Open thread 6/25/2026
I’ve cued up a clip about two and a half minutes long. It contains some facts I probably ought to have realized but never knew till I listened to the video:
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
I’ve cued up a clip about two and a half minutes long. It contains some facts I probably ought to have realized but never knew till I listened to the video:
Knew some of that, but not all. I90 looks longer than I5. I live 5 miles off I25. The other highway system is the “US Highway” system. I live a block off HY287, which is very long, from S. Texas to almost the Canadian border. 1791 miles.
We finally have some rain. Not a lot, but better than nothing
Neo,
Did you know that Hawaii has an interstate highway. Also.what makes an interstate a interstate?
@Sennacherib:Also.what makes an interstate a interstate?
Compliance with Federal regulation is the short answer. An Interstate has to meet certain specifications that US numbered highways don’t.
Did you know that Hawaii has an interstate highway.
Of course, it’s not fair that they don’t get any sweet Federal highway cash just because they have no land connections. Hawaiian contractors also need to wet their beaks in our wallets. Alaska has them too.
The music is so distracting, I wonder why so many informational videos such as this one find it necessary to add it.
American Interstate origins in Germany’s autobahn system – Eisenhower liked it.
I was stationed as a spy on the Czech/German border in Germany 20 some years after WWII and used Highway’s #85 and #22 – the Hitler built “Ostmarkstrasse” built to defend the Czech/German border. Nice road – Passau to Hof mostly through the Bavarian Forest and Upper Palatinate Forest regions.
Mussolini “made the trains run on time” and Hitler built nice roads. Other than that not much good.
I knew most of this, from having driven over much of the interstate system. I didn’t know why 50 and 60 were missing. They might need them sometime. In the South, at least, we don’t say “Take the 40.” We say, “Take I-40,” so there would be no connection with a US 40, if there is one.
The numerous Wikipedia articles on the interstate system, the so-called* federal highway system, and related matters are quite interesting, if you’re into those kinds of technicalities. Likewise the phone number system.
*These aren’t really federal per se. They are mostly state roads in a numbering pattern that contiguous states agree to.
Kate: The use of “the” may be a California thing – ?? On reruns of “The Closer,” set in LA, the dialog includes statements like, “I took the 101” (which is a federal route).
Another fact, or legend, about the interstate is that local police cannot patrol it; only state patrols. Don’t know if that is true, but it was widely believed.
The justification that Ike gave for building the system was national defense.
Most folks take the system for granted now, but I drove from Florida to California on US 90; and made multiple drives from Virginia to Florida on US 1, or US 17. In addition to routine small town slow downs every few miles, there were numerous speed traps scattered along the way. Believe me, when the interstates opened it was a breath of fresh air.
Nick,
It has to comply with federal regs. One is it must connect.military installations. Thank old Dwight.
I didn’t realize I5 was the.longest I thought I35 was. The Pan-Am highway.
I didn’t realize part of it.is US183.
I knew most of this, from having driven over much of the interstate system. I didn’t know why 50 and 60 were missing. They might need them sometime.
Interstate E-W routes increase from south to north. I-10 though Florida and Texas, etc.. I-90 through Washington state ,Montana, Massachusetts, etc.
US E-W routes increase from north to south. US 2 from Maine to Montana to Washington state. US 90 from Florida to Texas.
In the middle of the country, the 50 and 60 of the US highway system are close to where 50 and 60 of the Interstate highway system would be. Thus no 50 or 60 on the Interstate—to prevent confusion.
Calling an interstate “The 5” or “The 10” is definitely a California—or SoCal—thing. I have only once come across a non-California reference to “The numbered interstate. I recently skimmed Larry McMurtry’s Roads: Driving America’s Great Highways. He has chapters on some interstates in California lingo: “The 10, the 35, the 70,” etc. I found most interesting his chapters on:
1.”The 35,” a.k.a I-35, because he took a side trip from Laredo on US 83 north to his home in Archer County, because he passed through some towns that I passed through to visit relatives in Oklahoma.
2. Short Roads to a Deep Place, as it discusses the dirt roads in his Archer County home, and the historical progression of transport modes there. He remembers riding w on horseback behind his grandfather to get to the post office, and driving cattle on foot to get sold. Soon after, they got transported in trucks.
When I was five, we moved from southern Wisconsin to Phoenix. We went on Route 66 until we detoured through the Salt River canyon to reach the Valley of the Sun. Quite a trip.
How has all the joy from FIFA World Cup fans struck Canadian’s?
I’m glad you asked.
Apparently, only the Far Left (via Ottawa’s money) paid shills in the Media are crowing about how good Canuckistan’s stadiums are.
And online, people there notice the yawning difference between their games and those in the US via Vox populi. The vote finds the world crashing out of Canada.
Should this move us Canadiens to rethink our attitude’s towards the South? The USA?
David Rose in Vancouver poses this question after laying out the evidence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcfJ_e7VTok
“In this video, I explore what the World Cup is revealing about how the world sees America, why some Canadians struggle with America’s popularity, and what this says about the broader Canada–America relationship.
“Do Canadians have an America problem, or is” it something else?”
Couple of items about the interstates. There’s lots of info available but the best description of the origin is in Winchester’s “The Men Who United The States”. It’s a series of essays about the inventors or developers of…roads, macadam, telegraph, canals, television, so forth. One has to do with a convoy of trucks the US Army sent from DC to Oakland, CA in 1919. Took two months and twenty-one soldiers were injured in the process. Goal was to find out if there was a useful alternative to railroads for long-distance military logistics. Turns95 out roads weren’t it. One of the officers in the operation was Ike, and it seemed to have marked him.
It was Ike who started the National Defense Highway Act. It’s not the long-distance commuter convenience act.
One indication of its purpose is a couple of the interstates. I runs from Duluth, a deep water port, to Corpus, Christi, ditto. West of there are no more north-south interstates because….no deep water ports to connect until the coast. I95 runs from Florida north past every useful deep water port on the east coast. And, having cleared Boston, continues into northern New England. Why do we need an interstate, high-volume and high-speed capable, in the piney woods of Maine? To connect with the TransCanada Highway which runs to St. Johns, a useful port in both world wars.
Shirehome — I punched in Directions form Houlton Airport to Vizcay Museum and Gardens in Google Maps, and the shortest distance (presumably all th way on I-95) is 1845 miles. If you want to go to the End of “95” in Canada, Woodstock NB, that adds 16 miles.
From the Peace Arch, right on the Border with Canada to the San Ysidro Bording Crossing is 2,222 miles.
So, yeah, the 5 is definitely longer.
I-40 is 2556.61 miles from Barstow, CA, to Wilmington, NC.
Looking at YouTube, a lot of often over weight women, mostly black, who already have a lot of baggage— two or three children, often by different men—come on shows like that of the late Kevin Samuels, and talk about how they want a “ high value man,” someone earning hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, and they have a lot of demands, but never list what they might bring to such a relationship—“queens” that they believe themselves to be, they just want to sit back and be taken care of.
What the hell has happened to the relationship between men and women?
P.S. And from what I can see, this warped situation is not confined just to the black community, it seems to exist —to some extent— all over.
Or is it that normal women are not the ones you see on, or who are appearing on YouTube.
Snow on Pine:
YouTube or TikTok “influencers” are hardly typical of anything. But they do get a loud megaphone to spread the word to others.
It’s hard to say about the numbers.
Most of the younger generation I know are quite normal in that regard, are married, have children, and have stable relationships. But are they typical? Yes, but not as typical as they used to be.
Oldflyer, we have seen sheriff’s cars on the interstates we have traveled. And not illogically, we have seen city LEO’s patrolling on interstates going through a major city.
“Calling an interstate “The 5” or “The 10” is definitely a California—or SoCal—thing”
SoCal. I live in the San Francisco bay area and almost nobody uses it here.
“…typical…”
Just a sec.
How do we know they’re not aliens…sent on a secret mission to discombobulate, confuse and demoralize?
(For that matter, how do WE know we’re not aliens…?)
“I didn’t realize I5 was the.longest”
It’s not, and the video never claimed it was. The claim was that I-5 was the only interstate that ran from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. Any of the coast-to-coast routes is longer; It’s not even the longest N-S route, since I-75 runs from Sault Ste. Marie to Miami. Even ignoring the eighty miles across Florida at the end, it’s still more than 300 miles longer.