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President Harding Opens the Alaska Railroad

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Posted by Victrola1 on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 12:04 PM

"It would be folly to ignore that we live in a motor age. The motor car reflects our standard of living and gauges the speed of our present-day life. It long ago ran down Simple Living, and never halted to inquire about the prostrate figure which fell as its victim. With full recognition of motor-car transportation we must turn it to the most practical use. It can not supersede the railway lines, no matter how generously we afford it highways out of the Public Treasury. If freight traffic by motor were charged with its proper and proportionate share of highway construction, we should find much of it wasteful and more costly than like service by rail. Yet we have paralleled the railways, a most natural line of construction, and thereby taken away from the agency of expected service much of its profitable traffic, which the taxpayers have been providing the highways, whose cost of maintenance is not yet realized."

Warren Harding (December 8, 1922)

https://www.infoplease.com/primary-sources/government/presidential-speeches/warren-harding-december-8-1922

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Posted by Victrola1 on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 11:49 AM

“I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my friends, my goddamned friends, they're the ones who keep me walking the floor at nights! ”


― Warren G. Harding

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/35912-i-have-no-trouble-with-my-enemies-i-can-take

"There was no reasonable suggestion that Harding either knew about this affair or profited from it. His failure was not greed, but rather making some poor choices for cabinet positions and failing to monitor them. The Teapot Dome Scandal was lasting blot on the record of his administration."

https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1377.html

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 11:04 AM

A different type of closeted male!! 

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 10:24 AM

Murphy Siding

 

 
charlie hebdo

Given Harding's soiled/sordid reputation [prostitutes entering and leaving by the backstairs in the WH and rampant corruption scadals brewing] it's understandable that an upstanding guy like Hoover might distance himself. 

 

 

 

Garsh! You make him sound like a bad enough guy that his wife might try to have him bumped off or something. Mischief

 

 

Murphy Siding

 

 
charlie hebdo

Given Harding's soiled/sordid reputation [prostitutes entering and leaving by the backstairs in the WH and rampant corruption scadals brewing] it's understandable that an upstanding guy like Hoover might distance himself. 

 

 

 

Garsh! You make him sound like a bad enough guy that his wife might try to have him bumped off or something. Mischief

 

 

She did order him to come out of a closet once when she knew he had a housemaid in with him (according to a tale). I do not know what she did after he came out.

Johnny

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Posted by Victrola1 on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 9:22 AM
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Posted by Murphy Siding on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 8:18 AM

charlie hebdo

Given Harding's soiled/sordid reputation [prostitutes entering and leaving by the backstairs in the WH and rampant corruption scadals brewing] it's understandable that an upstanding guy like Hoover might distance himself. 

 

Garsh! You make him sound like a bad enough guy that his wife might try to have him bumped off or something. Mischief

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Monday, January 20, 2020 11:13 PM

OTOH, Harding was making noises about going after lynching and also helped push through the first arms limitation treaty.

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Monday, January 20, 2020 3:32 PM

Given Harding's soiled/sordid reputation [prostitutes entering and leaving by the backstairs in the WH and rampant corruption scadals brewing] it's understandable that an upstanding guy like Hoover might distance himself. 

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, January 19, 2020 9:57 PM

Something I remember from my early childhood was a mention in Trains that the use of 'Geep' was to distinguish the locomotive from the Army car.

Something that DID come from the Popeye strip was the nickname for the CB&Q streamlined S-4 Hudson.  A couple of these rather ponderous things were given even more ponderous stainless-steel shrouding, complete with a nameplate reading ÆOLUS (the Greek keeper of the winds -- note the plaque on the nose of 4001) - both of 'em confusingly given that name.  It was not long before roundhouse wags trying to pronounce this figured out it was the name of the Queen of the Goons in Thimble Theatre.  And so, to go with the ATSF's Mae West, we got Big Alice the Goon.

No question though, the girl could run.  Note the Boxpok drivers, lightweight Timken rods ... and those are 14" long-travel valves.

 

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, January 19, 2020 9:47 PM

Victrola1
Would you rather have ridden in the Dodge, or on the VIP train. 

Tough choice.  For the experience, the Dodge.  For rubbing elbows with the high and mighty, on the train...

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Posted by Victrola1 on Sunday, January 19, 2020 8:46 PM

Sec. of Commerce Herbert Hoover appears briefly near the VIP train. Hoover is not seen getting into the Dodge with Harding. 

Would you rather have ridden in the Dodge, or on the VIP train. 

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, January 19, 2020 8:33 PM

Paul of Covington
I've been wondering--why is it that "GP" in the military become "Jeep" while on the railroads it became "Geep"?   As Andy Rooney used to say, "Why is that?"

Please note that I am strictly guessing here - perhaps it's because the "jeep" term came about in and around WWII, while the "Geep" didn't come into existance until after the war.

Seems like I've seen it suggested that the Jeep (vehicle) may have taken it's name from the animal in the Popeye cartoons.  Or not.

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Sunday, January 19, 2020 7:15 PM

tree68

Total aside - a viewer on one the the many webcams got most upset because several people corrected their use of "Jeep" when they meant "Geep."  

Yes, Virginia, there is a difference...

 

   I've been wondering--why is it that "GP" in the military become "Jeep" while on the railroads it became "Geep"?   As Andy Rooney used to say, "Why is that?"

_____________ 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, January 19, 2020 6:25 PM

Murphy Siding

 

 
Victrola1

For his 1923 trip to Alaska, U.S. president Warren G. Harding travels on an unusual mode of transportation: a Dodge Roadster specially converted to run on train tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwiTRTaeEu0

 

 

 

Has that film been colorized?

 

 

Oh, absolutely, and digitally enhanced as well.  And a great job they did of it!

If I remember correctly Kodachrome color movie film wouldn't come along until the late 1930s, and even then it was expensive.  Newsreel cameras would use black-and-white film right up to the time when the movie newsreel concept died in the 1960's.  

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, January 19, 2020 5:04 PM

Victrola1

For his 1923 trip to Alaska, U.S. president Warren G. Harding travels on an unusual mode of transportation: a Dodge Roadster specially converted to run on train tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwiTRTaeEu0

 

Has that film been colorized?

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, January 19, 2020 1:48 PM

54light15

Thanks for that, Flintlock- I loved that show and I loved the Mad Magazine satire of it that depicted Montgomery as Terry-Thomas. In the Imperial War Museum in London, there is a Chevrolet truck used by the desert patrol units- it was found in the Sahara in the 21st century, totally abandoned and it was brought back and displayed in unrestored condition. 

 

I remember that Mad Magazine "Rat Patrol" satire too!  The part I remember is Captain Dietrich's Germans foul up and shoot up one of their own columns.  Captain Dietrich asks...

"Dit any off dose men look like James Mason?"

"Nein, Herr Captain!"

"Goot, den at least ve didn't kill General Rommel!"

Hilarious stuff!

Great show, "The Rat Patrol!"  All us kids loved it!

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, January 19, 2020 1:41 PM

Total aside - a viewer on one the the many webcams got most upset because several people corrected their use of "Jeep" when they meant "Geep."  

Yes, Virginia, there is a difference...

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Posted by 54light15 on Sunday, January 19, 2020 1:34 PM

Thanks for that, Flintlock- I loved that show and I loved the Mad Magazine satire of it that depicted Montgomery as Terry-Thomas. In the Imperial War Museum in London, there is a Chevrolet truck used by the desert patrol units- it was found in the Sahara in the 21st century, totally abandoned and it was brought back and displayed in unrestored condition. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, January 18, 2020 2:57 PM

Thanks 54', that may just be the answer!

Yep, that's Bill Maudin in "Jeanie" all right!

And by the way, nobody used jeeps as effectively as these guys...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZcbifYqpGc  

I'm sure some of you could guess that was coming!

 

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Saturday, January 18, 2020 2:55 PM

54light15

It's likely that Willy's Jeep was built by Ford. Most of them were as Willys-Overland didn't have the production capacity that was required for the big show. By the way, it's pronounced Willis, not Willees but as John Willys said, "I don't care how you pronounce it as long as you buy one of my cars." 

 

No.  The probability is that it was a Willys product,  as I indicated with production data. 

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Posted by Deggesty on Saturday, January 18, 2020 2:55 PM

54light15, I did not remember that song; I do remember Spike Jones' account of a horse race (...and, it's Handkerchief by a nose!) and his response to Adolf Hitler's "We ist der Masterrace".

Johnny

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Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, January 18, 2020 2:39 PM

I believe this will settle the matter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wr3lKNkhjU 

Isn't that Bill Mauldin in the Jeep called Jeanie? Sure looks like him. 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, January 18, 2020 2:23 PM

General Patton also said...

"The two deadliest weapons in the German arsenal are our own  half-track and peep!  The half-track because the guys in 'em get too heroic and think they're in a tank, and the peep because we've got so many God-awful drivers!" 

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Posted by Deggesty on Saturday, January 18, 2020 1:59 PM

Thanks, kgbw49 for the information. I was around back when these vehicles came into great use--but I heard very little reference to "peeps." The general public came to accept "jeep" as the designation for the smaller vehicle, and I never knew that the the larger vehicle was called a "jeep;" I did know of "armored cars."

I do not recall ever riding in one, but a local man did own a jeep.

Johnny

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Posted by kgbw49 on Saturday, January 18, 2020 1:48 PM
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Posted by kgbw49 on Saturday, January 18, 2020 1:41 PM

They don't say "why", but this article backs up Flintlock76 on the whole "Peep" nickname.

https://citizen-soldiermagazine.com/forged-in-war-the-birth-of-the-jeep-in-world-war-ii/

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, January 18, 2020 1:11 PM

Interstingly, the tankers during WW2 called jeeps "Peeps."

I have no idea why.  General Patton in "War As I Knew It" mentions peeps, and the tankers in a 50's war movie I watched years ago called jeeps peeps.

If anyone has any idea I'd sure love to know!  

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Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, January 18, 2020 9:42 AM

Jeep also comes from a character in the Thimble Theatre comic strip by E.C. Segar that introduced Popeye the Sailor to the world. Eugene the Jeep was a magical "dorg*" who had many talents. The GP designation covered all the vehicles in the War Departments competition for a small four wheel drive utility vehicle. Willys design was the one chosen, but American Austin had one too. The Austin GP is depicted accurately in some of Billl Mauldin's earlier cartoons. 

* Dorg is Popeye's pronunciation of dog. 

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Friday, January 17, 2020 3:04 PM

Actually the term jeep came from the Ford model GP entered into the War Dept. competition.  When they entered mass production, the Willys model was the MB  (363,000) and the Ford was the GPW (280,000), virtually identical vehicles. 

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