January 20, 1937

U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the nation in his second inaugural address, stating, “I see one-third of the nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished …  the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

March 1937
FDR’s Shelterbelt Project begins. The project calls for large-scale planting of trees across the Great Plains, stretching in a 100-mile wide zone from Canada to northern Texas, to protect the land from erosion.  Native trees, such as red cedar and green ash, are planted along fence rows separating properties, and farmers and workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps are paid to plant and cultivate them. The project is estimated to cost 75 million dollars over a period of 12 years.  When disputes arise over funding sources (the project was considered to be a long-term strategy, and therefore ineligible for emergency relief funds), FDR transfers the program to the WPA, where the project had limited success.

1938
The extensive work re-plowing the land into furrows, planting trees in shelterbelts, and other conservation methods has resulted in a 65 percent reduction in the amount of soil blowing.  However, the drought continues.

1939
In the fall, the rain comes, finally bringing an end to the drought.  During the next few years, with the coming of World War II, the country is pulled out of the Depression and the plains once again become golden with wheat.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/dust-bowl-surviving-dust-bowl/   

Rowers are not only racing against each other but also against the unyielding force of nature.  The unpredictability of weather conditions adds a layer of difficulty unseen in many other sports.  They must be adept at handling their vessels in crosswinds, which can cause the boat to steer off-course, and headwinds that dramatically increase the resistance they must overcome.  Measurements show that wind speeds can fluctuate dramatically during a single race, sometimes exceeding 10 mph, which requires rowers to adjust their technique and power output instantaneously.  Additionally, water currents can impact boat speed by up to 5%, necessitating rowers to have an intimate understanding of the aquatic environment and how to use or combat these factors to their advantage.  The sheer physicality of rowing is unrivaled. It’s one of the few sports that engages all major muscle groups, with 60% of the power coming from the legs, 30% from the core, and 10% from the arms.  Each rower pulls a load of water resistant equivalent to lifting approximately 200 kilograms each stroke.  https://sportsfoundation.org/why-rowing-is-the-hardest-sport/    

When followed by the letters “N,” “S,” or “T,” the letter “P” at the beginning of a word is usually silent.  More often than not, these letter arrangements are found in words with Greek origins.  For example, the prefix “psych–” derives from the Greek word psukhē, which refers to “the soul, mind, and spirit.”  From here, many words have been created, like psychology and psychiatry, to list a few.  However, not all words with a silent “P,” have Greek influence.  In some words, such as raspberry, the “P” became silent over time due to the difficulty of pronouncing both “P” and “B” together.  https://languagetool.org/insights/post/spelling-silent-p/ 

A child's brain grows the most during the first five years of life, reaching 90% of its final size.  Growth also affects different parts of the body at different rates; the head almost reaches its entire size by age 1.  Throughout childhood, a child's body becomes more proportional.  Growth is complete between the ages of 16 and 18, when the growing ends of bones fuse.  Pediatricians use a range to describe normal growth for a child.  Find some average ranges of weight and height, based on growth charts developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/g/normal-growth  

OLD NEWS

1374 – An outbreak of dancing mania, in which crowds of people danced themselves to exhaustion, began in Aachen (in present-day Germany) before spreading to other parts of Europe.  Wikipedia 

The theaters in London close due to an outbreak of bubonic plague; they will remain shuttered for 16 months (June 23, 1592) • Early writing cliché adopter Washington Irving’s iconic stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” are first published in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker (June 23, 1819) • The patent for the first typewriter (made with piano keys!) is issued (June 23, 1868) • The greatest library in the world (that you’ve never heard of) burns down (June 24, 1900) • Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (famously written in a single day) is published in The New Yorker (June 26, 1948) •  Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice (in Wonderland), meets Peter Llewelyn Davies, the real-life inspiration for J.M. Barrie’s Peter (Pan), in a London bookshop. (June 28, 1932)  Literary Hub   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2830  June 24, 2024