2013: dozens of dead third graders in Moore, Oklahoma.

First U.S. speeder caught on this date in 1899

Alexandra wrote:
Mt St Helens was one of my highlights of our trip last year, we went up to the eastern rim and had a great lecture from a Ranger. We had a chat and got talking about the guy who took those four famous 'photo's and survived to tell the tale.

Apparently he hangs out at the Rangers lodge a mile or two back down from the rim, and is always keen to chat. Sadly poor Nancy developed a nasty heat rash so we couldn't stop to say hello, which was a shame as seeing those pictures in the National Geographic all those years ago helped fuel my love of geography and geology.

This was from the edge of the area affected by the blast, with trees killed by the heat of the pyroclastic flow, but left standing - seventeen miles from the crater:

I bought a '59 Rambler Station Wagon that had been near the eruption. Every nook and cranny of that car was crammed with ash and small pieces of pumice. It even got into places that were pretty well sealed.

swell_sailor wrote:

The only time I actually went up there was in 1999 and I was really impressed with how much of Yellowstone had come back a decade after the fires and how desolate that place was nearly twenty years on. Might as well change the avatar too.

swell_sailor wrote:
Whoops, I meant 33!

Alexandra wrote:

I lived in southern California at the time, but my mom saved a leaf from a magnolia tree with ashes on it. Weird.

Alexandra wrote:

The math doesn't look right, but I remember it very well. I had to travel a couple of day later and my normal routes were closed.

I've ridden up there several times since. This is how it looks up there now.

2cats wrote:

Wow.

Alexandra wrote:

Some of the ashes made it all the way to Oklahoma.

33 years ago today, not too far from where I am now....




It's interesting to talk to people who lived here then, and how the whole region looked for days afterward with the ash and smoke and dark cloud hanging over.

This particular May 17th of which I speak is a lovely day indeed in Manhattan. And
this being 1792 and New York being the new capital of the new U.S., there are many
citizens out and about to catch the spring airs. And more than a few of them are
milling about a very popular joint, just off Wall Street, called the Merchants Coffee
House. Personally, I believe this establishment owes its popularity less to its famous
cheesecake (which is rather okay for NYC) and more to the beverage in its name.
For, while they actually do much of their beverage traffic in liquids other than coffee,
it is quite helpful, upon arriving home, to be able to declaim to "she who suspects
everything" that you have had a tough day at the Coffee House. (Somehow, even in
1792, "Honey, I had a tough day at the Ale House" smacks of underperformance.)
Another feature of this bistro is one that I particularly like. They have a table and
bench on the lawn, under a large Buttonwood Tree. So, I am headed there on this
particular morning for a flagon or two of "coffee".
However, before I can eyeball Priscilla to bring me the usual, I find 24 citizens around
this outdoor bench, which I fancy somewhat. These 2 dozen gents are folks of some
substance (both physically and financially) so I hold back a bit before claiming my
usual spot. It is then that I see that one of the 24 gents is a merchant and fellow
"coffee" drinker whom I know as "Verily, Verily". He gets this tag because this is
what he says whenever a client doubts his word. (This happens so frequently that he
repeats the phrase so often that whenever a citizen sees him, said citizen immediately
says - "Verily, Verily".)
Anyway, "Verily, Verily" says to me - "Art, do you have perhaps a spare $200 with
which to join this venture?" He then explains that each of these merchants puts up
$200 apiece to join something they will call "The New York Stock and Exchange
Board". "Verily, Verily" says the boys think this is a very good investment for several
reasons: 1) A guy named Napoleon Bonaparte was at this time making all European
Bonds as unpredictable as a turf race in a rainstorm; 2) Certain gents were making
plans for various ventures like canal companies and private turnpikes.
Well, these are nice thoughts indeed but personally even if I have $200 (a very unlikely
event), I do not see much vig in this Stock Exchange idea. "But" says "Verily, Verily",
"do not scoff, for a story goes with it" (over the years I learn this can often be a very
expensive sentence).
It seems these guys are onto a deal that a certain Alexander Hamilton has cooked up.
He wishes to change the large revolutionary debt into Publick Stock. The
aforementioned debt is such a palooka that many citizens shun these "Continentals"
as having very little value. In fact in graffiti school, kids are writing "Not worth a
Continental" on walls and such.
In further fact, this colonial money is so bad that almost all business is done using a
Viennese coin, somewhat like the Spanish "pieces of eight" (called "the Thaler" at
this time but with a NYC accent it is pronounced "dollar" and this is where this word
comes from. P.S. - said coin is cut like a pizza so you can break off an eighth or 12
1/2 cents. If you broke off 2 such "bits" you have a quarter - get it.)

Anyway, Hamilton is having difficulty getting the votes he needs to convert to Publick Stock. So he strikes a deal with a
certain Thomas Jefferson who wishes to move the U.S. capital to Virginia (to be closer to home). And to prove they were
honest, these two citizens decide to build said capital on some swampland owned by a gent named George Washington.
Anyway, the deal is struck and suddenly there is lots of Publick Stock to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Naturally, shy the $200, I miss out on the Buttonwood Agreement but I sign up shortly thereafter and am here since then.
Another day, I'll explain why they call it "a seat" when everybody stands up at the Stock Exchange.

hobiejoe wrote:



indeed, I had reflected. I'm not sue how many people died but it will have been a lot ( cnhecked, 1600 drowned apparently) . I always thought the point was that although it was all repaired within months that was because it was very important and the effort of making the repairs took focus away from other areas. You should ask Noenz for a different view on the accaeptability of what they did perhaps.

MrsHobieJoe wrote:

MrsHobieJoe wrote:

  hobiejoe wrote:  



damn, I was going to post this. Drew a tear when I heard a piece about it on the radio when I was driving home.



Are we twins?



Ah, no there's the musical taste thing. I'm listening to the Kooks!

Red_Dragon wrote:
That was the hook - I think that they go on to suggest that it might actually have been very effective, not just in the physical destruction of the dams and infrastucture downstream, but also in more subtle ways, such as the flooding of mine workings, the diversion of labour (and of course this would have been slave labour) from other projects and the interruption of carefully planned industrial processes - after all, the dams were providing power to the factories that produced the Tiger tanks and the Messerschmitts.

And the Nazi's would also be constantly wondering were else they might be hit.

I think, on balance, from a not very academic viewpoint, that the raids worked. But I'm also a romantic at heart.

hobiejoe wrote:
Yes, got sidetracked before I could read the BBC's article on that today. I think they were positing that it wasn't really all that damaging to the Germans.

The Dambusters raid.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ohio/obit-report-article.aspx?t=rockin-and-rollin-with-ricky-nelson&id=1338

um. I'm missing the linky thing.