Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be relatively mild, with a high of thirty-five and partly cloudy skies. Sunrise is 7:12 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 08m 14s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked if readers would go for peanut butter & jelly Pop Tarts. Fifty-two percent of respondents said that they would, with forty-eight percent saying no. A commenter suggested that grape jelly might be better than peanut butter & strawberry jelly. That seems right to me, too. As it turns out, Kellogg offers over a dozen kinds of Pop Tart, including some limited edition varieties, in response to market pressures.

Seventy-three years ago today, Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor (and British targets simultaneously), plunging America into the Pacific war, and less than four years later leading to the destruction of the Japanese Empire.

A Wisconsinite aboard the Arizona survives the Pearl Harbor attack:

1941 – Wisconsin Man Survives Pearl Harbor Attack

On this date Russ Warriner, a 25-year-old first class seaman on the USS Arizona, miraculously survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The explosions ripped apart the Arizona and killed nearly all his mates.

At the time of the attack, Warriner was on the sky control platform, where his job was to spot enemy ships and planes. The bomb that struck the Arizona sliced through the steel deck and exploded into a fuel tank. Fire flared for seven seconds before it ignited 1.7 million pounds of explosives held in the ship’s magazine. More than 1,000 sailors died instantly, including many on the lookout platform with Warriner.

Warriner lost his balance and fell onto the platform. His hands swept through fiery magnesium remaining from incendiary bombs and were nearly burned off. He was knocked off the ship, pulled aboard a small motor boat, and eventually made his way to shore. Warriner was treated at Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois, where plastic surgeons were able to repair his hands.

Warriner settled in Wisconsin, married and raised two children. In the late 90s, Warriner was a retired piano tuner living in Beloit Township. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in the Whippet City will be mostly sunny with a high of thirty-six. Sunrise today is 7:11 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 09m 14s of daytime. We’ve a full moon today.

On this day in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment is ratified by the states, having been passed by Congress about six months earlier on January 31st, and submitted to the sates on February 1st in a joint Congressional resolution that Pres. Lincoln signed.

How about “a sleek, solid metal, American-made mechanical pencil that will last you a lifetime”? The proposal has a Kickstarter page where you can learn more about the project. Creator Andrew Sanderson has already reached his funding goal, so this venture has a promising future. (The pencil also nicely fits in a Field Notes notebook’s spiral binding, a proof of thoughtful, useful design.)

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a mostly cloudy but mild day for Whitewater’s 6 PM Christmas Parade of Lights (with pre-parade events beginning at 5 PM in our downtown).

The parade route runs from the intersection of Whiton & Main to Whitewater Street near Cravath and by the SweetSpot. Map below from DTWW (clicking the image produces a larger map):

On this day in 1933, America repeals Prohibition:

The repeal movement was initiated and financed by the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, who worked to elect Congressmen who agreed to support repeal. The group’s wealthy supporters included John D. Rockefeller, Jr., S. S. Kresge, and the Du Pont family, among others, who had abandoned the dry cause.[24] Pauline Sabin, a wealthy Republican who founded the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), argued that Prohibition should be repealed because it made the United States a nation of hypocrites and undermined its respect for the rule of law. This hypocrisy and the fact that women had initially led the prohibition movement convinced Sabin to establish the WNPR. Their efforts eventually led to the repeal of prohibition.[31][32]

When Sabin’s fellow Republicans would not support her efforts, she went to the Democrats, who switched their support of the dry cause to endorse repeal under the leadership of liberal politicians such as Fiorello La Guardia and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sabin and her supporters emphasized that repeal would generate enormous sums of much-needed tax revenue, and weaken the base of organized crime.[citation needed]

Repeal of Prohibition was accomplished with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933. Under its terms, states were allowed to set their own laws for the control of alcohol. Following repeal, public interest in an organized prohibition movement dwindled. However, it survived for a while in a few southern and border states.[31][32] To this day, however, there are still counties and parishes within the US known as “dry”, where the sale of liquor (whiskey, wine) -not beer- is prohibited; several such municipalities have adopted liquor-by-the-drink, however in order to expand tax revenue.[33]

On this day in 1879, Wisconsin gets an animal-protection society:

1879 – Humane Society of Wisconsin Organized
On this date the Humane Society of Wisconsin was organized in Milwaukee. Inspired by Henry Bergh, a New York City philanthropist, and his Humane Movement, the state Humane Society was formed to protect both animals and children. However, with the formation of child protection laws in the early 1900s, the Humane Society of Wisconsin began to focus primarily on animal protection. [Source: Humane Society of Wisconsin]

Google-a-Day aska a question on literature:

What traffic circle with a “square” name is located just south of the site where the author lived while writing “The Seven Pillars”?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy in the morning giving way to sunshine in the afternoon, with a high of thirty-four. Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 11m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6 PM.

On this day in 1780, America successfully tricks Britain during the Revolutionary War:

A force of Continental dragoons commanded by Colonel William Washington — General George Washington’s second cousin once removed — corners Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugeley and his followers in Rugeley’s house and barn near Camden, South Carolina, on this day in 1780.

After nearly a year of brutal backcountry conflict between Washington and the fierce British commander Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton (who was infamous for Tarleton’s Quarter, the murder of colonial POWs on May 29, 1780 at Waxhaws), Washington had retreated to North Carolina the previous October. Commanded to return to the South Carolina theater by Brigadier General Daniel The Old Wagoner Morgan, Colonel Washington still lacked the proper artillery to dislodge the Loyalists. He told his cavalrymen to dismount and surround the barn. While out of Rugeley’s sight, Washington’s men fabricated a pine log to resemble a cannon.

This Quaker gun trick, named so because Quakers used it to be intimidating without breaching their pacifist vow of non-violence, worked beautifully. Washington faced the cannon toward the buildings in which the Loyalists had barricaded themselves and threatened bombardment if they did not surrender. Shortly after, Rugeley surrendered his entire force without a single shot being fired.

When informed of the pacifist victory, General Charles Cornwallis, commander of the British armies in America, informed Tarleton that Rugeley’s performance ensured he would never rise to the rank of brigadier. A few weeks later, Tarleton would himself face an even worse humiliation at the hands of General Morgan during the devastating Battle of Cowpens. The harrowing civil war for the hearts and minds of the Carolina backcountry had finally begun to favor the Patriots.

On this day in 1933, Janesville remains defiant:

1933 – Janesville Council Denies Prohibition End
On this date the Janesville Council drafted a “drastic liquor control law” that prohibited serving liquor. The law prohibited distilled spirits, but not beer, at bars, and limited liquor service to tables. Backrooms and “blinds” (closed booths) were also prohibited. The only place where packaged liquor was allowed to be sold was at municipal dispensaries. Further, bars were prohibited from selling packaged liquor. The next day, the city was uncommonly quiet as the 18th Amendment was repealed. For nearly 14 years, the 18th Amendment (the Prohibition Amendment), outlawed the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages within the U.S. [Source: Janesville Gazette, December 5, 1933, p.1]]

Google-a-Day asks a question of geography and history:

In the Russian monument of the founder of Moscow, which hand is he holding out to the side?