SI is the abbreviation for “Système International d’unités”, commonly known as the metric system.
At one time France experimented with metric time
1 day = 10 hours
1 hour = 100 minutes
1 minute = 100 seconds
France also tried metric weeks of 10 days. Gives a new desperate meaning to the phrase “Working for the weekend.”
A liter of water weighs about a kilogram. As a comparison, a pint of water weighs about a pound.
The meter was defined to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator, through Paris.
An early patent for a parking meter was intended to operate on power from the battery of the parking vehicle and required a connection from the vehicle to the meter.
In the sport of baseball, the term “battery” is sometimes used to refer to the combination of a team’s pitcher and catcher.
The first use of the term in the context of the sport occurred the 1860s, by sportswriter Henry Chadwick, though his initial use was specifically in reference to a team’s set of pitchers; the term later evolved to refer to a pitcher and catcher as a unit, and the two positions are sometimes referred to as “batterymates.”
The American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial is a memorial in the Battery of Manhattan that includes a statue of several merchant marine sailors on a sinking ship. One of the sailors is in the bay and is covered by water at high tide.
The Marines’ Memorial Club and Hotel in San Francisco was created as a “living memorial” to Marine Corps casualties in the WWII Pacific Theater, as was proposed by the Marine Corps Commandant, General Alexander Vandegrift.
The club opened on 10 November 1946, the 171st anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps.
As noted, the Continental Marines, the precursor to the USMC, was founded on 10 November 1775. Their maiden expedition took place in February of 1776. The organization was disbanded after the Revolutionary War, but the USMC, along with the US Navy, was later created by Congress.
The Merchant Marines is a civilian group made up of mariners and their ships (both federally owned and privately owned) engaged in commerce.
The Secretaries Cup is an annual college football game between the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Both academies compete in NCAA Division III athletics.
The Secretaries Cup is an intense rivalry game for both schools. Though less well known than the Army–Navy Game, The Secretaries Cup is often described as a small-college version of that matchup. Since the Secretaries Cup was established in 1981, the Merchant Marine Academy leads 30–13.
The Coast Guard’s official song is “Semper Paratus”. The Merchant Marine’s official song is “Heave Ho!”
The U.S. Coast Guard lost more vessels on D-Day, June 6, 1944, than on any other day in its long and distinguished history. Fifteen USCG servicemembers were also killed. Semper Paratus!: D-Day
In the 1960s USCG Public Affairs* sought to raise awareness for themselves (as if “join the Coast Guard and avoid being drafted in the Army” wasn’t enough). They planned an event to honor Coast Guard veteran Gilbert Francis Lani Damian Kauhi, AKA Zulu, famous as Kono on Hawaii Five-O. Star Jack Lord found out and insisted he too be honored. Lord had himself faced danger in the Merchant Marine in WWII, but the Coast Guard nonetheless declined to co-honor him. Lord, by all accounts a jerk, demanded Zulu not participate if he himself couldn’t, and made a studio flunkie break the bad news to Zulu. Zulu didn’t take it well, and to his shame verbally abused the flunkie on the basis of his Jewishness. After the incident, Zulu’s career would be limited to performing as a lounge act in Hawaii.
*Coast Guard public affairs held their training at the joint-service Defense Information School, located at an Army base. Because of this the USCG permanent party billet was called “the Post Coastie.”
Golfer Arnold Palmer served in the US Coast Guard. So also did actors Cesar Romero, and Lloyd Bridges, and also Beau and Jeff Bridges. Bruce Melnick was the first Guardsman to be a NASA astronaut. He flew on the space shuttle Discovery in 1990, and on the maiden voyage of Endeavour in 1992. Daniel C. Burbank is the other Coast Guard astronaut.
The oldest commissioned Coast Guard cutter is USCGC Smilax.
Smilax is a climbing, flowering plant. It’s also called catbriers, greenbriers, and prickly-ivys.
Vines can be trailing or climbing plants. The Black-eyed Susan Vine is fast-growing and native to Eastern Africa. It is originally from East Africa and now is distributed almost world-wide. In the US it can be found in Florida and Texas, and it can be found in Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, South Africa, Portugal, Japan, New Zealand, Cerrado vegetation of Brazil, Argentina, Madagascar, India, Thailand and the Philippines.
The colloquial name “black-eyed Susan” is used in reference to several unrelated plants. In the United States, the name is most commonly used for the flowering plant Rudbeckia hirta, a member of the sunflower family. The flower of this black-eyed Susan is daisy-like, with yellow “ray florets” surrounding a black or brown dome-shaped cone of disc florets. It is the official flower of the state of Maryland.
The Black-Eyed Susan is the official drink of the Preakness Stakes.
1 part bourbon
1 part vodka
1 part peach schnaps
2 parts orange juice
2 parts sour
Orange slice and cherry as garnish