The first official day of summer arrives at 12:45 a.m. Sunday, just in case you plan to be awake to celebrate.

Known as the "summer solstice," the day usually marks the longest period of daylight during the year. After that, the days slowly get shorter until the winter solstice in December when we mark the day with the least amount of daylight.

Some sites worth visting to learn more about the summer solstice and the seasons in general include InfoPlease (www.infoplease.com/spot/solstice.html), EarthSky (www.earthsky.org/article/49667/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-solstice-on-june-21) and The Seasons (http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/seasons.html)

Meanwhile, June 25 marks the 133rd anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, when nearly 250 men in George Custer's 7th Cavalry were killed during fighting with Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.

A few sites to visit if you want to learn more about the 1876 battle include:

Little Bighorn Battle Overview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn

Custer at Little Big Horn

www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/custer.htm

Friends of Little Bighorn

www.friendslittlebighorn.com

CusterWest

www.custerwest.org

100 Voices

www.astonisher.com/archives/museum/index.html

Saga of the Googlewhack

Last week, I shared with you the online sport of Googlewhacking (www.googlewhack.com). The idea is to find a combination of two words that, when searched on in Google, will return only one search result.

The basic rules: The words have to be real and you can't use quotes around the words when searching.

There are a few other rules as well (www.googlewhack.com/ rules.htm) and a FAQs page (www.googlewhack.com/ fhack.htm) that you should visit before going too far in your word whacking.

My best Googlewhack was 360 search results for "akkadian pirogue."

The Tribune's online editor, Jason Lueder, Mandan, took a stab at it and lowered the bar to 252 results for "rhomboid hexafluoride."

Or so he thought.

One of the other Googlewhacking rules is that the word has to be in the online dictionary database of answers.com, which is used by Google for word definitions.

While "hexafluoride" is, indeed, a real word, it's not in the answers.com database and can't be used (words in the database have the word "Dictionary" preceding the definition).

Jason's other word, "rhomboid," is in answers.com. I took that word and conmbined it with "hexaflexagon" to generate only 32 search results.

But wait.

You won't find "hexaflexagon" in answers.com, so my whack was rejected.

Tony Spilde, Bismarck, submitted a Googlewhack that resulted in just two results: "cygnet antidisestablishmentarianism."

Wow!

But wait.

Again, while "antidisestablishmentarianism" is a real word, it's not in answers.com, so it's disqualified.

Meanwhile, Jason tried Googlewhacking "cathartic presbyosis."

Those terms produce no search results. Zero. Nada.

You'd think getting no results is even better than getting one result.

But you'd be wrong.

According to the Googlewhack site, it's pretty easy to come up with combinations of obscure words that generate no search results. Many Googlewhackers have done just that numerous times.

So while Jason's result of zero was interesting, it wasn't a winning entry.

Meanwhile, I combined Jason's earlier "rhomboid" with "flexagon" to generate 179 search results. Not bad.

Then I hit upon "pugnacious flexagon," with netted me just 74 search results. The words were recognized by answers.com. And they were within the four to 30 word range.

Ha! So take that, Jason and Tony. I'm on top with 74 official search results for "pugnacious flexagon." Beat that - if you dare.

Whew! Who would have thought so much fun involved so much work.

(Keith Darnay has worked in the online world for more than a decade, the traditional media world for a few decades more and manages the online department and Web site for the University of Mary. His own site, featuring this column going back to 1995, is at www.darnay.com.iec.)