TODAY’s HOLY MACKEREL: 1932 1st patent issued for a tree, to James Markham for a peach tree
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MY FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
I watched the second Jeopardy with the computer Watson. It took two days to play the first game because of all the ‘background’ interviews about Watson. This made both days a little boring but very educational. We have come so far since those first computers we sometimes forget what life was like before them. My first computer was a PC and I was fascinated that I could write a program of four or five lines and make the computer do something. Sometimes it was just to count and put the answers on the screen. Sometimes it was various colored lines that would be drawn on the screen in a random pattern. When computers were first introduced to the classroom setting those Apple IIe’s didn’t do a lot and teachers were more afraid of them than the students. It quickly became clear that lots of teacher training would be necessary. Looking back, our school used more computers in Title I classrooms and had the younger aides doing most of the computer time with the students. This may have been a mistake as teachers quickly learned that these boxes were not something they had to learn. Back to Watson—this computer is far from perfect. It seems to get many of the nuances of the questions, but misses some. Tomorrow we will get to see both rounds, more like the real game. Watson right now has a huge lead so many will see tomorrow if that lead remains. I sometimes think that many old-er Computer owners need to go back to those ‘write your own program’ days so it is easier to understand that a computer only does EXACTLY what you tell it to do. Certainly today’s programs do spell check, automatically set up certain things. However, there is always a human—somewhere—who told the computer or the program how to do that. It is certainly complicated. I got a call from my friend Bob and his Comcast email wouldn’t send me a file. A few years ago--an eon ago in tech time--I would have tried to give him some help. I don’t have that ability anymore. With today’s programming, I was no help. My only suggestion was to call tech help at Comcast, but knew that would be less than helpful. So many times, the tech help doesn’t listen to your problem. They assume that anyone calling was lucky to have the computer plugged in and even after you tell them that you did something, they say, do it again with me on the line. Very frustrating.
Our local weatherman says that our beautiful spring weather of the last week is leaving us for more winter weather, including some snow. Of course that means more friggin’ wind. We could be getting up to a foot of snow during the weekend. Hmmm. Well it is winter, it is Flagstaff, and we need the moisture. If anyone asks, I would prefer no 45mph winds, a couple of inches of snow every day for a week, rather than a foot of snow in one 10-12 hour drop. Weather comes and weather goes, so I’ll be sure I have plenty of food and wait it out. The good news is that temperatures are not expected to get that cold.
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DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Water plants with club soda. Boost the mineral content in the soil by giving your plants a big gulp of club soda every week or so.
Have more shoes than space in your closet? Make more room by laying a board across the tops of two short stacks of books. Put shoes on the shelf and on the floor underneath.
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION… Cupid Part II
The oldest surviving love poem is written in a clay tablet from the times of the Sumerians, inventors of writing, around 3500 B.C. It was unromantically named Istanbul #2461 by the archeologists who unearthed it.
In England, the Romans, who had taken over the country, had introduced a pagan fertility festival held every February 14.
After the Romans left England, nearly a century later, the pagan ritual was abolished by Pope Gelsius who established St. Valentine's Day as a celebration of love in 496 A.D.
The first American publisher of valentines was printer and artist Esther Howland. During the 1870s, her elaborate lace cards were purchased by the wealthy, as they cost a minimum of 5 dollars - some sold for as much as 35 dollars. Mass production eventually brought prices down, and the affordable "penny valentine" became popular with the lower classes.
PUZZLE: Trivia Quiz […answers at bottom…]
1. What is the sacred animal of Thailand?
2. What sport was deemed to violate civil rights and was banned in New York?
3. Nephologists study what?
4. In 1984, British Airways' stewardess called police, to tell them she'd left what in cupboard?
5. What was the first team sport played in the modern Olympics?
6. What are the Aki, Daishimizu and the Seikan in Japan?
7. Jamie Farr played what role in the TV show M*A*S*H?
8. What do Millionaires, Metropolitans, Black Hawks and Silver Seven have in common?
9. De Witt Wallace founded what magazine?
10. Bristlemouths are the world's most common what?
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM… BBC News
"Tall, slim, facial symmetry," "good teeth," along with classic makeup and dress and graceful movement, might comprise the inventory list for any beauty contest winner, and they are also the criteria for victors in Niger's traditional "Gerewol" festival -- except that the contestants are all males and the judges all females. Cosmetics are especially crucial, with symbolic black, yellow and white patterns and stripes (with white being the color of "loss" and "death"). A special feature of the pageants, according to a January BBC television report, is that when the female judges each select their winners, they are allowed to marry them (or have flings), irrespective of any pre-existing marriage by either party.
A LITTLE LAUGH…
Although I knew our commanding officer hated doling out weekend passes, I thought I had a good reason.
"My wife is pregnant and I want to be with her," I told the C.O. Much to my surprise he said, "Permission granted."
Inspired by my success, a fellow soldier also requested a weekend pass. His wife wasn't pregnant, so when the C.O. asked why he should grant him permission, my friend responded, "My wife is getting pregnant this weekend and I want to be with her."
CLOSEUP PICTURE…
Can you identify this close up picture
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’… 1950 Your Hit Parade TV SHOW
♫ 60’s Rock ♫
Click on Song Title to see and hear
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DAYBOOK INFORMATION
¤…THIS WEEK…¤
10-16 ► Celebration of Love Week ♥ Children of Alcoholics Week
13-19 ► International Flirting Week ♥ National Secondhand Wardrobe Week ♥ PTA Take Your Family To School Week
14-21 ► Alzheimer’s and Dementia Awareness Week ♥ Love a Mench Week ♥ National Condom Week: ♥ National Nestbox Week ♥ NCCDP Alzheimer's & Dementia Staff Education Week ♥ International Friendship Week ♥ National Conference on Education
¤…TODAY IS…¤
Do A Grouch A Favor Day
Kyoto Protocol Day
Lithuania: Independence Day (1918 from Russia and Germany)
North Korea: Kim Jong-il's Birthday
Today’s Births...
○ AUTHORS/COMPOSERS
1838 Henry Adams US historian, writer (Education of Henry Adams)
1884 Robert Flaherty father of documentary film (Nanook of the North)
Richard Ford, 67, author (Independence Day, The Sportswriter)
○ ATHLETES
John Patrick McEnroe, Jr, 52, former tennis player, born in Wiesbaden, West Germany
○ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1740 Giambattista Bodoni Italian printer/typeface designer
○ ENTERTAINERS (ACTORS/SINGERS/…)
1903 Edgar Bergen ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy)
1909 Hugh Beaumont actor (Ward Cleaver-Leave it to Beaver)
1935 Sonny Bono singer (Sonny & Cher, Mayor-Palm Springs CA)
LeVar Burton, 54, actor, host (“Roots,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Reading Rainbow”), born in Landsthul, Germany
1954 Margaux Hemingway actress
1912 Del Sharbutt TV announcer (Your Hit Parade) --see a show above
Ice T, 52, rap singer, actor (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” New Jack City), born Tracy Morrow
○ POLITICIANS
1620 Frederick William Great Elector, founder of Brandenburg-Prussia
1812 Henry Wilson 18th Vice-President (1873-75)
○ SCIENCE & RELIGION
1698 Pierre Bouguer French mathematician (heliometers-measures diameter of sun in seasons)
1834 Ernst Heinrich Haeckel biologist (Causes of Evolution)
1514 Rhäticus [Rheticus] Austrian astronomer/mathematician
1852 Charles Taze Russell founded Jehovah's Witnesses
Today’s Obits…
1892 Henry Walter Bates naturalist/explorer (South America), emphysema @ 67
1996 Susan Bosence textile designer, @ 82
1967 Lester Alvin Smiley Burnette cowboy (Charlie-Petticoat Junction), leukemia @ 55
0923 Abu Dja'far Mohammed Djarir al-Tabari Islamic historian, @ 83
1996 MacLean Stevenson actor (MASH), heart attack @ 66
Today’s Events…
○ ARTS
1905 1st US Esperanto club organizes in Boston
1950 Longest-running prime-time game show, "What's My Line" begins on CBS
○ ATHLETICS
1972 Wilt Chamberlain hit 30,000 point mark during a game with Phoenix Suns
1997 At age 25, Jeff Gordon is youngest winner in Daytona 500 history
○ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1659 1st known check (£400) (on display at Westminster Abbey)
1741 Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine (2nd US Magazine) begins publishing
1838 Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions
1857 Gallaudet College (National Deaf Mute college) forms (Washington DC)
1868 Benevolent & Protective Order of the Elks founded in New York
1883 "Ladies Home Journal" begins publication
1900 1st Chinese daily newspaper in US publishes 1st issue (Chung Sai Yat Po-San Francisco)
1968 Country's 1st 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville AL
○ INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1760 Native American hostages killed in Ft Prince George SC
1863 An Act (12 stat.l.652) states that all treaties between the United States and the "Sisseton, Wahpaton, Medawakanton, and Wahpakoota Bands of Sioux of Dakota are aborgated and annulled" as far as occupancy or obligations in Minnesota are concerned. This act took away their lands in Minnesota because of the "Santee Sioux uprising."
1911 President Taft issues several Executive Orders which allow the sale, use or manufacture of alcoholic beverages in former Indian Reservations which have been ceded to the United States.
○ POLITICS (International)
1956 Britain abolishes the death penalty
1959 Fidel Castro named himself Cuba's premier after overthrowing Batista
1989 Egypt, Iraq, Jordan & North Yemen form common market
○ POLITICS (US)
1878 Silver dollar became US legal tender
1938 US Federal Crop Insurance program authorized
○ SCIENCE & RELIGION
1917 1st synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid
1923 Howard Carter finds Pharoah Tutankhamen
1961 China uses it's 1st nuclear reactor
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ANSWERS
Quiz ANSWERS…
1. What is the sacred animal of Thailand? White Elephant
2. What sport was deemed to violate civil rights and was banned in New York? Dwarf throwing
3. Nephologists study what? Clouds - Meteorology
4. In 1984, British Airways' stewardess called police, to tell them she'd left what in cupboard? Husband in Bondage
5. What was the first team sport played in the modern Olympics? Water Polo
6. What are the Aki, Daishimizu and the Seikan in Japan? Tunnels
7. Jamie Farr played what role in the TV show M*A*S*H? Corporal Clinger
8. What do Millionaires, Metropolitans, Black Hawks and Silver Seven have in common?
Stanley Cup winners in ice hockey
9. De Witt Wallace founded what magazine? Readers Digest
10. Bristlemouths are the world's most common what? Fish
Close Up Picture…Utility Knife
« AND THAT’S ALL FOR NOW »
