Monkey Business

Every so often I come across random things at the archives that I can't help but type up for posterity (since I unfortunately can't take them home with me). I have quite a few funny quotes from WWII letters saved, but my favorite was included in some personal correspondence -- maybe I'm too easily amused by "old" humor, but this anecdote cracked me up when I read it.

Monkey Business

Most people, mainly men, in the Navy have the aspiration of being a sailor. They have been put in this situation by voluntary methods and also the much criticized procedure of drafts.

While ashore they sniff deeply at the seaside with the hope it will smell familiar and often cultivate the salty feeling by tarnishing gold braid, severely treating their skull caps until threadbare, and even to the point of downing dozens of beers thoroughly sprinkled with the shaker.

Once at sea this quest becomes an insatiable obcession [sic], mainly perhaps because of the brews to salt. The results begin to appear in pierced ear lobes from which blood drips for several days and then a gold ear ring for the proceeding weeks. This is done mostly in the bosun mate department as for some reason they think they should be sailors more than anyone else.

By the time the ship has dropped a hook in a tropical port all departments, even yeomen, have their mind firmly set on being sailors but after seeing a bosun mate’s ear disappear in a combined rassel and fistic match they turn their efforts now to parrots. This is known as the “rob your sons [sic] truseau” movement and when the first liberty party returns it is embellished with green, red, white, and blue varieties of the feathered nutcrackers. They are very nautical birds indeed and similar to the ship’s P.A. system have a language absolutely unintelligible. The little pruners afford real pleasure though giving one the shock of seeing the end of your best friends [sic] finger disappear as he pets it.

But parrots cannot be had by all so in the first Philippine port the liberty launch is overflowing with potential sailors and it is rumered [sic] that some in the starboard section even went over the side to swim ashore. Since the cat houses are not the cleanest in the world most of the lads decline even though they do want to be sailors. This contingent comes back to the ship sporting monkeys while the others acquire something else. Both are considered very nautical but only one goes in your records.

It was about at this stage that I had my first introduction to monkeys. It was a matter of accident rather than chastity since the creature belonged to another. Minding my own business and deep in the thought of where I could rustle up a quart of scotch I nonchalantly descended the stairs of the hotel and rather than use the door I stepped through the nearest shell hole. It was then that I met the monkey. My first advance was the accidently stepping on his tail which I later observed is always stretched out in a prominent spot. His reply astonished me as I distinctly recognized it as a shrill screeching “sonuvabitch!”. I stopped instantly forgetting to move my pedal member which impaled the animal securely to the ground, at least at one end. The other end was not so favorably disposed and manifested itself by assailing my available length of leg with much scratching carried on by four well adapted feet and at the same time biting several notches in my shin. With a mighty wrench he jerked from beneath my foot and tried to put his mind at ease by profuse cursing from a second story window. I got my scotch.

Since I’m not one to hold a grudge I resolved to renew my acquaintance with this animal and possibly with better results as I’m thinking that a monkey perched on my shoulder would make quite a nautical sight to my less fortunate associates. Now this monkey was a very lovable character with some of the boys and cuddled up in their arms and made himself very agreeable indeed. So with such visions in mind I approached him and was astonished by his good behavior. He was every inch a gentleman, tearing up the pack of cigarettes in my pocket and then perched on my shoulder as all monkeys should have a firm grasp on one ear, a foot straining on my collar, one hand searching my hair, and the other foot scratching his bottom. The little demon soon tired of this or perhaps he remembered out [sic] meeting the day before as he scrambled from my shoulder down my shirt. He peed in my pocket. With a mighty oath I swung in his direction but by then he was again up in the second story window this time making faces and much laughter. My feelings were hurt and my wrath flared. My shirt was wet too.

Now I am a mild mannered fellow and after a change of shirts I consoled myself with the thought that now the monk would surely feel the score was even and perhaps we could enter into a peaceful relationship. I am still believing this conviction but it’s hard to believe that he broke the egg in my helmet this morning with the spirit of fun.

Now for a traditional Navy recipe, straight from the U.S. Navy's website... Navy Bean Soup! This recipes yields enough to feed an army.. or a navy.. or any other large gathering of people.


Ingredients

- 6 pounds dry white beans

- 7 gallons of ham stock

- 8 ham bones

- 1 pound shredded carrots

- 2 pounds finely-sliced onions

- 1/2 pound hard wheat flour, sifted

- cold water

- pepper


Directions

1. Wash your beans, then put them in a pot.

2. Add the ham stock and ham bones, heat to a boiling point, then simmer for 2-3 hours until the beans are tender. Remove the bones.

3. Add carrots, onions, and pepper to the soup, then simmer for 30 minutes.

4. Blend the flour with cold water to form a smooth paste, then stir into the soup. Let the soup cook and thicken for 10 minutes, then serve.


This'll serve 100 people, so if you don't have large pots or 100 people to feed, you might try cutting it down to a much smaller recipe. I'm terrible at converting liquid and dry ounces/pounds/gallons/what-have-you, so if you want to serve less people, best of luck!

September 9th

Historical events that happened around the world on September 9th:

1543 - Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned "Queen of Scots" in the central Scottish town of Stirling.

1776 - The Continental Congress officially names their new union of sovereign states the United States.

1926 - The U.S. National Broadcasting Company formed.

1942 - World War II: A Japanese floatplane drops an incendiary bomb on Oregon.

1944 - World War II: The Fatherland Front takes power in Bulgaria through a military coup in the capital and armed rebellion in the country. A new pro-Soviet government is established.

1945 - Second Sino-Japanese War: Japan formally surrenders to China.

1956 - Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.

1991 - Tajikstan gains independence from the Soviet Union.

1993 - The Palestine Liberation Organization officially recognizes Israel as a legitimate state.

People that were born on September 9th:

384 - Flavius Honorius, Roman Emperor

1700 - Princess Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

1828 - Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist

1890 - Harland Sanders, American fast-food entrepreneur

1922 - Hans Georg Dehmelt, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

1941 - Otis Redding, American singer and songwriter

1984 – Me :)

"The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties"

For a Civil War seminar I had in grad school, we had to read a book a week and report on it. One of the most interesting books I read was Mark E. Neely's The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties, since it documents one of the most overlooked aspects of Lincoln's presidency: the suspension of the writ of habeus corpus.

I'm posting this summary for several reasons... 1) I love Civil War history, especially anything Lincoln-related; 2) I can't think of anything else I want to write about at the moment; and 3) I'm tired of seeing graffiti of "R.I.P. Habeus Corpus 1776-2001" or whenever people seem to think that President Bush suspended the writ, because those people need to study up on their history (which they can conveniently do so by reading this short review).

In his book The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties, Mark E. Neely seeks to describe the constitutional polices of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, particularly the president’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. In his introduction, Neely presents his thesis: “Rather than continue the fruitless debate over the constitutionality of Lincoln’s acts, this book will examine instead the practical impact on civil liberties of the policies Lincoln developed to save the Union,” (xi).

Upon hearing news of the Confederate forces firing upon Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861, the restriction of civil liberties in the state of Maryland became a pressing issue for the Lincoln Administration. President Lincoln first suspended the writ of habeas corpus in a public proclamation on May 10, 1861, authorizing the Commander of the Forces of the United States on the Florida coast “to permit no person to exercise any office or authority upon the Islands of Key West, the Tortugas and Santa Rosa, which may be inconsistent with the laws & constitution of the United States. . . [and] to suspend there the writ of Habeas Corpus and to remove from the vicinity of the United States fortresses all dangerous or suspected persons,” (9). This was met with some anger from America citizens, some of whom declared that the right to suspend the writ was given only to Congress, not the President. By fall of 1862, the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus had extended to St. Louis, railroad and telegraph lines in Missouri, and a stretch of land between Washington, DC, and Bangor, Maine, where Union troop movement took place.

Throughout the war, martial law was put into place in various states, such as Missouri, where military arrests of civilians outnumbered those of any other state. Federal authorities had developed different classes of prisoners taken: “prisoners of war” were captured members of the Confederate army or navy; “United States prisoners” were members of the Union forces that had been arrested for crimes committed, such as theft or murder; and “prisoners of state” were civilians that were arrested under martial law. Neely believes that the terms were often used interchangeably due to rushed or careless processing jobs, and stated that “discriminating soldiers from civilians was perhaps the central problem of Union authorities in this state torn by guerrilla warfare,” (45).

Another example of civil liberties being restricted was the suppression of the New York newspaper, the World. On May 18, 1864, the editors of the World published a fake presidential proclamation that called for a day of fasting and prayer as well as a new draft of 400,000 men. Later that day, President Lincoln “ordered the arrest of the editors, proprietors, and publishers” and had their offices seized by the military (104). One of the most controversial aspects of the suspension of habeas corpus was the rampant anti-Semitism throughout the country. The religion of people who were detained under suspicion of treasonous behavior was never noted unless they were Jewish (likewise, race was never noted unless the person was black), and General Order No. 11 was issued “expelling ‘The Jews, as a class…from the Department’ because they were ‘violating…Department orders,’” (108). There were also cases of torture being inflicted upon prisoners of state suspected of supporting the Confederacy. Throughout the rest of the book, Neely cites numbers and statistics of people affected by the restriction of civil rights, as well as commenting on several well-known cases, such as Ex parte Milligan and Vallindigham.

Neely concludes his book with a discussion on the historiography of the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War, citing various publications arguing both sides of the topic. He states that if such a situation were to happen again in the United States, the “government would probably be as ill-prepared to define the legal situation as it was in 1861,” (235).

So there you have it, one of America's most beloved presidents, suspending citizens' civil liberties in a way that would get Bush (or any other president, for that matter) impeached. Oh Abe, I still adore you. :)

I couldn't really think of any Lincoln-related recipes for this post, so I'm going to post a Kentucky recipe. After all, Kentucky is Lincoln's home state... not Illinois! This recipe was created in Louisville at the Brown Hotel. I hadn't heard of it until a few days ago, but apparently it's quite popular in some places. While you're reflecting on all those wonderful civil liberties you have as an American citizen, chow down on a Hot Brown:

Ingredients

- 4 oz. Butter

- Flour to make a Roux (about 6 tablespoons)

- 3 - 3 1/2 cups Milk

- 1 Beaten Egg

- 6 tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese

- 1 oz. Whipped Cream (optional)

- Salt and Pepper to Taste

- Slices of Roast Turkey

- 8-12 Slices of Toast (may be trimmed)

- Extra Parmesan for Topping

- 8-12 Strips of Fried Bacon

Directions

1. Melt butter and add enough flour to make a reasonably thick roux (enough to absorb all of the butter).

2. Add milk and Parmesan cheese. Add egg to thicken sauce, but do not allow sauce to boil. Remove from heat. Fold in whipped cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. For each Hot Brown, place two slices of toast on a metal (or flameproof) dish. Cover the toast with a liberal amount of turkey.

4. Pour a generous amount of sauce over the turkey and toast. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese.

5. Place entire dish under a broiler until the sauce is speckled brown and bubbly. Remove from broiler, cross two pieces of bacon on top, and serve immediately.

This recipe is from the Brown Hotel's website. I haven't tried a Hot Brown yet, but I definitely intend to. :)

Sweethearts and Soup

Welp, I lied -- I do have something for you on my first day. For my graduate capstone project I was given a couple of World War II diaries and letters to transcribe and annotate; one such letter is the one that follows, by a Mr. Fred Marshall, who served in the European theatre during WWII. He's quite a romantic type (as well a cheating type!), as you'll soon read:

Dearest –

your letters all come to me as the one ray of sunshine in this dreary lonesome country and words cannot express my gratitude, dear little French girl. I would give all for just a few moments with you again. but some how I am led to believe that our “little romance” est finis[1]. and I too am tres triste[2] and meloncholy [sic] to think that happiness could so soon be blighted.

Of course, dear, I realized all of the time that it was an impossible project to think of you as ever my fiancee but I have always been more or less of a dreamer and it was nice to think of the impossible things. It is the one sentimental desire for every American soldier to have a French sweetheart, unfortunate for me that I should fall in love with you knowing that I could never claim you as my own except for a few weeks.

Ah, so I am young, you think? Yes perhaps I am, in years but quite old enough to know my heart. I shall always follow this path. I am older now than I was when I became engaged to the “girl who “attends impatientment et a confiance”[3] It is only since these last few months that I am afraid I have made a mistake. but so much for that, Henriette, dear. don't ever again spoil our pleasure in this by recalling my fiance and now suppose fortune should grant my return some day and I should not find you. Must I “attende vous”[4] forever at La place de Madaline. You must not say this sweetheart. I must always think of Paris as the place where I can find you. When this ceases to be so I no longer have any desire for it. Don’t ever kill my dream. When you think of me forget all else in the world but me, think of the impossible things. How happy we could be over in America in a little Bungalow, near the city of Dayton, Ohio. Automo[tives], dinners theatres, wine and best of all love and – petite Freddie!

I shall await impatiently for your letter and may I ask one more favor of you. Please do not say that I should not see you again. I quite understand all of your letters except this one phase of it. Must I think of a possible visit to Paris without you. Should you do this I would then think that French girls were indeed frivolous and incapable of fidelity. I shall always love Paris. If I never get to come back to it I must always recall it as the place of life’s happiest experience. The long promenades with you the panorama, the bridge over the Seine the reflection of the lights in the water, the soft strains of music and songs of [illegible] amusement because “[illegible] est finis”[5] is it not a beautiful recollection?

Can’t you send me a photograph Just one for me. I hope that you have a pleasant trip to Nice

I must now close with all of my love for you to do with it as you wish. you are older than I. you know best.

always

Fred

______________________________________

[1] est finis is French for “is over”

[2] tres triste is French for “very sad”

[3] attends impatientment et a confiance is French for “waits impatiently and with confidence”

[4] attende vous is French for “wait for you”

[5] Perhaps la fantasie est finis, which is French for “the fantasy is over”

What's more suiting for a love letter to a French sweetheart than a recipe from France? Enjoy this vichyssoise recipe from the Cook's Encyclopedia (with some personal changes):

Ingredients

- 1 pound of potatoes (about three large ones), peeled and cubed

- 6 cups of chicken broth

- 4 medium leeks, trimmed

- 2/3 cups sour cream

- salt and pepper

Directions

1. put the potatoes and broth in a saucepan and bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes

2. make a slit along the length of each leek and rinse well under cold running water, slice thinly

3. when potatoes are tender, stir in the leeks; season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally

4. puree the soup in a blender or food processer and stir in sour cream

5. the recipe calls for the soup to be chilled before eaten, but I prefer to eat mine hot :)

Enjoy!

First post

I've never been good about keeping journals, but maybe since cooking and history are two things I am exposed to every day, hopefully I'll have enough fodder to keep this blog running for at least a bit (or until I run out of steam/become more interested in something else). Anyway, the plan is to post interesting historical factoids I come across as well as recipes that may or may not pertain to whatever the topic is of the day.

Since I don't have much to write on at the moment, I'll leave you with this quote:

"'Because what's history?' he asked rhetorically when he was in his expansive dinnertime instructional mode. 'History is everything that happens everywhere. Even here in Newark. Even here on Summit Avenue. Even what happens in this house to an ordinary man -- that'll be history too someday.'" - Philip Roth, The Plot Against America