#51: World Figure Skating Championship Update, Historic March to Montgomery, Gray Whale Road Trip

On this episode of the Kids Morning News Network:
-Tolkien Reading Day 
-World Figure Skating Championship
-Selma to Montgomery march
-Gray whales on the move
-Dante Day
-Daily riddle
-Weather

For more on #TolkienReadingDay visit @prancingponypod and @LOTRSoundscape

Transcript

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from the cam And then studios this is the

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kids morning news network

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Good morning. It's March 25th, 2024. It's Monday and I'm Alex and the Cayman and studio in New York.

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It's talking Reading day. Yes. J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings.

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a couple of months ago, I did a whole week of riddles from The Hobbit because Gollum and Bilbo had possibly the greatest Riddle battle in history.

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Tolkien Reading Day was started by the Tolkien Society and is held today

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because March 25th is the day. Hang on. I can't tell you that that would spoil the ending of The Lord of the Rings.

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Anyway, the Tolkien Society figured out that this is the day something big happened in the books.

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if you want to celebrate here in podcast land, check out the Prancing Pony Podcast or the low TR soundscape Podcast.

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I'll put some links in the episode description

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Some big news out of the World Figure skating championship in Montreal, Canada.

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19 year old American Ilia melanin, who is the only person in history to land a quadruple axel Saturday night in Montreal. He did six quadruple jumps in a row, starting with that famous quadruple axel,

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and he got the highest score ever awarded in a free skate.

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Afterward, he said that just a few weeks ago he wasn't even sure if he was going to attend the event at all.

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Training wasn't going well.

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But then he said to himself he had to keep trying.

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On this day, back in 1965, civil rights marchers finished

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a

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historic four day trek from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. It was a turning point in the civil rights movement in the United States.

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Marchers had already tried to other times to go from Selma to Montgomery. They were met with violence the first time and an order from a judge to stop them the second time

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led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Future Congressman John Lewis and others. They refused to quit. They worked to make sure that everyone was able to vote,

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News reports of the marches shown on TV made the whole nation take notice,

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and the marches helped to pass the Voting Rights Act later that year.

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but,

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All right, Riddle time. Friday's riddle was when is the number four? Half of five. The answer? When it's Roman numerals. This is kind of an advanced one, but Roman numerals four is ivy, which is the middle of five. Five. So

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it's half of five.

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That's a trick. You want to try to make the Friday riddles a little trickier?

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All right, Here's a monday riddle for you. What question can you never answer? Yes to a question? You can never answer yes to

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The answer on Wednesday.

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If you're a gray whale around California, this time of year means one thing road trip twice a year, California gray whales embark on an epic journey, traveling thousands of miles. They're not looking for a new neighborhood, though. It's all about food and family. Between February and April, after spending the winter off the sunny shore of Baja, California, that's the West Coast of Mexico.

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The gray whales head north. They hug the California coast as they travel all the way north to Alaska. That's a 6000 mile swim one way. The whales swim about five miles an hour and average about 75 miles a day.

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They usually travel in groups, sometimes moms with their calves and sometimes just adults.

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chilling out. Road trip. And together,

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the whole journey takes about two months. They're not stop for gas or snacks, but they do take breaks to nap and socialize along the way.

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And once they're in Alaska, they feast.

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It's picnics and barbecues all summer. Least the whale versions. And then they head south again starting in September. They return to the warm lagoons of Mexico for the mammoth whales that give birth to new baby whales.

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And then in the spring, the trip begins all over again.

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Happy trails, Whales

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for your Monday. Whether you are looking at blizzards across a lot of the Great Plains today and very cold air. Little blast, a winter for you right at the beginning of spring. In front of that, there's a line of rain moving east as well. And you can expect high winds throughout the middle of the country.

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It is March.

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Today is the day of

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Dante,

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famous Italian writer

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who lived from around 1265 to 1321. So a little bit ago

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is often called the father of the Italian language. And even all these years later, he is celebrated. Today, March 25th, in fact,

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in Italy.

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His most famous work is a very long poem called An Epic Poem,

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which is called the Divine Comedy. It's a story about someone going on a long journey, kind of a supernatural journey. And the journey begins in the story. On

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March 25th, today,

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in spite of the title Divine Comedy. It's not very funny.

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Dante

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actually just called it comedy because it had a happy ending.

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It wasn't until a couple of hundred years later that someone added Divine, which means it has to do with religion,

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which this poem does.

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All right. That's my story for today. Thank you very much for listening. If you like this episode, please give it a like in your podcast app and subscribe, share and spread the word about the kids. Morning News Network Grown UPS. If you'd like to help out by becoming a supporter, there's a link in the episode description. I'll be back Wednesday.

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I hope you are too. From the command and newsroom, this is Alex signing off.