Mushroom Festival

Richmond, Missouri, is known for its highly prized morel mushrooms, which resemble a deeply pitted or folded cone-like sponge at the top of a hollow stem. The highlight of the annual Mushroom Festival, which has been held in Richmond since 1980, is the Big Morel Contest. Other events include a parade, crafts, a carnival, mushroom eating, and much more. Mushroom hunters flock to the town’s wooded areas in search of the morel, known as the “Golden Fleece of mushrooms” because it is hard to find and has never been successfully cultivated. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Robert Browning (1812)

Browning was a leading Victorian poet known for his dramatic monologues. In 1846, he secretly married Elizabeth Barrett, whisking her away from her despotic father to Italy. Barrett was already a famous poet, but Browning’s poems—such as “Fra Lippo Lippi” and “The Bishop Orders His Tomb”—gained recognition slowly. Long after his beloved wife’s death, his novel in verse about a murder, The Ring and the Book, finally earned him wide acclaim. In 1890, he became the first dead man to do what? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Deadly Yellow River

Stretching 3,395 miles (5,464 km), the Yellow River, or Huang He, is the world’s sixth longest river. Called the “the cradle of Chinese civilization” because its basin is the birthplace of the northern Chinese civilizations, the oft-flooding river has also earned the nickname “China’s Sorrow.” Its floods—more than 1,500 in the last 3 to 4 millennia—have caused some of the deadliest natural disasters in human history and claimed millions of lives. How was the river once used as a weapon of war? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Hindenburg Disaster (1937)

Launched in 1936 in Germany, the Hindenburg was the largest rigid airship ever constructed and was promoted by the Nazis as a symbol of national pride. It started the first commercial air service across the North Atlantic and made several trips to the Americas. On one such trip, the hydrogen-filled airship violently and unexpectedly exploded in flames and crashed in New Jersey, killing 35 of the 97 people on board. What non-flammable gas was originally supposed to provide the airship’s lift? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is the greatest and most glamorous horse race in America, run since 1875 in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a one-and-one-quarter-mile race for three-year-old thoroughbreds and is the first race in the Triple Crown. The Derby became Louisville’s major social occasion of the year; women to this day wear their most stylish hats to the racetrack, and there are numerous lavish Derby breakfasts and parties. And, of course, the Derby wouldn’t be the Derby without mint juleps, the bourbon-and-mint drink served in cold silver cups. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (1758)

Robespierre was one of the leading figures of the French Revolution. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1789 and became an influential orator. After calling for the execution of the king in 1792, he led the Jacobins and the Committee of Public Safety in establishing the Reign of Terror, during which hundreds of thousands of political opponents were arrested and thousands were guillotined. In 1794, he was overthrown and executed. What was his role in the Cult of the Supreme Being? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Vertigo

Derived from a Latin phrase meaning “a condition of turning about,” the term vertigo is used in medical circles to describe the sensation of spinning or swaying while the body is stationary. Usually associated with a disturbance in the inner ear balance mechanism, the brain, or nerve connections between the two, vertigo is a major symptom of a balance disorder. There are two types of vertigo: subjective and objective. What is the difference between the two? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary