I have always enjoyed watching The Kentucky Derby. The horses have such creative names. I like to hear the announcers as they strive to call the horses by name as they announce their ever-changing status in the race. This particular video was created during our Dark Ages of Covid. YOU WILL LAUGH, I promise.
Our Kentucky Derby this year will be held on May 06. I hope you will meet me at The Sphinx. Lois Lion always gives you the opportunity to vote on the horse of your choice. We will enjoy a Mint Julep. Remember…all you women, wear your pretty hats. Remember…all you men, tell us we are beautiful!
Video Contribution From: My E-Friend, Vickie -Sheila Tolley-
The U.S. Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed the U.S. Railroads. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used. Why did ‘they’ use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tram ways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So, who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.
Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
In other words, bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a specification, procedure, or process, and wonder, ‘What horse’s ass came up with this’, you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. Now, the twist to the story: When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you will notice that there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah.
The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit larger, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses’ behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass.
And you thought being a horse’s ass wasn’t important! Now you know. Horses’ Asses control almost everything. Explains a whole lot of stuff, doesn’t it ?
Although the origins of many words are rather odd and esoteric in nature, the origins of the words “uppercase” and “lowercase” to refer to capitalized and uncapitalized letters is quite straightforward.
Back when every bit of printed material had to be handset by a printer or their assistants, the letters were arranged by frequency of use. The infrequently used capital letters went in the “uppercase”, a slanted shelf above the main work area. The frequently used uncapitalized letters went in the “lowercase”, a more accessible shelf closer to the workstation.
“I know this never kept you awake at night, but I am here to deliver worthless knowledge. So feel free to file this away in your folder of Worthless Knowledge .”
The Event Cat: It isn’t about that MSG, it’s about Madison Square Garden.
Politicians in America have never missed a chance to spend money. This is in Rat City, so I don’t care. The kickbacks from unions and movers & shakers are enormous. The homeless will take over both locations.
They should move street shootings, murders, beatings, stabbings, carjacking, headphone stealing, baby snatching, killing pregnant women to cut out unborn babies, and a hundred other crimes to MSG.
Another Biden nominee failed to get Senate approval. This is her second time. She will next be nominated as Italian Ambassador, since the Pope said Nancy had no soul and was going to Hell.
Return the District to Federal Control per The Constitution. Democratic leadership has proven to be a haven for crooks, criminals, arsonists, terrorists, lobbyists, and bribed officials. Indict Bowser, and remove the BLM crap-graffiti from the streets.
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