This is Week 49 of 2010►Day 341 with 24 days remaining
18 Days until Christmas
Flagstaff Weather:
Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year - and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority.
FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
I got up this morning and decorated the tree. It looks nice, and as always, I found memories in the boxes I had forgotten about. This is the first year for some very unique animal decorations I got from Martha last year. There is an elephant, a hippo, and a giraffe (for my trip to South Africa). They were supposed to arrive last year, but somehow didn’t, so I got them for my birthday. They look very nice with just the right amount of whimsy on the tree. For the past four years I have put outside lights up, nothing spectacular, but lights on the bush, a couple of ‘door entry’ small trees, some candy cane path markers, and a couple of big ornaments. For the past four years I have had them buried in snow. I must say the lights on the tree and bush look great with a covering of snow, but the others lose some of their splendor. The other problem, of course, is that my entry way continues to face north. That means that some of the snow doesn’t melt until May and that some of the lights and decorations remain outside, buried until May. It seems to me that since the earth rotates around the sun and that there is a slight tilt, some scientist should be able to figure out how to have my north facing townhouse change every other year so it faces south. That way, all the residents of the complex can enjoy the joys of having snow on their sidewalk and front area stay the entire winter. If that is not possible, I can see putting our complex on a huge buried lazy susan that slowly rotates through the seasons. It could be slower than the restaurant on the Seattle Space Needle or the one on Malaysia Tower One. Each of those does one full rotation during a two hour meal. I figure one full rotation each season would suffice for my complex. That way, directionally challenged people like me wouldn’t be stuck always facing north and dealing with permasnow throughout the winter. Of course I high today almost had me putting out the lights, but then I remembered the snow and decided to wait another day to see if I am ready for the hassle. One of my neighbors did put out some outside stuff today—a neighbor who doesn’t face north.
It seems that John has convinced Mary that she needs to work for Comfort Keepers. It is a great concept. Elderly or physically challenged adults can have someone come into their home to do light chores, fix meals, converse, take them to appointments, all the way to 24/7 in home care. This lets the elder remain in their home when they can no longer do all that is necessary to do that. They also help out people for short-term care after an illness or hospital stay. They pay their workers $8/hr and I’m not sure how much they charge the clients. My brother and I checked into some of that when my mom first got sick. All I remember about the Denver people was that it wasn’t cheap. None of the family was very excited about having a stranger come into my mom’s home and we were fortunate enough not to have to use a service. The guy who called me for a reference seems like a very nice, compassionate care giver/PR person. Mary is really not looking for full time employment. Neither was John, but now John is working more than 40 hrs per week. He is really enjoying it. I know it takes a certain personality to be that kind of care giver and there is also a certain personality to be on the receiving end of the care. It is great when the right mix is found. When I talked to Mary about all this, she said part of it is to help her prepare for her own mother’s passing and since her mom is 98, it will be difficult.
HOLY MACKEREL: 1941 Japan bombs Pearl Harbor Hawaii, US. 188 aircraft destroyed; 155 aircraft damaged; 2,402 military killed; 1,247 military wounded; 57 civilians killed; 35 civilians wounded
∞ JEOPARDY PUZZLE—(SuperJeopardy Answers) from 1990 ORGANIZATIONS
☼Originally, this amateur boxing organization was sponsored by the Chicago Tribune Charities
☼"Show a kid how America works" is the slogan of this young people's business organization
☼Members of SPEBSQSA usually sing in a group of this many people
☼Candy manufacturer Robert Welch founded this organization in 1958
☼This farmers’ organization is officially called the Order of Patrons of Husbandry
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION—Sharks
☼Sharks are able to feel vibrations in the water using a line of canals that go from its head to its tail. Called a "lateral line", these canals are filled with water and contain sensory cells with hairs growing out of them. These hairs move when the water vibrates and alerts the shark to potential prey.
☼In some form, sharks have been around for about 400 million years. Even before dinosaurs roamed the earth, sharks hunted through the oceans. They're such good survivors that they've had little need to evolve in the last 150 million years.
☼Sharks have the most powerful jaws on the planet. Unlike most animals' jaws, both the sharks' upper and lower jaws move. A shark bites with its lower jaw first and then its upper. It tosses its head back and forth to tear loose a piece of meat which it swallows whole.
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM
DETROIT — A Michigan woman whose hand was broken while she was reaching for toilet paper can sue a restaurant over her injury.
The case is dividing the Michigan Supreme Court. The court's liberal majority says a jury should decide whether the dispenser created an unreasonable risk of harm at Texas Roadhouse in Taylor.
The court's three conservative justices say there should be no liability for ordinary accidents.
Sheri Schooley says it's a "bizarre story." She says the cover on the dispenser fell on her right hand, breaking it.
The 58-year-old South Rockwood woman says she can't work as an administrative assistant because she can't type. Schooley also says her bowling average dropped by 40 pins after she was forced to switch hands.
A lower court refused to dismiss the lawsuit.
A LITTLE LAUGH
On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., my brother-in-law overheard a patriotic father pointing out a well-known building to his son. "You see that triangular-shaped octagon over there? That's the Pentagon."
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
CALENDAR INFORMATION
♦ Weekly Observances ♦
1-7: Cookie Cutter Week ¤ Tolerance Week ¤ Recipe Greetings For The Holidays Week
1-9: Chanukah (Hanukkah)
5-10: Clerc-Gallaudet Week
6-12: National Handwashing Awareness Week
♦ Today’s Observances ♦
Muharram 1 Islamic New Year Celebration
National Cotton Candy Day
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
International Civil Aviation Day
Armenia: Spitak Remembrance Day (1988 earthquake destroyed most of country’s infrastructure)
Colombia: Día de las Velitas, begins after sunset. (Day of Little Candles—to honor Immaculate Conception & Virgin Mary)
India: Armed Forces Flag Day (since 1949 to honor all branches of military)
Iran: Student Day (since 1958 to remember 3 students killed by police during demonstration against Nixon visit.
Ivory Coast: National Day (1960)
US: Delaware: Ratification Day (1787-1st state to ratify US Constitution)
♫ University Fight Songs ♫
Click on Song Title to see and hear
♦Today’s Births♦
ARTS
1598 Giovanni Bernini Italy, baroque sculptor (St Teresa in Ecstasy)
1873 Willa (Sibert) Cather Pulitzer Prize-Winning author: One of Ours [1923]
1942 Harry Chapin, folk/rock singer/songwriter (Taxi, Cat's in the Craddle)
1912 Louis Prima, singer (That Old Black Magic)
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Ellen Burstyn, 78, actress (Tony for Same Time, Next Year; Oscar for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore), born Edna Rae Gilhooley
1910 Rod Cameron, actor (City Detective, State Trooper)
C. Thomas Howell, 44, actor (“Two Marriages,” Soul Man, Tank)
1923 Ted Knight, actor (Mary Tyler Moore, Too Close for Comfort)
Eli Wallach, 95, actor (The Tiger Makes Out; Emmy for “The Poppy Is Also a Flower”)
ATHLETICS
Johnny Lee Bench, 63, Hall of Fame baseball player
Larry Joe Bird, 54, Hall of Fame basketball player
1908 John H Doeg tennis champion (US Open-1930)
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
Noam Chomsky, 82, linguist (founded transformational grammar)
POLITICS
1542 Mary Stuart Queen of Scots (1560-1587)
SCIENCE & RELIGION
967 Abu Sa'id ibn Aboa al-Chair Persian mystic
1823 Leopold Kronecker German mathematician (Tensor of Kronecker)
♦Today’s Obituaries♦
William Bligh British naval officer of "Bounty" fame dies in London @ 63 in 1817
Delecta "Dee" Clark US singer (Raindrops) heart attack @ 52 in 1990
George Darwin theorized Moon was pulled out of Pacific Ocean @ 67 in 1912
George Darwin theorized Moon was pulled out of Pacific Ocean @ 67 in 1912
John Flaxman English sculptor (tombs at St Paul's Cathedral), @ 71 in 1826
Rube Goldberg US cartoonist (Mike & Ike, Pulitzer 1948), @ 87 in 1970
Edgar Graham member of Northern Ireland Assembly, shot by IRA @ 29 in 1983
♦Today’s Events♦
ARTS
1842 New York Philharmonic's 1st concert
1952 My Little Margie, starring Gale Storm and Charles Farrell, made its debut on CBS radio.
ATHLETICS
1925 Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 150-yard freestyle
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1926 Gas refrigerator patented
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
0036 -BC Earliest known Mayan inscription, Stela 2 at Chiapa de Corzo
1804 Lewis & Clark go on a buffalo hunt with Big White (Mandan).
1831 The CHOCTAW removal process has begun. Indian Commissioners John Eaton, and John Coffee, meet with the Choctaws and the Chickasaws on Oaka Knoxabee Creek today.
POLITICS (US)
1917 US becomes 13th country to declare war on Austria during World War I
1941 1st Japanese submarine sunk by a US ship (USS Ward)
POLITICS (International)
0043 -BC- Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman writer, gets his head & right hand chopped off by Mark Antony's soldiers
1986 President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees Haïti
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1909 Leo Baekeland, Yonkers NY, patents 1st thermosetting plastic (Bakelite)
1934 Wiley Post discovers the jet stream
1988 Earthquake in Armenia - 6.9 on the Richter scale (>100,000 killed, 5,000,000 homeless)
1995 US space probe Galileo begins orbiting Jupiter
ANSWERS
∞ JEOPARDY
Originally, this amateur boxing organization was sponsored by the Chicago Tribune Charities
What is the Golden Gloves?
"Show a kid how America works" is the slogan of this young people's business organization
What is Junior Achievement?
Members of SPEBSQSA usually sing in a group of this many people
What is Four? (…Barber Shop Quartet…)
Candy manufacturer Robert Welch founded this organization in 1958
What is the John Birch Society?
This farmers’ organization is officially called the Order of Patrons of Husbandry
What is The Grange?
