No Loo in the Bunker

During the battle of Britain in World War II, Londoners sought refuge from the relentless German air raids. To ensure continuity of government, Churchill ordered the construction of a secret bunker in the London suburbs that was able to sustain a direct bomb hit.

This bunker was codenamed "Paddock" and was the location of many of the British governments most important meetings during the midst of the attack on London. The facility was a tremendous success except for one important feature that the designers forgot to include...bathrooms.


Those in the bunker that needed to go during an air raid, including Churchill, had to get creative.

A Wonderful Tomb

Can you name the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World? Ok - the pyramids...that's the easy one...know any of the others?

One of the ones that people never remember is the Tomb of Maussollos, built between 353 BC and 350 BC in the small kingdom of Halicarnassus in present day Turkey.

The word "mausoleum" actually comes from this famous Ancient World Wonder.

Maussollos, the king of Halicarnassus, decreed that his city needed many great public works. Among the great structures he ordered built was a gigantic tomb that was meant to be his final resting place, and that of his queen Artemisia. In the custom of the day, besides being Maussollos' wife, Aremisia also happened to be Maussollos' sister.

Maussollos never lived to see the completion of the great tomb, which was eventually finished some time after his death. Once built, the famous Tomb of Maussollos stood for over a thousand years. Accounts of the tomb describe it with different tiers each reflecting Persian, Greek, and Egyptian influences. The Wonder was also famous for its many statues.

Around 1500 AD crusading Hospilater knights wrote at length about the greatness of the tomb, shortly before they began dismantling it to get material needed to fortify a nearby castle.

Now only fragments of of the once great tomb exist, but descriptions of the tomb have influenced modern structures such as Grant's Tomb in New York City and Los Angeles City Hall.

The US Senate Gavel

Whenever the US Senate comes into session, the presiding officer uses the US Senate gavel to officiate.

The current gavel in use is made from ivory and was a gift to the United States from Inida in 1954.

The original Senate gavel was fashioned from wood with silver plates on each end and was is use as early as 1834. Some historians believe this first gavel was actually used by then Vice President John Adams to call the first Senate into session in New York in 1789.

This original gavel is kept in a small mahogany box along with the current gavel, and is brought out to the presiding officers desk before the Senate is called into session each day.

Captain, we don't have the power!

Downtown Washington had a major power outage this morning - it tied up the Metro subway system and traffic lights. The whole scene looked a little bit like Beirut in the summertime.

The area affected included the White House, but it didn't have a problem because it has a backup generator. A lot of other Federal buildings were out of action though.

Things seem to be getting back to normal now though.

John Adams

If you get the chance to see the new John Adams miniseries on HBO, you should.

The production is based on the David McCullough's book "John Adams" and I think it just does an excellent job of taking one back to the days before the Revolution of 1776.

Really really great work.

Liberal Leave

It snowed in Washington, DC today!

DC doesn't always get a ton of snow, so when it happens people get a little skittish. A lot of times the government will announce a "Liberal Leave" policy meaning...if you can't get to work, its ok to stay home.

I always think that term is pretty funny in a town so geared to politics....what about the conservatives...don't they get leave too?

Let it snow let it snow let it snow!

Historical Amnesia?

There are plenty of wild theories about the origin of the Great Pyramids at Giza in Egypt - everything from Aliens to time travelers.

I heard one historian's take on it the other day though that I hadn't heard before. If one believes that people could not have achieved such a great technological feat as early as 2500 B.C. when mankind was practically just emerging from the stone age, then it may be that we have lost a piece of human history. That is, part of recorded history as we know it may have been lost.

It is possible that there was an entire epoch of the human experience, sometime before 2500 BC, that Mankind has forgotten about. Perhaps the pyramids are all that is left of this forgotten time. Its an interesting idea.