Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On February 20, 1952, Los Angeles-native Emmett Ashford became the first African-American umpire to work in integrated (mainly white) professional baseball when he left his Post Office job to work for the International Southwestern League. Digging Deeper Ashford then went on to umpire in other mostly white professional leagues, reaching his minor-league pinnacle as the Umpire-in-Chief of the Pacific Coast League, where he trained and directed all the umpires and mediated arguments over rules.  In 1966, Ashford became the first black major league umpire, officiating in the American League. Ashford worked as a major league umpire until 1970,…

A Brief History On February 18, 1930, Elm Farm Ollie (Also known as “Nellie Jay,” “Sunnymede Ollie,” and “Sky Queen.” Say, why does a cow need aliases???) made aviation history as the first cow to fly in a fixed wing airplane.  Since non-fixed wing aircraft include either helicopters or autogyros, we wonder if any cows flew in those first.  Just saying… Digging Deeper Not only did Elm Farm Ollie make the first bovine flight, but she also became the first cow to be milked while flying in an airplane.  (Who seriously keeps track of this stuff?  The FAA, Federal Animal Aviation?) …

A Brief History People have often fallen in love with performers whose songs strike the listener to the core.  Sometimes it is the look, the clothes, the words, the beat, the rhythm, the dance moves, the gyrations or just the plain old sex appeal oozing off the singer like drops of water dripping off a young Ursula Andress as she comes out of the ocean in Dr. No.  Other times, the song itself is the turn on, with a combination of the right words sung the right way with the right voice coming together in a sort of sexual serendipity that makes…

A Brief History On February 16, 2006, the United States Army decommissioned the last of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals, or MASH as they were called.  Since the Army is staffed by educated and intelligent people (mostly), they obviously had a backup plan, and that is the Combat Support Hospital (CSH pronounced cash). Digging Deeper Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals had served the combat medical needs of the U.S. Army since their inception in 1945, continuing through the Korean and Viet Nam Wars and then in the conflicts in the Middle East until being replaced by Combat Support Hospitals. Famously depicted in the 1968…

A Brief History Throughout history, humans have noticed and wondered about various phenomena that they could not easily understand or explain.  Though modern science has often tried to find reasons for such “super” natural occurrences, many people remain unconvinced, leaving room for speculation and wonder.  Certainly many aspects of religion might qualify as supernatural, and since the majority of people believe in one sort of religion or another, it would be logical to conclude that the majority of people accept at least some supernatural phenomena in their set of beliefs.  Here we list 10 reasons upon which people can logically base a belief in the supernatural,…