Did You Know...

Yikes! Walter. I didn't know that.

RJB did you know that America closed the books in 1999 on a $1.6 billion reparations program for ethnic Japanese interned in American camps during World War II, and will settle with 181 ethnic Japanese from Latin America who suffered similar treatment.

Facts about mistletoe" Mistletoe is a parasite, sucking energy from the trees it infests. While the European version is used medicinally (and has been for eons), the American version is totally toxic.

Did you know that there's a municipality in the Netherlands, which contains small exclaves of Belgium, which in turn contain even smaller exclaves of the Netherlands?


Baarle-Nassau @ wikipedia


(And speaking about Belgium - Neutral-Moresnet is perhaps a territory, you haven't heard of either )

Did you know that, on the eve of a battle in the Revolutionary War around Philadelphia, General George Washington wrote a letter to the British General, Howe, reporting that a dog had been found with a collar indicating it belonged to Howe? The letter and the dog were dispatched via a courier.
Washington lost that particular battle, but his tactics were considered quite skillful by the French. They came in on the colonialists' side.

I did not know that...

(this was obviously before the French learned the art of surrender)

Your post reminded me of the humorous scene in The Patriot involving the theft of the British general's favorite dogs by Mel Gibson and his ragtag band of followers. Tom Wilkinson played General Cornwallis...he was brilliant in that role!

I have myself have surrendered on many occasions. It is a fine art.

If Heath Evans was bearing down on me I would throw him the ball.

Ah--but he would be so surprised he wouldn't drop it and as I am a bit nippy and he's a bit slow I would grab it on the fifth bounce and dart over for a touchdown and jump into the crowd of adoring fans.

Impressive, Mr. S. You're all style

Apart from saying "wouldn't" when I meant "would".

I knew that's what you meant. I repeat, you mocketh with style

That means that most soldiers don't want to kill someone so they either don't shoot or shoot to miss.

Did you know, Seed, that this thread is now in our 4th year but is only up to 13 pages? I am proud of that. I asked, in my original post, that folks respect my request that it not become yet another site for some folks to post crap thinking they are being witty, really witty in their own minds. That worked. It probably won't work much longer.
I hope you have enjoyed the entries you have read here, Seed.
With regards to Civil War weaponry and what soldiers did or did not do, we took that to some other thread, as I recall. We agreed that shooting randomly, and then having to reload while on a battlefield, was probably not a good strategy. It must have been Hell.

Not to continue the talk here as you guys moved to another thread for a reason, so I will leave the subject with this:



Imagine the deaths and what it would have done to our country if we had the technology of repeating weapons at that time.

I apologize, Seed, for seeming to suggest that posts here must be one hit wonders. I have no problem with pursuing an issue for awhile, but I am quite protective of this not degenerating into a discussion of only one issue or of it becoming a site for a few folks to attempt to be witty.
A friend of mine built a muzzle-loading rifle from a kit. I loaded and fired it a few times from my backyard on a nice afternoon.
I can't imagine doing it under stress.

The Thalhimer family emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the 1830's. The patriarch, William, started a dry goods store in Richmond, VA. By the mid 1920's, Thalhimer's had grown into a full fledged department store and within a few decades became a huge regional chain with a flag-ship, six story building covering a city block on Broad St.
In 1930, his grandson, also named William, traveled back to Germany for what was supposed to be a 3 month visit.
He was horrified at what he saw. He witnessed the angry demonstrations-which he described as organized riots-by the Brown Shirts spouting anti-Jewish rhetoric. He was deeply troubled by what he saw as the blase attitude of many Jews: it was to them little more than an inconvenience.
He quickly returned to the U.S. and became involved in a movement to expedite the emigration of Jews to the U.S. He became the head of the group within a year or so.
It was a daunting challenge. The U.S. was in the Depression. There was a strong anti-immigrant and also an anti-Jewish feeling. There were only a limited number of slots and the process could take two years.
William Thalhimer discovered a bit of a loophole in the immigration law. If an applicant had a background in farming and owned land in the U.S. the process could be expedited. He hooked up with a Jewish agriculture school in Germany. And he bought the 1500 acre Hyde farm in central VA. He granted the students land there and several hundred people came over.
It became a communal poultry farm.
It only lasted a decade. At the outbreak of the war, many of the men enlisted in the military and after the war people dispersed to more fertile land in other parts of the country. The Hyde farm became just another suburb of Richmond. It was only recently that someone found a box in the Library of Congress with Thalhimer's papers.
Part of why the story disappeared is because the family never flaunted their wealth or importance. And part of it was to quash a rumor that Thalhimer planned to fire his employees and replace them with the immigrant Jews.

Things that make you go huh!

Leave Your Firewood At Home.
The official vacation season in Virginia begins this long weekend. Camping in the Blue Ridge mountains is very popular, with folks coming from numerous neighboring areas. And many of them bring their own firewood to build their campfires.
No more!
Due to a danger from firewood from out of the area containing bugs that may contaminate our forests (particularly ash trees), local firewood will be exchanged for "foreign" wood. No charge.
And did you know that May 31st is a national holiday? Some may think otherwise, but the reason is that it is Johnboy's birthday!

Did you know?
The flower called a dandelion gets its name from the French dents de lion; lions teeth