Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room What In The World Happened Here?

AlanK - that's a smooth answer.

What In The World Happened Here? XXXIII (33)

alias or not, what they claimed then made Mt Whitney part of Virginia

OK, I'll admit that is is the real name of a famous guy. I never knew that he had an Irwin-type incident. Ouch!

Mt. Whitney? LCC-20 came out of Virginia near there. Or are we talking about that tall spot in CA?

This Mount Whitney is usually found near sea level.

Born in VA.

Saltydog definitely has the known nautical knowledge of location and what happened, Alan, too, I think.


In 1607, Christopher Newport sailed into Chesapeake Bay, entering Hampton Roads. Upstream on the James River past the future cities of Newport News and Norfolk, they founded the the small settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.(clue: Jimson weed is a corruption of Jamestown) John Smith was one of the leaders, and explored by foot and by shallop. Northward were other rivers on the western side of Chesapeake Bay (clue: note saltydogs west but not coast) ; the York , Piankatank, Rappahannock, and Potomac. The WITWHH 33 picture shows the mouth of the Piankatank River with skinny Stove Point aiming south, Fishing Bay west of it (and marina apparently known to Saltydog) , and Stingray Point aiming east. The town of Deltaville (Saltydog's triangle) is there and recently in 2011 suffered a F2 tornado.

When Captain John Smith was there, he famously (to Virginia schoolchildren ) suffered a stingray injury, hence the name. Neither the stingray nor the wound were as large as the one the Aussie crocodile hunter Steve Irwin mortally suffered.

EXTRA CREDIT: Land claimed in 1609 for England - 200 miles north and 200 miles south of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and westward all the way to the Pacific. This includes Mt Whitney.

http://www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/charters.html
it says
Two years after Jamestown was established and after John Smith had determined the extent of the Chesapeake Bay, King James I adjusted the Virginia Company's grant when he issued a Second Charter. While the 1606 First Charter had limited the London Company's rights to just the land within a 100-by-100 mile square (plus islands within 100 miles offshore from the initial settlement), the 1609 Second Charter granted rights to massive amounts of land stretching all the way across North America from Jamestown to the Pacific Ocean:
"we do also of our special Grace... give, grant and confirm, unto the said Treasurer and Company, and their Successors... all those Lands, Countries, and Territories, situate, lying, and being in that Part of America, called Virginia, from the Point of Land,from the pointe of lande called Cape or Pointe Comfort all alonge the seacoste to the northward two hundred miles and from the said pointe of Cape Comfort all alonge the sea coast to the southward twoe hundred miles; and all that space and circuit of lande lieinge from the sea coaste of the precinct aforesaid upp unto the lande, throughoute, from sea to sea, west and northwest; and also all the island beinge within one hundred miles alonge the coaste of bothe seas of the precincte aforesaid."

Built at NNSDDC - Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock,Co
(named after Christopher Newport of aforementioned Jamestown fame)

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/01/0120.htm

Number 33 had a lot of great history, a wealth of interesting clues (from Harvey) and comments (from saltygdog). Plus two Mount Whitneys. That land claim by Capt. Smith was pretty grandiose.

Good fun all around.

Don't forget about #34 and the smooth walkway.

I have been updating the Summary.

I suppose we all need some clues on #34, the smooth walkway edition.

Percussive physics and a Nobel were involved, but at a remove.
The eponymous participant received an early start on setting standards.

Maybe the focus on the walkway is misleading people. The road associated with that bridge could be characterized as massive.

Is this the "bridge to nowhere"?

I have no idea. Lost on this one

I was working on posting another clue, & left the computer for a while. When I came back the edit box was filled with lots of random characters. Turns out my 16-lb cat was smootching the keyboard, then took a nap on it. So I lost the clue. I guess it's moot now, anyway.

I am not sure of the protocol here -- I have already provided a clue for an entry belonging to someone else. But I can't possibly resist. I went to school in Pasadena, CA and I am grinning from ear to ear when I give an enthusiastic "yes" in answer to that question.

Added note: I didn't see wagga's post. I agree that it's been moot all along.

no one else seems to be interested, and I am lost. Here is the Moot Bridge
Moot Bridge

To my mind, the speed with which several people jumped on #31 made it seem as if this one would provoke the same reaction.

The Moot Bridge is beautiful but misleading. Wrong side of the pond.

For our #34, I would say (1) The walkway is smooth. (2) The roadway is massive. (3) I would not give an alpha or bravo to the water quality. I would give that dirty water a charlie.

Harvey I have been intersted but clueless even with the cryptic clues.I just don't have enough knowledge in the areas of these puzzles to play along.

Subject: Re: What In The World Happened Here? XXXIV

Rod, I may be picking up the scent

clue: #31 gets me to Boston
clue: massive bridge clue gets me to Mass turnpike, maybe
clue: college insults must be Harvard vs MIT stuff
clue: charlie must be Charles River ( with dirty water)

did someone famous jump off the bridge? which one?

It is the Harvard Bridge, which carries Massachusetts Avenue (Mass Ave) over the Charles River between Cambridge (specifically, MIT) and Boston.

Oliver R. Smoot (a cousin of the recent Nobel Laureate) was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity (MIT, class of 1962). He was used as a unit of measure for measuring the length of the Harvard Bridge (frat activity). The length of the bridge is 364.4 smoots +/- an ear (usually quoted as "plus an ear").



MIT students of my acquaintance consider the bridge to be inferior engineering and are happy to have it named after Harvard, which is down the street and considered by them to be a second-rate university.

Oliver R. Smoot
Smoot (unit of measure)
Harvard Bridge
George Smoot (Nobel Laureate)

This is my favorite WITWHH so far because I instantly recognized the place in an obscure photo, although only because I have run across those Smoot markings on a few occasions. I did not attend MIT (or the place down the street), but "some of my best friends are..."

The straight dope on MIT