Lewis and Clark Expedition

Odds and Ends

Audubon

Paul Bunyon

CCC - Civilian Conservation Corps

Exit Guides

While the information in these guides is of some slight use, I certainly wouldn't advise paying for a copy. Sometimes copies can be picked up free of charge. Remember that both the information and the coupons will become out of date very quickly.

Since the coupons all have the proviso that they "cannot be combined with any offer", they are of extremely marginal value in most cases. You might be lucky and find the occasional bargain, though.

Groundhog Day

The most famous weather predicting groundhog is called Punxsutawney Phil who lives in the town of the same name in Pennsylvania. Punxsutawney Phil has some rivals in the weather prediction business, including Wiarton Willie who lives at a motel in Wiarton, Ontario. There is also another motel in Wiarton with a weather-predicting groundhog (I forgot his or her name).

Hamburgers

While the item didn't state whether "North Americans" was meant to include not only the citizens of the USA but also those of Canada, Mexico and the Central American countries, or if the word "billion" was used in the English or the American sense, a little experimentation with a calculator shows that it almost certainly only includes the citizens of the USA and that "billion" is used in the American sense (10^9). This gives a population for the USA of 243,589,744 compared with the figure given on Encarta 1997 of 263,437,000, which seems very consistent. My grateful thanks to Miguel Cruz for pointing this out.

Mailboxes

In rural areas and in some suburban areas the houses have mailboxes near the street so that the mail may be delivered directly from a vehicle. Most people still call those that deliver the mail "mailmen". Lately, the Postal Service has recognised the fact that more and more women are doing this job. Their uniforms now have the title "letter carrier" on them.

If the letter carrier has no mail that day for a particular box, he or she normally passes it by. By putting up the little red flag, the resident signals the mailman that the boxholder has letters to be picked up and mailed. Letters to be picked up and mailed must be stamped.

Its a strange mix. Some homes do get the mail delivered directly to a mail slot [i.e. letterbox - JC] or small box near the front door. Some have a mailbox (with a red flag) at the curb in front of the home; and in really rural areas several farms or ranches will set up a cluster of mailboxes near the main road. The local postmaster makes the decision based on his manpower and the size of his area.

Visitors should put mail that they wish to send in "mail drops" which do the same job as British pillar boxes. Be careful not to confuse mail drops with litter bins, though - they can sometimes be similar in design. Mail drops are dark blue and have the Postal Service logo on them. The slot has a counterweighted flap which you open in order to deposit your mail. Dark green mailboxes with the notice "Not for deposit of mail" and with no slots are for letter carriers on foot to store mail to be delivered later in their route. Stamps are best obtained in post offices. Although they are the same price at other sources, the post office will be able to look up the correct cost of sending mail abroad.

Many houses also have simple plastic boxes outside for newspapers to be delivered.

McDonald's

I have seen two contradictory figures, as follows:

"About half the U.S. population uses one or more of the country's 16,000 library branches, which are twice as numerous as McDonald's restaurants". Source: Bill Gates' New York Times Column 22-May-96: Closing The Information Gap.

"There are over 12,000 McDonald's restaurants in the USA." Source: The Daily Brief 10-Jul-97.

Muir, John

Piggly Wiggly

In the film "Bonnie and Clyde" there is a brief mention of a newspaper article wrongly holding the Barrow gang responsible for a robbery at a Piggly Wiggly store.

A Piggly Wiggly truck appears briefly in a few scenes of the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

Powell, John Wesley

The Sioux Indian Calendar

January

The Moon of Frost in the Tipis

February

The Moon of The Dark Red Calves

March

The Moon of The Snowblind

April

The Moon of The Red Grass Appearing

The Moon When Ponies Shed

The Moon of Making Fat

The Moon of Red Cherries or The Moon When The Cherries Are Ripe

August

The Moon When Cherries Turn Black

September

The Moon When Calves Grow Hair

October

The Moon of The Changing Season

November

The Moon of Falling Leaves

December

The Moon of Popping Trees

Thunderbird

Tipping

Airports

Airline employees, both at the airport and on the plane, are not tipped.

If you employ the services of a porter at an airport then you may wish to consider tipping. However, hardly any airports provide porters these days - nearly everyone carries their own luggage.

Employees of car hire firms are not tipped, except possibly the driver of the courtesy bus which takes you between the airport terminal and the car hire company's depot. I have never personally seen anyone tip a car rental courtesy bus driver, but some people have told me that they do tip in this situation.

Motels

Restaurants

At any restaurant where you are served by a waiter or waitress, including the semi-cafeteria service common in steak restaurants, many people leave tips, depending on the quality of the service they receive. The likelihood of a tip being expected almost certainly increases significantly if the restaurant is licensed.