April 3rd the Outlaw Trail leads to the Parting of the Red Sea

 

Raymond Chandler:

You want the Letter C for today,
my fellow Outlaws?

C for me, besides being "Yes,"
is Raymond Chandler~

“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.” 
― Raymond Chandler, The High Window


Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American novelist and screenwriter.

In 1932, at age forty-four, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression.

Some of Chandler's novels are considered important literary works, and three are often considered masterpieces:

Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Little Sister (1949), and The Long Goodbye (1953).

On this date in 1312, B.C.  the Red Sea is traditionally thought to have been parted. 

By the Hebrew calendar, it was 21 Nissan (no, not the car) 2448.

Describing my job as the Pony Express for Blood, I know that the real Pony Express Mail started on this date in 1860.

The Pony Express was the quickest and most reliable mail delivery method in the newly developed American West,

and covered land from Missouri to California in under ten days, an unheard speed at the time.

Though the Pony Express only lasted for about a year, it deeply impacted the development of the West.

$5 for evert half-ounce of weight.  Though the Pony Express still captures the imagination, it only lasted until October 1861.


The 3rd of April was not a good date for outlaws, my bandito friends:

In 1882 - Outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back by Bob Ford, one of his own gang members, reportedly for a $10,000 reward!

The James gang terrorized the Midwest for over 14 years, though they were largely romanticized even in their own time

 — in fact, James' tombstone said that he was "murdered by a traitor and a coward whose name is not worthy to appear here."

For a supernatural tale of the first talking Western filmed on location listen to:

http://www.amazon.com/Her-Bones-Are-Badlands/dp/B00JEOI1BI/

Nor is April 3rd a good date for great men:

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his 'mountaintop' speech

to a rally of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., less than 24 hours before he is assassinated.


Washington Irving was born on this date in 1783:

“Great minds have purpose, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.” ― Washington Irving