Waiting for the bats in Austin, and I looked up to find I was on Willie Nelson Boulevard!
A star on the sidewalk in Hollywood is nice, I suppose. But how many recording or film artists get streets named after them in the capital city of their home state?
And, can you list that as a good reference on your sentencing report on a possession charge?
Part of Second Street will now bear the honorary name Willie Nelson Boulevard.
The City Council approved the change this morning as a tribute to the singer, who has lived in the Austin area nearly 40 years and sold more than 50 million records.
The city will install Willie Nelson Boulevard signs this summer at every block along Second Street from Trinity Street to San Antonio Street. The formal name, mailing addresses and street signs for Second Street will stay the same, but residents and businesses along the street will be able to receive mail using the Willie Nelson Boulevard address, said Mayor Lee Leffingwell, who proposed the idea.
A nonprofit group, Capital Area Statues, is raising money to put a full-size statue of Nelson on Second Street, in front of the new Austin City Limits studio. That nonprofit commissioned the sculpture and unveiled a smaller version of it earlier this month.
U.S. flag and Denali on an almost-clear day; Department of Interior photo, August 2012 – public domain
usinterior Tweeted, “Does it get any better than this?”
Denali, also known as Mt. McKinley, is the highest point in North America, 20,320 feet (6,194 m) above sea level. Measured base to peak, it’s the tallest mountain on land on Earth — Everest and other Himilayan peaks rise from a very high plateau. Denali is high enough that it makes its own weather. Finding a day when the mountain is not almost completely obscured by clouds is rare, locals say. Finding an almost-clear view, with blue sky in the background, is a cause for photographer excitement.
You’ll notice straight-line clouds in the sky — condensation trails from passenger jets. I wonder how many flights bend a little to get a better view of the mountain for passengers? Do big airlines even do that anymore?
Nice shot. I could learn to like Instagram with more photos of this quality.
Better, it would be nice to be there, taking these shots.
More, including the controversy over the mountain’s name:
What you see in this photo may depend on where you sit, or stand.
Aerial photo of Port Isaac, Cornwall, from Facebook, August 2012; attributed to Wimp.com
It’s a photo of a town in Cornwall, England: Port Isaac. Lovely photo, showing the verdant hills around the town where grains grow in some abundance (the town’s name means “corn port,” suggesting a thriving grain trade a millennium ago), sheep or other animals graze, and showing the port from which fishermen sail to bring in bounty from the oceans. The picturesque little town is popular among writers and other artists. It’s historic and quaint streets make a popular backdrop for television and film production — the popular BBC series “Doc Martin” films there.
Since some internet “cool stuff” site (Wimp.com? I can’t find it there) picked up the photo, it’s become popular around the internet and on Facebook. Generally the identifiers for the town get stripped away as the ‘net is wont to do. So conjecture pops up in comments:
Roscarrock Hill, Port Isaac The first house on the right is Fern Cottage, made famous as the house of Doc Martin, in the TV series of the same name. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Secret town, cut off from the rest of civilization?
Wasn’t that area once forested, and doesn’t the photo show the perils of deforestation for agricultural, or any other purposes? “Many moons ago before humanity it was beautifully covered with pristine forests full of life. It’s now a self-centred disaster brought by humanity…this pic is ugly !”
Isn’t it idyllic, and who wouldn’t want to live there? “This looks like Cornwalls beautiful rocky edge of the world,I just love the area and holiday there most years,maybe one day i will have saved enough to retire there ,it is truly a stunningly wonderful place to be come rain or shine.”
If only there were no people there! “our planet earth is still beautiful you just have to look at it from a distance.”
See how the town is sprawling into the pastures? See the dangers of (small-town) urban sprawl?
London is prettier.
You should see Ireland/Wales/Norway!
Ugly or beautiful — opinions differ depending on what the poster thinks it is, and what the poster thinks s/he knows about the place.
Perhaps its really a shot of Rohrshach, Norway . . .
Some days I need industrial quantities of industrial strength coffee. I was happy and excited to catch up to this truck in Illinois earlier this summer.
Alas, the truck carries gasoline, with just an advertisement for coffee . . . Pilot Truck Stops coffee truck, photo by Ed Darrell
You know the result: The “1203” hazardous cargo number means it’s gasoline, not coffee. What a cruel trick!
Fire hoop dance at the Kwahadi Indian Dancers event center in Amarillo, Texas, July 21, 2012. The dance troupe is off on a national tour over the next three weeks or so.
Venture Crew 9 in Amarillo, Texas, preserves traditional American Indian dances, and performs them literally around the world. Troop 355 from Duncanville, Texas, stopped off to visit and view the performance — just in time, because the troupe starts a national tour tomorrow.
The performances range from very good to spectacular. You ought to stop in Amarillo to see.
Dancers belong to a Scouting organization, either Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts — and they continue about a 50 year tradition at their museum and performance center, just off of I-40 in Amarillo.
Probably 200 Boy Scouts in the audience tonight.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Little towns in Kansas look like neutron bomb test sites. Especially on a Saturday afternoon, there are no people. Many of the buildings look as though they haven’t been occupied since Dwight Eisenhower was president.
But there’s a cafe in Scott, Kansas, about the intersection of U.S 40 and U.S. 83, that looks like a new business in an old building, the Road Kill Grill. It’s motto:
“Road Kill Grill: For diners with discerning tastes.”
This summer, the greatest sports event on Earth comes to London. And our best sportsmen and women have a once in a lifetime opportunity, to compete at the highest level with the whole country behind them. That’s why we’re asking the nation to join together, to give our athletes the greatest home advantage we can give them. It could be the difference in seconds and millimetres, turning silver into gold. This summer, there’s nowhere else in the world to be.
After the death of his daughter Mary, Fillmore went abroad. While touring Europe in 1855, Fillmore was offered an honoraryDoctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) degree by the University of Oxford. Fillmore turned down the honor, explaining that he had neither the “literary nor scientific attainment” to justify the degree.[22] He is also quoted as having explained that he “lacked the benefit of a classical education” and could not, therefore, understand the Latin text of the diploma, adding that he believed “no man should accept a degree he cannot read.”[9]
Tip of the small, folding travel scrub brush to Gil Brassard, believe it or not.
From the Deseret News: “Ben Lomond Peak towers above Ogden (Utah). The mountain is believed to have inspired the Paramount movie logo, below, in use since 1914. (Ravell Call, Deseret News)
It’s none of the above because one of Hollywood’s most familiar images — the famous Paramount Pictures logo — was inspired by Weber County’s Ben Lomond Peak.
As such, Ben Lomond — not even the highest summit in Weber County — may be the most famous mountain in the Beehive State.
The peak is given credit for prompting creation of the majestic but fictional mountain in the popular Paramount design, based on two histories of the motion-picture company.
According to Leslie Halliwell’s “Mountain of Dreams,” a biography of Paramount, founder William Hodkinson grew up in Ogden and the logo was “a memory of childhood in his home state of Utah.”
Compare it to the Paramount Pictures logo now:
Paramount Pictures logo
Teachers may want to hustle over to the Deseret News site to capture the story for classroom use — the online version includes a short set of slides of a hike to the top of the peak (it’s a climb most reasonably healthy people can make in a day – “reasonably healthy” to include acclimated to the altitude).
What other geographic features have become commercial logos? How do images of geography affect our culture?
For my money, I still like Timpanogos better, even if the Osmonds did use it.
This image of Mt. Ben Lomond looks more like the Paramount logo, some might say.
Into August, the U.S. Marine Corps puts on a Sunset Parade at the Iwo Jima Memorial, near Washington, D.C., each Tuesday evening. It’s one of those grand events that is free, but difficult to get into because it’s so popular.
For watching, many good seats on the hillside can be found. For perfect photos with the Memorial perfectly framed in the background, get there an hour early.
Well, not difficult to get in — difficult to get a good seat.
Who doesn’t love a parade?
Last Tuesday the parade opened with a selection of numbers from the Marines’ Drum and Bugle Corps (in red coats); they marched off to leave the field for the formal parade, but returned for the close.
The setting is spectacular for watching, with the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol in the background, the stirring statue from the iconic photo, and more men and women in uniform than you can or should shake a sabre at.
Bring your own chair or pad to sit on. We walked over from our hotel in Arlington. Lots of places to sit among the trees on the hillside to see, and a few thousand other people did the same. Most of them got there before we did.
Enjoy the show — someone else has probably snapped the perfect picture and you can get it on a postcard.
It was a large, respectful crowd out to watch the Marine Corps Sunset Parade at the Iwo Jima Marine Corps Memorial, June 19, 2012. Panorama photo by Ed Darrell. Click on photo for a larger version.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
For classroom purposes, I wish it didn’t include the names of each location as they go, but surely you can figure out some use for this in geography studies.
Matt hisse’f says:
The cities that didn’t make it into the final cut will be in the outtakes video that we’re putting up soon!
Professor Matthew Hay, the famous Scottish physician and public health champion, ” … assailed by the furies of typhoid, measles, influenza, whooping cough and scarlet fever,” the same furies that affect public health around the world, including Wenatchee, Washington (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Thinking about skipping the DPT shot for your kids?
EAST WENATCHEE — With 31 cases of whooping cough reported in Chelan and Douglas counties, health officials are saying the disease has reached epidemic proportions.
“People should be taking action to prevent it from getting worse by getting their Tdap shots, especially those people who are around infants,” said Mary Small, director of community health and preparedness at the Chelan-Douglas Health District. “Infants are at highest risk for death and hospitalization.”
The shots are for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, which is also known as whooping cough.
At last report, in early May, the two counties had a total of 22 cases this year. In 2009, there were no cases of pertussis in the two counties; in 2010, there was one case; and in 2011, there were two cases and one probable case, Small said.
You say your town isn’t as isolated as Wenatchee, Alaska? Then there are higher odds that some stray person with whooping cough will wander into your town. Your town is not as small as Wenatchee? Then the odds are higher that you’ve got enough uninoculated kids to make an epidemic spread quickly.
Vaccinate the kids, will you? They don’t need whooping cough.
Or, until that account is unsuspended by the forces supporting Donald Trump: Follow @FillmoreWhite, the account of the Millard Fillmore White House Library
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
