History
What is the likelihood of a gang of thieves all having the same first name? Probably almost nil, but that is what happened with a gang called The Five Joaquins. The fact that they all had the same first name was the whole reason for the name, obviously. Every gang needs a name, and it must be unique. By having the same name and using that name as the gang’s name, it eliminated any argument over which of the men should be listed first. The Five Joaquins were said to be responsible for the majority of cattle rustling, robberies, and murders that were committed in the Mother Lode area of the Sierra Nevada Range in California between 1850 and 1853.
While all the men were listed equally, the main “gang boss” was Joaquin Murietta. Other gang members were Joaquin Botellier, Joaquin Carrillo, Joaquin Ocomorenia, and Joaquin Valenzuela. The gang also included was Murietta’s right-hand man, Manuel Garcia, known as “Three-Fingered Jack.” At least he knew who they were talking about when the said his name. I actually find that quite amusing. To have to speak both first and last name when addressing each other, is quite funny. When they first got started, the gang began to terrorize the towns and gold camps because the Mexicans were being discriminated against in the mines and forced off their land by invading hordes of American miners. It was a type of retaliation, but it doesn’t appear that any such thing happened to any of the five or their non-Joaquin cohort. Nevertheless, it is believed that the gang stole more than $100,000 in gold, over 100 horses, as well as killing over 40 people…28 Chinese and 13 Whites. Three of them were lawmen who were killed while the gang was outrunning the posse sent to capture them.
California Governor John Bigler signed a legislative act into law on May 11, 1853, to create the “California State Rangers,” led by Captain Harry Love, who was a former Texas Ranger. I had never heard of the California State Rangers, but with a former Texas Ranger, I can see how they came to be. The “California State Rangers” had the one mission…to capture the “Five Joaquins.” This was a big undertaking and demanded big money. The California Rangers were paid $150 a month and stood a chance to share a $5000 reward for the capture of Joaquin Murrieta. It was great motivation. On July 25, 1853, a group of Rangers encountered a band of armed Mexican men near Panoche Pass in San Benito County, 50 miles from Monterey. A Battle ensued and resulted in the deaths of two of the Mexicans. One was claimed to have been Murrieta, and the other was thought to be Three-Fingered Jack. A plaque near the intersection of State Routes 33 and 198 now marks the approximate 
site of Murrieta’s headquarters in Arroyo de Cantua. It is there where he was presumably and officially ruled by the State of California to have been killed. The problem is that the claim was soon disputed and has continued to be. Nevertheless, the result of that skirmish was that the gang broke up, and its activities ended. There were apparently no charges filed, possibly for lack of evidence. Some of the members returned to Sonora, while others remained in California. The killing didn’t stop their criminal activities, however, and they became vaqueros on California ranches, but some went straight, following other walks of life.
A story is told in Hartlepool, England about an incident during the Napoleonic Wars, of an incident involving a monkey, who came into the custody of the British Army when the ship he was on was wrecked in a storm of the coast of Hartlepool. The sole survivor from the sip was said to be a monkey, who the captain owned, and dressed in the uniform of the ship. That being French, his little uniform was that of the French Army as a form of amusement for the crew. The monkey managed to make it to the shore and was found by a group of locals who apparently also were amused. They decided to hold an impromptu trial, because the monkey was, after all the enemy. Because the monkey was unable to answer their questions, and because they had seen neither a monkey nor a Frenchman before, they concluded that the monkey must be a French spy. With that, they found the monkey guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging, right there on the beach.
Apparently, any enemy soldier was to be dealt with in this manner and a trial wasn’t even really necessary. As the story goes, they proceeded with the “hanging” and found it a seriously difficult task, because the monkey kept climbing up the rope to safety. The whole situation, and the local townspeople because the laughingstock of the area, due to their inability to carry out a simple hanging. Everyone in the area got such a kick out of the whole situation, that they made up a song, and even changed the mascot of the local rugby teams to one or the other version of “The Monkey Hangers.” In fact, it was the decision of the local football club, Hartlepool United FC, who capitalized on their “Monkey Hangers” nickname by creating a mascot called “H’Angus the Monkey” in 1999. Two of the town’s six rugby union clubs also use variations of the hanging monkey. Hartlepool Rovers crest being a beret wearing monkey hanging from a gibbet, while Hartlepool RFC neckties sport a rugby ball kicking monkey suspended from a rope. 
A statue of the monkey has been erected on the Headland and another at Hartlepool Marina (formerly in West Hartlepool). The statues serve to collect coins for a local hospice. Although some Hartlepool residents find the term “monkey hanger” insulting, a large number of residents have embraced the term and celebrate it as an important and unique characteristic of the town. Those offended thought it made them look stupid and incapable of sensible thought. I can understand both trains of thought, because no one wants to look stupid. Still, maybe they should have just embraced it as the joke it was. It doesn’t look like it is going away anyway.
You’ve heard of con artists selling things like the London Bridge or some ocean front property in Arizona. Well, Victor Lustig was one of the best con artists ever. Lustig was born in Hostinné, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary on January 4, 1890. He was a smart young man, who learned new things easily, but that could be said to have also contributed to his. When a student doesn’t have to spend a lot of time studying, they can become bored and look for entertainment outside of their studies. When Lustig was 19, while taking a break from his studies in Paris, Lustig took to gambling and womanizing, It was during this time he received a defining scar on the left side of his face from the jealous boyfriend of a woman was having an affair with. When he left school, Lustig decided that he could make his best living, using his quick wit and ability to size up of a situation, as well as his fluency in several languages to embark on a life of crime. Like all criminals, the idea of easy money, along with a big helping of excitement, drew Lustig in. He focused on a variety of scams and cons that provided him with property and money, and before long he was a professional con man.
Lustig decided that he might like to try traveling along with his scams, and many of his initial cons were committed on ocean liners sailing between the Atlantic ports of France and New York City. He deduced that rich travelers didn’t need their money as badly as he did, so they became a prime target. One of his favorite schemes was one in which he posed as a musical producer who sought investment in a non-existent Broadway production. The scheme worked well in that the victim wouldn’t expect an immediate return on the investment, and by the time they realized that it had been a con, Lustig was long gone. Lustig’s travel schemes came to an end when trips on trans-Atlantic liners were suspended in the wake of World War I, Lustig had to find a new territory in which to run his schemes. So, Lustig opted for a trip to the United States. It seemed like the best option, because he was becoming a little too well known amongst various law enforcement agencies for the scams he committed, including one he conducted in 1922 in which he conned a bank into giving him money for a portion of bonds he was offering for a repossessed property, only to use sleight of hand to escape with both the money and the bonds.
By 1925, Lustig had traveled back to France. While reading the local newspaper in Paris, he came across an article discussing the problems faced with maintaining the Eiffel Tower. Instantly, he knew that he has his next con. At the time, the monument had begun to fall into disrepair, and the city was finding it increasingly expensive to maintain and repaint it. Incredibly, the article speculated that the public opinion might be to simply remove it. It was this part of the article that really inspired Lustig to use the Eiffel Tower as part of his next con. He quickly researched the information he would need to make his scam believable and set to work 
preparing the scam, which included hiring a forger to produce fake government stationery for him.
The scam was carried out on a small group of scrap metal dealers, who were invited to a confidential meeting at an expensive hotel. Lustig identified himself to them as the Deputy Director-General of the Ministère de Postes et Télégraphes (Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs). During the meeting, Lustig convinced the men that the upkeep of the Eiffel Tower was becoming too much for Paris and that the French government wished to sell it for scrap, but that because such a deal would be controversial and likely spark public outcry, nothing could be disclosed until all the details were thought out. Lustig Told the men that he had been charged with the task of selecting the dealer who would receive ownership of the structure. The men were told that they had “made the final cut” of possible contract winners, because of their reputations as “honest businessmen” and that he was going to make a final selection after the meeting. His speech included genuine insight about the monument’s place in the city and how it did not fit in with the city’s other great monuments like the Gothic cathedrals or the Arc de Triomphe. The men were convinced that Lustig was legitimate.
Because of his long history of reading people, Lustig knew how a perfect mark would look and act, and before long, he had his choice…André Poisson, who was an insecure man who wished to rise up amongst the inner circles of the Parisian business community. As Poisson showed the keenest interest in purchasing the monument, Lustig decided to focus on him once the dealers sent their bids to him. He then arranged a private meeting with Poisson, at which Lustig convinced him that he was a corrupt official, claiming that his government position did not give him a generous salary for the lifestyle he wished to enjoy. Poisson became concerned that he would not win the bid, so he agreed to pay a large bribe to secure ownership of the Eiffel Tower. His lust for the position of “top businessman” would be his downfall. Once Lustig received his bribe and the funds for the monument’s “sale” (around 70,000 francs, which is about $78,757), he soon fled to Austria. Lustig correctly suspected that when Poisson found out he had been conned, he would be too ashamed and embarrassed to inform the French police of what he had been caught up in. Still, he bided his time, checking the newspapers just to be sure. When his suspicions proved correct…when he could find no reference of his con within their pages, he returned to Paris later that year to pull off the same scheme one more time. The second attempt didn’t go over so well. Someone informed the police about the scam and Lustig had no choice but to flee to United States to evade arrest. Lustig is widely regarded as one of the most notorious con artists of his time, and he is infamous for being “the man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice.”
Lustig was finally arrested on May 10, 1935, in New York. He was charged with counterfeiting. He managed to escape from the Federal House of Detention in New York City by faking illness and using a specially made rope to climb out of the building on the day before his trial, but he was recaptured 27 days later in Pittsburgh. Lustig pleaded guilty at his trial and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on Alcatraz Island, California for his original charge, with a further five years for his prison escape. On March 9, 1947, Lustig contracted pneumonia and died two days later at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. On his death certificate his occupation was listed as apprentice salesman…and I guess he was at that.
New safety laws usually come about as a direct result of a disaster or some other traumatic event. Such was the case with the laws formed after the fire and subsequent sinking of SS Yarmouth Castle. The ship was originally built as Evangeline, and it was an American steamship. It was the second of two identical ships built by the William Cramp and Sons Ship and Engine Building Company for the Eastern Steamship Lines for service on the New York City to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia route, operating in practice out of Boston as well. As with many ships, Evangeline was pulled into service during World War II and turned over to the War Shipping Administration, which operated all oceangoing vessels for the United States. During its war years, it was used primarily as an army troop transport. On July 1, 1946, after the war was over, Eastern Steamship Lines resumed control of the ship. Following its war service, it was put back in normal service for a short period and then, the ship was laid up. In 1954, it was sold and put under Liberian registry, operating from Boston to Nova Scotia, then to the Caribbean. In 1963 Evangeline was sold again, put under Panamanian registry. Then, it was renamed SS Yarmouth Castle. It was operated by Yarmouth Cruise Lines between Miami and Nassau, Bahamas, from 1964 until the disaster on November 13, 1965.
On November 12, 1965, Yarmouth Castle departed Miami for Nassau carrying 376 passengers and 176 crew members for a total of 552 people. The ship was due to arrive in Nassau the next day. The captain on the voyage was 35-year-old Byron Voutsinas. Shortly after midnight on November 13, a fire broke out in room 610 on the main deck. Being used as a storage space, the room was filled with mattresses, chairs, and other combustible materials. Unfortunately, the room did not have a sprinkler system, and in the end, the source of the fire could not be determined. It is thought that jury-rigged wiring might have thrown sparks that then entered the room through the ventilation ducts, but simple carelessness was not ruled out either.
A normal patrol went by the room between 12:30am and 12:50am, but they failed to systematically check all areas of the ship and detect the fire. At some point between midnight and 1:00am, the crew and passengers began noticing smoke and heat. Finally, a search was started to find the fire. By the time they discovered it in room 610 and the toilet above that room, it had already begun to spread and attempts to fight the fire with fire extinguishers were useless. Attempts to activate a fire alarm box were also unsuccessful. The bridge was unaware of the fire until about 1:10am, and by that time, Yarmouth Castle was 120 miles east of Miami and 60 miles northwest of Nassau, and in deep trouble. Since the radio room became involved, they were unable to call for help, or even call for the passengers to abandon ship.
The captain proceeded to the lifeboat containing the emergency radio, but he could not reach it. He and several crew members launched another lifeboat and abandoned ship at about 1:45am. The captain later testified that he wanted to reach one of the rescue vessels to make an emergency call. The remaining crew proceeded to alert passengers and attempted to help them escape their cabins. Some passengers tried to escape through cabin windows but couldn’t open them due to improper maintenance. The sprinkler system finally activated but was pretty much ineffective due to the severity of the fire. Crew members attempted to battle the flames with hoses, but they were hampered by low hydrant pressure. The investigation later determined that more valves were open than the pumps could handle.
Some of the lifeboats burned and others could not be launched due to mechanical problems. Only about half of the ship’s boats made it safely away. Passengers near the bow could not reach the lifeboats, but some were later picked up by boats from rescue vessels. The Finnish freighter Finnpulp was just eight miles ahead of Yarmouth Castle, also headed east. That ship’ crew noticed at 1:30am, that Yarmouth Castle had slowed significantly on the radar screen. Looking back, they saw the flames and notified their captain, John Lehto, who had been asleep. Lehto immediately ordered Finnpulp turned around. The Finnpulp successfully contacted the Coast Guard in Miami. It was the first distress call sent out. The passenger liner Bahama Star was following Yarmouth Castle at about twelve miles distance. At 2:15am, Captain Carl Brown noticed rising smoke and a red glow on the water. Realizing that this was Yarmouth Castle, he ordered the ship ahead at full speed. Bahama Star radioed the US Coast Guard at 2:20am.
Though rescue efforts were largely successful, for those who survived, 90 people lost their lives. Yarmouth 
Castle capsized onto her port side just before 6:00am and sank at 6:03am. The wreck has not been located but is thought to rest 10,800 feet below the Atlantic. “The Yarmouth Castle disaster prompted updates to the Safety of Life at Sea law, or SOLAS. The updated law brought new maritime safety rules, requiring fire drills, safety inspections, and structural changes to new ships. Under SOLAS, any vessel carrying more than 50 overnight passengers is required to be built entirely of non-combustible materials such as steel. Yarmouth Castle’s largely wooden superstructure was found to be the main cause of the fire’s rapid spread.”
During the Prohibition-era there were many people who opposed the new laws prohibiting the sale and manufacturing of alcohol, in any form. As with any such restriction, there were plenty of people who were willing to take matters into their own hands and make, in this case, illegal liquor. It was a profitable business, and there were a number of people and gangs who wanted in. The Shelton Brothers Gang had a good thing going, when the famous bootlegger, Charles Birger and his gang wanted in.
The Shelton Brothers Gang had other ideas, however. Both gangs were based out of southern Illinois. The best way to control the market price, is to be the only game in town. With all the fighting for supremacy, the Shelton Brothers Gang would allegedly be known as “America’s Bloodiest Gang” when the fighting quickly became a “Turf War.” The Shelton Brothers Gang was formed by Carl (born 1888), Earl (born 1890), and Bernie “Red” Shelton (born 1898) of “Geff” Jeffersonville, Wayne County, Illinois. They started their gang shortly after Prohibition came into effect in 1920, operating mostly in Williamson County, Illinois, making moonshine and other illegal alcoholic beverages. The operation grew, and they eventually dominated both gambling and liquor distribution in Little Egypt until 1926. That’s when a former ally now turned nemesis, gangster Charles Birger, attempted to take over 
the Sheltons’ bootlegging operations. The result was a violent gang war. The weapons were varied. Both sides use homemade armored trucks and included an eventually included an aerial bombing raid by the Sheltons on Birger’s Shady Rest headquarters. They were out of control, and with the “stepped-up attacks” came what was considered the first bombing from a plane on US soil. Strangely, the “Turf War” was also responsible for keeping the KKK out of their general area after the constant flare ups into fights. The battle was for the control of bootlegging in all of southern Illinois and nothing more.
The whole thing was brutal in every way, and finally, the Shelton Brothers were set up and blamed for a murder they did not commit. Based on the testimony of Birger and Art Newman, the Shelton Brothers were convicted of an unsolved 1925 mail carrier robbery of $15,000 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, but they were later released. In the meantime, without its leaders, the Shelton Brothers Gang slowly faded, and just as he had planned, Birger dominated bootlegging in Southern Illinois, until he was hanged in 1928 after being convicted of ordering the murder of West City, Illinois, Mayor Joe Adams, who was a Shelton supporter. Eventually, the Shelton Brothers Gang was released for lack of evidence against them. The decided to move the operation to Peoria, Illinois, and focus mainly on gambling. They built an alliance with known gangsters like Al Capone and 
dominated their territory with very few serious rivalries. They did, however, come to the attention of the Federal Officials who eventually placed a $15,000 bounty on each of the Sheltons heads. Carl and Bernie Shelton were both murdered in 1948, on orders from former gang member Frank “Buster” Wortman, who had taken over the Shelton operations while they were in prison. Worman dominated Saint Louis’ illegal gambling and other criminal activities until his death in 1968. Earl Shelton was also ambushed and shot, but he survived. The hits just kept coming, and after a third attempt on his life in the early 1950s, Earl and his family left Illinois for Florida. Earl lived a quiet life there, and in 1986 at age 96, he passed away. He was the last member of the Shelton Brothers Gang.
Where would a nation be without its soldiers? In deep trouble. Our world, at this time in history is at its most volatile. To top it off, being in the service has been voluntary for a long time now. That means two things. First that fewer people might be entering the service; and second, that the ones who join, want to be there and will work harder. Being in the service is an often-thankless job with long hours at times, and months or even years away from family when necessary. Our soldiers are at the beck and call of the commander-in-chief. It would be nice if our world could live together in peace and harmony, but that has never and will never be…until the end of time. Until then, we need them.
There are several types of soldiers, and I don’t mean branches of the military, although there are those too. We have Army, Navy, AirForce, and Marines, as well as Coast Guard and National Guard, but the types I am referring to are Killed in Action, active duty, and Veterans and retirees. With that, there are also special days of remembrance for soldiers. For those killed in action, there is Memorial Day. For active-duty soldiers, there is Armed Forces Day, and for veterans and retirees, there is Veterans Day.
For those who are veterans, we take this opportunity to thank them for their service and their sacrifice, because they did sacrifice. They left their families at home and went out to fight for people they don’t even know, and probably never will. We, here at home, have no way to really repay them for their acts of selflessness, so all we can do is thank them for their service. Somehow, it just doesn’t seem enough. How could we possibly repay them? We can never give them back the lost time with family, the memories, the births of children, and the multiple firsts that go with them. Those things are gone forever for the soldier, because they 
chose to go out and protect their country, and the people in it. It is a debt that we, as mere citizens, can never repay. All we can do is be grateful, because our lives are what they are because of a soldier. Yes, we are grateful to the active-duty soldiers currently protecting us, and we pray every day that they will get to come home to their families one day, and become a veteran or retiree, but today is for that special group. The ones who served, and then went back to their lives and tried to pick up where they left off, or at least start the next step. To you I say, Happy Veterans Day, and thank you so much for your service. We are forever grateful!!
After watching numerous old western shows about cattle drives, most of us would automatically assume that a chuckwagon is a staple on any cattle drive. That is not the case, however. In the early years of cattle drives, the cowboys were supposed to supply their own food, and had to survive on what they could forage and carry. With that in mind, hiring cowboys for the drive was tough. Cowboys were usually paid about $25 to $40 a month, so to have to buy food out of that too, doesn’t make cattle driving a “get rich quick” kind of job. Basically, cattle ranchers ended up with people who couldn’t get a job anywhere else, and they usually weren’t loyal or very good at their job. They might even walk off the job before the drive was over.
It was a big problem for ranchers, who needed to have reliable, as well as capable cowboys to work the drives. Finally, one rancher, a man named Charles Goodnight, while pondering the problem he had in getting good working cowboys for his cattle drive. Then, he hit upon an idea. Goodnight created a type of field kitchen covered wagon. It is unknown if the name comes from the fact that the inventor is Charles (Chuck) or if it referenced chuck as a slang term for food. “Goodnight modified a Studebaker-manufactured covered wagon, a d
urable Civil War army-surplus wagon, to suit the needs of cowboys driving cattle from Texas to sell in New Mexico. He added a ‘chuck box’ to the back of the wagon, with drawers and shelves for storage space and a hinged lid to provide a flat working surface. A water barrel was also attached to the wagon and canvas was hung underneath to carry firewood. A wagon box was used to store cooking supplies and cowboys’ personal items.” It is said that Goodnight’s main motivation for the chuckwagon, was to be able to hire a better class of cowboy and keep them throughout the cattle drive.
“Chuckwagon food typically included easy-to-preserve items such as baked beans, salted meats, coffee, and sourdough biscuits. Food would also be gathered en route. There was no fresh fruit, vegetables, or eggs available, and meat was not fresh unless an animal was injured during the run and therefore had to be killed. The meat they ate was greasy cloth-wrapped bacon, salt pork, and beef, usually dried, salted or smoked. On cattle drives, it was common for the “cookie” who ran the wagon to be second in authority only to the “trailboss.” The cookie would often act as cook, barber, dentist, and banker.” A typical trail boss made $100 to $125 a month, and the cook usually made about $60. 
The cook was vital to the cattle drive and was not to be crossed. The men were to keep their distance from the chuckwagon, because dust would get in the food. The horses left camp downwind of the chuckwagon for the same reason. No one dared take the last serving of food until they were sure that everyone had been served. To leave food on their plates was an insult to the cook. The cooks had long days…up before dawn to prepare food. After the men left for work, they cleaned up camp and washed dishes, then went to the next camp site to begin dinner for the men’s arrival. After dinner they cleaned up and went to bed. The next day would soon arrive. They more than earned their wage and the special wagon they got to use.
Vnukovo Airport was experiencing heavy fog on November 5, 1946. Due to the resulting low visibility conditions and a high number of aircraft bound for Moscow, including an Aeroflot LI-2 (registration CCCP-L4181) that was being ferried from Voronezh to Moscow. The LI-2, along with a number of other planes, were put in a holding pattern for 75 minutes. These things are a common practice, but maybe not for so long.
Finally, at 5:45pm, local time, the crew of the LI-2 was cleared to land and began their approach, still in a thick fog. It was a difficult approach, and the crew decided to go around. In all, five ADF approaches under radar guidance were attempted. Unfortunately, during the fifth approach the plane suffered fuel exhaustion. Immediately, the plane lost altitude and struck light poles and crashed. Fog creates very unique problems, and to complicate matters, that night three Aeroflot aircraft also crashed near Vnukovo Airport, killing a total of 19 occupants.
The first one, Aeroflot LI-2 (registration CCCP-L4181) crashed near Yamshchina, Moskovskaya, Russia. The determined cause was fuel exhaustion after being in a holding pattern for two hours, killing all five crew on board. Then, an Aeroflot C-47 (registration CCCP-L946) crashed in fog at Vnukovo Airport while attempting a go-around after being in a holding pattern for two hours, killing 13 of the 26 on board. Finally, an Aeroflot LI-2 (registration CCCP-L4207) crashed at Vnukovo Airport after repeated landing attempts due to fuel exhaustion after being in a holding pattern for 75 minutes, killing one of 26 on board.
The Vnukovo Airport is Moscow’s oldest operating airport. Originally opened for military operations during the Second World War, it became a civilian facility after the war. The Soviet government approved its construction in 
1937, because the older Khodynka Aerodrome, which was located much closer to the city center, was becoming overloaded. That airport closed by the 1980s. Vnukovo was built by several thousand inmates of Likovlag, which was a Gulag concentration camp created specifically for this purpose. Vnukovo opened on July 1, 1941. While the airport was old, it was not the cause of the November 5, 1946 crashes. More likely the pilots and flight controllers, who were preoccupied with the fog, simply forgot to monitor the fuel levels, and missed the fact that they were dangerously low. It is odd, however, that three were missed at the same time, and very sad that 19 people lost their lives because of it.
The Cold War, and the Soviet Union’s sudden announcement on August 30, 1961, to end a three-year moratorium on nuclear testing, brought about a shift in US policy, and a number of to nuclear test operations. One, known as Operation Fishbowl was a series of high-altitude nuclear tests in 1962 that were carried out by the United States as a part of the larger Operation Dominic nuclear test program. Flight-test vehicles were designed and manufactured by Avco Corporation. The test planned for the first half of 1962, called Bluegill, Starfish and Urraca were originally planned for the first half of 1962, but the first test attempt was delayed until June. Planning was complex, but necessary.
The launch sites were planned from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean north of the equator. The island was the chosen launch site, rather than the other locations in the Pacific Proving Grounds. However, the testing was not without push back. Even as early as 1958, Lewis Strauss, t
hen chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, opposed doing any high-altitude tests at locations that had been used for earlier Pacific nuclear tests. The motivation for concern was the fear of the flash from the nighttime high-altitude detonations might blind civilians who were living on nearby islands. Still, Johnston Island was a remote location. It was more distant from populated areas than the other potential test locations. Nevertheless, in order to protect residents of the Hawaiian Islands from flash blindness or permanent retinal injury from the bright nuclear flash, the nuclear missiles of Operation Fishbowl were launched toward the southwest of Johnston Island. The detonation part of the test would be farther from Hawaii.
The Urraca test involved about a 1 megaton yield at very high altitude of just over 621 miles. With the damage caused to satellites by the Starfish Prime detonation, the proposed Urraca test was always controversial. Because they couldn’t put the fears to rest, the Urraca test was finally canceled, and an extensive re-evaluation of the Operation Fishbowl plan as a whole was made during the 82-day operations pause after the Bluegill Prime disaster of July 25, 1962. When prime was added to a test, it indicated that the main test had failed, so when Bluegill Prime failed, it was the second test fail for that test series, which in this case (Bluegill Double Prime), ended in disaster when the Thor suffered a stuck valve preventing the flow of LOX to the combustion chamber. The engine lost thrust and unburned RP-1 spilled down into the hot thrust chamber, igniting and starting a fire around the base of the missile. Bluegill would go on to have two more tests, before they finally achieved success.
A test named Kingfish was added during the early stages of Operation Fishbowl planning. Two low-yield tests, Checkmate and Tightrope, were also added during the project, so the final number of tests in Operation Fishbowl was five. Tightrope was the last atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the United States, as the Limited Test Ban Treaty came into effect shortly thereafter. A total of Seven rockets carrying scientific instrumentation were launched from Johnston Island in support of the Tightrope test, which was the final atmospheric test conducted by the United States. I suppose testing is necessary, and I don’t know where else or how else it could be done, but the whole thing seems crazy to me. I do think that in light of this and other nuclear test disasters, care should be taken to better protect human life.
Tablecloths…usually used to dress up a table, often for a holiday dinner these days, were not always used for that purpose. Children wiping their mouths on tablecloths isn’t generally acceptable at the dinner table these days, but that was their original use! It was like a community napkin. Guests were meant to wipe off their hands and face on a tablecloth after a messy feast, and not do this would be considered bad table manners! These days it’s pretty much the opposite. The idea is to try not to “spill” or otherwise mess up the tablecloth.
While original tablecloths were usually white…another odd idea, considering the practice of wiping one’s mouth and hands with the cloth, today’s version is often colorful, and decorative to match the holiday currently being celebrated. The most common shapes for tablecloths are round, square, oval, and oblong, or rectangular, corresponding to the most common table shapes. Tablecloths usually have an overhang, referred to as the “drop” of about 6 to 15 inches on each side of the table. The shorter drop is usually for casual dining and a longer drop for more formal occasions. Sometimes a floor-length cloth is used. Custom-made tablecloths are also available, and some people choose to make their own.
Some tablecloths are just decorative, and often used on a wooden table to help protect the table from scratches and stains. Others are designed to be spread on a dining table before laying out tableware and food. In formal settings, tablecloths are designed as part of an overall table setting, with coordinating napkins, placemats, or other decorative pieces, and in very formal settings the might also be “runners” overhanging the table at two ends only and “table protectors” which provide a padded layer under a normal tablecloth.
Today’s more casual, and less expensive tablecloths are typically made of cotton, and some have a poly-cotton blend, or a PVC-coated material that can be wiped clean. Of course, any material works, and some people use delicate fabrics like embroidered silk. Today, the biggest consideration, at least in casual settings, is ease of cleanup, so the material might be chosen for its ability to fight stains.
Of course, one more use for a tablecloth, was in shows, where the tablecloth is quickly pulled from under a set table full of food. The idea is to pull it quickly enough to leave the table’s contents in place while pulling the cloth from under them. This trick relies on inertia. It is known as a tablecloth pull or a tablecloth yank. Unless 
you are prepared for the cleanup following such a trick, I wouldn’t exactly recommend trying that one. I think most of us knew most of these uses, but maybe not the original use. Nevertheless, now you know. I would be careful using the tablecloth in that way at your next family dinner, however. It might not be appreciated.
