Question

[MurphOnMillerAve]

...You left the caption off your photo. Fake news Murph, fake news! The caption would have revealed the same level of flood occurred 22 years prior...r.

No, I did not. The caption stating, "...20 December 2008..." was all that was at the bottom of that picture in my Documents file. That's what translated onto MTJ with the picture, all that I had.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

...You left the caption off your photo. Fake news Murph, fake news! The caption would have revealed the same level of flood occurred 22 years prior...r.

No, I did not. The caption stating, "...20 December 2008..." was all that was at the bottom of that picture in my Documents file. That's what translated onto MTJ with the picture, all that I had.

Which may only be 19 years ago, if my math is correct.............

[webenda]

...You left the caption off your photo. Fake news Murph, fake news! The caption would have revealed the same level of flood occurred 22 years prior...r.

No, I did not. The caption stating, "...20 December 2008..." was all that was at the bottom of that picture in my Documents file. That's what translated onto MTJ with the picture, all that I had.

That is not a caption, it is a file name.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

...You left the caption off your photo. Fake news Murph, fake news! The caption would have revealed the same level of flood occurred 22 years prior...r.

No, I did not. The caption stating, "...20 December 2008..." was all that was at the bottom of that picture in my Documents file. That's what translated onto MTJ with the picture, all that I had.

That is not a caption, it is a file name.

Well, that's all that was there, sir.
pfft.

[webenda]

No, I did not. The caption stating, "...20 December 2008..." was all that was at the bottom of that picture in my Documents file. That's what translated onto MTJ with the picture, all that I had.

That is not a caption, it is a file name.

Well, that's all that was there, Mr. Picayune.
pfft.

Thank you for the compliment Murph. A Picayune is no longer a worthless coin.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

pfft.

[Tom Dempsey]

Has there ever been conjecture about what possessed them to build a whole city atop several low islands in a swamp in the first place?

Some years back I watched a documentary about Venice in which it was purported that the original reasoning was as a defense against pirates. The explanation made sense at the time, must have worked, as Venice was a serious economic power during the era of economic city-states.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Has there ever been conjecture about what possessed them to build a whole city atop several low islands in a swamp in the first place?

Some years back I watched a documentary about Venice in which it was purported that the original reasoning was as a defense against pirates. The explanation made sense at the time, must have worked, as Venice was a serious economic power during the era of economic city-states.

Thanks for the interesting feedback, Tom. Was that the documentary wherein they showed what they felt the islands looked like before being built upon? That may have been where I got the concept of the numerous islands in my head.

[Tom Dempsey]

Don't really remember Murph, it was the pirate thing that stuck in my head. Most folks seem to have the cannon battle on the high seas concept of piracy when actual successful pirating involved anchoring close to shore just out of sight of the target town and landing a heavily armed force for a surprise incursion in the wee hours of the morning. Then escaping with the booty back out to sea before the "posse" could be formed. Apparently, the approaches to Venice are mucky and would interfere with a successful raid.

[webenda]

I got the concept of the numerous islands in my head.

Venice, the capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region, is built on more than 100 small islands in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. It has no roads, just canals.

The Venetian Lagoon stretches from the River Sile in the north to the Brenta in the south, with a surface area of around 550 square kilometres (212 square miles). It is around 8% land, including Venice itself and many smaller islands. About 11% is permanently covered by open water, or canal, as the network of dredged channels are called, while around 80% consists of mud flats, tidal shallows and salt marshes. The lagoon is the largest wetland in the Mediterranean Basin.

Venice has more natural defences against invasion than its position surrounded by mucky water.

Charlemagne sought to subdue Venice to his own rule. He ordered the Pope to expel the Venetians from the Pentapolis along the Adriatic coast, and Charlemagne's own son Pepin of Italy, king of the Lombards under the authority of his father, embarked on a siege of Venice itself. This, however, proved a costly failure. The siege lasted six months, with Pepin's army ravaged by the diseases of the local swamps and eventually forced to withdraw. A few months later, Pepin himself died, apparently as a result of a disease contracted there. In the aftermath, an agreement between Charlemagne and the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus in 814 recognized Venice as Byzantine territory and granted the city trading rights along the Adriatic coast.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Interesting information on pirates and Venice.
Thank you, Tom.
Thank you, Wayne.

It's nice to be able to converse on such a wide variety of topics, isn't it. And I find it particularly enjoyable to hear from such a huge variety of backgrounds, education, employment experiences, and personal perspectives, which can only be a good and stimulating thing, in my opinion .

[E7]

I have a pin-oak and a willow oak on the property as well. I planted both of those and they are ~ twenty-five years or so old. Both are robust and show no signs of damage, although I did have a few unidentified caterpillars on the pin oak this year that chewed up a few branches. A sprayer of Sevin took care of them. I should have grabbed a few and taken them in to the extension agent.

I had the same thing happen. The critters were gone before I could try to identify them, and have not returned.

The white oak is a great tree. I had a few acorns from the Wye Oak I picked up on a visit a few years before it came down. Planted them in yard and nurtured the tree 'til it got to be about three feet tall...then the paper boy ran over it with his bicycle. I planted another one and got that one to about the same height, then my wife snapped that one off running around in the yard with the dog. Gave up. If I tried again now I'd probably be dead before it got to be ten feet tall. Too many leaves in the gutters anyway...

Try planting another and once it is about 3 feet high, take off the BOTTOM third of it's limbs. It will really take off vertically!

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Ok. I'm coming here to my-betters to figure something odd out.
Yesterday morning, while on my walk thru da 'hood, I passed behind the local U.S. Post Office branch . At the rear loading-dock sat a large UPS brown box truck , apparently loading or off-loading from a 6'+ dolly.
UPS @ USPS ? What's up with that, do you suppose?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Ok. I'm coming here to my-betters to figure something odd out.
Yesterday morning, while only walk thru da 'hood, I passed behind the local U.S. Post Office branch . At the rear loading-dock sat a large UPS brown box truck , apparently loading or off-loading from a 6'+ dolly.
UPS @ USPS ? What's up with that, do you suppose?

Not odd at all. Lots of UPS gets turned over to USPS for final delivery.

[rogruth]

Murph,
Same happening here.