BITS

You know it's your home cassette transfer recording of a personal vinyl album, when the scratches and skips are always familiar and in the same places.

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A note I received from journalist and friend Ned Wicker:  Many years ago I had the privilege of working the publicity for the Miami Air Show. Our featured attraction was the Blue Angels squad that came down from Pensacola. They did their practice fly overs on Thursday to get their bearings and record all of the necessary landmarks. Phone calls poured into our office with people complaining about the noise. Our stock answer was that "noise" is the reason you have freedom, live with it.

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The pull tab or tab top style beer can emerged in March 1963 by the Pittsburg Brewing Company when it introduced Iron City beer in self opening cans.

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The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Lexington CVA 16 was the first ship in U.S. naval history to have women stationed aboard as crew members.

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I find that after getting alcohol enhanced and watching late night television talk shows, the material is funnier and the shows flow much smoother.

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William H. Mason in 1924, invented the process to make "masonite" in Laurel, Mississippi. This product is a result of processing unusable waste wood from lumber mills into a useful construction material.

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Anheuser-Busch has purchased the rights to Rolling Rock beer for $82 million from InBev of Belgium. The beer maker will move production of the brand to its Newark, New Jersey plant. City Brewing of Wisconsin is negotiating with InBev to buy the Latrobe, Pennsylvania brewery that had been Rolling Rock's home. Source: Rick Lyke of Brewing News.

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For great information on the Wisconsin-made alternative domestic corn-based ethanol (E-85) designed for certain gasoline-burning vehicles, jump on www.renewwisconsin.org. Reduce our oil consumpttion, if this info sets well with you http://news-views.renewwisconsin.org/news/item.tcl?scope=group&news_item_id=102851 and http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2006-02-01-ethanol_x.htm.

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According to the latest of a twice-yearly survey by The Student Monitor of U.S. College students, "using iPods" has replaced "beer consumption" as the number one campus activity. The only other time beer was bumped from the number one position, was in 1977 when "surfing the world wide web" won top honors. Source: Rick Lyke of Brewing News.

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Odell Brewing in Colorado has launched the Double Pilsner "Coors Sub Zero" line in the United Kingdom by Molson Coors. The brand is marketed as the world's coldest beer, chilled slightly below freezing so that a layer of slush forms between the head and the beer. Source: Rick Lyke of Brewing News..

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Anheuser-Busch distributors in the Chicago area will now sell "Goose Island" beers, a product of Widmer Brothers Brewing Co. in Oregon. Source: Rick Lyke of Brewing News.

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"The Emerald Neckace," a twenty-eight mile Metroparks System surrounding Cleveland, Ohio was the vision and work of retired landscape architect and engineer William A. Stinchcomb (1878-1959.)  His idea of design and construction of the 14 reservation, 20,000 acre park system was first presented to the Cleveland City Council in 1905. He purchased the first parcel of land for the project in 1919. That piece of land is located today in the Rocky River Reservation area. It is overlooked by a statue of this man affectionately called "Mr. Metroparks." The likeness was the result of work by sculptor William McVey and architect Ernst Payer. This lasting tribute was unveiled on a nearby hilltop in 1958. Stinchcomb was appointed the first director of the Park District in 1921 and held this public-service position for 58 years. He retired due to illness at the age of 80 passing shortly after. Source: http://www.clemetparks.com/.

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German Jew Rabbi Martin Buber and Franz Rosenweig in 1929 undertook a new German translation of the Hebrew Bible.

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Did you know Chicken-of the-Sea is Mexican tuna packed in Encenada and labled for the United States? Source: Larry and Maria Olsens' "Tracks to Adventure" information pack.

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The traffic signal was invented by Garrett A. Morgan (1877-1963) after he witnessed a car accident in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. His traffic signal was first demonstrated at the intersection of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in that same year. Garrett sold the 1923 patent to General Electric for $40,000 late that year. Morgan was a native of Paris, Kentucky moving to Cleveland in 1895. In 1912 he introduced his "Breathing Device" invention at a local Cleveland disaster site. The invention was an early form of the gas mask. 1913 marks the year he founded a company that manufactured a full line of hair-care for blacks. Also on his list of achievements is the founding of local Cleveland weekly newspaper named Call. The publication was later titled The Call and Post. Source: The Western Reserve Historical Society's Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum. (below)

In 1909 the Canadian Pacific Railroad built the two "spiral tunnels" in the Big Hill area of British Columbia, Canada. Today this engineering genius is located in the Yoho National Forest near the southwestern Alberta border and is accessable for sightseeing. For additonal information: http://www.planetware.com/canada/spiral-tunnel-viewpoints-cdn-bc-bctv.htm.

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Born in Angola, New York on the shore of Lake Erie, Willis Haviland Carrier (1876-1950) in 1906 received, a patent for a system to cool the air inside a building and control its humidity at the same time. It was the first modern air conditioner. Can you believe that was 100 years ago? Source: National Geographic Magazine - April 2006

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Pabst Brewing Company, which contract-brews its Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Style, Schlits and other brands at SAB Miller plants, has decided to move its headquarters to Woodridge, Illinois. The company has been based in San Antonio, Texas, for two decades after moving out of its historic Milwaukee, Wisconsin site. Source: Rick Lyke of Brewing News

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Watching a Rod Serling written 1960's cutting edge Sci-Fi Channel television series episode of the "The Twilight Zone," I was interested to note the following coincidence. In this half hour rerun Person or Persons Unknown, the woman worker in the photoshop scene said to the police at the open studio door, "He owes me $1.81 too." That was the exact amount of change I had in my pocket at the time. I guess we all visit the twilight zone one time or another.

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Jazz great Dave Brubeck reached the age of 86 on December 6, 2006. Source: Harvey Zay, WNWV 107.3 FM "The Wave" Cleveland, Ohio.

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For the United States of America, the first shot fired of World War II, was by the destroyer U.S.S. Ward DD139. At approximately 6:45 AM, the guns of this American warship on patrol, fired at one of five Japanese mini-submarines launched near the mouth of Pearl Harbor and sited within the "Defensive Sea Area" outside the harbor inlet. The artillery round ordered fired by Captain William W. Outerbridge that sunk this threatening Japanese vessel preceded the December 7, 1941 "air attack" on Pearl Harbor by nearly 4 hours. Captain Outerbridge was in command of the WWII destroyer Ward for a mere two days prior to the incident http://www.history.navy.mil/docs/wwii/pearl/ph97.htm.

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Parkinson Disease is a brain disorder. It affects movement, muscle control and balance. About 1.5 million Americans have the disease. Three out of every 100 of these individuals are over the age of 60. Both men and women are equally affected by the malady. Source: Wade Park Veterans Medical Center

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The most recent fighter jet of the United States Air Force demonstration team, the F-15, has been replaced with the most recently built F-22A Raptor jet aircraft. The Langley AFB based Eastern Demonstration Team will fly the newest cutting edge technology and handling characteristics of this currently evolving Air Force fighter aircraft lead by Major Paul Moga. He is charged with the task of developing a totally new routine for the team. The first air shows utilizing the F-22A Raptors will begin in part in early 2007. During the following year, the team will design and perfect a completely new routine that demonstrates the new fighter jets' capabilities planned to begin at air shows in the Spring of 2008. Source: "Around The Services" produced by the Pentagon Channel and cablecast on the Military Channel. More information: http://usmilitary.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=usmilitary&cdn=careers&tm=33&gps=42_6_802_580&f=00&su=p284.21.140.ip_&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.f-22raptor.com/.

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Once again deer season opens today in Wisconsin. On this annual testosterone-filled day throughout the countryside, it seems everywhere I go, I'm one of the only few men in town with all the women. So, as usual, on this most sacred day of the human male gender...I'll make the very most of it, check out the ladies and eat meat from the store.

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It's Sunday morning January 14, 2007 at 11:15am. I awoke to a song on the radio, the original "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison of the Beatles. That's my worship for today. God Bless.

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I've been told my memory is better than reality.

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Peterbuilt Trucks was started in 1939 by T. A. Peterman and is now located in Denton, Texas.

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(above) A Navy buddy Ron Luke captured the essence of aging over 50 when he said, "...after 50...it's patch...patch...patch...and then you die."

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Sunday, October 9, 2007. Instead of attending church today, I listened to a recording of the naval gunfire support missions, executed by my ship, the USS John S. McCain DDG 36, while serving off the coast of North Vietnam on April 2, & September 5, 1972...I sometimes wonder about God.

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Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1610 was officially designated as a capital city by Spanish explorers of the 17th century. Source: The official 2007 Santa Fe visitor's guide.

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The National Wildlife Refuge System was founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and consists of 550 units, totaling 93 million acres.

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Congress first levied a tax on beer in 1872, in order to generate revenue to fight the war against the Confederacy. After that, taxes drifted up slowly until the post-prohibition year 1933. Then taxes soared as a result of governmental regulation and licensing.