USO Canteen FReeper Style ~ Pancakes on Wednesday ~ 27 August 2003

Canteen FRiends ~ 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

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Welcome to Pancakes on Wednesdays.

Wednesday August 27, 2003

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

Do not forget to hit the hyperlinks.

We have links, lots of them.

SPONDULICKS

Money, cash.

Though originally a bit of mid-nineteenth-century American slang, this has travelled widely, being cast up on the shores of Britain and Australia among other places. It’s a member of a group of words created in a century-long fit of logographical exuberation which also gave the world slumgullion, rambunctious, and absquatulate (not to mention, as Elsie L Warnock did in Dialect Notes in 1913, such otherwise lost treasures as scrumdifferous, hyperfirmatious, and supergobosnoptious).

It would seem from the evidence that spondulicks (either so spelled or as spondulix) was originally American college slang. One of its earliest appearances was in a piece about college life in the New York magazine Vanity Fair in 1860: “My friend the Senior got out of spondulix, and borrowed [my watch] to spout for the purpose of bucking the Tiger” (to interpret, his friend had run out of money and pawned the watch to get some more cash in order to gamble on cards, probably faro). The word was used later by such literary luminaries as O Henry and Bret Harte. From usage data, it now looks to be much more common outside the US, to the extent that the New Oxford Dictionary of English marks it as “British slang”.

Where does it come from? “A fanciful coinage”, the big Oxford English Dictionary says. It has been described as a “perverted and elaborated” form of greenback (you may feel that to believe spondulicks could come from greenback requires a perverted imagination all its own). Eric Partridge suggests it might derive from Greek spondulikos, from spondulos, a species of shell once used as money.

However, Doug Wilson pointed out that that Greek stem is also the source of various English words beginning in spondylo– that refer to the spine or vertebrae. He suggested that a stack of coins may have been likened to the spine, with each coin a vertebra. He found a supporting reference in an 1867 book, A Manual of the Art of Prose Composition: for the Use of Colleges and Schools, by John Mitchell Bonnell. A list of provincialisms included: “Spondulics—coin piled for counting”.

If it is indeed college slang, either explanation may well be the kind of academic joke that would appeal. Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine.

About a hundred dollars

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Happy Birthday

Confucius 551 B.C.

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Lyndon B. Johnson (U.S.) 1908

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Paul "Pee-Wee Herman" Reubens 1952

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Would you like to do some  Sorting with your pancakes?

Assume that n numbered pancakes are stacked, and that a spatula can be used to reverse the order of the top k pancakes for . Then the pancake sorting problem asks how many such "prefix reversals" are sufficient to sort an arbitrary stack (Skiena 1990, p. 48).

The maximum numbers of flips needed to sort a random stack of n = 1, 2, 3, ... pancakes are 0, 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, ... (Sloane's A058986), with the number of maximal stacks for n = 2, 3, ... being 1, 1, 3, 20, 2, 35, 56, ... (Sloane's A067757).

For example, the three stacks of four pancakes requiring the maximum of four flips are , , and , which can be ordered using the flip sequences , , and , respectively (illustrated above). Similarly, the two stacks of six pancakes requiring the maximum of seven flips are and , which can be ordered using the flip sequences and , respectively.

It is known that for , if n is a multiple of 16, and .

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1990 - Stevie Ray Vaughn and three members of Eric Clapton's band were killed in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin.

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1912 - The Edgar Rice Burroughs book "Tarzan of the Apes" was published for the first time.

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1921 - The owner of Acme Packing Company bought a pro football team for Green Bay, WI. J.E. Clair paid tribute to those who worked in his plant by naming the team the Green Bay Packers. (NFL)

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1938 - Robert Frost, in a fit of jealousy, set fire to some papers to disrupt a poetry recital by another poet, Archibald MacLeish.

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1945 - American troops landed in Japan after the surrender of the Japanese government at the end of World War II.

Japanese Surrender Certificate

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I am an excellent driver

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2001 - Work began on the future site of a World War II memorial on the U.S. capital's historic national Mall. The site is between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.

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Todays Wednesday field trip is to Xanadu

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Lamborghinis!

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Cincinnatti.

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The maple syrup is defintely supposed to be on the table before the pancakes

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Buick convertible

1949 roadmaster

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hybrid rosebushes

.

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high functioning autistic

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Wheel of Fortune
Look at these fabulous prizes
Over a hundred thousand dollars in fabulous prizes just waiting to be won

It reminds me of pancakes on Wednesdays

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On this day 40 years ago..........   I can imagine a certain man, in a room, alone. I can almost picture him at prayer concerned about what the morning would bring.   On that day 40 years ago he gave what I consider to be, one of the greatest speeches of all time.

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Pancakes Wednesdays

Definitely

 

[txradioguy]

Thought everyone here might like to have first dibbs at my new story before I send it to Ft. Riley.



New Bridge Joins Separated Communities In Baghdad

Project was a joint effort between U.S. Army and Iraqi Civilians


Spc. John S. Wollaston





BAGHDAD IRAQ – For nearly 20 years, the people of the Ghazalyia and al-Shu’lah districts of Baghdad had pleaded for a new bridge to connect their neighborhoods. Instead, all they received from the regime of Saddam Hussein was silence and a foul smelling 30-foot wide river of raw sewage to keep the districts separated.

But that’s all changed now.

Exactly one month after the ground breaking, a ribbon cutting for the new Hamza Bridge was held with nearly 200 local residents and several local officials on hand to participate in the ceremony.

Through the joint effort of engineers from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division’s Bravo Company 70th Engineers (Combat) and local Iraqi contractors, the districts that were separated for so long have, quite literally, been bridged.

“The people have been very happy about this project from the start.” According to 1st Lieutenant John Prettyman, the platoon leader for Bravo Company’s 3rd platoon and also the project coordinator for the bridge. “When we told them we were building a bridge for them, the people offered us food, security anything we needed. They’ve been really supportive.”

The bridge itself is a four-lane affair with sidewalks on either side to allow pedestrians as well as traffic to cross in both directions. Drainage pipe was laid into the foundation to re-direct some of the sewage that formed a barrier river between the two areas. A little over 400,000 cubic meters of sewage was removed to allow the bridge to be completed. As an offshoot of the bridge project, a sewage pump station is being rebuilt to drain the remainder of the harmful liquid from the trench.

Not only will this bridge bring two formerly hard to access sections of Baghdad together, there’s economic and traffic flow issues that are improved with the opening of the new bridge. At its north end is the al-Shu’lah market area, which will benefit from increased access. “Before we started this project, traffic was completely at a standstill by noon.” According to 1st Lt. Prettyman. He estimates that with the opening of the bridge, traffic congestion has been reduced by between 34 to 45%.


Even more amazing that the bridge itself, was the cooperation between the Army and local Iraqi contractors who worked together side by side to get the project done. Very little hands on building of the bridge were done by the engineers. The labor and materials came from the Iraqi people. “We provided as much support as we could.” Prettyman said. “The rest was done by the locals.”
The success of the partnership in building the Hamza Bridge bodes well for future joint projects in the area. “We’re not going to stop here.” 1st Lt. Prettyman says with a smile. “This is just the first step.”

[stand watie]

LOL!

free dixie,sw

[beachn4fun]

Radix, I know you put in a lot of time and money into making pancakes for everyone who comes to the Canteen. So as a thank you gift I'd like to give you these to help out.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Prayers are most definitely on the way for the 547th Maintenance Co, D.C. Nat'l Guard, and also for the soldier from the 1st AD. Thanks, John, for sharing and allowing us the chance to get in some special prayers for you guys. God bless you all good, and more prayers for your daily success in your jobs and your safety.

Thanks for your service.

[beachn4fun]

Hey man.....wake up....come on over here.....I still have plenty... bring your cigs though.....

[tomkow6]

Ya know, now for sure, miner49er's gonna call PETA on us!

[beachn4fun]

Hey Never4get.....how about those Skins? he he he

[beachn4fun]

Well, I don't know about yours, but mine is of age he he he

[beachn4fun]

thanks for keeping us updated. Love getting news from the front lines....so to speak.

Prayers everyday for all our military and our allies. Even the Iraqi people when I have time. God bless you all and keep you safe.

[beachn4fun]

?

[tomkow6]

what?

[Soaring Feather]

Oh yes, thank you! I love my car! And the hat is so me.
Moi reading my work at ...

Juhannus Celebration.
Mid Summer Night.
Summer Solstice June, 2003.
The Finns Celebrate in a big way.
This is the only time the Finnish Flag flies 24 hours a day.
The Sun never sets!
I read ever year and at Christmas.
P.S. That is a nylon feather duster in my hat!

[Fawnn]

Thank you for sharing your article. (I hope you don't mind. I just "shared" your article with today's "Dose" thread. ohioWfan's son Eric is in Iraq and others there have relatives deployed in Iraq and the area, too.)

My late husband's military experience occurred long before we met, so I was never a "direct" military wife and as such, I don't always know all of the military lingo and jargon, so forgive me if I ever make a mistake in how I phrase something. He was a part of the Army corp of engineers. Someday I'll tell one of his stories. Today we celebrate the one you shared!

Thank you again.

[tomkow6]

BRATTBeach!

[beachn4fun]

he he he..... I got 150

[Kathy in Alaska]

Posted by our own txradioguy on the ground in Baghdad!

Posted by txradioguy to Kathy in Alaska; All On News/Activism ^ 08/27/2003 7:54 AM AKDT #135 of 143

Good morning everyone. As always, thank you for your incredible support of all of us over here. Prayers this morning for 547th Maintence Co, D.C. Nat'l Guard. Two of their guys were hurt on Sunday by an I.E.D. (improvised explosive device) that wrecked their 5-ton truck. (The blast blew it completely on it's side) Also hurt was a soldier from 1st AD. I was in a 3 vehicle convoy that cam up on their truck just after it had been hit and was still taking small arms fire. We deployed and secured the truck and treated the wounded and got them back to our base so they could be flown to a hospital. One guy I talked to said it was the second blast he'd survived in 19 days!

Radu - Thank you for that card. It was an extremely pleasant surprise.

[beachn4fun]

GEE....has anyone noticed who got 50, 100, and 150?

[Fawnn]

GEE....has anyone noticed who got 50, 100, and 150?

If I weren't so hungry, I'd notice. Instead: For now, the US Army isnt the only thing that runs on its stomach....

Off to find food. (I have fresh tomatoes! I just need to go decide what to have to go with 'em.) ;)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Rags, please see Post #141 for a good news story, hot off the press, from txradioguy.

[tomkow6]

New Virus alert?

We wish to alert you to the viruses that can infect your computer at anytime:

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