Tuesday, July 8, 2025
FROM THE VAULT
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From Bytes, Tuesday, November 15, 2016
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"May you live in interesting times."
This expression is actually not a blerssing or commentary but a Chinese curse.
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Some comments:
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From Wikipedia:
“While seemingly a blessing, the expression is always used ironically, with the clear implication that 'uninteresting times', of peace and tranquillity, are more life-enhancing than interesting ones, which from historical perspective usually include disorder and conflict.”
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The Phrase Finder, a wonderful site on word and phrase origins, describes the meaning of the phrase as “May you experience much disorder and trouble in your life.”
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Although commonly referred to as an ancient Chinese curse, there is no equivalent expression in Chinese. Instead, it is now believed, it originated in about the beginning of the 20th century (beginning as living in “an interesting age”) and that it was mistakenly attributed as a Chinese curse by politicians using it in the mid 1930’s.
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The phrase is also reputedly the first of three Chinese curses of increasing severity:
May you live in interesting times.
May you come to the attention of those in authority.
May you find what you are looking for.
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The saying was used by Robert F. Kennedy in his Day of Affirmation Address in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1966:
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The saying was also used by Hillary Clinton in her memoirs Living History, in 2003:
There’s an old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times,” that became a running joke in our family. Bill and I would ask each other, “Well, are you having an interesting time yet?”
Donald Sutherland's character in the film Disclosure says during a speech to his company, "The Chinese say, 'May you live in interesting times.' Well this has been the most interesting merger since my second marriage."
ON THIS DAY
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July 8, 1949
Prohibition of mixed marriages in South Africa
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, which began this day in 1949, was an apartheid-era law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between "whites" and "non-whites".
It was among the first pieces of apartheid legislation to be passed following the National Party's rise to power in 1948. Subsequent legislation, especially the Population Registration and Immorality Acts of 1950, facilitated its implementation by requiring all individuals living in South Africa to register as a member of one of four officially defined racial groups and prohibiting extramarital sexual relationships between those classified as "white" on the one hand and those classified as "non-White" (Blacks, Coloureds, later also Asians) on the other.
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was repealed by the Immorality and Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Amendment Act, 1985, which was passed during the presidency of P. W. Botha.
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Sunday, July 6, 2025
ON THESE DAYS
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My apologies once again for not hving posted Bytes for a few days, which was due to my being unwell.
For those not aware, I have been battling throat cancer for the last 4 years (no, I stopped smoking 24 years ago) and receiving various forms of treatment - radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immuontherapy, surgery. I am currently receiving weekly doses of a different chemical as part of a clinical trial. Whilst the prognosis is hopeful, there are some side effects which can at times be somewhat brutal abd knock one around. This was one of those times.
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Rather than posting a belated Funny Friday etc and not wanting to lose the continuing thread of On This Day, below is the one missed and the current instalment.
Enjoy
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July 5, 1996
Dolly the cloned sheep born
Dolly was part of a series of experiments at The Roslin Institute that were trying to develop a better method for producing genetically modified livestock. If successful, this would mean fewer animals would need to be used in future experiments. Scientists at Roslin also wanted to learn more about how cells change during development and whether a specialised cell, such as a skin or brain cell, could be used to make a whole new animal.
Dolly was cloned from a cell taken from the mammary gland of a six-year-old Finn Dorset sheep and an egg cell taken from a Scottish Blackface sheep. She was born to her Scottish Blackface surrogate mother on 5th July 1996. Dolly’s white face was one of the first signs that she was a clone because if she was genetically related to her surrogate mother, she would have had a black face.
Because Dolly’s DNA came from a mammary gland cell, she was named after the country singer Dolly Parton. 😂
Dolly was important because she was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. Her birth proved that specialised cells could be used to create an exact copy of the animal they came from. This knowledge changed what scientists thought was possible and opened up a lot of possibilities in biology and medicine, including the development of personalised stem cells.
However, Dolly was not the first ever cloned mammal. That honour belongs to another sheep which was cloned from an embryo cell and born in 1984 in Cambridge, UK. Two other sheep, Megan and Morag, had also been cloned from embryonic cells grown in the lab at The Roslin Institute in 1995 and six other sheep, cloned from embryonic and foetal cells, were born at Roslin at the same time as Dolly.
What made Dolly so special was that she had been made from an adult cell, which no-one at the time thought was possible.
Dolly and her surrogate mother
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July 6, 1942
Anne Frank and family go into hiding
Annelies Marie Frank (12 June 1929 – c. February or March 1945) was a German-born Jewish girl and diarist. She gained worldwide fame posthumously for keeping a diary documenting her life in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands. In the diary, she regularly described her family's everyday life in their hiding place in an Amsterdam attic from 1942 until their arrest in 1944.
Their going into hiding occurred on this day in 1942.
Following detection and arrest, Anne Frank died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in February or March 1945. Although the specific cause is unknown, there is evidence to suggest that she died from a typhus epidemic that spread through the camp, killing 17,000 prisoners. Gena Turgel, a survivor of Bergen-Belsen who knew Anne at the camp, told the British newspaper The Sun: "Her bed was around the corner from me. She was delirious, terrible, burning up." She also mentioned that she had brought Anne water with which to wash. Turgel, who worked in the camp hospital, added that the epidemic took a terrible toll on the inmates: "The people were dying like flies—in the hundreds. Reports used to come in—500 people who died. Three hundred? We said, 'Thank God, only 300.'"
“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”― Anne Frank, from her diary
Frank in May 1942, two months before she and her family went into hiding
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Friday, July 4, 2025
FUNNY FRIDAY
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Hello Byters and readers.
An emphasis on Rabbinic humour today, only because I find it funny. Hope you do as well, that is why some have been repeated by being brought out of the vault.
Enjoy.
Caution: risqué content ahead.
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SOME HUMOUR:
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A Rabbi and his friend, a Catholic priest, were having a discussion when the rabbi asked "Could you ever be promoted withing your church?"
The priest responded, "Well, one day, I hope to become a bishop."
The rabbi asked, "And then?"
The priest though for a second and responded, "Well, then I might become a cardinal."
The rabbi again asked, "And then?"
The priest again pondered the question before responding "Then I would become Pope!"
The rabbi, still unsatisfied, asked "And then?"
The priest, exasperated, cried "What else could I become? God Himself!?"
The rabbi quietly responded "One of our boys made it"
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Guys, I'm just in the middle of a huge argument with my wife and she just told me I'm right....
What do I do next?
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A rabbi, a priest, and an atheist walk into a bar.
The bartender looks at them and points to a sign, labeled: "NO JOKES SERVED HERE" and asks the gentlemen to leave. They reluctantly get up and leave before any discussion between them occurs.
The next day, a horse walks in to this same bar. Once again, the bartender points to the sign: "NO JOKES SERVED HERE". With a long face, the horse gets up from his bar stool and leaves the building.
The day after that, a chicken walks in to the bar. The bartender approaches the chicken as it sits down. He once again points to the sign and says, "I am sorry, but we don't allow jokes to be served here."
"Fine!" says the chicken, clucking with disapproval. "But can you at least tell me where else can I get a drink around here?"
The bartender replies, "yeah, there's another bar across the road."
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A dog and a cat are having an argument about who is the favourite with humans.
The dog says, “humans like us more; they even named a tooth after us, the canine. Naming an important body part after us proves they like dogs more.”
The cat smiles and says, “Guess what? You are not going to win this one”
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A priest and a rabbi were sitting in adjacent seats on an airplane. After a while the priest turned to the rabbi and asked, “Is it still a requirement of your faith that you not eat pork?” The rabbi responded, “Yes, that is still one of our laws.” The priest then asked, “Have you ever eaten pork?”
“Yes, on one occasion I did succumb to temptation and ate a bacon sandwich.”
The priest nodded in understanding and went on with his reading.
A while later the rabbi spoke up and asked, “Father, is it still a requirement of your church that you remain celibate?” The priest replied, “Yes, that is still very much a part of our faith.” The rabbi then asked him, “Father, have you ever fallen to the temptations of the flesh?” The priest replied, “Yes, Rabbi, on one occasion I was weak and broke the pledge of my faith.”
The rabbi nodded understandingly and remained silent for several minutes.
Finally the rabbi quietly observed, “Beats the shit out of a bacon sandwich doesn’t it?”
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An oldie which I have repeated numerous times but still funny . . .
The only cow in a small town in Poland stopped giving milk. The people did some research and found that they could buy a cow from Moscow for 2000 roubles, or one from Minsk for 1000 roubles. Being frugal, they bought the cow from Minsk.
The cow was wonderful. It produced lots of milk all the time, and the people were amazed and very happy. They decided to acquire a bull to mate with the cow and produce more cows like it. Then they would never have to worry about the milk supply again.
They bought the bull and put it in the pasture with their beloved cow.
However, whenever the bull came close to the cow, the cow would move away. No matter what approach the bull tried, the cow would move away from the bull and he could not succeed in his quest. The people were very upset and decided to ask the rabbi, who was very wise, what to do. They told the rabbi what was happening; "Whenever the bull approaches our cow, she moves away. If he approached from the back, she moves forward. When he approaches her from the front, she backs off. An approach from the side and she just walks away to the other side." The rabbi thought about this for a minute and asked, "Did you buy this cow from Minsk?" The people were dumbfounded. They had never mentioned where they have gotten the cow. "You are truly wise rabbi. How did you know we got the cow from Minsk?"
The rabbi answered sadly, "My wife is from Minsk."
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On a very windy day, a rabbi was walking along when a strong gust of wind blew his hat off his head. The rabbi ran after the hat, but the wind was too strong. It kept blowing his hat farther and farther away.
A non-Jewish young man, seeing what had happened, ran after the hat, caught it and gave it back to the rabbi. The rabbi was so grateful that he gave the young man 20 dollars and blessed him.
The young man was excited and decided to go the race track and with the rabbi's blessing, he decided to check the program and place the entire 20 dollars on a horse. After the races he went home and recounted his very exciting day to his wife.
"I arrived at the fifth race and looked at the program. I saw this horse named 'Top Hat' was running. The odds on this horse were 100 to 1 but since I received the rabbi's blessing I bet the entire 20 dollars on 'Top Hat' and guess what? He won!"
"In the next race, there was a horse named 'Stetson' at 30 to 1 so I bet the entire amount of my winnings on him, and guess what ... I won again!"
"So did you bring the money home?" asked his wife.
"No," said the son, "I lost it all on the last race. There was a horse named 'Chateau' that was a heavy favourite so I bet everything on him, and since 'Chateau' means 'hat' in French I figured he was a sure thing."
"You fool!" said the wife. "Hat in French is 'chapeau' not 'chateau!'" Exasperated, his wifer then asked, "So who won the race?"
"A real long shot," said the man. "Some Japanese horse named 'Yarmulke'!"
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A man received a notice from the tax office that he was being audited.
He asked his accountant what he should wear to the meeting with the tax office representative. The accountant said, "Wear your shabbiest clothing. Let them think you're poor."
The man asked his lawyer the same question. The lawyer said “No. No. Show them you're a successful professional. Wear your best suit and tie."
Confused, the man went to his rabbi and asked for advice.
"Let me tell you a story," the rabbi said.
"Last week I was to marry a young woman. She came to me and asked what she should wear to bed on her wedding night. Her mother had told her 'Wear a long flannel nightgown that goes right up to your neck. Make him realise how virtuous you are.' But her best friend said, 'Wear a sexy negligee.' My son, I am going to give you the same advice that I gave to her: ‘It doesn’t matter what you wear, you’re going to get fucked.’ “
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A Jewish father was very troubled by the way his son turned out and went to see his rabbi about it.
“Rabbi, I brought him up in the faith, gave him a very expensive Bar Mitzvah and it cost me a fortune to educate him. Then he tells me last week, he’s decided to be a Christian. Rabbi, where did I go wrong?”
The rabbi strokes his beard and says, “Funny you should come to me. I too, brought up my son as a boy of faith, sent him to university and it cost me a fortune and then one day he comes to me and tells me he wants to be a Christian.”
“What did you do?” asked the man of the rabbi.
“I turned to God for the answer,” replied the rabbi.
“What did he say?” asked the man.
He said, “Funny you should come to me...”
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LIMERICK OF THE WEEK:
From the vault:
A rabbi from far-off Peru
Was desperately trying to screw.
His wife said, “Oy vey!
If you keep on this way
The Messiah will come before you.”
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GALLERY:
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CORN CORNER:
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A photographer was injured when a huge chunk of cheddar fell on him.
All the people in the picture were trying to warn him.
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I visited the doctor today and he said my sugar was too high
So I came home and moved it to a lower shelf
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I can eat sugar with my right OR my left hand.
I'm ambi-dextrose.
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Finding a woman sobbing that she had locked her keys in her car, a passing soldier assures her that he can help. She looks on amazed as he removes his trousers, rolls them into a tight ball and rubs them against the car door.
Magically it opens.......
"That's so clever," the woman gasps. "How did you do it?"
"Easy," replies the soldier. "These are my khakis".
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ON THIS DAY
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July 4, 1865:
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland published
Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published on this day.
However, illustrator John Tenniel was displeased with the printing of his illustrations - smudges, bleeding through on the pages and blotting on the illustrations. Lewis Carroll therefore decided to recall this first edition. Currently only 22 known copies remain, of which only 10 are in their original bindings, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Thursday, July 3, 2025
ANECDOTES
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Clint Eastwood was a contract player at Universal International. He and actor Burt Reynolds were released from their contracts and left the studio on the same day. They were both fired by the same director.
Eastwood was fired when the director didn’t want to use him in a movie because “his Adam’s Apple was too big.”
Reynolds, who was serving as a stunt man, was fired after he shoved the director into a water tank during an argument over how to do a stunt fall.
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Given his penchant towards directing or starring in westerns, it is appropriate that his name, Clint Eastwood, is an anagram for ‘old west action.’
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John Erskine was once asked if he found it disconcerting to see members of the audience looking at their watches during a long lecture.
“No,” replied Erskine, “not until they start shaking them.”
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Phil Esposito was one of the North American ice-hockey players who went to Moscow to play the Soviet team in the early 1970s. Assigned to a hotel room, they suspected that it might be bugged.
Esposito recalls, “We searched the room for microphones. In the centre of the room, we found a funny-looking, round piece of metal imbedded in the floor, under the rug. We figured we had found the bug. We dug it out of the floor. And we heard a crash beneath us. We had released the anchor to the chandelier in the ceiling below.”
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A young lady was taken to dinner one evening by Willim Gladstone and the following evening by Benjamin Disraeli, both of whom were UK Prime Ministers in their time.
Asked what impressions these two celebrated men had made upon her, she replied,
“When I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in England.”
Gladstone and Disraeli
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Edgworth David
During the South Polar expedition, Sir Edgeworth David’s assistant, Douglas Mawson, was working in his tent one day when he heard a muffled cry from outside. “Are you very busy?” called the voice, which Mawson recognised as that of Sir Edgeworth.
“Yes I am,” he replied. “What’s the matter?”
“Are you really very busy?”
“Yes,” snapped Mawson, losing his patience. “What is it you want?”
After a moment’s silence, David replied apologetically, “Well, I’m down a crevasse, and I don’t think I can hang on much longer.”
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Salvador Dali once took his pet ocelot with him to a New York restaurant and tethered it to a leg of the table while he ordered coffee. A middle-aged lady walked past and looked at the animal in horror. “What’s that?” she cried. “It’s only a cat,” said Dali scathingly. “I’ve painted it over with an op-art design.” The woman, embarrassed by her initial reaction, took a closer look and sighed with relief. “I can see now that’s what it is,” she said. “At first I thought it was a real ocelot.”
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Reporters would on occasion tease the energetic and hard-working Clarence Darrow about his disheveled appearance.
Darrow retorted, “I go to a better tailor than any of you and pay more for my clothes. The only difference is that you probably don’t sleep in yours.”
Darrow during the Scopes Monkey Trial
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Christos Papadimitriou is a professor in EECS at University of California, Berkeley.
He co-authored a paper, “Bounds for Sorting by Prefix Reversal,” with Bill Gates, while Gates was studying at Harvard. This is what he thought of him:
When I was an assistant professor at Harvard, Bill was a junior. My girlfriend back then said that I had told her: “There’s this undergrad at school who is the smartest person I’ve ever met.”
Two years later, I called to tell him our paper had been accepted to a fine math journal. He sounded eminently disinterested. He had moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to run a small company writing code for microprocessors, of all things. I remember thinking: “Such a brilliant kid. What a waste.”
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Jean Cocteau was once asked if he believed in luck.
“Of course,” he replied. “How else do you explain the success of those you don’t like?”
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Agatha Christie’s second husband, Max Mallowan, was a distinguished archaeologist who made his name excavating in Mesopotamia. On her return with her husband from the Middle East, Miss Christie was asked how she felt about being married to a man whose interest lay in antiquities. “An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have,” she said. “The older she gets, the more interested he is in her.”
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ON THIS DAY
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July 3, 1915
Erich Muenter shoots Jack Morgan, son of J P Morgan
Muenter after his arrest in 1915
Erich Muenter (1871 – 1915) was a German-American political terrorist, activist, spy, professor and would-be assassin. Employed as a German professor at elite American universities, he was also a spy and a "fanatic in the clandestine service of the Imperial German government." While an instructor at Harvard University, he poisoned and killed his pregnant wife.
He:
- poisoned and killed his pregnant wife while an instructor at Harvard University;
- appeared as Cornell University professor Frank Holt who contacted the German spy network which undertook to sabotage US aid to the war in Europe against Germany;
- on July 2 1915 planted a bomb that exploded in the US Capitol;
The bombed Senate reception room
- on July 3 shot Jack Morgan, son of financier J. P. Morgan in his home;
- predicted the bombing of a steamship bound for England
- committed suicide while in police custody.
His activities, and those of other Germans, were played up by the press as "Hun barbarity"; anti-German sentiment rose in the years as America eventually entered the war with Germany.
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Wednesday, July 2, 2025
AESOP'S FABLE
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Mercury & the Woodman
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The fable:
A poor Woodman was cutting down a tree near the edge of a deep pool in the forest. It was late in the day and the Woodman was tired. He had been working since sunrise and his strokes were not so sure as they had been early that morning. Thus it happened that the axe slipped and flew out of his hands into the pool.
The Woodman was in despair. The axe was all he possessed with which to make a living, and he had not money enough to buy a new one. As he stood wringing his hands and weeping, the god Mercury suddenly appeared and asked what the trouble was. The Woodman told what had happened, and straightway the kind Mercury dived into the pool. When he came up again he held a wonderful golden axe.
"Is this your axe?" Mercury asked the Woodman.
"No," answered the honest Woodman, "that is not my axe."
Mercury laid the golden axe on the bank and sprang back into the pool. This time he brought up an axe of silver, but the Woodman declared again that his axe was just an ordinary one with a wooden handle.
Mercury dived down for the third time, and when he came up again he had the very axe that had been lost.
The poor Woodman was very glad that his axe had been found and could not thank the kind god enough. Mercury was greatly pleased with the Woodman's honesty.
"I admire your honesty," he said, "and as a reward you may have all three axes, the gold and the silver as well as your own."
The happy Woodman returned to his home with his treasures, and soon the story of his good fortune was known to everybody in the village. Now there were several Woodmen in the village who believed that they could easily win the same good fortune. They hurried out into the woods, one here, one there, and hiding their axes in the bushes, pretended they had lost them. Then they wept and wailed and called on Mercury to help them.
And indeed, Mercury did appear, first to this one, then to that. To each one he showed an axe of gold, and each one eagerly claimed it to be the one he had lost. But Mercury did not give them the golden axe. Oh no! Instead he gave them each a hard whack over the head with it and sent them home. And when they returned next day to look for their own axes, they were nowhere to be found.
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The Moral:
Honesty is the best policy.
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ON THIS DAY
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Amelia Earhart’s
plane disappears
Amelia Mary Earhart (1897 – 1957) disappeared July 2, 1937 and was declared dead on January 5, 1939.
She was an American aviation pioneer who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world.
During her life,
Earhart embraced celebrity culture and women's rights, and since her
disappearance has become a global cultural figure. She was the first female
pilot to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean and set many other
records. She was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel,
wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in
the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.
The home where Earhart was born (see below) is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and is maintained by Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots of which Earhart was the first elected president. The Amelia Earhart Festival has taken place in Atchison, Kansas, every year since 1996.
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Tuesday, July 1, 2025
JULY, PINCH AND A PUNCH
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July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It was named by the Roman Senate in honour of Roman general Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., being the month of his birth. Before then it was called Quintilis, being the fifth month of the calendar that started with March.
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It is on average the warmest month in most of the Northern Hemisphere, where it is the second month of summer, and the coldest month in much of the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the second month of winter.
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In the US the dog days or dog days of summer are the hot, sultry days of summer. They were historically the period following the rising of the star system Sirius (known colloquially as the "Dog Star"), which Hellenistic astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. They are now taken to be the hottest, most uncomfortable part of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
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July's birthstone is the ruby, which symbolises contentment.
Its birth flowers are the larkspur and the water lily.
The zodiac signs are Cancer (until July 22) and Leo (July 23 onward).
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July 1 is Canada Day, a Canadian federal holiday that celebrates the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.
July 3 brings the start of the hot and sultry Dog Days of Summer!
July 4 is Independence Day (U.S.), celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
July 14 is Bastille Day, which commemorates the storming of the Bastille and the start of the French Revolution.
Some others:
July 11: International Town Criers Day
July 17: National Hot Dog Day
July 22: Spooner’s Day
July 23: National Day of the Cowboy
July 27: Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day
July 30: National Cheesecake Day
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Pinch and a punch for the first of the month. Someone would say it to you on the first day of the month and then pinch and punch you.
Remember that from when we were kids? Although I had an adult friend (now departed) who still used to do it each month.
There are various theories on the origins:
It has been reported that President George Washington began the tradition. During his presidency (1789-97), George Washington would meet with Native American tribes on the first day of each month and provide fruit punch with an added pinch of salt. This ultimately became known as 'pinch punch first of the month.
Another theory behind the tradition dates back to medieval times when witchcraft was a huge concern among people. Salt was intended to make witches weak, and so the 'pinch' signified the use of salt to weaken the sorceress, while the 'punch' was delivered to banish the witch forever. The phrase, therefore, was suggested to symbolise welcoming in a new month while protecting oneself from bad luck.
Over the years, the words within the saying have become more literal, with many receiving a pinch and punch as a practical joke by loved ones.
In response to 'pinch, punch, first of the month,' some will respond with 'white rabbits, no return,' to avoid any more back and forth.
The phrase was first recorded in the Notes and Queries book - which was a British periodical in which experts wrote about folklore - in 1909. An entry from the book reads: ‘My two daughters are in the habit of saying ‘Rabbits!’ on the first day of each month.
'The word must be spoken aloud, and be the first word said in the month. It brings luck for that month.
During WWII, it was also a belief among RAF aircrew that saying 'white rabbits' when you woke up would protect you from harm.
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ON THIS DAY
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July 1, 1863
Battle of Gettysburg begins.
The Battle of Gettysburg was a three-day battle in the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union and Confederate armies between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The battle, won by the Union, is widely considered the Civil War's turning point, leading to an ultimate victory of the Union and the preservation of the nation. T
The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of both the Civil War and of any battle in American military history, claiming over 50,000 combined casualties.
Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, halting Lee's invasion of the North and forcing his retreat.
BTW:
On November 19, Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, where he spoke at a ceremony dedicating Gettysburg National Cemetery, which honored the fallen Union soldiers and redefined the purpose of the Civil War in his famed Gettysburg Address, a 271-word address that has endured as one of the most famous speeches in American history.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.—Abraham Lincoln
BTW:
In 1760, Irishman Samuel Gettys settled at the Shippensburg-Baltimore and Philadelphia-Pittsburgh crossroads, in what was then western York County, and established a tavern frequented by soldiers and traders. In 1786, his son James purchased 116 acres of his land, divided it up into 220 lots and sold them, and is thus considered the founder of Gettysburg.
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Monday, June 30, 2025
BACKSTORIES OF FAMOUS SONGS
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ELTON JOH, Part 1
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Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
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The song:
"Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" is a song originally recorded by Elton John, who composed it with his long-time songwriting partner Bernie Taupin (music: Elton John; lyrics: Bernie Taupin). It was released on John's best-selling album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and as the first single.
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Video:
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Lyrics selection:
It's getting late, have you seen my mates?
Ma, tell me when the boys get here
It's seven o'clock and I wanna rock
Wanna get a belly full of beer
My old man's drunker than a barrel full of monkeys
And my old lady, she don't care
My sister looks cute in her braces and boots
A handful of grease in her hair
Oh, don't give us none of your aggravation
We had it with your discipline
Oh, Saturday night's alright for fighting
Get a little action in
Get about as oiled as a diesel train
Gonna set this dance alight
'Cause Saturday night's the night I like
Saturday night's alright, alright, alright, ooh
Well, they're packed pretty tight in here tonight
I'm looking for a dolly who'll see me right
I may use a little muscle to get what I need
I may sink a little drink and shout out, "She's with me!"
A couple of the sounds that I really like
Are the sounds of a switchblade and a motorbike
I'm a juvenile product of the working class
Whose best friend floats in the bottom of a glass
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Back Story:
The lyrics discuss a night out in town in which the narrator plans to "get about as oiled as a diesel train". Taupin has said that the song was meant to be an American rock and roll song set in Britain. It was inspired by his raucous teenage days and in particular, the fistfights in his local pub, the Aston Arms in Market Rasen.
The Aston Arms Pub
As pictured in the 1975 Captain Fantastic album sleeve.
The Aston Arms today
This is where a teenage Bernie Taupin and his friends played snooker and drank ale before they were of legal age. Although Taupin grew up several miles away in the village of Owmby-by-Spital, his secondary school was located here in the larger town of Market Rasen, where the Aston Arms is located.
Taupin's experiences helped inspire the lyrics for the 1973 Elton John song Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting. There was a pub in Normanby right next to Owmby, but Bernie preferred The Aston Arms because there was more action, including the inevitable fistfights on Saturday nights. A framed newspaper article on the wall inside commemorates the pub's role in creating a hit song.
Many of Taupin's songs are written to relate to Elton's life, but not this one - it's unlikely that Elton would be fighting in a club.
In the liner notes to Elton John's boxed set, it explains that he recorded his vocal while leaping around and "going crazy." It was the first time Elton recorded a vocal standing up, and he made the most out of it.
Elton would sometimes let fans come onstage and gather around his piano when he performed the song. That ended on March 1, 2018 when an overanxious fan kept touching him when he played it at a concert in Las Vegas. Elton stormed off the stage, and when he returned, declared, "No more coming on stage on 'Saturday Night.' You fucked it up."
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Rocket Man
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The song:
"Rocket Man" was written by Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin and performed by John. It was originally released on 17 April 1972 in the US, as the lead single to John's album Honky Château.
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Video:
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Lyrics:
She packed my bags last night, pre-flight
Zero hour, 9 a.m.
And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the Earth so much, I miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
And I think it's gonna be a long, long time
'Til touchdown brings me 'round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no
I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burnin' out his fuse up here alone
And I think it's gonna be a long, long time
'Til touchdown brings me 'round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no
I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burnin' out his fuse up here alone
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact, it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all the science, I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man
A rocket man
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Back Story:
The song was inspired by Ray Bradbury's short story "The Rocket Man" in The Illustrated Man, about a professional astronaut whose work keeps him away from his anguished family for months at a time.
It echoes the theme of David Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity". Taupin has denied that the Bowie song was an inspiration, but has acknowledged borrowing from Pearls Before Swine's 1970 "Rocket Man", written by Tom Rapp, which was also influenced by the Bradbury story. According to an account in Elizabeth Rosenthal's book His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John, the song was inspired by Taupin's sighting of either a shooting star or a distant aeroplane.
Taupin says that the Pearls Before Swine song gave him the idea for his own "Rocket Man" - "It's common knowledge that songwriters are great thieves, and this is a perfect example," he said.
In the Pearls Before Swine song, a child can no longer look at the stars after his astronaut father perishes in space.
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About:
The song describes a Mars-bound astronaut's mixed feelings at leaving Earth to do his job. Rosenthal's account goes on to relate that the notion of astronauts no longer being perceived as heroes, but in fact as an "everyday occupation", led Taupin to the song's opening lines: "She packed my bags last night, pre-flight. Zero hour: 9 a.m. And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then."
Space exploration was big in 1972; the song came out around the time of the Apollo 16 mission, which sent men to the moon for the fifth time.
The opening lyrics came to Bernie Taupin while he was driving near his parents' house in Lincolnshire, England. Taupin has said that he has to write his ideas down as soon as they show up in his head, or they could disappear, so he drove though some back roads as fast as he could to get to the house where he could write down his thought: "She packed my bags last night, pre-flight. Zero hour, 9 a.m., and I'm gonna be high as a kite by then."
From there he came up with the song about a man who is sent to live in space as part of a scientific experiment.
"Rocket Man" became a nickname for Elton John. As song-based nicknames go, it's a good one, and Elton embraced it (Madonna hates the "Material Girl" name). In 2019, a biopic (billed as a "musical fantasy") called Rocketman was released starring Taron Egerton as Elton John.
When Elton played the Soviet Union in 1979, this was listed on the program as "Cosmonaut."
This was Elton's biggest hit to that point, outcharting his first Top 10 entry, "Your Song." It had a huge impact on his psyche, as it gave him the confidence to know that he could sustain his career in music.
Trump is a fan of the song, and often played it at his campaign rallies. However, Bernie Taupin disapproved of the president's usage of the title. "The context bothered me," he told the Wall Street Journal. "The thought that World War III could start over the use of my song title was disturbing. I also was uncomfortable that something of mine that was culturally iconic could be used in such a way.” "But what could I do? Sue him for cultural appropriation?" Taupin continued. "As a songwriter, you're powerless to stop something like that. However, if the use of 'Rocket Man' results in peace, I will be very happy to take full credit for it."
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Song for Guy
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The song:
"Song for Guy" is a mainly instrumental piece of music by English musician Elton John. It is the closing track of his 1978 album, A Single Man.
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Video:
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Lyrics:
Life isn't everything
Isn't everything
Isn't everything
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Back story:
As I was writing this song one Sunday, I imagined myself floating into space and looking down at my own body. I was imagining myself dying. Morbidly obsessed with these thoughts, I wrote this song about death. The next day I was told that Guy [Burchett], our 17-year-old messenger boy, had been tragically killed on his motorcycle the day before. Guy died on the day I wrote this song.
— Elton John, from the sleeve notes of the 7-inch single.
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About:
It stands as one of the few pieces written by Elton John alone and the only instrumental he made and released as a single.
His subsequent instrumentals were released only as B-sides, notably "Choc Ice Goes Mental" (A-sides: "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" and "Kiss the Bride") and "The Man Who Never Died" (A-sides: "Nikita" and "The Last Song").
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