Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Happy National Hamburger Day!

The term "sliders" originated on U.S. Navy ships where burgers are said to be so greasy that they slide down the gullet. Another theory is that the term refers to burgers sliding on grills as ships pitch and roll. Both are true in my experience.

Yes, that sounds good. Two Batburgers, please. With a side of Alfred fries.


https://x.com/FreyjaTarte/status/1795463718089678978


May 28, 1945: FADM Chester Nimitz addressed the crew of HMS King George V to emphasize the vital role of the Royal Navy in winning the war in the Pacific. To further express U.S. appreciation of British efforts, Nimitz gave the crew an American ice cream machine. Well known fact is sailors love ice cream.

At American insistence, the ship [HMS Victorious] underwent significant changes for Pacific service. She immediately entered drydock upon her arrival in the United States, remaining there until 31 January 1943. Dockyard workers performed an extensive and apparently badly-needed overhaul, and made a number of changes to the ship. Her flight deck was extended by ten feet at the aft end and new American search radars (air and surface), communications gear, homing systems and cypher equipment were installed. She received additional 20mm anti-aircraft guns, expanded mess space and fire-suppression systems in her crew areas.

After a great deal of discussion and bureaucratic wrangling, the Admiralty and the U.S. Navy agreed that Victorious would retain her British air crews, but they would operate American aircraft using American procedures. New arrestor wires were fitted to the flight deck to handle the heavier American planes, and the British deck crew learned American take-off and landing procedures. All of the British crew received American-issued dungarees (for the enlisted men) and khakis (for the officers) to wear while operating in the Pacific.

Together with the American destroyers Pringle, Bache and Converse, Victorious set out from Norfolk on 3 February, conducting flight exercises as she steamed southward. Her official call sign, “Robin,” became the unofficial name applied to her by American and eventually British sailors while she served the U.S. Navy. The Avengers proved just as troublesome in flight as on deck, with two fatal accidents claiming British aircrew.

Victorious barely fit through the Panama Canal, even after her crew removed some of her sponsons and aerials. She exchanged scrapes and gashes with the Gatun Locks, prompting the canal management to present a bill for damages to their facility before she entered the Pacific. Mackintosh scrawled “Lease Lend” across it and handed it back.

Victorious arrived at Pearl Harbor on 4 March, continuing to exercise her air and anti-aircraft crews during the voyage. More Avenger landings proved that the British arrestor system simply could not handle the huge brutes. The carrier went into dockyard hands again at Pearl Harbor to receive new arrestor wires, additional 40mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns, and a coat of U.S. Navy battleship-gray paint outside and fireproof paint inside. Victorious also received a Coca-Cola dispenser and three ice-cream machines. “Ice cream is always available in large quantities,” Mackintosh reported to the Admiralty in a description of American practices, “and is much appreciated and is looked upon as essential.”

South Pacific: USS Robin (Part One)

Chris Sheehy, "USS Robin” - An Account of HMS Victorious’ First Mission to the Pacific:

Ray Barker remembers the time spent at Pearl Harbor as a great adventure. He and others explored the islands of Hawaii, though there was much grumbling about the 6 pm curfew imposed on all military personnel. The people of the island, both military and civilian, were helpful and generous and made sure the crew were well entertained. Barker also recalled the changes made to the ship while at port, including the removal of rugs and carpets and repainting most of the interior with a non inflammable paint. The exterior of the ship was also painted the blue grey favoured by the USN. The final addition to the ship, that he considered truly made Victorious into a USN ship, was the installation of three ice cream machines and a coca-cola machine. The crew adopted the work dress of the USN, a request made by Commander Ross earlier in the voyage. The new dress of denim shirts and pants replaced the RN’s traditional tropical whites.

Jim I. Gallie, RN, (HMS Victorious from Mar. 29, 1941 to Sept. 12, 1945): Manuscript

On a lighter note, the dehydrated potatoes and eggs did not get a vote of approval when they first appeared on the menu. The potatoes were like wallpaper paste and the eggs defied description. An SOS was sent out, and shortly thereafter a destroyer pulled alongside Saratoga, and two senior cooks were transferred, via the destroyer, to us, along with 80 one gallon buckets of ice cream as a consolation prize. The two American cooks stayed on board for two weeks, and by the time they left, we were being served with top quality creamed, mashed potatoes and delicious scrambled eggs. I don.t know what other magic the American cooks worked, but our overall menu was vastly improved, And the supply of ice cream became a regular thing.

It became a joke among us; their order of priority when taking on stores. First was the mail, then the latest films, then Ice Cream, followed by food stocks, and last of all ammunition.

That account by Gallie was still absolutely true when I was in the Navy. Continuing...


And some 50 years later I arrived at Ford Island.

The Ship that never was: USS ROBIN (excellent lengthy article)


In 1903, Elizabeth Magie created The Landlord’s Game and patented in 1904.

It was meant to teach people about the dangers of wealth concentration.


Magie held her 1923 patent (refiled due to expiration) until 1935, when she sold it to Parker Brothers for $500. In 1933, unemployed salesman Charles Darrow made his own version called Monopoly. Magie then did two interviews showcasing copies of the original board, with The Washington Post and The Evening Star, to show that Darrow was not the inventor of the game.

He sold it to Parker Brothers and became a millionaire. Surviving copies of The Landlord's Game manufactured by Parker Brothers are considered by many the rarest of all 20th century board games.


"All names and places are fictitious for obvious reasons." Frank Sutton is an obscene caller on "The Phoner" episode (S1:E3) of DECOY (TV Series 1957–1958) starring Beverly Garland (1926-2008) in 1957. Available on Amazon Prime.


The first cop show with a female protagonist. Beverly Garland said doing the TV series was a big mistake in her career. 'I had done television. That was an absolute no-no. In those days nobody who was in movies did television. I had to start all over again. I never got that momentum going again.'


I was watching the Michael Douglas Apple TV+ series "Franklin" and my pet theory is that Ben Franklin, through necromancy learned from both French, English, and German occult secret societies had attained extended lifespans and wound up running the Dept of Energy as Ernest Moniz.


Ernest Jeffrey Moniz, (born December 22, 1944) is an American nuclear physicist and from May 2013 to January 2017, he served as the 13th United States secretary of energy in the Obama administration. He was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1973, serving as head of the department of physics from 1991 to 1995. He also founded a NGO called the Energy Futures Initiative, where he has promoted the concept of a "Green Real Deal" as a "practical, science-based" solution to climate change.

In 2018, Moniz was hired by the government of Saudi Arabia to serve as member of the global advisory board of the Neom project, a $500 billion planned megacity. I heard that wet dream is not going so well.

In November 2020, Moniz was named a candidate for energy secretary in the Biden Administration. However, that former governor of Michigan, crazy lady Jennifer Granholm was chosen instead.


Speaking of energy, here's a disturbing story from the Smithsonian of all places...In the 1950’s MIT and the Atomic Energy Commission, with the cooperation of the Quaker Oats Company, fed radioactive corn flakes to developmentally disabled Massachusetts orphans who thought they were getting free breakfast from a science club — they did this for a decade.


A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Radioactive Oatmeal Go Down


When it comes to self-defense, skunks and spitting cobras have nothing on the bonnacon. If threatened, it fled. While fleeing, it defecated. Violently. According to Pliny the Elder, the excrement voided the animal’s body with such explosive force that it could hit targets more than a football pitch away. Contact with its dung was said to burn like a kind of fire, scorching hunting dogs and anyone not equipped with protective gear. (There is some uncertainty whether the weapon was liquid or gaseous, super-heated or acidic.)


As with many mythical medieval creatures, the bonnacon was a composite: the head of a bull, the mane of a horse, and its horns were “bent inwards upon each other, as to be of no use for the purposes of combat”, writes Pliny.
Medieval Illustrations of Bonnacons


Helga cracks me up....



Long weekend is over, but I feel the need to bang-a-bonk...