Haydn’s Symphony No. 94, ‘Surprise’, 2nd movement:
Monthly Archives: November 2013
Today in History – November 30
1782 – American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris (1783) — In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles recognizing American independence. (later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris).
1886 – First commercially successful AC electric power plant opens, Buffalo, New York.
1934 – The LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman becomes the first steam locomotive to be authenticated as reaching 100 mph.
1941 – Japanese Emperor Hirohito consults with admirals Shimada & Nagano and rubberstamps the Pearl Harbor attack plan.
1988 – UN General Assembly (151-2) censures US for refusing PLO’s Arafat visa. At this time we should have given then a two-week notice to vacate the premises.
1993 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law. Thousands of criminals immediately turn in their handguns. Wait… They didn’t? You’re kidding, right?!?!?
Food for Thought – 29 November 2013
Our present regime’s nuanced foreign policy at work:
Nothin’ black about MY Friday
You couldn’t get me near a mall with less than an armored vehicle with a combat load-out.
Woke up to a beautiful frosty morning. Fixed boudin and eggs for breakfast. Now enjoying a cup of French-pressed Kona coffee. I roasted the coffee Monday, so it’s at its peak and MAN! it’s good.
The cats are in the midst of their morning workout.
My biggest stress is whether to put off the weekly grocery run until tomorrow, its normal day on the schedule, or to do it today. I’m leaning toward tomorrow.
I also need to cast up some bullets, .45’s for the big bores, some .314’s for a couple of .303 Brits and a couple of Mosin-Nagants, and some stuff for an 8mm Mauser that needs exercise. Range day tomorrow. Big question is always what do I want to shoot.
Today in History – November 29
1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.
1910 – The first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system is issued to Ernest Sirrine. City council immediately sets a fine for running one.
1929 – U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole.
1944 – Johns Hopkins hospital performs first open heart surgery. Today it’s almost a yawner.
1947 – UN Gen Assembly partitions Palestine between Arabs & Jews, leading to the legal formation of the nation of Israel, restoring a nation that was torn apart by the Romans in 70 AD. But skip forward to 1978…
1952 – Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict. Nuking Red China to a cinder would’ve worked…
1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This is like Al Capone investigating crime in Chicago…
1978 – UN observes “international day of solidarity with Palestinian people,” boycotted by US & about 20 other countries. The UN has been dead useless for twenty years when this happens.
1972 – Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari) releases Pong (the first commercially successful video game) in Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, California. And with this shot, a revolution begins.
Thansgiving Day 2013
In a departure from previous years, I’m winging it somewhat alone this year. Oh, yeah, Son is here (anyone need a 20-year old boy) but he’ll likely got to his mom’s for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
I have the makings of a seafood gumbo: shrimp, oysters, crab meat, a tiny bit of sausage for that smoky kick that I like. That will be MY Thanksgiving dinner. I roasted a sausage-stuffed chicken yesterday. I can toss a slice of that on a side dish.
I’m thankful. I still have most of my health, not bad for sixty-three years. Besides a good bit too much weight and a nagging case of plantar fasciitis in my right foot, I do well.
I still have a job that I love. I have the respect of a few peers who actually know enough about the field to understand that I hold valuable knowledge past the ability to shuffle paperwork in accordance with government-mandated regulation.
I have seven cats, six of whom acknowledge that I provide companionship. The seventh knows it. She doesn’t acknowledge it. Issues, you know.
And I still have sweetie, somewhere. Things just didn’t work out for us to share the day this year. Maybe next.
Oddly, this year’s calendars, our common one and the one of our observant Jewish friends, mesh to bring American Thanksgiving and Jewish Chanukkah together on the same day. A Jewish friend explained Jewish holidays with “They tried to kill us. It didn’t work. Let’s eat!” That sort of fits Thanksgiving, too. Half the original shipload of Pilgrims didn’t make the first year in the New World. Winter is hell in New England, especially if you’re an ocean away from your homeland, doubly worse if you’re city folk trying to figure out how to live where no European lived before.
It’s a brave new world now. (Don’t channel Aldous Huxley too hard, but he’s certainly part of it) Lets take time to give things a look and find that we have as much to give thanks for as they did in the Bay Colony four hundred years ago.
Today in History – November 28
1520 – After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. And THAT’S why it’s called the “Straits of Magellan”. The other route is around Cape Horn through an unpleasant stretch of the Southern Ocean.
1811 – Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, was premiered at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig without a lightshow and backup dancers.
1814 – The Times in London is for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience. Today, newspapers are sucking sludge trying to keep in business.
1907 – In Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater. He’s one of the “M’s” in MGM… A scrap metal dealer. Mean ol’ America, holding folks down and all that…
1942 – In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub kills 491 people. The exact number of dead varies in different reports, but it’s a lot.
1958 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community, go on to become standards of fairness, security and prosperity.
1994 – In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death by an inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institution gymnasium. Justice is served and for a brief moment harmony is found in the universe.
Thanksgiving Letter to Family From Grandma
Dear Family,
I’m not dead yet. Thanksgiving is still important to me. If Being in my Last Will and Testament is important to you, then you might consider being with me for my favorite holiday.
Dinner is at 2:00. Not 2:15. Not 2:05. Two. Arrive late and you get what’s left over.
Last year, that moron Marshall fried a turkey in one of Those contraptions and practically burned the deck off the house. This year, the only peanut oil used to make the meal will be from the secret scoop of peanut butter I add to the carrot soup.
Jonathan, your last new wife was an idiot. You don’t arrive at someone’s house on Thanksgiving needing to use the oven and the stove. Honest to God, I thought you might have learned after two wives – date them longer and save us all the agony of another divorce.
Now, the house rules are slightly different This year because I have decided that 47% of you don’t know how to take care of nice things. Paper plates and red Solo cups might be bad for the environment, but I’ll be gone soon and that will be your problem to deal with.
House Rules:
1. The University of Texas no longer plays Texas A&M. The television stays off during the meal.
2. The “no cans for kids” rule still exists. We are using 2 liter Bottles because your children still open a third can before Finishing the first two. Parents can fill a child’s cup when it is Empty. All of the cups have names on them and I’ll be paying close attention to refills.
3. Cloe, last year we were at Trudy’s house and I looked the other way when your Jell-O salad showed up. This year, if Jell-O salad comes in the front door it will go right back out the back door with the garbage. Save yourself some time, honey. You’ve never been a good cook and you shouldn’t bring something that wiggles more than you. Buy something from the bakery.
4. Grandmothers give grandchildren cookies and candy. That is a fact of life. Your children can eat healthy at your home. At my home, they can eat whatever they like as long as they finish it.
5. I cook with bacon and bacon grease. That’s nothing new. Your being a vegetarian doesn’t change the fact that stuffing without bacon is like egg salad without eggs. Even the green bean casserole has a little bacon grease in it. That’s why it tastes so good. Not eating bacon is just not natural. And as far as being healthy… look at me. I’ve outlived almost everyone I know.
6. Salad at Thanksgiving is a waste of space.
7. I do not like cell phones. Leave them in the car.
8. I do not like video cameras. There will be 32 people here. I am sure you can capture lots of memories without the camera pointed at me.
9. Being a mother means you have to actually pay attention to the Kids. I have nice things and I don’t put them away just because company is coming over. Mary, watch your kids and I’ll watch my things.
10. Rhonda, a cat that requires a shot twice a day is a cat that has lived too many lives. I think staying home to care for the cat is your way of letting me know that I have lived too many lives too. I can live with that. Can you?
11. Words mean things. I say what I mean. Let me repeat: You don’t need to bring anything means you don’t need to bring Anything. And if I did tell you to bring something, bring it in The quantity I said. Really, this doesn’t have to be difficult.
12. Domino’s and cards are better than anything that requires a battery or an on/off switch. That was true when you were kids and it’s true now that you have kids.
13. Showing up for Thanksgiving guarantees presents at Christmas. Not showing up guarantees a card that may or may not be signed. The election is over so I’ll watch what I say about the Black Bastard, and you will do the same. If we all stick to that, we’ll have a good time. If not, I’ll still have a good time but it will be at your expense. In memory of your Grandfather, the back fridge will be filled with beer. Drink until it is gone. I prefer wine anyway. But one from each family needs to be the designated driver.
I really mean all of the above.
Love You,
Grandma
(From good friend Bob)
Food for Thought – 27 November2013
Today in History – November 27
602 AD – Emperor Maurice is forced to watch his five sons be executed before being beheaded himself; their bodies are thrown into the sea and their heads are exhibited in Constantinople. How did this come about? He disrespected the army and they revolted.
1789 – A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress. 2013 – Barack Obama celebrates Thanksgiving by receiving the thanks of his adoring friends in the mainstream media..
1826 – John Walker invents friction match in England.
1839 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the American Statistical Association is founded. “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, da*n lies, and statistics.”
1868 – Indian Wars: Battle of Washita River – United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on Cheyenne living on reservation land.
1895 – At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies. He didn’t envision it becoming a propaganda tool, but parts of it have done just that.
1924 – In New York City, the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held. They used animals from the zoo in the first couple of parades. In 1927, the first big balloon, Felix the Cat, made its debut.
1967 – Gold pool nations pledge support of $35 per ounce gold price. It’s at $1400 in 2010, and around $1250 right now.
Food for Thought – 26 November 2013
Today in History – November 26
1778 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook and company become the first Europeans to visit Maui.
1789 – A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.
1939 – Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Army orchestrates the incident which is used to justify the start of the Winter War with Finland four days later. Tiny, out-numbered, under-armed, gutsy Finland gives the Russians more fight than they bargained for.
1942 – Holocaust: Shoah: 572 Norwegian Jews are deported to Auschwitz on the cargo vessel Donau. This was the first step on the journey to the death camp Auschwitz. Altogether the total number of Jews deported from Norway was 767, 25 of the deported survived. If the Bush Administration were Nazis as the Left has screamed during his eight years, THIS is what you’d have seen. The Left couldn’t FIND a Nazi if one bit them on the ass.
1943 – World War II: HMT Rohna sunk by the Luftwaffe using a radio-guided bomb in an air attack in the Mediterranean north of Béjaïa, Algeria. Of the 1,138 men lost, 1,015 were American. The attack constitutes the largest loss of U.S. troops at sea in a single incident.
1944 – World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth’s shop on New Cross High Street, United Kingdom, killing 168 shoppers. If one would’ve hit a Wal-Mart on any Black Friday, it would’ve raised the state’s average IQ a dozen points.
1950 – Korean War: Troops from the People’s Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces (Battle of the Ch’ongch’on River and Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.
2008 – The first shots of many attacks on Mumbai, India are fired. These ten coordinated attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists kill 164 and injure more than 300 people in Mumbai. Included among the victims are members of Mumbai’s tiny Jewish community, specifically targeted, lest you mistakenly think terrorists have forgotten the Jews.
Food for Thought – 25 November 2013
Another Reason
For that cup of black ambrosia, AKA coffee:
Coffee may help perk up your blood vessels
American Heart Association Meeting Report: Abstract 12428 (Hall F, Core 7, Poster Board: 7062)
November 20, 2013Study Highlights:
A small study showed that a cup of coffee improved small blood vessel function.
The study takes us one step closer to understanding how coffee might benefit cardiovascular health.DALLAS, Nov. 20, 2013 – The caffeine in a cup of coffee might help your small blood vessels work better, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2013.
A study of 27 healthy adults showed – for the first time – that drinking a cup of caffeinated coffee significantly improved blood flow in a finger, which is a measure of how well the inner lining of the body’s smaller blood vessels work. Specifically, participants who drank a cup of caffeinated coffee had a 30 percent increase in blood flow over a 75-minute period compared to those who drank decaffeinated coffee.
“This gives us a clue about how coffee may help improve cardiovascular health,” said Masato Tsutsui, M.D., Ph.D., lead researcher and a cardiologist and professor in the pharmacology department at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan.
The study adds to a growing body of research about coffee, the most widely consumed beverage worldwide. Previous studies showed that drinking coffee is linked to lower risks of dying from heart disease and stroke, and that high doses of caffeine may improve the function of larger arteries.
As if I needed another reason.