4/28/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 18/ Day: 118   Today: H 70°…L 32°

Wind: ave:   2mph; Gusts:  16mph  Ave. humidity:  46%

*Averages: H  62° L 31° Records: H 77°(2000,’96.92)…L 10°(1984)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st commercial flight across Pacific, Pan Am…1937

1st veterinary college in US incorporated in Boston…1855

Chernobyl, USSR site of world's worst nuclear power plant disaster…1986

Fletcher Christian leads Mutiny on HMS Bounty & Capt William Bligh…1789

Maryland becomes 7th state to ratify constitution…1788

Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist…2001

Muhammad Ali refuses induction into army & stripped of boxing title…1967

Program for woman athletes approved for 1932 Olympics track & field…1931

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Spent the day reading up on Myanmar (Burma). After doing the readings, I realized it was time to do some more investigating. I sure had a warped view of Burma….thinking it was a Buddhist country of peace that had been unwittingly taken over by a military regime. It has had culture clashes between various Buddhist tribes for centuries. Even its Buddhist dynasties were at war with fellow countrymen. Another sad reality of a peaceful nation. I think part of my misconception came from the time when U Thant became the head of the UN in the 1960’s. Always thought that he was a peaceful man from a peaceful country that was heading the one organization in the world that worked for peace in the world. Looking forward even more now to our discussion tonight.

 

There sure are some interesting questions coming out of the piece of landing gear found in Manhattan. Is it from 9/11? Why is there a rope around parts of it? How did it stay unfound for such a long time? Sure will make some good detective work to figure this all out.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Take the given words, and by moving a single letter from one word to the other, make a pair of synonyms, or near synonyms. For example, given: Boast - Hip, move the 's' from 'Boast' to 'Hip' creating two synonyms: Boat - Ship.

1. Claw - At 2. Rag - Below 3. Shred - Ban 4. Table - Seven 5. Potless – Purse

*****

Hint

1. Legal terms
2. Storm words
3. Farm buildings
4. Not changing
5. Innocent

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Movie Legends - Rory Calhoun

• Ann Margret - "Viva Las Vegas"

• SIDNEY TOLER tribute

Origins of Phrases

Filthy rich

Meaning

Very rich, possibly having become so by unfair means.

Origin

This little phrase can't be explained without looking at the word lucre. From the 14th century lucre has meant money and is referred to as such by no less writers than Chaucer and John Wyclif. These references generally included a negative connotation and gave rise to the terms "foul lucre" and "filthy lucre", which have been in use since the 16th century. "Filthy lucre" appears first in print in 1526 in the works of William Tindale:

"Teachinge thinges which they ought not, because of filthy lucre."

Tindale was here using the term to mean dishonorable gain.

Following on the the term "filthy lucre", money became known by the slang term "the filthy", and it isn't a great leap from there to the rich being called the "filthy rich". This was first used as a noun phrase meaning "rich people; who have become so by dishonorable means". It was used that way in America, where it was coined, from the 1920s onwards. Here's an item from the Ohio newspaper The Lima News, February 1929, which deplores the get-rich-quick attitudes of some who were exploiting those who had to sell their homes at unreasonably low prices in order to eat during the economic crash:

"There is a depressed market. If any of our stock-gambling filthy rich want a winter home, now is the time to acquire it."

As time went on the negative associations have softened somewhat. It has become to mean "extremely rich" rather than "dishonorably rich", although there may still be a trace of an unfavorable implication associated with it.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Portion of Americans who don’t walk for at least ten continuous minutes at any point in an average wekk: 2/5

Ruminations:

Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll walk around with a penny in your pocket, then you’ll wash your pants forgetting it in there and have to dig through the dryer to find it so you don’t have to listen to the stupid noise it’s making.

Picture of the Day: Myramar

Unusual Fact of the Day

Frank Sinatra was the producer's first choice to play the role of Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry.

Joke-of-the-day

A couple was having a discussion about what to see and do now that they were safely in Florida on their honeymoon. Trying to assert himself right off the bat, he exploded, "If it weren't for my money, we wouldn't be here at all!"

The wife replied, "My dear, if it weren't for your money, not only would we not be in Florida, we wouldn't on a honeymoon, nor would there be any "we" in the first place."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

PLANNING A PARTY

 One toilet per keg of beer.   

Yeah, It Really Happened

LUDHIANA, India - A newborn boy in Ludhiana, India, has been sold for $830 to a New Delhi couple in a Facebook deal, officials said. The alleged deal was uncovered when the infant's mother, Nooran, made a complaint to police that her baby went missing from the hospital where he was born, The Indian Express reported. The report said the boy allegedly was sold to Amit Kumar, who wanted to adopt a baby with his wife, and the deal was made by a hospital attendant named Gurpreet. The Indian Express said police have arrested Gurpreet, the boy's maternal grandfather Feroze Khan, his friend Irfan and nurse Sunita Rani, but Kumar was not yet in custody. The infant was recovered from Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi and returned to his mother, the report said. "A few months ago, I separated from my husband and came to my parent’s house," the mother said. "On April 14, I gave birth to a boy at Satyam Hospital. After delivery, I was told that my baby is dead. Later on, some people at the hospital told me that my father had sold the baby to nurse Sunita Rani." Nooran's father, an alleged drug addict, told the police he wanted to get the baby adopted as he did not want the expense of raising a child, the report said.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Actress Jayne Mansfield accidentally exhaled her breast out of her dress during the telecast of the Academy Awards in 1957.

• After six months at the off-Broadway New York Shakespeare Festival Theater, Hair opened at the Biltmore Theater in New York, in 1968. It was the first rock-musical to play on the Great White Way.

• Although identified with Scotland, bagpipes are actually a very ancient instrument, introduced into the British Isles by the Romans.

• As of 1996, Hee Haw holds the record for the longest running weekly first-run syndicated show in the history of television. It spanned over 4 decades, from the late '60s to the early '90s, airing every Saturday night at 7:00.

• Because of TV censorship, actress Mariette Hartley was not allowed to show her belly button on Gene Roddenberry's STAR TREK [episode #78 "All Our Yesterdays" in 1969] but later Roddenberry got even when he gave Hartley "two" belly buttons in the sci-fi movie Genesis II (1973).

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

20-28
National Park Week

Money Smart Week
Administrative Professionals Week

Coin Week
Fibroid Awareness Week
National Karaoke Week
National Volunteer Week
National Pet ID Week
National Paperboard Packaging Week
National Playground Safety Week 
Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week

Preservation Week-Libraries
Sky Awareness Week
National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week
Safe Kids Week
Mariachi Week

24-30
National Pro-Life T-shirt Week

National Scoop The Poop Week
Fiddler's Frolic
Gathering of the Nations Powwow

26-5/4

National Dance Week
National Dream Hotline
National & Global Youth Service Days
National Pie Championships
Air Quality Awareness Week
Screen-Free Week 

Today Is                                                                      

Biological Clock Day

Great Poetry Reading Day

Mother, Father Deaf Day

National Pet Parent's Day

Workers Memorial Day

~Canada: National Day of Mourning (for those lost in workplace accidents)

Today’s Events through History  

1st volume of Isaac Newton's "Principia" published…1686

Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France…1969

Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander of NATO…1952

Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Catholic 

     University of Philippines, the oldest existing university in Asia; the largest 

     Catholic university in the world…1611

Thor Heyerdahl & "Kon-Tiki" sail from Peru to Polynesia…1947

Yellow fever vaccine for humans announced…1932

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

James Baker 3, Houston, Sec of Treasury, Sec State is 83

In their 70’s

Ann-Margret, actress (Bye Bye Birdie, Tommy) is 72

In their 60’s

Jay Leno, comedian/talk show host (Tonight Show) is 63

In their 30’s

Jessica Alba, TV, film actress and model is 32

Penelope Cruz, Spanish actress (Vanilla Sky, Pirates of Caribbean) is 39

Remembered for being born today

Bartholomeus J "Bart" Bok, Dutch/US astronomer (Milky Way) [1906-1933]

Lionel Barrymore, [Blythe], actor (Free Soul, Dr Kildare) [1878-1954]

Saddam Hussein, [At-Takriti], Al-Awja, president of Iraq [1937-2006]

Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer [1916-1993]

James Monroe, (D-R) 5th pres [1758-1831]

Sidney Toler, actor (Madame X, Charlie Chan movies) [1874-1947]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Rory Calhoun, Westerns actor… emphysema…1999…at 76

Dabbs Greer, actor [Little House TV show]…2007…at 90

Pat Henning, actor (Goodyear TV Playhouse)…1973…at 62

Benito Mussolini, Fascist leader (Italy)…shot after trial…1945…at 61

Answer: Brain Teasers

1. Law - Act 2. Rage - Blow 3. Shed - Barn 4. Stable - Even 5. Spotless - Pure

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  §