South African Sago Pudding

 
I don't know what brought this on. But I was filled with huimwee (Did i spell that correctly?) So I turned to food and made some sago pudding. This is an eternal favorite with my sons. And this recipe works well:

South African Baked Sago Pudding Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 c milk .
• 1/2 c sugar (extra) .
• 5 tbsps butter .
• 5 tbsps apricot jam .
• 1/2 tsp salt .
• 4 eggs .
• 1/2 c sugar .
• 1 c sago .
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg or cinnamon .
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

• Step #1 Oven: 325F deg F/160 deg Celsius.
• Step #2 Grease a large pudding dish lightly.
• Step #3 Heat milk to nearly boiling, then add sago, salt, & nutmeg or cinnamon.
• Step #4 Simmer over very low heat until sago is transparent.
• Step #5 Add the 1/2 c sugar, butter & vanilla, & stir in the well.
• Step #6 Remove from heat.
• Step #7 Separate the eggs, & whisk the yolks.
• Step #8 Add yolks to the sago mixture, whisk or mix through well, & pour the mixture into the prepared oven dish.
• Step #9 Put blobs of the apricot jam all over the pudding mixture.
• Step #10 Whisk the egg whites until stiff, & add the extra 1/2 c sugar slowly, whisking until incorporated.
• Step #11 Spread this meringue over the sago pudding.
• Step #12 Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 - 45 mins, until set, & the meringue is light brown on top.
• Step #13 Serve hot, warm or cold.
• Enjoy the South African Baked Sago Pudding recipe

Okay..., I copied it from here.

I think I am going to arm myself with a single malt and watch District 9 one more time. Just to hear those guys swear.

My wife says the soldiers look more more intimidating than any American actors she's ever seen. I replied that it's our European heritage tied in with lots of brandy and coke...

 

District 9

 
Last night I watched District 9.

What's going on? Are we the flavor of the month? Or is this more permanent? We had DiCaprio playing a South African/ Rhodesian in Blood Diamond - which I really enjoyed.  Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar in Invictus and then this Sci-fi movie set in Joburg (of all places).Or maybe not. It's a crazy place. And it works. I don't see the prawns diving around between the vines in Stellenbosch.

Okay, I loved the movie.

Not because it had a great plot or special effects or acting. It was just so cool to hear a South African say "f%k" or "d**s" in a real SA accent. And under amusing circumstances. It made me miss home.

We are special people - no matter where we are.

The Price of Power

And so it's come to this. Years of poor or no planning and no apparent concern for maintaining or improving infrastructure (specifically the power grid) ... and now South Africans face a 24.8% increase in the price of electricity. From the BBC.

South African trade unions are threatening strikes after the country's government allowed state-owned power firm Eskom to raise prices by 24.8%.

Both consumers and businesses will struggle with significantly higher electricity bills, unions argue.

And it gets worse...

However Eskom has also been permitted to increase electricity prices by a further 25% next year and again in 2012.

Well, this is obviously not good for the economy. This is the point of the article. But what about the average consumer who suddenly has to pay an extra 1/4 on his electricity. And who faces a future of further  price hikes. When I was just starting out in Cape Town years ago, this would have killed me.

Who's running this show?

Khaya Dlanga at the Mail and Guardian says that SA "prisons have a propensity for creating greatness".  And he refers to Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela all of whom spent time in an SA prison or some form of captivity (Churchill) and then went on to be a great leader somewhere.

Okay, let's not forget current President Zuma was also in jail. And Julius Malema probably should be.

But what about that guy, Skollie? From Vyfster. I think he was great and the way things are going now he'd probably do as well as or better as SA president.That guy could organize! There would be electricity that everyone could afford. Not just Malema to light up his houses and Zuma to keep his platoon of children and grandchildren in functioning PlayStations.

 

POWER TO THE PEOPLE.... Yeah, right!

Running Man

 
After the Chinese New year break I started running again. This is an act born out of necessity. The Lunar New Year involves gluttony and egregious drinking to the point that I started hiding in my room by Day 5. After the descent to sanity it became clear that if I was ever again to wear my existing pants and shirts with any vestige of dignity, severe action was called for.

Ergo the running.

Now I am no stranger to running. I learned how to do it at school, the SADF injected it into my DNA and my wife reminds me about it every morning when I dress. In years before, I ran long and even completed a marathon in each of 2005 and 2006. Although I did not qualify for the Olympics, I also was not casevaced by the Bus of Shame that picked up the DNFers.

Yet, now I feel as though I'm starting from running kindergarten again. My legs ache before, during and after I run. It's no fun and I believe neither am I pretty sight.

Also I fear that this plan will either drive me to religious fanaticism or alcohol as I alternately hallucinate about beer and pray on my evening runs...

 

Peking

 
I have just finished reading Anthony Grey's Peking. This is an amazing book written by a man himself held in captivity by the Chinese government for 27 months. He was released in 1969.

If you are out in the East working or are even remotely interested in understanding how the PRC ended up where it is now - then this is a must-read.

 

 

Grammar Challenges

 
Okay, I know I'm in Taiwan and that sometimes even the best schools and universities produce weird grammar and spelling. But perhaps these can be forgiven - or even smiled at, on occasion. Anyway, I cannot take the moral high ground when my Mandarin pronunciation has my wife forbidding me to speak outside of the home and my reading only just allows me to identify the men's bathroom.

But look at this - also from the Language Log. It seems the Australians, or perhaps just the guys from Queensland, have lost contact with Grammar Base.

According to Justine Ferrari, "Grammar guide an 'education disaster'", The Australian 2/20/2010:

ONE of the world's most respected authorities on grammar has written to every school principal in Queensland, warning them of an error-strewn grammar guide distributed by the state's English Teachers Association.

University of Queensland emeritus professor Rodney Huddleston says he was forced to write to schools directly because the English Teachers Association of Queensland refused to acknowledge or correct the 65 errors he had identified in its teaching guide on grammar, printed as a series of eight articles in its magazine.

Some examples:

In The small boy won't eat his lunch,"won't" is an adverb.
In The small boy is capable of eating his lunch, "capable of" is an adverb.
In a set of bowls, "set of" is an adjective.
In Sam's folder, "Sam's" is a possessive pronoun.

Oh my goodness! Maybe they got some of my students - the younger ones - to write this stuff.

 

A Metaphorical Toyota

 
Back at work. It's not pleasant. But one day my children will thank me .....right?

First thing that I came across was an interesting post from Language Log, a linguistics site that I frequent on occasion. It would appear that Toyota - once most trusted of all motor vehicle brands (my father swears by them) - is now an effective metaphor for things that need to be repaired and apologized for. Look here:

“This book is a Toyota,” said Robert S. Norris, the author of “Racing for the Bomb” and an atomic historian. “The publisher should recall it, issue an apology and fix the parts that endanger the historical record."

The background to this quote:

 William J. Broad, "Doubts Raised on Book's Tale of Atom Bomb", NYT 2/20/2010, discusses a minor scandal of historical documentation: the descriptions of a claimed "secret accident with the [Hiroshima] atom bomb", revealed in a recent non-fiction best-seller, turn out to have been based on lies and fabrications.

Can this be right?

 
This has very recently come to my attention...
 
As a former South African national serviceman, I know that it is the duty of each soldier to support the government of the day. As I recall very few conscripts were jumping up and down from excitement at the prospect of joining the army. We went because we had no choice.

And then the next government comes along and basically says that it wants nothing to do with its own fallen soldiers..?

This is from the Voortrekker Monument website.

The Wall of Remembrance has been erected on the VTM Heritage Site to honour members of the SA Defence Force who died on duty. Members are honoured who died between 1961 (foundation of Republic) to 1994 (change to the SANDF). The Wall was erected without any state finance and the VTM raised all the funds through donations. The Wall will be inaugurated on 25 October 2009.







... without any state finance...?!?!?

Marine Sniper

 
Today, I would like to take a moment to talk about this man.

Mark has let me know that sniper in the photo above is in fact not Carlos Hathcock but Dalton B Gunderson. Thanks, Mark for bringing this to my attention. I was thinking about taking down the picture but in truth it's an amazing photo and - with Mark's permission, of course - I'd like to keep it up here.

Below is a photo of Carlos Hathcock.

Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock II , United States Marine Corps. Hathcock holds the record for the longest confirmed sniping kill of the 20th Century. Unlike modern military snipers in Iraq and Vietnam who use vastly superior weapons and technology when engaging the enemy, Hathcock relied on a 30 year-old rifle, the Winchester Model 70 and stalking skills.

This is from a USMC site:

After his training was completed Carlos began his new assignment. Operating from Hill 55, a position 35 miles South-West of Da Nang, Hathcock and his fellow Marine snipers renewed a Marine tactic which had been born in the islands of the Pacific in World War II. Within a short period of time the effects of the Marine snipers could be felt around Hill 55. Carlos rapidly ran up a toll on the enemy that would eventually lead to a bounty being placed on his head by the NVA.

As a result of his skill Sergeant Hathcock was twice recruited for covert assignments. One of the them was to kill a Frenchman who was working for the North Vietnamese as an interrogator. This individual was torturing American airmen who had been shot down and captured. One round from Carlos' modified Winchester Model 70 ended the Frenchman's career. On another occasion Sergeant Hathcock accepted an assignment for which he was plainly told that his odds for survival were slim. A North Vietnamese general was the target, and the man died when a bullet fired by Carlos struck him from a range of 800 yards. Hathcock returned to Hill 55 unscathed. In one incredible incident an enemy sniper was killed after a prolonged game of "cat and mouse" between Carlos, with his spotter, and the NVA sniper. The fatal round, fired at 500 yards by Hathcock, passed directly through the NVA sniper's rifle scope, striking him in the eye.

Hathcock would eventually be credited with 93 enemy confirmed killed, including one Viet Cong shot dead by a round fired from a scope-mounted Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine gun at the unbelievable range of 2500 yards. (I see Wikipedia puts the distance at 2347 yards or 2146 meters. The .50's cyclic rate was slow enough to adjust it to fire single rounds.)

     
The M2 .50 Caliber Browning






I have Hathcock's biography  Marine Sniper written by Charles Henderson. It's well worth the read!

Seafood

 
Here's a good reason to avoid buying fresh seafood in China..

This is why spelling is everything.
 

Love in China

 
This year, the most popular new Valentine's greeting in China is "I LAO3HU3 老虎 U," where LAO3HU3 (which means "tiger") allegedly sounds like "love" to Chinese speakers."I LAO3HU3 老虎 U" is a current favorite for texting or e-mailing friends, advertisements etc.

Pretty silly...
 

The "I Jong Dui" - Taiwan Aboriginal Soldiers

 
The Taiwan I Jong Dui ( 台灣高砂義勇隊  ) were a group of Aboriginal Taiwanese soldiers who fought in WWII alongside Japanese forces in the South Pacific. There are conflicting opinions on how willing these young men were to leave Taiwan and go and support their colonial masters.

Approximately 8000 men served in these units. At first they performed maintenance and support roles but as the war intensified in the South Pacific the Takasago Giyutai, as they were known to the Japanese, began fighting in the frontlines. Aboriginal soldiers fought and died in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands,  the Phillippines and other parts of the Pacific theater.

However, for three reasons little is known about this group of extraordinary warriors. First, as it became clear the war was ending the Japanese army began destroying a great deal of its military records for fear of prosecution during possible war trials. Second, the Aboriginal soldiers fought under Japanese names and it is very hard for historians to distinguish them from Japanese soldiers in documentation. And third, upon their return, many Aboriginal soldiers were persecuted by the KMT government that had taken control of Taiwan after WWII. Thus they chose to reveal little or no information about their actions in the war.

One thing is clear based on reports from their Japanese officers. These men were gifted warriors. They had superb hearing, moved silently through the jungle and were capable of amazing feats of physical endurance. More here.

Today this remains a highly contentious issue for many Aboriginal Taiwanese.

 


















An amazing ending to the war of one of these men can be found in this article from Time magazine (1975) Japan - The Last Last Soldier. Here is a short excerpt:

Private Teruo Nakamura was motivated to hold out both by fear of capture and fidelity to orders. After a final banzai charge against invading U.S. troops failed in January 1945, radio contact between Tokyo and Morotai was lost. Nakamura, who was separated from other members of his commando unit, managed to avoid capture and built a grass hut deep in the jungle. He survived by raising potatoes and picking bananas off the trees. "My commanding officer told me to fight it out," he explained. Last month he was spotted by a Morotai native, who alerted Indonesian authorities. Four airmen lured the naked Nakamura out of hiding by singing the Japanese national anthem and waving the risingsun flag. Then they pounced on him.

Primitive living seemed to agree with Nakamura, 55, as much as it did with the other two holdouts; doctors in Jakarta pronounced him "exceedingly fit," even though at week's end he was suffering from a mild case of malaria. A member of the Ami tribe from Taiwan—long reputed for their bravery, stamina and ability to absorb hardship—Nakamura would like to return home and join his wife. She has long since remarried, but says that she will still be happy to see him.

He was "captured" in December 1974...

Kavalan Whiskey

 
Having just returned form the East Coast I think this would be an appropriate time to mention this:

From the Taiwan News:

Taipei, Jan. 26 (CNA) A Taiwan-distilled whisky has shocked connoiseurs by beating a trio of top Scottish blends in a blind taste test arranged by an English newspaper. According to a report in London-based The Times, Taiwan's Kavalan brand came out on top in a recent test against three Scottish and one English whisky in a historic hostelry in Leith, Scotland, north of Edinburgh.
The Times organized the test itself, in what it called a "piece of mischief-making" in hopes of catching the experts by surprise with Scotland's traditional "Sassenach" English rivals, but to the newspaper staff's surprise, it was the Taiwanese whisky that took the honors.
"It's tropical fruits. Tropical fruit jam, " said author and whisky connoisseur Charles MacLean, who headed the jury panel, after Kavalan, which is not marketed in Britain, came out on top with 27.5 points out of a possible 40.
Langs, a three-year-old Scottish premium blend, scored 22 points, and was followed by another Scottish blend King Robert with 20 and the English three-year-old malt with 15.5.
Quadruple-distilled Scottish blend Bruichladdich X4+3 came in last with only 4.5 points.
"Asians are not only some of the world's most sophisticated consumers of Scotch, but have begun distilling malts that compete with the best Scottish distilleries," The Times wrote.
The blind taste test was also organized to mark Scotland's annual Burns Night festivities, named after 18th century poet Robert "Rabbie" Burns. The festival competes with St. Andrew's Day as a focus for traditional whisky-fueled celebrations in Scotland and by Scots around the world.

Kavalan is distilled on the East Coast of Taiwan in Yilan County, which is really just tall mountains and clear, clean mountain streams. It is named for a group of Aboriginal Taiwanese who lived in the mountains years before. The obvious whiskey enthusiast at Whisky for Everyone has more to say about the whiskey.

The link to the Kavalan website is here.

And here is the advert.

Computers

 
Settling in at home. And, of course, everyone runs for a computer. I like to think that I have priority access to the internet but that is - apparently - not the case. Both sons all over the PC. Wife on the notebook.

I think I need an Ipod.

 

 

South African Security

 
It would appear SA cyclists also have to prepare for crime...

 
Thank-you to Gerhardt for this.

Return to the Gulag

 
Driving back to the West Coast today - work looming...

 

Lamb on Fire

 
A friend sent a whole leg of lamb from Taipei. The actual lamb - with all four legs - originated in Australia. This put me in a spot. The in-laws have a oven that shouldn't even qualify for the word. It's about large enough to roast an anorexic hedgehog. Not much good for anything else.

So I employed the braai ... again.

(This photo after 3 hours)









Filled with slight trepidation, I inserted small bits of bacon and garlic at several strategic locations in the leg. Salt, pepper, a bit of olive oil. Then wrapped it in some foil. It was on the fire - not over the coals - for close to five hours.

And it was beautiful. People came down from the hills to try some as word spread. On the table there were also lots of clams fried with ginger, garlic and chilli, sashimi with wasabi, oysters in a black bean sauce, some red wine and - of course - plenty of ice-cold beer.

More on China ...

 
Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying the PRC is the perfect place. But anyone with any sense and any interest in the future has to keep their eye on China. Take a look at this...

"It was primarily a symbolic gesture. Way back in 1979, in the midst of an energy crisis, Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. They were used to heat water for some White House staffers.


“A generation from now,” said Mr. Carter, “this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people, harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”


Ronald Reagan had the panels taken down.


We missed the boat then, and lord knows we’re missing it now. Two weeks ago, as I was getting ready to take off for Palo Alto, Calif., to cover a conference on the importance of energy and infrastructure for the next American economy, The Times’s Keith Bradsher was writing from Tianjin, China, about how the Chinese were sprinting past everybody else in the world, including the United States, in the race to develop clean energy.


That we are allowing this to happen is beyond stupid. China is a poor country with nothing comparable to the tremendous research, industrial and economic resources that the U.S. has been blessed with. Yet they’re blowing us away — at least for the moment — in the race to the future."

More here from the NYTimes again.

A case in point. Shanghai - a bit north of here - and the place to be if you're in Asia. This from Flickr.

Shanghai is the largest city in China in terms of population and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level status.

Originally a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew to importance in the 19th century due to its favourable port location and as one of the cities opened to foreign trade by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The city flourished as a center of commerce between east and west, and became a multinational hub of finance and business by the 1930s. However, Shanghai's prosperity was interrupted after the 1949 Communist takeover and the subsequent cessation of foreign investment. Economic reforms in 1990 resulted in intense development and financing in Shanghai, and in 2005 Shanghai became the world's largest cargo port.

The city is an emerging tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as the Bund and Xintiandi, its modern and ever-expanding Pudong skyline including the Oriental Pearl Tower, and its new reputation as a cosmopolitan center of culture and design. Today, Shanghai is the largest center of commerce and finance in mainland China, and has been described as the "showpiece" of the world's fastest-growing economy.

Will Americans learn to speak Chinese?

 
From the The New York Times.

Imagine that your monthly mortgage bill arrives, unremarkable except that it’s suddenly written in Mandarin. Then, your bank sends over a Chinese translator to explain that you are falling deeper into debt. Mind-boggling? Well, this is America’s contemporary predicament as the Chinese finance a growing share of [its] national debt. Beijing holds $1.8 trillion in U.S. bonds and other instruments of borrowing. [The US] is fused at the hip with the Chinese, economically speaking.

So, we better get to know them. They certainly want to know us, sending over hundreds of teachers to spark our children’s interest in Mandarin and East Asian ways. 

We are pathetically slow in realizing that East Asia will soon dominate the global economy. We believe, as did the last living Romans, that the American empire will reign forever.

 
Well, on that note - Happy Chinese New Year! May the Year of the Tiger be a wonderful one for you!

The Mauser Model 95

 
Which (see below) got me to thinking about those Mausers...

 

A Model 1895 (Mexican Army)







In the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, Boer Commandos - armed with Model 1893/1895 Mausers - proved to be an exceedingly tough match for the Brits. One of the constant themes of the conflict was the accurate, long-range fire the Boers rained down on their adversaries. As the Boers would put it, "Vertroue in God en die Mauser" --"Faith in God and the Mauser."

This is interesting. "The Model 95 (7x57) was  adopted by Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, Persia, China, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. In fact, some of the Chilean Model 95s carry the code "O.V.S.", standing for the "'Orange Free State." Reportedly, because of the success of the British blockades, these rifles never reached South African shores, were returned to the factory where the Chilean crest was applied to the receiver ring, and sold to Chile as part of the contract." (From Guns Magazine, August 2007)

And this article from Wikipedia  discusses the 7x57 ammunition. Here's an excerpt:

The qualities of the 7x57mm as a military round were shown in the Spanish-American War and the Second Boer War in South Africa. Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders took very heavy casualties attacking an inferior force armed with 7 mm Model 93 Mauser rifles. Likewise, British soldiers fighting in South Africa were obliged to re-evaluate rifle and ammunition design and tactics after facing Boer sharpshooters and snipers armed with Model 1895 Mauser rifles firing 7x57mm rounds with withering effectiveness, easily outranging the .303 British cartridge as regards accurate long-range fire. The .303 cartridge at that time was still using cordite propellant, in contrast to the Mauser's higher-performance ballistite type smokeless powder.

I found this photo of a slightly newer Mauser rechambered for a NATO 7.62mm. 





 
That's beautiful...

The Battle of Rensburg

 
Here's a bit of history from the Second Anglo-Boer War. The narrative sets out to praise the courage of the British and Australians which is not to be denied. But it is quite clear that the South Africans' superior shooting skill and tactics held the day.

On February 13, 1900, at Pink Hill (also known as Hobkirk's Farm) , in the Cape Colony, the Battle of Rensburg was fought. Australian and British troops were attacked by a superior Boer force resulting in the deaths of 7 Australians and the wounding of 22 others.

The following account of the battle was given by a Boer prisoner to a correspondent from the Daily Mail:

I saw a long row of their dead and wounded laid out on the slope of a farmhouse that evening - they were all young men, fine big fellows. I could have cried to look at them so cold and still. They had been so brave in the morning, so strong, but in the evening a few hours later they were dead, and we had not hated them nor they us.

It was a cruel fight. We had ambushed a lot of the British troops - the Worcesters, I think they called them. They could neither advance nor retire; we had them penned in like sheep, and our field cornet, van Leyden, was beseeching them to throw down their rifles to save being slaughtered, for they had no chance. Just then we saw about a hundred Australians come bounding over the rock in the gully behind us. There were two great big men in front cheering them on. 

We turned and gave them a volley, but it did not stop them. They rushed over everything, firing as they came, not wildly, but with the quick sharp upward jerk to the shoulder, the rapid sight then the shot. They knocked over a lot of our men, but we had a splendid position. They had to expose themselves in order to get to us, and we shot them as they came at us. They were rushing to the rescue of the English. It was splendid but it was madness.

On they came and we lay behind the boulders, and our rifles snapped and snapped again at pistol range but we did not stop those wild men until they charged right into a little basin which was fringed around all its edges by rocks covered with bushes. Our men lay there as thick as locusts, and the Australians were fairly trapped. They were far worse off than the Worcesters up high in the ravine.


Our field cornet gave the order to cease firing and called on them to throw down their rifles or die. Then one of the big officers -- a great rough-looking man, with a voice like a bull, roared out "forward Australia! no surrender!" These were the last words he ever uttered for a man on my right put a bullet clean between his eyes and he fell forward dead. We found later that his name was Major Eddy, of the Victorian Rifles.

He was as brave as a lion but a Mauser bullet will stop the bravest. His men dashed at the rocks like wolves; it was awful to see them. They smashed at our heads with clubbed rifles or thrust their rifles up against us through the rocks and fired. One after another their leaders fell. The second big man went down early, but he was not killed. He was shot through the groin, but not dangerously. His name was Captain McInerney.

There was another one, a little man named Lieutenant Roberts; he was shot through the heart. Some of the others I forget. The men would not throw down their rifles; they fought like furies. One man I saw climbed right on to the rocky ledge where big Jan Aldrecht was stationed. Just as he got there a bullet took him and he staggered and dropped his rifle. Big Jan jumped froward to catch him before he toppled over the ledge, but the Australian struck Jan in the mouth with his clenched fist and [he] fell over into the ravine below and was killed. 

We killed and wounded an awful lot of them, but some got away; they fought their way out. I saw a long row of their dead and wounded laid out on the slope of a farmhouse that evening - they were all young men, fine big fellows. I could have cried to look at them so cold and still. They had been so brave in the morning, so strong, but in the evening a few hours later they were dead, and we had not hated them nor they us. 

Right-clicked  from here

South African President Jacob Zuma

 

From Madam and Eve.

Father of (a considerable part of) the nation...

Jack Daniel's Old No.7

 
Today, I would like to address one of the great questions of our time.

Why Old No.7?

Here's the great man himself.

It seems Mr.Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel  had a fine temper - probably why nobody was brave enough to ask him the origin of the name of his most famous creation. From Wikipedia.

Daniel died from blood poisoning at Lynchburg in 1911. The infection allegedly set up originally in a toe, which Daniel injured in kicking his safe in anger when he could not get it open early one morning at work — he had always had trouble remembering the combination and his last words were "One last drink, please". This incident was the subject of a marketing poster used on the London Underground in January 2006, with the line "Moral: Never go to work early." A common joke that is told during the tour of the distillery is that all Jack had to do to cure his infection was to dip his toe in a glass of his own whiskey to clean it.

 A quick internet search produces these possible explanations for the name Old No.7.

"While a college student in Tennessee, not far from the Jack Daniels distillery, the story I heard was that in Mr. Daniels' first distiller's competition he was assigned number 7 as an entrant. May or may not be true, but the locals all believed it."

"A shipment marked No. 7 was lost. The first part of it sold so quickly that the sellers requested more of the No. 7. When JD found the lost portion of the shipment, they stamped it Old No. 7 to make sure the customers knew it was a part of the original number 7 shipment and not a new brew."

"They quote the legend claiming that Jack Daniels and his six friends invented the No7 whiskey; therefore, No. 7 stands as a tribute to his friends."

"Some say that Jack Daniel had 7 girlfriends, or that the way he wrote his “J” looked like a 7. Some say he chose the number 7 simply because it’s lucky.
One story goes that the recipe for Jack Daniel’s was Mr. Jack’s 7th recipe or 7th trial batch.
Another story says that it was the railroad shipping number on a barrel. We’ll never know for sure – Mr. Jack took that secret to the grave."

It's all put together very nicely in this commercial. Click here.

Well, I suppose there are greater mysteries to be pondered ....

"I am the Old Ghost of the Shangani Patrol And the last bullet will be mine..."

I found a reference to this battle quite by accident a few years ago. As a South African I find this kind of history fascinating. And the truth is - much like Zimbabwe - South Africa also has great stories like this but time and politics have meant that few know or care much anymore.

The Shangani Patrol was a group of white Rhodesian pioneer police officers killed in battle on the Shangani River in Matabeleland (now in Zimbabwe) in 1893.

During the First Matabele War, a column of soldiers were despatched to attempt the capture of King Lobengula, leader of the Ndebele nation. The column camped on the south bank of the Shangani River about 40 km north-east of the village of Lupane on the evening of 3 December 1893. Late in the afternoon, a dozen men, under the command of Major Allan Wilson, were sent across the river to reconnoitre. Shortly afterwards, Wilson sent a message back to the laager to say that he had found the king, and was requesting reinforcements.

The commander of the column, Major Patrick Forbes, unwilling to set off across the river in the dark, sent 20 more men , intending to send the main body of troops and artillery across the river the following morning. However, on their way to the river the next day, the column was ambushed by Ndebele fighters and delayed. The Shangani Patrol, numbering 34 men, were cut off by a rising river and they faced three Matabele impis alone. None survived.

Then came the development they had all been expecting and dreading. In the half-light they heard the clicking of rifle bolts and from behind a tree stepped a warrior wearing the induna's headring. He fired his rifle. It was the signal for a scattered volley which intensified as more warriors came running through the bush. More here.

There were no survivors, and this is the proud epitaph on their memorial. No one knew of their fate until two months later, when James Dawson, the trader, was led to the spot by a party of natives and found their skeletons. The trees all round were scored by bullet marks. The Matabele spoke of them reverently and had been so impressed by their bravery that they had refrained from mutilating their bodies and had left them where they fell. Dawson dug a large grave and gave them temporary burial close to a tree on which he cut a cross and the words, "To Brave Men". Their bones were later interred at Zimbabwe, since they had all come from Fort Victoria, and in 1904 removed to the Matopos, to the hilltop "consecrated and set apart for ever for those who had deserved well of their country."

Slow Afternoon

 
Made a fire yesterday. By putting the meat on in batches I skillfully managed to stretch the braai out all afternoon.

It was very hot and the ice cold Carlsberg beer complemented the sun just perfectly.

Carlsberg Beer (also called Carlsberg Lager and Carlsberg Pilsner) is the beer most people expect when ordering a Carlsberg. Carlsberg Special Brew is a very strong lager (sometimes known as premium lager) brewed in Denmark and the United Kingdom. It comes in a can with a distinctive gold and red colour.Special Brew was first brewed by master brewer, Thomas Marfleet, and was brewed by Carlsberg to commemorate a visit to Denmark of Winston Churchill in 1950. In May 1951 two crates were delivered to Churchill's London home. In a thank you letter Churchill called the drink "Commemoration Lager".

The Carlsberg's tagline "Probably the best beer in the world" was created in 1973 for the UK market. It began to appear in company corporate ads around the world from the 1980s onwards. The voice over for the original advertisement in 1975 was voiced by actor Orson Welles. More here.

The Fairburn-Sykes fighting knife.

 
Shortly before World War II William Fairburn and Eric Sykes designed this weapon, the Fairburn-Sykes fighting knife.

The knife was used by the British commandos ( including the just created S.A.S ) in WWII  but became popular with many other special forces units as the war progressed. The knife also saw service in Korea and Vietnam. This is from Wikipedia.

The length of the blade [ 7 inches]was chosen to give several inches of blade to penetrate the body after passing through the three inches of the thickest clothing that was anticipated to be worn in the war, namely that of Soviet greatcoats. Later production runs of the FS fighting knife have a blade length that is about 7.5 inches.

The F-S Fighting Knife was designed exclusively for surprise attack and fighting, with a slender blade that can easily penetrate a ribcage. The vase handle grants precise grip, and the double-edged blade is integral to its design. Fairbairn's rationale is in his book Get Tough! (1942).

"In close-quarters fighting there is no more deadly weapon than the knife. In choosing a knife there are two important factors to bear in mind: balance and keenness. The hilt should fit easily in your hand, and the blade should not be so heavy that it tends to drag the hilt from your fingers in a loose grip. It is essential that the blade have a sharp stabbing point and good cutting edges, because an artery torn through (as against a clean cut) tends to contract and stop the bleeding. If a main artery is cleanly severed, the wounded man will quickly lose consciousness and die."

Fairfield himself had a colorful history.He served as an instructor in the Shanghai Municipal Police for many years and trained UK, US and Canadian Commando forces, along with Ranger candidates in close-combat, pistol-shooting, and knife-fighting techniques during WWII.

I have to include this excellent quote from Richard Dunlop's  Behind Japanese Lines :

British Major Fairbairn, who had been chief of police in Shanghai before the Japanese capture of the city, taught the Fairbairn method of assault and murder. His course was not restricted to Camp X, but later given at OSS camps in the United States. All of us who were taught by Major Fairbairn soon realized that he had an honest dislike for anything that smacked of decency in fighting.

The Gladius

The military successes of the Roman legionaries stemmed from their intensive training and very strict discipline. And this weapon - the gladius.  

Which literally means sword. The word gladiator comes from this word as well as  Gladiolus - a flower with sharp, sword-shaped leaves.

The gladius was a short sword  that was used by Roman legionaries from the 3rd century BC and designed specifically for making short, powerful thrusts.


The weapon was about 60 cm (22 inches) long and generally weighed 3 pounds (1.4 kg) . In battle the Gladius was used in a thrusting action together with a large rectangular shield, the scutum.

This stabbing technique was most effective on the battlefield because its result was a deep stabbing wound to the midsection of an opponent. Unlike other swords that were used in strike to inflict glancing lacerations the thrust of a Gladius was almost always fatal.




On another continent, Shaka Zulu came to a similar realization about the deadly effect of stabbing in close quarter combat and virtually did away with the primary Zulu attack weapon of the time, the assegaai throwing spear, and introduced the iklwa .

The iklwa [was] a short stabbing spear, with a long, sword-like spearhead. It is said to have been named after the sounds made by its penetration into and withdrawal from the body.

The gladius and iklwa are separated by more than 1000 years, the Zulu weapon emerging later, but I have to wonder what would have happened if a Roman legion had met a Zulu impi in battle.

 My money would be on the boys from Rome.

"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet" Damon Runyan

 

 

 

Just found this. Nike Gladiator Sandals. For if you take your training really seriously, I guess.

 

Rice Paddy

 
Yesterday I was mainly here - helping on the farm. It looks a little like a scene from Platoon -  Is that Charlie moving in the treeline ... ?














Platoon was filmed in the Philippines. (Hey, Tears of the Sun, the SEAL movie set in Nigeria was filmed in Hawaii.)

This is interesting. Below, the iconic picture of Sgt Elias Grodin (Platoon) dying as the US helicopters depart the LZ.

And this is the photo it was based on.

As fellow troopers aid wounded buddies, a paratrooper of A Company, 101st Airborne, guides a medical evacuation helicopter through the jungle foliage to pick up casualties during a five-day patrol of Hue, South Vietnam, in April, 1968. (AP Photo/Art Greenspoon)

On this day in ...

1838 - During the Boers Great Trek, Boer leader Piet Retief was murdered by the Zulu king Dingane's warriors.

1922 - The Washington Conference between the United States, France, Japan, Italy and Britain ended with agreement on restricting use of poison gas and submarine warfare. 

1952 - Queen Elizabeth II succeeded to the British throne upon the death of her father, King George VI. 

1971 - NASA Astronaut Alan B. Shepard took a six-iron stashed inside his spacecraft took a swing at three golf balls on the surface of the moon. Shepard whiffed the first swing. The others were good shots that went a few hundred yards in space's vacuum. Because his moonwalk suit was so bulky, he didn’t get enough of a swing to launch the golf balls into orbit. But he did get a couple of divots. 

The Longbow

 
An old friend - a former marine - has taken up bow hunting. Ghillie suit, sweat, stalking in the bush under the African sun. Recently, he took a deer at 20 m. Just look at that bow!

Which got me to thinking about the English - or Welsh - longbow. Most famously used at the Battles of Crecy and Agincourt where men armed with these bows destroyed waves of attacking cavalry - specifically, killing hundreds of heavily armoured knights.

Typically made from yew and around two metres in length, the longbow was a powerful weapon in the right hands. It was accurate and could kill at ranges of up to 230 metres. However, it was its use as an area weapon (i.e firing massed volleys at specific areas rather than individual targets) which proved most effective. It was hard to draw the bow - probably impossible for most men today - and skeletons of longbow archers show deformations such as enlarged left arms and bone spurs on wrists, shoulders and fingers.

This account in Wikipedia testifies to the penetrating power of the arrow of the longbow:

In the war against the Welsh, one of the men of arms was struck by an arrow shot at him by a Welshman. It went right through his thigh, high up, where it was protected inside and outside the leg by his iron cuirasses, and then through the skirt of his leather tunic; next it penetrated that part of the saddle which is called the alva or seat; and finally it lodged in his horse, driving so deep that it killed the animal.

Saxton Pope, the author of  Hunting with the Bow and Arrow ( available through Project Gutenberg), describes his efforts to test the power of the longbow:

"To test a steel bodkin pointed arrow such as was used at the battle of Cressy, I borrowed a shirt of chain armor from the Museum, a beautiful specimen made in Damascus in the 15th Century. It weighed twenty-five pounds and was in perfect condition. One of the attendants in the Museum offered to put it on and allow me to shoot at him. Fortunately, I declined his proffered services and put it on a wooden box, padded with burlap to represent clothing. Indoors at a distance of seven yards, I discharged an arrow at it with such force that sparks flew from the links of steel as from a forge. The bodkin point and shaft went through the thickest portion of the back, penetrated an inch of wood and bulged out the opposite side of the armor shirt. The attendant turned a pale green. An arrow of this type can be shot about two hundred yards, and would be deadly up to the full limit of its flight."

Up in the morning before the sun...

 
Following on my Macbeth cauldron theme from yesterday.

Made a South African traditional "potjie" yesterday - on a charcoal fire.  One Chicken. The whole bottle of wine went in to keep it company. The family dog ( a combination of husky and another - as yet unidentified - canine) did not leave my side for the 4 hours of cooking. The stew fed what seemed to be an entire platoon of kids. 

Up at 0415 this morning. This is what happens when you take your vacation on a farm.

There is a company of  marines up on the side of the hill nearby - they're attached to the very large Air Force Base that lies just north. I haven't heard them yet but I will soon. They make an ungodly amount of noise screaming at each other in the early morning. I don't get that. A nicely hidden base, camo nets etc. but everybody within earshot - and that's a distance of about 3 clicks on a cold morning - knows where they are.

Of course, if it was a training base that would be different. Nothing makes sense there. See below. Nobody would normally do this.













Ah, 20 years and 30 kilograms ago...

On this day in ...

1945 - United States troops under General Douglas MacArthur entered Manila, Philippines. 

1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz excitedly received their first of several Emmy Awards at the 4th Annual Emmy Awards banquet in Los Angeles. I Love Lucy won for Best Situation Comedy and Lucille Ball won for Best Comedienne. Other winners at the event included Robert Montgomery Presents for Best Dramatic Program; Dragnet for Best Mystery, Action, or Adventure Program; Your Show of Shows won for Best Variety Program; and Time for Beany was chosen Best Children's Program for the third year in a row. Emmys were originally going to be called "Ikes," a short form for the television iconoscope tube, but the name had problems, as it was also the nickname of war hero and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ultimately, the nickname chosen was a feminization of "Immy," a term commonly used for the early image orthicon camera tube. 

1983 - Klaus Barbie, wanted Nazi war criminal, was imprisoned in Lyons, France, following extradition from Bolivia. 

1997 - Switzerland's three biggest banks, galvanized by international pressure, said they had created a 100 million Swiss franc Holocaust memorial fund as a gesture of good will toward their critics. 

Salinger and Shakespeare

J.D Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye), the creator of Holden Caulfield  -the most famous teenager in the world (well, after one of those Jonas brothers) - died last week. According to the The New York Times:

J.D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died on Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91.

Salinger responded to letters on occasion. Eleven years after The Catcher in the Rye was released, he wrote the following letter in response to a request for writing advice by an 'angst-ridden' first-year college student. Advice was certainly present in Salinger's reply.

Oct. 21, 1962

Dear Mr. Stevens,

I must tell you first, offputtingly or no, that I am at best a one-shot letter writer, these days. Along with that, I really never have anything to say when I`m done writing fiction at the end of a day. One thought, and one only, hits me about your letter. Entirely "materialistic," I'm afraid. You need a new typewriter ribbon. Get one or don't get one, but unless you make an effort to deal with things as unabstractly as that, you're stewing quite unnecessarily. You've decided that Things are what matter to people. Of course. Not only with "people" but with you, too. Everything in your letter is a thing, concrete or abstract. Avidya and vidya are things. For me, before anything else, you're a young man who needs a new typewriter ribbon. See that fact, and don't attach more significance to it than it deserves, and then get on with the rest of the day. Good wishes to you.

(Signed, 'JDS')

For more go to this great website: Letters of Note

John Hinckley Jr., would-be assassin of Ronald Reagan, as well as Mark Chapman, John Lennon's killer, both had copies of The Catcher in the Rye. Hinckley's was in his room and Chapman apparently carried his copy around with him. (I should mention that this gives the novel a certain morbid appeal among high school students.)

And the word assassin has its own story. Apparently, originating from an Arabic word meaning "takers of hashish (cannabis)", it refers to a group of Shia Muslims who specialized in taking out members of the Sunni elite - as well as Crusaders - during the Middle Ages.

Most notably, the word assassination was created by William Shakespeare and first used in literature in the ultimate tale of ambition, regicide and the power of a nagging wife, Macbeth.  Some controversy surrounds this piece of writing, too. There are those who claim the play is cursed and when performing the drama, actors superstitiously do not refer to it by name but as the Scottish play. The curse has caused theaters to burn down and actors to be killed or injured during productions. Supporters of the curse theory believe that Shakespeare wrote actual incantations provided by real witches into the play. Double Double Toil and Trouble Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble... Skeptics state that Macbeth  is simply a dangerous play to perform with many fighting scenes and lots of poor lighting. Mmmm...

Latin Verbs

This might mean something to you if you struggled with Latin at some point in school or university...

Project Razor

 
The China post editorial of February 2nd caught my attention. It seems there is a proposal to create a museum dedicated to a group of Cold War pilots - known as the Black Cat Squadron. These R.O.C. pilots flew 102 reconnaissance missions in U2's over what was North Vietnam, North Korea and Mainland China in the 1960's and 1970's. Five pilots were shot down - 3 died and two were imprisoned for for almost two decades. Another seven men died when their U2's crashed. This from the China Post:

Jointly operated by the United States (U.S.) and the R.O.C, “Project Razor” had U-2 aircraft deployed at what is now a naval aviation base near the Taoyuan airport.
At the time, it was the only deployment of U-2 aircraft to bases not controlled by U.S. forces, and these were the only U-2 aircraft piloted by non-U.S. personnel.
Each of the 102 missions flown by the Taiwan-based pilots had to be authorized at the highest levels of government both in the U.S. and in Taiwan.
In essence, R.O.C pilots took all the risks for the missions, while the U.S. provided the equipment and intelligence for the reconnaissance objects.
Starting in 1961, members of the Black Cat Squadron flew at heights reaching 70,000 feet to snap photographs of strategic locations and troop movements during the height of Cold War tensions.
An ordinary mission would usually require at least eight hours of flying over hostile territory in a fragile plane possessing no defensive weapons that was easily damaged by enemy fire.
The information they collected played a major role in maintaining security in the region.
Information they supplied confirming movements of troops and weapons to the Soviet border also played an important part in convincing Washington that the split between communist powers in Beijing and Moscow was genuine.

And...

The proposed museum would also bestow belated respect and honor to the R.O.C pilots who lost their lives or spent years languishing in mainland Chinese prisons after being shot down on the dangerous missions.

More here.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time that a government "forgot" about its own soldiers.

This is a website that is dedicated to some of these pilots.

On this day in ...

1927 - British driver Malcolm Campbell broke the world land speed record in his car Bluebird, driving at 174.224 miles per hour. 

1945 - Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin met at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss plans for the defeat of the Axis powers and to decide on the post-war future. 

1976 - Lourenco Marques, the capital of Mozambique, was renamed Maputo. 

1997 - 16 months after O.J. Simpson was cleared of murder charges, a civil trial jury blamed him for the killings of his ex-wife and her friend and ordered him to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages.

On this day in ...

1953 - Marine archeologist Jacques Cousteau became renowned worldwide for documenting his deep sea explorations. His first and most-lasting work, The Silent World, was published on this date. He attracted world attention when he salvaged a 1,000-pound Roman freighter near Marseilles. While in the French navy, he and engineer Emil Gargon invented the aqualung. However, Cousteau is best known for his documentaries and book.

1960 - British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan foreshadowed the decolonization of Africa, telling the South African parliament: "The wind of change is blowing through the continent." 

1972 - In Sapporo, Japan, the first Winter Olympics held in Asia took place. 

1994 - President Bill Clinton announced the lifting of the United States trade embargo against Vietnam, marking a dramatic shift in relations chilled for decades by war and postwar hostility. 

Taitung, Taiwan

I find myself back in Taitung - on the East coast of Taiwan - for the first time since August, 2009.

It's winter here, of course. But that means it's only marginally cooler than Cape Town in the summer. The locals think it's cold, though. Ergo, beach to ourselves. What's really astounding is the amount of driftwood - perhaps, the term doesn't quite cover it - still on the beach after Typhoon Morakot. And huge amounts have already been removed.

And this is the infamous hotel/timeshare facility that was apparently constructed illegally on a public beach. (In addition, the beach was closed to local residents.) After much protesting construction was halted and now here it stands...

How did this construction get this far? Some kind of skulduggery, methinks. Somebody better do something about it soon, too. Right now it's only good for filming low budget supernatural thrillers or Urban COIN training.