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Friday, March 22, 2013

Khamasin

Yesterday afternoon we noticed that the morning temperature back home was 5.  That's a chilly temperature for springtime!

We awoke this morning to bad Spring weather here too.
Khamasin-1 Khamasin-2

This kind of storm has a name, of course.  Khamasin.  At this time of year, the temperature is variable and the winds blow from Libya.

No pyramids or Citadel view today.
Khamasin-4 Khamasin-3

We'll just make it an "inside day."  Linda has her cookie sheets out and I can finish my research on the New Mexico School of Mines from the late 1940s through the 1950s.  The school graduated a class of 18 in 1949.  I'm focused on a couple of mathematicians, the history of the proximity fuse and rain-making.  But along the way, I also discovered the first "big man," a seven-foot one-inch basketball player,  Elmore Morgenthaler.  


From  the sports pages of several papers on 9/11/1946

NEWTON, MASS., —(U.P.) The
big man on the campus at Boston
college today was seven-foot, one-
Inch Elmore Morgenthaler of Amarillo,
Tex., tallest basketball player
in the nation.
The Giant center enrolled as a
freshman after attending the New
Mexico School of Mines for one
semester last season. He made 395
points in 28 games to rank as the
second highest scorer in the country.
Morgenthaler, who weighs 216
pounds and believes he is still growing,
says he specializes in the
"dunk shot."
"I just get the ball and dunk it
in the basket," he explained.

Sports were eliminated at the School of Mines by the scientist who reluctantly took it over in 46.
  


That seems like a fitting sidebar to the start of March Madness.  My picks are in.  I'm looking for Minnesota to go out in game 1, Gonzaga to win 2 and Indiana to win it all.


UPDATE: The Next Day
The morning after the Khamasin, I looked at the balcony and my breakfast/coffee/newspaper chair.
EgyptKhamasin-1

The desert sand is very comparable to cinnamon.  It is that fine.  It's very hard to sweep or dust. 

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