A glacial erratic (pic) is a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. A good example to see/visit is Yeagar Rock near Mansfield, Washington, since it is right next to Hwy 172, on the north side, about 4 miles east of Mansfield.
Another pic, showing its proximity to Hwy 172 and an approaching pickup truck.
Plymouth Rock, perhaps the least-impressive and most-bogus national symbol in the US, is a glacial erratic, traceable to the area around Dedham, Massachusetts. In Made in America, Bill Bryson commented “The one thing the Pilgrims certainly did not do was step ashore on Plymouth Rock. Quite apart from the consideration that it may have stood well above the high-water mark in 1620, no prudent mariner would try to bring a ship alongside a boulder on a heaving December sea when a sheltered inlet beckoned from near by.”
USS Plymouth Rock (LSD-29) was a Thomaston-class dock landing ship, commissioned in 1954 and scrapped in 1995. It was the only ship of that name to ever serve in the U.S. Navy.
Thomaston, Georgia, has America’s longest-running commemoration of freedom from slavery.
In 1866, Thomaston’s African Americans held an emancipation celebration, which has continued every year since; it is celebrated in May,
Hunter Strickland, relief pitcher for the 2014 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants, is from Thomaston, Georgia.
“Little pitchers have big ears” is a proverb warning that small children sometimes hear and understand more of an adult conversation than is expected.
The legend of Molly Pitcher is believed to be based on the wartime actions of Mary Ludwig Hays, but how much of the legend is fact versus fiction is impossible to know.
The Molly Pitcher Brewing Company is located in Atascadero, CA.
A molly is a special device used to attach things to hollow walls like sheetrock. It consists of a screw and a special sleeve. A hole is drilled in the wall, the molly is inserted, and the is tightened with a screwdriver, pulling the sleeve taut until it pushes into the back of the sheetrock.
Screws, and soon thereafter screwdrivers, were invented in the 15th Century, as a convenience in putting suits of armor together, and then for the production of matchlock rifles. Christopher Columbus might have been just barely aware of this new-fangled technology. Large wooden screws for oil and wine presses were used by the Greeks in about 300 BCE.
The top five wine-exporting countries are Italy, France, Spain, Australia and Chile.
At first glance the Texas flag and flag of Chile look almost identical. They can be easily confused since they each contain the same elements: a lone star on a blue background and horizontal red and white bands.
I think that is old information, from 2008. By 2013 the order had changed somewhat, to Italy, Spain, France, Chile and Australia. Spain had passed France, and Chile passed Australia.
Thanks for the update.
In play: the current southern Pole star is Sigma Octantis. It is a faint star, of magnitude 5.42, and is therefore not helpful for navigation purposes.
Unlike the stars on the American flag, each of the 26 stars on the Brazilian flag represents one particular state. Sigma Octantis, the 27th and last star on the Brazilian flag, represents the Territory, Distrito Federal.
Unlike many other federations, Canada does not have a federal district. The capital, Ottawa, is in Ontario and is governed by Ontario municipal laws. Much of the federal government apparatus has spilled across the Rideau river into Gatineau, Quebec (formerly Hull).
Hull House in Chicago, o-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr, was the first and most famous of the “settlement houses” in the US. Addams intended it to be “a community of university women” whose main purpose was to provide social and educational opportunities for working class people (many of them recent European immigrants) in the surrounding neighborhood. The “residents” (volunteers at Hull were given this title) held classes in literature, history, art, domestic activities (such as sewing), and many other subjects. Hull House also held concerts that were free to everyone, offered free lectures on current issues, and operated clubs for both children and adults.
On 24 October 1889 Sir Henry Parkes gave his famous ‘Tenterfield Oration’ at the School of Arts in Tenterfield, NSW, urging the Australian colonies to move forward to federation as a single country.
The CSIRO Parkes Observatory, 20 km north of Parkes, NSW, has been in operation since 1961. A virtual tour of the Parkes Observatory Radio Telescope and its 64-metre dish can be viewed here:
ETA: CSIRO = Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
The last service to run on the Sydney tram network travelled to La Perouse on 25 February 1961. At its height the system had a maximum track length of 291 km.
Trams were reintroduced in August 1997.
