Old Sailors' Almanac

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Week 32, 2018

Previous Week   August 06, 2018 - August 12, 2018  Next Week

Smithsonian Institution created on August 10, 1846

Smithsonian Institution created on August 10, 1846

Smithsonian Institution created: After a decade of debate about how best to spend a bequest left to America from an obscure English scientist, President James K. Polk signs the Smithsonian Institution Act into law.

In 1829, James Smithson died in Italy, leaving behind a will with a peculiar footnote. In the event that his only nephew died without any heirs, Smithson decreed that the whole of his estate would go to “the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge”. Smithson’s curious bequest to a country that he had never visited aroused significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic.

Smithson had been a fellow of the venerable Royal Society of London from the age of 22, publishing numerous scientific papers on mineral composition, geology, and chemistry. In 1802, he overturned popular scientific opinion by proving that zinc carbonates were true carbonate minerals, and one type of zinc carbonate was later named smithsonite in his honor.

Six years after his death, his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, indeed died without children, and on July 1, 1836, the U.S. Congress authorized acceptance of Smithson’s gift. President Andrew Jackson sent diplomat Richard Rush to England to negotiate for transfer of the funds, and two years later Rush set sail for home with 11 boxes containing a total of 104,960 gold sovereigns, 8 shillings, and 7 pence, as well as Smithson’s mineral collection, library, scientific notes, and personal effects. After the gold was melted down, it amounted to a fortune worth well over $500,000. After considering a series of recommendations, including the creation of a national university, a public library, or an astronomical observatory, Congress agreed that the bequest would support the creation of a museum, a library, and a program of research, publication, and collection in the sciences, arts, and history. On August 10, 1846, the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution was signed into law by President James K. Polk.

Today, the Smithsonian is composed of 19 museums and galleries including the recently announced National Museum of African American History and Culture,nine research facilities throughout the United States and the world, and the national zoo. Besides the original Smithsonian Institution Building, popularly known as the “Castle”, visitors to Washington, D.C., tour the National Museum of Natural History, which houses the natural science collections, the National Zoological Park, and the National Portrait Gallery. The National Museum of American History houses the original Star-Spangled Banner and other artifacts of U.S. history. The National Air and Space Museum has the distinction of being the most visited museum in the world, exhibiting such marvels of aviation and space history as the Wright brothers’ plane and Freedom 7, the space capsule that took the first American into space. John Smithson, the Smithsonian Institution’s great benefactor, is interred in a tomb in the Smithsonian Building.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Smithsonian Institution: Smithsonian Home / Smithsonian Institution (YouTube search) video


Understanding Military Terminology: Scout of Many Trails (Sea Scout and Boy Scout look at globe with old sailor) ~ Norman Rockwell

Understanding Military Terminology - Mission assignment

(DOD) The vehicle used by the Department of Homeland Security/Emergency Preparedness and Response/Federal Emergency Management Agency to support federal operations in a Stafford Act major disaster or emergency declaration that orders immediate, short-term emergency response assistance when an applicable state or local government is overwhelmed by the event and lacks the capability to perform, or contract for, the necessary work. (JP 3-28)

Joint Publications (JP 3-28) Defense Support of Civil Authorities - Joint Chiefs of Staff


U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier USS Washington (U.S.Navy.mil)

The Old Salt’s Corner

Continued from last week:

Briefing, Debriefing, and Reporting

1. Strike Support Brief

CVIC and squadron intelligence officers and members of the embarked aircrew team up to give this type of brief to aircrew prior to a combat exercise or actual mission. It focuses primarily on the perceived threat in and around the target area. The Strike Leader (i.e., senior aviator) then summarizes the strike course, way points, refueling points, landfall points, the target characteristics and the return route back to the carrier. He also outlines in detail the objectives of the mission. In an actual combat situation, this is a crucial, if not the most important, type of brief you can participate in. It prepares aircrew effectively to carry out their mission, be it peacetime or wartime.


2. Port Brief

Prior to arriving at a certain port of call, the CVIC or intelligence personnel may be asked to give a Port Brief for the benefit of ship’s company. On a carrier this brief might be broadcast throughout the ship on the television system. This type of brief outlines the characteristics of the port, including customs regulations, local port authority, the identification of restricted or "off-limits" areas, and any special information pertinent to navy personnel visiting the area. This type of brief may be combined with a Country Brief (see below).


3. Platforms Brief

Prior to reaching a certain operating area or beginning an exercise, CVIC personnel may be tasked with giving a Platform Brief. This type of brief summarizes information on a particular platform of interest to the battlegroup and air wing. It may, for example, give the performance characteristics of foreign or U.S. aircraft, surface ships, or weapon systems. Such a brief may utilize graphics, imagery, line drawings, and/or video footage (if available) of the platform of interest.


4. Country Brief

A Country Brief details a broad overview of a specific country of interest to the deployed battlegroup. The country could be one the battlegroup will visit in port or potentially operate against. This type of brief summarizes political, economic, and military characteristics for the country of interest. The brief may treat each subject broadly or concentrate on one or more topics as required. For example, CVIC or intelligence personnel might be tasked with the preparation of a country brief that concentrates mainly on order of battle and current political information. For example, this country could be in the battlegroup’s expected area of responsibility.


5. Current Intelligence Brief

This type of brief constitutes an important intelligence "product." A Current Intelligence brief typically summarizes world political and military events using as inputs a variety of intelligence sources, both open and classified. Classified sources usually come in the way of received message traffic and documents in the classified vault or SCIF (if applicable). Open source intelligence (OSCINT) can come from commercial television (if receivable on the carrier), newspapers, on-line (or downloaded) commercial databases, or CD-ROM computer sources.*


6. Operational Intelligence (OPINTEL) Brief

This brief is narrower in scope than the current intelligence brief described above. The OPINTEL brief outlines the tactical picture relevant to the battlegroup. It summarizes the intentions of the battlegroup for a defined period of time (the next 24 hours, for example), identifies battlegroup assets available, ship positions, target locations, and other data of a tactical and perishable nature. Typical customers of this type of brief include members of the embarked flag staff and aircrew.


7. Event Brief

The Event brief is a generic term that describes many different types of briefs that are necessary to conduct regular battlegroup operations. The most typical Event brief supports air operations. For example, when the Carrier and Carrier Air Wing (CV/CVW) are involved in cyclic operations, there will be a requirement to present an event brief for each event to be flown. This event brief is to be made far enough in advance of launch time so as to support the subsequent section or element briefs being conducted by the aircrews in squadron ready rooms. This usually translates to two hours prior to launch time.


- To be continued - Molule 7 - Briefing, Debriefing, and Reporting


“I’m Just Sayin’”

“I’m Just Sayin”

“There is only one way

to avoid criticism,

do nothing,

say nothing

and be nothing.”

~ Aristotle


“Thought for the Day”

“Thought for the Day”

“You can discover more about a person

in an hour of play

than in a year of conversation.”

~ Plato


“What I Have Learned”

“What I Have Learned”

Mistakes are a great educator

when one is honest enough to admit them

and willing to learn from them.”

~ Anonymous


Bizarre News (we couldn’t make up stuff this good – real news story)

Bizarre News (we couldn’t make up stuff this good – real news story)

Botched Restoration Turns 500-Year-Old Spanish Statue Into Weird IRL Cartoon

TV Expert’s Cat Decides To Climb On His Head In The Middle Of An Interview

“The cat needed to get on TV right meow.”

A Polish TV commentator had a surprise visitor jump into his interview last week - his cat leapt right onto his shoulders, curled itself around his head and stayed there.

Historian and political scientist Jerzy Targlaski was discussing Poland’s Supreme Court on the Dutch news program Nieuwsuur when his cat hopped into the spotlight. Targlaski didn’t miss a beat. He just kept talking to journalist Rudy Bouma as his cat stood on his shoulders.

Bouma shared video of the incident on Twitter. During the talk, Targlaski looks almost unfazed by the cat on his shoulders. When the cat’s tail blocks his eyes, he gently brushes it away. He doesn’t knock the cat down, he merely holds the tail so it doesn’t keep covering his face.

“Jerzy Targlaski remained completely unruffled during our interview when this happened”, Bouma wrote with the video, which has been viewed on Twitter more than 300,000 times since it was posted on July 7.

Targlaski's interview was pre-taped, so the whole feline fiasco was not actually seen on TV. However, a small glimpse of the interview was used in a segment aired on Dutch TV channel NTR, seen below around the 3:56 mark. The producers did not use a soundbite from Targlaski when his cat was on his head, but did include a shot of him petting the kitty.

CBS Local DFW (07/09/2018) video


At What Point is a Human Considered Officially Dead?

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: At What Point is a Human Considered Officially Dead?

Legally, you are not dead until someone says you are dead.

You can be pronounced or declared dead. Each state in the USA has its own statutes that cover this. Typically a doctor or nurse can pronounce, and everyone else (police officers, EMTs, firefighters) will declare death.

One of the hardest parts of my job is estimating the PMI, or the Post Mortem Interval. This is the amount of time that has elapsed since a person's biological processes have stopped and they were pronounced dead.

We use several methods to determine this—rigor mortis, algor mortis, palor mortis, stage of decomposition, insect activity, etc. But they are all an educated guess, and most coroners or medicolegal death investigators will tell you:

“sometime between the last credible witness of when they were alive and when they were pronounced.”

But any estimate given is in a time span of several hours to days. It is not like TV and movies where they narrow it down to minutes.

At What Point is a Human Considered Officially Dead?

But the time listed on your death certificate is the time you were pronounced. If you were in the hospital, this most likely will be at, or very close to, the time your biological processes stopped, i.e. your heart stopped beating or breathing stopped. It could also be when you are declared “brain dead”. Brain death requires several specific tests, and it usually has to be done by more than one physician.

If you are not in the hospital at the time of your death, then it will be when someone finds you.

This can cause some legal issues with regard to inheritance, but that is usually determined in court. The death certificate will not be amended, as your time of death is when you are pronounced.

For example, neighbors report to police the sound of a gunshot. Police go and find Joe Brown with a SIGSW (self-inflicted gun shot wound), he is still warm and it is obvious that this just occurred. Medics come in and declare the death at 07:30 hours. Police are investigating the scene and several hours later find his wife decomposing in the basement (or solidly frozen in a freezer). Police don’t even call in medics, they declare her at that time. The wife’s time of death will be on the same date at 10:45. Obviously she has been dead much longer, but the time of death on the death certificate is when she was found.

Now let us assume they are wealthy, and both have children from earlier marriages. Then you can have a whole legal battle on your hands!

Encyclopædia BritannicaFind LawForbesLive ScienceNational PostQuoraWikipedia At What Point is a Human Considered Officially Dead? (YouTube) video


NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang - U.S. Navy

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

WESTPAC: While this usually refers to the western Pacific area of operations, it can also refer to a type of deployment in which a unit heads to multiple locations throughout said area. Often used in, “Damn, we just did a six-month WESTPAC, barely got home for a week, and now we're heading out again?”

WESTPAC widow: Sailor's wife looking for a temporary fling, often with another sailor.

Wet Suit Camel Toe: A disturbing sight caused by a (usually older and) fatter rescue swimmer attempting to squeeze into his wet suit for SAR duty. Often seen entering and exiting helos that are providing SAR services.

Wet Willie: Joke played on a sleeping sailor by licking a finger, and sticking it into the unsuspecting sleeping sailor's ear to mimic the feel of a penis being inserted into the ear, usually met with several groans by onlookers.

Wetting down: Party celebrating a promotion/advancement or warfare qualification. Traditionally the metal device is dropped in a beer glass, and “wet down”.

Wheels: A Quartermaster (QM).

Wheel Book: Green covered pocket-sized government issue notebook carried by most Petty Officers and Chiefs.

Whidbey Whale: A dependent wife that is Orca fat even though her husband has maintained the same basic size during their marriage.

Whistling Shit Can of Death: CH-46 Seaknight Helicopter, described as such because of the whistling sound the engines make, and because the CH-46 has been prone to failures, and has killed its share of air crews.

White Rats: Tampons which appear after a sewage leak in the female head. Also, a sound powered telephone amplifier.

Whiz Quiz: “Piss Test”, urinalysis.

Widow/Widower: Describes wives (and now husbands) with spouses on deployment. Single, for all intents and purposes, until the day their spouse returns from deployment. Prefaced by the type or theater of service the deployed spouse is in, e.g. “WESTPAC widow” or “Boomer Widow”.

Wings: FNaval Aviator or Naval Flight Officer breast insignia. Also the Enlisted Aviation Warfare Specialist breast insignia.

Wing-nut: See airdale.

Wire Biter: An electrician.

Wizzard: Topsider insult for a nuc. Refers to nucs' insistance to dress like Morpheus from the Matrix and propensity for playing Magic (The Gathering) and World of Warcraft endlessly.

Wolf Ticket: Highly suspect information. Can refer to malicious “scuttlebutt”, exaggerated “no-shitters”, or blatently phony sea stories.

Woop: A cadet at the US Military Academy (West Point).

Wardroom: Officer's mess, or dining room. Also used to collectively refer to all the officers at a command.

Wrinkle Bomb: A uniform worn by a sailor that is wrinkled so badly that it looks like the sailor slept in it. See “Raisin”.

“Wrong answer, RPOC!”: What Company Commanders in boot camp would scream at the RPOC when he/unit screwed up. Immediately followed by, “Push up, position, Shitbags!” Example: “WHY THE FUCK DID YOU LET THEM MARCH BACK FROM CHOW?!?” “I thought you wanted us back early for the inspection, Sir!” “Wrong answer, RPOC!”

WTF: (Pronounced “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” using the phonetic alphabet): “What the Fuck?” What just happened? Can also be in written form WTF K (with a line over the K) meaning “WTF Over”.

Wog: Short for “pollywog”, as in “wog ceremony”.

Wog Dog: Sailor acting as a vicious dog and part of the “Royal Party” during Shellback initiation..

Water Wings: Derogatory term used (usually by Naval Aviators), for the Surface Warfare Officer qualification badge..

Word Shitter: Another name for those embossing label makers. They “shit” words out when one squeezes the handle.

Working Party: When there is loading of supplies, the Quarterdeck will call for a “working party” to be manned by each division of the ship, the number depending on the task.

Would you like a kick to help you get airborne?: Seen on a numerical list of epithet substitutions, especially transmitted over radio, which has to stay clean.

W.U.N.A: World´s Ugliest Naval Aviator.


Just for MARINES - The Few. The Proud.

Just for you MARINE

Zero: Pronounced zee-ROW in an exaggerated manner, as used by Drill Instructors at the end of a count-down implying that recruits are to immediately cease all activity and remain silently in place. Used by Marines to gain the immediate attention of all personnel in the area without calling attention on deck.

Used by Marines to gain the immediate attention of all personnel in the area without calling attention on deck.

Zero: Disparaging term used amongst enlisted personnel when referring to officers. Derived from the “o” in officer.

Zero-dark thirty: Very early hours before dawn. See also military time, O-dark thirty.

Zero-stupid thirty: An unnecessarily early time for which personnel are required to assemble for an activity. See also Zero-dark thirty, O-dark thirty.


Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

VFA-147 - “Argonauts”
Naval Air Station Lemoore, California - Established February 1, 1967


Where Did That Saying Come From

Where Did That Saying Come From?

Where Did That Saying Come From? “Bring home the bacon”

Bring home the bacon:”  Meaning: To earn money, particularly for one's family; to be successful, especially financially successful.

History: The origin of the phrase 'bring home the bacon' is sometimes suggested to be the story of the Dunmow Flitch. This tradition, which still continues every four years in Great Dunmow, Essex, is based on the story of a local couple who, in 1104, impressed the Prior of Little Dunmow with their marital devotion to the point that he awarded them a flitch [a side] of bacon. The continuing ritual of couples showing their devotion and winning the prize, to considerable acclamation by the local populace, is certainly old and well authenticated. Geoffrey Chaucer mentions it in The Wife of Bath's Tale and Prologue, circa 1395:

“But never for us the flitch of bacon though,

That some may win in Essex at Dunmow.”

The derivation of the phrase is also muddled by association with other 'bacon' expressions - 'save one's bacon', 'cold shoulder', chew the fat' and so on. In reality, the link between them is limited to the fact that 'bacon' has been a slang term for one's body, and by extension one's livelihood or income, since the 17th century. Of course, the source of that 'body' meaning is that bacon comes from the body of a pig or, more accurately, a pig's back and sides.

An additional invented explanation that links 'bringing home the bacon' with the culinary habits of medieval English peasantry is given in the nonsense email 'Life in the 1500s'. That, and all the other supposed derivations above, ignores the fact that 'bring home the bacon' is a 20th century phrase that was coined in the USA.

One field of endeavour in which one's body, that is, bacon, is the key to one's fortune is boxing, and it is in that sport that the expression first became widely used.

Joe Gans and 'Battling' Oliver Nelson fought for the widely reported world lightweight championship on 3rd September 1906. In coverage of the fight, the New York newspaper The Post-Standard, 4th September 1906, reported that:

Before the fight Gans received a telegram from his mother:

“Joe, the eyes of the world are on you. Everybody says you ought to win. Peter Jackson will tell me the news and you bring home the bacon.”

Gans (on the right in the picture) won the fight, and The New York Times printed a story saying that he had replied by telegraph that he “had not only the bacon, but the gravy”, and that he later sent his mother a cheque for $6,000.

A month later, in October 1906, The Oakland Tribune reported another boxing correspondent, Ray Peck, predicting the result of the impending Al Kaufmann/Sam Berger fight in California like this:

“Kaufmann will bring home the bacon.” [He did]

There are no newspaper records, or any other printed records that I can find, of 'bring home the bacon' dating from before September 1906, but there are many, most of them boxing-related, from soon afterwards. That's not exactly proof that the expression was coined by the good Mrs Gans, but we can say at least that she was the one who brought it into the public arena.

Phrases.org UK


Science & Technology

Science & Technology

Science & Technology

The Entire History of Steel - From hunks of iron streaking through the sky, to the construction of skyscrapers and megastructures, this is the history of the world's greatest alloyThe 7 Wildest Buildings That Were Never Built - These ambitious projects were never made, but they would have dramatically changed the world's biggest citiesEverything Suspicious About China's Laser Rifle Claims - There are a whole lot of reported features that don't quite add upHow To Photograph a Rocket LaunchInvestigation Finds China Behind Ozone-Damaging Mystery - An investigation finds that banned ozone-damaging chemicals are still in regular use in Chinese industries

Popular Mechanics


The Strange, Mysterious or Downright Weird

The Strange, Mysterious or Downright Weird

French Farmer Discovered a Rare Mastodon Skull, But Kept It Secret for Years

French Farmer Discovered a Rare Mastodon Skull, But Kept It Secret for Years

A French farmer received the surprise of a lifetime when he stumbled upon the enormous skull of a long-extinct Pyrenean mastodon, but he kept it to himself for years, the AFP reported on July 12th.

The small-town farmer, who lives in L'Isle-en-Dodon, France, knew the skull was remarkable and rare, but didn't want people to know it was on his land. He valued his privacy and feared that his farm would be overrun by “hordes of amateur paleontologists”, the AFP reported.

Fortunately for scientists, the reluctant farmer changed his mind. Two years after finding the fossil, he contacted the Natural History Museum of Toulouse, in France, about his extraordinary find. “It was only when we went there, in 2017, that we realized the significance of the discovery”, the museum's management told AFP. [Mastodon Bones: Images of an Early Hunt]

French Farmer Discovered a Rare Mastodon Skull, But Kept It Secret for Years

Experts identified the skull as Gomphotherium pyrenaicum, a large mastodon that roamed the Pyrenees mountain region between about 11 million and 13 million years ago, reported ScienceAlert. This large herbivore had a body shape similar to modern elephants but had four tusks instead of two: two coming from the bottom jaw and two from the top.

“We're putting a face on a species which had become almost mythical”, the museum's curator Pierre Dalous, told AFP.

Museum paleontologists removed the fossil from the farmer's land and brought it to their lab, where they're carefully removing the sediment encasing the skull. So far, no other mastodon bones have been found on the farmer's property. And, there are no reports on whether or not the farmer's property has been overrun by fossil hunters just yet.

Live Science (07/13/2018) video


© CEASAR CHOPPY by cartoonist Marty Gavin - archives Ceasar Choppy's Navy! “© CEASAR CHOPPY” by Marty Gavin

SONG FACTS

“Hotel California” - Eagles 1976

“Hotel California” - Eagles
Album: Hotel California
Released 1976 video

Written by Don Felder, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, this song is about materialism and excess. California is used as the setting, but it could relate to anywhere in America. Don Henley in the London Daily Mail November 9, 2007 said:

“Some of the wilder interpretations of that song have been amazing. It was really about the excesses of American culture and certain girls we knew. But it was also about the uneasy balance between art and commerce.”

On November 25, 2007 Henley appeared on the TV news show 60 Minutes, where he was told, "everyone wants to know what this song means." Henley replied:

“I know, it's so boring. It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America which was something we knew about.”

He offered yet another interpretation in the 2013 History of the Eagles documentary:

“It's a song about a journey from innocence to experience.”

California is seen from the perspective of an outsider here. Bernie Leadon was the only band member at the time who was from the state (Timothy B. Schmit, who joined in 1977, was also from California). Joe Walsh came from New Jersey; Randy Meisner from Nebraska; Don Henley was from Texas; Glenn Frey was from Detroit, and Don Felder was from Florida. In our interview with Don Felder, he explained:

“As you're driving in Los Angeles at night, you can see the glow of the energy and the lights of Hollywood and Los Angeles for 100 miles out in the desert. And on the horizon, as you're driving in, all of these images start coming into your mind of the propaganda and advertisement you've experienced about California. In other words, the movie stars, the stars on Hollywood Boulevard, the beaches, bikinis, palm trees, all those images that you see and that people think of when they think of California start running through your mind. You're anticipating that. That's all you know of California.”

Don Henley put it this way:

“We were all middle-class kids from the Midwest. Hotel California was our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles.”

This won the 1977 Grammy for Record of the Year. The band did not show up to accept the award, as Don Henley did not believe in contests. Timothy B. Schmit had just joined the band, and he says they watched the ceremony on TV while they were rehearsing.

Don Felder came up with the musical idea for this song. According to his book Heaven and Hell: My Life in The Eagles, he came up with the idea while playing on the beach. He had the chord progressions and basic guitar tracks, which he played for Don Henley and Glenn Frey, who helped finish the song, with Henley adding the lyrics.

Felder says they recorded the song about a year after he did the original demo, and in the session, he started to improvise the guitar part at the end. Henley stopped him and demanded that he do it exactly like the demo, so he had to call his wife and have her play the cassette demo over the phone so Felder could remember what he played.

The lyric, “Warm smell of colitas”, & is often interpreted as sexual slang or a reference to marijuana. When we asked Don Felder about the term, he said:

“The colitas is a plant that grows in the desert that blooms at night, and it has this kind of pungent, almost funky smell. Don Henley came up with a lot of the lyrics for that song, and he came up with colitas.”

Glenn Frey compared this song to an episode of The Twilight Zone, where it jumps from one scene to the next and doesn't necessarily make sense. He said the success of the song comes from the audience creating stories in their minds based on the images.

The line, “They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast” is a reference to Steely Dan. The bands shared the same manager (Irving Azoff) and had a friendly rivalry. The year before, Steely Dan included the line “Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening” on their song “Everything You Didvideo.

Glenn Frey: “That record explores the underbelly of success, the darker side of Paradise. Which was sort of what we were experiencing in Los Angeles at that time. So that just sort of became a metaphor for the whole world and for everything you know. And we just decided to make it Hotel California. So with a microcosm of everything else going on around us.”

The music may have been inspired by the 1969 Jethro Tull song “We Used to Knowvideo, from their album Stand up. The chord progressions are nearly identical, and the bands toured together before the Eagles recorded “Hotel California”.

In a BBC radio interview, Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson said laughingly that he was still waiting for the royalties. In Ian Anderson's interview with Songfacts, he makes it clear that he doesn't consider “Hotel California” to be borrowing anything from his song:

“It's difficult to find a chord sequence that hasn't been used, and hasn't been the focus of lots of pieces of music. It's harmonic progression is almost a mathematical certainty you're gonna crop up with the same thing sooner or later if you sit strumming a few chords on a guitar. There's certainly no bitterness or any sense of plagiarism attached to my view on it, although I do sometimes allude, in a joking way, to accepting it as a kind of tribute.”

Eagles official site / Billboard / All Music / Song Facts / Ultimate Classic Rock / Eagles

Image: “Hotel California (album)” by Eagles


Trivia

Trivia

● Beginning in 1860 pony express horse riders carried mail from Missouri to California. For how many years was the pony express in service? One, thirteen, or twenty?

ONE went bankrupt after telegraph line was completed.

● The Grand Canyon was carved out of solid rock by the cutting action of what river?

Colorado River.

● In 1994 what grunge-rock-star, leader of Nirvana, committed suicide?

Kurt Cobain.

● How much do you know about Switzerland... a. What's the capital city? b. What two rivers with almost identical names flow from Swiss mountains, one to the North Sea, one to the Mediterranean? c. Switzerland's favorite son is what athlete?

a. Berne.

b. Rhine (flows north), Rhone River (flows south.

c. Tennis champ Roger Federer.


Jeopardy

A Test for People Who Know Everything

(And finally, in a tribute to the trusted bartender's guide since the 1930s...)

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MR. BOSTON” ($600):

“I'll take this cocktail that originated in New York: rye whiskey, sweet vermouth & angostura bitters.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer Mr. Boston

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MR. BOSTON” ($800):

“Mr. Boston informs us that when combined, whiskey, Kirschwasser, Cynar & amaro are 'grounds for' this unfortunate event.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer Mr. Boston

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MR. BOSTON” ($1,000):

“Gin, lemon juice & simple syrup are shaken & strained; add club soda to make the drink do this thing in its name.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer Mr. Boston


Answer to Last Week's Test

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MUSICIANS' SIGNATURE MOMENTS” ($200):

“On January 30, 1969 this band played for 42 minutes on the roof of a Savile Row building.”

● Answer: The Beatles. NASBO

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MUSICIANS' SIGNATURE MOMENTS” ($400):

“On March 27, 1987 this band played 'Where The Streets Have No Name' on the roof of a downtown L.A. building.”

● Answer: U2. YouTube

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MUSICIANS' SIGNATURE MOMENTS” ($1,000):

“On April 28, 1978 this band recorded their live show at Budokan Hall in Tokyo; I want you to want them.”

● Answer: Live and let Live. YouTube


Joke of the Day

Joke of the Day

“Eli's Dirty Jokes - BBQ Booty”

“Eli's Dirty Jokes - BBQ Booty”

“Bob Hope: His 20 Best One-liners”

Joke of the Day

Bob Hope: His 20 Best One-liners

For those of you old enough to remember Red Skelton.

1. “When I was born, the doctor said to my mother: 'Congratulations. You have an eight-pound ham.'”

2. “A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.”

3. “A James Cagney love scene is one where he lets the other guy live.”

4. “She said she was approaching forty, and I couldn't help wondering from what direction.”

5. “Bing Crosby and I weren't the types to go around kissing each other. We always had a light jab for each other. One of our stock lines used to be 'There's nothing I wouldn't do for Bing, and there's nothing he wouldn't do for me. And that's the way we go through life - doing nothing for each other!' ”

6. “Welcome to the Academy Awards - or as it`s known at my house, Passover.”

7. “I left England when I was four because I found out I could never be King.”

8. “Television. That's where movies go when they die.”

9. “I have too much money invested in sweaters.”

10. “Culture is the ability to describe Jane Russell without moving your hands.”

11. “I thought about running for the presidency. But my wife said she wouldn't want to move into a smaller house.”

12. “You can always tell when a man's well-informed. His views are pretty much like yours.”

13. “I grew up with six brothers. That's how I learned to dance – waiting for the bathroom.”

14. “Watergate gave dirty politics a bad name.”

15. “When they asked Jack Benny to do something for the Actor's Orphanage - he shot both his parents and moved in.”

16. “Bigamy is the only crime where two rites make a wrong..”

17. “I thought Deep Throat was a movie about a giraffe.”

18. “Remember me? The Macaulay Culkin of 1927.”

19. “I love to go to Washington - if only to be near my money.”

20. “You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.”