Stephanie Tubbs Jones served as a judge and as prosecuting attorney of Cuyahoga County, Ohio (the greater Cleveland area) before being elected to Congress.
Dresden, Ohio is the home of the world’s largest basket, located at Basket Village USA.
Vladimir Putin was stationed by the KGB in Dresden (then a city of the German Democratic Republic) from 1985 to 1990.
In the 50s and 60s, it was common in the US to refer to Vladimir Lenin as Nikolai Lenin. This stems from how Lenin signed his names to the articles he wrote as a Bolshevik. Since Communists were banned under Czarist Russia, it was common to use a pen name, and this was indicated by the letter “N” (or Cyrillic equivalent). Thus the articles were signed N. Lenin. For some reason, this was taken to stand for Nikolai. Lenin itself, of course, was a pen name for Vladimir Illych Ulyanov.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the over-the-top evil villain of Frank Herbert’s novel Dune.
One means of stabilizing the location of sand dunes so that they don’t overwhelm the surrounding environment, is by planting trees and vegetation near their borders.
The sand dunes of White Sands National Monument in New Mexico are composed of gypsum. They are slippery - you can sled down them on snow sleds.
China is the world’s major producer of gypsum. Iran is second.
Rhode Island is the only state out of ten whose name has two words and one of them isn’t a compass direction or “New.”
Rhode Island was the last of the original thirteen colonies to become a state.
In his first term as President, George Washington visited every state in the new republic but Rhode Island, which he did not enter because it had not ratified the Constitution yet.
Later this month, President Obama will become the first US president to visit Burma.
Burma is known as Myanmar to many countries and to the United Nations, but the United Kingdom does not recognize the regime that changed the name and so continues to refer to it as Burma.
The fourth Rambo movie, simply entitled Rambo, takes place in Myanmar.
The Lethwei and Pongyi thaing martial arts are the national sport in Burma / Myanmar.
The first Burma-Shave sequential “verse by the side of the road” signs appeared in Minneapolis in 1925.
The several “South of the Border” billboards along I-95 were fascinating to read. I enjoyed them as a kid, on snowbird road trips to FL in winter.
They include:
Pedro’s Weather Forecast: Chili today, hot tamale!
Keep America Green! Bring Money!
You Never Sausage a Place! (You’re Always a Wiener at Pedro’s!)
Keep yelling, kids! (They’ll stop.)
Sommtheeng Deeferent
Honeymoon Suites: Heir Conditioned
Fort Pedro, Fireworks Capital of the US
Etymologically Correck!
Howdy, Pardner!
Top Banana!
Pedro’s fireworks! Does yours?
Too moch Tequila (Billboard appears upside down)
South of the Border
***Your sheep are all counted at South of the Border. (has a rotating wheel with sheep painted on it) ***
Caliente!
***Smash Hit! (junked car attached to sign) ***
I-95’s best kept secret?
Back up, amigo, you missed it! (just after the exit on I-95)
Minneapolis native Martha Riply, in a very early effort to eliminate discrimination, founded Maternity Hospital for both married and unmarried mothers way back in 1886.
Minneapolis and St. Paul - the Twin Cities. The original name of the settlement that became St. Paul was Pig’s Eye. Named for the French-Canadian whiskey trader, Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant, who had led squatters to the settlement.
Both Cleveland and Akron, Ohio have large Episcopal churches named after St. Paul.