Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats: 14 standard wooden Harland and Wolff lifeboats with a capacity of 65 people each and four Englehardt “collapsible” (wooden bottom, collapsible canvas sides) lifeboats (identified as A to D) with a capacity of 47 people each. In addition, she had two emergency cutters with a capacity of 40 people each.
John A Macdonald once had to be restrained by his caucus mates from attacking a political opponent on the floor of the Commons. He roared out that “I can lick that fellow Smith faster than Hell can roast a feather!”
Then he resigned as prime minister, knowing that Smith’s vote doomed his government.
The Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is a suspension bridge crossing Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is named after the former premier of Nova Scotia, Angus L. Macdonald, who had died in 1954 and had been instrumental in having the bridge built.
Aberdeen Angus cattle, native to Scotland, have become popular with cattle breeders around the world. Because of their native environment, the cattle are very hardy and can survive the Scottish winters, which are typically harsh, with snowfall and storms. The main use of Angus cattle is for beef production and consumption. The beef can be marketed as superior due to its marbled appearance. This has led to many markets, including Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom to adopt it into the mainstream.
L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels, resided in Aberdeen, South Dakota, from 1888 to 1891. Baum operated a store called “Baum’s Bazaar”, but the store failed because of his propensity for giving out merchandise on credit. He then edited a local newspaper; when the newspaper failed in 1891, Baum and his family moved to Chicago, where he took a job as a reporter for the Evening Post.
The original Swiss Army knife was made in Germany. In 1891, Karl Elsener received a contract from the Swiss army to make them in Switzerland. When Karl Elsener’s mother died in 1909, Elsener renamed his company “Victoria” in her memory. In 1921 the company started using newly invented stainless steel to make the Swiss Army Knife. Stainless steel is known as “inox”, short for the French term acier inoxydable. “Victoria” and “inox” were then combined to create the portmanteau “Victorinox”, the name still used today.
Great trivia! I’ve been carrying an SAK daily for years and years. Even in the Marines, my SAK was more useful than my Ka-Bar knife.
Wenger was the first Swiss Army Knife company to offer a ″PackLock″ blade lock for the main blade on several of their standard 85mm models. Several large Wenger and Victorinox models now feature a locking blade secured by a slide lock that is operated with an unlocking-button integrated in the scales. Some Victorinox 111 mm series knives feature a double liner lock that secures the cutting blade and large slotted screwdriver/cap opener/wire stripper combination tool designed towards prying.
The Victorinox Nomad is one such knife. It comes in black also.
(This is my every day carry knife, the Victorinox Nomad; Amazon link, Goo.gl is sunsetting)
The Catskill Mountain 3500 Club is a peakbagging organization for hikers in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Membership is open to all persons who have climbed each of the 35 Catskill peaks higher than 3500 feet. The highest of the peaks is Slide Mountain, which is around 90 miles north of Manhattan. While the 4,180-foot contour line on topographic maps is accepted as its height, the exact summit elevation has never been officially determined by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and many informal surveys suggest the mountain may actually top 4,200 feet (1,280 m) above sea level.
BTW Bullitt, at work some years ago I needed a screwdriver or Swiss army knife to help one of the clerical staff to reattach a computer cable; I keep one in my car but wasn’t driving that day. I asked at least 15 men around the office if they had any kind of tool. Nope…I ended up doing it with my fingernails and a plastic butter knife that I had in my drawer. (I’m a woman BTW, none of the men knew how to do the cable reattachment that I was doing, or maybe they knew and didn’t want to bother)
gkster, I would’ve had my SAK and helped. Mine is old and worn — the logo is long been rubbed away.
20,237’ — Alaska’s Denali is the highest state high point in the 50 US states
14,494’ — California’s Mt. Whitney is the 2nd highest state high point in the 50 US states
14,433‘ — Colorado’s Mt. Elbert is the 3rd highest state high point in the 50 US states
14,410‘ — Washington’s Mt. Rainier is the 4th highest state high point in the 50 US states
13,804‘ — Wyoming’s Gannett Peak is the 5th highest state high point in the 50 US states
13,796‘ — Hawaii’s Mauna Kea is the 6th highest state high point in the 50 US states
… and …
345‘ — Florida’s Britton Hill is the 50th highest state high point in the 50 US states
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain is a Hugh Grant movie about the residents of a little town in Wales who are shocked by English surveyors who tell them that their local high point is technically a hill, not a mountain. So they do the sensible thing: they spend a week carrying soil and rocks up to the top of the hill, raising its summit sufficiently to meet the surveyors technical definition of a mountain.
Hugh Grant was originally cast as Gilderoy Lockhart in the movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but he was forced to withdraw at the last moment because of scheduling conflicts. The role was instead played by Kenneth Branagh.
Ulysses S. Grant was supposed to be at the theater with Lincoln on the night of Lincoln‘s assassination, but was forced to decline after he and his wife made plans to visit their children in New Jersey. Grant was informed of the President’s assassination when his train stopped later that night. Grant bitterly regretted not having been at his side. Despite being a potential target himself, Grant was convinced he would have somehow stopped John Wilkes Booth from pulling the trigger.
Dr. Samuel Mudd was accused of helping John Wilkes Booth prior to Lincoln’s assassination and of treating his broken leg as he fled Washington after killing the president. He was imprisoned and then pardoned many years later. But the phrase “Your name is mud” has nothing to do with Dr. Mudd.
The Oxford English Dictionary, in an entry revised in December 2007, dates the first written example of the phrase at 1823, more than four decades before Lincoln was assassinated. Moreover, the term appeared in a British book, not an American one. It meant what it appears to mean–that your name is (or will be) dirty as mud if you do such-and-such.
Abraham Lincoln signed the bill creating the Secret Service on the very same night he was assassinated, and just before he left for Ford’s Theater…
At the time, the only other federal law enforcement agencies were the US Customs Service, the US Park Police, the US Post Office Department’s Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations (now known as the US Postal Inspection Service), and the US Marshals Service.
The Secret Service was commissioned as the “Secret Service Division” of the Department of the Treasury with the mission of suppressing counterfeiting. The US Marshals did not have the manpower to investigate all crime under federal jurisdiction, so the Secret Service began investigating a wide range of crimes from murder to bank robbery to illegal gambling. After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested that the Secret Service provide presidential protection. A year later, the Secret Service assumed full-time responsibility for presidential protection. In 1902, William Craig became the first Secret Service agent to die while serving, in a road accident while riding in the presidential carriage.
According to Secretservice.gov, the Secret Service employs approximately 3,200 special agents, 1,300 Uniformed Division officers, and more than 2,000 other technical, professional and administrative support personnel.
Among others, the Secret Service is authorized to protect:
The president, the vice president, the president-elect and vice president-elect, former presidents and their spouses (except when the spouse re-marries), and children of former presidents until age 16.
And also Visiting heads of states or governments and their spouses traveling with them, and major presidential and vice presidential candidates.
That’s my play.
In the 1992 New Hampshire Presidential Primary, comedian Pat Paulson received 921 votes (1%) to finish second to President Bill Clinton (76,754 votes); this was actually ahead of real politicians such as Buffalo mayor James D. Griffin. In 1992, he came in second to George Bush in the North Dakota Republican Primary.
In the 2016 New Hampshire Presidential Primary, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both were defeated soundly by Bernie Sanders, who got 50% more votes than the other two:
151,584: Bernie Sanders
100,406: Donald Trump
95,252: Hillary Clinton
Thanks Bullitt, I was amazed and disappointed at the lack of tools and helpfulness that I encountered that day!
In play:
Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, appears on many lists of America’s ugliest college campuses, in stark contrast to nearby Amherst College and Mount Holyoke College, which regularly feature on lists of most beautiful campuses. One of the key architects of Hampshire College and a longtime member of its faculty is Norton Juster, better known for his children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth.
(I’ve seen parts of the Hampshire campus and agree that it’s ugly)
Bernie Sanders has run against Vermont Democratic Party candidates fourteen times over the course of his career and, before the 2016 Presidential campaign, long insisted he was not and never could be a Democrat. Since then, his U.S. Senate website still lists him as an independent.
ETA: Vermont and New Hampshire are neighboring states.
That link is for a hub adapter, not a knife.