The Cat is Out of the Bag

The "cat is out of the bag" is slang for saying a secret has been revealed...

Turns out that the phrase comes from the days of sail in the Royal British Navy. To say "the cat was out of the bag" referred to the moment when a cat o' nine tails (a whip used to deal out punishment) was taken from the red bag it was kept in.

Customarily the whip was kept in the bag till the offender at hand was securely tied down and prepared for a lashing. The cat o' nine tails was kept in the bag until there was absolutely no possibility of reprieve.

So once the cat was out of the bag, somebody had it coming.

Black Squirrels in Washington, DC

If you have ever visited Washington, DC - you may have noticed that the squirrels running around the National Mall come in a whole bunch of different colors.

There are a few, particularly around the Vietnam Veterans memorial - that are stark white.

But the ones that most often catch tourists' attention are the solid black squirrels. They represent about 20% of the local squirrel population with normal gray squirrels making up most of the rest.

It turns out the the gray squirrels in Washington are all decendents of 18 Canadian squirrels, which were released from the National Zoo during the Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. At the time, the Smithsonian was trying to replenish the local gray squirrel population which had been greatly reduced due to hunting. Back then, folks were actually worried that gray squirrels were going extinct.

The black Canadian squirrels tended to give them an advantage and the gene for a black coat has since spread through the local squirrel population so much that people can now see black squirrels in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs of DC.

Show Me the Money

This past spring the American Council of the Blind brought a suit against the U.S. Treasury Department claiming that the design of U.S. currency discriminates against the blind and people with low sight. The Federal court ruled in favor of the Council, ordering the Treasury Department to redesign the currency.

The Treasury Department has commissioned a study to research ways U.S. currency might be better designed for the blind and has asked the courts for time to let that study play out.

The courts are having none of it however, saying recently that the Treasury must start redesigning currency now - either by varying the size of bills or incorporating raised print that would allow blind people to tell the difference between denominations.

So it seems the next version of the $1.00, $5.00, $10.00, and $20.00 are going to not only look, but will also feel different.

Too Many Storms

Gustav, Hannah, Ike..

There are too many storms bearing down on the US these days...

Did you know that the tradition of naming Hurricanes with women's name began just after World War II. They started using men's names in 1978.

Storm names have English, French, Dutch, and Spanish origins.

Stay safe out there!

Stars In a Circle

Did you ever wonder why the first flag of the United States, the Colonial flag, has its stars in the shape of a circle?

You might be able to guess - it was designed that way so that no star (and thus, no colony) would be greater than another.

Why is the White House White?

Did you ever wonder: why is the White House White?

Well - it wasn't always white...at least not until 1814. That was the year during the War of 1812 that the British sacked Washington. In the process they set fire to the Executive Mansion destroying much of its interior and charring its outer walls.

Once Washington had been recovered, to save money on the reconstruction - architects whitewashed the outer walls of the Presidential residence to cover up the scorch marks.

There are actually a few hidden places that White House curators have kept unpainted over the years where you can still see the black marks from 1814.

That is why the White House is white.

And the Great Ship Went Down...

It was 23 years ago today in 1985 that researchers discovered the location of the Titanic about 350 miles southeast of Newfoundland in about 12, 500 feet of water.

The ship was designed to hold 32 lifeboats, but the managers of the vessel were concerned that too many lifeboats would mar the beauty of the Titanic, so they only loaded 20 lifeboats.


For its maiden voyage, a first class ticket on the Titanic cost $4,350 (about $90,000 in today's dollars).

Since its discovery, underwater tourism has started to become a little bit of a problem on the Titanic. Submarines taking people down tend to land on the deck, and they are causing damage.

It is estimated that there are millions of shipwrecks on the ocean floor from generations of human activity. There currently is not a whole lot of international regulation about the preservation of underwater artifacts - as more and more of the ocean floor is mapped in the coming decade, it will likely become more and more of an issue.