The Flatiron Building is in the Flatiron District, at 175 Fifth Avenue. It is 22 stories tall.
The Brown Building is in Greenwich Village. It is 10 stories tall and located at 23–29 Washington Place, between Greene Street and Washington Square East.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is now bigger than any city in Connecticut or Rhode Island. If moved, it would be the biggest city between New York and Boston.
Pierre, pronounced “peer”, is the state capital of South Dakota. South Dakota has the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains — Black Elk Peak (formerly Harney Peak) in the Black Hills, at an elevation of 7,242 feet. However Lost Mine peak in the Chisos mountains of Texas, at an elevation of 7,535 feet, is the furthest east peak within the continental United States above 7,000 feet.
With a population of less than 14,000, Pierre, South Dakota, is the second-smallest state capital. The smallest is Montpelier, Vermont, which has a population of less than 8,000.
Montpelier, Vermont is said to be the only U.S. state capitol which does not have a McDonald’s restaurant. The nearest McDonald’s to Montpelier is in nearby Barre, Vermont.
It is 3 miles from Montpelier to that McDonald’s in Barre VT. Yes, it is nearby. (map, https://is.gd/5QAsNP)
In play: Vermont’s name comes from the French, vert mont, which means green mountain. In 1791, Vermont became the 14th state of the Union.
The Green Mountain Boys was an unauthorized militia organized in 1770 near Bennington, Vermont, to protect the property rights of local residents who had received land grants from New Hampshire. New York, which then claimed the territory, disputed New Hampshire’s right to grant land west of the Green Mountains. This militia stopped sheriffs from enforcing New York laws and terrorized settlers who had New York grants.
The Green Mile (1999) is a film based on Steven King’s 1996 novel of the same name. Michael Clarke Duncan (1957-2012), in a breakout role, played convicted rapist and murderer, and gentle giant, John Coffey. Duncan died at the age of 54 from a heart attack.
Wrestler André Roussimoff, better known as André the Giant, supposedly performs various feats of strength as the giant Fezzik in The Princess Bride. However, he had severe back problems, and in the scene where he catches and carries Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright), she had to be attached to wires. In the fight scene with Westley (Cary Elwes), Andre’s back was so painful that he wasn’t able to support Westley’s weight on his back and a stunt double was used.
In “The Princess Bride”, while Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) and the Man in Black (Cary Elwes) are engaged in their duel, they trade comments about various fencing techniques. These are factual references to actual 14th and 15th century styles of fencing and defenses.
-“BB”-
That sword fight took place on “The Cliffs of Insanity” and the fencing techniques mentioned include:
[ul][li] Bonetti’s Defense — refers to the Italian swordmaster Rocco Bonetti, who established a “School of Arms” in London in 1576[/li][li] Capo Ferro — a term given to the powerful attack known as “The Lunge,” named after Italian swordmaster, Ridolfo Capo Ferro, who taught a linear style of fencing[/li][li] Thibault — a reference to Gérard (Girard) Thibault d’Anvers (1574-1627), a Dutch fencing master and author of the rapier manual, Academie de l’Espée (1630); Thibault utilized both logic and geometry to aid in swordfighting defense[/li] Agrippa — a term named after Italian short sword master, Camillo Agrippa who wrote, Treatise on the Science of Arms with Philosophical Dialogue (1553)[/ul]
Fencing was first included as an Olympic event in the 1896 games at Athens. Women’s fencing was first included in the Paris games of 1924. There are three individual competitions and two team competitions for both women and men.
The modern sport of fencing features three different weapons, the foil, the épée, and the sabre. Rules for each of the three weapons are different, with one of the primary differences being the legal target area for strikes against one’s opponent:
- For the foil, the target area is the torso (but not the head, arms, or legs)
- For the épée, the entire body is a legal target
- For the sabre, the entire upper body, from the waist up, is a target, except for the hands.
The Barbed Wire Museum, in LaCrosse, Kansas, has on display over 2,000 distinct varieties of the popular fencing materials. Barbed wire was first patented in the US and UK in the 1860s, and was revolutionary in animal husbandry, and then again 50 years later in WWI.
South of Ashland KS, the Rock Island Bridge is the longest railroad bridge of its kind. It measures 1,200 feet long and is 100 feet above the Cimarron River.
This is an impressive structure and can be easily viewed from US Highway 54. Mighty Samson of the Cimarron - Kansas railroad bridge
In play: The Arkansas River is the sixth-longest river in the United States and is the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi–Missouri system. Major tributaries of the Arkansas include the Walnut, Canadian, Neosho, and Little Arkansas rivers.
Thanks for that link. I’m from California and, sadly, I’ve actually driven through Liberal KS twice – that bridge is only 13 miles away from Liberal. I’ve marked it on the map, for if or when I’m there again.
In play:
The Colorado River flows for 1,460 miles, from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to the Sea of Cortez south of California and next to Baja. It is the 5th longest river in the USA.
The Colorado River of Texas flows for 970 miles, from the Texas Panhandle near Big Spring, Ackerly, and Lamesa to the Gulf of Mexico near Bay City and Matagorda. It is the 11th longest river in the USA.
Bay City was a fictional town used as the setting for the TV soap opera Another World, which aired as 8,891 episodes over 35 tears. Another World was actually owned and produced by a soap company, Proctor and Gamble, which aired the episodes under contract with NBC.
NBC is the longest established broadcast network in America. Founded when RCA purchased its first radio station (WEAF in New York) in 1925, its first broadcast was in November 1926. A year later, they divided their broadcast stations into two networks, the Red and the Blue networks. The Red Network was primarily commercially-sponsored programming, while the Blue Network dealt mostly with non-sponsored news and cultural broadcasts.
Along with CBS, they became so dominant that in 1939 they were ordered by the FCC to divest themselves of either the Red or the Blue network; after exhausting court appeals all the way up to the Supreme Court, they ended up selling the Blue Network to the American Broadcasting System, a new company owned by Life Savers™ magnate Edward J. Noble, in 1943. This eventually became ABC in 1945, upon completion of the sale.
-“BB”-
CBS began experimental color field tests for television using film as early as August 28, 1940, and live cameras by November 12. NBC, then owned by RCA, made its first field test of color television on February 20, 1941. CBS began daily color field tests on June 1, 1941. These color systems were not compatible with existing black-and-white television sets, and as no color television sets were available to the public at this time, viewing of the color field tests was restricted to RCA and CBS engineers and the invited press. The War Production Board halted the manufacture of television and radio equipment for civilian use from April 22, 1942, to August 20, 1945, limiting any opportunity to introduce color television to the general public.