28 September 2015 - WHY IS A MARATHON 26.2 MILES?

WHY IS A MARATHON

 26.2 MILES?

G'day folks,

Here is another challenging question for you. Know the answer?

The marathon may have ancient roots, but the foot race’s official length of 26.2 miles wasn’t established until the 20th century. The first organized marathon was held in Athens at the 1896 Olympics, the start of the Games’ modern era. The ancient games, which took place in Greece from around 776 B.C. to A.D. 393, never included such long-distance races. The idea for the modern marathon was inspired by the legend of an ancient Greek messenger who raced from the site of Marathon to Athens, a distance of about 40 kilometers, or nearly 25 miles, with the news of an important Greek victory over an invading army of Persians in 490 B.C. After making his announcement, the exhausted messenger collapsed and died. To commemorate his dramatic run, the distance of the 1896 Olympic marathon was set at 40 kilometers.

For the next few Olympics, the length of the marathon remained close to 25 miles, but at the 1908 Games in London the course was extended, allegedly to accommodate the British royal family. As the story goes, Queen Alexandra requested that the race start on the lawn of Windsor Castle (so the littlest royals could watch from the window of their nursery, according to some accounts) and finish in front of the royal box at the Olympic stadium—a distance that happened to be 26.2 miles (26 miles and 385 yards). The random boost in mileage ending up sticking, and in 1921 the length for a marathon was formally standardized at 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometers).

Today, marathon races take place everywhere from the North Pole to the Great Wall of China. In America alone, there are now more than 1,100 marathons each year. For decades, marathons were only open to male athletes. The Boston Marathon, which kicked off in 1897 and is the world’s oldest annual marathon, began allowing female competitors in 1972, while the first Olympic marathon for women wasn’t held until 1984. In 1976, an estimated 25,000 runners finished marathons in the United States; by 2013, the estimated number of competitors who completed a 26.2-mile course had soared to 541,000.

Clancy's comment: Mm ... Interesting answer, eh? I bet you never knew that. I sure didn't.

I'm ...

27 September 2015 - FACTS ABOUT TICKER-TAPE PARADES

FACTS ABOUT

TICKER-TAPE PARADES

G'day folks,

I bet we have all seen a ticker-tape parade on television. Since 1886, New York City has thrown more than 200 ticker-tape parades honoring a wide range of groups and individuals. While other cities have held similar celebrations, ticker-tape parades down New York’s iconic “Canyon of Heroes” have become major events and a unique way to honor notable achievements. Check out seven surprising facts you may not know about these celebrations.

  

1.   The first one was impromptu.

While ticker-tape parades are now meticulously scheduled, the first ever was far from it. On October 28, 1886, as the parade in honor of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty marched up Broadway, employees spontaneously threw ticker tape out of their office windows to join in the celebration, giving the tradition its name. Celebrations continued intermittently over the next few decades, with more formally scheduled events beginning in 1919 with a parade for 25-year-old Edward Albert, the Prince of Wales. For more than 35 years, Grover Whalen played the role of official “greeter” and organizer of the festivities. Now, New York City’s mayor decides who is honored with an official parade.

2.   They aren’t just for sports teams.

The ticker-tape parade is mostly closely associated with New York sports teams, but that wasn’t always the case. The first athletes weren’t honored until 1924, and before 1999 the parades were primarily used to honor world leaders, military veterans and astronauts, and to celebrate achievements in exploration, aviation and science. The astronauts of Apollo 11 were honored in 1969 after the moon landing. Theodore Roosevelt was welcomed back from his African safari with a parade. And Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, Pope John Paul II, John Glenn, Amelia Earhart, Queen Elizabeth II and John F. Kennedy are a few more of the many individuals to receive a parade in their honor.

Individual athletes have also been honored, including Jesse Owens for his performance at the 1936 Olympics and Althea Gibson after winning Wimbledon in 1957. Major League Baseball’s Sammy Sosa, who finished second in the 1998 home run race, received a parade to acknowledge his relief work in the Dominican Republic after Hurricane Georges.

Polar explorer Richard E. Byrd is the individual to be honored the most, with three parades. The first was in 1926, following the first flight over the North Pole. The following year, Byrd was part of a double parade that took place honoring two transatlantic flights. In 1930, Byrd was honored again, this time for flying over the South Pole, as well as his first Antarctic expedition.

3.   Only one women’s sports team has had its own parade.

The 2015 parade in honor of the United States women’s national soccer team, which won its third FIFA Women’s World Cup with a 5-2 win over Japan on July 5, 2015, became the first to ever honor a women’s team. Female athletes had been honored as individuals and as members of U.S. Olympic teams, but never before had a women’s team been honored on its own. They also became the first non-New York based sports team to receive its own ticker-tape parade.

Before the U.S. women’s team’s parade, the last female athlete to have her own parade was Carol Heiss, a Queens native who won gold in figure skating in 1960. Gymnast and Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton was among those honored following the 1984 Olympics, the last time female athletes were honored in a ticker-tape parade before 2015.

4.   Ticker-tape is no longer used.

Though known as “ticker-tape parades,” the parades themselves have not featured ticker tape in quite some time. The 1-inch strip of paper was used to print stock quotes from the ticker machine, popular in lower Manhattan’s financial district, which became the parade route. As the stock exchange moved to electronic boards in the 1960s, ticker tape was no longer in use, and shredded paper and confetti took its place.

5.   General MacArthur received one after being relieved of duty.

Despite being removed from command by President Harry Truman, in 1951 General MacArthur received one of the biggest ticker-tape parades ever held in New York City. It extended over 19 miles of Manhattan, drew over 7 million spectators and featured 3,000 tons of paper.

6.   The most material ever thrown for a parade was in 1945.

Following the Allied victory over Japan in 1945, over 5,000 tons of paper, confetti, cloth and more streamed down, the most material ever used—100 times as much as the average parade. Other well-papered parades include ones held after for astronaut John Glenn and Douglas MacArthur, when American hostages returned from Iran in 1981 and following the Mets’ first World Series win in 1969.

7.   Each parade is commemorated with a plaque along the Canyon of Heroes.

In 2003, New York City marked the parade route with over 200 thin black granite markers, noting each parade with the date and a brief description—a New York version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Some parades have traveled different parts of New York than the one-mile stretch of Broadway between the Battery and New York City Hall, known as the Canyon of Heroes, but they are honored with a plaque just the same.

Clancy's comment: I've driven in two parades, but have never witnessed a ticker-tape parade. What about you?

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26 September 2015 - WHERE DID THE Rx SYMBOL COME FROM?

WHERE DID THE Rx 

SYMBOL COME FROM?

G'day folks,

Do any of you know where this symbol came fom? Well, check this out ...

Commonly seen on doctor’s prescription pads and signs in pharmacies, Rx is the symbol for a medical prescription. According to most sources, Rx is derived from the Latin word “recipe,” meaning “take.” Among several alternative theories, however, is the belief that the Rx symbol evolved from the Eye of Horus, an ancient Egyptian symbol associated with healing powers. What is known for certain is that the practice of pharmacy, the preparation and dispensation of drugs, has been around for thousands of years. The world’s first recorded prescriptions were etched on a clay tablet in Mesopotamia around 2100 B.C., while the first drugstores were established in the ancient city of Baghdad in the eighth century A.D.

America’s earliest drugstores date to the 17th century, in places such as Boston and New York. Before he became infamous as a traitor during the Revolutionary War, Benedict Arnold was an apothecary, or pharmacist, in Connecticut. The first college of pharmacy in the United States was founded in 1821 in Philadelphia. In the late 19th century, it was an Atlanta pharmacist, John Pemberton, who invented the formula for what would become Coca-Cola. At the time, Pemberton claimed his new concoction cured a variety of afflictions.

Prior to the 1950s, the majority of prescription medications in America were compounded by pharmacists; that is, each medication was custom-made from raw ingredients to suit an individual patient’s needs. After the mid-20th century, pharmacists filled most prescriptions with mass-produced products from drug companies. Today, the mortar and pestle, used by pharmacists for centuries to make medications, remains an industry symbol, often appearing on drugstore signs along with Rx.

Clancy's comment: There ya go. Did you know that?

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