This is Week 47 of 2010►Day 325 with 40 days left.
Flagstaff Weather:
TODAY’S QUOTE—Confucius
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
It was a What the Crap day. I got up early to wind and it continued throughout the day. During the night the wind blew one of my bird feeders off the tree. The above new weather graphic shows that it was not a good weather day. The wind chill took about 8° off both temperatures. The high clouds have now turned into snow clouds—those dark grey ones. The weatherman may be right when he said a couple of inches of new snow overnight. I am ready, especially if the wind goes away.
This blog has been bithin’ about the new TSA rules for several days now. I have not mentioned that while TSA screeners are really not at the top of the pay scale for their very important jobs. These people are paid between $13.79-$16.57/hour or $24K-$36K/year. They are Federal Employees and have most of the Federal Benefits. Those screeners do not make the rules. Those screeners have no say in what the rules are. I am sure that the vast majority of screeners do not enjoy these new procedures. I am not excited about having a pat down, they have to do this all day long every day. Having someone touch me for less than a minute is not nearly as bad as having to touch several hundred people as part of my job. So, any anger about the new procedures should not be aimed at these low level workers. They, like so many Americans need their job to take care of their family. Some airports are thinking about hiring private contractors to do the screening. They believe that it will cost less and meet the needs of the passengers more quickly. From my present seat on a very high mountain top, this is a really bad idea. It is bad, if for no other reason, because every airport will then have a different way of screening. The TSA for all its current publicity has become much better over the years, much more friendly. Before TSA took over screening, it was much less safe and one never knew what to expect. I remember traveling soon after 9-11. I walked through the metal detector in Phoenix and set it off. They used a wand, found nothing and sent me on my way. Without changing anything, I had to go through another metal detector in Dallas. I walked right through and didn’t set off any alarms. Since TSA, that hasn’t happened to me. Every detector was calibrated to the same sensitivity at every airport. That is a good thing.
I saw a show today on TLC about walking with Tigers in Thailand at a Buddhist monastery. Tourists pay a hefty fee to go out to a canyon where there are 10 tigers ‘in the wild’. The animals looked very sedate and visitors could walk around and pet the tigers. The undercover story showed that there are actually 75 tigers kept in small cages hidden in the canyon. Each day about 10 of the tigers are drugged and then ‘set free’ to wander around in a drunken stupor. At the end of the day when the park closes, the tigers are returned to their small cages where they are poorly fed and have to wait about a week to have a day of ‘freedom’. I found this one of the most disgusting stories I have heard in a long time. First, the idea that it is run by Monks is so against everything I know about Buddhism. The idea that these endangered animals are being drugged so that people can ‘pet’ them is so sick. Finally, seeing their very small cages—just big enough for them to stand, but not walk—is horrific. I was probably more upset than someone who hasn’t done the Walk with Lions. In Africa the animals were not ever caged—except for the reserve fence; the lions were not drugged—although they were very well fed and therefore not aggressive; the lions were being rehabilitated so return to the wild; the money we paid went directly to food and care for the lions—the government grant paid the few salaried employees and the ‘volunteers’ who stayed there for 6 weeks to 3 months had to pay a hefty fee to ‘volunteer’. My hope is that the Thailand Tiger Walk will soon be shut down.
HOLY MACKEREL: 1794 Honolulu Harbor discovered
JEOPARDY PUZZLE—(SuperJeopardy Answers) from 1990—In the 90’s News
For the 1st time, members of this organization established by JFK are being sent to Poland & Hungary
Ronald Reagan was the star witness at the trial of this former national security advisor
The town of Kalapana, Hawaii has been virtually destroyed by lava from this volcano
1 of the 2 U.S. hostages released in Lebanon in April 1990
She's the Democrat running for governor of Texas in 1990
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION—Disney
82 years ago the world was introduced to the famous little character who would become one of the most recognized cartoon animals in history, Mickey Mouse.
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Mickey Mouse was not his original name! Walt Disney sketched him while riding on a train with his wife, Lillian, and told her that he would call him “Mortimer Mouse.” Lillian didn’t like the name, so Walt Disney changed it to Mickey Mouse.
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In 1929, the first piece of Mickey Mouse merchandise was introduced in stores. It was a child’s school tablet featuring Mickey Mouse’s image.
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Walt Disney served as the original voice of Mickey Mouse.
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The first two Mickey Mouse movies cost $2,500 a piece to make.
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The first Mickey Mouse Technicolor cartoon was called “The Band Concert”, and premiered in 1935.
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Walt Disney said that Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were married in “private life”, though the mice never actually got hitched on screen.
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM
NEW YORK - A New York 19-year-old accused of shoving a turkey breast into his pants at a grocery store told a newspaper he took a sandwich but denied stealing the breast. Deon Williams turned down a plea deal with a six-month jail sentence for the robbery charge, claiming he was falsely accused of shoving the 12-pound Boars Head turkey breast into his pants and attempting to smuggle it out of the Fine Fare supermarket, the New York Post reported Thursday. "I didn't do it," Williams told the Post.
"OK, I stole a cold-cut sandwich because I was hungry, but I put everything (else) back." Prosecutors allege Williams left the store with the turkey in his pants and was chased down by the butcher, who demanded he hand over the breast.
Williams allegedly placed the turkey on the ground and punched the butcher in the jaw.
A LITTLE LAUGH
A t my ten-year-old's request, I loaded my Rolling Stones tunes onto his iPod.
"I had no idea you liked the Stones," I said.
"Sure. I like all that old-fashioned music," he said.
"What do you mean, 'old-fashioned music'?"
"You know," he said defensively. "Music from the 1900s."
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
A great battle between the ‘William Tell Overture’ and ‘Turkey in the Straw’.
UP CLOSE PICTURE
This is a close up of what object?
CALENDAR INFORMATION
♦ Weekly Observances ♦
19-25:National Farm-City Week
21-28: National Bible Week, National Family Week, National Game & Puzzle Week, National Teens Don't Text and Drive Week, Better Conversation Week, Church/State Separation Week
♦ Today’s Observances ♦
False Confessions Day
World Hello Day since 1972
World Television Day
Bangladesh: Armed Forces Day
US-Alaska: Alascattalo Day--to honor humor in general and Alaskan humor in particular. Event is named after “alascattalo,” said to be the genetic cross between a moose and a walrus
US-North Carolina : Ratification Day (1789==12th colony/state)
♫ Early Folk-Rock Hits ♫
Click on Song Title to see and hear the original
Comments are from Richie Unterberger, travel and rock music
The mid-1965 #1 hit single that truly made folk-rock a phenomenon, socially, artistically, and commercially.
The biggest and hardest-rocking hit by folk-rock's most noted (and covered) songwriter.
Another #1 single by the Byrds. A cover of a Pete Seeger song that was the ideal marriage of rock with a progressive social conscience. The song that, as the critical phrase went, rocked the Bible and got away with it.
Not just Paul Simon's first great song, but the most canny realization of how a good acoustic folk song could be made over into an electric folk-rock hit, in this case through the literal overdubbing of electric instruments onto an acoustic recording.
the most memorable protest folk-rock song of the 1960s.
♦Today’s Births♦
╥ THE ARTS
Bjork, 45, singer, actress, born Björk Godmundsdóttir
Joseph Campanella, 83, actor (Dr Steffen-The Nurses, Lou-Mannix)
Goldie Hawn, 65, actress (The Banger Sisters, Private Benjamin; Oscar for Cactus Flower)
Nicollette Sheridan, 47, actress (“Desperate Housewives,” “Knots Landing”)
Marlo Thomas, 72, actress (“That Girl”), author (Free to Be … You and Me)
1907 Jim Bishop author (The Day Lincoln was Shot)
1904 Coleman Hawkins virtually created tenor saxophone for jazz
1863 Arthur Quiller-Couch editor (Oxford Book of English Verse)
1852 Francisco Tárrega, father of modern classical guitar
╥ ATHLETICS
Troy Aikman, 44, sportscaster, former football (Cowboys)
George Kenneth (Ken) Griffey, Jr, 41, baseball
Larry Mahan, 67, rodeo champ (1967-70)
Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe, 66, Basketball Hall of Famer: Bullets: Rookie of the Year [1967]; Knicks: championship team [1972-73]
Stanley Frank “Stan the Man” Musial, 90, Hall of Fame baseball player
Tasha Schwikert, 26, gymnast
╥ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1787 Sir Samuel Cunard founder (1st regular Atlantic steamship line)
1694 Voltaire [Francois-Marie Arouet], French thinker
╥ POLITICS
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╥ SCIENCE & RELIGION
1495 John Bale English bishop/anti-catholic playwright (Kynge Johan)
1785 William Beaumont surgeon (studied digestion)
♦Today’s Obituaries♦
1959 Max Baer US, heavyweight boxing champ (1934), heart attacks @ 49
1916 Franz Josef, Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia and Apostolic King of Hungary @ 86
1981 Harry Von Zell TV announcer (Burns & Allen), cancer @ 75
♦Today’s Events♦
╥ THE ARTS
1938 WBOE in Cleveland, OH became the first school-operated radio station (owned by a municipality) to receive a license from the FCC
1944 “Happy trails to you, until we meet again....” The Roy Rogers Show was first heard on the Mutual Broadcasting System
╥ ATHLETICS
1971 NY Rangers scores a NHL record 8 goals in 1 period
╥ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1654 Richard Johnson, a free black, granted 550 acres in Virginia
1871 The cigar lighter was patented by Moses F. Gale of New York City
1945 General Motors workers go on strike
1964 World's longest suspension bridge at 4,260 ft "Verrazano Narrows" opens (NYC)
╥ INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1807 Spanish trader Manuel Lisa builds Fort Raymond at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Bighorn Rivers. This is in central Montana near modern Custer.
1836 A battle is fought on the Withlacoochee River in the Wahoo Swamp. American forces, with Indian allies, are led by General Richard Call. The Seminoles are led by Chiefs Osuchee and Yaholooche. After chasing the Seminoles across the river, the American forces call an end to their advance when they believe the river is too deep to cross in force. Creek David Moniac is killed in the battle of Wahoo Swamp, in central Florida, by Seminoles. Moniac graduated from West Point. Moniac is part of a force of almost 700 Creek warriors, and white soldiers.
╥ POLITICS (US)
1787 Andrew Jackson admitted to the bar
1946 Harry Truman becomes 1st US President to travel in a submerged sub
╥ POLITICS (International)
1933 1st US ambassador to USSR, W.C. Bullitt, begins service
╥ SCIENCE & RELIGION
1935 1st commercial crossing of Pacific by plane (China Clipper)
1977 1st flight of the Concorde (London to New York)
ANSWERS
∞ JEOPARDY
For the 1st time, members of this organization established by JFK are being sent to Poland & Hungary
What is the Peace Corps?
Ronald Reagan was the star witness at the trial of this former national security advisor
Who was John Poindexter?
The town of Kalapana, Hawaii has been virtually destroyed by lava from this volcano
What is Kilauea?
1 of the 2 U.S. hostages released in Lebanon in April 1990
Who are Frank Reed or Who is Robert Polhill?
She's the Democrat running for governor of Texas in 1990
Who is Anne Richards?
∞ PICTURE
A plastic clothes hanger
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