military fort origins

as a history major, i was quite familiar with how many great american cities started out as military forts. this includes chicago, pittsburgh, and des moines. even the twin cities of minneapolis-st. paul, as there is fort snelling. this explains why some cities still have 'fort' in their name. well i just found out new york city started this way as well. i read writer's almanac from garrison keillor and saw something about new amsterdam, the city's fore-runner, started as a fort. this was on the southern tip of manhattan. this was largely overlooked by the history books i had read. same is true with other things about the early history of new york. i do recall mention of it becoming a british colony because the land was ceded by the dutch. although the british and dutch were at war a lot during the 1600s, and for a brief time it was a dutch city again. this led to looking up bowling green, which is the name of a park- and a commuter train station- on the southern tip of manhattan. i see this name every so often as a city in other areas. so i had to look up the concept. i had always envisioned a big bowling alley ball, but that is not it. lawn bowling is more like 'bocce ball' and the ball is smaller. still sounds weird as a name of a city, but when the capital city of louisiana is named 'baton rouge'- french for 'red post'- it is a reminder of how city or place name origins are as varied as the cities and places themselves. i even found something about a bowling green at mount vernon, washington's home. i want to keep up a love of learning, and this is very much possible since there are opportunities everywhere. 

at work i called for service on the envelope stuffer, i got tired of the 10-page jams. a tech arrived in the afternoon, and said replacement rollers were needed and would be overnighted. i got a little farther on the special project for payroll compared to the previous day, but not a lot. i may just want to use the smaller hopper for it as well, as i am running the checks through it already. in the evening i went on a walk and picked up 84 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when the friends got back from the north pole expedition and sheldon left town for his mom's in texas. it was followed by the one where leonard manipulates penny for sex after penny reads his mom's book in a class.