Texas Mystery For Monday...!

Sometimes we can find some great old mysteries almost right on our own doorstep!

I guess the most worrisome thing about some of these older crimes is the fact that many of them have never been solved. Guess that Texas hasn't changed all that much over the years...we still get our share of blood thirsty killers from time to time. I don't think many are like this one though!

Servant Girl Annihilator

Jack’s Trial Run?

The Servant Girl Annihilator, or Austin Axe Murderer, was a serial killer or killers who terrorized Austin, Texas, between 1884 and 1885. It is thought that at least seven women, mostly servant girls, died at the hands of the killer, who typically dragged his victims from their beds and raped them before slashing or axing them to death. Several victims were stabbed by some sort of spike in the ears or the face. His first victim was Mollie Smith, on New Year’s Eve, 1884. Many people were arrested for the crimes, but none were convicted. The last killings were a year after the first, ending with the murder of two wealthy white women, Eula Phillips and Sue Hancock, in central Austin, on December 24, 1885. The crimes represented an early example of a serial killer in the United States, three years before the Jack the Ripper murders in London. Some have even attempted to prove that the Annihilator and Jack the Ripper were one and the same. You can read more about this killing spree here.

You have to wonder what it is in some folks' mind that makes them do things like this. Guess the crazies were abundant even that far back, even in Texas! Sad, isn't it?

How about coffee in the kitchen again this morning? It's drizzling outside!

Rainy Sunday Cartoons...!

It's been raining for a couple of days now. Good opportunity to catch up on book reading or on conversation with friends.

Of course, it's always a good day for some 'toons, especially when going outside is pretty much out of the question! Don't you think?

Funny how something like a few old fashioned cartoons can brighten the day. Getting a dose of silly is good for you once in a while! Takes fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown...but you already knew that, right?



I can't help myself! I just love this guy, ya know?



Sure has come a long way since the cartoons of the 30's and 40's...don't you think?



I could do this all day long, but I have things to do, places to go, and people to see! Not really...but it sounded good, didn't it?

Coffee in the kitchen, my friends. Too wet to sit outside!

People Are So Strange...!

If someone told you that you could buy a perfume that smelled like a funeral home, would you buy it? Better yet, why would anyone buy it?

When I first found this story, I thought it was made up. But then I went to the web site of the company that makes not only this outlandish scent, but others that are just as strange! Believe me, you might want to check this out!
 

Funeral Home Perfume


Demeter claims that they didn’t actually plan this particular name for their perfume. They claim that they were making a new fragrance; someone said that it smelled like a grandfather’s funeral, and that they should call it “Funeral Home”. According to Demeter, they loved the idea – and the rest was history. 


I’m not sure I really believe that a professional fragrance company would name its new perfume on a whim – but we can be sure that you would struggle to find a less attractive name for a fragrance. If you want everyone to think you are dead – or at least wish you were – then pick up a bottle of Funeral Home today

If you want to see some of the crazy perfumes folks have come up with, you can find a interesting list right here!  It blew me away, I'll tell ya!

Let's have our coffee in the kitchen this morning. Bread baking day...that's what you smell!

Friday Traveling To The Ice Towers...!

Thanks to the folks over at Listverse, our travels for this Friday take us all the way to Antartica for a look at the ice towers!

I know that many of you may feel like this is a picture of your neighborhood, but I certainly hope that's not the case! I mean, there's cold...and then there's COLD!  This is , without a doubt, the latter! I hope you are a lot warmer than you would be in this location!

Ice Towers & Caves of Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus is Antarctica’s second largest volcano and has been observed to be continually active since 1972. Atop the mountain are a number of ice towers formed as a result of steam emissions from volcanic activity. Many of the ice towers constantly emit steam giving them the appearance of chimneys jutting out of the icy volcano’s frozen sides. In addition to these chimney-like pillars the volcanic mountain is home to a variety of ice caves, formed naturally in a number of ways, all resulting in glowing blue, eerily cavernous subterranean chambers. 

This is a good example of why living in the deep south is good! Snow and ice is pretty in a picture, but I don't want to get up close and personal with any of it, ya know?

Coffee in the kitchen again this morning. Even these pictures made me shiver! As you can tell, I don't do cold very well!

Thinking Thursday...!

 When I was younger, I read a lot of science fiction...and I mean a LOT!

One of my favorite writers was, and is, Robert Heinlein. Many of his thoughts, many of his stories are just as pertinent today as they ever were! I'm thing that maybe I should go back and re-read some of his work again! Guess it's true that good ideas never go out of style!

An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
Robert A. Heinlein

I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
Robert A. Heinlein

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
Robert A. Heinlein

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
Robert A. Heinlein

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
Robert A. Heinlein

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Robert A. Heinlein

Sex without love is merely healthy exercise.
Robert A. Heinlein 

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

I never learned from a man who agreed with me. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

One man's theology is another man's belly laugh. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
Robert A. Heinlein 

Never insult anyone by accident. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word. 
Robert A. Heinlein 

Some of these thoughts are pretty good, don't you think? Maybe by just reading words already by someone else, we can better organize our own thoughts and plans of action. Guess you could say we are helping build our future by listening to our past!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. I'm in the mood for some gravy bread and bacon. How about you?

First Western Wednesday For 2013...!

Now that the holidays are pretty much history, it's time to get back on track!

Western Wednesday has always seemed to be a popular topic for discussion, so it's appropriate to start off with it, don't you think? Besides, I think that there are a large number of us that are cowboy lovers at heart!

Jan 4, 1847: 
Colt sells his first revolvers to the U.S. government

Samuel Colt rescues the future of his faltering gun company by winning a contract to provide the U.S. government with 1,000 of his .44 caliber revolvers.

Before Colt began mass-producing his popular revolvers in 1847, handguns had not played a significant role in the history of either the American West or the nation as a whole. Expensive and inaccurate, short-barreled handguns were impractical for the majority of Americans, though a handful of elite still insisted on using dueling pistols to solve disputes in highly formalized combat. When choosing a practical weapon for self-defense and close-quarter fighting, most Americans preferred knives, and western pioneers especially favored the deadly and versatile Bowie knife.

That began to change when Samuel Colt patented his percussion-repeating revolver in 1836. The heart of Colt's invention was a mechanism that combined a single rifled barrel with a revolving chamber that held five or six shots. When the weapon was cocked for firing, the chamber revolved automatically to bring the next shot into line with the barrel.

Though still far less accurate than a well-made hunting rifle, the Colt revolver could be aimed with reasonable precision at a short distance (30 to 40 yards in the hands of an expert), because the interior bore was "rifled"--cut with a series of grooves spiraling down its length. The spiral grooves caused the slug to spin rapidly as it left the barrel, giving it gyroscopic stability. The five or six-shoot capacity also made accuracy less important, since a missed shot could quickly be followed with others.

Yet most cowboys, gamblers, and gunslingers could never have afforded such a revolver if not for the de facto subsidy the federal government provided to Colt by purchasing his revolvers in such great quantities. After the first batch of revolvers proved popular with soldiers, the federal government became one of Colt's biggest customers, providing him with the much-needed capital to improve his production facilities. With the help of Eli Whitney and other inventors, Colt developed a system of mass production and interchangeable parts for his pistols that greatly lowered their cost.

Though never cheap, by the early 1850s, Colt revolvers were inexpensive enough to be a favorite with Americans headed westward during the California Gold Rush. Between 1850 and 1860, Colt sold 170,000 of his "pocket" revolvers and 98,000 "belt" revolvers, mostly to civilians looking for a powerful and effective means of self-defense in the Wild West.

I don't think that even Colt himself would even imagine just how the Colt revolver would become, both as an everyday tool back then and as a collectors piece today! I know that I would sure like to have one!


Coffee in the kitchen again today. It's trying to rain some more and the wind is picking up again!

Well, We Made It...!

Well, despite everything that has happened this past year...here we are!

More than likely 2012 will be talked about, wondered about, and joked about for a long time to come! Many, many changes and surprises, some good and some bad...but I guess the same thing could be said for all the years past. I'm sure that we all have moments that stand out for us this last year. I know I did!

I guess that the best thing for me in 2012 was all the new friends I've made, mostly  from blogging. As you can guess, I don't go out very much. My choice, I might add! I just believe that being in a crowded public place can greatly increase the chance of being caught up in situations that often turn out badly. That is certainly one thing that 2012 has shown us, right?

I was looking back at my stats today, just to see how much has changed since my first post. I started blogging back on November 17th in 2007. As of this writing, I've made 1869 published post. More surprising to me was the fact that this blog has had a total of 343,040 page views! I have no idea where that many folks come from, but I reckon that many of those views are just from searches or something similar!

 Let me state again how much it pleasures me that so many of you have chosen to make me a regular on your reading list! I hope you continue to find some enjoyment in dropping by and sharing a cup of coffee on the patio! Lord knows I wouldn't be here without you!

Let me leave you to celebrate the New Year with your friends and family! However, I couldn't leave without showing you a picture of my cat "Buddy" and the playmate I got for him...a young lady cat aptly named "Kitty!" Boy, these two really play well together! Makes me tired to watch them!

Coffee in the kitchen today! Baking bread again and I love the smell!

 Happy New Year, everyone!