In fact, after the third of four motos, Hinkle had opened a comfortable lead toward the overall win, and perhaps he really didn't feel any pressure as he cruised home seventh in the final moto to lock up the crown.

The bright star Aldebaran is to be occulted by the moon on December 20th, at about 5 o'clock pm. Aldebaran is said to be eight hundred and eighty times the mass of the sun, with a diameter of over 8,000,000 miles; a distance so great that a meteor traveling at the rate of thirty miles per second, would require over three days to cross the disk of the star. Yet, notwithstanding the immense volume, the accultation will occur in a moment, so great is the distance of the star from us, and will continue for about one hour and eight minutes.

[H]e went home […] and told them about his trip; how at Ripon he saw the gassiest man he had ever seen; an old steamboat captain by the name of Mapes; how I told him where we were going to have colleges, mills, stores, etc., […] the last time I saw him before he died he told me that he had seen all my gassy story carried out, and more too.

On 26 August 1718, in a remarkable coup de force, Orléans crushed the political audacity and embryonic constitutional pretensions of the Parlement.