Oh Muse Where Art Thou?

I will not say that my writing muse has abandoned me, but she has taken a very LONG lunch break. Nothing of note to mention here at Casa W, and the normal antics of our "leaders" doesn't even bother me anymore. I just don't expect any better thus am not disappointed.

I shall get better, with time.

Today In History..........

In 1970............

Black Tot Day.

The Royal Navy issued it's last rum ration on this day, doing away with a tradition that had held sway for hundreds of years.

I can't say I think it improved things, but I am a bit biased...........

Today In History..............

In 1945............

At 00:14 hrs. on this date two Japanese torpedoes struck the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis. The ship went down in 12 minutes. Out of a crew of 1196, 300 died in the sinking and of the 880 remaining only 317 were rescued 4 and 1/2 days later. The rest died of dehydration, exposure and shark attack.

The Indianapolis had just delivered the components of the Atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima to the island of Tinian when she was sunk so was noted for that reason.

I first learned of the story of the Indianapolis while watching the movie Jaws. One of the protagonist, Quint told of being on the Indianapolis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nrvMNf-HEg

The skipper of the Indianapolis, Captain Charles Butler McVey III was the only ship's captain in WW II who was court martialed by the U.S. Navy for losing a ship in combat. He was found guilty of hazarding his ship by not zig-zagging. The trial was also unusual in that the commanding officer of the Japanese sub that sank the Indianapolis testified for the prosecution. He stated that whether or not the Indianapolis was zig-zagging would have made no difference, that he would have been able to sink her in any case.

While most of the surviving crew of the Indianapolis held McVey blameless for the sinking, family members of the lost seamen were not as forgiving. McVey was harassed for years until he committed suicide in 1968.

AYO GURKHALI !!!!!!!!!!

A number of my fellow bloggers have posted about the Gurkha soldier who got himself in a bit of a jam in Afghanistan after being told to bring back proof that a high value target had been terminated so rather than bringing back the whole body, he only brought back the target's head.

They covered all the points quite well and I can't add anything of interest to the discussion. I personally don't see anything wrong with the act myself. After all the people we are fighting are the same folks that behead LIVING prisoners and post the videos on the web as well as bragging that they will behead anyone who does not agree with them. The Gurkha soldier on the other hand, removed the head after the target was dead so the "victim" was beyond caring.

The Gurkha is one of the most feared and professional soldiers around. They have served with the British Army since the early 1800's and continue to serve to this day. One of my favorite Gurkha stories (And there are hundreds) happened in North Africa in WW II. After the battle at Atessa, the British occupied a house with eight German corpses in the cellar. A British regimental sargent major ordered a squad of Gurkhas to bury them. A large pit was dug and the Gurkhas duly placed the eight bodies into it and were beginning to shovel earth on top of them when one of the bodies moved. One of the Gurkhas unlimbered his rifle and was about to shoot the offending German when a British officer saw what was happening and said "What are you doing?"
The Gurkha replied "The major sahib said we were to bury eight bodies. You wouldn't expect us to bury him alive, would you?
The German was duly rescued from the pit and survived the ordeal.

It's as someone from Cumberland who served with the Gurkhas in Burma once said,

"That Johnny Gurkha, he's a hard lad, he is......."

To Ride The High Country And Back Home Again.......

Nope, didn't get lost, just got caught up in day to day living.

When I left you, we were getting ready to head out from Tombstone to head up to Williams Az. and to the Grand Canyon. We stopped in Tucson and visited the Old Tucson movie set. Very much geared to the tourist trade but it was sorta cool to see the sets that I had seen in various western movies and T.V. programs. (Here is a useless piece of trivia for you that one of the tour guides shared with me. The movie " Rio Bravo" was one of four films John Wayne filmed at Old Tucson. Rio Bravo was set in Texas, but when you watch the movie you will see countless Saguaro Cactus in the film. Saguaro Cactus are only native to northern Mexico and Arizona and do not grow in Texas. Now you can see why my wife HATES to go to movies with me. (grin) )

We arrived in Williams late in the afternoon and took a quick trip down the main drag which is also historic Route 66. Williams (Damn I just LOVE that name) has preserved a number of older buildings as well as the old neon signs. It really looked good.

The Grand Canyon left me speechless. I had been told that photos just don't do it justice, and I found that to be true. As much as I dislike big government and all it consist of, I have to say that the government got it right for the most part with the National Park Service. I am very happy that someone had the foresight to save places like the Grand Canyon and other sites both historic and cultural for future generations.

We spent most of the morning at the Grand Canyon then headed back to Las Vegas. We put 1300 miles on the rental car and got a good look at the various landscapes in Arizona. Other than spending quality time with the good wife, what did I pick up from this trip? I got it. I got a better understanding of a historic time and place that I had only until now read about. One of my pet peeves is that I have read many books particularly about battles and military tactics and it is quite obvious that the writers have never set foot on the land they are describing. Until you walk the land, you can't fully understand the full context of what occurred there. I now have a much better understanding of the settlement of the southwest and the men and women that inhabited it. Not only that, I gained an appreciation for the varied and beautiful terrain of Arizona, so different from my own beloved North Carolina. I also fed my book habit by bringing home several new volumes to add to my groaning bookshelves.

All in all a wonderful trip with only one bit of trouble. I will NEVER ever fly Delta airlines again. We were delayed flying out from North Carolina at the begining of our trip due to bad weather (which I can accept) but you would have thought that it had never happened before the way the Delta folks were acting. But what drove me nuts was that on the way back, the flight out of Las Vegas was delayed and required us to rebook because they didn't have enough flight attendants to crew the aircraft. Piss poor management if you ask me.

Oh Man.........

The Lightbringer strikes again.

I heard that he made his personal chef the healthy food czar and that he decided that after showing his love and support for the folks of the gulf coast by suggesting that Americans go down to vacation at the gulf, that "he" would go to the coast of MAINE for a little R & R.

All I can say is, "Enjoy the Lobster, Mr. President"

Life In The Fast Lane.............

Greetings from Tombstone, Arizona.

As I blogged earlier, we spent one day and night at the Golden Nugget on Fremont St. in down town Las Vegas. Granted, it didn't have all the bells and whistles as the first place we stayed at, but I liked it better. More retro if you will. Lot's of dark wood, glass, brass and marble. The staff seemed to be less geared to separating the rube from his money. Don't get me wrong, I understand totally that's what they are there for, but you can be just a little less obvious about it. All the staff at the Golden Nugget were great and very customer oriented.

At the Golden Nugget, I had my own personal retro moment. I put on my most obnoxious Hawaiian shirt, a straw snap brim hat and strolled down to the pool. While there, I found a very comfortable chair and acting under the suggestion of the lovely Miss Nancy, ordered a Vodka Gimlet. (Sorry Paw-Paw, it was too hot for a bourbon.) So there I sat, in 115 degree heat sipping my drink, checking out the scenery. It wasn't too bad, way too many body piercings and more body ink than you would see in San Diego on a Saturday night for my taste, but hey, that's the way of the world these days.

The drive from Las Vegas to Tombstone took about 8 hours, and we took a combination route of scenic and urban which was nice because when you got tired of looking at one type of scenery, it would change. We got down to Tombstone about dark and I noticed a whole lot of Border Patrol vehicles in the area. The had set up at least two check points on roads leading out of Tombstone which is under 50 miles from the border. Having been here and talked to some of the locals, there is a very strong siege mentality down here. They are being overrun by illegals and feel like the federal government just isn't doing anything to solve the problem. As one old timer told me " Our Governor, well she has a bigger set of balls than the President." He also told me with that " We get screwed twice, The Feds spend our tax money, fighting the new law, the state spends our other taxes on defending the law."

I have enjoyed what I have seen of Tombstone. For those who saw the movie, I saw the shoot- out site, Fly's Photography Studio, the Bird Cage Theater, The Oriental Saloon, Boot Hill Cemetery and a few other spots. Since this is a tourist site, there is a bunch of crap you need to sift through. Fudge stores old timey photo stands, pizza stands and so on, but there is enough good stuff to make it worth your while. The one thing that just leaped out at me was that everything is so much smaller than you would think from watching the movies. The inside of the Bird Cage doesn't seem big enough to swing a cat in. But it was lively enough since they have counted about 140 bullet holes in the ceilings and walls that were put there in it's 9 year history of 24 hour operation.

Another thing that I noticed is that almost every business had a "No Firearms Allowed" sign on it's door. I don't know if it is because they don't want the Cowboy action shooter types to get carried away, or if it's because they have a problem with average folks C.C.W. I didn't ask. There were a few gun stores in town, but they didn't have a lot that tripped my trigger (pun intended) Most of the prices were a bit high and it would have been a bit of a hassle getting anything back to North Carolina.

Tomorrow, we head out back to up to Northern Arizona, one of the locals told us about Old Tucson Movie studios where they film western movies and television shows. It isn't too far out of the way, so we might stop for a little bit.

More later.........