Facts

Daylight Saving Time (DST) has been with us here in America since 1918, but a growing percentage of us would like to see it dumped.

In the interests of full (and somewhat idiotic) disclosure, I rarely, if ever, play the lottery. However, when I do--I wait for the jackpot to become astronomical. Take last night's Mega-Millions lottery drawing for example. I guess I couldn't be bothered with a paltry $346,000,000. But on Friday, when the jackpot will be just south of $400,000,000, I'll probably grab a ticket.

If you tuned into the Super Bowl last night, you were one of approximately 118,000,000 people. If you tuned into the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet at any time yesterday, you were one of approximately 7,000,000 people. Not even close, in terms of viewers--but enough to make the Puppy Bowl the #1 rated cable show of the night.

As I sit at my keyboard, Donald Trump is being inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. I've heard the words "history making" several times this morning, but then again, aren't each and every one of these presidential inaugurations history making? To answer my own question, yes.

As a kid, there was nothing I enjoyed hearing more on the cusp of a holiday than "Hey, kids! Let's learn something about (fill in the holiday)!" Really? I'm off of school for a few days! I'm not supposed to be learning things! Is this some sort of trick?

Since most people who work at radio stations are basically still kids at heart, we're so excited around here for the upcoming Rockford Town Fair that we keep checking our countdown clock (22 days, 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 39, 38, 37, seconds) for the fair's opening.

The photo of Lincoln that you're looking at was taken in Beardstown, Illinois in 1858. It is supposedly one of the last (if not the very last) photos taken of Lincoln without a beard (and it was taken in Beardstown? Oh, the irony!). This photo gives you a pretty good idea of what Lincoln looked like when he visited Rockford 3 years previously, in 1855.

I love and look forward to Saint Patrick's Day. Granted, my enthusiasm for the day is a bit less than when I was younger, when friends and I would attempt to seriously deplete Rockford's supply of green beer...to no avail (although we often helped deplete Rockford's supply of aspirin and Gatorade the day after St. Patty's).

Yesterday in this space, I told you about the large coyote who's developed an affinity for the grounds around our radio station (click here to learn about Illinois' largest predator). I also mentioned that we get other visitors from the animal kingdom, including hawks, foxes, turkeys, and deer.

Earthquake preparedness is taken very seriously in many parts of the world, for good reason. Just consider how many quakes have taken place in 2015 alone: 13,733. Until I found the numbers this morning, I would not have even been close if you'd asked me to guess...