Note: This is an abbreviated chat, from New Orleans. Today, Wednesday, was a long one as I took a lengthy drive to Grand Isle, scene of some of the oil spill damage. I’ll discuss it in more detail in that other column I do later, but while I didn’t actually see the spill, I did see a lot of activity and preparations. But my driver and I also got hit by a big storm at the worst possible time as I was heading onto the beach (all the beaches are closed but it’s not like there are armed guards everywhere). So…it was just good getting off the island…as it started to flood in all of five minutes. It’s amazing how flat, and fragile, the area is.
Indy 500 Quiz: Helio Castroneves has won Indy three times, 2001, 2002, and 2009. Who won the years in between? You get help, of course. 2003…G.F. 2004…B.R. 2005…D.W. 2006…
S.H. 2007…D.F. 2008…S.D. Name ‘em. Answers below.
I came to New Orleans just a little over two years ago to see this museum but I knew it underwent some major changes since then, including the building of a new theater to house a spectacular film called “Beyond all Boundaries” that took five years to produce and has elements in 3-D. It’s a must for every American. When the film ends dramatically, the producers knew enough to keep the room totally dark for more than a few seconds so everyone could wipe away their tears before the lights came back up. [At least that was my thought.]
The movie opens with the death tolls of the various major players in the war…65 million in all…and, well, you know the rest. You can only see the film here in New Orleans, so your assignment is to get permission from your boss to take some time off to come on down.
Just a few notes…beginning with a reminder why the World War II Museum is in New Orleans. It started as the “D-Day Museum,” because it was in New Orleans that Andrew Jackson Higgins made the Higgins landing craft vehicles that literally won the war, as none other than General Dwight D. Eisenhower said.
“Andrew Jackson Higgins is the man who won the war for us. Without Higgins designed boats that could land over open beaches, the whole strategy of the war would have to be rethought.”
By Sept. 1943, the U.S. Navy totaled 14,072 vessels and 12,964, or 92%, of the entire fleet was designed by Higgins Industries. 8,865 were built in New Orleans. By the war’s end, 20,094 boats were built by 30,000 New Orleanians at 7 Higgins plants in town.
[A few years ago, an act of Congress turned this museum into the nation’s overall World War II museum and then the exhibit on the war in the Pacific was added, as well as the new theater.]
–When FDR penned his speech following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he originally wrote “a date which will live in world history,” before changing it to “live in infamy.”
–At the peak, there were 16 million men and women in the U.S. armed forces.
–Ford’s Willow Run bomber factory produced nearly one plane an hour by March 1944…96,000 total military aircraft by 1944.
–Advertisement during the war… “Save waste fats for explosives. Take them to your meat dealer.”
1 pound of fat could be turned into 1/3 pound of gunpowder. 300,000 razor blades into 50, .30-caliber machine guns.
–In April 1942, a Philadelphia paper detailed the Bataan Death March of 75,000 American and Filipino POWs and the unbelievable cruelty of the Japanese, including placing 12,000 in an area the size of about two football fields with one pipe of water for the entire group and no food for a week.
But the same paper had a story at the bottom of the front page, “Golf Club Production Will Halt May 31.”
–Prior to D-Day, in the first week of May 1944, 2 million men and 500,000 vehicles were assembled in southern England in various disembarkation areas, the largest single movement of men and materiel in the history of the world.
–The Germans really were convinced the weather would postpone the Normandy invasion, which is why Rommel went back home to Germany to visit his family, one of many critical mistakes on the part of the Nazis.
–I know most of you know all of this stuff, but if I have to keep coming back to places like this museum to get some principles reinforced, you should too. If you aren’t already doing it, drag your little kids to museums! Our country is going to hell because we don’t know any freakin’ history. Now where was I? Oh yeah.
As you know, Eisenhower had no backup plan for the Normandy invasion. If the Germans had guessed right as to the site of the beaches to be stormed, for example, D-Day could have been a catastrophic failure and today we’d be calling Beck’s, domestic …know what I’m sayin’?
–When you walk through the WWII Museum, one thing shines through. You just love Ike. I mean, really, really love the man. And boy did he love his troops, never more so than in the days leading up to D-Day.
And just imagine the pressure he was under. In fact, he was under so much pressure that the letter he prepared, in case D-Day failed, was dated July 5 by him….not June 5 (D-Day going off a day later after the postponement for the weather).
–You see the pictures of Eisenhower visiting the 101st Airborne Division on June 5, and the reaction of the soldiers and their comments afterwards, and it was clear he went to see them to improve his own morale rather than the other way around.
–British Gen. Bernard Montgomery told his troops as they took off for Normandy:
“Good luck to each one of you. And good hunting on the main land of Europe.”
–The gliders used in D-Day were called “flying coffins” for good reason…flimsy canvas and plywood. Many of the paratroopers and glider pilots also drowned in fields the Germans had flooded.
–The first onshore at Omaha Beach were Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 29th Division. Of 170, 91 were killed and 64 wounded. It was Company A that had 35 from Bedford, Virginia, with 19 dying on D-Day and 2 others succumbing to wounds suffered that day as well. 21 from Bedford, when the town’s population back in 1944 was only 3,200.
–As part of his victory message to Allied troops following the defeat of the Nazis, Eisenhower said:
“The route you have traveled…is marked by the graves of former comrades. Each of the fallen died as a member of the team to which you belong, bound together by a common love of liberty.”
–I love how FDR would say in his fireside chats, “Get out your map.” I wish everyone would get their map out again today when looking at the global issues facing us.
–It’s still astounding to think that 1,177 died on the Arizona at Pearl Harbor of the 2,400 total killed in the attack.
–13,000 Americans died at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
–Lastly, I try not to repeat items in Bar Chat and Week in Review, but if you read the latter, the following will be mentioned again by me.
In preparation for the decisive battle of Midway, the USS Yorktown was in need of extensive repairs for hits taken during the battle of the Coral Sea. Admiral Nimitz was told the repairs would take three months. Nimitz said, ‘Get it done in 3 days.’ The Yorktown headed for a rendezvous at Midway with hundreds of engineers still on board to complete the work…3 days later. [The Yorktown would then go down at Midway, but not before another valiant effort and the U.S. of course turned the tide of the war there in surprising the Japanese fleet.]
But you can’t help but read of the Yorktown and Nimitz’ leadership and think of the BP oil spill and the official government response to it. Where the hell are our leaders these days?!!!
[I’m posting this piece before results of the “Top Kill” procedure are known, but success wouldn’t change my premise in any shape or form.]
–Well, it’s official…the 2014 Super Bowl in New Jersey. I was a lone voice way back saying this decision is nuts, and now everyone seems to be coming around to my way of thinking. For example, Reid Cherner and Tom Weir of USA TODAY.
TW: “The decision to hold a Super Bowl outdoors in a cold-weather city is flat-out nuts. Maybe if the NFL owners weren’t partying at this year’s Super Bowl in Miami they would have realized that on the same day the Northeast was digging out from an epic blizzard.”
RC: “Having shoveled 30 inches of snow during Super Bowl weekend, I am also scratching my head on this decision. If we get a blizzard in New York City, and no one can get to the game, will NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell have to sit out four games the next season for breaking the league’s personal conduct policy?
“Cold-weather football during the regular season is among the most pleasurable things to watch in sports. A Super Bowl dictated by the elements is another kettle of frozen fish.”
It took the owners four secret ballots to finally approve the New Meadowlands Stadium as the site. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, proving to be a real idiot, said, “We hope it snows.”
Some early advice for those who might think of coming to New York / New Jersey.
If you thought you’d arrive Friday night for the Sunday contest and leave Monday, come in two days earlier. Leave yourself some extra time to get into town in case a big storm hits before and the airports are all backed up.
And now the EXCLUSIVE Bar Chat weather forecast for Super Sunday, 2014…Increasing clouds in the morning with snow developing around mid-day and picking up in intensity by game time, 6:30 p.m. Accumulations of 4-6 inches by halftime, with an additional 3-5 inches in the second half. As warmer air filters in, however, the snow will mix with sleet around 11:00 p.m., leaving the roads impassable following the game…that is if you can shovel your car out of the lot to begin with.
As the storm then moves up the coast late Sunday night, colder air will wrap back around the system and by Monday morning we could see a further 6-10 inches. The airports will be closed, and for the 35,000 who never made it out of the Meadowlands parking lot, the National Guard will be called in to evacuate the casualties. An estimated 546 will freeze to death.
Bar Chat will continue to refine the forecast throughout the coming months and years.
–So I’ve watched more NBA basketball the past few nights in New Orleans than I did all year, catching Monday and Tuesday’s second halves at Pat O’Brien’s…and I hope to catch some of Wednesday’s Celts action shortly. It was a partisan Celtic faithful in the bar on Monday, and then Tuesday it was all about Phoenix. By the way, why is Steve Nash allowed to go through his free throw routine? If I were the official, I’d throw the ball at him as soon as he stepped to the line. Of course he also hits 95% of his FTs. And nice goin’, Suns!
–Interesting piece in USA TODAY on the state of pitching as we approach the 1/3rd mark of the baseball season. As in, wow, it’s darn good!
“There are 25 full-time starters who entered Tuesday’s games with earned-run averages of 3.00 or less. There hasn’t been this many pitchers at 3.00 or below at this date since 1997, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
“If it continues, it will be the greatest number of pitchers breaking the 3.00 barrier since the strike-shortened 1981 season – and the most in a full season since 1971.”
–I didn’t watch it, but congratulations to Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger for winning Dancing With the Stars. Big fan of the Pussycat Dolls…biiiig fan. Can’t say I know one tune of theirs, but a biiiig fan nonetheless.
“Authorities in Barcelona, fed up with tourists wandering the streets in their swimming costumes, are preparing a massive campaign to convince them to put on clothes when they leave the beach.
“ ‘We want to make people understand that it’s an attitude that we don’t like, that it’s not banned or punishable but that it’s something we don’t think is civil,’ a spokeswoman for the city hall said Friday.” [AFP]
Of course here in N’Orlins, especially on Bourbon Street, where I’m staying, you see lots of girls hanging out windows and doorways wearing, err, very little. In fact my hotel is near one of Larry Flynt’s places, so I walked inside and said, “Is this where the lessons on the Constitution and freedom of expression are being held?”
OK, before I get in trouble, I didn’t really walk into Larry’s establishment. But as for the rest of my story, even Jack Bauer couldn’t get it out of me. Plus I never use my cellphone so there’s no reason for him to want my SIM card.
Speaking of Jack, I did see the end of “24” while here. I thought it was great.
I also just have to comment on the end of HBO’s “The Pacific” last Sunday. That was also terrific. They are showing the entire series Memorial Day weekend if you missed it.
–I became a Ka-nection Band groupie the past few nights at the Fat Catz Music Club. It’s a nine-piece ensemble that evidently has appeared on the HBO show “Treme’,” which I haven’t seen yet. But any band that can go from Jerry Butler to Jamie Foxx’ “Blame It On the Alcohol” is alright by me.
Top 3 songs for the week 5/27/67: #1 “Groovin’” (The Young Rascals) #2 “Respect” (Aretha Franklin) #3 “I Got Rhythm” (The Happenings)…and…#4 “Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)” (Engelbert Humperdinck) #5 “The Happening” (The Supremes) #6 “Sweet Soul Music” (Arthur Conley) #7 “Him Or Me – What’s It Gonna Be?” (Paul Revere and The Raiders) #8 “Creeque Alley” (The Mamas & The Papas) #9 “Somethin’ Stupid” (Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra) #10 “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” (Neil Diamond)
Indy 500 Quiz Answers: 2003…Gil de Feran 2004… Buddy Rice 2005… Dan Wheldon 2006…Sam Hornish 2007…Dario Franchitti 2008…Scott Dixon
