6-1-14


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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 152  / Week: 23 
June Averages: 78° \ 42°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 25%
    H 79° L 46° Ave. humidity: 52%
    Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  28mph  
    Average High: 74° Record High:  88° (1977)
    Average Low: 38° Record Low:  24° (1923)
        
Quote of the Day
Today’s Historical Highlights

4000 BC - Hypothetical domestication of the horse in the central Ukraine
1495 - First written record of Scotch Whisky appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, Friar John Cor is the distiller
1533 - Anne Boleyn crowned queen of England
1638 - 1st earthquake recorded in US, at Plymouth, Mass
1657 - 1st Quakers arrives in New Amsterdam (NY)
1679 - The Scottish Covenanters defeat John Graham at Battle of Drumclog.
1789 - 1st US congressional act becomes law (on administering oaths)
1796 - Last of Britain's troops withdraws from US
1808 - 1st US land-grant university founded-Ohio Univ, Athens, Ohio
1845 - Homing pigeon completes 11,000 km trip (Namibia-London) in 55 days
1868 - Treaty of Bosque Redondo is signed allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico.
1880 - 1st pay telephone installed
1888 - California gets its 1st seismograph
1933 - Century of Progress world's fair opens in Chicago
1934 - A legal definition of "Indian" is made today
1949 - 1st magazine on microfilm offered to subscribers (Newsweek)
1971 - Ed Sullivan's final TV show on CBS
1980 - 1st transmission of CNN, Cable News Network
1993 - Brooklyn NY begins recycling

  Today’s Birthdays:   

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays below
My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Beautiful day here in our little mountain town.

Woke up to some sad news on FB. One of the DC people I worked with was killed in a traffic accident near Farmington, NM. Glenn had helped out many schools I worked at with their DC student count audits. A good and kind man who left us way too soon.

This afternoon was a retirement party for a former teacher at TCBS. She and her husband both worked for me. So nice to go to a Navajo gathering. Though I knew none of her relatives, each one came to me and introduced themselves and talked to me…maybe because I was the only white guy at the party. Still, a very nice gathering and some very nice people.  I also got to see the three daughters and a slew of grandkids.

 

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Can you figure out these common expressions?
1. The second letter of the alphabet + the opposite of more + a female sheep
2. The 16th letter of the alphabet + to rent
3. A stinging insect + to dig ore out of the ground
4. Former + sticks used for pool + not you

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today





OK Then…
Harper’s Index 

Factor by which it is more expensive to feed a kosher inmate than a non-kosher inmant in Florida: 4.5

Minimum percentage of Florida prisoners requesting kosher meals hwo are not Jewish: 72

Unusual Fact of the Day

Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys were famous pop music duos in the 1980s. Keyboardists Dave Ball of Soft Cell and Chris Lowe of Pet Shop Boys attended the same high-school in Blackpool, England, before finding pop success independently.

Heard by Flight Attendants…

“When do I change the time on my watch or will it change itself as we go?”
“I don’t mean to scare you, but something out there has been following us for hours!”  It’s the light on the wing.

Presidential Fun Facts…

PRESIDENTS LINCOLN, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy were assassinated in office.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS were made on the lives of Jackson, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G. H. W. Bush, Clinton, and G. W. Bush.

What happens every minute on the internet machine…

TUMBLER: 20,000 new photos uploaded

PINTEREST: 11,000 active users on line

*NEW* Common misused words...

Adverse and averse
Adverse means harmful or unfavorable; "Adverse market conditions caused the IPO to be poorly subscribed." Averse means dislike or opposition; "I was averse to paying $18 a share for a company that generates no revenue."

But you can feel free to have an aversion to adverse conditions.

*NEW* Things you might not know about games…

They outdo outer space--The number of permutations within a deck of cards is mind-bogglingly large: over 8 times 1067 (8 with 67 zeros after it). That means there are more card combinations than stars in the Milky Way, which amount to as many as 400 billion.

Joke-of-the-day

A champion jockey is about to enter an important race on a new horse. The horse's trainer meets him before the race and says,
"All you have to remember with this horse is that every time you approach a jump, you have to shout, "ALLLLEEE OOOP!" really loudly in the horse's ear. Providing you do that, you'll be fine".
The jockey thinks the trainer is mad but promises to shout the command. The race begins and they approach the first hurdle. The jockey ignores the trainer's ridiculous advice and the horse crashes straight through the center of the jump.
They carry on and approach the second hurdle. The jockey, somewhat embarrassed, whispers "Aleeee ooop" in the horse's ear. The same thing happens -- the horse crashes straight through the center of the jump.
At the third hurdle, the jockey thinks, "It's no good, I'll have to do it" and yells, "ALLLEEE OOOP!" really loudly. Sure enough, the horse sails over the jump with no problems. This continues for the rest of the race, but due to the earlier problems the horse only finishes third.
The trainer is fuming and asks the jockey what went wrong. The jockey replies,
"Nothing is wrong with me -- it's this bloody horse. What is he -- deaf or something?"
The trainer replies, "Deaf?? DEAF?? He's not deaf -- he's BLIND!"  

Rules of Thumb:   

WORKING WITH A HEADHUNTER
If a headhunter mentions the names of other people he's placing, drop him immediately. The next time it could be your name he drops in a conversation - perhaps to your boss.

Yeah, It Really Happened

CEBU CITY, Philippines (UPI) - A zoo in the Philippines has started offering visitors the chance to receive a relaxing 15-minute massage from its four Burmese pythons that it currently has in captivity. The Cebu City Zoo's pythons - Michelle, Walter, EJ and Daniel – are supposedly fed 10 or more chickens before giving out the massages so they won't be tempted to snack on the guests. During the "therapeutic and calming" massages, zookeepers keep watch as the snakes slither back and forth across a bamboo bed. Once the snakes are put on, it's virtually impossible to escape because they weigh about 550 pounds combined. "I had to lie on my back on a bamboo daybed in the open air. I was briefed on what to do and what not to do during the massage," volunteer Ian Maclean told the Daily Mail. "These instructions are crucial, as you can imagine. They tell you not to blow air on the snake, because this is like being pinched on the bum, apparently. You can't shout for help as the snake can feel your vibrations and thinks you're prey or a predator, depending on the environment."

Somewhat Useless Information   

The yeast extract left over from the manufacture of beer is considered a delicacy in Australia.

Tonya Harding was the first American ice skater to successfully land a triple axel in competition.

If you have a 'Sister Joseph's Nodule,' you have been diagnosed with belly-button cancer.

Hummingbirds live an average of 5 years. They are hatched from eggs that are so small that a penny would cover three of them. Hummingbirds are usually hatched in pairs in nests that average 1.5 inches in diameter.

The average age of a French oak tree harvested to make wine barrels is 170 years old. This is because the older oak tends to be denser. This is good for adding flavor to wine.

The only two spots below sea level in the United States are Death Valley, CA and New Orleans, LA. Death Vally is 282 feet below sea level and New Orleans is 8 feet.

Calendar Information        

This Month’s Observances:

Adopt-A-Cat Month 
Adopt A Shelter Cat Month
African-American Music Appreciation Month
Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome Awareness Month (APS) 

Audio Book Appreciation Month
Beautiful in Your Skin Month 

Black Music Month 
Cancer From The Sun Month
Caribbean-American Heritage Month
Cataract Awareness Month
Celibacy Awareness Month 
(validation  4 members only)
Child Vision Awareness Month
Children's Awareness Month

Country Cooking Month 
Dairy Alternatives Month
Effective Communications Month
Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month
Fireworks Safety Month
Georgia Blueberry Month
Gay & Lesbian Pride Month 

Great Outdoors Month
International Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
International Men's Month
International Surf Music Month 

Lane Courtesy Month 
Men’s Health Education and Awareness Month
Migraine Awareness Month
National Accordion Awareness Month
National Aphasia Awareness Month
National Bathroom Reading Month 

National Camping Month 

National Caribbean-American Heritage Month
National Congenital Cytomegalovirus Awareness Month 

National GLBT Pride Month
National GLBT  Book Month
National Candy Month 

National Fruit and Veggies Month 
National Ice Tea Month
National Migraine Awareness Month
National Pet Preparedness Month 

National Rivers Month
National Rose Month  

National Safety Month
National Scoliosis Awareness  Month 

National Smile Month 
National Soul Food Month
National Steakhouse Month
National Zoo and Aquarium Month 

Perennial Gardening Month
Pharmacists Declare War on Alcoholism Month
Potty Training Awareness Month 

Professional Wellness Month
PTSD Awareness Month 

Rebuild Your Life Month
Scleroderma Awareness Month 

Skyscraper Month
Sports America Kids Month
Student Safety Month
Turkey Lovers Month 

Vision Research Month 
World Naked Bike Ride Month 
(Northern Hemisphere) 
Women's Golf Month 

World Infertility Month 


This Week’s Observances:

1-7
Black Single Parents Week
End Mountain Top Removal Week
National Business Etiquette Week
National Headache Awareness Week
National Sun Safety Week
National Tire Safety Week

Pet Appreciation Week
Rip Current Awareness Week

Today Is  

Children's Awareness Memorial Day
Dare Day
Global Day of Parents 
Heimlich Maneuver Day since 1974
National Cancer Survivors Day
National Go Barefoot Day
Oscar The Grouch Day 
Say Something Nice Day 
Stand For Children Day

**
Admission Day (Kentucky-1792-15th)
Admission Day (Tennessee-1796-16th)
Independence Day (Samoa-1962 from New Zealand)
International Children's Day (China)
Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim – Israel-reunification-1967)

                                                     
Today’s Events through History  

1215 - Beijing, then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing.
1880 - US census at 50,155,783
1940 - Coffee & tea rationed in Holland
1966 - 2,400 persons attend White House Conference on Civil Rights
1968 - Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson" hits #1
1997 - Vijay Singh wins Golf Memorial at Muirfield Village CC, 14 under par

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Pat Boone, singer/actor (April Love) is 81
Morgan Freeman, actor (Driving Mrs Daisy, Glory) is 77
Heidi Klum, German supermodel is 42

Remembered for being born today

1762-1844 - Edmund Ignatius Rice, Irish founder -Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers
1882-1937 - John Drinkwater, English poet/playwright (Abraham Lincoln)
1921-1985 - Nelson Riddle, musical conductor (Batman, Frank Sinatra)
1926-2012 - Andy Griffith, actor (Andy Griffith Show, Matlock)
1926-1962 - Marilyn Monroe, [Norma Jean Mortenson], actress  

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

John Dewey, US philosopher, 1952, @92
Helen Keller, blind & deaf/author, 1968, @87
Hank Ketcham, cartoonist (Dennis the Menace), 2001, @81
James Buchanan, 15th US president, 1868, @77
Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer, cancer, 2008, @71
Mary Dyer, English Quaker (martyred), hanged, 1660, @49ish
Ray Combs, TV host (Family Feud), suicide, 1996, @40

Brain Teasers                                         

1. Bless you
2. Please
3. Be Mine
4. Excuse Me

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  §

 

5-31-14


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 151  / Week: 22 
May Averages: 68° \ 34°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 40%
    H 77° L 46° Ave. humidity: 51%
    Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  19mph  
    Average High: 73° Record High:  89° (2002)
    Average Low: 38° Record Low:  23° (1988)
        
Quote of the Day
Today’s Historical Highlights

1621 - Sir Francis Bacon thrown into Tower of London for 1 night
1759 - The Province of Pennsylvania bans all theater productions
1790 - US copyright law enacted
1837 - Astor Hotel opens in NYC, it later becomes the Waldorf-Astoria
1893 - Whitcomb Judson, Chicago, patents a hookless fastening (zipper)
1900 - US troops arrive in Beijing, help put down Boxer Rebellion
1907 - Taxis 1st began running in NYC
1911 - R.M.S. Titanic launched, Belfast
1913 - 17th amendment (direct election of senators) declared ratified
1931 - 7.1 magnitude Earthquake destroys Quetta Pakistan: 40,000 dead.
1941 - 1st issue of "Parade" goes on sale
1958 - Dick Dale invents "surf music" with "Let's Go Trippin"

  Today’s Birthdays:   

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays below
My Free Rambling Thoughts   

The smoke has dissipated at lot around our little mountain town…finally. After over a week of fairly dense smoke, things are looking up. The people who returned to Oak Creek discovered that their electricity had been off during the entire evacuation. I’m sure there was lots of lost fresh and frozen foods, and what a mess to have to clean up. Much better than the alternative, but certainly not a pleasant clean up task.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

What is represented by this:
Jack's Saturday
Your Tuesday 92
Bob's Sunday
Your Thursday 24
Jill's Wednesday
Your Friday 70
Alison's Monday

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today





OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Percentage of all criminal defendants in the US who forgo trial by pleading guilty: 97

Percentage of US convicts exonerated last year who had previously pleaded guility without a trial: 17

Unusual Fact of the Day

In contrast to his exotic look and mannerisms, Andy Warhol was born and raised not in Europe, but in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Heard by Flight Attendants…

Where are the lines between the states? You would be surprised how many people think there are actual lines between the states like on a map.

On night flights we will go through the cabin with trays of orange juice and water. Passengers will look at the tray and say: “Which one is the orange juice and which is the water?”

Presidential Fun Facts…

JAMES BUCHANAN was the only president never to marry. Five presidents remarried after the death of their first wives——two of whom, Tyler and Wilson, remarried while in the White House. Reagan was the only divorced president. Six presidents had no children. Tyler——father of fifteen——had the most.

What happens every minute on the internet machine…

Spotify: 14 new songs

WordPress:  347 new blog posts

Joke-of-the-day

The boss was concerned that his employees weren’t giving him enough respect, so he tried and old fashioned method of persuasion: He brought in a sign that said “I’m the Boss” and taped it to his door. After lunch, he noticed someone had taped another note under his. “Your wife called. She wants her sign back!” 

Rules of Thumb:   

PLANNING A POND
The value of a finished pond is roughly three times the cost of constructing it.

Yeah, It Really Happened

WASHINGTON (UPI) - The news out of Washington yesterday: expect aliens in 20 years.
Leading alien experts arrived on Capitol Hill on Tuesday donning not tin foil hats but suits and ties, probably ones with little planets and spaceships on them.
The experts -- scientists at the California-based Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute -- addressed Congress as part of hearing hosted by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
Specifically, the experts brought committee members up to speed on the ongoing search for alien life -- not the little green people from the movies, but microbial life within our own solar system and intelligent life beyond.
The experts are optimistic.
"At least a half-dozen other worlds (besides Earth) that might have life are in our solar system," explained Seth Shostak, an astronomer from SETI. "The chances of finding it, I think, are good, and if that happens, it'll happen in the next 20 years, depending on the financing."
"It would be bizarre if we are alone," said Dan Werthimer, director of the SETI Research Center in Berkeley.
Shostak and Werthimer said we will likely discover alien life in one of three ways: by discovering microbial life within our own solar system, by detecting radio signals from distant life forms, or by analyzing the output of methane or oxygen in the atmosphere of exoplanets.
But the scientists likely broke the hearts of several hundred True Believers when they denied aliens had already visited Earth.
"I don't think that that would be something all the governments would have managed to keep a secret," Shostak said. "If they were really here I think everyone would know that."

Somewhat Useless Information   

Continuously inhabited for over 7,000 years, Athens, the Capital of Greece, is one of the oldest cities in Europe. It is also the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, political science, Western literature, historiography, major mathematical principles, and Western theories of tragedy and comedy.

Voting in Greece is mandatory for all Greek citizens, although there are rarely sanctions for citizens that do not vote.

Currently, Greek men must serve from one year to 18 months in any branch of the armed forces.

According to Greek mythology, Athena and Poseidon agreed that whoever gave the city the best gift would become guardian over the city. Though Poseidon gave the gift of water, Athena's gift of an olive tree was deemed by the other gods to be more valuable.

The world's third leading producer of olives, the Greeks have cultivated olive trees since ancient times. Some olive trees planted in the thirteenth century are still producing olives.

 

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:

25-31
Week of Solidarity With The People of Non-Self-Governing Territories
Hurricane Preparedness Week

Black Single Parents Week


Today Is  

Hug Your Cat Day 
National Macaroon Day
What You Think Upon Grows Day
Wicket World of Croquet Day 
World No-Tobacco Day

                                                           
Today’s Events through History  

1868 - 1st Memorial Day parade held in Ironton, Ohio
1969 - John Lennon & Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance"
2012 - Egypt formally ends its 31 year state of emergency

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Clint Eastwood, actor \mayor is 84
Peter Yarrow, singer, (Peter, Paul & Mary) is 76
Joe Namath, NY Jets QB is 71
Sharon Gless, actress (Chris Cagney-Cagney & Lacey) is 71
Tom Berenger, actor (Big Chill, Someone to Watch Over Me) is 65
Gregory Harrison, actor (Trapper John, Logan's Run) is 64
Lea Thompson, actress (Caroline In The City) is 53
Brooke Shields, model/actress (Blue Lagoon, Suddenly Susan) is 49
Colin Farrell, Dublin, actor (In Bruges, Minority Report) is 38

Remembered for being born today

1819-1892 - Walt Whitman, poet (Leaves of Grass)
1894-1956 - Fred Allen, comedian (Fred Allen Radio Show)
1898-1993 - Norman Vincent Peale, clergyman (Power of Positive Thinking)
1908-1993 - Don Ameche, actor (Cocoon, Trading Places)
1912-1983 - Henry M "Scoop" Jackson, (Sen-Wash)
1941-2003 - Johnny Paycheck, singer (Take This Job & Shove It)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Arlene Francis, television personality, 2001, @93
Jean Stapleton, actress (Edith Bunker), 2013, @90
Elizabeth Blackwell, 1st woman physician, 1910, @89
Jack Dempsey, heavyweight boxing champ/actor, 1983, @87
Franz Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer, 1809, @77
Tito Puente, American musician, 2000, @77  
Timothy Francis Leary, Harvard prof/LSD guru, cancer, 1996, @75
George Tiller, abortion doctor, assassinated, 2009, @67
Adolf Eichmann, Nazi war criminal, hanged, 1962, @56

Brain Teasers                                         

Your days are numbered.

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.