Trivia

Chery · #1 Dec 30, 2005, 11:42 AM

I used to like checking a new word in the dictionary for fun every day, and love Trivial Pursuit. I just joined a subscription to 'Ask Yahoo' and thought I'd share this:

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Dear Yahoo!:When did the United States begin requiring government-issued driver licenses?Jean
Brookfield, Wisconsin

Dear Jean:In a word, or rather a year, 1903. According to the Voluntaryist, that was when the first states, Missouri and Massachusetts, passed laws requiring all drivers to have a license.
Up until then, horseless carriages were thought of as just that -- carriages without horses. There was no licensing requirement to "drive" a horse. Even though Missouri was first to require a driver license, it wasn't until 1952 that the state required a driver examination. Massachusetts required a driver examination for commercial chauffeurs as early as 1907.
The National Conference of State Legislatures asserts that Rhode Island was the first state to require a license, passing the law in 1908.
Prior to 1903, some cities and towns tried licensing requirements. The Voluntaryist states that Chicago passed a law in 1898 requiring the owners of almost anything with wheels, including bicycles and wagons, to be licensed. That law was later ruled unconstitutional.
Regulation was pretty loose in many states through the 1930s and '40s. In Georgia, for example, there was no test; one sent for a license by mail.
South Dakota was the last state to pass a law requiring drivers to be licensed. In 1954, the state required drivers to be licensed, and five years later added an examination.

Hurray for Georgia!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

nymphetamine · Dec 30, 2005, 12:30 PM

Hooray!

Chery · Dec 31, 2005, 08:39 AM

In the world today, where - now it's been said - that 13 percent of Americas teens are already depressed, not counting the rest of the world, we need a little distraction now and then. Any trivia you have, please post. Thanks and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

orange · Dec 31, 2005, 09:30 AM

Actually licenses used to be issued in a similar way in Saskatchewan too! You sent away for your license in the mail and it cost a dollar.

Okay, I have some Saskatchewan trivia for you. Saskatchewan is celebrating it's centennial this year, and so I'm learning lots about it!

Saskatchewan is the birthplace of Medicare in Canada. Tommy Douglas was the premier of Saskatchewan who first implemented medicare, because he believed that all Canadians should receive the same medical care, regardless of their financial status. Tommy Douglas is the father-in-law of Donald Sutherland, and the grandfather of Kiefer Sutherland.

Leslie Nielson (of the naked gun movies and others) and Art Linkletter were both born and raised in Saskatchewan.

Sid Caesar came to Saskatchewan to "hide out" from the press and dry out from his alcohol addiction.

On June 30, 1912, William Henry Pratt, an immigrant from England, had taken some time off to canoe while working as an actor in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan. When he came back to the city, he returned to find his accomodation had been destroyed by a huge tornado that killed 28 people. He organized a concert that raised some much needed funds for the city, and personally helped to clean up the city and help survivors after the disaster. He is better known by his later stage name, Boris Karloff.

The first dinosaur bones in Canada were found in 1874 in the Killdeer Badlands of Saskatchewan. In 1994 near the town of Eastend the skeleton of Scotty, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, was found. The remains were 65 million years old. There have been several other fossils found in the Eastend area. Saskatchewan has one of the largest dinosaur fossil deposits in the world, and is one of only 4 places in the world (Saskatchewan, Alberta, western USA and Mongolia) where Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils have been found.

There is a lake in Saskatchewan where it is impossible to sink. Lake Manitou near Watrous is so rich in minerals, that people float. It is said that the lake is three times saltier than the ocean. The Plains Indians used to bring their sick to Lake Manitou ( lake of good spirit ) so they could be cured. Early settlers took home barrels of the "healing" water .

Waneskewin, Saskatchewan is a place with findings that are older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt. The findings date back more than 8000 years. The site contains tipi rings, stone cairns, a medicine wheel and many more findings that give us a picture of what life was like on the Great Plains a very long time ago.

The city of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan has tunnels beneath the streets. In the late 1800s Moose Jaw once was the center for smugglers and gangsters. The tunnels were built under the downtown streets to connect buildings together and to serve as hideouts for illegal activity. (drugs, gambling, etc.). It is said that Al Capone was behind all this and even travelled to Saskatchewan on occasion.

Saskatchewan is the only province in Canada where the people do not have to change their clocks when there is a time change. Saskatchewan stays on Central Standard Time all year round.

Oh and btw I live in Saskatchewan, in case you haven't figured that out!

Chery · Jan 1, 2006, 07:31 AM

Thank you so much for sharing this. I enjoyed the short but very imformative history very much. It certainly sounds like a nice place to live and learn more. Maybe sometime you can include some nice pictures - I'd like that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

orange · Jan 1, 2006, 10:50 AM

Glad you liked it, Chery! Yes I love living here. Saskatchewan is known as "Land of the Living Skies" and I have some beautiful sunset and other sky pictures I could show you... but how do I attach a picture to my thread? I still haven't figured out how to do that.

In the meantime, here's a good website of pictures of Saskatchewan that you can look at:

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Nor.../Saskatchewan/

Chery · Jan 3, 2006, 03:49 AM

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Originally Posted by orange

Glad you liked it, Chery! Yes I love living here. Saskatchewan is known as "Land of the Living Skies" and I have some beautiful sunset and other sky pictures I could show you... but how do I attach a picture to my thread? I still haven't figured out how to do that.

In the meantime, here's a good website of pictures of Saskatchewan that you can look at:

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Nor.../Saskatchewan/

Thanks again, I like them a lot. You can share them with us here by clicking on the 'manage attachments' and the *jpg files will reveal themselves after you've posted - they don't show when you preview, but will be there on the final post.

Again, have a safe, healthy, peaceful and prosperous NEW YEAR!

orange · Jan 3, 2006, 06:36 AM

Thanks Chery... Happy New Year to you too! And thanks about the attachments... it makes sense to me now. Since you've seen lots of photos of Saskatchewan now and as I'm an artist, I'm attaching a sketch I did from an old photo of my biological grandfather as a child.

Chery · Jan 3, 2006, 07:09 AM

Dear Yahoo!:

Quote:

When did the A to F grading system start? And what happened to E?JJ
Glendale, CaliforniaDear JJ:An excellent question and one we thought we could answer in a flash. Not so. After much digging, we found an article in The Washington Post that states the first letter grade given in the United States was a "B" at Harvard University in 1883.
Prior to that time and up to about 1900, most institutions of higher learning used the numeric system (0-100) for grading. According to the Georgia State University web site, from about 1900 to the 1960s, colleges and universities became more general in grading. Hence, the letter-grade system became popular.
Georgia State University surveyed 1,395 two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities, and found 89.8% use the letter-grading system with a tendency to add plus or minus.
About that "E" grade -- some schools have used the E instead of F, but we speculate too many students tried to convince their parents the "E" stood for "excellent." It's much harder to trick parents into believing an "F" stands for "fantastic."
Some academics oppose this system of grading. One Stanford University professor claims students tend to take only courses in which they can get good grades. It would be much better, he states, if students explored courses in subjects of interest to them and there were no grades. Where was this guy when we were in school?

Again, Georgia is mentioned... I wonder and love that state, and not just because my daughter was born there, so she's a Georgia Peach!

Chery · Jan 3, 2006, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orange

Thanks Chery... Happy New Year to you too! And thanks about the attachments... it makes sense to me now. Since you've seen lots of photos of Saskatchewan now and as I'm an artist, I'm attaching a sketch I did from an old photo of my biological grandfather as a child.

Dear, you are ABSOLUTELY talented! With my arthritis, I can't hold many things in my hands anymore, so if I send you a picture of me and my daughter, would you feel it in your heart to do a scretch of us for me? I would love to leave it to Jaime as a legacy for my grandchild who is due in August. I hope sincerely that I still have a few years left to be able to be with them for a while. I would also use the scetch to do iron on squares for the quilt I plan to make for the baby. Sure hope you find it in your heart to do this for me. Thanks in advance. If you don't have the time, I'll understand though.



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