Missing Plane For Monday Mystery...!

We haven't had a good mystery involving an aircraft in a while, so I figured it was about time.

The strangest part of this mystery is that it led to one of the largest searches in history, yet no sign of wreckage or bodies was ever found. Keep in mind that this was only last year, so modern tools could have been used.

2016 Indian Air Force Disappearance

Photo credit: Zee News

On July 22, 2016, an Antonov An-32 twin-engine transport aircraft belonging to the Indian Air Force disappeared while flying over the Bay of Bengal. There were 29 people on board at the time: 23 passengers and six crew members.

Radar contact was lost at 9:12 AM, and the ensuing search and rescue operation would become the largest in Indian history. Sixteen ships, a submarine, and six aircraft were deployed to aid in the search in and around the Bay of Bengal. On September 15, 2016, the mission was called off, and all aboard were presumed dead.

Now for a plane, especially a military craft, to disappear that completely in this day and age is almost unheard of. Certainly seems a tad mysterious to me, but what do I know?

Coffee out on the patio this morning, where it is supposed to be a little cooler.

Update Is Good! Back To Business...!

My trip to VA was good and all was found to be well. I'm still kicking, so guess that means back to business, right? On Sunday, business means a little fun...so here we go!







And maybe just one more...!



Well, that's enough for today. Let's enjoy the rest of this slightly cooler morning, OK?

Coffee out on the patio, I think.

Gonna Be A Long Day...!

Believe it or not, I have to go to V.A. today! On a Saturday...! What's up with that, I wonder?

Not only that, I have to be there at 8:00 AM ! Crazy, right? This will be the very first time that I have been scheduled by them for a Saturday appointment. It's pretty unusual, I think. Anyway, this visit is for a check-up by the heart doctor(didn't I just do one of those?), so I guess it is important enough for me not to play hooky. The whole thing just sounds a bit strange to me.

It's been 100 degrees for the past day and is expected to be the same today. I really don't like being on the road when it's this hot, but what can ya do?

Coffee is in the regular place, so help yourself...OK?

Worm Eating Fungus For Freaky Friday...!

This next article from Listverse is not only freaky, but it's a little scary.

This mushroom is one that a lot of us have eaten over the years. Doesn't look that bad...in fact it's plain and simple in design. It has a singularly unpleasant way to get the nutrients it needs...it eats worms!

Oyster Mushrooms

Photo credit: Aaron Sherman

Oyster mushrooms of the genus Pleurotus are among the most prized edible mushrooms collected in the wild by human mycophages (a Greek word meaning “fungus eaters”). Oyster mushrooms grow on the trunks of dying and dead trees and break down the wood. The wood contains plenty of cellulose and lignin, but little nitrogen, so these crafty fungi exude chemical lures to attract their microscopic nematode prey.

When the worms crawl onto the fungal hyphae (threadlike filaments that make up most of the mushroom’s mass), the mushroom releases toxins from the tips of tiny, matchstick-like glands that paralyze the worms. The fungus then sends digestive hyphae down the victim’s mouth. They penetrate throughout the body and slowly digest the helpless worm from the inside while it’s still alive.

Now, how a plant gets the food it needs is certainly not my business. It just is a little freaky to me, but I guess that's because I never knew that it was a worm eater.

Coffee in the kitchen again today.

How About Some Shakespeare...?

You probably don't think you know much Shakespeare, but I'd be willing to bet that you have used one or more of the phrases that he came up with. Wanna bet?

Here is a partial list of the phrases he used in some of his plays. I'm sure you are familiar with a few of them.

Words that Shakespeare Invented

Here are some common words that first appeared in Shakespeare’s plays and their meanings:

Auspicious – favorable; promising success; a good omen. A wedding is an example of an auspicious occasion.

Baseless – without a foundation; not based on fact. If you accuse someone of wrongdoing, make sure that you have support to back up your claim and it is not a baseless accusation.

Barefaced – shameless; without concealment or disguise. When someone tells a 'barefaced lie' it is not a very good one and you immediately know it is not true.

Castigate – to punish harshly. Sometimes celebrities and politicians are castigated in the press more harshly than ordinary citizens.

Clangor – a loud (clanging) sound. Ghosts are sometimes said to be followed by the loud clangor of chains.

Dexterously – skillful, especially in the use of one’s hands (or also one’s mind). A good carpenter can dexterously build a bookshelf very easily.

Dwindle – to get smaller; diminish. Often used to describe money. Many people’s savings dwindle after losing a job.

Multitudinous – a lot; a great number. You are in luck if you can say that you have a multitudinous amount of friends.

Sanctimonious – pretending to be very religious or righteous. Sometimes people who judge others harshly are sanctimonious.

Watchdog – a person or group that keeps close watch to discover wrong or illegal activity. A popular watchdog group is PETA, which exposes wrongful actions against animals.

See? You actually know more Shakespeare than you thought. Pretty smart fella, don't you think?

Coffee in the kitchen again this morning, but I have some gingersnap cookies I'll share!

Bill Miner For Western Wednesday...!

Not all the bad guys were jerks. Some of them were gentlemen, even as they robbed their victims. That was the case with ol' Bill Miner.

Bill Miner: The Gentleman Bandit

Photo credit: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Bill Miner was born in Kentucky, but he didn’t stay there for long. He went out west and became an outlaw. Then, after a long stint in San Quentin prison, he moved on north, hoping criminal business would be easier in the Canadian West.

They called him the “Gentleman Bandit” because of the polite courtesy he’d use when he was holding a gun to people’s heads. He was a man of firsts. It’s said he was the first to yell “Hands up!” during a robbery, and he was the first man to hijack a Canadian train.

The first train he robbed won him $7,000 in gold. At the time, that was enough of a fortune to live comfortably for two years. When the money ran out, though, he tried to pull off the trick again in 1905—and this time, it didn’t go as well.

The second train he robbed had nothing in but mail and old newspapers. Trying to make the best of a bad situation, Miner grabbed $15 and a bottle of liver pills and then ran for his life. He didn’t get far. The Mounted Police tracked him down, shot one of his cohorts in the leg, and brought Miner in. The Gentlemen Bandit was behind bars. He’d risked it all and lost it for $15 in cash.

Miner later escaped prison and fled to the US.

I guess that being courteous never hurts, even if you are a robber. Not sure that it really helped Bill, though.

Coffee in the kitchen again today.

Some Facts About O. Henry...!

In case you don't know who he was, he was the man that wrote Gift Of The Magi. among other things. He was from Austin, Texas and that's where his troubles began.

O. Henry is released from prison

William Sydney Porter, otherwise known as O. Henry, is released from prison on this day, after serving three years in jail for embezzlement from a bank in Austin, Texas.

To escape imprisonment, Porter had fled the authorities and hidden in Honduras, but returned when his wife, still in the U.S., was diagnosed with a terminal illness. He went to jail and began writing stories to support his young daughter while he was in prison.

After his release, Porter moved to New York and worked for New York World, writing one short story a week from 1903 to 1906. In 1904, his first story collection, Cabbages and Kings, was published. His second, The Four Million (1906), contained one of his most beloved stories, The Gift of the Magi, about a poor couple who each sacrifice their most valuable possession to buy a gift for the other.

Additional collections appeared in 1906 and 1907, and two collections a year were published in 1908 until his death in 1910. He specialized in stories about everyday people, often ending with an unexpected twist. Despite the enormous popularity of the nearly 300 stories he published, he led a difficult life, struggling with financial problems and alcoholism until his death in 1910.

At least hye came back when his wife was sick and made an effort to support his daughter while he was incarcerated. More than some would do, even in this day and age.

Coffee in the kitchen once again this morning.

The Witchcraft On Monday Mystery...!

As we all know by now, the disappearance of watercraft on the ocean is not uncommon. To disappear this close to land, however, is a different story altogether. Here is the story of one such mystery.

The Witchcraft

In December 1967, Miami hotel owner Dan Burack decided to view the city’s Christmas lights from his luxury cabin cruiser, the Witchcraft. Accompanied by Father Patrick Hogan, he sailed about a mile out to sea. The boat was in good working order when the two men left.

At about 9:00 PM, Burack radioed to request a tow back to the marina, reporting that his boat had struck an unknown object. Despite the incident, Burack didn’t sound worried at all—after all, he’d personally built Witchcraft with a special hull to keep her from sinking. He confirmed his location with the Coast Guard and assured them he would fire a flare when they arrived in the area.

It only took the Coast Guard about 20 minutes to reach Burack’s reported location, but by the time they arrived, the Witchcraft had vanished. Although initially unconcerned, the Coast Guard eventually searched more than 3,100 kilometers (1,200 mi) of ocean. But Dan Burack, Father Patrick Hogan, and the Witchcraft were never found.

Now this is a worthy mystery to say the least. To vanish this close to land, and to not be found after such an expanded search, is strange. Can't help but imagine what could have happened, ya know?

Coffee in the kitchen again this morning.

Sunday 'Toons Again...!

Here we go, back in the same old rut. Showing some of the older cartoons from long ago. Some folks like 'em, some folks don't. Either way...here they are!







And one more...



That's all there is. Have a great day...! Coffee in the kitchen.

How About Some Music...?

For some reason, I am really in the mood for some good ol' music. Something from the old days, ya know?

Bear with me a bit here, 'cause some of these folks are not around any more. I just wanted to hear some of their music again.





And just one more...



Guess that wasn't too bad, huh? Thanks for letting me do that.

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. It's too hot outside.

You Can't Fix Stupid...!

This next story just goes to show that you never know when the Stupid Bug is gonna bite. It should be a lesson to everyone that is associated with illegal drugs in any way, shape, or form.

Waitress Inadvertently Spikes Cop’s Drink With Cocaine

Photo credit: Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office

If he hadn’t been out of uniform, maybe she’d never have been busted. Unfortunately for her, the police officer was off duty when the Chattanooga waitress inadvertently spiked his water with a bag of cocaine in 2017. Jekievea Monchell Yearby’s mishap got her arrested on charges of assault, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. The officer of the law called his colleagues to the scene, and they watched the surveillance video of the incident with the restaurant’s manager.

Caught red-handed, so to speak, Yearby admitted the bag of cocaine was hers, as was its twin, secreted in her bra. She’d accidentally dropped the drug in the officer’s glass of water when she’d served him. She said she doesn’t take drugs and isn’t addicted to them, but she does have other problems. Not only was she arrested, but she’s also now unemployed.

I don't know if people that use drugs are really stupid or if they are merely a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason , I don't think they have their head screwed on straight, ya know? Thanks to Listverse for this story.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning, OK?

We Gotta Save The Bees...!

We all know that bees do a wonderful service to all of us by helping to pollinate a lot of our food crops.

Here is a little fact that should really concern many of us. One thing that the bees help to pollinate in a major way...is coffee! That's right, my friends, COFFEE !

The Coffee Industry

In addition to various fruits and vegetables, bees are also the primary pollinators for coffee. So without bees, our world’s coffee supply would dwindle, and the industry would lose its profitability. At first thought, this seems pretty inconsequential; caffeine is not a human “need,” and the end of coffee wouldn’t mean famine. But a surprising amount of our world’s industry lies on coffee production and sales.

In 2016 alone, Starbucks Coffee raked in $21.3 billion in gross sales. And as of May 2017, the chain had 245,000 employees. Coffee is also a valuable product in Latin America, specifically Guatemala, where a large portion of the population works in the coffee industry. Without bees, this multinational coffee empire would collapse, leaving hundreds of thousands of people out of work across the world.

I had no idea that bees could have that much effect on our morning brew. So if we lose the bees, not only would we more than likely go hungry, but we wouldn't be able to enjoy our morning java either! BUMMER!

Coffee out on the patio this morning. All bees are more than welcome !

Doc Holliday On Western Wednesday...!

Ever wonder just when the bad guys in the west really got started? I'm talking about guys like Doc Holliday.

Doc wasn't always a gunfighter, ya know. He actually got his start as a dentist. When he came down with tuberculosis, that understandably put an end to his practice.

1879

Doc Holliday kills for the first time

Doc Holliday commits his first murder, killing a man for shooting up his New Mexico saloon.

Despite his formidable reputation as a deadly gunslinger, Doc Holliday only engaged in eight shootouts during his life, and it has only been verified that he killed two men. Still, the smartly dressed ex-dentist from Atlanta had a remarkably fearless attitude toward death and danger, perhaps because he was slowly dying from tuberculosis.

In 1879, Holliday settled in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where he opened a saloon with a partner. Holliday spent his evenings gambling in the saloon and he seemed determined to stress his health condition by heavy drinking. A notorious cad, Holliday also enjoyed the company of the dance hall girls that the partners hired to entertain the customers–which sometimes sparked trouble.

On this day in 1879, a former army scout named Mike Gordon tried to persuade one of Holliday’s saloon girls to quit her job and run away with him. When she refused, Gordon became infuriated. He went out to the street and began to fire bullets randomly into the saloon. He didn’t have a chance to do much damage–after the second shot, Holliday calmly stepped out of the saloon and dropped Gordon with a single bullet. Gordon died the next day.

The following year, Holliday abandoned the saloon business and joined his old friend Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, Arizona. There he would kill his second victim, during the famous “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” in October 1881. During the subsequent six years, Holliday assisted at several other killings and wounded a number of men in gun battles. His hard drinking and tuberculosis eventually caught up with him, and he retired to a Colorado health resort where he died in 1887. Struck by the irony of such a peaceful end to a violent life, his last words reportedly were “This is funny.”

He died more peacefully than he lived, that's for sure. I'm really surprised he wasn't shot, ya know?

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

Victorian Killer Wallpaper...!

As you know, they did some crazy stuff back in the Victorian days, some of them were not very healthy.

Many of the things done back then could and often did, cause death. Seems almost as if the people of that time wanted to take chances with their lives and health. For that, they paid a terrible price at times.

Wallpaper

Photo credit: EvoNews

Rather than 50 Shades of Gray, the Victorians were passionate about the color green. In fact, green wallpaper was to the home what an iPad Air is to tablets. This love of green came about because of the end of the window tax and gas lamps. With natural light flooding in during the day and better light at night, the Victorians unleashed their inner passion for bright colors.

The fashionable color to dress the walls with wasn’t just any green. It had to be a lush shade called Scheele’s Green. Not only was it bright, but it resisted fading—an extra boon. The dark side of this colorful wall dressing was that it slowly poisoned people. Copper arsenite, an arsenic derivative, gave it the rich color. Breathing air polluted with arsenic vapor had the potential to kill . . . and often did.

Whole families ailed and died, with children especially at risk. The signs of arsenic poisoning were similar to diphtheria, so many politicians remained skeptical of the danger. And those doctors who did voice concern about arsenic were often publicly ridiculed, especially by companies producing the wallpaper!

It took until 1903 for arsenic compounds to be forbidden as a food additive, but the use of arsenic in wallpaper was never formally banned.

I took this article from Listverse. If you want to read about some other deadly things done in Victorian times you might go check it out.

Coffee out on the hot and muggy patio this morning.

Lord Lucan On Monday Mystery...!

Let's take a look at a fairly recent mystery from the 1970s. This one involves a murder suspect and his disappearance. No one is really sure what happened to him, but plenty of speculation is still lingering, as you might expect.

What Really Happened To Lord Lucan?

Photo credit: Photoshot

During the 1970s, the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Lord Lucan, as well as the death of his supposed victim, was huge news in the streets of London. After being accused of killing his children’s nanny and attacking his own wife, Lord Lucan (aka Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan) seemed to disappear off the face of the Earth, and not much was known about where he disappeared to—until now.

Novelist Peter James has recently suggested that Lord Lucan’s aristocratic circle of gambling friends (known as the Clermont Set) helped him escape England in a “light plane” to Montreux, Switzerland.[8] However, after Lucan began talking about how he wanted to contact his children to let them know he was alright, the group was spooked and had him killed “Mafia-style.” His body is believed to have been buried in Switzerland out of fear that the group’s involvement in Lucan’s escape would be revealed.

In recent years, some have even suggested that Lucan was in fact innocent of the murder. However, this fact continues to be disputed.

This story was taken from the folks at Listverse...and I thank them for it.

Coffee out on the patio if the weather co-operates. Otherwise, we'll have it in the kitchen.

Sunday Once Again...!

Let's go back to the days when we had some old timey 'toons on Sunday, OK?

Getting harder and harder to find the really good ones anymore, ya know? Seems like the new stuff is what most kids want now days. Give me the older ones every time!







And maybe just one more...



Well, I reckon that's enough for today. Since it's raining again I'm gonna read a book and then it's nap time!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. Fresh banana bread I'll share, though.

The Many Interest Of H.G. Wells...

I may have mentioned the fact before that I am an avid reader. In fact, everyone in my family is pretty passionate about reading.

When researching a particular writer or book, I occasionally run across some little tidbit of information about that writer that I feel I should share with you. The following piece of info might just surprise you, though.I know it caught me off-guard.

H.G. Wells

Little Wars

The author of War of the Worlds and The Time Machine, H.G. Wells is known today as the father of science fiction. While alive, however, Wells was a man of many interests. In addition to sci-fi, he wrote several books on history, politics, and . . . gaming.

One of Wells’s favorite pastimes was miniature wargaming, now a worldwide hobby. Wargaming seeks to reenact (or simply play through) military conflicts with model soldiers. Notable examples today include Black Powder and Warhammer 40,000. Most miniature wargames are dependent upon rulebooks for coherent play, and Wells penned one of the first: Little Wars.

Compared to modern wargaming tomes, Little Wars wasn’t much. But this attempt to establish a basic consistency in miniature wargames more or less caused the hobby to gain momentum. In fact, Wells is now considered the father of miniature wargaming in addition to science-fiction.

Somewhat ironically, Wells was a pacifist.

Who would have thunk it? Certainly not me! I wouldn't believe for a minute that Wells was an avid Wargamer, as well as an author. Then to top it off, I find out he was a pacifist...? Way too much info for me, I think.

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. Raining again outside.

Some More Strange Animals...!

We have some strange critters around the world, most of which we don't get to see. Lucky for us, there are some folks out there that take a camera with them when they find these critters.



How about this one...?



Well, that should do t for this version of Freaky Friday. Pretty strange, right?

Coffee inside again today!

Some Pretty Amazing Pictures...!

I wanted to share these pictures with you today. These are real pictures, without any photoshopping or editing. As you can see, there are some strange things out there, if we only know where to look!



Not something you would see everyday, I'd say.

Coffee inside again today. I still am looking for rain!

Wild Bill's First Gunfight...!

Did you ever wonder just how the legend of some of our most famous gunfighters got started? We,, here is the story behind one of them.

Wild Bill Hickok’s first gunfight

Wild Bill Hickok begins to establish his reputation as a gunfighter after he coolly shoots three men during a shootout in Nebraska.

Born in Homer (later called Troy Grove), Illinois, James Butler Hickok moved to Kansas in 1855 at the age of 18. There he filed a homestead claim, took odd jobs, and began calling himself by his father’s name, Bill. A skilled marksman, Hickok honed his abilities as a gunslinger. Though Hickok was not looking for trouble, he liked to be ready to defend himself, and his ability with a pistol soon proved useful.

By the summer of 1861, Hickok was working as a stock tender at a stage depot in Nebraska called Rock Creek Station. Across the creek lived Dave McCanles, a mean-spirited man who disliked Hickok for some reason. McCanles enjoyed insulting the young stockman, calling him Duck Bill and claiming he was a hermaphrodite. Hickok took his revenge by secretly romancing McCanles’ mistress, Sarah Shull.

On this day in 1861, the tension between Hickok and McCanles came to a head. McCanles may have learned about the affair between Shull and Hickok, though his motivations are not clear. He arrived at the station with two other men and his 12-year-old-son and exchanged angry words with the station manager. Then McCanles spotted Hickok standing behind a curtain partition. He threatened to drag “Duck Bill” outside and give him a thrashing. Demonstrating remarkable coolness for a 24-year-old who had never been involved in a gunfight, Hickok replied, “There will be one less son-of-a-bitch when you try that.”

McCanles ignored the warning. When he approached the curtain, Hickok shot him in the chest. McCanles staggered out of the building and died in the arms of his son. Hearing the shots, the two other gunmen ran in. Hickok shot one of them twice and winged the other. The other workers at the station finished them off.

The story of Hickok’s first gunfight spread quickly, establishing his reputation as a skilled gunman. In 1867, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine published a highly exaggerated account of the shoot-out which claimed Hickok had single-handedly killed nine men. The article quoted Hickok as saying, “I was wild and I struck savage blows.” Thus began the legendary career of “Wild Bill.”

For the next 15 years, Hickok would further embellish his reputation with genuine acts of daring, though the popular accounts continued to exceed the reality. He died in 1876 at the age of 39, shot in the back of the head by a young would-be gunfighter looking for fame.

No matter how fast you were, there was always someone faster and more sneaky, it seems. Some folks were willing to shoot a person in the back of the head, merely to build a reputation. Seems like a bit of that is still going on today, right?

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. I believe the rain is coming back.

Remembering Sergeant Bill...!

Just who was Sergeant Bill you may ask? Well, that's an interesting story that I think you will find educational.

Sergeant Bill, a Tough Old Goat!

Sergeant Bill in uniform with soldier friend.

(Photo: Broadview Museum)

A goat named Bill was pulling a cart in a small town in Saskatchewan when a train, carrying soldiers on their way to fight in the First World War, stopped. The girl who owned Bill let the soldiers take him along as a good luck charm. Mascots were not supposed to go to the front lines, but the soldiers had become very attached to the goat so they hid him in a big crate and took him with them.

Sergeant Bill, as the goat was called, was a big help. He saw action beside his human friends in many battles, including one where he pushed three soldiers into a trench just seconds before a shell exploded where they had been standing.

Despite being wounded several times, Sergeant Bill survived the war. Once the fighting was over, he was even part of a big parade in Germany, proudly wearing a fancy blue coat with his sergeant stripes. He then returned to his hometown where he was reunited with his owner.

Isn't it refreshing to hear a story like this coming from suck a terrible time in our history? I thought so.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning. Fresh cookies to share!

The Big Grey Man On Monday Mystery...!

Once in a great while, there is a tale from another part of the world that sounds a lot like those we hear a lot closer to home.

From Scotland, for instance, is this story of something called the Big Grey Man. Sort of the Yeti of Scotland, I suppose. Either way, here is the story from Listverse for you to ponder.

The Big Grey Man Of Ben MacDhui

Photo credit: Brocken Inaglory

Known in Scotland as Am Fear Liath Mor, the Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui is a cryptid, similar to the Yeti or Bigfoot. He is said to be found on Ben MacDhui, the largest peak in the Cairngorm Mountains, and it first became more than a local legend in 1889, when Professor Norman Collie allegedly saw it.[2] Though he technically didn’t see the Grey Man, he was quoted as saying: “I heard something else other than my own footsteps. For every few steps I took I heard a crunch and then another crunch as if someone was walking after me but taking footsteps three or four times the length of my own.”

Various other accounts have come from a number of people since then, including Peter Densham, a member of the airplane rescue team for Ben MacDhui. Naturalist and mountaineer Alexander Tewnion also claimed to have seen the Grey Man, firing three shots from his pistol at a figure which charged at him through the mist. A Brocken spectre, a phenomenon where an observer’s shadow is cast upon the surfaces of clouds opposite the Sun, has been claimed to be the cause of these so-called sightings, although that doesn’t explain the sound of an extra pair of footsteps.

So, what do you reckon this "Grey Man" is? A figment of someone's imagination, maybe a figure seen after one or two at the pub? Or could it be something even more sinister...?

Coffee out on the patio this morning, if you don't mind.

Something A Little Different...!

Instead of having the cartoons today, let's do some brain games instead. These are pretty easy, so you shouldn't have any trouble with them. Ready...?



There! That wasn't too bad, was it?

Coffee out on the patio again.

Gotta Pain In My Ear...!

No, not me ! The man in the following story did, though. Pretty tough gentleman, sounds like to me.

I mean, if I had the slightest notion that I had a spider crawl in my ear, I would have gone to the hospital right away! No messing around, ya know?

Did You Try Nuking It?

One morning in 2014, Hendrik Helmer woke up to a stabbing pain in his ear. Since he was from Australia, Helmer naturally assumed that a spider had crawled in there while he was asleep. With that in mind, he did what any Australian would do, and tried to ignore it. When the pain not only failed to subside but got worse over the next few hours, he decided to take action.

Initially, he tried to drown the beast with water. When that failed, he decided a vacuum might be able to suck it out, which just made the creature squirm around more inside him. With all his reasonable options exhausted, Helmer decided to try a last-ditch attempt and go to the hospital.

When the doctor examined Helmer, she could see that there was something alive inside, but could not quite make out what. In a short procedure, she poured olive oil into the man’s ear, which usually drives animals out of the ear canal. In this case, the creature appears to have drowned, allowing the doctor to remove it, and finally reveal that a 2 cm (0.79 inch) cockroach was the culprit behind all of Helmer’s pain. Helmer was relatively unfazed by his ordeal, although several of his friends began sleeping with earphones.

I can't imagine what's worse...a spider in the ear, or a roach! Personally, I don't want either one in my ear...and that's a fact!

Coffee out on the patio before it gets any hotter!

Murdered Trappers For Freaky Friday...!

Here is another case of people being murdered and no one brought to justce for the crime.

That sort of thing seemed to happen a lot before we had all the modern crime fighting tools that we have today. I wonder if any of those tools would have helped in this case, though.

The Case Of The Three Trappers

During the winter of 1924, three men from Bend, Oregon, decided to spend the season in an isolated log cabin near Lava Lake and do some fur trapping. Those men were Edward Nichols, Roy Wilson, and Dewey Morris.

Come spring, some of their friends and family ventured to the cabin to check on the men. They found an abandoned house and patches of blood leading toward the lake. It wasn’t until the ice melted that they were able to see the true gruesomeness of the event. All three men had been shot, butchered, and dumped in the lake under the ice. It appeared as though they had been taken by surprise because Nichols, although missing part of his chest and lower jaw from a shotgun blast, was still wearing his reading glasses.

While looking for motive, police discovered Lee Collins, another trapper who’d had an argument with Nichols over a missing wallet and threatened to “get even.” A little more digging revealed that Collins was actually Charles Kimzey, a man with a previous arrest for robbery and assault. However, investigators didn’t believe Kimzey alone could have dispatched the three men that quickly and effortlessly, even with the element of surprise.

It took five years before police finally apprehended Kimzey, only for him to be acquitted due to insufficient evidence. The gruesome case remains unsolved with several lingering questions: Was Kimzey involved? Did he have a partner? If not him, then who?

As in so many cases like this, more questions than answers arise. Can't help but wonder what really took place at that lonely cabit in the woods.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning.

See? I Told Ya It Was Real...!

I'm sure that Marco Polo would be saying something like that if he were alive when the legendary Xanadu was uncovered.

Marco was probably thought crazy when he told of the wondrous Xanadu, palace of the great Khan. In reality, it just sounded too great a place to be real. Turns out, Marco Polo wasn't exaggerating.

Xanadu: The Palace Of Kublai Khan

Photo credit: Zhenglan Qi Administration of Cultural Heritage of the site of Xanadu City

Marco Polo came back from China with some incredible descriptions of Kublai Khan’s empire. The most incredible of all, though, was Xanadu, the palace of the great khan.

Xanadu, Marco Polo said, was a marble palace surrounded by a massive, 26-kilometer-wide (16 mi) park filled with fountains, rivers, and wild animals. There, the khan kept 10,000 pure white horses in a golden palace guarded by dragons. It was, in short, a paradise unlike any on Earth.

The palace was destroyed by the Ming army in 1369, long before most Europeans got the chance to see it. As the centuries passed by, it slipped into legend. It was a place poets wrote about but was little more than the stuff of imagination.

Since then, though, the site of Kublai Khan’s palace has been uncovered, and we’ve found that Marco Polo wasn’t exaggerating. The khan’s home was twice as big as the White House, surrounded by a massive park that seems to have once held a wild menagerie of animals from around the world.

There are ramps for horses in every part of it, and it even has the dragons Marco Polo described. They’re statues sitting atop of pillars that have been painted yellow—but they’re posed exactly as he said they were.

Sometimes it turns out that the tall tales some folks tell are more than that, and just may contain a kernel of truth. Maybe we should listen a little better!

Coffee out on the patio again this morning.

Bill Doolin Escapes On Western Wednesday...!

Sometimes in the old west, it seemed almost impossible to keep some of the bad guys locked up.

Escape was much more commonplace back then than we would think. Almost seemed impossible to keep the bad guys locked up for very long. However, many lawmen of the day were tenacious as bull dogs and were bound and determined to re-capture them, no matter what.

Bill Doolin escapes from jail

The famous outlaw Bill Doolin escapes from an Oklahoma jail after only a few months of captivity.

Like many outlaws, William Doolin only gradually fell into a life of crime. Born in Arkansas in 1858, the tall and slim Doolin went west at the age of 23. He found work as a cowboy on several Oklahoma ranches and was widely regarded as a trustworthy and capable employee.

Doolin’s life course changed forever when a beer party in southern Kansas turned violent and two deputy sheriffs ended up dead. Doolin’s exact role in the murders was unclear, but evidence of his guilt was substantial enough to raise the chance of prison. Unwilling to risk a trial, Doolin became a fugitive. Cool, intelligent, and a skilled shot, Doolin was suited to the outlaw life. Traveling throughout the West, he robbed banks and trains, sold illegal whiskey to Indians, rustled cattle and horses, and killed several men. He formed a criminal gang that occasionally joined forces with the Dalton brothers to rob banks in Oklahoma and Missouri.

As a robber, Doolin was more successful than most because of his careful planning, but success inevitably attracted the unwanted attention of the law. In January 1896, Doolin returned to Arkansas. While Doolin was taking the medicinal waters at a resort called Eureka Springs, the famous Oklahoma lawman William Tilghman arrested him without a struggle.

Tilghman transferred Doolin to a jail at Guthrie, Oklahoma, to await trial. On this day in 1896, Doolin managed to escape, but was free only for a short time. A few weeks later, on August 25, a posse caught up with Doolin at Lawson, Oklahoma. Doolin resisted arrest, and in the ensuing gun battle, lawmen shot him to death.

It seems a shame that someone so good at planning and avoiding capture, couldn't or wouldn't find a legal job. Guess the pay just wasn't enough or the work was too hard to warrant a lifestyle change.

Coffee out on the patio this morning, if that's alright with you.

I Hate You, Sherlock Holmes...!

Not often does an author hate his own character so much that he kills that character in one of his stories.

However, that's exactly what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did. He killed off one of the most popular characters in the literary world at the time. Thinking the deed was finally bringing an end to the object of his dislike, Doyle discovered that the public wasn't ready for Sherlock Holmes to disappear just yet.

Sherlock Holmes

Photo credit: Herbert Rose Barraud

If you can only name one 19th-century literary character, it’s probably Sherlock Holmes. The hugely popular detective wowed audiences with his insane adventures and superhuman powers of deduction. Some have even credited the imaginary investigator with bringing the art of forensics to real-world crime fighters. So what could possibly defeat the greatest detective who ever “lived?” His own creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In an odd turn of events for a massively popular author, Doyle absolutely hated Holmes. In fact, it was the character’s popularity that fueled Doyle’s hatred. Desperate for money, a young Doyle wrote fiction to supplement his income, playing with topics like man-eating plants and mummies before finally finding an audience with his detective character, Sherlock Holmes. Despite immediate commercial success, Doyle regarded his work with Holmes as cheap and hacky and preferred instead to work with more historical subjects. The public only wanted Holmes, however, and Doyle found himself growing exhausted by the increasing workload and ever more resentful of the fictitious man whose reputation was overshadowing his own.

So he tried to kill him. In the short story “The Final Problem,” Doyle sent his legendary super-sleuth out in style, throwing both he and his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, over a waterfall. Doyle said the decision was an act of self-defense, claiming, “If I had not killed him, he would certainly have killed me.”[1] Despite this passionate hatred, however, Doyle eventually gave in and brought Holmes back from his “faked death.” He continued writing stories he couldn’t stand for the rest of his life.

I, for one, am glad that Sherlock Holmes was brought back to life. I've always enjoyed the character very much, and find the stories about his cases fascinating and a good read. But what do I know?

Coffee out on the patio this morning. Happy 4TH everyone! Please be safe!

Demon Storm's Face For Monday Mystery...

You know how we sometimes get the feeling that our storms and bad weather is actually alive? Want to see a picture of one such event?

Now, I realize that this is only a coincidence, but it's pretty spooky just the same. I may never look at a weather map again without seeing something like this watching me.

Matthew’s Face

Photo credit: The Telegraph

Hurricane Matthew arrived near the end of 2016, the first Category 5 storm since Felix in 2007. Matthew caused catastrophic damage and severe loss of life numbering in the hundreds. The impoverished island nation of Haiti bore the brunt, with casualty estimates ranging from around 500 to over 1,300 people.

As Matthew made landfall in Haiti on October 4, the infrared image above was rendered by a NASA weather satellite. The storm’s shape bears an obvious resemblance to that of a grinning skull, seen in profile, with the figurative “eye” of the skull being the literal eye of the storm.Coincidence? Certainly. Spooky as hell? We will let you be the judge.

I hate to say it, but here in Houston, we have dodged the bullet for several years now. The law of averages say that this may just be the year we get hit with another big storm. I hope not!

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

Some Sunday Funnies From Long Ago...

I keep going back to the old cartoons, just because I think they are better than today!







And maybe just one more...



Guess that's enough for today. Have a great day...OK?

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

Go Hunting With An Eagle...!

Many of us think we only use falcons as hunting birds, but eagles have been used (and still are) to hunt with for a long time.

Hunting With Eagles

Photo credit: baomoi.com

Though Haast’s eagle feasted on the Maori in ancient times, the golden eagle has been trained throughout history to hunt for our food rather than our flesh. Using seven different techniques depending on the nature of prey, the golden eagle was reserved for the falconry of kings in medieval Europe. The ancestral eagle hunting traditions of Turkic people, most notably the Mongolians, continue today.

Taken from the nest as eaglets, they are raised by only one master to form a powerful personal bond. After being treated as family for a decade, they are released into the wild for natural reproduction. Eagle hunters ride on horseback to follow the attacks on various prey items such as the wolves, foxes, and hares of the Eurasian steppe.

I'd say that this is one pet you don't want to mess with. Know what I mean?

Coffee out on the patio again this morning, OK?