Forty Years Ago

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy."

--RoadDog

JSIS (More): Sinking Houses, $34 Million Sunken Treasure, Not So Peachy for Georgia

JSIS-- Just Some Interesting Stuff (More). From the July 23, 2013, USA Today. (Sure wish they hadn't raised the price 100% from $1 to $2, especially with no increase in issue size or coverage.

1. SINKING HOUSES-- Eight homes sank and ten others were in danger in a mountaintop subdivision in Lakeport, California. Things got so bad that the U.S. Postal Service refused to make mail deliveries. Found out a leaking county water system had saturated the mountain. Getting that old sinking feeling.

2. $34 MILLION SUNKEN TREASURE-- The Odyssey Marine and Exploration reported it had recovered more than 61 tons of silver from the wreck on the SS Gairsoppa off the Irish coast. The ship had been torpedoed by a German U-boat in February 1941 and the haul is estimated to be worth $34 million. I wrote more about this in my World War II blog. Not a Bad Day's Work.

3. NOT SO PEACHY IN GEORGIA-- The state, long known as the Peach State may have to rethink its slogan. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture reported that the value of the state's blueberry crop passed peaches in 2005 and continues to widen the gap. Blueberries generated $94 million in 2012, more than three times what peaches did.

Welcome to the Blueberry State. --RoadDog

A Ship Hitting an Iceberg in 2007

Strange news today, bringing back thoughts of the ill-fated Titanic. The M/S Explorer hit an iceberg earlier today in the Antarctic Ocean and started sinking.

They were taking in water from a hole the size of a fist. About 150 passengers and crew boarded lifeboats and were picked up with no loss of life, fortunately.

Let's file this under things you wouldn't expect to hear in 2007.

I unsuccessfully tried to look up a list of ships sunk by icebergs. I did find out that in 1875, the schooner Caledonia hit one and sank off Newfoundland. All of the crew survived by climbing onto the iceberg and waiting to be rescued.

When Will They Make a Movie of It? --RoadDog