Mostly sunny this morning, 48°, feels like 47° with the wind from the WNW at 6 mph, humidity is at 83%, pressure is 30.05 inches, and visibility is 9 miles. Pollen levels are medium-high at 8.2. Top allergens are oak, grasses, and mulberry. Marine forecast is as follows:
Today Northwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly sunny early in the morning then becoming sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight Light winds. Mostly clear. Waves 2 feet or less.
Monday East wind 5 to 10 knots. Chance of showers. Waves 2 feet or less.
Monday Night East wind 5 to 10 knots. Chance of showers. Waves 2 feet or less

ON THIS DATE in 1868, President Johnson is acquitted.

At the end of a historic two-month trial, the U.S. Senate narrowly fails to convict President Andrew Johnson of the impeachment charges levied against him by the House of Representatives three months earlier. The senators voted 35 guilty and 19 not guilty on the second article of impeachment, a charge related to his violation of the Tenure of Office Act in the previous year. Ten days earlier, the Senate had likewise failed to convict Johnson on another article of impeachment, the 11th, voting an identical 35 for conviction and 19 for acquittal. Because both votes fell short–by one vote–of the two-thirds majority needed to convict Johnson, he was judged not guilty and remained in office.

At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Johnson, a U.S. senator from Tennessee, was the only senator from a seceding state who remained loyal to the Union. Johnson’s political career was built on his defense of the interests of poor white Southerners against the landed classes; of his decision to oppose secession, he said, “Damn the negroes; I am fighting those traitorous aristocrats, their masters.” For his loyalty, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee in 1862, and in 1864 Johnson was elected vice president of the United States.

Sworn in as president after Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, President Johnson enacted a lenient Reconstruction policy for the defeated South, including almost total amnesty to ex-Confederates, a program of rapid restoration of U.S.-state status for the seceded states, and the approval of new, local Southern governments, which were able to legislate “black codes” that preserved the system of slavery in all but name. The Republican-dominated Congress greatly opposed Johnson’s Reconstruction program and passed the “Radical Reconstruction” by repeatedly overriding the president’s vetoes. Under the Radical Reconstruction, local Southern governments gave way to federal military rule, and African American men in the South were granted the constitutional right to vote.

In March 1867, in order to weaken further Johnson’s authority, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over his veto. The act prohibited the president from removing federal office holders, including cabinet members, who had been confirmed by the Senate, without the consent of the Senate. It was designed to shield members of Johnson’s cabinet, like Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who was appointed during the Lincoln administration and was a leading ally of the so-called Radical Republicans in Congress. In the fall of 1867, Johnson attempted to test the constitutionality of the act by replacing Stanton with General Ulysses S. Grant. However, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to rule on the case, and Grant turned the office back to Stanton after the Senate passed a measure in protest of the dismissal.

On February 21, 1868, Johnson decided to rid himself of Stanton once and for all and appointed General Lorenzo Thomas, an individual far less favorable to the Congress than Grant, as secretary of war. Stanton refused to yield, barricading himself in his office, and the House of Representatives, which had already discussed impeachment after Johnson’s first dismissal of Stanton, initiated formal impeachment proceedings against the president. On February 24, the House voted 11 impeachment articles against President Johnson. Nine of the articles cited his violations of the Tenure of Office Act; one cited his opposition to the Army Appropriations Act of 1867 (designed to deprive the president of his constitutional position as commander in chief of the U.S. Army); and one accused Johnson of bringing “into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States” through certain controversial speeches.

On March 13, according to the rules set out in Section 3 of Article I of the U.S. Constitution, the impeachment trial of President Johnson began in the Senate. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presided over the proceedings, which were described as theatrical. On May 16 and again on May 26, the Senate voted on the charges brought against President Johnson. Both times the vote was 35 for conviction and 19 for acquittal, with seven moderate Republicans joining 12 Democrats in voting against what was a weak case for impeachment. The vote fell just short of a two-thirds majority, and Johnson remained in office. Nevertheless, he chose not to seek reelection on the Democratic ticket. In November, Ulysses S. Grant, who supported the Republicans’ Radical Reconstruction policies, was elected president of the United States.

In 1875, after two failed bids, Johnson won reelection to Congress as a U.S. senator from Tennessee. He died less than four months after taking office, at the age of 66. Fifty-one years later, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Tenure of Office Act unconstitutional in its ruling in Myers v. United States.

DID YOU KNOW THAT elephants make friends, bury their dead, travel for ‘funerals’, speak to each other, and show extreme intelligence.

WORD OF THE DAY seriatim (seer-ee-EY-tim) which means in a series; one after another. The English adverb seriatim “one after another, in a series,” comes directly from the Medieval Latin adverb seriātim, which has the same meaning. Seriātim is composed of the Latin noun seriēs “line, series” and the adverb suffix -ātim, extracted from Latin adverbs like gradātim “by steps, ascending or descending gradually,” and certātim “in rivalry, emulously.” The suffix is a useful one, forming adverbs like literātim “literally, letter for letter, literatim,” and verbātim “literally, word for word, verbatim.” Seriatim entered English in the late 15th century.

Cloudy, rainy, 48°, humidity is at 98%, wind is from the SE at 6 mph making it feel like 46°, pressure s 29.79 inches, and visibility is 4 miles. Pollen levels for today are low at 1.4. Top allergens are oak, grasses, and mulberry. Marine forecast as follows: ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM EDT THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH THIS EVENING...
Today South wind 5 to 10 knots becoming southwest 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots in the morning. Scattered showers and thunderstorms early in the morning, then slight chance of showers in the morning. Chance of showers in the afternoon. Waves 2 to 3 feet.
Tonight West wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Slight chance of showers. Waves 2 to 3 feet.
Sunday Light winds. Mostly sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Sunday Night Light winds. Mostly clear. Waves 2 feet or less. winds and waves higher in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

ON THIS DATE science-fiction fans and movie buffs in general have cause to celebrate on this day in 1977, when 20th Century Fox releases George Lucas’ space odyssey Star Wars.

After Lucas’ second feature film, American Graffiti (1973), became a hit, Fox agreed to put up $9.5 million for the writer-director’s next project. After four years in production, including location shots in Tunisia and Death Valley, California, Star Wars was ready for its release. Its relatively unknown cast featured Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, who teams with the roguish Han Solo (Harrison Ford) to rescue Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) from captivity on a space station commanded by the menacing Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones). The alien creatures, massive space station, elaborate space battles and other special effects came courtesy of Lucas’ company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).

Though Fox released Star Wars in only 42 theaters, it primed its target audience of science-fiction fans with a massive publicity campaign. By the end of its first week, the film had made $3 million, and by the end of the summer it would rake in some $100 million. Adjusting for inflation, its box-office haul was second only to Gone With the Wind. In addition to its commercial success, Star Wars was well received by critics and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It won in six categories, mostly technical, and received an additional Oscar for Special Achievement in Sound Editing.

The success of Star Wars was credited with reviving the science-fiction film genre, which had previously been considered highly unprofitable, and–along with Steven Spielberg’s 1975 hit Jaws–with introducing the concept of the summer blockbuster. It also sparked a Hollywood trend away from smaller films and toward big-budget action movies targeted at young audiences. Lucas would follow up on the success of his hit movie with two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), fueling a huge marketing juggernaut that included clothing, toys, videos and other merchandise. The popularity of the Star Wars franchise lasted well into the 1990s, and was encouraged by a theatrical re-release of the trilogy in 1997.

Starting in the late 1990s, Lucas released a new series of Star Wars movies, set in a time period before the original trilogy and featuring a new, younger cast (notably Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen) and an updated arsenal of special-effects technology. Though the three newer films–Stars Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)–were all huge-box office hits, they failed to match the critical acclaim garnered by the original series.

DID YOU KNOW THAT there is an opposite of albino animals, which aren’t white, but black. These are known as Melanistic animals.

WORD OF THE DAY hermitage (HUR-mi-tij) which means any secluded place of residence or habitation; retreat; hideaway. The history of the English noun hermitage is complicated by the unetymological h-. Middle English and Old French have both hermitage and ermitage (and many other spellings). Late Latin (in a 5th-century Christian author) has erēmīta (correctly) “eremite, hermit,” from Greek erēmī́tēs, a very rare noun and adjective meaning “of the desert,” and first occurring in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible dating from the 3rd century b.c.) in the Book of Job. The Greek noun (and therefore the Latin, too) is a derivative of erêmos (also érēmos), an adjective and noun meaning “solitary, desolate, lonely; a desert.” The spellings herēmīta and its derivative herēmītagium “hermitage” first appear in Medieval Latin. Hermitage entered English in the late 13th century.

Cloudy this morning, 46°, there's a 40% chance of rain today, humidity is at 95%, wind is from the WNW at 3 mph making it feel like 45°, pressure is 30.18 inches and visibility is 9 miles. Pollen levels are at 8.4, medium-high. Top allergens are oak grasses, and mulberry. Marine forecast as follows:
Today Light winds becoming east 5 to 10 knots with gusts to around 20 knots in the morning. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight Southeast wind 5 to 10 knots. Rain showers and a chance of thunderstorms. Waves 2 feet or less.
Saturday Southwest wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 to 3 feet.
Saturday Night West wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Partly cloudy. Waves 2 to 3 feet. winds and waves higher in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

ON THIS DATE in 1883, after 14 years, the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River is opened, connecting the great cities of New York and Brooklyn for the first time in history. As many as 20 workers were killed during the bridge’s construction. Thousands of residents of Brooklyn and Manhattan Island turned out to witness the dedication ceremony, which was presided over by President Chester A. Arthur and New York Governor Grover Cleveland. Designed by the late John A. Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge ever built to that date.

John Roebling, born in Germany in 1806, was a great pioneer in the design of steel suspension bridges. He studied industrial engineering in Berlin and at the age of 25 immigrated to western Pennsylvania, where he attempted, unsuccessfully, to make his living as a farmer. He later moved to the state capital in Harrisburg, where he found work as a civil engineer. He promoted the use of wire cable and established a successful wire-cable factory.

Meanwhile, he earned a reputation as a designer of suspension bridges, which at the time were widely used but known to fail under strong winds or heavy loads. Roebling is credited with a major breakthrough in suspension-bridge technology: a web truss added to either side of the bridge roadway that greatly stabilized the structure. Using this model, Roebling successfully bridged the Niagara Gorge at Niagara Falls, New York, and the Ohio River at Cincinnati, Ohio. On the basis of these achievements, New York State accepted Roebling’s design for a bridge connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan–with a span of 1,595 feet–and appointed him chief engineer. It was to be the world’s first steel suspension bridge.

Just before construction began in 1869, Roebling was fatally injured while taking a few final compass readings across the East River. A boat smashed the toes on one of his feet, and three weeks later he died of tetanus. He was the first of more than two dozen people who would die building his bridge. His 32-year-old son, Washington A. Roebling, took over as chief engineer. Roebling had worked with his father on several bridges and had helped design the Brooklyn Bridge.

The two granite foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge were built in timber caissons, or watertight chambers, sunk to depths of 44 feet on the Brooklyn side and 78 feet on the New York side. Compressed air pressurized the caissons, allowing underwater construction. At that time, little was known of the risks of working under such conditions, and more than a hundred workers suffered from cases of compression sickness. Compression sickness, or the “bends,” is caused by the appearance of nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream that result from rapid decompression. Several died, and Washington Roebling himself became bedridden from the condition in 1872. Other workers died as a result of more conventional construction accidents, such as collapses and a fire.

Roebling continued to direct construction operations from his home, and his wife, Emily, carried his instructions to the workers. In 1877, Washington and Emily moved into a home with a view of the bridge. Roebling’s health gradually improved, but he remained partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. On May 24, 1883, Emily Roebling was given the first ride over the completed bridge, with a rooster, a symbol of victory, in her lap. Within 24 hours, an estimated 250,000 people walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, using a broad promenade above the roadway that John Roebling designed solely for the enjoyment of pedestrians.

The Brooklyn Bridge, with its unprecedented length and two stately towers, was dubbed the “eighth wonder of the world.” The connection it provided between the massive population centers of Brooklyn and Manhattan changed the course of New York City forever. In 1898, the city of Brooklyn formally merged with New York City, Staten Island, and a few farm towns, forming Greater New York.

DID YOU KNOW THAT Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Trivago, Travelocity, and Orbitz are all owned by the same company, Expedia Inc.

WORD OF THE DAY proselyte (PROS-uh-lahyt) which means a person who has changed from one opinion, religious belief, sect, or the like, to another; convert. The English noun proselyte comes via Old French and Late Latin prosēlytus “sojourner, foreigner, stranger, a convert from paganism to Judaism.” Prosēlytus first occurs in the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible, prepared chiefly by Saint Jerome at the end of the 4th century a.d. Prosēlytus comes from Greek prosḗlytos “one who has arrived, stranger, sojourner.” Prosḗlytos and its kindred terms occur in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible dating from the 3rd century b.c.) and the Greek New Testament. Prosḗlytos is equivalent to an unrecorded prosḗlythos, a derivative of the verb prosérchesthai “to come forward, go, approach.” Proselyte entered English in the 14th century.

Headed to the mainland for dentist and doctor appointments and hopefully back this afternoon. Right now it's cloudy skies, 45°, humidity is 96%, wind is from the WSW at 8 mph making it feel like 40°, pressure is at 29.77 inches and visibility is 4 miles. Pollen levels for today are medium at 5.8. Top allergens are oak, mulberry, and birch. Marine report as follows: ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING...
Today West wind 10 to 20 knots with gusts to around 30 knots. Patchy fog early in the morning. Isolated showers early in the morning, then again in the afternoon. Waves 2 feet or less building to 2 to 3 feet in the afternoon.
Tonight Northwest wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 to 3 feet.
Friday East wind 5 to 10 knots. Chance of showers. Waves 2 feet or less.
Friday Night Southeast wind 10 to 15 knots. Rain showers likely and a chance of thunderstorms. Waves 2 feet or less. winds and waves higher in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

ON THIS DATE in 1934, notorious criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police while driving a stolen car near Sailes, Louisiana.

Bonnie Parker met the charismatic Clyde Barrow in Texas when she was 19 years old and her husband (she married when she was 16) was serving time in jail for murder. Shortly after they met, Barrow was imprisoned for robbery. Parker visited him every day, and smuggled a gun into prison to help him escape, but he was soon caught in Ohio and sent back to jail. When Barrow was paroled in 1932, he immediately hooked up with Parker, and the couple began a life of crime together.

After they stole a car and committed several robberies, Parker was caught by police and sent to jail for two months. Released in mid-1932, she rejoined Barrow. Over the next two years, the couple teamed with various accomplices to rob a string of banks and stores across five states–Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Mexico and Louisiana. To law enforcement agents, the Barrow Gang–including Barrow’s childhood friend, Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Henry Methvin, Barrow’s brother Buck and his wife Blanche, among others–were cold-blooded criminals who didn’t hesitate to kill anyone who got in their way, especially police or sheriff’s deputies. Among the public, however, Parker and Barrow’s reputation as dangerous outlaws was mixed with a romantic view of the couple as “Robin Hood”-like folk heroes.

Their fame was increased by the fact that Bonnie was a woman–an unlikely criminal–and by the fact that the couple posed for playful photographs together, which were later found by police and released to the media. Police almost captured the famous duo twice in the spring of 1933, with surprise raids on their hideouts in Joplin and Platte City, Missouri. Buck Barrow was killed in the second raid, and Blanche was arrested, but Bonnie and Clyde escaped once again. In January 1934, they attacked the Eastham Prison Farm in Texas to help Hamilton break out of jail, shooting several guards with machine guns and killing one.

Texan prison officials hired a retired Texas Ranger, Captain Frank Hamer, as a special investigator to track down Parker and Barrow. After a three-month search, Hamer traced the couple to Louisiana, where Henry Methvin’s family lived. Before dawn on May 23, Hamer and a group of Louisiana and Texas lawmen hid in the bushes along a country road outside Sailes. When Parker and Barrow appeared, the officers opened fire, killing the couple in a hail of bullets.

All told, the Barrow Gang was believed responsible for the deaths of 13 people, including nine police officers. Parker and Barrow are still seen by many as romantic figures, however, especially after the success of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty.

DID YOU KNOW THAT in 2014, a missing woman on a vacation in Iceland was found when it was discovered that she was in the search party looking for herself.

WORD OF THE DAY overmorrow (oh-ver-MAWR-oh) which means the day after tomorrow. Overmorrow had a brief history, first recorded in the first half of the 16th century and lasting into the second half of that same century. The rare word occurred in the phrase “today, tomorrow, and overmorrow.”

Cloudy, rainy morning, 46°, feels like 41° because of the 8 mp east wind, humidity is at 83%, pressure is at 30.06 inches, and visibility is 2 miles. Kind of a drab day. Pollen levels are at 4.9, which is regarded as medium. Marine report as follows: ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT...
Today Southeast wind 10 to 20 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Rain and slight chance of thunderstorms in the morning. Slight chance of rain in the afternoon. Waves 2 feet or less building to 2 to 3 feet in the morning.
Tonight Southeast wind 15 to 20 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Patchy fog. Chance of rain and slight chance of thunderstorms. Waves 2 to 3 feet.
Thursday West wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Partly sunny. Waves 2 to 3 feet.
Thursday Night Northwest wind 10 to 15 knots. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 to 3 feet. winds and waves higher in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

ON THIS DATE Jerry Lee Lewis drops a bombshell in London.

The arrival in the United Kingdom of one of the biggest figures in rock and roll was looked forward to with great anticipation in May of 1958. Nowhere in the world were the teenage fans of the raucous music coming out of America more enthusiastic than they were in England, and the coming tour of the great Jerry Lee Lewis promised to be a rousing success. “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls Of Fire” had both been massive hits in the UK, and early demand for tickets was great enough that 27 appearances were booked in what promised to be the biggest tour yet by an American rock-and-roll star. There was just one problem: Unbeknownst to the British public and the organizers of the coming tour, Jerry Lee Lewis would be traveling to England as a newly married man, with his pretty young wife in tow. Just how young that wife really was would be revealed on this day in 1958, when Jerry Lee “The Killer” Lewis arrived at Heathrow Airport with his new “child bride.”

It was an inquisitive reporter for the Daily Mail named Paul Tanfield who unwittingly broke the scandal when he inquired as to the identity of an especially young woman he’d spotted in the Killer’s entourage. “I’m Myra, Jerry’s wife,” said Myra Gail Lewis. Tanfield followed up with a question for the Killer himself: “And how old is Myra?” It was at this point that Jerry Lee must have cottoned to the fact that the rest of the world might take a somewhat skeptical view of his third marriage, because the answer he gave was a lie: “Fifteen.”

Myra Gail Lewis was actually only 13 years old, a fact that would soon come out along with certain other details, such as the fact that she was Jerry Lee’s first cousin (once removed) and that the pair had married five months before his divorce from his second wife was made official. Jerry Lee tried to set minds at ease on this last point—the second marriage was null and void, he explained, because it had taken place before his divorce from his first wife—but even the most skilled public-relations expert would have had a hard time spinning the unfolding story in Jerry Lee’s favor.

As the press hounded Jerry Lee and Myra Gail Lewis over the coming week, the Killer tried to go on with business as usual, but his first three shows drew meager audiences, and those that did buy tickets showered him with boos and catcalls. When the Rank chain of theaters cancelled the rest of his dates and his fashionable Mayfair hotel encouraged him to seek lodgings elsewhere, Jerry Lee Lewis left the UK, less than a week after his dramatic arrival on this day in 1958. Back home, he would face a blacklisting from which his career would never fully recover.

DID YOU KNOW THAT if you die in Amsterdam with no next of kin, and no friends or family to prepare funeral or mourn over the body, a poet will write a poem for you and recite it at your funeral.

WORD OF THE DAY self-possessed (SELF-puh-ZEST) which means having or showing control of one's feelings, behavior, etc.; composed; poised. The adjective self-possessed, which entered English in the mid-18th century, is a derivative of the earlier noun self-possession, which appeared a hundred years earlier.

Finally....sun and clear, blue skies! It's 42°, humidity is at 83%, wind is from the north at 2 mph, pressure is at 30.22 inches, and visibility is 9 miles. Pollen levels are medium-high at 9.1, while the top allergens are oak, mulberry, and birch. Marine report as follows:
Today Light winds becoming north 5 to 10 knots in the afternoon. Mostly clear. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight East wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Slight chance of showers. Waves 2 feet or less.
Wednesday Southeast wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Rain showers likely. Waves 2 to 3 feet.
Wednesday Night Southeast wind 15 to 20 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE in 2000, the bones of President James Garfield’s spine are on display for a final day at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. The exhibit featured medical oddities from the museum’s archives.

The British medical journal The Lancet published a story about the exhibit in May 2000. Among many other medical curiosities, the display featured President Garfield’s spinal column that showed exactly where one out of two assassin’s bullets had passed through it on July 2, 1881. The first bullet grazed Garfield’s arm. The second bullet lodged below his pancreas.

Alexander Graham Bell, who was one of Garfield’s physicians at the time, tried to use an early version of a metal detector to find the second bullet, but failed. Historical accounts vary slightly as to the exact cause of Garfield’s death. Physicians may have given him treatments that hastened his demise, including the administering of quinine, morphine, brandy and calomel; he was also fed through the rectum. Others insist Garfield died from an already advanced case of heart disease that the trauma of the shooting exacerbated. Autopsy reports described how pressure from the festering pancreatic wound created a fatal aneurism. Regardless, Garfield succumbed to complications from his wounds 80 days after being shot.

Garfield’s spine is not the only presidential body part to have been an item of interest at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. The museum also owns some of Lincoln’s skull fragments and President Eisenhower’s gallstones. A museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, keeps a tumor removed from President Grover Cleveland. John F. Kennedy’s brain, which was removed during his autopsy after his assassination in 1963, disappeared and has never been found.

DID YOU KNOW THAT in 2005, a fortune cookie company called Wonton Food Inc. correctly foretold lottery numbers, resulting in 110 winners and an investigation. No fraud was involved.

WORD OF THE DAY stellate (STEL-it, -eyt) which means like the form of a conventionalized figure of a star; star-shaped. Stellate comes straight from the Latin adjective stellātus, formed from the noun stella “star” and -ātus, a suffix that forms adjectives from nouns. The noun stella comes from an unrecorded stēr-lā or stēr-o-lā. Stēr- comes from a very widespread Proto-Indo-European root ster-, stēr- “star,” appearing in Sanskrit star-, Germanic (English) star. Greek preserves the most ancient form, astḗr, the a- being the remainder of a Proto-Indo-European laryngeal consonant. Stellate entered English at the end of the 15th century.

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Cloudy day again, 40°, feels like 33°, wind is from the NNW at 12 mph, humidity is at 95%, pressure is at 29.82 inches, and visibility is 6 miles. Pollen levels for today are medium-high at 7.9. Top allergens are oak, mulberry, and birch. Marine report as follows: ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING...
Today Northwest wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Areas of light rain and drizzle in the morning. Waves 2 to 4 feet.
Tonight Northwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly clear. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tuesday Northwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tuesday Night East wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE in 1873, San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: blue jeans.

In San Francisco, Strauss established a wholesale dry goods business under his own name and worked as the West Coast representative of his family’s firm. His new business imported clothing, fabric and other dry goods to sell in the small stores opening all over California and other Western states to supply the rapidly expanding communities of gold miners and other settlers. By 1866, Strauss had moved his company to expanded headquarters and was a well-known businessman and supporter of the Jewish community in San Francisco.

Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, was one of Levi Strauss’ regular customers. In 1872, he wrote a letter to Strauss about his method of making work pants with metal rivets on the stress points–at the corners of the pockets and the base of the button fly–to make them stronger. As Davis didn’t have the money for the necessary paperwork, he suggested that Strauss provide the funds and that the two men get the patent together. Strauss agreed enthusiastically, and the patent for “Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings”–the innovation that would produce blue jeans as we know them–was granted to both men on May 20, 1873.

Strauss brought Davis to San Francisco to oversee the first manufacturing facility for “waist overalls,” as the original jeans were known. At first they employed seamstresses working out of their homes, but by the 1880s, Strauss had opened his own factory. The famous 501 brand jean—known until 1890 as “XX”—was soon a bestseller, and the company grew quickly. By the 1920s, Levi’s denim waist overalls were the top-selling men’s work pant in the United States. As decades passed, the craze only grew, and now blue jeans are worn by men and women, young and old, around the world.

DID YOU KNOW THAT It took the creator of the Rubik’s Cube, Erno Rubik, one month to solve the cube after he created it; as of June 2018 the world record is 4.22 seconds.

WORD OF THE DAY scaturient (skuh-TOOR-ee-uhnt) which means gushing, overflowing. Scaturient is a very rare adjective meaning “bubbling up, gushing forth.” It comes from Latin scaturrient-, scāturient-, the participle stem of scaturriēns, scāturiēns, from the verb scaturrīre, scatūrīre. The Latin verbs are derivatives of scatēre, scatere “to gush violently”; the suffix -urīre is of obscure origin and usually forms desiderative verbs (verbs that express the desire to perform the action denoted by the underlying verb). The Latin root scat- is a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root skēt- “to jump, spring, hop,” source of Old Lithuanian skasti “to jump, spring,” and perhaps of English shad (the fish), from Old English sceadd. Scaturient entered English in the latter half of the 17th century.

Another cloudy day but at least Mother Nature is bundling them all together. We can only hope that next week will be all sun and blue skies. Right now I'm showing 43°, feels like 35° thanks to the ENE wind blowing at 17 mph. humidity is at 95%, pressure is at 29.8 inches, and visibility is at 10 miles. Pollen levels are low at 1 due to the rain. Top allergens are oak, mulberry, and birch. Marine report as follows: ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON...
Today East wind 15 to 25 knots with gusts to around 30 knots. Periods of showers and isolated thunderstorms. Waves 2 to 4 feet subsiding to 2 to 3 feet in the afternoon.
Tonight Southwest wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Chance of rain. Waves 4 to 6 feet.
Monday Northwest wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Partly sunny. Waves 4 to 6 feet.
Monday Night Northwest wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Mostly clear. Waves 2 feet or less. winds and waves higher in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

ON THIS DATE in 1935, T.E. Lawrence, known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia, dies as a retired Royal Air Force mechanic living under an assumed name. The legendary war hero, author, and archaeological scholar succumbed to injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident six days before.

Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in Tremadoc, Wales, in 1888. In 1896, his family moved to Oxford. Lawrence studied architecture and archaeology, for which he made a trip to Ottoman (Turkish)-controlled Syria and Palestine in 1909. In 1911, he won a fellowship to join an expedition excavating an ancient Hittite settlement on the Euphrates River. He worked there for three years and in his free time traveled and learned Arabic. In 1914, he explored the Sinai, near the frontier of Ottoman-controlled Arabia and British-controlled Egypt. The maps Lawrence and his associates made had immediate strategic value upon the outbreak of war between Britain and the Ottoman Empire in October 1914.

Lawrence enlisted in the war and because of his expertise in Arab affairs was assigned to Cairo as an intelligence officer. He spent more than a year in Egypt, processing intelligence information and in 1916 accompanied a British diplomat to Arabia, where Hussein ibn Ali, the emir of Mecca, had proclaimed a revolt against Turkish rule. Lawrence convinced his superiors to aid Hussein’s rebellion, and he was sent to join the Arabian army of Hussein’s son Faisal as a liaison officer.

Under Lawrence’s guidance, the Arabians launched an effective guerrilla war against the Turkish lines. He proved a gifted military strategist and was greatly admired by the Bedouin people of Arabia. In July 1917, Arabian forces captured Aqaba near the Sinai and joined the British march on Jerusalem. Lawrence was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In November, he was captured by the Turks while reconnoitering behind enemy lines in Arab dress and was tortured and sexually abused before escaping. He rejoined his army, which slowly worked its way north to Damascus, which fell in October 1918.

Arabia was liberated, but Lawrence’s hope that the peninsula would be united as a single nation was dashed when Arabian factionalism came to the fore after Damascus. Lawrence, exhausted and disillusioned, left for England. Feeling that Britain had exacerbated the rivalries between the Arabian groups, he appeared before King George V and politely refused the medals offered to him.

After the war, he lobbied hard for independence for Arab countries and appeared at the Paris peace conference in Arab robes. He became something of a legendary figure in his own lifetime, and in 1922 he gave up higher-paying appointments to enlist in the Royal Air Force (RAF) under an assumed name, John Hume Ross. He had just completed writing his monumental war memoir, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and he hoped to escape his fame and acquire material for a new book. Found out by the press, he was discharged, but in 1923 he managed to enlist as a private in the Royal Tanks Corps under another assumed name, T.E. Shaw, a reference to his friend, Irish writer George Bernard Shaw. In 1925, Lawrence rejoined the RAF and two years later legally changed his last name to Shaw.

In 1927, an abridged version of his memoir was published and generated tremendous publicity, but the press was unable to locate Lawrence (he was posted to a base in India). In 1929, he returned to England and spent the next six years writing and working as an RAF mechanic. In 1932, his English translation of Homer’s Odyssey was published under the name of T.E. Shaw. The Mint, a fictionalized account of Royal Air Force recruit training, was not published until 1955 because of its explicitness.

In February 1935, Lawrence was discharged from the RAF and returned to his simple cottage at Clouds Hill, Dorset. On May 13, he was critically injured while driving his motorcycle through the Dorset countryside. He had swerved to avoid two boys on bicycles. On May 19, he died at the hospital of his former RAF camp. All of Britain mourned his passing.

DID YOU KNOW THAT television was invented only two years after the invention of sliced bread?

WORD OF THE DAY buckram (BUHK-ruhm) which means stiffness of manner; extreme preciseness or formality. The noun buckram has gone through many meanings. In the 13th century it referred to a kind of fine linen or cotton cloth, as for ecclesiastic vestments. In the 15th century buckram referred to a thick, coarse linen or cotton cloth sized with glue or paste, as for stiffening clothing or binding books. By the second half of the 17th century, buckram extended the 15th-century meaning to “stiffness of manner, extreme formality.” The etymology of buckram is obscure: some authorities suggest that the word ultimately comes from Bukhara, Uzbekistan, which manufactured and exported the fine cloth. Buckram entered English in the 13th century.

Cloudy skies, 41°, feels like 36° due to the 9 mph wind from the ENE, there's a 70% chance for rain today, humidity is at 82%, pressure is at 30.02 inches, and visibility is 5 miles. Pollen levels are at 7 (medium) and top allergens are oak, mulberry and birch. Marine forecast as follows: ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM EDT THIS MORNING THROUGH SUNDAY AFTERNOON...
Today East wind 5 to 10 knots rising to 15 to 25 knots with gusts to around 30 knots in the afternoon. Chance of showers in the morning. Rain showers likely in the afternoon. Waves 2 feet or less building to 2 to 4 feet in the afternoon.
Tonight East wind 10 to 20 knots with gusts to around 30 knots. Patchy fog. Showers. Waves 2 to 4 feet.
Sunday East wind 15 to 20 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Rain showers. Waves 2 to 3 feet.
Sunday Night North wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Rain showers likely. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE in 1980, at 8:32 a.m. PDT, Mount St. Helens, a volcanic peak in southwestern Washington, suffers a massive eruption, killing 57 people and devastating some 210 square miles of wilderness.

Called Louwala-Clough, or “the Smoking Mountain,” by Native Americans, Mount St. Helens is located in the Cascade Range and stood 9,680 feet before its eruption. The volcano has erupted periodically during the last 4,500 years, and the last active period was between 1831 and 1857. On March 20, 1980, noticeable volcanic activity began again with a series of earth tremors centered on the ground just beneath the north flank of the mountain. These earthquakes escalated, and on March 27 a minor eruption occurred, and Mount St. Helens began emitting steam and ash through its crater and vents.

Small eruptions continued daily, and in April people familiar with the mountain noticed changes to the structure of its north face. A scientific study confirmed that a bulge more than a mile in diameter was moving upward and outward over the high north slope by as much as six feet per day. The bulge was caused by an intrusion of magma below the surface, and authorities began evacuating hundreds of people from the sparsely settled area near the mountain. A few people refused to leave.

On the morning of May 18, Mount St. Helens was shaken by an earthquake of about 5.0 magnitude, and the entire north side of the summit began to slide down the mountain. The giant landslide of rock and ice, one of the largest recorded in history, was followed and overtaken by an enormous explosion of steam and volcanic gases, which surged northward along the ground at high speed. The lateral blast stripped trees from most hill slopes within six miles of the volcano and leveled nearly all vegetation for as far as 12 miles away. Approximately 10 million trees were felled by the blast.

The landslide debris, liquefied by the violent explosion, surged down the mountain at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. The avalanche flooded Spirit Lake and roared down the valley of the Toutle River for a distance of 13 miles, burying the river to an average depth of 150 feet. Mudflows, pyroclastic flows, and floods added to the destruction, destroying roads, bridges, parks, and thousands more acres of forest. Simultaneous with the avalanche, a vertical eruption of gas and ash formed a mushrooming column over the volcano more than 12 miles high. Ash from the eruption fell on Northwest cities and towns like snow and drifted around the globe within two weeks. Fifty-seven people, thousands of animals, and millions of fish were killed by the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

By late in the afternoon of May 18, the eruption subsided, and by early the next day it had essentially ceased. Mount St. Helens’ volcanic cone was completely blasted away and replaced by a horseshoe-shaped crater–the mountain lost 1,700 feet from the eruption. The volcano produced five smaller explosive eruptions during the summer and fall of 1980 and remains active today. In 1982, Congress made Mount St. Helens a protected research area.

Mount St. Helens became active again in 2004. On March 8, 2005, a 36,000-foot plume of steam and ash was expelled from the mountain, accompanied by a minor earthquake. Though a new dome has been growing steadily near the top of the peak and small earthquakes are frequent, scientists do not expect a repeat of the 1980 catastrophe anytime soon.

DID YOU KNOW THAT even though Froot Loops are different colors, they all have exactly the same flavor.

WORD OF THE DAY jockey (JOK-ee) which means to manipulate cleverly or trickily. The verb jockey in its extended sense “to manipulate cleverly or trickily” comes from a noun sense “crafty bargainer, cheater,” from a still earlier sense “horse trader, horse dealer” (as if horse traders were untrustworthy). Jockey in its noun sense “a professional rider in horse races” entered English in the late 17th century.

Cloudy skies this morning, 40°, only a 10% chance of rain today, humidity is at 89%, wind is at 8 mph from the NW, feels like 34°, pressure is at 29.94 inches and visibility is 10 miles. Pollen levels for today are high at 9.8. Top allergens are oak, mulberry, and birch. Marine report as follows:
Today Northwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly cloudy then becoming mostly sunny in the morning. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight Northeast wind 5 to 10 knots. Chance of showers. Waves 2 feet or less.
Saturday East wind 15 to 20 knots with gusts to around 30 knots. Rain showers likely. Waves 2 feet or less.
Saturday Night East wind 10 to 20 knots with gusts to around 30 knots. Rain showers. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE in 1965, the FBI Laboratory weighs in on the “dirty” lyrics of “Louie Louie”.

Based on outcry from parents who bought into what may have started as an idle rumor, the FBI launched a formal investigation in 1964 into the supposedly pornographic lyrics of the song “Louie, Louie.” That investigation finally neared its conclusion on this day in 1965, when the FBI Laboratory declared the lyrics of “Louie Louie” to be officially unintelligible.

No one will ever know who started the rumor that “Louie Louie” was dirty. As written by Richard Berry in 1955, the lyrics revolve around a sailor from the Caribbean lamenting to a bartender named Louie about missing his far-away love. As recorded in crummy conditions and in a single take by the Kingsmen in 1963, lyrics like “A fine little girl, she wait for me…” came out sounding like “A phlg mlmrl hlurl, duh vvvr me” Perhaps it was some clever middle-schooler who started the rumor by trying to convince a classmate that those lyrics contained some words that are as unprintable today as they were back in 1963. Whatever the case, the story spread like wildfire, until the United States Department of Justice began receiving letters like the one addressed to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and dated January 30, 1964. “Who do you turn to when your teen age daughter buys and brings home pornographic or obscene materials being sold…in every City, Village and Record shop in this Nation?” that letter began, before going on to make the specific assertion that the lyrics of “Louie Louie” were “so filthy that I can-not enclose them in this letter.”

Over the course of the next two years, the FBI gathered many versions of the putative lyrics to Louie Louie. They interviewed the man who wrote the song and officials of the record label that released the Kingsmen’s smash-hit single. They turned the record over to the audio experts in the FBI laboratory, who played and re-played “Louie Louie” at 78 rpm, 45 rpm, 33 1/3 rpm and even slower speeds in an effort to determine whether it was pornographic and, therefore, whether its sale was a violation of the federal Interstate Transportation of Obscene Material law. “Unintelligible at any speed” was the conclusion the FBI Laboratory relayed to the investigators in charge on this day in 1965, not quite exonerating “Louie Louie,” but also not damning the tune that would go on to become one of the most-covered songs in rock-and-roll history.

DID YOU KNOW THAT Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was not a man in a suit, it was actually a giant puppet.

WORD OF THE DAY alameda (al-uh-MEY-duh) which means a public walk shaded with trees. It is hard to imagine a lovelier-sounding word than alameda. It is not a word in general American usage, but a regionalism in the American Southwest, a common noun meaning “a tree-shaded public walk.” Alameda comes directly from Spanish alameda “poplar grove,” formed from the noun álamo “poplar” (a noun of unknown etymology) and the noun suffix -eda, which regularly derives from the Latin noun suffix -ētum, denoting a place where plants are grown, e.g., arborētum “a place where trees are grown.” The placename and proper noun Alameda, a city in California east of San Francisco across the San Francisco Bay, was so named not by Spaniards or Mexicans, but by American settlers in a popular vote in 1853. Alameda entered English in the 18th century.

So, if you are alone in your household, you must have total income below $36,420 to qualify for this program.

If there are two in your household, your income must be below $49,380 to qualify for this program.

The three in the household is only included because it and many others were included in the chart accompanying the packet. Most seniors with only Social Security will definitely qualify, but if there is a retirement program, you may not qualify, so use your federal income tax return to find your gross income, and then compare it to the chart above. If you are even a little over, you will not qualify. These same income levels are used for many other programs in the CCCOA.

Cloudy skies this morning, 45°, there's a 20% chance of rain today. Wind is from the ESE at 11 mph, making it feel like 39°, pressure is at 29.84 inches, and visibility is 10 miles. Pollen levels are at 7.8 (medium-high). Top allergens are ash, birch, and maple. Marine report is as follows:
Today Southeast wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots becoming west with gusts to around 20 knots early in the evening. Chance of showers in the morning. Rain showers likely and slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight Northwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Slight chance of showers. Waves 2 feet or less.
Friday Northwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Friday Night Northeast wind 5 to 10 knots. Partly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less. winds and waves higher in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

ON THIS DATE in 1959, Berry Gordy started his first record label, Tamla Records, running it out of a house he purchased at 2648 West Grand Blvd. in Detroit, Michigan—a location better known as Hitsville, USA. Over the next three years, Tamla made its headquarters live up to its name, turning out a string of hit records that included “Money (That’s What I Want)” by Barrett Strong (1959), “Shop Around,” by The Miracles (1960) and “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes (1961)–which is why a young aspiring songwriter named Mary Wells was so excited to be offered a recording contract by Berry Gordy in 1962. The catch was that Gordy wanted to make a record with Wells and issue it on a brand new label that had no identity or reputation in the marketplace: Motown Records. Not really in a position to argue, she signed on as the fledgling label’s very first artist, and two years later, Mary Wells gave Motown its first #1 hit when “My Guy” reached the top of the Billboard pop chart on this day in 1964.

Shortly after signing Mary Wells, Berry Gordy transformed her from a songwriter to a performer of other writers’ material. In this capacity, she was one of the first singers in the Motown stable to record a song by the now-legendary Holland/Dozier/Holland songwriting team. That song, “You Lost the Sweetest Boy” (1963), featured the Supremes and the Temptations singing backup to Wells—an indication of where she stood in the Motown hierarchy at the time. It was the songs of Motown Vice President and chief Miracle William “Smokey” Robinson, however, which brought Wells her greatest successes. In 1962, Wells earned her first and Motown’s first top 10 hits with the Robinson-penned “The One Who Really Loves Me,” “You Beat Me To The Punch” and “Two Lovers.” And then in 1964, she earned her first #1 with Robinson’s “My Guy.”

Motown Records would go on to release another 32 #1 hits in the next 10 years, but “My Guy” would be the last solo hit for Mary Wells, on Motown or any other label. Three days before “My Guy” topped the charts, Wells celebrated her 21st birthday by exercising her right to opt out of her Motown contract. At what would prove to be the peak of her career, Mary Wells became the first significant artist to leave Motown Records, signing a large contract with 20th Century Fox Records. Only one record Wells made at her new label—1964’s “Use Your Head”—managed to crack the Billboard top 40.

Mary Wells, who gave Motown its first #1 hit on this day in 1964, died of throat cancer at the age of 49 on July 26, 1992.

DID YOU KNOW THAT the process by which bread toasts is called the ‘Maillard Reaction’.

WORD OF THE DAY whataboutism (hwuht-uh-BOU-tiz-uhm) which means a conversational tactic in which a person responds to an argument or attack by changing the subject to focus on someone else’s misconduct, implying that all criticism is invalid because no one is completely blameless. Whataboutism is a transparent formation of the phrase “What about…?” used to form objections in an argument, and the noun suffix -ism. Whataboutism entered English in the second half of the 20th century.

I'm getting darn good at this sleeping in thingy. Cloudy skies this morning, 45°, humidity is at 83%, wind is from the NNE, pressure is 29.97 inches, and visibility is 10 miles. Pollen levels are at high, 9.8, for today. Marine forecast is as follows:
Today Light winds becoming southwest 5 to 10 knots. Sunny. waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight Southwest wind 10 to 15 knots. Chance of showers. Waves 2 feet or less.
Wednesday West wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Wednesday Night Northeast wind 5 to 10 knots. Partly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE in 1861, William Fetterman joins the U.S. Army.

William Fetterman, who will later lead 80 of his soldiers to their deaths at the hands of the Sioux, joins the Union Army.

By all accounts, Fetterman was a born fighting man. During the Civil War he served with distinction and received at least two battlefield promotions in recognition of his gallantry. Like his better-known comrade George Custer, Fetterman emerged from the Civil War with an unwavering confidence in himself and his military abilities. Moreover, like Custer, his overconfidence eventually proved to be his undoing.

After the Civil War, Fetterman was assigned to Fort Phil Kearny in northern Wyoming. Phil Kearny was the most important of a series of forts that the U.S. Army constructed to defend the Bozeman Trail, a wagon road that branched northwest from the Oregon Trail to the gold fields of Virginia City, Montana. The route violated Sioux hunting grounds, and Sioux warriors under Chief Red Cloud attacked travelers and soldiers alike in protest.

Fort Phil Kearny was an impressive compound nearly the size of three football fields. The tall wooden stockade around the fort made it nearly impregnable to Indian attack, but the stockade also proved to be the fort’s Achilles’ heel. In order to maintain the 2800-foot wooden stockade and provide firewood for the bitter Wyoming winters, soldiers traveled several miles from the fort to reach the nearest forests. Frequently, small bands of Sioux attacked the group of soldiers assigned to the “wood train,” though casualties had not yet been severe. When attacked, the soldiers quickly took up a strong defensive position behind their circled wagons. The sound of shots alerted the fort of an attack, and the Sioux fled as soon as rescue squads arrived.

Soon after Captain Fetterman arrived at the fort in November 1866, he began to argue for troops to pursue and wipe out the Indians who attacked the wood trains. Though he had no significant experience fighting Indians, he regarded them as contemptuous cowards who would be no match for well-trained American troops. He often boasted that with 80 men he could travel through the heart of the Sioux Nation with impunity. Fetterman began openly ridiculing the commander of the fort, Colonel Henry Carrington, for failing to chase down and destroy the Sioux. Carrington, however, had come to suspect the Sioux attacks were only feints designed to lure the larger rescue squad into an ambush and he forbade his officers to pursue the fleeing Indians.

Impetuous and overconfident, Fetterman dismissed Carrington’s fears. On December 21, 1866, a small band of Indians again attacked the wood train. Carrington ordered Fetterman and 80 soldiers to its relief, but historians dispute whether Carrington explicitly ordered Fetterman not to pursue the Indians that day. Fetterman and his men chased after the Indians, failing to notice that they seemed to be fleeing with a deliberate slowness. The decoys-one of whom was a young brave named Crazy Horse-led the soldiers straight into an ambush of almost 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe warriors. Fetterman and all of his soldiers were dead within 40 minutes.

The Fetterman Massacre, as it came to be called, was the worst disaster suffered by the U.S. Army in the Plains Indian War until the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.

DID YOU KNOW THAT the stage before frostbite is called "frostnip".

WORD OF THE DAY expatiate (ik-SPEY-shee-eyt) which means to move or wander about intellectually, imaginatively, etc., without restraint. The English verb expatiate comes from Latin expatiātus, exspatiātus, past participle of expatiārī, exspatiārī “to move, run, or flow away beyond bounds, spread out,” a compound of the prefix ex- “out of, throughout” and the verb spatiārī “to walk about leisurely, stroll” (and the source of German spazieren “to take a walk, stroll”). Spatiārī is a derivative of the noun spatium “expanse of ground, area, space, racetrack, playing field, act (of a play).” Expatiate entered English in the 16th century.

It is with a heavy heart the Historical Society must share the sad news that Antje Price passed away on April 23, 2019. Antje was born May 30, 1922 in Kiel Germany and passed on April 23, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A memorial and a Cayuga Lake Shore family gathering will be on June 1, 2019 and burial will be in the Forest Hill Cemetery in Ann Arbor.

If you would like to mail a card to her sister:

Liese Bronfenbrenner
213 Savage Farm Drive
Ithaca, NY 14850-6501

Cloudy skies this morning, 45°, humidity is at 66%, wind is from the NNW at 2 mph, pressure is 29.94 inches, and visibility is 10 miles. Pollen levels for today are medium-high at 8.9. Top allergens are ash, birch, and maple. Marine forecast:
Today Northeast wind 5 to 10 knots becoming west in the afternoon. Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming mostly sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight Light winds. Mostly clear. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tuesday Southwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tuesday Night Southwest wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Chance of showers. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE in 1975, the inventor of western swing dies.

Bob Wills, one of the most influential musicians in the history of country-western music, is born on a small farm near Kosse, Texas.

Born James Robert Wills in 1905, he was trained to be a musician from an early age. His father was a champion fiddle player, and he began giving Wills lessons as soon as the boy could hold the instrument. By the time he was 10, Wills was a skilled fiddler and a competent guitar and mandolin player.

Wills left home at 16 and worked various jobs, like picking cotton and preaching. He eventually joined a traveling medicine show, where he played fiddle and met Herman Arnspiger, a Texas farm boy who had learned to play guitar from a Sears catalog guitar book. The pair began playing at dances and parties around Fort Worth, and after adding a singer, won a regular radio gig performing as the Light Crust Doughboys.

In 1933, the group separated and Wills formed the band that would make him famous: Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. With the Playboys, Wills perfected his hard-driving country-western sound, which drew heavily on the rhythms of the popular jazz-swing bands of the era. Wills’ fiddle playing sounded nothing like the traditional folk music he had heard as a child. By using strong beats and syncopation, he produced a sound that seemed to cry out for dancing.

Wills eventually added drums, brass, and woodwinds to the Texas Playboys, making himself into a country-western bandleader in the style of Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw. Several of his bands were as large as 22 pieces, and Wills worked with more than 600 musicians in his long career. In 1940, Wills took some of the Playboys to Hollywood, where the band appeared in a number of western movies that won them a nationwide following. Among their many hits were highly danceable tunes like, “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” “Bubbles in My Beer,” and the ever popular “San Antonio Rose.” All told, Wills has sold more than 20 million records to date.

Many critics have argued Wills and the Texas Playboys had a greater influence on the sounds of country-western music than any other performer or group. In recognition of his achievements, Wills was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968. He believed his chances of winning were so slim he was backstage chatting with friends when the award was announced. When he was finally tracked down and brought on stage, he said, “I don’t usually take my hat off to nobody. But I sure do to you folks.”

Stricken by a series of severe strokes, he died seven years later at the age of 70.

DID YOU KNOW THAT A duel between three people is actually called a truel.

WORD OF THE DAY JOMO (JOH-moh) which means a feeling of contentment with one’s own pursuits and activities, without worrying over the possibility of missing out on what others may be doing. JOMO, the acronym for “the joy of missing out,” and its opposite, FOMO “the fear of missing out,” both entered English around the same time, in the early years of the 21st century.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's, especially to mine. We are so blessed to have you as our mother, Lil Gregg!

It's a beautiful day to celebrate Mother's Day. Sunny skies, 39°, humidity is at 81%, wind is from the ENE at 7 mph making it feel like 34°, pressure is at 30 inches, and visibility is 10 miles. Pollen levels for today at medium-high at 9.1. Top allergens are ash, birch, and maple. Marine report as follows:
Today Northeast wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight Northeast wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.
Monday North wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Monday Night Light winds. Mostly clear. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE Bob Dylan would be known to millions who watched or witnessed his performances at the March on Washington, and millions more who did not know Dylan himself would know and love his music thanks to Peter, Paul and Mary’s smash-hit cover version of “Blowin’ In The Wind.” But back in May, Dylan was still just another aspiring musician with a passionate niche following but no national profile whatsoever. His second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, had not yet been released, but he had secured what would surely be his big break with an invitation to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. That appearance never happened. On May 12, 1963, the young and unknown Bob Dylan walked off the set of the country’s highest-rated variety show after network censors rejected the song he planned on performing.

The song that caused the flap was “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues,” a satirical talking-blues number skewering the ultra-conservative John Birch Society and its tendency to see covert members of an international Communist conspiracy behind every tree. Dylan had auditioned “John Birch” days earlier and had run through it for Ed Sullivan himself without any concern being raised. But during dress rehearsal on the day of the show, an executive from the CBS Standards and Practices department informed the show’s producers that they could not allow Dylan to go forward singing “John Birch.” While many of the song’s lyrics about hunting down “reds” were merely humorous—”Looked up my chimney hole/Looked down deep inside my toilet bowl/They got away!“—others that equated the John Birch Society’s views with those of Adolf Hitler raised the fear of a defamation lawsuit in the minds of CBS’s lawyers. Rather than choose a new number to perform or change his song’s lyrics—as the Rolling Stones and the Doors would famously do in the years to come—Dylan stormed off the set in angry protest.

Or so goes the legend that helped establish Dylan’s public reputation as an artist of uncompromising integrity. In reality, Bob Dylan was polite and respectful in declining to accede to the network’s wishes. “I explained the situation to Bob and asked him if he wanted to do something else,” recalls Ed Sullivan Show producer Bob Precht, “and Bob, quite appropriately, said ‘No, this is what I want to do. If I can’t play my song, I’d rather not appear on the show.'” It hardly mattered whether Dylan’s alleged tantrum was fact or reality. The story got widespread media attention in the days that followed, causing Ed Sullivan himself to denounce the network’s decision in published interviews. In the end, however, the free publicity Bob Dylan received may have done more for his career than his abortive national-television appearance scheduled for this day in 1963 ever could have.

DID YOU KNOW THAT Mr Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on TV?

WORD OF THE DAY mother wit (MUHTH-er wit) which means natural or practical intelligence, wit, or sense. Mother knows best, as they say. In mother wit, the word mother means "innate, inborn." Wit comes from a very widespread Proto-Indo-European root weid-, woid-, wid- “to see, know.” This root appears in Latin vidēre “to see,” Sanskrit veda “knowledge,” Greek ideîn (and dialect wideîn) “to know” (literally “to have seen”), Slavic (Czech) vědět “to know” and vidět “to see.” From wid- Germanic (Old English) has the verb witan “to know.” In Old English the first and third person singular form was wāt “I know; he/she/it knows,” which survives today as the obsolete word wot (“God wot”). Mother wit entered English in the 15th century.

I survived 3 extractions, two implants, two bone graphs, and feel like I was kicked in the jaw by a mule. Many, many thanks to Chris Heikka for going with me as the designated driver. Now for a soft diet for a few weeks - lucky me.

It's a mostly sunny day, 36°, humidity is at 100%, wind is from the SE at 5 mph making it feel like 32°,pressure is at 30.19 inches, and visibility is 9 miles. Pollen levels for today at medium-high at 9.1. Top allergens are ash, birch, and maple.
Marine forecast is as follows:
Today Light and variable winds becoming onshore 5 to 10 knots in the afternoon. Sunny early in the morning then becoming mostly sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight East wind 5 to 10 knots. Partly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.
Sunday East wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Mostly sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Sunday Night Northeast wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE in 1934, a massive storm sends millions of tons of topsoil flying from across the parched Great Plains region of the United States as far east as New York, Boston and Atlanta.

At the time the Great Plains were settled in the mid-1800s, the land was covered by prairie grass, which held moisture in the earth and kept most of the soil from blowing away even during dry spells. By the early 20th century, however, farmers had plowed under much of the grass to create fields. The U.S. entry into World War I in 1917 caused a great need for wheat, and farms began to push their fields to the limit, plowing under more and more grassland with the newly invented tractor. The plowing continued after the war, when the introduction of even more powerful gasoline tractors sped up the process. During the 1920s, wheat production increased by 300 percent, causing a glut in the market by 1931.

That year, a severe drought spread across the region. As crops died, wind began to carry dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed lands. The number of dust storms reported jumped from 14 in 1932 to 28 in 1933. The following year, the storms decreased in frequency but increased in intensity, culminating in the most severe storm yet in May 1934. Over a period of two days, high-level winds caught and carried some 350 million tons of silt all the way from the northern Great Plains to the eastern seaboard. According to The New York Times, dust “lodged itself in the eyes and throats of weeping and coughing New Yorkers,” and even ships some 300 miles offshore saw dust collect on their decks.

The dust storms forced thousands of families from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico to uproot and migrate to California, where they were derisively known as “Okies”–no matter which state they were from. These transplants found life out West not much easier than what they had left, as work was scarce and pay meager during the worst years of the Great Depression.

Another massive storm on April 15, 1935–known as “Black Sunday”–brought even more attention to the desperate situation in the Great Plains region, which reporter Robert Geiger called the “Dust Bowl.” That year, as part of its New Deal program, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration began to enforce federal regulation of farming methods, including crop rotation, grass-seeding and new plowing methods. This worked to a point, reducing dust storms by up to 65 percent, but only the end of the drought in the fall of 1939 would truly bring relief.

DID YOU KNOW THAT the name for the shape of Pringles is called a ‘Hyperbolic Paraboloid’.

WORD OF THE DAY motte (mot) a grove or clump of trees in prairie land or open country. Motte is a word that may cause food fights in reference libraries among etymologists. Motte, “a grove or stand of trees in prairie land or open country,” is a regionalism in the American Southwest, especially in Texas. The origin of motte may be from Mexican Spanish mata, from European Spanish mata “grove, plantation,” and perhaps from Late Latin matta, source of English mat. Other authorities say that motte is not a borrowing from Spanish but from French motte “hillock, mound” (English moat), related to Medieval Latin mota “hill, mound, fortified height” (further etymology is speculative). Motte entered English in the 19th century.

The Historical Society has several openings to fill:

Administrative Assistant : June- Mid August. Application closing date is May 24, 2019. This is a PAID POSITION.
Duties:
1. Assist with Museum Scheduling
2. Process Deposits
• Count or verify daily cash drawers and prepare and make deposits
3. Maintain Membership Database
• Enter dues and donations in Past Perfect
4. Maintain Files
• File loose papers
5. Marketing:
• Newsletter / Web site
• Write 3 blogs: June, July, August covering: Museum Week, Water/Ways, Music (Baroque & Summer wrap up)
6. Inventory:
• Stock, Sticker, and Organize Inventory
7. Assist Museum Staff as needed

VOLUNTEERS are needed in both museums and for other projects.

The Museums will be open for the weekends beginning Memorial Day weekend and will resume daily hours for the season on Fathers Day, June 16, 2019. We will have orientation on Friday, June 14 (time and date will be announced later.) No one is turned away from volunteering. This is also a great opportunity for our students to get some work experience! Please call Lori at the Print Shop #2254.

We have 4 shifts to fill on a weekly basis. The museum shifts are 11-2, 2-5 Monday - Saturday and 1-4 on Sundays. If you only have a couple of days a month to volunteer we still need you! We are looking forward to a great summer of greeting our visitors with friendly conversations, making new friends, and hope to include you too! I am including a short story submitted for our Fall 2018 newsletter.

The Unexpected Joys of Volunteering - by Tracy Paquin, BIHS Museum Docent

I began volunteering at both museums 3 years ago. I've always enjoyed history and thought greeting museum visitors would be 'interesting'. I quickly realized that it's beyond interesting--it's exciting and rewarding.
Museum visitors are often blown away by the museums' artifacts, photos and stories. We average 300 visitors a week at both museums and most stay at least 20 minutes and a stay of an hour is not uncommon. We volunteers hear "very impressive", "what a gem" and "I'm amazed at what's here". Many visitors come to the museums every time they visit the island and appreciate the new exhibits every year.

Another reason volunteering is so much fun is how interested the visitors are in us and our life on the island. Sometimes they are as taken with us as they are with the Native American artifacts, King Strang's Bible or the lifeboat from the Bradley. They ask questions we're all used to--how we get groceries in the winter, how many in our school and where we go for healthcare. Most volunteers know or are related to the families who are showcased in the museums.

Our visitors are fascinating, too! I've met mariners on the Great Loop traveling a continuous waterway for over a year exploring the Eastern U.S. It's thrilling to talk with first time visitors to Beaver from Brazil, Ireland, or Greece. Some visitors become friends and accept invitations to dinner or to our August Bocci Ball Tournament.

Volunteering is open to anyone--lifetime resident or short-term vacationer. Our 20+ volunteers are appreciated and always enjoy the annual Volunteer Recognition Party.

Thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes. They were overwhelming and I wasn't able to respond to each one, but know I did read them. I'm so blessed that you all are a part of my life. Thank you again.

Ok, today I'm headed to the mainland for some oral surgery. I'm expecting to be home on the 5:30 flight (weather permitting) however, I don't know how I'll be feeling tomorrow morning so it may be Joe doing my post or it just won't get done.

Cloudy skies this morning, 36°, wind is from the WNW at 12 mph making it feel like 27°, humidity is at 88%, pressure is at 29.93 inches, and visibility is 10 miles. Pollen levels are at 9.3 which is medium-high. Top allergens are ash, birch, and maple. Marine forecast as follows: ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM EDT THIS AFTERNOON...
Today West wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Cloudy in the morning then becoming mostly sunny. Waves 2 to 3 feet.
Tonight Southwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Partly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.
Saturday West wind 5 to 10 knots. Sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Saturday Night East wind 5 to 10 knots. Partly cloudy. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE in 1869, the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history. No longer would western-bound travelers need to take the long and dangerous journey by wagon train, and the West would surely lose some of its wild charm with the new connection to the civilized East.

Since at least 1832, both Eastern and frontier statesmen realized a need to connect the two coasts. It was not until 1853, though, that Congress appropriated funds to survey several routes for the transcontinental railroad. The actual building of the railroad would have to wait even longer, as North-South tensions prevented Congress from reaching an agreement on where the line would begin.

One year into the Civil War, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act (1862), guaranteeing public land grants and loans to the two railroads it chose to build the transcontinental line, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. With these in hand, the railroads began work in 1866 from Omaha and Sacramento, forging a northern route across the country. In their eagerness for land, the two lines built right past each other, and the final meeting place had to be renegotiated.

Harsh winters, staggering summer heat, Indian raids and the lawless, rough-and-tumble conditions of newly settled western towns made conditions for the Union Pacific laborers–mainly Civil War veterans of Irish descent–miserable. The overwhelmingly immigrant Chinese work force of the Central Pacific also had its fair share of problems, including brutal 12-hour work days laying tracks over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. On more than one occasion, whole crews would be lost to avalanches, or mishaps with explosives would leave several dead.

For all the adversity they suffered, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific workers were able to finish the railroad–laying nearly 2,000 miles of track–by 1869, ahead of schedule and under budget. Journeys that had taken months by wagon train or weeks by boat now took only days. Their work had an immediate impact: The years following the construction of the railway were years of rapid growth and expansion for the United States, due in large part to the speed and ease of travel that the railroad provided.

DID YOU KNOW THAT the medical name for a butt crack is “intergluteal cleft”?

WORD OF THE DAY popinjay (POP-in-jey) which means a person given to vain, pretentious displays and empty chatter. The many spellings of popinjay, e.g., papejay, popingay, papinjai in Middle English, in medieval Romance languages, and in medieval Germanic languages, demonstrate the foreign, exotic origin of the term, let alone the bird. The English change of the final syllable from -gay to -jay may be by folk etymology, through association with the jay, the name of several kinds of raucous, lively birds of the crow family. Medieval Latin has papagallus, whose first half, papa-, may be imitative of the bird’s cry; the second half, gallus, is the ordinary Latin noun for “rooster, cock.” Papagallus comes from medieval Greek papagállos, itself a derivative of papagás, from Arabic babghā’, babbaghā’, which is imitative of the bird’s cry. Popinjay entered English in the 13th century in the now obsolete sense of a picture or representation of a parrot (as on a tapestry).

Rainy and windy...that's the forecast for today. Right now it's 40° but feels like 30° thanks to the east wind at 18 mph, humidity is at 93%, pressure is at 29.79 inches and visibility is 2 miles. Pollen levels are low at 1. The top allergens are ash, birch, and maple. Marine forecast is as follows: ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON...
Today East wind 15 to 25 knots with gusts to around 30 knots becoming southeast 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots in the afternoon, then becoming southwest 5 to 10 knots early in the evening. Rain in the morning, then chance of rain in the afternoon. Waves 3 to 5 feet subsiding to 2 to 3 feet in the afternoon.
Tonight West wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Slight chance of rain. Waves 2 to 4 feet.
Friday West wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Mostly cloudy. Waves 2 to 4 feet.
Friday Night Southwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly clear. Waves 2 feet or less.

ON THIS DATE in 1671, in London, Thomas Blood, an Irish adventurer better known as “Captain Blood,” is captured attempting to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

Blood, a Parliamentarian during the English Civil War, was deprived of his estate in Ireland with the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. In 1663, he put himself at the head of a plot to seize Dublin Castle from supporters of King Charles II, but the plot was discovered and his accomplices executed. He escaped capture. In 1671, he hatched a bizarre plan to steal the new Crown Jewels, which had been refashioned by Charles II because most of the original jewels were melted down after Charles I’s execution in 1649.

On May 9, 1671, Blood, disguised as a priest, managed to convince the Jewel House keeper to hand over his pistols. Blood’s three accomplices then emerged from the shadows, and together they forced their way into the Jewel House. However, they were caught in the act when the keeper’s son showed up unexpectedly, and an alarm went out to the Tower guard. One man shoved the Royal Orb down his breeches while Blood flattened the Crown with a mallet and tried to run off with it. The Tower guards apprehended and arrested all four of the perpetrators, and Blood was brought before the king. Charles was so impressed with Blood’s audacity that, far from punishing him, he restored his estates in Ireland and made him a member of his court with an annual pension.

Captain Blood became a colorful celebrity all across the kingdom, and when he died in 1680 his body had to be exhumed in order to persuade the public that he was actually dead.

DID YOU KNOW THAT Donkey Kong got his name because his creator believed ‘donkey’ meant ‘stupid’ in English and wanted to convey the impression that the character was a “Stupid Ape”.

WORD OF THE DAY perspicacity (pur-spi-KAS-i-tee) which means keenness of mental perception and understanding; discernment; penetration. Perspicacity ultimately comes from the Late Latin noun perspicācitās (inflectional stem perspicācitāt-) “sharp-sightedness, discernment,” a derivative of the Latin adjective perspicāx (inflectional stem perspicāc-) “sharp-sighted, penetrating, acute.” Perspicāx is a derivative of the verb perspicere “to inspect thoroughly, examine, look through, see through.” The prefix per- here is both literal (“to see or look through”) and intensive (“to examine thoroughly”). The combining form -spicere comes from specere “to see, observe, keep an eye on,” a Latin derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root spek-, spok- “look at closely, examine.” Greek metathesizes the root to skep- and skop- (as in the English derivatives skeptic and horoscope). The Germanic form of the root, speh-, is the source of English spy and espionage. Perspicacity entered English in the 16th century.

Rain is predicted for today, but at the present time it's sunny, 31°, feels like 27°, humidity is at 93%, wind is from the NNE at 4 mph, pressure is at 30.38 inches, and visibility is 10 miles. Pollen levels are at medium-high at 8.3. Top allergens are ash, birch, and maple. Marine report:
...GALE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH DAYBREAK THURSDAY MORNING...
Today East wind 10 to 20 knots with gusts to around 25 knots. Areas of frost early in the morning. Chance of showers in the afternoon. Waves 2 feet or less building to 2 to 3 feet in the afternoon.
Tonight East wind up to 30 knots with gusts to around 35 knots. Rain showers. Waves 4 to 6 feet.
Thursday Southeast wind 20 to 25 knots with gusts to around 30 knots. Rain showers likely. Waves 2 to 4 feet.
Thursday Night Northwest wind 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Chance of showers. Waves 2 to 3 feet.

ON THIS DATE in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.

The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark–the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany.

The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender.

Meanwhile, more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.

Pockets of German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next day. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the ninth in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself: “The age-long struggle of the Slav nations…has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over.”

DID YOU KNOW THAT there is a basketball court on the top floor of the U.S. Supreme Court Building. It’s nickname? You guessed it: “the highest court in the land.”

WORD OF THE DAY blossom (BLOS-uhm) which means to flourish; develop. Blossom in both the noun and the verb senses dates back to Old English. The Old English verb blōstmian “to bloom, blossom, effloresce” is a derivative of the noun blōstm, blōstma, blōsma “blossom, flower.” The English words blossom, bloom, and blow (“a yield or display of blossoms”) are all Germanic derivatives of the Proto-Indo-European root bhel-, bhlē-, bhlō- (and other variants) “to thrive, bloom.” In Latin the root appears in flōs (inflectional stem flōr-) “flower“ (which via Old French yields English flower, flour, and flourish). English florescent comes straight from Latin flōrescent-, the inflectional stem of flōrescēns, the present participle of flōrescere “to come into bloom.” Other English derivatives from Latin include floral and folium “leaf,” which becomes, again through Old French, English foil. Greek has the noun phýllon “leaf,” whose most common English derivative is probably chlorophyll.

Beautiful morning although a bit chilly. 37°, wind is from the north at 7 mph so it feels like 31°, humidity is at 79%, pressure is at 30.33 inches, and visibility is 10 miles. Pollen levels are listed as high at 10.1. Top allergens are ash, birch, and maple. The marine forecast is as follows:
Today Northwest wind 5 to 10 knots. Partly cloudy early in the morning then becoming sunny. Waves 2 feet or less.
Tonight Northeast wind 5 to 10 knots. Mostly clear. Waves 2 feet or less.
Wednesday East wind 15 to 20 knots with gusts to around 30 knots. Rain likely. Waves 2 feet or less.
Wednesday Night East wind 15 to 25 knots with gusts to around 30 knots. Rain showers. Waves 2 to 4 feet.

ON THIS DATE in 1763, Pontiac’s Rebellion begins when a confederacy of Native American warriors under Ottawa chief Pontiac attacks the British force at Detroit. After failing to take the fort in their initial assault, Pontiac’s forces, made up of Ottawas and reinforced by Wyandots, Ojibwas, and Potawatamis, initiated a siege that would stretch into months.

As the French and Indian Wars came to an end in the early 1760s, Native Americans living in former French territory found the new British authorities to be far less conciliatory than their predecessors. In 1762, Pontiac enlisted support from practically every Indian tribe from Lake Superior to the lower Mississippi for a joint campaign to expel the British from the formerly French lands. According to Pontiac’s plan, each tribe would seize the nearest fort and then join forces to wipe out the undefended settlements.

In April, Pontiac convened a war council on the banks of the Ecorse River near Detroit. It was decided that Pontiac and his warriors would gain access to the British fort at Detroit under the pretense of negotiating a peace treaty, giving them an opportunity to seize forcibly the arsenal there. However, British Major Henry Gladwin learned of the plot, and the British were ready when Pontiac arrived in early May, and Pontiac was forced to begin a siege. At the same time, his allies in Pennsylvania began a siege of Fort Pitt, while other sympathetic tribes, such as the Delaware, the Shawnees, and the Seneca, prepared to move against various British forts and outposts in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

On July 31, a British relief expedition attacked Pontiac’s camp but suffered heavy losses and were repelled in the Battle of Bloody Run. Nevertheless, they had succeeded in providing the fort at Detroit with reinforcements and supplies, which allowed it to hold out against the Indians into the fall. The major forts at Pitt and Niagara likewise held on, but the united tribes captured eight other fortified posts. At these forts, the garrisons were wiped out, relief expeditions were repulsed, and nearby frontier settlements were destroyed.

In the spring of 1764, two British armies were sent out, one into Pennsylvania and Ohio under Colonel Bouquet, and the other to the Great Lakes under Colonel John Bradstreet. Bouquet’s campaign met with success, and the Delawares and the Shawnees were forced to sue for peace, breaking Pontiac’s alliance. Failing to persuade tribes in the West to join his rebellion, and lacking the hoped-for support from the French, Pontiac finally signed a treaty with the British in 1766. In 1769, he was murdered by a Peoria Indian while visiting Illinois. His death led to bitter warfare among the tribes, and the Peorias were nearly wiped out.

DID YOU KNOW THAT in Indiana, it's illegal to attend a public event or use public transport within 4 hours of eating an onions or garlic.

WORD OF THE DAY camp (kamp) which means something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, or self-consciously artificial and extravagant. Many explanations have been offered, but the etymology of camp "something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, or self-consciously artificial and extravagant" remains obscure. The term entered English in the early 1900s.