The first recorded planting of potatoes in Idaho in an area where the settlers remained and the crop is still grown to some extent today was in the summer of 1860 by William Goforth Nelson. This planting was accomplished three years before the Idaho Territory was organized. Nelson wrote, “We all camped in our wagons the first summer, but we all got homes built by winter; these houses were built in the present meetinghouse lot in a fort. I spent the summer working on ditches, canton roads, and hauling poles and wood from the canyon. I raised thirty-three bushels of potatoes, which is all that was raised in Franklin that summer except for a few onions.”
In play: When the Montana Territory was being formed, the Idaho Territory wanted the border to be along the the Continental Divide while Montana wanted it to be along the Bitterroot Range. Sidney Edgerton went to President Lincoln and lobbied on behalf of Montana and so they got their choice of boundary.
The Bitterroot Mountains presented an unexpected, formidable obstacle to Lewis and Clark during their expedition westward, and ended their expectation of finding a “Northwest Passage” giving an easy connection from the Atlantic watershed to that of the Pacific.
For Lewis and Clark, the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana and Idaho were the highest elevation challenge they faced on their westbound journey towards the Pacific Ocean.
On 12 Aug 1806 they crossed the 7,373’ high Lemhi Pass. It was the highest elevation that Lewis and Clark faced on their westbound journey. Today, Lemhi Pass lies on the western state border of Montana, with Idaho. It lies near Lemhi ID and Grant MT. On that same day, ¾ mile down the western slope of Lemhi Pass, Meriwether Lewis first tasted the waters of the great Columbia River.
“all-dressed” sort of rhymes with and uses the last four letters of the word “distress”, is about all I could come up with.
IN PLAY:
‘Meriwether’ is a name derived from Middle English, meaning “merry weather” or “happy weather” (possibly a synonym for ‘good weather’ or fair weather’?), and has been used as both a given name (in this example) and a surname, as in the name of Elizabeth Avery Meriwether (1824-1916), an American author, publisher, and activist in the women’s suffrage movement
Lee Meriwether won the Miss America pageant in 1955; she then went on to become an actress. primarily on television. She portrayed the villainous Catwoman in the 1966 Batman movie (replacing Julie Newmar in the role), co-starred with Buddy Ebsen in the 1970s crime drama Barnaby Jones, and had a recurring role on the soap opera All My Children.
The first pageant called ‘Miss America’ took place on September 8, 1921, in Atlantic City. The nine contestants were winners of local pageants in various Eastern cities. One of the two finalists was disqualified when it was discovered that she was married, an actress, and a friend of the chief judge. The winner was 16-year-old Margaret Gorman from Washington, D.C. Gorman won $100.00.
Bert Parks was the most familiar face of the Miss America contests, hosting it for 24 years from 1955 to 1979. Prior to that his living was made mostly from hosting TV game shows. Parks always finished off the pageant by singing “There She Is, Miss America”, a song written specifically for the beauty contest by Bernie Wayne.
The plot of the 1990 film The Freshman centers on an underground club where wealthy patrons enjoy dining on exotic and endangered animals. In the film, Bert Parks plays the club’s emcee, who introduces the featured entree (a komodo dragon) by singing the song “There She Is,” with modified lyrics.
Komodo dragons are apex predators, and dominate the ecosystems in which they live: the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang. Komodo dragons hunt and ambush prey, mostly birds and other invertebrates, but have been known to attack larger mammals. Komodo dragons largely shun human interaction, and have a venomous bite that produces rapid swelling, localized disruption of blood clotting, and shooting pain, with some symptoms lasting for several hours.
The Komodo Islands, together with the Komodo National Park, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The islands are part of the Nusa Tenggara Islands archipelago, or aka the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. The Komodo Islands are one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, which are:
Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa
The Amazon River and Rainforest, Brazil
Iguazú Falls, Argentina
Jeju Island, South Korea
Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, Palawan, Philippines
Actor Adam Driver had applied for admission to the Juillard School, to study drama after graduating from high school, but wasn’t accepted. He then joined the U.S. Marine Corps shortly after the September 11th attacks; he served in the Marines as a mortar man. Driver received a medical discharge from the Marines after breaking his sternum in a bicycling accident – after his discharge, he applied to Julliard again, and was accepted.
As a result of his own experience, Adam Driver created a venue for veterans who aspire to become actors. He founded Arts in the Armed Forces, a non-profit that provides free arts programming to US active-duty service members, veterans, military support staff and their families worldwide.
Sam Driver is an attorney appearing in Judge Parker, an American soap opera-style comic strip created by Nicholas P. Dallis that first appeared on November 24, 1952. The strip’s look and content were influenced by Mary Worth. Since 1960, Driver has been the main character of the strip while the judge makes occasional appearances. (On February 15, 2009, the strip stated that the judge’s son Randy would be “the new Judge Parker.”)
