Not in play: In April of 1997, the Red River flooded and inundated the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. To make matters worse, a fire in the downtown business district burned several buildings, including the offices of the local newspaper. The next day’s edition of the Grand Forks Herald had a front-page picture of its building on fire, surrounded by floodwaters, with the headline: Come Hell and High Water.
During the Red River Flood of 1950, almost 100,000 Winnipeg residents (not sure what that is in metric) had to be evacuated.
The Red River of the north got its name from its reddish-brown silt-filled waters, clay soils, and muddy banks. The name was given by French-Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye after he explored the river in 1732–33, who named it Rivière Rouge.
Although it was romanticized in John Ford’s film, The Grapes of Wrath, the song “Red River Valley” was actually describing the Red River of the North. The song was composed around the time of the 1870 Wolseley Expedition of Manitoba, CA.
In response to the 1950 Red River flood, the government of the Premier of Manitoba, Duff Roblin, announced it would build a major floodway to deal with high flood waters. When the gates are opened in flood time, the floodway diverts much of the water around the city of Winnipeg.
The construction was controversial, due to the cost and a sense in the rural areas that the government was favouring Winnipeg. It was also criticized because it would only be used in major floods, seeming to be an unwise investment if it was unused most years.
Critics labelled it « Duff’s Ditch ».
The concept of « hundred year floods » was not widely known at the time.
The floodway has proved its worth several years, notably in the 1997 flood.
It is estimated that since its completion in1968, Duff’s Ditch has saved Manitoba from over $40 billion (CAD) in cumulative flood damage.
Duff Beer is a (mostly) fictional brand of beer from the animated TV comedy The Simpsons, where it is Homer Simpson’s favorite beer. Duff is typically depicted as a mass-market American lager, and bears some similarities to Budweiser, including its spokesperson, “Duffman,” a parody of Budweiser’s 1970s mascot Bud Man.
Non-licensed Duff Beers have been sold in a number of countries outside the U.S.; an official version is sold at Universal Studios theme parks, near the Simpsons ride.
Billy Beer was promoted in 1977 by Billy Carter, the younger brother of then-president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. After less than a year of Billy Carter’s promotion, production ceased.
Billy Carter’s signature was on each can, along with this endorsement:
Brewed expressly for and with the personal approval of one of AMERICA’s all-time Great Beer Drinkers—Billy Carter.
I had this beer brewed up just for me. I think it’s the best I ever tasted. And I’ve tasted a lot. I think you’ll like it, too.
Despite his promotion of Billy Beer, “in private he drank Pabst” as per the Milwaukee Journal.
Jimmy Carter turned 100 on Oct. 1; he is the longest-living former President ever, and the first centenarian. Early voting starts in Georgia on Oct. 15. He has told his family that he wants to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris for his former job.
June Carter Cash – a distant cousin of U.S. President Jimmy Carter – was an American country singer, musician, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of Maybelle Carter (one of the original members of the influential Carter Family group) and she performed with her mother, and her sisters Anita and Helen, as “The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle.”
June married three times; her third marriage, in 1968, was to her musical collaborator, Johnny Cash. She had co-written the song “Ring of Fire,” which became one of Johnny’s signature hits.
A Combat Support Hospital (CSH, pronounced “cash”) is a type of modern US Army field hospital. Beginning in the early 1970s the CSH became the successor to the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH): cash followed mash. Beginning in 2017 the Army began converting CSHs to FHs, Field Hospitals, which are smaller and more modular.
Photos of U.S. Army uniforms taken in the 1970s and 1980s were recently declassified, and are the subject of a new book, Fashion Army, by Matthieu Nicol.
Under current law, all male U.S. citizens between 18 and 25 (inclusive) years of age are required to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of their 18th birthdays. In September 2021, the House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which included an amendment that stated that “all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 must register for selective service.” This struck off the word “Male” which extended a potential draft to women.
Until the law changed in 2020, American college students who received Federal financial aid and did not provide timely proof of having registered with the Selective Service System could be disqualified from receiving any further such assistance.
Pell Grants are a form of U.S. federal financial aid for low-income undergraduate college students. Originally established by the Higher Education Act of 1965, the grants were revised by the Education Amendments of 1972, sponsored by Sentator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, which established the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant. In 1980, the BEOG was renamed the Pell Grant in his honor.
Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell served from 1961-1997. He succeeded TF Green, who served 1937-1961. Rhode Island’s main airport, Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport (formerly Hillsgrove Airport) in Warwick, is named after him.
Rhode Island, which is the smallest state by area, contains just five counties. The state of Hawaii also has only five counties. The state with the fewest counties is Delaware, which contains just three counties.
The largest state in the union, Alaska, is divided into 19 organized boroughs and 1 unorganized borough. Alaska and the state of Louisiana are the only states that do not call their first-order administrative subdivisions counties (Louisiana uses parishes instead).
Lemar Parrish was a standout cornerback and kick returner in the NFL in the 1970s and 1980s, for the Cincinnati Bengals, Washington Redskins, and Buffalo Bills. Parrish was voted to the Pro Bowl eight times; though he did not play on offense, Parrish scored thirteen touchdowns during his career, via interception returns, fumble returns, punt returns, a kickoff return, and a blocked field goal return.
After his retirement from the NFL, Parrish served as head coach of the football team at Lincoln University of Missouri (his alma mater) for four seasons.
Lemar Parrish was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame (BCFHOF) last December. The Black College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2024 includes…
Joe Adams (Tennessee State University),
Antoine Bethea (Howard University),
Waymond Bryant (Tennessee State University),
Kevin Dent (Jackson State University),
Richard Huntley (Winston-Salem State University),
Lemar Parrish (Lincoln University) and
Coach Eddie Hurt (Morgan State University).
The Trustees of the BCFHOF include Mel Blount, James Harris, Willie Lanier, Art Shell and Doug Williams. BCFHOF was founded in 2009 by quarterbacks James Harris and Doug Williams. BCFHOF is located inside the Pro Football Hall of Fame at 2121 George Halas Dr., N.W., Canton OH.
The Grey Cup, the trophy for the Canadian Football League, was donated by Governor General Earl Grey a century ago, and is in the custody of a small group of trustees.
One notable trustee was Willard “Bud” Estey, who moonlighted as a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada.