Post-Christian United Kingdom

King Charles, Defender of the Faith, will not be giving an Easter message this year.  However, King Charles issued a Ramadan greeting this year.  Though Muslims remain a minority and Christians a majority, the government of the UK certainly appears to cater toward the former rather than the latter.  The capitol city has had a Muslim mayor - Sadiq Khan - for ten years.  John Cleese of Monty Python fame long ago stated that London was no longer an English city.  At this point, demographics will overwhelm the UK.  Migrants have far more kids than natives, paid for at taxpayer expense.  The decline is clear as day and the government encourages it despite the voters.

The Letters of Barna Upton

Barna Upton was born in 1820.  He grew up on a farm in Massachusetts.  In 1845, he joined the US Army.  Though not a diarist, he wrote regularly to his family.  The collected letters were reviewed by William Goetzmann in 1966 and he published selected ones in American Heritage.

Barna's correspondence began in February 1845 while he was enrolled in basic training on Governor's Island, NY.  He was there at the same time as George Ballantine.  Where George was sent to Rhode Island, Upton found himself in Louisianna at Fort Jessup.  The annexation of Texas was underway and Fort Jessup had served to maintain the Texas (Mexico) & Louisianna (United States) border since 1822.  The new president, James K Polk, had ordered a buildup of troops in case of trouble and Private Upton of the Third Infantry was among them.  General Zachary Taylor was in command.

In July, the army was ordered into Texas.  The annexation was complete and work on statehood had begun.  As such, the US Army moved to Corpus Christi.  In March 1846, Barna marched south to the Rio Grande.  There, he took part in both the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.  In the first, he mostly watched the artillery pound the Mexican lines and the calvary maneuver to no effect.  At Resaca, he charged into the fray and shot a man.  He related these details while in Matamoros and hoped it was the last fight he would have.  No such luck.  He took part in the toughest fighting at Monterrey, avoiding serious injury thanks to his leather cartridge bag absorbing a bullet.

General Winfield Scott confiscated most of the regular troops from General Taylor and landed them south of Vera Cruz.  Barna's part in the Siege of Vera Cruz was mostly as an observer.  The tone of his letters has changed.  Where his early letters indicated that he was content with his life as a soldier, his later ones show that he is eager to go back to the farm.  He had seen enough death, but he had more to go.  He charged up the hill at Cerro Gordo, and fought extensively during the taking of Mexico City.  At the very last battle where the US Army breached the city gates, Barna Upton suffered a mortal wound.  He died on October 15, 1847.

His last letter - or the last one that Goetzmann provides - was from Puebla in August 1847.  In it, he announce that the army was marching to Mexico City and states "...if my life is spared, I will write to you..."

One odd thing that Barna added to many of his letters was that the climate was healthful wherever he was.  This is an unusual claim, since disease was the top killer of US troops throughout the war.  One supposes that he was trying to assure his family that he was well despite what new reports might say.  Then again, disease was far more rampant among the volunteer regiments than the regulars; regulars maintained better hygiene and thus suffered less from diseases.

Like Ballantine, this is an account of an enlisted man.  It is a brief read and recommended.

Night Train to Lisbon (2013)

One rainy morning in Bern, Switzerland, Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) was rushing to work when he spotted a young woman about to jump off a bridge.  He tackled her, preventing her from suicide, and then escorted her to his classroom.  She sat in the room briefly before fleeing.  Raimund saw that she had left her coat.  He grabbed it and went to find her; she was gone.  He checked the bridge but did not see her body in the river below.  He found a book in her coat and began reading it.  There was a train ticket enclosed.  On the spur of the moment, he went to the train station and took that train to Lisbon.

In Lisbon, Raimund sought the author of the book, a man named Amadeu Prado.  It turned out that he had died in 1974.  Raimund set about interviewing those who knew him and, in the process, discovering Amadeu's role in fighting the Salazar Regime.

This is a story told out of order.  Each person offers a part of the story that may come before, after, or coincident with parts already revealed.  All of this is in flashback.  As such, each part is played by two actors, the young one and the old one.  No aging makeup here.  He chatted with Amadeu's sister (Charlotte Rampling), his priest (Christopher Lee), Joao from the Resistance, his best friend Jorge, and the mystery woman, Estefania (Lena Olin).  If he took notes, he could write a biography.  Would it have been easier to just tell the story of Amadeu without this framing of Raimund's awkward investigation?  Maybe.  Then again, by framing it this way, we see the contrast between their fiery youth and their sunset years, providing an opportunity to explore the long-term impact of their actions.

I had started the book in 2019.  I was traveling to Portugal that summer.  The book did not hold me.  I put it down after 100 pages or so and never picked it up again.  Seeing the movie, I'm not suddenly interested in finishing the book.

The movie is just okay.

You Can't Win 'Em All (1970)

In 1922, Adam Dyer (Tony Curtis) futilely bailed water from his sinking ship.  The Achilles was a small vessel, hardly more than a rowboat with a mast.  Luckily, he spotted a passing ship and climbed aboard.  Josh Corey (Charles Bronson) demanded payment for the rescue at the point of a revolver.  Looking back at the Achilles as it vanished into the Aegean Sea, Adam had no choice.  He paid 500 in gold to be allowed aboard the Cybele.  Exhausted, he fell asleep in the wheelhouse.  When he awoke sometime later, there was no one at that wheel.  The crew - two Greeks - were sneaking up on Josh with weapons!  Adam intervened and saved Josh's life.  However, he reclaimed his gold and set Josh adrift in a rowboat.  This would not be the last encounter between the two.

Adam was headed to Turkey to recover a ship that belonged to his family; it had been seized during the Great War.  Josh was rendezvousing with his band of mercenaries to earn some quick cash from the Sultan.  The pair were roped into escorting an Ottoman train to Smyrna under the watchful eye of Colonel Elci (Fikret Hakan).  The train is full of precious cargo: three of Osman Bey's daughters, several crates of gold, a suitcase full of jewels, and the scheming yet beautiful Aila (Michele Mercier).  With Greeks and rebels between them and Adam's ship, could they get through?

I would never have thought to put Curtis and Bronson together, but they have good chemistry.  Curtis' smart aleck charm contrasts nicely with Bronson's sharp edges and serious demeanor.  The problem is the script.  It is too busy.  Among the characters who set out, there is a constant back and forth on who is going to betray whom and what new alliances form as the situation changes.  Then there are the external threats from rebel soldiers who repeatedly attack.  Then there is the constantly shifting MacGuffin: is it the Bey's daughters, the crates of gold, the case of jewels, or something else entirely?  Though most of the mercenaries and Ottomans die along the way, the movie wraps up like a screwball comedy.  Huh?

As far as history, there was indeed a civil war in Turkey in 1922.  There you go, that is about all the history this imparts.  The Turkish government was unimpressed by the final product and banned it from distribution in Turkey.

Just okay.

Back to Middle-Earth

New films in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth are in production.

The Hunt for Gollum is being directed by Gollum himself, Andy Serkis.  After Bilbo had left the Shire but before Frodo went on his quest to destroy the One Ring, Gandalf gave Aragorn the task of finding Gollum, the previous owner of the One Ring, lest he inform Sauron that it was in the Shire.  A fan film was made in 2009.  The basis for the story can be found in the appendix of Return of the King, putting it on more solid ground than other recent Middle-earth movies and series.

Shadow of the Past will lift 6 unused chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring and create a stand-alone story from it.  The chapters in question are Three is Company, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, A Company Unmasked, The Old Forest, In the House of Tom Bombadil, and Fog on the Barrow-Downs.  These chapters detail Frodo's initial travels to Bree, which the movies abbreviated with a surprise meeting of Pippin and Merry and a hair-raising encounter with the Ring Wraiths.

Stephen Colbert, a Tolkien fanboy, has been recruited to write the screenplay.  In a presentation with Peter Jackson, he explained how he wanted to revive those 6 chapters but also respect the movies.  Therefore, fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, Sam Gamgee, his daughter Elanor, Merry, and Pippin retrace their route to Bree and have the adventures that were missed.  Elanor?  The feminization of Middle-earth continues.  The Rings of Power is all Galadriel, The War of the Rohirrim is more interested in Helm Hammerhand's daughter, Hera, and now we have Sam's daughter, Elanor.

Jackson should have called it quits on adapting Tolkien after Lord of the Rings.  His Hobbit Trilogy was over-stuffed with scenes not in the book.  Really, The Hobbit was the shortest book and somehow got stretched into three movies?  Now he's picking lines out of the appendices to expand into movies or using an insert character for Frodo to tell a tale he nixed from the LOTR trilogy as it was basically a side quest.  I can hardly wait for the Cow jumped over the Moon song from the Prancing Pony to get an animated short movie.  Grasping?

Not excited to see.

Alabama Regiment missed the Fighting

No sooner was the war declared than Alabama raised a regiment.  By June 1846, approximately 900 volunteers gathered in Mobile.  There was not enough room on the steamship for all of them, so only 8 of the 10 companies set out, the other two waiting for another transport.  The 1st Regiment of Alabama Volunteers arrived at Brazos Santiago on July 4th and were soon encamped on the beach.  After a few days, they relocated to Camp Belknap, a mile or so inland.  A few weeks passed where men became sick with dysentery before the regiment was sent to Camargo.  Camargo proved to be less hospitable still, a dusty, sweltering region that didn't benefit from a sea breeze.  At long last, General Taylor set the army to marching to Monterrey, but the Alabama Regiment was left behind as a garrison.  The Alabama men were disappointed.  Many of the wilder soldiers ravaged the locals, triggering reprisals that left some Alabama volunteers dead.

In November, the US Navy captured Tampico and wanted the army to garrison it.  Taylor dispatched the Alabama Regiment, among others.  The regiment was posted there until February, when General Scott included them among his forces for a landing at Vera Cruz.  Thus, in March, the Alabama Regiment landed on the beaches south of Vera Cruz and took part in the siege of that city.  Mostly, the regiment sat on its thumbs while US Artillery pummeled the city into submission.

While General Scott directed the majority of the army inland toward Mexico City, the Alabama Regiment was part of an expedition to Alvarado.  General Quitman was to coordinate with Commodore Perry in the capture of the port city.  However, upon arrival, it was discovered that the city had already surrendered to the USS Scourge and there was no battle to be had.  General Quitman led his forces back to Vera Cruz and then followed Scott inland.  They arrived at the Battlefield of Cerro Gordo several days after the battle.  Soon after, the regiment arrived in Jalapa.

As their 1-year terms were about to expire, General Scott asked the volunteers to extend their enlistments.  Few, if any, did.  The Alabama Regiment was sent back to Vera Cruz where it found passage to New Orleans.  Of the 900 men who set out from Alabama, only 550 made this return journey from Vera Cruz.  Many had been discharged for illness throughout the year and 150 had died.

An excellent account of the Alabama Regiment is available here.  Recommended.

Jake Speed (1986)

Maureen Winston was traveling Europe.  She was partying in Paris when a pair of goons broke in and absconded with her and another girl.  Back in the United States, her family consulted with government officials, but it looked hopeless.  Mr. Winston (Monte Markham) blamed his other daughter, Margaret (Karen Kopins) for convincing him to let Maureen travel.  Grandpa Winston argued that it was a waste of time to talk to government authorities.  This was a job for Mac Bolan, Remo Williams, or Jake Speed.  Everyone shook their heads at the crazy old man and his heroes from pulp fiction.

Soon after, Margaret found a note instructing her to go to a dive bar at midnight if she wanted to find her sister.  Desperate, she and her roommate, Wendy (Donna Pescow), went.  There they met Jake Speed (Wayne Crawford) and his sidekick/chronicler, Desmond Floyd (Dennis Christopher).  In order to rescue Maureen, they needed Margaret to meet them in Africa.  Though strongly advised against it, Margaret flew to an African nation in the midst of a civil war.  No sooner does she join them than she begins to have doubts.  Why was she sharing a room with Speed?  Why did he want her in a cocktail dress for an outing?  Why are two men bidding for her as if she was for sale?!

The movie supposes that the pulp fiction heroes are real and the novels are exaggerated accounts of their adventures.  Jake proves to be a seat-of-his-pants kind of guy who finds that all of his plans disintegrate and usually leave him worse off.  In addition to playing the lead, Crawford was a writer and producer.  He took the lead because they couldn't get anyone else to take the role.  Dennis Christopher was not suited for an action film.  He looks out of place throughout the movie.  Karen Kopins has a few moments, but the script is quite unfriendly.  She is stuck being panicked, anxious, or terrified for most of the film.  John Hurt proves to be the villain - a white slaver named Sid, though he shows up rather late in the film.  Sid and Speed are familiar with one another, bantering like old chums who now hate each other.

The pacing is slow.  There is entirely too much time of Speed and Margaret sitting here and sitting there with her being suspicious and him being indifferent.  To show Speed just how dangerous he is, Sid kept killing his own men.  The various soldiers fighting the civil war prove to be terrible shots, unable to hit any of the important characters.  Overall, the movie doesn't know what it wants to be.  Sometimes it's a comedy, sometimes it's an action adventure, sometimes it's a parody of pulp fiction novels, but it never settles into a groove.  Choppy.

Intended to be the first in a series of Jake Speed adventures, this bombed and killed future installments.  Mediocre.  Skip.

Happy 95th Birthday!

Today, William Shatner turns 95 years old and he's still working.  In fact, Shatner is a workaholic.  In his 70+ year career, he has been a headliner in a dozen TV series, some successful (Star Trek, TJ Hooker, Boston Legal), some not so successful (For the People, Barbary Coast, $#*! My Dad Says) and some that didn't get beyond the pilot (Nero Wolfe, Alexander the Great).  He starred in one of the most memorable episodes of The Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.  In addition to acting, he has hosted many shows such as Shatner's Raw Nerve, Rescue 911, Full Moon Fright Night, and Weird of What?  Then there are the books.  He has written almost a dozen biographical books that, of course, mostly focus on his time with Star Trek.  He's written a dozen Star Trek novels.  Then there is the TekWar series from the late 80s and into the 90s that spawned a TV series.  Yes, he starred in that TV series too.  When not acting or writing, he is a noted equestrian; yes, he wrote a book about horses too.  Oh, and he's been to space.  His credits on IMDb are vast and diversified: actor, director, writer, producer.

Shatner will forever be most identified as Captain Kirk, much as Sean Connery is always remembered as James Bond.  However, Denny Crane is a close second.

Happy Birthday!

Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)

In the deserts of Texas near El Paso, a band of thieves drive a herd of horses into a corral.  Nearby, several state police officers prepare to arrest the rustlers.  It goes badly when the rustlers outmaneuver the police and quickly surround them.  Before the lead rustler can kill the police, Ranger J.J. McQuade (Chuck Norris) entered the fray.  In short order, he dispatched the rustlers and rescued the police officers.  One officer, Arcadio Ramos (Robert Beltran), is particularly grateful.  Upon returning to the office in El Paso, his captain (R.G. Armstrong) upbraided him for his slovenly appearance and Lone Wolf antics.  He was assigned a partner, none other than Arcadio "Kayo" Ramos.

Happenstance at a horse racetrack led to a meeting with Lola Richardson (Barbara Carrera) and her business partner, Rawley Wilkes (David Carradine).  Wilkes was a former Karate champion and McQuade was widely known for his hand-to-hand prowess.  Though tempers flared and both displayed their martial arts skills, Lola prevented them from fighting one another; that must wait for the finale.  It was now clear that Wilkes is the bad guy and Lola the love interest.

The movie plays like a Spaghetti Western and has a soundtrack that feels like it came from a Sergio Leone film.  There are several characters who follow standard tropes.  Dakota (LQ Jones) is the old veteran who is a reliable ally and doomed to die.  Kayo is the greenhorn youth who follows the hero and matures into a hero himself.  Snow (William Sanderson) is the sniveling snitch who reveals the plans of the villain and provides for some initial action in the investigation.  Sally is McQuade's daughter who is repeatedly entangled in the story and needs rescuing.  Of course, there are training montages and travel montages, accompanied by a powerful musical score.

The same year this appeared in theaters, Barbara Carrera was also opposite Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again.  In that, she was an over-the-top femme fatale.  In both movies, she dies.  Tough year for her characters but a high point in her career.

As David Carradine was best remembered for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu, there was much excitement over his match with Karate World Champion Norris.  Norris commented that Carradine's martial arts was about as good as Norris's acting.  Nice.

Great popcorn fun and recommended.

Damnation Alley

Hell Tanner rode his Harley toward the Mexican border, but there was soon police pursuit.  The Harley was fast, but the roadblock ahead stopped him.  The police handled him with kid gloves, needing him intact and healthy.  Returning to LA in a bizarre storm that saw rocks plunging from the sky, they arrived in time to take cover.  Denton was disappointed.  Tanner had agreed to drive to Boston in exchange for being released from prison.

It is the post-apocalypse, and the world is drastically changed.  The skies are purple or black with wild weather that prevents flight and most radio communication.  There are only pockets of humanity remaining, notably Los Angeles and Boston.  However, it is almost impossible to travel from one to the other.  The irradiated middle has come to be called Damnation Alley.  A man from Boston recently made that trip and then died from radiation poisoning.  Boston is suffering a plague and needs a serum that LA has.

Tanner drives one of three cars headed to Boston.  Car is a misnomer.  It is more like a tank with missile racks, flamethrowers, machine guns, and heavy armor plating.  The vehicles set out with a planned first stop in Salt Lake City.  They are assailed by lines of tornadoes, huge bats, snakes that are gargantuan, volcanos spewing radioactivity, near impenetrable hedges, and bandits.  On top of that, Denton gave orders to burn Tanner if he tried to run away again.

The book is very different from the movie.  Where the movie has Denton and Tanner traveling to Albany, NY with some notion of joining a surviving community, this has Tanner on a mission of mercy.  Where the book Tanner is a criminal on a journey of redemption, movie Tanner is just some guy who happened to survive the apocalypse and rides a motorcycle.

Several chapters of the book detail the deteriorating situation in Boston as the plague wipes out the population.  Each chapter follows someone else, giving it no connection.  Here is the story of how this character died.  Here is a preacher offering a sermon while a bell in the background rings with each death.  Who would set up such a bell?  When Tanner finally gets there, he meets none of the characters detailed in these Boston chapters.  Annoying.

The bike gangs were also an oddity.  Tanner encountered a bike gang, which operates as road bandits like in Mad Max, but that doesn't make much sense.  With the lethal weather, motorcycles look to be the worst road option.  During an encounter with a bike gang, Tanner absolutely mauled them with missiles, machine guns, flamethrowers, and grenades.  Despite 90% casualties, the bikers kept coming!  Really?  Yes, at that point, the willing suspension of disbelief snapped for me.

I was reminded of scenes from Steven King's The Talisman and The Black Tower series.  His alternate universe also had characters traversing an irradiated wasteland between California and New England.  Was this book an inspiration for him?

Just okay.

Good Guys Wear Black (1978)

It is 1973 and the Paris Peace Talks are underway between the United States and Vietnam.  The Vietnamese legation has requested that lead negotiator, Conrad Morgan (James Franciscus), approve the death of CIA operatives currently in captivity.  Instead, he had a meeting with CIA Agent Murray Saunders (Lloyd Haynes) and suggested a rescue operation in the next 48 hours.

In Vietnam, Major John T Booker (Chuck Norris) and his elite commando squad known as the Black Tigers climb into a Huey.  The team arrived at the site and quickly infiltrated.  No sooner had they determined that no POWs were present than Viet Kong attacked.  Not only were many of the Black Tigers killed, but the pickup helicopters never arrived.  Abandoned, the remaining Black Tigers had to trek through the jungles to escape.

In 1978, Margaret (Anne Archer) approached Booker and asked him about that last mission.  Of course, it was classified yet she somehow knew more about it than he did.  Moreover, Agent Saunders contacted Booker and revealed that someone is killing the surviving Black Tigers.  With the mysterious Margaret at his side, Booker set out to warn the remaining Tigers and uncover whoever was killing them.

This was the first Chuck Norris film I saw.  Of course, it was absolutely awesome; I was 11.  Watching it today, it is still a lot of fun, but it is short on martial arts.  After this film, I was a fan of his and saw a string of his movies over the next several years.  Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) was by far my favorite Chuck Norris film.  Walker, Texas Ranger was an outgrowth of that movie.  I was a consistent watcher of that show for the first couple seasons.  His last noteworthy movie appearance was in The Expendables 2 (2012) where he played a legendary mercenary, Booker the Lone Wolf.  That was one of the all-time great cameos. 

Chuck Norris died this morning at the age of 86.  RIP

Fackham Hall (2025)

It is 1931 and Humphrey Davenport (Damien Lewis) has a problem.  All his sons - John, Paul, George, and Ringo - died in various tragic accidents, leaving no direct heir to the family estate, Fackham Hall.  His nephew, Archibald Davenport (Tom Felton), will inherit, leaving his wife and two daughters homeless. He will resolve this quandary by having his younger daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), marry Archibald.  Meanwhile, wily Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) is something of an Artful Dodger in London.  He has grown up in an orphanage, where he still resides.  Upon returning from his antics in the city, a lawyer offered him the princely sum of one pound to deliver a letter to Lord Davenport at Fackham Hall.  En route, he ran into - literally - Rose Davenport (Thomasin McKenzie), Poppy's elder sister and presumed spinster.  Meet cute, followed by slapstick comedy.  Upon arriving at Fackham Hall, Eric is mistaken for a job applicant, which he accepts, and completely forgets the letter he was to deliver.  I'm sure it was nothing important.

This is Downton Abbey as slapstick, goofball comedy.  One of the wedding guests is none other than JRR Tolkien "the Writer!" who finds plenty of inspiration for his writing.  Jimmy Carr plays the town vicar who must have forgotten all the punctuation in his sermons: "You may kiss the choir boys...  You may kiss.  The choir boys will now sing."  The Bechdel sisters who do nothing but talk about men and a desire to marry was a funny gag.  Of particular note, I did not recognize Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton); he looks quite different and Archibald is entirely unlike Draco.  At one point, it is mentioned that Archibald's older brother, Nathaniel, was presumed killed in the Great War; a flashback shows a grinning toddler in a British uniform standing in the trenches.  Yes, they were so young in the war.

Silly popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez was a labor organizer for farm workers who morphed into a civil rights leader for Chicanos.  He died in 1993.  As a union leader and civil rights activist, he was held in high esteem among Democrats.  Unsurprisingly, over the last 33 years, many streets, parks, schools, and libraries have been named in his honor.  His birthday, March 31st, is a holiday in California, Denver (CO), and Texas.  Now, more than 30 years after his death, it has suddenly been revealed that he sexually abused young women and girls.  One of his prime allies during his life - Dolores Huerta - has stated that she was raped by him 60 years ago.

No sooner has this been announced than marches and holidays in his honor are canceled and talk runs to changing the names of streets, parks, schools, etc.  The speed at which he went from hero to monster is breathtaking.  It is as if everyone knew all along and, now that it is out in the open, honors must be stripped.  There is no one on the other side arguing on his behalf.  Well, he has been dead for 30 years.  Why now?  Dolores is 96 years old and never thought to say anything in the last 33 years?

One reason why Chavez's fall from grace is unopposed is because it is the left that is tearing him down.  He was never a hero to Republicans or the right.  The Democrats are tearing down one of their heroes and the Republicans will just shrug.  Again, why now?

Cesar Chavez was adamantly opposed to illegal immigration.  Illegal immigrants were a thorn in the side of his labor efforts.  Farms were only too eager to hire low-wage illegals rather than unionized Americans.  In those days, it was possible to be anti-immigration and a Democrat.  That combination is no longer valid.  Chavez held views that are antithetical to the modern Democratic Party and some on the right have brought up Chavez to argue against illegal immigration.  That is surely vexing.

Next year will be Cesar Chavez's 100th birthday.  Would it be a day to denounce illegal immigration?  Better to take that birthday off the calendar than risk having a famous Hispanic Democrat as a symbol for the opposition.  Yes, it was time to cancel Chavez.

My Confession: The Recollections of a Rogue

Samuel Chamberlain was a boy from Boston with a grand sense of adventure.  He viewed himself as a romantic hero right out of the pages of a novel.  He wooed the ladies, clobbered the bullies, and traveled to his next adventure.  Is his autobiography just so much nonsense and self-promotion?  Oddly, a lot of it proved to be true.

Sam was an artistic lad whose father died when Sam was 14.  His wild streak began shortly thereafter.  Being more trouble than not, he went west to live with his uncle in Illinois.  Before long, he was fighting with his cousin, which caused his uncle to come at him with an axe!  Sam fled to Louisianna, where he became an accountant.  An affair with another man's wife sent him flying back to Illinois.  He had hardly arrived when there was a call for volunteers to go to war in Mexico.  Though only 16 years-old, Sam joined immediately.  He traveled to Texas with an Illinois Volunteer Regiment, but he didn't get along well with the command structure.  In San Antonio, he joined the Dragoons and found himself marching with General Wool to Monclova.  Being something of a hellion (his horse's name was Lucifer!), he found himself in several scrapes, sometimes with other troops, sometimes with Mexican guerrillas, and frequently on account of senioritas.

In December 1846, General Wool marched to support General Taylor at Saltillo.  There was a rumor that a grand army was marching north.  The army arrived in February and General Santa Anna attacked.  Samuel Chamberlain joined his first battle, the most epic one of the war: The Battle of Buena Vista.  The Dragoons didn't see a lot of action, but they were posted as sentinels during the breaks.  As action began on the 21st, expanded on the 22nd, and concluded on the 23rd, there was a need for lookouts during the nights.  Thus, Sam was posted between the two armies to be aware of night attacks.  Needless to say, he didn't get a lot of sleep.  It is a very different view of the battle where he spent much of it idle.

For the remainder of the war, he fought guerrillas and wooed the ladies.  When the war ended, he stayed in the service to head to California.  Halfway through the march, he deserted and joined a notorious band of scalp hunters.  Scalp hunters killed Apache and sold the scalps to Mexican authorities; it was a method of curbing the depredations that the Apache committed against the Mexicans.  Sam's tale of adventure ends in the California deserts between Yuma and the Salton Sea.

Like a good James Bond movie, Chamberlain had a new love interest in each adventure.  There was his true love in Boston, the woman met on the coach heading to Illinois, the girls at an all-girl school in Illinois, the married woman in Louisianna, and on and on.  Each is more beautiful than the last, but dreams of happily-ever-after are always foiled by circumstances.  Though the autobiography is built on actual incidents, his love life is almost certainly wishful thinking.

Chamberlain went on to become a general in the Civil War and lived until 1908.  Of note, his book and the many sketches and watercolors that accompanied it, was not published until 1956.  Doubtless, this book was an inspiration for George MacDonald Frazer's Flashman Papers.

Here is a great read with plenty of action, adventure, and romance.  Highly recommended.

Charley Varrick (1973)

A yellow car with an older man and a younger woman pulled up to the bank.  It has hardly stopped than a cop arrived and announced that it was a no parking zone.  The gray-haired man declared that he had a broken ankle.  The officer nodded and let it slide.  The old man went into the bank and, no sooner did the bank manager come to look at the check than the old man drew a gun.  Two other patrons - wearing masks - also drew guns.  Outside, the cop returned and the woman shot him.  A gunbattle erupted both inside and outside the bank.  Only two of the three robbers got out of the bank and the getaway driver rammed an arriving cop car off the road and floored it as they left town.

Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau) pulled off his old man disguise and Harman Sullivan (Andrew Robinson) removed his mask.  They had hardly arrived at the secondary escape car when Nadine (Jacqueline Scott) died from a bullet wound.  She really was Charley's wife.  The remaining robbers drove away in a van, arriving at Charley's mobile home.  When they counted the money, they knew something was wrong.  They had expected no more than $30,000; they had three-quarters of a million!  While Harman was elated, Charley knew that it must be mafia money and that they were dead men.

Maynard Boyle (John Vernon) received the call from the bank manager.  Unless he recovered that money, he was a dead man.  He knew just who to put on the case: Molly.  Molly (Joe Don Baker) was a man who could not be stopped.  He made his way to the little bank in New Mexico and began to track down the robbers.

How could Charley get away with the money while also guaranteeing that the mafia wouldn't forever be a threat?  He'd need to stay ahead of Molly, keep Harman from exposing them, and convince everyone that he was a dead man.

The story is terrific, but Walter Matthau is too likable to be as coldblooded as Charley.  He is over his wife's death before the day is out.  Once we learn about her background, it looks out of character for her to start shooting cops with wild abandon.  Wasn't this their first bank robbery?  Joe Don Baker is great as a grinning hitman, a villain who easily terrifies by his mere size and presence.

Recommended.

Dragged Across Concrete (2018)

Detective Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) crouched on a fire escape outside a window when he heard someone coming up the metal steps.  It proved to be his partner, Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn).  They briefly bantered and noticed a nearby neighbor watching them.  Soon, they heard a knock, and the third cop was there to flush out the perp.  Sure enough, Vasquez crawled out the window only to find himself handcuffed and interrogated.  All seemed great but the neighbor filmed it and sent it to the news.  It didn't look good.  A six-week suspension followed.

Henry Johns (Tory Kittles) was fresh out of prison and found his mother turning tricks to pay the rent while his younger brother played computer games.  His pal, Biscuit (Michael Jai White), had a job.  Henry was willing but made sure to have some guns wrapped in cellophane.  "Why's that?" Biscuit wanted to know.  Sometimes, you don't have time to put on gloves.

Ridgeman lived in a bad neighborhood and his daughter was frequently harassed.  It was only a matter of time before she was of an age to get raped.  His wife was disabled.  He needed to score some money to get them out of the neighborhood.  He got a tip about a heist from a man who owed him.  Roping Lurasetti into the caper, the pair spent several days watching for Lorentz Vogelmann (Thomas Kretschmann).  Eventually, a pair of black men picked him up and drove off.  Brett and Tony followed.

The movie proves to be quite violent at times.  Vogelmann's goons, masked men in black who are differentiated only by the color of their gloves, proved to be killing machines.  When each is introduced, a couple of corpses are left in their wake.  At no point do they take off their masks.  Henry and Biscuit are brought into the crew as driver and spotter.  Of course, the suspended cops and the bank robbers will have a confrontation.

By the same man who wrote and directed Bone Tomahawk, the menace of the gloved men reminds one of the mysterious cannibal Indians from that movie.  Though Henry and Brett are the main characters, neither is particularly likable.  Brett is a cop who has gotten more jaded with each passing year, inured to inflicting violence on criminals.  Henry is a criminal, but he has a code of ethics.  He proves to be the best at seeing all the moving parts despite being relegated to a minor role.

Slow and plodding with moments of intense violence.  Meh.  Just okay.

Fargo (Season 1)

It was winter in Minnesota and a car sped down an empty highway in the middle of the night.  Suddenly, a deer was in the road.  The collision left the deer mortally wounded and the car in a ditch on the side of the road.  Then, the trunk popped open and a man dressed in boxers fled through a snowy field and into the nearby woods.  The driver, Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), awoke to find a bloody wound on his forehead.

Lester Nygard (Martin Freeman) was a mousy insurance salesman in Bemidji, Minnesota.  While walking down the street, he encountered Sam Hess.  Hess used to bully him in school and decided to relive the good old days.  Shortly thereafter, Lester was in the emergency room for his injuries.  He happened be next to a man with a head wound, none other than Lorne Malvo.  Upon hearing Lester's story, Lorne claimed that he would have killed the man.  In fact, would Lester like Malvo to kill Hess?  Lester dithered but called 'Yes' to the nurse when she summoned him.  It was a fateful yes.

Sheriff Thurman was called away from the frozen naked man in the forest to the corpse of Sam Hess at a strip club.  Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) had some keen insights and Thurman viewed her as his natural successor when he retired.  Molly linked the frozen man to the man with the head wound to Lester Nygard to Sam Hess.  It was all connected.  Though she wanted to interview Lester, the Sheriff went.  He arrived at the Nygard house to find that Lester had murdered his wife.  Before he could take action, Malvo arrived and killed him with a shotgun!

Now Lester must convince the police that he was a victim.  Malvo was only passing through Bemidgi on his way to Duluth. His car wrecked earlier, he took Lester's.  A tangled web is thus woven; it is up to Bemidji Deputy Solverson and Duluth Officer Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) to unwind the threads and find the solution to the murders.  However, it gets much worse, as Sam was connected to a criminal organization who sent some fixers to find and kill his murderer.

An outstanding series with lots of interlinking storylines and interesting characters.  Billy Bob Thornton is outstanding as an agent of chaos, a man who causes trouble for the sake of causing trouble.  His Duluth job was to solve a blackmail scheme, but he instead took over when he uncovered the culprit.  Though a slight fellow, Thornton imbued Malvo with an astonishing level of menace and danger.  Really terrific villain.  By contrast, Martin Freeman begins as the most wimpy of characters but evolves into a conniving rat who sells out anyone to protect himself.  Allison Tolman felt like a retread of Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), going so far as to be pregnant for the climax.  Key & Peele star as a pair of FBI agents out of Fargo who are on the trail of Lorne Malvo.  They proved to be quite funny, more because it is them than any of their actions and dialogue.  Bob Odenkirk plays the new sheriff who is in way over his head and won't listen to Molly's theories. Keith Carradine plays Molly's father, a former cop who now runs a diner; he has a limp that ended his career.  Oliver Platt plays the blackmail victim and is also a man who, back in 1996, discovered a bag of a million dollars on the side of the road (see Fargo movie).  A terrific cast for an excellent ten episodes of dark comedy and crime thriller.

Throughout the series, there are several references to a dark event that led to Molly's father's injury, among other things.  This proved to be foreshadowing for season 2.

Highly recommended.

An English Soldier in the United States Army

In the summer of 1845, George Ballantine arrived in New York.  Born in Scotland, skilled as a weaver, and a veteran of the British Army, he sought work.  His best offer was to become a whaler, which did not appeal to him.  Instead, he joined the US Army.  He details his life as a soldier from induction at Governor's Island in New York, to his training at Fort Adams in Rhode Island, his transfer to Fort Pickens at Pensacola, then to Tampa Bay.  The Mexican-American War began less than a year after he joined.

Corporal Ballantine served in the First Artillery Regiment, Company I.  The regiment was sent to Tampico, Mexico, as part of General Winfield Scott's invasion force.  In February 1847, the regiment has shipped south but did not land until March 9.  To George's surprise, the Mexicans did not contest the landing on the beaches south of Vera Cruz.  Assigned to General David "Old Davey" Twiggs Division, he took part in the siege of Vera Cruz, and the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec.

Where most of the memoirs of the war were written by officers (q.v., Lt. Francis Collins, Lt. Henry Benham, Lt. John Hollingsworth, Lt. Harvey Neville, Lt. Albert Brackett), this one was written by a man in the ranks.  As such, it has a very different point of view.  He discusses the discomforts of a soldier's life, the frequent waiting even during the heat of battle, the harsh punishments meted out by officers which contributed to the high desertion rate, the high mortality rate from illness, and the constant quest for alcohol.

Occasionally, he discusses the generals.  He indicates that the men liked Old Davey, but also knew he was not much of a strategist.  Had General Patterson not intervened to prevent it, Twiggs intended to throw his division into a frontal assault at Cerro Gordo.  The men knew it would result in heavy casualties, but Twiggs was raring to go.  When Scott arrived the following day, he sent scouts to find a way around the Mexican strong points.  The men knew that Scott was stingy with their lives, thus his popularity despite his Fuss and Feathers reputation.

Very readable and highly recommended.

A Man Called Horse (1970)

It was 1825 and John Morgan (Richard Harris) was a bored English lord.  Being a noble with a military commission and inherited wealth wasn't for him.  No, he had resigned his commission and left England.  In lieu of wealth and status, he was shooting "prairie chickens" in the wilds of North America with toothless bumpkins who served as his guides.  Even this had become tedious.  No sooner had he declared his intent to return to St. Louis than a band of Sioux warriors fell upon his camp.  The chief, Yellow Hand (Manu Tupou), took his as a slave.  He described him as no different from a horse, and thus he was thereafter called Shunkawakan, which means horse.

Morgan was ill-treated by the tribe, and his every attempt at escape was easily thwarted.  Soon he discovered an ally among the Sioux; Batise (Jean Gascon), another slave who was fluent in English, French, and Sioux.  From Batise, he learned how to survive.  From his own grit, he learned how to thrive.  In time, he was embraced by the tribe, rising to a valued member.  He was initiated by the Vow to the Sun and married Yellow Hand's sister, Running Deer (Corinna Tsopei).  So satisfying had his life become, all thoughts of escape vanished.

Here is a movie that long predates Dances with Wolves, another movie where a white man adopts Sioux ways.  Historically, there are many examples of whites being captured - mostly as children - by various tribes and then being raised among them.  A contemporary movie, Little Big Man (1970), saw comical take on the white man among the Cheyenne.  The big claim to fame is that Sioux participated, offering details on the culture, practices, and rituals.

Why in the world did Joe (Dub Taylor), Morgan's guide, take him so far from civilization to shoot nothing special?  Joe and his cohorts proved to be useless, clearly unsuited to wandering the frontier. It is only a couple of years since the Arikara War (1823), the start of which was shown in The Revenant (2015).  These guys really are reckless, but how else are we going to explain an Englishman captured by Sioux? Richard Harris reprised the role in two sequels.

Iron Eyes Cody, best remembered as the Indian who wept about pollution, has a role as the medicine man.  He made a career of playing Native Americans, claiming such ancestry, despite being of Italian heritage.

Just okay.

Eagle's Wing (1979)

White Bull (Sam Waterston), a Kiowa warrior, was out raiding.  He and his fellow warriors spotted several Comanche.  The Kiowa attacked, overcoming most of the Comanche but the leader, who was mounted on a magnificent white horse - Eagle's Wing, easily outran White Bull's horse.  Though the leader escaped, he died from the arrow wound he suffered.

Henry (Harvey Keitel) and Pike (Martin Sheen) were a pair of American trappers.  Henry was an old hand, having worked as a trapper for several years.  By contrast, Pike was a recent recruit, an Army deserter who sought a new start in the wilds.  Henry and Pike had a contentious relationship because Pike was too fond of drinking and not a diligent enough worker.  Henry expected to rendezvous with Comanche for trade, but the Comanche didn't show.  Instead, White Bull's band of Kiowa attacked, stealing horses, pelts, and most of the gear.

Elsewhere, Judith (Caroline Langrishe) rode in a funeral procession with her brother, a Mexican gentleman, a lady, and her servants.  Her brother was a priest who had sent for her from Ireland.  Judith spoke no Spanish.  The lady wore black as the procession was for her husband.  They were bound for her brother-in-law's hacienda when White Bull's band attacked.  White Bull took everything of value, including Judith.

Two Comanche warriors arrived at a burial ground to find their shaman was dead.  His woman told how a white man stole Eagle's Wing while the shaman was presiding over the chief's funeral.  The pair nod gravely and immediately departed to exact justice.

Judith's brother arrived at the hacienda and raised the alarm about the attack.  Soon, a band of vaqueros rode forth to rescue the widow and exact justice on the Kiowa.

The setting is uncertain.  Trappers were generally searching for beaver, which is not common in the desert.  The market for such furs crashed in the late 1830s, so one supposes this takes place before that.  The Kiowa and the Comanche would most likely clash in Oklahoma and North Texas.  Pike talks about going south to Mexico or north to Canada, implying he is not currently in either.  It was filmed in Durango, Mexico, which stood in for Texas in Texas Rising.

White Bull is inscrutable.  At one point, he has gold, jewelry, wine, a captive, and Eagle's Wing.  His only threat is Pike, whom he repeatedly refused to kill when given the opportunity.  Why?  Of course, he doesn't speak English and rarely utters a word in his own tongue.  When he does, there is no subtitle translation for it.  It becomes clear that he was trying to buy Pike off by leaving each treasure except the horse, but Pike would not settle.

Pike is a directionless man, a wanderer who happened to fall into this story.  When he got his hands on Eagle's Wing, the horse became his identity.  When he lost it to White Bull, recovering the horse became his sole goal.  It did not matter that a fortune in jewels and gold was offered, he would rather risk life and limb for Eagle's Wing.  Why?  What strange power does this horse have over men?

Mostly, this is a contest between White Bull and Pike to see who will ride Eagle's Wing.  The other characters add color and variety to the story.  It is not your usual Western, but still entertaining.

Major Lally's March

Colonel Louis Wilson of North Carolina was preparing to lead a relief column of 1000 soldiers to General Scott, but he contracted yellow fever.  With Wilson incapacitated, the next ranking officer, Major Folliot Thornton Lally, took command.  The command was a hodgepodge of regiments: 2 companies of the 4th Infantry, 2 companies of the 5th Infantry, 1 company of the 11th Infantry, 3 companies of the 12th Infantry, 2 companies of the U. S. Voltigeurs, 1 company of the 2nd Artillery, 1 company of the Georgia Volunteers, and a company of Louisianna Mounted Volunteers.  Lally himself was from the 9th Infantry, which had departed with General Pierce more than three weeks earlier.

Paso de Ovejas

The column set out on August 6th.  The pace was slow and guerrillas were always nearby.  Stragglers were frequently captured or killed.  Many soldiers abandoned their knapsacks on the side of the road.  On the 10th, the column neared Paso de Ovejas when gunfire erupted.  Luckily, the enemy was out of range for small arms.  However, the front of the column was soon charged by light cavalry.  Cannons quickly broke their charge and sent them in flight.  Before Lally's forces could engage the men off the roadside, they had fled.  One American was killed.

National Bridge

On the 12th of August, the column arrived at the National Bridge, an impressive structure that spanned the Rio La Antigua.  When General Scott's Army came to the bridge in April, it was abandoned.  When General Pierce came to the bridge in July, a minor skirmish ensued before the guerrillas retreated.  For Major Lally, National Bridge proved to be a fight.  The guerrillas were dug in and ready to repel the Americans.  Thinking to dislodge them with cannon, the artillery was rolled forward.  However, the soldiers were caught in a hail of fire and had to abandon the guns.  Suddenly, the Americans were exposed and at threat of being overrun.  Fortunately, the guerrillas did not take the opportunity to rush the Americans.  A Prussian Baron who happened to be traveling with the army urgently advised an attack, offering to lead it.  Fording the river rather than crossing the bridge, the Americans dislodged the guerrillas and took possession of the fortifications.  The 6-hour battle cost eleven dead and forty wounded, some mortally.

Cerro Gordo

On the 15th, the column arrived at Cerro Gordo, where General Scott had shattered Santa Anna's army in the middle of April.  When General Pierce marched through a month earlier, he experienced only harassment on the fringes of his army.  By contrast, Lally found himself once again in a battle.  The guerrillas had occupied the fortifications on the hills and contested his column's advance.  As luck would have it, a veteran of the April battle was part of the column and offered useful intel.  Lally's force assaulted the three hill forts, capturing 2 cannons, and 9,000 rounds of musket ammunition.  The battle cost another 3 lives and 10 wounded.

Xalapa

On the 19th, Lally approached Xalapa.  Once again, the guerrillas had taken up a position to oppose his advance.  For once, the guerrillas had not taken an advantageous position.  The Americans quickly flanked the enemy and sent them running in the 20-minute skirmish.  Despite the brevity, two more soldiers were killed and half a dozen wounded.  Lally waited until the following day to occupy Xalapa.  His thousand man column was reduced to 700 effective soldiers, the rest were sick, wounded, or dead.  To make things worse, the Louisiana troops deserted almost in mass and returned to Vera Cruz.  Lally opted to secure his forces in Xalapa.

A month later, Captain Sam Walker rode into Xalapa and declared that Colonel Childs was under siege in Puebla.  The sieging force was said to be 4,000 strong.  Despite the numbers, Lally prepared to march.  To his great good fortune, General Lane arrived the following day.  Lally attached his forces to Lane's and the army marched to relieve the Siege of Puebla and give Santa Anna his final defeat of the war.

Lally's column served as reserves at the Battle of Huamantla - October 9th - and later accompanied General Lane's forces for the Action at Atlixco on October 19th.  In December, his column went to Mexico City and the hodgepodge of companies joined their regiments, successfully delivering the reinforcements he had brought.

The End of Hollywood

There is a new moviemaker on the block and it's called Seedance.  Just a few minutes of watching what it can produce shows that $100 million movies are not long for the world.  Sure, there are clunky bits, but imagine what it will be like next year, or the year after.  We are on the cusp of where anyone can make a blockbuster quality film with just the correct series of prompts.  Behold the possibilities.  Any actor in any setting with crazy effects and essentially a limitless budget.

Damnation Alley (1977)

Lt. Jake Tanner (Jan Michael Vincent) and Major Eugene Denton (George Peppard) arrived at Fort Tipton AFB in the Mojave Desert.  Denton warned Tanner that he requested a change of assignment, as he doesn't think their styles mesh.  They had hardly taken their post at the launch controls of a nuclear missile silo when a missile strike from the USSR was detected.  Responding to orders, the pair launch all the Fort Tipton missiles.  World War III is over in an hour.

It had been two years and the survivors of Fort Tipton were isolated.  Jake left the Airforce but still lived on base with Keegan (Paul Winfield), another airman who quit the military.  Jake had a scouted around, but found no other survivors.  Meanwhile, Major Denton was busy working on an experimental military vehicle, the Landmaster.  He had only just received approval from General Landers to take it into the field when the base exploded in a tragic accident.  When the dust settled, only Tanner, Denton, Keegan, and Lt. Tom Perry were still alive.

Over the last two years, there has only been one repeated signal from Albany, NY.  Denton decided that would be their destination.  Of course, much of the area was an irradiated wasteland but their was a path through the destruction, a corridor named Damnation Alley.  With stops in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Detroit, the survivors of Fort Tipton must overcome hostile new lifeforms, extreme weather events, and bandits, while also collecting other survivors: Janice (Dominique Sanda) and Billy (Jackie Earle Haley).

Intended as a sci-fi epic, this was released the same year as Star Wars.  Amazingly, 20th Century Fox expected Star Wars to be the flop and Damnation Alley to be the hit.  The movie fits nicely into the disaster theme that was popular in the 1970s, even borrowing footage from Earthquake (1974), an earlier disaster flick.

Roger Zelazny, who authored the story upon which this was based, hated the film.  Looks like I'm going to have to read the book and find out why.

Anyway, the movie is just okay.  It feels more like a low budget SyFy channel movie than a big studio production.  In fact, I always thought it was made for TV until this latest viewing.

Mountains of the Moon (1990)

Richard Hanning Speke (Iain Glen) arrived on the coast of East Africa in 1854 with plans of exploring the dark continent.  There he met Richard Burton (Patrick Bergin), already famous for having gone on the Haj to Mecca.  Burton has planned a trek inland to find the source of the Nile and Speke is eager to go with him.  Speke brought lots of guns and ammunition, making him a welcome addition to the expedition.  They have hardly gone inland than they were attacked by tribesmen, killing most of the company.  Both seriously wounded, Burton and Speke escaped nonetheless.

The pair returned to England and sought funding for a new expedition.  In the interim, Burton met Isabel Arundell (Fiona Shaw), who proved to be a great admirer of his writing.  A torrid affair ensued.  Meanwhile, Speke was approached by Laurence Oliphant (Richard E. Grant), who wanted to both help fund the next expedition and publish the findings. Additionally, Oliphant plotted a split between Speke and Burton.  The second expedition set out in 1856.  The men explored inland from Zanzibar, reaching the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1857.  With Burton seriously ill, only Speke could explore to the shores of Lake Victoria.  The pair returned to England in 1859 with very different ideas on what had been discovered.  Their disagreements led to a break between the two.  The next expedition was led by Speke while Burton was left on the sidelines.

There are surprises here.  Omar Sharif has a cameo as an Arab Chief.  Fiona Shaw, who most will remember as Harry Potter's shrewish Aunt Petunia Dursley, is terrific as Burton's love interest.  The two have great chemistry, allowing a fully realized love story despite being secondary to the Burton-Speke relationship.

An enjoyable movie that gives a general look at exploring Africa in the mid-nineteenth century.  No discussion of this period would be complete without Dr. Livingston (Bernard Hill).  Sure enough, he makes an appearance.  The lighthearted bit where Livingston and Burton compared scars that they have received was most entertaining.

Recommended.

USS Cyane: Workhorse of the Pacific Squadron

The USS Cyane was a 22-gun sloop-of-war with a complement of 200 crew that joined the US Navy in May 1838.  In 1845, the Cyane was dispatched to the Pacific Squadron.  At the time, this was a monumental voyage around South America.  It was not until January 1846 that she arrived at Mazatlan.  In February, Lt. Archibald Gillespie of the US Marines came aboard; he had secret messages to deliver to Commodore Sloat, US Consul Thomas O. Larkin, and John C. Fremont.  The Cyane departed Mazatlan and sailed to Monterey, California, by way of the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands.  Gillespie was left in Monterey in April.  By the end of the month, the Cyane was back in Mazatlan where it found an English rear admiral commanding a line-of-battle-ship and two additional ships of the British fleet.  Were the British keeping tabs on the Americans in this tense period between Mexico and the United States?

The Cyane again set out for Monterey in May and arrived in June.  On the 2nd of July, Commodore Sloat arrived on the flagship Savannah, a 54-gun frigate with a complement of 480 men.  Sloat had received word of the battles in Texas but dallied.  Finally, on July 7th, he ordered the capture of Monterey, the capital of Alta California.  Captain Mervine of the Cyane led the landing party that raised the US Flag over California.  The Pacific Squadron was officially in the war.

On July 14th, the USS Congress arrived in Monterey with Commodore Robert 'Fighting Bob' Stockton.  He replaced Commodore Sloat in command of the Pacific Squadron.  The following day, the HMS Collingwood, an 80-gun ship-of-the-line, arrived in Monterey.   Would the American capture of California have been so easy if the Collingwood had arrived a week earlier?

Captain Mervine was transferred to the Savannah and Captain Samuel Du Pont took command of the Cyane.  The Cyane also took aboard Lt. Col. John C. Fremont's California Battalion, providing transport to San Diego.  The Cyane captured a Mexican brig, the Juanita, before it could leave the harbor.  Fremont was let off at San Diego where that port was captured with similar efficiency as Monterey.  Alta California apparently settled, the Cyane set out for a cruise along the west coast of Mexico.

In August, she captured the Primavera.  In September, she blockaded the port of San Blas where she captured two additional ships: Solita and Susana.  Crossing to Baja California and the port of La Paz, the Cyane took control of 7 ships from the harbor, including the Baltimore-built Julia.  The Julia was quickly added to the Pacific Squadron.  Sailing further into the Gulf of California, she captured the Libertad and the Fortuna on the 1st of October.  The following day, she seized the Rosita.  Two days later, she captured the Chapita and the Alerto.  A raid on Guaymas destroyed three additional ships.

In November, the Cyane blockaded Mazatlan, but the ship ran out of supplies.  As the US had no Pacific ports, it depended on friendly ports or supply ships.  Sailing north once again, the Cyane found orders in San Francisco to join the squadron in retaking California; there had been a rebellion during the Cyane's absence.

In January 1847, she provided men for the recapture of Los Angeles, joining in the Battles of San Gabriel (Jan 8) and La Mesa (Jan 9).  Los Angeles was occupied the following day.  But the Cyane was not done with the war yet.

The Pacific Squadron had other duties than just the war and the Cyane went looking for pirates and protecting the US whaling fleet.  In November 1847, the Cyane joined the Congress and the Independence in the capture of Mazatlan.

The Cyane's final operation during the war was to relieve the siege at San Jose del Cabo (Baja California) in February 1848.  The Cyane remained in the region, relocating to Mazatlan.  On June 7th, while at the port of San Blas, the ship recieved word that the peace treaty was signed and the war was over.

No other ship in the US fleet on either coast saw so much action as the USS Cyane.  The ship remained active on the coasts of North and South America until she was decommissioned in 1871.

Slap Shot (1977)

The Charlestown Chiefs are a hockey team on a losing streak.  Their coach, Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman), is also a player.  Their star player, Ned (Michael Ontkean), is a college graduate who preferred to 'slum' it as a hockey player. Ned's wife, Lily (Lindsay Crouse), is not at all happy about living in a working-class mill town, especially since her parents are rich and Ned has great prospects.  The manager, McGrath (Strother Martin), scrounges for funds to keep the team afloat, including selling equipment and having the players model clothes.  Enter the Hanson brothers.  The Hanson brothers could be triplets but are actually 18, 19, and 20.  Their style of hockey involves goonery, a frequent switch to violence and foul play to diminish the other team.  Ned, an adherent to 'old-timey' hockey where skill and team play would win games, is horrified by the Hansons.  Reggie isn't too keen on it either, but his views change as the Chiefs start winning and game attendance skyrockets.

To further complicate matters, the mill has closed and it is unlikely the team will survive with a crashing local economy; who will be able to afford to attend games?  To keep morale up, Reggie concocts a story about a potential sale of the team to some Florida investors.  He fed the story to sportswriter Dickie Dunn (M. Emmet Walsh) and radio broadcaster Jim Carr (Andrew Duncan).  However, that's only temporary measures.  If he is going to avoid the team folding, he needs to find out who owns the team, but McGrath won't say.

For its time, it was the most profanity-filled movie made.  This may be the movie that inspired the old joke about going to the fights and a hockey game broke out.  It is certainly a movie of its time with men wearing platform shoes, leather pants, turtle-neck shirts, paisley patterns, wide collars, and just generally loud clothing.  All the cars are gas-guzzling land yachts or sporty muscle cars.  Mostly, this is a movie that riffs on all things related to hockey and hockey players.  There are no life-altering character arcs or deep messages, just a romp through the wild and wooly life of hockey players.

Good popcorn fun! 

Fallout (season 2)

At the end of last season, Lucy's father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), was shown to be the true monster.  While Maximus (Aaron Moten) returned to the Brotherhood of Steel with cold fusion, Lucy (Ella Purnell) and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) followed Hank to New Vegas.

In flashback, Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) found himself at odds with his wife (Frances Turner) and roped into an assassination plot against noted industrialist, Robert Edwin House (Justin Theroux).  House was the CEO of a robotics company but was also developing a mind-control device for use on people. Cooper's past was further revealed with another flashback to his time in Alaska during the war.  Here he first saw a Deathclaw.

Back with the Brotherhood, Maximus gained considerable status on account of his recent success.  However, he had also grown a conscience on account of his recent travels with Lucy.  Can he accept that the power of cold fusion will launch his faction of the Brotherhood into a civil war with the rest?

In her trek to New Vegas, Lucy encountered various groups that seek to establish a new civilization.  First, there was Caesar's Legion, a band of people who had adopted the Roman Empire as a model for the future.  Among them was Lacerta Legate (Macaulay Culkin), a high-ranking officer who controled Lucy's fate.  Then there were the soldiers of the New California Republic, a would-be government for the wasteland.

While Lucy hunted for her father, her brother, Norm, found his way to the surface with freshly awoken Vault 31 middle managers.  Could he fool them into believing he was in charge while also delegating to them solving his problems?  So far, so good.

Lastly, there were those still in the vault, trying to rebuild.  Not everyone was who they seem to be, especially Stephanie (Annabel O'Hagan).  Though promoted to overseer of the re-established Vault 32, she proved to be... gasp...  Canadian!  There is a lot of backstory for the cyclops lady.

The second season is outstanding, every bit as good as season 1.  Not only is more of the pre-apocalypse explored, there are many developments in the present.  Hugely entertaining and highly recommended!

Filibuster

Traditionally, the filibuster was used to prevent legislation from proceeding to a vote in the Senate.  Strom Thurmond famously spoke for more than 24 hours in an effort to prevent passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.  The point is that the Senate allows debate to continue until everyone has had their say, even if it happens to be reading the phone directory into the Senate record.  In order to end debate, the Senate must assemble 60 votes.  What we have today is autopilot filibusters.  No one debates the bill.  No one puts in the time to speak ad nauseum to prevent a vote.  Nope, the minority party just says filibuster and voila, no vote without 60 votes.

The filibuster is a rule the Senate adopted that has no basis in the Constitution.  It could be eliminated, if the majority party so chose.  It has seen a lot of modification over the years, being nixed for judicial nominations, including Supreme Court nominees.  If no one is willing to carry on the debate, then it should just be a matter of calling for the vote.  The filibustering party should be required to talk the issue to death, which takes really commitment.

Debate or vote.

Asking Gangs to Fight ICE

Rogelio Martinez, a candidate for Mayor of Long Beach, has posted a message where he called for the gangs of Long Beach to eject ICE from the city.  My first question is whether or not this is real?  If so, this man is off his rocker.  Who would post a call for criminals to oppose federal law enforcement?  "Hello, FBI?  Could you come arrest me, posthaste?"  People who aren't all there have been convinced that anything is acceptable to fight the 'fascist Nazis' at ICE.

If you call someone a fascist or a Nazi, there is a minority - maybe a very small minority - of people who will believe it, embrace it, and act on it.  They will get their hands on a gun or a knife and attack the Nazi.  There was the crazy who shot Charlie Kirk, the crackpot who shot Trump, the other crackpot who tried to shoot Trump, and the loon who tried to gun down Republicans at a baseball field.  Though the left claims that the right-wing is likely to commit violence, it is more approving of the use of violence.  24% of far-leftist are okay with assassinations.  Only 4% of conservatives are on board with killing the competition, which is still too high.

It would appear that would-be Mayor Martinez is one of the crackpots who think it is okay to recruit criminals to fight law enforcement.  It has been so long since the US really tried to enforce some of its laws that it now feels like persecution.  It's not.

Black Bag (2025)

George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) went to a club to meet Philip Meacham.  Meacham explained that the agency had a traitor.  He provided a list with 5 names.  One of the names on the list was Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett), who happened to be George's wife.  In order to ferret out the rat, George invited all of them to dinner at his home.  George is a gourmet; he also drugged the food.  Once everyone was sufficiently lubricated, the game began.  Make a resolution for the person on your right.  It turned out that everyone was sleeping with everyone else, but nothing to mark out a traitor.  However, after dinner, George spotted something amiss that implicated his wife.

In the week that followed, George investigated the suspects, including his wife.  His investigations led to further incriminating evidence against his wife!  Even if she was guilty, he would protect her.  He needed to thwart a clandestine plan while keeping his wife safe.  The crisscross of lies led everyone to suspect one another.

The climax was something of a letdown.  It is a replay of the original dinner party with life on the line.  That the villain grabbed the gun provided by the host as though it was actually useful was beyond foolish.  Of course, it's a dummy gun.  How in the world could anyone - especially someone who works in intelligence - believe a loaded gun would just be offered?

Fassbender plays George as a flat, emotionless man.  He makes Roger Moore's raised eyebrow look like Shatnerian overacting by comparison.  He is a cold calculating machine with a keen eye for deception.  Cate Blanchett is similarly limited in emotional range.  It definitely gives the impression that these spies are focused and unflappable.  By contrast, the satellite operator, Clarissa, has wide emotional swings and the psychologist, Zoe, felt very normal as a person.  Pierce Brosnan plays Arthur Stieglitz, the chief of the agency.  It is not a good role, as he gets outmaneuvered by his subordinates and seemed to be oblivious to what was happening.

The movie feels like an old British spy thriller in the vein of The Ipcress File or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  There is a lot of dialogue and no action.  This is more of a whodunit than a spy movie.  That the villain proved to be sloppy and incompetent was disappointing.

Just okay.

An Inside Job

Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan is an admin of the Signal Chat that has organized the resistance against ICE in Minnesota.  Yes, the government of Minnesota is actively interfering with federal officers who are just trying to remove illegal aliens.  When the governor of Arkansas tried to keep blacks out of schools in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education, President Eisenhower called out the National Guard.  States don't get to decide which federal laws they will obey.  This sure looks a lot like an insurrection, and Democrats have stated how wrong those are for the past 5 years.

Insurrection: A violent uprising by a group against lawful authority or government power.  It typically unfolds through organized, illegal actions, such as riots or armed resistance, that obstruct the enforcement of laws.

Clearly, they are obstructing the enforcement of laws.  Alex Pretti was armed, which means that Minneapolis has seen more gun-carrying protestors than J6 had.  One ICE agent had his finger bitten off, another was beaten with a shovel, and one was hit by a car.  Organized action by members of the state government to thwart the federal government.  Yeah, we're right on the precipice of insurrection.  Is this to protect hard-working, law-abiding undocumented immigrants from being sent back to their home countries?  Or is it to distract from fraud growing out of migrant communities?  How many illegals voted in Minnesota?  How much of the money acquired from fraudulent daycares and medical clinics was kicked back to politicians, like the suddenly wealthy Ilhan Omar?  How far will insiders take this to prevent that information from being revealed?

Engineered Chaos

The state that has seen the most activity from ICE is Texas.  23% of all arrests have taken place there.  By contrast, Minnesota accounts for 2.2% of arrests.  Why have things gone comparatively much smoother in Texas than in Minnesota?  Texas has cooperated with ICE where Minnesota has cried, "Get the F___ out!"  Governor Walz, Mayor Frey, Attorney General Ellison, and Senator Klobuchar have all denounced ICE as the problem.  The intransigence of the state has caused the problem, and the Democrats are using the resulting chaos as a weapon against immigration enforcement.

Then again, there is potentially a darker explanation.  No sooner had the multi-billion-dollar Somali fraud schemes been revealed than the big story switched to ICE.  Suddenly, the massive fraud carried out under the noses of the Minnesota government fades into the background, overwhelmed by 'fascist ICE agents' sent by President Trump.  Look at that timely use of an Uno Reverse Card.  Rather than being on defense against financial fraud, Governor Walz is now on the offense against ICE raids.

The chaos is not by chance and is not merely concerned citizens marching in the streets.  Opposition to ICE in Minneapolis is a highly organized and well-funded operation.  Cam Higby successfully infiltrated a Signal chat that kept track of ICE vehicles and sent activists to the site of arrests to engage.  The anti-ICE forces have patrols throughout the city, tail vehicles, access to license plate data so they can ID vehicles belonging to ICE, and so on.  Cynical Publius observed that the anti-ICE forces are using the tactics of a paramilitary operation.  Again, these are trained operatives, not random citizens taking a day off work to aid those in need.  This is a fifth column.

The New Nullification Crisis

ICE agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis.  The man was armed and resisting arrest.  This article reports that his parents urged him not to engage with ICE.  Though I am in favor of the 2nd Amendment and the right to bear arms, it does not seem wise to be armed when you know you are going to be in contact with armed police.  Don't bring a gun to a peaceful protest.  Definitely don't escalate things when you are armed.

Combined with Renee Good's death, the situation in Minnesota is spiraling out of control.  Governor Walz and Mayor Frey are making matters worse with their vocal opposition to ICE.  This is a resurrection of the Nullification Crisis of 1832.  President Andrew Jackson threatened to march an army into South Carolina and his Vice President, John C. Calhoun, resigned over the issue.  Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act.

Cynical Publius, an insightful commentator on X, argues that the problem is that no one is asking the right question.  Currently, the Democrats are framing the issue by hyping the protests and claiming that the administration is fascist.  The Republicans are, as usual, on defense.  The simple solution is to turn it around would be to ask this question:

Why do you oppose the lawful enforcement of America's long-standing bipartisan immigration laws?

That is what is happening.  Duly passed laws are being enforced.  There is no good answer to this question, so every politician will dodge it, change the subject, or claim it isn't the law.  That reaction is an answer in itself.

Barry (season 1)

Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) is a former US Marine who now works as a hitman for Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root).  Barry is clearly depressed and directionless.  He doesn't like what he does but there is nothing else for him.  Fuches has a new job: go to Los Angeles and kill a man who is screwing the wife of a Chechnyan gangster.  Barry follows the man to an acting class and fumbles into being in a scene with his mark.  Hey, that was kind of fun.  And his mark is a cool guy.  Because Barry dawdled on the hit, the Chechnyans kill the mark and Barry kills some of them.  Barry is now determined to stay in California and pursue acting, but his hitman past won't stay in the past.

This is a particularly dark comedy.  Is it comedy?  The situations that Barry finds himself in are outrageous, which is what makes them funny.  Barry plays it straight while many of the other characters are goofy.  Henry Winkler as Gene Cousineau the acting teacher is particularly good.  Anthony Carrigan is quirky as the number two man among the Chechnyans.  He has a mild delivery of every line, whether it be compliments or threats.  He is an entertaining yes-man with a peculiar look: completely bald and no eyebrows.  Sarah Goldberg plays Barry's love interest, Sally Reed.  She is an aspiring actress and the most talented member of Cousineau's class.  For her, everything is acting and advancing her career.  As such, she and Barry are on-again, off-again through the season.  The central character, Barry, is something of a mush.  He doesn't know what he wants, which seems very strange.  Here is a man who kills people for a living, but he can't say 'no' to some of the dumbest ideas.  His timidity in facing people leads to some truly horrendous outcomes.

Not great, but not bad either.  Good enough that I will start the second season.

Land Purchase is Common

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory for $15 million from Napoleon.  This purchase included the cities of New Orleans and St. Louis.

In 1819, President James Monroe purchased Florida from Spain.  The Adams-Onis Treaty traded American claims to Texas and $5 million for ownership of East and West Florida.  St. Augustine and Pensacola became American cities though the population was Spanish.

In 1848, President James K Polk sought to purchase California and New Mexico from Mexico.  He offered up to $30 million for the territory.  Any Mexican president who looked like he might negotiate such a deal was deposed.  Santa Anna returned from exile to fight the Americans.  After Mexico decisively lost the war, the US nonetheless paid $15 million for the territory.

In 1854, President Franklin Pierce approved the Gadsden Purchase, which added around 30,000 square miles to Arizona and New Mexico Territories.  This also included the city of Tucson.  Interestingly, Santa Anna was President of Mexico at the time.  At this time, Pierce also offered to buy Cuba, but Spain declined.

In 1867, President Andrew Johnson approved the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.  Viewed as a bad purchase, it was called Seward's Folly.  William Seward was the Secretary of State.  It is noteworthy that Seward also wanted to buy Greenland.

In 1898, President William McKinley purchased the Philippines from Spain for $20 million.  Though the US had defeated the Spanish fleet, it had only captured Manila Harbor.  The payment was to acquire all of the Philippines.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt paid $10 million for the Panama Canal Zone.  Of course, he had helped Panama secede from Columbia when Columbia had refused a treaty for the canal zone.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt began paying rent for Guantanamo Bay on Cuba.  Though the US had long flirted with acquiring Cuba, when it actually was acquired, the Congress forbade annexation.  The naval base was established to maintain Cuban independence.

In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson bought the American Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.  The US had first sought to purchase them in the 1860s.

In 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt purchased Water Island for $10,000 from Denmark.  It was the last of the Danish Virgin Islands and was less than 1 square mile in size.  At the time of the sale, Denmark was occupied by the Nazis.

During World War II, the US used Greenland as a refueling stop.  In 1946, President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland, but Denmark declined.  In 1951, the US established Thule Airbase - now Pituffik Space Base - as a missile warning base for the Cold War.

President Trump's offer to buy Greenland is nothing out of the ordinary.  Clearly, the US has purchased a lot of territory with varying degrees of arm-twisting.  Greenland has been on the wish list for more than 150 years.

Maggie Moore(s) (2023)

Maggie Lee Moore (Mary Holland) fled in terror while screaming for help.  She ran down a dead end and her assailant approached.  In the morning, Sheriff Jordan Sanders (Jon Hamm) and Deputy Reddy (Nick Mohammed) examined the corpse.  When her name is mentioned, both look surprised.  Cut to 10 days earlier.

Maggie Moore (Louisa Krause) screamed at her husband, Jay (Micah Stock), so loudly that the neighbor, Rita (Tina Fey) heard some of it.  Maggie kicked Jay out of the house and threatened divorce and exposure to the police.  Jay hired a goon, Mike Kosco (Happy Anderson), to scare his wife straight.  Instead, Kosco killed her.  Now Jay was in the crosshairs of Sheriff Sanders.  However, he learned by happenstance that there was another Maggie Moore in town.  What if she was murdered?  He went back to Kosco to make arrangements.

There is no mystery here, just dark comedy that is not funny.  There are a lot of cringy interactions, where people humiliate themselves in awkward conversations.  The deputy frequently makes inappropriate comments regarding the sheriff's love life.  The budding romance between the sheriff and Rita had all the chemistry of a flat soda.  Jay Moore practically screams "I'm guilty" in every scene, though the sheriff happily goes down the wrong path.  Micah Stock makes Jay amazingly pathetic and unsympathetic.  Fine.  However, he's somehow got money to burn on a hitman and payoffs but can't afford to keep his restaurant stocked with non-moldy food.  Was moldy food meant to be funny?  Why are there customers here when the mold is beyond obvious?  Really, the sandwiches are polka dotted with mold.  The normally smooth and suave Hamm is here a man without moves.  Okay, so he's a widower and out of practice, but women are tossing themselves at him and he's got no game.  Yeah, this was not the role for Dan Draper.  Ditto with Tina Fey.  Her character has lots of undesirable traits, from busybody neighbor to self-loathing.  She says her ex-husband broke her, but she still has sex with him regularly.  Is that dark humor?  Why is the sheriff attracted to this woman?

The movie was inspired by the murder of two women named Maggie Moore in Houston within a week of each other.  Those murders were never solved and may have no relation other than the coincidence of the victims' names.

Skip this one.

Dying before the War

In July 1845, Texas accepted annexation to the United States.  Coincident with this, General Zachary Taylor moved his Corps of Observation from Ft. Jessup - on the Texas-Louisianna border - to Corpus Christi, Texas on the Nueces River.  Though the Mexican government still didn't recognize Texas independence, it argued that the Nueces - not the Rio Grande - was the border for Tejas.  Taylor camped on the south side of the river, a clear statement that the US leaned toward Texas' claim that the Rio Grande was the border.

For the next nine months, the US Army of Occupation loitered in Corpus Christi.  Though there were certainly rumors that a Mexican Army would attack, such did not happen.  Even so, the army suffered a surprising number of casualties.  Of the 3,000 troops encamped, around 67 of them died while the army waited for the war to begin.  Most of them died from illness, a common killer for those in a new climate with unfamiliar hazards.  Quite a few died from chronic diarrhea, a few drown, one accidentally shot himself, and another was shot by a man named Springer.  One unfortunate officer, Lieutenant Henry Merrill, who had only just arrived at St. Joseph Island was killed when a ship's mast fell on him; Merrill had graduated West Point on July 1st and was killed less than 4 months later.  Nearly half of the soldiers that died were from Europe: fourteen Irishmen, seven Germans, three Englishmen, three Scots, a Prussian, a Pole, a Swiss, and a Canadian died a long way from home.  Oddly, the 2nd Dragoon Regiment suffered the most deaths: 18.  The 4th Infantry lost a dozen men and the 3rd lost 11.

Steamship Dayton

Corpus Christi Bay was quite shallow and could not accommodate the supply ships.  Thus, supplies were deposited on St. Joseph Island, one of the line of coastal islands on the Texas coast.  From there, riverboats would ferry the men and equipment across the bay - about 20 miles - to the camp.  One of those riverboats was the Dayton.

On September 12, 1845, the Dayton set out on the latest supply run.  Several officers and men from the army were aboard the ship.  2nd Lt. Ulysses S. Grant, who served as a quartermaster in the 4th Infantry, declined to join them.  Captain George Crossman, who was the Chief Quartermaster, was aboard.  The Dayton was somewhat more than halfway to its destination when the boiler exploded.  Bodies tumbled through the air.  Lt. Benjamin Berry and Lt. Thadeus Higgins - both from the 4th Infantry - were killed instantly.  As the boat sank, the other boiler exploded.  There were 8 dead and 17 injured.  Two of the injured died soon afterwards.  Captain Crossman survived with minor injuries.  Captain West, who commanded the Dayton, had been severely scalded and died shortly after the disaster.

In January 1846, Taylor was ordered to move the army to the Rio Grande.  The march began on March 8th.  Those who were too ill to march were left in Corpus Christi.  By the middle of April, 4 more had died.  Approximately 2% of Taylor's troops died while camped.  This was only a hint of what was to come.  In the Mexican-American War, disease killed vastly more soldiers than muskets, cannons, swords, and bayonets.