If I were publishing a supplement to my latest book, “A Compendium of Journal Jottings,” here are some of the things I’d add—from my journals of late.
NATION
– A Kennedy, who was in the House of Representatives ran for a Massachusetts
Senate seat and lost. – I didn’t know that Sitka, Alaska used to be a Russian
settlement founded in 1804 by a Mr. Baranov, a colonist and early 19c. governor
of Russian Alaska. The land was long inhabited previously by Alaskan natives,
many of whom he killed or enslaved. (WaPo)—NIAID ( National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that
make up the National Institute of Health. (WaPo)—I hadn’t heard that FDR
wanted/ tried to pack the SCOTUS in 1937. (WaPo) –William Howard Taft served as chief justice of SCOTUS after he was president. –Thurgood Marshall became the first black
justice in 1967. –Harry Blackmun authored the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. All
three of these men are buried at Arlington where Justice Ginsburg now lies
beside her husband. (AP) -- One-hundred-thirty-nine-thousand families are
renters.
GIVEN
NAMES – Agence, Lummie, Mudelean, Raygan, Brudcus, Thor, Alleyene, Emonya,
Earnese, Idrees, Andeessen, Tolton, Finus, Qindi, Lopha, Edathara, Genois,
Dareh, Larynzo, Arnon, Ashaki, Astead, Ledyard, Precilla, Dekeesha.
SURNAMES
– Greenfieldboyce, Sussman, Lacina, Greenhouse, Clodfelter, Samenow, Sun, Wen,
Tubiana, Bleacher, Ameringen, Gregorian, Glassman, Hausfather, Steptoe.
WORLD
-A quarter of all known animal species are beetles. (NPR)
WEATHER
– Medicane = a Mediterranean cyclone; a storm all but unknown until the 1990s,
was headed for Greece on September 18, ’20.
UNIVERSE
– Phosphine, a chemical detected in Venus’ atmosphere that could have been
produced by a biological source. We won’t know until sending a spacecraft there
to take a reading of the atmosphere. (NYT News Quiz, mid-Sept.) Venus roasts at
100s of degrees and is cloaked by clouds containing droplets of corrosive
sulfuric acid. (Ibid.) – Cygnus Loop =
colorful ribbons of a supernova’s blast wave that screaming (sic)
through space, heating and compressing dust and gas in a way that causes the
ribbons to glow. So bright that humans would have seen it from Earth 15,000
years ago. (Business Insider)
ANIMALS
– Elephants are the only animals drinking below the surface of the water and
sucking the silt, which is where neurotoxins reside. Botswana has the largest
population of elephants at135,000 animals. (Bloomberg)
PLACES IN ARKANSAS – Crosses, Wild Cherry, Tollville, Ingalls.
UNKNOWN WORDS – “caravanning” – a group of motorists
driving to a specific area and planning to loiter. . . blocking off
intersections or loitering on private property. (AD-G) – “shambolic” = chaotic,
disorganized, or mismanaged.—“abstruse” = difficult to understand; obscure. –
“kakistocracy” = government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a
state. (FB) – “non sequitur" = a conclusion or statement that does not logically
follow from the previous argument/statement; usually untrue; an absurd
statement. (Bing).
c 2020, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA
