Friday, March 18, 2011

Fridays are for fun stuff.

March 18, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
March 18 is … Supreme Sacrifice Day

It’s Friday. Enough of the world news and the obvious message therein that we are going to hell in a hand basket. Let’s just read and have a little fun. Not a lot serious today. Long live Caligula and alarm clock sales.

The Beatles went gold this day in 1967 receiving a gold record for the hit single, Penny Lane. This was not an unusual event for The Beatles. However, the recording of Penny Lane has left us with some interesting trivia. According to Paul McCartney, Penny Lane is a bus roundabout in Liverpool; and there is a barber’s shop showing photographs of every head he’s had the pleasure to know;  no that’s not true, they’re just photos of hairstyles, but all the people who come and go stop and say hello. “It’s part fact, part nostalgia for a place which is a great place, blue suburban skies as we remember it, and it’s still there.” There were at least two different endings to the song. Radio stations were furnished with a 45 rpm version that featured a trumpet solo of seven notes, sustaining on the final note into Ringo’s cymbal conclusion. Record buyers, on the other hand, heard the words “Penny Lane” at the end of the song, which then went into a sustaining note under Ringo’s cymbal. There was no trumpet fanfare. The original version shows up on the Rarities album on Capitol Records. Those having the original ‘Promotional Copy’ of the song have quite a valuable find. Penny Lane is also included on the American release of the Magical Mystery Tour album, but not the British EP version. While a number one song in America, Penny Lane made it to number two in England, causing some to wonder “if The Beatles were beginning to slip,” according to The Beatles -- An Illustrated Record. The ‘B’ side of gold record was the popular Strawberry Fields Forever.

 So Hillary Clinton told Wolfe Blitzer she does not want to serve in the cabinet in a second Obama Presidential term. She went on to say she did not want to be President or Vice-President. Hillary, I got some news for you. You apparently are a slow learner if the last election didn’t clue you in that we don’t want you as our President or Vice-President. This isn’t your choice, it is ours. Go on the book tours with Bill and make your millions, above-board or with inside information, we do not care, just go.

Just for Hillary. Even a hawk is an eagle among crows

Gilbert Gottfried just got fried by Aflac. They don’t have to pay this quack any more.

March 18th has been a busy day, historically speaking;

37 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
417 - St Zosimus begins his reign as Catholic Pope
731 - St Gregory III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1123 - 1st Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opens in Rome
1167 - Battle of El-Babein, Egypt: Franks under Amalrik vs Syrians
1190 - Crusaders kill 57 Jews in Bury St Edmonds England
1229 - German emperor Frederick II crowns himself king of Jerusalem
1241 - Kraków is ravaged by Mongols.
1314 - Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.
1325 - According to legend, Tenochtitlan is founded on this date. The event is depicted on the Mexican coat of arms.
1438 - Albrecht II von Habsburg becomes king of Germany
1509 - Emperor Maximilian I names Margaretha land guardians of Netherlands
1532 - English parliament bans payments by English church to Rome
1541 - Hernan de Soto observes 1st recorded flood in America (Mississippi R)
1582 - Prince Willem of Orange injured in attack at Antwerp
1583 - Dutch States General & Anjou sign treaty
1608 - Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.
1673 - Lord Berkley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers
1754 - Duke of Newcastle becomes English premier
1773 - Oliver Goldsmith' "She Stoops to Conquer," premieres in London
1781 - Charles Messier rediscovers global cluster M92
1793 - 2nd Battle at Neerwinden: Austria army beats France
1793 - The first republican state in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.
1810 - "Converse," 1st US opera, premieres in NY
1813 - David Melville, Newport, RI, patents apparatus for making coal gas
1818 - Congress approves 1st pensions for government service
1834 - 1st railroad tunnel in US completed, in Penn (275 m long)
1834 - Six farm laborers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.
1835 - Charles Darwin departs Santiago Chile on his way to Portillo Pass
1847 - 1st Dutch public telegram
1850 - Henry Wells & William Fargo forms American Express in Buffalo
1858 - Dutch Van der Brugghen govt resigns
1859 - Vera Cruz besieged by Miramon (Cons) in Mexican War of Reform
1864 - Dale Dike on Humber River crumbles drowning some 240
1865 - Battle of Wilson's raid to Selma, AL
1865 - Congress of Confederate States of American adjourns for last time
1870 - 1st US National Wildlife Preserve (Lake Meritt in Oakland Calif)
1871 - Communards revolt in Paris
1874 - Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
1877 - President Hayes appoints Frederick Douglass marshal of Wash DC
1881 - Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opens (MSG)
1890 - 1st US state naval militia organized (Massachusetts)
1891 - Britain is linked to the continent by Telephone
1892 - Lord Stanley presents silver challenge cup for hockey (Stanley Cup)
1895 - 200 blacks leave Savannah, Ga for Liberia
1899 - Phoebe, a moon of Saturn is discovered by Pickering1902 - Enrico Caruso becomes 1st well-known performer to make a record
1902 - Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht," premieres in Vienna
1904 - 1st performance of Edward Elgar's "In the South (Alassio)"
1909 - Einar Dessau of Denmark makes 1st ham radio broadcast
1910 - 1st opera by an US composer (Converse) performed at the Met, NYC
1911 - North Dakota enacts a hail insurance law
1913 - King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.
1914 - White Wolf gang beats govt army in Jingdezhen, China
1915 - Failed British attack in Dardanelles
1915 - French battleship Bouvet explodes, 640 killed
1918 - Socialist Youth AJC organizes in Amsterdam
1919 - Order of DeMolay forms in Kansas City
1920 - Greece adopts the Gregorian calendar
1921 - 2nd Peace of Riga, Poland enlarged
1921 - Steamer "Hong Koh" runs aground off Swatow China killing 1,000
1922 - 1st intercollegiate indoor polo championship (Princeton vs Yale)
1922 - Brit magistrates in India sentence Gandhi to 6 years for disobedience
1922 - Mohandas K Gandhi sentenced to 6 years' imprisonment
1922 - WBT-AM in Charlotte, NC begins radio transmissions
1922 - The first public celebration of Bat mitzvah, for the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, is held in New York City.
1925 - (8) 60-MPH tornadoes speed Mo, In, Il, Ky, & Tn kills 689
1929 - Dmitri Shostakovitch' "The new Babylon," premieres in Leningrad
1930 - Boston Bruins win record 20th NHL home game
1931 - 1st electric shavers go on sale in US (Schick)
1931 - Juan Bautista Aznar becomes premier of Spain
1933 - Radio Clube de Mocambique's, 1st radio transmission
1933 - US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
1933 - US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Roger Turner
1937 - Gas explosion in school in New London, TX, 294 die
1937 - The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) outside Milan.
1938 - Mexico takes control of foreign-owned oil properties
1938 - NY 1st requires serological blood tests of pregnant women
1938 – Pres. Cardena of Mexico nationalizes US & British oil companies
1940 - Mussolini joins Hitler in Germany's war against France & Britain
1942 - Illegal Free Netherlands announces boycott of theaters
1942 - 2 black players, Jackie Robinson & Nate Moreland, request a tryout with the Chicago White Sox, they are allowed to work out
1943 - James Oglethorpe (US) & Terkolei (Neth), torpedoed & sinks
1943 - Red Army evacuates Belgorod
1944 - Nazi Germany occupies Hungary
1944 - 2,500 women trample guards & floorwalkers to purchase 1,500 alarm clocks announced for sale in a Chicago, Illinois dept. store
1945 - 1,250 US bombers attacks Berlin
1945 - Maurice "Rocket" Richard becomes the 1st NHL player to score 50 goals
1945 - US Task Force 58 attacks targets on Kiushu
1948 - France & Great Britain & Benelux sign Treaty of Brussels
1948 - Philips begin experimental TV broadcasting
1948 - Soviet consultants have left Yugoslavia in first sign of Tito-Stalin split.
1949 - NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Org) ratified
1949 - WGAL TV channel 8 in Lancaster, PA (NBC) begins broadcasting
1950 - "Touch & Go" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 176 performances
1950 - CCNY beats Bradley 69-61 for the NIT championship
1951 - Pat O'Sullivan wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship
1952 - 1st plastic lens for cataract patients fitted (Phila)
1952 - Communist offensive in Korea
1953 - 15th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Indiana beats Kansas 69-68
1953 - Boston Braves move to Milwaukee
1953 - Earthquake strikes West Turkey, 250 die
1953 - KGNC (now KAMR) TV channel 4 in Amarillo, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 - NL approves Boston Braves move to Milwaukee (1st shift since 1903)
1955 - I Hatojama recognized as premier of Japan
1957 - WTWV (now WTVA) TV channel 9 in Tupelo-Columbus, MS (NBC) begins
1958 - Dodgers announces mascot/clown Emmett Kelly will not perform in 1958
1959 - Boston Celtic's Bill Sharman begins record of 56 straight free-throws
1959 - President Dwight D Eisenhower signs Hawaii statehood bill
1961 - Poppin' Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy introduced
1962 - Algerian War ends after 7½ yrs (250,000 die), Ben Bella flees
1962 - Dmitri Shostakovitch becomes member of Supreme Soviet of USSR
1963 - "Tovarich" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 264 performances
1963 - France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria
1963 - Supreme Court's Miranda Decision; defendants must have lawyers
1963 - WGSF TV channel 31 in Newark, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
1965 - "Do I Hear a Waltz?" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 220 performances
1965 - Rolling Stones fined £5 each for public urination
1965 - USSR launches Voshkod 2; Alexei Leonov makes 1st spacewalk (20 mins)
1965 - Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
1966 - "Pousse Cafe" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 3 performances
1966 - General Suharto forms government in Indonesia
1966 - Scott Paper begins selling paper dresses for $1
1967 - Beatles' "Penny Lane," single goes #1
1967 - Oil tanker Torrey Canyon hits a rock & spills oil
1968 - Congress repeals requirement for a gold reserve
1968 - WVER TV channel 28 in Rutland, VT (PBS) begins broadcasting
1968 - WVTA TV channel 41 in Windsor, VT (PBS) begins broadcasting
1969 - "Come Summer" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 7 performances
1970 - -25) US Postal begins strike
1970 - Cambodia military coup under Gen. Lon Nol, prince Sihanuk flees
1970 - KAEC TV channel 19 in Lufkin, TX (ABC) suspends broadcasting
1970 - Mail service paralyzed by 1st major postal strike
1970 - NFL selects Wilson as official football & scoreboard as the official game time
1971 - 200 die in landslide into Lake Yanahuani, Chungar Peru
1972 - AIAW 1st basketball champs, Immaculata beats West Chester State 52-48
1972 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC
1972 - Cornell NCAA hockey team shut out for 1st time in 225 games (Boston U)
1972 - Memphis' Larry Miller sets ABA record of 67 pts. in a game
1973 - "Seesaw" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 296 performances
1973 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Orange Blossom Golf Classic
1974 - Most Arab oil producing nations end embargo against US
1975 - Kurds end fight against Iraqi army
1977 - Clash releases their 1st recording "White Riot"
1977 - US restricts citizens from visiting Cuba, Vietnam, N. Korea & Cambodia
1977 - Vietnam hands over MIA to US
1978 - 250,000 attend rock concert CA Jam II in Ontario, CA
1978 - Pakistani former premier Ali Bhutto sentenced to death
1979 - "On the 20th Century" closes at St James Theater NYC after 460 performances
1979 - Battles between Kurds & Iranians break in Sananday Iran
1979 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA Honda Civic Golf Classic
1980 - Vostok rocket exploded on launch pad while being refueled, killing 50
1981 - Buffalo Sabres sets NHL record of 9 goals in 1 period (vs Toronto)
1982 - Singer Teddy Pendergrass' spinal cord severed in a car accident
1984 - Chris Johnson wins LPGA Tucson Conquistadores Golf Open
1985 - Capital Cities Communications Inc acquires ABC
1985 - Commissioner Peter Ueberroth reinstates Willie Mays & Mickey Mantle
1986 - Treasury Dept. announces plans to alter paper money
1987 - Gerber survey find most popular names for newborns (Jessica & Matthew)
1987 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1989 - 27th space shuttle mission, STS-29 (Discovery 8), returns to Earth
1989 - California Quake amusement ride opens at Universal Studios
1989 - Dino Ciccarelli sets Wash. Cap. record of 7 pts in a game
1989 - Largest Art robbery in the history (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston), where 12 paintings valued at $100 million are stolen
1989 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops.
1990 - 1st free elections in East Germany, Conservatives beat Communists
1990 - 32-day lockout by baseball owners ends
1990 - A Tampa little leaguer, dies, after being struck by a pitch
1990 - Biggest US art robbery, $100's millions at Gardner Museum, Boston
1990 - Colleen Walker wins Circle K Tucson LPGA Golf Open
1991 - Apple computer head Steve Jobs weds Laurene Powell
1991 - Mike Tyson beats Razor Ruddock in the 7th round
1991 - Phila '76ers retires Wilt Chamberlain's #13 jersey
1991 - Reggie Miller (Indiana) ends NBA free throw streak of 52 games
1992 - "4 Baboons Adoring the Sun" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 38 performances
1992 - Donna Summer gets a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame
1992 - Leona Helmsley sentence to 4 years in prison for tax evasion
1993 - "Sisters Rosensweig" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 556 performances
1993 - Amsterdam stock exchange hits record Ÿ12.2 billion
1993 - Eddie Murphy marries Nicole Mitchell in NYC
1994 - South Africa Goldstone committee reveals existence of secret police
1994 - Space shuttle STS-62 (Columbia 16), lands
1994 - Zsa Zsa Gabor files for bankruptcy
1995 - Michael Jordan announces he is ending his 17 month NBA retirement
1995 - STS 67 (Endeavour 8) lands after 16½ days
1995 - Spanish princess Elena (31) weds Jaime de Marichalar y Saenez Tejada
1996 - 50,000 swimmers raise 15 million for charity during BT's Swimathon '96
1996 - A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162.
1997 - Russian AN-24 plane crashes in Turkey, 50 die
2003 - FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company's top executives.
2003 - British Sign Language is recognized as an official British language.
2005 - Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is removed at the request of her husband.

1978 - The Bee Gees started an eight-week stay at the top of the pop music charts with Night Fever (they had a total of nine #1 hits) from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Makes you want to get out that white suit and black shirt, doesn’t it?  That is a lot of Number 1s for a career.

1882 Morgan Earp brother of Wyatt Earp, shot and killed while playing billiards in Tombstone on this date.
1984 Charlie Lau White Sox coach/renowned hitting instructor, dies at 50
1986 Bernard Malamud US writer (Fixer, Natural), dies at 71
I do not recall this but I am sure it was in the news;
1996 ? son of woman in coma raped by John Horace
1997 ? raped comatose woman who bore a child 1 year earlier, dies at 30

On this date in 1995, a sports agent FAXED a document to many news and sports organizations that read simply; “I’m back.”. In 1995 Michael Jordan announces he is ending his 17 month NBA retirement. More information than line above. I still think Michael Jordan was forced to retire by basketball or get suspended for his gambling. This was not long after his father was murdered. The “retirement” saved face for both Michael Jordan and the NBA. Just a theory I have.

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.
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.


Life just is. You have to flow with it.
Give yourself to the moment.
Let it happen.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy St Patrick's Day! May the luck of the Irish be with you.

March 17, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
March 17 is … Submarine Day. Is it a yellow day?

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! “Top of the mornin’ to ya’” “And the balance of the day to you.”

Lester Holt and his crew have been exposed to radiation while covering the stories in Japan. Duh! What do you think Les, the laws of science and physics don’t apply to American news journalists. Before you try it Lester, I will clue you in. If you jump in front of a bullet, you will be shot. No charge for the heads up. Just doing my part for the news media.

I occasionally will revisit subjects previously written about. I try to stay fresh, current and informative. It appears my earlier observation concerning the information being released by the Japanese government was accurate. The Pentagon is now voicing concerns that the Japanese authorities are holding back critical information, trying to downplay this catastrophe. The Japanese authorities still have a mind-set the Emperor can do no wrong. Everyone else apologizes profusely, almost as much as President Obama but the government has a problem admitting fault.

A few days ago, I wrote about Lisa Madigan and her crusade against gun owners and gun ownership. A new twist has developed I that story but no Illinois official will ever admit to any linkage. As reported in The Huffington Post and other news sites, a change in state police policy could create problems for Amish gun-owners in Illinois, as a rule requiring photos to be on gun-owner ID cards will soon be applied to their community. As the log Amish America, who knew that existed, wrote Monday, many Amish people use guns to hunt deer and other game, and to disperse "varmints." The Amish are also known for being uncomfortable with photography, especially posed photography, which they believe leads to idolatrous vanity, according to AmishNews.com. So, now-departed Illinois State Police director Jonathan Monken's decision requiring the Amish to have a photo on their new Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) cards could put Amish hunters in a bind. "A lot of the Amish hunt and they usually use squirrel or rabbit rifles to bring some food back home," Douglas County Sheriff Charles McGrew told the Mattoon Journal-Gazette. Douglas County is the center of Illinois's Amish population. "Their big concern is this means they won't be able to purchase guns or ammo."

Leaders of the community met with their state legislators to work on negotiating a compromise that would allow Amish people to receive non-photo IDs. Pennsylvania and Ohio, the two states with the largest Amish populations in the country, both allow for such an exception on state documents when religious beliefs forbid a person from having his or her photo taken. One source of frustration among the Amish community and its lawmakers: Monken handed down the decision about the FOID cards on his last day as director of the State Police. "It was unfair for him to do this on the same day he was leaving," state Rep. Chapin Rose, a Republican from Mahomet, Illinois said. I agree. It would seem Lisa Madigan got word to this coward, Jonathon Monken, to issue this order which reverses long–standing policy. It was obvious this decision would lead to a policy fight and chicken-boy Monken is not around to defend his decision. He probably took his Illinois pension and went to Arizona.

This is likely an issue of religious beliefs and practices. The recent past has seen Muslim women try to have their State ID or driver’s license picture taken in their traditional full face Niqab. The Courts have said no. The idea behind the picture is identification. If one cannot see the face of the person on the idea, the purpose of the identification is defeated. If this goes to Court, the Amish will likely lose this fight. It is not a legal defense or winning argument to say we just like the peace loving Amish more than the Muslims so they should get a pass. That is what should be done but it more than likely won’t be done.

I did not know the Amish used computers or had web sites but I never looked for them either. The Amish also blog but we are not going for the same audience. Our demographics are different.

The federal government now has Agency heads, unelected bureaucrats, making decisions on capital punishment. This has to stop immediately. The states have rights. The federal government should provide a defense to international borders, not get involved in every aspect of citizens daily life or the business of the states. All Georgia executions are off after federal drug agents seized the state's supply of a sedative used in lethal injections that has been challenged by capital punishment critics and death-row inmates, including a man recently executed who called the British exporter of the drug a "fly-by-night supplier." Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Chuvalo Truesdell wouldn't say exactly why Georgia's supply of sodium thiopental was taken Tuesday, just that "we had questions about how the drug was imported to the U.S." The sedative is part of a three-drug cocktail used in executions that has been in short supply since the sole U.S. manufacturer stopped making it. No more execution dates in Georgia have been scheduled and it's unlikely any will be set before the issue is resolved. Georgia Attorney General's Office spokeswoman Lauren Kane said prosecutors couldn't ask a judge to set executions if corrections officials didn't have the necessary supplies to carry one out. Georgia's stockpile of the drug has been a target of death row inmates and capital punishment critics since corrections officials released documents this year showing the state obtained the drug from Link Pharmaceuticals, a firm purchased five years ago by Archimedes Pharma Limited. Both are British firms. The drug was used in January to execute Emmanuel Hammond, a 45-year-old man convicted for the 1988 shotgun slaying of an Atlanta preschool teacher. His attorneys sought a delay to gather more information on how the state obtained the drug, claiming in court documents it came from a "fly-by-night supplier operating from the back of a driving school in England." They said the drug could have been counterfeit. The U.S. Supreme Court, as well as lower courts, rejected Hammond's argument.

The state's stockpile came under more scrutiny in February when John Bentivoglio, a former deputy attorney general, asked the Justice Department to launch an investigation into whether state corrections officials violated federal law by not registering with the DEA when it imported its supply of sodium thiopental.

"The United States has strict drug import rules for a reason: To ensure drugs used for legitimate purposes are not adulterated, counterfeit, or diverted into the illicit market," said Bentivoglio, who is representing death row inmate Andrew Grant DeYoung. These drugs are imported to execute a convicted killer. Who cares if they are not real pure if they work. If they don’t, let’s just shoot the killer.

Joan Heath, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections, said state officials were not concerned with the quality of the drug and just wanted to make sure they were complying with the law.



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.
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.


Growing old is mandatory.
Growing up is optional.




Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Puff the Magic Dragon and Abe Lincoln; listen to both.


March 16, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
March 16 is … Everything You Do Is Right Day. This is a day for my lovely wife.

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This year, 2011, July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This happens
once every 823 years. This is called money bags.

Deeaann, Oh Deeaannn; who could have known that Joseph Levitch, the baby boy born on this day in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey, would someday wear the crown of the ‘King of Crazy’! Maybe his father had a clue when he introduced his five year old on stage at Brown’s Hotel in Loch Sheldrake, NY. Little Joey sang, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime. Today, that theatre bears the name of this actor, singer, dancer, musician, comedian, producer, professor, and humanitarian. Maybe you’ve been to the Jerry Lewis Theatre in the borscht belt in upstate New York. Certainly, you’ve seen Jerry Lewis perform. Maybe your first experience was seeing him in his role as the goofy partner of the suave, romantic Dean Martin. From 1946, when the two performed together for the first time in Atlantic City’s 500 Club, till a decade later when the partners split; we were entertained with club appearances and no less than a dozen movies. The first, My Friend Irma, premiered at New York’s Paramount Theatre. The opening stage act starred Martin and Lewis in person. Jerry Lewis’ mugging skills became the central force behind many of the movies the two made. Films like That’s My Boy and The Caddy catapulted him into stardom. From 1951 through 1959, Jerry’s name appeared in the top ten of box-office stars (6 years with his partner and 3 solo). In fact, in 1959, Paramount signed him to a fourteen-film contract for ten million dollars -- probably the most expensive contract signed with a performer at the time. He was back in the top ten from 1961 through 1964 and had received acclaim as Best Director for The Nutty Professor from the French. Comedian, film star and director was never enough for the zany, talented Lewis. He had a top-tent in 1956, Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody; his own TV variety show from 1965 to 1974 and he continued to make movies, work the club circuit, and teach film at USC. His devotion to supporting the Muscular Dystrophy Association is known worldwide. There are few who have never seen the annual Labor Day Telethon for MDA hosted by the untiring Jerry Lewis. Undaunted by protesters he continues the quest to raise money to help those stricken with neuromuscular diseases. And, undaunted by the fact that his talents have never been truly recognized by his fellow Americans; Jerry Lewis continues to entertain us. A cult hero to the French, he remains ‘Le Roi du Crazy’.

The trouble in the Middle East has been knocked off the front page of the newspaper by the gut wrenching and mind boggling situation in Japan, but it still exists. Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain. This was allegedly with the approval and urging of the Bahrain rules. That is a religious fight with the minority religion leadership desperately holding on.

In Libya, Moammar Gadhafi is now winning. What looked like an ouster from power two weeks ago has turned around for the dictator. According to the Associated Press, Moammar Gadhafi's forces overwhelmed rebels in the strategic eastern city of Ajdabiya, hammering them with airstrikes, missiles, tanks and artillery Tuesday in an assault that sent residents fleeing and appeared to open the way for an all-out government offensive on the opposition's main stronghold in the east, Benghazi. In desperation, rebels sent up two antiquated warplanes that struck a government ship bombarding Ajdabiya from the Mediterranean. But as tanks rolled into the city from two directions and rockets relentlessly pounded houses and shops, the ragtag opposition fighters' defenses appeared to break down. Only 10 days ago, the rebellion was poised to march on Tripoli, the capital, and had appeared capable of sweeping Gadhafi out after 41 years in power, but the regime's better armed and organized military has reversed the tide. Efforts led by France and Britain to create a no-fly zone to protect the rebels have gone nowhere, and some rebels lashed out at the West for failing to come to their aid.
On this date across the sands of time;
1945 US defeats Japan at Iwo Jima.
 1955 The Ballad of Davy Crockett, by Bill Hayes, reached the number one spot on the pop music charts and stayed for five weeks beginning this day. The smash hit song sold more than 7,000,000 records on more than 20 different labels. Everyone seemed to be singing the song that saluted the frontier hero who was “Born on a mountain top in Tennessee...” Coonskin caps were seen everywhere as the Crockett craze spread like a frontier fire.
1963 Peter, Paul and Mary released the single, Puff The Magic Dragon. Through the years, controversy continually surrounded the song. It was banned by several radio stations whose management figured that the song was about the illicit joys of smoking marijuana. The group denied this startling assumption. “It’s about a magic dragon named Puff,” they said. So there. The trio recorded a dozen hits that charted between 1962 and 1969. Puff was their third song. It went to number two on the pop charts and puffed around for nearly three months. The group next did a Bob Dylan protest song, Blowin’ in the Wind and ended a sterling career with a John Denver song -- the group’s biggest -- Leaving on a Jet Plane.
1964 Paul Hornung, ‘The Golden Boy’, and Alex Karras, the guy who punched out a horse in the movie, Blazing Saddles, were reinstated to the NFL after an 11-month suspension for betting on football games.

1968 My Lai massacre occurs (Vietnam War); 450 die
1968 Robert F Kennedy announces Presidential campaign
1995 Mississippi House of Representatives ratifies 13th Amendment-formally abolishes slavery – Better late than never, I guess?

Just a few Quotes attributed to Abraham Lincoln:

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.
Abraham Lincoln

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
Abraham Lincoln

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
Abraham Lincoln

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.
Abraham Lincoln

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.
Abraham Lincoln

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
Abraham Lincoln

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.
Abraham Lincoln

There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, "Truth is the daughter of Time."
Abraham Lincoln

There is nothing true anywhere, The true is nowhere to be seen; If you say you see the true, This seeing is not the true one.
Abraham Lincoln

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.
Abraham Lincoln

These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.
Abraham Lincoln

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.
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.


Ours is a world where people don't know
what they want and are willing to go
through hell to get it.