10/1/13


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 40/ Day: 274   
Today: H 71°…L 35°…Ave. humidity: 52%
Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  18mph  
Average High: 69° Record High:  85° (1980)
Average Low: 36° Record Low:  23° (1982)

Quote of the Day



Today’s Historical Highlights
1st baseball World Series, Pittsburgh Pirates vs Boston Pilgrims (Red Sox) …1903
1st postcards are issued (Vienna, Austria) …1869
1st state fair Berkshire Cattle Fair held in Pittsfield Mass…1910
1st Tonight Show w/ Johnny Carson, Joan Crawford guests…1962
Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence (a/k/a "Lawrence of Arabia") capture Damascus…1918
California becomes the 1st US state to ban conversion therapy for minors…2012
California Supreme Court voids state statue banning interracial marriages…1948
Cartoon Cable Network premieres…1992
Closing ceremony of the XXVII Olympics in Sydney, Australia…2000
Congress creates Weather Bureau…1890
Department Of Energy established…1977
EPCOT Center opens in Orlando Florida…1982
Free Speech Movement launched at University of California-Berkley…1964
John Philip Sousa becomes new director of US Marine Corps Band…1880
Little Golden Books (children books) begins publishing…1942
National Geographic magazine publishes for 1st time…1888
Plaza Hotel (5th Av & 59th Str, NY) opens…1907
Roger Maris sets record of 61 HRs (off of Tracy Stallard) …1961
South African President Nelson Mandela visits US…1994
Stanford University opens its doors…1891
Storm breaks Leiden dike Holland; drowns 20,000 Spanish soldiers…1574
University of Chicago opens…1892
Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opens…1971
Yosemite National Park forms…1890

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays



My Free Rambling Thoughts   
A really beautiful day here in Flag…and it’s Monday. Amazing. Had to run over to Home Depot this morning to get a new aerator for my kitchen faucet. The old one had the swivel part fall off so when I turned the faucet on, water just came out and splashed everywhere.
 
Thank you NPR for another great story. As a Federal worker, I never had to deal with a government shut down until 1995. I wondered always wondered why. Well it turns out that before 1995 there were many times the elected leaders didn’t fund the government by Oct. 1, but there was never a shutdown. Prior  to that all workers just kept coming to work and when the budget got worked out, they got paid. It all changed when a Clinton lawyer discovered an old, old statue that stated that only essential workers could remain on the job and if employees that were not essential stayed, they were illegal volunteers and subject to prosecution. So since 1995, no budget, no work. Another weird thing is that it is the President who determines who is essential and not subject to being sent home. This time around Obama has determined that many, including those working on the Affordable Care Act are essential. And of course, the Congress has determined that they should get paid during the shutdown. So it looks like many will get to sleep in tomorrow. One last thing, since the National Parks will be closed, all the vendors who operate within the park will have no customers so will have to close and not pay their employees. What a way to build the economy.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
The Agents of F.C.I. have amusing anagrams to match their characteristics, for example, AGENT SOUL, whose name anagrams to LANGOUSTE, likes seafood. Try to determine the Anagrams for the following Agents.
AGENT DEE is very young. AGENT YIP specializes in Pharaohs and Sphinxes. AGENT MIC has attractive abilities.

Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Hmmmm…Fearsome Phobias
If you have an irrational fear of... Dryness (and dry places)
You're suffering from... Xerophobia Greek xero ‘dry’
If you have an irrational fear of... Dust
You're suffering from... Amathophobia Greek amathos 'dust'
Interesting Disney



Harper’s Index    
Number of years in prison to which a Texas man was sentenced recently for stealing a $35 rack of pork ribs: 50
Unusual Fact of the Day
While the abacus is commonly associated with the Far East, it was also used in ancient Greece and Rome.

Joke-of-the-day
Embarrassing Situations!
A very shy guy goes into a bar and sees a beautiful woman sitting at the other end. After an hour of gathering up his courage he finally goes over to her and asks, tentatively, "Um, would you mind if I chatted with you for a while?"
To which she responds by yelling, at the top of her lungs, "No, I won't sleep with you tonight!"
By now, the entire bar is staring at them. Naturally, the guy is hopelessly and completely embarrassed and he slinks back to his table.
After a few minutes, the woman walks over to him and apologizes. She smiles at him and says, "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. You see, I'm a graduate student in psychology and I'm studying how people respond to embarrassing situations."
To which he responds, at the top of his lungs, "What do you mean $200!"

Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
THROWING A KNIFE
If your knife balances more than one inch from the tang on the handle side, it is handle heavy and should be thrown from the blade. Likewise, if it balances more than one inch from the tang on the blade side, it is blade heavy and should be thrown from the handle.   
Yeah, It Really Happened
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A 7-year-old boy is suing a Pennsylvania school district over its weapons policy after he was suspended for having a novelty pen on a bus, his lawyer said. Officials in the Derry School District in Dauphin County, Pa., gave the boy -- identified in the federal lawsuit as G.B. -- a four-day suspension and branded him a "weapons offender" for possessing the pen, which emits a small electrical shock when the cap is pressed, the Philadelphia Daily News reported Thursday. G.B. is a second-grader at Hershey Elementary School in Hershey, Pa., the newspaper added.
"A sharpened pencil is probably a more dangerous item than this pen was," said the boy's attorney Aaron Martin, who noted the goal of the suit is to clear the boy's name and to clarify what can be brought to school. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, Pa., claims the boy is classified as a violator of the school's weapons policy, his disciplinary record is permanently "marred," and he is "relegated to the same category as violent criminals" and terrorists.
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • The first apple trees were planted by Pilgrims in Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • An apple tree will start bearing fruit 8-10 years after it is planted. A dwarf tree starts bearing in 3-6 years.
  • Apples are not self pollinating. They need bees to pollinate the flowers to form the fruit.
  • Most apple blossoms are pink when they open but gradually fade to white.
  • Apples are a member of the rose family of plants along with pears, peaches, plums and cherries.
  • Twenty five percent of an apple's volume is air; that is why they can float.


Calendar Information        
Happening This Month:



Happening This Week:
1-7
Universal Children's Week
World Dairy Expo

Today Is                                                                      
·        CD Player Day 1982 first commercial compact disc
·        Fall Astronomy Day
·        Fire Pup Day to recognize canine firefighters
·        International Day of Older Persons
·        Model T Day introduced in 1908 for $825
·        National Lace Day
·    World Card Making Day Celebrate the creativity of handmade cards and the personal connection that they create between friends and family
·        World Vegetarian Day
~~~~
·        China: National Day (founded 1949)
·        Cyprus: Independence Day (1960 from UK)
·        Nigeria: Independence Day (1960 from UK)
·        South Korea: Armed Forces Day since 1950 with 38th parallel treaty

Today’s Events through History  
1st Hawaiian stamps issued…1851
2nd (and current) Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is opened in New York…1931
Bonnie Prince Charlie flees to France…1746
Generalissimo Francisco Franco establishes state of Spain…1936
Pullman Co formally recognizes Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters…1937
Russian army ends a millennium of Muslim domination in Armenia…1827
SF cable cars declared a national landmark…1964

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Jimmy Earl Carter, Plains Ga, 39th Pres is 89
Julie Andrews, Surrey, actress/singer (Sound of Music, Mary Poppins) is 78
Stella Stevens, actress (Girls! Girls!, Manitou) is 75
Rod Carew, baseball slugger (AL Rookie of Year 1967) is 68
Randy Quaid, actor (Midnight Express, Vacation, Saturday Night Live) is 63
Esai Morales, actor is 51
Mark McGwire, 1st baseman (AL rookie of year 1988, Oakland A's, Cards) is 50

Remembered for being born today
James Lawrence, naval hero (War of 1812-"Don't give up the ship!") [1781-1813]
Bonnie Parker, outlaw (Bonnie and Clyde) [1910-1934]
Ahmad Amin, Egyptian historian/author [1886-1954]
George Peppard, actor (Banacek, A-Team, Blue Max) [1928-1994]
Walter Matthau, actor (Odd Couple, Bad News Bears) [1920-2000]
Richard Harris, Irish actor (Man Called Horse)/singer (MacArthur Park) [1932-2000]
Roger Williams, pianist [1924-2001]
William Rehnquist, Supreme Court/chief justice [1924-2005]
James Whitmore, White Plains NY, actor (Give 'em Hell Harry) [1921-2009]
Tom Bosley, actor (Howard-Happy Days, Murder She Wrote) [1927-2010]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
E. B. White, US author (New Yorker, Charlotte’s Web)…1985…@86
Curtis E LeMay, USAF General/VP candidate…1990…@83
Walter B Cannon, US physiologist (Traumatic Shock)…1945…@73
Louis Leakey, English anthropologist…heart attack…1972…@68

Brain Teasers
AGENT DEE, who is TEENAGED, is very young. AGENT YIP, who is EGYPTIAN, specializes in Pharaohs and Sphinxes. AGENT MIC, who is MAGNETIC, has attractive abilities.
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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9/30/13


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 40/ Day: 273   
Today: H 68°…L 30°…Ave. humidity: 51%
Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  22mph  
Average High: 68° Record High:  83°  (2010)
Average Low: 37° Record Low:  24° (1907)

Quote of the Day



Today’s Historical Highlights
1st book published, Johann Guttenberg's Bible…1452
1st US amateur swim meet (NY Athletic Club) …1877
22 Nazi leaders found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg…1946
7 Cherokee leaders sign the "Articles of Agreement" with the Lords Commissioners 
     in British Court in London …1730
Anesthetic ether used for 1st time (Dr Wm Morton extracts a tooth) …1846
Babe Ruth hits record setting 60th HR (off Tom Zachary) …1927
Berlin Airlift ends after 277,000 flights…1949
Clarabelle finally talks "Goodbye Kids"…1960
Donovan's 1st US TV appearance (Shindig) …1965
Earl Warren appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court…1953
Flintstones premieres (1st prime time animation show) …1960
Hooters agrees to pay $2 million in discrimination suits…1997
JFK routes 3,000 federal troops to Mississippi…1962
Mozart's opera "Magic Flute" premieres in Vienna…1791
Nautilus, 1st atomic-powered vessel (sub), commissioned by the Navy…1954

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays



My Free Rambling Thoughts   
A really nice Sunday here in our little town; not too warm, but still nice enough to have windows partially open. Cloudless medium blue sky.  I was even able to read the Sunday paper on the deck.
 
Something interesting, I guess, happened late last night in our quiet little neighborhood. Our ‘commons area’ that is surrounded on all sides by parking spaces. Near my side of the ‘commons area’ is a catch pond for drainage. It has medium sized rocks on all its sides. I have never seen any water in it. So this morning about 6am, there is a junky looking car sitting in the catch pond. By the way it was sitting it had to have been driven over one of the parking space cement parking blocks at a decent speed. About 6:30 some people showed up and ‘studied’ the car, then came with a shovel and cleared some rocks. A little while later an SUV drove into the catch pond and tried to hook up the vehicle. Not possible. About 5 people then moved some of the rocks, which kids do every so often, and one became the driver who then drove the car out of the catch pond through a parking space that did not have a cement barrier. He and his buddies drove off at a high rate of speed out of our complex. The SUV came back out the same way and drove off at a much lower speed. Neither vehicle is one I have noticed in the parking lot before so I guess there is a very interesting story behind this crazy situation.
 
Interesting day of football. AZ Cards won in a late score…nice to see them win one. I tried to watch the Bronco game but wonderful FOX announced they were carrying the game, but as the Broncos kept it a runaway, FOX would switch to other closer games, and come back only for scoring plays. Disappointing for any football fan who likes to watch the whole game.
 
I’m not writing about the government shutdown, but am following the kindergarten classes with teachers who have no control and a principal who refuses to step in.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
YO MIND
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Hmmmm…Fearsome Phobias
If you have an irrational fear of... Drink (alcoholic)
You're suffering from... Potophobia: Latin potoruis ‘drinking
If you have an irrational fear of... Drugs (medicinal)
You're suffering from... Pharmacophobia: Greek pharmaco- 'medicine'
Interesting Disney



Harper’s Index    
Chance that an African-American child has an incarcerated parent: 1 in 9
Unusual Fact of the Day
In the early drafts of Back to the Future, Doc Brown had a pet chimpanzee.

Joke-of-the-day
A woman is a complicated creature. Before marriage, she expects a man, after marriage she suspects him, and after death she respects him.
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
AVOIDING SHARKS
If you see a school of porpoise, the water is free from sharks.   
Yeah, It Really Happened
BERLIN - "Forest Boy," who duped German officials into believing he lived in the wilderness for years, was sentenced to community service Thursday for fraud. Robin van Helsum, in his early 20s, gained fame in 2011 when he entered Berlin's City Hall and claimed to be "Ray," a dweller in a nearby forest. He said he did not know his last name, and had lived in the wilderness since his father's death in a fall, NBC News reported. His story was uncovered as a hoax after his photograph appeared in European media. A woman in the Netherlands contacted police in 2012 to report "Forest Boy" was her stepson, who disappeared the previous year. A legal settlement was arranged Thursday during his trial for fraud, in which prosecutors demanded van Helsum return approximately 30,000 euros ($40,445) he received from German youth organizations. Court spokesman Tobias Kaehne said van Helsum could have received a similar amount in government benefits as a homeless adult, and thus would not be ordered to make financial restitution. "The loss to the taxpayer is either nothing or very small," Kaehne said.
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • Jupiter is a planet made entirely of gases.
  • The first animal sent up to outer space was a dog.
  • If you could live on the planet Mercury, a year would only last 88 days.
  • Saturn’s moon, Titan, actually has many geysers spewing out of its south poles. Scientists have said that the geysers are very similar to the ones here on earth.


Calendar Information 
Today Is                                                                      
·        Blasphemy Day
·        National Mud Pack Day
~~~~
·        Botswana: Independence Day (1966 from UK)

Today’s Events through History  
Congress, flees to York Pa, as British forces advance…1777
Ethernet specifications published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital 
     Equipment Corporation…1980
Midway Islands formally declared a US possession…1867
Number of Indians were present at the Fort Sumner reservation: 
     402 Apache, 7,318 Navajo…1865
Radio's "Grand Ole Opry" is broadcasted on TV for 1st time…1950
Remonstrant Society forms in Antwerp…1619
Simón Bolívar defeats Santiago Bobadilla…1813
Time Square Theater opens at 217 W 42nd St NYC…1920 

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Angie Dickinson, [Angeline Brown], actress (Police Woman) is 82
Johnny Mathis, vocalist (Chances Are, 12th of Never) is 78
Barry Williams, actor (Greg-Brady Bunch) is 59
Fran Drescher, actress (Cadillac Man, Nanny) is 56
Eric Stoltz, actor (Anaconda, Pulp Fiction, Mask) is 52
Jenna Elfman, actress (Townies, Dharma & Greg) is 42

Remembered for being born today
William Stoughton, judge at the Salem witch trials [1631-1701)
William Wrigley Jr., chewing gum [1861-1932]
Frankie Lymon, rocker (The Teenagers-Why do Fools Fall in Love) [1942-1968]
Truman Capote, author (In Cold Blood) [1924-1980]
Buddy Rich, jazz drummer and band leader [1917-1987]
Lester Garfield Maddox, (Gov-D-Ga)/restaurant owner [1915-2003]
Deborah Kerr, Helensburg Scotland, actress (King & I, Night of Iguana) [1921-2007]
Jody Powell, press secretary (Jimmy Carter) [1943-2009]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Charles F Richter, US seismologist (scale of R)…1985…@85
Edgar Bergen, ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy)…kidney disease…1978…@75
Simone Signoret, German/French actress (Room at Top, Gina)…cancer…1985…@64
Toohoolhoolzote, prophet of Nez Perce Indians…in battle…1877…late 50’s
Anwar al-Awlaki, American-born terrorist and Islamist militant… Predator drone…2011…@40
James Dean, actor (Rebel Without a Cause)…car crash…1955…@24

Brain Teasers
You are out of your mind. (U and R are gone from the word 'your' and are out of "your mind".)
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.