@Tarbosaur
@tarbosaur
Consulting historian of science, the occult, esoterica and obscuranta, pseudoscience, monster studies, Darwiniana, knows who really discovered America. Currently retired.
@OxfordRetreat Years ago @docbotz and I discovered the Oxford Retreat. They had the best sausage and mash I had ever eaten. When I back they had stopped serving food. I was heart broken. Now they are serving food again. Physical issues prevent me from ever going back, however. Thanks!
July 1978 on the Iron Curtain I was standing on the hood of a gun jeep staring through binoculars at a Czechoslovak guard tower. My buddy was standing next to me. We looked at each other, smiled, turned, bent over and pulled out pants down. The Czech guards took pictures. Good times!
My father fought in the Korean war, he used to joke that three guys from the Ironbound went at the same time: him and two MPs (the war started exactly ten years to the day before I was born). Shrewd young whipper snapper loved to run and play But the draft board got him they inducted him today...
My students once asked me what the nerdiest thing I know. I told them I knew the license plate number of Squad 51 from the old TV show Emergency. It's 999-007. Take that normal world!
1978 my unit the 3/35 Armor, had the duty to guard the Bamberg 'Muna' for a week (the weapons storage facility). At 3am I found myself on an ammunition bunker in the freezing cold that housed the TACNUK weapons. I was listening to Alan Parsons 'I Robot'. I defecated on it which seemed appropriate.
Randolph Mantooth, Johnny Gage from EMERGENCY! has passed at the age of 80. The show helped inspire cities across America to establish paramedic squads. If you were ever saved by firemen you have Squad 51 to thank. I watched this show religiously when I was 13 yo. www.legacy.com/legacy/notab...
I have heard or played #Brucespringsteen 'Fourth of July Asbury Park,' every July 4th since 1977. This year marks 49 times.
On this day in 1978 I boarded a bus to take me the Fort Knox Kentucky to begin basic cavalry/tank school. My dad, who drove a Meat Chopper in the Korean war, didn't want me to enlist. My entire life is a result of my time with the 'G.'
As a 12yo I felt so disappointed that besides the fact I watched #zoom religiously, I was never able to learn to speak Ubby Dubby.
Today I turned 66 years old (not many birthdays left). I outlived my dad by several years.
My father Henry's birthday is almost the same as #Fathersday. That is the only reason I remember when it is. On the left Henry on the streets of the Ironbound, 1935, then me on the streets of the Ironbound 1965. #fathersday2026 I loved him dearly, I just wish I could have communicated that to him.
Putting together some things to donate to the @keanuniversity Special Collections I found this Alpine walking stick I bought at Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany in 1980. I purchased it because it was like the walking stick Richard Burton carried in Where Eagles Dare.
@docbotz and I met in the first week of June in 1985. We were together for 35 years... I remember Lisa up on scrap metal hill with those big dark eyes That made my heart stand still....
My uncle Mike Reigel entered Europe through Utah Beach on #DDay. He was a combat engineer who rode a halftrack from there to Remagen Bridge to the bulge. He was my favorite Uncle who once told me (when I was 5yo) that the only right thing to do with Nazis is kill them.
Watching the greatest cartoon depicting an aspect of the #historyofscience. Bob's Burgers 3:16 'Topsy.' The kids want to perform a play about Edison electrocuting an elephant. Watch to the very end where a special guest makes an appearance.
Remembering my Father, Henry on this #memorialday. Here he is at a foreword OP in Korea 1953. Notice the holster for his .45? The flap is cut off for faster draw. On my best day I will never be as cool as he is in this photo.
I donated my CVC helmet and my 45 colt auto shoulder holster to @Keanuniversity special collections library (Along with some other stuff too). Go check it out to see some stuff from the Iron Curtain Border patrol. #memorialday2026
On this day in 1978 I did my first tour of the Iron Curtain. #Donaldtrump was wracking in a $400 million dollar tax abatement from his daddy.
@realDonaldTrump phone was put together by his bungling, inept sons @EricTrump and @DonaldJTrumpJr . They couldn't even get the American flag right: it has 11 stripes instead of the proper 13.
I just found out my department's attempt to get me promoted to Professor Emeritus has gone through! I first began dreaming of being an historian when I was 5yo. I chronicled the entire journey in my memoir, 'The Monster of Newark.'
Darwin and the Monsters. Available for pre-publication purchase now. Tentative pub date June 1st. www.routledge.com/Darwin-and-t...
The neighborhood around #maralago is now like Berchtesgaden in Germany: you live there to be close to Der Fuhrer.
The only time I ever took part in a trivia contest was in a dive bar called Odessa in Wenzhou, China in 2013. I wondered who the spy was, then I realized it was me.
I did a podcast interview a while back where I called Benjamin Franklin 'a real dick!' Dr Edgar Wallace: "He's what we historians call, a real douche bag!" (Bob's Burgers)
Lee Marvin to Burt Lancaster: "You wont lose your pants...your life, maybe, but what's that worth?" "Ha, hardly anything at all!" -- The Professionals (1966)
The only thing I've ever been good at is finding things... Jack Taylor My book on Darwin and the Monsters should be out by May.