Taking one for the Team!

My wife wasn't going to get any candy to hand out because we were not going to be home, and the Chiefs were playing so we would be watching that when we got home. My youngest son, Garth,  whose 1 1/2 went to the store with me Sunday night to get milk and I picked up a bag of Halloween candy.  Going through the check line I asked Garth. "Who is buying the candy?",  He answered "ME!" "Whose is going to get in trouble for buying candy?",  He replied "ME!" When we got home I put the bags on the table, when my wife found the candy she asked, "What is this?"I asked Garth, "Who bought the candy?"He answered "ME!""Whose going to get in trouble for buying candy?""ME!"  I love that kid, taking one for the team and it didn't even cost me a piece of candy.  That's...

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Posted in: Halloween Candy ME

Origins of Trick or Treat

Souling as it was called, was a late mid-evil practice when poor folk would go door to door on Hollowmas (November 1st), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on 'All Saints Day' (November 2nd), which originated in Ireland and Great Britain.  Similar practices were found to exist as far south as Italy.Later it became known as Guising, where children disguised in costumes would go door to door for food or coins.  This was recorded in Scotland in 1895 were masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made of scooped out turnips visited homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit or money.By the 1950's, Trick or Treat was a customary tradition throughout the United States.  These days it is prevalent custom on Halloween (October 31st ) in the United States, Canada, Mexico,...

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Posted in: Trick Treat Halloween Hallowmas All Saints Day

The War of the Worlds

On October 30, 1938 . . .Orson Welles, a radio broadcaster in the late 1930's, broadcast a reading of the Science Fiction novel "War of the Worlds" as if it was really happening causing panic throughout the listening audience who hadn't caught the very beginning of the broadcast to know it wasn't real.  Many listeners believing they were listening to a live broadcast of an actual Alien invasion of the Earth actually packed up and headed other places for safety. The days following the broadcast were filled with outrage and embarrassment, but the episode launched Welles' career. The fact that people, and so many people, believed the broadcast to be true leads me to believe that most of the population believed that aliens could exist and visit our planet!  Not that they would ever admit...

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Posted in: Aliens Orson Welles Radio

The Price of Achievement

When you figure the years of parenting involved with raising and teaching a child, the years of helping them with homework, of their studying, reading, not to mention if they go on an attend a college or University for higher education.  Not to mention how a person matters to those around them, as far as family members, friends, wives and their children.  The cost of a trained, intelligence and productive adult human being is enormous on many levels.  So when you lose a person in the name of scientific achievement you have to consider that cost on top of all the other costs involved with research, development, parts, material and paying people to work on the project.Chief Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin gave orders to use improper shutdown and control procedures on an experimental...

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Posted in: Death Astronauts Cosmonauts Tortoises Space

The Space Race (Part Two)

The Soviet Union achieved another first with dual-piloted flights, the Vostok 3 and Vostok 4, from August 11th through the 15th in 1962.  The two spacecraft came within four miles of each other.  The significant accomplishment of these flights was actually on the ground with being able to launch two spacecraft from the same pad in a very short time span.Again the Soviets achieved another first when the first female, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into space on June 16, 1963.  She was also the first civilian to go into space.  This was reportedly Korolev's idea, and accomplished purely for propaganda value.  It would be 1978 before the United States opened up the Space Program for women, and 1980 before the Russians would do so again. When the Americans announced...

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Posted in: Soviets Space Moon Race Program

Today in History October 28th

1886  The Statue of Liberty was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland.  It was a gift from France in honor of the friendship established with the United States during the American Revolution.  I do understand that our current Allies in Great Britain it is taught in school as the American Revolt, but I think we are long past those issues.  Originally titled "Liberty Enlightening the World", the statue was sculpted in copper by Fredric-Auguste Bartholdi, and the interior frame was engineered by Gustave Eiffel.  Gustave Eiffel was the chief engineer of the Eiffel Tower which still stands in Paris, France.1919  Congress passed the Volstead Act, or the National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.  We all know how that ended up!  Say Cheers...

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Posted in: Statue Liberty Volstead Prohibition Congress Repealing

The Space Race

As much as I hate to give the Nazi's credit for anything good, the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union can trace its origins to Nazi Germany.  Like so many times before in history, Military Technology, and the desire to kill our fellow human beings brought about great advances in Science and Technology.  Lt. Colonel Karl Emil Becker, the head of the German Army Ballistics and Munitions Branch, gathered a small team of engineers to figure out how to use rockets as long range artillery.  Walter Dornberger and Leo Zanssen were part of that team along with a young engineering prodigy by the name of Wernher von Braun, in 1932.  Von Braun dreamed about mankind going into outer space with the use of rockets. General Dornberger was the military head of the...

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Posted in: Space Race Nazi Rockets U.S. Soviets Kennedy

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

The gunfight actually occurred in a narrow lot six doors west of the rear entrance to the O.K. Corral on Fremont Street.  Most of what is known of the fight is based off of a month long preliminary hearing held afterward that became known as the "Spicer Hearings."  Reporters from both newspapers covered the hearings.  The testimony's and reporting of the events differ greatly.  The Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday were charged by Billy Clanton's brother, Ike Clanton, and were later exonerated by a local judge after the preliminary hearing and again later by a local grand jury. On the evening of October 25, Tom McLaury and Ike Clanton came to Tombstone to sell beef stock to a local butcher.  Later that evening, Ike and Doc Holliday had a confrontation and Morgan Earp...

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Posted in: Wyatt Earp O.K. Corral Gunfight Tombstone

The Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize was established by American (Hungarian-born) publisher Joseph Pulitzer.  Joseph was a journalist and newspaper publisher, who founded the "St. Louis Dispatch."  Pulitzer left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911, a portion of which was used to found the University's school of journalism in 1912.  The prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories.  In twenty of these, each winner receives a certificate and a $10,000 dollar cash award.  The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal, which usually goes to a newspaper.  Awards are given for achievements in newspaper, on-line journalism, literature, and musical composition. The Pulitzer Prize does not automatically evaluate all...

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Posted in: pulitzer prize Noble Price John Steinbeck

Fight or Flight

Fight or Flight is an instinct that almost every human has ingrained in them from their DNA from centuries of those who came before us having to fight for their survival.  Since the dawn of time when faced with predator animals, to those of our own kind, mankind has had to run away, fight or die, sometimes fight and die.If you have ever been in the woods and wandered upon a wild animal by accident, such as a cougar, mountain lion, or a bear, you know the feeling I am describing.  If you ever have been put in a situation where you had to fight or get the crap knocked out of you, you know what I am talking about.  If you have ever had to dig a foxhole and guard it and your fire zone throughout the night, you know what I am talking about. It is fight, get beat, or die! ...

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Posted in: World Peace Aliens Fight Flight

The death of the query letter!

As Self-Publishing becomes more prolific and even big name established authors choosing to self-publish in order to get a bigger share of the royalties, the traditional publishing model will continue to decline. The Traditional model has been write a Query Letter, to get noticed and discovered by literary agent.  The books, blogs, and ways to write a query letter are about as varied as stories of how well they work, when should they be mailed, the ratios of ignores and refusals to those answered asking for a partial or whole manuscript.  Once you get noticed by a literary agent your story may or may not get sold. Of the very little percentage of the entire population who wants to write a novel only a small percentage of them will actually finish.  Of those there is still a hard...

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Posted in: Publishing Writing Agents Editors

Forgotten Pleasures

My wife and oldest son went to Arkansas with her family to bury her Great Grandmother with her husband and the rest of her family.  They left Garth, my one and a half year old, and me here yesterday night around 5:30PM.  Garth goes down around 7:30, so last night was uneventful except finishing watching the documentary series about Thomas Jefferson I started a week ago.  That’s why I have had all the posts about Jefferson lately.  He was amazing to say the least.He died on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration Of Independence, so did his old friend John Adams.  July 4th, 1826.  John Adam’s last words were Jefferson still lives, except he didn’t know Jefferson had also passed just a few hours before.  They both held on for the Anniversary...

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Posted in: Transported Tea Playing Children

Thomas Jefferson

At 5, began studying under his cousins tutor.At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.At 23, started his own law practice.At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America " and retired from his law practice.At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.At 33, took three years to revise Virginia 's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.At 40, served in Congress for two years.At...

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Posted in: Thomas Jefferson Rights Kennedy Intelligence

How will you be remembered?

Up until yesterday on my wife's side of the family we had five generations living.  My wife lost her Great Grandmother yesterday.  At one point when my daughter was very young on her mother's side of the family we had five generations alive for a short while.  In each case we have pictures with all five members together.  That doesn't happen very often.At times like this where life confronts us with our own mortality I think about how I will be remembered.You will be remembered for the person you ARE!  You will be remembered for the accomplishments you achieved in your life.  You will be remembered for those you left behind, your family members.I once had a regular acquaintance with a man who owned several companies, had helped save countless other companies. ...

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Posted in: Listen Remembered Generations reputation You