LOTS OF STUFF

WORDLE

I was sweating over today's word but solved it just in time to keep my 100% score.  It was a good workout for my brain.  It would have been easier if my beginning word was different.  But then it wouldn't have been so much fun.

Nothing Again

Today, RADIOLAB published a YOU TUBE session on the topic that I wrote about on April 18th.  It is an entertaining "take" on the famous "NULL" problem.  I shared the session on FACEBOOK.  You'll like it, I'm sure.

 

That Troublesome Ad

Last night I heard the new Honda ad four times in a 40 minute podcast, but today I listened to the Rachel Maddow Show podcast for 43 minutes without one of those ads.  Hooray!

Where Did My UNKNOWN CALLER's Go?

Ever since I can remember, Unknown Callers have been hogging my phone on an average of 20 times a day.  Suddenly they are gone -- why.

Well, it's because I purchased a call blocker machine from Amazon. Just a push of a button causes the machine to block any call that does not leave a telephone number on caller-id.

I can also block scam calls that do have telephone numbers, including whoever has been clogging my message receiver with the sounds of speeding trains.  Another Hooray!

 

The "Right" Whale

The Right Whale was so named because it was slow moving and easy to catch and also floated when killed, which made it easy to work on.  As cruel as killing those wonderful creatures was, its oil was used to light the world and its baleen was great for making girdles for the "royals" of Europe.

However, because they were easy prey, their numbers dwindled until there were only a few hundred left.

Just in time, oil was found under the American soil, and in a little while whaling became outlawed. Japan violates the ban, because the Japanese like whale steak. (In 1960, the famous Hausner's Restaurant in Baltimore had "Whale Steak" on its menu. My wife and I complained to Mrs. Hausner about it.)

The Right Whale number began to climb until the boat population expanded greatly and frequent collision with whales increased.

The Washington Post has published an interesting article telling how efforts are being made in Massachusetts to try to protect the Right Whales, which forage along the New England coastline during the Summer.

I have one problem with the article.  They say that Nantucket was the Whaling Capitol of the World. I believe that New Bedford, Massachusetts was.

Take a look at the over 100 whaling captain mansions on County Street or Hawthorn Street. And it is a fact that New Bedford was once the richest city in the world - because of whaling. 

Also, remember that Hetty Green was a New Bedford native (who looked like Allen Alda) and was the richest woman in the world ($5 billion in today's money - because of whaling. (My Aunt Marjorie and I once spent a weekend at her red-and-green mansion on Cuttyhunk Island. I think it's now a country club.)

Check out:  The Richest Woman in America, audio book by Janet Wallach, narrated by Coleen Marlo.

Or, the hard to get book: The Day They Shook the Plum Tree.

The Post also had an article about saving the beautiful mariposas.

(Mariposa is Spanish for butterfly, in the article that pretty creature is the monarch butterfly.)

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