Guadalupe Peak – Texas’ State High Point Here’s a trivia question you can use on your friends: What state High Point is a coral reef? A: HawaiiB: FloridaC: UtahD: Texas I’m sure you figured out, based on the title of this article, the somewhat tricky answer to this question is Texas. The Lone Star State […]
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Uranus Stinks Way back in Issue 25 we discovered Uranus is tilted and you probably should have seen a doctor. Nearly a year later, it seems you let the problem fester and things are even worse. Now, you notice something foul coming from Uranus. A rank odor seems to emanate from Uranus. Uranus smells like rotten
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
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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
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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
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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