Aug 1

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Flagstaff Almanac

Week: 31 / Day:  214

Today: High   76°…Low 56°

Records: High   91°(1977)…Low 43°(1997)

 Averages: High   80°…Low 52°

Wind:   2mph;  Gusts: 31mph

Afternoon Rain  Today’s humidity:  66%

Quote of the Day

Today’s  Historical  Highlights

2007 - The I-35W Mississippi River Bridge spanning the Mississippi River in 

            Minneapolis, MN, collapses during the evening rush hour

1993 - Reggie Jackson enshrined in Baseball Hall of Fame

1988 - Rush Limbaugh begins his national radio show

1982 - Greg Louganis, US becomes 1st diver to score 700 (752.67) in 11 dives

1976 - 21st Olympic games close at Montreal Canada

1976 - Flash flood in Big Thompson Canyon Colo on Route 34, kills 139

1968 - The coronation is held of Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brune

             -still in power

1957 - 1st commercial building heated by Sun (Albuquerque NM)

1957 - US & Canada create North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)

1946 - Pres Harry Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission 

1943 - Japan declares Burma Independence under U Ba Maw

1941 - The first Jeep is produced

1911 - Omar N Bradley (18) begins education in West Point

1907 - Bank of Italy opens 1st branch at 3433 Mission Street, SF

1855 - Castle Clinton in NYC opens as 1st US receiving station for immigrants

1831 - London Bridge opens to traffic

♪   Happy Birthday To♪ 

How many can you identify…answers in ‘Today’s Birthdays’

 

Free Rambling Thoughts   

More afternoon rain…very nice. Enjoying the cooler weather and the smell of rain. Kids in the neighborhood are out in force after the rain stopped….a real break for parents, I’m sure.

I can’t believe how fast the summer is going by. Tuba friends are back at work. Here it is August already. I was glad to see that we have gotten 3.23” of moisture this month and that is above the average. Since Jan 1 we are still about 3” below normal, so I guess our drought continues.

My friend Martha is doing a talk in Prescott on Thursday, and I’ll be going down there with her. She is talking about adoption, her own search, and similar issues. Should be a good talk at the Prescott Library. It is an evening talk, so it will be a late day in getting back to Flagstaff.

Still watching the Olympics…so nice. More great swimming and diving competition and then gymnastics. More tonight…these games are great! The big controversy is over Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwin, a 16 year old girl who is swimming faster than men. Lots of questions, with few answers. Drug tests are negative, but many just can’t believe she can swim that fast. The Chinese are claiming that she is just that good, while others think that the Chinese may have found a non-detectable non-natural improvement. Time will tell.

Game   Center: (answers at the end of post)

What is the answer?

Complete these words by inserting the same three letters in each.M---EW    M---ER    EV---OER

5X5 Word Boxes

The answer to 1 across is the same word as the answer to 1 down; 2 across is the same as 2 down; etc. Can you solve these Word Boxes? Each answer is 5 letters.

1.      instrument
2.      metal mass
3.      spy
4.      present occasion
5.      waterlogged mammal
Hint:  upper left to lower right letters are: P-N-E-C-R

Lifestyle  Substance     

Do you remember this?

Do you know what this word means?

What is this not so common name of a common object?Gynecomastia

My Latest Adventure—

Great Overlooked Folk-Rock Songs

• Fred Neil,"The Dolphins." The greatest song by the singer-songwriter most known for "Everybody's Talkin'," mixing oceanic dolphin imagery with allusions to failed love.

• Judy Collins,"Hard Lovin' Loser"  Yet another hit single that should have been, from her In My Life album. A great cover of a Richard & Mimi Farina song with an ascending harpsichord riff, barrelhouse honky-tonk piano, and convincing rock'n'roll vocals that totally outdistances the original.

• Richard & Mimi Farina,"Reno Nevada" The husband-and-wife duo's best song, a moody meditation on loss and chance, with a hypnotic minor-key melody and winding, wordless backup vocals by Mimi Farina. Later covered masterfully by Fairport Convention in the late 1960s for the BBC.

• The Bluethings,"Doll House" With its veiled references to the sad life of a prostitute, the best song from the only album by Kansas' Bluethings, the great lost folk-rock band. Guaranteed to appeal to fans of the mid-1960s Byrds and Beau Brummels.

Harper’s Index         

Portion of the $62 million raised by major presidential Super PACs in 2011 that came from the top 22 givers: 1/2

Found on You Tube 

• An unforgettable comeback - Greg Louganis
      

• What is Microgravity?

Joke-of-the-day

A seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and they take turns to tell their adventures on the seas. The seaman notes that the pirate has a peg leg, hook, and an eye patch. Curious, the seaman asks "So, how did you end up with the peg-leg?"
The pirate replies "I was swept overboard into a school of sharks. Just as my men were pulling me out, a shark bit my leg off".
"Wow!" said the seaman. "What about the hook"?
"Well...", replied the pirate, "We were boarding an enemy ship and were battling the other sailors with swords. One of the enemy cut my hand clean off."  "Incredible!" remarked the seaman. "How did you get the eye patch"?
"A seagull dropping fell into my eye", replied the pirate.
"You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?" the sailor asked.
"Well..." said the pirate, "That was my first day with the hook." 

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

A plume of snow blowing from a peak higher than 7,000 meters means a wind of at least 100 miles per hour on the summit.

Yeah, It Really Happened

SEATTLE - A Washington state school bus driver said at his sentencing hearing he groped teenage girls and women because he had consumed too much caffeine.
Kenneth Sands, 51, who was charged with five counts of fourth-degree assault, told the judge at his Tuesday sentencing he had consumed too much caffeine prior to the events of Oct. 18, KOMO-TV, Seattle, reported Thursday.
"That caused a psychotic episode," Sands said. "My son-in-law and daughter had never seen that kind of behavior from myself." The Lewis County sheriff's office said Sands, a driver for the Rainier School District, was attending a volleyball game in Onalaska Oct. 18 as a spectator, not a driver, when he allegedly touched a 46-year-old woman's breasts three times and grabbed her buttocks when she tried to get away from him. He also allegedly grabbed a 15-year-old girl's buttocks outside of a bus after the game and slapped a 16-year-old girl's behind as she was boarding the vehicle. The sheriff's office said Sands got onto the school bus and touched a girl in an inappropriate manner before being kicked off by the driver. Sands was sentenced to 30 days in jail for each count.               

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The early Olympic Games were celebrated as a religious festival from 776 B.C. until 393 A.D., when the games were banned for being a pagan festival (the Olympics celebrated the Greek god Zeus). In 1894, a French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a revival of the ancient tradition, and thus the modern-day Olympic Summer Games were born.

• The first Olympics covered by U.S. television was the 1960 Summer Games in Rome by CBS.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Month:

American Adventures Month

American Indian Heritage Month  

American History Essay Contest

Black Business Month

Cataract Awareness Month

Celery, Fennel and Cactus Month

Children's Eye Health & Safety Month

Children's Vision & Learning Month

Get Ready for Kindergarten Month

Golf Month

Happiness Happens Month

Motorsports Awareness Month

National Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Month 

National Immunization Awareness Month

National Panini Month 

National Minority Donor Awareness Month

National Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month

National Runaway Prevention Month

National Truancy Prevention Month

National Water Quality Month

National Win With Civility Month

Neurosurgery Outreach Month

Orange and Papaya Month

Psoriasis Awareness Month

What Will Be Your Legacy Month

Happening This Week:

1-7 

International Clown Week
Simplify Your Life Week
Rock for Life Week

Today Is                                                                      

Girlfriend's Day

Lughnasa: a traditional Gaelic holiday

National Minority Donor Awareness Day

Respect for Parents Day

Rounds Resounding Day

Spiderman Day

US Air Force Day

World Wide Web Day

Bahamas, Trinidad, Tobago: Emancipation Day 

            (1834-UK ends slavery)
Benin (in West Africa): Independence Day (1960 from France)

Jamaica: Abolition of Slavery Day (1834)
US: Colorado: Admission Day (1876-38^th state)
Zambia: Youth Day    

Today’s Events Through History  

2000’s

2001 - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European 

            Environment Agency

2001 - Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a Ten Commandments 

            monument installed in the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it 

            removed and his own removal from office

1900’s

1995 - Westinghouse purchases CBS-TV network

1985 - 15.4 cm rainfall at Cheyenne, Wyoming (state record)

1975 - Helsinki Pact guaranteeing boundaries, rights signed by 35 nations

1972 - 1st article exposing Wategate scandal (Bernstein-Woodward)

1960 - Chubby Checker releases "The Twist"

1955 - 1st microgravity research begins

1953 - California introduces sales tax (for education)

1953 - Northern Rhodesia becomes part of Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland

1950 - Territory of Guam created

1944 - Adam Clayton Powell elected 1st black congressman from East

1944 - Anne Frank's last diary entry; 3 days later she is arrested

1936 - Adolph Hitler opens 11th Olympic Games in Berlin

1933 - NRA (National Recovery Administration) forms

1933 - Death penalty for anti fascists in Germany

1914 - Emperor Wilhelm II declares war on his nephew tsar Nicolas II (WW I)

1903 - 1st coast-to-coast automobile trip (SF-NY) completed

1800’s

1869 - 1st voyage down Colorado River 1901 - Burial within SF City limits prohibited

1867 - Blacks vote for 1st time in a state election in South (TN)

1852 - SF Methodists establish 1st black church, Zion Methodist

1700’s

1794 - Whiskey Rebellion begins

1793 - France becomes 1st country to use the metric system

1790 - 1st US census (population of 3,939,214; 697,624 are slaves)

1739 - Several Shawnee Chiefs sign a peace treaty with British Pennsylvania 

            authorities not to become allies with any other country. The British agree to 

            enforce previous treaties banning the sale of rum to the Indians

1735 - Agreement covering "amity and commerce" is reached by representatives of 

            the British in New York, and Western Abenaki, Housatonic, Mohegan and 

            Scaghticoke Indians

1711 - Surrounded Czar Peter the Great flees Azov

1600’s

1619 - 1st black Americans (20) land at Jamestown, Virginia

Before 1000CE

30 BC - Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under

              the control of the Roman Republic

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 30’s

Tempestt Bledsoe, actress (Vanessa Huxtable-Cosby Show) will be 39

In their 40’s

Coolio [Artis Leon Ivey Jr.], Monessen Pennsylvania, rapper is 49

In their 70’s

Ian Hogg, notable British actor on BBC is 75

In their 90’s

Jeffrey Segal, actor/playwright (Vanity Fair, Rest in Pieces) is 92

Remembered for being born today

Dom DeLuise, Bkln NY, comedian (End, Cannonball Run, Fatso) – b.1933

Jerry Garcia, SF, rocker (Grateful Dead-Uncle Joe's Band) - b.1942

Mary Harris ‘Mother’ Jones, American labor organizer - b.1837

Meir Kahane, American founder of the Jewish Defense League - b.1932

Francis Scott Key, composer (Star-Spangled Banner) - b.1779

John F Mahoney, developed penicillin treatment of syphilis - b.1889

Andrew Melville, Scottish theologian and religious reformer - b.1545

Herman Melville, New York, author (Moby Dick, Billy Budd) - b.1819

Maria Mitchell, 1st US woman astronomer on Nantucket Island b.-1818

Today’s Historical Obits                                                            

Philip Abelson, American physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate dies in 2004 at 91

Corazon Aquino, Former President of the Philippines dies of cardiac arrest 

          in 2009 at 76

Paddy Chayefsky, screenwriter (Network, Hospital) dies of cancer in 1981 at 58

Jacques Clément, French assassin of Henry III of France killed by 

         court attendants in 1589 at 22

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dies of pneumonia in 2005 at 82

Frank Little, American labor organizer lynched in Butte MT in 1917 at 38 

Francis Gary Powers, US U-2 pilot, dies in private plane crash in 1977 at 47

John Ross (aka. Kooweskoowe), Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation 

         dies in 1866 at 76

Trindad Silva, actor (Hill St Blues), dies in an auto accident in 1988 at 38

Anne Stuart, queen of England (1702-14), dies  of suppressed gout  in 1714

        at about 49

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Do you know what this word means?

abnormal development of large mammary glands in males—man boobs

What is the answer?

The missing letters are I-L-D: MILDEW, MILDER, EVILDOER

5X5 boxes

PIANO

INGOT

AGENT

NONCE

OTTER

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  ☺