Wedding (is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vows by a couple, presentation of a gift (offering, rings, symbolic item, flowers, money, dress), and a public proclamation of marriage by an authority figure or celebrant. Special wedding garments are often worn, and the ceremony is sometimes followed by a wedding reception. Music, poetry, prayers, or readings from religious texts or literature are also commonly incorporated into the ceremony, as well as superstitious customs)

Just reported yesterday that the average cost of a wedding, nationally, this year is $29,000, up $1,000 from 2022, according to online wedding planning site Zola. And in some big U.S. cities, the cost is $35,000 and above, so a soon to be bride might need this.......................

FYI: From my Customs/Traditions topic folder

Love that last cartoon. Sad thing is ... it's probably true.

Xylobium - abbreviated Xyl in horticultural trade, is a genus of plants in family Orchidaceae. It contains about 35 species native to tropical America. It comes in many colors and formations.

Yarn Bombing ((or yarnbombing) is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fiber rather than paint or chalk. It is also called wool bombing, yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting, or graffiti knitting. 

From 2020............

I can honestly say I've never heard of this...................

_______________

Calling it a night......................

24 hours....................

Zabriskie Point (is a part of the Amargosa Range located east of Death Valley in Death Valley National Park in California, United States, noted for its erosional landscape. It is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 million years ago—long before Death Valley came into existence. The location was named after Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company in the early 20th century. The company's twenty-mule teams were used to transport borax from its mining operations in Death Valley)

www.facebook.com

Zabriskie Point | Explore Outdoors | How borax played a role in drawing people to Death Valley National Park. Learn more >> https://on.kcra.com/ZabriskiePoint | By KCRA 3 | Facebook

Explore Outdoors | How borax played a role in drawing people to Death Valley National Park. Learn more >> https://on.kcra.com/ZabriskiePoint

Off to work.......................

Alydar and Alysheba 

Alydar (March 23, 1975 – November 15, 1990) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. A chestnut colt, he was most famous for finishing a close second to Affirmed in all three races of the 1978 Triple Crown. With each successive race, Alydar narrowed Affirmed's margin of victory; Affirmed won by 1.5 lengths in the Kentucky Derby, by a neck in the Preakness and by a head in the Belmont Stakes. Alydar has been described as the best horse in the history of Thoroughbred racing never to have won a championship. Alydar's fame continued when he got older. He died under suspicious circumstances.

YouTube

Affirmed & Alydar - Part 2 of 4

The story of the two great rivals..

There is a book about Alydar's death - Broken: The Suspicious Death of Alydar and the End of Horse Racing’s Golden Age - just published last month. I bought the Kindle version with my points because I really didn't want to wait for it to go on sale or for Libby to offer it.

Alysheba (March 3, 1984 – March 27, 2009) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won two legs of the Triple Crown in 1987. A successful sire, he produced 11 stakes winners. A bay colt, Alysheba was sired by Alydar out of the mare Bel Sheba, by Lt. Stevens. He was bred by Preston Madden at Hamburg Place Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and was sold as a yearling to Dorothy and Pam Scharbauer for $500,000. Trained by Jack Van Berg, Alysheba had a modest two-year-old season in 1986 and won only a maiden race. He finished third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and lost the Hollywood Futurity in a photo finish. As a three-year-old, he underperformed in his preparatory races for the Kentucky Derby until it was discovered that he had an entrapped epiglottis. Surgery was successful, and he was entered in the Derby despite having only a maiden victory.

Alysheba closed out his career at Churchill Downs, winning the 1987 Breeders' Cup Classic over Seeking the Gold, Waquoit (one of the most noted off-track runners of the time), Forty Niner, and Cutlass Reality. With the victory, he secured Horse of the Year and Champion Older Horse honors. He also became the first horse to win three legs of a four-race sequence that was defined in 2015 as the Grand Slam of Thoroughbred racing: The Triple Crown races, plus the Breeders' Cup Classic, though not in the same year. Alysheba was ridden in 17 consecutive starts by Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron. He finished his career with a record of 11-8-2 in 26 starts. His earnings totaled $6,679,242, a record at the time.

YouTube

Kentucky Derby Flashback | Alysheba 1987

Alysheba stuns the crowd in the 1987 Kentucky Derby with Chris McCarron aboard for Jack Van Berg. Alysheba overcame multiple obstacles to win on the first Sa...

Round 10......................

Broadway (Broadway theatre, or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the thoroughfare is eponymous with the district and its collection of 41 theaters, and it is closely identified with Times Square, only three of the theaters are located on Broadway itself, namely the Broadway Theatre, the Palace Theatre, and the Winter Garden Theatre. The rest are located on the numbered cross streets, extending from the Nederlander Theatre one block south of Times Square on West 41st Street, north along either side of Broadway to 53rd Street, as well as the Vivian Beaumont Theater, at Lincoln Center on West 65th Street. While exceptions exist, the term "Broadway theatre" is generally reserved for venues with a seating capacity of at least 500 people. Smaller theaters in New York are referred to as off-Broadway, regardless of location, while very small venues with fewer than 100 seats are called off-off-Broadway, a term that can also apply to non-commercial or avant-garde theater, or productions held outside of traditional theater venues. The Theater District is an internationally prominent tourist attraction in New York City. According to The Broadway League, for the 2018–19 season total attendance was 14,768,254. Broadway shows had $1,829,312,140 in grosses, with attendance up 9.5%, grosses up 10.3%, and playing weeks up 9.3%. The Museum of Broadway on West 45th Street, opened to the public in November 2022, became the first museum to document the history and experience of Broadway theatre and its profound influence upon shaping Midtown Manhattan and Times Square. Most Broadway shows are musicals. Historian Martin Shefter argues that "'Broadway musicals', culminating in the productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein, became enormously influential forms of American popular culture" and contributed to making New York City the cultural capital of the world.")

Broadway (1948)...........

1957..............

Today.................

Off to work..............................

Calumet Farm - is a 762-acre Thoroughbred breeding and training farm established in 1924 in Lexington, Kentucky, United States by William Monroe Wright, founding owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Company. Calumet is located in the heart of the Bluegrass, a well-known horse breeding region. Calumet Farm has a record history of Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown winners and 11 horses in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Founded in Libertyville, Illinois, the Standardbred breeding operation was moved to the more favorable climate of Kentucky by W. M. Wright. At a time when harness racing was the most popular type of horse racing, in 1931 the farm's trotter "Calumet Butler" won the most prestigious event of the day, the Hambletonian. After Wright died in 1932, his son Warren Wright, Sr. took over the business and began converting it to Thoroughbred breeding and training. His acquisition of quality breeding stock saw Calumet Farm develop into one of North America's most successful stables in Thoroughbred racing history. Calumet Farm was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Calumet Farm has produced ten Kentucky Derby winners, more than any other operation. The farm is also the leading breeder and owner of Preakness Stakes winners, with seven each. Two of the farm's colts have won the U.S. Triple Crown and three females the Triple Crown for fillies.

Comment: I never put the two together - Calumet Baking Soda and Calumet Farm. I learned something new. 

YouTube

Calumet Farm returns to racing prominence

The storied Calumet Farm was established in Lexington, Ky. in 1924 by William Monroe Wright. Throughout the years the farm has had eight Kentucky Derby wins ...

YouTube

Seen ... Behind the Scenes at Historic Calumet Farm

Jodie Vella-Gregory visited historic Calumet Farm, which bred and raced 1941 Triple Crown winner Whirlaway and 1948 Triple Crown winner Citation among nine K...

Delta Force (The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), referred to variously as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), Army Compartmented Elements (ACE), "The Unit", or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Task Force Green, is a special operations force of the United States Army, under operational control of JSOC. The unit's missions primarily involve counterterrorism, hostage rescue, direct action, and special reconnaissance, often against high-value targets. Delta Force, along with its Navy and Air Force counterparts, DEVGRU and the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, are the U.S. military's tier one special mission units that are tasked with performing the most complex, covert, and dangerous missions directed by the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense. Delta Force soldiers are selected primarily from the Army Special Operations Command's elite 75th Ranger Regiment and Special Forces, though members can be selected from other special operations units and conventional forces across the Army and sometimes other military branches. Delta Force was created in 1977 after numerous well-publicized terrorist incidents led the U.S. government to develop a full-time counter-terrorism unit. The Department of Defense tightly controls information about Delta Force and usually refuses to comment publicly on the highly secretive unit and its activities, unless the unit is part of a major operation or a unit member has been killed. Delta operators are granted an enormous amount of flexibility and autonomy during military operations overseas. Civilian hair styles and facial hair are allowed to enable the members to blend in and avoid recognition as military personnel)

Delta Force bodyguards in civilian clothing providing close protection to General Norman Schwarzkopf during the Persian Gulf War, 1991...................

Calling it a night.......................

Eddy - is a circular current of water. The ocean is a huge body of water that is constantly in motion. General patterns of ocean flow are called currents. Sometimes theses currents can pinch off sections and create circular currents of water called an eddy. You may have seen an eddy if you've ever gone canoeing and you see a small whirlpool of water while you paddle through the water. The swirling motion of eddies in the ocean cause nutrients that are normally found in colder, deeper waters to come to the surface. Significant eddies are assigned names similar to hurricanes. In the U.S., an oceanographic company called Horizon Marine assigns names to each eddy as they occur. The names follow chronologically along with the alphabet and are decided upon by staff at Horizon Marine. The staff try to think of creative ways to assign names. For example, an eddy that formed in the Gulf of Mexico in June 2010 is named Eddy Franklin after Ben Franklin, as he was known to have done research on the Gulf Stream.

An eddy can also occur in a river. As a river flows past an obstruction, water backfills the space downriver of it, forming an eddy. Whitewater paddlers often use eddies for scouting, regrouping, and resting spots while systematically moving down rapids. Eddies are also used as safer areas to recover swimmers and equipment during a rescue. In order to effectively and safely move in and out of eddies, paddlers need to better understand the hydrology of these features.

YouTube

TRR181 "Eddies - vortices of the seas" easily explained

Eddies are in general moving fluids and are common in the ocean and therefore also very fascinating study objects for oceanographers and meterologists. How c...

Finger Lakes (are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the Finger Lakes region in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional edge, known as the Finger Lakes Uplands and Gorges ecoregion, of the Northern Allegheny Plateau and the Ontario Lowlands ecoregion of the Great Lakes Lowlands. The geological term finger lake refers to a long, narrow lake in an overdeepened glacial valley, while the proper name Finger Lakes goes back to the late 19th century. Cayuga and Seneca Lakes are among the deepest in the United States, measuring 435 feet (133 m) and 618 feet (188 m) respectively, with bottoms well below sea level. Though none of the lakes' widths exceed 3.5 miles (5.6 km), Seneca Lake is 38.1 miles (61.3 km) long, and 66.9 square miles (173 km2), the largest in total area. The origin of the name Finger Lakes is uncertain. Currently, the oldest known published use of finger lakes for this group of 11 lakes is in a United States Geological Survey paper by Thomas Chamberlin that was published in 1883. This paper was later cited and Finger Lakes formally used as a proper name by R. S. Tarr in a Geological Society of America paper published in 1893. Older usage of Finger Lakes in either maps, papers, reports, or any other documents remains to be verified)

Taken yesterday at Conesus Lake. Air quality affected by the Canadian wildfires...................

Off to work................................