A brief look at some headwaters, after-the-jump ………..
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It seems fascinating that — for many long and famous rivers — one end empties into a great body of water, while the other end has more humble beginnings. What’s more: the measured length from olden times is no longer the same.
Not limited to them, mind you: even the old Route 66 has interesting endpoints. Many years ago, while visiting cousins in Santa Monica, I asked to see the Santa Monica Pier, to see what end marker there was. Bob had never thought to look for one, and not only did we not see a sign on the Pier ... all we found was:
It turns out that some years later: this sign was erected on the Pier:
It turns out there were several“endpoints” of the Mother Road over the years, and the Santa Monica Pier was the third such choice … for esthetic reasons.
Before that, I had thought that the other endpoint was at Jackson Blvd. and Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, and saw such a sign way up on a lamppost. More mystery … when Jackson Blvd. was converted to a one-way (east) street, the origin had to be relocated to nearby Adams Street:
Meanwhile … the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico, traversing ten states. Yet its origin: Lake Itasca State Park, Minnesota (the second oldest state park in the US, after Niagara Falls State Park on the Canadian border).
Its historic marker dates back to the 1930s, and indicates the Mississippi River’s total mileage at 2,552 miles. Since then the river’s course has been shortened and altered by flooding/channeling and is now listed as 2,340 miles.
The other major US river empties into the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri. Yet it also traverses ten US states, nearly identical in length (2,341 miles by today’s measurements) and it begins in a state park also.
Missouri Headwaters State Park in Montana is where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers merge to form the Missouri River.
Much smaller (at only 406 miles, and covering only four states) is the Connecticut River. Emptying in the Long Island Sound at New Haven, Connecticut, it traverses western Massachusetts and forms the border between Vermont and New Hampshire for most of the rest of its length.
It empties into a series of lakes in northern New Hampshire: First, Second, Third and finally Fourth Connecticut Lakes: smaller in size the larger the lake number.
The Fourth Connecticut Lake is more akin to a pond ….
And when I commented on her Tweet: she was kind enough to send this:
Let’s close with a song about ….. well, headwaters.
Now, on to Top Comments:
From kamachanda:
In the front-page story about the attention-seeking Rep. Lauren Boebert— For the vivid example of how inappropriate it is to compare responding to Covid to the Holocaust, see this comment made by Charles Jay.
From brillig:
In the front-page story about the Tennessee GOP’s effort to prevent schoolchildren from reading The Story of Ruby Bridges— samanthab makes a wonderful comment on how this all could end.
Highlighted by RichM:
In the aforementioned diary on Lauren Boebert— this comment, made by Jeff Y.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by Upstate NYAwker about your-friend-and-mine Roger Stone pointing an accusing finger at Jared & Ivanka — David54 suggests a nearly sixty year-old comedy film may point the way at how everything shakes out.
Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful (and now eternal) *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment featuring that photo.
TOP PHOTOSJuly 7th, 2021 (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)
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And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
8) ... by Denise Oliver Velez +8315) Stupdisays: … by MutareParadigm +6320) Good. … by FarWestGirl +5722) ...with out-of-control police. by Clio2 +5425) That’s pretty bad. by samanthab +53