The Bridgewater Triangle

Went to a local screening of The Bridgewater Triangle tonight. It was located the Samoset Rod & Gun Club located in the heart of the triangle in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. It was hosted by the co-director Aaron Cadieux. The viewing was of the original director's cut which runs about 90 minutes. A shorter edited for television version(about 42 minutes long) recently appeared on TV on Destination America network. 

The Bridgewater Triangle was first coined by famed cryptozoologist  Loren Coleman who first wrote about in his book Mysterious America first published in 1983 The film features the history, interviews and mysterious paranormal events.

The film was well done and interesting. Being from around the arae I had been aware of some of the legends and stories. I was still interested in hearing about this stuff and I even learned more about the area despite being an avid history buff. 

Even though I'm fairly open to stories of the paranormal sometimes one can not be skeptical at times.  Despite this it was still entertaining and fun to watch. I do recommend this if you're into New England paranormal stories. 

The Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Assassination of President Gar...

Recently I've been reading up on our 20th President James A. Garfield. I came across this interesting video given by Ken Ackerman who wrote a book on Garfield called The Dark Horse: The surprise Election and Assassination of President Garfield. President Garfield is one of those Presidents that are often over looked even with his status as one one that was killed in often. I enjoyed this video and look forward to reading his book.

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II by Herman Wouk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you were like me and have only seen the movie version, starring Humphrey Bogart, you should do yourself a favor dive into this book. It is far more in depth than the movie version. In fact after listening to the book and then watched the movie I was surprised how much the movie left out.

The book focuses more on Willie Keith and his telling the story and how he changed. It's and interesting telling of life aboard a ship during World War 2 with all it's trivialities. Like it has been said before war is often short bursts of excite stretched between extreme amounts of boredom. It tells of the stress and exhaustion that can take a toll on a crew that's been together a long time under stress.

At first the eccentricities of Captain Queeg seem even more unreasonable as the story goes along. As you are brought into the world of the crew you feel in agreement of how crazy their skipper is. When he is relieved during a typhoon that is endangering the ship you can see why.

Then when the reality of it comes later during Maryk's Court Martial you begin to see how Keith, Maryk, Tom Keefer and others were just as complicate in their actions. They realize they did not support their Captain when needed and added to his stress and led to his disgrace.


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White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction by Allen W. Trelease

White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction by Allen W. Trelease
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was comprehensive look at the activities of the Klu Klux Klan right after the Civil War ended. It was born in Tennessee and spread throughout the south states. They heavily opposed Reconstruction programs of the time. They didn't have a single overall organization but were many groups obviously inspired by the original group. The midnight riders would use a policy of beatings, whippings, rape, arson, shootings and lynching. Their two main targets were recently freed slaves and Republicans. It became such an issue that Congress eventually took action in 1871. After lengthy investigations they were able to make prosecutions and convictions but were relatively small in comparison to the actual number terrorist-like activities that went on. Even so it did slow down curtail the vast majority of activities. By the time Reconstruction ended in the 1877 and the advent of the Jim Crow era of the south the need for the group dropped drastically. The KKK did have revivals first inspired by the film "Birth of a Nation" in the 1920's and then during the segregation/Civil Rights battles of the 1950's and 1960's. This is an excellent reference for those looking into the birth of the Klu Klux Klan Reconstruction period. I think this is an often overlooked element during this time period in American History.

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