Archive for August, 2009

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B Reactor’s Slide Rule: Touched By Fermi?

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Scientist Enrico Fermi was a superstar of nuclear physics. He was the genius who helped to build the first atomic pile in 1939, and who later oversaw the construction of the B Reactor outside of Richland, Washington.

Souvenirs: The Terror of Tiny Towns

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Cheap miniature metal buildings are a classic souvenir category. At one time they were made with actual metal — probably pewter — and often handily doubled  as banks or salt and pepper shakers. Today they are most likely cast from polyresin with a faux-bronze finish. But they still generally sell in a reasonable $5-10 price [...]

Roadside News: August 13, 2009

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Motorcycles to Hell – OH | The Real First US President – MD | Not Quite Nirvana Monument – WA | Dungeon Master Immortal – WI

R.I.P. Hank the Crocosaurus: 1962-2009

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Hank the Crocosaurus has unexpectedly, er, croaked, according to a story in the Miami Herald. Hank was discovered dead in his tank at Jungle Island (the attraction formerly known as Parrot Jungle) on August 10. Only 47, he died young for a saurian superstar. Hank the Crocosaurus. The biggest tourist attraction gators and crocs usually [...]

Lincoln’s Nose: Power Vacuum?

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

The Journal-Times of Racine, Wisconsin, reports that the city’s statue of Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln has had one of its noses snapped off, “for at least the fourth time.” This honker-hacking is treated as an instance of senseless vandalism — much as the recent dino decapitation in Durham, North Carolina. But experience has taught [...]

Obama Birthplace: Not On The Tour Maps Yet

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Public support for “Birthers” — people who claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. — seems to be waning. The final nail in the crusade’s coffin may be when someone sticks a “Birthplace of Barack Obama” plaque in the ground (somewhere in the U.S., of course) and a billion tourist snapshots [...]

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