Today in History

[MissMittens]

Donner, party of six?

The last of the Donner Party emerged from their ordeal on this day in 1847, raggedy but sated. I've crossed the Donner Pass in good weather and it's easy to see how they'd be hopelessly lost in bad.

Now I'm getting hungry. Anyone else up for a Donner Kebab?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ah, Montreal in the springtime, and the Amir chef flicking his neon sword in the twilight.

 

[MissMittens]

Ah, Montreal in the springtime, and the Amir chef flicking his neon sword in the twilight.

Which one, the one on Maisonneuve, or the one on Rue St Catherine?

 

[LizzieMaine]

St. Cat. I used to go up there every year to watch the Expos, and eat.

 

[MissMittens]

St. Cat. I used to go up there every year to watch the Expos, and eat.

Know the one on Ste Cat well from my many trips to Montreal, even though I often stayed on Masionneove I never did much but sleep there. Spent most of my time (when I was not in some conference room) hanging out in Ville-Marie

 

[LizzieMaine]

My usual accomodations were in a B&B overlooking Square St. Denis -- I spent a lot of time on Rue Prince-Arthur, and was deeply saddened to learn that Mazurka, the little Polish joint where you could get a gigantic meal for less than $10CDN has closed. One of my favorite restaurants of all time.

 

[Peacoat]

Dolly was once asked how she felt about Whitney Houston having a much bigger hit than her with her own song. Her answer?

"When ah wrote that song, ah had a hurtin'...but its amazin' how healin' a whole heap of money rollin' in can be."

I laughed out loud when I read that. As another aside, I almost bought a tract of land next to Dolly's house in Brentwood (suburb of Nashville). I was going to build on it, but for some reason, that never happened. Dolly and I would have been neighbors and friends. Beyond her appearance, she is intelligent and a very sharp lady.

 

[Peacoat]

Now I'm getting hungry. Anyone else up for a Donner Kebab?

View attachment 166066

MissMittens, now that is clever.

 

[MissMittens]

Today marks the 590th anniversary of the battle of Orleans, where Joan of Arc defeated the British.

Today in 1913, inventor Gideon Sundback, patented the zipper.

 

[scotrace]

Today in 1931, the Empire State Building was dedicated, and flew into the hungry maw of the also freshy dedicated Great Depression. It bled money.

In 1999, the body of mountain climber George Mallory was discovered on Mount Everest. He'd lain where he fell 75 years earlier.

The 1940 summer Olympics were cancelled because war.

And in 2011, President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been finally located and killed, after a decade of searching. Turned out he was at his house.

 

[vitanola]

Today in 1931, the Empire State Building was dedicated, and flew into the hungry maw of the also freshy dedicated Great Depression. It bled money.

.

Scared Raskob so badly that he was forced to consider a putsch.

He wasn't the only one with reason to worry, though:

 

[GHT]

Today marks the 590th anniversary of the battle of Orleans, where Joan of Arc defeated the British.

We didn't do too well 400 years later at New Orleans either.

The modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster was born today, in 1933, when a sighting made local news. Several London newspapers sent correspondents to Scotland, and a circus offered a £20,000 reward for capture of the beast.

Today in 1964, saw the death of Nancy Astor, American born, English politician and socialite and the first woman to take a seat in Parliament.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

On this day in 1519, Leonardo da Vinci, died in the Chateau du Clos Lucé, Amboise, in the then, Kingdom of France. He was 67.

 

[LizzieMaine]

On this day in 1945...

Berlin reaped the whirlwind.

 

[Peacoat]

Today in 1964, saw the death of Nancy Astor, American born, English politician and socialite and the first woman to take a seat in Parliament.

Her exchanges with Sir Winston have become legendary. On one occasion Lady Astor is said to have responded to a question from Churchill about what disguise he should wear to a masquerade ball by saying, "Why don't you come sober, Prime Minister?"

On another, Sir Winston told her she was ugly. She responded by saying, Mr. Prime Minister, "You are drunk."

"Ah," replied Sir Winston, "But tomorrow I shall be sober."

 

[GHT]

Her exchanges with Sir Winston have become legendary.

Ah yes, a time when politics had no time for weak souls. Nancy came in for one of the best retorts ever:

“Nancy Astor: "Sir, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea."
Winston Churchill: "Madame,i f you were my wife, I'd drink it!"

But she could give as good as she got.

Churchill explains that having a woman in Parliament was like having one intrude on him in the bathroom, to which the Lady Astor retorted, "Sir, you are not handsome enough to have such fears".

She was also a champion at defending her gender:
“In passing, also, I would like to say that the first time Adam had a chance, he laid the blame on a woman.”

“I married beneath me. All women do.”

And even at the end of her life she couldn't resist a quip:
“Jakie, is it my birthday or am I dying?" (Seeing all her children assembled at her bedside in her last illness.)

There are so many more, but I don't think that the spirit of Nancy died, on the contrary, I think she returned to her native shores and settled in Maine.

 

[ChiTownScion]

There are so many more, but I don't think that the spirit of Nancy died, on the contrary, I think she returned to her native shores and settled in Maine.

Her feistiness aside, there was a dark side to Nancy Astor. Anti- Semite and anti- Catholic, and she was also the individual who accused members of the British Eighth Army- who faced some of the toughest German divisions on the Western front- of being, "D- Day dodgers."

Next to Wallis Simpson, one is hard pressed to think of a worse export to the UK than "dear Lady Astor." Harry Truman had the last word on an American assessment of the woman. After she commented to him that she didn't care for his common as farm dirt Missouri accent, he retorted, "At least my accent is real."

 

[Fading Fast]

...Harry Truman had the last word on an American assessment of the woman. After she commented to him that she didn't care for his common as farm dirt Missouri accent, he retorted, "At least my accent is real."

Truman is an example of a person and president whom I disagree with on much of his ideology and while - like every other human being ever put on earth - he had his moral shortcomings, I respect him as a person and many things that he did as a president.

And his line to Lady Astor is give-'em-hell-Harry perfect.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Agreed. I've always felt Harry was out of his element as a president, but, as we say around here, he had a hell of a mouth on him.

As for the British Aristocracy of the between-the-wars period, and its American hangers-on, the more I learn about them the less respect I have for them. The Duke was far from the only slimy crypto-fash in the bunch.

 

[GHT]

Her feistiness aside, there was a dark side to Nancy Astor. Anti- Semite and anti- Catholic, and she was also the individual who accused members of the British Eighth Army- who faced some of the toughest German divisions on the Western front- of being, "D- Day dodgers."