The Ohio River is 981 miles long, starting at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and ending in Cairo, Illinois, where it flows into the Mississippi River.  The Ohio River flows through or borders six states:  Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.  In addition, water from parts of New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama drain into tributaries that empty into the Ohio.  The Ohio River is the source of drinking water for more than three million people.  Over 25 million people, almost 10% of the US population, live in the Ohio River Basin. 

http://www.ohioriverfdn.org/education/ohio_river_facts/index.html

Pas de deux is a dance for two.  http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/index.html

Paso Doble, meaning double step in Spanish is a ballroom dance for couples set to Spanish march music that is reminiscent of a bullfight in the heart of Spain.  The dance is lively and dramatic, with long sweeping steps and aggressive movements.  The tempo is brisk and measured but not fast, being about one beat per second.  What truly makes this dance is the energy one puts into it and the level of dancing skill.  The Paso Doble as we know it today was invented in Southern France, and Pierre Lavelle made it popular with the upper crust of Paris in the 1930s.  Although the French copied the Spanish music and movements, they named the steps in French.   http://www.zimbio.com/AMC+Matador/articles/Xh0oiOGEnAK/History+Paso+Doble+Dance

Gnocchi 

Tips for mixing cooked potatoes and flour--pick your flavor, pick your sauce--find recipe at:  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/21/magazine/gnocchi-of-a-different-color.html?hpw

Jamaica is one of the three islands in the Northern Caribbean forming the Greater Antilles.  It is the largest English-speaking country in the Caribbean Sea, stretching 146 miles from east to west.  Jamaica is well placed on the world’s major shipping and airline routes.  The country’s name is derived from an Arawak (aboriginal Indian) word “Xaymaca”, meaning “land of wood and water”.  And so it is.  With waterfalls, and springs, rivers and streams flowing from the forest-clad mountains to the fertile plains, Jamaica has one of the richest and most varied landscapes in the region.  The center of the island is mostly mountainous and heavily wooded, spotted occasionally with small mining towns and villages.  And, of course, there's the famous Cockpit Country in the Northwest region, an eerie terrain of conical hills and deep sinkholes.  The central mountain range, dominated by the 7,402-foot Blue Mountain, divides the south coast of the island from the north and extends from Half Moon Bay to Portland.  This great variety of terrain and climate allows virtually everything to grow here.  Visitors can step into a country market and see a vast array of tropical fruits and vegetables with such unfamiliar names as callaloo, dasheen, soursop, breadfruit, cho-cho, ackee and Otaheite apple.  Jamaica's main exports (other than tourism) are sugar, citrus fruits, bananas, spices, bauxite and world-famous Blue Mountain coffee.   http://www.jam.paho.org/JAMAICAGEN/aboutjamaica.htm

 If you’ve ever tried Korean food, you probably know kimchi. The pungent pickled vegetable dish—often served at mealtime with a steaming bowl of rice—has an age-old reputation in Korea for boosting longevity.  Developed as a way to preserve perishables over the harsh winter months, kimchi was traditionally stored in earthenware jars and buried underground.   Although a number of veggies, including radish, bok choy, cucumber, and turnip, can be used to make kimchi, napa cabbage is usually the star of the show.  “Napa cabbage leaves soak up flavors particularly well,” says Debbie Lee, chef and author of Seoultown Kitchen:  Korean Pub Grub to Share with Family and Friends.  A good kimchi tastes equal parts sweet, salty, sour, and spicy, she notes:  “The longer the vegetables ferment, the more pronounced the flavor.”  Recipe for a mildly spiced kimchi at:  http://mydigimag.rrd.com/article/Healing+Foods++/987779/0/article.html

Mar. 12, 2013  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a list of U.S. metropolitan areas with the most Energy Star certified buildings in 2012, highlighting how owners and managers of commercial buildings across the country are taking action on climate change while delivering real financial savings to the bottom line.  “Through their partnership with EPA, the owners and managers of Energy Star certified buildings are helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions while saving on utility bills,” said EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe.  “With Energy Star, cities across America are helping achieve President Obama’s goal to cut in half the energy wasted by our businesses over the next 20 years.”  In 2012, more than 20,000 Energy Star certified buildings across America helped save more than $2.7 billion in annual utility bills while preventing greenhouse gas emissions equal to emissions from the annual electricity use of more than two million homes.  Read more and link to list of top cities at:  http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0c0affede4f840bc8525781f00436213/effc10b58e7b1c2785257b2c00578c0d!OpenDocument 

Mar. 12, 2013  In Washington, D.C.'s Adams Morgan neighborhood, there is a gaping sinkhole in the middle of a bustling sidewalk.  The sinkhole is about a yard (meter) square, as deep as 10 feet and sits a few miles from the White House.  Metropolitan Police were dispatched to the sinkhole site, and local residents said the problem might be due to a new sewer that had just been installed.  "If that is the case, it would be typical of this kind of sinkhole collapse," said Jim Kaufmann, a research physical scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey.  Sinkholes are not uncommon, Kaufman said, because about 20 percent of the United States sits atop what is known as karst terrain, regions where rock below the surface can be naturally dissolved by groundwater.  Hot areas for sinkholes are Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/12/us-usa-sinkhole-washington-idUSBRE92B17F20130312

March 13 is the 72nd day of the year (73rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.  There are 293 days remaining until the end of the year.  Events:

1639 – Harvard College is named for clergyman John Harvard.
1781 – William Herschel discovers Uranus.
1845 – Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto receives its première performance in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.
1862 – American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers to return fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_13