♣ 26 March 2010~~Week 12 of 2010: 85 days this year…2801 remain ♣
♣ Two Quotes to think about…Today ♣
Scottish Proverbs
Better bend than break.
To marry is to halve your rights and double your duties.
♣ Free Ramblings ♣
Civility: civilized conduct; especially : COURTESY, POLITENESS; a polite act or expression. Today we read more about the idiots that live in this country. Members of Congress receiving death threats, finding broken windows at their home offices, their names on Sarah Palin’s web site—marked with the crosshairs of a rifle. We read and heard uninformed citizens who called their representatives with outrageous claims of losing their doctor’s care, with foul language, with veiled and not so veiled threats against those who voted for health care. For me, this is yet another NCLB failure. While our public schools have been so busy testing student’s reading and math abilities, the teaching of Social Studies, Civics, and History have been put on the back burner. In many elementary schools, where students are getting the fundamentals, these areas are not being tested, so they are not being taught with the vigor they deserve. We have always been able to state our opinions, argue with those who disagree, and get our ideas out there. We elect people go to DC. While the process is flawed it has worked. When the vote is finally taken, those who win usually celebrate, those who lose usually find a way to live with the change or find a way to try and change the law. Violence against our Congress members should never be part of the process—especially after the law is passed. It is time to bring civility back to this country. It’s time for a national campaign to educate the populous of the workings of our government. I am really tired of the lack of education so many people exhibit.
How cool…new quarters. When the mint started making the State Quarters, AZ was one of the last states to have one issued. For those who forgot, the quarters were issued in the order the state was admitted to the union. Now the mint is going to issue quarters of the National Parks. Grand Canyon, in AZ, is one of the oldest National Parks, so it will be one of the first coins issued. It is a good thing that our non-elected Governor and the AZ state legislature has nothing to do with the running of Grand Canyon, or they would probably close the park too.
A very windy day in our town. We got to 55° which would have been nice, had it not been for the 40mph gusts. High winds are expected through tomorrow. Not my idea of great weather.
♣Random Fact: ♣
The average iceberg weighs 20,000,000 tons
♣Side Show Stories—♣
NAPERVILLE, Ill. - Police in Illinois said a woman arrested after an altercation with a taxi driver called 911 from jail to say she was "trapped" in the facility. Cmdr. Mike Anders of the Naperville police said Carly Houston, 29, of Chicago, was arrested early Sunday morning after her taxi driver asked her for specific directions to her intended destination and she allegedly "yelled, screamed, cursed and extended (both) middle fingers at the cab driver and threatened bodily harm" against him, the Naperville (Ill.) Sun reported Tuesday. The driver pulled over at a BP gas station, where witnesses were "alarmed and disturbed" by the passenger's behavior, Anders said. Houston was arrested after police arrived and she refused to pay the taxi fare.
However, Anders said Houston incurred further charges at the police station when she used an allowed phone call to dial 911 and report she was “trapped inside the detention facility." She was charged with misdemeanor charges of making a false 911 report, theft of labor or services, criminal trespass to land and disorderly conduct.
♣ A quick smile ♣
The young man ahead of my father at the flower shop was taking an unusually long time to place his order.
When the clerk asked how she could help, he explained that his girlfriend was turning 19 and he couldn't decide whether to give her a dozen roses or 19 roses -- one for each year of her life.
The woman put aside her business judgment and advised, "She may be your 19-year-old girlfriend now, but someday she could be your 50-year-old wife."
The young man bought a dozen roses.
♣ Puzzle ♣
In each of these puzzles, a proverb is written with exactly one letter of each word replaced with another. Can you figure out what the original proverb is?
1 Calf I load if wetter that so break
2 Loot befort yon heap
3 Binds if I heather frock totether.
♣ Calendar Information ♣
• March’s Month Long Observances •
BIRTHSTONE: aquamarine and bloodstone (courage) FLOWER: Narcissus [daffodil, jonquil] (vanity)
National Cheerleading Safety Month • National Clean Up Your IRS Act Month • National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month • National Craft Month • National Ethics Awareness Month •National Eye Donor Month • National Frozen Food Month • National Multiple Sclerosis Education & Awareness Month •National Kidney Month• National Nutrition Month • National Social Work Month • National Umbrella Month • National Women's History Month • Optimism Month • Play The Recorder Month • Poison Prevention Awareness Month • Red Cross Month • Save Your Vision Month • Sing With Your Child Month • Small Press Month •Spiritual Wellness Month • Women's History Month • Workplace Eye Health and Safety Month • Youth Art Month
• Observance Weeks in March•
19-27
National Bubble (blowers) Week
21-27
•Consider Christianity Week •Passion Week •Week of Solidarity with People's Struggling Against Racism & Discrimination
22-28
World Folk Tales & Fables Week
• 26 March Observances—US/UN/World •
Make Up Your Own Holiday Day
Spinach Festival Day
Legal Assistants Day
Hawaii : Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianole Day-birth of only royalty to be elected to serve in US Congress
•26 March Observances—by country •
Bangladesh : Independence Day (1971 from Pakistan)
Hampshire, England : Tichborne Dole (since 1150: to give flour to poor)
Lesotho, Spain : Arbor Day/Fiesta del Arbol (1895)
Nova Scotia Canada: Purple Day: since 2008 for awareness of epilepsy
Taiwan : Birthday of Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy: Daoism
♣ Number One Songs in…
1949►Cruising Down the River - The Blue Barron Orchestra
1957►Young Love - Tab Hunter
1965►Eight Days a Week - The Beatles
1973►Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) - Deodato
1981►The Best of Times - Styx
• Holy Mackerel: On this day in 1997 ►The bodies of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult were found dead in a California mansion so that their souls could take a ride on a spaceship that they believed was hiding behind the Comet Hale-Bopp ( Haleys Comet )
• Born on this day •
…The Arts
Artists and Composers
Robert Frost, 1874, poet (Mending Wall, Road Not Taken)
Erica Jong, 68, author, poet (Fear of Flying, Becoming Light)
Betty MacDonald [Anne E Campbell Bard], 1908, US writer (Egg & I)
Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Williams, 1911, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright
Entertainers in Cinema, Music, Theater, and TV
Mort Abrahams, 1916, producer (Dr Doolittle, Planet Of Apes)
Alan Arkin, 76, actor (Catch-22, Little Miss Sunshine), director (Little Murders)
James Caan, 70, actor (Thief, The Godfather, Mickey Blue Eyes)
Kenny Chesney, 42, country singer
Johnny Crawford, 64, actor (Mark-The Rifleman)
Leeza Gibbons, 53, television hostess (“Extra”)
Jennifer Grey, 50, actress (Dirty Dancing)
T.R. Knight, 37, actor (“Grey’s Anatomy”)
Keira Knightley, 25, actress (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice, Pirates of the Caribbean)
Vicki Lawrence, 61, singer, actress (“The Carol Burnett Show,” “Mama’s Family”)
Joe Loco (Jose Esteves Jr.), 1921,jazz musician, arranger: credited with introducing the mambo [Tenderly: 1951] and cha-cha-cha [1953] to the US
Leonard Nimoy, 79, actor (“Star Trek”), director (Three Men and a Baby), writer
Sandra Day O’Connor, 80, former Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court
Teddy Pendergrass, 1950, singer
Diana Ross, 66, singer, actress (Lady Sings the Blues, The Wiz)
Martin Short, 60, actor (The Three Amigos, Inner Space), comedian (“SCTV Network 90,” “Saturday Night Live”)
…Athletes
Marcus Allen, 50, former football player, sportscaster
…Business, Education
Duncan Hines, 1880, restaurant guide writer, cake mixes
…Politics
Nancy Pelosi, 70, Speaker of the US House of Representatives (CA)
William C. Westmoreland ,1914, U.S. Army General
Bob Woodward, 67, investigative reporter: Washington Post
…Science/Religion
Nathaniel Bowditch, 1773, mathematician/astronomer/polyglot/author (Marine Sextant)
George Smith, 1840, (England), assyriologist (cuneiform (script))
•Today’s Obits •
John Winthrop, 1649, Puritan & 1st Governor of MA)@ 62
Ludwig van Beethoven, 1827, German composer (Appassionata), liver failure—possible lead poisoning@ 56
Sarah Bernhardt [Henriette-Rosine Bernard], 1923, actress @ 77
Marjorie Colton, 1962, inventor of wax paper, @ 64
B[runo] Traven, 1969, writer (Sierra Madre), @ 87
Edmund S Muskie, 1996, Vice Presidential candidate/(Governor- ME), @ 81
•What Happened on this Day •
…The Arts
1955 ►"Ballad of Davy Crockett" becomes the #1 record in US
…Athletics
1979 ►Padres & Giants announce plans to play exhibition series in Tokyo but Giant players reject it
1995 ►24th Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Championship won by Nanci Bowen
…Business, Education.
1885 ►Eastman Film Co manufactures 1st commercial motion picture film
…Politics
1147 ►Jewish community in Cologne fast to commemorate anti-Jewish violence
1780 ►1st British Sunday newspaper appears (British Gazette & Sunday Monitor)
1804 ►Congress orders removal of Indians east of Mississippi to Louisiana
1910 ►US forbid immigration to criminals, anarchists, paupers & the sick
1916 ►Birdman of Alcatraz receives solitary
1951 ►USAF flag approved
1979 ►Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin ended 30 years of bitter warfare by signing the first peace treaty between an Arab nation and the Jewish state
1982 ►Groundbreaking ceremonies took place in Washington, D.C., for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1999 ►Dr. Jack Kevorkian, was found guilty of second-degree murder for giving a lethal injection to a terminally ill man and airing it on the television program "60 Minutes."
…Science/Religion
1830 ►The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York.
1845 ►Patent awarded for adhesive medicated plaster, precursor of band aid
1872 ►Thomas J Martin patents fire extinguisher
1953 ►Dr Jonas Salk announces new vaccine to prevent polio
1973 ►A Native American mass will be held in New York City at Saint John the Divine Cathedral. Almost 4,000 people will attend.
♣ANSWERS to puzzle ♣
1 Calf I load if wetter that so break: Half a loaf is better than no bread.
2 Loot befort yon heap: Look before you leap.
3 Binds if I heather frock totether: Birds of a feather flock together.
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