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| Leutnant Werner Voß's Last Flight (Source) |
Anyhoo, I am out of time for posting on what is (was) a fine Tuesday evening. A long (somewhat) productive day at work combined with minimal sleep the previous evening* leads me to shirk my blogging duties a wee bit. Hey, you get what you pay for. Yes, it annoys me as well, I like (love?) blogging and am irked when life gets in the way.
Hhmm, maybe I'm doing it wrong. But at any rate, there are days when I need to stop and smell the roses. As the weather seems to be cooling off here in New England, fall, then winter are in the offing. (Said word also having a nautical meaning, no, I'm not going to quiz you on that.) So the roses don't have much time left. No doubt we'll have another hot stretch before all is said and done, but this week, le temps est magnifique!
Speaking of yesterday's quiz...
Questions:
For 50 points, what the heck was that thing in that preceding photo and what was it's significance?
For 50 points, where did the Wright's first powered flight take place?
For 100 points, what specific unit is the direct statutory ancestor of the mighty United States Air Force?
Correct answers:
Q1 The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum has the same decree written in Greek, Ancient Hieroglyphic, and common script which then enabled the ability to read all the hieroglyphic inscriptions on Egyptian ruins, monuments, etc., a pretty big deal for Egyptologists.
Q2 Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina
Q3 The Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps (1907–1914) was the first heavier-than-air military aviation organization in history and the progenitor of the United States Air Force. A component of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the Aeronautical Division procured the first powered military aircraft in 1909, created schools to train its aviators, and initiated a rating system for pilot qualifications. It organized and deployed the first permanent American aviation unit, the 1st Aero Squadron, in 1913. The Aeronautical Division trained 51 officers and 2 enlisted men as pilots, and incurred 13 fatalities in air crashes. During this period, the Aeronautical Division had 29 factory-built aircraft in its inventory, built a 30th from spare parts, and leased a civilian airplane for a short period in 1911.
John in Philly Q1 10, partial credit
STxAR Q1 10, partial credit
Tom in NC Q1 50
Juvat Q1 10, partial credit
Juvat Q2 50
Winner, winner, chicken dinner:
Juvat with 60 points is the clear winner, Tom in NC is a respectable second with 50 points.
John in Philly and STxAR both correctly identified the Rosetta stone but didn't explain it's significance (as did juvat). Ten points for a partially correct answer. Tom in NC nailed the answer on the Rosetta stone (his comment is reproduced above for the correct answer).
Juvat answered question 2 correctly, in school we learned Kitty Hawk was the place, but that's actually a wee bit north of the actual site, Kill Devil Hill.
I'm rather stunned that no one got close on the third question, I would have accepted the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, as I assumed everyone knew that, though it was actually the successor of the Aeronautical Division.
John Blackshoe gets an honorable mention for his Pershing story as does Rob for the mention of Pancho Villa State Park in New Mexico, I had no ideer.
Beans, see me after class, juvat I was going to give you detention for the kindergarten crack but hey, I cheap shot you all the time, I had that one coming. Didn't Old NFO man one of those aircraft on the Mexican Expedition? I could have sworn I recognized him...
Tomorrow is another day mes amis, but I'll leave this with you as a topic for discussion in the comments: whither goest Hong Kong? (Well, Beans mentioned China, blame him.)
Ciao.
* I stayed up too damned late listening to music and beating on the drums...
Well, that's not the first time I get partial credit for being correct. I guess I need to glue a new envelope on the laptop for the scantrons again....
ReplyDeleteI rarely get a chance to check the Chant after reading in the am. I probably should start spending more time here. Lots of great info...
Hey, Sarge, do you know where Teddy Roosevelt put together the Rough Riders? Not just state, not just city, but actual physical location?? Since the balloon race to San Juan Hill....
And Pershing's name came up, I remember reading about his questioning by Congress on the 3500 US casualties that occurred 11-11-18, as well. I'm kinda mixed on his legacy.
Good thought provoking post for an early am....
Well, according to the Wikipedia entry for the Rough Riders:
DeleteOne particularly famous spot where volunteers were gathered was in San Antonio, Texas, at the Menger Hotel Bar. The bar is still open and serves as a tribute to the Rough Riders, containing much of their, and Theodore Roosevelt's, uniforms and memorabilia.
I figure, as it's a Texas thing, that that's what you had in mind.
As for that bit about Pershing, I need to read up on that. I do know that there were many casualties on the final day of the war, many officers were guilty of pressing stupid attacks for spurious reasons. No doubt Congress wanted to know "What the Hell, Jack?"
Good topic for a post. Two good topics actually.
I sat at the bar, and out on the porch there, just thinking about him one night, years past. Some folks cut a big swath.
DeleteI read a biography of General Patton long years ago... found out my high skrule buddy's dad was in his army. His reply, "yeah, I was in old Blood and Guts Patton's army.... Our blood, his guts." Made me sit up a bit and twist my neck. Looking at it from the boot's point of view, added some perspective to the bio.... Since then, I've looked for all the info I can when I run into historical folks. I work pretty hard to get the info from reputable sources..... and Wiki is right out.
Wiki is definitely a hit or miss proposition when it comes to actual facts. Their histories of older events tend to be sound, but a lot of the rest is tainted with the prog agenda.
DeleteMaybe a Jeopardy format quiz sometime in the future?
ReplyDelete"Sarge, I'll take Engineroom Machinery for a thousand."
I don't think I've ever seen a Jeopardy category where the answer is "The Union Army Balloon Corps," and the world is a sadder place because of that.
I don't see it so much as being tied for last place, as being in good company!
I like the idea, not sure how I'd implement that.
DeleteRest assured though, one of the answers will be "What is the Union Army Balloon Corps..."
Those who scored 0 points came in last, at least you got on the board!
Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the face, face meet..... real life. That's what you got the drums for, how else are you going to become the next Neil Peart or Dave Grohl? As far as to when there's less than stellar sleep preceding a workday you do know one solution to that, correct? That "R" word although it doesn't guarantee sound sleep, age has a bigger vote there. Concerning Hong Kong the Communist Chinese remind me of a python, slowly squeezing the breath out of it's victim and then swallowing the corpse. The way computing power, AI, facial recognition, et al. have advanced since 1989 means there's little hope for freedom in Hong Kong anymore. Communists have NO problems killing people.
ReplyDeleteTwo superb drummers, sometimes when I see them play I look at my hands, holding my sticks of course, and ask "Why can't you do that?" Practise, practise, practise.
DeleteWhat is this "R" word you speak of?
Yes, Communists seem to revel in murdering people who disagree with them. I HATE Communists.
Tire.... re...... ment...... unscramble......there ya go.
DeleteAh yes, of course! (How did I not see that?)
DeleteThe ultimate cure-all!
Can I get one point on the quiz for owning a piece of original fabric from the Wright Flyer?
ReplyDeleteWhy yes, yes you can.
Delete😊
AHEM - I will simply repeat my (late) comment from yesterday that a) Kill Devil Hills is plural, not singular and b) Kill Devil Hills was not officially called that until years after the Wright Brothers first flight. Hence there were two ships called the USS Kitty Hawk, not the USS Kill Devil Hills. (Truth be told, I'm just mad at myself for bad quizmanship, having forgotten to answer questions 2 and 3 - such lapses are more common since I retired from my career- but the other benefits of said retirement more than make up for those (hopefully minor, hopefully not too frequent) lapses. BTW, are y'all aware that some folks in the Dayton/Fairborn area of Ohio claim that the Wright Brothers first flight actually took place in that locale and not on the coast of NC? Revisionists! :-)
ReplyDeleteAccording to some of my sources, the highest elevation along that stretch is called Kill Devil Hill, for which the town was later named. That's what I went with, not the name of the town itself (which is indeed Kill Devil Hills). Here's an interesting article on that topic.
DeleteAs far as Ohio's claim? They can claim all they like, the evidence points towards North Carolina.
This is why our license plates say “Birthplace of Aviation” whereas NC’s say “First in Flight” ...
DeleteWell, the Wright brothers were from there and worked there, including their aircraft work.
DeleteNew Hampshire plates say "Live Free or Die," DC plates say "Taxation Without Representation." Point is, license plate slogans can be misleading. Oklahoma's is probably the most honest, and frankly, the most clever. "Oklahoma is OK." Yes, yes it is.
I'm okay with Ohio and North Carolina. Just don't get me started on where the birthplace of the United States Navy is. (Yes, Little Rhody has a claim to that.)
Thanks for the link to the article - I really like to accompanying picture with the Hercules banking over the monument! And I see what you mean about the birthplace of the Navy - must be at least half a dozen places claiming that honor.
DeleteAnd I am not sure if Texas has any common slogans on its default plates - but 'Drive Friendly' might be appropriate outside the big cities. My yankee wife was amazed that drivers on rural Texas highways that had wide shoulders would pull over onto the shoulders to let faster drivers pass.
Yeah, love that photo.
DeleteAround San Antonio I saw faster drivers using the shoulders to pass people. I have to agree with the Germans, we Americans all drive like maniacs.
I like George Carlin's characterization of other drivers - anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, anyone driving faster is a maniac.
DeleteAnd regarding drivers in SA, that's why I confined my statement to outside the big cities.
But I would really like to see some of the driving discipline prevalent in Germany here in the US - especially lane discipline so those idiots in the left lane would make way for maniacs, uh, faster drivers, like I usually am. Even the English have more lane discipline (usually) than we do in the US. Of course if drivers had to pass a test as rigorous as those in Germany and even the UK, we'd only have about half the drivers we currently have - at least that were driving with a legal license to do so.
I like Carlin's take on that myself.
DeleteIndeed, if we had the same stringent standards as Germany, there would be a lot fewer legal drivers on the road.
My wife saw a plate the other day from Nebraska. The slogan was "Not For Everybody".
DeleteTruth in advertising?
I lived in Nebraska for four years, rather liked it, wasn't Colorado but it was nice.
DeleteWhither goest Hong Kong? Nowhere good, no matter what. Red China is combining a large military buildup with a large civilian buildup and a large head-busting 'police force' on their side of the border and we all know how well Red China uses precision amounts of force. In other words, unless Red China backs down (yeah, no...) Hong Kong will be treated about as well as an epileptic Andre the Giant doing brain surgery with sledgehammers.
ReplyDeleteOver at Virtual Mirage (symbolic-mirage.blogspot.com,) the host "LL," who has interesting connections everywhere, even in Red China, discusses this about every other day. Between rumors of massive amounts of currency being snuck out, people going into disaster prep mode and that between 5-10% of the population is in open passive resistance mode (while waiving the US flag and singing our national anthem,) well, nothing good can come of this. And mix that with the severe financial crisis Red China is in, with factory managers saying they won't be able to pay workers and massive shutdowns will begin to occur soonest, and the severe agricultural crisis over there between the potential loss of all of Red China's pigs and Japan saying that they will buy all the grain that Red China said they wouldn't because trade wars. And and combined with the lost generation of brideless males (price, yes, price of actual pure Han-race marriable women has gone sky-high, and non-Han women are even fetching a large price, but non-Han wifes mean the man, woman and child are frozen out of any high-party positions like factory manager etc...,) well, things are coming to a head with Red China.
Red China is actually reportedly (from real sources) backing off their dredged-up islands, actually not fortifying them, maybe due to the military draw of Hong Kong. And the government has been subtly pushing a propaganda campaign regarding militarily reuniting Taiwan with mainland Red China, well, not so subtly considering they've released web movies showing how the new modern military will take Taiwan back from the dissidents.
It's so bad that Vietnam is talking, openly talking, to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and all the other non-Red China countries in the area about both economically taking over Red China's production and forming a military alliance of some sorts.
It all comes down to that most Chines saying about living in interesting times... Wondering if Xi Jinping is rethinking that 'Premier for Life' thing he rammed down everyone's throat a few years back.
Unless St. Michael and a host of angels appear on horseback (well, it happened before, with the Normans in Italy against a combined Byzantine, Franco-Italian and Muslim army...) I see nothing good happening for Hong Kong. But then again, I am about the most pessimistic person I have ever met. So, hopefully my pessimism will be greatly exaggerated. Nah... Sigh...
Saw a few of the photos from a Daily Mail post showing Hong Kong police in short sleeve uniform shirts, black helmets, clear face shields, small round clear shields, and revolvers being brandished, REVOLVERS....Course when the demonstrators don't have firearms themselves well even a six-shot revolver is king.
DeleteSomehow I knew you would run with that bit o' meat about Hong Kong. 😉
DeleteHong Kong might go down, but will it spark uprisings on the mainland? Who knows, the Chinese oligarchs are playing with fire, let's hope they can burned, badly.
FWIW, Vietnam hates China, even fought a short border war with the Chinese in 1979. And kicked their Han asses.
One last note, everyone says that "interesting times" thing is an "old Chinese curse." While it sounds very Asian, my sources say it's not a Chinese saying at all but probably originated with a British politician, Joseph Chamberlain.
The Premier for Life thing, when was that not a "thing" in China?
Nylon12 - Yes, a six-shooter might as well be a Gatling gun when your opponent has no firearm.
DeleteWhich is what the progressives want for the US of A.
re: revolvers vs. unarmed populace - Miguel over at Gun Free Zone had an interesting post the other day about Venezuelan police and National Guard being killed for their guns. Even in nations with strict gun control, there are ways to get arms... kind of like the Liberator pistols dropped into occupied Europe in WW2 ...
DeleteA determined populace will find a way.
DeleteThe way things are going, either HK is absorbed Borg-like, which will kill the productivity of HK and render it a detriment to the Han-Red-Communist-Chinese, or it will be curb-stomped so bad that it becomes a rallying cry by everyone. And Hong Kong will not go down quietly. Unless the ChiComs shell the place flat, it will become a giant, long-term bleeding wound that may spark a second Chinese Revolution.
DeleteBut the slow assimilation process started when England left has now become a car full of nitroglycerine containers and half a plutonium sphere on the front bumper, on fire, driven by suicidal retarded monkeys with aggression issues, with no brakes and the accelerator pedal stuck on 'Full Speed Ahead' heading towards a tall cliff, who's base is lined by huge jagged spikes mixed with land-mines and open drums of gasoline, piles of magnesium, sprinkled with thermite with a light dose of anthrax, and hundreds of half-spheres of plutonium just lying around because...
That is what is going to happen to Hong Kong.
I wonder how many Hong Kongers have 'gone on extended vacations' in the last month or so? And if, when they go 'on vacation' they are setting up numbered accounts in places far away from the ChiComs?
Basically, I wonder what isn't being reported about what preparations the Hong-Kongers are taking?
That the HK police and the ChiCom riot police are openly brandishing firearms is a not-good sign.
Re: a car full of nitroglycerine containers and half a plutonium sphere on the front bumper, on fire, driven by suicidal retarded monkeys with aggression issues, with no brakes and the accelerator pedal stuck on 'Full Speed Ahead' heading towards a tall cliff, who's base is lined by huge jagged spikes mixed with land-mines and open drums of gasoline, piles of magnesium, sprinkled with thermite with a light dose of anthrax, and hundreds of half-spheres of plutonium just lying around
DeleteNow that is how you describe socialism.
Thank you. It took half an hour to wipe all the spittle off my monitor and keyboard.
DeleteI thought that this was what Hong Kong was going to experience after the Brits pulled out. I am actually surprised that Red China waited this long.
Same here.
Deleteah, Beans, the ans to where all the Hongkongers are going will begin to be revealed when Vancouver begins to sink from all the Chinese expats relocating to their hi-rise condos they've already purchased in anticipation of just such an eventuality..
DeleteDitto. I'm surprised it's lasted this long.
DeleteVX - You're probably right.
Deletedrjim - Ditto your ditto.
DeleteFWIW - I knew t... and told myself... the answers to the first two; didn’t even try on the third.
ReplyDeleteI guess, since blogging no longer seems to drive my day, even participating in other blog’s activities is too much like work?
Of, course, maybe if we stayed home long enough...
BTW - I give up.
DeleteWhat’s IHNI?
Skip the 1st: You guys are road warriors these days. I say enjoy, travel, jump in when you can, don't sweat it if you can't.
DeleteLike the post title says, "Real Life Gets a Vote." Not always a bad thing.
Skip the 2nd: I was asking what JADQ meant. IHNI = I have no idea.
Delete