No Reruns!

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/us/politics/12obama.html?hp

I'm pleased to see our President-Elect taking a good look at history to try to manage our current economic crisis. After the anti-intellectual bias that I felt "Shrub" Bush displayed during his two terms, it's good to see his successor looking to learn the lessons history has to share. Now, of course, the conditions are not the same, but still, there are many similarities.

An Update

I ran this morning, and I ran yesterday afternoon, and I walked on Wednesday. I am working hard to fight the battle. I did not do much last week, but I had a pretty good excuse, I was in Italy to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Olympic Marathon that established the standard marathon distance. I will be making a post on that on another site and will link to it from this one once it is up.

In Memory of Ted Corbitt

Ted Corbitt as he departed for the 1962 London to Brighton Race. This was the cover photo of the October 1962 issue of the Long Distance Log.
One of the real giants of our sport, Ted Corbitt, has passed away. Ted was one of the founding fathers of the NY Road Runners and also of the Road Runners Club of America. He was on the 1952 Olympic Marathon Team and literally wrote the book on course measurement. Mr. Corbitt, who lived in New York City, was 87 years old.

Telephone History

Here are a few old telephone related images I just grabbed from elsewhere on the web including www.telephonetribute.com

And this Japanese payphone was picked up from 2600.com

Vive la Tour!

I'm sitting here watching the first alpine stage of this year's Tour de France. A fifteen man breakaway went off the front, and right now, it looks like some will stay away. At the moment, a German, Linus Gerdemans (sp?) has been tearing up the first really tough climb, the Col de Colombiere (sp?). He has broken everyone with him, and only a Spaniard has managed to stay close. From the top, there is a downhill and a flat circuit before the finish. If he has the skills and guts to hold off Inigo Landaluz (sp?), he'll be in yellow at the end of the day. (I'm watching the afternoon showing on Versus tv, so some of you know more than I do right now.)

Meantime, it is Bastille Day, which is the French version of July 4th. It recognizes the storming of the Bastille, a French political prison/armory back in 1789, and the key event of the French Revolution.

Railroad Device - Track Tray

I was listening to a documentary about trains and heard about a device I hadn't known about. This device is called a track tray. Throughout much of the golden age of rail, the glamour route was the New York to Chicago run. In order to make the trip, a steam engine needed to be fed two things, fuel and water. The volumes of water were prodigious, and according to the documentary, the water needed to be refilled about every 50 miles. In order to be able to refill the water supply, the trains, running at speed, could drop an intake nozzle. This would scoop up the water, and using its inertia, drive it up into the water tank. The system wasted a lot of water, but it kept the trains from having to slow. The trays were apparently about 2 feet wide and guessing from the nozzle picture I saw, perhaps five inches deep. The documentary said the track trays could be a half-mile long. That's a LOT of water!

President's Day

Last Monday, February 12th, I told my son it was Lincoln's Birthday. He told me, "No, President's Day is next Monday." I then went over the facts that Lincoln's Birthday is February 12th and Washington's Birthday is February 22nd. Tonight, we went over the fact that Lincoln was born in 1809 and Washington in 1732. We also went over the fact that the Lincoln penny went into circulation on the centennial of his birth (1909) and its reverse was revised on the sesquicentennial of his birth (1959), changing from the wheat ears back to the Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Quarter went into circulation on the bicentennial of his birth.

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

Today is the 65th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was the blow that awoke the sleeping giant. The government of the US had wanted to enter WWII for some time prior, but hadn't managed to find a good excuse. Pearl Harbor provided that excuse.

Something that is often forgotten in the basic telling of the history of the Second World War was the terrible price paid by the Russians. The US and Britain fought in north Africa, then moved on to Italy, but during this time, the Nazis attacked Russia, and the Russians, virtually alone had to fight to protect their homeland. They retreated and gradually as the winter of 1942-43 became progessively colder, the Russians made a stand at Stalingrad. The US was providing assistance in the form of materiel, but no people. Stalin screamed and Roosevelt and Churchill stalled. Eventually the cold of winter caused the Nazi's mechanized army to grind to a halt. But the Russians paid a massive price. Stalingrad was reduced to rubble, and millions of Russians died.

Now, as the 65th anniversary of the incident that brought the United States in World War II passes, our soldiers are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whatever your feeling about the war there, I urge you to use this anniversary to take a moment to pray for their safety and to ask yourself if there is anything you can do to ease the burden of the those soldiers or their families.

Ending The Great War

Today is Veterans' Day. It began as Armistice Day, marking end of the World War, which happened on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 1918. One of the great tragedies with a scheduled end to the war was that at 10:57 and change, shells were fired, in order that they should land prior to the end. Thus, moments before the peace, soldiers were being maimed and killed.

Once the "War to End All Wars" ceased to be that, the World War became World War I, and Armisitice Day became Veterans' Day. So, to any veterans who read this, thank you. To the families and spouses of anyone serving or who served, thank you for the sacrifices you've made. And to the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, whether in the current or earlier wars, thank you.

One final note, I heard a radio report yesterday about the 14 remaining veterans from the First World War. Many of those remaining had lied about their age in order to enlist.