Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:37, for 15h 20m 09s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 40.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

There will be a public meeting at the wastewater treatment plant today at 4:30 PM to discuss upgrades to that facility, followed by a Common Council meeting at the plant at 6:30 PM.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission also meets today, at 4:30 PM.

On this day in 1868, Wisconsin resident Christopher Latham Sholes, along with two partners, receives a patent for a “Type-Writer”:

The Sholes and Glidden typewriter had its origin in a printing machine designed in 1866 by Christopher Latham Sholes to assist in printing page numbers in books, and serial numbers on tickets and other items.^[2] Sholes, a Wisconsin printer, formed a partnership with Samuel W. Soule, also a printer, and together they began development work in Charles F. Kleinsteuber’s machine shop, a converted mill in northern Milwaukee. Carlos S. Glidden, an inventor who frequented the machine shop, became interested in the device and suggested that it might be adapted to print alphabetical characters as well.^[3] In July 1867, Glidden read an article in Scientific American describing “the Pterotype”, a writing machine invented by John Pratt and recently featured in an issue of London Engineering. Glidden showed the article to Sholes, who thought the machine “complicated and liable to get out of order”,^[4] and was convinced that a better machine could be designed. To that point, several dozen patents for printing devices had been issued in the United States and abroad.^[5] None of the machines, however, had been successful or effective products.^[5][6]

In November 1866, following their successful collaboration on the numbering machine,^[4] Sholes asked Soule to join him and Glidden in developing the new device. Mathias Schwalbach, a German clockmaker, was hired to assist with construction. To test the proposed machine’s feasibility, a key was taken from a telegraph machine and modified to print the letter “W”;^[3] by September 1867, a model with a full alphabet, numbers, and rudimentary punctuation had been completed, and it was used to compose letters to acquaintances in the hope of selling the invention, or procuring funds for its manufacture.^[7] One recipient, James Densmore, immediately bought a 25% interest for $600, the cost of the machine’s development to that date.^[8][9] Densmore saw the machine for the first time in March 1868, and was unimpressed; he thought it clumsy and impractical, and declared it “good for nothing except to show that its underlying principles were sound”.^[10] Among other deficiencies, the device held paper in a horizontal frame, which limited the thickness of the paper that could be used and made alignment difficult.^[11] A patent for the “Type-Writer” was granted on June 23, 1868, and, despite the device’s flaws, Densmore rented a building in Chicago in which to begin its manufacture. Fifteen units were produced before a lack of funds forced the venture back to Milwaukee.^[12]

Here’s Puzzability‘s Tuesday game:

This Week’s Game — June 22-26

Colorful Characters

Would you like to join our rainbow coalition? For each day this week, we started with the name of a color and formed a new word that’s a type of person that has “consonantcy” with the color—a word with all the same consonants, in the same order, but a different set of vowels, which can appear anywhere in the word. (The letter Y is not used in any words here.) The resulting two-word phrase, with the color first, is described in each day’s clue.

Example:

Dark red leatherneck

Answer:

Maroon marine

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase (as “Maroon marine” in the example) for your answer.

Tuesday, June 23

Bright yellow-green ancient race drivers

Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday in town will be stormy with a high of eighty-six. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset 8:37, for 15h 20m 19s. The moon is a waxing crescent with 30.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked whether readers thought a customer’s pictures of a Kentucky Fried Chicken meal looked more like fried chicken or a fried rat. A majority of respondents (78.57%) chose fried chicken as their answer.

On this day in 1940, France surrenders to Nazi Germany, by signing an armistice with her aggressor. It’s impossible to imagine circumstances under which any armistice or arrangement with the Third Reich could be other than tragic for civilized peoples:

Discouraged by his cabinet’s hostile reaction to a British proposal to unite France and Britain to avoid defeat, and believing that his ministers no longer supported him, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned on 16 June. He was succeeded by Marshal Philippe Pétain, who delivered a radio address to the French people announcing his intention to ask for an armistice with Germany. When Hitler received word from the French government that they wished to negotiate an armistice, he selected the Forest of Compiègne as the site for the negotiations.^[239]

Compiègne had been the site of the 1918 Armistice, which ended the First World War with a humiliating defeat for Germany; Hitler viewed the choice of location as a supreme moment of revenge for Germany over France.^[240] The armistice was signed on 22 June 1940 in the very same railway carriage in which the 1918 Armistice was signed (it was removed from a museum building and placed on the precise spot where it was located in 1918), Hitler sat in the same chair in which Marshal Ferdinand Foch had sat when he faced the defeated German representatives.^[241] After listening to the reading of the preamble, Hitler left the carriage in a calculated gesture of disdain for the French delegates, and negotiations were turned over to Wilhelm Keitel, the Chief of Staff of the OKW. The armistice and cease-fire went into effect at 01:35 on 25 June.^[242]

On this day in 1943, Joe McCarthy lies about an accident:

1943 – McCarthy Breaks Leg in Drunken Accident
On this date future senator Joseph McCarthy broke his leg during a drunken Marine Corps initiation ceremony, despite a press release and other claims that he was hurt in “military action.” Although nicknamed “Tail Gunner Joe”, McCarthy never was a tail gunner, but instead served at a desk as an intelligence officer. In 1951 he applied for medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded to those who had flown at least 25 combat missions. The Marine Corps has records of only 11 combat flights McCarthy flew on, and those were described as local “milk run” flights. Many of McCarthy’s claims were disputed by political opponents as well as journalists.

Puzzability begins a new series, entitled Colorful Characters:

This Week’s Game — June 22-26

Colorful Characters

Would you like to join our rainbow coalition? For each day this week, we started with the name of a color and formed a new word that’s a type of person that has “consonantcy” with the color—a word with all the same consonants, in the same order, but a different set of vowels, which can appear anywhere in the word. (The letter Y is not used in any words here.) The resulting two-word phrase, with the color first, is described in each day’s clue.

Example:

Dark red leatherneck

Answer:

Maroon marine

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase (as “Maroon marine” in the example) for your answer.

Monday, June 22

Purple person who parks your Pontiac

Good morning, Whitewater.

Summer begins today in Whitewater at 11:39 AM.  This first day of summer in town will bring a mix of sunshine and clouds with a high of eighty-four.  Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset 8:36, for 15h 20m 23s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 23.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1788, a necessary ninth state ratified the Constitution:

New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land….

Congress endorsed a plan to draft a new constitution, and on May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. On September 17, 1787, after three months of debate moderated by convention president George Washington, the new U.S. constitution, which created a strong federal government with an intricate system of checks and balances, was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states.

Beginning on December 7, five states–Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut–ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. In June, Virginia ratified the Constitution, followed by New York in July.

On this day in 1856, Milwaukee exports to Europe:

On this date the first vessel to leave Milwaukee for a European port departed. Loaded with 14,320 bushels of wheat from H. & J.F. Hill, the Dean Richmond left Milwaukee for Liverpool. She reached her destination on September 29, 1856. [Source: History of Milwaukee, Vol. II, pg. 10]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be partly cloudy, with a probability of evening thunderstorms, and a high of eighty three.  Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset 8:36, for 15h 20m 25s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 15.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley‘s 1974 novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Murray Hamilton as the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody’s wife, Ellen. The screenplay is credited to both Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.

Shot mostly on location on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department’s mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal’s presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark’s impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures gave the film what was then an exceptionallywide release for a major studio picture, over 450 screens, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with a heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise.

Generally well received by critics, Jaws became the highest-grossing film in history at the time, a distinction it held until the release of Star Wars. It won several awards for its soundtrack and editing. Along with Star Wars, Jaws was pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple “high-concept” premises that are released during the summer in thousands of theaters and supported by heavy advertising. It was followed by three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley, and many imitative thrillers. In 2001, Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

On this day in 1816, soldiers arrive near what was then the frontier:

On this date troops arrived at Fort Crawford. After the War of 1812, the United States Congress approved a plan to erect a chain of forts along the Fox-Wisconsin-Mississippi waterway. In 1816 Fort Crawford was erected on a mound behind the main village of Prairie du Chien. It was a four-sided enclosure made of squared logs, set horizontally. At the two opposing corners stood a blockhouse. Soldiers’ quarters formed the walls of the fort, faced the parade ground, and accommodated five companies. By the middle of the year, the 8th Infantry had established three posts on the east bank of the Mississippi: Fort Edwards, Fort Armstrong and Fort Crawford, the latter named for the Secretary of War. [Source: The History of Wisconsin, Volume 1, SHSW 1973, page 97]