Daily Bread for 2.11.14

Good morning.

Visitors to my sites are likely to see a banner at the bottom of the page for 2.11.14 about The Day We Fight Back (https://thedaywefightback.org), a widespread, grassroots effort to curtail NSA encroachment on citizens’ rights. Thousands of websites are participating, across America, with easy means for readers to contact their Congressional representatives to demand an end to NSA abuses.

Here at home, Whitewater will have a sunny day with a high of eleven.

There’s a Park and Rec Board meeting today at 5:30 PM.

On 2.11.1861, Lincoln leaves for Washington. D.C.:

On this day in 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln leaves home in Springfield, Illinois, and embarks on his journey to Washington, D.C.

On a cold, rainy morning, Lincoln boarded a two-car private train loaded with his family’s belongings, which he himself had packed and bound. Hiw wife, Mary Lincoln, was in St. Louis on a shopping trip, and joined him later in Indiana. It was a somber occasion. Lincoln was leaving his home and heading into the maw of national crisis. Since he had been elected, seven Southern states had seceded from the Union. Lincoln knew that his actions upon entering office would likely lead to civil war.

He spoke to a crowd before departing: “Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young man to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being… I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail… To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”

A bystander reported that the president-elect’s “breast heaved with emotion and he could scarcely command his feelings.” Indeed, Lincoln’s words were prophetic—a funeral train carried him back to Springfield just over four years later.

Wisconsin’s legislature has been turbulent recently, but more so in our territorial past:

[February 11th] 1842 – Shooting in the Legislature
On this date the Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin met in Madison, only to be interrupted by the shooting of one member by another. The legislature was debating the appointment of Enos S. Baker for sheriff of Grant County when Charles Arndt made a sarcastic remark about Baker’s colleague, James Vineyard. After an uproar, adjournment was declared and when Arndt approached Vineyard’s desk, a fight broke out during which Vineyard drew his revolver and shot Arndt. [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners by Fred L. Holmes]

Puzzability‘s Valentine’s series continues:

This Week’s Game — February 10-14

Candy and Flowers

We’ve gotten you two gifts every day this Valentine’s week. For each day, we started with the name of a chocolate brand plus the name of a flower. Each day’s clue shows the brand name and the flower name melded together in a string of letters, with each in order but intermingled with the other.

Example:

LDOILVEY

Answer:

Dove/lily

What to Submit:

Submit the brand and the flower, in that order (as “Dove/lily” in the example), for your answer.

Tuesday, February 11

GTODUILVIPA