Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Durham, 664

Although the Irish monk Tuda was a staunch adherent of the Roman practices, including the computation of the date for Easter, he succeeded Saint Colman as abbot-bishop of Lindisfarne, where the contrary view was held. In this position he governed the entirety of Northumbria. Most of the Celtic usage monks departed with Colman in 664, leaving Tuda to heal the wounds of discord. Tuda signed the deed of dedication of the new Saint Peter's Monastery in Mercia of which the Celtic-born Jaruman was bishop. Even though Tuda, who died of the plague within the first year of his appointment, does not seem to have enjoyed a public cultus, he is listed in some martyrologies.

http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1021.htm

Monday, March 12, 2007

Arazi, 1992

Brian Ready, a pilot, has found Arazi by going out to one of the Beechcraft Bonanzas his company sells and punching Arazi into the computer. He and the guys sitting around the office with him had figured Arazi was an aviation intersection because it has five letters, which all aviation intersections do. Ready shows us the intersection on the map. Although the actual Arazi intersection is some distance up in the air, where pilots like Ready prefer to keep their airplanes, directly beneath it on the ground is what qualifies as the middle of nowhere.
Arazi is a spot about six miles northwest of Yuma, north of Interstate 8, north of some railroad tracks, just next to what looks like an irrigation canal. Ready has also photocopied for us the page from U.S. Terminal Procedures, Southwest that shows pilots how to land at the Yuma airport using RNAV navigational systems. After they pass through the Arazi intersection, they proceed to ones called Copaw and Mugin, much less romantic as names for horses.

http://search.phoenixnewtimes.com/1992-05-06/news/where-is-arazi/

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Hell Gate, 1885

It is estimated that the wrecks of over 1,000 ships lie in the Hell Gate. Starting in the 1840s, and continuing for the next 80 years, the Federal government tried various means to remove the rocks and reefs that made the Hell Gate dangerous to shipping. In October 1885, over 300,000 pounds of explosives were detonated, obliterating the once treacherous nine-acre Flood Rock. Nearly 100,000 people gathered on the Manhattan banks of the East River to watch what is said to have been the world’s largest explosion prior to the atomic bomb. Windows rattled as far away as Princeton, New Jersey.

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=12219