CAMERONE DAY – A month ago Balladeer’s Blog examined the 1895 collection of short stories Garrison Tales From Tonquin (Tonkin), written by American James O’Neill. The tales were fictionalized accounts of his experiences in the French Foreign Legion in the 1880s and 1890s in Algeria and Vietnam. O’Neill’s insights into the French occupation of Vietnam during and after the Sino-French War were astonishingly ahead of their time.
Today’s blog post is nowhere near as profound or steeped in existentialism as Garrison Tales From Tonquin, but I couldn’t help but reflect on it since the yearly anniversary of the Battle of Camerone in Mexico has been THE major event on the French Foreign Legion’s calendar since 1863. It is often viewed as the battle that helped cement the Legion in the imaginations of people around the world in the 19th Century, and no doubt its legend was well known to James O’Neill by the time he enlisted in the fighting outfit in the 1880s.
THE BATTLE OF CAMERONE (Camaron in Spanish) – Getting back to the topic of this blog post, it’s sort of the French Foreign Legion’s central Alamo event. And I say central because many of the most famous battles of the Legion are like a long series of Alamos. Camerone set the standard, though. As usual, the Legion’s cause was not a virtuous one by our standards. The execrable Napoleon the Third was using the FFL and other French forces to try to prop up his Austrian ally Maximilian, the so-called “Emperor of Mexico.”
The Mexicans wanted the foreign-imposed emperor out and ultimately prevailed in 1867, but on April 30th, 1863 a mere 65 members of the French Foreign Legion held off what ultimately grew to a force of THREE THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED (3,300) Mexican soldiers. Continue reading
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog noted that, with more and more states introducing legislation to prevent the “vote fraud by mail” scams that Democrats used in 2020 from being used in future elections, and with ongoing investigations into that vote fraud finding more and more evidence, Joe Biden and his fellow fascists decided to lie some more to distract from all that. 
Anyone who thinks that the January 6th protest against an election (that was as tainted as the 1876 and 2000 elections) was “an insurrection” or was “worse than 9-11” needs to seek professional help. 3,000 people died on 9-11. Only people who are insane or are unthinking political robots would compare the two. 
AGON: ATOMIC DRAGON, also called Phantom Monster Agon and Giant Phantom Monster Agon, is an overlooked miniseries from Japanese television. It was produced in 1964 but due to legal action over the monster’s similarity to Godzilla its creator’s old Toho contract was invoked to prevent the miniseries from being televised until 1968. This black & white miniseries ran just four half-hour episodes and aired on four consecutive nights, from January 2nd – 5th, 1968. 
When an irritating reporter named Goro Sumoto aka “the Suppon” arrives to report on the police and the Atomic Energy Authorities scouring the beach for the lost uranium, Agon rises up from the sea in the exact same “bubbling waters first” technique favored by Godzilla. Goro photographs Agon, who vogues for a while, then submerges again. The reporter also meets Monta, the obligatory wise-ass little kid character so common to kaiju stories. 
THE SCARLET PLAGUE (1912) – Written by THE Jack London. Years ago Balladeer’s Blog reviewed London’s mad scientist horror tale A Thousand Deaths, now I’ll examine The Scarlet Plague, London’s post-apocalypse plague story set in the year 2073. 
James Howard Smith is that elderly survivor in a world returned largely to hunting and gathering. He is cared for by his three grandsons, Edwin and two others whose absurd names probably contribute to keeping The Scarlet Plague so underappreciated – Hoo-Hoo and Harelip. (?) They get by as well as they can in northern California, raising dogs to help them herd the goats that they raise for meat and milk, and relying on the ocean for much of the rest of their food supply. Primitive weapons like bows and arrows are all they have on hand to use against wild bears and other menaces. 
THE BAKARIDJAN KONE EPIC – Djeli, the poet-historians of the Bambara people for over 300 years, would often recite, chant and sing this epic myth while playing their stringed instruments called ngoni. 
I can certainly understand Tatum’s surprise at how uninformed the newsreader is. I’m often amazed myself at the way people who don’t live here presume to know more than we do about political and social situations in the country where we live. I sometimes remind overseas people who condescendingly spout wrong information like this that they do not get an accurate view from the brief, isolated sniglets of “news” (LMAO) that they see. It’s why you never see me telling people in other countries how they should feel about events in their home nations. 
FIRST QUARTERFINAL – The NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS traveled to face the GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS (should be the Zebras). A 7-0 1st Quarter lead for the Vikings became a 14-7 advantage by Halftime. The 3rd Quarter ended with the Red Raiders on top by a score of 17-14, then both teams notched 10 more points in the 4th as Northwestern College won the game 27-24. 
SECOND QUARTERFINAL – This game pitted the 2-time defending National Champions – the MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS – against the visiting BAKER UNIVERSITY WILDCATS. The Wildcats were as tough as ever, leading the Mustangs 14-9 in the opening Quarter and holding a 21-9 lead at the Half. After the break Morningside College came stampeding back, going up 24-21 in the 3rd Quarter, then winning out by a comfortable final count of 45-29. 
THE SHIELD
Powers: The chemical formula that the Shield rubbed onto his skin followed by bombardment with flouroscopic rays endowed him with massive super-strength plus invulnerability and the ability to leap enormous distances. His name came from an acronym for the areas of the human anatomy affected by his chemical formula: S – Sacrum H – Heart I – Innervation E – Eyes L – Lungs D – Derma. The Shield also wore an indestructible costume which encased his torso like a shield.
PEP COMICS #1 (January 1940) 
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve long found Midnight’s Edge to be the most accurate site when it comes to entertainment news. I would put Clownfish TV in second place. As for Midnight’s Edge, not only do they carefully label what has already been proven and what is merely word from sources, but over the past few years they have been the only entertainment site I’ve seen that winds up being ACCURATE, especially in the long run, after all the facts have come out. 
Balladeer's Blog 