smokerblog

Accidental Stonehenge

Denizens of Manhattan willl get one of their twice-yearly solar treats today. According to the internet stalwart and home of countless desktop wallpaper images, the Astronomy Picture of the Day site, the sun's rising and setting rays will shine directly down Manhattan's East-West running streets today, a fun treat for all--except the late-evening commuters, that is.

Geometry building blocks

Ted is becoming quite the Flash animator. For example:

Ever wonder why the formula for the area of a trapezoid is ?

The page that Ted put together for brother Matt's geometry class will help explain.

RPS in action

I posted a while ago about the broad appeal of Rock Paper Scissors as an athletic enterprise and a tool for dispute resolution. This morning I saw it in action.

ESPN showed three Red Sox fans (I think they were Red Sox fans, I missed the beginning of the clip) each laying claim to a baseball bat thrown into the stands settling their difference with a spontaneous Rock Paper Scissors tournament. The winner triumphed with paper over rock and strutted away brandishing his new souvenir. Unfortunately, I can't find a link to this yet, but trust me, it was a beautiful example of the efficacy of RPS.

Festival Season

In Rochester we have 4 seasons: Fall, Winter, Winter II, and Festival. This year's Festival Season is underway with the Lilac Fetival now in full swing. Highland Park, site of the festival, boasts over 1,200 individual Lilac bushes in over 500 varieties. The lilacs are at their peak right now!

Other festivals this summer will include:

Rochester International Jazz Festival, June 4 - 12

I've mentioned this one before. 99 jazz concerts over 9 days.

Maplewood Rose Festival, June 18 - 20

Set in Maplewood Park, one of the city's first parks and designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, this festival picks up on the Lilac festival's floral theme. Other highlights include: arts and crafts, music, Genesee River Gorge tours, home tours, roses, roses, and more roses.

Corn Hill Arts Festival, July 10 & 11

This is Rochester's most popular summer event, typically drawing 250,000 people over the course of two days. Over 500 artists and craftspersons, music, and lots of festival food make this the "must-do" event of the summer.

Rochester MusicFest, July 16 - 18

A three-day celebration of R&B. The headliner this year is Earth, Wind & Fire.

Park Avenue Summer Art Fest, August 7 & 8

This festival has been growing in recent years, but can't quite rival the Corn Hill festival. Despite its name, the recent trend of the Park Ave Fest has been toward a higher concentration of food and music over art.

Clothesline Festival, September 11 & 12

If the Lilac Festival marks the beginning of festival season, the Clothesline marks the end. The largest of the festivals in terms of exhibitors, the Clothesline is also the most serious, screening exhibitors and charging admission. Plenty of art and crafts, some food, only a single stage for entertainment.

And that's just within the city limits. The surrounding suburbs host additional fun-filled events such as Spencerport Canal Days, Fairport Canal Days, Chil-E Fest, Hill Cumorah Pageant, and cetera. Might as well unplug the cable TV for the summer and get out and have some fun!

Lincoln's Beard

Kari's dad, Fred, has been actively researching his family tree; he's traced some of the roots all the way back to England. In his research he found a website devoted to one of his more recent relatives, Grace Bedell (the cousin of his great-grandmother). When Grace was 11, she wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln suggesting that he grow a beard. Having received the lettter only one month before the 1860 presidential election, it appears that Lincoln took her advice. When he boarded the train for Washington the next February, he was fully bearded.

There are plenty of websites devoted to this story and the famous letter. Apparently, when the letter was last offered for sale in the 1990's, the asking price was set at $1,000,000.

Fred has sent me some digital files of Grace and asked for my help cleaning one of them up so it could be suitably framed. Here are the before and after images. I'll get the print in the mail to you soon, Fred!

Before

After

Click either picture for a larger view.