►Provocative Quote
" The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue."
~Dorothy Parker
►Free Ramblings
Last night dropped to 6°. About 11pm it was 15° so I decided not to trek downtown to watch the pine cone drop. I have watched it in decent weather, and even once in a very cold snow storm where you almost couldn’t see the ball. I guess all went well without me.
We did warm up to 42° this first day of the decade, so I did venture out for a while. My ride is in real need of a wash, but I didn’t do it today. The chemical crap that keeps our main roads clear, also keeps our vehicles very dirty.
I did get all the Christmas stuff down and stored today. The only thing left to put away is the big red bow that was on the front door. Sometime while I was gone, it blew off and is now buried in the snow below my window. I can see a piece of it, but the snow is really ice so I’ll have to wait till the snow melts to salvage it. It may be ruined already, but trying to get it out of the ice would seal the deal.
The local paper listed the Big Stories of the Decade for Flagstaff. Somehow, my moving to this place didn’t make the list. The big construction was building an overpass in East Flag. When I came to Flag in 1971, they were talking about building it. Finally in 2008 it was completed. The Super Wal-Mart planned in 2002, when the economy was good, has been changed so many times, it is now a regular Wal-Mart and ground breaking should be sometime in this new decade. Flagstaff isn’t known for swift action. The local government works on the philosophy that if you wait long enough the issue will just go away. So when the Mayor ‘cleaned up’ a downtown hang out for teenagers this summer, the city was in shock. But then, kids can’t vote. Maybe that’s why the School Board is messing with closing schools. The district’s poor planning will mess up a lot of kids for next year, or the next. The board moves slowly too.
►Quotes from Values.com—LIVE LIFE
“Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”
~Grandma [Anna Mary Robertson] Moses; Artist
►Unusual News…
LONDON - A London scientist has authored a paper arguing angels as classically depicted, mostly-human forms with wings, would be unable to fly. Professor Roger Wotton of University College London wrote in his paper, which was published by the school's Opticon magazine, that human-appearing angels with feathered bird-like wings would not be able to use the wings for flight, The Daily Telegraph reported. "Even a cursory examination of the evidence in representational arts shows that angels and cherubs cannot take off and cannot use powered flight," Wotton wrote.
"And even if they used gliding flight, they would need to be exposed to very high wind velocities at take off -- such high winds that they would be blown away and have no need for wings." Wotton's paper also took aim at fantasy depictions of fairies with the wings of butterflies. "The distortion of the thorax needed for flight in fairies with butterfly wings would be exceedingly uncomfortable," the paper read. Hmmm…scientists have also proven that the bumble bee can’t fly.
►Random Fact
~The most commonly sung song for English-speakers on New Year's eve, Auld Lang Syne is an old Scottish song that was first published by the poet Robert Burns in the 1796 edition of the book, Scots Musical Museum. Auld Lang Syne literally translates as "old long since" and means "times gone by."
~Canadian Bandleader Guy Lombardo popularized Auld Lang Syne and turned it into a New Year's Eve tradition. Lombardo played the song at midnight at a New Year's Eve party at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City in 1929, and a tradition was born. After that, Lombardo's version of the song was played every New Year's eve from the 1930s until 1976 at the Waldorf Astoria. Lombardo was planning on New Year’s Eve playing for a long time, but died in Nov, 1977.
§ January Trivial Pursuits
~2010 is the UN Year of Biodiversity
~January is named after Janus (Ianuarius), the god of the doorway
~Finland: the month is called tammikuu, meaning month of the oak, but the original meaning was the month of the heart of winter, as tammi has initially meant axis or core.
~Czechoslovakia: this month is called leden, meaning ice month
~Ukraine: it is called січень meaning cutting or slicing perhaps referring to the wind.
§ January Month Long Observances Birthstone: Garnet …Flower: Carnation
Book Blitz Month * Bath Safety Month * Birth Defects Month * California Dried Plum Digestive Month * Celebration of Life Month * Cervical Cancer Screening Month * Financial Wellness Month * High Tech Month * International Creativity Month * International Quality of Life Month * International Wayfinding Month * International Wealth Mentality Month * National Be On-Purpose Month * National Bird Feeding Month * National Clean Up Your Computer Month * National Get Organized Month * National Glaucoma Awareness Month * National Hot Tea Month * National Mail Order Gardening Month * National Mentoring Month * National Personal Self-Defense Awareness Month * National Poverty in America Awareness Month * National Radon Action Month * National Skating Month * National Soup Month * National Volunteer Blood Donor Month * Oatmeal Month * Rising Star Month * Self-help Group Awareness Month * Senior Women’s Travel Month * Shape Up US Month * Thyroid Awareness Month
§ Observance Weeks in January
Celebration of Life Week: 1-7
Diet Resolution Week: 1-7
National Lose Weight/Feel Great Week: 1-8
Someday We'll Laugh About This Week: 2-9
§ 2 January Observances—US/UN/World
Earth at Perihelion: N. Hemisphere closest to the sun
Happy Mew Year for Cats Day
55-MPH Speed Limit Day: (1974-1987)
Run Up the Flagpole & See if Anybody Salutes It Day
Georgia : Constitution Ratification Day (1788)
§ 2 January Observances—by country
Haiti : Ancestor/Hero's Day
Japan : Kakizome: ‘first writing’: Traditionally, kakizome was performed using ink rubbed with the first water drawn from the well on New Year's Day. Then on Jan. 2, seated facing a favorable direction, people would write Chinese poetry containing auspicious words and phrases such as long life, spring, or perennial youth. These poems were then often burned.
Japan : Shigoto Hajime-Begin Work Day [beginning of the work year]
Spain : Granada Day: End of Muslim Rule in Spain in 1492
Switzerland : Berchtold's Tag, founding of Berne
► Holy Mackerel: On this day in 1966…1st Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion
►Who was born on this day?
~ The Arts
Isaac Asimov in 1920 Russian scientist/writer (I Robot)
Kate Bosworth in 1983 actress
Dabney Coleman in 1932 actor
Philip Freneau in 1752 Poet of the American Revolution
Cuba Gooding Jr in 1968 actor
Henry Kingsley in 1830 English/Australian writer
Roger Miller in 1936 country singer (King of the Road, Dang Me)
Robert Nathan in 1894 poet, novelist (Portrait of Jennie)
Sally Rand (Helen Gould Beck) in 1903 dancer, stripper: inventor of the fan dance
~Athletics
Calvin Hill in 1947 NFL running back (Cowboys)
~Business, Education, Politics
Robert Marshall in 1901 founder (Wilderness Society)
Dan Rostenkowski in 1928 House Ways & Means Committee chair
Helen Herron Taft in 1861 1st lady
~Science/Religion
Jim Bakker in 1939 televangelist, philanderer
►Who Died on this day?
Dick Powell in 1963 actor/director (Dick Powell Theater), lymphoma @ 58
Tex Ritter in 1974 country singer, heart attack @ 67
Alan Hale Jr in 1990 actor (Skipper Jonas Grumby-Gilligan's Island), cancer @ 71
►What happened on this day?
1602…Spanish forces in Ireland surrender to the English at Kinsdale
1839…1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)
1842…The first wire suspension bridge was opened to traffic -- in Fairmount, Pennsylvania
1890…Alice Sanger becomes 1st female White House staffer
1903…President T Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola MI, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
1919…Anti-British uprising in Ireland
1929…US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls
1938…Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded
1941…The Andrew Sisters Recorded a song called “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. 1971…A fatal stampede took the lives of 66 fans after a soccer game at the Ibrox Park stadium in Glasgow, Scotland.
1985…Egyptian President Mubarak re-appoints Coptic pope Shenuda III
1995…Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (estimated 15 billion light years away)
►Rhyme & Reason Puzzle
Answer the following clue in two rhyming words (e.g. an obese feline is a fat cat) If only one number is given, the answer is a word featuring internal rhyme (e.g. voodoo)
1.smooth wood (4,4):
2. cracked mandible (3,4):
3. issue a request to be supplied with a frame (5,6): order border
4. Margaret's gams (4,4):
5. fatter food tester (6,7):
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ANSWERS
1.smooth wood (4,4): fine pine
2. cracked mandible (3,4): jaw flaw
3. issue a request to be supplied with a frame (5,6): order border
4. Margaret's gams (4,4): Pegs legs
5. fatter food tester (6,7): ampler sampler
