Good morning.

Today will be mostly sunny with a high of sixteen.

On this day in 1967, the Packers win the first Super Bowl:

….at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the first-ever world championship game of American football.

In the mid-1960s, the intense competition for players and fans between the National Football League (NFL) and the upstart American Football League (AFL) led to talks of a possible merger. It was decided that the winners of each league’s championship would meet each year in a single game to determine the “world champion of football.”

In that historic first game–played before a non-sell-out crowd of 61,946 people–Green Bay scored three touchdowns in the second half to defeat Kansas City 35-10. Led by MVP quarterback Bart Starr, the Packers benefited from Max McGee’s stellar receiving and a key interception by safety Willie Wood. For their win, each member of the Packers collected $15,000: the largest single-game share in the history of team sports.

Here’s Puzzability‘s Wednesday game:

This Week’s Game — January 13-17

String Theory

Are you a master of science? For each day this week, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get a science-related phrase that starts with a possessive name.

Example:

Sentry’s “stop!” / impose, as a tax / barge-like boat / turn from solid to liquid

Answer:

Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)

What to Submit:

Submit the phrase and the smaller words (as “Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)” in the example) for your answer.

Wednesday, January 15

Out-of-play hit, in baseball / headgear, in baseball / group of zealots / Colorado skiing mecca / swordfight for two / Juicy Fruit, for one

Good morning.

We’ll have snow today in Whitewater, amounting to between one and three inches by evening.

Whitewater’s Parks & Rec Board is scheduled to meet at 5:30 PM today.

On this day in 1784, the Second Continental Congress makes it official:

….the Continental Congress ratifies the Second Treaty of Paris, ending the War for Independence.

In the document, which was known as the Second Treaty of Paris because the Treaty of Paris was also the name of the agreement that had ended the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain officially agreed to recognize the independence of its 13 former colonies as the new United States of America.

In addition, the treaty settled the boundaries between the United States and what remained of British North America. U.S. fishermen won the right to fish in the Grand Banks, off the Newfoundland coast, and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Both sides agreed to ensure payment to creditors in the other nation of debts incurred during the war and to release all prisoners of war. The United States promised to return land confiscated during the war to its British owners, to stop any further confiscation of British property and to honor the property left by the British army on U.S. shores, including Negroes or slaves. Both countries assumed perpetual rights to access the Mississippi River….

Here’s Puzzability‘s Tuesday game:

This Week’s Game — January 13-17

String Theory

Are you a master of science? For each day this week, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get a science-related phrase that starts with a possessive name.

Example:

Sentry’s “stop!” / impose, as a tax / barge-like boat / turn from solid to liquid

Answer:

Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)

What to Submit:

Submit the phrase and the smaller words (as “Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)” in the example) for your answer.

Tuesday, January 14

Albee or Stoppard production / collar locale / biscuit-like treats for teatime / bully verbally

Good morning.

Whitewater’s week begins with a partly sunny day and a high of thirty-seven.

The city’s Planning Commission meets this evening at 6 PM.

If you’d like to begin your week with something thoughtful – and in that way truly inspirational – then Lizzie Velasquez’s talk at TEDxAustin is just the thing.  Velasquez has a rare condition that prevents her from gaining weight, no matter how many small meals a day she eats.  The condition has left her very thin, blind in her right eye, and the subject of taunts about her appearance.

Embedded below is her TED presentation, entitled, How Do YOU Define Yourself? More information about her presentations and books is available at her website, AboutLizzie.com

On this day in 1922, it’s the birth of the ‘oldest station in the nation’:

1922 – WHA Radio Station Founded
On this date the call letters of experimental station 9XM in Madison were replaced by WHA. This station dates back to 1917, making it “The oldest station in the nation.” [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers, edited by Sarah Davis McBride]

Puzzability‘s new series, one that’s science-themed, begins today:

This Week’s Game — January 13-17

String Theory

Are you a master of science? For each day this week, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get a science-related phrase that starts with a possessive name.

Example:

Sentry’s “stop!” / impose, as a tax / barge-like boat / turn from solid to liquid

Answer:

Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)

What to Submit:

Submit the phrase and the smaller words (as “Halley’s comet (halt / levy / scow / melt)” in the example) for your answer.

Monday, January 13

Declare openly / pleased / violinist’s goo / output of a sawmill

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny, with a high of thirty-eight, and occasional gusts of wind as high as 25 mph.

Friday’s FW poll is now closed, and readers collectively picked these four teams as the most likely to win the weekend NFL games: Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, and New England. With the divisional playoffs half over, that’s a 2-0 record (both the Seahawks and Patriots having won on Saturday). In my case, it’s a 1-1 record (I went with Seattle, but also Indianapolis; it’s an understatement to say that Indianapolis fell short.)

Toronto may have a world-class miscreant for its mayor, but she also has a zoo with a polar bear cub. Cuteness doesn’t trump misconduct, but this cub’s doing his best to improve his city’s image:

On this day [January 12th] in 1888 the so-called “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” kills 235 people, many of whom were children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains region of the United States. The storm came with no warning, and some accounts say that the temperature fell nearly 100 degrees in just 24 hours.

It was a Thursday afternoon and there had been unseasonably warm weather the previous day from Montana east to the Dakotas and south to Texas. Suddenly, within a matter of hours, Arctic air from Canada rapidly pushed south. Temperatures plunged to 40 below zero in much of North Dakota. Along with the cool air, the storm brought high winds and heavy snows. The combination created blinding conditions.

Most victims of the blizzard were children making their way home from school in rural areas and adults working on large farms. Both had difficulty reaching their destinations in the awful conditions. In some places, though, caution prevailed. Schoolteacher Seymour Dopp in Pawnee City, Nebraska, kept his 17 students at school when the storm began at 2 p.m. They stayed overnight, burning stockpiled wood to keep warm. The next day, parents made their way over five-foot snow drifts to rescue their children. In Great Plains, South Dakota, two men rescued the children in a schoolhouse by tying a rope from the school to the nearest shelter to lead them to safety. Minnie Freeman, a teacher in Nebraska, successfully led her children to shelter after the storm tore the roof off of her one-room schoolhouse. In other cases, though, people were less lucky. Teacher Loie Royce tried to lead three children to the safety of her home, less than 90 yards from their school in Plainfield, Nebraska. They became lost, and the children died of hypothermia. Royce lost her feet to frostbite.

In total, an estimated 235 people across the plains died on January 12. The storm is still considered one of the worst blizzards in the history of the area.