How does this link to my previous post?
You are right- sorry- I overlooked your post. (where is your link to the previous?)
In play:
Australia’s greatest snowfalls occur in the appropriately named Snowy Mountains, home to the continent’s five highest peaks.
June
In play:
The Andes is the longest continental mountain range in the world, and the highest mountain range outside Asia. Its highest peak, Mount Aconcagua, has an elevation 6,962 m. The peak of Chimborazo (6,268 m) in the Ecuadorean Andes is farther from Earth’s center than any other location on Earth’s surface, due to the equatorial bulge resulting from Earth’s rotation.
On October 13th 1972, a Uruguayan charter plane carrying 45 people crashed high in the Andes mountains, near the Argentina/Chile border. The initial search was called off after eight days, as it was believed no one could have survived the harsh conditions. Seventy-two days later, two surviving passengers hiked out of the mountains and led rescue teams to 14 more survivors at the crash site. The passengers had to resort to cannibalism to survive.
The official name of Uruguay is The Oriental Republic of Uruguay.
Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937) was an innovative and influential Uruguayan writer. Writers who influenced Quiroga include Guy de Maupassant, Rudyard Kipling and especially, as shown in stories like “The Feather Pillow”, Edgar Allan Poe. His writing was also influenced by his own tragedies: his accidental shooting of a close friend, and his wife’s suicide.
Or “Eastern Republic.” Still, that’s good trivia!
Rudyard Kipling fled his Vermont house, never to return, after being involved in a messy and embarrassing lawsuit with his loutish brother-in-law.
Vermont and New Hampshire are neighboring New England states that share a common border. They are roughly the same size and shape, and that makes it easier for people to mistake one for the other. The shape of Vermont is more like a “V” than that of New Hampshire, so that helps to distinguish them.
However with regards to firearms regulations the two states are very different: VT is highly permissive, and NH is highly restrictive. For example in VT, anyone who can legally own a firearm can then also carry it concealed. It does not require any permit. Almost all US states require a permit to carry concealed.
Comment: I wonder why the laws are so different.
South Australia shares a border with all of the other mainland states and also with the Northern Territory.
In the mid-1800s Scottish explorer John McDouall Stuart was the first European to cross Australia from south to north, from South Australia to the Northern Territory. There is now a highway that approximates the route Stuart took. It is named the Stuart Highway in his honour.
Captain Charles Sturt was another colonial explorer who travelled through the Australian outback and for whom a highway is named: the Sturt Highway between Adelaide (SA) and Wagga Wagga (NSW).
Captain Sturt was also the great-great-great uncle of the recently deceased Australian actor Rod Taylor.
Dedicated in October 1913, the United States’ first national memorial to Abraham Lincoln was the 3,389 mile long Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway for automobiles across the United States of America. The Lincoln Highway runs coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. It predates the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C. by 9 years.
The 19th Earl of Lincoln is a Fellow of the Zoological Society and lives in Western Australia.
Aaron of Lincoln (also known as Aaron the Jew), who died late in the reign of King Henry II, is said to have been the richest man in all of England at that time, save only the King. Upon his death, all Aaron’s assets was seized by the King. Although the ship carrying Aaron’s gold and silver to Normandy foundered in the Channel, most of Aaron’s wealth was in the form of debts owed, and an Exchequer of Aaron was set up to manage these debts for the Royal Treasury.
When interest was charged on Aaron’s loans, the typical rate was 2 pence per week per pound, though rates as low as 1 penny and as high as 4 pence are encountered in records preserved by the Exchequer of Aaron.
When Henrietta Howland Robinson Green died in 1916, estimates of her net worth ranged from $100 million to $200 million ($2.17 billion to $4.33 billion today), making her arguably the richest woman in the world at the time. She also went down in history as the world’s biggest miser, amassing an investment fortune and refusing to spend it on anything but the cheapest of what she needed.
Canada did not have a Federal Court until 1971. Prior to that time, the Exchequer Court of Canada was the only trial-level federal court, with a very limited jurisdiction, dealing mainly with federal tax issues and suits brought against the federal Crown under a petition of right.
The Tennis Grand Slam consists of the Australian Open in January, the French Open in May/June, Wimbledon in June/July, and the US Open in September.
Tennis great Margaret Smith Court holds the record for the most Grand Slam singles titles, 24, than any other player, male or female. In 1970, Ms. Court was the first women’s singles player to win the Grand Slam - all four titles in the same year.
Further, for every possible Grand Slam title – singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles – Ms. Court is the only person to have won all 12 Grand Slam events at least twice. That’s the three titles at each of the four Grand Slam events.
For Grand Slam event singles titles, Court and other women lead all players male or female. Currently, the ranked list of singles titles leaders stands at this (includes nationality using ISO 3166-1 abbreviations):
24: (AU) Margaret Court
22: (DE) Steffi Graf
19: (US) Helen Wills-Moody
18: (US) Chris Evert, (CZ/US) Martina Navratilova, (US) Serena Williams
17: (CH) Roger Federer
14: (US) Pete Sampras, (ES) Rafael Nadal
A quick summary of the “tennis slams”.
1968: the “open era” begins where professionals and amateurs can compete together.
Grand Slam tournaments: Australian Open (January), French Open (June), Wimbledon (July), US Open (September) - these are also called Majors.
Grand Slam: The term “Grand Slam” without qualification refers to winning the four majors in a single calendar year.
“Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam”: Winning the four majors in consecutive tournaments but not in the same year is known as a Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam.
“Career Grand Slam”: Winning all four majors at any point during the course of a career is known as a Career Grand Slam.
“Golden Slam” or “Golden Grand Slam”: Winning the Olympic gold medal in addition to the four majors in a one calendar year is known as a “Golden Grand Slam” or more commonly the “Golden Slam”. This achievement only became possible since 1988 when tennis returned to the Olympic calendar.
“Super Slam”: Winning the Golden Slam and also the year-end world championship tournament (ATP World Tour Finals) in one calendar year is known as a “Super Slam”. No player has ever completed the Super Slam. Steffi Graf is the only player to win a non-calendar year super slam; and Andre Agassi is the only male to have won a career super slam in men’s singles (other men have done it in doubles tennis).
A “boxed set” of Grand Slam titles: Together, all four Majors in all three disciplines (singles, doubles, and mixed doubles) are called a “boxed set” of Grand Slam titles. No male player has won all twelve events in one calendar year but it has been done by three female players during their careers. As I posted, Margaret Court is the only player to have done this twice. The other two women to have done this are Doris Hart and Martina.
Wikipedia’s page for Grand Slam (tennis) is a long one. More complete details are there.
If checkers (8x8 draughts) is a sport, then perhaps no sportsman was ever as dominant as Dr. Marion Tinsley. For forty years he took undivided first-place in every tournament he entered, losing a total of only five games between 1955 and 1992. Tinsley took long vacations from tournament play, there being no challenge left for him, and was appointed Champion Emeritus. After a 20-year hiatus he played Elbert Lowder, another legendary player, for the regular Championship and won fifteen games to zero with ten games drawn. Tinsley was the only human to defeat the Chinook computer program; but in the rematch he had to withdraw after six drawn games due to a health collapse.
Many people in Seattle go to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (locally know as the Ballard Locks) to watch chinook (king), coho and sockeye salmon go through the fish ladders during spawning season.