Monthly Archives: September 2016
Today in History – September 30
1452 – First European book printed with moveable type, Johann Gutenberg’s Bible, in Mainz, Germany. Mainz has a terrific museum devoted to printing, including a display of an original Gutenberg Bible. It’s worth a visit if you’re in the area. I was.
1544 – King Henry VIII draws his armies out of France. His army leaves behind a considerable amount of genetic material.
1791 – The Magic Flute, the last opera composed by Mozart, receives its premiere performance at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria.
1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre and Jérôme Pétion as incorruptible patriots. Yeah. Just like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are “incorruptible patriots”. And cool move, there Gaston!: You get rid of a monarchy and pass control to a dictatorship by moonbat.
1841 – Samuel Slocum patented the stapler. Hey! A milestone IS a milestone…
1882 – Thomas Edison’s first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States. it was a whopping 12.5 kilowatts. Honda makes a portable generator that big now and it fits in the back of a pickup truck. I’ve worked on a 600 MEGAwatt unit. That’s 48,000(!) times bigger. In less than a hundred years.
1938 – At 2:00 am, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign the Munich Agreement, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain forever sets the standard for moonbat politicians being flim-flammed by dictators when he returns to London, waves a copy of the agreement and says it means “peace in our time.” Hitler says “a little piece of Poland, a little piece of France…” (and extra points if you can identify where the Hitler quote comes from…)
1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws “intentional bombings of civilian populations”. Yeah, that worked. The League of Nations died. If only the UN would have the grace to do the same…
1949 – Berlin Airlift ends after 277,000 flights. America faces down the Soviet Union. Today’s Left would not only have signed West Berlin Over to them, but would have held a star-studded concert to celebrate.
1954 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Nautilus is commissioned as the world’s first nuclear reactor powered vessel.
1968 – First Boeing 747 rolls out. American aviation shows the world how it’s done.
2005 – The controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Muslims are driven to a killing frenzy by cartoons. Who knew? Other things that drive Muslims into a killing frenzy: Days that end with “y”. Puppies. Music. People smiling. BACON!
Today in History – September 29
1789 – The U.S. War Department first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men. Today, the Department of Agriculture has a bigger standing army. So do most medium-sized cities.
1916 – John D. Rockefeller becomes the first billionaire. Oil!
1936 – Radio used for first time for a presidential campaign. Obama loyalists try to get the ads pulled.
1938 – Treaty of Munich signed by Hitler, Mussolini, Daladier & Chamberlain. “If we give them a little of what they want, they will think we’re nice people and stop doing mean things.”
1942 – French government of De Gaulle cancels Agreement of Munich. The REAL French government, still actually IN actually in FRANCE, is collaborating its butt off. That 1938 agreement in Munich wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. Of course, from the safety of England, neither is the De Gaulle government…
1960 – Nikita Khrushchev, leader of Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts. Obama shows up and members erupt in giggling fits.
1966 – The Chevrolet Camaro, originally named Panther, is introduced, features in many an episode of “Hold mah beer an’ watch this!”
1975 – WGPR in Detroit, Michigan, becomes the world’s first black-owned-and-operated television station, helping lift Detroit to its current position as a jewel in America’s tiara.
1991 – Military coup in Haiti. Still having trouble with that whole ‘election’ thing…
2013 – Over 42 people are killed by members of radical Baptist Muslim group Boko Haram at the College of Agriculture in Gujba, Nigeria.
Today”s thought
There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
Mark Twain
Life on the Mississippi
Food for Thought – 28 September 2016
Today in History – September 28
1066 – William the Conqueror invades England: the Norman Conquest begins. At the time he was known as “William the Bastard”. Nothing like winning to get you favorable publicity! Part of what makes us what we are…
1781 – American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War. This was France before a revolution run by a bunch of ‘enlightened’ fops ruined the place.
1791 – France becomes the first country to emancipate its Jewish population. A hundred and fifty years later, they help the Nazis round them up for deportation and death.
1850 – US Navy abolishes flogging as punishment.
1928 – Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin. He wasn’t “Sir” back then, just a science geek playing with bread mold.
1938 – Dutch Premier Colijn sends radio message “No war coming” . See! They had pacifist moonbats back then, too. 1940 – Nazi occupiers present “New Dutch Culture” in German. Premier Colijn is now right. The war was short and nasty and the Netherlands lost. Now they have ‘peace’.
1939 – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II. It’s a neat agreement between two blood-thirsty amoral dictators. Two years later Hitler decides that he wants ALL of Poland. And the Ukraine. And everything else.
1958 – France ratifies a new Constitution of France; the French Fifth Republic is then formed upon the formal adoption of the new constitution on October 4. The way things are going, the next one will be written in Arabic, based on sharia.
1961 – A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria, which brings up a seldom-considered point: If the Arab world DIDN’T have a common enemy, Israel, they they’d be quite happily slaughtering each other.
Food for Thought – 27 September 2016
Today in History – September 27
1066 – William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the Somme River, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. Don’t get peckish. The term “Norman” comes from “Norseman”, the Vikings who’d carved out a chunk of France for themselves already.
1777 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the capital of the United States, for one day. For one brief day the population becomes example of large number of self-serving… nah… THAT’S Washington today. It took Washington a while to get that way, but they’ve got the act down pat now….
1821 – Mexico gains its independence from Spain. Freed of the despotic rule of European interlopers, the country goes on to enjoy decades of peace, justice and prosperity. Today, thousands of Americans cross its boarder seeking opportunity not found here.
1903 – Wreck of the Old 97, a train crash made famous by the song of the same name. “They gave him his orders in Monroe, Virginia, said “Steve, you’re ‘way behind time…”
1908 – The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan. You could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black.
1941 – The SS Patrick Henry is launched becoming the first of more than 2,700 Liberty ships. America’s might produced ships like cupcakes…
1942 Last day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps troops barely escape after being surrounded by Japanese forces near the Matanikau River. A Coastie by the name of Douglas Munro gave his life to rescue a group of Marines trapped by the Japanese. His last words were, ”Did they all get off?” His medal was awarded by the Navy for his work with the Marines. He is the ONLY member of the Coast Guard to ever receive the Medal of Honor.
1964 – The Warren Commission releases its report, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President John F. Kennedy. It is widely debated and viewed as a cover-up.
1979 – The United States Department of Education receives final approval from the U.S. Congress to become the 13th US Cabinet agency. Public education is fast becoming equivalent in quality to public housing and public toilets.
1998 – The Google internet search engine retrospectively claims this as its birthday.
Food for Thought – 26 September 2016
Today in History – September 26
1580 – From back when the British had balls, Sir Francis Drake completes his circumnavigation of the globe. When he shows up back home, he’s got gold he captured from the Spanish in several engagements.
1777 – The British army launches a major offensive, capturing Philadelphia.
1786 – Protestors shut down the court in Springfield, Massachusetts in a military standoff that begins Shays’ Rebellion. It’s about the courts enforcing tax and debt collection.
1792 – Marc-David Lasource begins accusing Maximilien Robespierre of wanting a dictatorship for France. They get a dictatorship anyway, but Robespierre is executed in 1794. He’s a victim of the terror in France that he helped author.
1820 – Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson proved tomatoes weren’t poisonous by eating several on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey. The news takes decades to be absorbed as far as Texas, which is why REAL chili doesn’t have tomatoes.
1918 – World War I: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the bloodiest single battle in American history, begins.
Paul von Hindenburg stated, “… without the American troops and despite a food blockade… the war could have ended in a sort of stalemate.”
1950 – General Douglas MacArthur’s American X Corps, fresh from the Inchon landing, links up with the U.S. Eighth Army after its breakout from the Pusan Perimeter, recaptures Seoul from the North Koreans.
1960 – In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Nixon isn’t a cute as Kennedy and his poll numbers suffer…
1960 – Fidel Castro announces Cuba’s support for the U.S.S.R. Two words: “Communist bast*rd!” He makes the longest speech in UN history (4 hrs, 29 mins). President HUSSEIN has a copy lined up on his teleprompter.
Black-eyed Peas
Another one of those frugal dishes that don’t need a lot of tending:
The ingredients:
Dried blackeyed peas – a couple of bucks gets you a pound. a pound’ll feed a family.
Flavoring meat – optional, to be sure, but come on, folks… Surely you have a bit of ham or smoked sausage or bacon or salt pork or if you’re on the trail, beef jerky. Use a little. Use a lot. Use none at all – your call.
Onion – For a pound of peas, I use a whole onion, baseball sized. For half a pound of beans I use a whole onion, because who needs half an onion laying around. If you have garlic, in the form of whole garlic, minced garlic, garlic powder, whatever, add a bit according to your desires.
Salt and pepper
The procedure:
Rinse and soak the peas overnight. In days past, dried beans were apt to contain a few small stones, and therefore needed to be picked over. Modern packaging eliminates the picking, but if you feel you must, go ahead.
The next morning, chop up your onion and set it aside. Cut up the sausage or bacon or whatever, put it in the bean pot of medium-high heat, get it sizzling and rendering out some fat. If you don’t see liquid in the bottom of the pot, help things along with a glug of cooking oil. (A glug is roughly equivalent to a tablespoon and a half) Once you have some browning action going on, then add the onions and continue the stirring over heat until the onion is starting to turn translucent. That’s where you add your peas and enough water to cover over them about an inch.
Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Now you have an hour or two. Yes, it varies, depending on how old and dry the peas are and how long you soaked them.
In the meantime, prepare sides. For ‘Hoppin’ John’, you’ll need rice, cooked. Cornbread’s another option. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious and wealthy, do both.
Beans and rice, or in this case, blackeyed peas and rice, were NEVER a stand-alone dish at home. Great-grandma always had chow-chow, pickles or some fresh vegetable like sliced tomatoes or cucumbers. Mom was the same way. Me? By myself, watching Sunday TV, the peas and rice will do just fine.
The Name Game #456
First, there’s this:
Then this:
A campaign initiated by the National Association for Bilingual Education and the Santa Clara County Office of Education says a teacher who mispronounces a student’s name is causing a negative emotional state that can lead to poor academic success.
The campaign, titled “My Name, My Identity: A Declaration of Self,” says on its website, “Did you know that mispronouncing a student’s name negates the identity of the student? This can lead to anxiety and resentment which, in turn, can hinder academic progress.”
Which begs for an answer to the question, how would you, a literate individual, pronounce “D’Nhyarinaie Da’Macaie Kty’Legene“? That’s a real name given by one sentient being to another sentient being, and one can only surmise the jaw pain that her first teacher encounters trying to pronounce it.
And then there’s today’s list. The big hospital across the river reports thirty-nine new babies from between September 3 and 20. Of those, twenty are born to unwed parents, or in the case of five of them, to mommies who didn’t see fit to offer a daddy’s name at all.
Let’s go on into the wilds:
Aaron L.& Skylar G. name their son Zeppelin Kade. I am beyond words. I guess it IS better than ‘blimp’, though.
Miss Ashley H. brings her daughter, little Aubielle Reign.
Joshua & Gendra W. cutely tag their daughter with Journi Nella.
Bruce H. II & Mariah B. apostrophicate their daughter Beija’ Mechelle. If that’s pronounced ‘B-J’ she’s gonna be popular.
Another apostrophe raises its head to confer an air of sophistication when Brandon C. & Sadie L. name their daughter Bre’Ella Marie.
Louis B. III & Candice T. tag a son with Trailon Martel.
Miss Shawntessa(!!) C. starts her daughter off on a journey of distinction by naming her Ma’Laya Marie. The apostrophe is so you won’t think that Miss Shauntessa just mindlessly picked a name off a map.
And we get MORE punctuation as Jarrod & Shaunice(!) A. present their son Kysen Henri’.
Quitin V. & Megan H. start their son off as royalty by tagging him with Prynce-Jahiem Isreal.
Josh ‘n’ LeAnne B. just toss in an extra capital letter on their daughter AuBry Ann.
It’s such a good idea that, same day, same hospital, Michael & Jada G. do it to their daughter Phoebe ReNae.
Jesse ‘n’ Mikayla F. present their daughter Nyla Renee’, using the apostorphe so their relatives will know when to stop making ‘eeeeee’ sounds when pronouncing her middle name.
Brenton W. & Amber B. name their daughter Acelynn Elise.
And that’s the list for the week, folks. Now let’s go out and try really hard not to negate any identities, okay?
Today in History – September 25
1492 – Crewman on Pinta sights “land”-a few weeks early. Wanting something really bad isn’t the same as having it.
1789 – The U.S. Congress passes twelve amendments to the United States Constitution: the Congressional Apportionment Amendment, the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten that are known as the Bill of Rights. Only the Bill of Rights were ratified at the time, while the other two were proposed by James Madison but not ratified. In 1992, the Congressional Compensation Amendment was ratified as the 27th amendment to the Constitution. Does anyone really think that the government goes out of its way to follow the Constitution?
1912 – Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City. No it trains sycophants for the Left.
1929 – After an all-instrument flight the day before, Jimmy Doolittle performs the first blind flight from Mitchel Field proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.
1955 – The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded. The name translates in Hebrew to “live targets”.
1956 – TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated. The cable was able to carry 35 simultaneous telephone calls. A 36th channel was used to carry up to 22 telegraph lines.
1990 – Saddam Hussein warns that US will repeat Vietnam experience. In 2003, America’s Left, with the complicity of the mainstream media, does its darnedest to relive its happy days in the seventies. And it’s amazing what a great idea war is when a dimmocrat president starts it.
2009 – U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a joint TV appearance for a G-20 summit, accuse Iran of building a secret nuclear enrichment facility. 2015 – It’s all good! John “F**K your buddies” Kerry has ‘negotiated a deal and Iran promises to be all nice and stuff.
Food for Thought – 24 September 2016
