Tuesday, March 18, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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March 18, 2017:
Chuck Berry died.
Chuck Berry, 1958
Chuck Berry (1926 – 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957), and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958).Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.
While still a high school student, he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. His break came when he travelled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues chart. By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and a lucrative touring career.
He was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines for the purpose of having sex. After his release in 1963, Berry had several more successful songs, including "No Particular Place to Go", "You Never Can Tell", and "Nadine". However, these did not achieve the same success or lasting impact of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgia performer, playing his past material . His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service for tax evasion.
On March 18, 2017, Berry was found unresponsive at his home and was unable to be revived.
Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986.
By the way:
In 1987, Berry was charged with assaulting a woman at New York's Gramercy Park Hotel. He was accused of causing "lacerations of the mouth, requiring five stitches, two loose teeth, [and] contusions of the face." He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of harassment and paid a $250 fine.
In 1990, he was sued by several women who claimed that he had installed a video camera in the bathroom of his restaurant. Berry claimed that he had the camera installed to catch a worker who was suspected of stealing from the restaurant. Although his guilt was never proven in court, Berry opted for a class action settlement. One of his biographers, Bruce Pegg, estimated that it cost Berry over $1.2 million plus legal fees. His lawyers said he had been the victim of a conspiracy to profit from his wealth.
Reportedly, according to Rolling Stone, a police raid on his house found intimate videotapes of women. Also found in the raid were 62 grams of marijuana. Felony drug charges were filed and Berry agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanour possession of marijuana. He was given a six-month suspended jail sentence, placed on two years unsupervised probation, and was ordered to donate $5,000 to a local hospital.
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OZ VERNACULAR
(Mainly for overseas readers. It is also a segue for tomorrow's Bytes).
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BILLABONG:
A cut-off meander bend of a river, formed most commonly when floodwaters createa new straighter channel.
The word comes from the south-western New South Wales Aboriginal language Wiradjuri: bila ‘river’ + bang (a suffix probably indicating a continuation in time or space, or functioning), the combination signifying a watercourse that runs only after rain. First recorded in the 1830s.
1861 Burke & Wills, Exploring Expedition:At the end of a very long waterhole, it breaks into billibongs, which continue splitting into sandy channels until they are all lost in the earthy soil.
A billabong
Banjo Paterson's popular song "Waltzing Matilda" is set beside a billabong.
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BILLY:
A vessel for the boiling of water, making of tea, etc., over an open fire; a cylindrical container, usually of tin, enamel ware, or aluminium, fitted with a lid and a wire handle.
It comes from the Scottish dialect word billy-pot meaning ‘cooking utensil’. Possibly reinforced by bouilli tin (recorded 1858 in Australia and 1852 in New Zealand, with variant bully tin recorded in New Zealand in 1849 but not until 1920 in Australia), an empty tin that had contained preserved boeuf bouilli 'bully beef', used as a container for cooking.
It is not, as popularly thought, related to the Aboriginal word billabong. Billy is first recorded in the 1840s.
1859 W. Burrows, Adventures of a Mounted Trooper in the Australian Constabulary:A 'billy' is a tin vessel, something between a saucepan and a kettle, always black outside from being constantly on the fire, and looking brown inside from the quantity of tea that is generally to be seen in it.
The Jolly Swagman in Winton; the town made famous by the Waltzing Matilda song. Note the billy next to him.
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DAMPER:
Damper is a thick home-made bread traditionally prepared by early European settlers in Australia. It is a bread made from wheat-based dough, flour, salt and water, with some butter if available, is kneaded and baked in the coals of a campfire, either directly or within a camp oven. I used to make it to go with lamb stew. Can’t beat it.
Etymology
The word "damper" originated as a specific use of the British word "damper", meaning "something that takes the edge off the appetite". There was likely also some influence from the phrase "damp down" as in "to damp down a fire".
When cooked as smaller, individually-sized portions, the damper may be known as "bush scones" or "johnnycakes" (also "johnny cakes").
Damper was eaten by stockmen who travelled in remote areas for long periods, with only basic rations of flour (much less bulky than baked bread), sugar and tea, supplemented by whatever meat was available. It was also a basic provision of squatters.
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BUNYIP
An amphibious monster supposed to inhabit inland waterways. Descriptions of it vary greatly. Some give it a frightful human head and an animal body. Many descriptions emphasise its threat to humans and its loud booming at night. It inhabits inland rivers, swamps, and billabongs. The word comes from the Aboriginal Wathaurong language of Victoria. Bunyip is first recorded in the 1840s.
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Monday, March 17, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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March 17, 1921:
Marie Stopes opened first birth control clinic in England.
Marie Stopes (1880 – 1958) was a British author, palaeobotanist and campaigner for eugenics and women's rights.
With her second husband, Humphrey Verdon Roe, Stopes founded the first birth control clinic in Britain on March 17, 1921. Margaret Sanger, another birth-control pioneer, had opened a birth control clinic in New York but the police closed it. Stopes’ clinic was run by midwives and supported by visiting doctors. It offered mothers birth control advice, taught them birth control methods and dispensed Stopes own "Pro-Race" and "Racial" cervical caps. The free clinic was open to all married women for knowledge about reproductive health. Stopes tried to discover alternatives for families and increase knowledge about birth control and the reproductive system.
Stopes edited the newsletter Birth Control News, which gave explicit practical advice. Her sex manual Married Love (1918) was controversial and influential, and brought the subject of birth control into wide public discourse. Stopes publicly opposed abortion, arguing that the prevention of conception was all that was needed.
A playground rhyme at the time was:
Jeanie, Jeanie, full of hopes,
Read a book by Marie Stopes,
But, to judge from her condition,
She must have read the wrong edition
Stope’s actions in private were at odds with her public pronouncements. A firm believer in eugenics, inhibiting the fertility of people and groups considered inferior or promoting that of those considered superior, she advocated:
- the compulsory sterilisation of those she considered unfit for parenthood -
“degenerate, feeble-minded and unbalanced who are now in our midst and who devastate social customs. These populate most rapidly and tend proportionately to increase and these are like the parasite upon the healthy tree sapping its vitality."
- opposition to mixed race marriages - In 1934, an interview published in the Australian Women's Weekly disclosed her views on mixed-race marriages: she advised correspondents against them and believed that all half-castes should be sterilised at birth...
"thus painlessly and in no way interfering with the individual's life, the unhappy fate of he who is neither black nor white is prevented from being passed on to yet unborn babes."
- publicly, Stopes professed to oppose abortion; during her lifetime, her clinics did not offer that service. She single-mindedly pursued abortion providers and used the police and the courts to prosecute them. In a 1919 letter however she had outlined a method of abortion to an unidentified correspondent, and according to a biographer, she "was even prepared in some cases to advocate abortion, or, as she preferred to put it, the evacuation of the uterus".
In reaction to her controversial beliefs, Marie Stopes International in 2020 changed its name to "MSI Reproductive Choices" with no other changes.
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BACK STORIES OF POPULAR SONGS
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UPTOWN GIRL:
“Uptown Girl" is a song written and performed by American musician Billy Joel from his ninth studio album An Innocent Man (1983). The lyrics describe a working-class "downtown man" attempting to woo a wealthy "uptown girl".
According to an interview with Howard Stern, Joel had originally titled the song "Uptown Girls", and it was conceived on an occasion when he was surrounded by Christie Brinkley, Whitney Houston, and his then-girlfriend Elle Macpherson. According to numerous interviews with Joel, the song was initially written about his relationship with Macpherson, but it ended up also becoming about his soon-to-be wife, Brinkley, both women being two of the most famous supermodels of the 1980s. Joel said that the song was inspired by the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
The music video depicts Joel and his backup singers working as auto mechanics. Brinkley arrives in a chauffeured Rolls-Royce as Joel and the mechanics dance with her. A poster of Brinkley can be seen in the garage as well as on a billboard above the garage advertising "Uptown Cosmetics". At the end of the video Joel and Brinkley ride off on a motorcycle.
Elle McPherson, Billy Joel, Christie Brinkley
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LADY IN RED:
"Lady in Red" is a song by British-Irish singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh, released in 1986.
De Burgh started writing this song about his wife Diane, after an argument, but he was having a hard time finishing it. Part of the problem was that he needed a title: he didn't want to use "The Way You Look Tonight," because there was already a song with that name. As de Burgh tells it, five months later he saw Diane, wearing red, across a crowded nightclub, which gave him the idea for the title. On the British TV series This Is Your Life, de Burgh said that the song was inspired by the memory of when he first saw Diane, and how men so often cannot even remember what their wives were wearing when they first met. On his website, he said the song was not specifically about Diane, but about appreciating the most important people in our lives, who we often take for granted; how we often fail to notice what attracted us to another person in the first place. In this account, he was already married to Diane but didn't realise it was her when he spotted her across the room.
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TAINTED LOVE:
Tainted Love" is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of American group the Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964. In 1981, the song attained worldwide fame after being covered and reworked by British synth-pop duo Soft Cell.
The song is about a toxic relationship, with the singer realiing he's got to leave it. "I love you though you hurt me so," he sings, as he struggles to move on.
The song's writer, Ed Cobb, told Blender magazine: "I had a lover for whom you could say wasn't a good individual. I tried to go into her head and write a song from her standpoint. Once the word 'tainted' had popped into my head, the song was written very quickly, probably 15 minutes."
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Sunday, March 16, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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March 16, 1968:
My Lai massacre.
The My Lai massacre was a United States war crime committed on 16 March 1968, involving the mass murder of unarmed civilians in Sơn Mỹ village, Quảng Ngãi province, South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. At least 347 and up to 504 civilians, almost all women, children, and elderly men, were murdered by U.S. Army soldiers, some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated, and some soldiers mutilated and raped children as young as 12. The incident was the largest massacre of civilians by U.S. forces in the 20th century.
The killing began while the troops were searching the village for guerillas, and continued after they realized that no guerillas seemed to be present. Villagers were gathered together, held in the open, then murdered with automatic weapons, bayonets, and hand grenades; one large group of villagers was shot in an irrigation ditch. Soldiers also burned down homes and killed livestock. Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr. and his helicopter crew are credited with attempting to stop the massacre. On the same day, B Company massacred an additional 60 to 155 people in the nearby hamlet of My Khe 4.
The massacre was originally reported as a battle against Viet Cong troops, and was covered up in initial investigations by the U.S. Army. The efforts of veteran Ronald Ridenhour and journalist Seymour Hersh broke the news of the massacre to the American public in November 1969, prompting global outrage and contributing to domestic opposition to involvement in the war. Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., (1943 – 2024) the leader of 1st Platoon in C Company, was convicted. He was found guilty of murdering 22 villagers and originally given a life sentence, but served three-and-a-half years under house arrest after U.S. president Richard Nixon commuted his sentence.
Calley worked at his father-in-law's store and became a gemologist and obtained his real estate license, which had initially been denied due to his criminal record. During his divorce proceedings, Calley stated that he had prostate cancer and gastrointestinal problems that gave him no chance of earning a living. He died at the age of 80.
William Calley Jr. mugshot for charges involving the My Lai massacre.
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ONE HIT WONDERS
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A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with only one hit single that overshadows their other work.
- Wikipedia
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The strange thing about One Hit Wonders is how brightly they shone with their one hit at the time and then fizzled out, largely dropping from view.
Here are some.
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MACARENA
About:
"Macarena" is a song by Spanish pop duo Los del Río, originally recorded for their 1993 album A mí me gusta.
A remix by Miami-based producers the Bayside Boys, who added a section with English lyrics and expanded its popularity, initially peaked at No. 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in late 1995. The Bayside Boys mix enjoyed a significant revival the following year when it re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 1 for 14 weeks between August and November 1996. Its resurgence was aided by a dance craze that became a cultural phenomenon throughout the latter half of 1996 and early 1997.
The song got the group ranked the "No. 1 Greatest One-Hit Wonder of All Time" by VH1 in 2002.
Los del Rio version, with part English lyrics:
Bayside Boys remix:
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TURNING JAPANESE
"Turning Japanese" is a song by English band the Vapors, from their 1980 album New Clear Days. It was an international hit, becoming the band's most well-known song. The song prominently features the Oriental riff played on guitar.
About:
According to songwriter David Fenton, "Turning Japanese is all the clichés about angst and youth and turning into something you didn't expect." Fenton intended the song to be a love song, with the character of the song "pining over a photograph of his ex-girlfriend" in his bedroom, drawing from Fenton's own experience of being rejected. Fenton wrote the song in his flat, but had problems writing the chorus. He said that the chorus then came to him suddenly when he woke up at 4 a.m. with the lyric "Turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese" in his head, and he used it even though the words and the song title did not "really mean much".
The band suspected they would score a hit with "Turning Japanese", even delaying its release in order to make it their second single, hoping to avoid becoming "one-hit wonders". Nonetheless, they never matched the single's success. In Australia, it spent two weeks at No. 1 during June 1980. The song was also a minor hit in Japan.
The Vapors' did not chart again in the US, however they had a couple of other minor hits in the UK. After releasing another album in 1981 they called it quits. After the band disbanded Fenton retired from creating music and went to work in the music industry as a lawyer.
Video:
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COME ON EILEEN
Come On Eileen" is a song by the English group Dexys Midnight Runners, written by singer/songwriter and group founder Kevin Rowland, released in the United Kingdom in June 1982 as a single from their second studio album Too-Rye-Ay. "Come On Eileen" was an enormous hit, going to #1 in America, the UK and Australia and won Best British Single at the 1983 Brit Awards.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dexys went through numerous personnel changes over the course of three albums and 13 singles, with only singer/songwriter/co-founder Kevin Rowland remaining in the band through all of the transitions. The band broke up in 1987.
This song is based on a true story. Eileen was a girl that Kevin Rowland grew up with. Their relationship became romantic when the pair were 13, and according to Rowland, it turned sexual a year or two later. Rowland was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy in church. Sex was a taboo subject, and considered "dirty" - something that fascinated him. When he wrote this song, Rowland was expressing the feelings of that adolescent enjoying his first sexual relationship and dreaming of being free from the strictures of a buttoned-down society. The song describes the thin line between love and lust.
By the way:
The band's name was inspired by the amphetamine drug Dexedrine, which is commonly known as "Dexys" (Contrary to popular belief, the band's name does not have an apostrophe). The band itself steered away from drinking and drugs, saying nothing should interfere with their dedication to music.
Video:
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Saturday, March 15, 2025
QUOTE FOR THE DAY
"Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true."
- Julius Caesar
ON THIS DAY
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March 15, 44 BC:
Julius Caesar assassinated.
Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC), a Roman general, defeated his political rival Pompey in a civil war and subsequently became dictator from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC.
Fearful of his power, domination of the state, and the possibility that he might make himself king, a group of senators led by Brutus and Cassius assassinated Caesar on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC. A new series of civil wars broke out and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesar's great-nephew and adoptive heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to sole power after defeating his opponents thirteen years later. Octavian then set about solidifying his power, transforming the Republic into the Roman Empire.
By the Way:
I have a pen holder on my office desk that looks like this:
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POETRY SPOT - HENRY LAWSON
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Glossary:
Riverina:
An agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation.
Gundagai:
A country town in New South Wales, Australia, 390 kilometres (240 mi) south-west of Sydney.
Kirk:
Scottish word for church.
Flanders:
The Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium. The battles that took place in Flanders during the First World War centering on Ypres in 1914, 1915 and then 1917, resulted in an unprecedented level of carnage, death and destruction scarcely possible to imagine.
Mirk:
An archaic variant of murk, meaning darkness or gloom.
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Sung version:
John Schumann and the Vagabond Crew:
Another version:
A further version:
Recited:
Jack Thompson
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Synopsis:
Spoilers ahead. Come back to this if you want te read the poem first.
Scots of the Riverina is a 1917 Australian bush poem by Henry Lawson. It relates the story of a boy who left his home in Riverina and is shunned by his family until he dies in World War I.
It is set in the Riverina, New South Wales in the town of Gundagai. It tells of a boy who leaves home at the start of the harvest to move to the city, an unheard of and unforgivable thing for a Scot to do in the early 1900s, according to the poet: "They were Scots of the Riverina, and to run from home was a crime."
The boy's father, the old "Scot of the Riverina", burns all of his son's letters, removes his son's name from the Family Bible, and vows to never speak of his son again. Eventually the boy goes to war and is killed at Flanders. The poem ends with the father writing his son's name back into the bible.
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Poem:
Scots of the Riverina
- Henry Lawson (1917)
The boy cleared out to the city from his home at harvest time —
They were Scots of the Riverina, and to run from home was a crime.
The old man burned his letters, the first and last he burned,
And he scratched his name from the Bible when the old wife's back was turned.
A year went past and another. There were calls from the firing-line;
They heard the boy had enlisted, but the old man made no sign.
His name must never be mentioned on the farm by Gundagai —
They were Scots of the Riverina with ever the kirk hard by.
The boy came home on his "final", and the township's bonfire burned.
His mother's arms were about him; but the old man's back was turned.
The daughters begged for pardon till the old man raised his hand —
A Scot of the Riverina who was hard to understand.
The boy was killed in Flanders, where the best and bravest die.
There were tears at the Grahame homestead and grief in Gundagai;
But the old man ploughed at daybreak and the old man ploughed till the mirk —
There were furrows of pain in the orchard while his housefolk went to the kirk.
The hurricane lamp in the rafters dimly and dimly burned;
And the old man died at the table when the old wife's back was turned.
Face down on his bare arms folded he sank with his wild grey hair
Outspread o'er the open Bible and a name re-written there.
Friday, March 14, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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14 March, 1964:
Jack Ruby found guilty.
Mugshot of Jack Ruby taken November 24, 1963, after his arrest for killing Lee Harvey Oswald.
Jack Ruby (1911 – 1967) was an American nightclub owner who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Ruby shot and mortally wounded Oswald in Dallas Police Headquarters and was immediately arrested. The shooting happened on live television.
Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald
On March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted of murder with malice and was sentenced to death, the first courtroom verdict to be televised in the United States.
Ruby's conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the grounds that "an oral confession of premeditation made while in police custody" should have been ruled inadmissible, because it violated a Texas criminal statute. The court also ruled that the venue should have been changed to a Texas county other than the one in which the high-profile crime had been committed. He was granted a new trial, but Ruby fell ill, was diagnosed with cancer, and died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3, 1967.
In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald, that Ruby shot Oswald on impulse and in retaliation for the Kennedy assassination. The commission's findings have been supported by some writers but also challenged by various critics who hypothesise that Ruby was part of a conspiracy surrounding the Kennedy assassination.
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FUNNY FRIDAY
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Good morning, Byters.
Son Elliot is marrying his sweetheart Helen next week, a lovely lass of Scottish origin, and people have been arriving from overseas for that event. So today’s theme is . . . travel.
Caution: risqué content ahead.
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SOME HUMOUR:
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A traveler enters a pub.
The barkeep says, "Welcome! What are you drinking?" The traveler, weary from her long journey, responds simply, "Your finest ale, please." The barkeep tells her, "Brilliant." As he pours her a pint of his finest ale, he makes her an offer.
"Since you are a first time customer, I will offer you a gift I offer all of my first time customers." The traveler blushed and nodded at the bartender, who was easy on her eyes.
"You may choose either this first pint of ale is free or instead you may pay for the beer and I will give you a piece of valuable advice." The traveler pondered this for a moment, knowing her coin purse is light.
"Though my purse is light, barkeep, I am intrigued by your offer. I will pay for my ale, now please share the valuable advice." The barkeep grinned, counting the coins she had given him, looked her in the eye and said, "You should've taken the free pint."
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I was gonna tell a joke about time traveling
But you guys didn't like it
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An overweight time traveler goes back in time to ancient Rome. He realizes he needs clothes to blend in to he goes to the nearest shop and asks the owner, "Do you have XL togas?" The owner relies "Yes but why so many?"
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A man was speeding down an Alabama highway, feeling secure in a gaggle of cars all traveling at the same speed. However, as they passed a speed trap, he got nailed with an infrared speed detector and was pulled over.
The officer handed him the citation, received his signature and was about to walk away when the man asked, "Officer, I know I was speeding, but I don't think it's fair - there were plenty of other cars around me who were going just as fast, so why did I get the ticket?"
"Ever go a fishin'?" the policeman asked the man. "Ummm, yeah..." the startled man replied. The officer grinned and added, "Did you ever catch 'em all?"
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Taxiing down the tarmac, the 767 abruptly stopped, turned around and returned to the gate. After a hour-long wait, it finally took off.
A concerned passenger asked the flight attendant, "What, exactly, was the problem?"
"The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in the engine," explained the flight attendant. "It took us a while to find a new pilot."
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Many years ago a man was travelling through the mountains of Switzerland. Nightfall was rapidly approaching and he had nowhere to sleep.
He went up to a farmhouse and asked the farmer if he could spend the night. The farmer told him that he could sleep in the barn.
As the story goes, the farmer's daughter asked her father, "Who is that man going into the barn?" "That fellow is travelling through," said the farmer. "Needs a place to stay for the night, so, I told him he could sleep in the barn."
The daughter said, "Perhaps he is hungry." So she prepared him a plate of food for him and then took it out to the barn. About an hour later, the daughter returned. Her clothing dishevelled and straw in her hair.
Straight up to bed she went. The farmer's wife was very observant. She then suggested that perhaps the man was thirsty. So she fetched a bottle of wine, took it out to the barn, and she too did not return for an hour. Her clothing was askew, her blouse buttoned incorrectly. She also headed straight to bed.
The next morning at sunrise the man in the barn got up and continued on his journey, waving to the farmer as he left. When the daughter awoke and learned that the visitor was gone, she broke into tears. "How could he leave without even saying goodbye," she cried. "We made such passionate love last night!"
"What?" shouted the father as he angrily ran out of the house looking for the man, who by now was halfway up the mountain. The farmer screamed up at him, "I'm going to get you! You had sex with my daughter!" The man looked back down from the mountainside, cupped his hand next to his mouth, and yelled out... "LAIDTHEOLADEETOO!"
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A man is traveling in Scotland...
He stops one night in a small village and goes into the pub for a drink. He notices that one of the patrons is looking at him and is clearly drunk, after a few minutes he gets up and walk over to the traveler and in an angry voice says...
"Do you see the furniture in this pub? I crafted it all by hand, shaped and finished it to perfection but do they call me Colin the furniture maker? NO!" and he wanders back to his table and resumes drinking.
A few minutes later he walks up to the traveler again and in an even angrier voice says...
"Do you see that boat at the dock on the lake? I built that boat using planks from trees I cut down myself, I sawed and planed them with my own hands and used them to build a beautiful boat that has sailed this lake for years but, do they call me Colin the boatwright? NO!" and again he wanders back to his table.
Again, after few more minutes he walks over to the traveler and in a voice filled with rage he yells "Do you see that painting on the wall, I spent months getting all the colours and lighting just right so it's the most beautiful painting of our lake ever created by man, but do they call me Colin the artist? NO!... but you fuck just one sheep..."
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A traveling salesman is driving past a farmhouse when he sees a pig with a wooden leg.
This piques his curiosity, so he goes to the house and knocks on the door. The farmer answers.
"What's the story with the pig with the wooden leg?" asks the salesman.
"Let me tell you about that pig," says the farmer. "That is no ordinary pig."
"One night about six months ago my house caught on fire. That pig came into the house, nudged me awake, and led me through the smoke to safety. That pig saved my life!"
"That really is some pig," the salesman agrees. "But why does he have a wooden leg?"
"Well," says the farmer, "a pig like that you don't eat all at once."
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LIMERICK OF THE WEEK:
A crossword compiler named Moss
Who found himself quite at a loss
When asked, 'Why so blue?'
Said, 'I haven't a clue
I'm 2 Down to put 1 Across.'
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GALLERY:
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RELIGION SPOT:
God decides to take a vacation...
So he goes to his travel agent to get some recommendations. God asks the agent where he should go and the agent says, "How about the Moon? It's supposed to be all the rage right now."
God thinks about it and says, "No... I'd like to go somewhere with a little more atmosphere."
So the agents says, "Okay, well how about Mars? It's really nice this time of year."
God considers it for a second and then says, "No... I'd really like to go somewhere with water."
The agent goes, "Oh well I've got the perfect place, how about Earth? It's got beautiful water and lots of atmosphere!"
God thinks about it again before saying, "No... I went there a couple thousand years ago and knocked up some Jewish girl and they've been talking about it ever since."
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CORN CORNER:
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In the Old West, cowboys travelling home in the dark used to tie a lantern to their horse's saddle to help them find their way.
It was an early form of saddle-light navigation.
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Being a musician is great for travelling and meeting new people. Throughout my career I have met amazing humans.
Once I met this Italian opera singer, amazing gal. Some other time an irish theremine player. But the other day I met a polish sound engineer. And a czech one too. And a czech one too. And a czech one too.
__________
I was gutted this afternoon when my wife told me my 6 year old son wasn't actually mine.
She then said I need to pay more attention at school pick up.
__________
A Jewish Optimist and a Jewish Pessimist read a newspaper.
The Jewish Pessimist says “things can’t possibly get worse.” The Jewish Optimist responds: “of course they can!”
__________
What did the pirate say on his 80th birthday?
Aye matey.
__________
I’ve told my friend that I’ve spent only $98 at IKEA
He complimented me for my great self-restraint.
To be honest, I couldn’t have eaten another hot dog.
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Thursday, March 13, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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March 13, 1930:
Clyde Tombaugh announces discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory.
(The planet, not Mickey Mouse’s pet dog, but have you ever wondered how a clothes-wearing mouse who has a clothes-wearing friend who is a dog (Goofy), and both of whom speak, also has a pet dog without clothes who can only bark?)
Pluto is a dwarf planet made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner planets. Pluto has roughly one-sixth the mass of the Moon, and one-third its volume.
On February 18, 1930, after nearly a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered a possible moving object on photographic plates taken on January 23 and 29. The discovery was telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory on March 13, 1930.
Clyde Tombaugh in Kansas
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union formally redefined the term planet to exclude dwarf planets such as Pluto. Many planetary astronomers, however, continue to consider Pluto and other dwarf planets to be planets.
By the Way:
The name Pluto came from the Roman god of the underworld.
Disney’s Pluto first appeared in the 1930 film The Chain Gang, as a nameless bloodhound tracking escaped prisoner Mickey. He next appeared in the 1930 film The Picnic, however he was portrayed as Minnie's dog, and was named "Rover". In his third appearance, The Moose Hunt (1931), he appeared as Mickey's pet, and was finally given the name "Pluto". Disney animator Ben Sharpsteen claimed they changed the name to Pluto because: "We thought the name [Rover] was too common, so we had to look for something else. ... We changed it to Pluto the Pup ... but I don't honestly remember why." Some Disney animators reportedly believed that Disney chose the name "Pluto" to capitalise on the then-newly-named ninth planet of Pluto. However, animation historian John Canemaker states that Disney chose the name simply because he once had a dog named Pluto.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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March 12, 1930:
Gandhi begins the Salt March.
The Salt March was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India, led by Mahatma Gandhi. The 24-day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. The march was the first act in an even-larger campaign of civil disobedience (satyagraha) that Gandhi waged against British rule in India that extended into early 1931 and garnered Gandhi widespread support among the Indian populace and considerable worldwide attention.
Salt production and distribution in India had long been a lucrative monopoly of the British. Through a series of laws, the Indian populace was prohibited from producing or selling salt independently, and instead Indians were required to buy expensive, heavily taxed salt that often was imported. This affected the great majority of Indians, who could not afford to buy it. Indian protests against the salt tax began in the 19th century and remained a major contentious issue throughout the period of British rule of the subcontinent.
In early 1930 Gandhi decided to mount a highly visible demonstration against the increasingly repressive salt tax by marching from his religious retreat to the Arabian Sea coast. He set out on foot on March 12, 1930, accompanied by several dozen followers. Hundreds more joined the core group of followers as they made their way to the sea, and on April 5 the entourage reached Dandi after a journey of some 240 miles (385 km). On the morning of April 6, Gandhi and his followers picked up handfuls of salt along the shore, thus technically “producing” salt and breaking the law.
No arrests were made that day, and Gandhi continued his satyagraha against the salt tax for the next two months, exhorting other Indians to break the salt laws by committing acts of civil disobedience. Thousands were arrested and imprisoned, including Jawaharlal Nehru in April and Gandhi himself in early May after he informed Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India, of his intention to march on the nearby Dharasana saltworks. News of Gandhi’s detention spurred tens of thousands more to join the satyagraha. The march on the saltworks went ahead as planned on May 21, 1930 and many of the some 2,500 peaceful marchers were attacked and beaten by police. By the end of the year, some 60,000 people were in jail.
Gandhi was released from custody in January 1931 and began negotiations with Lord Irwin aimed at ending the satyagraha campaign. A truce subsequently was declared, which was formalised in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact that was signed on March 5.
Sculpture in New Delhi, India, depicting Mahatma Gandhi leading the 1930 Salt March.
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By the way, from the vault:
Pamela Hicks, daughter of Lord Mountbatten (the last Governor General of India), writing in The Telegraph about the impending marriage of Elizabeth and Phillip:Princess Elizabeth had written me a sweet letter asking me to be one of her bridesmaids and I, of course, was honoured to accept.Before we left, my parents saw Mahatma Gandhi and he told my father: ‘I so want to give Princess Elizabeth a present, but I have given all my possessions away.’My father, however, knew he still had his spinning wheel and he told Gandhi: ‘If a cloth could be made from yarn you have spun, that would be like receiving the Crown Jewels’And so this was done and we took his present to Britain for the wedding, but Queen Mary wrongly thought it was a loincloth and thought it was the most ‘indelicate’ gift.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2025
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March 11, 2011:
Tsunami, Fukushima nuclear plant accident, Japan.
On 11 March 2011 the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan happened off the country's eastern coast. The 9.0-magnitude quake was so forceful it shifted the Earth off its axis. It triggered a tsunami which swept over Japan's main island of Honshu, killing more than 18,000 people and wiping entire towns off the map.
A boat sits atop a building in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami which devastated a vast area of northeastern Pacific coast of Japan
At the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the gigantic wave surged over coastal defences and flooded the reactors, sparking a major disaster. Authorities set up an exclusion zone which grew larger and larger as radiation leaked from the plant, forcing more than 150,000 people to evacuate from the area.
More than a decade later, that zone remains in place and many residents have not returned. Authorities believe it will take up to 40 years to finish the work of decontamination, which has already cost Japan trillions of yen.
The accident was rated seven (the maximum severity) on the International Nuclear Event Scale by Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. It is regarded as the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, which was also rated a seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
Despite this, there were no deaths caused by acute radiation
syndrome. Given the uncertain health effects of low-dose radiation, cancer
deaths cannot be ruled out. However, studies by the World Health
Organisation and Tokyo University have shown that no discernible increase in
the rate of cancer deaths is expected. Predicted future cancer deaths due
to accumulated radiation exposures in the population living near Fukushima have
ranged in the academic literature from none to hundreds.
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