18 April 2018 was the 75th Anniversary of The Doolittle Raid of 1942, the daring attack on mainland Japan after their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. A 1983 interview with (then 87 year-old) General “Jimmy” Doolittle can be found here.
Zen moment: Just saw a bee with one wing. Every time it tried to fly it ended up on its back, rolled over, crawled for a bit and tried to fly again with the same result. It never gave up, but it made the same mistake over and over. There’s more than two morals in that story.
Ever work on a carpentry project, mis-measure the cut and end up with a short board? The BS100o Board Stretcher is the solution. “Measure once, cut twice.”
In 1855, Congress approved a plan developed by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to import camels as pack animals for the U.S. Army operating in the American Southwest.
The camels were also considered for use as a long-range mounted force that could drive “hostile Indians out of the country.” The storeship USS Supply was refitted with special hatches, stables, hoists and a “camel car” for the sole purpose of loading and transporting dromedaries.
Once the first herd of camels was obtained in North Africa, Supply [w]as further modified to compensate for the towering humps of the camels by cutting away part of the main deck. The camels were delivered to Texas where their potential was recognized but the plan was never fully implemented due to the advent of the Civil War.
So instead of wasting them, the U.S. Army sold the camels to zoos. TRUE
[Image and story found here. More about the Camel Corps here.]
Fallen Astronaut is an aluminum sculpture of an astronaut in a spacesuit which commemorates astronauts who died in the advancement of space exploration. It is currently at Hadley Rille on the Moon, having been placed there by the crew of Apollo 15.
It’s the only art installation on the moon. Fourteen names are listed on the memorial plaque, but three are missing. The deaths of two cosmonauts were unknown to the western world, and one astronaut was accidentally overlooked.
In 1783, a political cartoonist could illustrate farting, but was forbidden to say the word. The cartoon above is in reference to The Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779-1783), an attempt by the French and the Spanish to capture Gibraltar from the British who were distracted by the American War for Independence.
I jumped the 3rd vid to one of my favorites, Young Ned Of The Hill [full concert starts here]. It’s a traditional Irish song about one Éamonn an Chnoic. Legend says he became an outlaw after shooting a tax collector dead during a quarrel over the confiscation of a poor woman’s cow.
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here soon.
“Do not kiss her until you know that she uses Listerated Pepsin Gum, the only antiseptic gum in the world, the only chewing gum that makes it safe to kiss.”
The Rubber Paint Company of Cleveland, Ohio created the Zeno Manufacturing Company in 1890. W.N. Brewer, an employee at the Rubber Paint Company, had the idea to start making chewing gum with rubber as one of the ingredients as a sideline of the company. He created the Zeno company.
[Image and caption found here. The history of chewing gum here.]
Might have been better with four NFL cheerleaders in skimpy wet chamois skins, but that’s just my non-judgemental politically correct sexist micoagressional opinion [via].
Have a great weekend, folks, and remember that President’s Day is a construct designed to minimize the historical importance of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, two of the greatest and most influential Presidents in the history of the United States of America.
