Good morning, Whitewater.

We’re at mid-week in the Whippet City, with a Wednesday that will reach a high of fifty-nine, under partly cloudy skies.

There is a special session of the Whitewater School Board tonight at 6 PM.

Some people worry about our nation’s future. They can now put their minds at ease. Online retailer Vat19 is offering customers the world’s largest gummy bear: “The World’s Largest Gummy Bear is the lion of the candy world. There is no candy more magnificent or more powerful. This five-pound beast is the equivalent of 1,400 regular sized gummy bears…..”

Oh, yes. That’s the stuff. America’s going to be just fine.

On this day in 1804, Lewis and Clark begin their expedition across North America:

The Corps of Discovery departed from Camp Dubois at 4 p.m. on May 14, 1804, and met up with Lewis in St. Charles, Missouri, a short time later, marking the beginning of the voyage to the Pacific coast. The Corps followed the Missouri River westward. Soon they passed La Charrette, the last Euro-American settlement on the Missouri River.

The expedition followed the Missouri through what is now Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. On August 20, 1804, Sergeant Charles Floyd died, apparently from acute appendicitis. He was the only member of the expedition to die, and was among the first to sign up with the Corps of Discovery. He was buried at a bluff by the river, now named after him, in what is now Sioux City, Iowa. His burial site was marked with a cedar post on which was inscribed his name and day of death. A mile up the river the expedition camped at a small river which they named Floyd’s River.^[40][41][42] During the final week of August, Lewis and Clark reached the edge of the Great Plains, a place abounding with elk, deer, bison, and beavers.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition established relations with two dozen Indian nations, without whose help the expedition would have risked starvation during the harsh winters and/or become hopelessly lost in the vast ranges of the Rocky Mountains.^[43]

Here’s Wednesday’s game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — May 12-16

Just Drop It!

Sometimes, it goes without saying. For each day this week, we started with a word that contains the two-letter chunk IT and deleted it to get a new word. The two-word answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the longer IT word followed by the shorter word.

Example:

Einstein from England

Answer:

Britain brain

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase, with the IT word first (as “Britain brain” in the example), for your answer.

Wednesday, May 14

Penalty for keeping a library book past its due date, but not forever

Good morning.

Tuesday in the Whippet City will bring a high of sixty-one, and a fifty-fifty chance of scattered showers.

The city’s Parks & Recreation Board meets this afternoon at 5:30 PM.

Adam Ellis of BuzzFeed has 15 Charts That Perfectly Illustrate How To Properly Pet Animals (“Learn how to interact with animals and you’ll have more furry friends than you know what to do with.”).

He illustrates (among others) the petting options for dogs and, by contrast, wolverines:

On this day in 1940, Churchill declares his commitment:

…as Winston Churchill takes the helm as Great Britain’s new prime minister, he assures Parliament that his new policy will consist of nothing less than “to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.”

Emphasizing that Britain’s aim was simply “victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of terror, victory however long and hard the road may be.” That very evening, Churchill was informed that Britain would need 60 fighter squadrons to defend British soil against German attack. It had 39.

Within a couple of weeks, the conservative, anti-Socialist Churchill, in an effort to make his rally cry of victory a reality, proceeded to place all “persons, their services, and their property at the disposal of the Crown,” thereby granting the government the most all-encompassing emergency powers in modern British history….

Churchill’s powers, like Lincoln’s, were exigencies of war. For those they fought, power and control were the oppressive foundation of daily life.

On this day in 1918, a sensational Wisconsin trial begins:

1918 – Lusk Murder Trial Begins in Waukesha
On this day Grace Lusk, a Waukesha high school teacher, began her trial for the murder of Mary Roberts. Prosecutors alleged a tragic love triangle had resulted in the murder after Lusk’s pleas for Roberts to give up her husband were rebuffed. The trial, a national sensation in the early days of mass media, resulted in a guilty verdict on May 29, 1918. Lusk was sentenced to 19 years in prison but served only five before being pardoned by the Governor. After her release she jealously guarded her privacy; the identity of her husband, known only as “Mr. Brown,” was never determined. [Source: Capital Times 5/13/1918, p.1]

Here’s the Tuesday game in Puzzability‘s Just Drop It series:

This Week’s Game — May 12-16

Just Drop It!

Sometimes, it goes without saying. For each day this week, we started with a word that contains the two-letter chunk IT and deleted it to get a new word. The two-word answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the longer IT word followed by the shorter word.

Example:

Einstein from England

Answer:

Britain brain

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase, with the IT word first (as “Britain brain” in the example), for your answer.

Tuesday, May 13

Eyeshade worn by a tourist

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be a day of eighty degrees and likely thunderstorms. Sunrise today is 5:35 AM and sunset 8:08 PM. The moon is in a waxing gibbous phase with ninety-five percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets tonight at 6 PM.

It’s Florence Nightingale’s birthday:

Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC … 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was a celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. She came to prominence while serving as a nurse during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was known as “The Lady with the Lamp” after her habit of making rounds at night.

Early 21st century commentators have asserted Nightingale’s achievements in the Crimean War had been exaggerated by the media at the time, to satisfy the public’s need for a hero, but her later achievements remain widely accepted. In 1860, Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of hernursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world, now part of King’s College London. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday. Her social reforms include improving healthcare for all sections of British society, improving healthcare and advocating for better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish laws regulating prostitution that were overly harsh to women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce.

Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge. Some of her tracts were written in simple English so they could easily be understood by those with poor literary skills. She also helped popularise the graphical presentation of statistical data. Much of her writing, including her extensive work on religion and mysticism, has only been published posthumously.

Puzzability‘s new weekly series is entitled, Just Drop It! –

This Week’s Game — May 12-16

Just Drop It!

Sometimes, it goes without saying. For each day this week, we started with a word that contains the two-letter chunk IT and deleted it to get a new word. The two-word answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the longer IT word followed by the shorter word.

Example:

Einstein from England

Answer:

Britain brain

What to Submit:

Submit the two-word phrase, with the IT word first (as “Britain brain” in the example), for your answer.

Monday, May 12

Courteous resident of Warsaw