In 1814 We Took A Little Trip

BobLee
June22/ 2008

I recently saw a replay of the 1958 cinema yarn The Buccaneer w/ Yul Brynner and Charlton Heston.  Yul, as pirate Jean Lafitte, displays an honor long discarded by today’s so-called “leaders”. ….  The dead tree media coughs up yet another “death gurgle”. ….. and we attend to some housekeeping chores created by that last column.MV5BMjAzNzkzMTc3OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODgwOTEyMQ@@._V1_SX214_AL_

Yul, with hair, plays swash-buckling pirate Jean Lafitte and Charlton Heston plays Charlton Heston dressed up like Andrew Jackson.  It’s The Battle of New Orleans when “we took a little bacon and we took a little beans and ….”.

In this remake of C.B. Demille’s film from the 30s, Yul/Jean comes to the aid of Ol’ Hickory and saves the fledgling nation from “the bloody British”.   Jean commands a pirate fleet and oversees 1,000 cutthroats by the sheer force of his personality.  The subplot involves an incident that one of Jean’s lieutenants commits contrary to his explicit orders – they attack and sink an American merchant ship The Corinthian.

In the final scene The victorious Americans are celebrating their defeat of “the bloody British” and honoring the once-feared pirate for coming to their aid.  Andy/Charlton is pontificating over Lafitte’s bravery et al.  Jean and his comrades are the toast of Bourbon Street including a very weasely “Ben Cartwright” (yes, Lorne Green plays a baddie in this one).   At the height of the celebration the truth about The Corinthian is revealed.

Charlton/Andy confronts Yul/Jean for an explanation.  Jean replied “They are my men.  I am their Captain.”.  The out phrase – “this was not the ____ I knew for years” had not yet been coined.

Yul/Jean knew that A REAL LEADER never shirks his responsibility for the actions of his subordinates..  Regardless of the consequences.  With leadership comes accountability at least it did in 1814 in “a town called New Orleans”.

As Lorne and his gutless dilettantes prepare to lynch Jean, Ol’ Hickory fires his flintlock and silences the mob.  Apparently REAL LEADERS control mobs.  Not enflame them.  Who knew?

Realizing Jean’s situation, and understanding “leadership”, Charlton gives Yul one hour to leave Nawlins and never return.   Semi-pardon for his heroism.  Leaders understand the concept.

The symbolism of it all was, obviously, not lost on yours truly.  Leaders accountable for the actions of their staff.  How gauche!

***

Leaving Bourbon Street for Raleigh’s South McDowell Street ….. that sound you may have heard today (Wednesday) was yet another “death gurgle” from old line “dead tree media”.  On Bloody Wednesday the N&O made “significant staff reductions” in their news staff.

It seems that only a month or so ago, the N&O’s Alibi & Excuse Editor was whistling thru the graveyard to convince one and all that they were not only “surviving” but PROSPERING.  (Kinda like Melanie Sill’s “We EXCELLED” !!!).  T’ain’t so McGee.  The bean-counters in Sacramento are frowning that net revenues are waaaay down with no bottom in sight…. So net expenses must go waaaay down too.  Off with  heads they demand so the pink slips were distributed to assorted ink-stained wretches.

As much as I would like to lay this latest death gurgle at the feet of the Smirking Harumph Brothers (Ford & Christensen), those two have had free rein to squawk their ideological nonsense for many years ….. years during which the N&O was printing big bucks.  Those two arrogant nabobs missed this cut ….. better luck for N&O readers next time.  Sportin’ Life Barry, of course, has his own special “can’t fire me” insurance.

It’s not that America has had it with mainstream media bias blah blah blah ….. America has simply stopped wearing high-button shoes so companies manufacturing button-hooks are simply doomed.  Same with buggy whips and 8-track tape players.

Coincidentally, today The Old Reliable initiated an on-line reader response feature to all their news stories.  Most of the other local media (TV stations, etc) had already done so.  Essentially this throws open the gates of incivility and gives the great unwashed rabble full access to the mainstream.  In other words ….. Here Come The Crazy Board Monkeys to take over the N&O’s on-line content pages….. YIPPEE!

More coincidence …. On Day One of Crazy Board Monkeys Take Control of the N&O there is a “front page” story on the release of the autopsy report on Eve Carson.  Sure enough …. It wasn’t 20 minutes into Crazy Board Monkeys Take-over The N&O before a pickle-headed nitwit declared “she (Eve) was buying drugs from the gangstas and got behind in her payments …”  After that it got silly!

Interesting Fact: The judge in the Eve Carson autopsy case is Dick Baddour’s son.

Paging Nurse Rathchet: The inmates are now in charge of the local newspaper.  Cuckoo Cuckoo …. 

Black Wednesday, June 11, 2008.  6’ under ground in Raleigh’s Oakwood Cemetery  old man Josephus Daniels is aspinning like a dervis.  Ain’t technology grand?

***

What tha heck are MOOCHIES?  I keep forgetting that folks are always being added to the reading throngs here assembled.  Unlike the afore-mentioned “dead tree media” our humble little site just grows and grows …..

In the late 50s, Walt Disney did a series of stories called Moochie of The Little League starring a charming little toe-head named Kevin Corcoran.  Think Bad News Bears without the drunk coach and the F-bombs.  Kevin/”Moochie” learned all sorts of life lessons on the Little League diamond.  Moochie did not have any tattoos nor did he smoke pot or drive “under the influence”.  “Moochie” behaved himself ….. was a “real boy” …. Got a bloody nose now and then,  “Moochie” grew up to be Chip Hilton and then probably joined the Marines then married his high school sweetheart and now runs an ACE Hardware store in a strip center down the street from each one of you.  “Moochie” would really like Mike Fox and his fellas ….. just like we all do.

***

No, you were incorrect.  In that last column I asked how come Football and Basketball players can’t “behave” as admirably as Mike Fox’s baseballers?  Some of you took that as a “racist slam”.  I don’t know the answer.  I was hoping some of you did.  80% of UNC FBers are African-American.  90% of UNC Basketballers are African-American.  With those odds, if FBers or Basketballers do get into off-field/court incidents the odds are it will be African-American kids involved.

Are African-American kids pre-disposed to misbehave when inserted on a liberal arts college campus where they represent less than 15% of the “diverse” population?  Would any cultural anthropologists among you please enlighten the rest of us on that “fact”.

Do highly-recruited FB and BkBers come to college with overblown egos and greatly exaggerated senses of their place in a college community?  Do fawning fans and crazy board monkeys contribute to that exaggerated self-image?  Do exaggerated egos lead to ongoing incidents of “misbehavior” ….. Is such simply the price UNC is willing to pay for a BCS-level FB program and every year Final Fours?  Mike Fox is doing an Omaha Three-peat with nary a thugalete on his roster. …..  uh oh …. Mel might be on to something now …..

“Moochies” don’t have “posses”. 

Coincidence AGAIN ….. former UNC FBer Dexter Reid was convicted of a drug and weapon felony in Tidewater VA on Wednesday.  Wonder if Dexter claimed that Florida State kid knocked him so silly in that infamous highlight hit a few years back that he did not know what he was doing?

***

The Moochies play Sunday night in Rosenblatt at 7 PM vs LSU on ESPN2.  You all better be watching ….. that’s an order.

***

As a society unravels ….. “civility” and “personal accountability” are among the first casualties.  Once those qualities are disposed of, the rest of the dismantling comes rather easily.

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