Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - October 27, 2026

Howdy Hordelings! The Tuesday ONT has arrived. On time, as always. Open thread, as always. Ready to be whelmed?

[I won't be on until late this evening. Photo and mystery click are clues as to where I am and why I'll be late!]

Route 66 Turns 100

What's left of it anyway

The rise and fall of Route 66

In the 1940s and '50s, Route 66 was one of America's most popular highways, driving business to small towns from Chicago to Santa Monica. But today, the road and its people have been largely forgotten. Ghost towns, empty motels, and abandoned gas stations line its path. Chief correspondent Abby Narishkin grew up along the road. In celebration of its 100th anniversary, she drove down the old route herself to visit the people and businesses still keeping this Americana legacy alive.

Video segment at the link

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Keeping "The Mother Road" alive

This motel is keeping the history of Route 66 alive with its wigwam rooms

U.S. Highway 66, also known as “the Mother Road,” was built in 1926 to connect Chicago to Los Angeles. Historians say Route 66 became a lifeline during the Great Depression, a major corridor during World War Two, and later a symbol of freedom for postwar families traveling west.

As the interstate system expanded, it gradually replaced Route 66, leaving many mom-and-pop stops behind.

But the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona is one of the businesses still standing along the historic highway.

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“It’s America, it’s amazing, they don’t write songs about I-10, they write songs about Route 66,” Richards said.

Richards said fewer places like the Wigwam Motel remain today.

“These we’re losing more of these places -- we’re not really gaining them,” Richards said.

Video segment at that link too.

As for the well known song about Route 66, I'm partial to this version

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The "anti-Route 66"?

Route 66’s unsung alternative, with historic inns and misty mountains

Sometimes travelling through the sugar-maple forests of Vermont feels faintly absurd. I was canoeing across a blue-green lake, deep in the Green Mountains, in the pearl glow of sunset. My paddle sang through the water as flutelike birdsong filled the silence. Blue jays whistled. Damselflies hovered. This was prime black bear habitat, but I saw no signs. Instead, a bass breached the surface.

Zoom out to a drone’s-eye view — above the water, above the beaver dam, above my lakeshore log cabin at Sterling Ridge Resort in Jeffersonville — and you’d see that there was no one else around

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Five days earlier, in late June, I had flown to Boston, picked up a rental car and driven 150 miles northwest into the Green Mountain State, the mercury nudging 30C [86F], to begin my journey along Route 100, which would eventually end up here. I was chasing the most wholesome road trip possible, one with historic inns, misty mountains and dairy farms reached by slow, radio-static country roads — an anti-Route 66, if you like. It’s easy to find that here, plus hippy-dippy liberalism, fierce small-town identity and an almost suspicious amount of cheese. We all pine to hide in the woods sometimes, and I wanted the jazzy moo of dairy cows, the burble of waterfalls and nowhere much to be. If Vermont is beautiful in summer, I could only imagine how spectacular the state’s sorbet-shaded foliage, abundance of pumpkin farms and explosive mountain light would be in leaf-peeping season.

Nice photos at the link. Article is from a Brit but is decent, nonetheless.

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How common is your birthday?

JJ Sefton need not look!

Ranked: The Most and Least Common Birthdays in America

September dominates the top of the ranking, claiming eight of the first 10 spots. September 9 takes first place, followed by September 20, September 19, and September 14. July 7 breaks the pattern in fifth place, while December 28 ranks sixth despite falling during the year-end holiday period.

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How many of you are into 3D printing?

Here are some ideas for you!

6 gloriously useless 3D printing projects that are way more fun than bedroom organizers

I stopped buying cable organizers once I started 3D printing my own

What kind of stuff have you 3D printed??

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Signature sandwiches from each state.

No hot dog???

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This has been hitting my X feed a lot recently. I don't think this is from an actual episode of The Flintstones. Or is it??

Anyway, it's kinda funny - I think.

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Halloween is just a few days away. Perhaps something related that you've never seen before?

Flintstones... Halloween... Let's cross the streams!

DJ Doof - Not-So-Random Stuff Edition

RIP Donnie Iris, who passed away yesterday at age 83

Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) was born on this date in 1967

Lou Reed passed away on this date in 2013

Tonight's ONT brought to you by painful memories

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posted by Doof at 10:00 PM

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