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

[Previously posted here. Related posts here.]

The sign on the front of the truck reads, “The Kaiser’s Funeral.”

26 September 1918

“We are in a camp near Auzeville and the big drive is to start. In fact the one that finished the ‘Boches’. Then the morning of the 26th dawned but dawn was preceded by a terrific barrage which was as loud as thunder and lighted up the whole skyline for miles. We were not flying ours but were held in reserve. Hundreds of “planes” were now flying over head. One bunch had over 150 in it.

Along about 8 a.m., along comes a boche plane and he burned three of the balloons all observers landed safe but one and his parachute burned and he fell to his death.

A fellow by the name of Barnett and I started out to see the fun. Put our guns on and started for the front line trenches which were about 5 miles north. After a short while we hit the trenches but of course our boys had advanced and were chasing the boche for a fare you well. We hit several mine craters where the boche had mined the roads but already our engineers had started to budge them. After another hour’s walk and dodging a few pieces of shrapnel we hit the town of Varennes and were keen for souvenirs. The boche were still in one side of the Varennes and we were in the other.

Machine guns were crackling with a steady roar and long streams of ambulances carrying away the wounded. Dead Boche were laying every where. The roads were filled with them. Long about then a Boche 77 took my ….. but never touched us. Then we started going through the dugouts and it was there that I got the general’s helmet. Also was almost lucky enough to capture a Jerry but a doughboy beat me to it. He was hiding in a dug out. Looked like he wasn’t as old as “Bugs” and he was scared almost to death.

After monkeying around a while we hopped an ambulance and rode back toward Auzeville. So that finished the day’s fun. But you ought to have seen the dead Huns. Some had legs blown off. Some had their heads and shoulders off and some were in pieces only. A great many had been burned by mustard gas and were burned to a crisp.”

PFC Walter Myers, age 19, US Army Signal Corps

The Setup.

[Found here.]

Nothing Much Happened Today.

[Found here. NMHT archive here.]

How’ do SuzukiSavages! There’s some rat rods and hogs posted here somewhere, but dang if I remember where they are.

Hot Links on the Road of Ruin

I Love You For Seventy Mental Reasons, Red Ingle & the Natural Seven (1947). Video here.Ernest Jansen “Red” Ingle (1906 – 1965) was an American musician, singer and songwriter, arranger, cartoonist and caricaturist. He is best known for his comedy records with Spike Jones and later as Red Ingle and The Natural Seven.

Billy Bounce.

The Greatest Entrance EVER.

Upside-down basketball shot.

Tardigrades Found in Parking Lot.

Ozzy Man reviews Live TV Fails [language warning].

The last flight of the Blue Angels’ F/A-18 Hornets.

What everyone needs right now: a cover of Fish Heads.

Colorized 1902 Footage of a ‘Flying Train’ Ride Through a German Town [via].

Time-lapse video of the US/Mexico Border Wall construction is pretty cool.

Type in the name of a favorite band to see others you might like.

You’ve probably eaten castoreum. It may simply be listed as “natural flavoring.” [h/t Paul Y.]

[Top image via text message, h/t Alan U.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.

Saturday Matinee – Alexandre Nicolas Theroude, Joe Rinaudo, Mayer Hawthorne & The Beat Farmers

“Au siècle de la révolution industrielle, la technologie des automates est maîtrisée principalement par les artisans français. Alexandre-Nicolas Théroude, le créateur de cette pièce pour laquelle il a déposé un brevet en 1866, est connu pour avoir le premier su enfermer le mécanisme dans le corps de l’automate.”

“Flautiste” – Life-size Flute Player Automaton by Alexandre Nicolas Theroude (1807-1883), Paris, France, c.1869-77.

Joe Rinaudo and the American Fotoplayer  on “California’s Gold” with (the late) Huell Howser, Season 17, Episode 7, February 18th, 2006.
From the YouTube comments:

  • “Ladies and Gentlemen: Please rise for our 2020 National Anthem.“
  • “If people could read my mind, this is what they’d see.”
  • “This is baby makin’ music for clowns.”

Mayer Hawthorne has the Motown sound down. I heard this and thought “Why don’t I remember that one?” He once stated that, when working as a hip hop DJ, he began recording his own Motown-style tracks to avoid paying fees for sampling other artists’ work. That video made me grin. An excerpt of “The Walk” was used in a Blue Moon beer TV commercial in 2017.

The Beat Farmers were a great band from So. California. I got to see them several times in the 80s, and Road of Ruin seems appropriate for our times. (Two of the original members are gone: Country Dick Montana and Buddy Blue.)

Yeah, we may be on the road of ruin depending on how you look at things, and I’m not talking about the current election fraud. It’s the bigger picture that concerns me. Not much I can do about it.

See you back here tomorrow, rain or shine, and we’ll do something stupid together.

Aw hell. I just gotta post this. GOTTA.

Bonus .Gif – CNN Oopsie

Someone’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.

[Found here.]

The .Gif Friday Post No. 657 – Stick It To The Man, Mud Pool & Gator Rodeo

[Found here, here and here.]

I’ve Got A Little Happy Dude

I had a CT scan last week. Just for the heck of it I asked if I could get a copy of the .dcm files and they burned me a DVD that included viewing software. Pure awesome.

I opened the program, fumbled around a bit, and found that I have a little happy dude living right under my chin.

In another file, there were soft-tissue images, and the little happy dude showed up there, too.

The scan turned up nothing significant. That made me VERY happy.

Eat it.

[h/t Nate L.]

Grumpkin 2020

The sketch & template are mine, the missus did the evisceration.
Previous grumpkins here.