Tuesday

 

•   Musings and History
  

  
  

  Quote of the day:

  “I shall pass through this life but once. Any good therefore that I can do let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

                                                         Etienne de Grellate

  
  

  Over in the Valley Falls community of Spartanburg, SC three different women in adjacent apartments reported that a man had walked into their apartment while they were asleep. One of them said that she heard the man moving around in her bedroom but thought she was having nightmare and closed her eyes. She opened them a short while later and the man was standing over her bed. She screamed and the man excused himself saying that he was in the wrong apartment and fled. It was a similar scenario for the other two except with one of them he pulled up the covers and stroked her leg. The common thing about all of these invasions was that all of them had left their patio sliding glass doors unlocked. They need at least one dog. I have two. They are named “Rossi .38 special revolver” and the other is “Remington Model 1100 semi-automatic 20 gauge shotgun.” These “dogs” are the type that bark over here…and bite over there. Almost every time they bite twice or more, it is fatal. I feel very secure when they are present.

  
  

  A while back up on I-26 in western North Carolina a tragedy occurred. There were 6 cars and three semis that had stopped for a wreck ahead of them in the eastbound lane. Another car rammed into the back of the last car in line and pushed them all together into a metal to metal meat grinder. There were four killed and several severely wounded. Even though this accident happened at night, I still do not see how someone that is the least bit alert could not detect that many cars that were at a standstill, especially the semis. That just goes to show you that there is danger not only in front of you but from all directions. Be alert.

  
  

                     This Date in History   October 27

  
  

  1864 After several months of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia US General U.S. Grant decided that if he can cut the Confederate supply line and that being the Southside railroad that was bringing supplies in from the west the siege would be over. He assigned this task to US General George Meade who delegated three of his Corp led by Generals Winfield Scott Hancock, G.K. Warren and John Parke to attack the Confederate trenches near the railroad at a small creek named Hatcher’s Run. The combined forces would be about 40,000 infantry and a detachment of cavalry. The plan was for Warren and Parke to attack from the front and Hancock to circle and attack the Confederate flank. On this date the attack began. The frontal assault ran into trouble when the Confederate trenches proved to be more heavily defended than expected. But they kept demonstrating to try and conceal Hancock’s flanking movement. Because different units attacking from the front moved at different speeds a gap in the Union line occurred. Meade ordered the attack to slow down to close this gap. It was then that the Confederates launch a successful counter-attack and drove the Union troops attacking the front from the field and then turned their attention to Hancock and repulsed that attack. Finally Meade ordered a total withdrawal. It was very embarrassing failure for the Union and could have effected the upcoming presidential election. But Lincoln depended on the recent victories at Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama to tide him over and he was re-elected...but was not in office for very long.

  
  

  1962 Earlier the US intelligence community had discovered Russian medium range nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba. President Kennedy asked for confirmation and several over flights were made to photograph the construction sites there. And sure enough, the confirmation came. The missiles if launched from Cuba could strike anywhere in the US, Central America, northern South America and all of the Caribbean. President Kennedy made a TV speech telling the Americans what was happening and what we were going to do about it. He also warned the Russians that any attack launched from Cuba would be interpreted as an attack by Russia and an appropriate response would be forthcoming. The big bombers and missiles of the Strategic Air Command went to “Defcon 4” status meaning that the next step would be nuclear war. President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of all ships headed for Cuba, only he called it a “quarantine”. Very soon thereafter a Russian cargo vessel with missiles aboard approached the naval blockade and the world held its breath. There was no doubt that had the ship attempted to break the blockade it would have been sunk and the risk of world war would have increased dramatically. But the ship slowed to a stop and eventually turned back to Russia. While all of this is going on, negotiations between the US and Russia kept the telephone lines hot. The final offer was that Russia would withdraw their missiles from Cuba if the US would promise to never invade Cuba and withdraw their missiles from Turkey. The US had already begun the dismantling of the missiles in Turkey so the deal was acceptable. On this date, the deal between the US and Russia was agreed upon by both parties and a potential world war was averted. I was sweating bullets that whole time. It was a scary thought to believe that this day on the planet could be your last.

  
  

  1659 On this date William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson are hanged on Boston Common in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their only crime was their religious belief, they were both Quakers and Quakers were forbidden by law under the penalty of death. Both Robinson and Stevenson had come to the colonies from England to escape religious persecution in 1656, believe it or not. Rhode Island and several other New England colonies accepted the Quakers, but not the hard-assed Bostonians. That law was later repealed. I have no clue as to why those from Massachusetts hated the Quakers. As we all know, the Quakers are some of the gentlest people out there.

  
  

  1873 On this date a man named Joseph Glidden from DeKalb, Illinois is granted a patent for barbed wire (known in Texas as “Bob Wahr”). Glidden had seen a semblance of barbed wire at an exposition but it was single stranded. Glidden improved this concept by twisting two wires together which held the actual barbs in position. From this day forward the method of raising cattle changed forever. There would be no more cattle ranging and grazing free across the Great Plains. There were young wars fought over lands that were fenced and blocked cattle from ranging free and from finding water. What a damned shame.

  
  

  861ad The wild-eyed Vikings successfully attack Paris, Toulouse, Aix-la Chapelle and Worms. They came to these towns by sailing their dragon boats across the North Sea and then down the west coast of Europe and up the Rhine and Seine rivers. This was no easy trick. Those rivers had a considerable downstream current and being able to reach those towns deep inland took a lot of rowing. But they were equal to the task and conquered most of Western Europe and even Russia by sailing down various rivers from the Gulf of Finland. They were so successful with their rape and pillage that there little doubt that all of us that have ancestry from Western Europe have Scandinavian blood flowing in our veins.

  
  

  Births and deaths:

  
  

  1858 One of my heroes Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt is born in upstate New York. He said “I think there is only one quality worse that having a hard heart and that is having a soft head.” When asked what was going to be his philosophy on the Presidency, he said “Speak softy but carry a big stick.” We need more leaders like Teddy.

  
  

                          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

  
  

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Monday

 

•     Musings and History
  

  
  

  Quote of the day:

  “Many men go fishing all their lives not knowing that it is not the fish that they are after.”

                                              Henry David Thoreau

  
  

  Trivia question of the day:

  What is a “light year”? Answer at the end of the blog

  
  

  A while back down near Clinton, South Carolina a female State Trooper stopped a car near the intersection of I-26 and I-385, there were two Latinos aboard. The trooper arrested the driver and asked the passenger to get out of the car, at the same time she called for backup and two deputies of the Laurens County sheriff’s department headed her way. The passenger refused to get out of the car and threatened the trooper’s life while producing an xacto knife. The passenger then tried to slide over into the driver’s side but the trooper held on like a bulldog and they started down the road struggling. Finally the trooper pulled her trusty .40 caliber Glock and shot the Latino several times killing him on the spot. I just have a few questions. Why not shoot out one of the tires? Did the late Latino believe that a woman would not use deadly force? Was he wrong? I can assure you, some women are lethal with or without a gun.

  
  

  A while back night up in Charlotte, NC there was a football game between Charlotte Catholic and Garinger high schools. At the beginning of the fourth quarter a fight broke out in the Garinger stands. The cops came in and called an end to the game after breaking up the fight. Soon afterward shots were fired in the parking lot and another fight began. The cops took a more aggressive stance at breaking up that fight. The cops said that they believed the fight was gang related. What the hell is this world coming to? A gang fight at a high school football game!

  
  

                    This Date in History   October 26

  
  

  1948 Earlier Betty and Jerry Ferreri had been married for some time with Betty getting the worst of the deal. Jerry was the spoiled son of a New York family and gave Jerry enough income that he never worked and after moving to Los Angeles and they bought him a five bedroom house in upscale Hancock Park. Jerry was a notorious and unapologetic womanizer and a wife beater. He hit Betty so hard on the side of her face that it ruptured an eardrum and when he got the doctor bill he became infuriated and hit her on the other side of her face an ruptured that eardrum also. He said “Maybe the doctor will give a two-for-one now.” On this day the final straw came when Jerry brought a young model home while Betty was there. Betty produced a large wrench and ran them both off. Betty knew that when Jerry came back home it would be hell to pay so she conspired with her housekeeper, Alan Adron, to kill Jerry upon his arrival. Sure enough, Jerry came home and began dragging Betty around the house by her hair. As directed, Alan shot Jerry twice in the stomach and then the gun jammed and Jerry was still alive and kicking. It was then that Betty produced a large meat cleaver and struck the staggering Jerry 22 times in the head and shoulders that resulted in his demise. Both Betty and Alan went to trial for first degree murder. It was touch and go until the defense attorney quoted the things that Jerry had done to Betty. Both Betty and Alan were acquitted. This jury resorted back to justice in the old west when men were acquitted of murder if the victim “needed killin'.”

  
  

  
  

  1881 Earlier on October 25 Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury had came into Tombstone, Arizona for supplies. The Clanton-McLaury gang lived out of town on ranches and felt that the range was theirs to rob and rustle and the town of Tombstone was the Wyatt Earp’s domain. All throughout the day Ike Clanton and Wyatt Earp had been verbally sniping at each other and the atmosphere was very tense. The next day, October 26, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne rode into town to help Ike and Tom. Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury went into the closest bar and the first person they met was Doc Holiday. Doc told them that Wyatt was about fed up with Ike’s mouth and there would probably be a fight. Billy and Frank immediately left and went to find Ike and Tom. In the mean time Wyatt Earp had assembled his brothers Morgan and Virgil knowing that a fight might be on the horizon. Wyatt’s close friend Doc Holiday also offered his expertise. At about 3:30p Wyatt had seen the Clanton/Mclaury bunch at the end of Fremont Street near the OK Corral and the four of them headed that way. When the men were about 20 feet apart Wyatt said “You sons-of-bitches have been looking for a fight and now you’ve got one”. No one knows who really fired the first shot but it is believed that it was Virgil that pulled his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point blank in the chest. Almost simultaneously Doc Holiday unloaded both barrels of his double barreled shotgun into Tom McLaury’s chest. Wyatt got off a couple of rounds into Frank McLaury’s stomach, Frank did not go down right away and got off a couple of rounds at Wyatt before collapsing as did Billy Clanton. There were about 30 shots fired and it was all over in about 30 seconds. Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran like hell and got their young asses back to the ranch. Sheriff John Behan, a supporter of the Clantons, had witnessed the fight and arrested the Earps and Doc Holiday for murder. They were all acquitted when the judge ruled that they “were fully justified in committing these homicides”. To paraphrase the judge, “they needed killin’.” Morgan, Wyatt and Doc were all wounded but survived.

  
  

  1998 Earlier a tropical storm named Mitch had ambled in to the Caribbean Sea apparently without much punch and seemed to be headed toward the Nicaragua/Guatemala border. Soon thereafter it blossomed into a category 4 Hurricane and stormed ashore as such. Belize had already evacuated 70,000 people but the poor and indigent in Nicaragua and Guatemala did not get the word and even if they had, they had no transportation to escape. Mitch stalled out over Nicaragua and eventually dumped over 50 inches of rain. The flooding was the worst in 200 years as you might expect. Entire villages disappeared in gigantic mudslides. There was 10 feet of water in the Nicaraguan capitol of Tegucigalpa. No one knows for sure but it is estimated that between 11,000 and 18,000 people perished. In several villages that were buried in mudslides, the Presidents of Guatemala and Nicaragua did not even attempt to dig them out and just declared the whole area as a cemetery. In addition to this misery, the crops of both nations were destroyed by 60% making the agricultural workers in even more in a bind. Sometimes we think we have had it bad, but just think of these people.

  
  

  1942 On this date during the battle of Guadalcanal the aircraft carrier USS Hornet is struck by an avalanche of Japanese aerial bombs and torpedoes. The Japanese were desperate to hold onto control of Guadalcanal as a fighter/bomber base to protect their advance onto Indo-China and sent swarms of fighter and bombers to attack the US Navy and Marines that were attacking that island. The Japanese had put underway several shiploads of troops to counter the Marine landing. The ultimate battle was called the Battle of Santa Cruz where the US Navy and Marines knew that if those reinforcements reached Guadalcanal the Marines already there would be in deep doodoo. The explosions from the Hornet were so severe that a couple of Japanese bombers that dropped the bombs were damaged and crashed. By the way, it was the Hornet that US Colonel James Doolittle launched his famous B-25 air attack on Tokyo. After a series of gigantic explosions the Hornet was abandoned and it now rests on the ocean bottom near Santa Cruz Island but the Japanese reinforcements never reached Guadalcanal in force and the Marines secured control. There was a second aircraft carrier built and launched during the war in 1943 that was also named the USS Hornet.

  
  

  Answer to the trivia question:

  A “light year” is the distance light will travel in one Earth year at a speed of 186,000 miles per SECOND.

  
  

                           Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow

  
  

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Friday

 

• Musings and History
  

  
  

  Quote of the day:

  “Architects are people that don't like open fields.”

                         Mike Harding

  
  

  Trivia question of the day:

  Who was the first astronaut to orbit the Earth? Answer at the end of the blog.

  
  

  I tend to think mechanically as most men do. Like “If this is this, then that has to be that”. This is why I know without a doubt that there is a God. Here is a reasoning:

  Ever since recorded history we know that people believe in an afterlife. The very first record of people's thoughts come from the “Fertile Crescent” or the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers between present day Baghdad and Basra. These people were the first to develop a written language and left a record. Even in the burial sites in ancient China the dead were left with accouterments to help them in their “journey”...and so did the Egyptians, North Africans, Eastern Europeans, Vikings and nearly every Native American tribe in North and South America along with the Polynesians, Aborigines, Maoris, Asians and many others. How did this seed of thought that there is an afterlife get distributed universally? It could be said that the Sumerians could have influenced the middle east and north Africa including Egypt. The Sumerians certainly could NOT have had an influence in the Americas and the Orient and yet the belief exists...How? Where does the instinct toward survival come from? Nearly any animal both warm and cold blooded will fight for their lives once they realize they are in danger. Even one celled animals will retreat from fire. Human's are born with an innate fear of falling. Once a baby is tossed in the air for a split second fear will show on its face and its little arms will stretch out trying to grab something. Nearly all beings on this planet both plant and animal will change its size, shape, behavior and demeanor to cope with changes in its environment to survive. Some are successful some are not, those that don't go extinct but the need to adapt is inborn whether consciously or not. Think about reproduction like cell division, sperm and egg, pollen and stamen, etc. All of this requires engineering and pre-planning...it cannot be happenstance, y'all. There has to be a prime cause and effect behind all of this...there must be a chief architect, there has to be a God. If one uses rock-ribbed reasoning here it will require a leap of faith to NOT believe there is a God...logic says there is.

  
  

                          This Date in History   October 23

  
  

  The 1^st Cavalry division launches Operation Silver Bayonet in an attempt to drive the North Vietnamese Army out of II corps (Central Highlands) in Vietnam. They met up with the North Vietnamese 33^rd and 66^th regiments. It was a week long bitter struggle and ended up being one of the bloodiest of the War. The fleeing North Vietnamese Army decided to make a stand and protect one of their supply depots on the La Trang Valley. This three day battle with the 7^th Cavalry engaged was the most savage of the operation. The final result was 834 North Vietnamese killed on this battlefield alone. In a related attack, 500 NV soldiers fell upon a company of American Soldiers waiting at a landing zone and were annihilated. The final result of this operation was 1771 North Vietnamese and 241 Americans/South Vietnamese killed.

  
  

  1864 CSA Gen. Sterling Price attacks US Gen. Samuel Curtis’ infantry unit near Westport, Missouri. Price had entered Missouri from Arkansas and had raided several small Union detachments before reaching Westport in an attempt to draw away some of the Union forces from the Eastern theater. The war was not going well for the Confederacy and President Jefferson Davis ordered Price to try and spread out the Union Army. Price’s attack on Westport went well at first but he was unaware of US Gen. Pleasanton’s cavalry was closing in fast from another direction and he was going to be trapped and possibly forced to surrender. Price orchestrated a skillful withdrawal and escaped. The exhausted Union units failed to follow but if they had, the war would have been over sooner. There were about 1,500 casualties on both sides but this represented about 10% to the Union forces but 20% to Price. As usual, the Confederates were outnumbered about 2 to 1.

  
  

  42BC One of the conspirators in the assassination of Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus, commits suicide after losing the 2^nd battle of Philippi. Brutus and Cassius had formed an army in an attempt to reinstitute the Republic of Rome rather than an empire which was the reason for the assassination. They were opposed by Octavian and Marc Antony who wanted to preserve the empire. This was the same Marc Antony that got hung up with Cleopatra. Anyway, the first major engagement between these two armies was at Philippi at which Octavian and Antony defeated the army lead by Cassius and Cassius committed suicide. Then came the 2^nd Battle at Philippi and with Brutus in command and he was defeated also and committed suicide. After a while Octavian and Marc Antony started squabbling and they split up with Octavian taking the crown under the name of Augustus and the rest is history.

  
  

  1983 A coward pig sucking Arab drove an explosive laden truck through three blockades into the lobby of a hotel in Beirut, Lebanon and lit it off destroying the hotel and killing 241 American military personnel that had been using the hotel as a barracks. We had troops there to try and stop the civil war that had been raging for some time between the Palestinians and the Christian militia for the control of Lebanon. I have an acquaintance in Greenville that is an immigrant from Lebanon and was a member of the Christian Militia. His solution for the war in Iraq is a simple one. Get rid of the media and take care of business, meaning kill any and all suspected insurgents wholesale giving no quarter. That means take no prisoners. I like it.

  
  

  1942 Author Michael Crichton is born in Chicago. Mike evidently was from a pretty affluent family because he graduated from Harvard Summa Cum Laude. After this he went to Cambridge in England and taught anthropology. In the mean time he had turned out some fairly successful books and decided that writing was his calling and started doing it full time. This man cranked out some of the best books ever written by a modern day American author in: “Andromeda Strain”, “The Terminal Man”, “Congo”, and “The Great Train Robbery”. He wrote and directed the movies: “Binary”, “Westworld”, “Jurassic Park” and “Rising Sun”, at one point in 1993 he had four books on the best seller list. He is a very wealthy man and deservedly so.

  
  

  Births and deaths:

  
  

  1869 US Football coach John Heisman, for which the trophy is named, is born. John once said “It is better to die as a young man than to fumble”. He was a hard man.

  
  

  1920 The Mayor of Philadelphia John Rizzo is born. John once said “A conservative is a liberal that just got mugged the night before.” I concur.

  
  

  1976 Actor Ryan Reynolds is born. John had to kiss an older woman as part of a movie scene. When asked about it he said “You have never had an experience until you have a mature tongue darting in and out of your mouth.” Indeed.

  
  

  1942 English writer Anita Roddick is born. She once said “If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.”

  
  

  Answer to the trivia question:

  The first astronaut to orbit the Earth was Russian Yuri Gagarian on April12, 1961.

  
  

                  Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

  
  

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