If you read this column Oct. 13, you ought to be able to answer these questions:
1. What is araskevidekatriaphobia?
2. What was the 13th state?
3. When was the 13th Congress? And who was president?
4. Who was the 13th President?
5. What was the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
6. When was the 13th modern Olympiad?
Here are the answers:
1. A fear of Friday the 13th
2. Rhode Island
3. 1813-14; James Madison
4. Millard Fillmore
5. Abolition of Slavery
6. 1944; the games were canceled for World War II.
More Friday the 13th Facts
Here are some more:
• The 13th Winter Olympics – 1980, Lake Placid, N.Y. – We remember these games for the “Miracle on Ice,” in which a team of American college hockey players upset the powerful Soviet team and went on to win the gold medal. It also featured American speed skater Eric Heiden’s winning all five men’s speed skating events. The distances ranged from 500 meters to 10,000.
• The 13th Century – 1201-1300 – This was the time of the Magna Carta (1215), in which King John of England agreed to certain civil and political liberties, like limits on his power and trial by jury.
• Louis XIII – Louis the Just – He was king of France from 1610 to 1643. He was the father of Louis XIV, the Grand Monarch.
• Alphonso XIII – King of Spain, 1902-23 – He was the grandfather of the current king of Spain.
• Pope Benedict XIII – an illegitimate pretender to the papal throne, 1305-1409.
• Pope Gregory XIII – pontiff, 1572—1585.
• Pope Innocent XIII – pontiff, 1721—1724.
• Pope Benedict XIII – the recognized holder of this name, 1724—1730.
• Pope Clement XIII – pontiff, 1758—1759.
• Pope Leo XIII – pontiff, 1878—1903.
A poet and an onion
The state Legislature has passed the bill to name the Walla Walla sweet onion Washington’s official state vegetable and another to create the position of state poet laureate.
My challenge to whoever becomes the first poet laureate is to produce an ode to the onion and the other state symbols.
Here’s my attempt:
Walla Walla, valley so neat;
They do grow an onion so sweet.
It’s now the state’s official veg.
It beat the spud by an edge.
It goes with the steelhead trout.
For state fish, salmon was left out.
The state gem is petrified wood.
For a rock, that’s pretty good.
Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor. Send
comments to entopinion@heraldnet.com.
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