| Submitted by: Mark R. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 15 February 2005 |
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Sam Houston ordered Jim Bowie to destroy the Alamo before it fell again into enemy hands, but Bowie refused and instead had his men occupy the fort. Bowie and William B. Travis, who commanded the garrison there, took joint control. When they heard Santa Anna was coming north, they decided to make a stand there at the Alamo. Santa Anna arrived at the Alamo and ordered a surrender. Travis answered with a cannon volley. So Santa Anna laid siege to the stronghold. Jim Bowie fell sick at this time with some respiratory ailment. He gave up command to Travis.
The Alamo defenders never knew, but about this time the Texas legislature declared independence from Mexico. So at the Alamo the fight became for the entire state's independence. Santa Anna's siege lasted twelve days. On the thirteenth day, Sunday, March 6, at 3 AM, Santa Anna moved his men ready for the attack. At 5 AM Santa Anna had the buglers blow the Deguello. This is the bugle call of death. It really is played in the bull ring for the slaughter. On the battlefield it is similarly a call to his men to kill without mercy. The Mexicans needed three charges before could breech the walls. When they did they killed without mercy. Some men, including Davy Crockett, were found alive and brought to Santa Anna. He ordered their immediate execution. Some of the men refused to kill defenseless men. Santa Anna insisted and some soldiers who had not taken part in the charge volunteered and hacked the prisoners to death. It was all over by 6:30 AM.
Mexican army needed weeks just to regroup. The defenders of the Alamo wanted to buy Sam Houston some precious time to assemble a defense. He got his precious time. Then he got some more. Then he got some that wasn't so precious. It took forty-six days for Santa Anna to be ready to challenge Houston's army. The two armies met at San Jacinto.
We will be going to that site in a few days and I will continue the story.
There is a nice instructive museum. We noticed a woman wearing a Lucent Technologies shirt. I asked her what business unit she was from. It turns out she also was BCS. And it was her bag we had seen in the hotel. She was bringing an Australian customer to see the famous site. I guess because of movies, American history belongs to the world. Though that is not really fair. I suppose when in Brussels most people would want to see Waterloo.
The Alamo itself has some artifacts of interest. Well, there are things like knives used by the defenders.
There is a site where skeletons were found. That sort of thing. It also has plaques listing the names of all the defenders.
We returned to the room, about a ten-minute walk from the Alamo. We waited to see if Kate Pott arrived. Generally we share a room with her. (Nothing salacious, she is not my type.)
At about 6 PM we sent out on the Riverwalk. This is a walkway on each side of the nearby river. It has become an excuse for upscale chic restaurants with al fresco dining. Except in late August al fresco is not very fresco. It doesn't take much of an excuse for chic, upscale restaurant colonies to spread like bacteria. We walked for a couple of hours. Then back to the room. I stayed and wrote, not being much of a party person. I put Seven Days in May on TV. Evelyn returned about 10:30 PM, Kate at 11 PM.
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08/28/97--LoneStarCon II: Day 1:
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We all woke up about 6 AM. (Actually Evelyn asked me the time. I looked at the clock and said 'syphilis.' It's a film reference.)
We went to Denny's for breakfast, about the only place in walking distance.
After breakfast Kate went off on a tour and we-Evelyn and I-returned to the Alamo. I watched the film again and double-checked my facts. I do that every once in a while. Coming back we stopped at a store specializing in Tabasco products. I was tempted to get a hot sauce holster. From there we returned to the room to drop some things off and then head to the convention. I will let Evelyn cover the convention since she is better than I am at it and besides, I want a rest. We are just barely a third the way into the trip and I am tired of writing. Some day I will learn to relax on vacations.
Well, the convention has its problems. I assume Evelyn will cover them. I usually scribe when Evelyn is on a panel so she does not have to both take notes and participate. I missed her first one, however. This time it took me ten minutes to even figure out were the room was. I got there late. Apparently the panel members had a very hard time finding the room also. To get there from other convention rooms is like a five-minute walk even when you know where you are going. I didn't. And it is a really weird route taking you outside, downstairs, and then you have to figure out from their map of the convention center what is outside, what inside. When I got to the room, it was laid out so that I could not actually see who was speaking on the stage. I could see one participant's head, and the hat another was wearing. On top of that it was a big room and there was one chandelier on. The rest was darkness. I could not see the palmtop screen. This was too much, and I had to let Evelyn take her own notes. Another problem I hate when I am on panels, there is only one mike for the whole panel. The worst case I remember was at one convention when there were two tables and the mike had to be handed between them. I had commented that The Maltese Falcon was the considerably better than previous versions of the story. We gave up the mike to the other table and one of the panelists took me to task for not being able to appreciate the novel. It was about twenty minutes before I could get the mike back and say that I had been comparing the novel to the two previous film versions before the definitive one was made. But by then I think people did not care. This convention, to save money, has only one mike and has no film program (only videos).
We got together for dinner with Kate as well as close friends of ours Dale and Jo. I suggested a Thai restaurant listed in the convention program book. The six of us walked there in the hot sun. It is now a Taco Bell at that address. Sorry, guys, how was I to know? We went instead to Casa Rio, a very good Mexican Restaurant. I thought I had ordered small, but there was still way too much food there and I was uncomfortable after. One of the panels talked about how bad a film Mimic was. As you may remember, I was quite impressed with it, rating it a +2. I suggested to Kate that we see it after dinner. Evelyn had parties she wanted to go to. Kate and I went off to see it. If anyone would appreciate this film, I figured it would be Kate. We got into a different disagreement. Kate thought it was a lot better than I thought it was and wanted to know why I didn't give it a full +4. Yes, it is a good, tense horror film. Yes, it is one of the scariest films I remember seeing in a long, long time. But I want more substance in a +4 film. So I have another disagreement, but at least this time I am in the middle.
Back at the room Evelyn was already asleep. Kate and I talked. I complained about all the psychic ads we were getting. Kate was none too happy about them either. Kate wanted to know why the law did not move against them. It is one thing if you catch a spiritualist faking an effect. That is fraud. But it is really tough to do anything about a psychic who is not leaving any evidence. I am not sure it can without proving that there is no such thing as a psychic experience. I had to admit, somewhat tentatively, that I am not sure that there are no psychic experiences. Like many people I get a lot of deja vu experiences. At least at one point they were frequent. Once... once I saw a scene about a minute or two before it happened. I must have been eight or nine. Very undramatic. I was at summer camp and saw someone make a unique motion with their arm asking me to play. I tried to remember when that was and it happened in front of me. I don't think it happened before exactly the same way. I have come up with explanations for the incident, but none entirely satisfying. I don't believe in psychic experiences on demand.
Kate does not believe in ghosts. Though apparently the house she lived in as a child would settle in ways that it would sound like there was somebody climbing the stairs. The dog would bark, but would refuse to go up the stairs until a human led him. Very strange.
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08/29/97--LoneStarCon II: Day 2:
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The Marriot Riverwalk is not a very well run hotel. Yesterday we got fed up with the light over the desk not working. They came up and immediately got it working while we were at breakfast yesterday. They apparently switched bulbs with the pole lamp. (Bulb is the wrong term, they are little fluorescents that screw into bulb sockets.) So we still have a lamp out of order. Two nights ago I was eating Fritos that had a chile powder covering to make them spicy. But the powder turns your fingers red. Figuring it comes out in the wash I wiped my hands on a towel. After the room was cleaned I took one of the clean and neatly folded towels off the rack and recognized my finger-marks from the night before. The towels had not been replaced, they had just been refolded and put back on the rack. Since there were three of us in the room and they generally give you two glasses for each person I requested six rather than four glasses. The request was ignored.
Quick scribblings. Denny's for breakfast. Then back to the room. I had a discussion of political correctness with Kate wanting to know if I believed John Norman's claims that he has been shut out of publishing because he was not politically correct. I told her I would not rule them out. Kate lives in a college community and sees things from a University of Massachusetts perspective. I guess I did at one time also. Years in the business world have somewhat altered my perspective. I suggested she take a look at The Myth of Male Power by Warren Farrell. I don't agree with everything in the book, but he makes a lot of good points.
Yesterday the convention was not really full the way it was today. A lot of people don't come till late.
Thursday night and some don't come until the weekend. But Friday you feel the convention is really running. But Evelyn will cover the convention. At 6 PM we got together for dinner, Evelyn, me, Kate, Pete Rubinstein, Dale Skran and Jo Paltin. We went to an Italian restaurant called Ibiza for dinner. The food was fairly good, but the service was slow. The bread was good and crusty.
Following dinner we were going to go see Kull the Conqueror, all of us but Evelyn. No times were convenient. I returned to the room and Evelyn went partying. Come 11:30 PM she had not returned, but Kate had and mentioned some parties she liked, so I went over for an hour just to see them. I guess partying is not really my thing. I returned to the room at 12:30 AM. At a convention that is not late.
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08/30/97--LoneStarCon II: Day 3:
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Breakfast at Denny's.
I went back to the room afterward. A funny thing happened. I wear a photovest. I put my hand over a pocket and the pocket was hot. |
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