4 September: Manhattan

On this date in 1609, Navigator Henry Hudson discovered the island of Manhattan. 10 things you might not know about Manhattan.

1. The original inhabitants of the island of Manhattan were Munsee, Lenape and Wappinger tribes. Even in those days it was a busy place. Members of the tribes were fishing for seafood and growing crops. Their movements around the island created pounded down trails, one of which eventually became Broadway.

2. The name of the island comes from a Lenape word which means “the place where we gather wood to make bows”, because there was a grove of hickory trees growing on the island which provided ideal wood for bowmaking.

3. In 1624, the Dutch established a permanent European presence in Manhattan with a trading post. Then, in 1626, according to legend, they bought the island from the Native Americans for goods valued at something like a thousand dollars in today’s Money.

4. Manhattan is 22.7 square miles (59 km²) in area, 13.4 miles long, and 2.3 miles wide at its widest point. It’s also one of the most densely populated locations in the world. In 2020 the population was 1,694,250, or 72,918 residents per square mile.

5. Manhattan has over 520 million square feet of office space. Many offices are housed in the characteristic skyscrapers, made possible by strong and deep bedrock beneath. The Skyscrapers even act like a kind of Stonehenge twice a year when the sunset aligns perfectly with the east-west street grid.

6. The layout of the streets in a grid system was established by the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, which called for 12 avenues running north-south and 155 streets running east-west. The Borough of Manhattan’s Main Street, however, is located on a different island, Roosevelt Island, across the East River.

7. As for the Traffic Lights, it is possible, if you drive up First Avenue at 28mph, to get a string of green traffic lights. If you’re on foot, pressing the button at a crosswalk is probably pointless – over half of them don’t do anything, because the lights have been automated since the late 1980s. The buttons are still there so you think you have some control over them.

8. It is illegal in Manhattan to put on a puppet show in your window and there was once a fine for flirting with someone on the street. You also need a license to hang out washing on a clothesline.

9. There’s a statistic which says than in Manhattan, you are ten times more likely to get bitten by a human being than by a Shark.

10. Some of the parks in Manhattan are former cemeteries. Washington Square Park is one such; in the 18th century it served as a burial ground for people who couldn’t afford private funerals.

3 September: Loren Eiseley Quotes

Born on this date in 1907 was Loren Eiseley, US anthropologist, and writer. His books include The Immense Journey, Darwin's Century, The Unexpected Universe, The Night Country and his memoir, All the Strange Hours.

1. If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. Its substance reaches everywhere; it touches the past and prepares the future; it moves under the poles and wanders thinly in the heights of air. It can assume forms of exquisite perfection in a snowflake, or strip the living to a single shining bone cast up by the sea.

2. We will travel as far as we can, but we cannot in one lifetime see all that we would like to see or to learn all that we hunger to know.

3. We cannot pluck a flower without disturbing a star.

4. One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other than human.

5. Each one of us is a statistical impossibility around which hover a million other lives that were never destined to be born.

6. It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man.

7. Like the herd animals we are, we sniff warily at the strange one among us.

8. The great artist, whether he be musician, painter, or poet, is known for this absolute unexpectedness.

9. Every man contains within himself a ghost continent.

10. Tomorrow lurks in us, the latency to be all that was not achieved before.

2 September: 245

On the 245^th day of the year, here are 10 fun facts about 254.

1. 245 is the name of a Jazz instrumental by Eric Dolphy, featured on his 1960 album Outward Bound.

2. The year 245 was a common year starting on a Wednesday. It was known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Philippus and Titianus. In this year, a large area of modern-day Lincolnshire was inundated by a great flood, and the Roman Emperor Diocletian, was born.

3. London bus 245 runs from Alperton Sainsbury's to Golders Green Station.

4. The Roman numeral for 254 is CCXLV.

5. In Binary it’s 11110101.

6. Yakamoz S-245 is a Turkish TV series from 2022. After disaster strikes Earth, a marine biologist on a submarine research mission must fight to survive with the crew as a conspiracy comes to light.

7. +245 is the international country calling code for Guinea-Bissau.

8. The A245 is a road in Surrey, England which runs from Leatherhead to Horsell.

9. 245 Vera is a large main belt asteroid discovered by N. R. Pogson in 1885, in Madras, and was named at the suggestion of his wife.

10. In numerology, the energy of 245 resonates with companionship, team work, diplomacy and focus on the future. People under its influence are great at dealing with people and smoothing over disagreements. They work well in a team but are also able to express themselves freely.

1 September: Alberta

On this date in 1905 Alberta entered the Confederation as a province of Canada. 10 things you might not know about Alberta.

1. Alberta is one of only two landlocked provinces in Canada, along with Saskatchewan (which, incidentally, entered the union on the same day). Alberta is bounded by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south. It’s the fourth-largest province in Canada, covering an area of 661,000 square kilometres (255,000 square miles), which, for context, is about the same size as the American state of Texas and more than twice the size of Italy. Alberta’s forests alone cover roughly 35 million hectares, about the size of Germany.

2. Alberta is home to 4.3 million people, and an even larger number of cattle. Alberta has the largest population of wild horses in Canada, but one creature you won’t find there is a Rat. Alberta is reportedly the largest rat-free inhabited land area in the world. It’s even illegal to have one as a pet. Beavers also live here. The longest beaver dam in the world is here, in Wood Buffalo National Park, allegedly visible from space.

3. A few million years ago, you’d find Dinosaurs here, too. Though the world’s largest dinosaur is still here in a town called Drumheller. Made of fibreglass, I might add! It’s a T Rex, 26 metres high, which back in the day would have been one of the largest living dinosaurs in the area, weighing up to 10 tonnes and measuring 12m long; but there was an even bigger one called the Edmontosaurus (after Alberta’s capital) which weighed up to 14 tonnes and was 14m long. The oldest dinosaur fossil found in Alberta is estimated to be over 110 million years old. There’s another dinosaur named after the state itself, the Albertosaurus.

4. Alberta was named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, who in turn was named after Prince Albert. She was married to the Marquis of Lorne, Canada’s Governor General from 1878-1883. Lake Louise was also named after her.

5. The highest point in Alberta is Mount Columbia at 3,747 meters tall, while the highest settlement is the aforementioned Lake Louise. There are 600 lakes and 245 rivers; the longest river is The longest river is the Athabasca which flows 1,538 kilometers from the Columbia Icefield to Lake Athabasca; but the largest river by water flow is the Peace River.

6. Edmonton is the capital, but the largest city is Calgary. Other notable towns include Vegreville, home to the world’s largest pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg); Mundare, home to the world’s largest kubasa (Ukrainian sausage); Beaverlodge, where there is a 1,500lb beaver; and Vulcan, which although it existed long before Star Trek, nevertheless has embraced the inevitable and is home to a 31-foot Starship Enterprise replica with a plaque in English, Vulcan and Klingon.

7. The oldest national park in Canada is located in Alberta. Banff National Park was established in the year 1885 as Canada’s first National Park. There are also 6 UNESCO world heritage sites in the province. One of these is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, where Indigenous peoples drove buffalo over a cliff in order to kill them for food.

8. Symbols of Alberta include: an official tartan (green for the forests, gold for the wheat fields, blue for the sky and lakes, pink for the wild roses which are Alberta’s official flower, and black for petroleum); the Great Horned Owl is the provincial bird; rough fescue, the official grass of Alberta; the lodgepole pine is the official tree; the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep is the official mammal; the bullhorn trout the official fish; the official gemstone is ammolite, which is only found here; and the official stone is petrified wood. Since 2005, there’s an official song, Alberta, written for the centennial of the province in 2005.

9. Another symbol is a white cowboy hat, which has become associated with hospitality in Calgary. It started as a symbol of the Stampede rodeo; a Jewish immigrant called Morris Shumiatcher was the first to make pure white hats for participants in the rodeo to wear. in due course became an item that was presented to visiting dignitaries by means of a “white hatting” ceremony. An eclectic bunch of celebrities have been presented with white hats including: the Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, Ozzy Osbourne, Queen Elizabeth II, William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Pavarotti, Oprah Winfrey and Mickey Mouse. Even Vladimir Putin has one. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh had three, and got a bit grumpy when presented with the third. "Not another one," he grumbled. "You must give out dozens of these things. I can always use it for carrying water around or to put flowers in when I get home". You don’t have to be royalty or famous to get a white hat, though. Any tourist or group can now book a white hatting ceremony for when they arrive at the airport. They are expected to provide their own white hats, though, and recite: "I/we, havin' pleasured ourselves in the only genuine cowtown in Canada, namely Calgary, Alberta and havin' been duly exposed to exceptional amounts of heart warmin', hand shakin', foot stompin', down home, country style Western Spirit, do promise to share this here brand of Western Hospitality with all folks and critters who cross our path". The one leading the oath adds, "On the count of three, raise your hat and shout a big ole' Calgary 'YAHOO!!!'"

10. Famous people from Alberta include: actors Nathan Fillion, Evangeline Lilly and Michael J Fox; and James Gosling, creator of the Java programming language.

31 August: Named storms

On this date in 1954 Hurricane Carol, the first major named storm, hit New England, killing 70. 10 facts about named storms in the UK.

1. The Met Office in the UK has been naming storms since 2015. The practice has been around since the 1950s in America.

2. In order to be given a name, a storm must be big and liable to cause a lot of damage. If it doesn’t merit an amber or red warning, it doesn’t get a name.

3. If you’ve ever wondered why some UK storms have rather unusual names, it’s because the Met Office works in partnership with Met Éireann in Ireland and KNMI, the Dutch National Weather Forecasting Service, with all three contributing names.

4. The convention is usually for the storms to get named in alphabetical order, alternating between male and female names. That said, if a significant enough storm originates elsewhere, in Spain, for example, it will keep the name it was given there, even if it doesn’t fit the UK system. Storm Jorge is one example.

5. A list of storm names for the coming year is published in September, covering the period up to the end of August the following year.

6. In 2023-24, some storms were named after heroes who helped others during previous severe storms.

7. So who decides which names get included on the list? The general public are invited to submit names and the most popular suggestions get used. (Which begs the question why Stormy McStormface has never been used!)

8. There are some names which are automatically ruled out. Names beginning with Q, U, X, Y, or Z will never be used, because there simply aren’t enough of them. Names that are too difficult to pronounce will be ruled out as well, as will brand names or those that could be considered controversial or political.

9. If you want to suggest a name for a storm, email nameourstorms@metoffice.gov.uk or use the online form.

10. Reasons given for names which appear on recent lists include: Fionnuala: "My daughter's name... Good strong name! What you'd expect from a storm"; Wubbo a tribute to Wubbo Ockels, the first Dutchman to fly through space; Stevie: inspired by a girl named after the Stevie Nicks song Dreams, which includes the line: “Thunder only happens when it’s raining”; Oscar: after a Cat described as “a good boy, but crazy when he gets the zoomies”; and Dave: “My beloved husband who can snore three times louder than any storm!”

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

30 August: Bigfoot

On this date in 1990, an episode of Northern Exposure first aired, in which Bigfoot was discovered. Here are 10 things you might not know about the mythical monster, Bigfoot.

1. What does Bigfoot look like? Bigfoot is said to be 7 to 9 feet (about 2 to 2.75 meters) tall and covered in Brown, Black, Red, or sometimes even White fur or Hair. Its feet are about 13 inches long (0.3 meters). Hence the name Bigfoot. Evidence for the existence of the creature often takes the form of footprints in mud. People who claim to have seen Bigfoot at night report that it has red, Green or Yellow glowing Eyes.

2. What does Bigfoot sound like? Some people have claimed to have recorded the sounds Bigfoot makes, which include howls, screams, moans, grunts and whistles. Native American legends mention a creature they call Midnight Whistler, which makes a sound like the whistle of a steam train. Some people have claimed to have heard Bigfoot communicating using a rudimentary form of language, or by knocking wood with their fists or sticks, or by hurling rocks. It has also been suggested that Bigfoot may produce infrasound, because some people who say they’ve seen one report that they felt disorientated or anxious, and lost time, similar to the reports from people who claim to have been abducted by aliens.

3. There is even a report detailing what Bigfoot smells like. According to Michael Rugg, the owner of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum: "Imagine a Skunk that had rolled around in dead animals and had hung around the garbage pits."

4. This kind of creature is known as Bigfoot in parts of North America, but there are other names for similar creatures in other parts of the world, including Sasquatch, Witiko, Wendigo, Yeti, Abominable Snowman, Skunk ape, Grassman, Fouke Monster and Wood Booger.

5. So how did these legends start? Native American legends about such creatures have long existed. The Tsul ‘Kalu, for example, which is said to have been able to read minds; one even married a Cherokee girl and it was believed this marriage was to blame for everything that went wrong for the tribe thereafter. In modern times, an early report was from Jerry Crew was a bulldozer operator for a logging company in 1958. He found a set of large, 16-inch (41 cm) human-like footprints in the mud in Humboldt County, California. At the same time, other strange things happened around the camp, like huge oil drums being moved with no explanation. The logging workers started calling the unknown culprit "Bigfoot." Humboldt County now brands itself as the Bigfoot capital of the world.

6. The most famous evidence is a short video film known as the "Patterson-Gimlin movie" after the men who shot the film. The film shows a large, ape-like creature walking through a wood. Some say it was simply a bloke in a gorilla suit (I watched it, and admit it did look to me just like that!) That said, others have tried to disprove that theory by getting people to put on gorilla suits and walk around. They claim none of those people move exactly like the creature in the film.

7. A poll in 2020 suggested that about 1 in 10 American adults believe Bigfoot to be "a real, living creature". Some of that 10% make it their mission in life to prove it to the rest of us. The Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings (or AIMS) is one such organisation. There’s even a name for the activity of looking for evidence of the creature’s existence: "Squatching", "Squatchin'" or "Squatch'n". Whether it exists or not, there’s actually a law in Washington which states that killing a Bigfoot is illegal, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 or five years in prison.

8. Why, then, has nobody found one? Even a dead one? Perhaps, say the believers, they bury their dead. Some have even claimed to have found Bigfoot burial grounds. Uprooted and bent trees in some forests could be, according to them, be Bigfoot marking his territory.

9. Assuming Bigfoot doesn’t exist, how can the mysterious sightings be explained? Hoaxes involving blokes in gorilla suits is one explanation, of course. Others include incidences of mistaken identity – what people actually saw was a Bear standing on its hind legs, or a primate that had escaped from a circus, a zoo, or from being someone’s exotic pet. Others have said that a large, extinct ape species, Gigantopithecus blacki, isn’t actually extinct at all, but migrated across the Bering land bridge with other animals many years ago. No fossils of this ape have been found in the Americas, though, which tends to discount that theory. Shamans wearing furs or forest hermits have also been offered as explanations, and of course, pareidolia, the tendency to observe human-like faces and figures within the natural environment.

10. It has been suggested that Bigfoot has a pet of sorts. There is another legendary creature called a Chupacabra (which literally means “goat sucker”) which is said to be a kind of vampire which preys on livestock and forest animals. The legend is that Bigfoot uses Chupacabras rather as we use hunting dogs to help them catch prey. Needless to say, no evidence has been found that this might be the case.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

29 August: John Locke Quotes

John Locke, philosopher, founder of the school of empiricism, was born on this date in 1632. Some quotes:

1. The most precious of all possessions is power over ourselves.

2. What worries you, masters you.

3. Who lies for you will lie against you.

4. Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.

5. Don't let the things you don't have prevent you from using what you do have.

6. There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.

7. A sound mind in a sound body, is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.

8. Success in fighting means not coming at your opponent the way he wants to fight you.

9. Try all things, hold fast that which is good.

10. He that will make good use of any part of his life must allow a large part of it to recreation.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/