Origin of Football Huddle

There are a few different stories about how the huddle originated (in 1918 at Oregon State, in 1921 at the University of Illinois, and in 1924 at Lafayette College are a few of them).

It was first used in the 1890s when Paul Hubbard, the quarterback for Gallaudet—a Deaf college in Washington, D.C., which is now a university—had his offense form a tight circle so that they could discuss plays without the other team seeing what they were signing. Another Gallaudet football innovation was the giant drum on the sidelines that would be used for the snap count (the players could feel the vibrations).

 

Happy Father's Day, June 21

Father's Day always falls on the third Sunday in June. It is the day we can remember and honor our fathers.
A woman named Sonora Smart Dodd established an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. She went around to local businesses to gather support for her idea, and on June 19, 1910, the state of Washington celebrated the first-ever Father's Day.

On May 1, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed Proclamation 4127, which declared Father's Day as a national holiday, with the first official celebration on June 18, 1972. "Let each American make this Father's Day an occasion for renewal of the love and gratitude we bear to our fathers, increasing and enduring through all the years," he wrote in the document. Incidentally, we are all used to telling our mothers, "I love you." It is OK to tell dad the same.

Compost Your Remains

A new Washington State law was the first-in-the-nation, to legalize the practice of “natural organic reduction” of human remains. A Seattle-based company named Recompose opens in 2021, offering $5,500 services that turn a human body into one cubic yard of soil during the course of 30 days. Families of the deceased can take as much soil as they like and any remainder goes to sustaining conservation land in the Puget Sound region. It claims the (not-so-cheap) service is a more eco-friendly way to go.

Expensive vs. Cheap Wine

In one study with over 6,000 taste tasters, comprising about 12% sommeliers and the rest general public, they tried to determine if people like expensive wines more than cheap ones.
It found the correlation between price and overall rating is small and negative, suggesting that individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less. For individuals with wine training however, there are indications of a positive relationship between price and enjoyment.

Results indicate that both the prices of wines and wine recommendations by experts may be poor guides for non-expert wine consumers.
Consider that over 400 compounds which influence the scent alone have been identified in wine. Also, temperature by itself can make a huge difference to taste, because of how this can affect smell and taste. As wine enthusiast David Derbyshire notes, “Serve a New World chardonnay too cold and you’ll only taste the overpowering oak. Serve a red too warm and the heady boozy qualities will be overpowering.”

As for the wine experts, while they may have honed their skills with sometimes thousands of hours of study into all things wine, they still have the same brain as the rest of us. Wine expert and journalist Katie Kelly Bell, was traveling with a fellow group of wine connoisseurs. While at Waters Vineyards in Washington State, the owner poured everyone two glasses of white wine and asked them to identify what types they were.


Bell sums up: "We swirled, we sniffed, and we wrinkled our brows in contemplation, some of us nodding with assurance. I took notes, finding the first white to be more floral and elegant than the second. Drawing on my years and years (there have been too many) of tasting, studying and observation, I swiftly concluded that the first wine was an unoaked Chardonnay and the second was a Sauvignon Blanc, easy peasy. Much to my mortification I was dead wrong, as was everyone else in the room. The proprietor chuckled and informed his room that the wines were actually the same wine; one was just warmer than the other. He wasn’t intentionally shaming us (not one person got it right); he was pointedly demonstrating the power of just one element in the wine tasting experience: temperature."

A test conducted at the suggestion of winery owner Robert Hodgson at the California State Fair wine competition. Panels of 65 to 70 expert judges were given a huge variety of wines to rank as per usual, but what they were not told was that they were actually given each of the wines three times and from the same exact bottle.

After running this same experiment four consecutive years, what Hodgson found was that, to quote the paper published on the experiment, only “about 10 percent of the judges were able to replicate their score within a single medal group.” In fact, he even found about 10% of the judges were so far off that they switched a Bronze rating to a Gold for the exact same wine from the exact same bottle.

In another experiment, Brochet also gave a similar panel a glass of white wine and a glass of red wine and gave them a list of common words used to describe white and red wines and told them to assign them appropriately to the two wines in front of them. It turns out the red wine was actually the same as the white wine except dyed red, and only a small percentage of the testers were able to accurately identify that both wines tasted the same in the descriptive words they chose to identify each wine. Not all of the taste testers got it wrong.

Bottom Line - Wine tasting is subjective and what about a given type appeals to you is all that matters. If knowing you paid $200 for that glass enhances your experience, great. For others buying several bottles of Two-Buck Chuck so they can enjoy many glasses with friends may make that one all the more enjoyable. The only thing that matters with regard to a wine is whether or not you like it.

Cooties

The Military Order of the Cootie of the United States is a non-profit Veterans Service Organization. It is known as "The Honor Degree of the VFW" and members are comprised of the officers and leadership of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

The Military Order of the Cootie was established on September 17, 1920, in Washington, D.C., by Fred Madden and F. L. Gransbury. The organization was modeled after the Imperial Order of the Dragon, an auxiliary to the Spanish American War Veterans.


The name "cootie" is a reference to the lice that plagued soldiers in World War I. Cooties were credited with keeping soldiers' heads down in the trenches. A meeting of cooties is called a "scratch", the local chapter a "Pup Tent", the state affiliate a "Grand", and national headquarters at Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, "The Supreme".

In the years after its founding, it took on several special projects designed to bring smiles to the faces of two special groups of people - hospitalized veterans and residents of the VFW National Home.

The official uniform of the VFW's Military Order of the Cootie is red pants with a white stripe running down each side; ruffled white shirt; lace-trimmed red vest emblazoned on the back with a gold-outlined, bug-like creature with flashing light bulb eyes; red, overseas-style cap worn sideways so that the tassels dangle beside the wearer's ears.

There are about 37,000 Cooties in 1,000 Pup tents. Membership is open to members in good standing in the VFW who have displayed their willingness to work for the parent organization.

The Military Order of the Cootie Auxiliary draws its membership from the ranks of women eighteen and older who have been active members of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary for at least six months and who are the wife, widow, sister, half-sister, daughter, foster daughter, or granddaughter of an active VFW member in good standing. Today there are approximately 17,000 auxiliary members contained in 597 Pup Tents.

Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson

April 13, 1743 was this great man's birthday. He could write in Greek with one hand while writing the same in Latin with the other. His Portrait is on the Two $2.00 Dollar Bill.

Here are some facts about his life and quotes from Thomas Jefferson.

At 5, began studying under his cousin's tutor.
At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.
At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.
At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.
At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.
At 23, started his own law practice.
At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America" and retired from his law practice.
At 32, was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.
At 33, took three years to revise Virginia's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.
At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia.
At 40, served in Congress for two years.
At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations.
At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.
At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.
At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became active head of Republican Party.
At 57, was elected the third president of the United States.
At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation's size.
At 61, was elected to a second term as President.
At 65, retired to Monticello.
At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.
 At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.
At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence.

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the White House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." -- Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." -- Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too
much government." --Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." --Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -- Thomas Jefferson

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." --Thomas Jefferson

State Gas Tax Rates

The highest state gas tax is assessed in Pennsylvania, at 50.4 cents per gallon, with Washington State (44.5 cpg) and New York (42.64 cpg) following closely behind. Alaska drivers pay the lowest rate in the country at 12.25 cents per gallon. These figures do not include the 18.4 cpg federal gas tax.

Good Neighbors

The Canada–United States border officially known as the International Boundary, is the longest international border in the world between two countries. Eight Canadian provinces and territories and thirteen US states are located along the border.

At one point the border between Canada on the north and the US runs through the villages of Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec - and though the middle of the town library.

It physically snakes through side streets, in and out of houses, through the public library, and straight down the middle of a main road that residents affectionately call “Canusa Avenue." An apartment building in town has two addresses, one for each country.

Incidentally, Canada borders are east, west, north, and south of the US. In Alaska, Canada is directly East. In many northern US continental states, Canada is directly North. In Maine, it is directly West and North. In Detroit, Michigan, Canada is directly South. Part of Washington State is both North and South of Canada. See my blog  LINK

Point Roberts Double Currency

Point Roberts is a little tract of land attached to a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is officially part of Washington State, US, but inhabitants must cross through Canada to reach the rest of Washington State. Point Roberts has a small airport and a large marina for air and water access. These two point facilities allow the fourteen mile direct access to the rest of Washington State without the need to enter Canada.

Point Bob, as it is called, has a post office, with the ZIP code of 98281 had a population of 1,314 on the 2010 census. The US portion of the peninsula is about 2 miles (3 km) from north to south and about 3 miles (5 km) from east to west. It has a total area of 4.884 square miles (12.65 km2). From fourth grade on, American children must take a 40-minute ride through British Columbia, crossing back into the United States at Blaine, Washington.

It assumed its present political status in 1846, when the Oregon Treaty extended the 49th parallel as the boundary between American and British territory from the Rocky Mountains to Georgia Strait.  Later, as the Boundary Commission was surveying the line, the British government realized that the peninsula of Point Roberts would be an isolated part of the United States.

Incidentally, The cash registers have two drawers in one. One side dispenses Canadian funds, the other side American. The registers are updated daily to properly calculate the current exchange rate.

Hemp vs. Cannabis vs. Marijuana

 The two subspecies of cannabis are known as Cannabis indica (hemp) and Cannabis sativa (hemp and marijuana). A third type found mainly in Russia, Cannabis ruderalis has a lower THC content than either C. sativa or C. indica, so it is rarely grown for recreational use and the shorter stature of C. ruderalis limits its application for hemp production. Cannabis ruderalis strains are high in the cannabіnoid cannabidiol, so they are grown by some medical marijuana users. (The term, marijuana originally spelled as "marihuana", "mariguana", etc., originated in Mexican Spanish.) Marijuana is now mostly an American term.

Tall, sturdy cannabis plants were grown by early civilizations to make a variety of foods, oils, and textiles. These plants were bred with other plants with the same characteristics, leading to the type of cannabis known as hemp. It is virtually impossible to get high on hemp, although it does have some medicinal benefits.

Other plants were recognized for being psychoactive and were bred selectively for medical and religious purposes. This led to unique varieties of cannabis known as marijuana.

The core agricultural differences between medical cannabis and hemp are largely in their genetic parentage and cultivation environment. Marijuana growers usually try to maintain stable light, temperature, humidity, CO2 and oxygen levels, among other things. Hemp is usually grown outdoors to maximize its size and yield, and less attention is paid to individual plants.

Cannabis plants contain unique compounds called cannabinoids. Current research has revealed over 60 different cannabinoids so far, but THC is the most well known. THC is credited with causing the marijuana high. While marijuana plants contain high levels of THC, hemp contains very little.

Countries like Canada have set the maximum THC content of hemp at 0.3%. Any cannabis with higher THC levels is considered marijuana. Medical marijuana produces anywhere between 5-20% THC on average, with some strains up to 25-30% THC.

Before 1910 Bristol-Meyer’s Squib and Eli Lilly included cannabis and cannabis extracts in their medicines to cure common household ailments. The US Bureau of Narcotics, during the 1930s, used the name “marijuana” when campaigning against the plant, and showing its new “foreign” identity. The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 federally criminalized the cannabis plant in every US state.

All cannabis is federally illegal to produce in the United States. Both hemp and marijuana are classified as Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act (non-psychoactive hemp is not included in Schedule I). It is legal to import hemp products into the United States. The US Drug Enforcement Administration is preparing to decide whether cannabis should be reclassified under federal law during The first half of 2016.

In the US, eight states allow people with certain medical conditions to use marijuana. Seventeen states have passed laws opening the door to marijuana use as long as the drug is extremely low in THC, the intoxicating ingredient. Five states have removed the potential for jail time for those caught with small amounts of the drug.  Some states both have approved marijuana use by sick people and removed jail sentences for recreational users, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada and Rhode Island. Four states and Washington, D.C., allow marijuana possession in small amounts by adults over 21 for any reason, including  Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington.

Outside the US, hemp is grown in more than 30 countries. In 2011, the top hemp-producing country was China, followed by Chile and the European Union. Hemp production is also expanding in Canada.

Marijuana remains illegal in most countries, but a few, such as Israel and Canada, have recently started to regulate marijuana as a medicine. Legalization supporters consider possession either legal or tolerated in Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Hemp can be made into wax, plastic, resin, rope, cloth paper, fuel, detergent, paint, snacks, flour, beer, insulation, carpeting, paneling, auto parts, and an estimated 25,000 products. Thomas Jefferson drafted both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution on hemp paper.

Origin of Bowl Games

During 1916, the Roses Association decided to sponsor a football tournament between WSU (then called The State College of Washington) and Brown.  This game was held at Tournament Park in Pasadena, as were subsequent annual matches.

Fast-forward five years and they needed a larger stadium to play the game as attendance outgrew that venue. Myron Hunt was commissioned to design a stadium for this purpose which was named Rose Bowl.  The Rose Bowl was modeled after the design of Yale’s stadium, Yale Bowl, which resembled a bowl.  This tournament sponsored by the Roses Association then was named the “Rose Bowl,” after the stadium.

As other universities with football teams saw the money making opportunities and promotional value of these tournament games, they began creating their own 'bowl' games, even though many of these games were not played in bowl shaped stadiums.

The NFL borrowed this terminology when it created the Pro Bowl in 1951. In 1970, the AFL and NFL merged and they created a championship game called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Once the merger was completed two years later, the championship game was re-branded the Super Bowl, using the college naming convention. The third match-up, was named Super Bowl III and also set the tradition of using Roman numerals for the Super Bowl.

Rich Folk Facts

In 2013, the world had about 2,170 billionaires. Women make up 8.5% of those. Ten of America's 43 self-made billionaires dropped out of college.
Sheldon Adelson dropped out of City College of New York ($36.4 billion)
Paul Allen dropped out of Washington State ($16.2 billion)
Andy Beal dropped out of Baylor University ($11.1 billion)
Michael Dell dropped out of University of Texas ($15.3 billion)
Larry Ellison dropped out of University of Chicago ($52 billion)
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard ($81.6 billion)
Jan Koum dropped out of San Jose State University ($7.5 billion)
Jack Taylor dropped out of Washington University ($11.4 billion)
Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard ($33.1 billion)

Four of the youngest billionaires in the world are connected to Facebook (Dustin Moskovitz, Sean Parker, Eduardo Severin, and Mark Zuckerberg, ).

America's youngest self-made female billionaire is 30 years old and a college dropout.

New York has the largest number of billionaires, with 96, Hong Kong has 75, Moscow 74 and London 67.

Carlo Slim Helu, a Mexican billionaire worth $69 billion, is considered to be the first “world’s richest man from a developing nation.” He has lived in the same modest home for the past 30 years. His wealth is equal to 5% of Mexico’s economic output.

Millionaires -
The average millionaire goes bankrupt at least 3.5 times.

In the United States, approximately 7% of households are millionaires.

A 2010 study shows that millionaires pay approximately 40% of all taxes in the United States.

According to the book The Millionaire Next Door, only 20% of millionaires inherited their wealth. The other 80% earned their cash on their own.

Half of all millionaires are self employed or own their own business.

Eighteen percent of millionaires have Master’s degrees, eight percent have law degrees, six percent have medical degrees, and six percent have PhDs.

Those with Russian ancestry have the highest concentration of millionaire households in America, with $1.1 trillion, or nearly 5% of all the personal wealth in America. The Scottish rank second, Hungarians rank third, and English ancestry groups rank fourth.

A pentamillionaire is someone with the net worth of $5 million. A decamillionare has a net worth of $10 million. A hectamillionaire has a net worth of $100 million.

The number of U.S. millionaires dropped by 129,000, to about 5 million in 2011.

On average, millionaires are 61 years old with $3.05 million in assets.

Just twenty percent of millionaires are retirees.

In 2008, there were 10 million people around the world who were classified as millionaires in US dollars.

There were 185,000 millionaires in Canada in 2011.

The largest increase in the number of millionaires in the past year were in India (21%), China (16%), and Singapore (14%).

Top five countries with highest percent of millionaires.
Rank, Country, Percentage of Population with Millionaire Status, Total Number of Millionaires
#1 Singapore 17.1% 188,000
#2 Qatar 14.3% 47,000
#3 Kuwait 11.8% 63,000
#4 Switzerland 9.5% 322,000
#5 Hong Kong 8.8% 212,000

Texas Independence Day

Texas Independence is March 2. Here are a few interesting facts about the great state of Texas.

• El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas.
• World’s first rodeo was in Pecos, Texas, July 4, 1883.
• The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built over water. It was destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008.
• Brazoria County, Texas has more species of birds than any other area in North America.
• Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America’s only remaining flock of whooping cranes.
• Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson, Texas in 1978.
• The worst natural disaster in U.S. history was in 1900, caused by a hurricane in which over 8,000 lives were lost on Galveston Island.
• The first word spoken from the moon on July 20, 1969 was “Houston,” but the Space Center was actually in Clear Lake City at the time.
• The King Ranch in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island.
• Texas is the only state to enter the US by treaty, (known as the Constitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union) instead of by annexation. This allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same height as the US Flag, and Texas may choose to divide into five states.
• Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr Pepper.
• The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the US which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington, DC (by 7 feet).
• The name ‘Texas’ comes from the Hasini Indian word ‘tejas’ meaning 'friends'. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas.

Expired Milk Dates

That date on the carton of milk could mean very different things depending on what US state you are in. Some states require a sell by date, which indicates the last day a store can legally sell the milk. It is calculated to give the consumer a reasonable amount of time to enjoy. Other states have a use by date that indicates the date milk is believed to be at peak flavor. For instance, milk cartons in Montana are labeled with a sell by date 12 days after pasteurization, Washington requires a use by date that is 21 days after pasteurization.

While the pasteurization of milk kills most of the harmful bacteria, precautions always need to be made by the consumer to keep the milk from going bad. One way to keep milk as fresh as possible is to keep it on a shelf, never in the door of your fridge, where temperature fluctuates the most.

Depending on whom you ask, the refrigerator temperature should be 34-38 °F or 38-40 °F. Warmer temperatures give bacteria more of a chance to develop.

One rule of thumb is that if you are properly refrigerating it, whole milk's expiration date is five days after the "sell-by" date. If it is non-fat, skim, or reduced fat, you will have a bit less time. Ultra pasteurized milk has a longer shelf life than other types of milk and can be left in the pantry until opened, and then it must be chilled.

World Toilet Day

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to mark "World Toilet Day." The day will be celebrated November 19. "The amusement and laughter likely to follow the designation of 19 November as 'World Toilet Day' would all be worthwhile if people’s attention was drawn to the fact that 2.5 billion people lacked proper sanitation and 1.1 billion were forced to defecate in the open, the General Assembly heard today," a U.N. press release reads.

“Ending open defecation will lead to a 35 per cent reduction in diarrhea, which results in over 750,000 deaths of children under five years of age every year,” Singapore’s representative said. Apart from establishing World Toilet Day, the text also urged Member States and the United Nations system to encourage behavioral change, to introduce policies that would increase sanitation among the poor.

India's novel approach is to encourage families not to let their daughters  marry if the potential husband does not have a toilet. The initiative from the government is called "No toilet, no bride". There are more temples than toilets in India, said Union Minister Jairam Ramesh.

The Indian state of Madhya Pradesh pays for a wedding and provides qualifying couples with housewarming gifts totaling 15,000 rupees (about $270) if they can prove the husband-to-be's house has a toilet.

Over 75 per cent of the 1.2 billion Indian population currently have a mobile phone subscription, but only 50 per cent of households have a toilet and only 11 per cent have one connected to the sewerage system, according to the 2011 Indian census. I love the headline from the Washington Post, "In India, New Seat of Power for Women".

Lawyer Thoughts

Washington D.C. has about 277 lawyers for every 10,000 residents. This is nearly 14 times more lawyers per 10,000 than any other state in the United States.

New York has the second most lawyers per capita.

The lowest lawyer rate per capita is North Dakota with about 4 lawyers per 10,000 people. I think we should move the capital to North Dakota.

Twenty Texas Facts

The great state of Texas is interesting and its people have always liked to brag. Here are some interesting facts about the great state.

1. Beaumont to El Paso: 742 miles - Beaumont to Chicago: 770 miles
2. El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas.
3. World's first rodeo was in Pecos, July 4, 1883.
4. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America that was built over water.
5. The Heisman Trophy is named after John William Heisman who was the first full-time coach for Rice University in Houston.
6. Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North America.
7. Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America 's only remaining flock of whooping cranes.
8. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.
9. The first word spoken from the Moon, July 20, 1969, was "Houston."
10. King Ranch in South Texas is larger than the state of Rhode Island.
11. Tropical Storm Claudette brought a US rainfall record of 43 inches in 24 hours in and around Alvin in July, 1979.
12. Texas is the only state to enter the US by treaty, known as Constitution of 1845 by Republic of Texas to enter the union, instead of by annexation. This allows the Texas flag to fly at the same height as the US flag, and allowed to divide into 4 States.
13. A Texas Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1,500 years old.
14. Caddo Lake, a 25,400 acres lake and wetland located on the border between Texas and Louisiana, in northern Harrison County and southern Marion County in Texas and western Caddo Parish in Louisiana is the only natural lake in the State.
15. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. (There is no period after the Dr in Dr Pepper)
16. Texas has had six capital cities: Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, West Columbia, Austin.
17. The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. that is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. (by 7 feet).
18. The name Texas comes from the Hasini Indian word "tejas" meaning friends. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas.
19. The State animal is the Armadillo. Armadillos always have four babies. They have one egg, which splits into four, and they either have four males or four females.
20. The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston.

Presidential Height Index

Did you know that in the past 27 US presidential elections, the shorter candidate has won only six times? Handlers for Jimmy Carter (5' 9") went to great lengths to prevent him from standing next to the taller Gerald Ford (6'). It worked, Carter won.

The tallest President elected to office was Abraham Lincoln at 6' 4" and George Washington was 6' 2". Eighteen presidents have been 6 foot or taller. James Madison was the shortest at 5 foot 4.

Mitt Romney is 6’2” and Barack Obama is 6’1”.

Michigan is the only state that has a statute prohibiting height discrimination. (Maybe because Jimmy Hoffa was 5'5").

Four Coffee Seed Facts

Coffee bean is not actually a bean, it is a seed.  Beans are always seeds, but seeds are not always beans.  A bean is just one kind of a seed.  Specifically, the bean is a name for seeds of the family Fabaceae, of which the coffee plant is not a member.
A coffee bean is actually the seed of the coffee plant, the pit inside of the coffee fruit.
Only one state produces coffee, Hawaii.
English chemist, George Constant Washington invented instant coffee.
Put used coffee grounds in houseplant soil to help the plants.

Death with Dignity

66-year-old Linda Fleming was diagnosed with terminal cancer and feared her last days would be filled with pain and ever-stronger doses of medication that would erode her mind. She had late-stage pancreatic cancer and wanted to be clear-headed at death, so she became the first person to kill herself under Washington State's new assisted suicide law, known as "death with dignity."

"I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death," Fleming said in a statement released Friday. "The powerful pain medications were making it difficult to maintain the state of mind I wanted to have at my death. And I knew I would have to increase them."

With family members, her physician and her dog at her side, Fleming took a deadly dose of prescription barbiturates and died Thursday night at her home.