Friday Snippets and Soundbites

Happy Friday! We hope you'll all enjoy your Memorial Day weekend (and take some time to think about what the day is really about. See page 42 of the May ec for more on that).

But what a better way to kick off the unofficial start of summer than with a collection of all things random? Nothing! (Or at least that's what we think.) And if today's online edition of "Snippets and Soundbites" isn't enough for you, please check out page 38 in this month's (and every month's) issue of the magazine.

Up, Up, and Away!
For centuries people have been coming up with interesting ways to cross the English Channel. Swimmers have crossed it; people have flown airplanes, hovercrafts, and even hydrogen/hot air balloon combinations. But this week, an American took a chance and crossed the Channel tied to a bundle of helium balloons. The man, a 36-year-old from Raleigh, N.C., was strapped into a specially equipped chair connected to a cluster of large helium balloons. He lifted off early this morning from Kent, in southeast England. He landed in France about five hours later and landed in a cabbage field by simply cutting some of the balloons away. Interestingly enough, this isn't the first time someone has attempted this kind of Channel crossing. Back in 1785, French balloonist Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard and John Jeffries, an American doctor who paid for the flight, set off in a hydrogen balloon which started leaking in flight. They ended up having to dump most everything they had onboard into the water and just managed to stay airborne and land in Calais. To learn more about today's feat, go here.

It's never too late to graduate. 

Last week, we had the story of an elderly college graduate. This week, we have the story of Reuben Ayala who was drafted in 1944 and went off to World War II. He was 18 years old and had just completed his junior year of high school. Ayala wanted to finish high school, but after he got back from the war, it just didn't happen. He went on with his life and really didn't talk much about World War II, the things he'd seen and had to partcipate in, even with his family members. Even his children didn't find out that he'd never finished high school until recently. But that missing diploma was taken care of last Saturday when he participated in the graduation ceremony at Brighton High School in Colorado and received his diploma. He was the only graduate to receive a standing ovation from the entire crowd and also the only graduate with 13 grandchildren and 18 great-grandkids. The diploma was made possible through a program called "Operation Recognition — Veterans Diploma Project." The nonprofit program allows veterans whose high school education was interrupted because of WWII, Korea, or Vietnam to receive a diploma. Read more about Ayala's story here.

Frogs: a plague

Remember that story in the Bible about the plagues upon Egypt? Remember how one of them was frogs? Think about how you'd feel if frogs were everywhere, on everything, in everything. Well, that's like the way some residents in Thessaloniki, Greece, feel these days. Officials have had to completely close a busy highway there because thousands of frogs have gathered there. Yesterday, police were directing traffic around frogs on the Egnatia Highway about 12.5 miles outside Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki. Apparently the frogs came from a nearby like, which they left in search of food. Police had to close a section of the highway on Wednesday after three cars skidded off the road when the drivers tried to dodge the frogs. Read more here.