Today's Tids Issue 3,389
Opening Stuff:
I’m
glad my generation was not defined
Like all of those others of current mankind:
Boomers like to be called progressive,
But seem more to me as most excessive,
Then we have what is known as Gen X,
Who must do more than just have sex.
Millennials seem as quite the mystery
Mostly intent upon rewriting history.
I shout to demographers, set us free,
So you can be you and I can be me.
We
seem to live in a world where the truth is too offensive
to too many people. How will we ever get better?
Warning:
Only 150 shopping days til Christmas. 146 days til the shortest day and the
first day of winter. Get out your fleece.
And
only about 120 days till we can begin arguing about crèches
in town squares again. Personally I don’t believe it’s about religion at all.
Its’ about people who don’t want to feel guilt.
The
Question:
What are the five all-time longest running Broadway
shows?
The
Headlines:
--China Stocks Take Greatest Daily Fall Since
2007; Europe Follows China; US Poised To Join Global Selloff.
--NK Ends Korean War; Warns US Of Devastation If New
War Were To Begin.
--Trump Retoric Continues To Add Repub Followers;
Hillary Aids Rips NY Times, But Email Misdeeds Dominate News.
--Arab Airs Strikes in Yemen Killing More
Civilians; Latest Strike Killed 120 Young , Old And Children.
--Turkey Pounding ISIS Positions; May Use Action
As Excuse To Engage Kurd Militants.
--Briton’s Chris Froome Wins Third Tour; Martinez,
Johnson, Smoltz, Bigio Enter Baseball Hall.
Do
you get the feeling that John Kerry is at home writing
his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
Great
people nobody knows about, Department:
This is part of the ongoing Tids series about
great people who did great things, but are but a quiet memory probably mainly
with relatives. Today we’re talking about Admiral Stephen Bleeker Luce, the man
who aftert eh Civil War had an idea and proceeded to found the US Naval War
College. His story is one of resilience, courage and persistence. The real life
drama begins with his brilliant concept for the future, which happened to scare
the bejesus out of the old guard Navy, Congress and the White House. Very successful
at sea, Luce had also taught at Annapolis where he wrote the book “Seamanship”,
a naval educational bible for the times. He also had a dream that naval power
would regenerate at a new powerful level, but after experiencing the atrocities
of the civil war he envisioned a new navy that would be compelling and prevent
war; would help make the world a better dwelling place. US navel competence had
been waning terribly, and the powers in the Naval Office seemed happy with the status.
But, a tenacious Luce would not let his grand idea go even as he was shuffled from
deck to deck – He saw a higher education institution beyond the “purely naval
point of view that would consider the interrelationships among naval and
military tactic, strategy, diplomacy and national power.” It was said that with
Luce’s ideas, “if war was inevitable it would be fought nobly, ethically and with
integrity.” Luce overcame the multiple adversaries, and today The Naval War
College on Coasters Island here is considered the finest advanced military educational
institution in the world, a true seat of strategic thinking. Well, perhaps the
Brits may disagree. (Note: Most of what appears interesting in the above came from
the mind of a young woman and relative of Luce.)
The
New Normal, Department:
The progressive agenda to normalize bad behavior
and failure has been a war against achievement and goodness for a number of
years now. It has really taken off during this Obama admin, with “New Normal”
becoming a buzzword for the times. –Two of the latest “new normals” I’ve
noticed are “Indecency” and recently “Mass murders in public places”. One gets
a lot of press and reaction from the anti-gun crowd, and the other, which just
degrades society in general, gets overlooked. --Only the decline from higher
standards could have produced this, the latest headline from the ill equipped
to live in society? “Hulk Hogan fired for uttering a racial slur in a sex tape!”
That sounds just plain crazy to me, but oh so today.
I
love
my geographical positioning.
I don’t have to rely on air conditioning.
The
dirt roads in Maine are better and smoother than the paved
roads in Rhode Island.
The
NY Times on Friday declared that families eating
together is overrated. What’s overrated is that “old gray lady”, where only the
socially inflated are sated. Forgetting that West of the Hudson, families were
created, and good times together is not exaggerated. I think at times Big Apple
people are quite dated no matter how they seem elevated.
It’s
time to activate my trusty old “Real Clear Politics”
app. That way I can report to you the real truth on polls, instead of the
selected headlines of mass media editors. I believe that RCP is the best political
source around. It may not always agree with your or my preconceived notions,
but it does provide the truth which scarcer than a rare earth.
I
was intrigued by the headline on the cover of last week’s
NYT’s Sunday Mag: “Rewriting American History.” Aha, I thought, they are
finally admitting what they and other progressive venues have been doing for
years, undermining the truths about the beginning’s of America. Here in the US
of A, the left is sneaky about how they transform minds. In Russia they just eliminate
history all together, and anybody who happens to know about history. Yes here,
they just get Hollywood to make a “Harmless” comedy or Broadway to produce a redux
of the 18th century founding fathers, as they have in the new show
Hamilton. That it turns out is what the Times story was about, the new big show
about the man who formed the financial structure of the young new country. This
is a musical (If you consider Rap or Hip-Hop music) about the political intrigues
of the early Republic starring black and Hispanic actors. So the headline of
the magazine, which was really a play review, misspoke about rewriting history.
Or, did it?
I’ll
be watching the intro of Windows 10 closely as it should
tell us if Microsoft is still relevant. Is Microsoft relevant? Think about that
for a moment.
Millennials
have given us men wearing shirts outside pants. How great are these young
people of ours.
The
Parking Lot: Chapter 5 continues…
As food
productivity in the Colony fell, and the Hicks land became more stressed, the boys
Samuel, Ephraim and Richard explored and finally pushed west over the years,
often joining Squanto and his men. The three young men had learned well from
the Pequat leader and felt comfortable with the land, and their new friends.
While the
Massachusetts Bay Colony gained strength, Plymouth became wracked with dissent,
forcing men like Roger Williams and John
Clarke and woman truth seekers like Anne Hutchinson and yes, John Hicks’
wife Herod Long to move to territories beyond Western Plymouth into what became
Providence and Newport County RI.
The Three
Hicks boys were content not to follow their often unpredictable brother, but
were satisfied and comfortable with what they found in Sakonnet, the lands that
are now Tiverton and Little Compton. They were comfortable because they were so
well accepted by the various Indian factions. They traded well and bought lands
from the tribes, including the powerful Chief, King Phillip. By 1670, the boys
had built widespread holdings and filled their lands with large families.
But,
life was about to change, and the three would be faced with enormous
challenges.
The
Answer:
Phantom of the Opera is the all time longest
running show with 11,431 performances! Next is Chicago with 7,751 and Cats at
7,497. Rounding out the Top Five are Lion King (7,353) and Les Miz (6,680 --
Maybe the all time “around the world” winner). The next ten are Chorus Line, Oh
Calcutta, Mama Mia, Beauty and the Beast, Rent, Wicked, Miss Saigon, Jersey Boys
and Grease. Ok, lets go to the top 20 – starting at 16 with Fiddler on the
Roof, 1939’s Life with Father, Tobacco Road and Hello Dolly and the impeccable
My Fair Lady at #20. Super popular Sound of Music is only #60, Music Man is 64,
King and I is 74, Guys and Dolls 81, Annie Get Your Gun is 88 and the popular
Damn Ya, Ya, Ya (WYKWIM)… is 104. West Side Story and Gypsy are not listed in
the top 110 plays with over 1,000 performances. Perception is weird, isnt it.
Here’ the entire list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_longest-running_Broadway_shows
Happy
last week of July, E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y!
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