BBB News

In this week of thanks, I wish to thank you, kind reader, for taking time to read BBB entries. Today, 11/23/05, marks the end of this set of entries and the beginning of a BBB hiatus. It's not clear how long the break will be -- the last one was from June 2003 to June 2005. I thank you for your interest and kind regards.

... Mr BBB

BBB Comix of the Week

BBB Comix of the Week faces off with BBB Web Toy of the Week to offer you this tantalizing question .... "Superhero or Household Cleaner?" Take the test and determine how well you can distinguish between the two. Good luck!

[Thanks to John T.]

News from all over - Northlake

Mark Copsy saw the smoke inside the car, and watched as the vehicle careered into a curb in this Florida city on Sunday afternoon. It took him only a moment to realize the horror--the car was on fire, and there were people inside. Copsy and his 12-year-old son ran the half-block to help.

When they got to the car, Copsy, 42, said he couldn't open the door. Inside, he could see an elderly man in the driver's seat. A female passenger sat next to him, her face white. He tried to smash the glass with his foot, but couldn't do it. In his hands, he held a 20-pound frozen Norbest turkey he and his son had just bought for Thanksgiving.

"I said, `Hell, I'll just use the damn turkey.' And that's what I did," Copsy said. He yelled for the driver to cover his face, and used the turkey to smash out three windows.

Today in History - 1889

The first jukebox was installed when an entrepreneur named Louis Glass and his business associate, William S. Arnold, placed a coin-operated Edison cylinder phonograph in the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. The machine, an Edison Class M Electric Phonograph with oak cabinet, had been fitted locally in San Francisco with a coin mechanism invented and soon patented by Glass and Arnold. This was before the time of vacuum tubes, so there was no amplification. For a nickel a play, a patron could listen using one of four listening tubes. Known as "Nickel-in-the-Slot," the machine was an instant success, earning over $1000 in less than half a year.

So Now You Know

A cup of drip brewed coffee has about 115 milligrams of caffeine, an espresso (and percolated coffee) about 80mg, while instant coffee has about 65mg of caffeine. Decaffeinated coffee is not totally caffeine free, containing about 3mg of caffeine. A can of Coca-Cola has about 23mg of caffeine, Pepsi Cola 25mg, Mountain Dew 37mg, and TAB 31mg. Tea has about 40mg of caffeine, while an ounce of chocolate contains about 20mg.

BBB Etymology - Think for Thanks

think Etymology: Middle English thenken, from Old English thencan; akin to Old High German denken to think, Latin tongEre to know

thank Etymology: Middle English, from Old English thancian; akin to Old English thanc gratitude

thanks Etymology: plural of Middle English thank, from Old English thanc thought, gratitude; akin to Old High German dank gratitude, Latin tongEre to know

Today in History - 1880

Lillian Russell made her debut at Tony Pastor's Theatre in New York City. Within weeks, the beautiful blonde added a prominent role in The Pie Rats of Penn Yann to her stage credits. This spirited "travesty" of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Pennzance made Lillian Russell an instant star. For the next 35 years, Russell maintained her position as one of the first ladies of the American stage.

Born Helen Louise Leonard in 1861, "Nellie" was raised in a middle class home. Trained in music and foreign languages, in the late 1870s she moved with her mother from Chicago to New York in order to receive advanced voice instruction. Soon, she met Tony Pastor, the vaudeville impresario who transformed the slightly seedy variety format into respectable family entertainment. Billed as "Lillian Russell, The English Ballad Singer" she was seen at Tony Pastor's by almost everyone in New York—except her mother.

News from all over - Cedar Rapids

Betty Vieman, 71, playing center despite being the shortest and one of the oldest members of the Cedar Rapids Sizzlers, paused while holding the basketball in the middle court.

"Yoo-hoo!" called a teammate wearing black bloomers, a white middy blouse and striped knee-high stockings. "Over here. Just hand it to Mommy." The practice dissolved into laughter.

This is Granny Basketball. It's just what it sounds like: a gentle game for women of a certain age — and with a certain attitude.

Their motto: Die with your tennies on.

So Now You Know

1. Popcorn has been a food product for over 6,000 years.

2. When the English colonists sat down for their first Thanksgiving dinner on February 22, 1630, popcorn was brought as a gift by the Indian Quadequina, brother of Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe, to the colonists in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

It would not have been popcorn as we know it. An oiled ear was held on a stick over an open fire and the popped kernels would be chewed off. Popcorn later served as a morning cereal, eaten with cream or milk. The colonists called it "popped corn", "parching corn", or "rice corn".

BBB News

In this week of thanks, I wish to thank you, kind reader, for taking time to read BBB entries. Tomorrow, 11/23/05, will mark the end of this set of entries and the beginning of a BBB hiatus. It's not clear how long the break will be -- the last one was from June 2003 to June 2005. I thank you for your interest and kind regards.

... Mr BBB

BBB Geek-toid

So, this last weekend, you went to storage and dragged out all those decorations. Well, that's cool (and in some cases way too geeky in itself). But what about your desktop. I don't mean that glowing screen that insists on displaying things in tidy rectangular windows, no, I'm talking about where you set your coffee and pencils. Wouldn't it be nice to have a little decoration there too? And to be truly geeky, wouldn't it be cool if it ran off your USB port? Order up ... Rather have one that matches that artificial tree in your den? How about "Little Drummer Santa"? And new this year ... a Christmas tree in a snowglobe that plays holiday songs and automagically blows snow. (If you figure out how to order, let me know.) Oh, I see, you'd rather have an item that isn't associated with a particular religious tradition? How about a snowperson?

News from all over - Kuala Lampur

A man caught a rare, 5.4-meter-long poisonous king cobra using just his hands after firefighters and a team of volunteers failed to capture it outside a school in northern Malaysia, a news report said Monday.

Wildlife officials called in snake charmer Mohamad Shaiful Abdul Aziz, nicknamed the "Snake King" by the locals in Penang state, after firefighters spent about an hour trying to capture the cobra hiding among bushes at a rehabilitation centre.

Mohamad Shaiful, who performs at snake shows, took 10 minutes and used no nets or other equipment, just his hands. "I have never come across such a big king cobra," he was quoted as saying.

Today in History - 1783

French physician Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent, the marquis d' Arlandes, make the first untethered hot-air balloon flight, flying 5.5 miles over Paris in about 25 minutes. Their cloth balloon was crafted by French papermaking brothers Jacques-Étienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, inventors of the world's first successful hot-air balloons.

BBB Site of the Week

Back in the day, record players could play virtually anything that had a groove. Occasionally you would come across a thin cardboard or plastic record. They could be found in magazines, on cereal boxes, as mailed advertisements, or even (oddly) as record jackets.

Well, if it existed then you can probably find a reference on the web. Witness the Internet Museum of Flexi/Cardboard/Oddity Recordings, this week's BBB Site of the Week.

[My personal favorite.]

Today in History - 1883

On this day, four standard time zones for the continental U.S.A. were introduced at the instigation of the railroads. At noon on this day the U.S. Naval Observatory changed its telegraphic signals to correspond to the change. Until the invention of the railway, it took such a long time to get from one place to another that local "sun time" could be used. When traveling to the east or to the west, a person would have to change his or her watch by one minute every twelve miles.

When people began traveling by train, sometimes hundreds of miles in a day, the calculation of time became a serious problem. Operators of the new railroad lines realized that a new time plan was needed in order to offer a uniform train schedule for departures and arrivals.

Since every city was using a different time standard, there were over 300 local sun times to choose from. The railroad managers tried to address the problem by establishing 100 railroad time zones

News from all over - Thibodaux

A Louisiana woman was so angry that cold food was served to her at a local restaurant Wednesday night that she called 911, police said.

Officers arrived at Malt-N-Burger on Canal Boulevard about 8:30 p.m., where they found Sharita Williams, 30, fuming because her onion rings were cold, according to a Thibodaux Police report.

Williams told police the food was cold when she received it and the attendant refused to replace it with a new order, the report says. At that point, Williams, of 132 Senator Circle, dialed 911.

She was arrested and issued a summons for misuse of the 911 system. She was released and given a December court date.

Quotable Quotes

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.

Mark Twain

BBB Web Toy of the Week

It is safe to say those of us who lived through 1960s America were exposed to a wide variety of "experiences", some more memorable than others. One oft forgotten or overlooked 60s happening was ... slot car racing.

In 1968, there were more slot racing facilities than bowling alleys. Special racing events were televised live nationally on shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Mike Douglas, Steve Allen, or Johnny Carson. [Click here for more on the history of Slot Racing.]

It was common to find an area of the house dedicated to a two-lane plastic slot car track from the classic oval to over/under raceways and hairpin turns. The basic idea was a to click together a track with, typically, two "slots" or grooves. The race cars had an arm that would extend into the slot and via a control, the "driver" controlled the speed of the racer around curves and down straightaways. It was cool.

Oh, yeah, the web toy ... Through the magic of computer electronics and some reasonable graphics, you now can (re)experience those exciting days of this yesteryear craze. Surf on over to RallyTrophy, pick your car, build your track and race away!

Today in History - 1869

After ten years of construction, the Suez Canal opened on this date. Stretching 101 miles across Egypt's Isthmus of Suez, from Port Said in the north to Suez in the south, the waterway connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean. It remains one of the world's most heavily-traveled shipping lanes.

News from all over - Seattle

A soda company is offering liquid variations on the entire Thanksgiving meal -- two five-pack soda kits with flavors such as turkey, herb stuffing, pecan pie and, for some, the least favorite side dish, brussels sprouts.

Jones Soda Co. is touting the vibrantly hued sodas as calorie-free, kosher meal replacement beverages that taste exactly like what their labels imply. But they don't promise that the Splenda-based drinks actually taste good.

So Now You Know

David Phillips, a civil engineer at UC-Davis, became a cult hero in the obsessive subculture of people who collect frequent-flier miles by converting $3,150 worth of pudding into 1.2 million miles. Oh, yeah-he also was able to claim $815 as a tax write-off.

In May, 1999 Phillips was pushing his shopping cart down the frozen-food aisle of his local supermarket when a promotion on a Healthy Choice frozen entrée caught his eye: He could earn 500 miles for every 10 Universal Product Codes (bar codes) from Healthy Choice products he sent to the company by Dec 31. Even better: Any Healthy Choice bar codes mailed by the end of the month would rack up double the mileage, or 1,000 miles for every 10 labels.

Frozen entrées were about $2 apiece, but a few aisles away Phillips found cans of Healthy Choice soups at 90 cents each. He filled his cart with them, and then headed to his local Grocery Outlet, a warehouse-style discount store. And there he hit the mother lode.

"They had individual servings of chocolate pudding for 25 cents apiece," he said. "And each serving had its own bar code on it.." Phillips cleaned the store out - bought every last cup of pudding in the warehouse. He then asked the manager for the addresses of all the other Grocery Outlet in the Central Valley and, with his mother-in-law riding shotgun in his van, spent a weekend scouring the shelves of every store from Davis to Fresno.

He filled his garage to the rafters with chocolate pudding and stacked additional cases in his living room. But Phillips wasn't finished yet - he had the manager of his local Grocery Outlet order him 60 more cases. All in all, he'd purchased 12,150 individual servings of pudding. Around this time,

The deadline for earning double miles was quickly approaching, and there was simply no way Phillips and his wife could tear off all those bar codes in time. So, he trucked the pudding to two local food banks and the Salvation Army, which agreed to tear off the bar codes in exchange for the food donation.

Phillips got his bar codes in the mail in time to beat the deadline, and then held his breath. Then packages — large packages — started arriving in the mail from Healthy Choice. In all, they contained 2,506 certificates, each good for 500 miles. That's 1,253,000 miles.

All-in-all, that's 31 trips to Europe, 42 tickets to Hawaii, or 21 tickets to Australia, or 50 tickets anywhere in the U.S. for a little over $3,000.

"It's better than that," Phillips related. "Since I gave the pudding to charity I can take a tax write-off of $815."

BBB Comix of the Week

Some comic covers are so classic they are available as full sized posters. This beauty would make a great addition to spruce up the den. You can even get it on canvas!.

News from all over - Chicago

As Ira Glass and Chicago Public Radio mark the 10th anniversary this week of an offbeat, breakout hit that changed the face (and sound) of public radio, "This American Life" is expanding beyond the public radio waves.

The program has become a full-fledged brand, complete with a pair of movie projects, a record deal with Shout! Factory and a television version of the show awaiting a green light from cable's Showtime channel.

The status of the radio show is in flux, says station manager Torey Malatia."I don't see [Glass] ever really giving this up, but with production of the television show, we may end up suspending live production of the radio show for a while," he says.

Today in History - 1907

Oklahoma entered the Union as the forty-sixth state on this date. Derived from the Choctaw Indian words "okla," meaning people, and "humma," meaning red, Oklahoma was designated Indian Territory in 1828. By 1880, sixty tribes, forced by European immigration and the U.S. government to relocate, had moved to Oklahoma.

A single knoll rises out of the plain in Oklahoma, north and west of the Wichita Range. For my people, the Kiowas, it is an old landmark, and they gave it the name Rainy Mountain. . . . Loneliness is an aspect of the land. All things in the plain are isolate; there is no confusion of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or one man. To look upon that landscape in the early morning, with the sun at your back, is to lose the sense of proportion. Your imagination comes to life, and this, you think, is where Creation was begun.

N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain

So Now You Know

At its worst, the bubonic plague killed 2 million victims a year for a total of over 137 million people (there were three major epidemics - in the 6th, 14th, and 17th centuries).

In contrast, a 20th Century influenza pandemic raced across the globe in 1918 and took 37 million lives in one year.

• The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years
• Those lucky enough to avoid infection had to deal with the public health ordinances to restrain the spread of the disease. The public health departments distributed gauze masks to be worn in public.
• Stores could not hold sales, funerals were limited to 15 minutes. Some towns required a signed certificate to enter and railroads would not accept passengers without them.
• Besides the lack of health care workers and medical supplies, there was a shortage of coffins, morticians and gravediggers
• In Philadelphia, 158 out of every 1000 people died. 148 out of 1000 in Baltimore. 109 out of 1000 in Washington, D. C.
• Eighteen months after the disease appeared, the flu bug vanished and has never shown up again.
• It appears the virus passed from birds to pigs and then to humans. The viruses tend to remain stable in the birds, but occassionally they infect pigs and the virus is forced to mutate to survive. Both the Asian flu (1957) and the Hong Kong flu (1968), which were not as deadly, mutated from pig viruses.

BBB Etymology - Sheriff

In Anglo-Saxon England, a reeve was an officer who was appointed by the king to be responsible for the public business of the locality. A high-ranking official, the shire-reeve was the representative of the royal authority in a shire or county. The office of sheriff was continued after the Norman conquest, then known as a viscount. The office eventually returned to the title "Sheriff", and "Viscount" became an inherited title of nobility.

The most famous holder of this office was the folkloric Sheriff of Nottingham, enemy of Robin Hood.

Today in History - 1977

On this day, at the Mahwah plant in New York, workers completed the 100,000,000th Ford to be built in America: a 1978 Ford Fairmont four-door sedan. The Fairmont series was introduced at the beginning of the 1978 model year, to replace the discontinued Ford Maverick. Several Fairmont models were available in the first year of the series, and the available power ran from a 140 cubic-inch, four-cylinder engine to a 302 cubic-inch V-8. The most popular Ford Fairmont was the Sporty Coupe, which was introduced midway through the 1978 model year, and featured styling reminiscent of the Thunderbird.

News from all over - Cardiff

British scientists say they have proof that a drop in body temperature can kickstart viruses which lie dormant in people during the cold season, from October to March.

And getting your feet wet, they found, can triple the risk of developing cold symptoms such as sore throat, sneezing and coughing. Staff at the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff, Wales, asked 90 hardy volunteers to keep their bare feet in icy water for 20 minutes.

A third of them developed colds during the following five days, compared to just 9 per cent of another test group who did not get their feet wet.

So Now You Know

More steel in the US is used to make bottle caps than to manufacture automobile bodies.

BBB Geek-toid

From Geek-toid's "Now, if we could just get the damn thing to work" Department ...

Plantronics Versa and other ONE & CO stuff

Keyboard Independent Touch TYping TECHnology or KITTY TECH

Nethercomm’s Broadband-in-Gas Network (pdf)

Star Trek-like VoIP

Need to park? Get a radio!

Today in History - 1851

On this day, Harper & Brothers in New York publishes Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville. The book flopped, and it was many years before the book was recognized as an American classic.

Melville bought a farm near Nathaniel Hawthorne's house in Massachusetts, and the two became close friends, although they later drifted apart. Melville wrote for journals and continued to publish novels. Moby Dick was coolly received, but his short stories were highly acclaimed. Putnam's Monthly published "Bartleby the Scrivener" in 1853 and "Benito Cereno" in 1855.

In 1866, Melville won appointment as a customs inspector in New York, which brought him a stable income. He published several volumes of poetry. He continued to write until his death in 1891, and his last novel, Billy Budd, was not published until 1924.

News from all over - Neuwied

A train driver caused delays on a German rail line after mistaking a giant toy penguin for a dead man in a tuxedo. Passengers were left stranded after Udo Vergens pulled the emergency stop when he saw what he thought was a man lying face down and wearing a black and white tuxedo.

Officials who came to investigate found only a man-size soft toy penguin lying on the tracks. A Neuwied police spokesman said: "We are at a loss to explain the presence of this very large penguin."

BBB Site of the Week

I must confess. Every day I am sure to do two things: put on my glasses and check the Woot of the Day. "Woot?" you ask. Well, urban legend has it the term was a contraction of a Dungeons and Dragons players phrase, "Wow, Loot!" Woot has moved into the geeky vernacular as a word expressing excitement.

So what is this "Woot of the Day" you speak of? Well, I could send you to their web site explanation and FAQ or even the entry in Wikipedia. But that, dear reader, would no more get at the Wootrific experience than explaining the origin and manufacture of chocolate to the uninitiated.

woot! is kinda about selling one item at a time until they are all gone - usually one per day. And even though I think the sale items are cool and I have been known to make a purchase or two, for me it's not so much the steak as it is the sizzle.

woot! has two things I really enjoy, the descriptions of the woot (and their blog) and the recent addition of a daily podcast replete with an amusing song or skit. Here's one of those web wadio pod casteroids (or is it a casterbadabra). Now that's marketing! I always find myself chuckling (at least) at the prose or audio. Plus, there are the somewhat wacky contests - a recent one was for a woot haiku.

Anyway, I suggest you join up and have fun - maybe you can be part of the elite group fortunate enough to obtain the dollar "Bag O' Crap" woot!

Today in History - 1634

Under the urging of Anglican Bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes "An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery." Seven years later, the good Bishop Atherton is himself the second man hanged under the Act.

News from all over - Nederland

Update!

The man who said he was glued to a Home Depot toilet seat in 2003 passed a polygraph test administered on Wednesday.

Bob Dougherty, 57, smiled inside his lawyer's office just minutes after learning of the test's results. Wheat Ridge polygrapher Jeff Jenks was paid an undisclosed amount of money by Fox 31 News to perform the test.

Jenks asked Dougherty about 20 questions, Dougherty said. And four of those questions dealt with an allegation by a former town official that Dougherty said he was stuck to a toilet seat in the visitors' center restroom in 2004. Dougherty had denied that allegation.

"In my opinion, he is telling the truth," Jenks told the station.

BBB Web Toy of the Week

Internet games can be simple or complex and the BBB has searched the infinite corners of the net to find a Web Toy worthy of your time.

OK, so in reality something was thrown together at the last minute but it looks pretty good - especially if you are a fan of Dragnets of Law and Order by NYPD Shields with Crime Scene Invegigators. A perusal of the instructions is suggested before launching into WHODUNIT. Enjoy.

Today in History - 1951

The first long distance telephone call without operator assistance took place.

So Now You Know

The first recorded example of "scat" singing, where the words are replaced by playful nonsense syllables, is found in Heebie Jeebies, recorded on Feb. 26, 1926 by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Fives. The story goes that halfway through the song, Louis dropped the music and simply improvised pure nonsense for the rest of the take, instead of stopping altogether. The person doing the recording liked the result so much that he suggested they keep it - and the "modern" era of scat singing was born.

News We Somehow Missed

In September, after law enforcement officers in North Carolina spotted a reportedly stolen ambulance and chased it through three counties until forcing it into a ditch north of Greensboro, they found the driver to be mohawk-hairstyled Leon Hollimon Jr., 37, who is not a medical professional but was wearing a stethoscope and with latex gloves in his pocket. Strapped to a gurney in the back was a dead six-point deer, and according to witnesses cited by the Florida Times-Union newspaper (Hollimon is from Jacksonville, Fla.), an intravenous line was attached to it and a defibrillator had been used.

BBB Comix of the Week

Yeast, Schmeast ... every handyman knows what that stuff really is.

[Thanks to Chris C. for the inspiration]

Today in History - 1799

Coup de 18 Brumaire, coup d'état overthrew the system of government under the Directory in France and substituted the Consulate, making way for the despotism of Napoleon Bonaparte. The event is often viewed as the effective end of the French Revolution.

News from all over - Berkshire

A burglar from Bristol (England) abducted a parrot - fearing it would reveal his identity to police. Monty, an African Grey parrot, was the only witness as David Carlile, 32, stole antiques, jewelry and cash from an isolated country house.

When he was arrested and asked why he took the bird Carlile said: "Parrots can talk and I didn't want it grassing me up."

So Now You Know

The Inklings were a gathering of friends -- all of them British, male, and Christian, most of them teachers at or otherwise affiliated with Oxford University, many of them creative writers and lovers of imaginative literature -- who met usually on Thursday evenings in C.S. Lewis's and J.R.R. Tolkien's college rooms in Oxford during the 1930s and 1940s for readings and criticism of their own work, and for general conversation.

[Thanks again to Chris C. for the inspiration]

BBB Etymology - Bitter End

From Admiral W. H. Smyth Sailor's Word-Book, 1867: A ship is 'brought up to a bitter' when the cable is allowed to run out to that stop. When a chain or rope is paid out to the bitter-end, no more remains to be let go...

Today in History - 1933

The United States was struggling through the Depression. The major economic indices were sagging and the unemployment rolls seemed to be growing fatter by the day. With winter looming on the horizon, President Roosevelt and Henry Hopkins, one of the architects of the New Deal, moved to offer relief. They unveiled the Civil Works Administration (CWA), a program designed to secure temporary work for people who would otherwise have to endure a winter of unemployment. The CWA provided a mix of white and blue-collar jobs that promised to pay normal wages for a limited schedule of work. Though grounded more in compassion than careful planning, the program succeeded not only in helping workers through the winter, but also in giving the country a badly needed infusion of cash. According to the New York Times, the CWA had pumped $1 billion into the economy by May 1934. Roosevelt, however, never intended the CWA to be a permanent solution to the unemployment problem-he attempted to curtail the program in December 1933. So, by the spring of '34, the CWA was retired and the government began to look for new ways to keep the nation working.

News from all over - Englewood

A Florida woman has landed in jail after allegedly padding her bra with a rare greenwing parrot.

Jill Knispel, 35, faces felony charges for stealing the bird from her employer, Baby Exotic Birds of Englewood, after she traded it for a vintage 1964 Karmann Ghia automobile.

So Now You Know

In the US plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos.

The Man does not like
my plastic lawn flamingo
they send me letters

BBB Geek-toid

So, you've been wondering what to get your Star Trek geek this holiday season. Hmmm. S/he really likes the TOS episode Mirror, Mirror. And Spock is a favorite. How about a 9" Action figure of Mr Spock from Mirror, Mirror? In fact, there are more Star Trek toys than you may have thought were ever made at StarTrekToys.com.

"But what if I want to make your own custom Star Trek figure?" you ask. BBB sends you here.

Today in history - 1950

Voters in the United States Hawaii Territory ratified a state constitution on this date. The event was a major step toward becoming a state. Not until August 21, 1959, however, did Hawaii join the Union as the fiftieth state.

The Crossroads of the Pacific, as this group of volcanic islands are often called, was originally inhabited by Polynesians from the Marquesa Islands. In 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook spotted the tropical lands and named them the Sandwich Islands. In the early 1800s, the Hawaiian Islands were ruled by a monarchy under the control of Kamehameha I. Missionaries from New England arrived soon after leading the way for Western influences which culminated in the United States' annexation of the Hawaiian Territory on June 14, 1900.

At the turn of the century, many Americans traveled to the tropical islands. Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, recorded his travels in Roughing It, published in 1891. He and his party climbed the volcano Haleakala in Maui and were awed by the experience:

Presently vagrant white clouds came drifting along, high over the sea and the valley; then they came in couples and groups; then in imposing squadrons; gradually joining their forces, they banked themselves solidly together, a thousand feet under us, and totally shut out land and ocean—not a vestige of anything was left in view but just a little of the rim of the crater, circling away from the pinnacle whereon we sat…Thus banked, motion ceased, and silence reigned. Clear to the horizon, league on league, the snowy floor stretched without a break…There was little conversation, for the impressive scene overawed speech. I felt like the Last Man, neglected of the judgment, and left pinnacled in mid-heaven, a forgotten relic of a vanished world.

News from all over - Russia

Russian MPs have given a final warning to TV stations to cut back on violent shows like the Simpsons if they want to avoid censorship.

First Deputy Speaker Lyubov Sliska said it was a "yellow card" for the channels. A resolution, initiated by Sliska and fellow United Russia member Farid Gainullin, was approved by a 417-1 landslide. It called on television companies to more strictly adhere to a voluntary code of conduct signed in June by the chief executives of six leading national channels to avoid promoting a "cult of violence and cruelty".

The move came after the Simpsons was given a hard core adults-only rating and blamed for corrupting Russian schoolchildren and degrading family values. MP Yelena Afanasyeva said: "The experts gave just the result we feared. They found the Simpsons were crammed with violent and aggressive episodes. These cartoons also introduce antagonism between children and parents."

BBB Site of the Week

There's more here to experience than to write about, so enjoy this cool and, yes, weird site.

Today in History - 1922

"First steps of tomb found.

"At about 10am I discovered beneath almost the first hut attacked the first traces of the entrance of the tomb (Tut.ankh.Amen) This comprised the first step of the N.E. corner (of the sunken-staircase). Quite a short time sufficed to show that it was the beginning of a steep excavation cut in the bed rock, about four metres below the entrance of Ramses VI's tomb, and a similar depth below the present level of the valley. And, that it was of the nature of a sunken staircase entrance to a tomb of the type of the XVIIIth Dyn., but further than that nothing could be told until the heavy rubbish above was cleared away."

So wrote Howard Carter in his diary upon discovering the entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamun.

News from all over - Washington DC

It apparently began with an argument over a burrito. It ended with at least three people being bit by a pit bull outside a Mount Pleasant convenience store.

According to reports one of the men involved says he tried to pay for a burrito for another man and that the other man got angry. The argument turned into a fight outside the store and the girlfriend of one of the men involved got out of her car, and so did a pit bull that weighed at least 75 pounds.

Police say three people were bit and treated for superficial wounds at Howard University Hospital. A bystander was bit, too, after he went to the store to get a drink. Police say it does not appear the dog was deliberately set loose but the investigation is continuing. Animal control has taken the dog.

BBB Web Toy of the Week

We all tend to make associations, after all it's easier to keep track of things if we can associate things like "Food and Eat" or even more elemental ... "Anniversary and Gift". You get the idea.

Sometimes it's fun to think of things that don't belong to the same set (and why). "Pumpkins and Whales" comes to mind for some unknown reason. OK, here's another: "Dictators and Sit-Com Characters". Well, that last combo is about to move to the "associated" group because, you are about to play ...Guess the Dictator and/or Television Sit-Com Character where you get to pretend to be a dictator or television sitcom character and the electronic-game-master will try to guess who you are by asking simple yes/no questions.

Today in History - 1916

The experimental Playwrights' Theater opened its first New York season at 139 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. The premiere featured three short plays: The Game, by journalist and social activist Louise Bryant; King Arthur's Socks, a comedy by Floyd Dell; and Bound East for Cardiff, a one-act play by then unknown playwright Eugene O'Neill.

The November 3 production marked the New York debut of one the most influential American artists of the twentieth century. O'Neill, who wrote more than twenty full-length plays over the course of the next two decades, is credited with transforming American theater into a literary medium which, in its artistry, rivaled the best in American fiction and painting. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for his plays and remains the only American playwright to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

News from all over - Louisville

Home Depot has found itself in a sticky situation, defending a lawsuit filed by a man who claims this Colorado store ignored his cries for help after he fell victim to a prank and was glued to a toilet seat.

Bob Dougherty, 57, of Nederland, Co. said he became stuck to a bathroom toilet seat on which somebody had smeared glue and felt "tremendous panic" when he realized he was stuck. "They left me there, going through all that stress," Dougherty said. "They just let me rot."

The lawsuit said after about 15 minutes, store officials called for an ambulance. Paramedics unbolted the toilet seat, and while wheeling a "frightened and humiliated" Dougherty out of the store, he passed out.

BBB Comix of the Week

DC Comics has created an interesting line of comics called Elseworlds. "In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places - some that have existed, and others that can't, couldn't or shouldn't exist. The result is stories that make characters who are as familiar as yesterday seem as fresh as tomorrow." Here are some interesting sites

Elseworld Site #1

Elseworld Site #2

Elseworld Site #3

Predating Elseworlds is Marvel's own "What if ...?"

(Thanks to John T)

So Now You Know

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. treasury

Today in History - 1947

The Hughes Flying Boat--the largest aircraft ever built--is piloted by designer Howard Hughes on its first and only flight. Built with laminated birch and spruce, the massive wooden aircraft had a wingspan longer than a football field and was designed to carry more than 700 men to battle.

Howard Hughes was a successful Hollywood movie producer when he founded the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932. He personally tested cutting-edge aircraft of his own design and in 1937 broke the transcontinental flight-time record. In 1938, he flew around the world in a record three days, 19 hours, and 14 minutes.

BBB Etymology - 10 Foot Pole

The ten-foot pole that you wouldn't touch something with (1909) was originally a 40-foot pole; the idea is the same as the advice to use a long spoon when you dine with the devil.

Or

This expression may have been suggested by the 10-foot poles that river boatmen used to pole their boats along in shallow water. In the sense of not wanting to get involved or having strong distaste for something, the words aren't recorded until the late 19th century.

Today in History - 1512

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of Italian artist Michelangelo's finest works, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

So Now You Know

There is an average of 178 sesame seeds on a McDonald's Big Mac bun.

News from all over - Bavaria

A lack of sleep makes you "fat, stupid and sick", according to German scientists.

Sleep researcher Professor Juergen Zulley from the Regensburg University Hospital said: "It makes you stupid because suffering from sleep deficiency diminishes your memory. Sick, because too little sleep can damage your heart, circulation, stomach and intestines. And fat because while we are sleeping are bodies release a hormone that reduces appetite.

"If the release of this hormone is interrupted because we are not getting a full night's sleep then we quickly feel hungry which causes most people to head straight to the fridge," he said. He added in order to stay fit and healthy people should regularly have seven hours sleep a night.