Welcome to the Round Table for Tuesday, January 27, 2009. Wow, the month is almost gone already. Subbing for our ailing Scoutgal today -- get well girl!!!!




Una tazzina di caffè?

Events

* 98 - Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva.
* 661 - Rashidun Caliphate ended with death of Ali.
* 1142 - Wrongful execution of noted Song Dynasty General Yue Fei.
* 1186 - Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, weds Constance of Sicily.
* 1343 - Pope Clement VI issues the Bull Unigenitus.
* 1593 - Vatican opens 7 year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno.
* 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending in their execution on January 31.
* 1695 - Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his death in 1703.
* 1785 - The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.
* 1825 - U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears."
More

* 1870 - The first women's fraternity, Kappa Alpha Theta, is formed at DePauw University.
* 1888 - In Washington, D.C., the National Geographic Society is founded.
* 1909 - The Young Left is founded in Norway.
* 1918 - The first hostilities occurred in the Finnish Civil War.
* 1939 - First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
* 1944 - World War II: The 900-days Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
* 1945 - World War II: The Red Army arrives at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.
* 1951 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on the Frenchman Flats.
* 1967 - Apollo program: Apollo 1 - Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of the spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center.
* 1967 - More than sixty nations sign the Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.
* 1967 - The Doors self titled debut album is released.
* 1973 - Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde falls, becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.
* 1974 - Brisbane river floods causing the largest flood to affect Brisbane City in the 20th Century
* 1983 - Pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest subaqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō breaks through.
* 1984 - Michael Jackson suffers second degree burns to his scalp while filming a commercial for Pepsi.
* 1996 - Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
* 1996 - Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
* 2006 - Western Union discontinues its Telegram and Commercial Messaging services.

Thought I would do something different today, here is a tour of one of Dolly's walks through West Hollywood yesterday.


East from our street on Santa Monica Blvd.


The local temple to the gods


"Circuit coffee"


My TJ's


A favorite eatery where Dolly can sit with me


More outdoor dining spots


2 of the many watering spots - Dolly not allowed


The boulevard and an MTA bus

Hope you enjoyed. Have a great day. Gonna warm up to 80's bye the weekend here. How about you?

"Jeez" Phil ! "Looksjustlike" [except for "the infrastructure" ] "ANY SMALL TOWN" in "the"[for you OSU Fans!] UNITED STATES of AMERICA !

Wow. I didn't expect Dolly to be so tall...I'd have thought her pictures would be from closer to the ground.

Maybe she's got a zoom lens.

But Mama is right, Phil - I know it's LA, but it looks like a (very nice) small town. And, of course, a good place to be.

Happy Tuesday all...I'm just flying by today.

Gosh! I thought everyone in California roller skated in swim suits! This looks almost, well, civilized!! Did you send these photos to Rush? I mean, there are parts of Cape Girardeau that look a lot like this. Well, if you count the "modular" unit (AKA doublewide) that the local coffee house occupies.

We're back down in the single digits. But starting tomorrow, 9 straight days above 10 at night!! The snow is getting that meringue look that comes from sunny days and freezing nights, an enchanting sight that apparently the denizens of West Hollywood have never enjoyed. Poor Phil!

Quiet week, lots of time to watch what our leadership in DC is or is not getting done. Off to warmer weather later in the week; three days in Missouri where the temps are projected into the 40s. Now where did I put that speedo?

Still feeling sexy, eh logan?

Thanks for taking the RT duties today, Phil. I know it was last minute, but you still managed to squeeze in a couple of my favorite Phil-isms. One, you often feature your own photography - and I've often visited your photo site as a result. Your world is so different from mine, and you capture it well. Two, you often pick out one historical event to expand on, and it never fails to be something that interests me greatly.

I'll be trying my hand at the opener duties on Friday. I hope it's at least half as interesting and enjoyable as what y'all are accustomed to.

Have a great day, everyone! Best wishes to ScoutGal for a speedy recuperation.

Thanks, Phil!

Wow! Blue skies, no winter clothes, Trader Joe's...all things we don't have right now here in Vermont.

Although the sun is trying to visit today. And the shot of the outdoor dining spots does remind me of Church St. in Burlington. Except here it's a pedestrian street...

man, i haven't been to west hollywood in ions. i recognize some of the spots. i was going to ask if trader joes used to be a bar, but then phil, you included a photo of the very bar that i was thinking of. thanks for a trip down memory lane. i do have a request, though. since hollywood proper was my haunt, would you mind driving dolly up to the boulevard, starting at labrea, and taking a walk down to, say, highland, for some photos?

2wins, that would be a walk of a different kind. It was long the haunt of the male hooker types, now just a few trannies for pay there. But I will do more walks, maybe not THAT one, but will hit Hollywood soon just for you.

Do you have a Starbucks?

Color me cynical (Green? Orange? Blue...?), but I've never understood the appeal of Starbucks (and others of their ilk). I mean it's just coffee...overpriced, pretentious coffee, but still just coffee. I can do better at home and a heck of a lot cheaper.