Well, now it’s Monday…although in actuality, it’s still Friday while I start this one, so the weekend is still ahead of me. My time off is still upcoming instead of behind me and I have time to show you guys some pretty cool stuff that has been shown to me!
Pretty cool, right?
Right!
Plus, I just remembered…it’s a LONG weekend. It’s President’s Day! That means that if Biden comes out of the White House and sees his shadow, we have 6 more months of inflation. But…
BUT!!
It’s a REALLY good reason for me to have a paid day off, so who am I to complain.
Although the six more months of inflation kind of sucks.
So, in that regard, I think we need to start this baby out, get some laughs in, get to talking about stuff, and let’s have some fun.
One Liners from Joe from NJ
- Retirement to do list:
- Wake up
- Sometimes it takes me all day to get nothing done.
- Common sense is not a gift.
- It’s a punishment because you must deal with everyone who doesn’t have it.
- I came. I saw. I forgot what I was doing.
- Retraced my steps. Got lost on the way back.
- If you can’t think of a word, say “I forgot the English word for it.”
- I don’t always go the extra mile,
- but when I do it’s because I missed my exit.
- but when I do it’s because I missed my exit.
- I may not be that funny or athletic or good looking or smart or talented……..
- I forgot where I was going with this.
- I forgot where I was going with this.
- Having plans sounds like a good idea
- until you have to put on clothes and leave the house.
- until you have to put on clothes and leave the house.
- Life is like a helicopter.
- I don’t know how to operate a helicopter either.
Okay, let’s jump into some of the cool stuff. Here is a GREAT article from our dear Camper Friend Lynn on some of the stupid crap that’s going on right now…
Trains being derailed. UFO’s all over the place. Chickens struggling to lay eggs. Food processing centers on fire. Tons of people dropping suddenly.
Biden blows up Nord Stream pipeline: 400,000 TONS of gas gushes into the sea. Industrial disaster in Ohio: toxic chemicals spewing into the air & water Whales dying off the east coast. Where’s the Save the Oceans/Stop Acid Rain/Save the Whales crowd?
Buttigieg made no mention of the Ohio train derailment while speaking at a conference this morning but did find the time to say that there are too many white people who work construction. It’s too bad that the people in Ohio currently being poisoned by the toxic fumes the government released into the air are mostly working class white people. They don’t check any of the identity boxes necessary for the Biden Administration to give a damn. Ohio may never recover from this.
Prayers for East Palestine Recently released bodycam footage shows Ohio reporter Evan Lambert getting arrested for doing what big media won’t: Ask real questions about toxic chemicals poisoning people’s water and air and killing thousands of animals. Where is FEMA?! East Palestine, Ohio is undergoing an ecological disaster bc authorities blew up the train derailment cars carrying hazardous chemicals and press are being arrested for trying to tell the story. Oh but UFO’s!
You are looking at a toxic cocktail of deadly chemicals purposefully being burned off in East Palestine after a train derailment. Authorities burned off vinyl chloride, which is toxic & carcinogenic, and released harmful & dangerous hydrogen chloride & phosgene into the air.
Phosgene is a highly toxic, colorless gas with a strong odor that causes vomiting & breathing trouble & it was used as a chemical weapon in World War I. Hydrogen chloride is a colorless to yellowish gas with a strong odor, that causes skin, eye, nose, and throat irritation.
The vinyl chloride burn occurred near the Ohio River which flows directly into the Mississippi River.
Thousands of farms may be affected by this.
The EPA sent a letter to the rail company, stating that ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, & isobutylene were also in the rail cars. “We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open.”
Amanda Breshears found her chickens dead ten miles from East Palestine. “As soon as they started the burn, my chickens slowed down and they died. If it can do this to chickens in one night, imagine what it’s going to do to us in 20 years.”
There are reports of dead fish in rivers and creeks 5 miles away from the train derailment.
The East Palestine, Ohio, toxic chemical burn may be the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
This is more of a concise report than anything I’ve seen in any report, even the classified reports that I’ve seen on my side of the fence. Nicely done Lynn! Thanks for sharing with the rest of us!
“I drink to your charm, your beauty and your brains… Which gives you a rough idea of how hard up I am for a drink.”
– Groucho Marx (1890 – 1977),
One of a dozen different secretaries that work for us.
Two mathematicians were having dinner in a restaurant, arguing about the average mathematical knowledge of the American public.
One mathematician claimed that this average was woefully inadequate, the other maintained that it was surprisingly high.
“I’ll tell you what,” said the cynic, “ask that waitress a simple math question. If she gets it right, I’ll pick up dinner. If not, you do”.
He then excused himself to visit the men’s room, and the other called the waitress over. “When my friend comes back,” he told her, “I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to respond `one third x cubed.’ There’s twenty bucks in it for you.”
She agreed.
The cynic returned from the bathroom and called the waitress over. “The food was wonderful, thank you,” the mathematician started. “Incidentally, do you know what the integral of x squared is?”
The waitress looked pensive; almost pained. She looked around the room, at her feet, made gurgling noises, and finally said, “Um, one third x cubed?”
So the cynic paid the check.
The waitress wheeled around, walked a few paces away, looked back at the two men, and muttered under her breath, “…plus a constant.”
That is one HECK of a bumper!!
His wife had just bought a new line of expensive cosmetics absolutely guaranteed to make her looks years longer.
She sat in front of the mirror for what had to be hours applying the “miracle” products. Finally, when she was done, she turned to her husband and said, “Honey, honestly now, what age would you say I am?”
He nodded his head in assessment, and carefully said, “Well, judging from your skin, twenty. Your hair, eighteen. Your figure, twenty-five.”
“Oh, you’re so sweet!”
“Well, hang on, I’m not done adding it up yet.”
Old guy comes home in the middle of the day, finds his young blonde wife standing in the middle of their deluxe apartment wearing a red G-string, 7 inch steel heels, and the whole apartment is flooded.
“What happened here?” he asks.
“I think the waterbed busted,” says the trembling wife.
Just then a naked guy floats by.
“Who’s that?” demands the husband.
“I dunno. Must be a lifeguard.”
Only the rightful king can … blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I know. But, I’m gonna pawn the bloody thing cause I need the money!
This one is called New Jersey and it’s from Joe from NJ. Surprising, right?
A girl says to her date, “You’re in for a real treat. I’ve been told that I have a body like New Jersey.”
So, her date grabs her waist and asks, “What’s this?”
She replies “Middlesex.”
He grabs her butt and asks “what’s this?”
She replies,”Freehold.”
Then he grabs her breast and asks “what’s this?”
She replies,”Point Pleasant.”
Finally, he reaches between her thighs and says, “I guess this is Cherry Hill?”
“No”, she replies, “That’s Eatontown.”
The guy gets so excited that he pulls down his pants and says, “Welcome to Wildwood!”
I guess you have to have been from there to get it.
A girl says to her boyfriend, “I read a study that said 90 percent of all men masturbate in the shower and the other 10 percent sing.”
“Really?” said the boyfriend.
“Yes,” said the girlfriend, “and do you know what song they sing?”
“No,” replied the boyfriend.
“I didn’t think so,” she said.
Here is another GREAT story. This one from WWII. Sent in from Joe from NJ. A bit of a read, but well worth it!
Takes awhile, but well worth reading – would make a great movie. Pass along to Anita if you think she’d like to read it.
This is an amazing story and one I had not heard before. Even so called mis-fits became heroes of The Greatest Generation.
Great story about a misfit crew turned Heroes and an airplane in WWII; a B-17G.
The most honored photograph …
Doesn’t look like much, does it? But, depending upon your definition, this photograph, a team effort by 9 men, is the most honored picture in U. S. History. It’s an interesting tale about how people sometimes rise beyond all expectations.
His squadron commander had him transferred to a B-17 squadron in Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea, where he was allowed to fly as a fill-in navigator and occasionally as a co-pilot. He was well liked and popular — on the ground. But no one wanted to fly with him.
Zeamer finally managed to get into the pilot’s seat by volunteering for a photo-reconnaissance mission when the scheduled pilot became ill. The mission, an extremely dangerous one over the Japanese stronghold at Rabual, won Zeamer a Silver Star – despite the fact that he still hadn’t qualified to pilot a B-17.
Zeamer become the Operations Officer (a ground position) at the 43rd Air Group. Despite his lack of qualification, he still managed to fly as a B-17 fill-in pilot fairly often. He had discovered that he loved to fly B-17s on photo-reconnaissance missions, and he wanted to do it full time. There were only three things standing in his way: he didn’t have a crew, he didn’t have an airplane, and oh, yeah, he still wasn’t a qualified pilot.
He solved the first problem by gravitating to every misfit and ne’er-do-well in the 43rd Air Group. As another pilot, Walt Krell, recalled, “He recruited a crew of renegades and screwoffs. They were the worst — men nobody else wanted. But they gravitated toward one another and made a hell of a team.”
But rebuild it they did. Once it was in flying shape the base commander congratulated them and said he’d find a new crew to fly it. Not surprisingly, Zeamer and his crew took exception to this idea, and according Walt Krell the crew slept in their airplane, having loudly announced that the 50 caliber machine guns were kept loaded in case anyone came around to ‘borrow’ it. There was a severe shortage of planes, so the base commander ignored the mutiny and let the crew fly – but generally expected them to take on missions that no one else wanted.
The misfit crew thrived on it. They hung around the base operations center, volunteering for every mission no one else wanted. That earned them the nickname “The Eager Beavers,” and their patched up B-17 was called “Old 66-.”
The Eager Beavers
(Back Row) Bud Thues, Zeamer, Hank Dominski, Sarnoski
(Front Row) Vaughn, Kendrick, Able, Pugh
Once they started flying their plane on difficult photo-reconnaissance missions, they made some modifications. Even among the men of a combat air station, the Eager Beavers became known as gun nuts. They replaced all of the light 30 caliber machine guns in the plane with heavier 50 caliber weapons. Then the 50 caliber machine guns were replaced with double 50 caliber guns. Zeamer had another pair of machine guns mounted to the front of the plane so he could remotely fire them like a fighter pilot. And the crew kept extra machine guns stored in the plane, just in case one of their other guns jammed or malfunctioned.
As odd as all this sounds, the South Pacific theatre in the early days of World War II was a chaotic area scattered over thousands of miles with very little equipment. Having a plane with an apparently nutty crew who volunteered for every awful mission not surprisingly made the commanding officers look the other way.
In June, 1943, the U. S. had secured Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands. They knew the Japanese had a huge base at Rabual, but were certain there were other airfields being built in the Northern Solomon Islands. They asked for a volunteer crew to take photographs of Bougainville Island to plan for an eventual invasion, and of Buka airfield on the north side of the island to assess for increased activity there. It was considered a near-suicide mission — flying hundreds of miles over enemy airspace in a single, slow bomber. Not to mention photo-reconnaissance meant staying in level flight and taking no evasive action even if they were attacked.
The only crew that volunteered, of course, was Jay Zeamer and the Eager Beavers. One of the crew, bombardier Joseph Sarnovski, had absolutely no reason to volunteer. He’d already been in combat for 18 months and was scheduled to go home in 3 days. Being a photo mission, there was no need for a bombardier. But if his friends were going, he wanted to go, and one of the bombardier’s battle stations was to man the forward machine guns. They might need him; so he went.
They suspected the airstrip at Buka had been expanded and reinforced, but weren’t sure until they got close. As soon as the airfield came in sight, they saw numerous fighters taking off and heading their way. The logical thing to do would have been to turn right and head for home. They would be able to tell the intelligence officers about the increased number of planes at Buka even if they didn’t get photos.
But Zeamer and photographer William Kendrick knew that photos would be invaluable for subsequent planes attacking the base, and for Marines who were planning to invade the island later. Zeamer held the plane level (tilting the wings even one degree at that altitude could put the photograph half a mile off target) and Kendrick took his photos, which gave plenty of time for over 20 enemy fighters to get up to the altitude Old 66- was flying at.
The fighter group, commanded by Chief Petty Officer Yoshio Ooki, was experienced and professional. They carefully set up their attack, forming a semi-circle all around the B-17 and then attacking from all directions at once. Ooki didn’t know about the extra weapons the Eager Beavers had mounted to their plane, but it wouldn’t matter if he had; there was no way for a single B-17 to survive those odds.
During the first fighter pass the plane was hit by hundreds of machine gun bullets and cannon shells. Five crewman of the B-17 were wounded and the plane badly damaged. All of the wounded men stayed at their stations and were still firing when the fighters came in for a second pass, which caused as much damage as the first. Hydraulic cables were cut, holes the size of footballs appeared in the wings, and the front plexiglas canopy of the plane was shattered.
Zeamer was wounded during the second fighter pass, but kept the plane flying level and took no evasive action until Kendrick called over the intercom that the photography was completed. Only then did he begin to move the plane from side-to-side allowing his gunners better shots, just as the fighters came in for a third wave of attacks. The third pass blew out the oxygen system of the plane, which was flying at 28,000 feet. Despite the obvious structural damage Zeamer put the plane in an emergency dive to get down to a level where there was enough oxygen for them men to survive.
During the dive, a 20mm cannon shell exploded in the navigator’s compartment. Sarnoski, who was already wounded, was blown out of his compartment and beneath the cockpit. Another crewman reached him and saw there was a huge wound in his side. Despite his obviously mortal wound, Sarnoski said, “Don’t worry about me; I’m all right” and crawled back to his gun which was now exposed to 300-mile-an-hour winds since the plexiglass front of the plane was now gone. He shot down one more fighter before he died a minute or two later.
The battle continued for over 40 minutes. The Eager Beavers shot down several fighters and heavily damaged several others. The B-17 was so heavily damaged, however, that they didn’t expect to make the several-hundred-mile-long flight back home. Sarnoski had already died from his wounds. Zeamer had continued piloting the plane despite multiple wounds. Five other men were seriously wounded.
Flight Officer Ooki’s squadron returned to Buka out of ammunition and fuel. They understandably reported the B-17 was destroyed and about to crash in the ocean when they last saw it.
The B-17 didn’t quite crash, though. Zeamer had lost consciousness from loss of blood, but regained it when he was removed from the pilot seat and lay on the floor of the plane. The copilot, Lt. Britton, was the most qualified to care for the wounded and was needed in the back of the plane. One of the gunners, Sergeant Able, had liked to sit in the cockpit behind the pilots and watch them fly. That made him the most qualified of the crewmen; so he flew the plane with Zeamer advising him from the floor while Britton cared for the wounded.
The plane made it back to base. (Britton did return to the cockpit for the landing.) After the landing, the medical triage team had Zeamer removed from the plane last, because they considered his wounds mortal. Amazingly, the one thing on the plane not damaged were the cameras and the photos in them were considered invaluable in planning the invasion of Bougainville.
Epilogue
All of the wounded men recovered, although it was a close thing for Captain Zeamer. In fact, a death notification was sent to his parents somewhat prematurely. He spent the next year in hospitals recovering from his wounds, but lived a long and happy life, passing away at age 88.
Both Zeamer and Sarnovski were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for the mission, the only time in World War II that two men from one plane ever received America’s highest medal for valor in combat. The other members of the crew were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor as an award for bravery.
So, somewhat surprisingly, the most decorated combat flight in U. S. history didn’t take place in a major battle: It was a photo-reconnaissance flight——the flight of ‘old 666′ in June of 1943.
Here’s what was left of “66-” … hard to believe they made it back …
What an incredible piece of history. Gotta love the courage of so-called mis-fits.
What a great story and some fantastic pictures. Thanks brother.
The new librarian decided that instead of checking out children’s books by writing the names of borrowers on the book cards herself, she would have the youngsters sign their own names. She would then tell them they were signing a “Contract” for returning the books on time.
Her first customer was a second grader, who looked surprised to see a new librarian. He brought four books to the desk and shoved them across to the librarian, giving her his name as he did so.
The librarian pushed the books back and told him to sign them out. The boy laboriously printed his name on each book card and then handed them to her with a look of utter disgust.
Before the librarian could even start her speech he said, scornfully, “That other librarian we had could write.”
Here’s another oldie, but goodie…
An old Italian Mafia Don is dying and he called his grandson to his bed. “Grandson I wanna you lisin to me. I want for you to take my chrome plated 38 revolver so you will always remember me.”
“But grandpa I really don’t like guns, how about you leaving me your Rolex watch instead.”
“You lisina to me, soma day you goin a be runna da bussiness, you goina have a beautiful wife, lotsa money, a big home and maybe a couple of bambino.
Soma day you goina coma home and maybe finda you wife in bed with another man. What do you do than? Point to you watch and say TIMES UP?”
Paddy goes into a plumbers and buys a bath.
The next day he returns and tells the manager the water keep pouring out.
“Did you put the plug in?” the manager asks.
“Oh for Pete’s sake’ says paddy, ‘you didn’t tell me it was electric.’
The notion that you can simply “identify as” whatever you wish, and that everybody must instantly accept it and play along 100% without asking any questions, is possibly the stupidest idea in modern society.
My kid wants me to tell China that they should have camouflaged the balloon by painting it blue with clouds and stuff, and since she’s not wrong I’m wondering, do I write a letter or is there a phone number I can call.
Ever since the price of eggs has gone up, chickens have been acting uppity.
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.”
~ Turkish Proverb
There is not too many times that this next one can be shown. Even if it were to be run twice in every episode.
1. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
2. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.
3. The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.
4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
5. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
6. A duck’s quack doesn’t echo. No one knows why.
7. A 2″ X 4″ Stud is really 1-1/2″ by 3-1/2″.
8. During the chariot scene in ‘Ben Hur,’ a small red car can be seen in the distance (and Heston’s wearing a watch).
9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily! (That explains a few mysteries…)
10. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn’t wear pants.
11. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
12. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
13. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple and silver.
14. The name ‘Wendy’ was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded ‘Wendy’ before.
15. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
16. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (Who was the sadist who discovered this??)
17. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down so you could see his moves. That’s the opposite of the norm.
18. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA.’
19. The original name for butterfly was flutterby. (And that is a more accurate description)
20. The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
21. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
22. Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.
23. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
24. Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
25. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. (???)
26. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
27. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, “Elementary, my dear Watson.”
28. An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than three steps backwards while dancing!
29. The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
30. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.
31. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.
32. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!
A woman was taking an afternoon nap.
When she woke up, she told her husband, “I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace. What do you think it means?”
“You’ll know tonight,” he said.
That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened it to find a book
entitled “The Meaning of Dreams.”
There was an elderly couple who in their old age noticed that they were getting a lot more forgetful, so they decided to go to the doctor. The doctor told them that they should start writing things down so they don’t forget.
They went home and the old lady told her husband to get her a bowl of ice cream. “You might want to write it down,” she said. The husband said, “No, I can remember that you want a bowl of ice cream.” She then told her husband she wanted a bowl of ice cream with whipped cream. “Write it down,” she told him, and again he said, “No, no, I can remember: you want a bowl of ice cream with whipped cream.”
Then the old lady said she wants a bowl of ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry on top. “Write it down,” she told her husband and again he said, “No, I got it. You want a bowl of ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry on top.” So he goes to get the ice cream and spends an unusually long time in the kitchen, over 30 minutes. He comes out to his wife and hands her a plate of eggs and bacon.
The wife stares at the plate for a moment, then looks at her husband and asks, “Where’s the toast?”
The graveside service just barely finished, when there was a massive clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous bolt of lightning, accompanied by even more thunder rumbling in the distance…
The little old man looked at the pastor and calmly said, ‘Well, she’s there.’
And that’s it my friends. Love and happiness to you one and all.
Dragon Laffs 
Just ban trains along with my guns and gas stove. There’s an easy answer to everything.
Trains loaded with radioactive material cross the US all the time . . .Ohio could take a hard second place one day!
Thanks.
Especially liked the veteran part.
So many people don’t think about that.