The Daily Dose/March 18, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off: Capsule Book Review: The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War by Thomas Buell
One of the things you learn over the years is how revered generals Ulysses S Grant and Robert E Lee remain in the hearts of many. Thomas Buell tries his darndest to shatter those myths, providing a well-researched, consistent and reasoned analysis of how a variety of generals did their work in the Civil War.
Among other things, Grant was faulted for consistently fighting battles based on how he wished conditions were as opposed to how they actually were, while Lee was cited for blindly sending troops into battle without knowing exactly the conditions he was sending them into and failing to house, clothe and feed his troops. About the only generals that find consistent favor with Buell are Union generals George H Thomas and Francis Barlow.
Conspicuous by his absence is Union General George McClellan, though this book concerns itself with generals who actually fought and McClellan didn’t do too much of that, and Buell doesn’t bother too much with the overall political context of the war. The book does a very good job of bringing the horrors of the Civil War to life.
Final Ranking: B. Buell tends to force his opinions on you, but they are reasonable conclusions based on the evidence presented and they are hardly hatchet jobs on figures who remain revered figures throughout the country. A good read for both scholars and casual fans of history,
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow deals with an unknown alarm going off in a room, and it’s Sunday Spaghetti Nite (SSN) at The Shire.
I head over and, sure enough, there is a beep coming from behind a panel in the far wall, not too far from the heating unit…I have no clue what the deal is, of course, but I start investigating and there are two thermostats and one has a sign attached that advises not to have the unit on Cool in the winter because the unit will freeze.
This thermostat was set to Cool…The other was set to Heat, so plainly the unit was confused, threw its hands up and said “I give up”…
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On This Date
In 1965 – Man walks in space for the first time, when Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov spends twelve minutes outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft. He and Mission Commander Pavel Balyayev had taken off earlier that day in a mission that was plagued with errors, including assorted reentry errors that caused the spacecraft to land 239 miles from its intended site, in an area so heavily forested it took two days to recover the crew.
In 1945 – Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens becomes the first NHL player to score 50 goals in a season, scoring with 2 minutes and 15 seconds left in the third period of the 50th and final game of the season. The Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins that night 4-2 and this would be the only time in his Hall of Fame career that Richard would score at least 50 goals in a season.
In 1967 – Penny Lane by The Beatles is at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for its only week. The song also went to #1 in Australia, Canada, Holland and New Zealand and was the group’s 13th of 20 #1 songs in the US. Penny Lane was part of a two-sided hit, issued along with Strawberry Fields Forever, which peaked at #8. Penny Lane refers to a street in Liverpool, where Paul McCartney, who wrote most of the song, grew up.
Quotebook
As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eye to the horrible pit, but no ladder upon which to get out. In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity.
Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Gendun Drup (1391–1474), is recognized as the first Dalai Lama, though this title was bestowed in 1578, 104 years after his death.
Today’s Stumper
What NHL player has the most 50-goal seasons? – Answer next time!
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