Monday Musings - January 23, 2023

 

1. Happy Monday again. It is the 4th of 5 January Monday's. The year is off to a rapid start. In case you were keeping count, there are 48 Mondays remaining in the year. 

2. Family NFL Results. No family teams remain in the NFL Playoff hunt. Dallas lost a defensive struggle to San Francisco (12-19) which removed all of the family teams from the playoffs. We all must try again next year. 

Gopher Tortoises along the Trail
Hobe Sound, FL
January 22, 2023

3. Chris and I enjoyed another bike ride through Seabranch Preserve State Park yesterday. We spied a number of tortoises along our path. Since we were riding with a friend who has not biked much, we kept the trek to a short 9.5 miles.

4. It was scary to watch the stock market crumble last week as the newly installed Republican-controlled House of Representatives toyed with the idea of having the United States default on its debt. Seems they forget that the previous president, who was a republican, added $8.2 trillion to the national debt in four years and they overwhelmingly voted for the debt increases. The current president has, thus far, added $3 trillion to the debt. 

Source: 

US Debt by President: By Dollar and Percentage

Sign in Mulligan's Bar
Jensen Beach, FL
January 17, 2023

5. Does anyone else find this sign to be offensive and out of touch with society's standards? There is an inherent bias here that must be corrected. It may have been funny a couple decades ago, but I don't believe it to be appropriate today. And no, I'm not upset that women can get free drinks!

6. Today in History. On January 23, 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs—now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects(UFOs).

What we know about the 72-year-old suspect in the Monterey Park massacre - CNN

South Korea's lunar probe captures stunning Earth images - CNN

Poland signals intent to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine - Reuters

Russian warship armed with hypersonic missiles to join drills with China, South Africa - Reuters

Early rift over immigration exposes House GOP’s tough path to consensus - The Washington Post

Fear the deer: Crash data illuminates America’s deadliest animal - The Washington Post

Market Recovery Hinges on Rapid Drop in Inflation - The Wall Street Journal

Russia Presses Attack in Ukraine’s South - The Wall Street Journal

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL