This is Week 34 of 2010►Day 239 with 126 days left.
FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
It’s time to start getting serious about my Borneo Adventure. It is only 12 days away. I need to get up to date on current events in the areas we are visiting. Malaysia, it turns out has over a dozen on line newspapers. Cool. I enjoy learning from the local papers, and also see how the papers view international issues. The most educational part of this endeavor is finding that every paper has its own bias. It takes about a week to figure out where the paper’s leanings are. Malaysia is a very diverse country with indigenous tribes, Malay, Chinese, and a few Brits and Dutch. While most see it as a Muslim Nation, it has religious freedom and has Buddhists, Christians, and traditional Chinese religions. Tourism is their 3rd largest economic industry. It will be interesting to see how that plays out on our visit. In Scotland, Egypt and South Africa tourism is much more important to their economies. I have my new camera, I have a new battery for my net book. I don’t have an international phone and am not getting one. I can easily live without text messages or phone calls for the trip.
We had our weekly lunch today. It was nice to just relax and talk politics, family, and how glad we all are that we live here in Northern Arizona. We all have our issues, but when we talk about people we know from afar, our issues become very small. One thing we all agree on is that it is embarrassing to tell people we are living in Arizona. Our non-elected governor and some of the far-right politicians have certainly sent out the word that we seem to have more than our share of crazies. The bright spot for us is that many of these people turned out to be all words with no following. The exceptions—Brewer and Quayle—will remain in the headlines until November. Quayle is running for Congress in the Scottsdale and Mesa area, so not much we can do about his campaign. Brewer is another story, and we can only hope and work hard that when it comes to the general election, the Tucson and Flagstaff area will be able to defeat her. We still have no official results for a couple of state wide offices. Sadly, on about 25% of the voters actually voted in our county. It was not a record low, but very close. I really think that all the negative ads had many in our county just throwing up their hands in disgust. I’m hoping they are more interested in November. The ads for November have already started, and I will be happy to miss all of them in September.
Flagstaff had another very nice weather day. We were 81° with 40% humidity and a nice cooling breeze. My neighbor’s hot tub construction has come to a halt since Sunday. She must be using people who can only work on weekends. That made my time on my deck quite nice. They are building a nice lattice work area, which is not the brightest thing to have with all the snow we got last winter. I sure help it survives the winter.
QUOTE FOR THE DAY
David Sarnoff, Former CEO of RCA: Nobody can be successful unless he loves his work.
HOLY MACKEREL: 1961 Francis the Talking Mule is the mystery guest on "What's My Line" Click Here to See Francis
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION
§It is commonly believed that the 4 suits in a deck of playing cards -- spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs, derive from French decks of cards. In French decks, the suits represent the four classes: Spades represent nobility, hearts stand for the clergy, diamonds represent merchants, and clubs are peasants.
§The standard deck of cards had a fifth suit added to it in 1937 but was eventually discarded since not enough people were willing to buy whole new decks. The new suit, Royals, used a crown and was usually green.
§Ex-President Richard Nixon won $6000 during his first two months in the U.S. Navy in World War II, playing poker. His winnings were used to fund his first (and successful) campaign for Congress.
§When Columbus landed in 1492 in North America, his men plucked wide leaves from trees, drew pictures on them and played cards.
§The earliest known game of Texas Hold’em was played in Robstown, Texas, in the early 1900s. The game was brought to Las Vegas by a group of Texan gamblers and card players, including Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, Crandell Addington, and Amarillo Slim.
§Groucho Marx got his nickname because he used to carry all of his poker money in a Grouch Bag-- a bag that hangs around your neck to keep your possessions in.
GREY MATTER PUZZLE 1—Jeopardy Answers: Begins with ‘J’
The first Mrs. Bonaparte
A puzzle people go to pieces over
The police say "fine" for crossing the street this way
The only "J" in the Pledge of Allegiance
Event an Olympian throws
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Lovers of the world's most expensive coffee, found half-digested in the dung of the wild civet, fear that its unique taste may be spoiled by planned farming of the animals.Collectors hunt for the coffee cherries in the droppings of civets in Indonesian plantations to make a brew enriched by the bushy-tailed, cat-like animal's stomach that sells for as much as $770 a kg in London.
But as demand rises, producers have spotted an opportunity to increase supply by breeding the civets in cages and feeding them the coffee cherries. Production has started on a small scale.
Experts say the flavor relies on the civet's finicky feeding habits and varied diet to create the enzymes that enrich fermentation of the beans, so caged animals would produce a different coffee.
"I think wild civets offer more variants to the taste," said specialty coffee expert Edi Sumadi. "Inside the cage, the civets' diet is regulated, they're not free to pick following their instincts, so the enzyme inside their digestive system is monotonous."
Perkebunan Nusantara XII sells the civet coffee for $130 a kg from factories or $250 a kg in cafes on Indonesia's main island of Java, though the price multiplies as exports reach countries such as Korea, Japan, Italy and the United States.
"It's far tastier than any other coffee," said the firm's Danu Rianto. "To maintain high standards we have a standard operating procedure."
The coffee does not appeal to everyone. Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took some as a gift on a visit to former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, only to find local media dubb it "crappucino".
But now that Indonesia's highest Islamic authority has certified the brew as no longer "haram", or banned for Muslims, in the world's most populous Muslim nation — so long as the beans are well washed — producers, including Perkebunan Nusantara XII, are eyeing a bigger market.
In Jakarta's cafes, a cup of civet coffee, known as "kopi luwak", sells for around $9 to $11, and is attracting more interest.
"The taste is very smooth, the smell nice, and hey, it's not entirely haram after you wash it," said Andrea Guna, a first-time taster.
"The price is double that of Starbucks, but the taste is way more than double."
A LITTLE LAUGH
A teenager was always asking his father if he could borrow the family car. Pushed to the limit, the father asked his son why he thought "The Almighty" had given him two feet.
Without hesitation, the son replied, "That's easy, one for the clutch and one for the accelerator."
GREY MATTER PUZZLE 2--Riddle
if one teRrIble day all the autumn leaves are on the Vine and the nExt day the leaves have fallen of and aRe nowhere to be seen where could they have gone? Look at the question closely, it might help you.
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
Jay Leno is hilarious with his Jaywalking segment:Click Here to See It!
GREY MATTER PICTURE
This is a close up of what object?
SOME CALENDAR INFORMATION
♦ Weekly Observances ♦
23-27: National Safe at Home Week
25-31: Be Kind To Humankind Week
♦ Today’s Observances ♦
Global Forgiveness Day
Oil and Gas Industry Appreciation Day also Petroleum Day
Moldova: Independence Day, independence from the USSR in 1991
Texas: Lyndon Baines Johnson Day
♦ Hit Songs on this date ♦
1895 ...The Band Played On…Dan Quinn Click Here to Hear It!
1925 ...If You Knew Susie…Eddie Cantor Click Here to Hear It!
1945 …On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe…Johnny Mercer
1955…Rock Around the Clock…Bill Haley & His Comets Click Here to Hear It!
1965…I Got You Babe…Sonny & Cher Click Here to Hear It!
1975…Get Down Tonight…K.C. & the Sunshine Band Click Here to Hear It!
♦ Today’s Births ♦
• The Arts
Daryl Dragon, 68, musician (Captain and Tennille), songwriter, born Studio City, CA
C.S. Forester (Cecil Louis Troughton Smith), historical novelist, created Horatio Hornblower…born 1899… Cairo, Egypt
Ira Levin, writer: Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil, A Kiss Before Dying…born 1929…Bronx, NY
Tommy Sands, 73, singer, born Chicago, IL
~~~
Paul Reubens, 58, actor, writer (Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure), born Peekskill, NY
Martha Raye [Margaret Reed], , actress (Martha Raye Show) …born 1908…Butte MT
Tuesday Weld (Susan Kerr), 67, actress (The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Looking for Mr Goodbar), born at New York, NY
• Athletics
Carlos Moya, 34, tennis player, born Palma, Majorca, Spain
• Business & Education
Walter W Heller, economist (Old Myths & New Realities) …born1915 …Seattle, WA
• Politics
Charles Gates Dawes (R) 30th VP (1925-29, Nobel 1925) …born 1865… Marietta, OH
Hannibal Hamlin, (R) 15th VP (1861-65) …born 1809…Paris, ME
Lyndon B Johnson, (D) 36th Pres (1963-1969) …born 1908…Stonewall, TX
• Science/Religion
Confucius (K’ung Fu-tzu), philosopher…born 551 BC … Qufu, Zhou Dynasty
Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu], Yugoslavia (Nobel 1979) …born 1910… Üsküb, Ottoman Empire (today's Skopje, Republic of Macedonia)
♦ Today’s Obituaries ♦
Bennett Cerf, (Random House)/panelist (What's My Line), @ 73 in 1971
W E B Du Bois, scholar/founder (NAACP), @ 95 in 1963
Brian Epstein, Beatles' manager, OD @ 33 in 1967
Sir Rowland Hill, introduced postage stamps, @ 84 in 1879
Dr Ernest O Lawrence, inventor (Cyclotron-Nobel 1939), colitis @ 57 in 1958
Earl Mountbatten, British adm of the Fleet, assassinated by IRA @ 79 in 1979
Haile Selassie, depossed Ethiopian emperor, @ 83 in 1975
Stevie Ray Vaughan, blues guitarist, helicopter crash @ 35 in 1990
♦ Today’s Events ♦
• The Arts
1660 John Milton’s books were burned in London, because of the author’s attacks on King Charles II.
1889 Charles G. Conn of Elkhart, IN patented the metal clarinet
1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs' publishes Tarzan
• Athletics
1889 Boxer Jack Dempsey was defeated for the first time in his career as George LaBlanche used the pivot punch to knock Dempsey into nighty-night land. The punch was later banned from boxing.
1975 Veronica & Colin Scargill (England) complete tandem bicycle ride, a record 18,020 miles around the world
• Business & Education
1859 1st successful oil well drilled, near Titusville, Penn
• Indigenous People
1878 Captain James Egan, and Troop K, Second Cavalry, are following a group of Bannocks, who have been stealing livestock along the Madison River.
• Politics (US)
1776 British defeat Americans in Battle of Long Island
• Politics (International)
1896 Zanzibar loses to England in a 38 minute war (9:02 AM-9:40 AM)
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, where 60 nations agree to outlaw war
• Science / Religion
1984 President Reagan announces the Teacher in Space project
GREY MATTER ANSWERS
↔ 1
The first Mrs. Bonaparte: Who was Josephine?
A puzzle people go to pieces over: What is a jigsaw?
The police say "fine" for crossing the street this way: What is Jaywalking?
The only "J" in the Pledge of Allegiance: What is justice?
Event an Olympian throws: What is the javelin?
↔ 2
Did I mention the vine was next to a river? Also if you read the question you might notice the code. You might have found that the capital letters spell out river!The 'R' from terrible, the 'I' from terrible, the 'V' from vine, the 'E' from next and the 'R' from are spell out 'RIVER'. The leaves fell in the river and were swept away by the river's current.
↔ Picture
Brass Y-adapter for a water spigot
TODAY’S NATIONAL PARK PHOTO SHOTS
Rocky Mountain National Park, 11th National Park since January 26, 1915: This section of the Rocky Mountains has ecosystems varying in elevation from the over 150 riparian lakes to Montane and subalpine forests to the alpine tundra. Large wildlife including mule deer, bighorn sheep, black bears, and cougars inhabit these igneous mountains and glacier valleys. The fourteener Longs Peak and Bear Lake are popular destinations
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