71st entry to the Colonel`s Scrapbook
Birthdates which occurred on November 09:
1731 Benjamin Banneker Ellicott MD, black mathematician/surveyor (Wash DC) , in an era when the slavery-stained USA still thought “niggers” belonged nowhere near a pencil
Birthdates which occurred on November 09:
1731 Benjamin Banneker Ellicott MD, black mathematician/surveyor (Wash DC) , in an era when the slavery-stained USA still thought “niggers” belonged nowhere near a pencil
1802 Elijah P Lovejoy American newspaper publisher/abolitionist, he certainly knew what he was doing! 1818 Ivan Turgenev Russia, novelist/poet/playwright (Fathers & Sons),one of the greatest literati of his time
1841 Edward VII king of England (1901-10),the playboy and glutton king
1928 Anne Sexton Newton MA, poet (Live or Die),the housewife poet,destined to do herself in by gas
1934 Carl Sagan NYC, astronomer/author/professor (Cosmos, Broca's Brain)one of a kind,definitely
Deaths which occurred on November 09:
1874 Israel Bak created 1st hebrew printing press, dies .Thank you Rae1952 Chaim Weizmann 1st President of Israel, dies at 57,certainly had ahard time1953 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud founder of Saudi Arabia, dies (born c 1880),one of the greatest satyrs of all time 1953 Dylan Thomas author-poet, dies in NY at 39,after having written many truths in verse
1970 Charles DeGaulle French President, dies at 79, he may have been a hero,but sure was a nasty dictator, no wonder the students hated him and revolted against his repression, nevertheless my dad named my darling ocelot after him
1991 Yves Montand actor, dies at 70 from a heart attack, after nearly causing multiple attacks in women due to his sexy crooning
On this day...
1526 Jews are expelled from Pressburg Hungary by Maria of Hapsburg, oh as usually happened
1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates after German defeat in WW I, and flees shaking with fear to Belgium dangling his useless arm
1927 Giant Panda discovered, China for eveyone`s delight
1938 "Kristallnacht" (Crystal Night)-Nazi stormtroopers attacked Jews, Night of Long Knives when the Nazis as usual were so kind to Jews
NOVEMBER 9TH
While everyone rushes around,brawls,screams and lets their political passions get vented, I quietly observe how absurd we humans are. Animals are wiser than us, dearest heart. Vut even though they are loaded with wisdom,they have to die someday. I don`t know why but the dateof November 9th has always been a deadly one for me, and I don`t know if it is the shadow of that night in1938 when in Germany, the Nazis decided to make an attempt at wiping out all vestige of Jewish knowledge,prosperity and life itself in what became known as Crystal Night or the Night of Long Knives. Businesses, libraries, homes, all invaded, ripped to shreds, life torn away from my people. In my personal life, November 9th has always meant a good deal of grief. After my parents died in a plane crash while trying to reach Miami in order to flee from a totalitarian government, the order for total confiscation of their properties, the brutl snatching of their full estate, was issued and carried out on a day like today. Although the president back then, Daniel Ortega, who is now in power again due to the ignorance of my people, proclaimed he was democratic,he sure fell in love with my parents` wealth and took all he could away. That is democracy Nicaraguan-style, or democrazy?
In 2002 my cat Niña Mary Shelley died after pining away for her mate Joseph II of Habsburg, who had died in April that year. I still believe we could have done more for her, but sometimes our veterinarians are worse than any quack you find along. She died on June 9th,2002. The emptiness after her death would be huge for me. She left behind her three female kittens which were her adoptive kids, and the one in charge of raising them properly was Pharaoh Evander Holyfield, a green eyed Egyptian cat who had been a gift from my husband`s friend Angelica in an effort to provide consolation and company for the bereaved Niña Mary Shelley after her mate died.
In 2005, on November 9th we had a worse cat-related experience. One of our neighbors was an ailurophobe and since she never managed to get my husband into her bed, hell hath no fury as that of a woman scorned. 12 of the more than 20 cats we had were poisoned by her while we were out shopping, and when we returned home there was some of them lying there, already dead, others in the process of having convulsions before the Black Camel of Death took them. I couldn`t stop crying for days, and we buried them in a nearby baseball field. Carrying all those dear furry little bodies to their grave was an experience that will forever live in my nightmares. We still had some survivors left, but the memory of those hairy little angels will be with me even after I die. Of course, telling the police about it would do no good at all, since we live in an uncivilized country where cat hating is a national sport due to the ignorance of my people. The wicked woman who poisoned them was said to be a “pillar of the Pentecostal church”. That is why I am convinced that excessive religious zeal is always a mask for the basest, most disgusting of people.
Today is November 9th, and cat death has knocked at my door again. While we lived in an ugly place called Lindavista, our next door neighbour was given a small,grey tabby kitten. Knowing that her dogs weren`t used to having cats around,she did a wise thing. She gave the little beast to my husband,and when my daughter returned from class the
Crush was instantly solidified. Scrawny, small and weak-looking, the kitten took an instant liking to two females in my family:the black Cocker Spaniel bitch Pompey,and my kid. My daughter would name him Lautaro after the greatest military strategist of the Araucano-Mapuche nation of Chile. Her dog would become his surrogate mother, being able to nurse him even though she was a virgin. Constant sucking at her teat by little Lautaro managed to get her producing milk, The rich milk produced by his new mother allowed him to grow strong, sturdy and playful.He became a hunky cat with a glossy coat, and his enormous green eyes gave him a tiger.like look. Nobody would have believed him to have arrived so thin and emaciated. He became the constant companion of my daughter,waiting for her when she came home from the university. He was always there, supervising her while she did her homework. He even accepted her boyfriend with bonhomie, something my husband`s favourite cat-who had been born with my daughter acting as midwife-never did.
Lautaro never got sick, had a wonderful appetite and his looks got him admired by everyone who saw him. He grew up big,fat and sleek, completely devoted to his bitch mother. He nursed from her until the day he died,which was today. Our next-door neighbour called my husband over today in the morning. The cat had fallen into the traps of his two awful Pitbull terriers,and although Lautaro was in one piece with no holes poked into him,he had been badly smothered by them. The shamefaced dentist handed in the body to us and after identifying him, we gave him a decent burial, including the detail of crowning his grave with a broken indigenous pot(remember indigenous people used to bury their dead inside clay pots?) My daughter was shocked and sad. We all were. Lautaro wasn`t only our pet and master at he same time, but he taught us a very practical lesson by his special relationship with his mother the bitch.
He practiced tolerance and understanding to a point that only someone like Martin Luther King junior could have fully comprehended. We were all created equal for him, and as such, he dealt with us. He also taught us that it isn`t sharing the same bloodline what makes us family, but the understanding,love,caring and solidarity that binds beings. He never judged anyone,and was fair to all. Animals have such wisdom that if we imitated them a bit, we wouldn`t let ourselves be governed by base passions, idiotic prejudices and the eternal battle of the sexes, marriage wouldn`t have to be combat, working never a full invasion, simple life never an eternal struggle. I hope the lesson that this furry angel taught us in his brief passing through this world will not be forgotten, and we shall honor his dear memory by trying to improve ourselves as humans without having to step on other people`s heads to score futile points. Onto victory always, as Che Guevara said, my dearest Lautaro Toqui Lautaro!
1841 Edward VII king of England (1901-10),the playboy and glutton king
1928 Anne Sexton Newton MA, poet (Live or Die),the housewife poet,destined to do herself in by gas
1934 Carl Sagan NYC, astronomer/author/professor (Cosmos, Broca's Brain)one of a kind,definitely
Deaths which occurred on November 09:
1874 Israel Bak created 1st hebrew printing press, dies .Thank you Rae1952 Chaim Weizmann 1st President of Israel, dies at 57,certainly had ahard time1953 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud founder of Saudi Arabia, dies (born c 1880),one of the greatest satyrs of all time 1953 Dylan Thomas author-poet, dies in NY at 39,after having written many truths in verse
1970 Charles DeGaulle French President, dies at 79, he may have been a hero,but sure was a nasty dictator, no wonder the students hated him and revolted against his repression, nevertheless my dad named my darling ocelot after him
1991 Yves Montand actor, dies at 70 from a heart attack, after nearly causing multiple attacks in women due to his sexy crooning
On this day...
1526 Jews are expelled from Pressburg Hungary by Maria of Hapsburg, oh as usually happened
1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates after German defeat in WW I, and flees shaking with fear to Belgium dangling his useless arm
1927 Giant Panda discovered, China for eveyone`s delight
1938 "Kristallnacht" (Crystal Night)-Nazi stormtroopers attacked Jews, Night of Long Knives when the Nazis as usual were so kind to Jews
NOVEMBER 9TH
While everyone rushes around,brawls,screams and lets their political passions get vented, I quietly observe how absurd we humans are. Animals are wiser than us, dearest heart. Vut even though they are loaded with wisdom,they have to die someday. I don`t know why but the dateof November 9th has always been a deadly one for me, and I don`t know if it is the shadow of that night in1938 when in Germany, the Nazis decided to make an attempt at wiping out all vestige of Jewish knowledge,prosperity and life itself in what became known as Crystal Night or the Night of Long Knives. Businesses, libraries, homes, all invaded, ripped to shreds, life torn away from my people. In my personal life, November 9th has always meant a good deal of grief. After my parents died in a plane crash while trying to reach Miami in order to flee from a totalitarian government, the order for total confiscation of their properties, the brutl snatching of their full estate, was issued and carried out on a day like today. Although the president back then, Daniel Ortega, who is now in power again due to the ignorance of my people, proclaimed he was democratic,he sure fell in love with my parents` wealth and took all he could away. That is democracy Nicaraguan-style, or democrazy?
In 2002 my cat Niña Mary Shelley died after pining away for her mate Joseph II of Habsburg, who had died in April that year. I still believe we could have done more for her, but sometimes our veterinarians are worse than any quack you find along. She died on June 9th,2002. The emptiness after her death would be huge for me. She left behind her three female kittens which were her adoptive kids, and the one in charge of raising them properly was Pharaoh Evander Holyfield, a green eyed Egyptian cat who had been a gift from my husband`s friend Angelica in an effort to provide consolation and company for the bereaved Niña Mary Shelley after her mate died.
In 2005, on November 9th we had a worse cat-related experience. One of our neighbors was an ailurophobe and since she never managed to get my husband into her bed, hell hath no fury as that of a woman scorned. 12 of the more than 20 cats we had were poisoned by her while we were out shopping, and when we returned home there was some of them lying there, already dead, others in the process of having convulsions before the Black Camel of Death took them. I couldn`t stop crying for days, and we buried them in a nearby baseball field. Carrying all those dear furry little bodies to their grave was an experience that will forever live in my nightmares. We still had some survivors left, but the memory of those hairy little angels will be with me even after I die. Of course, telling the police about it would do no good at all, since we live in an uncivilized country where cat hating is a national sport due to the ignorance of my people. The wicked woman who poisoned them was said to be a “pillar of the Pentecostal church”. That is why I am convinced that excessive religious zeal is always a mask for the basest, most disgusting of people.
Today is November 9th, and cat death has knocked at my door again. While we lived in an ugly place called Lindavista, our next door neighbour was given a small,grey tabby kitten. Knowing that her dogs weren`t used to having cats around,she did a wise thing. She gave the little beast to my husband,and when my daughter returned from class the
Crush was instantly solidified. Scrawny, small and weak-looking, the kitten took an instant liking to two females in my family:the black Cocker Spaniel bitch Pompey,and my kid. My daughter would name him Lautaro after the greatest military strategist of the Araucano-Mapuche nation of Chile. Her dog would become his surrogate mother, being able to nurse him even though she was a virgin. Constant sucking at her teat by little Lautaro managed to get her producing milk, The rich milk produced by his new mother allowed him to grow strong, sturdy and playful.He became a hunky cat with a glossy coat, and his enormous green eyes gave him a tiger.like look. Nobody would have believed him to have arrived so thin and emaciated. He became the constant companion of my daughter,waiting for her when she came home from the university. He was always there, supervising her while she did her homework. He even accepted her boyfriend with bonhomie, something my husband`s favourite cat-who had been born with my daughter acting as midwife-never did.
Lautaro never got sick, had a wonderful appetite and his looks got him admired by everyone who saw him. He grew up big,fat and sleek, completely devoted to his bitch mother. He nursed from her until the day he died,which was today. Our next-door neighbour called my husband over today in the morning. The cat had fallen into the traps of his two awful Pitbull terriers,and although Lautaro was in one piece with no holes poked into him,he had been badly smothered by them. The shamefaced dentist handed in the body to us and after identifying him, we gave him a decent burial, including the detail of crowning his grave with a broken indigenous pot(remember indigenous people used to bury their dead inside clay pots?) My daughter was shocked and sad. We all were. Lautaro wasn`t only our pet and master at he same time, but he taught us a very practical lesson by his special relationship with his mother the bitch.
He practiced tolerance and understanding to a point that only someone like Martin Luther King junior could have fully comprehended. We were all created equal for him, and as such, he dealt with us. He also taught us that it isn`t sharing the same bloodline what makes us family, but the understanding,love,caring and solidarity that binds beings. He never judged anyone,and was fair to all. Animals have such wisdom that if we imitated them a bit, we wouldn`t let ourselves be governed by base passions, idiotic prejudices and the eternal battle of the sexes, marriage wouldn`t have to be combat, working never a full invasion, simple life never an eternal struggle. I hope the lesson that this furry angel taught us in his brief passing through this world will not be forgotten, and we shall honor his dear memory by trying to improve ourselves as humans without having to step on other people`s heads to score futile points. Onto victory always, as Che Guevara said, my dearest Lautaro Toqui Lautaro!
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