 Hear this here! EXIT 188n off I-95 to Patrick AFB, Satellite Beach in Brevard County Florida No doubt it’s good to get where you are going in good time. But sometimes a detour is well worth the circuitous route since you encounter people and things that make a voyage even better. The next exit offers that kind of detour.   As Rick Neale wrote in the magazine Florida Today: “On Dec. 7, 1941, armor-piercing bullets from Japanese Zero fighter aircraft tore holes into the Battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor. About 15 minutes into the surprise Pearl Harbor attack, a Japanese bomber dropped a specially converted 1,700-pound projectile onto the Arizona — igniting powder magazines and triggering an immense explosion powerful enough to lift the 33,000-ton vessel out of the water. That day 1,177 sailors and Marines lost their lives aboard the battleship.  Two generations later, those bullet holes remain visible amid rust-red corrosion on a 4-by-5-foot steel section of the doomed warship's superstructure that has arrived on the Space Coast. Brevard Veterans Memorial Center officials publicly unveiled the World War II relic and accompanying museum exhibit during a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony.  Around the grounds and throughout the museum, various decommissioned jets, jeeps, canons and other war mementoes stand testament to the Vets who used them. Other than sunny skies, a tropical disposition, and this bullet ridden hunk of battleship infrastructure what does the Space Coast of Florida have in common with Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, Hawaii? Well most relevant was that not far away several veterans from the surprise attack lived out their days as normal senior citizens. No one would identify one of these heroes from the other elderly folks who pass us every day. And even though they experienced the horrors of that day that lives in infamy, they may be said to be the lucky ones. After all, these Vets were there at the beginning of the most destructive war in history and they managed to retire in sunny Florida. Florida resident Joseph Iscovitz was 103-year-old when he died in 2020. Young Joseph Iscovitz was a supply sergeant that sunny Sunday morning in 1941 in Pearl Harbor. He oversaw a weapons depot.  Speaking to the Associated press on the occasion of his father’s passing, Doug Iscovitz said his father could see the faces of the Japanese pilots as they dropped bombs around the naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1941. His son says they were woefully unprepared for the attack and feared an amphibious assault later that day. He said his father helped string barbed wire along Waikiki Beach in anticipation of the invasion than thankfully never came.  Sergeant Iscovitz also fought in the Korean War. Like so many others, Sergeant Iscovitz was to be laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery outside the nation’s capital. His wife died in 2000 after 56 years of marriage. Joseph Iscovitz is survived by his four sons. “With all the turmoil going on in our nation, it will be an honor to have my dad buried at Arlington among the many heroes in our nation's history,” his son Doug said.  If you want to see the bullet ridden relic from the Arizona and other museum displays, like Huey Attack Helicopters from Vietnam or even a Marine Harrier Jump Jet or just things brought back by our veterans from their tours of duty, get right to exit off upcoming Exit 188. Since the museum is located in an active Veteran’s Post, aside from museum pieces, no doubt you will meet the real thing —some real heroes. Now that’s worth a little detour isn’t it? After all, it can be said that America’s Veterans made a little detour in life for their fellow Americans. Now did’t they? That’s right, nice and slow, now get over… and don’t forget your blinker…. #PealrHarborDay #PearlHarbor #Vets #Arizona #BattleshipArizona #MelbourneFlorida #MerritIsland #BrevardVeteransMemorialCenter
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 EXIT of the Day. EXIT 141 I-95n to Gold Rock and Rocky Mount, North Carolina Hear this... right... um ... HERE! "Certain comments are sky high soccer lobs that are meant to be blasted like a “bend it like Beckham” line drive. This lady's male coach once snootily told her, "You run like a girl." Without missing a beat, she replied, "If you could run faster, you could too!" Talk about retorting with a line drive after getting a lob, right?  Considered the Pele of her generation, Mia Hamm played college soccer for the North Carolina Tar Heels and helped the team win four consecutive NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship titles.  One of the key players and stars of the 1999 United States National Team which won the title at the 1999 World Cup, she scored the key penalty kick in the United States' double overtime victory over the Chinese in the championship game. Named in 1997 by People Magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, in 1994 she was the recipient of the Honda Broderick Cup, given to the Most Outstanding Female Athlete in all of college sports. A member of U.S. Team which won the Gold Medal at 1996 Olympic Games in Athens, she previously helped lead the Tar Heels to NCAA championships in 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1993 during which time the Lady Tarheels posted a record of 92 wins, 1 loss and 2 ties — in her four year career. She was a three-time first-team All-American, a three-time Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and led the nation in scoring in 1990, 1992 and 1993.  During that time, Mia set the UNC record for single-season assists with 33 in 1992. She set the NCAA record for single-season scoring with 97 points in 1992. She still holds NCAA Tournament career records for scoring (41 points) and goals (16). Then, while still a college undergrad, Mia started for Team USA when it won America's first-ever FIFA World Championship, played in China in 1991.  After that, Mia graduated from upcoming UNC Chapel Hill and received her degree in political science. Even now — years into her retirement and shortly after the Team USA Ladies won another FIFA world Cup — Mia Hamm is arguably the most famous women's soccer player in the world today. So yeah Dude, learn to run like a woman! #MiaHamm #NCAA #UNCChapelHill #FIFAWorldCup #Recordbreaking #Soccer #Football #TeamUSA #AllAmerican  Delaware Road Test... so now for the Fast Facts! I-295s Exit to SR 9, To New Castle and Wilmington, DE Some Fast Facts and then a Road Test. So Pay attention. You. Yes... YOU! Get off the snapchat or Tik Tok and listen. Delaware is fascinating. Really. Did you know that Delaware is home to the first log cabins in America, dating back to the 1600's? So log cabins are older than your Dad even. Bet that fact is not on Tik Tok today! One ancient log cabin is still on display in Dover at the Delaware Agricultural Museum. Their style is not so much All-American as it is All-Finnish. Yup. The All-American Log Cabin first came to America brought by fur trappers from Finland. Fascinating right? Delaware is also home to the nation’s first scheduled railroad. It started in New Castle in 1831. Before that time, trains just ran and passengers would just stand along railroad tracks and wave down the train like a taxi cab. But you with the Tik Tok… you probably don’t know what a cab is. Correct? Just Uber… you know about Uber. Speaking of transportation, Delawarean Oliver Evans built the first automobile in America, though it would be hardly recognizable as an automobile by today’s standards. More like a horseless carriage. Or a small locomotive from a train. Does anyone know what a locomotive looks like anymore? I wonder.   In certain parts of Delaware, it’s illegal to serve alcohol in an establishment if there’s dancing going on at the same time. Obviously that would not be popular on Tik Tok. No dancing or silly stuff -- which may make sense because Delaware is very serious. Delaware has the highest percentage of Ph. D.'s in the country… …and Delaware is the only state NOT to have a National Park. On the other hand, Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware produces one hundred and seventy five thousand barrels of beer every year. That’s almost 700 million bottles of beer, enough for everyone in the United States to have two beers every day for a year. So now we know what people do in Delaware instead of Tik Tok or National Parks. They study for Ph. D's -- and drink craft beer!  Now for the Road Test. Where is Dog Fish Head Brewery located? If you cannot remember you are obviously not a candidate for a Ph.D. Nor are you likely a reader of John Milton, the great philosopher and writer of “Paradise Lost” for whom the brewery's town, Milton, Delaware, is named. I bet you have not even heard of "Paradise Lost" because it is not posted on Instagram. Right? Ha! Put that in your Tik Tok and Snap it! #NewCastle #Delaware #Logcabin #Finnish #FinlandinDelaware #Wilmington #Ticktock #instagram #snapchat   If you had the Road Spoke app and were driving northbound on I-95 , you would …Hear this here! EXIT 93 I-95n: Smithfield Brogden Road Upcoming is a cross road on which if you head north, you get to Durham and if you head south you get to Goldsboro. Speaking of gold, when this woman died in 2012, Duke University’s Chapel was filled to capacity. Overflow mourners had to watch the proceedings on a screen in an adjacent auditorium. The pews were filled with people from all walks of life and by all creeds and colors.  Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans was an American activist and philanthropist. Despite receiving a lot through inheritance, in the spiritual balance sheet of life, Mary Duke Biddle was a supreme giver.  Mary was the granddaughter of Benjamin Duke and the great-granddaughter of Washington Duke. These men were both tobacco and later hydro-electric energy tycoons who helped start Duke Tobacco, Duke Energy and Duke University. Their flaxen haired grand-daughter Mary is remembered for promoting science and humanities through various philanthropic entities — many associated with her beloved Duke University and all beneficial to the Carolinas. The Rural Advancement Foundation International helps farm communities all over the world. In a memorial, RAFI founder Scott Marlow wrote, “Back in my days as a Duke student, one of my jobs was running a sound board at the groundbreaking of one of the huge science buildings – big crowd, all major players and big money. I might as well have been invisible..."  As soon as the program ended, Mary walked directly through this crowd of powerful people to the back of the tent to thank and compliment us for our good work and spent a few minutes chatting with us. That will always be my impression of her – a woman who sought out and appreciated the invisible people. That night, every member of the crew would have moved heaven and earth for her.”   Little Mary Duke Biddle was born in 1920 in New York City to Mary Lillian Duke and Anthony Drexel Biddle, Jr.. No doubt she lived a privileged life yet it was by no means all roses. What she did with her privilege was what we can only be called class. In fact, she was inspired by her innovative parents: Mary’s Mom was an aspiring opera singer and her father a foreign service officer and ambassador. Her dad served with valor in the trenches of World War One as an Army Captain. At the age of fourteen, her parents divorced and she moved to Durham, North Carolina to live with her grandmother. In 1935 she enrolled in Duke's Women’s College..  There she met and married Josiah Charles Trent, a talented medical student who eventually became the chief of Duke Hospital’s Division of Thoracic Surgery. Despite getting her degree in Art History, her husband exposed her to the exciting promises of modern science. Then in 1948, Trent died of lymphoma, leaving Mary alone to raise four little girls. Enrolling again at Duke to get an advanced degree, Mary met and married Doctor James Semans, a surgeon. Together they had three more children. If you are counting, yes that meant seven kids! On the professional front, the couple became full time community activists. In 1953 Mary was the one of the 2 first women ever elected to Durham’s City Council and for 2 years she served as mayor pro tem of the city. While in office, she advocated against voter suppression of African Americans and focused on civil rights, cultural enrichment, and affordable housing. Mary was always passionate about her namesake university. Her ambition was to make the institution as good as any Ivy League college up north. Mary financially supported many projects at her alma mater. She also spent many years as chair of the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, started by and named after her mother, and focusing on children and the arts. These were projects her Mom loved. The foundation was not exclusive to Duke University but rather expanded in the community around the Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill Triangle. She also served 45 years as a trustee of The Duke Endowment. The mission of the endowment is to “strengthen communities in North Carolina and South Carolina by nurturing children, promoting health, educating minds and enriching spirits.” A central initiative was to encourage, educate, and support rural residents to join medical professions. The Duke Endowment can be considered a progressive model for later rural focused foundations like the Walton Family Foundation in Arkansas and even Warren Buffet’s philanthropic initiatives. Duke applied modern business metrics such as “return on investment” to measure and steer their non-profit initiatives.  In 1982, Mary became the Endowment’s first female chair, a position she retained until 2001. Through her position she and her husband started the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation, the Josiah Charles Trent Collection of the History of Medicine, both named after her first husband.  Duke today is one of the foremost Medical colleges in the world and true to her dream, the University often ranks in the top 5 universities worldwide — ahead of many of those Ivy League colleges up north.    At the end of her life in 2012, when asked for a reflection on her work, she replied that she “sees that word ‘philanthropy’ all the time,” but never thought it applied to her. She was simply “giving at times when someone needed it”. Indeed Mary was a giver. The state you are driving through was her greatest beneficiary. #MaryDukeBiddle #DukeFoundation #DukeEndowment #DukeEnergy #BiddleDuke #MaryDukeTrentSemans    Hear this…. right HERE! EXIT 21, I-95s; Mill Plain Road, to Fairfield and Westport, Connecticut Westport Connecticut resident, the late great Actor Paul Newman survived death in World War Two and thank God he did! His good twist of fate helped literally hundreds of thousands of people later in life.  All Right Road Crew, now it is time for a deal and a very charitable deal at that. Do you love pasta? I mean who does not love pasta? Every kitchen cabinet is stocked with pasta and pasta sauce. If you tap the Deal Radar button on your smart phone...  ...and say "Deal Radar get me the Deal," you can get 1 free pasta sauce from Newman's Own, with every 2 Newman's Own products purchased. You all know Newman's Own, right? The Famous Movie Star, Paul Newman who starred in such great movies as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting" donates all profits to charity. This socially conscious product line is in every supermarket. So stock up on "Newman's Own" because no other company gives its profits to kids in need. And that is what Newman's Own does. During World War Two back in the spring of 1945, shortly before the Battle of Okinawa, as an aerial gunner on a torpedo dive bomber, the young Paul Newman was ordered aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill. But his pilot was sick. The pilot's ear infection kept their two man plane grounded at base while the rest of their squadron continued onto the aircraft carrier. Days later a kamikaze blasted the ship. All their unit died. No doubt Paul Newman's story would have died that day as well. In the 1950’s Paul became a major movie star co-starring opposite such greats as Jackie Gleason and Elizabeth Taylor. Another major milestone was that he met then married actress Joanne Woodward. As movie stars, their's was a union unique in its breadth and depth. They shared 3 daughters and 50 plus years together. Once when asked about the secret to his marriage’s success, Newman famously answered, “Why would I go out for hamburger when I have steak at home?” In the sixties and seventies he is most famous perhaps playing a series of Oscar winning films, “The Sting” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” with pal Robert Redford. Nominated nine times, he finally won an Oscar for Best Actor in the 1987 movie, THE COLOR OF MONEY opposite Tom Cruise.  In 1982, along with author AE Hotchner and wife actress Joanne Woodward, Paul founded Newman's Own, a food company from which Newman donates all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. These donations totaled about five hundred million dollars by 2016.    Paul was also a co-founder of Safe Water Network and the SeriousFun Children's Network, a global family of camps and programs for children with serious illness. The camps are seriously altruistic: it has served over three hundred thousand kids. The Westport Country Playhouse is a world famous theater in Westport. Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman's wife, was artistic director from 2000-2006. Liza Minnelli, Eartha Kitt, Gene Wilder, James Earl Jones, Jane Curtin, Henry Fonda, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Olivia de Havilland, Eva Gabor, Jane Fonda, and of course both Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman are among the actors having performed there. The Playhouse Theater is off the upcoming exit. Why not get right to exit and see where all those famous actors have strode the stage? Oh and get some of Newman's Own Popcorn or maybe so chips and salsa before you do.    An avid race car driver and recipient of numerous humanitarian awards, Paul Newman died in 2008 from lung cancer surrounded by his wife and kids. Not to be morbid, but Paul Newman’s missing the Battle of Okinawa did a lot of people good who otherwise had no connection to World War 2. Funny where the road leads us, isn't it? #PaulNewman #Okinawa #NewmansOwn #Westport #WestportPlayhouse #JoanneWoodward #SeriousFun #Safewaternetwork    “I think that I shall never see. A poem lovely as a tree.” Happy Veteran's Day! On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent ending the First World War in 1918. Hear this …. Right Here!  EXIT of the DAY: Alfred “Joyce Kilmer” Service Area NJ Tpke n; “When Alfred Joyce Kilmer's daughter Rose was stricken with polio shortly after birth Alfred and his wife, Aline turned to their new religion, Catholicism, for comfort. Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Alfred Joyce was the son of Doctor Frederick Kilmer a physician employed by the Johnson and Johnson Company. Doctor Kilmer is notable in his own right as the inventor of the iconic Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder. His son, Joyce Kilmer was a poet/ soldier best known for his 1913 poem “Trees”. He was married to Aline Murray, also an accomplished poet, with whom he had five children. Later he is also credited with naming the 69th Infantry of the New York National Guard; he called his 69th Regiment from New York City, "The Fighting Irish". Or rather, Kilmer re-named the unit since in the Civil War, Robert E Lee, admiringly named this Union unit largely composed even then of tough Irish immigrants, "The Fighting 69th".  As converts to Roman Catholicism from Episcopalianism. the young poets were received in the Catholic church in 1913. Kilmer writes that he "wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental – in fact I wanted Faith." He claimed that when "faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralyzed daughter. Her lifeless hands led me. I think her tiny feet know beautiful paths. You understand this. And it gives me a selfish pleasure to write it down.” When the Great War began, seeking a higher calling, Kilmer enlisted and was deployed to France with his famous "Fighting Irish" in 1917. Then he received sad news. Little Rose had died. In France, fighting the Germans, Kilmer sought increasingly hazardous duty. He was transferred to the military intelligence section where his coolness under fire was admired. One day his Commanding Officer, Wild Bill Donovan -- who would later go on to be the founder of the Central Intelligence Agency (the CIA) -- had Kilmer scout out a German machine gun nest.  When Wild Bill Donovan later ran up upon him, he thought Kilmer was just lying down, cooly watching the enemy. But when Donovan touched him, he found that he was dead. Kilmer had taken a sniper's bullet to the brain... and no doubt he followed his beloved Rose on a path her paralyzed feet had blazed to Heaven. Happy Veterans' Day! #Veteran'sDay #TreesPoem #AlfredJoyceKilmer #PoetSoldier   Hear this here! EXIT of the DAY: EXIT 48 I-95 To I-91n to Hartford CT, Springfield Mass in New Haven If you bear right here up the onramp of Interstate 91 it’s a long road up to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. But that road is nothing compared to the road of so many of the women that went there before 1919. The long road is a breeze when compared to the struggle of women to claim the honest rights that all Americans should share. It took almost 130 years for women to get the right to vote in 1919. Dorothy Kenyon liked losers. And good thing for them. Dorothy was a feminist lawyer and an inspiration for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Growing up in the late 1800’s her parents had a country home near Lakeville, Connecticut. It was in Connecticut, on the frozen ponds, that she learned to stand up and give as good as she takes. She loved to play Hockey with the boys. But it was back in New York City where she scored her most points.  “Years ago,” she recalled, “my lawyer father said the words I should like to hear everybody use today. Holding tight to his hand and skipping to keep up with his long stride, the little girl that was me suddenly popped this question out of nowhere to him: ‘Can girls be lawyers, father?’ “And he answered, smiling, ‘Why not, my dear?’” A grad of Horace Mann School and later of Smith College, Dorothy received her law degree from NYU. A snap researcher, she worked on the Versailles Accords to settle World War One and then made her bones in the 1930's advocating against Injustice. For most of her career, Kenyon advocated for causes such as the New Deal, the Labor Movement and most of all, for Women’s Rights. During the Depression she was appointed to municipal relief agencies in the city and notably agitated for birth control, the rights of prostitutes and the equal treatment before the law of the men who paid for their services. In the Communist baiting McCarthy era, Kenyon was accused of being a communist. This prompted many plain old feminists to support her. Foremost of her supporters was none other than Former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor drew on Dorothy's words to craft the United Nations Declaration of Universal Rights. These rights protect women and even men all over the globe. Thereafter, she prepared briefs for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and worked for the American Civil Liberties Union. Dorothy would join African American female lawyer, Dr Pauli Murray to advocate for women having the right to serve on Juries. Can you imagine that? People wanted to serve on juries!  Wonder if that is something most men or women would willingly roll back now? But in the 1950’s it was quite revolutionary... So much so that then lawyer and future Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited Dorothy’s work as an inspiration — an Honorary co-author even -- in her successful court fight to allow women equal rights to work under the law. While Dorothy had several long relationships with men, she did not marry. Perhaps this was out of deference to her crusading ways. “I always pick the losing cause,” she said in an interview in 1936. “1 guess I'm’ crazy about the underdog. But I think I'm helping women by my kind of life.” A champion of women, people of color, and anyone who seemed to face a losing cause, Dorothy worked up to the day she died in 1972 at age 84. Dorothy Kenyon... A winner to the end. #DorothyKenyon #RBG #RuthBaderGinsberg #19thAmendment #Womensrighttovote #SmithCollege #HoraceMann #NYU #PauliMurray    EXIT 351A I-95S To I-10w and Highway 17w, in Jacksonville FL Upcoming is an EXIT to Interstate 10 which if you drove 365 miles you would come to The Pensacola Navy Base. You can bet a lot of young people from all different backgrounds exit here, drive the 6 hours to the aviator school and become different people. In many ways they become one. By that, I mean their shared experience in the Navy Flight School makes them one person. And you can bet on one other thing too. They wish they were not driving to Pensacola. They wish they were flying... already.  Back in the last years of World War Two, a couple of guys drove to Pensacola hoping to be fighter pilots in that war. But they were late so by the time they graduated, the Big Show was over. One was an upwardly mobile middle class Irish guy from near Boston. His parents wanted the best for him, so they had sent him to Phillips Academy Andover, an elite Prep School that had graduated the likes of both President Bushes, and many titans of industry and politics. The other was the first African American graduate of Navy Flight training school. His parents were penniless Mississippi sharecroppers. They too wanted the best for their brilliant son.    Despite being raised in a cabin with no plumbing or electricity, he had graduated as salutatorian of his segregated Hattiesburg high school, where he met his future wife, Daisy Pearl Nix. After, he got his degree from Ohio State University, he signed up for Reserve Officer Training and joined the Navy. Both Ohio State and The Navy were largely segregated at the time. That meant Jesse LeRoy Brown was only one of 2 African Americans enlisted in ROTC and only one of seven blacks to graduate that year from Ohio State. It was 1946. After Ohio, Jesse continued flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station. The only African American in the program, Jesse anticipated antagonism. But he was pleasantly surprised. White cadets were welcoming. Ironically, he found it was the black janitors and mess hall staff who were hostile to him. Because naval cadets were not allowed to marry, Jesse Brown and Daisy Nix married in secret. If caught it would mean immediate dismissal. But Daisy moved discreetly to Pensacola and lived off-base with Jesse rushing to her on his free weekends. In October 1948, Jessie became the first Black to graduate from Navy Flight School which means he became the first African American to earn the Navy’s coveted Wings Of Gold.   Fast Forward to a freezing December day in 1950 over snowbound Korea. Approximately 100,000 Chinese troops had surrounded 15,000 U.S. Marines beside the Chosin Reservoir. Jessie Brown was now wingman to the Andover grad whose name was Tommy Hudner. The two pilots flew dozens of close support missions. They rolled in and strafed the Red Army to prevent them from overrunning the vastly outnumbered Americans. At some point, Tommy Hudner noticed that Jesse Brown’s plane was trailing fuel.  He had been hit. Jesse was going down. Jessie survived the crash. Still to Tommy’s perspective, Jesse was in deep trouble. Jesse’s aircraft started to burn and Tommy could see that Jesse was trapped in the cockpit. Worse, the Chinese Troops were rushing through the woods. So what does Tommy do? He radios for helicopter help and then crash-lands his own plane. Desperately he tries to extract Jesse from the cockpit before the fire can consume them both. But it is too late. Jesse cannot extract Jessie and Jesse is losing consciousness. The Helicopter lands and before Jesse dies he says one thing: “Tell Daisy I love her.”  Lieutenant Tom Hudner got out that day and Jesse became the first Naval Officer to die in the Korean War. As for Tommy Hudner, he won the Medal Of Honor for his bravery. However, it was thereafter prohibited to crash your own aircraft in an attempt to save your comrade. Turns out Tommy did not need to do that again. He lived long enough to speak at the commissioning of the first Navy Ship named for an African American Sailor. It was a frigate named for his wingman, The Jesse L. Brown. With no doubt South Koreans as well as African Americans in mind, said Tom Hudner of his friend, “Jessie willingly gave his life to tear down barriers to freedom of others.” To this day, Jesse LeRoy Brown’s remains have never been recovered from the North Koreans. #KoreanWar #JesseLeroyBrown #Pensacola #NavalAirStation #Cadets #WingsofGold #ChosinReservoir #ChineseTroops #PensacolaNavalAirStation #Andover   EXIT of the DAY: I-95s Exit 22 in FL To: FL 848, Stirling Rd, to Cooper City, Florida  In the 1950’s, Pro Football running back Brian Piccolo grew up nearby. There is the Brian Piccolo Sports Park & Velodrome, a Brian Piccolo Skatepark and even a Brian Piccolo Middle School. All are named for him. However, Brian Piccolo did not win many awards in his NFL Football career. In fact, playing for the Chicago Bears, Piccolo only scored 2 touchdowns. He was hardly any kid’s hero.  It is what he did in the era before racial integration that made him a hero. Before the Bears, Piccolo played college football at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. There, during his senior season in 1964, he led the nation in rushing and scoring and was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year.  In a game against rival University of Maryland, Piccolo's own fans were yelling racial epithets at Darryl Hill of the University of Maryland who was the first and only African-American football player in the entire ACC. Piccolo went over to the Maryland bench and then walked Darryl Hill over to the area in front of the Wake Forest student section. Brian, their All Star player, put his arm around Darryl. This silenced the crowd. Later Piccolo would play blocking back in for the Chicago Bears. He was no longer a star. The team’s offensive star was Chicago Bears halfback, Gayle Sayers — Piccolo’s African-American room-mate. Gayle Sayers would go on to become a Hall Of Famer.    In November 1969, midway through a game and just after he had scored his second career touchdown, Piccolo removed himself from the field. It turned out he could not breath. He was spitting up blood. Tests showed it was lung cancer. After the season, Gayle Sayers was nominated that year for The George Halas Trophy for most Courageous Player. But he declined the honor. He said the honor belonged to his best friend.  Brian Piccolo died from cancer in 1970. A movie, “Brian's Song”, was made recalling his life. Major Movie Star, James Caan played the part of Brian Piccolo. The movie was rightfully a real tear jerker. And Brian Piccolo was rightfully a real star. No wonder they honor him here. #KobeBryant #GigiBryant #SuperBowl #NFL #Football #BriansSong #GayleSayers #BrianPiccolo #FortLauderdale #WakeForest #ChicagoBears          I-95n at Exit 10 to Fairmont, North Carolina Hear this here! Let’s play a game. Can you guess which of the following Fast Facts about the state of North Carolina is false? Three of them are true, and just one is false. Here we go. 1. Krispy Kreme Doughnut was founded here in North Carolina. 2. The first miniature golf course was built here. 3. Coke was invented here. 4. Babe Ruth hit his first home run here. What do you think? Which is false? Krispy Creme? Mini Golf? Coke? Or Babe Ruth? First I’ll reveal which are true.  Krispy Kreme Doughnut was indeed founded here, in Winston-Salem. That’s true! The first mini golf course was built here, in Fayetteville. That is also a fact. You know what else happened in Fayetteville? Babe Ruth hit his first home run! On March 7 in 1914. Which means that if you guessed Coke wasn’t invented here, you’re correct! But in this case, the lie is not too far from the truth. Because even though Coke wasn’t invented here, Pepsi was! Pepsi was first introduced as a product called "Brad's Drink" in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1893 by Caleb Bradham, who made it at his drugstore where the drink was sold. It was renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898.   In 1931 at the depth of the Great Depression the Pepsi-Cola Company entered bankruptcy. Eventually Pepsi's assets were purchased by Charles Guth, who was the president of a candy manufacturing company with retail stores that contained soda fountains. He was interested in Pepsi because he wanted to replace Coca-Cola at his stores' fountains after Coke refused to give him a discount on syrup. Think about it, if Coke had just given that discount way back when, there would be no Pepsi to rival them! And even after Pepsi took off, the Coca Cola company was offered the opportunity to purchase the Pepsi-Cola company not just once but on three separate occasions between 1922 and 1933. But they declined on each occasion and the rivalry has just kept growing. Time to play another game. I’ll give you four Pepsi slogans from the past sixty years or so. Three will be true and one will be false. Can you guess the false one? Here we go. The first slogan is "Any Weather is Pepsi Weather.” The second slogan is “More Bounce to the Ounce.” Here’s your third option: “Born in the Carolinas.” And finally the fourth option is “If you’re peppy, get Pepsi.” Are you ready to answer? Do you think it was the slogan that said “born In the Carolinas”? Well you’re wrong, that’s a real Pepsi slogan from 2011! The false slogan was “if you’re peppy, get Pepsi.” Why not get right and take the next exit to Fairmount. I know I am thirsty, and you are likely too. Let’s get a soda at the local 7/11. And when in Carolina do what the locals do. Make it a Pepsi! #Pepsi #KrispyKreme #NorthCarolina #BradsDrink #NewBern #BabeRuth #CocaCola  Hear this... right... (wait for it...)... HERE!  EXIT 46; I-95n To: Long Wharf Drive, Sargent Ave, in New Haven, CT "Despite inspiration being everywhere, sometimes we at The SpokenRode need to dig to find material… by that, we mean we need to dig to find material relevant to a landmark, factory, or Exit when it connects to something that is relevant today — not just by place (where we excel) but by that old fashioned arbiter of relevance — time. After all, aside from coming upon a new “place” nothing is "News" unless it is new. "For example, let’s just say we want to talk about a person, place, or thing that has to do with the current internet phenomena relevant to the Getty Museum Challenge. In the COVID Pandemic, The Getty Museum Challenge has gone viral BIG time! It challenges families in lockdown to replicate the world’s great art.   The problem of course is that the Getty Museum is in Los Angeles and the art is all around the world. So how do we tie the challenge that suddenly has millions of followers to a location along I-95?  Well, that’s easy actually. We just get on the internet and dig. The first thing we dug into is who invented this challenge that asks quarantined folks to re-create famous pieces of art using just a few household items that suggest the age of COVID. For example, recreations of Vincent van Gogh self Portrait (he of the missing ear) must replicate his stance exactly in his self portrait. Or how about Frida Kahlo posing with parrots? Here the self portrait replaces colorful parrots with brilliant household cleaning products.   Another portrait replaces a massive Renaissance collar with rolls of much in-demand toilet paper. Absurd right? But genius!  Speaking of collars, a lot of the replicas were re-created by home-bound art counterfeiters substituting their dogs instead of humans. Stately Vermeers in the 1600’s showed a princess in pearls. The new knock-offs feature pugs — presumably drool and all.  Personally we at Roadspoke think the counterfeits will some day be as valuable as the real Picassos, Michelangelo's, Van Gogh's and Davinci's. The collective imagination is superlative and in this time of collective distress, truly uplifting. The challenge has become an unmitigated success with many millions of viewers and thousands of submissions. People from all around the world have the time and inclination to choose a favorite famous pieces of art and re-create them just by using cleaning products or medical supplies or even, heaven help us, plundered toilet products. Describing the images from the esoteric art historian plane…todays interpretations are just a hoot! So how do we link this phenomena back to this upcoming exit? Well it turns out that the Getty has 2 young digital media marketers who created it: Annelisa Stephan and Sarah Waldorf. They created the challenge. Ms Waldorf it turns out is an accomplished digital marketer with tons of illustrative accomplishments — but she is 110% a product of Southern California. She does not even have a record of flying over the I-95 corridor. So no go.  Similarly, Annelisa Stephan is also a child of Southern California. Before she joined the Getty Museum, she was once employed by the Shoah Foundation involved in the recording of thousands of surviving Holocaust Survivors.  This seems like a dead end too until we checked more of her social media. By checking her Linked IN Profile we discovered she attended Yale University. BINGO! So thanks to Annelisa Stephan, a SoCal girl from Los Angeles, we can give thanks in New Haven, Connecticut to the amazingly inspired artistry of COVID quarantined Americans replicating great art pieces all across America. And if you thought the was amazing, the Getty Iris Challenge can be only superseded by one thing: Our challenge. The RoadSpoke Spoken Road Challenge is to say that ten times fast. Repeat after me… “Give thanks to the amazingly inspired artistry of COVID quarantined Americans replicating great art pieces all across America… Give thanks to the amazingly inspired artistry of COVID quarantined Americans replicating great art pieces all across America… Give thanks to the amazingly inspired artistry of COVID quarantined Americans replicating great art pieces all across America.” Now, if only that too would go viral and not like the coronavirus… but in the good way. #Yale #NewHaven #GettyMuseum #GettyIrisChallenge #Art #AnnelisaStephan #SarahWaldorf  EXIT of the DAY: Hear this here…I-95 Virginia Northbound Exit 92 To: VA 54, Ashland near Ashland, VA "If I were a college kid instead of a voice inside your mobile device, I'd want to go to Randolph Macon college. Despite the fact their mascot is a pesky yellow jacket, if you had looked at the campus you would have been no doubt stung by the beauty of the red brick buildings and the gorgeous school grounds.  On top of that I like how they have two semesters - Fall and Spring - pivoting around the month of January. This so-called “J-Term” is a month long semester that students can either stay on campus and study majors intensively, or they can do a study semester abroad, or they can intern off campus in any place or occupation that fits their fancy. Nice, right? Maybe I’d head south to Florida for fashion design. Or go to Utah to study the industry of skiing. Or maybe even wing it to Italy for some Art History? Sign me up. Even more sweet is that the well respected school has only about fourteen hundred students but they are offered a dizzying array of course concentrations. The college offers bachelor's degrees in 38 major disciplines in the liberal arts, including political science, business, psychology, biology, international studies, and computer science, as well as 34 minors, including education. Perhaps since the college is still run according to Methodist principles which include missionary work in distant places, yellow jackets are encouraged to apply their educations in the outside world.   Still, given the attractiveness of the campus, homecoming has got to be just almost as popular as graduation. So even for students returning from a month of skiing in the Rockies or studying on the beach in Miami, your return to campus is no downer, because spring is right around the corner — and you are back with your friends in lovely rural Virginia. Super sweet! Now do they accept single named students like my close friends, Alexa or Siri?" #RandolphMaconCollege #Methodist #Yellowjackets #Students #College #AshvilleVirginia #Jterm   EXIT 6, I-95S To: Atlantic Ave at Greenwich/Stamford, Connecticut Border.
NEWS FLASH! “Hot Sexy Girl seeks Millionaire”. While that is not in fact the Indian translation of the word “Connecticut”, it could be. If you drop by Happy Hour at “Eastend” Restaurant on upcoming Greenwich Avenue in uber-wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut you will encounter a lot of young pretties conversing earnestly with Hedge Fund managers. After New York City, this moderate sized city of 100,000 boasts the most Hedge Funds of any place in the world. But little Connecticut is a place of superlatives both big and small. In fact, the word “Connecticut” is derived from the Algonquian word for “long tidal river”. It refers to the Connecticut River which flows down from Canada. It is the largest river in New England. Connecticut is the 3rd smallest state by area, the 29th most populous, and the 4th most densely populated of the 50 United States. It is known as the “Constitution State”, and the “Provisions State” because, compared to say, North Carolina, it provisioned so much materiel during the Revolution. Still well off, per capita personal income in 2016 was over $60,000. That’s the highest of any state. EXIT of the Day: Hear this Here! EXIT 16s I-95, to Meadowlands, and Met Life Stadium, Near Secaucus, NJ "On your right is the Meadowlands Sports Complex anchored by MetLife Stadium. Oddly it is the home to both the New York Jets and the New York Giants. And yet these New York teams play all their home games here in New Jersey, the Garden State, not the Empire State. In fact, th Buffalo Bills are the only team from New York who play games in New York. Maybe there is something about being an Empire state that you play in another state's territory. But I digress because New Jersey is happy to host these mega-buck franchises.  So Sports fans, now it is time for a Road Test. The winner will get a free coffee at the upcoming 7/Eleven off Exit 16. Now pay attention to the Fast Facts:  Known as the Big Blue Wrecking Crew, the New York Giants were one of five teams that joined the NFL in 1925. It is the only one of that group still existing. More impressive, the team ranks third among all NFL franchises with eight NFL titles: four in the pre–Super Bowl era (1927, 1934, 1938, 1956) and four since the advent of the Super Bowl in 1986, 1990, 2007, and 2011, along with more championship appearances than any other team, with 19 overall appearances. During their history, the Giants have featured 28 Hall of Fame players, including NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award winners Frank Gifford, Y. A. Tittle, and Lawrence Taylor. The team as a whole is occasionally referred to as the "Big Blue Wrecking Crew", even though this moniker originally refers to the Giants defensive unit during the 80s and early 90s.       The team's heated rivalry with the Philadelphia Eagles is the oldest rivalry in the NFL, dating all the way back to 1933.  The Giants played their first game as an away game against All New Britain in New Britain, Connecticut, on October 4, 1925. They defeated New Britain 26–0 in front of a crowd of 10,000. After a disappointing fourth season (1928) owner Wellington Mara Senior — whose family still owns the team — pulled a typically New York kinda Wall Street maneuver to improve his struggling squad. He bought the Detroit Wolverines, principally to acquire star quarterback Benny Friedman. Then he merged the two under the Giants name. In so doing, he also managed to eliminate a competing team, but who was counting? In 1930, there were still many who questioned the quality of the professional game, claiming that college "amateurs" played better. In December 1930, the Giants played a team of Notre Dame All Stars at the Polo Grounds in Harlem to raise money for the unemployed of New York City at the height of the Depression. It was also an opportunity to establish the prestige of the pro game. Legendary Notre Dame coach, Knute Rockne reassembled his Four Horsemen along with the stars of his 1924 Championship squad and told them to score early, then defend. Rockne thought little of pro football and expected an easy win. But from the beginning it was a one-way contest, with Benny Friedman running for two Giant touchdowns and Hap Moran passing for another. Notre Dame failed to score. When it was all over, Coach Rockne told his team, "That was the greatest football machine I ever saw. I am glad none of you got hurt."  The game raised $100,000 for the homeless, and is often credited with establishing the legitimacy of the pro ball. It also was the last game the legendary Rockne ever coached; three months later Knute was killed in an airplane crash. So... better not bad mouth the Giants or it may be bad karma. Finally, in the 1980’s two Hall Of Fame members of the Wrecking Crew are credited with initiating the now common Gatorade Shower of the victorious coach: Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor.  Now for the Road Test. What little mill town in Connecticut had a pro Football Team in 1925? You have 3 seconds to answer. Three… two… and one. If you said New Britain, get over to the right and get ready to receive your free coffee courtesy of 7/Eleven. And tell 'em RoadSpoke’s Wrecking Crew sent you! #BigBlueWreckingCrew #NewYorkGiants #KnuteRockney #NotreDame #PoloGrounds #Meadowlands #MetLife #MetLifeStadium #WellingtonMara #FourHorsemen #NewYorkJets #7/Eleven     Hear this… Here! EXIT 11 I-95 Northbound to North Miami, Florida What's more powerful than a couple of Atom bombs? But is not made by man? Well, if you said a hurricane you would be right. And if you want to know what the most devastating hurricane in terms of dollars lost was — accounting for inflation — the record is still held by the so-called “Great Miami Hurricane” of 1926. Without satellite warnings and without radar, sweeping across unsuspecting islands, cities, and towns, this Category 4 Monster made landfall right here on September 18, 1926. In an era before names, the anonymous monster blasted away with wind gusts of 150 mph. The tropical cyclone devastated the Greater Miami area having hit both the Bahamas and later the Gulf Coast. It accrued $100,000,000 in damage, a toll that remains the costliest in American history when adjusted using inflation and wealth normalization, yielding a cost of nearly 165 BILLION dollars in today's currency! Think of that: $165,000,000,000! Oh my God...That's more money than Jeff Bezos has! As a result of the destruction in Florida, the Miami Hurricane compelled an early start to the Great Depression. In the storm's aftermath, the state's 1920s land boom crashed and local land prices cratered. Banks failed. Jobs vaporized. For the next years, the economic malaise spread subtly across the nation like the rolling fog of a nuclear cloud.   Fast Fact: August 28, 1929 was the height of the 1920’s Bull Market just before the bottom fell out. The Stock Market would take 40 years — not until the 1960’s — to attain the same level as this day in 1929. Scary huh? As you drive through today's packed South Florida communities, think about it. A storm actually started the 12 year Great Depression. Not even a Hydrogen Bomb can do that! #MiamiHurricane #FloridaHurricane #AtomBomb #NuclearBomb #Hydrogenbomb #Bahamas #GulfCoast #1926 #Landboom #GreatDepression #Category4    EXIT 15W; I-95N, to Meadowlands Sports Complex, Met Life Stadium Question... how is it that New England Patriots' Quarterback, Tom Brady has the rival New York Jets to thank for his career? Since the inception of the American Football League in the 1960’s , the Jets have clashed in a marquee rivalry with the New England Patriots. But it was not always such a huge rivalry till the mid 1990’s. The rivalry began to receive increased media attention in 1997 when a disgruntled Hall of Fame Coach Bill Parcells quit his head coaching position with the Patriots to join the Jets. This left New England seeking vengeance on an annual basis. Fast Fact: Parcells was born in nearby Englewood, New Jersey and most famously turned the New York Giants into a Super Bowl winning franchise in the 1980's.    But I digress. Fast forward to 2001. The Patriots star quarterback was Drew Bledsoe. Then just 12 days after 9/11, on September 23, 2001 Jets linebacker Mo Lewis slammed Drew Bledsoe, leaving the New England star with internal bleeding. This provided an opportunity for a young unknown to take over. That unknown was a gangly hard working backup named Tom Brady. Since that game against the Jets, Tom Brady led New England to four Super Bowl titles and arguably had become a dynasty of sorts. Meanwhile the Jets have struggled in the shadow of not just the Patriots but even their crosstown rivals, the Giants.  The New York Jets was founded in 1959 as the New York Titans, an original member of the American Football League. The current name was adopted in 1963 when the franchise moved to Shea Stadium in Queens. Led by the quintessential playboy quarterback, “Broadway Joe” Namath, the Jets advanced to the playoffs for the first time in 1968 and went on to compete in Super Bowl 3. There they faced the much favored Baltimore Colts under Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas. To great surprise, they defeated the Baltimore Colts, becoming the first AFL team to defeat an NFL club in an AFL-NFL World Championship Game.    Since 1968, the Jets have appeared in the playoffs 13 times, and in the AFC Championship Game four times, most recently losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010. However, the Jets have never returned to the Super Bowl.  On your left is MetLife Stadium. If you are passing it on a Sunday evening in the autumn you can tell which team is playing. Back in the early aughts, the Jets agreed to enter a 50–50 partnership with their rival, the Giants, to build MetLife agreeing to a 99-year lease. MetLife Stadium became the first in the history of the NFL to be jointly built by two franchises. It opened in April 2010 and saw the Jets and Giants open the stadium together in a preseason game.  Except for such so-called “subway series” contests, the stadium is illuminated in different colors depending on which team is hosting a game: blue for the Giants; green for the Jets. Will this season be the one in which the Jets win their next Super Bowl? If the lights glow green, just ask any nearby fan on the Interstate. The answer is always yes. Go Gang Green! #NewYorkJets #GangGreen #BroadwayJoeNamath #SuperBowl #NewYorkGiants #NewYorkTitans #Meadowlands #Englewood #BillParcells #NewEnglandPatriots #TomBrady #DrewBledsoe #MoLewis #NewJersey  |
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