I love learning stuff about General Douglas MacArthur and when I came across the film Emperor on Netflix which stars Tommy Lee Jones as the iconic figure, I was all for it. Sadly the movie wasn’t very subpar due to a love story with Matthew Fox as General Bonner Fellers with a Japanese woman that dragged on and on, and in reality, it never happened. However, this lead me to do some research:
The film stated that the character Matthew Fox portrayed, Bonner Fellers, was dropped in rank from general to colonel, but it never stated why. Basically, after the war the Army was reduced in size and there were too many chiefs and not enough Indians, so the Army demoted or reverted a total of 212 generals back to the rank of colonel. His rank as general was reinstated at retirement, but I was curious to know if those 212 got to keep their general pay grade after the reduction in rank. It seems kind of cruel to serve your country with that distinguished rank and the pay that comes with it, only to have it taken away from you.
The Japanese prime minister for most of the war, Hideki Tōjō, attempted suicide during his arrest and apologized for taking so long to due. The U.S. saved his life only to be tried and executed. While recovering from his injuries, he was given a new set of dentures that had “Remember Pearl Harbor” secretly drilled into the teeth in Morse code.
HBO had a great documentary on Nixon last night which focused mainly on all of his recordings and interviews, it was as if Nixon was telling the story himself. Gosh, that man is such a fascinating and complicated individual. Of all the things in the documentary one thing caught my attention, a reporter referred to Henry Kissinger as Dr. Kissinger. I don’t think that practice is carried over today, there were many times Robert Gates was first referred to a Secretary Gates and then Mr. Gates, not Dr. Gates.
One obscure thing I’ll always remember about Nixon was him switching from AT&T to MCI in 1989 because AT&T was a primary sponsor of an ABC movie that depicted him in a way he wasn’t fond of.
I’m a fan reciting creeds (namely the Apostles’ and Nicene) in church but don’t recall ever doing it during my days in the Southern Baptist church. After a little online research I remembered why, and you can grossly summarize it as “No creed but the Bible.”
People give the Westboro Baptist Church way too much attention, but then again they do the same with the Justin Bieber and the Kardashians, and I’m not sure what’s worst.
I’m the kind of person that doesn’t understand or “get” when another person is joking, so I guess I tend to take things on face value and maybe too trusting, depending on the circumstance.
While watching television last night I came upon something that made me look up the difference between an apron and a smock. I thought the best source to find such an answer would be ApronsAndSmocks.com.
This teaser trailer for a Dirk documentary has Kobe complimenting the big German.
2 Responses to Bag of Randomness