February 6, 2011
February 6 is … Lame Duck Day. That reminds me of a Dick Van Dyke episode.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
Today is my younger brother Mike’s birthday. America has decided it is such a big deal, they are having a football game to commemorate it this year. In addition…
The 40th president [1981-1989] of the United States and once governor of California [1967-1975], Ronald Wilson Reagan, was born on this day in 1911. Reagan also served six terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, leading the union of members in his other career: acting.
It was acting that brought Ronald Reagan the recognition and notoriety that led to his most successful career in politics. However, it has been written that he had only one notable performance -- in the film, King’s Row [1941]; although most of us remember his many performances as the host (and, sometimes, the star) of General Electric Theatre [1954-1962] and Death Valley Days [1965-1966]; and role as George Gipp in the 1940 movie, Knute Rockne, All-American. Reagan resurrected the line (from the movie), “Win one for the Gipper,” during his presidency as a way to gather support for his anticommunist, conservative Republican policies.
Comedians used his role in the 1951 movie, Bedtime for Bonzo, to gain yucks and guffaws during the Reagan Years (two presidential terms). The personable, good-natured President was once married to actress, Jane Wyman (Falcon Crest); but he married former actress Nancy Davis on March 4, 1952 and spent the rest of his life with her. Son, Michael, is a radio talk-show host. Son, Ron, has appeared frequently on television (even in his underwear on Saturday Night Live) and daughter, Patty, is a writer.
During his annual visit to the Mayo Clinic in 1994, doctors diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease. Ronald Reagan died June 5, 2004. A young man from DeKalb, IL had the honor to be in the color guard that attended to the casket of President Reagan during the funeral activity.
Green Bay 25 Pittsburg 17, just a thought.
In the past three months, several magazines have reviewed Holmes the Ripper. Below is the latest review from Ripperologist magazine, a British publication devoted to all things Jack the Ripper.
HOLMES THE RIPPER
Bruce A BrennaneBookMall NV, E-Commerce Park Vredenberg Unit D11-Z Rotterdamweg hoek Heelsumstraat, Curacao, Netherlands AntillesMobipocket eBook, 111ppavailable for download fromebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/497984-ebook.htm$9.50 US
As mentioned in I Beg in Rip 117, DeKalb, Illinois, USA attorney Bruce A Brennan has published a fictional treatment of the Jack the Ripper case, fingering, no, not Sherlock Holmes but that other Holmes, American serial killer ‘Dr’ H H (Henry Howard) Holmes aka Herman Webster Mudgett (1861–1896), he of the infamous ‘murder castle’ in Chicago. We might have suspected that Mudgett was up to more than folk at the time believed, and Mr Brennan’s protagonist, former Scotland Yard detective Ian Dean, obtains the proof, using fingerprint evidence, no less, that the killer not only was responsible for the bloody crimes in Chicago but operated in the back streets of the East End of London (as confirmed also by Mudgett’s own confession) and was responsible for the murders of notorious Western gunslinger and fancy woman Belle Starr and the Lizzie Borden murders, which nicely cleans up Miss Lizzie Borden’s sullied reputation in the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother on 4 August 1892.
Never mind that it is anachronistic to have Scotland Yard doing fingerprint analysis in the nineteenth century. Mr Brennan would have us believe that the Yard, on the side, as it were, would do such analyses for a former colleague who has found a job as a US marshal working for the famed hanging judge Isaac C Parker of Fort Smith, Arkansas. So we read that, ‘Ian was persistent and finally convinced the River Falls, Mass. police to allow him to send the [Borden murders] ax handle to England for fingerprinting inspection. He could not send the ax head. When the results come in from London:
The fingerprints matched the Ripper and the Belle Starr prints. Ian was excited. He could now tie the Ripper case, the Starr case and the Borden case together. At least the same person was at the three crime scenes and had touched the suspected murder weapons. The prints from the Ripper case were taken from many different items, including at least one cutting tool.
As with the claim about surreptitious fingerprint analysis being done in this period by Scotland Yard, whether there was ever an edged weapon recovered in the Ripper case that contained the fingerprints of the killer might be doubted. But this is, after all, fiction. You are supposed to suspend your belief!
Mr Brennan’s treatment of H. H Holmes as the Ripper is at least intriguing, and the narrative holds the reader’s attention. It’s also tantalizing that while protagonist Ian Dean elicits Holmes’ confession that he did the Ripper murders, the killer tells the former Scotland Yard man that he never did any Ripper murders other than in the East End of London. No, rather, as depicted here, the mayhem that Holmes did to Belle Starr out west, and to Mr and Mrs Andrew Borden at their house in Fall River, Massachusetts, and in the depths of his sinister murder castle in Chicago, was of another order entirely. But just as bloody and final.
The book also gets mentioned in a Lizzie Borden website that is worth checking out;
http://lizziebordenwarpsandwefts.com/2010/12/01/lizzie-appears-in-new-crime-novel/#comment-1719
This next story is one reason politicians should not payback favors with cushy government posts. Cynthia Stroum, a well-off Seattle businesswoman, stood out as a donor and fundraiser for Barack Obama and other Democrats; however, her performance as a diplomat serving as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg left a lot to be desired, a State Department report indicates.
Stroum resigned effective Jan. 31, just ahead of the release of the critical assessment on Thursday. She had said that she wanted to focus more on her family and business, according to an Associated Press account of her stormy times at the embassy in the small central European country. She is good at raising money but her management style is not. Questionable spending on travel and entertainment, and embassy staff departures accompanied by requests for new postings in Iraq or Afghanistan rather than stay in Luxembourg indicate she was not working out.
Stroum resigned effective Jan. 31, just ahead of the release of the critical assessment on Thursday. She had said that she wanted to focus more on her family and business, according to an Associated Press account of her stormy times at the embassy in the small central European country. She is good at raising money but her management style is not. Questionable spending on travel and entertainment, and embassy staff departures accompanied by requests for new postings in Iraq or Afghanistan rather than stay in Luxembourg indicate she was not working out.
Stroum is not the first or only person to be handed a diplomatic job she was not suited for. As is the history with the ho-hum duties of being Luxemburg's ambassador, this job is handed to an individual who brings in cash during a presidential campaign. According to Opensecrets.org, Stroum was a "bundler" who saw to it that a cool $500,000 made it into Obama's coffers. That's hardly anything new, however. As the website DiploPundint points out, of the 21 ambassadors appointed to Luxembourg by the U.S. over the last 50 years, only three had actual diplomatic experience.
Births on this date;
1911 Ronald Reagan Illinois, actor (Bedtime for Bonzo)/40th President (R) (1981-89)
1912 Eva Braun mistress of Adolf Hitler
1912 Eva Braun mistress of Adolf Hitler
1927 Smokey Burgess baseball catcher (Pittsburgh Pirates). He was one of my favorite players on White Sox in 1960s. He was second game catcher and a clutch pinch hitter.
1962 Axl Rose [William Bailey] Lafayette IN, rocker (Guns & Roses). Slash is playing at halftime with Black Eyed Peas.
1966 Michael Brennan City manager in Northern Iowa: famous for marching band pieces.
On this date in history;
1778 France recognizes US, signs treaty of aid in Paris; 1st US treaty
1778 England declares war on France
1788 Massachusetts becomes 6th state to ratify constitution
1778 England declares war on France
1788 Massachusetts becomes 6th state to ratify constitution
1861 1st meeting of Provisional Congress of Confederate States of America
1862 Victory for General Ulysses S Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson; Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant
1862 Naval Engagement at Tennessee River-USS Conestago vs. CSS Appleton Belle
1864 Skirmish at Barnett's Ford Virginia
1865 2nd day of battle at Dabney's Mills (Hatcher's Run)
1862 Victory for General Ulysses S Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson; Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant
1862 Naval Engagement at Tennessee River-USS Conestago vs. CSS Appleton Belle
1864 Skirmish at Barnett's Ford Virginia
1865 2nd day of battle at Dabney's Mills (Hatcher's Run)
1935 Board game "Monopoly" goes on sale for the 1st time
1951 Radio commentator Paul Harvey arrested for trying to sneak into the Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago IL
1951 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site Argonne Atomic Lab (Illinois), to demonstrate lax in security
1951 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site Argonne Atomic Lab (Illinois), to demonstrate lax in security
1965 Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" hits #1
1982 "Centerfold" by J Geils Band hit #1 on pop chart
Music at the top of the charts over the years;
1949
1957 Too Much - Elvis Presley
1965 You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’ - The Righteous Brothers
1973 Crocodile Rock - Elton John
1981 The Tide is High - Blondie
1989 When I’m with You - Sheriff
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase an interesting and inexpensive read. My second book should be available by February 15, 2011. More information will be forthcoming.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
http://www.smashwords.com/ Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.
https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard NEW SOURCE FOR BOOK
Check out the site below. Paybox is a new site, competing with PayPal, etc. Sign up is free. It seems good for small businesses or ebay users.
“Ours is a world where people don`t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.”
