A Bob's Life: Monday Musings

Monday, May 1, 2023

Monday Musings - May 1, 2023

Happy May Day!

1. Welcome to the month of May! This is the first Monday of the month and the year is officially one-third complete. There are 34 Mondays remaining.

After Games Played April 30, 2023

2. I have to brag about the Orioles! The team closed out their most successful April campaign in team history, with 18 wins, and are second in the AL East. The standings almost seem upside-down for the AL East with the Yankees and Red Sox on the bottom. I like it!

Destruction from Tornado
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
April 29, 2023

3. The rains of yesterday morning were severe. From Saturday night through the morning hours yesterday we were faced with severe thunderstorms and even an EF-2 tornado just south of us in Palm Beach Gardens, about 5 miles or so away. Houses, commercial buildings, boats, and cars were destroyed.

Weather Radar of Tornado Alert
Tequesta, FL (Blue Dot)
April 30, 2023

4. We spent a fairly quiet Sunday. We had a bike excursion planned but the rains of the morning and the winds of the afternoon kept us from our plans. Hopefully we can get out on our bikes today and start the month of May off correctly--in the saddle!

5. The Framers of our government enshrined the right to freedom of the press in our Constitution along with the right to gather together, to practice any religion we want (including none at all), the right to say what we want, and the right to ask our government to do (or not to do) things. After writing a new constitution that created a far stronger national government than existed under the Articles of Confederation, which had created the government since 1777 (although the Articles were not ratified until 1781), the Framers designed the ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights to hold back government power. The power to control what citizens can publish about the government would give leaders the power to destroy democracy. A free press is imperative to keep people informed about what leaders are doing. Lose it, and those in power can do whatever they wish without accountability. (Letters from an American, April 30, 2023)

6. What happens after the rains? Clear blue skies! Coming out of the darkness makes the bright sun and clear skies all the more inviting!

7. Today in History. On May 1, 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City’s Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building’s lights. Hoover’s gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.

The idea for the Empire State Building is said to have been born of a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors, to see who could erect the taller building. Chrysler had already begun work on the famous Chrysler Building, the gleaming 1,046-foot skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. Not to be bested, Raskob assembled a group of well-known investors, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith. The group chose the architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. The Art-Deco plans, said to have been based in large part on the look of a pencil, were also builder-friendly: The entire building went up in just over a year, under budget (at $40 million) and well ahead of schedule. During certain periods of building, the frame grew an astonishing four-and-a-half stories a week.