Apr 4


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♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

Today’s  Historical  Highlights
1814 - Napoleon abdicates for the first time
1818 - Congress decided US flag is 13 red & white stripes & 20 stars
1870 - Golden Gate Park forms by City Order #800
1896 - Announcement of Gold in Yukon
1916 - US Senate agrees (82-6) to participate in WW I
1947 - Largest group of sunspots on record
1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee
1974 - Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth's home-run record by hitting his 714th
1975 - Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen
1981 - Henry Cisneros becomes 1st Mexican-American mayor (San Antonio)
1989 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's last NBA game in Seattle
 
Free Rambling Thoughts   
An interesting day. I certainly learned today a lot about taxes. When you make money, you have to pay taxes big time. About 25% of the money I made in one account went to taxes. I had been warned by my financial advisor that this would happen, and it did. I didn’t make enough to be like Mitt who only pays 15%. I think that the part that bothers me the most is that our tax system is so friggin complicated, it costs an arm and a leg and a couple more toes to have my taxes done. Every year there are new forms, new tables, new laws, and they seldom help out people like me. I trust my tax preparer so we joked, and I wrote the checks. I’m not mailing anything to the government until the last day. I wish I had a little more control—strike that—I wish I had a lot more control over where my tax dollars went.

That 40 year old guy who went to his college and killed 7 people in CAsure sounds like a guy who was bullied. When will our country and its citizenry realize that bullying leads to problems? He lined up those who had made fun of him and shot them one by one. Some ran, and he chased them down to shoot them. So sad and so unnecessary!

On the other side of the bullying issue is the new, yet to be signed, AZ law that will make many criminals. House Bill 2549 : "Prohibits using any electronic or digital device, instead of a telephone, with the intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend a person." The bill specifies that an "electronic or digital device includes any wired or wireless communication device and multimedia storage device." It is supposed to stop bullying on social network sitesa good thing. However the language is a tiny bit broad for my liking. People, even me, are annoyed or offended by some of the stuff I read on Facebook or in emails. Some of the stuff is from politicians who blather on and on about their so-called accomplishments. Some of the stuff is religious zealots who hope I find their message enjoyable. Some of the stuff is on-line arguments where one person calls another ‘too old to understand’ or ‘are you insane?’. In AZ that might soon get you in trouble. Really?!?  Yep, only in AZ.

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

NPR Sunday Puzzle
Every answer is the name of an animal you might see in the zoo. Name the animals from their anagrams. For example, given "oil" plus "N," the answer would be "lion."
1.     Reb+a:
2.     Ezra+b:
3.     Napa+d:
4.     Rite+ g:
5.     Nabob + o:
6.     Rawls _ U:
7.     Allege+ z:
8.     Gaffer + I :
9.     Enrapt + h:
10.  Gloria + l:
11.  Reload + p:
12.  Heeltap + n:
13.  Needier + r:
14.  Mechanize + P:

Riddle of the day
A man is lying drowned in a dead forest, far from water. How did this happen?
Anagram: unscramblenumbers represent the number of letters in each answer word

Lifestyle  Substance     
Harper’s Index         
Percentage by which the average contracted project costs the government more than the equivalent government run project: 83
Found on You Tube 
   ANDY WARHOL INTERVIEW 1964    
Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day
A woman in her eighties made the evening news because she was getting married for the fourth time. The following day she was being interviewed by a local TV station, and the commentator asked about what it felt to be married again at that age and would she share part of her previous experiences, since it seem quite unique the fact that her new husband was a ‘funeral director.’
After a short time to think, a smile came to her face and she proudly explained that she had first married a banker when she was in her twenties, in her forties she married a circus ring master, and in her sixties she married a pastor and now in her eighties, a funeral director.
The amazed commentator asked her why she had married men with such diverse carriers. With a smile on her face she explained, ‘I married one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go.’
Rules of Thumb   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
Three times the average distance you run every day is close to the maximum distance you should run in a race.
Yeah, It Really Happened
 London: A British businessman has discovered what could be the earliest piece of Andy Warhol's "Pop Art" ever found.
An art expert told the U.K.'s ITN that the $5 bargain could be worth millions, if it's authenticated.
Channel 4 News in the U.K. reported that the painting was bought by Andy Fields, of Devon, in Las Vegas, from a drug user whose aunt cared for Warhol as a child. It said the picture had been valued at more than $2 million.
Warhol was supposed to have made the work when he was just 10 or 11 in the 1930s, Channel 4 said.
Somewhat Useless Information   
The earliest written record of magnification dates back to the 1st century AD, when Seneca the Younger, a tutor of Emperor Nero of Rome, wrote: "Letters, however small and indistinct, are seen enlarged and more clearly through a globe or glass filled with water". Nero (reigned 54-68 AD) is also said to have watched the gladiatorial games using an emerald as a corrective lens.
25% of the global population needs eyeglasses. The price for glasses in many African countries can exceed three months' average salary.

Calendar Information        
…Happening This Week:
1-7
The APAWS Pooper Scooper Week
Golden Rule Week
Holy Week
International Pooper-Scooper Week
Laugh at Work Week
National Blue Ribbon Week

National Public Health Week
National Week of the Ocean
National Window Safety Week
Medication Safety Week
2-7
Testicular Cancer Awareness Week
Explore Your Career Options
The Masters Tournament
4-10
Hate Week
Today Is                                                                      
International Day for Mine Awareness & Assistance in Mine Action
National Day of Hope
Paraprofessional Appreciation Day
Square Root Day
Victims of Violence Wholly Day
Vitamin C Day
World Rat Day
Tell-A-Lie Day
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Senegal: Independence Day (1960 from France)

Today’s Other Events                                                             
1500’s
1581 - Frances Drake completes circumnavigation of world; he becomes knight
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1800’s
1840 - Comanche Chief Piava arranges an exchange of 2 prisoners with the residents of San Antonio. Two captives from each side are released
1859 - Bryant's Minstrels debut "Dixie" in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show
1879 - According to Army files, a group of Indians stole almost 30 horses from Countryman's ranch, on the Yellowstone River. Local citizens and "friendly" Crow pursued them. They would be found on April 22, 1879.
1900’s
1900 - Assassination attempt on prince of Wales/king Edward VII
1913 - The Greek aviator Emmanuel Argyropoulos becomes the first pilot victim of the Hellenic Air Force when his plane crashes
1914 - "Perils of Pauline" shown for 1st time in LA
1932 - George Bernard Shaw's "Too True to be Good," premieres in NYC
1944 - British troops capture Addis Ababa Ethiopia
1947 - Convention on International Civil Aviation goes into effect
1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) treaty signed (Wash DC)
1958 - 1st march against nuclear weapons (Aldermaston England)
1966 - Pirate Radio Scotland changes name to Radio Ireland
1972 - 1st electric power plant fueled by garbage begins operating
1979 - President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed
1988 - Eddie Hill becomes the world's first driver to cover the quarter mile in under 5 seconds
1994 - LA Dodger Darryl Strawberry begins substance abuse treatment
2000’s
2002 - The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War
2008 - The raid on the FLDS owned ranch called the YFZ Ranch in Texas, 401 children were taken into custody. 133 woman were taken into state custody also, the total number of woman and children is 534

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
In their 80’s
Clive Davis, American record producer is 80
Cloris Leachman, Des Moines Iowa, actress (Phyllis, High Anxiety) is 86
Maya Angelou, [Marguerite Ann Johnson], St Louis, poet/actress ( And Still I Rise) is 84
In their 70’s
Christine Lahti, Detroit, actress (Chicago Hope) is 62
Craig T. Nelson, Spokane, Wash, actor (Poltergeist, Hayden Fox- Coach) is 68
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In their 50’s
David E. Kelley, Writer and TV producer (L.A. Law, Picket Fences, The Practice , is 56
In their 40’s
Robert Downey Jr, NYC, comedian (SNL, Less than Zero, Back to School) is 47
Nancy McKeon, Westbury NY, actress (Jo Polniazek-Facts of Life) is 46
In their 30’s
David Blaine, American illusionist is 39
Remembered for being born on this day
Bea Benaderet, NYC, actress (Kate- Petticoat Junction)  in 1906
Benjamin Kennicott, English churchman and Hebrew scholar in 1718
Tad Lincoln, son of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in 1853
Pierre Monteux, Paris France, conductor (Boston Symph Orch 1919-24) in 1875
Anthony Perkins, actor (Psycho) in 1932
Karl Wilhelm Siemens, inventor (laid undersea cables) in 1823
Thaddeus Stevens, US Radical Republican congressional leader (Rep-R) in 1792
Muddy Waters, [McKinley Morganfield], blues guitarist (Hoochie Coochie Man) in 1913

Today’s Obits                                                           
Oliver Goldsmith, Irish poet (She Stoops to Conquer), dies of kidney failure at 43 in 1774
Martin Luther King Jr, assassinated at 39 in 1968
John McLean, U.S. Supreme Court Justice dies at 76 in 1861
John Napier, Scottish mathematician/inventor (logarithms), dies of gout at 66 in 1617
Adam Clayton Powell Jr, (Rep-D-NY), dies of acute prostatitis at 63 in 1972
Gloria Swanson, actress (Airport 1975), dies of a heart ailment at 84 in 1983

Answers                                                                                                                                            
Brain Game: Close Up Picture

Riddle of the day
A firefighting plane filled its tanks with water from a lake, sucking a scuba-diver in (Is this an urban legend, or did I see this on the news?). He drown while the plane was in flight and was dumped onto a burning forest with the water.

NPR Sunday Puzzle
1.     Reb+a:
a.      bear
2.     Ezra+b:
a.      zebra
3.     Napa+d:
a.      panda
4.     Rite+ g:
a.      tiger
5.     Nabob + o:
a.      baboon
6.     Rawls _ U:
a.      walrus
7.     Allege+ z:
a.      gazelle
8.     Gaffer + I :
a.      giraffe
9.     Enrapt + h:
a.      panther
10.  Gloria + l:
a.      gorilla
11.  Reload + p:
a.      leopard
12.  Heeltap + n:
a.      elephant
13.  Needier + r:
a.      reindeer
14.  Mechanize + p:
a.      chimpanzee

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.