Good morning.

Whitewater will be cold today, but not as cold: a high of five degrees, with calmer winds producing wind chill values of zero to ten below.

On this day in 1918, Pres. Wilson issued his Fourteen Points proposal:

It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of every public man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that is dead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whose purposes are consistent with justice and the peace of the world to avow nor or at any other time the objects it has in view….

On January 8, 1910, hundreds of vagrants demanded compensation for snow-shoveling:

1910 – Vagrant Snow Shovelers Strike for Pay
On this date 228 vagrants were brought in to shovel snow at the Chicago & Northwestern rail yard in Janesville. Shortly thereafter, they went on strike for 25 cents an hour and better food. Two days later, they went on strike again, asking for 30 cents an hour. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Puzzability‘s weekly series continues:

This Week’s Game — January 6-10

Re Solutions

You’ll only need to keep these New Year’s resolutions for a week. For each day, we started with a word and added the two-letter chunk RE somewhere within the word to get a new word. The two-word answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the shorter word followed by the RE word.

Example:

Pumpernickel that’s been sitting around too long

Answer:

Bad bread

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase, with the RE word second (as “Bad bread” in the example), for your answer.

Wednesday, January 8

Formal reprimands concerning the official population count

Good morning.

Tuesday will present partly sunny skies, a high of two degrees, and wind chill values between twenty-nine and thirty-nine below.

On this day in 1901, a native-born Wisconsinite becomes governor:

1901 – Robert Marion La Follette Inaugurated as Governor
On this date Robert M. La Follette was inaugurated as governor after winning the November 6, 1900 election. La Follette was born in Dane County in 1855. A Wisconsin Law School graduate and three-term member of congress, La Follette was renowned for his oratorical style. He was the first Wisconsin-born individual to serve as governor. [Source:Dictionary of Wisconsin History]

Here’s Puzzability‘s Tuesday puzzle:

This Week’s Game — January 6-10

Re Solutions

You’ll only need to keep these New Year’s resolutions for a week. For each day, we started with a word and added the two-letter chunk RE somewhere within the word to get a new word. The two-word answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the shorter word followed by the RE word.

Example:

Pumpernickel that’s been sitting around too long

Answer:

Bad bread

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase, with the RE word second (as “Bad bread” in the example), for your answer.

Tuesday, January 7

Piece of information that no one in a religious splinter group will tell

Good morning.

Whitewater’s week starts off cold, with a high of eleven below, wind chill values of thirty to forty below, and a slight chance of occasional light snow in the morning.

Like many districts across the state, the Whitewater School District is closed today.

On January 6, 1838, Samuel Morse conducts a demonstration:

…Samuel Morse’s telegraph system is demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey. The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, would eventually revolutionize long-distance communication, reaching the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.

On this day in 1921, a community group takes a stand:

1921 – Janesville Women Abhor Salacious Entertainment
On this date the Janesville Federation of Women decided to “censor” movies and vaudeville in the city. Members of this organization praised and promoted what they considered “better offerings.” They were zealously critical towards those of a “salacious” nature. No follow-up ever determined whether the women were successful in their quest or if the increased publicity for “salacious” shows backfired. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Puzzability starts its first puzzle series of the new year:

This Week’s Game — January 6-10

Re Solutions

You’ll only need to keep these New Year’s resolutions for a week. For each day, we started with a word and added the two-letter chunk RE somewhere within the word to get a new word. The two-word answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the shorter word followed by the RE word.

Example:

Pumpernickel that’s been sitting around too long

Answer:

Bad bread

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase, with the RE word second (as “Bad bread” in the example), for your answer.

Monday, January 6

Mother and father of a pair of trousers

Good morning.

Whitewater will have a cold Sunday, with a high of nine, and wind chill values between ten to fifteen below.

The Whitewater Unified School District, as with many other districts across Wisconsin, will be closed tomorrow, 1.6.14: “WUSD Closed Monday, 1/6/2014 due to dangerous wind chills. After school & evening activities for Monday are also cancelled.”

The Friday Poll on today’s Packers-49ers game is now closed. The majority of respondents are, as I am, optimistic, with 60.53% predicting a Green Bay win. Kickoff is 3:40 pm, televised on Fox.

What happens when a resident of South Porcupine, Ontario uses a water gun to shoot boiling water into the -41 C air? This is what happens:

(Some comments on YouTube suggest that the video mistakenly describes -41 C as -41 F. The comments are wrong; at these temperatures, they’re about the same numerical value: -41 C is -41.8 F, where the conversion is C = 5/9 (F-32).)

On this day in 1914, Henry Ford announced a new set of benefits and work rules for his company:

Detroit, Mich., Jan. 5. — Henry Ford, head of the Ford Motor Company, announced today one of the most remarkable business moves of his entire remarkable career. In brief it is:

To give to the employees of the company $10,000,000 of the profits of the 1914 business, the payments to be made semi-monthly and added to the pay checks.

To run the factory continuously instead of only eighteen hours a day, giving employment to several thousand more men by employing three shifts of eight hours each, instead of only two nine-hour shifts, as at present.

To establish a minimum wage scale of $5 per day. Even the boy who sweeps up the floors will get that much.

Before any man in any department of the company who does not seem to be doing good work shall be discharged, an opportunity will be given to him to try to make good in every other department. No man shall be discharged except for proved unfaithfulness or irremediable inefficiency.

On January 5, 1855, a Fond du Lac inventor is born:

1855 – King Camp Gillette Born
On this date King Camp Gillette was born in Fond du Lac. He worked for many years as a traveling salesman. After much experimentation, he developed a disposable steel blade and razor. He established the Gillette Safety Razor Company in 1901. Sales for his product skyrocketed. Gillette remained president of his company until 1931 and was a director until his death the following year. [Source: Lemelson-MIT Program]

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be relatively warmer, with a high of twenty-seven. Sunrise today is 7:26 AM and sunset 4:34 PM. The moon is a waxing crescent with sixteen percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On January 17th (in limited release), the documentary film Maidentrip will make its theatrical debut.  It’s the story of fourteen-year-old Laura Dekker‘s 2010 attempt to sail alone around the world:

In 2009, when Dekker first announced plans to sail the world, Dutch authorities prevented her from setting sail for a year. “Of course there are people who say you’re crazy, but it’s a dream. A great, great dream. I want to sail, I want to go around the world. I want to see all the places and not always the stupid same thing,” says Dekker at the start of the film. “I lived my first five years at sea and ever since, all I’ve wanted is to return to that life.” In January 2012, after 17 months at sea, Laura successfully completed her voyage.

An excerpt from the film appears below. It seems a film well worth putting on one’s watch list, certainly for anyone who likes real-life adventure stories.

On this day in 1923, Milton College’s president takes a stand for civilization itself, against the corrupting forces of music and dance:

1923 – Student Dancing Banned
On this date Milton College president A.E. Whitford banned dancing by students in off-campus, semi-public places such as confectionery stores. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Good morning.

It’s a cold Friday, with blowing snow in the afternoon (but otherwise partly sunny) and a high of eleven. Wind chill values will be between fifteen to twenty-five below.

Chicago has some new residents:

On this day in 1861, Delaware wisely sticks with the Union:

…just two weeks after South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, the state of Delaware rejects a similar proposal.

There had been little doubt that Delaware would remain with the North. Delaware was technically a slave state, but the institution was not widespread by 1861. There were some 20,000 blacks living in the state, but only about 1,800 of them were slaves. Most of the slaves were concentrated in Sussex, the southernmost of the state’s three counties.

After South Carolina ratified the ordinance of secession on December 20, 1860, other states considered similar proposals. Although there were some Southern sympathizers, Delaware had a Unionist governor and the legislature was dominated by Unionists. On January 3, the legislature voted overwhelmingly to remain with the United States. For the Union, Delaware’s decision was only a temporary respite from the parade of seceding states. Over the next several weeks, six states joined South Carolina in seceding; four more left after the South captured South Carolina’s Fort Sumter in April 1861.