5-27-14


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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 148  / Week: 22 
May Averages: 68° \ 34°
Today: Average Sky Cover: smoky
    H 81° L 48° Ave. humidity: 44%
    Wind: ave:   4mph; Gusts:  19mph  
    Average High: 72° Record High:  24° (1929)
    Average Low: 37° Record Low:  86° (2000)
       
Quote of the Day
Today’s Historical Highlights

1431 - Joan of Arc accused of relapsing back into heresy by donning male clothing again, providing justification for her execution
1664 - 1st Baptist Church organizes (Boston)
1742 - 1st indoor swimming pool opens (Goodman's Fields, London)
1774 - 1st Continental Congress convenes (Virginia)
1830 - US Congress authorizes native Indian removal from all states to western prairie
1845 - Fire in Quebec, Canada, 1,500 houses destroyed
1892 - Sierra Club forms by John Muir in SF, for conservation of nature
1915 - John B Gruelle patents Raggedy Ann doll
1923 - Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere
1928 - Dodge Brothers Inc & Chrysler Corp merged
1934 - Near Callander, Ontario, the Dionne quintuplets are born
1956 - Eisenhower signs farm bill allows government to store agricultural surplus
1964 - Palestine National Congress forms the PLO in Jerusalem
1979 - European Market accepts Greece as member
1982 - Pope John Paul II is 1st reigning pope to visit Great Britain 

  Today’s Birthdays:   

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

OK, this smoke is awful. I woke up during the night and my allergies were in full swing….runny nose, tight chest, lots of drainage…then red eyes. This smoke has been around for over a week and it finally caught up with my body. Taking some decongestants and hope they will kick in soon. It doesn’t help that it is very warm and I can’t really open any windows. Glad I have some fans and a great air purifier I inherited from my mom.

Certainly not a day to be outside at all. I did walk out to check the mail and saw the smoke hanging around our little mountain town. Also noticed that there was lots of yellow pollen on the sidewalk and mailboxes. Guess that doesn’t help with allergies either.

So Obama has a new timetable for leaving Afghanistan. Not that much different than what got him elected. Many are concerned that this will give the enemy a timetable to return. Hmmm.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers
If you have played Might and Magic (a computer game), then you have encountered the Vowel-less Knights, a strange group who speak without vowels. It is up to you to decipher what they are saying. In their tradition then, what are the following sayings? For a bonus…who said it or at least the context.
1) shll rtrn.
2) Th sht hrd rnd th wrld.
3) Cm p nd s m smtm.


Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today






OK Then…
Harper’s Index 

Price of an Occupy Wall street poster being sold at WalMart: $52.35

Unusual Fact of the Day

In the early days of firefighting, the Dalmatian served an important purpose. They not only made good watchdogs, they also formed very close bonds with the station horses and kept them company.

Strange Things That Washed Up On Beaches…

2 - A Grapefruit Sized Eyeball
With some 1,200 miles of coastline, peninsular Florida certainly does get its share of strange things washed up on its beaches. And a mysterious, gigantic eyeball that was found on Florida’s Pompano Beach in 2012 was no exception. Initial speculation was that the eyeball had come from a large fish, perhaps a giant tuna or swordfish. But its size and its relatively good condition ultimately lead scientists to believe the eye belonged to a giant squid, as the eyes of these elusive creatures sit in soft tissue and can be dislodged with relative ease. If correct, the squid in question would have been relatively young, as their eyes can grow to more than ten inches in diameter!

Presidential Fun Facts…

THE OLDEST president inaugurated was Reagan (age 69); the youngest was Kennedy (age 43). Theodore Roosevelt, however, was the youngest man to become president——he was 42 when he succeeded McKinley, who had been assassinated.
**
THE TALLEST president was Lincoln at 6'4"; at 5'4", Madison was the shortest.

What happens every minute on the internet machine…

571 new Websites

17,000 WalMart on line transactions

Joke-of-the-day

The Captain called the Sergeant in. "Sarge, I just got a telegram. Private Jones' mother died yesterday. Better go tell him and send him in to see me."

So the Sergeant calls for his morning formation and lines up all the troops. "Listen up, men," says the Sergeant. "Johnson, report to the mess hall for KP. Smith, report to Personnel to sign some papers. The rest of you men report to the Motor Pool for maintenance. Oh by the way, Jones, your mother died, report to the commander."

Later that day the Captain called the Sergeant into his office. "Hey, Sarge, that was a pretty cold way to inform Jones his mother died. Couldn't you be a bit more tactful, next time?"

"Yes, sir," answered the Sarge. A few months later, the Captain called the Sergeant in again with, "Sarge, I just got a telegram. Private McGrath's mother died. You'd better go tell him and send him in to see me. This time be more tactful."

So the Sergeant calls for his morning formation. "Ok, men, fall in and listen up. Everybody with a mother, take two steps forward -- NOT SO FAST, McGRATH!" 

Rules of Thumb:   

WINNING AT CHESS

Bring out knights before bishops, preferably in front of the bishop's pawns.

Yeah, It Really Happened

MONTROUGE, France (UPI) - A French father decided to put a new twist on some old classics in order to get rid of a group of people he suspected were selling drugs outside of his apartment building in Montrouge. French dad Joel turned to nightly doses of classical music from artists like Mozart and Beethoven to get rid of the men who were routinely smoking, drinking and allegedly dealing drugs near his home. It started out with Joel singing himself. "I don't know what came over me. I opened the window and I started shouting the Little 'Green Mouse' (Souris verte) or 'My Little Rabbit' (Mon petit lapin)," he told Le Parisien. "It was a peaceful solution to take back our property." Realizing that his repertoire was somewhat limited, Joel began using recordings to keep the dealers away. "They asked me why I was doing it," Joel said. "I told them their noise bothered me." In addition to Mozart and Beethoven, Joel also turned to pieces like "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky. Some of the dealers have fought back by playing rap music, but Joel was vowed that the classical program will go on. "I filed a complaint with the police. But I'm not going to stop," he said. "Their behavior is unacceptable."

Somewhat Useless Information   

Troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth’s atmosphere, where most of the weather phenomena occur.
Its temperature decreases as altitude increases. Regarding pressure it is maximum at sea level and decreases with higher altitude.
The word troposphere has a Greek origin from the word “tropos” for “change” and is approximately 15 kilometres deep above sea level!
**
Paramount Pictures Corporation, the film and television production/distribution studio, was founded in 1912 by the Hungarian-born Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, the first type of indoor exhibition space dedicated to showing projected motion pictures.
Shrek, Transformers, Mission: Impossible, Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008–2011), Indiana Jones (1981–2008), The Godfather, Star Trek, Jack Ryan, Jackass, are just some of its successful film series.
Paramount Pictures became the first big Hollywood studio that distributes all its films in digital only in 2014 and has 22 stars in its logo!
**
Have you ever noticed that black cars are more likely to get involved in a car crash than other colors?
Truth is that car color and possibility of an accident are strictly connected. White has been considered to be a safe color for cars, as there is a 12% higher risk of being involved in a crash in a black vehicle compared to a white vehicle. Bright colors such as red and yellow are also safe.
The least safe colors are silver and grey, and all dark ones.

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  
International Jazz Day
Julia Pierpont Day

National Hamburger Day
National Senior Health & Fitness Day
Sierra Club Day-1892
Slugs Return From Capistrano Day
World MS Day (Multiple Sclerosis)
**
Day of the Republic (Azerbaijan-1918 from Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic)
Day of the Republic (Armenia-1918 from Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic)
Day of the Republic (Nepal-2008-end of monarchy)
National Day (Ethiopia-
1991-Derg Downfall Day)
                                                    
Today’s Events through History  

585 BC - Solar eclipse, as predicted by Greek philosopher Thales, while Lydians under Alyattes war with the Medes under Cyaxares, leading to a truce. One of the cardinal dates from which other dates calculated.
1818 - 1st steam vessel to sail Great Lakes launched
1929 - 1st all color talking picture "On With the Show" exhibited (NYC)
1962 - Wide World of Sports with Chris Schenkel premieres on CBS radio
1999 - da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display after 22 years of restoration

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Carroll Baker, Penn, actress (Andy Warhol's Bad) is 83
Gladys Knight, singer, leader of Pips (Last Train) is 70
Rudy Giuliani, (Mayor-NYC) is 70
John Fogerty, rock musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 69
Brandon Cruz, actor (Eddie-Courtship of Eddie's Father) is 52
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, television panelist (The View\Fox) is 37

Remembered for being born today

1807-1873 - Louis Agassiz, Switzerland, naturalist/geologist/teacher
1888-1953 - James Francis 'Jim' Thorpe, versatile American athlete (Olympic gold)
1910-1975 - T-Bone Walker, blues guitarist  
1912-1990 - Patrick White, Australia, novelist (Happy Valley, Nobel 1973)
1945-2003 - Gary Stewart, country singer (She's Actin' Single)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Noah Webster, lexicographer (Webster's Dictionary), 1843, @84
Edward VIII, King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1972, @77
Rhys Williams, actor (Nightmare, Okinawa, Corn is Green), 1969, @71
Audie Murphy, actor\war hero, plane crash, 1971, @45
Gary Coleman, American actor, fall/seizure, 2010, @42
Anne Bronte, English novelist, long illness, 1849, @29

Brain Teasers                                         
1) I shall return.
Bonus: General MacArthur, when he left the Philippines. Side note: He did.
2) The shot heard around the world.
Bonus: This phrase was used by the press of the day to describe the first time American soldiers fought the British, as the British troops marched through Lexington on their way to Concord, and history.
3) Come up and see me sometime.
Bonus: Mae West, arguably the most popular USO entertainer and pinup girl of WW2.


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.