Be sure to see Pixar’s Cars, in many ways a love letter to Route 66.
In play:
Many notable pirate captains flew their own distinctive versions of the Jolly Roger, although historical accounts are fragmentary and sometimes conflicting.
Thanks!
Polly, Jolly and Johnny are 3 statues declaring their patriotism and support for the American troops on IL-129 (which is the post 1940 Route 66 alignment) at the intersection with Stripmine Rd. It is on the northwest corner of the first stop westbound (driving south) after exit 238 off of I-55.
The comic strip character Zippy the Pinhead has (had?) a recurring fascination with Muffler Man statues on America’s roadsides (Fair disclosure: The only one I’ve actually seen was in Quebec).
Says Wiki: International Fiberglass of Venice, California constructed most Muffler Men. While the fiberglass figures are no longer manufactured, many still exist throughout the US with a few in Canada. At least four remain on U.S. Route 66, including Chicken Boy and Gemini Giant". 
The first version of the car muffler was created by Milton Reeves of the Reeves Pulley Company in the late 1800s. It was invented in response to the exceedingly loud vehicles that disrupted communities, annoyed residents, and frightened horses. The baffle system Reeves created in 1896 quieted vehicle engines considerably.
In America the device is called a muffler. In the UK it is called a silencer. In America a silencer is a firearm noise suppressor. In genetics a silencer is a DNA sequence capable of binding transcription regulation factors termed repressors.
Gregor Johann Mendel (1822 – 1884) was a scientist and Augustinian friar. He is considered to be the founder of the modern science of genetics. Mendel was born on a farm in what is now part of the Czech Republic. He desired to attend the university, but he struggled to pay for his studies. He became a friar in part because it enabled him to obtain an education without having to pay for it himself. As the son of a struggling farmer, the monastic life, in his words, spared him the “perpetual anxiety about a means of livelihood.”
From genetics scientists have learned that our bodies may not be “allowed” to live very far beyond 120 years due to genetic caps regarding how many times our cells can divide.
A blasting cap is a small sensitive primary explosive device generally used to detonate a larger, more powerful and less sensitive secondary explosive such as TNT, dynamite, or plastic explosive.
Public interest in the spectacle of controlled building explosion (implosion) has grown over the years. In October 1994, the demolition of the Sears Merchandise Center in Philadelphia drew a cheering crowd of 50,000, as well as protesters, bands, and street vendors hawking building implosion memorabilia.
YouTube: tvnewswatchers.com : Philadelphia Sears Tower - YouTube
In the 1892 Sherlock Holmes story “The Copper Beeches,” it is said that Alice Rucastle, the daughter of a rural English family, has gone to Philadelphia, Penna., but this turns out not to be so. What has actually become of her lies at the heart of the story.
The Copper Cart restaurant in Seligman AZ has been a Route 66 establishment for decades. The date it was originally opened is not easy to determine but it has been there since about the 1950s.
gImages, The Copper Cart restaurant: https://goo.gl/KW32J3
“Copper”, as a slang word for policeman, is first found in print in 1846, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The origins of the word are debated, but probably it is a variation of the Latin capere, meaning, to grab or apprehend, that came into use in Britain in the 1700s.
Ash Fork AZ is known as the “Flagstone Capital of the World”. It is on Route 66 and has the Ash Fork Route 66 Museum, at 901 Old Rte 66. Ash Fork AZ also has the Copperstate Motel.
U.S. Route 61 crosses Route 66 in St. Louis near the confluence of Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Jehovah-jireh (Genesis 22), the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac, is allegedly located somewhere on Route 61.
On February 25th, 1961, the last public trams in Sydney, Australia ceased operation, bringing to an end the Southern Hemisphere’s largest tramway system. It had started in 1879 and reached it’s maximum street mileage of 181 miles in 1923.
The Sandia Peak Tramway, in Albuquerque NM and along Route 66, is the longest aerial tram in the US and has the world’s third longest single span. Built in 1966, the tram is a type known as a “double reversible jigback aerial tramway,” where “jigback” implies that when one tram car is ascending, the other is descending.
The first Big Bang Theory’s reference to Sheldon Cooper’s love of trains in the first episode of season 2, when Sheldon announces he’s moving out of the apartment and Raj and Howard ask Leonard questions about Sheldon’s reason for moving out.
Raj: What did you do? Did you change the contrast or brightness settings on the television?
Leonard: No.
Raj: Did you take a band aid off in front of him?
Leonard: No.
Howard: Did you buy generic ketchup, forget to rinse the sink, talk to him through the bathroom door?
Raj: Adjust the thermostat, cook with cilantro, pronounce the T in often?
Leonard: No.
Howard: Did you make fun of trains?
Leonard: I didn’t do anything, he’s just gone insane.
Raj: Well, we all knew this day was coming.
Along the “Mother Road”, America’s Historic Route 66 in Missouri is Fort Leonard Wood, on which the Big Piney River bends so tightly that it’s called the Devil’s Elbow. There, the historic Devil’s Elbow Bridge is on Teardrop Road.
gImages: https://goo.gl/pkCGqm
The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Furthermore, with the exception of Missouri, this law prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude line. In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Three years later the Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision, which ruled that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.
The 36° 30´ latitude line forms most of the border between Missouri and Arkansas, and also forms the northernmost border of Texas, where its panhandle abuts the panhandle of Oklahoma. Route 66 passed through the Texas Panhandle; towns along its route included Shamrock, Amarillo, and Adrian.
Dust Bowl migrants used Route 66 to head westward. However, in 1930, 44 out of the 89 counties that lined Route 66 were all-white communities known as “Sundown Towns”—places that banned blacks from entering city limits after dark. Some posted signs that read, “Nigger, Don’t Let the Sun Set on You Here.” In Illinois alone, where Route 66 began, there were almost 150 such Sundown Towns.
{Article, The Roots of Route 66; America’s favorite highway usually evokes kitschy nostalgia. But for black Americans, the Mother Road’s lonely expanses were rife with danger. —
Why Black Americans Are Not Nostalgic for Route 66 - The Atlantic}
(sigh)