FYI: Click on any blue text for a
link to more information!
Today’s 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?
.jpg)
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: unscramble—numbers 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
Today’s Other Events
1000’s
1096 – Crusader’s massacre Jews
of Worm
Ã
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
Ã
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
Ã
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
Today’s Birthdays
Remembered for being born on this day
Frank Capra, Italian
director (Its a Wonderful Life, Arsenic & Old Lace) in 1897
James Donald, Aberdeen
Scotland, actor (Bridge on River Kwai, Vikings)in 1917
Bertrand Russell,
England, mathematician/philosopher (Nobel 1950) in 1872
John Paul II, [Karol
Wojtyla], Wadowice, Poland, 264th Roman Catholic Pope (1978-2005) in 1920
In their 90’s
Ã
In their 70’s
In their 60’s
Reggie Jackson, "Mr
October" baseball right fielder (Yankees, A's) is 66
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
Today’s 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
.jpg)
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 ☺
