From our friends across the pond at Metro.co.uk:
(from Tuesday, September 11, 2007)
It’s been a bad few days for criminals. Not only did a mugger in Germany get taken down by a blind judo champion, but an armed robber in Colombia found out the hard way that a karate academy is a lousy place to try and rob.
The thief discovered the flaw in his plans when the students at the academy didn’t take kindly to being robbed, police said on Friday.
The robber is now recovering in a hospital, in Santander province north of Bogota, after the martial artists used their combat skills on him and took away his gun.
‘An individual entered a martial arts school with a firearm but they managed to react, put their knowledge to use and disarmed him,’ Santander police commander Col. Julio Cesar Santoyo told local Caracol radio.
Some things can’t help but make you smile…
Bull, out!
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BOSTON �?? Sen. Ted Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital announced Tuesday, four days after the Democratic senator was rushed to the hospital following seizures.
Anytime I hear the word “cancer” I can’t help but cringe a little. My father, mother, brother, and two of my grandparents have had cancer and while Mom seems to have hers at bay, the others all either died from it or from some situation directly associated with the cancer. The Bull fully expects to be diagnosed with some form of cancer at a point in my life. In no way do I take the disease lightly, nor the suffering it brings to the person with it or their families.
That said, I also firmly believe that the Universe seeks out balance. Sometimes it takes a while, but balance is always achieved. Generally we Humans call the concept “Justice“, although other terms – such as ‘karma’ – are often erroneously used in its place. I believe we are seeing that Balance settling in now for Kennedy’s prior behavior. Let us recall his traitorous treatment of our men and women in uniform when they were in combat and he was, (with the other Dems), withholding vitally needed funding for the equipment the fighting forces needed to protect themselves and go on to Victory. Ted Kennedy sees the defeat of America and the deaths of her soldiers only as political fodder in an election year. Further, let us not forget another Kennedy act requiring a bit of balancing…
Mary Jo Kopechne
…and a little island called Chappaquiddick.
Remember those, Teddy? Well, maybe not, depending on how far this cancer has progressed. It may be that the Senator will settle his debt by slobbering his way through The Veil Between Worlds, yet Balance will have been achieved at last.
Bull, out.
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Now this was a pure pleasure!
The Bull received an eagerly anticipated package recently from the Turner Publishing Company. Inside was a pre-release edition of their latest ‘local interest’ books. This one was “Historic Photos of Mobile“. Right away they had my full attention as there is nothing closer to my heart than the history of our great nation and all the local flavor therein. Even better, this is all about my adopted home town.
The next two hours were lost deep in the 206 pages of black-and-white photos of Mobile from the earliest days of photography right on up to the ravages of hurricane Fredrick in 1979. Also included were descriptions of the town and its history from the city’s first days as an American town in 1812. Most folk have no idea that this city has existed under eight different flags. Mobile knows history! We have seen it all: French and Spanish explorers mapping out the New World, flood waters that forced the entire town to be relocated downriver to its current location, the rise of King Cotton and the fall of the Confederacy. Mobile witnessed the Fort Mims Massacre of whites, blacks, and Creek Indians as well, and then the Battle of Mobile Bay where cannons belched fire and steel and only Americans died. Mobile built ships for both World Wars and even now is building the latest in American Naval combat ships – the “Independence”.
Through it all the culture of Mobile has shown brightly. Here, the passage of time is acknowledged yet never allowed to taint that local flavor we hold so dear. This ‘picture book’ shows all of that clearly in its 216 pages. On page 63 is a photo of five US submarines tied up for the celebration of Mardi Gras in the year 1916. Every year since The Bull arrived there has been at least one Navy vessel in port during the celebration and from what I’ve been able to learn there always has been. I passed the book through the family and to some friends of the family that have reached those Golden Years and have lived here all of their lives. Universally, the book got the highest marks.
When the book finally arrived once more here at The Pasture, I opened it and found many little notes stuck in the pages. They had been left there by one Mrs. Doris Biggs Megginson – a life long citizen of Mobile. As I read the notes they seemed to bring life and color to the old photos in a way that it is hard to express in words. Let me share a couple with you…
- On page 89 is a photo of the Bay Queen, a ferry that shuttled folks across the bay for many years. Tucked in next to this picture was a tiny note that read “Mama, Willie Havard Biggs, danced across the bay many times aboard the Bay Queen“. Seems it was a common thing at one time for the girls to dance from the time the ferry left the dock on one side of the bay until the ferry reached the far shore. Can’t you just see it now in your minds eye?
- Another note was next to page 39 where is shown the old Mobile City Hall and the Southern Market. The note read: “‘Mammy’ Frances Lenora Thomley Havard came in from Cottage Hill to buy groceries here“. How cool!
- The final note I’ll share with you is concerning the photo of the northeast view of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The picture shows clearly the crosses atop the spires of the Church. The note read: “During World War Two a Navy training plane clipped one of the crosses off the top of the Cathedral, took the kitchen off an apartment of one of my brother’s friends, and then hit yet another building. The young pilot died the next day. I enjoyed this book so much because it brought back so many memories…“.
Memories.
That is exactly what these books are about, and Turner Publishing has a hit with this one! Celebrate the history and flavor of Mobile – Get your copy today!
Bull, out!
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