Good morning.

Saturday brings a high of twenty and late afternoon clouds to Whitewater. There’s a likelihood of snow this evening, with an accumulation of less than one inch.

On this day in 1898, the Maine explodes:

A massive explosion of unknown origin sinks the battleship USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor, killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard. One of the first American battleships, the Maine weighed more than 6,000 tons and was built at a cost of more than $2 million. Ostensibly on a friendly visit, the Maine had been sent to Cuba to protect the interests of Americans there after a rebellion against Spanish rule broke out in Havana in January. An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March that the ship was blown up by a mine, without directly placing the blame on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible and called for a declaration of war.

Subsequent diplomatic failures to resolve the Maine matter, coupled with United States indignation over Spain’s brutal suppression of the Cuban rebellion and continued losses to American investment, led to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898.

Within three months, the United States had decisively defeated Spanish forces on land and sea, and in August an armistice halted the fighting. On December 12, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed between the United States and Spain, officially ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire with the ceding of such former Spanish possessions as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. In 1976, a team of American naval investigators concluded that the Maine explosion was likely caused by a fire that ignited its ammunition stocks, not by a Spanish mine or act of sabotage.

On this day in 1964, comedian Chris Farley is born:

1964 – Chris Farley Born
On this date comedian Christopher Crosby Farley was born in Madison. He studied theatre and communications at Marquette University. After finishing school Farley joined the cast of the Second City Theatre, where he was discovered by Saturday Night Live producer, Lorne Michaels. He died of an accidental drug overdose on December 17, 1997, in Chicago, Illinois. [Source: Oddball Wisconsin by Jerome Pohlen, p.139]

Good morning.

Valentine’s Day in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of nineteen. Sunrise today is 6:54 AM and sunset is 5:25 PM. There’s a full moon today at 5:54 PM.

Cold(er) temperatures can be beneficial for one’s health, as James Hamblin explains in How Being Cold Burns Calories:

If you are a human in winter today, take solace in the knowledge that being outside burns calories. In the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, scientists from Maastricht University in The Netherlands argue that when exercise isn’t an option, “regular exposure to mild cold may provide a healthy and sustainable alternative strategy for increasing energy expenditure.”

….This idea is like a Paleo Diet for your surroundings. Our bodies aren’t meant to always be in ideally temperate environments. Letting the temperature of your home or office vary significantly with the seasons is good for you and the environment.

“Cold exposure alone will not save the world,” they write, “but it is a serious factor to consider in creating a sustainable environment together with a healthy lifestyle.”

1819 – Typewriter Inventor Born
On this date the inventor of the modern typewriter, C. Latham Sholes, was born. Sholes moved to Wisconsin as a child and lived in Green Bay, Kenosha, and Milwaukee. In 1867, in Milwaukee, he presented his first model for the modern typewriter and patents for the device were taken out in 1868. Sholes took the advice of many mechanical experts, including Thomas Edison, and so claims that he was the sole inventor of the typewriter have often been disputed. [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners by Fred L. Homes, pg 316-328]

Puzzability’s Valentine’s holiday concludes today with Friday’s game:

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.

Friday, February 14

WORHICTHMAIDNS

Good morning.

Whitewater will have a forty-percent chance of snow today, with a high of thirty-two.

The Fire and Rescue Task Force will meet tonight at 6:00 PM.

On this day in 1633, Galileo arrives in Rome:

On this day in 1633, Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy for advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Galileo officially faced the Roman Inquisition in April of that same year and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Put under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII, Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before dying on January 8, 1642.

In Wisconsin on 2.13.1948, private growers receive state recognition:

1948 – Potato Growers of Wisconsin Recognized
On this date the Articles of Incorporation for Potato Growers of Wisconsin were recognized by the Secretary of State. The first regular meeting of this organization was held in Stevens Point on March 20, 1948. [Source: The Badger Common’Tater, July, 1998.]

Here’s Puzzability‘s Thursday game:

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.

Thursday, February 13

HGYHIARCARIDENTLLHI

Good morning.

Wednesday will bring an even chance of snow to Whitewater this afternoon, with a high temperature of twenty degrees.

It’s Lincoln’s 205th birthday. On September 30, 1859, Lincoln spoke in Milwaukee to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, the last portion of which is especially moving:

….It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! “And this, too, shall pass away.” And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.

Here’s Puzzability’s Wednesday, Valentine’s week game:

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.

Wednesday, February 12

CAVIDOBLUERTY

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