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Flagstaff Almanac: Week: 49/ Day:
Today: H 61°…L 25°
Averages: H 44° L 18°
Records: H
67°(1989)…L -1°(1953, 1931)
Wind: ave: 7mph; Gusts: 20mph Today’s ave. humidity: 60%
Quote of the Day:
Today’s Historical Highlights:
"Rudolph
The Red-Nosed Reindeer" 1st airs on TV—1964
13th
Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery—1865
1st
edition of "Encyclopedia Brittanica" published (Scotland)
—1768
1st play
in American colonies acted by professional players, NYC—1732
1st
presidential address broadcast on radio (Pres Calvin Coolidge) —1923
300,000
attend Altamont California, rock concert feature Rolling Stones—1969
Anglo-Irish
Treaty signed; Ireland receives dominion status; partition creates
Northern
Ireland—1921
Bonnie
Prince Charlies army retreats to Scotland—1745
Everglades
National Park in Florida is dedicated—1947
Gerald
Ford sworn-in as 1st unelected VP, succeeds Spiro T Agnew—1973
Harriet
Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland—1849
Nelson
Mandela & 156 others arrested for political activities in S Africa—1956
Pres
Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux—1862
Turkey
introduces female suffrage—1929
U.S.
Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia—1790
♪
♪ Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪
How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays
Free Rambling Thoughts:
I can’t believe it is December…and it was 61° today…amazing. Our retirement group went to lunch to our favorite ‘fancy’ place here in Flagstaff. We had a great lunch and good conversation. While this is a ‘fancy’ place, today the staff was a little off…we started with one waiter, and by the end of the meal had a total of three waiters. The final guy brought us the wrong bill. We noted that it was about ½ of what it should have been then realized that none of us had ordered what was on the bill. The guy corrected it, but never really apologized, or even thanked us for pointing out the mistake. We joked that we should have just paid the bill and quickly left…leaving the other table with a much bigger bill. Mary is headed for Chicago next week, and Cheryl is busy looking over the Santa list her grandkids sent her. We are all wondering where our Governor has ‘disappeared’ to. Rumor of a trip to Afghanistan is gaining popularity…on the state’s dime. Hard to believe. Even harder to believe is the Tea Party rumor that she may run for President in 2016.Saw a post of FB that a former colleague passed away. Dr. Pat was a leader in Indian Education, in and out of the Bureau. She led the Bureau through some tough times of change and will be missed by all who knew her.Just saw a story on the news that Santa may have problems taking off from the North Pole, and snow and ice is disappearing at an alarming rate. Just one more thing for all the worriers to worry about…Let’s see, climate change happening really fast, Mayan colander end approaching, and the fiscal cliff approaching. The strange thing is that this is the countdown time for the number of shopping days left till Christmas—except in 2012—where the countdown is to the fiscal cliff. Strange times for sure.
Game
Center: (answers at the end of post)
Duplicate Letter Puzzles
Find
common words with certain letters duplicated in the given
positions. V stands for a duplicated vowel, C stands for a
duplicated consonant, and _ stands for any letter
C V V C _ V
Lifestyle
Substance:
Old Saying Explained:
BY HOOK OR BY CROOK…This old saying probably comes from a Medieval law which stated that peasants could use branches of trees for fire wood if they could reach them with their shepherds crook or their billhook.
Ok, then?
TV Theme Songs you may remember:
M*A*S*H - "Suicide Is Painless" by Johnny Mandel
Read This Headline Carefully!!
Death Causes Loneliness, Feeling of Isolation
NPR Hosts:
Bet You Didn’t Know…from History Channel
Passengers aboard Titanic represented 44 different countries from six continents
Harper’s Index:
Amount for which the NY MTA leased naming rights to an Atlantic Avenue subway station: $4,000,000
Ruminations:
Who is the idiot that decided search histories should be saved?
Unusual Fact of the Day:
Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) is credited with being the first professional player to break a backboard— which occurred during practice before the first Boston Celtics game on November 5th, 1946.Found on You Tube:
Joke-of-the-day:
Q: What do you call a man who just lost his brain? A: Divorced.
Rules of Thumb:
Easy
shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
APPRAISING A RENTAL PROPERTY…The market value of a rental property is six times the gross rent.
Yeah, It Really Happened
GAVLE, Sweden - A Swedish city is employing private security to protect its traditional four-story-tall straw goat from arsonists. Wellington Ikuobase, who was elected Gavle Resident of The Year and was in charge of christening this year's 42 1/2-foot-tall goat, said someone tried to light it on fire Saturday prior to its official inauguration, The Local.se reported Monday. "The front hoof smells of petrol," organizer Eje Berglund said at the Sunday inauguration. The goat has been a popular target for vandals and arsonists in recent years. The city, which first adopted the Christmas goat tradition in 1966, has hired private security guards to protect the straw sculpture.
Somewhat Useless Information
- In January 1959, the USSR launched the first craft intended to come in contact with the moon, called Mechta. Unfortunately, the astronomers' calculations were off, and the craft missed its mark by about 5,000 miles. Two months later, the United States attempted a similar stunt with the Pioneer IV. It, too, failed to reach the moon.
- In 2004, the Messenger probe blasted off, hoping to become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury in 2011. Mercury's orbit speed, small size, and proximity to the sun makes it incredibly complicated to plot a "slingshot" route that will allow for the proper speed and angle to enter the planet's orbit.
- High winds and miscommunication caused Soyuz 23 to land in a frozen lake, where it broke through the ice and dragged its two cosmonaut occupants to the bottom. Divers located the craft and connected it via cables to a helicopter, which dragged it to shore. Thanks to their own survival instincts, the two men inside were retrieved alive.
- In 1959, the Soviet spacecraft Lunik 3 transmitted to Earth photographs of something never previously seen by human eyes: images from the far side of the moon.
- The Soviet Mars I space probe was headed to the red planet in early 1963 when it suddenly fell silent about 66 million miles into its journey. It is now believed that mechanical problems caused the failure, but at the time, many were convinced that Martians had attacked or otherwise disabled the craft in order to avoid detection.
- When the United States launched the Pioneer 6 in December 1965, the craft was sent out to orbit the sun and had an expected life span of six months. Incredibly, contact was made with Pioneer 6 as recently as the year 2000, and parts of it are still thought to be functioning even today.
Calendar Information
Happening This Week:
1-7>
Cookie Cutter Week; Tolerance Week
2-8>
Recipe Greetings For The Holidays Week; Clerc-Gallaudet Week; National Hand washing
Awareness Week
Today Is
Miners' Day
Mitten Tree Day
National Gazpacho Day
National Pawnbrokers Day
St. Nicholas Day
~Finland: Independence Day (1917 from USSR)
Today’s Events through History
11
soldiers & 6 civilians die by bomb planted by Irish National Liberation
Army exploded in a pub in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland—1982
1st
predicted transit of Venus (Kepler) is observed—1631
1st US
attempt to launch a satellite fails-Vanguard rocket blows up—1957
41st
Heisman Trophy Award: Archie Griffin, Ohio State (RB) —1975
Dutch
& British pilots see Japanese invasion fleet at Singapore—1941
London
becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs—1897
NASA
reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting
the presence of
liquid water on Mars—2006
Nelson
Mandela is transferred to Victor Vester Prison, Capetown—1988
Northern
Dutch coast flooded, "Saint-Nicolaas Flood"—1196
Pride's
Purge: Thomas Pride prevents 96 presbyterians from sitting
in English parliament—1648
Quito,
Ecuador founded by Spanish—1534
Saddam announces
release of all foreign hostages—1990
Theodore
Roosevelt confirms Monroe-doctrine (Roosevelt Corollary) —1904
US
Electorial College picks Rep Hayes as pres (although Tilden won) —1876
US
president James Monroe re-elected—1820
Warner
Brothers announces a 5th TV network to begin on Jan 11, 1995—1994
Washington
Post publishes 1st edition—1877
Today’s Birthdays
In their 70’s
Kenneth Copeland,
American televangelist is 76
In their 60’s
JoBeth
Williams, Houston TX, actress (Kramer vs Kramer, Poltergeist) is 64
Remembered for being born today
Dave
Brubeck, Concord CA, jazz pianist/composer (Gates of Justice) (1920-2012)
Wally
Cox, Detroit, actor (Mr Peepers, Hollywood Squares) (1924-1973)
John
Eberhard Faber, built 1st large-scale pencil factory in US (1822-1879)
Ira
Gershwin, lyricist ('S Wonderful, I Got Rhythm) (1896-1983)
Agnes
Moorehead, American actress (Endora-Bewitched), (1906-1974)
Today’s Historical Obits
Don
Ameche, actor (Cocoon)—prostate cancer—1993—at 85
Lady
Grizel Baillie, Scottish songwriter—1746—at 80
Joseph
Black, Scottish medical/chemist/physicist—1799—at 71
Jefferson
Davis, Pres of Confederate States (1861-5)—1889—at 81
Werner
Klemperer, German-born actor (Col. Klink)—2000—at 80
Lead
Belly, [Huddie William Ledbetter], blues singer— ALS —1949—at
64
Claude
[Oscar] Monet, French painter (impressionist)—1926—at 86
Saint
Nicholas—343—at 73
Roy
Orbison, singer (Pretty Woman)—massive heart attack—1988—at 52
Burr
Tillstrom, puppeteer (Kukla Fran & Ollie)—1985—at 68
Answer: Duplicate Letter Puzzles
TEETHE
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 §
