Some Historical Things to See Around Clinton, Iowa

ASHFORD UNIVERSITY FIELD--  home of their baseball team and the Midwest League Class A LumberKings.  A classic minor league field right by the Mississippi River.

CLINTON PUBLIC LIBRARY--  Housed in a Carnegie building for over a hundred years.

CURTIS MANSION--  Restored Victorian home of Lumber Baron George M. Curtis.

EAGLE POINT LODGE--  Built 1937.  Overlooks Mississippi River and Lock and Dam 13.

EAGLE POINT PARK--  200-acre park on the Mississippi River bluffs.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM--  Permanent collection of old photographs and an authentic 1924 kitchen.

SAWMILL MUSEUM-- Clinton's history as the "Lumber Capital of the World.

And, That's Just Some of the Stuff.  --Cooter

26% of Scots in First World War Didn't Return

From the February 27, 2013, Herald Scotland by Colin Campbell.

The population of the United Kingdom in 1911 was 42,138,000 and Scotland 4,751,000.

At the Battle of Loos, on September 25, 1915, 36 of the 72 attacking battalions were Scottish and of the 12 that suffered 500 or more casualties, eight were Scottish.

At the Battle of Arras, April 9, 1917, 44 of the battalions engaged were Scottish.

Some 26.4% of Scottish troops did not come home.  That is compared to the United Kingdom and Irish 11.8% and France's 16.8%.  Only Serbia and the Turks had higher percentages.

Scotland's adult male population dropped by 3.1%.

Popes of the Catholic Church-- Part 3

451:  Leo the Great has the Chalcedon Council in which he successfully argues for the dual human-divine nature of Jesus Christ.  He is also later credited for persuading Attila the Hun to leave Ital and spare Rome in 452.

He was also the first pope to claim to be a successor to Peter and the papacy as supreme authority over the church.

867:  Adrian II becomes head of the church and is the last married pope.

897:  Pope Stephen VII orders the corpse of his predecessor, Formosus, dug up, dressed in papal vestments and put on trial for violations of church law.  The body is convicted in what is called the Cadaver Synod, and the three fingers used to give blessing cut off.  The corpse is then tossed into the Tiber River, but later recovered and reburied.

More to Come.

A to Z Just Ended

Well, this covers a lot of Classic Rock history.  I've been listening to a lot of the show this past week.

That's some eight days and over 2,000 songs straight through for WDRV.  I can start listening to my Beach Music and Americana Music again.

I've been following it in my Down Da Road Blog ever since last Wednesday.  Actually, this post was supposed to be in that blog, but I forgot I was in the history blog.  But, after all, it is history.

THE LAST SONGS

Young Americans--  David Bowie
Empty Spaces/Young Lust--  Pink Floyd
Your Love--  Outfield
Your Mama Don't Dance--  Loggins & Messina
Your Mother Should Know--  Beatles
Your Song--  Elton John
Your Time Is Gonna Come--  Led Zeppelin
Your Wildest Dreams--  Moody Blues
Yours Is No Disgrace--  Yes

Ziggy Stardust--  David Bowie
The Zoo--  Scorpions

Started at 4 PM last Tuesday, Ended at 8:47 Today. 

Can't Wait Until the Next Time.  --RoadDog

Popes of the Catholic Church-- Part 2: On This Rock, I Will Build My Church.

Very little is known about the early popes.  Some early papal succession lists show Linus as being the first bishop of Rome.  AD 60: St. Peter is historically considered to be the first pope, it is unlikely that he was the first bishop in Rome.  When he arrived in Rome in 60 AD, he found a Christian community already in existence.

As one of the original Apostles, Peter played a major role in the Gospels and the early years of the church.  In the New Testament, Jesus refers to him when he says, "On this rock, I will build my church."

The confusion with the early popes is due to the fact that the infant Christian Church was outlawed and early Christians were subject to periodic persecution which didn't end until the 4th century when Emperor Constantine I made Christianity legal.  Christianity was declared the state religion of the Roman Empire in 380.

By 325: the papacy's power had increased and two ecumenical councils were held.  The First Council in Nicaea in 325 and the Council of Chalcedon 125 years later.

The council was the first to define the divinity of Jesus.  They also set the formula by which the date of Easter is decided.  However, the current pope at the time, Sylvester wasn't there, he was back in Rome.

More to Come.

Popes of the Catholic Church-- Part 1

From the March 3, 2013, Chicago Tribune "The power of the papacy" by Stephan Benzkofer, Ron Grossman, Mark Jacob and Chad Yoder.

With all of the hoopla leading to the selection of the new pope to replace Pope Benedict who was the first pope to abdicate in 600 years, the Tribune's crack team of researchers, especially Benzkofer and Jacob who do those excellent ten things you didn't know columns every so often, did a huge amount of work to come up with a two-page spread listing every pope there ever was.

Personally, I didn't think popes were allowed to resign/abdicate.  Pope John Paul II was in such poor health at the end of his papacy, that he should have done so.

Some popes reigned for a long times, others for a very short period.  From 1045 to 1049, there were seven popes.  Pope John Paul I died just one month into his reign in 1978.

"Spanning three millenniums, the papacy is one of history's most enduring institutions.  Catholics believe the men who serve as pope--  from St. Peter in the first century through Benedict XVI in the 21st--  constitute an unbroken lineage back to Jesus Christ.

How the more than 260 popes built up the power, stature and influence of the papacy is a remarkable story."

More to Come.

How to Play Diplomacy

From the March 1, 2013, Chicago Tribune obituary "Inventor of the board game Diplomacy" by Joan Giangrasse Kates.  The two previous entries on Allan B. Calhamer's death also came from this article.

"Described as a 'thinking man's version of the popular game Risk, Diplomacy is a seven-player game based on the balance of power in pre-World War I Europe.  Players are free to bluff and back-stab one another to attain dominance.

Each of seven major powers--  Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Turkey-- begins the game with three or four pieces in its home country.  To win, one player must occupy 18 of 34 supply centers.  Pieces represent entities such as naval fleets and armies.

'One of the knocks on Diplomacy is that it is a game that ruins friendships' said Jim O'Kelly.'" 

And, I never did anything else with those guys, but I'm a bad loser.

Et Tu, Brutus?  --DaCoot

Deaths: Diplomacy: The Background of a Game-- Part 2

He was rejected by several game companies, and in 1959, he self-published 500 copies of his game, called Diplomacy.  It soon has a small, but dedicated following.  Within six months, these sold out and the board game company Avalon Hill bought the rights, and the rest is history.

Mr. Calhamer died February 25th.

Now, hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold,.  Games are even played on the internet (not by me, even if I knew how).  The game involves not just rolls of dice, but interaction between players who have to stab-the-back to world domination.

John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger were reportedly fans of it.  Games Magazine has named it to its Hall of Fame. 

You are the master of your own fate.  But, unlike chess where the best tactician wins, it is about negotiation, persuasion and the ability to read other players.

A Hate It.  --Cooter

Deaths: Diplomacy: The Background of a Game

ALLAN B. CALHAMER (1931-2013)

Of all the games ever made, this one has probably caused more friendships to fall apart than any other.  I played it exactly once and was ready to physically attack some former friends that I felt had stabbed me in the back, which is the premise for the board game Diplomacy.

I just can't behave like that, even in a game.  I went down fast as Austria-Hungary (if I recall).  Then sulked the rest of the evening.

The origins of the game date back to when Allan B. Calhamer was a boy and discovered an old geography book in the attic of his La Grange Park home and found the old, pre-WW I, country borders in Europe.  "That was the seed of the game," he later recalled.

The final inspiration came when he was at Harvard in a class on 19th-century Europe. and he read his professor's book "The Origins of the World War."

"That brought everything together.  I thought, 'What a board game that would make.'"

Never Again,  Never Again, Says I.  --DaCoot

No. 1 With a Bullet: Name That Gun

From the Feb. 6, 2013, Chicago Tribune by Rebecca Keegan.

Ever wonder what kind of guns you are seeing used in the movies?  Now, you can find out.  Well, that is a Glock-17 in "Skyfall" and Zero Dark Thirty."  James Bond's sidearm of choice is a Walther PPK/S and the long-barreled rifles the Prohibition agents use in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" are Winchesters.

You can find out your gun needs at the Internet Movie Firearms Database (IMFDB), a fan-build catalog of the weapons started by Christopher Serrano, 29, of Glendora, California.  He and 300 regular volunteers have catalogued the weapons in 11,500 articles and not just firearms, but underwater firearms, missile launchers, flame-throwers and others.

It is somewhat like Amazon's Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

Jaime Foxx in "Django Unchained" carries a variant of a Sharps rifle and Remington 1858 Cattleman's Carbine.

Pop culture movies and guns go back to 1903's "The Great Train Robbery" and you can find all of them at IMFDB.  In case you're wondering, the gun Clint Eastwood used in "Gran Torino" was a M1-Garand.

"Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down."  --Cooter

Found: One English King's Remains Under a Parking Lot-- Part 2

Skeletal analysis showed that the individual was male, in late 2-s to early 30s.  Richard III was 32 when he was killed.  Trauma to the skeleton shows death was the result of one or two wounds to the back of the skull that could have been made by a sword or halberd (a type of ax).  This is consistent with accounts of his death..

The skeleton also had a number of non-fatal injuries.

Richard III reigned for two years until his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the last major dynastic fight in the War of the Roses that had been fought on and off since 1455.  Richard was the last English king to be killed in battle and his death brought to an end three centuries of Plantagenet rule and ushered in the Tudors, starting with Henry VII and including the famous Henry VIII.

Richard III remains the prime suspect in the disappearance of his nephews. However, modern views of him are strongly influenced by Shakespeare's portrayal in his play, Richard III as a power-hungry, Machiavellian scoundrel who murders anyone who stands in his way to power.

Historians point out that he was a progressive leader who led the way for a system of bail and the presumption of innocence until found guilty.

Maybe Not So bad of a Guy.  --DaCoot

Paterson, NJ Seeks to Capitalize on "Twin Landmarks"

April 13, 2013, Yahoo! News, AP "NJ city seeks to capitalize on its 'twin landmarks'" by Samantha Henry.

I'd never heard of either of these places mentioned in the article, both of which are significant to te history of the United States.

The article was mainly about Paterson, New Jersey's1932 Hinchcliffe Stadium which is deteriorating from years of neglect.  This place was once the home field of three Negro League teams: the New York Black Yankees, New York Cubans and the Newark Eagles.  Such notables as Satchel Page and Larry Doby donned uniforms and a total of eleven Major League Hall of Famers who played there are enshrines at Cooperstown.

The art deco styled stadium was designated a National Landmark in March.

The other landmark is the 77-foot waterfall at the nearby Great Falls whose power helped fuel the Industrial Revolution.  Some two billion gallons of water pass over the falls every day, making it the second biggest waterfall east of the Mississippi (Niagara Falls being the other one)  .It became a National Park recently.

Paterson is a once powerful city struggling with crime and finances these days.  Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the city's textile mills turned out so much, it became known as "The Silk City."  There is great hope that these twin landmarks will help recoup some of that prosperity.

Hinchcliffe Stadium is owned by the city's school system which shut it down in 1975 due to finances

Today, Paterson is 60% Latino and 30% black.  It is estimated that it will take $2 million to bring the stadium back to its former glory.  The financially strapped city recently voted to put $1.5 million in the effort.

Here's Hoping for a Return for Hinchcliffe Stadium, Especially after the Recent "42" Movie.  --Cooter

Found: One English King's Remains Under a Parking Lot-- Part 1

From the February 5, 2013, USA Today "The winter of his discontenty no more?" by Naomi Westland.

Five centuries after Richard III was buried, the last Plantagent king, his skeleton was found under a Leicester city parking lot.  This brings to a close the long-debated question of what happened after he was killed in battle 528 years ago.  Tests are being made on the skeleton to learn more.

His remains will be reburied in Leicester Cathedral.

The skeleton was found last September during a University of Leicester dig at the site of a former medieval church, Grey Friars, now a parking lot for a social services office.  Imagine someone parking over the grave of an English king?  (Or, leaking oil on it?)

It had a Roman nail and head injuries which are consistent with records of his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.  It also had a curved spine, fitting with reports that one of his shoulders was higher than the other.

Over the last four months, many tests have been done on the remains including a computed-tomography *(CT) and radio carbon-dating.  Medieval military specialists have advised on the types of weapons that would have caused the skull damage.  Also DNA test have been made, comparing it with a sample of Canadian furniture-maker Michael Ibsen, 55, now confirmed, along with his siblings as the 17th-generation descendant of Richard III's sister, Anne of York.

Found You.  --Cooter

50th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Thresher

From the April 5, 2013 Yahoo! News, AP "U.S. sub sinking 50 years ago led to safety changes" by David Sharp.

The first sign of trouble that day in 1963 was a garbled message about a "minor difficulty" at 1000 feet on a routine test dive.

Minutes later, the crew of the rescue ship, USS Skylark heard "exceeding test depth" and then listened as the sub disintegrated under pressure.  The nuclear submarine Thresher and 129 men were gone.

It was the deadliest U.S. sub disaster in American history and a blow to national pride during the height of the Cold War.

This weekend, there will be memorial services in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine.  The Thresher was built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery and based in Groton, Connecticut.  The Thresher was the first in its class and the world's first fast attack submarine when it was commissioned.

The 278 foot long submarine could dive deeper and stay underwater for an unlimited amount of time.

It hit bottom at 8,500 feet on April 10, 1963.

Always Sad When Something Like That Happens. 

Deaths: The "Car Guy"

DEAN JEFFRIES, 80

Died may 4th.  In 1955, painted James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder "Little Bastard" killed a month later.  Also painted Indy 500 cars, created "Black Beauty" for 1960s  TV show "The Green Hornet" and built the "Monkeemobile" for "The Monkees" in just ten days.

Built vehicles for movies, including a moon buggy for James Bond in  "Diamonds Are Forever."

Also a stunt driver and stunt producer/coordinator on films like "The Blues Brothers" and "The Fugitive."  The trolley in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was also his.

A Bunch of My Favorite Shows.