All Blue text is a link…be sure and click on it for more information!
‡ TODAY’s “Geez”:
¬ 1693 - Dom Perignon invents champagne
¬ 1914 - US declares neutrality in WW I
¬ 1984 - Carl Lewis wins gold medal in 100-meter dash at LA Summer Olympics
¬ 2010 - California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, was overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger
‡ Free Rambling Thoughts…
A cloudy day with some more monsoon rain. Nice.
I did some running around on this side of town. I did a lot of walking around and while my feet are a little tired, they are much better. I have used ½ the cream and checked today and can get one refill. That will last at least another week, so no call the dermatologist, yet.
Way to save money, Congress. No people to collect the FAA airline tax, no people to construct a better infrastructure for the airports. Billions lost in revenue, more jobs lost, more people on unemployment. This one seems to fall on the Dems who didn’t bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate before recessing for the summer. Idiots believe that the Republican’s union busting amendment in the bill stopped the vote. Yeah, here we are with the highest unemployment in years and now Congress thinks we should increase that number. I traveled through a lot of airports in the US during my work days. Many times they were under construction. It was difficult sometimes to work through some of that construction—especially when in a city I had never visited before. I remember being in New Orleans Airport during construction. Getting my bag to the ground transportation meant crossing several lanes of traffic on 2x4’s with traffic driving all around me. Then there was an airport where we walked on a very narrow sidewalk, with traffic on our left and an eight foot construction fence on our right to get from one terminal to another—about 200 yards. This signs were not always the best, and more than once I got misdirected. However; the airports were better after the construction ended. Everyone in DC is saying that this will not affect air travel safety. And they expect us to believe that? Working ones way through any construction site is not always safe. Being in an airport that needs construction is not that safe either. Call me crazy but I prefer traveling through airports that meet or exceed safety standards—not ones with broken elevators, escalators, baggage systems, etc.
The Tea Party seems to believe that if we don’t have any unions, the world will be better. Sure it will. All that manufacturing currently in China can return and our American workers can work for minimum wage—until that is destroyed—and the US can have sweat shops again. After all there were no minimum wages, unions, or safe working conditions when our country was founded. We don’t need any of it now. And we can pay all our bills by bartering with the chickens we raise in our back yards, milk our own cows, and grow our own food. Anyone who is unable to or won’t do these things…well they are just in the way and America doesn’t need those people anyway. Let the children go to work at 10 years old and stop all that wasteful spending on schoolin’ and book learnin’ what only makes them lazy.
‡ Trivia Quiz…(answers at the end of post)
1. What was dubbed an equal, not a sequel to Four Weddings and a Funeral?
2. Who was Elwood's brother in The Blues Brothers?
3. Who was the only British actor to win the Best Actor Oscar in the 80s?
4. For which film did Katharine Hepburn win the first of her four 20th century Oscars?
5. Which movie won Best Film in 1981?
6. How many times was Richard Burton nominated for an Oscar, though he never won?
7. Who was the first father and son to win acting Oscars for the same film?
8. How many years after Terminator was Terminator 2 released?
9. Who directed Eyes Wide Shut?
10. Which 50s film held the record for the most number of animals in a film?
11. Which 60s film told of the exploits of Robert Gold and Diana Scott?
12. In which film does the heroine say, "I am big. It's the pictures that got small?"
13. Which Oscar-winning actress played the medium Oda Mae Brown in Ghost?
14. Who was the Working Girl of the title in the film in which Harrison Ford also starred?
15. What was Crocodile Dundee's real first name?
‡ Zoom-ed in Picture…Can you Identify what this is? (Answer at end of post)
‡ Hmmmmm…
¬ Portions of Singaporeans who live in public housing: 4/5
‡ Somewhat Useless Information…
¬ The chow is the only dog that has a black tongue. The tongues of all other dogs are pink.
¬ Kangaroo rats never drink water. Like their relatives the pocket mice, they carry their own water source within them, producing fluids from the food they eat and the air they breathe.
¬ A crocodile weighing 120 pounds exerts a force of about 1,540 pounds between its jaws. A human being's jaws exert a force of only 40 to 80 pounds.
¬ A rat can fall from a five-story building without injury.
Two rats can become the progenitors of 15,000 rats in less than a year.
¬ A full-grown moose may be eight feet high at the shoulder and weigh almost a ton. The male moose sheds its antlers every winter and grows a new set the following summer.
¬ The blue whale weighs as much as thirty elephants and is as long as three Greyhound buses.
‡ Yeah, It Really Happened…
HISINGEN, Sweden - Police in Sweden said a family awoke to the sound of someone taking a long shower and discovered an uninvited guest. Stefan Gustafsson, a police spokesman, said the Hisingen family did not initially think anything was awry when they heard the shower running Sunday morning, but soon discovered it had been running for hours and all family members were accounted for, The Local reported Monday. Gustafsson said the family discovered a man in the shower stall who was fully clothed except for his shoes. He told the family he "needed to wake up," the spokesman said. Officers escorted the man out of the house. Police said he was unable to explain how he got in, and the family decided not to press charges. Gustafsson said the man "was mostly likely under the influence of something. But he wasn't threatening or unpleasant in any way, almost the opposite."
‡ Guffaw…or at least smile…
A man was just waking up from anesthesia after surgery, and his wife was sitting by his side. His eyes fluttered open and he said, “You are beautiful.” Then he fell asleep again. His wife had never heard him say that, so she stayed by his side. A few minutes later, his eyes fluttered open and he said, “You are cute!” The wife was disappointed because instead of “beautiful,” it was now “cute.” She said, “What happened to ‘beautiful’?”
Her husband replied, “The drugs are wearing off!”
‡ Searchin’ “You Tube” I found…
‡ Daybook Information…
…Happening This Week:
1-7: Exhibitor Appreciation Week / Psychic Week / National Fraud Awareness Week / Simplify Your Life Week / Single Working Women's Week / World Breastfeeding Week
4-7: Rock for Life Week
‡ TODAY IS
¬ Twins Day Festival
¬ National Chocolate Chip Day
¬ National Underwear Day
¬ U.S. Coast Guard Day: 1790
‡ Today’s Events:
· IN ARTS
--
· IN ATHLETICS
1969 - Willie Stargell is 1st to hit a HR outside of Dodger Stadium
1996 - 26th Olympic games close at Atlanta, Georgia
· IN BUSINESS
1821 - 1st edition of Saturday Evening Post (publishes until 1969)
1929 - Jones Beach in NY opens
1956 - 1st motorcycle rode over 200 mph (Wilhelm Herz-210 mph/338 kph)
1997 - 185,000 Teamsters union United Parcel Service drivers walk off the job.
· IN EDUCATION
1855 - John Bartlett publishes "Familiar Quotations"
· FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1873 - Whilst protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashes for the first time with the Sioux (near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed)
· IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
1942 - German occupier orders all Dutch homing pigeons killed
1962 - Nelson Mandela captured by South African police
· IN RELIGION
1558 - 1st printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabbalah)
· IN SCIENCE
1946 - Earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. 100 are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.
2007 - NASA's Phoenix spaceship is launched
· IN US POLITICS
1830 - Plans for city of Chicago laid out
1948 - 5 day Southern States filibuster succeeds in maintaining America's poll tax
1964 - Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman & James E Chaney, bodies discovered in an earthen Mississippi dam
1974 - Crawford-Butler Act allows Puerto Ricans to elect own governor
1977 - Pres Carter establishes Dept of Energy
· ARTISTS: AUTHORS: COMPOSERS
1792 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, English romantic poet
· ATHLETES
Roger Clemens, pitcher (Red Sox, Blue Jays, Cy Young, MVP) turns 49
1909 - Glenn Cunningham, US middle distance runner (1930's)
Michael Lawrence Marsh, sprinter (Oly-2 gold/silver-92, 96) turns 44
· ENTERTAINERS (ACTORS/SINGERS…)
1901 - Louie "Satchmo" Armstrong, New Orleans Louisiana, jazz trumpeter ( Hello Dolly )
Richard Belzer actor turns 67
Daniel Dae Kim, actor turns 43
Cole Sprouse Disney actor turns 19
Dylan Sprouse Disney actor turns 19
Billy Bob Thornton, actor (Sling Blade) turns 56
· ENTREPRENEUR & EDUCATORS
1701 - Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar
Helen Thomas, UPI journalist (Presidential press conferences) turns 91
· POLITICIANS
1929 - Yasser Arafat, leader (Palestine Liberation Organization)
1900 - Elizabeth, Queen Mother Of England, King George VI's wife
Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorney General turns 55
Barack Obama 44th US President turns 50
1912 - Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat in WW II (saved 10,000s of Jews)
· SCIENTISTS / THEOLOGISTS
Andrew M Allen, Captain USMC/astronaut (STS 46, 62, 75) turns 56
‡ Today’s Obits:
1875 - Hans Christian Andersen, Danish fairy tale writer, dies at 70
1995 - Dick Bartell, baseball player, dies at 87
2007 - Lee Hazlewood, American country singer, songwriter and producer dies at 78
1999 - Victor Mature, American actor dies at 86
1938 - Pearl White, US actress/stunt woman ( Perils of Pauline ), dies of cirrhosis at 49
‡ ANSWERS:
Trivia Quiz
1. What was dubbed an equal, not a sequel to Four Weddings and a Funeral?
a. Notting Hill
2. Who was Elwood's brother in The Blues Brothers?
a. Jake
3. Who was the only British actor to win the Best Actor Oscar in the 80s?
a. Ben Kingsley
4. For which film did Katharine Hepburn win the first of her four 20th century Oscars?
a. Morning Glory for Best Actress
5. Which movie won Best Film in 1981?
a. Chariots of Fire
6. How many times was Richard Burton nominated for an Oscar, though he never won?
a. Seven: 1952 Best Supporting Actor, My Cousin Rachel (Anthony Quinn)
1953 Best Actor, The Robe (William Holden)
1964 Best Actor, Becket (Rex Harrison)
1965 Best Actor, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Lee Marvin)
1966 Best Actor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Paul Scofield)
1969 Best Actor, Anne of the Thousand Days (John Wayne)
1977 Best Actor, Equus (Richard Dreyfuss)
7. Who was the first father and son to win acting Oscars for the same film?
a. Walter [best supporting actor] & John Huston [best director] for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre--1948
8. How many years after Terminator was Terminator 2 released?
a. Seven
9. Who directed Eyes Wide Shut?
a. Stanley Kubrick
10. Which 50s film held the record for the most number of animals in a film?
a. Around the World in 80 Days
11. Which 60s film told of the exploits of Robert Gold and Diana Scott?
a. Darling
12. In which film does the heroine say, "I am big. It's the pictures that got small?"
a. Sunset Boulevard
13. Which Oscar-winning actress played the medium Oda Mae Brown in Ghost?
a. Whoopi Goldberg
14. Who was the Working Girl of the title in the film in which Harrison Ford also starred?
a. Melanie Griffith
15. What was Crocodile Dundee's real first name?
a. Mick
Close Up Picture
Door
Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree. All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] may not be totally accurate.
‡ AND THAT’S ALL FOR NOW ‡
