Friday, May 17, 2024
REMEMBERING HEROES
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The stories behind the names on the signs at the rest stops on the Remembrance Driveway, which goes from Sydney to Canberra.
The highway commemorates persons awarded the Victoria Cross by naming rest stops after them.
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The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces
The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War.
The metal used to make every Victoria Cross medal has been made from cannons captured by the British at the siege of Sevastopol.
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In 19991 the Victoria Cross for Australia was created, so that the VC no longer needed to be awarded by the British monarch. The Victoria Cross for Australia is the "decoration for according recognition to persons who in the presence of the enemy, perform acts of the most conspicuous gallantry, or daring or pre-eminent acts of valour or self-sacrifice or display extreme devotion to duty". Awards are granted by the Governor-General with the approval of the Sovereign.
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PETER BADCOE VC
Peter John Badcoe (1934 – 1967)
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Rest Stop:
Location:
Federal Highway, Lake George, Australian Capital Territory.
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Early life:
Badcoe was born Peter John Badcock on 11 January 1934 in the Adelaide suburb of Malvern, South Australia. His father, a public servant, was opposed him joining the Army. Despite his father's opposition, he enlisted in the Regular Army on 10 June 1950.
Badcoe graduated from the Officer Cadet School, Portsea, in 1952 as a second lieutenant in the Royal Australian Artillery.
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In 1956, aged 22, he married 17-year-old Denise Maureen MacMahon in Sydney. Over the next five years, the couple had three daughters.
A series of regimental postings followed his graduation, including a tour in the Federation of Malaya in 1962, during which he spent a week in South Vietnam observing the fighting. During the previous year, Badcock had changed his surname to Badcoe. After another regimental posting, he transferred to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps, and was promoted to major.
Vietnam service:
He arrived in Saigon in August 1966 to fulfil his ambition of joining “The Team”, already regarded as an elite unit.
Badcoe was initially allotted as sub-sector adviser to Nam Hoa district of Thua Thien province, where the war was almost constant and intense. His role was to train and lead two companies of South Vietnamese territorial soldiers. In December he became operations officer, responsible for operations in the entire province.
The role of sector operations adviser at the provincial headquarters in Huế generally involved planning, liaison and staff work, but Badcoe interpreted his duty statement flexibly and led local forces into combat whenever he got the chance. According to a fellow AATTV officer, Captain Barry Rissel, he was a "veritable tiger" in combat, a characteristic that led his US allies to dub him "The Galloping Major". At his first meeting with Badcoe, Corporal Chris Black described the scene:
An old, bright red beret sat jauntily on his head. His drab jungle greens were almost hidden under the most amazing collection of weapons I have ever seen on one man. A Swedish sub-machine gun, his favourite, hung over one shoulder. It was balanced on the other side by a snub-nosed grenade launcher. On his belt an Australian pistol hung heavily and in one hand he heft an American machine-gun. He lowered the armament to the floor, crossed the room, shook hands, refused a drink and talked about his boys.
To his colleagues, Badcoe was a quiet but friendly officer with a dry sense of humour. He was an intensely private man whose wife remained his sole confidante. He neither drank alcohol nor smoked. Bored by boisterous mess activities, he preferred the company of a book on small arms or military history. In action, he seemed invincible, at the forefront of his troops, conspicuous in his red paratrooper beret.
Badcoe quickly acquired an understanding of the Vietnamese people, and an affectionate regard for the soldiers he trained and led. He traded spirits and souvenirs from the Australian canteen with American Marines in Danang in order to obtain equipment for his poorly provisioned troops. He also acquired food and supplies which he donated to a local orphanage.
He gradually grew disillusioned with the conduct of the conflict in Vietnam. He began to view it as “an unwinnable war”. After napalm airstrikes against a village occupied by the Viet Cong left 40 civilians dead or wounded, Badcoe spent two days trying to help survivors. The experience deeply disturbed him.
Nevertheless, in three separate actions in early 1967 he performed feats of individual heroism which earned him the Victoria Cross.
On the 23 February, during a small operation in Phu Thu district, he ran across some 600 metres of fire-swept open ground to assist a territorial platoon. Taking charge of the unit, Badcoe led it in a frontal attack. He single-handedly charged an enemy machine-gun post and shot the crew. He also retrieved the body of an American adviser killed in the action, and then braved further enemy fire to rescue another who was wounded.
On 7 March, the district headquarters of Quang Dien near Hue came under attack from a strong Viet Cong force. While commanding the province's reaction company, Badcoe organised and led a series of fierce assaults which drove out the Viet Cong and saved the headquarters.
One month later, on the 7 April 1967, he wrote to his wife: “It’s time I came home. I'm getting bitter and cynical … I can see more and more good about the Vietnamese and less and less about the US advisers.”
This was his last letter home.
That same day he learned that the Reaction Company of the South Vietnamese 1st Division was in difficulty near the hamlet of An Thuan. Knowing that the company would be denied air support unless advisers were present, he drove a jeep there with a US Army sergeant.
Finding that the force had fallen back, he took charge and rallied the men in the face of withering fire. Crawling ahead, he made several attempts to silence a machine-gun with grenades. At one stage the American sergeant pulled him out of the line of fire. Rising again to throw another grenade, Badcoe was shot and killed instantly.
Peter Badcoe had been an inspiration to his Australian, Vietnamese, and American comrades-in-arms. Attendance at his memorial service in Hue was the largest that could be recalled for any allied soldier.
He had confided to his wife that he believed military funerals were horrendous for families, so he preferred to be buried in Terendak military cemetery in Malaysia. His headstone bears the simple, poignant inscription provided by his widow: “He lived and died a soldier”.
Badcoe's grave in the Terendak Garrison Cemetery
In 2015, the Australian government repatriated the remains of 22 Australian soldiers buried at Terendak, but the Badcoe family asked that he remain buried there, in accordance with his express wishes.
Victoria Cross:
For his courage and leadership on 23 February, 7 March, and 7 April 1967, Badcoe was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded at that time to a member of the Australian armed forces.
Denise Badcoe received her husband's Victoria Cross from the Governor-General, Lord Casey, at Government House, Canberra, on 5 April 1968.
Badcoe was awarded the United States Silver Star with bronze oak leaf cluster, Air Medal and Purple Heart, and was made a Knight of the National Order of Vietnam. South Vietnam also awarded him the Cross of Gallantry with Palm, Gold Star, and Silver Star, the Armed Forces Honor Medal, First Class, Vietnam Campaign Medal and Wound Medal, and he posthumously received the Vietnam Medal and Australian Defence Medal from Australia.
The Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948–1975 judged that Badcoe was "a dedicated career soldier" who "quickly acquired an understanding of the Vietnamese people and their customs along with an affectionate respect for the Vietnamese territorials he trained and led".
Afterwards:
The soldiers' club at the 1st Australian Support Compound in Vung Tau was named the Peter Badcoe Club in his honour in November 1967.
At Portsea, the assembly room and library was named after him, complete with a portrait and bronze plaque. After Portsea closed in 1985, the main lecture theatre in the Military Instruction Block at Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra was named after him.
In 1998–1999, a rest area in Badcoe's honour was established near Lake George on the Remembrance Driveway between Canberra and Sydney.
In 1999, the Ex-Military Rehabilitation Centre moved to the "Peter Badcoe VC Complex" at Edinburgh, South Australia.
In 2016, the South Australian electoral district of Ashford was renamed Badcoe in his honour.
In 2020, a 60-bed residential aged care facility named Peter Badcoe VC House was completed in Newcastle, New South Wales, by the Returned and Services League of Australia (New South Wales Branch) aged care arm, RSL LifeCare.
Since 2004, the award for the player displaying the most courage, skill, self-sacrifice and teamwork in the Australian Football League match in Adelaide on Anzac Day each year has been called the Peter Badcoe VC Medal. The medal has been won by three times by Travis Boak of the Port Adelaide Football Club, and twice by Joel Selwood of the Geelong Football Club.
Medals:
Badcoe's medal group and personal memoirs were offered for sale by auction in Sydney on 20 May 2008 and were sold for A$ 488,000 to the media magnate and philanthropist Kerry Stokes in collaboration with the Government of South Australia.
Badcoe's Victoria Cross and associated medals were displayed at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, prior to being toured to 17 regional towns in South Australia between 21 March and 20 June 2009, before being displayed permanently at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra from 2016. His VC was the 71st of the 100 VCs awarded to Australians to be placed on public display there.
Gallery:
Second Lieutenant (later Major) Peter John Badcoe,
A group of Australian Army officers in Singapore with Badcoe in the centre wearing glasses.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
FUNNY FRIDAY
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Helllo again.
The Federal Budget having been handed down a few days ago by the Treasurer Jim Chalmers it seems appropriate that today’s Funny Friday theme is money.
Enjoy. . .
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SOME HUMOUR:
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Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter and laid off half the staff, he’s planning on buying YouTube and Facebook and doing the same with them. To save even more money, he plans on merging the three companies into one…
…He’s going to call it YouTwitFace.
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A robber pulled a gun on the bank clerk and manager saying, “Give me all the money! I need it to set myself up in a trade or profession. You know, initial investment is needed to cover the overheads until my cash flow is established.”
The bank manager said to the clerk, “You’d better do what he says, I think he means business.”
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A man wanted to literally die with his money so he trusted a third of his money to a priest, a third to a doctor, and a third to his lawyer to bury him with it when he died.
After his death, at the man’s funeral the priest whispered to his dead body and placed a bag in his coffin. The doctor then proceeded to whisper to the body and placed a bag in there as well. Then the lawyer went and dropped off a bag and moved on.
As they were carpooling back from the funeral the lawyer asked what the priest whispered. The priest — with tears in his eyes — said that he had to confess he spent some of the money on an orphanage so that some hungry kids would not starve and that he feels bad for what he had done, but that he had no choice.
The doctor then admits that he too had to let him know that one of his patients needed a surgery that he alone could not do, that he spent some of the money to save the person’s life.
The lawyer looks at them with scorn and says, “How could you? You have betrayed a man’s last and dying request!” The doctor and priest look at the lawyer and asks, “So your bag had all the money he entrusted you with?” To which he replies, “Damn right, I wrote the cheque for the full amount, not a penny less!”
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I asked God for money.
I later found out that God doesn't work that way.
So I robbed a bank, then asked for forgiveness.
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When I was a boy my dad gave my money to go downtown and pay the electric bill but instead I bought raffle tickets for a chance to win a truck. I told my dad when I got home and he beat my ass but the next morning in the driveway sat a new truck. We all held each other and cried, especially me because it was the truck from electric company there to turn the lights off.
....Dad beat my ass again ....
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A jewel thief entered a house mid-afternoon. He tied up the woman and at knife-point asked the man to hand over the jewellery and money. The man started sobbing and said, “You can take anything you want. You can even pistol whip me, but please untie the rope and free her.”
Thief: “You must really love your wife!”
Man: “No, but she will be home shortly”.
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A lawyer was sitting in his office late one night, when Satan appeared before him. The Devil told the lawyer, "I have a proposition for you. You can win every case you try, for the rest of your life. Your clients will adore you, your colleagues will stand in awe of you, and you will make embarrassing sums of money. All I want in exchange is your soul and the souls of your wife and your children.”
The lawyer thought about this for a moment, then asked, "So, what's the catch?"
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LIMERICK OF THE WEEK:
There once was a farmer from Leeds
Who swallowed a packet of seeds.
It soon came to pass
He was covered with grass
But has all the tomatoes he needs!
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GALLERY:
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CORN CORNER:
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What’s the favourite band at the Alzheimer’s home?
The Who?
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My father told me “It’s worth it to spend money on good speakers.”
That was some sound advice.
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What is a profession that begins with “P”, is often criticised, and is known for screwing people and taking their money?
Politician.
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I’m a good man, I give 50% of my money to Charity.
Except when she’s not working I give it to Destiny .
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
PHOTOGRAPHS
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From Historic Talk at:
by Jason Pasos
Images That Shed a New Light on History –
Nostalgia can be a powerful thing. We've all heard people say things like, "Things were different back then" or "When we grew up back then...." But it can be pretty easy to forget about many of the not-so-wholesome trends and ways of life that were considered normal only 50 or 60 years ago. Following is some vintage media from that era that reflect the reality of the good ol' days.
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What They Meant When They Said "Fun for the 'Entire' Family":
Gender roles were much different even a couple of decades ago, and it wasn't hard to find advertisements similar to this one. This is an early advertisement for Milton Bradley's classic Battleship game. The ad shows a father and son playing the game at the kitchen table, but the mother and daughter are suspiciously absent.
They're absent from the fun for the "entire family." Instead, they can be seen washing the dishes in the background. Historically, that was where women were expected to spend most of their time.
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One Ahead-Of-Her-Times Woman Had Something to Say About This Car Ad:
While a lot of the ads and photos on this list reflect popular views from a different era, not everyone shared those views. This graffiti on a billboard advertisement in the U.K. is a perfect example of that. The vintage advertisement would no doubt be considered sexist by today's standards, and apparently, it was also considered a bit sexist even by standards back then.
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Back in 1962, Workers Competed in "Asbestos Shovelling Competitions"
Today, it's common knowledge that asbestos is extremely dangerous. However, it used to be hailed as a miraculous material and used in everything from cigarette filters to roofs. This vintage photo was taken at an asbestos shovelling competition in the town of Wittenoom in the Pilbara region of Australia. At the time (1962), there was an asbestos mine there, so it was common for workers and their families to be exposed to the material.
Today, the area is deemed contaminated and unlivable. Historically, the surrounding town had around 20,000 residents living there at its peak. More than 2,000 of those residents have since succumbed to asbestos-related diseases.
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"Undercover" New York Police In 1969:
This photo is pretty funny. In 1969, New York was seeing a spike in attacks on women, so police went undercover in drag in order to try and catch the criminals. However, from the looks of this vintage photo, not everyone was fooled. The two women in the background are obviously wondering what's going on here. It's also good to note that this was a historical time when drag wasn't widely accepted.
So that could also help explain why the two women have such perplexed looks on their faces. Reportedly, this tactic did help clamp down on violence and crime, though.
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Old Lysol Ad Encouraged Women to Use It for Feminine Hygiene:
If you needed any more proof that things were different back in the day, then look no further than this old historical ad from Lysol. The company is still around today, but they aren't putting out ads like this anymore. It tells the story of a wife who won her husband back after using Lysol... for feminine hygiene. Today, we know that this kind of stuff is actually pretty unhealthy.
We also know that ads like this are outdated and that nobody should be put in a position where they're expected to try and "win back" their significant other back.
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This Toy Set Would Never Fly Today:
Here's another photo that shows just how drastically things have changed in the last 50 to 60 years. It used to be okay for companies to sell children's toys like the one pictured here. Historically, even after toys like this were removed from shelves, it wasn't uncommon to see characters smoking in cartoons or candy cigarettes being sold on supermarket shelves. Today, such things would be virtually unthinkable.
The toy set in this photo also includes batteries, which is pretty weird to see, considering you have to buy your own no matter what kind of toy you buy today.
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Mama Was Shocked, to Say the Least:
Countries around the world celebrate Mardi Gras or Carnival in some form or another, but not everyone is familiar with Sydney, Australia's take on the holiday. In that country, Mardi Gras is used as a sort of Pride celebration. The celebration started in 1978, although this photo was taken in 1994. The woman looks like she's a bit surprised to see some of the attire worn by local revellers.
By the time this vintage shot was taken, the Sydney Mardi Gras had been going on for a couple of decades, so this shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise.
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More to come.
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
AESOP’S FABLE
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The Ant and the Dove
An ant went to the bank of a river to quench its thirst, and being carried away by the rush of the stream, was on the point of drowning. A dove sitting on a tree overhanging the water plucked a leaf and let it fall into the stream close to her. The ant climbed onto it and floated in safety to the bank. Shortly afterwards a birdcatcher came and stood under the tree, and laid his lime-twigs for the dove, which sat in the branches. The ant, perceiving his design, stung him in the foot. In pain the birdcatcher threw down the twigs, and the noise made the dove take wing.
Moral:
One good turn deserves another
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Another version:
A Dove saw an Ant fall into a brook. The Ant struggled in vain to reach the bank, and in pity, the Dove dropped a blade of straw close beside it. Clinging to the straw like a shipwrecked sailor to a broken spar, the Ant floated safely to shore.
Soon after, the Ant saw a man getting ready to kill the Dove with a stone. But just as he cast the stone, the Ant stung him in the heel, so that the pain made him miss his aim, and the startled Dove flew to safety in a distant wood.
A kindness is never wasted.
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A further version:
An Ant, going to a river to drink, fell in, and was carried along in the stream. A Dove pitied her condition, and threw into the river a small bough, by means of which the Ant gained the shore. The Ant afterward, seeing a man with a fowling-piece aiming at the Dove, stung him in the foot sharply, and made him miss his aim, and so saved the Dove’s life.
Little friends may prove great friends.
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Moral of the fable:
The moral of the story is that a good deed never goes unnoticed and comes back to us in one form or another.
The dove’s act of kindness returned to him when the ant saved his life from the hunter, i.e., if you do good, good will come to you.
Similarly, in life, doing good deeds and helping people might come back to us in some form. It’s the same with evil deeds, which may come back to us in some form.
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From Wikipedia:
There has been little variation in the fable since it was first recorded in Greek sources. An ant falls into a stream and a dove comes to the rescue by holding out a blade of grass to allow it to climb out. Then, noticing that a fowler was about to catch the dove, the ant bit his foot and his sudden movement caused the bird to fly away.
Other interpretations have been made of the fable. In a 1947 postcard series it is turned into a political statement in the aftermath of the occupation of France by the Nazis. There a little boy with a slingshot distracts a man with an armband labelled "Law" from chasing a girl who is running away with stolen apples in her pinafore.
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By the way:
The expression ‘one good turn deserves another’ has been in the language since at least 1636, as here in William Camden’s Remaines concerning Britaine:
“One good turne asketh another.”
‘One good turn deserves another’ is in use in colloquial English but is also a legal concept in the area of trade or exchange of goods or services. A contract has been said to be binding if it is ‘One good turn deserves another’, that is, if it involves an exchange of goods or services for something of value, usually money.
The proverb is often used to describe corrupt practice, where favours (notably political or sexual favours) are illicitly given in exchange for cash. that is, ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’.
A little wordplay involving the synonyms ‘turn’ and ‘tern’ was used by the scriptwriters of the 1991 thriller movie ‘The Silence of the Lambs‘, starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins as Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter:
Hannibal Lecter: Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center. Sounds charming.
Clarice Starling: That’s only part of the island. There’s a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there. There’s beautiful…
Hannibal Lecter: Terns? If I help you, Clarice, it will be “turns” for us too. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. One good turn deserves another. Yes or no?
Monday, May 13, 2024
CULINARY MOMENTS
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If you have a sensitive stomach, better to avoid the following item.
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Not something that you would find on the Japanese TV series Iron Chef . . .
in 2012 Japanese performance artist Mao Sugiyama had his genitalia surgically removed.
As if that wasn’t strange enough, he took the bits home and cooked them, serving them to guests.
About that:
- He charged guests around $250 per person to eat his severed genitalia in Tokyo, Japan.
- They were garnished with mushrooms and parsley.
- He had initially considered eating his own penis but decided to serve them up instead.
- He cooked the genitalia himself as he was supervised by a chef.
Mao Sugiyama, 22, wearing a chef’s hat, prepares to serve up his genitals as dinner for five paying guests at a party he organised in Tokyo, Japan
- In a Tweet, he offered to cook his penis for a paying guest but ultimately decided to split the ‘meal’ among six guests. He wrote on Twitter: ‘I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen. I’m Japanese.
- In total around 70 people attended the event in the Suginami ward of Tokyo. While five people tucked into Mao Sugiyama’s genitalia, the rest of them ate beef or crocodile.
- The five people who shelled up the money included a curious couple, a male manga artist, a 22-year old woman, and an event planner. All were between the ages of 22 and 32.
- Japanese authorities were notified but chose not to act, as cannibalism is not illegal in Japan.
- Unfortunately for the diners, the meal was underwhelming, with some describing the penis as having a rubbery texture and bland taste.
- When Managing Culinary Director of Serious Eats J. Kenji Lopez-Alt read about the less-than-satisfying entrée, he wrote to CalorieLab saying, “The chef didn’t cook it right. What a waste of a perfectly good penis! Penis is pretty tough and needs to be slow cooked, either sous-vide or in a braise.”
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#2:
San Lorenzo is the Italian and Spanish name for Saint Lawrence, the 3rd-century Christian martyr.
Some facts:
- St Lawrence is the patron saint of cooks, brewers and vintners, butchers, bakers, confectioners, restaurateurs and more.
- Due to his conspiring to hide and protect the written documents of the Church, Lawrence is also known as the patron saint of archivists and librarians.
- August 10 is Saint Larence’s feast day for Italians.
- Lorenzo’s involvement in what was considered a heretical, anti-establishment religion led to his martyrdom: on August 10 in year 258 CE (ie AD), Roman officials sentenced Lorenzo to death, as punishment for his refusal to hand over various goods and treasures he oversaw as a church deacon. He had distributed them to the poor instead.
- According to Christian lore, Lorenzo was placed on a gridiron to “cook” over hot coals, a tale that accounts for the saint’s now-legendary final words: “I’m well-done on this side. Turn me over!”
- While some historians dispute the accuracy of Lorenzo’s martyrdom, associations between the saint and his “death by grilling” remain strong. He is patron saint of barbecues and barbecuing, for instance, and cooks are known to invoke his protection in the kitchen, where burns by heat or fire are a very real threat. Italian kitchens commonly feature small Lorenzo statues, plaques or holy cards.
San Lorenzo
St. Lawrence Distributing the Treasures of the Church
The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence by Rubens (1614)
Martyrdom of San Lorenzo- by Palma il giovane
The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence by Girolamo da Santa Croce
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