Posts
| Bat Masterson | |
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about even for all of us.
I have observed, for example, that we all get
about the same amount of ice.
The rich get it in the summer, and the poor
get it in the winter."
-- Bat Masterson
1178 B.C. The eclipse mentioned in Homer's Odyssey occurs on this day.
1746 -- On this day, 5,000 valiant Highlanders fought the Duke of Cumberland in the last battle fought in Great Britain.
A few stanzas from Robert Burns's "Ye Jacobites By Name," a traditional and pro-James ballad which Burns turns into a protest against war:
"What is right and what is wrong
By short sword or by long
A weak arm or a strong for to draw
What makes heroic strife famed afar
To whet the assassain's knife
Or haunt a parent's life wi' bloody war….
1881 -- On this date on the streets of Dodge City, lawman Bat Masterson fought the last gun battle of his life. He turned to newspaper work. He died at his desk in 1921 in New York City.
{Seeking copy in Gunnison, Colorado, a reporter asked Dr W.S. Cockrell about mankillers.
Dr. Cockrell pointed to a young man nearby and said it was Bat Masterson and that he had killed 26 men.
Cockrell then regaled the reporter with several lurid tales about Bat's exploits and the reporter wrote them up for the New York Sun.
The story was then widely reprinted in papers all over the country and became the basis for many more exaggerated stories told about Bat over the years.}
1943 -- On this day, Albert Hoffman, accidently ingests LSD-25 in his medical research, becoming the world's first LSD "Tripper."
1947 -- This day, former Auschwitz commandant, Rudolph Hoss, is hanged at Auschwitz.
In his memoirs was found this written statement: "History will mark me as the greatest mass murderer of all time."
1972 -- This day, Apollo 16 lifts off for the moon.
2009 -- On this day, President Obama ruled out prosecutions against those C.I.A. operatives
who participated in the torture of terrorists suspects at the Guantánamo Bay and other secret detention centers.
N stands for Friedrich NIETZSCHE:
#1 Nietzsche was a failure during his lifetime
Nietzsche achieved the impressive feat of becoming a professor by the age of 24.
However, he was alienated by his peers and forced to retire by the age of 35.
Nietzsche also wanted to abandon philosophy in favor of gardening.
It wasn’t until after his death that Nietzche’s work began to be read widely.
#2 His mustache frightened women
Nietzsche was sadly incompetent at romance. Apparently, Nietzsche’s epic mustache “scared” women at the time.
And that’s probably for the better, because Nietzsche also managed to contract syphilis at a brothel while he was still in college.
#3 He had a mental breakdown when he saw a horse being beaten
After seeing a horse being whipped in the streets of Turin, Italy, Nietzsche had a mental breakdown that put him in an asylum for the rest of his life.
Nietzsche is reported to have run over to the horse and held it in his arms to protect it before he collapsed to the ground.
The scene was also the subject of a movie by Bela Tarr (whom Jacques Ranciere wrote a book
about) called The Turin Horse.
After the horse incident Nietzsche returned to his boarding house.
In the following few days, Nietzsche sent short writings—known as the Wahnbriefe ("Madness Letters")—to a number of friends.
Nietzsche commanded the German emperor to go to Rome to be shot
and summoned the European powers to take military action against Germany.
Nietzsche’s mother, Franziska, first placed in a clinic, and then dissatified with his treatment, brought him to her home in Naumburg.
After the death of Franziska in 1897, Nietzsche lived in Weimar,
where Elisabeth, his sister, cared for him and allowed visitors to meet her uncommunicative brother.
After contracting pneumonia in mid-August 1900, he had a stroke during the night of 24–25 August and died at about noon on 25 August.
“I'm not upset that you lied to me. I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
Love the Bat Masterson quote - and warmed more to Nietzsche than I ever have. Beating a horse is a cruelty, and cruelty should be protested where-ever it occurs.
ReplyDeleteI've read Nietzsche when in an idealistic phase, but I didn't know about the mental collapse.
ReplyDeleteThose 'brothels' have been the doom of many a poor boy. A 'frightening mustache' wouldn't bother me, the wild eyes might.
Animal cruelty is never acceptable.
That mustache would scare anyone.
ReplyDeleteDied at his desk. No one wants to say he died at his desk.
I never know what to focus on with these posts. My mind races around.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of Culloden. That always makes me think of the Outlander series written by Diana Gabaldon... one of my favorite series ever. And it makes me sad.
Hitler rose to power because he blamed the 1%ers... the Jews... for all of the problems that the German people faced. Get rid of them and your lot will improve. Of course, a ridiculous and false idea but one that rallied the German people. Funny - and sad - how hate works like that.
If I were a man and knew my mustache scared off women - and I liked women - I would just shave off the darn thing. Makes sense to me. But, then there is that dratted STD... so maybe it is a good thing he was hard headed about his facial hair. I can relate to the horse debacle. I just can't abide cruelty to animals.
Elephant's Child:
ReplyDeleteNietzsche was a troubled man all his life. Yet his empathy for the horse proved he had a good heart.
D.G.:
Nietzsche's ill health and worsening mental and physical health must have made it hard not to allow them to influence his harsh outlook.
Animal cruelty makes me incensed as well.
Alex:
That mustache was perhaps a barrier between him and intimacy which seemed to always elude him. Poor Bat-- perhaps by that time in his life, his work was all he had. :-(
Robin:
Each day is a living Kaleidoscope, ever changing, ever growing the more you study it.
Can you imagine the perspective of God as he views the swirling lives scattered across each moment, all striving for so many different, usually empty goals?
Empires strive for more power or for more territory and the little people suffer. Sad like you say.
The Allies thought to punish Germany for WWI and only produced the hopelessness and hunger that allowed a madman like Hitler to pander to the simmering hate of the have-nots for the have's. Once again, as you say, so sad.
Nietzsche was arrogant and perhaps thought the ladies should accept him as he was -- or as I earlier surmised, he was letting the moustache be an easier explanation for his lack of romantic involvement than his undesirable nature.
The horse incident does hint at his heart being more empathic than his writings would indicate, doesn't it?
Thanks for visiting!
I didn't know about the horse. There are so many facets to a man's personality, aren't there? I love the quote at the beginning. That sums up the one percent vs. the rest so well. Bat Masterson, wow, where do you find all this stuff?
ReplyDeleteBat Masterson is definitely worthy to be featured on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI probably would've acted the same if I had seen a horse whipped.
Inger:
ReplyDeleteThe ghosts tell me at Meilori's. :-)
Each person is a jewel with many facets, some hidden from the view of most.
Chrys:
Yes, my mother would have interfered as well. Once a woman took a belt from a store rack and began beating her small child with it. Mother snatched it from her and said low, "That is enough!"
The woman took one look at Mother and paled. She took her child away quickly.
Smart woman. :-)