Friday, May 7, 2021

Domestic Cats

       Cat, the name of the commonest of the household pet animals, is also applied to the family to which the cat belongs. This family includes the fiercest wild animals known, including the lion, tiger and panther

8 Fast Facts About House Cats:
  1. It is believed that tho cat was originally domesticated in Egypt, where it was loved and venerated. The domestic cat belongs to a genus better armed for destruction of animal life.
  2. Among the various breeds or races of cats, the tailless cat of the Isle of Man, and the Persian cat, with its long, silky fur, are among the most curious. 
  3. The tortoise shell, with its color a mixture of black, white and brownish or fawn color, the large Angora and the blue, or Carthusian, and Maltese cats, with long, soft, grayish-blue fur, are other well-known species. 
  4.  The short and powerful jaw, sharp, pointed teeth, sharp claws and strong muscles make it a fierce enemy of birds and other small animals.
  5. Birds have no greater enemy, and one cat often drives the beautiful, friendly singing birds from a whole neighborhood. 
  6. The cat is usually regarded as less intelligent than the dog, but possibly it has equal intelligence of another kind. 
  7. It seems to have little real affection for mankind, though it enjoys being petted and shows signs of jealousy if neglected. 
  8. It does become strongly attached to places, and it often will desert its friends who have removed, and return to the strangers who occupy its old home.
More About House Cats:

Pole Cat

A pole cat is a small animal .of the weasel family. The common polecat is found in most parts of Europe, except the extreme south. It is about seventeen inches long, with long, coarse brown fur, which grows blackish on the feet and tail. A superior kind of artists' brush is made from the hairs. The polecat possesses an odor something like that of the American skunk, and hence in the United States the skunk is often called the polecat. It is very destructive to poultry, rabbits, rats and mice, and also feeds on snakes, frogs, fish and eggs.

Pointer

A pointer is a hunting dog, so called because it stops short at the sight of game and points toward it with its nose. It has a smooth coat of short hair, and is marked, usually black and white, like the fox hound. The tail is slender and stiff; the ears, large and drooping. The dogs have a very keen sense of smell and are unerring in locating game.

Centipede

       The centipede is a creature which has many feet and a body consisting of numerous similar rings or segments, each of which bears a pair of legs. The common centipede, found in the United States, is quite harmless, but some species of tropical countries inflict severe and often dangerous bites. Some of the latter species grow to a length of eighteen inches. They are savage animals and defend themselves energetically. The name means having a hundred feet, but in reality no species known has more than thirty-one pairs of legs.

Nothing says "Nope, Nope, Nope" like a Centipede!

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Billy Basso Bull Frog

Billy Basso
Bull Frog
by Florence M. Pettee


Billy Basso Bullfrog
A-rumbling in the dark,
A-tuning up his viol,
While all the swamp fold hark.

With a pinky and a panky,
And a ga-lum, ga-lum, ga-LUM!
Billy Basso's found his fiddle,
While all the frog folks hum.

With a pinky and a panky,
All the swamp's a lullaby,
With the big bass viol strumming
'Way down where the tadpoles lie.

How Mother Nature Cleans

How Mother Nature Cleans
by Oscar H. Roesner


When Mother Nature cleans the sky
And makes it shiny blue,
So all the stars may twinkle bright,
The sun and moon shine through;
She sprinkles it with showers first,
Next scours with whitest snow,
And then with rough old wind for broom
She sweeps it clean you know.

Grandmother's Garden

 

Grandmother's Garden
by Marjorie Barrows


Amaryllis and I heard a fairy
In grandmother's garden today,
When the wind in the roses was calling
The birds and the blossoms to play.

Amaryllis stooped down by bluebell
And listened there ever so hard;
But I, in my little white apron,
Caught the rose-fairy's calling card!

Caterpillar On The Wall

 

Caterpillar On The Wall
by Marion Ryan


Caterpillar on the wall,
Fuzzy, furry yellow ball!

Don't I wish that I could spy
You turning to a butterfly!

Will you be a yellow one,
Sparkling, golden, in the sun,

Or a dusky tan and brown,
Fluttering lightly up and down,

In and out among the flowers
All the warm sweet summer hours?

Caterpillar, please don't go
Till you've told me how you grow.

Saturday, August 8, 2020

A Rainy Day Game


A Rainy-Day Game
by K. G. Buffman

A little soap and water
And a little pipe of clay
Will make the time go faster
On a rainy day.

Bubbles in the bowl of water
Bubbles in the air,
Bubbles on the mantelpiece,
Floating everywhere.

Molly had a clay pipe,
Richard had another;
Nothing could be better for
A sister and a brother.

Transportation Index

Far left, The Chiva Bus Parade. Left Center, Mother Goose Auto Parade.
Center Right, Road Sign Graphics. Far Right, one of the first airplanes.
       Transport or transportation is the movement of people, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles and operations. Transport is important because it enables trade between people, which is essential for the development of civilizations.
       Transport infrastructure consists of the fixed installations including roads, railways, airways, waterways, canals and pipelines and terminals such as airports, railway stations, bus stations, warehouses, trucking terminals, refueling depots (including fueling docks and fuel stations) and seaports. Terminals may be used both for interchange of passengers and cargo and for maintenance.
Vehicles traveling on these networks may include automobiles, bicycles, buses, trains, trucks, people, helicopters, watercraft, spacecraft and aircraft.
       Operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated, and the procedures set for this purpose including financing, legalities, and policies. In the transport industry, operations and ownership of infrastructure can be either public or private, depending on the country and mode.
       Passenger transport may be public, where operators provide scheduled services, or private. Freight transport has become focused on containerization, although bulk transport is used for large volumes of durable items. Transport plays an important part in economic growth and globalization, but most types cause air pollution and use large amounts of land. While it is heavily subsidized by governments, good planning of transport is essential to make traffic flow and restrain urban sprawl.
Our Transportation Artifacts:
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President John Adams

Illustrated portrait of President John Adams.
       John Adams (1735-1826), was the second President of the United States, and the most famous member of a family of distinguished statesmen. He was born at Quincy, Mass., and educated at Harvard College. After completing a course in law he was admitted to the bar (1758). Adams' attention was directed to politics by the question as to the right of the English Parliament to tax the colonies, and in 1765 he published some essays strongly opposed to the claims of the mother country. As a member of the Continental Congress he was strenuous in his opposition to the home government, and in organizing the various departments of the colonial government. On May 13th, 1776, he seconded the motion for a declaration of independence proposed by Lee of Virginia, and was appointed a member of the committee to draw it up. The declaration was actually drawn up by Jefferson, but it was Adams who carried it through Congress.
       In 1778 he went to France on a special mission, and after a brief home visit returned to Europe. For nine years he resided abroad as representative of his country in France, Holland and England. After taking part in the peace negotiations be was appointed, in 1785, the first ambassador of the United States to the court of Saint James.
       He was recalled in 1788, and in the same year was elected Vice-President of the republic, under Washington. In 1792 he was reelected Vice-President, and at the following election was chosen President. Though a member of the Federalist party, which favored a strong central government, Adams was frequently at variance with Hamilton, the real leader of that party, and his administration was stormy. He had to face not only dissensions in his own party, but the bitter hostility of Jefferson and his adherents. The Jeffersonians were in warm sympathy with the French Revolutionists, while the Federalists favored England. Adams, determined to keep the country at peace, and above all from extending aid to France, sent three commissioners in 1797 to treat with the French government, as the relations between the two nations were somewhat strained. The insulting proposal of Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, that the United States pay France tribute money, aroused bitter indignation in America, and quick preparations were made for war. A brief naval war did actually take place, in which the French frigate La Vengeance was sunk by the Constellation. The prospect of America allied with England soon brought France to terms, and the difficulties were peacefully adjusted. 
       Adams, however, dug his political grave by his advocacy of the Alien and Sedition Laws, which were directed at the opponents of the administration. These laws were denounced as violations of the right of free speech and the freedom of the press, and their passage caused the downfall of the Federalist party. Adams failed of reelection, but before he retired from office he made one of the most important appointments in American history - that of John Marshall to the chief justiceship of the Supreme Court. Other events of his administration were the death of Washington and the formal removal of the government offices to Washington (1800), then set in the midst of a forest and exceedingly rough and unattractive in its primitiveness. 
       At the close of his term of office Adams retired to private life, disappointed and embittered at his failure to secure reelection. However, the subsequent election of his son, John Quincy Adams, to the Presidency was a consoling incident of his last days. He died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary 
of the Declaration of Independence, only a few hours after Thomas Jefferson passed away. The death of two such illustrious men on the same day has no parallel in the political history of America or of any other country. Adams' last words were, "Thomas Jefferson still survives." He did not know of the sad event in Virginia. 
Administration of John Adams, 1797-1801 Outline and Questions.

Friday, August 7, 2020

The Fourth of July

The Fourth of July 
by Charles Sprague

To the sages who spoke, to the heroes who bled,
To the day and the deed, strike the harp-
strings of glory!
Let the song of the ransomed remember the
dead,
And the tongue of the eloquent hallow the story!
O'er the bones of the bold
Be that story long told,
And on fame's golden tables their triumphs en-
rolled
Who on freedom's green hills freedom's banner un-
furled,
And the beacon-fire raised that gave light to the world!

They are gone--mighty men! --and they sleep in their
fame:
Shall we ever forget them? Oh, never! no, never!
Let our sons learn from us to embalm each great
name,
And the anthem send down--"Independence for-
ever!"
Wake, wake, heart and tongue!
Keep the theme ever young;
Let their deeds through the long line of ages be
sung
Who on freedom's green hills freedom's banner un-
furled,
And the beacon-fire raised that gave light to the world!