They're All Gone Now

THE LAST KNOWN SURVIVING UNIFORMED VETERAN OF WORLD WAR I has passed away in England.  It was announced today (Tuesday) that Florence Green of King's Lynn died in her sleep in a nursing home on Saturday, just two weeks shy of her 111th birthday.

According to published news releases,  Green joined the fledgling Royal Air Force in September 1918 at age 17 and served as a mess steward at two air bases in Norfolk.  Two months later the Armistice was signed ending the war, but she continued in the RAF until the following July.

The dear lady never mentioned her service in later years until a researcher at the UK military archives discovered her records.  On her 109th birthday the RAF honored her with a visit from a wing commander and a representative mess steward of today who brought a cake.

Mess Steward Hannah Shaw visited Florence in 2010
to help celebrate her 109th birthday.  (Ministry of Defence photo)

Her mind was alert and nimble right to the end.  On her 110th birthday someone asked her what it was like to be that old, and she replied, "It's not much different than being 109, I guess."  Her husband Walter died in 1970 and since then she lived with her oldest daughter, now 90, until the end of this past November when she entered the nursing home.

BBC News has the STORY.
The Associated Press has more details HERE.

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Untold Hundreds Injured

AT LEAST 74 PEOPLE WERE KILLED and hundreds more injured when a riot broke out at a soccer game in Port Said, Egypt, Wednesday night  The home team, el Masry from Port Said had just won its match against el Ahley, a superior and favored team from Cairo, 3-1, when hundreds of "fans" poured out of the stands onto the soccer pitch and began brawling.

Xinhua

The players from the two teams ran to the safety of the locker rooms with the assistance of stadium security people, but two players were still injured before they could get off the field.

el-Ahly players run for their lives to the locker rooms  (Xinhua)

This video posted by Youm7 News opens with the el Ahley players being chased off the field:

Xinhua News reports:

Due to insufficient security, most of the fans entered the stadium with sticks in their hands and supporters of the two rival teams started fighting each other.

The riot was caused by some insulting posters carried by the Ahly fans, Nile TV reported. One of the posters read "Port Said is like rubbish and it has no men."

Chief of Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Hussein Tantawi, ordered two military helicopters to transfer the players, fans and the injured to the capital Cairo.

Egyptian Prosecutor General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud ordered an investigation into the riot. The parliament will hold an emergency session Thursday over the incident.

The rioting spilled out of the stadium into the surround streets forcing shops to close and bar their doors.

In Cairo, another match was being held between Zamalik and Ismaily.  During their half-time break, news of the riot in Port Said was delivered to the stadium officials and it was decided to cancel the second half of the match in case the rioters were planning on spreading the protest to the other stadium.  When it was announced to the fans in attendance that the rest of the match was cancelled, they began to riot, setting fires throughout the stadium.

The chief of the military police vowed to track down those responsible and arrest them.

The Sydney Morning Herald has an extended report HERE.

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Introducing KA-BOOM Ball !
Some Sunday Morning Silliness ©

MY SON RECENTLY COMPLAINED ABOUT THE TWO TEAMS facing each other in the upcoming Superbowl, saying that the last time these two played, the ratings were near record lows for the Superbowl.

In other sporting events, things have gotten so bad, that promoters have even tried near-nudity to bring the fans into their taxpayer provided stadiums and arenas. The Lingerie Football League is steadily growing in attendance thanks to us pervs, but other sports have begun to wane in attendance. 

Lingerie Football League photo

Well I think I can fix that with just a little bit more work. Let's face reality. Many people watch stock car racing not for the race…but for the CRASHES!

It's a fact of human nature that we are inexplicably drawn to images of death and disaster. That's why so many TV shows now feature disaster footage and themes. They know you will watch. News shows lead off with the latest video just in from some God-forsaken place that just got hit by earthquake, volcanic eruptions or tornado….Why? Because you watch!  YouTube videos that feature explosions, stupid people and car crashes are among the top draws there.  Why? Because you watch!  So let's take advantage of that urge.

I propose that the powers-that-be in each of the respective professional sports replace the ball, puck or object used in the game with one that will at some point in the game….explode. Nothing huge, just enough to get your attention…and remove nearby body parts of the slow or unlucky.

The explosion has to be totally random so that there is an even chance that it will explode while no one is around it, or go off while the highest paid player is holding it.

This will accomplish several things:

* People will tune in to see if someone gets killed or maimed this week.* It will help thin out the herd of pampered, spoiled and waaaaaaay overpaid players, making way for the new and upcoming players with potential and motivation.

* We the fans will get to see just who really wants to play and who is just there for the pay check.

* It will be a financial shot in the arm for prosthetics manufacturers, physical therapy specialists, funeral homes and collectible sports cards makers, who will be busy constantly issuing new cards for all the new players and memorial cards for those who were slow on the draw.

* It will generate lots of new jobs and immediately start a whole new industry making exploding sports equipment!

As technology progresses, we could eventually eliminate the yellow penalty flag used in football with player-worn taser belts. Next time a linesman goes off sides, we all get to see the real punishment, not just some lame 10 yard penalty. BZZZZZZZZZZZZ YAH!!!!!!!

I can imagine the play-by-play now…..Jones throws a long bomb ….Richards is in the clear near the 5-yard line….OH NO! Richards and 2 of the CowboyS defenders have disappeared in a KA-BOOM penalty detonation!

You see? I have answers to all of the world's problems but no one asks me!

Reprinted from the Gnome Handler Steve Marshall's e-newspaper Meadville Live.

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Onerous Residency Law Forces Action.

THE ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, FIREFIGHTERS are in a jam thanks to the city's oppressive residency requirements.  St. Louis, like many other failed cities, requires its employees to live inside the city.  These laws are usually a tactic to keep more of the taxpayers on the public payroll instead of being shunted aside by better-qualified people who don't live in the city.  This has a bad effect on firefighters and police officers who traditionally will sacrifice their own comfort and abide by the law in order to keep a job that they really love and do well.

The hang-up for most younger workers in the city is the fact that the school systems in these places are just as bad or worse than the rest of the city government and the employees do not want to send their children to non-productive public schools.  The St. Louis schools are so bad that they have lost their state accreditation.

The St. Louis Beacon tells, …. because the firefighters have to live in the city, their choice is between unaccredited public schools, charter schools or private or parochial schools that charge tuition.  If the choice is to pay tuition, the bill can be a hefty one. Wayne Killingsworth said he is paying more than $20,000 a year for his children to attend parochial schools.

Missouri has a state law that requires surrounding jurisdictions to accept students from municipalities that don't have accredited schools into their schools and the tuition and transportation costs are to be borne by the home jurisdiction.

But the couties surrounding St. Louis are balking at accepting the foreign students and now five firefighters have filed a suit asking the court to force the school districts to obey the law and allow them to enroll their children.  Again from the Beacon:

Ryan, who was rebuffed in his effort to enroll his child in Kirkwood, said he doesn't mind having to live in the city, but he doesn't think his child's education should suffer.

"I would prefer to remain in the city and have my daughter attend an accredited school," he said, adding that instead, she is "trapped in a failed district."

"All we are asking," Ryan added, "is that the Outstanding Schools Act be enforced as written. We don't want the future to be unpredictable when it comes to our daughter's education."

IAFF Local 73 is supporting their challenge.

Read the entire article in the St. Louis Beacon to learn the details of this problem and challenge HERE.

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40% off VCAN Cruiser Half Helmet

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to learn more and see other related bargains.

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Pair of Notorious Guns Auctioned Off Saturday

TWO GUNS LEFT BEHIND BY BONNIE & CLYDE when a police raid on their Joplin, Missouri apartment caused them to flee, were sold at a Kansas City auction house Saturday for $210,000.

On Friday Firegeezer REPORTED HERE on the upcoming auction and we included some brief history on the two firearms, one a Thompson submachine gun and the other a 12-gauge Winchester shotgun.  The machine gun is the only "Tommy" gun that the Barrow gang is known to have carried.

Mayo Auction photo

The guns were seized by the raiding policemen on April 13, 1933, and kept as spoils by one of them who later gave them to the great-grandfather of the people who sold them this week.  This marked the first time they had ever been sold since they were stolen and kept by Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

Both items were sold fairly quickly and the same bidder won both guns, paying $130,000 for the Thompson and $80,000 for the Winchester.  The successful telephone bidder was not identified publicly other than as "an East Coast gun collector."

This brief video shows the guns on display at the auction room just prior to the sale:

For more information on the guns' histories, refer to the Firegeezer story HERE.

In an article on the sale after its conclusion, the Joplin Globe wrote:

The weapons are believed to be among those seized after a raid April 13, 1933, at the outlaws’ apartment hideout near 34th Street and Oak Ridge Drive in Joplin.

Five lawmen in two cars, armed only with handguns, descended on the apartment, and a bloody gunfight ensued. Two of the lawmen — Newton County Constable John Wesley Harryman and Joplin police Detective Harry McGinnis — were killed. Clyde Barrow, Buck Barrow and fellow gang member W.D. "Deacon" Jones were injured.

After the raid, police confiscated guns, a camera and personal items from the apartment, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The film in the camera, which was developed by The Joplin Globe at the time, was of special interest. The images on the film, which include some with the guns, were the first to identify the outlaws. Historians say the publication of those images in newspapers across the country spelled the beginning of the end for the duo.

Read the entire article HERE.

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The "Me" Generation Rolls Right Along

DEMONSTRATING THAT THE NARCISSISM of the "It's all about ME!" generation has no bounds, an Illinois man posted an x-ray of his brain injury on his Facebook page while he was being rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery.

This past Tuesday, Dante Autullo of Orland Park, Illinois, was using a nail gun while building a shed.  At one point, while working on an overhead portion, he felt a little punch but no other sensation and presumed that an errant nail had grazed his skull right where a small wound appeared.  So he kept on working.  Wednesday morning when  he woke up, he felt nauseous and thought he should see a doctor. 

Later that afternoon he went into a hospital ER where they took an x-ray and found a 3-¼ " nail embedded in his brain.  The AP report explains that while there are pain-sensitive nerves on a person's skull, there aren't any within the brain itself. That's why he would have felt the nail strike the skull, but he wouldn't have felt it penetrate the brain.

Image provided by AP

The ER docs packaged him up and sent him via ambulance to another hospital better suited for brain surgery.  While en route between hospitals, Autullo (presumably with the assistance of his girlfriend) took a snapshot of the x-ray and posted it directly on his Facebook page for all the world to see (him).

The 2-hour surgery was successful and he has full use of his limbs and thinking process, so he has good reason to be grateful.  The AP story continues:

Neurosurgeon Leslie Schaffer acknowledged that Autullo's case was unusual, but not extremely rare. Schaffer said having a nail penetrate the skull is not like being shot in the head, noting that a bullet would break into multiple pieces.

"This [the nail] is thinner, with a small trajectory, and pointed at the end," he said. "The bone doesn't fracture much because the nail has a small tip."

Schaffer said the man's skull stopped the nail from going farther into his brain. He said he removed the nail by putting two holes in Autullo's skull, on either side of the nail, then pulled the nail out along with a piece of the skull. The part of the skull that was removed for surgery was replaced with a titanium mesh, Hospital spokesman Mike Maggio said.

For more details of the injury and surgery, read the entire ARTICLE HERE.  At the end of the story, his girlfriend says that Dante was claiming that, "I'm one of those medical miracles," and that "We need to get the Discovery Channel up here to tape this," ostensibly joking.

Firegeezer notes:  I have been unable to locate a Facebook page for Autullo.  It is possible that it has been taken down, or that it never happened.  I'll let you know if I find out any further information.  Facebook page located, but Wall is either unavailable to non-friends or has been scrubbed.  https://www.facebook.com/people/Dante-Autullo/1691031285#!/people/Dante-Autullo/1691031285?sk=info

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Cultural Artifacts on the Auction Block

SERIOUS GUN COLLECTORS (AND FANS) ARE streaming into Kansas City today so that they can attend the Mayo Auction & Realty Co.'s major firearm auction on Saturday.  More than 100 firearms on consignment will be sold beginning at 10 am.

The star offerings in this show are two guns owned by the infamous Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow, the Depression-Era criminals who traveled the mid-west holding up banks and killing nine police officers along with dozens of innocent civilians.

The weapons coming on the block are a Thompson sub-machine gun treasured and used by Bonnie Parker that was the only "Tommy" gun that the gang ever owned.  The other is a 12-gauge Winchester shotgun model 1897.

all photos via Mayo Auctions

The guns were left behind in a Joplin, Missouri, hotel room when police raided the gang.  They escaped by a hair, but left behind a weapons cache and a camera.  One of the raiding officers took the Tommy gun and the 12-gauge along with the camera for souvenirs.  When the film in the camera was developed, the photos were of the couple in various "crime guy and moll" poses that have since become iconic.

According to Mayo Auctions, the sellers' great-grandfather, M. L. Lairmore who was in law enforcement at the time, was given the two guns by another peace officer who had seized the weapons after a raid on the pair in Joplin, Missouri in April of 1933.

The guns have been in the family of Mark Lairmore and his sisters, the sellers, from Springfield, MO., ever since the unknown Depression-era police officer gave them to their great-grandfather.  For the past 35 years they have been on loan to the Springfield, Missouri, Police Department's museum where they have been on display.  The family has now decided to sell the weapons and consigned them to this auction to be held on January 21.

Mayo's WEBSITE HERE has a series of close-up photos of the weapons for inspection purposes and more information about them.  They will also be accepting bids via internet if you want to get the shift to pitch in and try for one.

Update:  Results of the auction sale have been posted HERE.

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Friday Morning – The Music World Mourns Today

Johnny Otis died Tuesday, it was announced yesterday.  The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was 90 years old and largely unknown to the current generation that is under 50 years of age.  But he was a giant in the music world during his heyday as a songwriter, performer, disc jockey, band leader, record producer and on and on.

Born John Veliotes in December 1921 to Greek immigrant parents, his father ran a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood of Berkeley, California, where he became immersed in the black music culture and steered his personal ambitions in that direction.  He began his career as a drummer in a Rhythm & Blues band and started writing songs also, many of them becoming standards in the R & B genre such as So Fine and All Night Long.  It was in 1958 that he wrote and recorded the monster hit that made his fame nationwide, Willie and the Hand Jive.

As a record producer and D.J. he "discovered" several budding performers and set them on the path to stardom, inluding Hank Ballard, Etta James, Little Richard, and Jackie Wilson, to name just a few.  His accomplishments led to his introduction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and was as deserving as any others enshrined.

We are fortunate that his early "music video" of him performing his signature song Willie and the Hand Jive has been preserved and posted on YouTube.  Otis is the singer and pianist in this classic performance:

For detailed obituaries of Johnny Otis, read these:
Los Angeles Times 
Washington Post
New York Times

Let's jive on over to the apparatus and get the equipment checked out now.  I'm going to get some groovy coffee going before we meet back in the day room in a little while.

Update, 4 pm:
It was announced today that Etta James (mentioned above from being discovered by Otis) passed away today at age 73.  More in the Los Angeles Times HERE.

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Florida?  Who Knew?

ONE OF THE OLDEST TREES IN THE WORLD, a 3,500 yr.-old bald cypress located in Seminole County, Florida, burned down Monday.  The National Landmark long known as The Senator was discovered burning in the morning and initial speculation held that a set brush fire did it in.

WKMP image

But after it collapsed this afternoon a chief forestry fire investigator could look inside the trunk and he immediately ruled out the arson theory.  "The thought now is that the fire was due to a lighting strike about two weeks ago," said Steve Wright, a spokesman for the Seminole County Fire Rescue. "We think it was smoldering inside the tree and we only saw the blaze today, when it reached the top."

A visitor to the state park where the tree is located spotted the fire and called the FD shortly before 6 am.  The expanded dispatch brought tankers while the firefighters hand-laid over 800 ft. of lines to the tree.  At 7:45 am a 20-ft. section fell off the top and 45 minutes later more of the trunk collapsed. 

Only a smoldering stump remains after the last section of
the trunk collapsed this morning.  (Orlando Sentinel photo)

The tree once stood about 165 ft. high, but a 1925 hurricane took off the top 45 ft. leaving a 116-ft. trunk since then.  The property that is now the Big Tree State Park was donated to the state by Florida State Senator Moses Overstreet, hence the tree's nickname.  In 1946 the American Forestry Association bored a hole in the trunk to remove a test core and found the age to be 3,500 years.  A companion tree is not far from The Senator that remains today and is 2,000 years old.

Two men pose in front of The Senator in this 1920's photo
from the Florida State Archives to illustrate the size of the trunk.

WFTS-TV posted some raw video showing the tree burning:

The Orlando Sentinel has the STORY.

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Wednesday Morning – What Shall I Put This In?

Things are always changing as time marches on.  New products are developed that replace old favorites and existing materials are improved to the point where they assume new uses that make others obsolete.  For example, think about the basic jar that foodstuffs come in.  I have a nice large glass jar that holds about 28 or 30 ounces by measure of liquid or dry product.  This one, in fact, had originally been used for some artificial coffee creamer sold in grocery stores.  I have been using it for probably 25 or 30 years now to keep uncooked rice in my pantry.  It is made of a very heavy glass and the lid is relatively thick steel.  A grand, sturdy container that can easily last another 30 years. 

Those were common on grocery shelves for all kinds of products, but now you can't find a one.  Everything is plastic now, even the lids.  And they don't seem to have that durability of the old glass containers or nice steel cans like coffee used to come in.  And we always need small containers for this and that, but our ability to get them is limited now.  Variety and craft stores even sell empty jars and wooden boxes for people who need them but can no longer just wash out one that they got for free.  Such a shame.

None of these practical containers of the past is probably more missed than the classic cigar box.  Those wooden boxes are just the right size for hundreds of uses and can survive being dropped.  They also stack very nicely.  Most people under the age of 40 have probably never even seen one, let alone possessed one to keep cherished items in.  For one thing, the number of people who smoke cigars has dropped precipitously and there are far fewer cigar boxes being made.  And they certainly don't have the look and feel that the old ones do.

When I was a child, they were easy to come by.  All you had to do was go to the local drug store and ask the cashier where the tobacco counter was located, and if they had an empty they would willingly hand it over.  Kids have lots of uses for a cigar box, such as keeping a coin collection or pile of toy cars.  Grown-ups like them too, for things like a handy sewing kit or small tool box for the kitchen.  Even canceled checks fit nicely in them.  But now they don't even send your check back to you.  The boxes are made of wood…..thin strips that are glued together and covered inside and out with a heavy printed paper.  The double layer of paper served as the hinge for the lid which was always snug-fitting.

Cigar boxes were made by the millions and there are still plenty of them around if you want a couple for yourself.  A check with eBay shows nearly 9,000 of them for sale today, most of them in the $5 range which is not a bad price for such a handy item.  It's a shame when progress races along and leaves such valuable things behind like good glass jars and cigar boxes.

We had better progress into the equipment check now.  I'm going to get some more coffee out of the plastic container and make another pot.  See you back in the day room in a little while.

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