C Is for Agate, That’s Good Enough for Me Sesame Street, the beloved children’s show filled with Muppets, debuted on television in 1969. For more than six decades the program has employed comedy and storytelling to educate the youth on all sorts of topics. You might know that many of the ubiquitous characters, such as …
Groundhogs Polish your incisors and prep your shadows, it’s almost Groundhog Day. 1993’s Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray The groundhog, also known colloquially as a woodchuck, is a large, lowland rodent that shares a family with marmots and large ground squirrels. Marmota monax resides in the eastern United States and most of Canada; the tail of its range extends …
K2 It’s a savage mountain that tries to kill you. – George Bell, 1953 The world’s second-highest mountain straddles the border between China and Pakistan. Known as K2, the peak rises 28,251 feet above sea level; just under 800 feet separates K2 and the world’s roof, Mt. Everest. The name of this beastly crag actually has …
Anniversary Issue written by Deborah Stout In the hope of giving our newsletter’s author a break from writing today, his birthday, I would like to present a guest article honoring him! In an effort to capture and share a bit of Kyle while staying true to the newsletter, I present to you: Kyle Stout, Mountain Man. I’m sure …
Machu Picchu In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors waged widespread war against native populations in the New World. In what is today known as Peru, the Spanish attempted to wipe the Incan Empire off the map. The conquest was finally successful in 1572 when the Spanish established the Viceroyalty of Peru. In addition to murdering multitudes, …
The Galápagos Islands Half a thousand miles west of Ecuador, cradling both sides of the equator, an archipelago dots the Pacific Ocean. In 1535, on his way to adjudicate a dispute between Spanish conquistadors Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro in Peru, the Bishop of Panama, Fray Tomás de Berlanga, was shocked to discover 21 …
The Worst Year to Be Alive During this year the most dread portent took place. The Sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the Sun in eclipse. — Procopius of Caesarea As we all know by now, 2020 was a difficult year to inhabit …
Alex Trebek Today marked the final new episode of Jeopardy! hosted by Alex Trebek. I’ve spent nearly four decades of time on this planet watching Jeopardy! five nights per week. Though I know the game predated Trebek’s involvement and I actually know a person who appeared on the show when it was hosted by Art Fleming, to me, Jeopardy! is synonymous with …
The North Pole Ho, ho, ho, my friends! Last week we profiled Santa’s transportation critters – Reindeer – and today we’ll travel to the address of the big man’s home base: the North Pole. If you want to mail Santa a letter, send it to North 90 degrees latitude and every possible line of longitude. Don’t send it to …
The Winter Solstice Hallelujah! Today marks the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. The shortening of daylight is finally over. For the next six months, our sunlight durations will only increase. Despite speaking of the solstice as a date, it is actually a moment. Precisely, the solstice is the moment one of our planet’s poles is tilted …