Here I am being interviewed by Kermit for Sesame Street News Flash.
"I said nothing when the recession hit Wall Street. But when it hit Sesame Street, I knew something had to be done."
Basically, the participants of Occupy Wall Street have been protesting social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and government lobbyists since Sept. 17, 2011.
About two weeks later it hit Sesame Street and I knew I had to get involved.
Are you among the 99 percent?
Remember, in a democracy, it's your vote that counts. On Sesame Street, it's your Count that votes.
I was fascinated to read this weekend that the world's oldest known working automobile sold Friday, Oct. 7, 2011 for an astounding $4.2 million to an undisclosed bidder.
Sadly, that buyer was not me.
La Marquise is an 1884 prototype built by De Dion-Bouton, a French automobile manufacturer founded in 1883 by de Dion, Georges Bouton and his brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux, and named for the mother of Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, the Count of Dion.
In 1887, De Dion drove La Marquise in the "world’s first car race," although she was the only entrant. She made the 20-odd-mile Paris-to-Versailles round trip at an average speed of almost 16 m.p.h. (The next year, De Dion beat Bouton on a three-wheeler with an average speed of 18 m.p.h.!)
Fueled by coal, wood and paper, La Marquise takes 30-40 minutes to build up enough steam to drive and her top speed is 38 miles per hour.
Here are some documented facts about La Marquise according to the auction house:
Named La Marquise after the Count de Dion’s mother
At 127 years of age, the oldest running motor car in the world
Single family ownership for 81 years and only four owners from new
Participant in the first automobile race in 1887
Veteran of four London-to-Brighton runs
Pebble Beach Concours double award winner in 1997
Capable of 38 mph, 20 miles on tank of water
Veteran Car Club dating certificate #1750
Offered from the Estate of John O’Quinn
As the oldest car, La Marquise wore the number "0" in the 1996 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.
Make sure you watch the video. It might make you appreciate your modern automobile more!
The Associated Press reports that Union regiments in and around Washington are slowly readying winter quarters. Absent major fighting, there are only sporadic skirmishes, firing and occasion potshots taken between rival pickets near the federal capital. "The Second Massachusetts are erecting a spacious stable for their horses, and digging cellars for their tents," The AP reports in an Oct. 12 dispatch. Although there are no major battles during this time, nerves are on edge from skirmishes. "About twenty heavy guns were heard ... Thursday night in the direction of the Great Falls" but the cause was unknown, one AP correspondent writes this week. Stormy weather signals the approaching winter at Fortress Monroe, the Union-held stone bastion on the Virginia coast. Reports note that a "severe gale now prevailing" has blocked a U.S. Treasury cutter from departing to enforce a federal blockade on Southern seaports from Virginia's Hampton Roads to Hatteras, N.C., an area used by contraband smugglers to run goods to the Confederacy. At Fortress Monroe, a federal tug exchanges shots with Confederates manning a battery beside the James River leading to Richmond, the Confederate capital. Meanwhile, the Union is bolstering its defendses at Fort Monroe, an imposing stronghold that would have military use for nearly 200 years until its deactivation in September 2011. "The Union gun is now mounted so as to sweep the Roads between the Fortress and Sewall's Point" nearby, the AP reports. Meanwhile, troops are erecting wooden houses on the fortress grounds for winter accommodations and readying more holding cells for smugglers caught aiding the Confederacy.
