Today in history, greetings, and social banter here. (More)
The Praetorian Guard revolted, assassinating Roman Emperor Elagabalus and his mother Julia Soaemias and throwing their bodies in the Tiber, today (222). Also, The Daily Courant premiered as England’s first daily newspaper (1702), Anne withheld royal assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoed an act of Parliament (1708), the Treaty of Mangalore ended the Second Anglo-Mysore War (1784), the U.S. War Department established the Bureau of Indian Affairs (1824), Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin were elected Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada, the first government responsible to the Canadian Parliament rather than to the British Governor-General (1848), Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto premiered (1851), 238 people died in the Great Sheffield Flood after the Dale Dyke Dam broke near Sheffield, England (1864), Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos premiered (1867), construction began on the Seven Sisters Colliery in South Wales (1872), the Ryukyu Kingdom ended with the abdication of Shō Tai on orders from Tokyo (1879), 400 people would die over 4 days, including 200 in New York City alone, as the Great Blizzard struck the northeastern U.S. (1888), Samuel Roxy Rothafel opened New York City’s Roxy Theatre (1927), the ambassadors from Egypt, Iran, and Pakistan joined the negotiations that led to the release of 130 hostages, ending the Hanafi Siege of three buildings in Washington, D.C. (1977), 48 people were killed when gunmen attacked a bus on Israel’s Coastal Highway (1978), Lithuania declared independence, on the same day Patricio Aylwin was inaugurated as Chile’s first democratically-elected president in two decades (1990), the Senate confirmed Janet Reno to be the first female U.S. Attorney General (1993), Infosys became the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ exchange (1999), 191 people were killed as 10 bombs exploded aboard 4 commuter trains during Madrid’s morning rush hour (2004), Michelle Bachelet was inaugurated as first female president of Chile (2006), 13 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a school in Winnenden, Germany, and 3 more including the gunman died in his shootout with police in the nearby town of Wendlingen (2009), 1 person died as a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck Pichilemu, Chile during the inauguration of Chilean President Sebastián Piñera in Santiago (2010), and 15,884 people died as a magnitude 9 earthquake off the coast of Tōhoku triggered a massive tsunami that also flooded the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (2011). And 16 civilians were murdered by U.S. Army staff sergeant in the Panjwayi District of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan (2012).
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Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Yesterday on Campus
Morning Feature – Pennae volatus? (Meta Monday)
Things We Did This Week – Share your stories of offline political activism!
Midday Matinee – addisnana with Toilet Paper
Campus Question – Is Sen. Ted Cruz’s promise to repeal the ACA a conservative pipe dream?
Today on Campus
Morning Feature – The Squirrel with Shouting in an Empty Room?
Noontime News at noon ET
Midday Matinee – Tuesday’s Tale: The Genius Car
Campus Question at 6pm ET
Our Earth at 8pm ET – Malaria Rising Owing to Climate Change
Good morning! It’s currently a cloudy 29 degrees here, with about a half-inch of new snow. That should melt today with a high predicted of almost 40. Unfortunately, later on today, and starting tomorrow, we’re predicted to get a blizzard. 😥 After that, the temps will drop below zero on Thursday, with a warming spell returning for Saturday.
For all the fans of Cosmos, here’s a really cute reaction:
Checked out Cosmos last night; glad I read about it here at BPI. Very hard to wrap my head around the vastness.
Cosmos host Neil De Grasse-Tyson also had some interesting comments for politicians who ignore climate change science:
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Good Morning. I stopped at a roadside stand over the weekend. They were selling strawberries and tomatoes. Both were absolutely outstanding! John Denver had a song about homegrown tomatoes. If I could’ve remembered the words I would have been singing it. These tomatoes were so much better than the ones in the grocery store I can’t begin to explain it. Yea for Plant City where these were grown. 🙂
Norbrook. I was watching the weather channel talking about your possible storm on Wed. Are you in the blob for 12″ or the darker blob with 12-18″? Anyway I hope you get off easy.
Best strawberries I ever ate, never to be replicated, was outside Rome. Store bought doesn’t come close. I hear ya, Addisnana.
There is nothing like farm-fresh produce. A lot of farms in the Plant City area and others around offer “pick your own” access and you pay as you leave. I imagine an awful lot is being lost in hungry mouths as people pick. Especially when it comes to strawberries.
Every time you pick your own, or stop at a roadside stand, you learn all over again that most of the stuff we buy at the supermarket is flavorless. Finding a decent tomato is almost impossible.
OTOH, I can remember when produce was purely seasonal and you were out of luck the rest of the year. It’s a tradeoff, for sure.
We’re in the 6-12″ blob, although a little shift to the west would put us in the “up to 18 inches” part. 🙁
I tend not to buy “fresh” strawberries in the store, mainly because they really don’t have much flavor. I’m more used to wild strawberries, which have a lot of it, although they are small and involve a lot of looking. Good practice for young children, though. 😀
I totally agree on the wild ones. Also wild blueberries and raspberries. Intense flavor and worth the hunt.
I don’t have to hunt too hard for them, although around here it’s blackberries, not rasberries that are the most common. 😉
Oh the National Weather Service is predicting 10-20″ of snow. 🙁
Fresh tomatoes are ambrosia. Even squirrels approve. 😀
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Was your Senator up all night talking about climate change? If Ted Cruz could read Green Eggs and Ham I’m wondering if one of the 30 senators read The Lorax?
This is the Morning Feature topic. I’ll take my comment over there. Join me.
Both of them.
Good morning. 🙂 Sleepus Interruptus the night before last was followed by a truly lost day, except that I discovered I had laryngitis. A blessing for those around me, but awfully hard to talk on the telephone, especially to those automated systems. 😆
Finally got through to a person and explained the laryngitis. Otherwise straining to be heard sounded awfully angry. The lady was nice and kept telling me to rest my voice while she did things. At least I didn’t leave her feeling I was furious when I wasn’t. Others may have felt differently. 😉
More and more people are telling me that despite this year’s flu shot, they caught the flu. Apparently there’s a mutation out there that wasn’t noted….
Hope you all are well. Hugggs!
The problem – and it’s unavoidable – is that the flu shots are made based on “what is most likely to be out there this year.” Since it takes several months to get the vaccine made, tested, and distributed, a variant that wasn’t in the vaccine group can still cause problems. The other problem is that a lot of things are labeled “flu” but really aren’t flu viruses.
The CDC agrees that flu shots are not 100% effective:
The CDC also notes that, for adults, getting a second flu shot in the same season offers no extra protection. On the plus side, people who had a flu shot and still get the flu usually get less severe symptoms, and get well more quickly.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Well, I definitely have an impaired immune system (diabetes) so that may explain my bout. It definitely wasn’t a full-bore, knock-me-under-the-bus case (I’ve had those) so I guess the shot worked.
The nurse at my doc’s office did say they’re running into a lot of patients who had the shot but got the flu anyway. (These aren’t self-diagnoses.) Her explanation: not every virus is recognized in time for the vaccine, and it mutates so fast.
Okay, then. 🙂
Good morning,
Sad day for me today. A good friend and fellow OFAer passed away on Sunday. Got an email from another OFAer yesterday afternoon informing me of the news.
5 years ago I was contacted by my regional OFA director asking if I could help Debbie set up a voter registration event. Sure. I hadn’t met Debbie yet, but was to meet her at her place of business. She and her husband owned a restaurant/health food store in Sag Harbor. Got to the store met her and asked where we going to set up the voter registration table. “Right outside my door.”
Over the past several years we had several events at Provisions, her store. She always placed a life-size cut out of President Obama outside her store front. One time I commented, “Debbie, not everyone is a Democrat in Sag Harbor, aren’t you afraid you’ll turn off some customers with President Obama greeting them?” “I don’t care, Mike, it’s just so important that Barack Obama succeeds.”
2008 was her first foray into politics, President Obama truly made her feel hopeful about the future. She had a hard time understanding the vehement animosity directed toward President Obama. Despite her inexperience she was a terrific organizer and set up some terrific events.
The combination of her passion and inexperience brought a smile to my face. She was a really good person.
Sorry I’ll miss Friday’s services.
Sorry to hear your sad news, Mike. My condolences to you and the whole OFA team that worked with Debbie. Hopefully she will have inspired more people to get involved and follow her wonderful example. Hugs.
Sad to hear of such a great loss. She sure sounds like someone who’d fit in well around BPI….. Many funeral homes have websites where you can express your sympathies. I’d say to try for that, because your tribute here was heart-felt and eloquent.
Please accept my sympathies.
Best, Gardener
My condolences on your loss, Mike. She sounds like a wonderful woman, and I’m sure the community will miss her.
::hugggggs::
Thanks everyone. Thanks for suggestion, Gardener.
What a sad loss, Mike. I’m sending you hugs, and will keep all of you, including her family, in my thoughts and prayers. She sounds like something else, and I have no doubt she will be sorely missed.
Good morning!
Gray clouds right now and 47 degrees, but about 30 minutes ago the eastern sky was red! Which is fitting, because they say winter returns tomorrow! Food pantry unload went well. Returned home in time for lunch, and then was able to piddle around a bit. Watered the greenhouse, arranged some pea supports in there, and planted a few “chitted” peas that we’re sprouting.
Really, the high point of the day was when I was cutting down last year’s asparagus, sitting on a little 4 wheeled cart thingy on the slope side, and suddenly found myself going head over heels down the garden embankment. Dang, and had wanted to keep my clothes a little clean, anyway. Nothing hurt but my pride. PW was out pruning her apple trees and came a running. Was kinda funny, really…. 🙂
Figuring to help BW with his balls today. They are all over the lawn, and even out in the street. Dang old gumball trees….. Hoping all are well, and winter’s voice returns soon!
Best, G
Umm …
… perhaps these might help? 😉
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
I don’t know whether to laugh or snort. Since I’m drinking coffee, probably not snorting. 😆
Tch-tch…… 🙂
Good to hear that your tumble only resulted in injured pride. 🙂 OTOH it might have just been your day to provide comic relief.
That’s EVERY day around here! 🙂
I’m so glad you’re okay, and hope you don’t discover stiffness today. What a tumble. I hope it was videotaped? 😉
Sorry, no videotape……!
But only a very small bit of soreness!
And, BTW, we should keep mentions of videotape to a minimum, because the TGOP doesn’t realize it’s been invented!