Half Staff

When and how

A Proclamation by the President: Death of Coretta Scott King

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

As a mark of respect for the memory of Coretta Scott King, I hereby order, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, that on February 7, 2006, the day of her interment, the flag of the United States shall be flown at half staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset on such day. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same period at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirtieth.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Issued 2/6/06


Free notification of Official orders to fly the flag at half staff. Contact FlagsExpress.com.

You will be notified when orders are released.



HALF-STAFF INFORMATION

Also:

Veterans Administration:
Guidelines for Display of the Flag
and:

Flag Etiquette

Washington State flag




See all Topics

Date an Octothorpe

Date an Octothorpe

Some more of those things I'm sure I used to know

The keyboard combination of Alt+Shift+D inserts the current date in MS Word and PowerPoint. Ctrl+; (semicolon) does it in Excel and Access.

If you do not like the date's format, select a different one with Insert>Date and Time and, if you would like to make that permanent, click on the Default button in the lower left corner of the dialog box (in PowerPoint it's in the lower right corner).

In Excel, Ctrl+Shift +# formats the entry as day-month-year. Ctrl+1 will display the "Format cells" dialog box.

BTW, the "hash, pound or number" sign # is also called an "octothorpe".

The person who named it combined Octo for the eight points and Thorpe for James Thorpe.

"Bell Labs engineer, Don Macpherson, went to instruct their first client, the Mayo Clinic, in the use of the new (touch tone phone system). He felt the need for a fresh and unambiguous name for the # symbol. His reasoning that led to the new word was roughly that it had eight points, so ought to start with octo-. He was apparently at that time active in a group that was trying to get the Olympic medals of the athlete Jim Thorpe returned from Sweden, so he decided to add thorpe to the end."

While we're at it, the "backwards P, Enter mark" ¶ is actually named a "pilcrow".

The pilcrow was used in medieval times to mark a new train of thought, before the convention of using paragraphs was commonplace.

Also see:
Geek-speak names for punctuation marks

Wikipedia:
Punctuation




See all Topics

That's the Way I Beleive it's Spelled

Wrong list

Spelling feels more like art than science. Here's a site that shows 100 (actually 250) words that are often misspelled.

It also gives you reasons and memory tricks to get it right.

Not all pens and pencils come with spellcheckers.

The "i-before-e" rule has more exceptions than words it applies to.

Dr. Language has provided a one-stop cure for all your spelling ills. Here are the 100 words most often misspelled ("misspell" is one of them). Each word has a mnemonic pill with it and, if you swallow it, it will help you to remember how to spell the word. Master the orthography of the words on this page and reduce the time you spend searching dictionaries by 50%.

100 Most Misspelled
Also:
Most Mispronounced
(You mean it's not "pronounciation"?
That's what happens when you have Old-timer's disease.)




See all Topics

Indoor-Backyard Battles

ADDENDUM

Indoor/Backyard Battles

Testosterone relief

Wet, rainy, cold weather activity, or just because.

"Always follow the rules! If you got hit in the head by a band but you don't want to take the 2-minute penalty (for instance), don't sit there fighting it out. Just suck it up and do the time. No one's going to have fun if all you guys end up doing is yelling at each other about rules and regulations. Take your time out, and keep in mind that, in the long run, you're going to have a much better time.

Clean up afterwards. Nobody's wife (or husband) likes to see rubber bands sitting in the chicken soup she had left simmering on the stove while she went out to buy some more carrots. ("Interesting flavor, honey...")

Ultimate Guide to Shooting Rubber Bands
Also,

Now you can build your own rubber band machine gun!

"This beauty is a fully functional machine gun with TWELVE rotating barrels and a live action trigger. Loads 12 bands per barrel for a whopping 144 rubber bands that shoot off as fast as you can turn the handle!"

Rubberband Machine Gun PLANS




See all Topics