Toledo Blade outdoors editor Steve Pollick and a small team canoed 130 miles of the Maumee River from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Toledo, Ohio. The trip was 37 hours and 32 minutes of paddling in a canoe, and a descent of 190 feet in elevation along the way. The Maumee River was known as "Miami of the Lake" in 1984.
June 29 article http://www.toledoblade.com/sports/2011/06/29/Quality-of-Maumee-improved-over-years.html
June 30 article http://www.toledoblade.com/sports/2011/06/30/Generosity-abounds-on-river.html
July 1 article http://www.toledoblade.com/Amateur/2011/07/01/Hot-day-turns-into-slog.html
July 2 article http://www.toledoblade.com/sports/2011/07/02/4-day-trip-shows-why-river-is-a-treasure-to-cherish.html

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Cyril Duff Subject: ravel
Def: 1. To fray or to become disjoined; to untangle. 2. To entangle or to become tangled.
I was first introduced to "ravel" as a schoolboy in Dublin nearly 70 years ago by my English master. He quoted Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 2 scene 1; "The innocent sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care." I thought it was a wonderful image -- and still do.
From: Eileen Baxter Subject: ravel
Several years ago, an enterprising and clever young couple developed a website called Ravelry. It is devoted to the needle arts, primarily knitting and crocheting -- think Facebook for knitters. You can post pix of completed projects, inventory yarns and books, discuss projects, yarns and even non-yarny things. I think it's interesting since many knitters have had to unravel tangles that this is the name they came up with. Thousands of knitters revel in Ravelry, and don't know how they managed without it.
From: Sandria Parsons Subject: Avocation
Def: 1. One's regular job or occupation. 2. An activity taken up besides the regular work; a hobby.
This section of a poem by Robert Frost says it like it is for me:
But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.
(from Two Tramps in Mud Time)
From: Stuart Showalter Subject: Inure
Def: verb tr.: To accustom to something unpleasant . verb intr.: 1. To become beneficial. 2. To take effect.
I was glad to see that your definition of inure included the intransitive meanings: "to become beneficial" and "to take effect. I n US law an organization may qualify for tax exemption if "no part of [its] net earnings ... inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual." This provision confuses some readers because dictionaries often list only the transitive meaning ("to accustom or harden"). As my Shorter OED notes, the legal meaning more closely approximates "to accrue".
From: Christel Haag Subject: ravel
An example of confusion caused by different meanings of a word was told us last week by our travel guide in Ecuador. When, at a rafting tour, the boat had overturned and one of the tourists asked the guide what he should do, the guide answered: "Nada!". In Spanish "nada" means either "nothing" or is the imperative form of "swim".

One obvious way to eliminate unnecessary copyrights is to require authors who care about copyright to register their claims, put copyright notices on copies of their works, and/or periodically renew copyrights after a period of years instead of granting rights that attach automatically and last far beyond the commercial life of the overwhelming majority of works. Copyright lawyers speak of such requirements as “formalities,” for they make the enjoyment or exercise of copyright depend on taking some steps to signal that copyright protection is important to their creators.
While many countries abandoned formality requirements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the U.S. maintained notice-on-copies and registration-for-renewal formalities until 1989. The U.S. still requires registration of copyrights as a precondition for U.S. authors to bring infringement actions, as well as for eligibility for attorney fee and statutory damage awards. Formalities do a good job weeding out who really cares about copyrights and who doesn’t. So why did the U.S. abandon formalities? In the late 1980s, U.S. copyright industries persuaded one of their own—President Ronald Reagan—that the U.S. needed to join the Berne Convention in order to exercise influence on international copyright policy. And so in 1989, under Reagan’s leadership, the U.S. joined the Berne Convention and abandoned the notice-on-copies and registration requirements that had served the nation well since its founding. In the late 1880s when the Berne Union was first formed, each of the 10 participating countries had its own unique formality requirements for copyright protection. One of the goals of the Berne Union was to overcome obstacles
to international trade in copyrighted works such as burdens of complying with multiple formalities. The initial solution to the problem of too many formalities was a Berne Convention rule that provided if an author had complied with formalities of his/her own national copyright law, other Berne Union countries would respect that and not insist on compliance with their formality requirements. Read more at: http://0-delivery.acm.org.millennium.lib.cyut.edu.tw/10.1145/1970000/1965736/p29-samuelson.pdf?ip=163.17.17.188&CFID=34746319&CFTOKEN=58170645&__acm__=1310562112_5bc5893c4641fcb4b8bc743d7a33044e

Bath salts contain manmade chemicals like mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV, also known as substituted cathinones. Both drugs are related to khat, an organic stimulant found in Arab and East African countries that is illegal in the United States. Though they come in powder and crystal form like traditional bath salts — hence their name — they differ in one crucial way: they are used as recreational drugs. People typically snort, inject or smoke them. Poison control centers around the country received 3,470 calls about bath salts from January through June, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, up from 303 in all of 2010. “Some of these folks aren’t right for a long time,” said Karen E. Simone, director of the Northern New England Poison Center. “If you gave me a list of drugs that I wouldn’t want to touch, this would be at the top.” At least 28 states have banned bath salts, which are typically sold for $25 to $50 per 50-milligram packet at convenience stores and head shops under names like Aura, Ivory Wave, Loco-Motion and Vanilla Sky. Most of the bans are in the South and the Midwest, where the drugs have grown quickly in popularity. But states like Maine, New Jersey and New York have also outlawed them after seeing evidence that their use was spreading. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/us/17salts.html

A Michigan law school filed two lawsuits July 14 – one against a New York law firm and another against four anonymous internet commentators – accusing them of defamation. In one lawsuit, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, located in Lansing, Michigan, claims that it has been the victim of ads on Craigslist and Facebook – posted by attorneys at Kurzon Strauss LLP – seeking former Cooley law students to join in on a potential class action suit against the school. (Click here for an example.) One of Cooley’s concerns with Kurzon Strauss’ online postings regard the school’s student loan default rate, James Thelen, the school’s general counsel, told the WSJ Law Blog. For instance, the law firm allegedly claimed that there were reports of Cooley law grads “defaulting on loans at an astounding 41 percent” in various online posts, according to the papers filed by the school. Thelen claims the actual rate is 2.2 percent. In the second lawsuit, also filed July 14, the school claims that four “John Doe” defendants have been blogging and perpetuating online comments damaging to the school’s reputation, Thelen said.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/07/15/law-school-sues-new-york-law-firm-for-defamation/
Kurzon Strauss attorney David Anziska said his firm has not crossed any legal lines. "This is the most ridiculous, absurd lawsuit filed in recent history," he said one day after the suit was filed in Michigan state court. "We fully intend to countersue and hold accountable both Thomas Cooley and their lawyers at [Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone] for abusing the legal system with their blatantly idiotic lawsuit." The National Law Journal July 15, 2011

Who am I?
I was the first president born under the U.S. flag. I was the first bi-lingual president. I was the first president not of British descent, and the first president to be born an American citizen.
Answer is forthcoming.

Website of the Day Indexed thisisindexed.com
On this intriguing blog, Jessica Hagy posts a small chart, graph or Venn diagram each weekday that offers introspective and sharp conclusions on the relationships between things. From pop culture to school to politics, the insights are smart.
Number to Know 27: Years that Nelson Mandela spent in prison during apartheid.
This Day in History July 18, 1976: Nadia Comăneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics. It happened at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Today’s Featured Birthday Nelson Mandela (93)
Daily Quote
“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” Nelson Mandela
http://www.therolladailynews.com/newsnow/x401787673/Morning-Minutes-July-18