The Staff of Life: Bread

 The preparation of loaves of bread.

Bread is the staff of life; in which is contained, inclusive, the quintessence of beef, mutton, veal, venison, partridge, plum-pudding and custard: and to render all complete, there is intermingled a due quantity of water, whose crudities are also corrected by yeast or barm, through which it means it becomes a wholesome fermented liquor, diffused through the mass of bread.

Jonathan Swift, to whom I'd related on my mother's side.

Recently I heard a homily delivered referencing the Lord's Prayer and bread.

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

The Lord's Prayer in contemporary English.

The Priest, an African native, noted that for a time he'd served as a Priest in Rome, and during that time he was thrown into a bit of crisis due to the massive  variety of Italian breads (twenty kinds, he related) and that so much of it was thrown away in a location that was just across from him.  At home, in Zambia, bread was consumed still just once a month, when his father was paid.  How, he wondered, could he relate the scarcity of bread in his native land, with the over abundance of it in his new location, and the scarcity of it referenced in the Lord's Prayer (my summation, not quite the way he put it)?  He figured that very few Americans or westerners thought of it in terms of scarcity.

Pater Noster, qui es in caelis:

sanctificétur nomen tuum;

advéniat regnum tuum;

fiat volúntas tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra.

Panem nostrum cotidiánum da nobis hódie;

et dimítte nobis débita nostra,

sicut et nos dimíttimus debitóribus nostris;

et ne nos indúcas in temptatiónem,

sed líbera nos a malo.

The Lord's Prayer in Latin.

Well, it might be just me, or perhaps more the family I come from, but that thought, the scarcity of bread and what it means in the context of the prayer, is something that I have thought of before.  Perhaps because I can recall my father mentioning, in reference itself to the prayer, that in the ancient world "bread was truly the staff of life."

Padre nostro che sei nei cieli,

sia santificato il tuo Nome,

venga il tuo Regno,

sia fatta la tua Volontà

come in cielo così in terra.

Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano,

e rimetti a noi i nostri debiti

come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori,

e non ci indurre in tentazione,

ma liberaci dal Male.

The Lord's Prayer in contemporary Italian.

And indeed it was.

Bread was the basic foodstuff that fed great masses of humanity all around the world for centuries.  The diet we have today, with lots of variety, didn't exist in many localities, particularly after civilization, i.e., the construction of towns and cities, started in ancient times.  Not that any ancient society really had the variety of foods we have today, but hunter gatherer societies can have a more varied one than we suppose, with a fairly balanced diet.  In many ancient societies, however, once towns were built and crop agriculture set in, and indeed many societies right up until relatively modern times, bread was one of the basic if not the basic stable food item.  A person might have meat often, but they could hope to get by on bread.

Notre Père qui es aux cieux,

que ton Nom soit sanctifié,

que ton règne vienne,

que ta volonté soit faite

sur la terre comme au ciel.

Donne-nous aujourd’hui notre pain de ce jour.

Pardonne-nous nos offenses,

comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés.

Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,

mais délivre-nous du mal. 

The Lord's Prayer in French.

That's quite a change, indeed, from what we experience now.  I suppose there may be exceptions, but by and large I don't know of any society that depends upon bread the same way that all peoples once did.

Πατερ ημων ο εν τοις ουρανοις·
     Pater hēmon ho en tois uranois;
αγιασθητω το ονομα σου·
     hagiasthēto to onoma su;
ελθετω η βασιλεια σου·
     elteto hē basileia su;
γενηθητω το θελημα σου, ως εν ουρανω και επι γης·
     genēthēto to thelēma su, hos en urano kai epi gēs;
τον αρτον ημων τον επιουσιον δος ημιν σημερον·
     ton arton hēmon to etiusion dos hēmin sēmeron;
και αφες ημιν τα οφειληματα ημον,
     kai aphes hemin ta opheilēmata hēmon,
ως και ημεις αφηκαμεν τοις οφειλεταις ημων·
     hos kai hēmeis aphēkamen tois opheiletais hēmon;
και μη εισενεγκης ημας εις πειρασμον,
     kai mē eisenegkēs hēmas eis peirasmon,
αλλα ρυσαι ημας απο του πονηρου.
     alla rhusai hēmas apo tu ponēru.

The Lord's Prayer in Greek.

Which is, I suppose, why ever culture around the world seems to have its own variety of it, with some societies in the wheat growing regions of the globe having multiple vareities of it.  Indeed, Italy and France seem to have a profusion of bread types, and good ones too, which we've only recently caught up with after basically importing their types.

Unser Vater in dem Himmel!
Dein Name werde geheiliget.
Dein Reich komme.
Dein Wille geschehe auf Erden wie im Himmel.
Unser täglich Brot gib uns heute.
Und vergib uns unsere Schulden,
wie wir unsern Schuldigern vergeben.
Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung,
sondern erlöse uns von dem Übel.

The Lord's Prayer in German.

And thank goodness for that, I'd note.  American breads of my youth were lousy, in my opinion. So packed with sugar that they are basically a really bland cake, the left a lot to be desired.  Those industrial breads are still around I'd note, but I don't have to buy them and I don't.

Отче наш, Иже еси на небесех!

Да святится имя Твое,

да приидет Царствие Твое,

да будет воля Твоя,

яко на небеси и на земли.

Хлеб наш насущный даждь нам днесь;

и остави нам долги наша,

якоже и мы оставляем должником нашим;

и не введи нас во искушение,

но избави нас от лукаваго. 

The Lord's Prayer in Russian.

Ironically, some of the really fancy breads of today started off, oddly enough, as poverty foods.  Italian walnut based breads and pastas (basically a species of bread, really) were the food of the really poor, who gleaned walnets.  Irish soda bread, which I really like and which I used to make on occasion, is a "short" bread with no or little sugar and no yeast.  Easy to make with only flour, just as the Irish poor were likely to not have.

Ranch cook making what is probably soda, or sheepherder's, bread in a cast iron pan, the way it is made at camps, and the way I even make it 

 

Оч͠е нашь ижє ѥси на н͠бсєхъ . да с͠титьсѧ имѧ

твоѥ да придєть ц͠рствиѥ твоѥ · да бѫдєть воля

твоя · яка на н͠бси и на земли хлѣбъ нашь насѫщьиыи ·

даждь намъ дьньсь · и остави намъ · длъгы

нашѧ · яко и мы оставляємъ длъжникомъ нашимъ

и нє въвєди насъ въ напасть · иъ избави ны отъ

нєприязни

The Lord's Prayer in Old Church Slavonic.

But I can see how many would have never considered this.

أبانا الذي في السّماوات

ليتقدَّسِ اسمُك

ليأتِ ملكوتُك

لتكُنْ مشيئتُكَ

كما في السَّماءِ كذلكَ على الأرض

خبزَنَا الجوهريَّ أعطِنا اليوم

واترُكْ لنا ما علينا

كما نتركُ نحنُ لِمَنْ لنا عليه

ولا تُدخِلْنا في تجربة

لكن نجِّنا مِن الشرير

آمين

The Lord's Prayer in Arabic.

Although I suspect that quite a few still do, even in spite of a modern condition in which foods supplies are so vast in the Western World that bread is sometimes regarded by some as a dietary enemy.

我們在天上的父，

願人都尊祢的名為聖，

願祢的國降臨，

願祢的旨意行在地上，

如同行在天上。

我們日用的飲食，

今日賜給我們，

免我們的債，

如同我們免了人的債，

不叫我們遇見試探，

救我們脫離兇惡，

因為國度、權柄、榮耀，全是祢的，

直到永遠。阿們！

The Lord's Prayer in Chinese.

And, in the context of the Lord's Prayer, if a person does, the deeper meaning of the prayer on that line is quite evident.

E ko mākou Makua i loko o ka lani,

e ho‘āno ‘ia Kou inoa.

E hiki mai Kou aupuni.

E mālama ‘ia Kou makemake ma ka honua nei,

e like me ia i mālama ‘ia ma ka lani lā.

E hā‘awi mai iā mākou i kēia lā i ‘ai na mākou no nēia lā;

a e kala mai ho‘i iā mākou i kā mākou lawehala ‘ana,

me mākou e kala nei i ka po‘e i lawehala i kā mākou;

a mai ho‘oku‘u ‘Oe iā mākou i ka ho‘owalewale ‘ia mai,

akā e ho‘opakele nō na‘e iā mākou i ka ino. 

Hawaiian.

Vår Far i himmelen!
La navnet ditt helliges.
La riket ditt komme.
La viljen din skje på jorden
slik som i himmelen.
Gi oss i dag vårt daglige brød,
og tilgi oss vår skyld,
slik også vi tilgir våre skyldnere.
Og la oss ikke komme i fristelse, men frels oss fra det onde.
For riket er ditt,
og makten og æren i evighet.

Norwegian

Faþer vár es ert í himenríki, verði nafn þitt hæilagt.

Til kome ríke þitt, værði vili þin

sva a iarðu sem í himnum.

Gef oss í dag brauð vort dagligt,

Ok fyr gefþu oss synþer órar,

sem vér fyr gefom þeim er viþ oss hafa misgert

Leiðd oss eigi í freistni, heldr leys þv oss frá öllu illu.

Old Norse

Faðir vor, þú sem ert á himnum.

Helgist þitt nafn,

til komi þitt ríki,

verði þinn vilji, svo á jörðu sem á himni.

Gef oss í dag vort daglegt brauð.

Fyrirgef oss vorar skuldir,

svo sem vér og fyrirgefum vorum skuldunautum.

Eigi leið þú oss í freistni, heldur frelsa oss frá illu.

[Því að þitt er ríkið, mátturinn og dýrðin að eilífu, amen.]

Icelandic

Ár nAthair, atá ar neamh: go naofar d'ainm.

Go dtaga do ríocht.

Go ndéantar do thoil ar talamh

mar a dhéantar ar neamh.

Ár n-arán laethúil tabhair dúinn inniu,

agus maith dúinn ár bhfiacha,

mar a mhaithimid dár bhféichiúnaithe féin.

Agus ná lig sinn i gcathú,

ach saor sinn ó olc.

[Óir is leatsa an Ríocht agus an Chumhacht

agus an Ghlóir, trí shaol na saol.]

Áiméan.

Irish

Isä meidän, joka olet taivaissa,

Pyhitetty olkoon sinun nimesi.

Tulkoon sinun valtakuntasi.

Tapahtukoon sinun tahtosi,

myös maan päällä niin kuin taivaassa.

Anna meille tänä päivänä

meidän jokapäiväinen leipämme.

Ja anna meille meidän syntimme anteeksi,

niin kuin mekin anteeksi annamme niille,

jotka ovat meitä vastaan rikkoneet.

Äläkä saata meitä kiusaukseen,

vaan päästä meidät pahasta.

[Sillä sinun on valtakunta

ja voima ja kunnia iankaikkisesti.]

Aamen.\

Finnish

The Punitive Expedition. Carranza Telegrams

Mexican President Carranza telegrams Woodrow Wilson indicating his desire that the recent raid upon Columbus New Mexico not result in war between the United States and Mexico.  Telegrams would go back and forth between the two nations for the next two days.

The Raid On Columbus: The Wyoming Tribune, March 10, 1916

Cheyenne's newspaper.  Probably an evening edition.

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico: The local March 10 news

And the industry losses continue

Anadarko announced today that it is laying off 17% of is workforce.  Anadarko once owned the large, and old, Salt Creek field in Wyoming, which is near Midwest and Edgerton Wyoming, but it sold the field last year.  So the very local losses, for Anadarko, were probably already sustained here last year.

Encana, another large company, which in its case has roots in Canada, will apparently lay off 20% of its workforce starting next week.

Froma Harrop on Dress Codes

Froma Harrop is by far one of my favorite columnists. Supposedly a liberal columnist, I don't know that her columns can really be easily categorized in a liberal or conservative fashion.

And she writes on a wide variety of topics, including this topic that was just run in our local paper, dress codes: COLUMN: Dress codes and female dignity:

Harrop is write on.

As I've noted before, this is an area that has really changed over time, that being standards of dress in general.  As that's changed, it seem to be the case that there's come to be a belief that basic human biology has also changed. Well, not so much, and for that reason, what is dignified in dress remains, in some very basic ways, unchanged.

An article well worth reading.

Lex Anteinternet: My thesis « Ramblings of a teacher, Redskins fan, and scrapbooker.

My thesis « Ramblings of a teacher, Redskins fan, and scrapbooker (Punitive Expedition Entry)

Leann, the author of the Ramblings of a teacher, Redskins fan, and scrapbooker blog  has posted a series of entries on her Master's Thesis, which deals with a family member who was a soldier during the Punitive Expedition and World War One..  Given the focus of this blog, I"m glad to see her do that, and I've mentioned her prior blog entries before.  Anyhow, she's serialized the entries, the first of which is here:

My thesis « Ramblings of a teacher, Redskins fan, and scrapbooker

Interesting stuff.

Lex Anteinternet: My thesis, part II « Ramblings of a teacher, Redskins fan, and scrapbooker (Punitive Expedition, Part II)

My thesis, part II « Ramblings of a teacher, Redskins fan, and scrapbooker (Punitive Expedition, Part II)

Part II of Leann's discussion on "My thesis, part II « Ramblings of a teacher, Redskins fan, and scrapbooker"

Punitive Expedition Threads on US Warhorse ~ The US Cavalry 1898 – 1920

A series of Punitive Expedition Threads on US Warhorse.

Secretary of War Baker issues the following order to Southern Department Commander Frederick Funston:

Secretary of War Baker issues the following order to Southern Department Commander Frederick Funston:

President has directed that an armed force be sent into Mexico with the sole object of capturing Villa and preventing any further raids by his band and with scrupulous regard for the sovereignty of Mexico. Secretary of War directs you telegraph exactly what you need to carry out foregoing general instructions but you will not take any overt steps until receipt orders from War Department

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week at Work: U.S. Infantry in Texas.

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week at Work: U.S. Infantry in Texas.

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week At Work: Photographing the Punitive Expe...

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week At Work: Photographing the Punitive Expe...

The Punitive Expedition. Making the decision.

President Wilson convenes his cabinet, including his new, and pacifist, Secretary of War, to discuss responding to the Villista Raid on Columbus New Mexico.  The decision is made to send in a relatively small expeditionary force into Mexico to punish the Villistas.  Immediately following the meeting Wilson states:

An adequate force will be sent at once in pursuit of Villa with the single object of

capturing him and putting a stop to his forays. This can and will be done in entirely friendly aid of the constituted authorities in Mexico and with scrupulous respect for the sovereignty of that Republic

Lex Anteinternet: Mid-Week at Work: U.S. Troops in Mexico.

Lex Anteinternet: Mid-Week at Work: U.S. Troops in Mexico.

All around the water tank, waiting for a train
A thousand miles away from home, sleeping in the rain
I walked up to a brakeman just to give him a line of talk
He said "If you got money, boy, I'll see that you don't walk
I haven't got a nickel, not a penny can I show
"Get off, get off, you railroad bum" and slammed the boxcar door

He put me off in Texas, a state I dearly love
The wide open spaces all around me, the moon and the stars up above
Nobody seems to want me, or lend me a helping hand
I'm on my way from Frisco, going back to Dixieland
My pocket book is empty and my heart is full of pain


I'm a thousand miles away from home just waiting for a train.

Jimmy Rodgers, "Waiting for a Train".

The Buffalo Soldiers at Ft. Huachuca

Excellent treatment of The Buffalo Solders at Ft. Huachuca from Huachuca Illustrated, including excellent history of the Punitive Expedition.

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico: The news hit.

Most towns and cities in 1916 were served by a morning and an evening newspaper, or a paper that published a morning and evening edition.  Therefore, most Americans would have started learning of the Villista raid around 5:00 p.m. or so as the evening newspapers were delivered or started being offered for sale.

Here's the evening edition of the Casper Daily Press, a paper that was in circulation in Casper Wyoming in 1916 and which is the predecessor of one of the current papers.

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico, 1916

0730-balance of the day:  Troopers of the U.S. 13th Cavalry pursue retreating Villistas into Mexico.  Major Frank Tompkins, sought permission against the rules of engagement, to cross the border and was granted the same by Slocum.   His troops advanced past Palomas and fifteen miles into Mexico, where their pursuit is arrested by the Villista defense. As he had only a portion of the Camp Furlong garrison he was badly outnumbered in the pursuit but nonetheless engaged the Villista rear guard four times, inflicting heavy casualties on them.  When his advance was finally checked, he withdrew into the United States.

The raid leaves part of Columbus in ruins and will launch the United States into a punitive expedition into Mexico against Villa's forces, and which would nearly lead to war with Mexico.  Woodrow Wilson filled the vacant position of Secretary of War that very day.

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico: The Telegram.

The following telegram arrived in Washington, DC:

Columbus attacked this morning, 4:30 o’clock. Citizens murdered. Repulsed about 6 o’clock. Town partly burned. They have retreated to the west. Unable to say how many were killed. Department of Justice informed that between 400 and 500 Villa troops attacked Columbus, New Mexico about 4:30. Villa probably in charge. Three American soldiers killed and several injured; also killed four civilians and wounded four. Several of the attacking party killed and wounded by our forces. Attacking party also burned depot and principal buildings in Columbus. United States soldiers now pursuing attacking parties across the line into Mexico. No prisoners reported taken alive

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico, 1916

0730  A Villista bugler sounds retreat.  Villistas begin the process of withdrawing to Mexico with their wounded.

The raid on Columbus New Mexico, 1916

 Maj General John P. Lucas during World War Two.  Lucas, as a lieutenant, would react heroically to the Villista attack.

0415-0445 to 0730.  A pitched battle between Villistas against cavalrymen of the 13th U.S. Cavalry ensues. While caught by surprise, the US forces had some inkling that Villistas may have been on the move prior to the raid and reacted very quickly.  Local Columbus New Mexico residents also took part in the battle, defending their homes.  While the battle started in darkness, the fact that a hotel caught fire soon aided US. forces in being able to pick out Villista targets.

The early minutes of the action featured a heroic reaction by Lt. John P. Lucas who fought his way alone from his tent to the guard shack in spite of lacking shoes and shirt.  Lucas who commanded a machinegun troop, organized a single machinegun in defense until the remainder of his unit could come up.  He then organized them and worked to repel the Villistas.  Lucas made a career of the Army and died after World War Two at age 59 while still serving in the Army.

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico, 1916

 Col Herbert J. Slocum, U.S. 13th Cavalry.  Slocum was in command of the 13th Cavalry Regiment at Columbus New Mexico, or more accurately Camp Furlong which was next to Columbus.

0415:  Villistas enter Columbus New Mexico from the west and southeast crying "¡Viva Villa! ¡Viva México!"

They expected to encounter an American garrison of only 30 men, as noted above, based upon their scouting and intelligence.  However, Columbus had a garrison of over 300 men, to Villa's force of approximately 500 men.  The US forces were from the U.S. 13th Cavalry who occupied adjacent Camp Furlong.  Moreover, U.S. troops were equipped in a modern fashion, complete with the Benet Mercie light machine gun which had been adopted for cavalry use.

The Raid On Columbus New Mexico. 1916

 Villa leading his forces prior to his 1915 defeat at Celaya

0100: Forces under Francisco "Pancho" Villa cross the border near Palomas, Chihuahua to advance on the small town of Columbus New Mexico, which they intend to raid in retaliation for Woodrow Wilson's actions in allowing Carranza's forces to be transported by rail across Texas to be used against Villa's forces in northern Mexico.  

Most are on foot.  Columbus is 2.5 miles to the north of the Mexican border town, where Villistas had been located and recuperating after a recent defeat at the hands of Carranza's forces.

Villa, who may or may not have accompanied his troops that day, commanded approximately 500 men.  His force of horsemen was in disarray after being defeated at the  Battle of Celaya in April of the prior year, from which it had still not recovered.  Villa had gone in that battle with 22,000 men, 8,000 of which were killed, and another 8,000 of which were captured in the battle.  His forces at Palomas, while dangerous, were a shadow of his prior Division del Norte.

Villa believed that nearby Columbus was garrisoned with about 30 US soldiers.  This intelligence was erroneous and US forces in the region were alerted to the possibility of trouble occurring.

Remembering Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus, N.M.

Remembering Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus, N.M.: The only time in the 20th century that outside forces invaded the continental United States, March, 9, 1916, nobody in Columbus knew what was going on.

Confessions of a Writer of Westerns: How Many Facts in Historical Fiction?

Confessions of a Writer of Westerns: How Many Facts in Historical Fiction?: How much is too much? Well, now that could depend on what I am talking about. In this post, I am talking about placing facts into fiction w...

Today In Wyoming's History: Blog Mirror: “The Great Call Up- Wyoming Moves to...

Today In Wyoming's History: Blog Mirror: “The Great Call Up- Wyoming Moves to...:  Casper Journal:  “The Great Call Up- Wyoming Moves to the Border, 1916” The early morning hours before dawn on March 9, 1916 in the sleep...

The Columbus Raid. Why did it occur?

As I noted yesterday, this week 100 years will pass since Francisco "Pancho" Villa ordered a party of his men across the United States border into a raid on Columbus New Mexico.  Columbus was a little tiny town across the border, but it had come to have an American military presence.  Villa's actions was extraoridinary and the question has always been, why on earth did he do it.

Unlike some historitans,  I think the answer is obvious, and I've touched on it before in our thread  Lex Anteinternet: The Mexican Revolution.  As the anniversary of the event came upon me at a time when work and activities kept me from posting a really new entry here on the episode, I'm linking in, over the course of the week, a variety of items, but this particular item addressed some of these topics.  So I'm basing this post on what I earlier wrote.  Perhaps that's bad form, but none the less I think the earlier entry was pretty good.

I'm not going to repeat all that was there, but let's note that Mexico had slid into revolution, and the US had already intervened in Mexico during that revolution.  Mexico's long standing dictator Porfirio Diaz had fallen in revolution.  In turn, Modero, who overthrew him in the name of liberal democracy, had ruled naively and had gone down in a 1913 military coup that brought Victoriano Huerta to power.  Unfortunately, that coup had the local support of the American ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson.  Mexico erupted into civil war.  That civil war brought the radical Venustiano Carranza into power and soon remaining Mexican revolutionaries took sides with or against him as Mexico descended into chaos.  One of the revolutionary generals opposing Carranza was Pancho Villa with his Army of the North.

We pick up the story after the U.S. first intervened military at Vera Cruz to keep arms being supplied to Huerta.

Indicative of things to come, perhaps, Huerta was defeated and fled while the United States occupied Vera Cruz, but he was no more pleased about the American presence there than a disgruntled Huerta was, who went on to plot with German agents to bring Mexico into war with the United States, as noted.  American forces withdrew in November 1914, but they'd be back, as we'll see, in a different location only shortly thereafter.  The intervention at Vera Cruz, however, did prevent the Germans from supplying a shipment of arms to Huerta, which may or may not have had an impact on the Mexican Revolution.  Ironically, the arms were actually American made as the Germans, in 1914, were not in a position to export arms to Mexico.

Carranza soon found himself fighting the two main stars of the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa and Emiliano  Zapata. Zapata, while he receives less attention, is by far the most interesting of the two as he had a real political vision for Mexico, that being a distributist agrarian state.   Villa was more of a peasant free agent, with less defined goals. Suffice it to say, however, both had been highly successful revolutionaries and a betting man would have bet against Carranza at that point.

However, Carranza was a radical as well, and that position allowed him to undercut support for a war weary Mexican population in the south.  This began to undercut support for the agrarian Zapata, and he began to face supply problems and accordingly set backs in the field.  Nonetheless Zapata was still in the field in 1919 when he was lured into a trap in an effort to secure supplies and assassinated.  In the north, Pancho Villa, who had been a very successful natural cavalry commander, found himself unable to adapt to the changes in battlefield tactics that were also being used in Europe.  Constantly in battle against Carranzaista commander Alvaro Obregon, who used barbed wire and trenches, his fortunes rapidly declined.

 

Alvaro Obregon, whose competence and study of military tactics lead to the defeat of Pancho Villa and his Division del Norte.  He'd ultimately become present of Mexico following his coup against Carranza.  Obregon would serve one term as president of Mexico, and was elected to a second term to follow his successor Calles, but he was assassinated prior to taking office.

But before they did, Carranza, in spite of a dislike of the United States, approached the Wilson administration about transporting troops through Texas by rail to be used against Villa.  Wilson had been horrified by H L. Wilson's actions in bringing about Madero's downfall, and he deeply desired to see an end to the fighting in Mexico.  Deciding to recognize Carranza as the legitimate ruler of the country, he granted permission for this to be done in 1915. Traveling under arms, they were used against Villa.  Villa retaliated against the United States for its entering the conflict in this fashion by raiding Columbus New Mexico on March 9, 1916.

 

The raid on Columbus has seemingly baffled American historians ever since, but the reasons for it couldn't be more apparent.  Villa was a fairly simply man, not a diplomat, and he had been attacked by Carranza's forces after they'd crossed the United States by rail.  By doing that, the US had taken a position in the war, which indeed it had whether President Wilson recognized that or not.  Indeed, Wilson had been warned by those knowledgeable not to support Carranza, who deeply disliked the US, and when it wasn't clear who was going to win the civil war.  Wilson's actions did nothing to engender love from Carranza but it did inspire Villa to retaliate against the US.

And so started an episode that would take U.S. troops deep into Mexico.

This entire episode seems oddly contemporary and from a distant less powerful past for the Americans.  It's hard to imagine ourselves being raided in this fashion, but then perhaps the events of 9/11 were not entirely dissimilar.    And the entire event serves as a cautionary tale today.  Nobody would have foreseen a newspaper interview bringing down Diaz.  Nobody would have seen Modero becoming the president of Mexico.  Nobody would have anticipated a victorious Modero leaving the Mexican army and its officer corps in place following their defeat.  Wilson, for his part, apparently didn't appreciate that he was directly intervening in a Mexican civil war by allowing Mexican troops in that war to be transported across U.S. territory.  Things have a way of working out contrary to our expectations.

Lex Anteinternet: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scenes of the U.S. Army in the Punitive Expedition

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scenes of the U.S. Army in the Punitive Exp. Era

One of the themes that we're going to try to explore here is the Punitive Expedition, that event following the raid by Poncho Villa on Columbus New Mexico which saw the U.S. Army enter Mexico in search of Villa.

This SMH thread has a great collection of photos dating to this era, so I'll kick off the exploration of this topic with a link to some of them.

Lex Anteinternet: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - A Punitive Expedition Time Line.

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - A Punitive Expedition Time Line

Additions?  Subtractions?

Lex Anteinternet: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scenes of the Punitive Expedition.

Lex Anteinternet: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scene...: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scenes of the U.S. Army in the Punitive Exp. Era

Random Snippets: Too much capitalism

Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists.

G. K. Chesterton:  The Uses of Diversity, 1921

Question for the readers. Source for historical weather data?

Is there any source for the weather in any one place in North America for a century or more ago.

I.e., if I wanted to know what the weather in Denver Colorado was on March 7, 1916, would there be a place I could look that up?

The Battle of Verdun commences. March 7, 1916

The titanic Battle of Verdun commenced on this day in 1916.  The bloodshed would go on for weeks.

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: Co. C, Wyoming National Guard, Powell Wyoming

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: Co. C, Wyoming National Guard, Powell Wyoming

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: Mobilization Camp, Texas City, Texas

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: Mobilization Camp, Texas City, Texas

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: 6th U.S. Cavalry at Texas City, ...

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: 6th U.S. Cavalry at Texas City, ...

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: Truck Company No. 28, Mexican Border

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: Truck Company No. 28, Mexican Border:

The Raid On Columbus New Mexico

 

100 years ago on March 9 Pancho Villa, in apparent retaliation for the Wilson Administration's allowance to Carrenza to transport his troops on U.S. railways in Texas so that they could be more efficiently deployed against Villa, raided Columbus New Mexico.  The border was already tense and, in response, President Wilson authorized the deployment of U.S. troops into northern Mexico against Villa.  

The entire historical episode is one of my favorite of American history and it seems to me, as a student of it, to have been a quite recent event.  It amazes me that it's now 100 years since the entire thing occurred and, indeed, in spite of a century having (over half of that during my lifetime) it is really recognizable recent history in a lot of ways.

The Punitive Expedition inspired this blog.  I've let the anniversary of the opening event slip by me in some ways, or I would have written a long text on it.  But, even at that, I am going to note it here, and by linking in a series of posts this week that cover it. Some are academic, some not, but they're all worth reading.

Monday at the Bar: Carlisle County Courthouse, Carlisle Pennsylvania

Carlisle County Courthouse, Carlisle Pennsylvania

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. Laurence O'Toole Catholic Church, Laramie Wyoming

Churches of the West: St. Laurence O'Toole Catholic Church, Laramie Wyoming

This is St. Laurence O'Toole Catholic Church in Laramie, Wyoming.

I'll confess that while I took this photograph, I took it quite a while back. In 1986, to be specific. But the church appears the same today, as it did then.

This parish has been in existence, under this name, for quite some time. The church depicted here, however, was dedicated in 1926. The church is one of two Catholic churches in Laramie, the other being a Newman Center.

I've always thought the roof tiles of this church to be both unique, and attractive.

Caring for the dying

 My mother, as a young woman.

My mother, age 90, is dying.

This isn't a sudden thing.  She was remarkably physically good health up until her mid 80s, when things began to fall apart.  It impacted her mind first, and not kindly.  She had always been a very physically active person, riding a bike and swimming daily, up until she was about 85 years old, when she suddenly quit. That's when I knew that I couldn't ignore things anymore.

Not that it wasn't obvious before that. 

It's a long story I care not to repeat, but her mind had been deteriorating for some time, but she was still able to live on her own and she loved doing so.

Now, on that, perhaps a bit of that is a rationalization on my part.  My father and I were very, very close, and I miss my father dearly to this day.  He died when he was 62 years old after becoming suddenly ill.  The anniversary of that death, in fact, is coming right up.  I'm 52 years old now.  My father's father died when he was in his late 40s, and they were very close as well.  I think that weighted heavily on his mind, particularly as he came up to and then passed that age.  I know that as I begin to see 62 on the horizon its on my mind, but then I didn't expect to make it out of here alive anyhow.

And I'm seeing that advanced old age has not been kind to my mother.  Nor has it been kind to most of her siblings.  It hasn't been the same for all of her siblings, all but one of whom have lived into advanced old age.  Some, including one of my uncles, have remained very mentally sharp.  But others have endured what my mother has.  Seeing it, I hope that I'm spared that, and frankly if Providence should provide it, while I'd like to live long enough to see my children well established as adults and enjoy their adult company, I don't know that I'd like to endure the ravages of extreme old age.  I know that its been horrible to watch.

 My mother, center, as a little girl.

And given this, I've thought a lot about how I've generally handled it and frankly sometimes considered how things like this were handled in prior times.  Frankly, I don't know that they were handled all that much differently, to some degree, in our fluid North American society.

 My mother, far left, with her sister and her oldest brother, Terry, in his Canadian Army uniform prior to his going to Europe in World War Two.  Of those depicted, Terry and Brenda (second from right), in addition to my mother, are still living.

My mother is originally from St. Lambert, Quebec.  She was born there and grew up there with her extended family of siblings.  Born in 1925, the family hit very hard times during the Great Depression.  Indeed, it's generally not realized that the Great Depression hit harder in Canada than it did in the United States, but it did. The percentage of Canadians out of work exceeded that of Americans. Having said that, that Quebec, which is now a thing of the past, had a huge rural, French speaking, agrarian population.  My mother's family was an Irish-French urban family, and therefore not part of the agrarian population, although they shared the common faith that it had.  They principally spoke English, although everyone could speak French. Anyhow, she went to work in her mid teens as the family was in such desperate straights, working at first for the Canadian Pacific Railway.  In her 20s she moved out to Calgary and worked as an oil and gas secretary, before leaving that job, as the urging of her mother, in order to be bridesmaid for her youngest sister, who married in Denver Colorado.  Returning north after that she stopped here as we were having an oil boom and she thought it likely should could find work, which she did.  All in all, she was pretty adventuresome when young.

I'd be hard pressed to know who is who is this photograph of my mother's siblings, and I'm not even sure if she is in it.

She met my father at St. Anthony's Church and they were married in 1958.  My mother would have been 33 years old at the time.  When I was born she was 38, fairly late, particularly in those years, to have a child.  I'm my parents only one.

 My mother, right, riding.  This photograph was likely taken in Alberta when she was in her twenties, but I'm not really certain and now there's nobody I ask.

We were a pretty active family. Indeed, I feel that I compare unfavorably as an adult to my parents.  But my mother started sliding into illness when I was in my teens and by the time I was 20 she was very ill.  And that illness expressed itself as a severe example of dementia.  It was scary, and during the process it strained our relationship severely.  My father admirably stayed very loyal to her the entire time, in spite of all the embarrassment that accompanies such an affliction before old age.  Ultimately she arrived at death's door.

During that time, I prayed that she'd recover, and she did.  There's no explanation for it other than a miracle.  No doctor has ever been able to explain it. The recovery wasn't full, but it was large, and when on death's door she began a recovery over a period of months that ultimately allowed her to return home from a brief hospitalization and a brief stay in a nursing home.  Her mind cleared up to a large extent, if not fully, and she was amazingly physically fit.  She bicycled and swam everyday, and in her 80s was so fit that I was often quite stunned that others were not equally fit.

 My mother with a bicycle while in her teens.  She rode a bicycle daily up into her mid 80s.

My father died at age 62 after a sudden illness afflicted him. He struggled for a period of months before passing away.  It was a horrific experience for both of us.  By that time, I'd gone down to the University of Wyoming twice and had graduated from law school.   When I returned to town I'd planned on only being at my parents house briefly but first my father grew ill and then he died, so I stayed on there, first to help him and then to try to help my mother.  Two years after he died I met my wife and we married, and with my mother doing well I moved out.

She did well after that for a long time.  Indeed, twenty or so years.  However, slowly, anyone could see things were changing.  About six years ago it was too much to ignore, although I tried to.  I couldn't bring myself to contemplate her moving from her house to which she was so attached, so I did nothing.  The last winter we debated what to do.  It was a nightmare as she panicked over snow, or forgot how common things worked. Finally, unbeknownst to me, she quite being careful about the food she was eating, which started making her ill.  Ultimately she fell very ill and at that point received the diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia.  But a diagnosis wasn't probably really necessary, it was pretty clear what was going on.

That lead to the nursing home, which we had no choice but to arrange for.  She couldn't return home, and with a will that was incredibly strong, we could not take care of her.  Over time her condition advanced much less slowly than anticipated and we were able to move her, when her wing of the nursing home closed, to a new facility that had a memory care unit that was newer and nicer, with more freedom, seemingly.

Now the end has arrived.  She's been in the hospital twice in less than a month and her physical condition has declined.  Her memory is now almost completely gone.  She can't remember things day to day, and I doubt from morning to afternoon.  She once, prior to her first illness, and again after recovering from it, had a very active mind.  Now, none of the old interests are there.

I don't know how well I've handled any of this.  Not very well, I think.  From time to time I've looked and thought that in prior ages this was handled better within families, at home, in times that were slower. But I don't think that's really that true.  We've always been so mobile.  I know that my father was there for his parents when they died, but then my grandfather was only in his 40s and my father a teenager when he died.  I can remember my father's mother dying when I was a small child, and all her children were there, and they all live here.  On my mother's side I can barely remember her mother, having met her I think only once when I was old enough too, and I don't know if my mother went out to see her as she was dying.  I dimly recall that it came too quickly.  And I think that was the same for her father.

When I was young, I recall prayers for a good, or happy, death being common in the Middle Ages.   Then are not unknown now, but they are less common.  While young, I was always struck by that with a bit of horror.  A good death?  How could that be?  

But I understand it now.  All too often that isn't how things happen.  Or at least its now how those who observe it perceive it.  It makes sense to me now.

O God, great and omnipotent judge of the living and the dead, we are to appear before you after this short life to render an account of our works. Give us the grace to prepare for our last hour by a devout and holy life, and protect us against a sudden and unprovided death. Let us remember our frailty and mortality, that we may always live in the ways of your commandments. Teach us to "watch and pray" (Lk 21:36), that when your summons comes for our departure from this world, we may go forth to meet you, experience a merciful judgment, and rejoice in everlasting happiness. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Anyway you look at it, this is one of those areas where I don't measure up to my father and his siblings.  I  simply don't. 

Everything old is new again. Politicians

Huey Long.  1935.

Funny how this video seemed so very antiquated just two years ago, but this year, it sounds a lot like what we're hearing in some ways from some of the candidates.

Fast on Fridays to Meatless Mondays. Bemused observations

One of the things that really sets a Catholic or an Orthodox person in the United States apart from other people is that during Lent, they fast and they abstain from mean on Fridays. The disciplines for those whose catholic faith is of the Eastern branch as opposed to the Latin branch isn't exactly the same, but that this occurs is a feature of their lives for forty days running up to Lent and always has been.

Days of abstention poster from World War One.  During the war, Monday was "meatless", and Saturday Porkless, although at least one U.S. government website states it was "wheatless Mondays, meatless Tuesdays, porkless Saturdays".  Any way you look at it, for Catholics of the period all Fridays were already meatless.

This, however, is actually a change in the United States for Roman Catholics from the old rules.  While we now abstain from meat on Fridays and on Ash Wednesday, during Lent, at one time all Roman Catholics abstained from meat every Friday throughout the year.  Indeed, in many places this is still the binding discipline.  In the US it was lifted following Vatican Two with the understanding that each Catholic was to observe some sort of penitential observance personal to them, but at least according to Jimmy Akin, who knows such things much better than I, it isn't clear that this was made a binding obligation so the widespread ignoring of this by American Catholics may not actually be an instance of their ignoring their faith.

The Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholics, it should be noted, traditionally have much more strict fasting rules in modern times.   This is apparently something that's been relaxed, in some instances in the United States, taking into account the culture here, but traditionally the Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholics observed two Lenten season during the year, one prior to Easter and another prior to Christmas, both of which have very strict rules which require the faithful to abstain not only from meat, but also ultimately from dairy and wine.

The entire discipline has always been widely misunderstood by those who aren't Catholic or Orthodox and indeed its one of the distinct things about Catholics and Orthodox that not only set them apart, but made them seem strange to Protestants (but probably not to Jews or Muslims who have their own dietary laws).  "Where in the Bible does it say you have to do that?" is a question that probably every Catholic or Orthodox is asked at one time in his life, simply for not ordering a hamburger at lunch.  Well, as well catechized Catholics or Orthodox know, the it doesn't say that you can't eat meat on Fridays in the Bible and the Bible doesn't set the Lenten periods either.  These aren't law with a Divine origin, like the Jewish dietary laws, but rather matters of discipline set by the Church, and set by the Church in very early times in recognition of the spiritual and even the temporal advantages of abstaining and fasting.

Which makes it all the more amusing for us to watch the secular world come up with this anew.  After all, both the Catholics and the Orthodox can point to the Council of Nicea establishing Lent and its practices in the year 325.

Hence, the amusing Meatless Mondays.

Meatless Mondays is one of those uniquely American movements which, I'd argue, has its roots in the Puritan foundation of the country. The Puritans are widely misunderstood, but one thing about them is that they were die-hard Calvinists who approved of work and disapproved of nearly anything about average life that was fun or enjoyable except, oddly enough, husbands and wives getting frisky with each other.  We don't think of them that latter way, but that's about the only thing I'm aware of, off hand, that they really strongly approved of outside of their own Calvinistic interpretation of the Bible.  They tended to ban just about darned near anything else that was out there, including sports and the celebration of Christmas.

Now, the Puritans were not teetotalers (the drank a fair amount of beer) and they certainly didn't have any dietary restrictions they imposed on anyone, but their way of looking at things in regards to its enjoyment or not has had a lasting impact on American culture, as well as a few others.  One strong feature of it is that Americans have developed sort of a fondness for deprivation and self suffering which stands apart from a lot of other cultures.  Indeed, Catholic (and Orthodox) southern Europe has traditionally tended to drive Americans crazy in certain respects as its attitude towards work, food, and alcohol has tended to be quite a bit different from our own, even though we're all basically Europeans.  That is, in the very cultures which retain the Old Faith, and hence the various rules discussed above, the happy people otherwise go around enjoying all the things that the latest in worrywart Americans urge everyone to give up all the time.  That is, these cultures, some of which are notoriously long lived, indulge in the things that secular American dietary theorist would require you to give up. So, oddly, that secularized focus would impose a perpetual fast on everyone.

Now all that may seem odd for a thread that starts off about the Lenten practices of Catholics and the Orthodox, the latter of which take the concept of Lenten fasting far further than Catholics do.  But I'd maintain that this is all closely tied together.

Anyhow, Meatless Mondays dates back to a World War One government backed program which was intended to help conserve food for the troops.  Every week had a meatless day (which like the Catholic and Orthodox Friday didn't mean fish, that wasn't meat), a wheatless day, and a porkless day.  I will confess I find the porkless day a bit odd, as pork is meat, but maybe the meatless day was simply beef free.

Now, while this movement was legitimately tied to the war effort, as resources were so scarce, I can't help but note a subtle Puritan element to it.  The concept has a certain suffering aspect to it, and tied in the whole culture to suffering for a cause.  Well, not the whole culture equally.  Catholics and Orthodox already had a meatless day and indeed the Orthodox had two meatless seasons.  It can't help but be noted that the Wilson Administration didn't propose making Fridays, which were already meatless for a big chunk, albeit a minority, of the population, meatless (including pork).  No, Catholics and Orthodox, if they observed Meatless Tuesday (as that was the day it was set on, not Monday) and Porkless Saturday (as that's the day that was set on) still had the added porkless and meatless Fridays.

In other words, World War One got to be extra bland for Catholics and Orthodox Americans.  It isn't as if the government couldn't have made Fridays meatless and porkless.  But they didn't.

And now we have this movement carried forward to modern times, but this time based on the concept that by taking meat out of your diet, you'll live forever.  You'll be eating bland, but you'll get to eat bland until dementia or infirmity take you down.  Interesting.

It seems as if the Puritanized American secular culture interestingly cast about for a way to reintroduce the Catholic fasts that it tossed out with the Reformation, but in doing so, it always puts on a ting of odd guilt about it that the Catholics and Orthodox largely omit.  Its interesting. And its really carried over into secular lives and not so much into modern American Protestantism, although some Protestant denominations do abstain from alcohol, and two of the American faiths do have distinct dietary laws in their own rights.  Secular American culture, however, looks for a lot of ways to suffer, and something to tie that suffering too.

It'd be an interesting cultural study, but I think there's something to be argued to the effect that the Reformation's tossing out of Catholic fasting rules had the effect, ultimately, of not only putting the Reformation cultures in the position of allowing everyone to make up their own rules, after a long period of development, but there is something really deeply missed about those rules.  The Puritan impulse to make rules really strict is strongly retained in our culture, even if the Calvinist impulse to base them on religious tenants is not.  Or maybe it is.  Many modern Americans seemingly elevate dietary beliefs to near religious status.

There are a lot of observations that could be made about all of this, but maybe one is that there's something about human beings that require periods of self sacrifice for some reason.  A person could argue this in a number of ways. If a person stated a theological argument they might be able to say that there's something ingrained in our natures by our Creator that causes us to need to engage in periodic periods of fast in order to focus us to things greater.

And that's the oddity of the Great Secular Fast that Puritanical American dietary folks would impose.  It seems largely focused on nothing.  But there's some impulse there that, if only I suffer more, or give up this or that, and reduce myself to a diet of free trade, organic, Slovenian, oatmeal, I'll be happy.  Probably not.

Alaska halibut, being fried in butter, on a Lenten Friday.

At least that doesn't seem to be the lesson learned from those Southern European cultures where the old rules apply, but when their not in effect, the people seem pretty content with their traditional diets, and they seem to live a long time.

The Big Speech: Good signs

It is a good sign in a nation when things are done badly. It shows that all the people are doing them. And it is bad sign in a nation when such things are done very well, for it shows that only a few experts and eccentrics are doing them, and that the nation is merely looking on.

G.K. Chesterton:  All Things Considered

Some folks are big, and that's okay.

Real working female aquatic athletes.  The type that don't get into magazines.

Every February, the nation's premier sporting magazine takes a diversion from its declared mission and stoops to publish an issue that is supposedly dedicated to swimwear, but in reality reflects the truly chauvinistic world in which that particular issue first appeared, which I think would have been sometime during the late 1960s. At that time, the journal created by that certain ossified creep who devoted his life towards enslaving women via images towards once single purpose, under the guise of making taking those publications out of the gutter and into the grocery store rack, had reached its zenith and achieved, briefly, that image of respectability to which it aspired, just shortly before the rising power of women in society, combined with a race back into the gutter in order to compete with copy cats, sank it back down.

In that era of the approximate late 60s and early 70s, however, the sporting magazine determined to tap into the same low stream with their annual issue that came close to what that other glossy rag offered, but with its subjects still clothed, albeit only barely.  In a true irony, however, the ossified creep's rag, which has caused untold damage to the image of women, and which is partially responsible for a trend which has been ironically shown to frustrate that basic impulse in men, because of the neurological and psychological damage the massive exposure of what it ultimately helped to get rolling on the Internet causes, has in desperation required its subjects to put their clothes back on, albeit only barely, while the sporting journal has gone the other way, with some if its models now clothed, if you will, only in paint. That's a farce, obviously, but apparently its a sufficient farce that they've managed even to entice some real stand out female athletes to participate in this, with those athletes apparently ignorant as to how and why the male viewers actually view their images.  Sad situation

If this turn of events was pioneered today, i.e., if the sporting magazine introduced an issue like this today, it'd be justly howled down in derision.  But instead the February issue has become a big issue for it and has spawned a calendar that's also a big deal.  It has garnered increasing criticism over the years, but it keeps on keeping on nonetheless.

And this year, I'd note, it did receive some criticism, and that's what this comment is about.

But it's not the criticism I've levied above.  Indeed, I'm slightly defending a decision it made this year, ironically enough.

This year one of the subject of the photographs is in the "plus" category, which sort of simply means big, or what passes for big.

Now, there's been a recent trend in this direction in modeling anyhow. And frankly, the trend is sort of balkanized, which doesn't seem to feature much in the news stories on it.  We have plus figures who are truly fat now being portrayed in this industry, with it being advanced that they should not be ashamed of their size, and we have some women who are simply big.

Now, before I get howls of derision, I'm not stating here some sort of moral position on being fat.  I'm not fat, but I'm also not thin, and I could afford to drop a few pounds myself.  While in our secular yet Puritanized society being overweight takes on a moral stigma with some people, for no really good reason.  And indeed the more we know about it, the more we know that with some people this is simply due to a genetic propensity they have to deal with.  And for others it reflects the living and dietary conditions most Americans deal with.  By the same token, however, being overweight now afflicts such a high percentage of Americans that there is a certain recent trend towards trying to ignore it a public presentation sort of way, which includes some of what we've above mentioned.  Again, I'm not going to really comment on that other than to note that I suspect, in a society so afflicted with the behavior noted in Fairlie's The Cow's Revenge that I doubt that's going anywhere.

Anyhow, what actually wanted to comment on here was the fact that women, like men, are sometimes big, and that's just that.  This year the above mentioned journal has a woman in the issue who is big.  As in tall and normally proportioned.  

Good for them on that.

Now, the logical question would be how do I know that, and the reason is that even though I don't get any sporting journals, or even read the sports page of the local newspaper, the female residents of the house sometimes buy a weekly journal devoted to personalities, and that showed up there.  They noted it.  And frankly  the subject of those photos looks to be athletic and normal, based upon the few, and decent, photos that showed up of her in that magazine.  

So, when I heard on the news that one of the prior models from this issue dating back to the 1970s or maybe the 1980s had criticized this issue for including this individual in the magazine and apparently on one of the covers, I was surprised and a bit taken aback.

While I think the entire issue ought to be dumped, and I think it's appalling that real athletes are now included in it attired only in paint, which means not at all, I also think its high time that women don't have to have the industry image of beauty resemble sticks.

That might be something that's actually dawning on women themselves, and the more power to them if it is.  An oddity of this is that for years and years that's been what the industry has done, and women have bought off on that image, but men never have.  Indeed, the fact that the figures of this journal who became well known often didn't rally match that image says something.  And the former figure of the photos who issued the criticism on the basis that the photos depicted something that was encouraging an unhealthy lifestyle ought to back off.  To be overweight is one thing, and everyone is well aware of the risks associated with that.  To be big is another, and that's just the way some people are.  Indeed, most people aren't built like sticks.

Blog Miror : MeridethinWyoming: A Gift from My Daddy.......

A great story on the MeidethinWyoming blog

A Gift from My Daddy.......

Almost sixty years ago this summer (about fifty six years ago to be precise) I received a WONDERFUL gift from my daddy.   He took me along......to Clearmont to have shoes put on his Morgan mare, Lady. .  .

Well worth reading.

Ignoring Gender in combat, but not in sports? Showing where we are realistic and where we are not.

Recently I posted an item on the current administration's decision to have a gender ignorant armed forces. That post was this one:

Lex Anteinternet: Killing people and breaking things. . . and women in the Service

 The Women's Mounted Emergency Corps.  "A mounted emergency corps of women has been organized as an auxiliary to the Second Field Artillery, of Brooklyn. The women wear a military uniform and are trained in giving aid. They learn to mount and dismount quickly, to help a wounded soldier who needs first aid, and to assist one who Is not totally disabled into the saddle. There is no plan yet for taking women to France in any but nursing capacity but it may be that the Women s Emergency Corps will get to the fighting line before the war is over."  The Oregonian, 1917.

Recently, a dear cousin of mine "liked" a photo that appears in Stars and Stripes of a collection of female soldiers all feeding their babies in the traditional, i.e., the original, way.  She posted something along the lines of "how beautiful".

And it is

But its not a good thing for our Army, which touches on something I've avoided, but given as I'm getting older by the day, and shy away less from controversial topics more and more, I'll go ahead and post on it. . . .

Since that time there's been additional stories on this, including the Marine Corps reluctance to go along with it (one female Marine veteran expressed her hope to me that the new policy would not take) and the Army and the Marine Corps struggle to have new physical standards that accommodate women while not simultaneously making those standards a joke.  

And then there's sports.

Recently I haven't been able not to notice that in the most dangerous and physically demanding job the United States has to offer, combat soldier, we're ready to pretend that there's no difference between men and women, but when it comes to the national obsessions, we don't blind ourselves.

A scene we will not be seeing.

Nope, with sports, and particularly football and baseball, we aren't going to be pushing for the incorporation of women.  No way, no how.  Indeed, the idea would be regarded as completely absurd, and for obvious reasons.

Now, I suppose, there's probably no legal bar to a woman walking on to an NFL tryout, and no doubt sooner or later some unusually stout woman shall do so, probably as a place kicker, but it won't become common, and nobody is so deluded as to think it will be.

And not only at the professional level, but at the collegiate level as well. Indeed, we're completely comfortable with separate sports for women.  People would regard it as abhorrent, for example, if men demanded to be on the college volleyball team, or if a university wiped out the separate women's basketball teams because, after all, they could just try out for the men's teams.

So, in the one occupation in the US that's super physically demanding, combat soldier, we're going to turn a blind eye to the same issues that cause us to have completely separate sports teams for women, which we're perfectly okay with.

That's dim.

Now, of course, as noted women could tryout for the Broncos if they wished.  What really keeps that from happening is that its just physically too much. And we keep separate female collegiate teams as if we only had one for all, women would be aced out of collegiate sports.  Maybe that's the lesson here.  If the current physical and traditional abusive training remains, not too many women would be in those roles, or even in the service in general.

But my prediction is that won't occur. No, the standards will be softened.

Which, if we're going to do that, lets do it for the NFL, NBA and baseball leagues.  After all, fair is fair, right?

Or maybe that's not realistic, eh?

Maybe we should learn  a lesson from that, in a profession that not only kills, but gets people killed.

Going around the Horn.

The price of oil has now fallen so low shippers are now choosing to go around the Horn of Africa, and burn the extra fuel, rather than go through the Suez Canal and pay the fees for doing so.

Incredible.

Blog Mirror: The Ranger Station: The History of the American 4x4

A website devoted to Ford Rangers has The History of the American 4x4 on it.   Some neat photographs are there, and an interesting history.

I've covered that here in a couple of posts, including:

Automotive Transportation I: Trucks and Lorries 

Truck Train, May 1920.

We have, in this continuing series on transportation, looked at trains, planes, ships, and shoe leather.  We're going to start looking at the type of transportation now that's just part of the regular background of our lives, for most of us.  Automobiles.

In doing this, I've broken the topic up into two, and perhaps oddly, I've started with trucks and lorries.  That probably seems backwards, but for what we're doing it really isn't. Transportation by truck has been a major change in the basic distribution system for the nation.

And also:

A Revolution In Rural Transportation

 

When I seemingly had more free time, I used to occasionally publish articles in various journals.  This posts has its origins in one such article, which came about, as a concept. right about the time that I became to busy to really keep at that endeavor, so I never wrote it.  Perhaps, if worthwhile, I'll develop this blog entry into an article later.  I'd also note that this is a topic which I've actually posted on here before.  And its a topic I consider every year during hunting season.  The topic of back country travel, and indeed travel in rural areas in general.