Day: June 8, 2006
Bound to make a big splash
More birthday cake, please
Able, or at least willing, to leap off of tall buildings
Sorry ladies, he’s only five
Info you can use
There is a speed trap on I-68 westbound as you approach Cumberland, Maryland. The limit decreses from 65 to 55 as you approach downhill. Repeat, downhill.
Written for 64 in a 55 zone. $70.
Freeway speed limit in Maryland: 65. Freeway speed limit in New Mexico: 75. I guess Maryland knows just how skillful its drivers are.
Ticket followed (within minutes) by flat tire. Probably got it while pulling over to get ticket. Talk about adding insult to injury.
Three tickets issued while we were there. It wasn’t about safety, or law enforcement. It was about revenue. 9am Sunday morning, good conditions, light traffic. Two cops with radar.
Around 9:03 am Wednesday
A peaceful memorial to a violent event.
The Oklahoma City National Memorial.
The stylistic chairs represent each of the 168 victims, including children, who lost their life at 9:03 am on April 19, 1995.
Lincoln slept here
Abraham Lincoln’s home (1844-1861) in Springfield, Illinois. Now a National Historic Site.
I must be in the front row
It looks to me like he’s taken too big of a lead off third. What do you think?
Cardinals vs. Reds Monday night in the new St. Louis ballpark. Photo taken from the top of the Gateway Arch.
OK, now what?
Some of my six or seven loyal readers tell me they care.
OK, prove it.
Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)
… was designated a national monument on this date in 1923. It became a national park in 1928.
Bryce Canyon, famous for its worldly unique geology, consists of a series of horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters carved from the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southern Utah. The erosional force of frost-wedging and the dissolving power of rainwater have shaped the colorful limestone rock of the Claron Formation into bizarre shapes including slot canyons, windows, fins, and spires called “hoodoos.”
Highlight of the trip
Herds of horses (twice) on Osage land in Oklahoma.
One occasionally sees a few horses, but it’s a rare treat to see scores of them.
Barbara Bush
… is 81 today. And they say the good die young.
Eddie Gaedel
… was born on this date in 1925. The 3-feet 7-inch Gaedel came to bat for the St. Louis Browns in 1951. He was, according to Browns owner Bill Veeck, “the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball.”
Read about Gaedel’s time at the plate, told as the first chapter of Veeck’s autobiography, Veeck as in Wreck — “When Eddie went into that crouch, his strike zone was just about visible to the naked eye. I picked up a ruler and measured it for posterity. It was 1½ inches. Marvelous.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
… was born on this date in 1867.
For more than 70 years, Frank Lloyd Wright showed his countrymen new ways to build their homes and see the world around them. He created some of the most monumental, and some of the most intimate spaces in America. He designed everything: banks and resorts, office buildings and churches, a filling station and a synagogue, a beer garden and an art museum.
PBS has a locator to the more than 60 Wright buildings open to the public. It includes building names, locations, photographs and maps.