Monday Night ONT - July 27, 2026 [TRex]

Good evening Horde. The time has come for Monday? shenanigans. That's right! Monday shenanigans. This is what happens when someone leaves the keys to the blog unattended. The bar is open and freshly re-stocked. Grape nehi soda for everyone tonight!

Welcome to the Monday night ONT which means vintage overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and join the fun. Good will offerings of amusing puns are encouraged. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors. I am not sure of the customary tradition for pants on a Monday, so we'll say that pants are optional. I am sure that this ONT is a Tucker, Candace, Megyn, and Bill Kristol free zone. Fauci is fair game.

[Top photo: 240mm shell handling at the Watertown Arsenal in Massachusetts in 1945. 240mm?! Yikes!]

The ONT has dialed up the wayback machine tonight with very random results.

Springfield Armory museum, circa 1950s (the boy's weapon appears to have a rubber barrel and a flexible bayonet?):

Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo Annex, Building 99, 1905 (built in 1900, the interweb says this two-story firehouse was notable for being the first steel-frame building constructed on the island. It was moved in 1916 but I don't know if it still exists.):

St. Francis Hotel after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake - it fared better than surrounding buildings due to its steel structure but the fires gutted the interior:

Construction of Husky Stadium on the University of Washington Campus, 1920:

Secondhand store in Peoria, Illinois, 1938 (I do not believe the horse is real. Well, it is real but it isn't living.):

Late stage excavation activity of the Panama Canal, 1914:

USS Maine at Hunters Point, San Francisco, circa 1908 (not the same USS Maine that blew up in Havana Harbor):

Los Angeles Alligator Farm, circa 1907 (note the alligators going down the water slide):

Alligator farm? Yes, alligator farm:

From 1907 until its relocation in 1953, the area of Lincoln Heights was home to what the Los Angeles Times dubbed "the city's most exotic residents": a thousand-strong collection of alligators that welcomed visitors every day of the year to see, pose with, and even ride them.

Lincoln Heights is on either side of the 5, between the 10 and 110. Think adjacent to Chinatown in downtown LA. Fun for the whole family, right? Seems like sensible entertainment for a toddler.

Where and when? (no, I don't know for sure):

How was D-Day reported in Britain?

You want music in your ONT? Here you go.

SpaceX Starship Ship 40 update: Ship 40 landed in the Indian Ocean at the end of Flight 13 last Friday. Unlike other landings, Ship 40 did not explode. Instead, it softly toppled over, fully intact, and floated on the surface. Apparently, this contingency was not expected. There were no on-site provisions to tow it to port or sink it. SpaceX was undoubtedly delighted to be able to see test results but we don't know their plans. Last I saw (6 hours ago), Ship 40 was still floating and had drifted over 200km from its landing position. A SpaceX vessel on-site to document the landing is shadowing it, but doesn't seem to be towing it. Elon Musk has said that they will try to catch the ship back a the launch pad tower for the next test if the post-flight mission review goes well.

Stay tuned...

This ONT was brought to you by the Kool-Aid Man. Oh yeah!

You're always welcome to just stay here and drink. Correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com where it will be promptly misfiled.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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