Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - July 7, 2026 [Doof]

The Tuesday night ONT is here for you. Open thread, as always. Got anything interesting on your mind tonight?

[Top photo: "Its Beach" in Santa Cruz, CA]

Fourth of July Leftover

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USA got eliminated from the World Cup? Not so fast!

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The Babylon Bee is a national treasure

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Cashing in on the World Cup

I'm a veteran who runs a flag business. We were blindsided by World Cup demand, and sales are up 130%

Our flag sales are normally almost entirely US, state, and military flags. So when we started getting more and more inquiries about world flags during our offseason in January and February, I knew something was up.

Then I started putting it all together. The World Cup was coming, and it was about to change our business.

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When we took over, our goal was simply to survive those first few months and build out the e-commerce side of the business. We certainly weren't looking ahead to the World Cup or America's 250th birthday, but we've definitely benefited from some tailwinds.

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The World Cup, combined with America's 250th anniversary, has supercharged our business. We've seen tremendous national growth, and these events have definitely moved the needle for us. We've been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Good ol' capitalism. Gotta love it!

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Any other map and highway nerds out there?

70 Years of the Interstate: How the U.S. Highway System Built the America We Know

Seventy years ago, on June 29, 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, aka the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, into law. It created the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, better known as the Interstate Highway System. Or, simply, “the Interstate.” Ike signed the bill, along with 26 others that day, from a hospital bed at Walter Reed after an intestinal infection and operation. No press. No photographers. His press secretary was there to witness the signing, and that’s it. It was a shrug-worthy opening ceremony for what would become this country’s largest-ever public works project as well as an agent of almost immeasurable cultural, economic, and physical change.

Aside from being a marvel of civil engineering, the Interstates created jobs and boosted the economy. They made travel easier and more accessible. They made shipping more efficient. They also brought added safety compared to other highways. But they also screwed a lot of people over. Small towns bypassed by new Interstate routes withered and died. According to Department of Transportation estimates, Interstate construction displaced over a million Americans and destroyed 475,000 homes.

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When the original 1916 Federal Highway Aid Act expired, the Federal Highway Aid Act of 1921 superseded it. The ’21 bill further consolidated the federal/state partnership, allowing states to conduct their own road-building projects, albeit to federal standards, with $75M allocated annually for the construction of a national road grid of interconnected “primary highways.” The “later [1956] interstate highway bill… would not have been possible, or necessary” without the 1921 bill, according to Swift.

By 1921, the Office of Road Inquiry had grown into the Bureau of Public Roads. Its head, Thomas MacDonald, wanted a better understanding of the nation’s road system, not just for public use but for military use. That year, he commissioned the Army to produce a map of public roads that were useful for interstate travel as well as for defense. The so-called “Pershing Map,” after the general who produced it, included 78,000 miles of public roads and proved to be an important tool in later planning for the Interstate system.

Another important step in the growing road network was the United States Numbered Highway System, first designated 100 years ago in 1926. Interstate trails and named highways had been spreading across the country, but with no uniformity and spotty maintenance. The Numbered Highway System addressed this by creating the “U.S. Routes,” with numbers instead of names, identified by a recognizable white-and-black shield. North-south routes were to feature odd numbers, with the lowest number starting on the East Coast and the most significant routes ending in “1” or “5.” East-west routes featured even numbers, with the lowest number starting on the northern border and primary routes ending in “0.” Despite the name “U.S. Routes,” these roads were built and are maintained at the state level. By the end of the 1920s, the Bureau had invested three-quarters of a billion dollars in road building and improvement, paving or resurfacing over 90,000 miles of highway, according to Spencer Headworth’s book Rules of the Road.

Very long article but fascinating for aforementioned map / highways nerds like me. Check it out and catch me at the next MoMe so we can discuss this kin of stuff!

DJ Doof - Random Stuff Edition

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posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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