BBB Pulp Pick - Baseball!

Another classic Rockwell ... just in time for opening day!

News from all over - Harrington

"That door," he says with dramatic pause. "That door weighs 4,000 pounds. It's been reinforced to withstand a nuclear blast." Peter Davenport has a radio voice, the kind of exaggerated baritone that cuts through walls and most doors, but not this one. This is solid steel and a foot thick.

It is Davenport's door, opening into a tunnel leading below ground to what was once a nuclear-missile complex here in the scrubland of Eastern Washington. The Air Force decommissioned the site in the mid-1960s, and it sat empty for most of the time since. Davenport, longtime director of the National UFO Reporting Center, a nonprofit clearinghouse and 24-hour hotline for UFO sightings, bought it for $100,000 two years ago to turn into his new headquarters.

The plan was to live and work in here, but the place leaks and has poor ventilation and a bat problem. For now, the center's phone and answering machine will stay at Davenport's Harrington apartment, a few miles away, until Missile Site No. 6 is fixed up. Davenport is doing most of the fixing up himself.

Davenport says most UFO sightings, up to 90 percent, are explainable: weather balloons, military aircraft, satellites and hoaxes. But in a tiny percentage, maybe only a handful each year, something was definitely seen — often by multiple reliable sources — and defies explanation. He believes that clues lie buried in the hill-sized mounds of paper he has meticulously cataloged, if only the government or a well-funded university would do the research.

"I'm willing to share data," he says. "I'm willing to throw all of it to anyone who wants to know."
Source

Today in History - 1889

The Eiffel Tower was inaugurated on this day after two years of construction. It served as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair, marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. Eiffel originally planned to build it in Barcelona, for the Universal Exposition of 1888, but those responsible at the Barcelona city hall thought it was a strange construction, and expensive, which did not fit into the city. After the refusal of the Consistory of Barcelona, Eiffel submitted his draft to those responsible for the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he would build a year later, in 1889.

So Now You Know

Novelist Guy de Maupassant — who claimed to hate the Eiffel Tower — reportedly ate lunch at the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where you couldn't see the Tower.

BBB Destination - Abita Springs

Not every place along life's highway sports trophy fish, an airsteam trailer, various models of buildings and a jazz funeral, not to mention the world famous Bassigator (named Buford) and the lesser known Dogigator! But the Abita Mystery House / UCM Museum has it all. They even have old arcade games they claim are a lot of fun to play. That does it for me .. pack up the travelmobile and set the compass southwest, we're heading out!

News from all over - New York City

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife. "He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says. As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'" Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"

"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"

Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"

"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says. The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."

The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know.

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."
Source

Today in History - 1814

The funeral of Guillotin, the inventor and namesake of the infamous execution device, takes place outside of Paris, France. Guillotin had what he felt were the purest motives for inventing the guillotine and was deeply distressed at how his reputation had become besmirched in the aftermath.

Guillotin had bestowed the deadly contraption on the French as a "philanthropic gesture" for the systematic criminal justice reform that was taking place in 1789. The machine was intended to show the intellectual and social progress of the Revolution; by killing aristocrats and journeymen the same way, equality in death was ensured.

The first use of the guillotine was on April 25 1792, when Nicolas Pelletier was put to death for armed robbery and assault in Place de Greve. The newspapers reported that guillotine was not an immediate sensation. The crowds seemed to miss the gallows at first. However, it quickly caught on with the public and many thought it brought dignity back to the executioner.

So Now You Know

The association with the Guillotine so embarrassed Dr. Guillotin's family that they petitioned the French government to rename it; when the government refused, they instead changed their own family name.

BBB Geeky Novelty

Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes: visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside," said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering.

There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle's speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.
Source

News from all over - Gilbert

Construction crews continue to remove drywall from a new home where a stubborn cat is stuck between the walls and refuses to come out.

On Wednesday night, the cat was spotted by the homeowner Wayne Berkowitz who managed to snap pictures, but has yet to actually capture the cat. Earlier in the day, crews took down all the drywall from the first floor of the home in search of the animal.

"What really got us was in the bathroom," said Berkowitz. "We heard a cat noise through the wall like it was standing right in front of you."

On Monday, a crew cut four openings in the drywall to try to free the feline. "That's frustrating," admitted Berkowitz. "Its a new house and it looks like a swiss cheese home. ... We want the cat to be safe and OK but most of all, we want it out of our house," said Berkowitz.
Source

Today in History - 1860

The device officially described as a "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" was patented by M. L. Byrn of New York City.

So Now You Know

The design of the corkscrew was derived from the gun worm which was a device used by musketmen to remove unspent charges from a musket's barrel.

BBB Swell Site

Here's a cool site that brings science and fun together using "common" household items. So, next time the tyke says, "Let's build a computer controlled laser data transmitter or maybe a plastic hydrogen bomb." You'll be ready.

Today in History - 1953

Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine -- to prevent poliomyelitis.

News from all over - Perth

Pagans and druids, mark your calendars and book your airplane tickets. An Australian entrepreneur hopes to open a Stonehenge replica by the Dec. 21 solstice, just in time for New Age revelers.

"I'm doing it because I can," said Ross Smith, the former owner of a successful microbrewery business who plans to build the monument on his property in Western Australia. "Nowhere in the world has a complete Stonehenge been built."

The $1.26 million project, to be called The Henge, will include 101 granite stones arranged in an inner and outer circle, a central altar, and will span 110 feet.

"I've studied plans of the original and that's what The Henge will look like," Smith said.
Source

So Now You Know

Stonehenge is mentioned within Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth said that Merlin the wizard directed its removal from Ireland, where it had been constructed on Mount Killaraus by Giants, who brought the stones from Africa. After it had been rebuilt near Amesbury, Geoffrey further narrates how first Ambrosius Aurelianus, then Uther Pendragon, and finally Constantine III, were buried inside the ring of stones.

Today's Chuckle

BBB Etymology - Ketchup

The Chinese invented ke-tsiap--a concoction of pickled fish and spices (but no tomatoes)--in the 1690s. By the early 1700s its popularity had spread to Malaysia, where British explorers first encountered it. By 1740 the sauce--renamed ketchup--was an English staple, and it was becoming popular in the American colonies. Tomato ketchup wasn't invented until the 1790s, when New England colonists first mixed tomatoes into the sauce. It took so long to add tomatoes to the sauce because, for most of the 18th Century, people had assumed that they were poisonous, as the tomato is a close relative of the toxic belladonna and nightshade plants.

Today in History - 1943

Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore premiered on network radio. The pair replaced the popular Abbott and Costello following Lou Costello's heart attack. Durante and Moore stayed on the air for four years. Moore would later make a beat to television with The Garry Moore Show and To Tell the Truth both on CBS. Durante would also become a TV star on ABC with The Jimmy Durante Show in addition to nightclub appearances, movies and records.

Quotable Quote

Politics is developing more comedians than radio ever did.
-Jimmy Durante

News from all over - Janesville

The first day of spring brought a sure sign winter is ending: The Suburban fell through the ice on the Traxler Park lagoon.

The Janesville Kiwanis Blackhawk Golden K Club has been raising money with its “When Will It Sink?” fund-raiser for five years. People pay for the privilege of guessing when the red Chevy Suburban will fall through the ice.

The guess closest to the actual fall-through wins $3,000, and 14 others win smaller cash prizes. The Suburban fell through Thursday, but Kiwanian Bob Johnson said he doesn’t know exactly when. The truck comes with a clock that is guaranteed to short out as soon as it hits the water, Johnson said, but the clock can’t be read until the Suburban is on dry land. The Suburban won’t be hauled out until the water turns from solid to liquid, and that may take awhile.

Johnson guessed several dozen people chose the first day of spring, so it’s likely all winners will be people whose guesses were March 20. The question is how close they came to guessing the hour and minute the Suburban’s clock got wet.

After expenses, Johnson figures the club will have about $8,500 to give to organizations that benefit local children, such as school breakfast clubs, scholarship funds for the highly needy, Scouts and 4-H.
Source

BBB Pulp Pick - Vic Torry and His Flying Saucer

Here's a classic that is as much adventure hero-based as it is science fiction.

And like the Universe Pulp Pick a few weeks back, you can download and read the comic at your leisure. Enjoy!
Be aware the comic is a 24MB pdf.

News from all over - Salisbury

A state trooper who stopped a 1993 BMW last fall says its driver, 28-year-old Justin Vonkummer of Millerton, N.Y., blamed his driving problems on an errant Oreo.

Vonkummer told the trooper that an Oreo had just slipped from his fingers as he dunked it in a cup of milk, and that he was trying to fish it out when he lost control of his car. Prosecutors learned in court this week that Vonkummer had been charged with speeding and driving under a suspended license - not driving under the influence, as a clerk had mistakenly noted in the court records.
Source

Today in History - 1939

Actor Basil Rathbone makes his first appearance as detective Sherlock Holmes, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, which opens at the Roxy in New York on this day in 1939. Rathbone, with Nigel Bruce playing Dr. Watson, starred in 14 Sherlock Holmes movies in the 1940s. 

So now you know

Basil Rathbone and his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes was the inspiration for the children's book series Basil of Baker Street and the later Disney film, The Great Mouse Detective.

BBB Destination - Winston-Salem

In 1856 the Salem town board voted to remove a market from the town square. It so happened that in this same year Julius Mickey, a vigorous --"fun loving" is the phrase they used to describe him -- young merchant was seeking (1) a place to locate a grocery store and (2) a way for erecting a building on that place.

The town fathers solved both problems by selling the Salem Square market building to him and told him that he had permission to move the old building to a lot located on the southwest corner of Main and Belews streets.

There Mickey opened his store and, because there was vacant space in the old building's loft, a tin shop as well. In rather short order, Julius Mickey discovered that his services as a tinsmith were in greater demand than his tins, crocks and barrels of groceries.

In part this was true because he was a first rate craftsman. Then, too, there was the fact his location -- diagonally across Main Street from Winston and Salem's public camping ground which was set aside for visitors who came to town to sell their tobacco and to buy in the shops of the two villages -- was near ideal.

More important, however, was the fact that in those years before the Civil War tinware enjoyed a demand that was brisker than even that of aluminum today. The tin shop was the source of cups, plates, pots and pans of all sizes and types, coffee and tea pots, buckets and dippers, cake cutters, candle sticks and moulds, lanterns, buckets and pails and a variety of other kitchen and dining room ware. The tinsmith even provided bed warmers and spectacle cases.

But there were problems. One of the most disturbing was the fact that down the street there was another tinsmith, a somewhat unscrupulous fellow who did not hesitate to capture any person who came along and inquired where he could find the Mickey Tin Shop.

To put an end to that sort of nonsense, Julius Mickey built himself an enormous coffee pot so folks could find his shop. Contemporary records -- and some not so contemporary -- agree that this pot holds either 740 cups of 740 gallons of coffee.
Source

Today in History - 1946

The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington, the first black player to join a National Football League team since 1933.

News from all over - Toledo

Frank Alvarado, 46, of Moline, Ill., found that out the hard way Thursday morning after leading nine officers from four different agencies in a high-speed chase through Benton and Tama counties.

Alvarado boosted the van, owned by Donut Delite Ltd. of Moline, around 5 a.m. when a delivery driver was making a stop at the Rock Island Hospital. He got as far as Benton County when a sheriff’s deputy spotted him heading west on Highway 30. The deputy was soon joined by two more sheriff’s cars and a Belle Plaine city officer in the chase, which reached speeds of up to 100 mph, the attorney’s office said.

“What strikes me as a bit out of the ordinary in this case is the number of officers who were able to respond,” said Rich Vander Mey, assistant Tama County Attorney. “I don’t know whether the fact that the stolen vehicle contained donuts has anything to do with that.”

Five Tama County sheriff’s deputies joined the chase as it entered their jurisdiction. One deputy attempted to disable the van with a spike strip shortly after it entered into Tama County, but Alvarado drove around the strip.

The chase ended around 10:30 a.m. at the Hardee’s restaurant parking lot when Tama County Dep. Chad Hansen rammed the van’s driver side door. Alvarado was taken into custody without incident, the attorney’s office said.

Four additional officers from three other agencies showed up, one of which drove his personal vehicle, the attorney’s office said.

Sharon Wainwright, manager of Delite Donuts, said the bakery donated their goods to the officers involved in the chase.
Source

So Now You Know

Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first black players in what is now the NFL in 1920. Pollard became the first black coach in 1921. However, by 1932 the subsequent National Football League had only two black players, and by 1934 there were none. This disappearance of black players from the NFL effectively coincided with the entry of one of the leading owners of the league, George Preston Marshall. Marshall openly refused to have black athletes on his Boston Braves / Washington Redskins team, and reportedly pressured the rest of the league to follow suit.
Source

BBB Geeky Novelties

CBS has posted STTOS, MacGyver episodes and other classics over on cbs.com .. when you get a hankerin' for tribbles in their original form or to visit the S.S. Botany Bay, surf on over to see the classics.

Today in History - 1345

According to scholars at the University of Paris, the Black Death is created on this day from what they call "a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius, occurring on the 20th of March 1345". The Black Death, also known as the Plague, swept across Europe, the Middle East and Asia during the 14th century, leaving an estimated 25 million dead in its wake.

Despite what these scholars claimed, it is now known that bubonic plague, the most common ailment known as the Black Death, is caused by the yersinia pestis bacterium. The plague was carried by fleas that usually traveled on rats, but jumped off to other mammals when the rat died. It most likely first appeared in humans in Mongolia around 1320.

News from all over - Tokyo

Japan has created an unusual government post to promote animation, and named a perfect figure Wednesday to the position: a popular cartoon robot cat named Doraemon.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura appointed the cat an "anime ambassador," handing a human-sized Doraemon doll an official certificate at an inauguration ceremony, along with dozens of "dorayaki" red bean pancakes — his favorite dessert — piled on a huge plate.

Komura told the doll, with an unidentified person inside, that he hoped he would widely promote Japanese animated cartoons, or "anime." "Doraemon, I hope you will travel around the world as an anime ambassador to deepen people's understanding of Japan so they will become friends with Japan," Komura told the blue-and-white cat.
Source

So Now You Know

On 22 April 2002, on the special issue of Asian Hero in TIME Magazine, Doraemon was selected as one of the 22 Asian Heroes. Being the only cartoon character selected, Doraemon was described as "The Cuddliest Hero in Asia".

BBB Swell Site - Faces in Places

Some tell me my meds may need adjustment when I start seeing faces in unusual places or voices others don't always hear. But I say, it's just a matter of time before such things get blogged. And so it is.

News from all over - Lambertville

A Monroe County sheriff's detective on a stakeout to catch an arsonist arrested the suspect as he tried to steal gas from the officer's cruiser. Officers were placed around homes currently under construction after police had gotten two arson complaints within the past week.

Several officers, including Detective Thomas Redmond, watched the 17-year-old walk away from his Lambertville home early Sunday carrying a bucket before he approached Redmond's unmarked vehicle. Police say the teen unscrewed the gas cap and started siphoning the fuel before Redmond got out of the car and chased him.

Authorities say the teen later admitted to the two arsons as well as three other arsons in 2006.
Source

Today in History - 1776

Today is St. Joseph's Day, the day that the swallows traditionally return to the Mission San Juan Capistrano in California. Every March 19th since 1776 (with very few exceptions), the birds come back to usher in spring in this Southern California seaside town. They stay until their fall migration which starts around October 23rd, St. John's Day).

So Now You Know

Villa Ventana, in the Province of Buenos Aires, along with Goya, in the Province of Corrientes, are destinations preferred by the cliff swallows that return to Capistrano this time of year. This has encouraged the local settlers and neighbor associations to build several monuments as a tribute to these beautiful birds.

In the case of Villa Ventana, the monument to honor the swallows lies at the entrance of the city, next to the provincial route which joins it with Sierra de la Ventana. In the case of Goya, the monument lies on the banks of the Paraná River, where the species nests every year.

The Indians that populated these mountains in the nineteenth century gave it the Mapuche name of “pilmayquen”, which means “spring bird” or “flowering period bird”, as in the southern hemisphere this is the season when everything blooms again and the harvest begins.

Villa Ventana is bordered by the Belisario and Las Piedras Creeks. Thousands of swallows may be watched as they feed on small insects hatching over the surface of both water courses. These insects are part of the diet that gives them back their strength in order to continue with the long journey commanded by their instinct.

They travel 13 thousand kilometers in each migratory flight and each swallow can experience almost ten flights during their lifetime.

BBB Etymology - Pipe down

The pipe in question was the boatswain's pipe, a small whistle-like device used by the boatswain (the petty officer in charge of the deck) to communicate orders to the crew via different arrangements of notes. When the boatswain "piped down" aboard ship, he blew the signal for the crew to retire from their tasks or formation and return to their quarters belowdecks. Since the deck would become suddenly quiet when the crew retired, "pipe down" came to be used as nautical slang for "be quiet" or "shut up," and by the end of the 19th century it had percolated out into its modern non-seafaring usage.

News from all over - Chesapeake

Two sisters from Virginia are selling a single corn flake shaped like the state of Illinois on the online auction site eBay, with the bidding topping out at $1,525 Monday afternoon.

Twenty-three-year-old Melissa McIntire of Chesapeake, Virginia, says as of now the family is keeping the flake wrapped in cotton in a jewelry box. McIntire's sister, 15-year-old Emily McIntire, pulled the flake from a box of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.

The sisters promise the flake "has undergone no alterations" to its shape. The listing promises free shipping to Illinois and the girls say they'll use the money earned from the winning bidder to buy more Frosted Flakes.
Source with flakey goodness and video

Today in History - 1852

In New York City, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo join with several other investors to launch their namesake business. The discovery of gold in California in 1849 prompted a huge spike in the demand for cross-country shipping. Wells and Fargo decided to take advantage of these great opportunities. In July 1852, their company shipped its first loads of freight from the East Coast to mining camps scattered around northern California. The company contracted with independent stagecoach companies to provide the fastest possible transportation and delivery of gold dust, important documents and other valuable freight. It also served as a bank--buying gold dust, selling paper bank drafts and providing loans to help fuel California's growing economy.

Quotable Quote

Every Wells Fargo man can help check the American habit of wastefulness … by practicing economy in the use of supplies himself and by urging others to do so. It does not mean doing without what you actually need, but getting the largest use of everything that passes through your hands … Let us all remember that the elimination of waste means economy of a sort that counts not only for the company, but for the country as a whole.
-A.G. Brandenburg, Wells Fargo General Supply Agent, 1917

BBB Pulp Pick - Black Terror

This cover has it all ... tiger, blond, sword wielding bearded guys in turbans, guy in green suit with pistol, skulls and cross bones, a sidekick .. well, you can work to sort it out. Kind of an Indy adventure gone awry.

News from all over - Hamm

A lorry driver from Germany escaped a rap for driving while using a mobile phone - after claiming he was using it as an ear warmer. A court in Hamm accepted Walter Klein's claims that he had been using the phone, which was warm, after being recharged to warm his ears. It means he had not broken the law which says drivers can only make phone calls with a hands free set.

"I had an earache and it was being made worse because the cab had not heated up yet - it takes a while on a big rig," Klein, 43, told the court. "So I grabbed the phone that had been on charge and put it to my ear, and that was when I was stopped by police."

Source

Today in History - 1907

Dennis J. Sweeney, a bowling proprietor and sports writer, received permission to hold a national women's tournament on the ABC Tournament lanes and America's first bowling tournament for ladies began in St. Louis, MO. Almost 100 women participated.

So Now You Know

The White House Bowling Alley is a one-lane affair in the basement of the White House under the North Portico.

Bowling lanes were first built in the ground floor of the West Wing as a birthday gift for President Truman in 1947 (in the location of the present-day Situation Room); Truman didn't care for bowling himself, but allowed staff to start a league. These were moved to the Old Executive Office Building in 1955 to make way for a mimeograph room.

In 1969, President and Mrs. Nixon, both avid bowlers, had a new one-lane alley built (paid for by friends) in an underground workspace area below the driveway leading to the North Portico.

BBB Destination - San Jose

In 1884, a wealthy widow named Sarah L. Winchester began a project of such magnitude that it was to occupy the lives of carpenters and craftsmen until her death thirty-eight years later. The Victorian mansion, designed and built by the Winchester Rifle heiress, is filled with so many unexplained oddities, that it has come to be known as the Winchester Mystery House.

Sarah Winchester built a home that is an architectural marvel. Unlike most homes of its era, this 160-room Victorian mansion had modern heating and sewer systems, gas lights that operated by pressing a button, three working elevators, and 47 fireplaces. From rambling roofs and exquisite hand inlaid parquet floors to the gold and silver chandeliers and Tiffany art glass windows.

News from all over - Addis Ababa

An Ethiopian farmer who stashed his life savings of more than 12,000 dollars in a haystack has lost almost one-third of the deposit to rats who gnawed it away, state media said Thursday.

The 52-year-old farmer from central Ethiopia, whose name was not given, preferred the straw pile for fear of losing his riches in case fire broke out in his house.

"Some 35,000 (3,804 dollars) of the 114,000 birr (12,391 dollars) which was hidden by a farmer in hay near his house ... was devoured by rats," the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported.

ENA said the man, who spurned repeated advice to use a bank instead, found out three weeks after he deposited the cash that he had lost part of it to the stealthy vermins.
Source

Today in History - 1958

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the first gold record. It was Perry Como's Catch a Falling Star. The tune became the first to win million-seller certification, though other songs dating as far back as the 1920s may have sold a million records or more. Due to lack of a certification organization like the RIAA, they weren't awarded the golden platter.

The next three certified gold records were He's Got the Whole World in His Hands by Laurie London, Patricia, an instrumental by Perez Prado and Hard Headed Woman by Elvis Presley. The first gold-album certification went to the soundtrack of the motion picture, Oklahoma!, featuring Gordon MacRae.

So Now You Know

The Winchester House has 1,257 window frames with approximately 10,000 panes. There would have been more but the 1906 earthquake reduced the number of floors from seven to four.

BBB Geeky Novelties

Print, cut, fold, insert Tab A into Slot B, tape ... these are things you could be doing this very evening after visiting the Readymech site and selecting your next fun project. Who can resist a cute kitty, zombie or pirate?

News from all over - Boston and beyond

Jeff Deck of Boston had seen a lot of misspellings on signs around his city, and one day he decided he just couldn't take it anymore.

Deck cobbled together the Typo Eradication Advancement League and set off on a nationwide quest to repair the mistakes by any means necessary, including chalk and adhesive letters. For the next three months, the four team members will travel highways and byways wielding the red pen of justice and blogging their exploits.

Typos have been a passion of Deck's since he won a few spelling bees in junior high school. As TEAL makes its way around America, Deck expects to find endless examples of the lowly apostrophe being misused. "It seems that a lot of errors revolve around the apostrophe, that eternally misunderstood punctuation mark," he says.

Deck even found a misspelling on his doctor's business cards — which read "referal" instead of "referral." He mentioned it to the clerk, saying, "There's no way this is going to get fixed, is there?" And indeed, there was not.
Source

Today in History - 1930

Observations of Neptune in the late 19th century caused astronomers to speculate that Uranus' orbit was being disturbed by another planet in addition to Neptune. In 1905, Percival Lowell, a wealthy Bostonian who had founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1894, started an extensive project in search of a possible ninth planet, which he termed "Planet X".

In 1929, the observatory's director, Vesto Melvin Slipher, handed the job of locating Planet X to Clyde Tombaugh, a 22-year-old Kansas farm boy who had only just arrived at the Lowell Observatory after Slipher had been impressed by a sample of his astronomical drawings.

Tombaugh's task was systematically to image the night sky in pairs of photographs taken two weeks apart, then examine each pair and determine whether any objects had shifted position. Using a machine called a blink comparator, he rapidly shifted back and forth between views of each of the plates, to create the illusion of movement of any objects that had changed position or appearance between photographs. On February 18, 1930, after nearly a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered a possible moving object on photographic plates taken on January 23 and January 29 of that year. A lesser-quality photograph taken on January 20 helped confirm the movement. Tombaugh walked into Slipher's office and declared, "Doctor Slipher, I have found your Planet X."

After the observatory obtained further confirmatory photographs, news of the discovery was telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory on March 13, 1930. The new object would later be found on photographs dating back to March 19, 1915.
It's name? Check out today's "So now you know" entry.

So Now You Know

A name for Planet X (discovered on this date in 1930) was first suggested by Venetia Burney, an eleven-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England. Venetia was interested in classical mythology as well as astronomy, and considered the name, one of the alternate names of Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld, appropriate for such a presumably dark and cold world. She suggested it in a conversation with her grandfather Falconer Madan, a former librarian of Oxford University's Bodleian Library. Madan passed the name to Professor Herbert Hall Turner, who then cabled it to colleagues in America.

Planet X was officially named "Pluto" on March 24, 1930. Each member of the Lowell Observatory was allowed to vote on a short-list of three: "Minerva" (which was already the name for an asteroid), "Cronus" (which had garnered a bad reputation after being suggested by an unpopular astronomer named Thomas Jefferson Jackson See), and Pluto. Pluto received every vote. The name was announced on May 1, 1930. Upon the announcement, Madan gave Venetia five pounds as a reward.

BBB Swell Site

As Wired reported back in '06, "Inspired by a steampunk aesthetic and artists such as Hayao Miyazaki, I-Wei Huang has created a small army of robots that run on steam power. An animator and character designer by trade, Huang has made his two-dimensional fantasies a reality." Check out his Crabfu Steamworks site.

News from all over - Tornado

A talk held last night described the work of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust who are now approaching the completion of the first brand-new main-line steam locomotive constructed in the UK for more than 45 years.

The locomotive is being built in Darlington as the 50th in the class – all the 49 built by British Railways having been scrapped – using the original design as the basis but with modern materials and techniques as appropriate.

Whilst the organisation and funding of The Trust will be covered the emphasis will be on the construction of the locomotive showing the various stages in the manufacture and also some of the problems encountered.

Today in History - 1755

The first reported use of the steam engine was made -- in North Arlington, NJ. The Newcomen steam engine was imported from England by John Schuyler to pump water out of his copper mine.

Quotable Quote

When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman. We had transient ambitions of other sorts, but they were only transient. When a circus came and went, it left us all burning to become clowns; the first negro minstrel show that came to our section left us all suffering to try that kind of life; now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. These ambitions faded out, each in its turn; but the ambition to be a steamboatman always remained.
- Mark Twain (Life on the Mississippi)

BBB Etymology - In the pink

A pink is a popular garden flower. Shakespeare was the first to use it as a metaphor for a perfect embodiment of a particular quality: 'I am the very pink of courtesy', says Mercutio playfully. The image was copied and spread, most notably in 'the pink of [good] condition', of which the current expression is a shortened version.

News from all over - Brunswick

Commissioners in the city of Brunswick have passed an ordinance designed to stop people from firing guns to celebrate holidays such as New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July. The law passed Wednesday makes it a misdemeanor to fire a gun or other weapon within the city limits.

Commissioner James Brooks sponsored the measure and says it's designed to "protect innocent bystanders." He says it also should ensure people's right to watch television. This past New Year's Eve, Brooks says he lost TV reception during gunfire and later learned someone had shot up his cable box.
Source

Today in History - 1888

The Great Blizzard of 1888 (March 11 – March 14, 1888) was one of the most severe blizzards in United States recorded history. Snowfalls of 40-50 inches (102-127 cm) fell in parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and sustained winds of over 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) produced snowdrifts in excess of 50 feet (15.2 m). Railroads were shut down and people were confined to their houses for up to a week.

Quotable Quote

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
-John Ruskin

BBB Pulp Pick - More about method

Today's mag cover is another Rockwellan beauty symbolizing summer/spring.

But that's not the real story. The cool news is how I found it. A recent New York Times article highlighted PicLens, a whole new way of looking at photos. Often I stumble around in Google Images ...



but wouldn't it be cool to see them on a 3D gallery wall of pictures?



PicLens is reminiscent of Apple's Cover Flow in design and seems to be one way the future is shaping up. I used PicLens with FireFox and Google Images but there are several options for both PC and Mac.
It's not all whiskers on kittens, though. For example, I wasn't able to find an easy way to copy the image directly to the clipboard. It'll come, I'm sure.

News from all over - Beijing

China will launch "the most luxurious train in the world" to ply the route from Beijing to Tibet's capital, Lhasa, it was reported overnight. A ride on the train, which will begin operations on September 1, will be about 20 times more expensive than the ordinary fare of about 2000 yuan or $US280 ($300), Xinhua news agency said.

"The interior of the train will be decorated according to the standards of a five-star hotel, making it the most luxurious train in the world," said Zhu Mingrui, general manager of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corporation.

There will be three trains, which will head from Beijing to Lhasa every eight days. The luxury journey will take five days. Each train will have 12 passenger cars, two dining cars and a sightseeing car. Each passenger car will have four 10-square-metre suites featuring a double bed, a living room and bathing facilities.

The train line to the Himalayan "roof of the world" went into operation in July 2006. Chinese authorities see the 1142km railway as an important tool in modernising and developing Tibet, which has been part of China since its troops occupied the region in 1950. However, critics say the line is allowing the Han Chinese, the national majority, to flood into Tibet, leading to the devastation of the local culture as well accelerating environmental degradation of the region.
Source

Today in History - 1913

William Knox rolled the first perfect 300 game in tournament competition at the American Bowling Congress tournament held in Toledo, OH.

So Now You Know

Thales of Miletus (ca. 624-546 BCE), the first Western philosopher, set the standard for absentminded professors to come. Lost in thought, gazing at the sky, Thales fell into a well.

BBB Destination - Louisville

The BBB has headed to Louisville before to brag on the local cuisine; this time it's all about that American favorite, the Cheeseburger. Kaelin's Restaurant claims to have started it all back in 1934. To hear them tell it ...

One day, [Carl Kaelin] was in the kitchen and his thoughts turned to the American cheese they kept on hand. Suddenly, it occurred to him that if he put a slice of cheese on top of a hamburger patty just before it was done, the cheese would melt down into the patty and adds a new tang to the hamburger. He tried it and it was an instant success! Carl christened his new culinary delight the “cheeseburger”. It’s popularity spread nationwide.

Not only that, their menu sports fried pickles. I gotta get to this place!

Today in History - 1854

Charles Miller received a patent for the sewing machine that stitches buttonholes,

News from all over - London

Padded lampposts are being trialled in a London street to protect inattentive pedestrians. A pilot scheme has been launched in Brick Lane after it was found to have the highest number of 'walking and texting' injuries in the country.

A study found one in ten people has hurt themselves while focused on their mobile phone screen. The charity Living Streets is so concerned that it has teamed up with the directory enquiries service to test a scheme to wrap up the nation's lampposts.

A poll will be carried out on Brick Lane to gauge the response of locals. If successful, the concept will be rolled out in Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool.
Source

Quotable Quote

When I walk with you I feel as if I had a flower in my buttonhole.
-William Makepeace Thackeray

BBB Geeky Novelty

Thanks and a tip of the BBB hat to Shawn.

Today in History - 1948

After much mystery and hoopla on the Truth or Consequences radio show (and $1.75 million donated by millions of Americans to the American Heart Association) it was revealed that "The Walking Man" was none other than Jack Benny. You can enjoy Jack, Mary, Dennis and Don talk about it on his show.
Requires Real Player

News from all over - Fort Wayne

A review panel has upheld the firing of an Allen County employee for accepting cookies instead of $5 cash for copies of a divorce decree.

Starnes and a co-worker, Janet Niccum, were fired in December after an internal investigation showed they accepted the cookies from a bakery owner in payment for the photocopies. A third employee, Martha Hamblin, received a written reprimand.

"Two people lost their jobs because of it," he said. "It's a little ridiculous." Brown told the panel that Starnes used his position with the clerk's records management office for personal gain and violated the public trust. "We have a responsibility by law to collect for copies," Brown said.
Source

So Now You Know

During his early radio shows, Benny adopted a medley of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Love in Bloom" as his theme music, opening every show. The strange interpolation of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" seems to have been an inside joke at Benny's expense: Jack Warner of Warner Brothers had once promised to cast Jack Benny in the film "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (which didn't happen). "Love in Bloom" later became the theme of his television show as well.

BBB Swell Site

One of my favorite visuals in Warner Bros cartoons are the signature Acme products. And here we have a site that catalogs them with picture goodness.

When using an Acme product, what could possibly go wrong?

News from all over - Lincolnshire

A Lake Villa man hopped in his Piper Clipper airplane Saturday, breezed above the congested roads and landed at a golf course across a highway from the tennis club, where skis on the
On Monday, Kadera, an electrical engineer and Navy veteran, disassembled the plane at Ernie's so that he could transport it home.

Kadera's son, Isaac, a sophomore at Carmel High School in Mundelein, was on his way Monday afternoon to try out for the junior-varsity tennis team. He said by phone that on Saturday he was running late for a tennis date with a friend at The Lincolnshire Club, which is across the road from the Marriott resort.

He was scheduled to meet his friend at 2 p.m. and was running late when his dad came up with a suggestion: Rather than taking 45 minutes to drive from their Lake Villa home, the pair could fly in the family's 1949 Clipper and make it in 10 to 15 minutes, Isaac said.

His father, who has about 40 years flying experience, had outfitted the plane with skis. Kadera said he had quick access to the plane because he has parked it this winter on frozen Deep Lake, near their home.

Issac never made it to his match, and without his friend's cell number, was unable to tell him why. At school Monday, friends treated the tale of a plane landing on a golf course and subsequent police action as an outlandish excuse, he said. "I left my friend hanging," Isaac said. "He still doesn't believe me when I told him why."
Source

Today in History - 1922

Annie Oakley broke all existing records for women's trap shooting. She smashed 98 out of 100 clay targets thrown at 16 yards while at a match at the Pinehurst Gun Club in North Carolina. She hit the first fifty, missed the 51st, then the 67th. She was sixty-two at the time.

On another day, she took a .22 rifle and hit 4,772 glass balls out of 5,000 tossed in the air. She could hit a playing card from 90 feet puncturing it at least five times before it hit the ground. It was this display that named free tickets with holes punched in them, Annie Oakleys.

So Now You Know

During the spring of 1881, the Baughman and Butler shooting act was being performed in Cincinnati. Traveling show marksman and former dog trainer Francis "Frank" E. Butler, an Irish immigrant, placed a $100 bet ($2,000 adjusted for inflation) with Cincinnati hotel owner Jack Frost, that Frank, age 31, could beat any local fancy shooter. The hotelier arranged a shooting match with Annie Oakley, age 21, to be held in ten days in a small town near Greenville, Ohio. After missing his 25th shot, Frank lost the match and the bet. Frank began courting Annie, and they married on June 20, 1882.

Frank was so crushed by Annie's death in 1926 that he stopped eating. He died just 18 days later.

This just in ...

English marine experts have laid their hands on an octopus that's missing two of its own: a six-limbed creature that they have dubbed 'hexapus.' Ordinarily, octopodes have eight arms and legs. And should they lose one or more in an accident, they can grow the limbs back.

"If you look closer between the legs, there's webbing that attaches each of the arms together," John Filmer of the Sea Life Centre. "You'd assume if he'd lost one of his legs in an accident, there would be space for an arm to grow back. "But there's no space for two extra legs to grow back. That's just how he is."

Staffers called others zoos and aquariums and scoured the Internet to see if there were records of similar creatures. "No one has ever heard of another case of a six-legged octopus," said display superviser Carey Duckhouse.

They named him 'Henry' because it alliterated well with 'hexapus.' "It has also been mentioned in the grapevine that he was named after King Henry the VIII who had six wives when he should have had eight," Filmer, the centre's marketing director, said.

Until Henry, the most famous six-legged octopus was one that appeared in a 1955 B-movie, 'It Came From Beneath The Sea.'
Source and musical tribute by woot!:

BBB Etymology - Over a barrel

This expression comes from an early form of inquisition which involved holding someone over a barrel of boiling oil where the alternatives for the victim are to agree to demands or be dropped in the barrel. Other instances are recorded of a person being placed on or rolled over a barrel as a humiliating punishment. One case was that of a student hazing at a college in Ohio, reported in the Frederick Daily News in Maryland in 1886.

Today in History - 1954

The first successful human organ transplant, a kidney transplanted from one identical twin to another, was accomplished at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Joseph Murray, MD, received the Nobel Prize in 1990 for this work and the subsequent development of immunosuppressive drugs.

So Now You Know

In 2003, 15,137 kidney transplants were performed in the United States, more than all other countries combined.

News from all over - Napoli

A life-size chocolate model of a Ferrari Formula 1 car has been unveiled in Italy. A life-size F1 car has been made out of chocolate for a Ferrari owners club party in Italy /Europics

Confectioners spent more than a year making the car out of 4,405lbs of Belgian chocolate. It has now been delivered to Sorrento, near Naples, where it will be the centrepiece of a Ferrari owners club party.

Luigi Liberti, president of the Scuderia Ferrari Club Napoli, said: "It will go on display and then will be smashed up with hammers and handed out to party guests - they will be given bits of the car to take home in a special bag."

The £12,000 chocolate Ferrari is based on an F2008, and has a red, edible coating. Liberti added: "The project started one year ago, just for fun, but then the Club Pasticceri Italiani started to get really enthusiastic and eventually it became a life-sized model.

"They started melting the chocolate in 2007, at first copying a small-scale model of the Ferrari F2008, then getting the full scale model done using chocolate imported especially from Belgium."
Source

BBB Pulp Pick - Mechanix Illustrated

Another segment of what might have been but never was.

This is what they promised us ... flying cars, personalized ash trays and easy to build book cases ... where are the flying cars? I've cleared a space in the backyard and everything.

Today in History - 1931

Cab Calloway and his orchestra recorded Minnie the Moocher on Brunswick Records. It was the first recording of the famous bandleader's theme song.

News from all over - Bethel

The world's tallest snowman, er "snowwoman" towers over this village featuring eyelashes created from discarded skis and bright red lips made from painted car tires. She wears a giant red hat and a 100-foot-long scarf, and her blond tresses are made from rope. She gets a little bling from a snowflake pendant that's 6 feet long.

"She's a beauty. Gotta love those eyelashes," said Robin Zinchuk, executive director of the local chamber of commerce and a chief instigator of the town's offbeat project. With the temperature in single digits, several hundred people, including busloads of schoolchildren, turned out for Friday's dedication of the 122-foot-tall mountain of snow.

It took more than a month, dozens of volunteers and tons of snow to create Olympia. Jim Sysko, a civil engineer, oversaw design and construction. To get an idea of scale, Olympia is about 30 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty (without the base). Her arms consist of 27-foot-tall evergreens. Her "carrot" nose, painted by schoolchildren, is 8 feet long. Her eyes are made from giant wreaths.
Source

So Now You Know

Reportedly, Sweden's Queen Christina (queen from 1632 to 1654) commissioned the construction of a tiny, one-inch-long cannon, that was packed with a tiny flea-sized cannonball. Whenever she spotted a flea, she fired. Not to mention her flea executions via a miniature cross bow and tiny arrows.