned to Fort Smith, Arkansas to face charges of cattle rustling. So she and her boy friend Jim headed east to Fort Smith but changed their minds and turned around and headed back west. Soon after two shotgun blasts hit Belle in the back and she died instantly. The shooter was never found.

Born today:

1821 English born Elizabeth Blackwell. Elizabeth immigrated to the US and became the first female doctor in history. She said “If society will not admit to women’s free development, then society must be remodeled.” I have a male friend that has a female as his family doctor. He told me that she had examined him for hemorrhoids. I don't think I could do that come hell or high water.

1826 English economist Walter Bagehot. He said “The reason there are so few good books written is that those that write don’t know anything.” Hey Walter, all you have to do these days is write book about a unique diet that will make people lose weight and you are successful.

1830 British Prime Minister Robert Cecil. When describing Edwardian England he said “It was consider virtuous to not be involved in a scandal or get a venereal disease.” Edwardian times must have been pretty boring.

1918 US comic Joey Bishop. He said “I have a wonderful doctor. In 1955 I could not afford an operation, so he touched up the x-rays.” Joey went to that great stage in the sky in 2007.

1965 Florida State quarterback Casey Weldon. Casey was to attend a fancy sit-down dinner and was told he would be seated beside Ringo Starr. Casey said “Who is she?” Casey, shut up.

         Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday OYSTERS

                                              Al's Most Recent

Quote of the day:

“If criminals want sympathy they can find it in the dictionary between syllabus and syphilis.”

                             Sheriff Joe Arapaio, Maricopa county, Az.

Consider this:

The Great pyramid on the Giza plateau in Egypt is one of the wonders of the ancient world. What makes it more of a wonder is the way it was constructed. It was supposedly finished about 2600BC after 23 years of construction. This means that the pyramid was ancient when Moses and the Hebrews began the Exodus which was about 1300BC. Keep in mind that there are millions of stone blocks weighing between 2 and 8 tons each. They did have the wheel because there are pictures of horse-drawn chariots on the walls of their burial vaults. The problem is considering the time allowed for the construction and the number of blocks involved, the workers had to put a block in place every 9 seconds. Using a large number of modern day cranes, that speed of construction would be nearly impossible to maintain for 23 years...but the Egyptians allegedly did it with man power alone. I have a problem with either the time allowed or the number of blocks or both. The blocks can be counted to a certain degree but the time cannot be documented except by Egyptian hieroglyphics....or the Egyptians had help that we know nothing about and is not written about. How did they make millions of lifts to get that height? The answer can only be by using an inclined plane or a ramp surrounding the pyramid...or something supernatural. This would mean that the blocks weighing tons would have to dragged, towed, pulled, etc. for 2 ½ to 3 miles uphill to reach their destinations...every 9 seconds? Not only that, the sides of the pyramid face exactly North, East, South and West. They certainly did not have a compass. What really happened?

Here is an example of what comes around goes around:

My eldest daughter has been single for a long time and her daughter, my grand daughter, is a junior in college. My daughter is a beauty and gets hit on frequently. During a recent business trip to Syracuse, N.Y. one particular man caught her attention and the two have been in communication even though they are 900 miles apart. Somehow information on the web got tangled and this man called my daughter at 2:30am...only it wasn't my daughter, it was my grand daughter. My grand daughter told him he had the wrong number and immediately called her mother raising hell saying that any decent person would not call anyone at that hour. She then sent a text to the man in Syracuse telling him the same thing.

I am sure my daughter probably remembered that she had gotten calls for her daughter late at night and raised the same kind of hell so she chose not to be hypocritical...what goes around......

       This Date in History   February 2

1943 Earlier on June 22, 1942, in spite of an existing treaty, Adolph Hitler ordered an enormous German army divided into three sections to start an invasion of Russia. Hitler’s military advisers had warned Hitler that if the attack could not begin by the first of May it should not begin at all because of the severe Russian winters. The German army was not ready by the first of May but Hitler ordered the invasion to begin late anyway. The Germans made progress by leaps and bounds primarily because they had control of the air. The slaughter they inflicted on the Russian army and civilians was beyond comprehension. They laid siege to Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad and cut off any supplies to those cities and thousands upon thousands starved to death. It was the German 6^th Army that had Stalingrad surrounded. Russian premier Josef Stalin was not about to let the city named after him to surrender and ordered the residents and the Russian Army defending the city to resist to the bitter end and resist they did. The Germans bombed the entire city into rubble trying to break their spirit. It did not work and the Russians used the rubble to establish formidable defenses, especially snipers. The Germans had no choice but to send in small squads of 8 or 10 to try and root out the defenders. That did not work either. The Russians proved to be formidable street fighters. In October the worst winter in fifty years arrived as advertised. The drop in temperature caused a break in the attack and gave the Russians defending the city time to reorganize and receive reinforcements. In November the Russian army launched a merciless counterattack. The Italian and Romanian soldiers surrendered immediately but not the Germans. They held out until they were surrounded by the Russians and all of their supplies had been cut off. The German army that had surrounded Stalingrad in the beginning numbered about 200,000. On this date the remaining German army at Stalingrad numbering about 90,000 surrendered ending the siege of Stalingrad. Of the 90,000 Germans that went to prison camps, 5,000 lived to see Germany again.

Born today:

1745 English writer Hannah More. She said: “Going to the opera is like getting drunk, both sins carry their own penalty, and a severe one at that.” Been there, done that.

1754 French politico Charles Francis de Talleyrand. “The French court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.” About forty years after this the French people rose up and heads rolled courtesy of the guillotine during the French Revolution and that was the end of the French Monarchies.

1859 English writer Havelock Ellis. He said “The only place where optimism endures is in the lunatic asylum.” Tack on the that “or a singles bar just before last call”

1901 Russian violinist Jascha Heifetz. He said “No matter which side of the argument you are on, you always find some one on your side that should be on the other.” Been there, done that, too. Do not have a tee shirt.

     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow