Good morning, Whitewater.

The end of the work week in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise is 5:38 and sunset 8:03, for 14h 24m 35s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 80.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

It’s the 70th anniversary of V-E Day:

Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany‘s unconditional surrender of its armed forces.^[1] It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.

On 30 April, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germany’s surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin, Germany.

Upon the defeat of Germany, celebrations erupted throughout the world. From Moscow to Los Angeles, people celebrated. In the United Kingdom, more than one million people celebrated in the streets to mark the end of the European part of the war. In London, crowds massed in Trafalgar Square and up the Mall to Buckingham Palace, where King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, appeared on the balcony of the palace before the cheering crowds. Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) and her sister Princess Margaret were allowed to wander incognito among the crowds and take part in the celebrations.^[2]

In the United States, the victory happened on President Harry Truman‘s 61st birthday.^[3] He dedicated the victory to the memory of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died of a cerebral hemorrhage less than a month earlier, on 12 April.^[4] Flags remained at half-mast for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period.^[5][6] Truman said of dedicating the victory to Roosevelt’s memory and keeping the flags at half-mast that his only wish was “that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day.”^[4] Later that day, Truman said that the victory made it his most enjoyable birthday.^[3]

Massive celebrations also took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and especially in New York’s Times Square.^[7]

Here’s the final game in Puzzability‘s Maternity Test series:

This Week’s Game — May 4-8

Maternity Test

There’s a bit of a generation gap this Mother’s Day week. Each day’s clue is a series of words, each with one letter replaced by a dash. Fill in the missing letters to make a word—one way to get the first (or only) name of a famous mother, real or fictional, and another way to get the name of a child of hers.

Example:

SIDE-AR / BL-CKHEAD / A-OUND / O-LONG / -EARNING

Answer:

Carol & Bobby (Brady)

What to Submit:

Submit the two first names, with the mother first (as “Carol & Bobby” in the example), for your answer.

Friday, May 8

UNDER-INE / SYN-PSES / A-DITION / P-ISONER / -OMINATION / OVERTUR- / -ERIAL

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in Whitewater will be warm and mostly sunny, with a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:40 and sunset 8:02, for 14h 22m 16s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 88.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

How about something delicious in the morning? I’d say this would do the trick:

On this day in 1864, soldiers from Wisconsin are among others who saw an end to intense fighting at the Battle of the Wilderness:

1864 – (Civil War) Battle of the Wilderness Ended
he fighting on May 5-7, 1864, produced nearly 30,000 casualties without giving either side a clear victory. The 2nd, 5th, 6th and 7th Wisconsin Infantry regiments fought at the Battle of the Wilderness.

Here’s Puzzability‘s Thursday game in its Maternity Test series:

This Week’s Game — May 4-8

Maternity Test

There’s a bit of a generation gap this Mother’s Day week. Each day’s clue is a series of words, each with one letter replaced by a dash. Fill in the missing letters to make a word—one way to get the first (or only) name of a famous mother, real or fictional, and another way to get the name of a child of hers.

Example:

SIDE-AR / BL-CKHEAD / A-OUND / O-LONG / -EARNING

Answer:

Carol & Bobby (Brady)

What to Submit:

Submit the two first names, with the mother first (as “Carol & Bobby” in the example), for your answer.

Thursday, May 7

CA-OLING / P-STURE / IN-URABLE / SHRIN-

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have an even chance of rain today, and a high of seventy-eight. Sunrise is 5:41 and sunset 8:01, for 14h 19m 56s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 94.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

It’s Orson Welles’s birthday:

George Orson Welles … May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, writer and producer who worked in theater, radio and film. He is best remembered for his innovative work in all three media: in theatre, most notably Caesar (1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar; in radio, the 1938 broadcast “The War of the Worlds“, one of the most famous in the history of radio; and in film, Citizen Kane (1941), consistently ranked as one of the all-time greatest films.

Welles directed a number of high-profile stage productions for the Federal Theatre Project in his early twenties, including an innovative adaptation of Macbeth and The Cradle Will Rock. In 1937 he and John Houseman founded theMercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented an acclaimed series of productions on Broadway through 1941. Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells‘ novel The War of the Worlds performed for the radio anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was occurring. Although some contemporary sources claim these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated,^[2] they rocketed Welles to notoriety.

His first film was Citizen Kane (1941), which he co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in as Charles Foster Kane. Welles was an outsider to the studio system and directed only 13 full-length films in his career. Because of this, he struggled for creative control from the major film studios, and his films were either heavily edited or remained unreleased. His distinctive directorial style featured layered and nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting such aschiaroscuro, unusual camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. He has been praised as a major creative force and as “the ultimate auteur“.^[3]:6 Welles followed up Citizen Kane with critically acclaimed films including The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942 and Touch of Evil in 1958. Although the three are generally considered his greatest works, some film critics have also argued other works of his, such as The Lady from Shanghai (1947)^[4] and Chimes at Midnight (1966),^[5] are under-appreciated.

In 2002, Welles was voted the greatest film director of all time in two British Film Institute polls among directors and critics,^[6][7] and a wide survey of critical consensus, best-of lists, and historical retrospectives calls him the most acclaimed director of all time.^[8] Well known for his baritone voice,^[9] Welles was a well-regarded actor in radio and film, a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor, and an accomplished magician noted for presenting troop variety showsin the war years.

On this day in 1947, Wisconsin shakes:

On this date an earthquake centered due south of Milwaukee near the shore of Lake Michigan, caused minor damage but no major injuries. The tremor shook buildings and rattled windows in many communities throughout southeastern Wisconsin. There were reports of broken windows in Kenosha. The shock was felt from Sheboygan to the Wisconsin – Illinois border. [Source: U.S.G.S. Earthquake Hazards Program]

Here’s the Wednesday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — May 4-8

Maternity Test

There’s a bit of a generation gap this Mother’s Day week. Each day’s clue is a series of words, each with one letter replaced by a dash. Fill in the missing letters to make a word—one way to get the first (or only) name of a famous mother, real or fictional, and another way to get the name of a child of hers.

Example:

SIDE-AR / BL-CKHEAD / A-OUND / O-LONG / -EARNING

Answer:

Carol & Bobby (Brady)

What to Submit:

Submit the two first names, with the mother first (as “Carol & Bobby” in the example), for your answer.

Wednesday, May 6

OVERPA-S / PR-POSITION / PIC- / BLO-DIES

Good morning, Whitewater.

Whitewater’s Tuesday will be rainy with a high of fifty-five. Sunrise is 5:42 and sunset 8:00, for 14h 17m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets today at 6:15 PM, and Common Council at 6:30 PM.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, a day that not only commemorates a Mexican victory over France’s Napoleon III, but also a victory that likely aided the Union against the Confederacy:

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “fifth of May”) is a celebration held on May 5. It is celebrated in the United States^[1] and in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla,^{[note 1][2][3][4]} where the holiday is called El Día de la Batalla de Puebla(English: The Day of the Battle of Puebla).^[5][6][7] Mexican Americans also often see the day as a source of pride; one way they can honor their ethnicity is to celebrate this day.^[8]

The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army‘s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.^[3][9] In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is sometimes mistaken to be Mexico’s Independence Day—the most important national holiday in Mexico—which is celebrated on September 16.^[3][10]

….Donald W. Miles states, “At the time, there were fears in the United States that the French would use Mexico as a base to back the Confederacy, so President Lincoln and his Secretary of State went out of their way to appear ‘neutral’ in the Mexican situation. They did not want to take on the French and the Confederates at the same time”.^[30] Dr. Miles goes on to explain that “Napoleon III had hesitated to take on the United States directly, but now the news of the Civil War changed everything”.^[31] It meant that the Americans would be occupied with their Civil War for some time. Upon hearing the Spaniards and the British had sailed off to grab the customs house in Veracruz to start collecting their duties, Napoleon decided he would not only send the French navy, but would also start looking for someone to place as emperor in Mexico. He would then use Mexico as a base to help the Confederates win their war against the Union. Napoleon saw this as an opportunity not to be missed.^[31]

Historian Justo Sierra has written in his Political Evolution of the Mexican People, that had Mexico not defeated the French in Puebla on May 5, 1862, France would have gone to the aid of the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War and the United States’ destiny would have been different.^[32][33]

Ignacio Gonzalez wrote, “Some scholars, including José Antonio Burciaga, believe that had the French defeated México at Puebla, France would have aided the South in the American Civil War in order to free Southern ports of the Union Blockade. During this time, Confederate General Robert E. Lee was enjoying success, and French intervention could have had an impact on the Civil War.”^[21]

Mexico and the United States are both better for Napoleon III’s defeat on 5.5.1862.

Here’s the second day of Puzzability‘s Maternity Test series:

This Week’s Game — May 4-8

Maternity Test

There’s a bit of a generation gap this Mother’s Day week. Each day’s clue is a series of words, each with one letter replaced by a dash. Fill in the missing letters to make a word—one way to get the first (or only) name of a famous mother, real or fictional, and another way to get the name of a child of hers.

Example:

SIDE-AR / BL-CKHEAD / A-OUND / O-LONG / -EARNING

Answer:

Carol & Bobby (Brady)

What to Submit:

Submit the two first names, with the mother first (as “Carol & Bobby” in the example), for your answer.

Tuesday, May 5

-UGFUL / OVERST-FFED / COMME-CE / HO-TED