Thursday, April 24, 2025
ON THIS DAY
----------ooOoo----------
April 24, 1916:
Easter Rising begins in Ireland.
The Easter Rising, also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916, which began on April 24.
The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an independent Irish Republic while the United Kingdom was fighting the First World War. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798 and the first armed conflict of the Irish revolutionary period. Sixteen of the Rising's leaders were executed starting in May 1916. The nature of the executions, and subsequent political developments, ultimately contributed to an increase in popular support for Irish independence.
Organised by a seven-man Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916 and lasted for six days. Members of the Irish Volunteers, led by schoolmaster and Irish language activist Patrick Pearse, joined by the smaller Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly and 200 women of Cumann na mBan seized strategically important buildings in Dublin and proclaimed the Irish Republic.
The British Army brought in thousands of reinforcements as well as artillery and a gunboat. There was street fighting on the routes into the city centre, where the rebels slowed the British advance and inflicted many casualties. Elsewhere in Dublin, the fighting mainly consisted of sniping and long-range gun battles. The main rebel positions were gradually surrounded and bombarded with artillery. There were isolated actions in other parts of Ireland;
With much greater numbers and heavier weapons, the British Army suppressed the Rising. Pearse agreed to an unconditional surrender on Saturday 29 April, although sporadic fighting continued briefly. After the surrender, the country remained under martial law. About 3,500 people were taken prisoner by the British and 1,800 of them were sent to internment camps or prisons in Britain. Most of the leaders of the Rising were executed following courts martial. The Rising brought physical force republicanism back to the forefront of Irish politics, which for nearly fifty years had been dominated by constitutional nationalism. Opposition to the British reaction to the Rising contributed to changes in public opinion and the move toward independence, as shown in the December 1918 election in Ireland which was won by the Sinn Féin party, which convened the First Dáil and declared independence.
Of the 485 people killed, 260 were civilians, 143 were British military and police personnel, and 82 were Irish rebels, including 16 rebels executed for their roles in the Rising. More than 2,600 people were wounded. Many of the civilians were killed or wounded by British artillery fire or were mistaken for rebels. Others were caught in the crossfire during firefights between the British and the rebels. The shelling and resulting fires left parts of central Dublin in ruins.
----------ooOoo----------
ORIGINS
_________________
A follow up on a recent Quote for the Day . . .
Comments. . .
_________________
Meaning:
A reply given to someone who wishes for something because a part of their life is unfair, basically stating that life is full of good and bad things. In essence, wishes mean nothing, just wishing for something won't get you anything.
_________________
Origin:
"Wish in one hand, shit in the other" is listed in the 1736 Dictionarium Britannicumby Nathan Bailey, who comments on the saying:
A homely proverb applicable to those who are ever wishing for what they have little reason to hope. We have a more decent proverb to express the same thing, viz. If Wishes were Horses, Beggars would ride.
Bailey appears to have drawn the example of the proverb cited in his 1736 dictionary (above) from John Ray’s, A Collection of English Proverbs: Digested Into a Convenient Method for the Speedy Finding Any One upon Occasion (1670):
Wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which will be full first.
There is also an early Scottish version of the saying. From James Kelly, A Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs Explained and Made Intelligible to the English Reader (1721):
Wish in one Hand and drite in another, and see which will be first full.
‘Drite’ is an archaic Scottish word meaning to defecate.
A Burlesque Translation of Homer (1772) by Thomas Bridges and Francis Grose contains a reference. This is from a speech by Helen of Troy in the Iliad book 6, in which she insults her husband Paris for failing to fight the Greeks, and laments the fact that she has spent her life with him:
I wish they'd in a horse-pond duck'd me,
To cool my courage, ere they tuck'd me
Up in the bed where Paris ______ __!
I wish, before this cursed strife,
By the small-pox I'd lost my life,
Or that my nose was full of pimples
As that old canting rogue D — l— *s:
I wish to God we'd both been drown'd
When first we cross'd the herring-pond !
But I may wish and make a pother,
Wish in one hand, and spit in t'other
__________________
Similar phrases are common in other languages as well.
__________________
Modern day:
“Wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up first.”
― Stephen King, The Dark Tower
__________________
Some video links:
Grumpy Old Men:
Bad Santa:
Song by Kurt Weisbecker:
----------ooOoo-----------
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
ON THIS DAY
----------ooOoo----------
April 23, 1984
Researchers discover the virus that causes AIDS.
Aids, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, weakens the immune system, leaving its victims open to a series of wasting diseases. Those people who appear to be more at risk of contracting Aids include homosexuals, haemophiliacs, drug users and those who have received blood transfusions.
On this day in 1984 U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler announced that researchers had found what was believed to be the virus that causes AIDS. This was hailed as a "monumental breakthrough" in medical research. Heckler said the virus was a variant of a known human cancer virus called HTLV-3. A blood test had been developed, which, she said, would be available within six months, preventing transfusion patients contracting the disease through tainted blood products. She also suggested that a vaccine to prevent Aids might be ready for testing in two years' time. The virus was later named Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
----------ooOoo----------
WEIRD WEDNESDAY
-----------ooOoo----------
“There’s the rub. . . “
- Hamlet
People like to rub statues, or parts of statues, whether for luck, wealth, love, whatever, as these photos from around the world show . . .
And we have local examples, for instance, the Il Porcellino statue outside Sydney Hospital:
However, that is not the only part that gets rubbed:
_____________
Caesar Salad was invented in Mexico . . .
Caesar Salad was created in 1924, by Caesar Cardini at Caesar's in Tijuana, Mexico. He also had restaurants in the US but ran one of his restaurants in Mexico to attract American customers seeking to circumvent Prohibition. When a Fourth of July rush in 1924 depleted the kitchen's supplies. Cardini made do with what he had, including lettuce, garlic-flavoured oil, eggs, Parmesan cheese, lemons and Worchester sauce, serving it table-side tossed by the chef. Word travelled fast and the Caesar salad became a sensation.
______________
A rose by any other name . . .
It is appropriate that a President of the United States had the initials US – Ulysses S Grant. But the facts behind his name qualifies for inclusion in Weird Wednesday . . .
Born Hiram Ulysses Grant (1822 – 1885), he was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as commanding general, Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War.
Grant had enrolled in West Point in 1839, having been recommended by Ohio Congressman Thomas Hamer. Hamer mistakenly wrote "Ulysses S. Grant" in his nomination. The reason why the middle initial was added is unknown but, despite Grant's best efforts to correct the error, he became known as Ulysses S. Grant from that point forward.
In 1844 he wrote in a letter to his wife: "Find some name beginning with 'S' for me, you know I have an 'S' in my name and don't know what it stands for."
Grant’s signature
____________
Some lipsticks contain fish scales. . .
This is also known as pearl essence. It’s the silvery stuff found in fish scales that’s used in some lipsticks, nail polishes, ceramic glazes, etc., to make them shimmery. Pearl essence is obtained primarily from herring and is one of many by-products of large-scale commercial fish processing. Synthetic versions have been developed, but to what extent they’ve supplanted the natural variety is unknown.
----------ooOoo----------
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
ON THIS DAY
----------ooOoo----------
April 22, 1994
Rawandan Genocide: 35,000 Tutsis slaughtered by Hutus
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were systematically killed by Hutu militias. While the Rwandan Constitution states that over 1 million people were killed, most scholarly estimates suggest between 500,000 and 662,000 Tutsi died, mostly men. The genocide was marked by extreme violence, with victims often murdered by neighbors, and widespread sexual violence, with between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped.
On April 22, 1994 a convoy full of soldiers attacked. On that day, more than 35,000 Tutsis were killed, some of whom were burned with petrol to death and became ashes, which (ash) was later buried in dignity after the Genocide. About 42,008 bodies were buried at the local Genocide Memorial.
The genocide was rooted in long-standing ethnic tensions, exacerbated by the Rwandan Civil War, which began in 1990 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a predominantly Tutsi rebel group, invaded Rwanda from Uganda. The war reached a tentative peace with the Arusha Accords in 1993. However, the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana on 6 April 1994 ignited the genocide, as Hutu extremists used the power vacuum to target Tutsi and moderate Hutu leaders.
Despite the scale of the atrocities, the international community failed to intervene to stop the killings. The RPF resumed military operations in response to the genocide, eventually defeating the government forces and ending the genocide by capturing all government-controlled territory. This led to the flight of the génocidaires and many Hutu refugees into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), contributing to regional instability and triggering the First Congo War in 1996.
The legacy of the genocide remains significant in Rwanda. The country has instituted public holidays to commemorate the event and passed laws criminalising "genocide ideology" and "divisionism".
Photographs of genocide victims displayed at the Kigali Genocide Memorial
----------ooOoo----------
Monday, April 21, 2025
ON THIS DAY
----------ooOoo----------
April 21, 1918
Manfred von Richtoffen shot down.
Manfred von Richthofen (1892 – 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories.
Originally a cavalryman, Richthofen transferred to the Air Service in 1915, becoming one of the first. He quickly distinguished himself as a fighter pilot, and led the larger fighter wing known as "The Flying Circus" or "Richthofen's Circus" because of the bright colours of its aircraft, and perhaps also because of the way the unit was transferred from one area of Entente air activity to another – moving like a travelling circus, and frequently setting up in tents on improvised airfields. By 1918, Richthofen was regarded as a national hero in Germany, and respected by his enemies.
The Red Baron’s final flight took place on April 21, 1918, when pilots from his Flying Circus engaged a group of British planes over Vaux-sur-Somme, France. As Richthofen swooped low in pursuit of an enemy fighter, he came under attack from Australian machine gunners on the ground and a plane piloted by Canadian ace Arthur Roy Brown.
During the exchange of fire, Richthofen was struck in the torso by a bullet and died after crash-landing in a field. Brown got official credit for the victory, but debate continues over whether he or the Australian infantrymen fired the fatal shot.
Following Manfred von Richthofen’s death, Allied troops recovered his body and buried him with full military honors. The 25-year-old had only prowled the skies for a little over two years, but his 80 confirmed aerial victories proved to be the most of any pilot on either side of World War I.
Richthofen never married and had no known children.
----------ooOoo----------
BACK STORIES OF FAMOUS SONGS – AL JOLSON
----------ooOoo----------
Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson) (1886 – October 1950) was a Lithuanian-born American singer, actor, and vaudevillian.
Jolson was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, as well as the first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in the United States. Known for his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach" towards performing, along with popularising many of the songs he sang, he is credited as being the single most important factor in defining the modern musical.
Some brief facts:
Performed a lot in blackface.
The star of the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927).
Starred in a series of successful musical films during the 1930s.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was the first star to entertain troops overseas during World War II.
After a period of inactivity, his stardom returned with The Jolson Story (1946), in which Larry Parks played the younger Jolson, but with sung vocals dubbed by Jolson himself. The formula was repeated in a sequel, Jolson Sings Again (1949).
By the way: Larry Parks’ career virtually ended when he admitted to having been a member of a Communist Party cell, which led to his blacklisting by all Hollywood studios. Parks eventually left the film industry and formed a successful construction business. Eventually, he and his wife owned many apartment buildings scattered throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Rather than sell them upon completion, Parks decided to retain ownership and collect rents as a landlord, a decision that proved to be extremely profitable.
In 1950, Jolson again became the first star to entertain GIs on active service in the Korean War, performing 42 shows in 16 days. He died weeks after returning to the U.S., partly owing to the physical exhaustion from the performance schedule. Defense Secretary George Marshall posthumously awarded him the Medal for Merit.
With his dynamic style of singing, he became widely successful by extracting traditionally African-American music and popularising it for white American audiences who would be unwilling to listen to it when performed by Black artists.
Despite his promotion and perpetuation of Black stereotypes, his work was often well-regarded by Black publications, and he has been credited for fighting against Black discrimination on Broadway as early as 1911.
From the website ‘Al Jolson Blackface and Racism’ at:
“….the blackface make-up that Al Jolson wore was make-up for a character, just as every entertainer wears make-up on stage or screen. That style of make-up, now understood to be offensive, was one of the conventions of theater 100 years ago, and must be viewed in that light, through the eyes of the day. Al Jolson is often the example of blackface, because he was just that famous. He was not, however, the only performer wearing it, nor even part of a minority wearing it. He was just the one who is remembered today. The following pieces (references to articles listed in the website) will attempt to put blackface in context, and help view Al Jolson's view on difference in race, and his actions in that behalf.”
It is interesting, however, how society and attitudes have moved on from those of Jolson’s day and career.
__________
TOOT, TOOT TOOTSIE
Video link:
Al Jolson performing the classic 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie!', taken from the 1927 film 'The Jazz Singer' credited as the first feature-length 'Talkie' film.
About the song:
The song is about a man who watches his girl leave on a train and promises to write. It is often performed with train whistles.
First recorded by Al Jolson in 1922.
This song has become associated with the age and image of the flapper during the Roaring Twenties.
Lyrics:
Yesterday I heard a lover sigh
Goodbye, oh me oh my!
Seven times he got aboard his train
And seven times he hurried back to give his love again and tell her:
Toot Toot Tootsie goodbye
Toot Toot Tootsie, don't cry
That little choo-choo train
That takes me
Away from you, no words can tell how sad it makes me
Kiss me Tootsie and then
Oh baby, do it over again
Watch for the mail;
I'll never fail
And if you don't get a letter then you'll know I'm in jail
Toot Toot Tootsie, don't cry
Toot Toot Tootsie, goodbye!
__________
MY MAMMY
Video:
Al Jolson performing his signature tune 'Mammy' in the finale of the 1927 film 'The Jazz Singer'. The film was the first feature-length motion picture with not only a synchronised recorded music score, but also lip-synchronised singing and speech in several isolated sequences. Its release heralded the end of silent films.
About the song:
The song is a love song from a son to his mother, expressing his regrets and longing for her, and hoping she will recognise him after he has been away for a long time.
However, in certain contexts, it can be considered as a tribute sung by a man who, during his childhood, was nurtured by a "mammy", a surrogate mother who supplanted the role that would have otherwise been provided by his biological mother. Mammies, were, in essence, African American nurse maids, or nannies, who cared for white children. Myriad examples of this occupation occurred during the 19th century in the United States, especially on southern plantations, where African Americans, often slaves, would perform these duties while the birth mother attended other matters such as the day-to-day management of the plantation. The affection between children and their mammies resulted in bonds equalling or exceeding that of children and their biological mothers. In the song, one such child, now an adult, is returning to his aging mammy, proclaiming his unconditional love for her, and hoping that, despite her age, that she will recognise him as her "little baby."
"My Mammy" was performed first in 1918 by William Frawley (later to become famous on I Love Lucy as Ethel’s husband Fred) as a vaudeville act.
Jolson first added the song in 1921 to the Broadway show Sinbad which was in the fourth year of its run. Jolson recorded this song twice and performed it in films, including The Jazz Singer (1927) and Rose of Washington Square (1939).
His voice can also be heard (dubbing actor Larry Parks) singing the song in The Jolson Story (1946).
__________
ROCK-A-BYE YOUR BABY WITH A DIXIE MELODY
Video:
From the 1939 film, 'The Rose of Washington Square' starring Alice Faye and Tyrone Power.
About the song:
"Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" was written in 1918, recorded by Jolson in the same year and introduced by him in the Broadway musical Sinbad
__________
SWANEE
Video:
An excerpt from a Hollywood film Rhapsody In Blue: The George Gershwin Story (1945). Great whistling.
About the song:
"Swanee" was composed by George Gershwin in 1919 with lyrics written by Irving Caesar but is most often associated with Al Jolson.
The song was written for a New York City revue called Demi-Tasse, which opened in October 1919 at the Capitol Theater. Caesar, who was then aged 24, claimed to have written the song in about ten minutes riding on a bus in Manhattan, finishing it at Gershwin's apartment.
The song had little impact in its first show, but not long afterwards Gershwin played it at a party where Al Jolson heard it. Jolson then put it into his show Sinbad, already a success at the Winter Garden Theatre, and recorded it for Columbia Records in January 1920. "After that", said Gershwin, "Swanee penetrated the four corners of the earth." It became Gershwin's first hit and the biggest-selling song of his career; the money he earned from it allowed him to concentrate on theatre work and films rather than writing further single pop hits.
Jolson recorded the song several times in his career and performed it in the movies The Jolson Story (1946), Rhapsody in Blue (1945),[8] and Jolson Sings Again (1949). For the song's performance in The Jolson Story, Jolson, rather than actor Larry Parks, appeared as himself, filmed in long shot.
By the way:
The song was used by the Sydney Swans Australian Rules Football Club for its marketing promotions in the late 1990s.
__________
More to come.
__________
By the way:
#1:
Jolson’s fourth wife Erle Galbraith, a tall, glamorous girl whom he met at an Army base in Arkansas while he was on the road for USO and she was an X-ray technician, was much younger than he. He fell in love with her on sight and they were married a year later. In 1948 they adopted a three-months-old boy, whom they named Asa, Jr. Jolson was not disturbed by the disparity in their ages. On one occasion the couple, motoring, stopped at a gas station.
The attendant remarked, “Mister, that’s a mighty pretty daughter you got there.”
Jolson grinned and replied, “I’m too old to have a daughter that young – that’s my wife!”
#2:
A Jolson characteristic was that in some songs he would drop to one knee:
Statue at Jolson's grave
Jolson has told that during a performance he dropped to one knee from the pain of an ingrown toenail. Thereafter he retained dropping to one knee.
----------ooOoo----------
Sunday, April 20, 2025
ON THIS DAY
----------ooOoo----------
April 20, 1999
Columbine High School massacre.
A school shooting and attempted bombing occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered twelve students and one teacher; ten were killed in the school library, where Harris and Klebold subsequently died by suicide. Twenty additional people were injured by gunshots and gunfire was exchanged several times with law enforcement with neither side being struck. Another three people were injured trying to escape.
The Columbine massacre was the deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school in US history until December 2012. It is still considered one of the most infamous massacres in the US for inspiring many other school shootings and bombings; the word "Columbine" has since become a byword for modern school shootings. As of 2025, Columbine is still both the deadliest mass shooting and school shooting in Colorado, and one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States.
Harris and Klebold, who planned for roughly a year, and hoped to have many victims, intended for the attack to primarily be a bombing and only secondarily a shooting. The pair launched a shooting attack after the several homemade bombs they planted in the school failed to detonate. Their motive remains inconclusive.
The police were slow to enter the school and were heavily criticized for not intervening during the shooting. The incident resulted in the introduction of the immediate action rapid deployment (IARD) tactic, which is used in active-shooter situations, and an increased emphasis on school security with zero-tolerance policies. The violence sparked debates over American gun culture and gun control laws, high school cliques, subcultures (e.g. goths), outcasts, and school bullying, as well as teenage use of pharmaceutical antidepressants, the Internet, and violence in video games and film.
The shooting has inspired dozens of copycat killings, dubbed the Columbine effect, including many deadlier shootings across the world. More than 223,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine.
Fifteen crosses for the victims and the shooters were erected on top of a hill in Clement Park. The crosses for Harris and Klebold were later removed following controversy. Planning for a permanent memorial began in June 1999, and the resulting Columbine Memorial opened to the public in September 2007.
The Columbine Memorial, dedicated to the victims of the massacre
----------ooOoo----------
EASTER SUNDAY AND RESURRECTION
----------oooOooo----------
Jesus’s birth and resurrection are considered the two most important events and celebrations in the Christian calendar, Christmas Day and Easter Sunday.
But Jesus’s resurrection, and even that of Lazarus, are not the only resurrections mentioned in the Bible. There are other corpses that Jesus raises, and various resurrections by others . . .
----------oooOooo----------
Widow of Zarephath's son
(I Ki 17:17-24)
Raised by Elijah
Elijah, a great prophet, raises the son of the widow of Zarephath by laying on the body three times and then praying. Penn and Teller would be envious.
_______________
Shunamite's son
(II Ki 4:20-37)
Raised by Elisha
Elisha friends in Shunem had a son who died. They summoned Elisha who he laid himself over the boy's body and paced back and forth in the house. The boy came back to life. What is it with laying on bodies?
_______________
Man tossed into Elisha's tomb
(II Ki 13:21)
Raised by God's Spirit
People about to bury a man saw a band of raiders coming and so threw the dead man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the corpse touched Elisha's bones, he revived.
_______________
Widow of Nain's son
(Lk 7:11-16)
Raised by Jesus
Jesus stopped a funeral procession as they were carrying the casket to the cemetery. Feeling sorry for the mother of the deceased He told her to stop crying and raised her son from the dead.
_______________
Synagogue ruler Jairus' 12-year-old daughter
(Mk 5:35-43)
Raised by Jesus
Jairus asked Jesus to come heal his dying daughter. By the time Jesus arrived she had already died. Jesus sent the mourners out but took the girls' parents and Peter, James and John into the room where the dead girl lay. He said, "Little girl, get up." She did.
_______________
Lazarus
(Jn 11:1-44)
Raised by Jesus
Lazarus had been in the grave four days when Jesus approached his tomb. Jesus asked the people to take away the stone. Then Jesus called out, "Lazarus, come forth." Lazarus came out, still wrapped in the strips of cloth. Mental image of Zombie Apocalypse, did anyone see that movie?
Tabitha also known as Dorcas
(Acts 9:36-41)
Raised by Peter
Tabitha (not the daughter of Samantha and Darrin Stephens), a seamstress who did many good deeds, became sick and died. Since Peter was in a nearby town they asked him to come. Peter had everyone leave the room where Tabitha lay. He knelt down and prayed and then he said to the body, "Tabitha, arise." She opened her eyes and then sat up.
_______________
Eutychus
(Acts 20:7-12)
Raised by Paul
One night Paul was speaking to a group of believers. A young man sitting in the window, listening, fell asleep.
Rule No 1: Don’t fall asleep sitting in an open window 3 floors up.
Rule No 2: If you break Rule 1 and fall to your death, have a holy man nearby who can raise from the dead.
When the man fell to his death, Paul ran down, laid himself over the body (there we go again!!??) and then embraced him. The man was alive again.
_______________
Men raised upon Jesus' death
(Mt 27:51-53)
Raised by God
When Jesus died there was a violent earthquake and the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. The Bible says tombs were opened and many bodies of saints arose from the dead. It also says that after Jesus' resurrection they went into Jerusalem where many people witnessed their return to life. Now that would be a zombie movie scene. . .
----------oooOooo----------
Saturday, April 19, 2025
ON THIS DAY
----------ooOoo----------
April 19, 1770:
Captain Cook sights Australia
On this day in 1770 British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia. Writes in his log book that “what we have as yet seen of this land appears rather low, and not very hilly, the face of the Country green and Woody, but the Sea shore is all a white Sand.”
The first European record of setting foot in Australia was Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606 — his was the first of 29 Dutch voyages to Australia in the 17th century. Cook wasn't even the first Englishman to arrive here — William Dampier set foot on the peninsula that now bears his name, north of Broome, in 1688.
Cook named the land he encountered New South Wales in an effort to counter any Dutch interest in what they had long called New Holland. The name Australia was popularised by Matthew Flinders following his circumnavigation of the continent in 1803.
The main reason for Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific was to observe Venus moving across the face of the Sun from Tahiti, part of a European effort to work out the size of the solar system. In Tahiti he opened an envelope with secret orders to search for an unknown continent, to try and discover the existence of Terra Australis Incognita — the 'great unknown southern land'."
After mapping the complete coastline of New Zealand, making only some minor errors. Cook voyaged west, reaching the southeastern coast of Australia near today's Point Hicks on 19 April 1770. In doing so his expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered its eastern coastline.
Endeavour continued northwards along the coastline, keeping the land in sight with Cook charting and naming landmarks as he went. On 29 April, Cook and crew made their first landfall on the continent at a beach now known as Silver Beach on Botany Bay. Two Gweagal men of the Dharawal / Eora nation opposed their landing and in the confrontation one of them was shot and wounded, setting in motion white / indigenous relations for the next 250 years,
Cook landing at Botany Bay
Cook claims the entire coastline that he had explored as British territory.
----------ooOoo----------
FROM THE VAULT
----------oooOooo----------
From Bytes, April 13, 2017
----------oooOooo----------
Vintage Easter Cards . . .
They had some peculiar ways in the past as to viewing Easter in their cards, see below.
My comments added.
----------oooOooo----------
Either those bunny midwives are midgets or the chick coming out of the egg is giant. Either way the interspecies thing is a bit weird.
Mega creepy and not sure what the disembodied heads in flowers have to do with Easter.
There’s a large collection of Easter cards that have little girls’ heads in flowers (why never any boys???) so I’ll end that series here. Often times the same face is in different flowers, one looking up and smiling, one looking down and serious.
Nothing says Easter more than a rabbit holding a skillet whilst a hen lays an egg into it with one of her young chicks watching. “No, Mummy!! That’s my brother or sister!”
You know how in The Simpsons the fish in the river near the Springfield nuclear power plant have 3 eyes and two heads? Well, meet the dancing Easter bunnies from Chernobyl.
“Does my bum look big in this shell?”
Easter, the time when young girls dress provocatively, boys dress as clowns and we all celebrate the birth of a giant chicken. Boy, back then they sure got the message of Easter.
A weary traveller chicken refreshes with a beer at an outdoor liquor sales trestle whilst others carouse nearby. It must be Easter.
Is there anything about this card that strikes you as odd? Yep, the “A” in “A Happy Easter” is lower case.
“Aw c’mon, it’s Easter.”
The words are in German and mean “A Happy Easter”. If anyone can come up with an inappropriate Easter card, it would have to be the Germans. Let’s be clear, though. The rabbit isn’t going out to kill something, it’s standing guard, as indicated by the sentry box behind it. So if it’s guarding the eggs, this is . . .the Easter Bunny!
A captured rabbit performs in Chicken Circus.
What a load of cobblers. Chickens don’t hatch out of eggs like that!
A great card to send to children. Or is it the cover of a Stephen King book?
A companion card to the one earlier. Note that is a personal longhand note on the bottom right, indicating someone actually sent this.
Another Easter card featuring genetic mutations. This is the Egghead family.
Not many people realise that the Easter Bunny is actually quite militaristic and that he doesn’t take crap from anybody.
Two adorable young girls getting more baby chicken skins for more coats. It’s like Silence of the Lambs meets Easter.
At least they took the Easter Bunny prisoner instead of shooting him but who knows whether rabbit stew was on the menu that night.
Just too creepy for words, especially ghost dad top right
Why is the bunny bleeding? Put the bunny back in the box.
“I knew I’d catch you sooner or later with these dummy eggs, you SOB! “ The good ol’ Germs again.
---------ooOoo---------
Although, future generations may well be looking at us and our cards in the same fashion . . .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)