Good morning.
A sunny Sunday’s ahead, with a high of fifty-six, northwest winds at 5 to 10 MPH, and a waning crescent moon.
Here’s a quick review of recent readers’ responses to Friday FW polls:
NCAA D1 Basketball Champion: 53.33% said Louisville, and you’ve a good chance to be right, as it’s Louisville v. Michigan, Monday night at 8:23 CT in the Georgia Dome. I thought there’d be a Syracuse upset in the Final Four, but it’s Michigan (right you were, Phantom Stranger).
Favorite Easter Candy: Chocolate Rabbits win again, with 32.69% of the responses. That’s about the same as 2012 – another year and a dynasty’s confirmed.
Punxsutawney Phil, Innocent or Guilty: he’s cooked, with 81.25% declaring his guilt.
Guerrilla Gardening: most people say bold (not bad), with 71.43% in favor.
Last Snowfall Over One Inch: March 16-31 is the overwhelming choice, at 57.89%, and that seems right: I think the last accumulation greater than one inch was March 18th, using available NWS data.
On 4.7.1776, an American naval victory over England:
…Navy Captain John Barry, commander of the American warship Lexington, makes the first American naval capture of a British vessel when he takes command of the British warship HMS Edward off the coast of Virginia. The capture of the Edward and its cargo turned Captain Barry into a national hero and boosted the morale of the Continental forces….
Barry’s outstanding career has been memorialized on both sides of the Atlantic. A bridge bearing his name crosses the Delaware River, and Brooklyn, New York, is home to a park named for him. In addition, four U.S. Navy ships and a building at Villanova University carry his name, and statues in his honor stand in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and his birthplace, Wexford, Ireland. On September 13, 1981, President Ronald Reagan declared Commodore John Barry Day to honor a man he called one of the earliest and greatest American patriots, a man of great insight who perceived very early the need for American power on the sea.
4.7.1970 marks a first:
1970 – The Milwaukee Brewers’ First Game
On this date the Milwaukee Brewers, one of the many organized sports teams in Wisconsin, played their first game against the California Angels in front of 37,237 enthusiastic fans at County Stadium. [Source: Brewers’ History page]
Google-a-Day asks a very particular basketball question: “In the 2011/2012 Official Rules of the NBA you will learn the definition of what term on page 21?”