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In 1930 F.C. Hall, a wealthy Oklahoma oilman, bought a Lockheed Vega model 5-C. The plane was nicknamed Winnie Mae, after Hall’s daughter; and Hall’s personal pilot was none other than Wiley Post.

Wiley Post and the Winnie Mae set twice the record for flying around the world: the first time in June, 1931 (an 8 days, 16 hours flight with navigator Harold Gatty) and the second time in July, 1933 (a solo flight of 7 days, 19 hours).

Post and Gatty published a book about their journey, titling it Around the World in Eight Days, a play on the title of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. Will Rogers contributed an introduction to the book.

The Winnie Mae is now in the collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC; a full size replica of the plane is in the new Oklahoma History Center, in Oklahoma City.

Until 1971, the February 22 birthday of George Washington, hero of the Revolutionary War and first president of the United States, was a national holiday.

In addition, the February 12 birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the president during the Civil War, was a holiday in most states.

In 1971 the two days were joined, and one single federal holiday, the Presidents’ Day, is now celebrated on the third Monday of February (February 18 in 2008).

Edmond Memorial High School, EMHS, home of the Bulldogs, is one of the three High Schools in Edmond, OK. The other two are North, home of the Huskies, and Santa Fe, home of the Wolves; all three schools, according to Newsweek, rank among “The 1000 Best High Schools in America”, that is the top 4% of public high schools in the nation.

The EMHS Swine Week is the school charitable week, taking place this year in the week of February 19. The tradition began in 1986, when the student council decided to raise money for a classmate who was ill. To entice students to donate, the teachers agreed to kiss a pig, hence the name Swine Week.

This year recipient is the Hearts for Hearing Foundation, an Oklahoma based non-profit organization devoted to providing resources for deaf children. Last year the students exceeded their goal of $135,000 by raising a grand total of over $141,000, and this year they are striving to make even better. Go Bulldogs!

Update: EMHS students have raised this year more than $178,000. Congratulations!

In 1936 Sylvan Goldman, owner of a self service store chain in Oklahoma City, had long realized that his grocery sales were limited by the size of his shopping baskets. His stores, like others of that era, had a supply of wicker or wire market baskets, for their shoppers convenience, but these baskets became heavy as they were loaded with food items, particularly for the woman buyer, who usually did most of the shopping.

One evening Goldman’s attention was drawn to two ordinary folding chairs. With a sudden burst of insight he envisioned a solution for the arm-weary shopper. If the seat of a folding chair were raised several inches and another similar seat were added below, a basket could be placed on each of them. Wheels attached to each leg would make the chair mobile, and the back of the chair could be adapted as a handle to push the cart. The basic drudgery of grocery buying would be eliminated, and the volume of grocery sales would be greatly increased. The shopping cart idea was born.

Later Sylvan Goldman built and patented his invention, and eventually became a multimillionaire. To learn more on Sylvan Goldman and the first shopping cart, you can visit the RealCart University site.

Chester Gould was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, in 1900. Later his family moved to Stillwater, where he attended Oklahoma State University. In 1921 he decided to move to Chicago, with only $50 in his pocket, a suitcase and his portfolio.

His dream was to become a cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune; he spent 10 years working on other papers while submitting ideas to the Tribune. At last his idea of a detective story, filled with action and fast-paced, the first of its kind, was accepted and the “Dick Tracy” comic strip was born.

Dick Tracy became so popular that it appeared on the front page of the New York Daily News for 45 consecutive years, and it was seen in 27 foreign papers.

Chester Gould’s biography notes come from The Chester Gould – Dick Tracy Museum; and the picture is the DVD cover of the 1990 movie “Dick Tracy” directed by Warren Beatty.