May 18


FYI: Click on any blue text for a link to more information!

Todays  Historical  Highlights
1642 - Montreal Canada founded
1652 - Rhode Island enacts 1st law declaring slavery illegal
1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France
1863 - Siege of Vicksburg, MS
1897 - Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker is published
1917 - US passes Selective Service Act
1933 - Tennessee Valley Act (TVA) Act signed by FDR, to build dams
1980 - Mount St Helens blows its top in Washington State, 60 die
1998 - United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft
Happy Birthday To:  

 
Free Rambling Thoughts   
Red Flag Warning for all of Arizona. Wind didn’t help the almost 29,000 acres (about 46 sq miles)on fire in AZ. There are 5 separate fires in central AZ and all continue to grow. Thankfully no one has been seriously injured. Old mining towns are in danger. No rain in the forecast but even higher winds than today are expected through the weekend.

OMG…Rednecks, bigots, and racists must be freaking…as of today, for the first time in our US History, more minority babies are born everyday than white babies. As I was working on my Master’s degree we learned that this day would come in our lifetime. I don’t see this as anything to worry about myself, but I do know there are a lot of minorities who are not happy about the way ‘whites’ have treated them. I hope the racists who are white realize the silliness and stop their foolish diatribes.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)
Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle
Given two sentences each sentence has two blanks. A word starting with "UP" goes in the first blank. Move the "UP" to the end, and you'll get a familiar two-word phrase that goes in the second blank to complete the sentence.
For example: "These are important principles to ___________ , so don't __________ the march of progress."
The answer would be: "These are important principles to "UPHOLD", so don't "HOLD UP the march of progress."
1.      The daily ­­­____ of a castle is expensive and it’s hard for even a Nobleman to ____ with the bills:
2.     The embattled executive remained ____ despite being pretty ____ by the press:
3.     It the dull witted employee is slow-witted on the ____ this is an issue you should ____ with his boss:
4.     The rubber band slipped off the end of the balloon with the ____ being ____ in the air:
5.     The short-tempered hostess was ____ when she discovered the caterer couldn’t ____ for the meal:
6.     The prospective groom admired his bride’s ____ nose until pre-rhinoplasty pictures showed up in a family album:  

Riddle of the day
Poke your fingers in my eyes and I will open wide my jaws. Linen cloth, quills, or paper, my greedy lust devours them all.
Anagram: unscramblenumbers represent the number of letters in each answer word

Lifestyle  Substance     
Harper’s Index         
Percentage of workers with only a high school diploma who received employer-based health insurance in 1979:70
Percentage of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher who receive it today: 66
Found on You Tube 
       
Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day
A sweet little boy surprised his grandmother one morning and brought her a cup of coffee. He made it himself and was so proud. He anxiously waited to hear the verdict on the quality of the coffee. The grandmother had never in her life had such a bad cup of coffee, and as she forced down the last sip she noticed three of those little green army guys in the bottom of the cup. She asked, "Honey, why would three little green army guys be in the bottom of my cup?" Her grandson replied, "You know grandma, it's like on TV, 'The best part of waking up is soldiers in your cup.'"
Rules of Thumb   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
It takes 16 praying mantis egg cases per acre to keep other insects under control.
Yeah, It Really Happened
CHAPMAN, Ala. -- An Alabama woman who lost her class ring more than 40 years ago said she was shocked when her son-in-law found it after less than 10 minutes of searching. Betty Black said she thought she would never see the Georgiana High School class ring again after she lost it while playing softball in Chapman 43 years ago, but her son-in-law, Wendell Watkins, decided to take another look at the plot of land, which he now owns. "I walked out on the land and tried to figure out how the softball field was laid out," Watkins said. "I found the pitchers mound and then figured out where the backstop was. I was out there for 10 minutes and I saw something that looked out of place in the dirt. I yelled to my kids, I found it. They were like, 'no way, not that fast.'" However, Watkins said he brushed the dirt off the ring and soon positively identified it as his mother-in-law's long-lost keepsake. "He put his fingers in his pocket, and brought out the ring, I almost had a seizure and I was crying," Black said of when Watkins gave her the ring back. 
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • An adult bedbug can survive up to one year without feeding.
  • Ants are social insects and live in colonies which may have as many as 500,000 individuals.
  • Worker ants may live seven years and the queen may live as long as 15 years.
  • People are more likely to be a target for mosquitoes if you consume bananas.
  • The venom of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.
  • The buzz that you hear when a bee approaches is the sound of its four wings moving at 11,400 strokes per minute. Bees fly an average of 15 miles per hour.

Calendar Information        
…Happening This Week:
12-19 
National Tourism Week
National Nursing Home Week
Reading is Fun Week
Salute to Moms 35+ Week
National Return To Work Week
National Women's Health Week
American Craft Beer Week
National Bike to Work Week
National Etiquette Week
National Hospital Week
15-21
National Dog Bite Prevention Week
National Educational Bosses' Week
National New Friends, Old Friends Week
National Police Week
National Transportation Week
World Trade Week
EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Week

Today Is                                                                      
Bats Day
Endangered Species Day
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day
I Love Reeses Day
International Museum Day
International Virtual Assistants Day
Mother Whistler Day
NASCAR Day
National Bike to Work Day
National Defense Transportation Day
National Pizza Party Day
Turn Beauty Inside Out Day
Visit Your Relatives Day

Todays Other Events                                                             

1000’s
1096  Crusader’s massacre Jews of Worm
à
1200’s
1291 - Sultan of Egypt & his son take last Christian stronghold of Acre
1300’s
1302 - Bruges Matins, the nocturnal massacre of the French garrison in Bruges by members of the local Flemish militia
à
1500’s
1593 - Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe
1600’s
1631 - English colony Massachusetts Bay grants Puritan voting right; John Winthrop is elected 1st governor of Massachusetts
1661: Captain John Odber is order by the Maryland General Assembly to take fifty men and go to the "Susquesahannough Forte." According to a treaty signed on May 16th, Maryland is required to help protect the Susquehannocks from raids by the Seneca. Odber’s force is to fulfill that part of the treaty
à
1800’s
1839: General Alexander Macomb announces the peace terms with the Seminoles. The Seminoles are able to stay in Florida, if they remain near Lake Okechobee
1852 - Massachusetts rules all school-age children must attend school
1896 - US Supreme court affirms race separation (Plessy v Ferguson)
1896 - Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people
1900’s
1910 - Passage of Earth through tail of Halley's Comet causes near-panic
1926 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished in Venice California She showed up a month later & said she had been kidnapped
1953 - 1st woman to break sound barrier (Jacqueline Cochrane, USA)
1964 - Supreme Court rules unconstitutional to deprive naturalized citizens of citizenship if they return to home country for more than 3 years
1974 - India becomes 6th nation to explode an atomic bomb
1992 - Supreme Court rules states could not force mentally unstable criminal defendants to take anti-psychotic drugs
2000’s
2006 - The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country
2009 - Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides

Todays Birthdays                                                           
Remembered for being born on this day
Frank Capra, Italian director (Its a Wonderful Life, Arsenic & Old Lace) in 1897
Perry Como, [Pierino], Canonsburg Pa, singer/TV (Perry Como Show ) in 1912
James Donald, Aberdeen Scotland, actor (Bridge on River Kwai, Vikings)in 1917
Pernell Roberts, Waycross Ga, actor (Adam-Bonanza, Trapper John MD)in 1928
Bertrand Russell, England, mathematician/philosopher (Nobel 1950) in 1872
 [Robert] Meredith Willson, Mason City Iowa, composer ( Music Man) in 1902
John Paul II, [Karol Wojtyla], Wadowice, Poland, 264th Roman Catholic Pope (1978-2005) in 1920
In their 90’s
Bill Macy, Revere Mass, actor (Walter-Maude, Oh! Calcutta) is 90
à
In their 70’s
Dwayne Hickman, LA, actor (Dobie Gillis, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini) is 78
In their 60’s
Reggie Jackson, "Mr October" baseball right fielder (Yankees, A's) is 66
George Strait, Pearsall Tx, country singer ( All My Exes Live in Texas)is 60
In their 50’s
Chow Yun-Fat, Hong Kong, actor (Better Tomorrow) is 57
In their 40’s
Tina Fey, American writer/actress/comedian is 42

Todays Obits                                                           
Jill Ireland, actress (Carry on Nurse, Family), dies of cancer in 1990 at 54
David A. Johnston, a U.S. Volcanologist, a victim of Mount St. Helens eruption dies in 1980 at 30
Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (Children's Death Songs), dies of defective heart valve in 1911 at 50
Elizabeth Montgomery, actress (Bewitched), dies of cancer in 1995 at 62

Answers                                                                                                                                            
Brain Game: Close Up Picture

Riddle of the day
SCISSORS/ SHEARS
NPR Sunday Puzzle
1.      The daily ­­­____ of a castle is expensive and it’s hard for even a Nobleman to ____ with the bills: upkeep, keep up
2.     The embattled executive remained ____ despite being pretty ____ by the press: upbeat, beat up
3.     It the dull witted employee is slow-witted on the ____ this is an issue you should ____ with his boss: uptake, take up
4.     The rubber band slipped off the end of the balloon with the ____ being ____ in the air: upshot, shot up
5.     The short-tempered hostess was ____ when she discovered the caterer couldn’t ____ for the meal: upset, set up
6.     The prospective groom admired his bride’s ____ nose until pre-rhinoplasty pictures showed up in a family album:  upturned, turned up
Anagrams

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] the dates may not be totally accurate.
    And That Is All for Now 

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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.