Saturday - June 12, 2010
Today in History – June 12th
Events
1429 – Hundred Years’ War: Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau.
1665 – England installs a municipal government in New York City (formerly the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam).
1775 – American Revolution: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.
1942 – Holocaust: Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
1982 – Moonbattyness: Over 750,000 people moonbats attend a concert in New York’s Central Park to support MUSE (or Musicians Moonbats United for Safe Energy, aka: No Nukes), to see Bruce Springsteenbat, Jackson Brownebat, James Taylorbat, and Linda Ronstadtbat (among other bats) perform bark.
1987 – Cold War: U. S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.
Births
1519 – Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. (d. 1574)
1827 – Johanna Spyri, Swiss author (Heidi. I only know this because I’m in the middle of reading it). (d. 1901)
1908 – Otto Skorzeny, famous WWII German SS commando. (d. 1975)
1916 – Irwin Allen, American film producer. (d. 1991)
1924 – George H. ‘Read my lips’ W. Bush, 41st President of the United States.
1929 – Anne Frank, German-born Dutch Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim (d. 1945)
1930 – Jim Nabors, American gomer…er…actor.
Deaths
816 – Pope Leo III.
918 – Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians. Eldest daughter of King Alfred the Great.
1567 – Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, Lord Chancellor of England (In 2006, he was selected by BBC History Magazine as the 16th century’s “worst Briton”.)
1957 – Jimmy Dorsey, American musician
1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. (Is O. J. still looking for the ‘real’ murderer?)
2003 – Gregory Peck, American actor
2007 – Don ‘Mr. Wizard’ Herbert, American television host (and WWII B-24 bomber pilot. 56 missions. That’s impressive).
Posted by Christopher
on 06/12/2010 at 05:14 AM
Filed Under: • History •
• Comments (0)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Friday - June 11, 2010
Today in History
Events
1184 BC – Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes (d. 195 BC).
1509 – Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon.
1776 – The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
1805 – A fire consumes large portions of Detroit in Michigan Territory. (An event which bears repeating 
)
1964 – World War II veteran Walter Seifert runs amok in an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance.
2001 – Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Births
1864 – Richard Strauss, German composer and conductor.
1879 – Max Schreck, German actor.
1910 – Jacques-Yves Cousteau, French explorer and inventor.
1933 – Gene Wilder, American actor.
Deaths
323 BC – Alexander the Great, son of Philip II of Macedon.
1936 – Robert E. Howard, American author.
1941 – Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America.
1979 – John Wayne, American actor.
1999 – DeForest Kelley, American actor.
Posted by Christopher
on 06/11/2010 at 06:49 AM
Filed Under: • History •
• Comments (1)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Monday - May 31, 2010
Memorial Day…some history
I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve learned much about Memorial Day this year. In my defense I’ll claim we have too many holidays for too few good reasons. Memorial Day is not one of those holidays. There is a good reason for it.
Memorial Day started out as Decoration Day.
Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
A caller to the Rush Limbaugh show last week got me interested in this. The caller was an old veteran who was promoting Memorial Day poppies. He said that 50 years ago everybody would have a poppy and now…? Rush seemed to know what the caller was talking about but didn’t explain it. Poppies? I had to look up Memorial Day and poppies.
In 1915, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” Moina Michael replied with her own poem:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms.Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children’s League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and Madam Guerin approached the VFW for help. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans’ organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their “Buddy” Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.
Artificial poppies to wear on Memorial Day are still being made by disabled veterans. That’s what the caller was promoting. I unfortunately don’t remember if it was the American Legion or the VFW. Regardless, get a red poppy to wear today.
Sorry, should read my own post, eh? It was the VFW. I was trying to remember what the caller said.
Saturday at work our supervisor got on the intercom to ‘thank all veterans this Memorial Day weekend…’
Faux pas? Ignorance? Who knows? I quietly went to him and reminded him that Memorial Day honors those who died in service to their country. It does NOT honor veterans. Veteran’s Day is observed for those like myself. And I don’t even count myself as a veteran: I never saw combat. To me a veteran has been in combat. I did serve six years in the Navy and was honorably discharged. I served, but I’m not a veteran.
My supervisor was man enough to get back on the intercom and correct himself. He added that we should all pray for those who’ve lost husbands, fathers, sons, daughters, during the current war.
And finally, I just have to include a link to Mark Steyn’s website today. The article is not written by Mr. Steyn but is an excerpt from one of his books. It’s an article about the creation of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. (Note: not the Battle Hymn of the Democracy)
Posted by Christopher
on 05/31/2010 at 12:14 PM
Filed Under: • Editorials • History • Holidays • Patriotism •
• Comments (3)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Friday - March 19, 2010
Some history wherein …. I found myself kind of up close and personal
I only have minutes to put this together as I have to go out for an appointment and then the post office.
For more then a year and in bits and drabs, we have been unloading things that are mostly dead memories and or junk that was rat packed by the late mil.
The woman kept every little item she ever acquired including her own school report card at the age of 12.
Many of the things she got her claws into really were nothing but junk. Hundreds of empty bottles stored in plastic bags in the badly rotted garage. A box of coal on top of which sat an old decayed and rotted wardrobe. Which completely fell apart when the guys we called to haul things away tried to lift it after it was emptied. I can not even begin to describe the things here inside the house from clothes to cheap pottery. When we arrived in April of 2004 we had a heck of a time making room for ourselves and had to fight to toss out old and decayed junk, much of it along with the mouse droppings and whatever other varmints were using the upstairs as a hotel. She ( the mil) worried that we were getting rid of treasure. Sure. Like a double size mattress completely folded in half in a large plastic bag in the attic. The plastic and the mattress having been gnawed most thoroughly by her unseen guests. See, when she bought the new one, she kept the old one too.
Well, among the many things squirreled away, there were a few (very few) items of interest. A WW1 bayonet for one. Old letters from the war including the notice that her fiancé was lost in the RAF on a mission. In fact, neither the plane or the crew were ever found. It makes for some sad reading going over all these very old letters of his that she saved through all these years.
He writes of his worry for her as he was aware of the serious bombing of Southampton, and says he won’t sleep until he hears that she and family are okay.
The letters are written on small size stationary and a small cramped hand in many places, so it isn’t easy to read everything. I have never been good at making out other people’s handwriting. Anyway, it’s interesting reading and gives one a sense of things back then. While I remember clearly the concern of our family for uncles away at war, one a navigator on a Liberator bomber and the other in the Navy, my uncles didn’t have to worry when the next air raid would occur in the USA.
(There’s even a short note she wrote to him in 1938. How it came to be in her possession I’ve no idea. Surely it was sent and read by him, as also she had the original envelope franked and all.)
Well, there’s still talk of a strike over Easter by the union against Brit Airways and now as I read the letters from another time the radio of today is informing us that the union representing the Railroad wants to vote a strike too. But at the front in August of 41 and writing from an RAF base somewhere, a Sgt. Bill Rogers is writing to my wife’s future mom, a letter of condolence to a young lady named Peggy, who Roy “constantly talked about.” Sgt. Rogers assures the young lady that having spent some many months together, he and Roy’s friends got to know him well. There were apparently some crew photos taken (? not sure and hard to read here) which he promises to forward. Must be photos. This was August and Peggy replies to him.
But in a letter dated 4th Sept. 1941 from Wing Commander (can not make out the name) No. 78 Squadron, he writes as follows.
“ It is with deep regret that I have to inform you that Sgt. Rogers was reported missing on 25 August 1941, this being the reason for the return of your letter.”
How that must have hurt, and how many times that feeling was duplicated over the course of the war. It wasn’t until I held letters like these in my own hands and read them that the war finally came home to me, as much as it could given time and generations. It was vastly different from reading the diaries and memories of that generation in a magazine or newspaper. Reading those is reading history to be certain. But it isn’t near as personal.
Who knows what else we may find in some cubbyhole or under a rafter somewhere in the attic.
Stay Tuned.
Posted by peiper
on 03/19/2010 at 07:16 AM
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • History • Personal •
• Comments (1)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Wednesday - March 10, 2010
Some very exciting history and a new presentation video. You won’t be sorry if you like history
It’s 1927 people, and Lucky Lindy, America’s Lone Eagle is about to make history.
This is put together with film both still and movie with some sound added. Like you, I generally know the story and after all, I also saw the movie with Jimmy Stewart. Seriously though, I did read the subject. Even so, this presentation is exceptional by any standard.
Here is the link. Below you see a small window where there are four parts listed. You can see em here in my screen shot. They are NOT long either. In fact, you can start by simply clicking part one and go from there. If problems (and should be none) just click CONTACT on the screen.
A Very HUGE H/T to our friend Vilmar.
Enjoy.
Posted by peiper
on 03/10/2010 at 02:06 PM
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • History • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT • USA •
• Comments (1)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Monday - March 01, 2010
SOME HISTORY FROM EGYPT
OK, another bit of history and as usual, not to be resisted.
You’ll dig this one Drew.
Massive head of pharaoh unearthedA colossal red granite head of one of Egypt’s most famous pharaohs has been unearthed in the southern city of Luxor, officials said.
The 3,000-year-old head of Amenhotep III - grandfather of Tutankhamun - was dug out of the ruins of the pharaoh’s mortuary temple.
Experts say it is the best preserved example of the king’s face ever found.
The 2.5m (8ft) head is part of a larger statue, most of which was found several years ago.
Antiquities officials say the statue is to be reconstructed.
“Other statues have always had something broken - the tip of the nose, or the face is eroded,” said Dr Hourig Sourouzian, who has led the Egyptian-European expedition at the site.
“But here, from the top of the crown to the chin, it is so beautifully carved and polished, nothing is broken.”
Vast empire
Egypt’s antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, described it as “a masterpiece of highly artistic quality”.
Amenhotep III ruled Egypt from about 1387 to 1348 BC and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.
Scientists using DNA tests and CT scans on several mummies have identified him as the grandfather of Tutankhamun - the boy-king born of an incestuous marriage between Akhenaten and his sister, both the offspring of Amenhotep III.
The massive mortuary temple in Luxor was largely destroyed, possibly by floods, and little remains of its walls.
Posted by peiper
on 03/01/2010 at 09:15 AM
Filed Under: • Archeology / Anthropology • History •
• Comments (5)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Tuesday - February 23, 2010
History … WW2 and William Joyce
I haven’t a clue if this is available outside the UK.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/hawhaw/8924.
But it is very interesting. Of course it would. The BBC has perhaps the largest broadcast archive anywhere in the world. It might be rivaled by our own National Archives but I don’t know for certain. I just do know from personal experience and once having been taken through the area where (before computers) they had all these billions of index cards.
So anyway, there are recordings and documents from the period of historical interest. As I have just finished reading the story of William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw),
naturally I was thrilled to come across this site. In reading the book, I was greatly surprised that Joyce was as well read as he was. True, he was a street brawler as well, but so were many on all sides. It was just a surprising story and I found I was moved by his self inflicted plight.
If that isn’t too clear on your screen, here’s the printed version.
Dear Ogilvie,
We are getting rather a disturbing amount of reports from Public Relations Officers at Commands and from other sources which indicate that the Hamburg broadcasts in English are becoming a definite factor affecting public morale in this country. The transmissions are, I think you will agree, ingenious; and though the British public’s first reaction was one of amusement, I am not sure that the constant reiteration of Lord Haw-Haw is not having a bad effect.
There seem to us to be only two ways of countering Hamburg, namely:-
(i) To put on invariably at the Hamburg transmission times a compelling attraction in the B.B.C. home service; but I doubt whether this would be shock-proof.
(ii) To put on every evening after Lord Haw-Haw’s talk a British broadcast (possibly by a
humorist such as P.G. Wodehouse or Beechcomber) to caricature His Lordship.3 times a day [handwriting in margin]
It is not for us to teach the B.B.C. its business, but I think you ought to know that we do take a rather serious view of the Hamburg propaganda.
Yours
[signed] Aylmer Vallance.
F.W. Ogilvie, Esq.,
British Broadcasting Corporation.
Posted by peiper
on 02/23/2010 at 03:55 PM
Filed Under: • History • UK •
• Comments (3)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Monday - February 22, 2010
more history but ONLY for those intelligent enough to appreciate the subject. others may pass.
First, thanks again to RICH K who reminded me by sending the following which I find of interest. And since I can’t please everyone, I’ll have to make do with pleasing myself along with those of like interests who manage to spend their time doing more then contemplating their naval. Poor lonely ppl.
There have been offers made to buy this relic as high as $26 MILLION.
Quite honestly I have a problem with those who foolishly believe the swastika that’s attached to the eagle is some kind of insult. It went with the ship and down with her as well. How much more do the hand wringers want? And why isn’t there the universal condemnation of Soviet Communism which had a much higher toll? I am not getting into a who was worse argument here. Just saying that history should not be altered by those who feel, “offended” or by those who feel “offended” on behalf of others.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Uruguay-Germany RiftIt appears that the saga of the Graf Spee isn’t over:
In 2006, divers salvaged the huge bronze eagle with the swastika at its base from the waters off the Uruguayan capital. It’s the swastika that is causing the trouble. The German government, as represented by its ambassador in Uruguay, is opposed to the display of the eagle with the Nazi cross. Germany, understandably enough, is sensitive about the ultimate symbol of National Symbolism. Public display of it is generally illegal in Germany although exceptions are made for historical and educational purposes.
There now seems to be some uncertainty about the ownership of the eagle. Germany believes the ship to be part of its cultural heritage. According to Uruguayan law, sunken ships predating 1973 in their waters are generally considered property of the Uruguayan state. Uruguayan businessman Alfredo Etchegaray has the rights to salvage the wreck and he doesn’t believe that Germany even has the right to express an opinion on the matter. He points out that Germany has its own share of historical relics from other countries, including the head of Nefertiti which Egypt would very much like back. Uruguayan newspaper El Pais notes that Germany contributes money to the preservation of concentration camp Auschwitz, in modern-day Poland.
While the idea of refloating and restoring the wreck seems far-fetched, I think that I would feel almost compelled to visit if the project ever came to fruition. Other German World War II vessels have been turned into tourist attractions, and the wreck of Graf Spee is not a war grave. Nevertheless, the technical challenges of restoring a ship sunk seventy years ago in shallow seawater would be extraordinary.
Any suggestion that Germany is unilaterally opposed to the memory of the Nazi period is bizarre; surely no other country has been as concerned with apologising for and commemorating its past crimes.
Posted by peiper
on 02/22/2010 at 01:23 PM
Filed Under: • History •
• Comments (7)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Saturday - February 20, 2010
Letters shed new light on British despair during the American War of Independence
I’m only seeing this for the first time this afternoon. Maybe you’ve seen it by now back home in the USA. Wow and gee whiz by gosh.
This kind of stuff is beyond awesome I think. Those letters have been held all these many years. Does shed some light on things. Exciting stuff.
Turtler probably already aware of it. Right? Be hard to surprise him.
A remarkable archive of letters has thrown new light on the despair of British commanders during the American War of Independence.
By Philip Sherwell in New York
Their downbeat perspective contrasts dramatically with the exhortations of George III and his ministers in London who come across as hopelessly out-of-touch and absurdly optimistic.
The documents, part of a collection that have been in private possession for more than two centuries, reveal a much gloomier analysis by British generals than previously believed.
According to the collection which goes on sale at Sotheby’s in New York in a series of auctions beginning in April, they began to despair of victory almost as soon as the conflict began in 1775.
A letter from Gen John Burgoyne, dated 25 June 1775 in Boston gives an early assessment of how bad things looked.
“Our prospects are gloomy,” he told an unidentified lord in a letter written after the first two battles of the campaign in Massachusetts – a humiliating defeat to a local band of militiamen followed by a victory but with heavy losses at Bunker Hill.
He described the British position as “a crisis that my little reading in history cannot parallel” and predicts even at this early stage that the Crown would only be able to subdue the rebellion with the help of German or Russian allies.
“Such a pittance of troops as Great Britain and Ireland can supply will only serve to protract the war, to incur fruitless expense and insure disappointment,” he said.
I LOVE THIS NEXT BIT. YUP. THAT’S US OKAY.
In March 1777, Sir Henry writes that the American revolutionaries are much more “obstinate” than realised by the “short-sighted folks in England”.
Nice article and not too long. Read the rest of it HERE
Posted by peiper
on 02/20/2010 at 12:11 PM
Filed Under: • History • USA •
• Comments (9)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Saturday - February 13, 2010
A digital diversion
So Chris emails me a link. It’s to a neat geological web page that examines Global Warming and concludes, duh, that the temperatures have been going up and down forever. And that CO2 levels have nothing at all to do with it, that those levels often lag 800 years behind actual climate change, and that at one point in the way way way back, the climate was considerably cooler, yet atmospheric CO2 was 18 times higher than it is right now. Lots of graphs, and an interesting bit of actual science. Plus the author shows how the whole thing is a damnable scam, created to frighten people out of their tax dollars. With self-condemning quotes too. Nice.
So I read that stuff, and explored the rest of that page. It turns out to be a bit about West Virginia geology, and coal mining there. How it’s a good thing that puts people to work. How these days strip mining rebuilds the land when they’re finished, and how the EPA is a bit shortsighted in requiring the miners to put things back “as they were originally”. Because it’s just as easy to fill the holes and replace the overburden and build nice flat farmland that people could use, but no, the EPA demands they build steep hills. Except that “originally” if you go back far enough, West Virginia was flat. It was swampland. On the equator. When the coal beds were laid down, 300 million years ago or thereabouts.
But they kept talking about peat, and Lignite, and bituminous coal. Hey, I didn’t know bituminous came in several varieties. Ok, fine, but what about anthracite? Not a word. I guess WV doesn’t have any. It’s a Pennsylvania thing. So I looked it up. And it is.
Somehow I had thought it was all gone. Not true. Sure, once upon a time miners wrested 114 million tons of the stuff out of the ground per year, but their great grandsons are still pulling up 5 million tons of the stuff per year today. Born one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine ...
Anthracite is hard coal, the kind that burns with very little flame and almost no smoke, but lots of heat. Kind of like nice dry birch logs in your fireplace. Is it the “Clean Coal” we’ve been looking for? I can’t say, but the good folks at Reading Anthracite seem to think so:
Mother Nature’s Clean Coal™
The inherent, natural qualities of anthracite coal from the Reading Anthracite Company address the needs for energy, carbon and media solutions.
... even if the media solutions they are talking about are for filtering applications, not the MSM. Um, uh, wait ... aren’t they the same thing? 
So I’m reading all about this hard coal, realizing I’ve got a couple of chunks of it around here somewhere. And that somewhere back in my past, I’ve been in front of a coal fire. I can’t remember where, or when, but I remember it smelled nice. A much softer aroma than pine smoke. And I’m reading how the first commercially dug load of this coal went by barge down the Susquehanna River, the river that’s older than time (really, it almost is. It runs across the mountains not along them. Because the river was already there before the mountains woke up and started growing. And those mountains are the worn down stubs of what they used to be) and it’s starting to feel like Home News. Because I used to live by that river, since one end of it runs through Binghamton NY, where lives the old alma mata. Ok, Three Mile Island is on it too, but way downstream. And that this more expensive black rock was used as a premium fuel by a famous railroad of it’s day, the Lackawanna. Now it’s definitely data within my ken, as I’ve been aware of that line my entire life. In it’s latter days it was the Erie-Lackawanna, but I knew it as the Delaware Lackawanna & Western. The D.L. & W. The “delay, linger, and wait” line that ran across NY, NJ, and PA. And I’m a would-be train junkie anyway. Love them. But I never got the true addiction, never became a train-head. But Big Steam and Old Diesel float my boat, both as physical artifacts and their impact on social history. Like airplanes, only with lots and lots of added mass.
And then the Wiki post mentions Phoebe Snow, and I knew it was Kismet. The Phoebe Snow was the name of the train my mother used to ride to go to college. Back in the days when trains had names, it had the prettiest one. And that’s all I knew about it. And somewhere in this digital odyssey I saw mention of the Lackawanna Cut-off and it all hit home. That’s local history, a turn of last century engineering marvel that was so soon forgotten.
Peiper has the advantage of living in a 2300 year old town, a place that values history. I don’t. Nor do most Americans. Everything is new, everything is now. We kind of shake our heads at our children, or our grandchildren, who think that 1985 was so long ago that dinosaurs still walked the earth. We have no real sense of history here, aside from the rare battlefield park, or some well made colonial building that still stands. Everything else gets torn down, or built over. And then lost. But I had heard of the Cut-off. It’s not far from here. So I started looking. And found that the old rail line that it replaced ... is still here. I drive over the Oxford Tunnel at least once a week to get up to the bowling alley, and I never knew it was there. 103 years ago, the town where I bowl was a going concern, but the cut-off put them out of business, and they still haven’t fully recovered.
A little bit up the same road from the bridge in the picture, outside of the tiny town of Hampton, is another giant pile of concrete. A huge thing. A modern Ozymandius. It has to be the base of another railroad bridge from days gone by. Just the barn size concrete base remains, right up against the road, the bridge missing, the rail bed gone and built over. I always wondered about it, but I couldn’t even envision which way the tracks may have went. I think I might know now; it fell victim to engulf and devour, circa 1900.
Until the mid 1960’s train tracks criss-crossed this state. They were everywhere. The lumber yard downtown here is a rail station. The tracks are gone though. History, buried and forgotten. So many towns have “depot” or “junction” or “station” in their names, but no trains roll by anymore. Want to talk about long gone? Before the trains there were canals. All over the place around here. There’s a little town a dozen miles north east of here called Port Morris. Right next to it is a place called Landing. There is no river anywhere near them you could float anything bigger than a canoe in. But they used to be canal towns. Hey, so did Binghamton. So did lots of places in the north east.
So, canals, cut-offs, railroads that have puffed their way onto the pages of the past. Mysterious lumps of concrete and my awareness that all that is now, was once not. Sadness? No, just something to ponder on a gray cold winter afternoon.
And the Phoebe Snow? Not just the name of a train. A sexy pin-up from the days before emancipation. Before the ideas of sexy or pin-up existed. An icon from the birth of marketing so successful that it drove crowds wild. One of the original hotties. O.H. bay-bay. And a source of memorable jingles far older than the Burma-Shave limericks. Because it all comes together you see. Phoebe Snow was the It Girl of her day, but she was made up. To sell tickets on the railroad. The Lackawanna railroad. And they used her, a confident and lovely woman off on her own [!!! shudders!!!] all dressed in white ... because they powered the train with anthracite, and you could ride that train without looking like Bert the chimney sweep (chim chim cheroo) at ride’s end. And they did it with poetry. Ok, with doggerel, but that’s close enough:
And Phoebe knows
That smoke and cinders
Spoil good clothes
‘Tis thus a pleasure
And delight
To take the Road
Of Anthracite
For fluff and frill
Miss Phoebe finds
Is nearly nil.
It’s always light
Though gowns of white
Are worn on Road
Of Anthracite
And she made them millions. Her face and elegantly dressed figure were on billboards, postcards, trading cards. She sold the idea of a clean train, a luxury ride from New York City to Buffalo NY, the northern gateway city to the interior of the whole country in those days. And not just the ride. She sold the notion of lux, whether in it’s modern posh form, or in it’s more original photonic meaning
by night or day
enjoy her book upon the way
Electric light
dispels the night
Upon the Road of Anthracite
The land in the central and eastern portions of Pennsylvania is very folded. Folded like the serpentine bit in the middle of a piece of cardboard. It’s called the Endless Mountain area, and with good reason. And the eastern edge of that Endlessness starts right here in NJ, pretty much under my feet. So when they built the Cut-off, the idea was to level out and to straighten out the train tracks, which up until then had to double back and forth all over the place to get over the hills and valleys they couldn’t tunnel through. Which is why the Cut-Off was an engineering marvel on the order of building the Panama Canal. When it was all done it had several of the largest fill areas under the roadbed in the nation. A fill is what you build when you have to get your choo-choo across a declivity in the land too shallow and perhaps too long to build a bridge over. It’s a bloody great pile of rock, with trains on top. And when they hit rivers that couldn’t be filled, they built the 3 largest viaducts in history, 2 of them right here in NJ, and pioneered the used of reinforced concrete. And they did it on time, and under budget, for both the Paulinskill and the Delaware River viaducts. And they’re still standing, 103 years later. In 1907, taking a high speed train (70mph!) across those bridges, 120 feet up in the air, must have felt like that other new-fangled activity, flying. So of course they had Phoebe sell that experience too
My favorite trains
O’ertop the lofty mountain chains
There’s cool delight
At such a height
Upon the Road of Anthracite
And you could take the train from Hoboken (just across the tunnel from NYC) to Buffalo in a mere 8 hours. And be well fed and not get dirty. They made more millions.
But they could not escape the Law of Unintended Consequences. Phoebe Snow planted the seed of the idea of the Independent Woman in people’s minds. Sure, she was classy, and proper, and not at all naughty. And perfectly safe and well cared for on her special train. But she was doing it all without a man leading her around. Amazing. Radical. And still the subject of both Advertising and Womyn’s Studies today.
As an icon, she sold a clean ride and a new cultural image for the American Girl on the go—an image that lasted nearly 70 years.
How about that?
Posted by Drew458
on 02/13/2010 at 07:56 PM
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • History • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •
• Comments (23)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Thursday - February 04, 2010
CHRISTIANS … CRUSADES … RELIGION … HISTORY
I’m not even supposed to be here at the moment. I can’t begin to explain the work I’m involved in between passports (and an American Embassy that could be a bit more helpful. heaven forbid we can’t have that.) and computer stuff urgently needs doing, continue the precess of trying to clear out the house of unwanted items, the list is forever. So I thought I’d try and get caught up on things. Or as caught up as I ever get which is hardly ever completely. I caught this over breakfast and said to myself, self, you HAVE to post this interesting thing or you’ll lose it or forget it. In fact, this is only one of two stories, the other is one of those RCOBs.
A lot of this is already known to us, but .... well here. See for yourself. I’ve cut out a lot so see the link below for more.
Traditionally they’ve been painted as a noble mission. Now, two new books tell the gruesome reality of the Very Unholy Crusades
By WILLIAM NAPIER
Last updated at 10:03 AM on 04th February 2010Jerusalum is lost! Fly, fly for your lives! July 15, 1099, and the Holiest City is at last in the hands of the Crusaders.
Piles of heads, hands and feet lay in the streets.’
The City of Jerusalem, holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, was turned into a slaughterhouse.
‘There was so much killing that our men waded up to their ankles in enemy blood,’ boasted one warrior for Christ.
Another observer, less impressed, wrote of ‘the very great and cruel slaughter of Saracens.
‘They spared absolutely no one’.
The massacre was accompanied by voracious looting. Bloodshed, greed, gold and the Christian faith weren’t mutually contradictory to the medieval mind.
For many, it was a religion of unfathomable violence and mysticism.
Yet as historians point out, the Crusades are often subject to serious misrepresentation.
Left-liberals have shown themselves peculiarly eager to accept a standard Islamic view of the Crusades as episodes of unprovoked Western aggression against peaceful, tolerant and vastly more civilised Muslim lands.Ex-Python Terry Jones’s television history of The Crusades was an outstanding example of this, as was Ridley Scott’s movie Kingdom Of Heaven. Bill Clinton even apologised for them. But does this make any sense?
(Hey wait. Clinton said sorry for Crusades? He did? When? I don’t remember that. If he did, what an ass. Total jerk if true. Even he couldn’t be that stupid. Could he? Yeah generally I know the feeling being no fan myself but this seems like a new dumb low. Don’t know why I never heard about it. ??)
It is vital to understand that, before the Crusades were ever dreamed of, Islamic armies had struck many times at the heart of Europe.
Jerusalem itself was never ‘conquered’ initially by Christianity or the West, of course: Christianity simply grew there, spread by preaching.But it was conquered by the armies of Islam in 638, erupting out of the Arabian peninsula armed with scimitar, shield and, above all, a fanatical new faith that urged them to perpetual jihad with all unbelievers.
By 715 they had conquered most of Spain, and soon they had got as far as Northern France, only stopping with their defeat at Tours by Charles Martel.
Shortly afterwards, the Caliphate of Jerusalem ordered all Jews and Christians to bear a special symbol on their hands - the first instance in history of such a measure.
Another Muslim army ravaged France in 848 two years after they had attacked Rome, sacked St Peter’s itself and extorted promises of tribute from the Pope.
In 850, Caliph al-Mutwakkil forced all Christians and Jews in his territory to affix wooden images of devils to their houses, and to wear only yellow garments to mark them out.
And a century later, Muslims went on a rampage through Jerusalem, plundering and destroying both the Church of Calvary and the Church of the Resurrection
In this same century before the Crusades, Muslim armies captured Crete, Cyprus and Sicily.
Under Caliph al-Hakim in the early 11th century, thousands of churches were destroyed throughout the ancient Christian heartland of the Middle East, and when the Seljuk Turks captured Jerusalem in 1077, just 22 years before it fell to the Crusaders, they too massacred some three thousand inhabitants.
All these Islamic attacks on the West occurred before the First Crusade. Some scholars even argue that the very idea of ‘holy war’ was learned from the example of Islam on the march.
Of course, nothing justifies the hellish atrocities of 1099.
And once the Crusades were raging, atrocities were common to both sides without distinction.
Indeed, the great Muslim leader Saladin still enjoys a reputation for chivalry, in contrast to the brutish Europeans - yet this wasn’t always the case.
After his great victory at Hattin in 1187, he followed to the letter the instructions of the Koran.
‘When you meet the unbelievers on the battlefield, strike off their heads.’
Posted by peiper
on 02/04/2010 at 09:04 AM
Filed Under: • History • RoPMA •
• Comments (9)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Wednesday - January 13, 2010
No knee jerk reactions please but … I oppose this suggestion to fund Auschwitz memorial.
This caught our eye this morning and for some reason it really surprised me.
Whoever this person is, and obviously he is somebody knowledgeable about his subject, he is crackers. Why the hell should the Brit taxpayer fund a memorial and pay anything to preserve that place? What? There aren’t enough things for Brits to do and fund in their own country?
This man with a name I can not hope to learn to pronounce, should try and find commercial backers. Or play some more on German feelings of guilt. Those folks are always prime after generations of left wing guilt trips.
I think I’m allowed to say that coming from the background I do. How many more holocaust museums do we need? The fact that the place is now in a bad state is evidence that there just aren’t many people who care that much. If private donations along with the monies already promised by the hapless Germans aren’t enough, then tough. There are already more then enough demands made on taxpayers everywhere. Besides which, the Brits did not build that place. Duh.
When I say people don’t care that much, I don’t mean to say that they are all unmoved by the suffering inflicted on millions of people. But I don’t think they want to be burdened with the idea that they owe something in perpetuity. Especially when they had nothing to do with it and have concerns of their own in the world they live in today.
A thousand years from now, the only people to whom the holocaust will mean anything, will be we Jews. Cos ( as I’ve learned ) we never forget anything that has anything to do with Jewish suffering. I hate to say this and I damn well know it’s gonna look bad but ....
I think the world at large (except for the left) is tired, tired, tired of hearing it. Even I have begun to think, I know, I know, I know!
One person has written in the commentary for the Times, that the buildings speak for the dead. Really?
I was under the impression, mistaken apparently, that ISRAEL DID! A very living memorial, even if a troubled one.
Auschwitz asks Britain for help to preserve decaying death camp
Roger Boyes
The TimesThe guard towers of Auschwitz are splintering, the barracks are waterlogged: the concentration camp where one million Jews were slaughtered is decaying so fast that conservationists have called on Britain to help to save it.
The theft last month of its distinctive, sinister sign, Arbeit macht frei (work sets you free) has underlined the vulnerability of the Nazi death camp, stretching over 20 hectares (50 acres) of southern Poland.
“Nobody could have imagined such a horrific act of vandalism,” Jacek Kastelaniec, director-general of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, said. “Now try to imagine the public outcry if one of the barracks started to fall down, impossible to restore.”
Auschwitz was built on boggy ground between two rivers; as a result the high groundwater and bad drainage has rotted the foundations. Walls are blistering and starting to lean, roof frames are buckling, plasterwork and wall-paintings are flaking.
Mr Kastelaniec will go to the Cabinet Office tomorrow to press the Government on Gordon Brown’s promise to contribute to a €120million (£110million) endowment fund that will guarantee the preservation of one of the main sites of the Holocaust.
Mr Brown visited the camp last April, and, plainly upset by what he had seen, declared: “We will join with other countries in supporting the maintenance and retention of the memorial at Auschwitz.” No figure has been suggested publicly for Britain’s possible contribution, but Polish sources say that the conservationists are hoping for about €10million.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has said that her country would put up half of the costs, but the managers of the Auschwitz museum need other commitments. Mr Kastelaniec will also visit France, Belgium and the United States. The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, has sent an appeal to 40 heads of government.
“The conservationists say we need to start work in the next two years if we are to avert irreparable decay,” Mr Kastelaniec told The Times, “and that will only be possible if the money is paid into the fund now.”
The decay of the camp is politically sensitive. The current trial in Munich of the alleged Sobibor camp guard John Demjanjuk is being seen by the public as the last for Nazi war crimes — the 89-year-old defendant is wheeled into court on a hospital bed.
Holocaust survivors are dwindling. “In ten years there will be no witnesses,” Mr Kastelaniec said, “and it will be easier for the crazy people who say nothing happened in the camps.” Only the buildings will remain.
Auschwitz cannot simply have a makeover because that would undermine its claims to authenticity, and open the way for those on the far Right who try to deny or trivialise the Holocaust. The strategic point of the restoration is to use its almost over-powering sense of menace as a clinching counter-argument against anti-Semitism and racism.
The portfolio to be presented to the British Government underlines the vast scale of the camp. The priority is being set on 45 brick barracks. The managers estimate that it will cost up to €890,000 to restore a single barracks building. On top of that come 22 wooden barrack rooms — where inmates were crowded into bunks up to the ceiling. Each will cost €310,000.
Then there are the remains of 210 barrack buildings. Some sheds have collapsed, but there are concrete outlines where floors and chimneys stood. Without some strengthening, these foundation markings will disappear. Cost: €78,000 per barrack room. The 27 wooden guard towers need to be reinforced at an annual cost, for the next 14 years, of €62,000.
Posted by peiper
on 01/13/2010 at 11:28 AM
Filed Under: • History • International • UK •
• Comments (10)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Monday - January 04, 2010
more ceiling, better string
Borrowed from Theo’s, here is a link to a huge pile of pictures from the Udvar-Hazy Center. Outstanding.
For those not in the know, the Udvar-Hazy Center is the gigantic airship hanger next to the National Mall in Washington DC. Part of the National Air & Space Museum, it’s chock full of historic aircraft and spacecraft, displayed on 3 levels. It’s huge. I gather that these craft are actually extras that couldn’t fit in the display area at the Mall.
Admission is free but parking is $15.
The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics.
The Museum has two display facilities. The National Mall building in Washington, D.C. has hundreds of artifacts on display including the original Wright 1903 Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 command module, and a lunar rock sample that visitors can touch. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center displays many more artifacts including the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay and Space Shuttle Enterprise.
The Museum currently conducts restoration of its collection at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, MD. For years, this facility also displayed many of the Museum’s artifacts kept in storage. Only guided tours allowed access to this portion of the collection. The new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center displays most of the aircraft and spacecraft previously stored at Garber, many never seen before in a museum setting. The Center will also eventually become the Museum’s primary artifact restoration facility.
You can get close enough to smell them, but all the aircraft are behind railings or up in the air. Strictly a hands off experience. Understandable, but sad.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/04/2010 at 10:35 AM
Filed Under: • History • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •
• Comments (8)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Awesome find in arctic …. come fly with me …
Gee, what a great find this is. Hope I’m not alone in finding this exciting. Buried all those years.
Typical of the Telegraph as I am forever saying, that I had to find the on line version someplace else. Ditto the photo which I had to enlarge, so I hope it’s clear enough on your screens.
I was on hold to the doc’s office waiting to confirm some sort of exam and while waiting on hold I was thumbing through the morning paper when I spotted this story. So I hung up and found it on line so I could post it early. Neat Stuff!
`Blue moon’ luck leads to historic find in iceMonday, January 04, 2010
Australian explorers yesterday credited record low tides and a blue moon for the “one-in-a-million” discovery in Antarctica of one of the world’s first aeroplanes, found buried in ice.
The monoplane, which was the first aircraft off the Vickers factory production line in Britain just eight years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, was taken to Antarctica by Australian explorer Douglas Mawson in 1911.Mawson hoped to stage the first human flight over the Antarctic ice cap, but his dreams were dashed when the pilot who accompanied the craft from London crashed it during a demonstration flight.
“He’d had a rather long night at the local [armed forces] club in Adelaide the night before and apparently was not in the best of shape when he first flew it,” Australian conservationist David Jensen said.
Its wings were so badly damaged they had to be removed, but Mawson decided he wanted to take the Vickers to the Antarctic to use as an “air tractor” to pull his sledges with a specially made tail rudder and skis, Jensen said.
However, its engine seized up and Mawson abandoned the Vickers at Cape Denison in 1914, said Jensen, chairman of the government-backed Mawson’s Hut Foundation charity. The explorer paid a brief visit to the craft when he returned on a two-year territory-staking mission in 1929, before giving it up for good in 1931.
Three successive teams of conservationists and scientists from the Mawson’s Huts Foundation searched for the fusela
ge, which was last sighted almost totally buried in ice in 1975.But it was the combination of historically low tides, prompted by a blue moon - the second full moon in a calendar month - and unprecedented melting of the ice that led to its chance discovery on New Year’s Day, Jensen said.
“It was probably one chance in a million that these conditions allowed us to spot it,” he said.
“One of our heritage carpenters was just wandering along the edge of the harbor and he by chance spotted the piece of metal amongst the rocks.”
“You talk about once in a blue moon, well it was so true.”
Team leader Tony Stewart said: “Luck has been on our side, and it’s a great episode in the history of Antarctic aviation.”
Had the carpenter failed to spot the relic, which was under “just a couple of centimeters of water” in rising tide conditions, it would have likely been lost forever, he added.
Posted by peiper
on 01/04/2010 at 06:02 AM
Filed Under: • Archeology / Anthropology • History • UK •
• Comments (3)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Five Most Recent Trackbacks:
Once Again, The One And Only Post
(4 total trackbacks)
Tracked at iHaan.org
Thｅ advantage to having a guide with you is thɑt an expert will haѵe very first hand experience dealing and navigating the river with гegional wildlife. Tһomas, there are great…
On: 07/28/23 10:37
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We've Been Waiting For
(3 total trackbacks)
Tracked at head to the Momarms site
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We’ve Been Waiting For
On: 03/14/23 11:20
Vietnam Homecoming
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at 广告专题配音 专业从事中文配音跟外文配音制造，北京名传天下配音公司
专业从事中文配音和外文配音制作，北京名传天下配音公司 北京名传天下专业配音公司成破于2006年12月，是专业从事中 中文配音 文配音跟外文配音的音频制造公司，幻想飞腾配音网领 配音制作 有海内外优良专业配音职员已达500多位，可供给一流的外语配音，长年服务于国内中心级各大媒体、各省市电台电视台，能满意不同客户的各种需要。电话：010-83265555 北京名传天下专业配音公司…
On: 03/20/21 07:00
meaningless marching orders for a thousand travellers ... strife ahead ..
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Casual Blog
[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28
a small explanation
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at yerba mate gourd
Find here top quality how to prepare yerba mate without a gourd that's available in addition at the best price. Get it now!
On: 07/09/17 03:07
DISCLAIMER
THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.
Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.
Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner
Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
RSS 2.0 
Atom 
