FReeper Canteen ~ Pancakes on Wednesday ~ 6 Apr 2004

Canteen Crew ~ Radix

[Radix]

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday...
Thank the Veterans who served in
The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom?
Support The United States Armed Forces Today!

 

Pancakes on Wednesdays

Welcome to Pancakes on Wednesdays

Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Here is an amalgamation of trivial facts and seemingly useless data.

Do not forget to hit the hyperlinks.

We have links, lots of them.

From the Radixionary

MIMSY

Prim or affected; over-refined; mincing.

Aficionados of Lewis Carroll will know a different meaning, which appears in the poem called Jabberwocky in his Through the Looking-Glass: “All mimsy were the borogoves”. Later in the book, Humpty-Dumpty explains its meaning as being a blend (he calls it a portmanteau word) of flimsy and miserable, so meaning “unhappy”. Carroll either invented it afresh or borrowed an existing English dialect word and gave it a new meaning.

In the sense of affected or over-refined, mimsy has long been known in the British Isles, especially in Scots and northern dialects; an example is in A Rock in the Baltic, by Robert Barr (1906): “In one corner of the room stood a sewing-machine, and on the long table were piles of mimsy stuff out of which feminine creations are constructed.” It’s known in other spellings, such as mimsey and mimzy; mimp is closely related; an elaborated version is miminy-piminy or niminy-piminy.

All forms seem to be built on mim. This little word may come from an imitation of pursing up the mouth in prudishness (a related form is mim-mouthed, affectedly prim and proper in speech, which appears in Virginibus Puerisque, by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in 1881: “Mim-mouthed friends and relations hold up their hands in quite a little elegiacal synod about his path: and what cares he for all this?”)

Mimsy is far from dead. It is found in the issue of The Medical Post for 6 January 2004 (published in Toronto, but the writer was remembering his childhood in Scotland): “Certainly if I had been drafted into the Armed Forces I would have been streets ahead of these mimsy Boy Scouts with their cowboy hats and their two-fingered apology for a salute.” It also appeared in an article by Griff Rhys Jones in the Independent on 24 October 2003: “This is food writing. Not mimsy pseudo-porn, but genuinely funny gastro-investigation driven by a slavering appetite.”

Happy Birthday 

William Woodsworth 1770

What Heavenly Smiles!

What heavenly smiles! O Lady mine
Through my very heart they shine;
And, if my brow gives back their light,
Do thou look gladly on the sight;
As the clear Moon with modest pride
Beholds her own bright beams.
Reflected from the mountain's side
And from the headlong streams.

Happy Birthday 

W.K. Kellogg 1860

The Canteen sponsor of the week; Fresh to you each morning, Straight from Battle Creek

Orbit

Happy Birthday 

Jersey Joe Walcott 1872

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.

Socrates

Happy Birthday

Irene Castle 1893

Irene was the first woman to BOB her hair. She and husband Vernon, invented social dancing Charleston, Turkey Trot, Vernon Walk and others.

Happy Birthday

Walter Winchell 1897

Upon his death in 1972, a front-page obituary in the New York Times eulogized Walter Winchell as "the country’s best-known, widely read journalist as well as its most influential."

Conjunction

The coincidence in right ascension of two celestial bodies (one of which is often the Sun). For example, when a planet is at the same right ascension as the Sun, it is said to be in conjunction.

What else is the function of a Conjunction?

Happy Birthday 

Percy Faith 1908

Happy Birthday

Billie Holiday 1915

Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.

Plato

Happy Birthday 
James Garner 1928

"A guy calls his lawyer. He says, 'Can I ask you two questions?' 
Lawyer says, 'What's the second one?' "

Happy Birthday

David Frost 1939

Happy Birthday 

Francis Coppola 1939

Opposition

The time when the Earth lies between a planet and the Sun, making the Sun and planet appear in opposite directions as viewed from the Earth. Oppositions are the best opportunities for observing superior planets because they are well away from the glare of the Sun, and closer to the Earth than usual.

Happy Birthday 

Jackie Chan 1954

Parallax

Hold out a pencil at arm's length so that it covers your view of a more distant object. Now close each eye in turn. The pencil seems to move relative to the distant object when a different eye is closed. Each eye looks at the pencil from a slightly different direction. With both eyes open you get more visual clues as to how far away any object is. The following diagram shows the situation:

Your brain instinctively determines the object's distance from the slight change in direction (measured by the angle - P). This method of measuring distances is called PARALLAX.

Parallax

Happy Birthday 

Tony Dorsett 1954

We are counting yards.

Look into the center (white point) and stare for a while. How many colors can you see altogether in the object? You should see a purplish circle... and the 4 rotating 'wings' are tinted green. Make sure you always keep focused on the center.

Happy Birthday 

James "Buster" Douglas 1960

Patient: "Nurse, I just swallowed my pillow!"
Nurse: "How do you feel?"
Patient: "A little down in the mouth"

Apogee

The point in the orbit of the moon or of an artificial satellite most distant from the center of the earth.

At apogee, a satellite travels more slowly than at any other point in its orbit. When viewed from the earth's surface, a satellite at or near apogee takes a long time to traverse the sky. In communications, apogee is the best time to access a satellite.

 

Happy Birthday 

Russell Crowe 1964

Happy Birthday 

Victoria Adams Beckham (Spice Girls) 1975

Today's Wednesday field trip takes us to perigee.

Parsec

A parsec is the unit for expressing distances to stars and galaxies, used by professional astronomers. It represents the distance at which the radius of the Earth's orbit subtends an angle of one second of arc; thus a star at a distance of one parsec would have a parallax of one second, and the distance of an object in parsecs is the reciprocal of its parallax in seconds of arc.

1 Parsec = 3.08568025 × 10¹⁶ meters

I am an excellent driver

We are counting cards!

On This Day

1652 - The Dutch established a settlement at Cape Town, South Africa.

On this Day

1798 - The territory of Mississippi was organized.

Astronomical Unit

On this Day

1862 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant defeated Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh, TN.

On this Day

1888 - P.F. Collier published a weekly periodical for the first time under the name "Collier’s."

Peter Collier founded the periodical, Collier's Once a Week in April 1888. It was advertised as a magazine of "fiction, fact, sensation, wit, humor, news". By 1892 it had a circulation of over 250,000 and was one of largest selling magazines in the United States.

On this Day

1914 - The British House of Commons passed the Irish Home Rule Bill.

 

On this Day

1922 - U.S. Secretary of Interior leased Teapot Dome naval oil reserves in Wyoming.

The Teapot Dome scandal was also called the OIL RESERVES, or ELK HILLS, SCANDAL, in American history, scandal of the early 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert B. Fall. After President Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921.

On this Day

1933 - Prohibition ended in the United States.

National prohibition of alcohol (1920-33)--the "noble experiment"--was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. The evidence affirms sound economic theory, which predicts that prohibition of mutually beneficial exchanges is doomed to failure

On this Day

1940 - Booker T. Washington became the first black to be pictured on a U.S. postage stamp.

There are people whose abilities and energy take them far past any limitations life tries to place on them. Booker T. Washington was one of those people. He rose up from slavery and illiteracy to become the foremost educator and leader of black Americans at the turn of the century.

On this Day

1945 - The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world’s largest battleship, was sunk during the battle for Okinawa. The fleet was headed for a suicide mission.

On this Day

1948 - The musical "South Pacific" by Rogers and Hammerstein debuted on Broadway.

Adapted from two short stories by  James Michener,  South Pacific chronicles two love affairs.

On this Day

1948 - The United Nations' World Health Organization began operations.

On this Day

1953 - IBM unveiled the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine.

 It was IBM's first commercially available scientific computer.

On this Day

1963 - At the age of 23, Jack Nicklaus became the youngest golfer to win the Green Jacket at the Masters Tournament.

I am an excellent driver.

On this Day

1963 - Josip Broz Tito was proclaimed to be the leader of Yugoslavia for life.

On this Day

1970 - John Wayne won his first and only Oscar for his role in "True Grit." He had been in over 200 films.

Don't forget the Maple Syrup.

Pancakes Wednesdays

Definitely

[Kathy in Alaska]

I've got a secret: The Easter Bunny lends an ear to an important message at the Governor's Mansion lawn egg hunt in Baton Rouge, La.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Head starts strictly forbidden: A daring plan to sneak under the rope and swoop up the best Easter egg booty is nipped in the bud in York, Pa.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Distinguished visitors photograph flight operations on the flight deck of the USS John C. Stennis under way in the Pacific Ocean, March 25, 2004. Visitors are flown out to Stennis aboard a C-2A Greyhound Carrier Onboard Delivery aircraft to spend a day and night on the ship to experience carrier operations. Stennis and her embarked Carrier Air Wing 14 are conducting carrier qualifications in preparation for a joint task force exercise. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Mark J. Rebilas

Flight deck personnel look on as an E-2C Hawkeye assigned to the "Black Eagles" of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 113 is launched from the flight deck of the USS John C. Stennis under way in the Pacific Ocean, March 25, 2004. Stennis and her embarked Carrier Air Wing 14 are conducting carrier qualifications in preparation for the joint task force exercise. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Mark J. Rebilas

[Kathy in Alaska]

An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the "Stingers" of Strike Fighter Squadron 113 launches from one of four steam-powered catapults aboard the USS John C. Stennis, March 25, 2004. Stennis and Carrier Air Wing 14 are conducting carrier qualifications in the Pacific Ocean in preparation for a joint task force exercise. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Mark J. Rebilas

An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the "Fist of the Fleet" of Strike Fighter Squadron 25 goes to full afterburner as it performs a touch-and-go landing aboard the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis while under way in the Pacific Ocean, May 23, 2004. Stennis and her embarked Carrier Air Wing 14 are currently at sea conducting training exercises. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Mark J. Rebilas

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

YOUR POST 300

[Mudboy Slim]

Thanks to Ms. Ross fer the tunes...

"We're Right!!"
(To be sung to Boston's "Long Time")

We've been Right a long time...
I think the Left should know it...yea!!
The Right fights 'gainst Tyranny...
We'll keep on voting!!
Fight on...
We're Reagan's disciples...Yeah!!
We gotta FReep on chasin' our dreams...
We gotta FReep Dem LIARS...
Wish it was something I could sing.

Chorus:
Well, I'm FReepin' fer Right!!
We're just groovin' on...
You'll reject Dem Lib'rals once you've heard my songs!!
Don't forsake what is Right...
Don't join the RAT's Whore'd...
Our Country deserves so much more!!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We've been Right a long time.
Join the fight 'gainst Left's slime!! Ahh ahh ahhh...WOO!!

Yes, Right's fer Truth only...
We'll fight against Dem fools...ooh oooh!!
'Cuz we are Right...FReepin' fer Right...
We shan't fergit about you!!
Good times...
This race's what excites me...yeah!!
Left's tryin' to fergit RAT's shame!!
Believe Clinton's the SlimeKing...
But Justice shall soon find him!!

Yes, we're FReepin' fer Right!!
RightWing's moving on...
You'll reject Dem Lib'rals once you've heard MUD's songs!!
Don't forsake what is Right...
Reject the RAT Whore'd!!
Our Country shall be so much more!!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Join the hunt fer Slick's crimes...
We shall fight fer all time!!

[Guitar Solo]

Yeah--eah!!
We've been Right a long time...
It started with Goldwater...yeah!!
We'll fight against tyranny...
We'll FReep the Voters!!
Left's a Vile Whore'd...
Right's gotta stand and fight Dems...yeah!!
We've gotta FReep on, chasin' our dreams...
Folks, Right must always fight Libs...
Dutch Reagan shall be smilin'!!

Yes, we're FReepin' fer Right!!
RightWing's groovin' on...
Yes, we're takin' our time...
We're just groovin' on...
[Repeat and fade]

FReegards...MUD

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Blue Angel bump!!

[FlyVet]

PANCAKES ALERT ;)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hey, Mud!!

[Mudboy Slim]

Howdy ma'am...MUD

[Kathy in Alaska]

After an SH-60F Seahawk assigned to the "Black Knights" of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 4 lands, a second Seahawk comes in on final approach for the flight deck aboard the USS John C. Stennis, March 24, 2004. Stennis and her embarked Carrier Air Wing 14 are at sea conducting training exercises. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Mark J. Rebilas

[Soaring Feather]

Good evening Captain. Thanks guys for the lovely sunset

Thank you, too, for your service to our nation.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Evening Your Highness!

[Fawnn]

Prayers lifted for Frank's safety!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thank you, Medal of Honor Recipients, for your sacrifices for your fellow airmen and soldiers.

Maj Fisher and Spc4 Fitzmaurice

[Fawnn]

bentfeather!!! #250!!!
Kathy in Alaska!!! #300!!!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Now pancakes and eggs sound good for dinner. Thanks, Arrowhead.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Stay safe out there, Hope. You'll be missed. Bye!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Happy 59th, Lisa's Mom and Dad!!

Thanks, Dad, for your service to this great country of ours.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Believe me .. you can have it :)

And how are you this evening?