Spring Break

Sorry that I did not post last week.  It is Spring Break for the kids, so we decided to take a family trip up to the Smokey Mountains.  On the long car trip home, I asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was.  It was not the many hikes through the mountains.  Not the amazing beauty of the majestic waterfalls.  And not the frolicking in the mountain river.  All of their favorite parts of our vacation were of the man-made variety.  I must admit, I was a little surprised.  


My oldest son was captivated by the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.  He loved petting the stingrays and sharks (yes...I did say sharks!)  This, I get.  He has always loved marine life and it was a wonderful aquarium.  My middle son loved Ober Gatlinburg.  On the top of a mountain in Gatlinburg, Tennessee there is a quaint tourist attraction.  He had fun ice skating.  This, I get too.  I vividly remember visiting Ober Gatlinburg when I was about his age.  The whole experience was very nostalgic for me.  My youngest son, however, takes the cake.  His favorite part of our Smokey Mountain vacation was swimming in the hotel pool.  In all fairness, it was a great pool.  But I just wish that he had enjoyed the wonders of nature a little more.

The Green Chicago River

I've always found the dying of the Chicago River to be an interesting St. Patrick's Day tradition.  I looked up the story of how this cultural ritual started.  Here is what I found out.  Hopefully, it's not blarney!


The Plumber's Union, under the leadership of Stephen Bailey, was in charge of the St. Patrick's Day Festival in Chicago.  In the year 1961, a plumber came into Bailey's office wearing white coveralls which had bright green stains on them.  Bailey asked him how he got the stains and the plumber replied that he was putting green dye into the waste system in order to see if any of the pipes leaked into the Chicago River.  After the plumber left his office, Bailey realized that the union could make the St. Patrick's Day festival special that year by coloring the entire river green.  One hundred pounds of dye was dumped into the river that first year and turned the Chicago River into the Shannon River for an entire week.  Today, only forty pounds of a more environmentally friendly dye is used.  This amount keeps the river green for about five hours.

The History of March Madness

The school that I teach in is currently conducting a fundraiser called "March Madness."  All teachers are encouraged to raise money through various means.  Some teachers are selling muffins, some are selling feather earrings and the art teachers are making caricatures.  I am selling candy to my students, so you can guess how hyper they have been recently.  All the money goes to buying technology for the school.  I wish I could live in a time when the state of Florida bought technology for their schools, but money is really tight in education right now.


March Madness is the term which officially describes the NCAA basketball tournament that is held every year.  My sons are currently watching a lot of basketball, so I started to wonder about the history of the name  "March Madness."  Here is what I found out:


March Madness is based on an old phrase from the 16th Century, "Mad as a March Hare."  The rabbit mating season is in March and April.  Apparently, the male rabbits get a little wild and crazy during that time.  In regards to basketball, the first use of the term was by the Illinois High School Association to describe their annual basketball tournament.  The origins of this competition go all the way back to the early 1900s.  These high school basketball players captivated the state of Illinois once a year as they fought for the number one position.  The most famous  victory was in 1952.  Hebron, the winning team, was a school with only 98 students.  Brent Musberger, a Chicago sports announcer, is credited with first using the term March Madness for the college basketball tournament in 1982.  The name quickly became popular nationwide.  The name "March Madness" is now jointly trademarked by both the NCAA and the Illinois High School Association.   

Update on the Senator

Last January, I wrote about the burning of a tree name the Senator.  It was believed to be the fifth oldest tree in the world.  My family was saddened by the loss of this 3500 year old tree.  But we were probably more struck by the odd coincidence that we had visited the Senator just hours before it burned down.  The fire department had ruled out arson and thought that it might have been set by a burning ember from a lighting storm a few weeks earlier.  The official reason did not make much sense to me, but I believed it.  Any other alternate reason would sadden me too much.  If nature had decided to end the tree's life, then so be it.  But if a person had deliberately set the fire, then that would be infinitely worse.  I'm saddened to say that the fire was not created by nature.  Here is an update on the destruction of the Senator:


A 26 year old woman named Sara Barnes was arrested in connection with the burning of the Senator.  She admits to burning down the tree.  Apparently, she would spend many nights in the park doing drugs.  On the night of the fire, she and an unidentified person needed light in order to better see their drugs.  So they decided to make a fire by the tree.  Barnes took video footage with her cell phone as the fire quickly spread up the tree.  Why didn't she use her phone to call 911 instead of wasting valuable time taking pictures?  If she had, maybe the Senator would still be here.  There are many people outraged with Barnes right now.  They are posting violent remarks toward Barnes in the media.  I won't do that.  But you can imagine what I am thinking.

       
Related article:

The Senator