Happy Independence Day!
You play the violin? Cool. I play the cannon. Happy 4th, TAH’ers!
Category: Holidays
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FIRST!
It’s official, Sparks. Congrats on your First!
Dude – a video containing an anthem written to celebrate a Russian victory over a Western nation on the 4th of July? Really?
What are you, some kind of Trump business associate?
(That last is simply me being sarcastic and channeling my inner MSM-child. [smile])
Da, Товарищ- and it has cannons!
*grin*
It has cannons, and we celebrate freedom by blowing shit up!
(smile)
The Overture is about the only piece of music I can think of that gives the Army an excuse to fire of its howitzers at sponsored fireworks shows. Used to really get off on it as a kid. Come to think of it, that didn’t change even when I became an old soldier. Never did get to see it done with tanks, though. (sigh)
Hondo, it would be nice if you’d stop assuming that anyone who is Russian is a communist. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikowsky died in 1893, long before Lenin and Trotsky got their claws into the establishment. He trained as a civil servant, but when an opportunity came up for him to get a musical education at the newly-created St. Petersburg Conservatory, he jumped at the chance. Traditional Russian music conflicted with traditional classical music, so he created his own version of both.
Not everyone or everything that comes from Russia is the byproduct of the Soviet government.
High 5 and a chilled shot of Yamskaya, Ex! Seems my last name ends in “-ess-kay-why.”
Ex-PH2, you are one smart lady. I don’t think this is much you don’t know, historical or otherwise. That is why it is so entertaining when you get into it with he who shall remain nameless. It is always sort of a battle with the witless.
…there is much…, dammit.
Oh, there is a lot I don’t know, rgr769er, but I do have a large reference library and nimble keyboard fingers. I also like to find obscure stuff that, while obscure, turns out to be very, very interesting.
Dave Hardin and his Soviet in 5, 4, 3…
Don’t forget that the Russians helped convince the Brits to mind their own damn business in 1863 with a friendly visit by the Czar’s navy to New York and San Francisco. It was a mutually-beneficial thing that also got them to back off of Russia’s counterinsurgency in Poland at the time, but it was known that both fleets had orders from Czar Aleksander to place themselves at the service of the US Navy in the event of British aggression. Russia’s fleet wasn’t much, especially compared to the Royal Navy, but Napoleon getting his ass kicked on the steppes was still within living memory at the time, so Queen Vicky was treading lightly.
This was also around the same time that the US purchased Alaska, which Czar Alex was looking to offload for cheap because it had been nothing but a bottomless pit for Russian money, so there was also that.
Well, I can see that on a lot of folks here today are a bit humor-impaired . . . but not, apparently, AW1Ed. (smile)
Oh, man. I used to get so angry.
Now, I just get amused. Healthier, and they’re just as dead.
*place evil laugh here*
Yep. Joke ’em if they can’t take . . . um, wait, something’s wrong there . . . . (smile)
Love you, too, Hondo. <3 <3 <3
Okay, well, it was not really superior Russian or Soviet military skills that defeated either Napoleon or the Germans.
It was the beastly Russian weather, both times. Napleon went to the Russian front with 500,000 soldiers and staff including Prussians, Austrians and troops from other countries. The Russians retreated further and further to the east, burnt their bridges/towns/villages behind them, and when he arrived at Borodino, they had set up fortifications and were waiting for him.
When he entered Moscow, the city was empty and the Russian Army had set fire to it. He waited a month, then decided to leave with his starving troops. On his way back, he met with Kutuzov at Maloyaroslavets, and was forced to leave be a more rugged path than the southern route he had originally taken. The Russian Army, as well as the Cossacks, stalked the Grande Armee all the way back to their western front. The French were harassed by both the Russian and Cossacks and by the beastly Russian winter and lack of supplies. He abandoned his “Grande Armee” to its fate and ran off to Paris. By the time he reached Paris, his ‘army’ had been reduced to barely 100,000 troops, most of them dying of starvation and injuries and disease.
Basically, he was defeated not just by his own arrogance, but by the Russian weather, which is nothing like winter weather west of the Caucusus range.
The same thing happened to the Nazis when they tried to invade the Soviet Union. Stalin knew his Russian weather and counted on it. Hitler bit off more than he could chew, same as Napoleon.
There is a reason that the Russ call it “General Winter”.
I was going to make the same point, Roger … General Winter is the meanest, nastiest fighter in the entire Russian army – no matter who is in power.
And the Russians are used to it, while invaders are not.
The 1812 Overture is
So said Tchaikovsky, who loathed the piece.
http://www.classicfm.com/composers/tchaikovsky/guides/1812-hated-hit/
But I love it.
I love it!!
The United States of America
Apropriating cultures and assimilating them for 241 years.
Happy Independence Day to all of you. God bless and keep America.
And so a special Independence Day shout out goes the troops currently serving in C Co, 741st MI Bn.
I see by reading the current LinkdIn profile of the ARCOM queen, she now lists her job as Brigade Operations NCOIC.
So it seems that somewhere along the line, somebody did the right thing and put her Blue Falcon ass in a position where, until it’s time to submit that retirement application DA Form 4187, she doesn’t have any interaction with anything other than paperclips, a stapler and a couple of black Skilcraft ink pins.
(I take this posting as a mini one-day Open Thread, but if I’m wrong, let me know and I’ll do push-ups until you’re tired of watching me. OK?)
Happy Birthday!
“(I take this posting as a mini one-day Open Thread, but if I’m wrong, let me know and I’ll do push-ups until you’re tired of watching me. OK?)”
Waiting on objections from Management. Anyone? Bueller?
And hearing none; I propose this post be considered a mini-WOT, and with Claw’s concurrence, Sparks is rightfully First.
I concur. Sparks is First. Duly recorded into the coveted book of firsts.
So let it be written, so let it be done.
Happy 241st Birthday U.S.A.
Happy 4th of July!
I’m an American, born and bred. I love this country. Anyone who doesn’t can leave.
Well, I am an immigrant, naturalized American.
I too love this country, my ONLY country, and I totally agree that anyone who doesn’t can leave.
Bang on the mark, there, Yef!
Roger that, Yef! (And I’m Native American … you’re ALL immigrants as far as we’re concerned!)
Happy Birthday to the U.S.A!
Happy Independence Day!
Happy Birthday America!
241 years of civilian control of the armed forces. Not one coup d’etat, not one dictatorship. Show me a country with such a record.
I’ll be sitting down to watch “1776” today – Blythe Danner singing is worth it (she had more talent than her va-jay-jay steaming daughter):
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/247430/1776-Movie-Clip-He-Plays-The-Violin.html
I do that every year. 1776 and The Patriot.
Happy Independence Day to all of you. Those veterans on this blog deserve a shout-out for helping us get there.
When I pause to think of how old 241 is, I scare myself. If the election had gone the other way I don’t think we would have made it to 245 – much less 250. The scariest part is that there’s a crowd of people out there who would have been OK with that.
Thank God elections have consequences. I can live with the ones we have now.
God bless America.
My wife is having contractions and mucosal discharge, so our baby girl is coming soon, possibly today!
Then she may just be a Yankee Doodle Dandy! My best wishes to you all!
Born on the 4th of July!
I’ve seen that clip dozens – nay, hundreds – of times, and when I clicked on it just now, a very irritating continuity problem hit me in the face, something I’ve never noticed before now:
The conductor of the orchestra opens the score, taps his baton on his stand … and the camera pans up to the stage??? Shouldn’t the conductor be facing the … orchestra?
(I know. I’ll get help, I promise.)
The orchestra faces the audience, the conductor has his back to the audience, and thus faces both the orchestra and the actors on stage.
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/551eb398e4b0b101cf722ed8/551ecf19e4b03e54b457d758/55861feee4b0ca6f99b13022/1434853481824
Agreed … but the pan of the camera shows nothing but the conductor’s stand just at the edge of the footlights. No orchestra to be seen. (It’s film, I’m aware, but we should at least try to be correct.)
Woot! Best wishes TOW!
Best wishes, what better date to have a birthday? Though any day is a great day.
I had a 45 RPM of the 1812 Overture that I got from Quaker Puffed Rice when I was a kid. “It is the cereal that’s shot from guns”
Damn, that’s great! Can you imagine the snowflakes’ reaction to that these days?
There wouldn’t be enough “safe spaces” in all of Academia!
What? The Quakers or the puffed cereals? (snerkk!)
I had that 45 too, you had to cut it out of the back of the box as I recall
Happy Brexit 1776.
Awww, you beat me to it!
Freedom Boner!
Great Sarc, I hope you get to use it! Happy Birthday America! I pray that we will have many more!!! BZ to all the troops!!
Wow. I have been reading teh internetz, and all the MSM is talking about is how “some minorities have mixed feelings about 4th of July “.
When I got to the blogesphere everything is celebration, when I look at the MSM everything is “mixed feelings”.
I think is time the MSM dinosaur surrender biological living space to the smaller, more agile, more truth-teller, mammals.
I’ll vote for that, Yef!!!!
Just got back from Mount Vernon. Awesome place for the Fourth!
Happy 241st Independence Day to these vets who are buried in my county:
Henry Collins marched on Springfield, Massachusetts at the age of 16. After the War of Independence, he moved to my county with his son Joseph Collins, settled here, and passed on April 10, 1847. He was 87 when he died.
Reuben Hill of Connecticut enlisted three times, starting at the age of 15, and was discharged as a private in 1782. He moved out here and purchased land in 1840, and passed at the ripe old age of 93.
Both of these veterans are buried locally, with markers indicating their service.
There are probably others, but those are confirmed.
In the Spirit of 1776, I spent the afternoon blasting away with a Flintlock pistol.
(Others) Bip. BAM. Bip Bip BAM Bop………
(Me, thunderously) ChkWhufBOOOM! (Smoke everywhere, targets now obscured..)
(Others) ‘”Wahhhht the ….?” “His gun blew up!” ” Man! That is -so- cool!”
Flintlocks are -fun-!
IN the Spirit of 1776, I decided to look at restored antique gas stoves. These are stoves that simply cook food. They made have a few doodads like thermostats for the various ovens and broilers and a clock and an over-stovetop light, but they’re really quite basic, like mine is. In fact, those restored retro stoves and fridges are becoming popular with people who want appliances that do what they were designed to do, instead of electronic doodads and talking machinery. (Ick!) The restored appliances aren’t cheap, but they’re dismantled, completely restored to functionality, reinsulated, repainted/re-enameled, rechromed, etc., and turned into showroom models.
My stove has a knob for the oven ignitor, which same ignitor needs to be replaced, and the clock is set by pushing the arrows on a membrane pad on the same spot where the clock is located. It has a lot of nice features, but basically, it’s a stove and it cooks. That’s all I want: a stove that cooks, not something that tells me what the weather is outside or sings songs, or reminds me that the babysitter hasn’t shown up yet.
Out of curiosity, I wanted to know where my stove was made. That means finding the serial number, located on the oven door. It says “Made In Mexico”.
And I started wondering what it will take to bring those jobs back here where they belong? And if they did come back here, would the people who take those jobs put their hearts into it like the Depression-era workers did when WWII broke out? Or would they destroy a good thing before it even had a chance to come back to life?
I think these questions need to be answered, because as much as I detest robots, they’re taking jobs that used to pay people to work.
What it will take is a) people willing to pony up more to buy ‘Made in USA’ product and b) stockholders/corporate officers less intent on pressuring corporations to make every possible dime by moving manufacturing to low-cost zones, so said stockholders can make an extra penny on their dividends.
Ah, what a wonderful day. Have spent most Independence Days in the USA, but some outside our borders. And ya know what? Every one of them was terrific.
Watched a grand parade. It was overcast enough to keep us fairly cool. A swing under a shade tree was close enough to give a bit of respite without missing any of the parade. Cars, horses, bands, pretty girls wearing crowns. Only one political float, and it was not well received. Silly people. Kids everywhere. Ahhhh. Just beautiful. Followed by good food and great company.
Happy Birthday, America!
Celebrating with a fine cigar, the CAO America. God Bless America!!!
Defensor Fortis
Testing. Testing.
Testing, Testing. Is this thing working?
Testing, Testing.
Testing. Testing.
Test. Test.
Disregard all above tests. Thought I had a FUBAR computer or had my pee-pee whacked, but turned out to be a false spammer alert at TAH Headquarters.