Today is the 220th anniversary of the Burr-Hamilton duel.
Here’s a fairly good article about the pistols.
Fun fact that I did not know until a few days ago, when I went looking for the video online: Michael Bay directed this commercial.
Brief historical note, suitable for use in schools.
July 11th, 2024Breaking the law, breaking the law…
July 10th, 2024I think this is a rare example of a headline that does not comply with Betteridge’s law of headlines.
Obviously, the answer to that question is, “Yes, and you should ignore the joyless fun suckers who want to suck all the fun out of life.”
It must be fun to tell people at parties, “I’m a sloth inspector.”
Obit watch: July 8, 2024.
July 8th, 2024Yoshihiro Uchida. I had not heard of him previously, but he sounds like a fascinating guy.
Mr. Uchida brought judo to the United States.
The son of Japanese immigrants, Uchida, who went by the nickname Yosh, began coaching judo at San Jose State in the 1940s, while he was still a student there.
It was a pivotal moment for the sport, which had been created in 1882 in Japan as a means of self-defense, built around a series of throws and holds that use opponents’ weight and movement against them. Americans had long incorporated elements of judo into other combat sports, and returning soldiers from the Pacific Theater brought a new level of interest in martial arts to the country.
Uchida, who had been practicing judo since he was 10, despaired over the quality of the training available, especially at the higher levels. Working with a judo coach at the University of California, Berkeley, he established standards for competition, including weight classes, and in 1953 won approval from the Amateur Athletic Union.
The first national amateur championships took place at San Jose State that same year. The first collegiate championships took place in 1962, and Mr. Uchida’s team won.
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On the side, Uchida obtained a loan to buy a run-down medical laboratory. He renovated it and within a few years was doing extensive business for San Jose doctors. He eventually owned a chain of 40 laboratories across Northern California, which he sold for $30 million in 1989.
He used the proceeds to partner with a group of investors to build an $80 million complex of affordable housing and commercial space in San Jose’s Japantown neighborhood.
He was 104 when he passed.
Paal Enger, the man who stole “The Scream”. (Well, one of them, anyway.)
Joan Benedict, actress. Other credits include “The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington”, “T.J. Hooker”, and “The Incredible Hulk”.
Doug Sheehan, actor. Other credits include “Columbo”, “In the Line of Duty: The F.B.I. Murders”, and “MacGyver” (original recipe).
Buster Keaton, call your office, please.
July 4th, 2024Private Philip G. Shadrach (US Army) and Private George D. Wilson (US Army) were awarded the Medal of Honor on Wednesday.
The awards were posthumous, as the action they were involved in took place about 162 years ago.
Private Shadrach and Private Wilson were involved in the Great Locomotive Chase.
In the spring of 1862, a small group of Union Army saboteurs came up with a daring idea to cut off Confederate supply lines near Chattanooga by stealing a train, tearing up railroad tracks, burning bridges and cutting down telegraph wires — which would have denied means of travel and communication to enemy forces in the area.
Dressed in plain clothes, they launched their mission in April, sneaking behind enemy lines in Georgia, taking over a locomotive near Marietta and wreaking havoc for seven hours along miles of railway in an effort to help take the battle deep into Tennessee.But the stolen train, called “the General,” ran out of fuel 18 miles from Chattanooga, according to a U.S. Army account of the heist, which became known as the Great Locomotive Chase. The Union soldiers and civilians who took part in the mission fled, but all were captured after less than two weeks on the run.
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In 1863, six survivors of the raid were the first American soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor in combat, which had been authorized by President Abraham Lincoln the year before.
In all, 19 of the men received the Medal of Honor in the years that followed. But two soldiers who were executed by Confederates soon after the mission were never recognized.
Private Shadrach and Private Wilson were those two soldiers.
Private Shadrach’s page at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website. The citation is listed as “coming soon”.
Private Wilson’s page at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website. Ditto on the citation.
Wordplay.
July 4th, 2024As Mike the Musicologist likes to point out, this is a local crime story that doesn’t deserve or need national coverage.
I agree with him, but I do want to note: it is wonderful to see “canoodling” in a headline. “Canoodle” is a delightful word that deserves to be used more often.
I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy…
July 3rd, 2024…and what could be more patriotic than guns and gun books?
This isn’t quite as patriotic as it could be, since the first two of these are about Africa. And the second two are duplicates of existing books in my collection, so I’m not going to spend as much time on them as I usually do.
El jumperino here…
Obit watch: July 2, 2024.
July 2nd, 2024Robert Towne. NYT. IMDB.
A couple of quibbles:
I think all of these are fine writers, but I would also add William Goldman. I don’t think I’d put him ahead of Wilder, but I think I would put him ahead of the Coen brothers (maybe, and just by a nose) and possibly ahead of Towne. And I suspect Goldman would tell me it isn’t a competition and I shouldn’t worry about it.
Interesting, since “8 Million Ways to Die” seems to be thought of as a piece of s–t: not just by Block/Scudder fans, but by almost everyone. (To be fair, there was a lot of studio interference with the movie.)
Michael Corcoran, local music journalist and historian.
Obit watch: July 1, 2024.
July 1st, 2024Very brief catch up here:
Martin Mull. NYT. IMDB.
I was involved in the Great Folk Music scare back in the sixties, when it almost caught on.
Man, we are just jam-packed with holidays, aren’t we?
July 1st, 2024Happy Bobby Bonilla Day, one and all!
Now that I’m done with my obligations for the day…
June 28th, 2024…I’m going to sit back with a large knock of bourbon and some ginger ale (real ginger ale, not diet: Drink Canada Dry, or die trying), and drink a toast to guffaw and Gavrilo Princip Day!
I suppose, technically, it would be more fitting to take a shot. But I have a bottle around the house that I wanted to finish up.
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#121 in a series)
June 28th, 2024Celeste Murphy used to be the police chief in Chattanooga. (The one in Tennessee, in case you were wondering.)
She resigned on Wednesday.
She turned herself in on Thursday.
This sounds like more of that voter fraud that never happens. Or it could be someone trying desperately to hold onto a position that requires residence in the area:
We looked into her residency information, and found that she is listed as a homeowner in Atlanta on the Fulton County Property Records website.
She is listed as having purchased a home in September 2020, and still being one of two primary homeowners.
Property tax logs show that taxes were still paid on the home.
Meanwhile, a look at Hamilton County Property Records shows that she is not listed as a homeowner in Chattanooga.
Obit watch: June 28, 2024.
June 28th, 2024“Kinky” Friedman followup: NYT. THR.
How about a little music?
Edited to add: Reason tribute. Noted here for two reasons:
1. Jesse Walker mentions another of my favorite Kinky songs that I decided not to use, but it was a close decision: “We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to You”.
2. I had always associated Kinky with the “dropped acid and listened to Shiva’s Headband at the Armadillo World Headquarters” crowd, so this is an interesting quote:
This is pushing the definition of an “obit” just a bit, but Will Dabbs, MD, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite modern gun writers, has a nice tribute up to Donald Sutherland.
More specifically, it is a tribute to Donald Sutherland’s role as “Oddball” in “Kelly’s Heroes”.
I’ve seen “Kelly’s Heroes”, but when I was a child, on the late night movies. (Kids, ask your parents about late night movies on TV.) I think the Saturday Movie Conspiracy is going to be re-watching it in the fairly near future. And I had not heard the story about the grenades.