Why are you being hustled by street vendors to buy sad and drooping former roses, vegetative matter that missed the cut for bouquets, or were too late to the hospital?

Blame Esther A. Howland (1828 – 1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her guilt is writ large by the Greeting Card Association’s Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary. She imported the concept to the US from Britain to bolster her father’s stationery store in 1847.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the stationers had infiltrated school boards and imposed the now mandatory exchange in the classroom to push the low end product of Asian children and prisoners.
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Rob and Pat are about 75 miles from the finish this morning while Olivia is almost 25 miles from Braeburn.

The Red Lantern & Olivia are at Braeburn. She can leave at 11:15PM CST.

At 9:45PM CST Rob and Pat are about 40 miles from Whitehorse with Pat in the lead. Rob still has his entire 14 puppy team in harness.

The Current Standings at 9:45PM CST ( 7:45PM PST):

Finished At Whitehorse
1 Brent Sass (15)
2 Michelle Phillips (11)
3 Cody Strathe (2)
4 Allen Moore (4)
5 Torsten Kohnert (9)
6 Ryne Olson (8)
7 Nora Själin (6)^R
8 Richie Beattie (1)
Beyond Braeburn
9 Rob Cooke (12)
10 Pat Noddin (13)^R
At Braeburn
11 Olivia Webster (7)^RΦ

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, and the small “R” indicates a rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by clicking on the sled dog or selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.