The great Churchill fell in love with Cuban cigars in 1895

We remember Winston Churchill was born on this day in 1874.  He passed away in 1965 at age 90.  

Churchill loved Cuban cigars.  We know now that he met his first Cuban cigar during a visit to the island circa 1895.  My late father once told me that the Cuban embassy in London would often deliver Mr. Churchill a complimentary box of cigars.  Furthermore, those long cigars came to be known as “Churchill”.

According to H.P. Klepak, author of “Churchill Comes of Age, Cuba 1895“, the young Churchill spent 18 days in Cuba. 

He was there on loan from the British army to observe colonial Spain’s defense against independence fighters, as Klepak said in an interview: 

History previously recorded that Churchill saw combat in Cuba and discovered the siesta, which would later help him keep long hours as British prime minister during World War Two.

But Klepak, a former Canadian military officer, argues previous works overlooked how influential the Cuban venture was, including the months of maneuvering Churchill needed to land his assignment.   

With his Cuba experience he became a war correspondent, political analyst, strategist and liaison with a foreign army, all for the first time. His writings start to show legendary humor. He discovers rum and Cuban cigars’ breadth and quality.

Inspired by observations from local historian Lourdes Mendez, Klepak believes he became the first to scrutinize and cross-check the Cuban, British and Spanish archives, discovering for example that Churchill was fired upon by no less than Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez, two of Cuba’s greatest independence leaders.

“Very quickly when I looked at it from a historical perspective it was pretty obvious that this was an amazing story which for some reason had never been told,” Klepak said.

Neat story.  This is also a book that you may want to pick up when you need a break from Speaker Pelosi.  It is another chapter in the amazing life of one of the most important figures of the 20th century.

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November 1976: A song about a real Great Lakes tragedy!

It wasn't The Titanic but I remember this terrible shipwreck many years ago:

"The Edmund Fitzgerald was lost with her entire crew of 29 men on Lake Superior November 10, 1975..." (GLSM)

The tragedy shocked the nation.  It also reminded us of the size of Lake Superior, one of the Great Lakes of North America.

A few days ago, there was a memorial to remember the crew.

Gordon Lightfoot wrote and recorded this great song a year later.

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"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more

Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty

That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed

When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side

Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin

As the big freighters go it was bigger than most

With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms

When they left fully loaded for Cleveland

And later that night when the ships bell rang

Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound

And a wave broke over the railing

And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,

T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait

When the gales of November came slashing

When afternoon came it was freezing rain

In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck

Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya

At 7PM a main hatchway caved in

He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in

And the good ship and crew was in peril

And later that night when his lights went out of sight

Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes

When the waves turn the minutes to hours

The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay

If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized

They may have broke deep and took water

And all that remains is the faces and the names

Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings

In the ruins of her ice water mansion

Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,

The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario

Takes in what Lake Erie can send her

And the iron boats go as the mariners all know

With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed

In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral

The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times

For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee

Superior, they say, never gives up her dead

When the gales of November come early.

© 1976 Moose Music, Inc."

Nixon 1968 and 7 of 10

A post from 2018:

We await for the voters to decide the 2018 midterm elections.   In the meantime, let’s remember the election of 1968, or the first GOP victory in a long line of presidential victories. 

I was a sophomore in high school and very interested in the election.  Our family had arrived in the U.S. in September 1964, and I don’t remember too much about that election.  I do recall that my father said that it was a landslide for President Lyndon B. Johnson.  I think that my father would have voted for Senator Barry Goldwater but we were not citizens at the time.

In 1968, our family was with Richard Nixon.  My father always spoke highly of  Nixon and explained that it’d be better for the U.S. to replace the Democrats.   My parents used to say that the Democrats were soft on national security.  It was an opinion largely shaped by the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

As you may recall, Richard Nixon lost the election of 1960 by 114,000 votes out of 76 million cast that day.   In 1962, he failed to become governor of California and gave his famous “last press conference”.   After that, Nixon “retired” from politics and spent the next five years helping GOP candidates and hoping for another shot.  In his memoirs, RN, he wrote that he felt better about his chances after seeing the good results of the 1966 midterms.    

In 1968, Nixon jumped in again and battled Governor Ronald Reagan of California and Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. He easily won the nomination on the first ballot in Miami.    

It turned out to be a very strange campaign.  The Democrats self-destructed in Chicago.  The George Wallace factor divided the Democrats in the South.  Vietnam was the issue of the day, but “law and order” was in the conversation.  We remember that Reverend Martin Luther King and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were killed that year.

On election night, Nixon got 43.4% and VP Humphrey was right behind with 42.73% of the 74 million votes cast.  Governor Wallace got 13.5% and carried 5 Southern states. As I recall, it was not until the next morning that the election was called.

In the end, Nixon got the Electoral Votes and became the 37th president.  

The 1968 election started a very interesting trend.  The GOP won in 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2004.   It was 7 of the next 10, a remarkable streak.

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