Seek The Substantial

1. The Mariana Trench is the world’s deepest trench and we think that it is 10,984 meters deep and the deepest point of the trench is 1.2 miles further from sea level that then peak of Mount Everest. the location is near Guam, south of Japan and north of Papua New Guinea to give you some idea, and is actually a U.S. Monument for some reason. And to maybe put some of these figures in perspective, 10,984 meters is 36,036 feet. Mount Everest is 29,032 feet, so an additional 1.32 miles to get to the bottom of the trench if you were to be at the top of Everest.

2. In 1917 the executive branch created the Committee on Public Information which utilized 75,000 volunteers to give 4-minute talks between movie reels, called the Four Minute Men. Eventually, this program utilized the Sedition Act of 1917, rounding up people that would criticize the government or were anti-war and made it illegal to “willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government . . . the Constitution . . . the military or naval forces . . . the flag . . . or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States.”. I had no idea this sort of thing ever existed. Seems relatively unconstitutional, but I took Con Law 20 years ago and it’s been a hot minute.

3. Gary Cantrell is the guy behind the Barkley’s Marathon and his alter-ego is Lazarus Lake. The Barkley is a a 20+ mile loop that must be completed 5 times and must be completed in 60 hours. Runners have to pull certain pages from books found on the course (only odd numbers and the pages change each loop), includes 54,200 feet of vertical gain.

4. As Columbus Day or Indigenius People’s Day’s is here, we find out tht Christopher Columbus was actually Spanish and Jewish, rather than the Italian that we had been taught for so long, and possibly converted to Catholicism to avoid persecution.

5. The header photo is from Saturday night at the Boys and Girls Club of Collin County gala. It was terrific and it was a work event, but it is always amazing to see Miranda look so beautiful. It was a rare night out for the two of us as we are constantly running around doing things with the boys. I realize that I am incredibly lucky.