DID YOU KNOW
Katharine Lee Bates was inspired to write “America the Beautiful” when standing atop Pikes Peak in 1893.
Last year on Aug. 1, Colorado Day, the Colorado Springs City Council accepted a donation of a bronze memorial for the city’s America the Beautiful Park, 126 Cimino Drive, to honor the song and its author.
The park was originally named Confluence Park, but the name was changed to America the Beautiful in 2005.
House Joint Resolution 1040 was introduced this session to commemorate the memorial as a symbol of patriotism, historic reverence and portrayal of the country’s national symbols and to recognize the significance of writing the song in Colorado Springs.
Source: Colorado General Assembly
Partly sunny, chance of plagues
State representatives poked some fun at themselves Thursday for canceling work last Friday when it seemed a fierce snowstorm was looming. The storm ended up missing Denver entirely, the sky was sunny and lawmakers were absent.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff proposed this schedule of cancellations for next week:
Monday: Hail
Tuesday: Locusts
Wednesday: Frogs
Thursday: Boils
“And Friday,” he said, “will be called off on account of Darkness.”
He’s just trying to walk his talk
Colleagues of Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, finally got fed up with his penchant for roaming during committee hearings. Sens. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, and Jack Taylor, R-Steamboat Springs, actually tied him to his chair during an agriculture committee hearing Thursday.
“I knew it would finally happen,” Romer said later. “I’m glad it’s not the governor’s office. They just would have put a string around my neck and hung me.”
Can we quote you on that?
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’m going to be one tough son of a gun.”
-Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, after receiving a standing ovation in the House for completing seven weeks of cancer treatment.
Merrifield, who is battling throat cancer, lost 20 pounds and nearly lost his voice.
