Hump day

The year 2005 passes the mid-way mark today at 1PM (noon if you’re not on daylight time). Today is the 183rd day of the year.

Gettysburg, Day 2

On July 2, 1863, the lines of the Battle of Gettysburg, now in its second day, were drawn in two sweeping parallel arcs. The Confederate and Union armies faced each other a mile apart. The Union forces extending along Cemetery Ridge to Culp’s Hill, formed the shape of a fish-hook, and the Confederate forces were spread along Seminary Ridge.

[Map from PBS]

General Robert E. Lee ordered General James Longstreet to attack the Union’s southern flank, aiming for the hills at the southernmost end of Cemetery Ridge. These hills, known as the Little Round Top and Big Round Top had been left unoccupied, and would have afforded the Confederates a good vantage point from which to ravage the Union line.

General Longstreet, disagreeing with Lee’s orders, and hoping that the cavalry under the command of General J.E.B. Stuart would soon come up with the army to participate in the attack, was slow to advance on the hills.

Although Longstreet’s soldiers broke through to the base of the Little Round Top, Union General G. K. Warren perceived the Confederate plan in time to rouse his men to take the strategic hill, fending off the Confederate attack.

General Lee had also commanded General R.S. Ewell to attack the northernmost flank of the Union Army. On one occasion Ewell’s troops took possession of a slope of Culp’s Hill, but the Union remained entrenched both there and on Cemetery Ridge, where General Meade was headquartered.

Library of Congress

Today, July 2

It’s the date on which the Continental Congress approved a resolution declaring independence (1776) — the Declaration of Independence stating the reasons was approved two days later.

It’s the date on which the second day of battle was fought at Gettysburg (1863).

It’s the date on which Charles J. Guiteau assassinated President James A. Garfield (1881).

It’s the date on which Thurgood Marshall was born (1908).

It’s the date on which the Air Force says a weather balloon crashed near Roswell, New Mexico (1947).

It’s the date on which Ernest Hemingway committed suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho (1961).

It’s the day Luci Baines Johnson, the younger daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, turns 58.

Larry David turns 58 today as well.

Lindsay Lohan is 19.

Coke Zero

Basically, Coke Zero starts with the cola formula of Coke Classic and uses aspartame and acesulfame potassium as the sweetener instead of sugar. Sounds like a sure winner to me.

Diet Coke, the world’s No. 1 diet cola, uses a formula more similar to New Coke (remember that wrong turn?), which is really old forgotten Coke since they trash-canned New Coke nearly two decades ago.

Which raises the question, why has it taken Coke so long to make a diet version of Coke Classic? Who’s making the decisions at Coke … a California jury?

Trying to understand Coke logic means getting into the mind of corporate America, and you don’t want to go there. If you’re a Classic Coke fan and looking for a diet drink, just be happy they’ve stumbled on Coke Zero. Don’t ask questions.

Coke Zero has no bitter aftertaste that some drinkers find with diet colas. Some taste-testers noticed a distinctly cinnamon tinge to Coke Zero, but frankly, it tasted like a regular Coke to me.

Ken Hoffman, Houston Chronicle