Weekend Open Thread
Tomorrow is Three Kings Day, or Epiphany. The Christmas season continues until January 8, 2024. January 6 also marks the beginning of Mardi Gras/Carnival season, which runs until Mardi Gras. This year, Mardi Gras occurs on February 13, 2024. This is the same season that King Cake is offered by some establishments. Enjoy your weekend.
Category: Open thread
First!
Lurking around all week and not a peep from you and your 26 leaden soldiers, just alaying in wait to steal the 1st WOT FIRST. Guess it matches with your FIRST on the Last WOT, eh. Well played Good Sir. That Fiber Optic Fed at work inherwebz connection comes in handy.
Have a Cong Rat for your troubles, my Man. ps…iffen you spent as much time on the other keys beside the F5 key, you may have made some more progress on Book 2 of Trivia and Book 3 of Young Mr. Lee. Jus’ sayin’ *grin*
FIRST?!?
HAH!!! Last in 2023, FIRST in 2024!!! A two-fer for the Commish!!! Rest easy, though, my fellow deporables; I reign with love and honor and all that other nonsense. And I rule with trivia, the column of which for the week is hereby offered up. Enjoy! And yes, the good stuff is once again available.
DID YOU KNOW…?
Was Pluto actually photographed several times before it was “discovered”?
By Commissioner Wretched
didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com
Copyright © 2024
Happy New Year 2024!
Everybody does a riff on New Year’s Resolutions, so I won’t. I’ll just wish you a 2024 that is the best year ever in your life, and hope that the same comes true for me as well.
No wish for happiness could be complete, however, without the liberal application of trivia to the scene. So, without further ado (and what the heck is ado, anyway?), here’s the first trivia column of 2024, all shined up and ready for you.
Fireworks and silly noisemakers are optional, of course.
Did you know …
… the table fork was introduced in England in 1601? Prior to that, people ate with knives, spoons, or just their fingers. When Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) used a fork for the first time, the clergy was furious. They believed that it was an insult to God to not touch one’s food with one’s own fingers. (It’s an insult to yourself to burn your fingers on your food, though.)
… Canada has a million-dollar coin? In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint produced the first legal tender coin with a value of a million dollars. I doubt you’ll find many being carried around, though; the coin weighs 220 pounds. It’s made of almost pure gold bullion and the Mint created only five of them. (You’d need an awfully big pocket.)
… more than 75% of all the nations on Earth are located north of the Equator? (Oddly enough, that’s where most of the land is located, too!)
… the paper milk carton was invented after an accident? John van Wormer (1856-1942) dropped a bottle of milk one morning and the bottle shattered, milk spilling everywhere. Annoyed, van Wormer began working on a way to prevent that from happening again, and in 1915 he received a patent for the “paper bottle,” or what we know today as the paper or cardboard milk carton. Van Wormer also created the machinery to form, fill and seal the paper milk cartons. (Why isn’t this guy a hero? Huh?)
… the creator of the Ford automobile had a notorious fan? While at the helm of the company, Henry Ford (1863-1947) received a letter from bank robber Clyde Barrow (1909-1934). In the letter, Barrow thanked Ford for the reliability and performance of the company’s V-8 autos. (All the better to get away with, my dear.)
… the proudest achievement of Leonardo da Vinci was probably not what you think it was? The great artist and scientist (1452-1519), while justifiably proud of his notable achievements in those areas, was said to have been proudest of the fact that he could bend iron with his bare hands. (Was da Vinci a native of the planet Krypton?)
Ahem…First First of the WOT…yes. First First of 2024? That would be the HOT that dropped on or about 0001 hrs. 1 January 2024, EARNED by The King of Battle.
Hope we have something to stick a fork into this next year. Imma stocking up on beans and bullets meself.
Surprised that PM Trudy didn’t give them coins to Fidel for a Father’s Day Gift.
Maybe all the America Haters can go south and start their own Utopia. I hear that Antarctica is nice this time of year and looking for settlers.
“It’s fat and stupid to go thru life drunk on spilled milk, son.” John Wormer to his boy, Dean.
Too bad for Clyde and Bonnie that they weren’t around when Percy Chrysler’s Company started making Patton’s Tanks.
Did Leo have a piece of that iron in his pocket when Rose wouldn’t make room for him on her raft?
I stand corrected, King … you get the first overall FIRST for 2024, while I must content myself with getting the first FIRST in the WOT for the year.
We good, CW. Had to poke at you a little bit for…reasons. *grin*
… the dwarf planet Pluto was photographed several times before its discovery? Pluto, which was re-classified from planet to dwarf planet in 2006, was discovered in 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997) at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. But before Dr. Tombaugh’s discovery, at least sixteen different photos of the planet were taken by astronomers at the same observatory, without them realizing what they were photographing. The first one was taken in 1909. Additional trivia note: Of all the people who’ve discovered planets, Dr. Tombaugh is the only one who’s been to the world he discovered, in a way. Some of his ashes were aboard the New Horizons spacecraft which flew past Pluto in 2015, sending back the first photographs of the dwarf planet. The plans for a spacecraft to visit Pluto began in 1992, when a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory asked Dr. Tombaugh for permission to visit “his” planet. (Another unique experience!)
… presidents are not immortalized on all U.S. money? Looking at paper bills, for instance, we discover that the $10 bill bears the photo of Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), first Secretary of the Treasury, and the $100 bill has the portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), first Postmaster General. Of the discontinued bills, the only non-president was Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873), a Chief Justice of the United States, who was depicted on the $10,000 bill. All other bills have presidential portraits on them. (And not enough of them are in my wallet.)
The day they commission currency with Bill Clinton’s portrait is the day I willingly walk into whatever federal office I must to officially abandon my citizenship.
It’ll be on the $36 bill.
Pluto went goofy over Minnie. Mickey had to chase him away. There’s just no justice in that.
… one of the greatest operas in history opened to very bad reviews? When Madame Butterfly was first performed on February 17, 1904, the audience in Milan, Italy really got into jeering it – boos, catcalls, animal sounds, you name it. Composer Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) quickly revised the work, and when the revamped opera was performed in Brescia, Italy, it was acclaimed as a great work. (He should have renamed the original as Madame Caterpillar. It would’ve worked.)
… a popular actor vandalized the world’s tallest building? In 2010, during the filming of Mission: Impossible 4, actor Tom Cruise (born 1962) was atop the Burj Khalifa in Dubai when he etched his autograph, the name of his then-wife Katie Holmes (born 1978) and a heart into the spire. Additional trivia note: Cruise was atop the 2,717-foot structure without safety equipment for a shot for the movie.
… some astronauts really did have the “right stuff”? Take, for instance, astronaut Gordon Cooper (1927-2004). During the countdown to the launch of his Mercury space flight Faith 7 in May of 1963, Cooper was so relaxed that he fell asleep in the capsule awaiting liftoff. Cooper flew twice into space – his Mercury flight and as command pilot of Gemini 5 in 1965. (I’ve heard of “cool as a cucumber” but that’s ridiculous.)
Now … you know!
Here’s one of the greatest operas EVAH, that you should cruise thru. It has all of the right stuff and you won’t fall asleep during it. Great Job, as always, on the trivia, CW. Thank ye!
Bravo! Encore!
“Hear” ya go…
What the ?
Is it us or is the TAH server slow again?
🤔
Yes.
Thank You, Ed!
😉😎
Happy weekend.
That is clearly a part of one of them eebil weapons of war, the AK-15 super-sprayer of fully-semi-automatic guns with them 50 round clips.
Does it have the thing in the back that goes up?
Death Star bayonet…
Ooooooh!
Now I want a Death Star for my AR.
You could probably develop a Death Star-style casing for the barrel of the old Master Key attachment. I could see a market for that.
Would Disney sue?
Make it look like a light saber on the outside and a suppressor on the inside. No need for a bayonet lug. 😉
🤭
LMAO! I am stealing this for sure. Thanks ninja!
You are so welcome, Sparks!
🫡☺️
Too bad you could not see us all furiously wiping our screens trying to remove it.
Present! Happy friday, dickweeds and dickweedettes!
Late as usual.
But you made it.
From this month’s American Legion Magazine (paraphrased maybe):
So it looks like the Chicken wants the title of “Why did the Chicken cross the street”
FIRST SIXTEENTH
LTC (Retired) Allen West’s Nephew:
“Army Moves To Court-Martial Ex-JBLM Battalion Commander Over Sexual Harassment Allegations”
https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2024-01-04/army-lewis-mcchord-court-martial-sex-harassment-12557954.html
“LTC Herman Bernard West III on Nov. 20 was removed as commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade at the joint Army-Air Force installation north of Tacoma, Wash. At the time, the Army gave no reason for his dismissal.”
“But LTC Jennifer Bocanegra, an Army public affairs officer, said Thursday that the charges include conduct unbecoming an officer and sexual harassment. West was charged Nov. 28.”
Why? Why toss a great career over shit like this?
Sparks, you nailed it.
Welp, at least West’s son isn’t a shoplifter, like that ex-Secretary of the Army and full-bull mentioned below.
“Gordon Sullivan, Once Dual-Hat Army Chief And Secretary, Dies At 86”
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2024/01/03/gordon-sullivan-once-dual-hat-army-chief-and-secretary-dies-at-86/
“Retired Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, who served as the Army’s 32nd chief of staff from 1991 to 1995 and oversaw pivotal post-Cold War transformations, died Jan. 2 at the age of 86…”
“Sullivan, who began his Army career as an armor lieutenant in 1959, is the only person in modern Army history to have served simultaneously as the service’s chief of staff and acting Army secretary. President Bill Clinton tapped Sullivan as the acting secretary of the Army for a three month period in 1993 after the last person holding that post, John W. Shannon, was caught shoplifting from the base exchange at Fort Myer, Virginia.”
COL (Retired) John William Shannon Sr, who is mentioned in the article above:
“In 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated Shannon as United States Under Secretary of the Army and he subsequently held this office from August 14, 1989, until November 23, 1993. He was Acting United States Secretary of the Army from January 20, 1993, until August 26, 1993. On that date, Shannon was arrested outside the Ft. Myer post exchange in Arlington, Va. after store detectives saw him put items worth about $30 into a shopping bag and leave the store without paying. Shannon was placed on administrative leave, and never returned to his position.”
“The charges against Shannon were dismissed after he agreed to attend a shoplifting prevention program and perform community service. He was subsequently hired as a month-to-month contracted consultant by the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Logistics to study inventories and advise the military on which parts and supplies to keep on hand in what quantities. He completed his study and ended his contract in early 1994.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Shannon
Before Sullivan, Stormin’ Norman was reportedly offered the chief’s job to replace the retiring Carl Vuono. He turned it down. Not shocking. Schwazkopf preferred troop command & really disliked the Pentagon. He knew the US military would be undergoing post-cold war downsizing. Lots of good soldiers would have to be let go. Why be part of that? He was in 1991 possibly one of the 5 most recognizable people in the world. It was time to strike while the iron was hot, and make money for his family.
A product of Norwich University in Vermont. The West Pointers did not like him.
About a hunnerd years ago (1994), SGT D had the honor of briefing GEN Sullivan on the capabilities of the then-current tactical satellite systems. Felt like I was talking to my grandfather, just a very classy, interested man. Got his coin in my collection.
Sullivan appears the real deal: CIB, Silver Star, and a Purple Heart.
20th.
The United States Space Force is a shining monument to the gods of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion!
Top Trans Officer Bree Fram on the Military, Marriage, and Joining Space Force (thedailybeast.com)
This is sort or related to the above deviant trannie. The seventeen-year-old shooter at Perry High School in Iowa is a non-binary LGBQWERTY+ advocate. He killed a sixth grader and wounded four others because he was purportedly bullied. His TikTok and other social media was immediately taken down to conceal his identity and gender fluidity. They don’t want people thinking he was mentally disturbed, rather than an evil white supremacist.
The only positive things about the above senseless crime are that the shooter killed himself and he didn’t use an AR-15 style rifle. He was armed with a pump shotgun and a small caliber handgun.
Gender fluidity? In the end, was it red and sticky?
I hope she remembers her prostate health.
Makes me think of the phrase “Somebody SHOOT that thing before it mates and lays eggs!”
Happy 5 January Birthday to King Camp Gillette!
(Anyone else remember Sharpie The Parrott?)
😉😎
His invention that is still going strong…
☺️
I have several…this is my 1911 OLD Open Comb, the oldest Gillette I own
Thirty-sump’n and I award myself another Honorary First.
((((OVER))))
Epstein did not hang himself.
Another UP YOURS to the FBI goobs monitoring me and other Law-Abiding people because the current administration has gone full Nazi on those who dissent with it.
Local news tonight reported that a majority of Illinois sheriff’s will NOT be enforcing the new “assault weapons” law.
Cooler heads are prevailing.
Hack Stone checked in within the first few minutes after the WOT, but as usual, he is the victim of a vast chicken wing conspiracy and his post was dumped into the “Pending Review” dustbin, much like whenever Psaul submits a resume to a company. Ironically, when the WOT did drop, Hack just completed a conference call between the gubmint and some contractors regarding software, but it was not Red Hat. Hack had to take a side gig while the Vice President of the proud but humble woman business works out that cash flow issue. It seems that Hack’s last 260 paychecks bounced.
#FindElaineRicci
CW, congratulations bloody, good job on the first first of the first Friday of the first of the first.
Present accounted for and happy new year all you bitches.
Go fuck yourself
David Soul as ‘Hutch’ of Starsky & Hutch fame has passed on at 80 in his adopted home country, England. Most well-known for his work in TV & films, he also was a talented singer, and had a few big hits in the 70s.
Don’t Give up on us – YouTube
David Soul – Silver Lady – YouTube
This was Soul as a rogue cop in 1973 film Magnum Force.
Magnum Force – First Execution (youtube.com)
Magnum Force – The Pimp’s Assassination (youtube.com)
Crap, can’t seem to make it work. OK, shout out to Mason for originally covering the Stigler-Brown incident from World War 2 5 months ago. I wanted to share this video by C-Bass Productions of the incident near the date it happened, but I got really busy and forgot (holidays for my work is the busiest time of the year). But, here you guys go now. Enjoy.(Please note, some technical mistakes were made by the author of the video, like vapor trails behind a disabled engine and no vapor trails behind an operable engine, but I believe it is mostly accurate)
Oh, it actually worked that time. Awesome! I just had to refresh the screen to make it expand.
That was extraordinary and beautifully done.
Sabaton – No bullets FLY
efxs-Hp0QEw
Aaaaannd saved to my Spotify. Good song. Thanks. 😁
Apropos of jack diddley, but… Star Wars is about to embark upon a “woke” movie (as if enough of that hasn’t crept in there already, but purposely now) and the “crash and burn” is already apparent before things even get started:
That BITCH just needs to go to a lonely corner and hate herself to death, I’m too busy working my ass off for a living while saving for the future and providing for my family, I’m part of the crowd that just wants to be left alone in this life while that ironcunt and her ilk will continue to find out that the vast majority of the people DGAF about her and her agenda. She wants to make people uncomfortable? Well she’s going to make Disney Shareholders uncomfortable while her work BOMBS, and I’m sure it will blow like the Tsar Bomb.
Strong and empowered women exist, you know. Biological males are so yesteryear and if we identify as heterosexual men, we must make ourselves subservient to alpha women.
To Disney: I don’t care about your agenda, I don’t care about The Message, and I don’t care about what you think about me and my toxic masculinity. My wife and I have four daughters. For over a quarter of a century, I’ve gone to work, gotten my hands dirty, and shed blood sweat and tears to provide for them. All of them (including the wife) have had their concepts of men tainted by modern interpretations of gender roles and try to make me uncomfortable at times. But you know what? At the end of the day, they appreciate me for who I am and what I’ve sacrificed, just as I appreciate them in turn. If they buy into the New Thing that much, they are more than welcome to venture out and show the world how capable they are of fending for themselves.
This being Star Wars, Disney is sure to lose tens, if not hundreds, of millions due to this movie. Look at what happened to the Snow-White and Little Mermaid movies. When you change core elements, and especially when you put what is perceived to be a “woke” message in a film, you’ll lose big.
It looks like Disney is already losing its a$$ on the Star Wars wokesterism. Take a read of this financial analysis: I Know How to Save Star Wars (and Marvel, Too) – PJ Media
If it wasn’t for “Toxic masculinity” we’d be speaking German on the East Coast and Japanese on the West!
Ditto!
There’s a third option. I don’t have to listen to you. I don’t have to buy into your woke ideology or pay my hard earned money to watch your crappy woke movies.
I can walk away, be comfortable with myself, and leave YOU talking to your mirror, wondering “WTF happened here? Why am I alone, talking to myself? I am a Powerful Woman, why is no one listening to me?”
More and more, I’m finding that Hindi-British accent VERY irritating.
Durn It!
We do not have Apple TV.
We hope oneday we will be able to watch this.
“Masters Of the Air”
From the executive producers of Band of Brothers and The Pacific comes Masters of the Air. The 9-part series event premieres January 26 https://apple.co/_MastersOfTheAir
Based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, and scripted by John Orloff, “Masters of the Air” follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, lack of oxygen, and sheer terror of combat conducted at 25,000 feet in the air. Portraying the psychological and emotional price paid by these young men as they helped destroy the horror of Hitler’s Third Reich, is at the heart of “Masters of the Air.” Some were shot down and captured; some were wounded or killed. And some were lucky enough to make it home. Regardless of individual fate, a toll was exacted on them all.
The series features a stellar cast led by Academy Award nominee Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle and Nate Mann, who are joined by Raff Law, Academy Award nominee Barry Keoghan, Josiah Cross, Branden Cook and Ncuti Gatwa.
Hailing from Apple Studios, “Masters of the Air” is executive produced by Steven Spielberg through Amblin Television, and Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman for Playtone. Amblin Television’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey co-executive produce alongside Playtone’s Steven Shareshian. In addition to writing, Orloff co-executive produces. Graham Yost also serves as co-executive producer. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Dee Rees and Tim Van Patten serve as directors.
The False Commander “Phony” Phil Monkress works balls.
Good to see you, GT.
Phil Monkress also gargles unborn babies
I heard rumor that he still blows winos behind bus stops for spare change.
Present & Unaccounted For.
Still FIRST (h/t CW) in the hearts and minds of the grandkids. Today Favorite Second Granddaughter becomes an official teenager.
Harvested 1/2 my turnips last Monday, ended up canning 21 pints, giving some to Favorite First Daughter-in-Law and some to neighbors.
Thankful for Gods grace and mercy, giving us another year.
Y’all have a blessed weekend and New Year.
A B1 bomber went down with a hull loss. Looks like the crew was able to eject safely.
Bought my first king cake of the season the day after Christmas. Strawberry cream cheese. Got a Bavarian cream and a blueberry one a few days later. My wife thinks she’s banned me from buying anymore any time soon, but joke’s on her. She slipped up and told me no more king cakes, but then asked me to go to a certain store the next time I do buy one. We have Carter’s Supermarket and Oak Point Fresh Market down here–both small family-owned chains that bake in-house. Of course, nearly every doughnut shop and other place offers the cakes this time of the year.
I love South Louisiana. Right after king cake season, crawfish season will begin in earnest, with shrimp season just after that. Alligator boudin with some crawfish etouffee, chicory coffee with king cake… I helped the neighbor get an alligator snapping turtle out of a ditch years ago so his uncle could use it for a meal but haven’t eaten any turtle myself: Louisiana Snapping Turtle(Catch*Clean*Cook) Cajun Made Turtle Sauce Piquante – YouTube.
I also haven’t tried any nutria-based dishes: Nutria for Human Consumption – Nutria.com.
Working where I do, I may have to pick up a boat, some gator tags, and learn how to frog gig. I’ll draw the line at noodling, because with my luck I’ll noodle a turtle or garfish.
Hack Stone saw this one on Facebook this morning. It seems appropriate for the Adorable Deplorables that frequent this den of misadventures.
▶️ Watch this reel https://fb.watch/ppbkbYVtwU/?mibextid=P2FwFO&fs=e&s=TIeQ9V
Not sure why they would even need to issue a warning. Those offended wouldn’t watch it because of the toxic masculinity.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/british-film-institute-places-trigger-warnings-screenings-classic-james-bond-films-will-cause-offense
Hack Stone just saw the epitome of self entitled indulgence. Just witnessed a what appears to be a fully capable adult male with no handicapped license plate or placard placing his grocer into the trunk of his car in a reserved handicapped parking spot. He was driving a Maserati with a paint job that would embarrass Earl Scheib. And he is living such the hood life that he is shopping at Aldi. Should have asked him he knows Phil Monkress.
Muck like the female in line ahead of me at the grocery store one day with perfect hair and makeup, perfect nails and name brand clothing paying for her groceries with WIC stamps and grinning while doing so. I simply bit my tongue thinking “If you can’t feed ’em, DON’T breed ’em!”.
A little late, but saving the link:
https://x.com/BoLoudon/status/1743240208500314383?s=20