QUARANTINE BLOG # 100

July 8, 2020

Quarantine Blog 100!  Who’d’a thunk it?  The first QB was posted on March 31, 14 days after we returned from what is increasingly looking like the last cruise of 2020.  Since the number 100 seems to be a significant one, let’s look at some famous 100s.

**  The Hundred Years’ War was a series of conflicts in Europe from 1337 to 1453, waged between the House of Plantagenet, rulers of England and the French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France.  Five generations of kings from two rival dynasties fought for the throne of the largest kingdom in Western Europe.

One of the notable happenings was the appearance on the battlefield by Joan of Arc.  In 1429 Joan persuaded Charles VII to send her to the siege of Orléans, saying she had received visions from God telling her to drive out the English.  She arrived on the battlefield on April 29, raised the morale of the troops, they attacked, and took several English strongholds.  On May 23, 1430 she was captured by the English, tried for heresy and cross-dressing (she earlier escaped through the English lines wearing men’s clothing), among other charges.  Found guilty, she was burned at the stake a week later.  Sixteen years later a Catholic court pronounced her innocent – better late than never, I suppose – and declared her a martyr.

Rabbit hole: War of the Roses, a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between the House of Lancaster, represented by a red rose, and the House of York, represented by a white rose.  One of my history professors at Frostburg State College (now University), Dr. Howard Lewis Briggs, had a unique way of presenting the War of the Roses.  He would assume the roll of a cheerleader, divide the class into half, and lead us chanting, “Rah, rah, Lancaster!”  “Rah, rah, York!”  I guess you had to be there.

**  On October 11, 2000 space shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center on the 100th flight of the space shuttle program.  Over 7 days, and 4 space walks, the crew of Discovery did critical work on the construction of the International Space Station.  The first shuttle mission launched in April 1981, and for the next 30 years the program’s five spacecraft carried people into orbit.  STS-135 was final mission of the American Space Shuttle program.  Atlantis was launched on  July 8, 2011, and landed on July 21, 2011, leaving America with no way to reach space except by renting a ride with the Russians until SpaceX and Crew Dragon.

**   The One Hundredth United States Congress met from January 3, 1987, to January 3, 1989, during the last two years of Ronald Reagan's presidency.  The president of the Senate was George Herbert Walker Bush (R).  The Speaker of the House was Jim Wright (D).  Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 that granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been interned by the United States government during World War II.  The act granted each surviving internee $20,000 in compensation.  A total of 82,219 received redress checks.

**  The 100 top movies of all time as selected by the American Film Institute https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies/ include # 1 Citizen Kane, # 2 Casablanca (my personal # 1 – “We’ll always have Paris.”), # 3 The God Father, # 4 Gone with the Wind, # 6 The Wizard of Oz, #9 Schindler’s List, # 10 Singin’ in the Rain, # 15 Star Wars, # 34 To Kill a Mockingbird, # 41 West Side Story, # 49 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, # 50 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, # 58 Fantasia, # 60 Raiders of the Lost Ark, # 63 Stagecoach, # 71 Forrest Gump, # 72 Ben Hur, # 87 Frankenstein, and # 91 My Fair Lady.  Share your favorites in the Comments section below.

Rabbit hole: Mad Magazine did a parody of Butch and Sundance.  They called it “Botch Casualty and the Some Dunce Kid.”

**  The hot 100’s all-time top 100 songs from Billboard Magazine https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/hot-100-turns-60/8468142/hot-100-all-time-biggest-hits-songs-list include # 1 “The Twist,” by Chubby Checker, # 11 “You Light Up My Life,” by Debbie Boone, # 37 “The Battle of New Orleans, by Johnny Horton, # 48 “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” by the Beatles, #54 “I Will Always Love You,” by Whitney Houston, # 50 “Lady,” by Kenny Rogers, and # 96 “All Night Long,” by Lionel Richie.  If I missed your favorite, please share it in the Comments section below.

Neither Johnny Cash nor Charlie Daniels (who died Monday) made the Billboard list.  How could they skip “Ring of Fire” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBoaN_SieL4 and “In America” (You just go and lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers’ fan and I think you’re gonna finally understand) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kB7OR161-U They both make my top 100 list.  And we urgently need a resurgence of the spirit of which Charlie Daniels sang!

** About 100:

There are 100 years in a century.

On the Celsius scale, 100 degrees is the boiling temperature of water.

100 is a perfect square number and its square root is 10.

The sum of the first nine prime numbers is 100.

The sum of the first 10 odd numbers equals 100.

There are 100 letter tiles in a Scrabble game.

Winnie the Pooh lives in 100 Acre Wood (and like the New Testament Book of Revelation, there is no "S."

There are 100 calories in a tablespoon of peanut butter.

The record number of points scored in one NBA game by a single player was 100 points, set by Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962.  The final score was Philadelphia Warriors 169, New York Knicks 147.

100 pennies weigh 250 grams, which is a little over half a pound.

A Googol is the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes.

In Greece, India, Israel and Nepal, 100 is the police telephone number.  In Belgium, 100 is the ambulance and firefighter telephone number.  In United Kingdom, 100 is the operator telephone number.

And this last one is for She Who Must Be Obeyed: 100 is the sum of the cubes of the first four integers (100 = 1 cubed + 2 cubed + 3 cubed + 4 cubed).

**   Psalm 100 King James Version

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.  Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.  Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

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