Don Rudolph pitched for the Chicago White Sox. On the back of his 1959 baseball card (in the extended entry), besides his stats they note that Don's wife is a professional dancer. Her name was Pat Wiggin, and professional dancer was a delicate way of saying 'stripper'.

I'm trying to track down a picture of her, but there's a bit of a flame war going on in the vintage erotica newsgroup, hence requests for help are getting lost in the mayhem. I remain hopeful. more...

Posted by: Ted at 05:38 AM | category: History
Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 90 words, total size 1 kb.

I noticed a license plate frame announcing the fact that the driver was a Civil War Reenactor.

I can't believe that it's strictly an American phenomenom, but I've never heard of it happening anywhere else. Are there groups in other parts of the world that reenact historical battles? Waterloo? Agincourt?

I'm curious, gonna go Google...

...found a couple. Here's a site that talks about an annual reenactment of a battle between Christian and Muslim forces in 1091, but it looks to be a small-scale representation held in the city square.

Here's a site that talks about an annual event that includes a reenactment of the WWII D-Day landings, from Lake Erie onto the shore at Conneaut, Ohio. This sounds cool.

I like this next one! The Californian Made Up Battle Reenactment Society recreates historically accurate battles which never actually happened. Among their recent reenactments were: Egyptians vs. Aztecs- The Battle of the Credit for Inventing the Pyramid, England vs. USA - The 1899 Battle of the 'Z' Pronuciation, and France vs. Itself - The 1986 Battle of No Point.

I found a site from the Ukraine that seems to be about a group of military history enthusiasts, but it's heavily under construction and I couldn't find a way to their reenactment pages. It appears that they do a reenactment of the 1812 battle of Borodino between Russian forces and Napoleon's invading army.

And of course, as often happens when Googling, I stumbled across some unexpected treasure: the site for the magnificent State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Very impressive online collection, well worth some time spent browsing.

Search results showed that the vast majority of the reencactments are American Civil War era, although I did find a few from the American Revolutionary War and some from other countries.

Posted by: Ted at 07:11 AM | category: History
Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 303 words, total size 2 kb.

Yep, he was a cowboy, both in the movies and in real life.

My military service was essentially under two presidents: President Carter and President Reagan. There was a brief period at the beginning under President Ford, and an even shorter time under the senior President Bush.

When President Reagan took the helm, there was a noticable difference in the armed forces. Our Commander in Chief truly believed in us, and we had to live up to his expectations. To him, the military wasn't the backup plan or last option to be played, it was another tool for implementing policy, and few Presidents ever wielded a tool with greater precision or confidence.

Besides the material measures of the strengthening of the US Military, I think his greatest achievment was the rejuvination of the spirit of the armed forces. That may also be, ultimately, the longest lasting effect, because despite the advanced technology and methods employed, the future of the United States rests, as it always has, directly on the shoulders of the men and women who make up the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. A realistic look at history will show that America has never been more secure than it is right now. We can still be hurt, but we are farther from the possibility of our complete downfall than at any previous time in our 200+ years.

Well done, President Reagan.

Posted by: Ted at 07:34 AM | category: History
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 244 words, total size 2 kb.

Iraq isn't Vietnam all over again, but there's more in common with WWII than you might realize. Check out this interesting piece from Alan E. Brain (posted at The Command Post too).

Posted by: Ted at 11:48 AM | category: History
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 38 words, total size 1 kb.