Colonel Grogan.
Profiles in Toxic Masculinity, Part 9
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
See the fellow to the right? He doesn’t look like anyone very unusual; just a steady, solid middle-aged Britisher, probably a stolid fellow of no great imagination, not one to take on anything that’s not sensible. That assessment couldn’t be farther from the truth. This is in fact Colonel Ewart Scott Grogan, the first man to walk the length of Africa from Cape Town to Cairo, possessor of an enormous set of solid titanium balls, and the subject of today’s Profile in Toxic Masculinity.
His Maculate Origin
Ewart Scott Grogan was born in London in 1874, the fourteenth of twenty-one children of the Irish Surveyor-General of the Duchy of Lancaster, William Grogan. Young Ewart drew his unusual given name from his godfather, one William Ewart Gladstone. Once his appellation was firmly in place, he set about his career by quickly being expelled from several schools and then universities. The last of these was the famous Cambridge, where he was expelled for herding a flock of sheep into the rooms of one of his instructors. With his educational career behind him, he alleviated his boredom at nineteen years of age by first climbing the Matterhorn, then deciding to go off to Cape Town to enlist in the Chartered Company of South Africa to fight in the Second Matabele War. During this campaign young Grogan developed a capacity for endurance of terrible hardship, having been at times forced to subsist on the flesh of mules and vultures while witnessing horrific massacres of the type not all that uncommon in tribal Africa of that time.
But it was his adventure after that war that was to earn him worldwide fame – or, at least, notoriety.
Ewart Grogan, on the eve of his trek.
His Adventurous Career
After the Second Matabele War, Grogan found himself back in Cape Town, twenty-four years of age and anxious for whatever opportunities would present themselves. While in Cape Town he fell madly in love with one Gertrude Watt, the sister of a Cambridge classmate. Unfortunately for Grogan, the girl’s stepfather disapproved of him; while he was the product of a good family, young Grogan seemed to have little to recommend him besides empty pockets and a thirst for adventure. So, Grogan made a proposal to Miss Watt’s stepfather; one might imagine the conversation went something like this:
“Young man, I just don’t see how you would make an acceptable match for my stepdaughter. Gertrude is a fine girl from a fine family and wants a solid, respectable man of character to care for her.”
“Sir,” Grogan replies, “it seems to me that I must prove that I am in fact a man of determination and character. Therefore, I propose to become the first man to walk the length of Africa, from here in Cape Town to Cairo. Will that prove my character sufficiently?”
“Well, yes, that may do.” And secretly, to himself, the old man likely thought, that impudent young pup will be food for jackals inside of a fortnight.
But Ewart Grogan was made of sterner stuff. In 1897, aged twenty-two, Grogan set out. He had already marched from South Africa to Mozambique during his military service and so considered that portion of the journey a fait accompli, but with a partner, a double rifle, some native porters and plenty of ammo, he set out to accomplish the rest of the feat. He had a five-thousand-mile hike yet to complete.
I highly recommend Grogan’s book on the journey, From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to North. IT’s a great narrative of the epic journey, detailing their hardships, their slaughter of all manner of wildlife virtually over the entire trek, and their day to day travels. They evaded predators ranging from lions to crocodiles, contended with malaria and dysentery. The journey, eschewing straight-line travel and choosing instead to wander widely, covered all manner of terrain. They crossed deserts, hiked through savannahs, traversed the Great Rift Valley; they detoured around swamps, volcanoes and tribes of native warriors.
In an unusual act for the time, Grogan carried a supply of trade goods and currency and purchased supplies from local people along the route, instead of merely confiscating them as many European explorers were wont to do when dealing with native villages. Probably at least in part because of this, they had little trouble with the locals, aside from the odd band of warriors and one tribe of cannibals who pursued the party through a portion of the Congo.
After two and a half years, the battered and exhausted Grogan emerged at the upper reaches of the Nile, there to encounter a British medical officer named Captain Dunn, who was leading a small exploratory party. Dunn was understandably surprised to see a bedraggled young British chap emerge from this howling wilderness, and the conversation that followed was a masterpiece of
His most reliable companion was much like this one.
British understatement:
Dunn: “How do you do?”
Grogan: “Oh, very fit, thanks; how are you? Had any sport?”
Dunn: “Oh, pretty fair. But there’s nothing much here. Have a drink? You must be hungry; I’ll hurry on lunch.”
Grogan returned to England in triumph. He was then twenty-six, and was promptly feted by London society, made a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and was rewarded further with an audience with Queen Victoria. After publishing the book mentioned above to international acclaim, he capped his successes by returning to Cape Town and, after accepting the astonished congratulations of his soon-to-be-father-in-law, marrying young Gertrude.
But he had more adventure in him. Grogan was not yet thirty and had no expectations of easing himself into any kind of settled life.
His One-Man War
It’s not commonly known to people who haven’t seen The African Queen that the Great War had an African theater.
The outbreak of the war found Grogan with his wife Gertrude in Kenya, where to stave off boredom he built that nation’s first deep-water port at Mombasa, opened a successful Nairobi hotel called “Torr’s,” opened Kenya’s first dedicated children’s hospital and kick-started Kenya’s timber industry.
When war was declared, Grogan quickly volunteered. While details on his wartime service are unclear, it is known that he fought in several battles in German East Africa, eventually attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and receiving a Distinguished Service Order and three mentions in citations. Slaughtering Germans apparently was at least as interesting as slaughtering wildlife, which earned him the nickname of “Bwana Chui” (the Leopard) from the local Kikuyu tribesmen.
There was, however, a less pleasant and accommodating side to the man.
His Dark Side
A man of the natural world.
The first recorded instance of Ewart Grogan results from the “Nairobi Incident” of 1907. Ewart Grogan was not a man to cross; when three rickshaw drivers were “impudent” to his sister and her companion, Grogan and a couple of friends tracked the errant drivers down and administered what the Brits would call “a damned good thrashing” in the public square. One of the drivers was badly injured and required hospitalization. The judge demanded to know why Grogan had reacted so violently and was answered with “because I wanted to.” Unimpressed, the judge sentenced Grogan to a month in jail.
During the Great War, Grogan spent some time in hospital with blackwater fever. During his stay, he was not so incapacitated that he was unable to seduce a nurse 26 years his junior, nor to father an illegitimate daughter. Later in the war he repeated this feat, albeit his second mistress was only 16 years younger.
Later in his life, Grogan vocally advocated the seizure of lands from native Africans, claiming that they were “…inferior in mental development and ethical possibilities.”
But, like all of us, Grogan was a product of his time. His violent temper was generally unacceptable even in his time, as his jail sentence demonstrates; his racism, on the other hand, was a prevalent view among most Europeans of the time. Whatever Grogan’s bad traits, his courage and fortitude were still remarkable, even by the standards of his somewhat more adventurous time.
His Golden Years
Despite his stated disdain for the intellectual capacities of native Africans, in his later years Grogan devoted a considerable amount of time and resources to their benefit. While serving on the Colonial Association, he took an interest in improving educational opportunities for the natives, claiming that “…the road of achievement must be open to all Africans, as only then could a reasonable and decent society in Africa be achieved.”
During the Second World War, Grogan, then in his sixties, reported to the nearest British Army outpost in Nairobi and aided in carrying out reconnaissance missions across the Congolese border. Eventually he was placed in charge of three prisoner-of-war camps, a duty which he held until war’s end.
I recommend reading this.
After the war he returned to Nairobi in sadness, as his wife Gertrude had died suddenly of a heart attack in 1943. In happier times Grogan had built her a substantial house in Nairobi, and as a memorial to his wife, Grogan donated the house to be refitted as the Gertrude’s Garden Children’s Hospital. There are today seven branches of this hospital in Nairobi; this, perhaps, is the most lasting and successful portion of Grogan’s legacy.
Ewart Grogan eventually remarried one Camilla Towers and divided his time between Nairobi and Cape Town. He died in the latter city in 1967, aged ninety-two.
There are few men in history that can match Ewart Scott Grogan in determination, in raw courage, in fierce single-mindedness, in utter fearlessness. His is a type that the British apparently no longer produce, and that’s a sad note. But Grogan holds a singular place in the history of his countrymen; his longtime friend Rudyard Kipling may well have been writing of Grogan in his poem How To Be A Man:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!
Theme music
Sounds like an interesting man. One of those “turn it up to 11” in all facets of his life types.
Great stuff!
Looks up blackwater fever – yikes!
I do not believe Mr. Grogan would take “shelter in place” orders very well.
Nice.
My invertibrate professor, among other horror shows, had a human liver in a jar on his desk. It was riddled with holes, most of them containing liver flukes.
That class changed my life.
Cook your goddamned meat.
Oh, and boil your water if you have any doubts at all. If y ou are outside the US, have doubts.
About the only good thing in NYC is the tap water. IIRC, it winds its way through 2000 miles of limestone before hitting the city reservoirs to be further treated. The only issue here involves local plumbing in older buildings. Also, the fact that everything at the (residential) building level here (plumbing, wiring, HVAC) looks like it was installed by the Little Rascals.
LOL It took me about a minute and a half to realize your professor was teaching invertebrate biology, not that he had no spine (metaphorically speaking, as in, he had no balls).
Just because the professor was an arthropod doesn’t mean he didn’t know his stuff.
He might have been a were-arthropod (yes, it’s a thing, worse than tentacle pr0n if you ask me).
His name must have been Kafka.
I like this series and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint.
If you like stories of men like this, check out Death in Silent Places. Great book full of stories about guys like this.
I read it back in Jr. High and was impressed.
Added to my Amazon list. Thanks!
Capstick has a lot of great books about Africa. Take his stories with a grain of salt, but they are still great reading.
Absolute mad lad.
Wow, this is a good one, Animal! What an amazing life and to cross 90 years old, just astonishing.
Of course now I feel like I’ve completely wasted my life, so thanks for that…
Of course now I feel like I’ve completely wasted my life, so thanks for that . . .
Yeah, but, whaddayagonnado? /takes hit off bong, falls asleep on couch
Another great write up Animal, book ordered.
He died in the latter city in 1967
What an amazing 92 year stretch to be witnessing times change.
Always a great read, thanks Animal
Great read, Animal – thanks! I’ll look for the book – my husband loves historical adventure tales.
unusual given name
It’s a perfectly cromulent name
/ dewd with insanely unpronounceable Gaelic name
Ralph Northam✔
@GovernorVA
I’ll be making a major announcement about Virginia’s #COVID19 response at 2:00 PM today. Watch live here on Twitter or at http://facebook.com/GovernorVA .
I guess I’ll be hitting the store after work to shore up my wine/beer supplies.
Has he closed Gun Shops Yet? Will he be appearing in Black Face or in a Clan Hood? Will he sacrifice a child to Moloch to ensure this pestilence leaves?
Let’s hope Iphone has an ap for video that adds a Klan hood. Someone will broadcast that.
Shit, that can’t be good
My only expedition of late has been to emerge from my house and go to the grocery store.
The TP Aisle has generic brands back in stock, plus some Angel Soft.
Canned goods almost looked like it was back to normal, but the stock was skewed store-brand more than normal.
The meat department was overstocked, so I relieved them of some chicken wings.
The registers showed absurd levels of virus paranoia. In addition to fancy official social distancing markers on the floor, they’ve bolted on a plexiglas barrier between the cahsier and the spot you would stand to operate the point of sale device. Plus, they won’t bag for you if you brought bags from home. And the cashier was wiping down the conveyor belt between customers. Not just ‘when idle’ but “please wait until I’ve gotten this wiped down before unloading”.
Oh, and I almost forgot, the Reece’s Bunnies are on the shelves. 😀
The steak restaurant we went to last week.
http://tagawa01033.up.seesaa.net/image/PA150458-1.JPG
I can’t seem to read her name tag.
It just means “irrelevant”.
hawt
The belt wiping seems a bit much, but the plexiglass and no bags from home thing seem pretty prudent. Many people are complete pigs and have no concern for their fellow man.
I definitely read this in an Opus Dei context…
Only the Penitent may Purchase?
I will credit them that the plexi reached high enough that I wasn’t just looking over the top of it at the cashier.
And I was allowed to use my bags I brought, I just had to bag the product myself.
My wife told me of an incident one of her coworkers (she works in a grocery store) had last week. This gal is a cashier and this guy comes through her line wearing a mask. Great! …until he lowers it for some unknown reason and coughs up a bright green phlegm ball that lands on the belt just to the left of this ladies hand. She flipped out on him and kicked his ass out without his groceries.
He would have been better off using the mask as a tissue if the intent was to keep his germs to himself. I bet he thinks it helps keep other people’s germs away instead.
@Animal, Fantastic write up as always. I think that those were different times, but really just a different life. A younger me, perhaps, if a few different choices had been made, would have loved to go on an adventure. At is is now, I’m firmly home-bound, Like Bilbo in his hole, no adventures for me.
As an aside, i think this is why some people love this corona panic. It spices up an otherwise ordinary life.
Wait, aren’t you in your late 20’s?
Back when he was 8, adventure was all the rave!
SHHH. When i was 17 or 18 i could have gone on an adventure. by the time i was 19 it was too late.
Hey, just because you get labeled a milf Instead of barely legal doesn’t mean you can’t have your adventure.
Dont worry Leon. I have been on those adventures. They are great to read about but at some age you wise up. We only know about Grogan because he survived. We have no idea who the thousands were that didnt.
When you are young you imagine adventures like action movies where you, the main character, always survives. Reality aint like that. Adventures usually end in tears and empty wallets.
Are you married? Tend to that. It’s the best adventure anyway.
Haha. Very well said, Suthen. I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it that way.
Indeed. I am married, and wouldn’t switch my life fro an adventure. I agree, youth tend to romanticize adventure and ignore the sucky dangerous crap. Their is nothing wrong or dishonorable about an ‘ordinary’ life. Just don’t think that, despite my youthful fantasies, i was ever really cut out or willing to go on an adventure.
Agree in every particular.
“We have no idea who the thousands were that didnt”
True, but we do know thousands who did die in various expeditions in Africa, Central Asia, Australia, Antarctica, etc. Grogan was one of the lucky and/or exceptionally skilled.
“Adventures. Nasty, uncomfortable things that make you late for dinner.”
-Bilbo Baggins
Only trained professionals should be armed…
Collegedale police officer accidentally fires department-issued AR-15 inside City Hall building
The explanation provided makes absolutely no sense to anyone who has every stripped an M16 or AR.
The weapon had already been taken apart when Booth received it, Booth wrote in an incident report.
“I attempted to do a weapon check,” he wrote.
But due to a rusted bolt, he was unable to clear the chamber.
Booth then started to put the weapon back together, and as he pushed the pieces together, “it caused the weapon to fire a round that was in the chamber,” Booth wrote.
Bullshit, Bullshit, Bullshit. Guy should be prosecuted for unlawful discharge of a firearm.
Even in his story he’s being a dumbass.
In his story, he neglected his weapon so badly that the bolt was fused closed. I find that hard to believe but a punishable offense if true. Instead of seeking help from an armorer or gunsmith, he reassembles the rifle and finger-fucks it while hanging out in city hall.
“For safekeeping, I hide it in my sump every night.”
My guess is that the bolt had maybe a tiny speck of rust on it, and he exaggerated that into “fused shut by rust” in an attempt to save his own ass. The moron probably dry-fired without checking the chamber or failed at trigger discipline.
Received it from who? And how does the bolt get rusted other than leaving it outside in the rain for months and months?
“I’ve bleen cleaning it with saltwater and bleach.”
Not only that, but that you’ve left it to rust with a round chambered?
I’m pretty sure we all know this guy was a dumbass and “dry fired” with a round in the chamber. It’s certainly a lot simpler than “I abused this weapon beyond any sane degree and then tried to fiddle with it.”
That is what the Journalist cares about?
They’re on the frontlines! FRONT LINES, I tell you!
Great read Animal. Thanks. …the first man to walk the length of Africa from Cape Town to Cairo, possessor of an enormous set of solid titanium balls,… Titanium balls indeed.
Thanks Animal, always a good read. Those guys are not few and far between, they are non-existent in today’s society. A 150 years ago mountain men filled that slot, sort of, but none of them are around either.
They emerge in every war. They are called Medal of Honor winners. And most didn’t survive the deed that earned them the MOH.
I think it was Derpy that posted the most common rank for a MoH awardee was PFC.
also the highest rank population ?
A few years back there was a school shooting. It was announced on the little TV in the gun shop where I was drinking coffee with a bunch of old farts. The parish sheriff was sitting across from me. Someone asked him, because the cops in the shooting in question had held back, what we were going to do in the event we have one.
Sheriff – “There comes a time in every law enforcement career when a man has to ante up.”
Me – “I would amend that a bit. That time comes in every man’s life. You dont see it coming. You think you are having a normal day and all of a sudden without warning you find yourself having to make a life or death decision. Your life or others. If you are lucky it only happens once. Some ante up, some dont.”
All present agreed.
Dont despair Fourscore. They are still around.
I saw a couple of events in VN that were spontaneous that required not only courage but immediate response. Neither were even thought to be unusual by the participants and we went back to the dull routine within minutes of resolution.
I was meaning those that live a life of daily adventure, alone and without much in the way of comforts (or going home to the family).
people who haven’t seen The African Queen
I’m gonna watch a few episodes of that later. Great show.
I thought it was a Movie with Bogart.
Watch the clip.
And Audrey Hepburn.
Stop!
Excellent read, thank you, Animal!
he was expelled for herding a flock of sheep into the rooms of one of his instructors
Awesome. I guess his instructor was lucky he didn’t just decide to “give him a good thrashing”.
Now the sheep pay 15k a year and go in voluntarily.
You earned this.
Nice!
Better deal than Welsh sheep get.
Never heard of the guy, very interesting, thanks for the write-up Animal.
Samaritan’s Purse, the evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization, is building a field hospital in Central Park complete with ICU’s, ventilators, staff, etc. Nice to see this, and hopefully will show NYC that evangelical Christians aren’t evil incarnate.
Are you kidding. Do they have a permit? I doubt it. By setting up a field hospital, they are showing how much the government sucks. It sounds positively evil.
And they’re violating DeBlasio’s social distancing orders. Fines for all of them!
Actually, they do.
Do you know how many people are hospitalized in NYC? I looked but DDG had no good results.
Go here: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-main.page
There’s a link to a pdf file that was updated yesterday.
Thanks!
The interesting questions, unaddressed on their fact sheet, are (1) How many are hospitalized today for the CCP Virus (2) What are total number of patients admitted to hospitals, and (3) What’s the average number of patients hospitalized in, say, January through March (the peak of the flu season)?
For (2) and (3), you might also want to see the data for ICU patients.
Tuff dude for sure.
Watching Cuomo’s presser. Gotta say he’s infinitely better than Biden. Wondering why team blue didn’t draft him early in the primary season. I no fan, but he is coherent and not saying anything too crazy.
And then he goes on to complain about the rise in the price of ventilators. Guess he doesn’t supply and demand.
Sure he does. He demands other people’s supply.
Cuomo (also not a fan) does a reasonable job at his press conferences, and his staff sets him up for success with visuals. He’s gone off the rails a few times over the past few days with rants about his state budget, and calls for more Federal assistance. The “state’s are competing and driving-up prices” is a recurring theme and supports his “Feds must do more rhetoric” but obviously the entire world is competing for supplies.
I said this the other day – Trump wants to guarantee reelection, have Cuomo on the ticket. Of course, this means a clear hand-off to the Dems in 2024.
Cuomo may emerge as Biden’s running mate. Just what we need. Yet another guy who believes in Santa Claus and his ability to get 40,000 venilators out of thin air.
If NYS can’t get enough venilators, because they are impossible to conjure up quick enough, then New Yorkers will die. Maybe the NYS Dept. of Health should have done a better job of stockpiling medical equipment for any conceivable crisis?
Does the DoH supply hospitals with anything but additional paperwork and regulatory burdens?
But people could die if they’re not in charge.
The stockpile/readiness issue is interesting at both the state and federal level. Obama and his Dem Governor minions clearly didn’t want to spend money on objects that didn’t either benefit their cronies or have their names emblazed on them. More money for additional government workers and handouts.
In a normal time, I’d say that is a crazy idea. Considering how screwed up the entire election season will be, that would be an interesting and possible development. Of course he’s claiming right now that he’s not nor will be running for president.
I think Team Blue is trying to draft him now, that’s why he’s getting so much face time on national TV.
Bill Maher came out and said the DNC should swap them. I don’t know how that can happen since Biden is on his way to having enough delegates at the convention.
Easy. Biden will step aside for the good of the count…hahahahahahaha!
good of the count
So… HIllary?
Loading…
They didn’t draft him earlier because Cuomo has a well-established history of corruption that the State Department isn’t covering up for him.
My take on his presser.
https://i.imgflip.com/3uo6e2.jpg
Gas is cheap, the sun is shining. I think I’m just going to get in my car and go for a drive. If I’m not back tonight I’ve been arrested for breaking quarantine.
Good luck. Just tell them you’re essential.
Filled my tank with $1.84 a gallon gas yesterday. Was less excited after I realized I have nowhere to go.
It’s $1.37 here. And no room in my gas tank.
A 1.40 here in Podunksville
$1.48 USD/US gallon (55.9¢ CDN/litre) here. It’s dropped about 45% over the last three weeks.
Sadly, tank’s full. Nowhere to go that doesn’t involve people being skittish. Can’t even drive to Calgary (where the weather’s supposed to be nicer than here for the next few days).
Godspeed, good sir!
While it was raining yesterday, we drove across the state line to pick up a laptop. That was probably the first time we bought something in NH to avoid paying the sales tax. It’s nice to live in the state where it’s still legal to be outside for any reason.
broke: sitting in your motorized box with well over six feet of personal space
woke: sitting in a jail cell surrounded by other quarantine breakers
Quite cheap. Only a little over a dollar a liter.
But at least wages are much lower here
… Given that a liter is only a tiny bit more than a quarter gallon, that’s awful
“Awful” is quite relative. Last time I was in France, I was paying close to $1.75 USD / litre, and that was for regular (although their regular is around 90-ish octane). It’s mostly taxes.
in Romania it us 95 for the basic or 99/100 for the premium.
And there aren’t tax riots?
not really. I mean the VAT is only 19% so that is okay, but it does go on top of the gas price after excise tax, so in a way you are paying tax on a tax which is always fun.
Only?
Look, New York is awful, I pay $0.174/gallon plus 8% in taxes. Sane tax rates should be lower. Much, much lower.
It’s metric tax rates.
Okay, I missed a few.
$0.25 in state fixed cost per gallon taxes,
$0.184 in federal fixed cost per gallon taxes.
8% sales tax.
This level is atrocious, and I didn’t stop to check what the price at the pump was, but it was approaching $0.50/quart even with those taxes.
I suggest after the virus the good people governing New York state take a trip to Europe to learn about proper gas taxes
Only if they never return to the US.
we’ll move the US while they are gone so they won’t know how to get back.
Here’s another one for Ms. Cupp:
CBS News Caught Using Footage from an Italian Hospital to Describe Conditions in New York City (VIDEO)
Clowns.
you mean this isn’t live footage? https://youtu.be/qJDoGccjZis?t=5
Toksik Maskyoolinitee.
http://archive.li/em6fl
Thanks for this piece, Animal. I’m looking forward to casually reading the rest of it as the afternoon progresses.
$20/bbl: who was going to buy in $10 ago?
might be a good time to investigate distressed mineral rights
I suggested a long term long-oil/short-gold strategy. And if I had the money to do that kind of thing, I would be doubling down on it.
if you scroll down to the state-level trend, the charts seem to show denser states having higher mortality since d=100 than less dense states
https://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/
Thanks, Animal. I really enjoy these.
Speaking of toxic masculinity this guy should be on our list of heroes. He’s on mine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Buchanan_Eads
Despite the best efforts of the Army Corps of Engineers he made the Mississippi what it is today. You should write him up if you get a chance Animal.
+1
there’s a town near MEM named for Eads
The dude was a rock solid badass.
He devised a diving bell and salvaged from an untamed Mississippi River when no one thought it possible. He described walking on the bottom and sinking up to his waist in sand and could feel the sand moving from the current as deep as his feet were. Pitch blackness. Can you imagine that?
He built the first bridge over the river at St. Louis. That opened up the country west of the river to commerce. It is still in use today.
The ACE had been working on opening the mouth of the river for forty years. When Eads got a crack at it he opened it in less than a year. The mats of willow trees he used to control the banks are still there today. It was genius really.
After he became wealthy he would still compete in strong man contests with the crews of his boats….and almost always won.
The list goes on.
Oh, I forgot to mention that at the time the Mississippi was the most dangerous river in the world?
It was not uncommon for methane from decaying organic matter to cause huge bubbles under the river bed which could rise up and above the water creating a serious hazard for boats. Some of these mud bubbles were larger than a football field. If a boat hit one and popped it you can imagine what happened. The boat was simply swallowed up in the blink of an eye.
I read the guy’s bio when I was a kid and it really stuck with me.
Noted!
what are we knitting lately
I’m sure narcotics are emerging from various anuses, but this is the first I’ve heard of the assault involving forcible penetration (in which yes, it actually would be sexual assault, not #metoo “sexual assault”).
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/386522.php
Really? thats the first time you heard about it? You need to listen to more Sanders youtube, and you wouldn’t be a week behind.
“You need to listen to more Sanders youtube”
Cheaper than a lobotomy I suppose.
We can argue He-said she-said all day, but the verifiably disgusting thing is that the group “Times Up” refused to help her because “Joe Biden is a candidate for Federal office and accusing him could risk their non profit status”.
But i guess that isn’t surprising, i guess declaring candidacy really is a get out of jail free card.
Sleaking of manly exploits
#Godzilla 1991 fan film where one guy plays every character (including electrical pylons).
https://youtu.be/t0NQX6bSp4A
It’s amazing how many people want to be slaves.
It’s been known a long time. Every time I read the Book of Exodus, I’m struck by how many of the escaped slaves wanted to turn around and run back to their masters. Took a couple of generations in the wilderness to cleanse that particular weakness from the tribes.
Using Slavery to describe any arrangment other than the bondage of Africans in the American South is RACIST!
From the “no shit Sherlock” file:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/medicare-for-all-wouldnt-have-better-prepared-us-for-the-coronavirus
John Prine is in stable condition after being placed on a ventilator while being treated for COVID-19-type symptoms, his wife, Fiona Whelan Prine said Monday. The singer-songwriter’s family said Sunday that Prine was critically ill. Fiona Prine’s message Monday on social media, suggested his condition had improved overnight.
I hope this is correct; I rather suspect it reflects a layman’s colloquial use of common words that means something specific in certain technical jargons. The hospital would be powerless to correct her, so we’re left to hope . . . which is pretty much where we were anyways.
Balazs Csekö @balazscseko Hungarian Parliament passes bill that gives PM Orbán unlimited power & proclaims:
– State of emergency w/o time limit
– Rule by decree
– Parliament suspended
– No elections
– Spreading fake news + rumors: up to 5 yrs in prison
– Leaving quarantine: up to 8 yrs in prison
good thing they got those damnable Rooskies of their backs
How’d he beat Putin to that goal?
Whew. I’m glad that could never happen here…
It is hard not to suspect that this wasn’t the goal all along.
Virginia just put the force of law cops behind the stay-at-home order. Otherwise no meaningful change from last Friday.
That, plus adding a ludicrous end date of June 10th. If this bullshit last three months, we’ll all be eating out of dumpsters by then.
Were-racoon?
What happens on June 10th? The virus surrenders?
The political class is hanging from lampposts.
Classes end.
What we don’t know is that a rouge group of high schoolers have gotten control of government and done what none of us ever dreamed of accomplishing. They have canceled school for the rest of the year.
Pfft. Think that’s manly?! I managed to fix myself breakfast, drink some beer, read a book and took a nap. I’m a mother fuckin’ profile in courage. And I did it all in my bathrobe!
I aspire to be like you…
You cannot hide from us.
Rhode Island’s Governor Sends the National Guard Out in a Door-to-Door Search for New Yorkers
And none of the officers refused?
Well, nobody likes New Yorkers.
I was gonna say….
They are protecting their families!
No, why would they do that?
The Governor announced the formation of Special Squads, or SS, to carry out these door to door searches.
I hope they have snazzy black and silver uniforms, at least.
+1 Hugo Boss
The snazziest.
They’re backordered. Like bleach and N95 masks.
How does that work exactly? They knock on a door and someone answers…and then? They ask? Demand papers? Listen for an accent? What if someone opens the door and says “What do you want? Oh? Fuck off.” and slams the door?
Talk about circumstances that could go south really fast.
Or, what if no one answers? Do they kick the door in and search the house for potential New Yorkers?
Simple, set the house on fire. If people come out, shoot them as carriers. If they stay inside, well, problem solved.
+1 duck and +2 wood
It looks like this is just to notify New Yorkers of mandatory quarantine.
Have they figured out they should search attics?
Crawl spaces too…with hot french jews hiding in them
I wish to subscribe to your pictorial newsletter.
I recall that from a documentary about a behind-the-lines mission during WWII.
While details on his wartime service are unclear, it is known that he fought in several battles in German East Africa
I wonder if he would have run into Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck?
Nice read, thanks Animal!
Anyone have a plane, or a boat I can borrow for a rescue mission to Italy?
Yoowza!! That is not a woman with back problems yet.
Animal, I love these profiles. Thanks.
Now, a little off-topic humor. ‘Fess up guys. Which one of you is this: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/30/astrophysicist-gets-magnets-stuck-up-nose-while-inventing-coronavirus-device
He wan’t “inventing” anything, he just got a magnet stuck up his nose.
Apparently it worked. It warned him when he touched his face.
He got multiple magnets stuck up his nose. Best line is “..denied the presence of further magnets up his nose.”
It was gonna work. I just got distracted for a moment.
Well, saved a piecing, just stuck the ring on the nose close to the magnet. Innovative and saved a trip to the tattoo parlor or wherever they do piercings
Now, a little off-topic humor. ‘Fess up guys. Which one of you is this: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/30/astrophysicist-gets-magnets-stuck-up-nose-while-inventing-coronavirus-device
Should’ve tried the ‘Mother’s Kiss’ before sticking magnets up the clear nostril (dumbass). The son got a Lego stuck up his nose a couple days ago and I gave it a shot. Sucker flew right out immediately.
I dont know why they wouldn’t say that. The left is constantly making claims and predictions they know very well are false and verifiably false with the expectation that by they time they are objectively verified as false people will forget. Then they just cook up another pot of bullshit.
It is remarkable really.
Ooops. That was supposed to be a reply to kinnath below.
Ehh, I feel like your statement can be universally applied to everything.
I love the photo. That’s a guy who knows he going to be magnet boy forevermore.
Our four-year-old son thought he’d see how many pieces of gravel for the driveway he could stuff up his nose. The tech in ER almost lost his lunch trying to get them all out. He said “one more try and then we’ll have to cut.”
There were almost weekly trips to the ER to patch him up from his dumb assery. Now days DHS would have taken him away,
Shoot the Messenger!
The Trumpian French Doctor Behind the Chloroquine Hype
Fauci Would Prescribe Chloroquine to Patient Suffering From COVID-19
Can we open shit back up. My kids want to go to school and play sports.
Except Michigan and Nevada…
Looks out window. Fuck.
Its about fucking time somebody in the federal government said that. It was also true before the FDA graciously emitted their “emergency” allowance for something doctors could do the entire time.
Agreed and I really hope some Docs out there have the balls to do so.
That article made me like him even more.
As I predicted, it included the “no control group” sniping. Yeah, yeah, its better to include a control group, we all know that. However, initial studies often don’t have them.
Not to mention, the safety of the drug is established over sixty years of use, it’s the effectiveness for this particular coronavirus that’s in question (and it looks like that’s not really in doubt either).
There’s a lot to study for this application of it, mainly involving the various cocktails I have seen (combined with antibiotics, etc.).
This is an interesting test of the balance between “denying some patients in order to get a scientifically valid result” and “treat everyone you can”.
60 years of use for non-coronavirus use. Probably safe as well, but still bears proving out along with dosing efficacy. Corticosteroids, also generally safe and used for a long time, have a somewhat mixed results for SARS (and for this as well).
Isn’t the control group, “Everyone else is the world”?
If I read the study correctly there was a control group.
On a quick review, not seeing it. Could you point me to what you are looking at?
Page 10:
We enrolled 36 out of 42 patients meeting the inclusion criteria in this study that had at least six days of follow-up at the time of the present analysis. A total of 26 patients received hydroxychloroquine and 16 were control patients.
Thanks. I stopped at “Procedure”, which doesn’t mention it.
Are they aware that there are multiple studies going on & not involving “Trumpian French doctors”?
Orange Man Bad has corrupted the entire medical community. Only scientists suitably vetted by the Democrats can be trusted to deliver the truth.
It’ll be fun watching them slag all those New York doctors when they release the results of their large scale use of chloroquine and similar meds. I never thought I’d see people borderline rooting for a drug to not work during a pandemic but here we are.
Everything is political. Thucydides talked about this, this morning.
I realize that but the people crying about the effectiveness of this drug can suck it as far as I’m concerned.They’re horrible human beings that know exactly what they’re doing.
I honestly think they’re blinded by hate for Trump to the point that they’ll hurt themselves.
Nose and spiting face.
I encourage them to refuse being treated with it if they get the CCP Virus. Not a true double-blind, but a control group nonetheless.
We shouldn’t allow treatments until we get a Cochrane review of all the treatments we didn’t allow.
We shouldn’t allow treatments until we get a Cochrane review of all the treatments
we didn’t allowYou’ve essentially described the new Medical Device Regulations coming in May for Europe.
Look who we are talking about here. Commies. They are evil. They would burn the world to the ground to get power. They dont give a fuck about people. Power is an end in itself for them.
They only spent the last 100 years murdering 120,000,000 people and they are still at it today.
Yeah, it’s weird. It’s not just the media, either. A lot of people seem emotionally invested in this pandemic.
emotionally invested in this pandemic
They are emotionally invested in politics. And Orange Man is Bad. So they are emotionally invested in anything that can be used against him.
Yes, for me it’s one of the more interesting things about the whole situation.
One you’ve sold out on something like this, its very psychologically difficult to say “You know what? I think I may have overreacted there.” And its not like the DemOp Media isn’t providing all the confirmation bias anyone panicked by this would need.
Its incredible to consider that this is, so far at least, a clinical non-event everywhere but a few cities, and only one of those seems to be really struggling (if you believe the media reports that NYC is on the verge of total collapse). Forget excess deaths from the CCP Virus (which should be the main data point for policymakers); gross deaths from the CCP Virus are lost in the statistical noise just about everywhere.
There is no hospital crisis relating to staffing, equipment or supplies for CCP Virus patients (again, possibly excepting a few cities). There is a crisis that is entirely due to the reaction – hospital volumes and revenues are down dramatically, and this is a low-margin business. If this doesn’t burn off in a month or so, there will be hospitals going bankrupt.
The local news here in Phoenix, AZ, just had a piece about a guy whose kidney transplant has now been postponed. Because it’s “nonessential” surgery. He’s on death’s door, but the Mayo clinic has ‘postponed?’/delayed/canceled his schedule organ transplant. Un-fucking-believable. We’ve made COVID patients more important than cancer patients, people getting organ transplants, and others (I am certain) seen and unseen by the decisions to divert resources – made by TOP MEN almost entirely on political calculations. Don’t think so? Look at what’s in that *Emergency* $2.2. trillion spending bill that just got passed and tell me that this is about anything other than politics. The pork in that thing is fucking disgusting, while the peons get to keep $1200 each – and some of them are on the hook for their pro rata share of that $2.2 trillion while their businesses are simultaneously being shut down by government fiat.
Oh, fer fuck sake. I would have expected better from Mayo. Basically, if the doc and the patient agree that the surgery is essential, it can be done.
Yep. Health outcomes for those putting off non essential diagnostic procedures are going to be impacted as well. But the save one life crowd could give a shit and calls anyone not on board a murderer.
Did they drop thay article before or after the FDA announcement?
The author is a Frenchie who finds it all so distasteful and obviously beneath him.
Which explains why Slate loves him so much.
Exactly the kind of Frenchie this doctor seems to have little regard for, according to the article. He nonetheless has sufficient political stroke to get some shit done. Interesting guy.
I am noting that a beard seems to be prerequisite for running a cholorquine treatment program.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of the juxtaposition of media hysteria about how NYC is at the threshold of coronavirus hell with their slobbering and cooing over Cuomo. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so pathetic.
Yeah, where is Cuomo’s epidemic planning document? Where were his warehouses full of ventilators and PPE? Sounds like his plan was “call the feds, if mayor calls tell him to call feds.”
No kidding. NYC is supposed to be a major terrorist target, and has been known for a long time as a communicable disease hot spot. He’s essentially getting credit for heading a failed administration here. Its bizarre. He got caught completely flatfooted by a foreseeable event, and he’s getting kudos for not botching, much, yet, an emergency response that should have been completely unnecessary?
I’ve said it before: Americans are morons, ruled by idiots. Prove me wrong.
You forgot pantshitting cowards.
“NYC is supposed to be a major terrorist target,”
This is the city, isn’t it, that kept asking for and getting more funds from the rest of us because they were a potential target for, I dunno, bioweapons released in their extensive subway system? If they are now admitting they weren’t prepared for this with PPE and venilators and such, then I guess the crazy libertarians and insane Republicans running that city and state have screwed the workers again.