I attended school in what was called an “Independent School District.”

I always wondered what that whole “independent” thing was about, but never asked. Well, now I know.

In Minnesota, the school district borders don’t necessarily line up with city or county borders. In those cases, the “independent” designates that the school district’s management is independent from other governmental agencies (like the county or city).

In other instances, the district is related to the city/county level. For instance, Minneapolis Schools are part of Special School District #1.

Other states do this differently, and the definitions may therefore be different.

Our travels also took us through Groom, Texas, which is home to a really large cross. This slightly blurry picture is from Interstate 40 traveling at about 77 MPH.

The cross stands 19 stories tall, and may be the tallest, or the second, third or fourth tallest cross in the world, depending on who you believe.

No matter the official designation, it’s really big.

The cross was erected in 1995, and seems to be associated with Cross Ministries.

It was intentionally placed where a ton of people would drive by, in order to inspire freeway drivers. Someone in Effingham, Illinois liked that idea, so they built a larger crossthere.

There are also Giant Crosses in Spain and St. Augustine, Florida.

Sorry, I’m a little behind due to the last minute Christmas madness, so I’m still catching up on things learned from our recent road trip, which just so happened to take us through Winslow, Arizona.

Winslow, Arizona, you’ll remember, is mentioned in the Jackson Browne penned hit Take it Easy.

Well, our path took us right through Winslow, which of course merited a trip to the park. Park is overstating things – it’s really just a street corner with a mural on a wall. That’s it.

And the rest of Winslow is a dump. We really debated whether or not it was safe to get out of the car, or if we should just keep rolling through as quickly as possible.

But, the desire for pictures won out, and here they are, for your near enjoyment. Note that surprisingly we weren’t the only brave souls out that day.

And it’s Super Lame.

Apparently they were just cleaning out their desks and finally hit the pile from 1999.

They certainly didn’t consult Julie & Company.

The new logo is appearing on new signs, which are popping up at low quality motels across the country as we speak. Figuratively of course, since we’re really not speaking.

And now for some Super 8 Trivia: The first Super 8 opened in Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1974. The price per night for a room was $8.88.

Source: The Official Super 8 Website

Stupid sideways stoplights, stupid highways under perpetual construction, no real reason to ever go there, and it’s in the way of just about everywhere you want to go.

Prairie Dogs, those rat like little fluffy creatures that still carry the bubonic plague, live all over the United States.

They cause a specific concern for people who own horses or cows, as they dig holes all over, and the cows or horses step in the holes and break their legs.

There is a movement that would classify Prairie Dogs as an Endangered Species, despite the fact that there are many many millions of the varmints over several million acres of land. If that were to happen, it would be illegal to fill in their holes.

Source: Hugh Hewitt Radio Show

Like this one, in Iowa.

But apparently the Econolodge in Des Moines and the Quality Inn in Amarillo, TX do not have internet access at all – free or otherwise.

Occasionally I run into the CBS2 Chicago website. I think it’s a Drudge link favorite. They have these really obnoxious slideshows that I can’t seem to resist clicking on. I may seek medical attention for this problem.

Today’s is a list of Jewish Celebrities, of which there are many. I won’t list all 65. For instance, I’ll skip the obvious ones (Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg) or people who shouldn’t be celebrities (David Blaine).

Here goes:

• Zach Braff – Dude from Scrubs and more recently the voice of the talking water bottle and talking toilet paper dog.
• Harrison Ford – I think Adam Sandler outed him in his Hanukkah Song.
• Judd Apatow – Creator of Freaks and Geeks. Also a ton of recent movies.
• Jack Black
• Zac Efron – That High School Musical Kid (ed. I’m hoping including his name here generates some gratuitous HSM fan visits. I’m not above artificially padding the hit numbers.)
• Sarah Michelle Gellar – Republican Jew. Too Bad I hated Buffy, I’m starting to like her more and more.
• The Gyllenhalls – Maggie and Jake. They changed it from Gyllenhallstein when they got into show business.
• Kyra Sedgwick – The Closer. I really want to like her, but the marriage to Kevin Bacon requires hate.
• Paula Abdul – Here father is a Syrian Jew.
• Natalie Portman – The best looking actress that has never ever been in a good movie. Ever. *ed. Amended, see comments.
• Maya Rudolph – I knew there was a reason she was so funny.
• Bob Saget – So why is he so un-funny?

Source: CBS2 and their obnoxious slideshows

The Coast Guard is one of the 5 branches of the Armed Forces of the United States. (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard)

The Coast Guard, however, is unique among the others in that it operates as part of the Department of Homeland Security in times of peace, and the Navy during times of war. In that respect, they are the only branch of the armed forces that has Law Enforcement responsibilities.

“But wait!”, you are thinking as you reflect on your high-quality public school education, “Doesn’t the Posse Comitatus Act expressly prohibit the armed forces of the US from engaging in Law Enforcement activities inside the US Borders?” You are correct. However, the Coast Guard is exempt from this act.

The Coast Guard traces its roots back to 1790, when Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton created the Revenue Marine as a department under the US Treasury.

You see, the early Federal Government relied upon tariffs for much of its funding. No one likes to pay the tax man, so people started smuggling. In turn, the Revenue Marine was created to crack down on smugglers and make sure that the new Federal Government got its share.

The Revenue Marine actually predates the US Navy. We did have a Navy during the Revolutionary War (The Continental Navy), but it was disbanded in 1790. So from 1790 until 1798, the Revenue Marine was the only official US presence at sea.

Some more Coast Guard key events:

• 1848 – Congress creates The Life-Saving Service and gives them a $10,000 budget. The Life-Saving Service operates on the East Coast and is run mostly by volunteers. Their mission is to… save lives.
• 1862 – The Revenue Marine is renamed the Revenue Cutter Service. (A cutter is a type of ship.) Plus “cutter” sounds mean. And as the Dread Pirate Roberts taught us, a good name is key.
• 1910 – Congress creates the US Lighthouse Service to oversee all of the Lighthouses in the US.
• 1915 – The Life Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service merge and are renamed the US Coast Guard.
• 1939 – The Lighthouse Service becomes part of the Coast Guard.
• 1946 – The Coast Guard absorbs the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, which is responsible for inspecting ships for safety.
• 1967 – The Coast Guard becomes part of the Department of Transportation instead of the Treasury Department.
• 2003 – Coast Guard becomes part of DHS.

In case you’re wondering (and I know you are) about the relationship between the Navy and The Coast Guard, it’s about what you’d expect from two branches of the Armed Services. The Navy considers the Coast Guard a “Hooligan’s Navy” because of their reliance on enlisted personnel. The designation goes back to WWII when the Coast Guard basically took everyone who’d ever even looked at a ship and tried to turn them into sailors.

Source: Some wiki, but mostly this PowerPoint from the US Coast Guard Historian

I guess technically, he still might. Not sure exactly what his legal position is at the moment.

Either way, Petters purchased a mostly defunct Polaroid in 2005 and began licensing the name to other consumer products. I just read in Nerdular Nerdance about a new photo printer that was going to be sold under the Polaroid name.

Well, Polaroid just filed for bankruptcy. They say it won’t affect their 2009 product launches, but I guess I’d ask at this point- does anyone care?

Source: Worst Newspaper Ever