Category: True Stories

Happy Thanksgiving

Retro Thanksgiving

It amazes me to think that in September 1620, 102 people were so fed up with the English monarchy that they were willing to risk a dangerous late-season voyage across the Atlantic (that lasted over two months at sea) to a new land to establish a free colony.

Disease, scurvy, starvation and weather exposure took their toll, and half of them died before the following spring. In March of 1621, the survivors sought to establish Plymouth Rock, ventured ashore, and met an escaped British slave named Squanto who spoke English.

His first words to William Bradford were:
“Dude. This is a swamp. You f’d up. Y’all gonna die an’ stuff.”
Bradford replied, “Bro, WTF?”
“Here. Plant some of this, but put a fish under it.”
“Dude, no way.”
“Way. Just do it.”
“K.  By the way, we got a plow.”
“Get out. You got a what? What you need a plow on a boat for?”
“We got one. You got an ox?”
“Ordered one on Amazon, but he ain’t showed up yet. They walk slow.”
“Cool. We’re gonna pop some pheasant for supper. Y’all wanna come?”
“Hell yeah. We’ll bag some Bambi and see you about 4.”

And the rest is history.

Have a great holiday, folks, and never forget the Reason for Thanksgiving.

[Image from here.]

Saturday Matinee – RIP JFK & 1963 Radio

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by a communist named Lee Harvey Oswald. I was very young, but I remember understanding that something terrible had happened.

JFK was indisputably the last conservative democrat to hold the Office of the Presidency, and the loss still echoes.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On a lighter note, in 1963 one of my prized possessions was a transistor radio that I listened to constantly, and I wasted a large number of batteries by falling asleep with the radio on my pillow.
Here are three favorites.

No. 10 in the Billboard rankings for 1963: The Impressions‘ “It’s All Right.” Curtis Mayfield was with the group from 1958 – 1970. The vid is from the TV show “Hollywood A-Go-Go” in 1965.

Martha & The Vandellas, live at The Apollo. Martha Reeve’s voice still blows me away.

The Chantays performed Pipeline live on The Lawrence Welk Show in 1963. According to the liner notes on their album, the oldest member of the band from Santa Ana California was 17 when they invented surf-rock.

This was the also the age of the “girl groups.” Before lil’ Bunk was in the double digits of age he liked girls, just couldn’t admit it to his buddies, and was secretly in love with Ronnie Spector, Skeeter Davis, Barbara Lewis and The Chiffons, but not Leslie Gore – what a whiner.

Have a great weekend, folks.

James Brown was Stillborn.

James Brown Star Time 1 James Brown Star Time 2

James Brown Star Time 2a

Not to disparage the late Butane James, but being born dead and recovering is one helluva fetus. Aside from that, this compilation is completely awesome.

Elevated Turkish Toilets. Fancy that.

bombler.ru

Bombs away me hearties. Now where is the wheelchair accessible one?

Not sure why there are no privacy partitions, unless this lineup is for a competition (Game of Thrones?) but there’s something else missing, and I’m not gonna go there.

[Found in here, archive for Potty Humor here.]

Armistice Day: The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month of 1918

Walter Myers

The letter below was penned by my grand-uncle Walter (1899-1978) to his parents (my great-grandparents). He had just turned 19, and was serving in the US Army Signal Corps. In WWI that meant he was stationed at the German Front, providing reconnaissance from balloons and wiring reports via telegraph. Very dangerous place to be.

21 August 1918 – France

Dearest Mom and Dad,

Was under fire for the first time recently. No casualties. Believe me you never heard such an unearthly noise. Everything quiet then all of a sudden “Boom” s-h-h-h sh-sh-sh. The boom is when the shell bursts and the “sh” sounds like the wind whistling through a crack. The “sh” is caused by flying splinters. The damned Deutsch can’t hit a barn so we should worry. We have dugouts.

Sorry I can’t tell more. This may be cut out. I don’t think it will though because there is no information. I guess the Deutsch remember shooting at us. So this letter wouldn’t give them any “info”.

You say that you will meet me when I get off the returning transport. I think the day when I arrive will be about 10 years hence, at the present rate. However, though, the unexpected might happen and I might get home inside of 9 years instead of ten. So you get my impression from the above paragraph. However though, I am absolutely not homesick.

Of course I would like to get home, which is only natural. But I don’t want to get home ’till the “Guerre” is finished and finished to a frizzle and finished in our favor, and the damned deutsch exterminated.

We are now sleeping on the ground and in pup tents. Great sport, too. Just like a big camp.

Well, I guess we will call things off for the present. So, “Au revoire cher Pere et Mere.” I will see you “Apres La Guerre.”

With love,
Soldier Bill

Unfortunately, The Armistice lasted barely twenty years, allowed the creation of the WehrMacht, and WWII ensued. The Korean “Conflict” was stalled the same way, and now North Korea is a dangerous rogue nation. Do I need to mention Iran? Fini La Guerre.

God Bless all Veterans who fight selflessly for what’s right.

[Related posts here.]

Don’t Sit Under The Argan Tree

Goats In A Tree

These goats live in a small region in southwestern Morocco where the Argan tree grows. Although the region is semi-arid desert and there’s fodder elsewhere, they love argan berries. They’re goat candy. Since the goats can’t reach them from the ground, they learned to climb Argan trees.

But that’s not the weird part.

When the goats poop, local women pick out the hard undigested nuts, crack them, extract the seeds, mash and grind them up, and produce argan oil – all by hand. It gets stranger: only women are allowed to do it.

Women […] run the entire industry, which is an incredible fact considering that Morocco is a rather patriarchal society. Only women are taught to make argan oil, and they are the sole gatekeepers to the centuries-old method. Much of the country’s oil is made in cooperatives that allow women the opportunity to work and make money independently [via].

Then they rub it on their faces, put it in their hair or eat it. TRUE.

But take this story a step further, and it becomes downright astounding. One sunny day, hundreds of years ago, some Berber women figured it out:

“Hey, Fatima! Bouchra! I found some goat crap under a tree. I bet there’s something in it that we can eat AND wear. Whaddya think? Don’t tell the guys.”

And the rest is history. But wait. There’s more:

The Berbers were the same people that produced Berber carpets, and had a hand in producing purple dye from seashells – the color of Roman Royalty. It’s also interesting to note that a large percentage of Berbers were Jews, Christians and Animists before those sects were marginalized by Islam in the 7th Century. The Barbary pirates were Islamic Berbers, thrived in the world-wide slave trade, and the word “barbarian” has etymological roots to the Berbers as well.

Goats-trees-berries-poop-cosmetics-food-Morocco-Berbers-carpet-purple-Islam-pirates-slavery-barbarians. What a connection, and it all began with Goats In Trees.

Fun Facts To Know And Tell.

[Image found here. Somewhat related post here.]

Saturday Matinee – Moto-X Baby, Hugh Maskela, Big Joe Turner & Muddy Waters

Apparently this dates from the 1990 or so, and predates the Internet as we know it. [Source found here.]

“Excuse Me Baby Please” by Hugh Maskela 2007(?) featuring high school friend Morris Goldberg on sax. Maskela’s better known in the U.S. for his 1968 hit “Grazing In The Grass.”

“Baby Please Don’t Go.” Big Joe Williams was the first to record it in 1935, and it’s been covered by many bands since, both in blues and rock. Here’s Williams’ solo version, live, on 9-string guitar. We may have posted this one before, but so what. We probably posted the next one as well.

Muddy Waters‘ live version of the same song, featuring James Cotton on harmonica, in Chicago 22 November 1981. It’s a classic performance, then some friends showed up to make it awesome.That’s a wrap for this edition of The Saturday Matinee.

Have a great weekend, folks, and don’t forget VETERANS DAY. EVER.

How ObamaCare Works

ObamaCare Illustration 110

The warm water is not for you. It’s only for members of Congress, their employees and Union Workers who’ve been exempted by fiat.

Obamacare is the most destructive economic policy I’ve seen implemented in my lifetime, and its reach goes far beyond healthcare.

If you haven’t been paying attention, ObamaCare forces employers to reduce their workforce by government fiat. It prevents employers from hiring full-time workers, and it cripples the insurance industry by mandating coverage without allowing it to compete nationwide in order to balance risks. That’s how the insurance industry works – spreading risk, spreading payments,  balancing it all and adjusting it all the time. It’s a game about odds.

Obamacare changes all of that. This should be a logic issue, not a political one.

However, once a federal program like ObamaCare competes with the private sector and has the power to arbitrarily dictate unreasonable rules, existing medical insurance companies are doomed, neighborhood medical facilities close and Hospitals go bankrupt. Hell, it’s already happening.

Tell me where such a system has ever succeeded. I’ll save you the trouble. It hasn’t succeeded anywhere in the history of the world, without killing off those who needed medical treatment the most – The Poor and The Elderly.

In the United States, The Elderly, the so-called “BabyBoomers.” are the largest population who understand the seductive evils of Socialism/Communism, which makes them a target. They are the same people that Socialists and Communists abhor, i.e.,  People Who Remember. For socialism to prevail, these ancients need to be squelched, and in that respect, ObamaCare is a very useful tool.

I’m not unconvinced that this is part of the intent. The signs are all there, and and it’s been done before.

THIS is the stuff of fascism. Mussolini rejected socialism, and was hanged by his own people for his alternative,

[Image found here.]

Happy Birthday, Bunkessa. You Gave Us The Scariest Halloween We Ever Had.

Bunkessa Halloween

[And yes, that’s really Bunkessa.]

Saturday Matinee: Ray White, Priscilla Ahn & Tom Waits

Talking Feet: 6-1/2 minutes of awesome. Watch the whole thing [via].

Priscilla Ahn‘s got a cool version of Tom Waits‘ “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up.”

Tom Waits was indicted [sic] into The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2011, and Neil Young introduced him. Great intro, great clips, great quotes. Someone said that Waits doesn’t sing the same song the same way twice.

“I think what I try to do is write adventure songs and Halloween Music.” –Tom Waits

That last quote cracks me up, because back when we still had trick-or-treaters coming around, we’d do up the front entry and blast Mickey Hart’s “Planet Drum” and Wait’s “Bone Machine” to the neighborhood. Great Halloween music.

Have  a great weekend, see you back here tomorrow.