7-14-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 195  / Week: 29 
July Averages: 81° \ 51°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 35%
    H 82° L 57° Ave. humidity: 58%
    Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  18mph  
    Average High: 83° Record High:  92° (1902)
    Average Low: 50° Record Low:  38° (1962)
        
Quote of the Day
Historical Highlights for Today
1771 - Mission San Antonio de Padua founded in California
1789 - Bastille Day-French Revolution begins with the fall of Bastille
1798 - 1st direct US federal tax on states-on dwellings, land & slaves
1832 - Opium exempted from federal tariff duty
1837 - Francis Chardon records the 1st death of a Mandan from smallpox. 
1850 - 1st public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration
1853 - 1st US World's fair opens at New York's Crystal Palace 
1864 - Gold is discovered in Helena, Montana
1921 - Sacco & Vanzetti convicted of killing their shoe company's paymaster
1927 - 1st commercial airplane flight in Hawaii
1951 - 1st color telecast of a sporting event (CBS-horse race)
1976 - Jimmy Carter wins Democratic pres nomination in NYC
1977 - North Korea shoots down US helicopter, killing 3
1987 - Taiwan ends 37 years of martial law
  Birthdays Today:   
How many can you identify? Answers in Birthday’s Today below
My Rambling Thoughts   
A very nice Sunday. I did get a nice little rain shower, about 30 minutes, just before sunset. Cooled things off quite nicely.
Watched the Final FIFA game. Quite good, but I was pushing for Argentina. A friend from Tuba was on FB and pushing for Germany. FB-IM makes it real nice.
Watched the Sunday news programs…so tired of listening to the immigration reform debate. The current crisis is KIDS, not drug runners, not terrorists, just KIDS, looking for a better life. I did hear an interesting comment…While the Statue of Liberty sez ‘bring your huddled masses…’, the US has never really welcomed huge immigrant migrations…the Irish, the Chinese a century + ago, the Vietnamese more recently. It is a nice story and makes us feel good, but in reality, at the time of the immigration, there has always been fear tactics, kicking and screaming. So sad. My brother and his wife are in Sicily---where her family immigrated in the 1800s. She commented on how they came, suffered, learned English, got jobs, and raised families. It took several generations before they were ‘accepted’ by the locals.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
In this teaser, you are given odd definitions of terms. The terms must be found, and they sound approximately like the names of U.S. states. Can you get all five?
1. What a certain spectator sport's spectators do
2. Doing 2,000 pounds of laundry
3. What to buy if you're only slightly thirsty
4. Mindful of a wooded valley
5. Bauxite that is missing
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
Harper’s Index 
Minimum acres of US grassland that have converted to soy and corn fields since 2006: 1,300,000
Unusual Fact of the Day
More than 300 million Cadbury Creme Eggs are produced each year.
Trivia about AZ…
Grand Canyon's Disaster Falls was named to commemorate the site of a previous explorer's wreck.
Grand Canyon's Marble Canyon got its name from its thousand-foot-thick seam of marble and for its walls eroded to a polished glass finish.
Interesting facts about Islam…
Women are not oppressed in Islam. Any Muslim man that oppresses a woman is not following Islam. Among the many teachings of Prophet Muhammad that protected the rights and dignity of women is his saying, "...the best among you are those who treat their wives well." (Tirmidhi)
Weather Facts…
It snows more in the Grand Canyon than it does in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
People Facts…
‘Old people smell’ is actually caused by a chemical, 2-nonenal, that old people secrete through their skin
Historical Facts…
In Ancient Greece, small penises were desirable, and big ones were for ‘old men and barbarians’
Retro Native Humor…
The Blackfeet asked their Chief in autumn, if the winter was going to be cold or not. Not really knowing the answer, the chief replies that the winter was going to be cold and that the members of the village were to collect wood to be prepared.
Being a good leader, he then went to the nearest phone booth and called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is this winter to be cold?" The man on the phone responded, "This winter was going to be quite cold indeed."
So the Chief went back to speed up his people to collect even more wood to be prepared. A week later he called the National Weather Service again, "Is it going to be a very cold winter?"
"Yes," the man replied, "its going to be a very cold winter."
So the Chief goes back to his people and orders them to go and find
every scrap of wood they can find. Two weeks later he calls the National Weather Service again and asks "Are you absolutely sure, that the winter is going to be very cold?"
"Absolutely" the man replies, "the Blackfeet are collecting wood like crazy!"
Common Phrase Origins…
Break the Ice
Meaning: To commence a project or initiate a friendship
History: Before the days of trains or cars, port cities that thrived on trade suffered during the winter because frozen rivers prevented commercial ships from entering the city. Small ships known as “icebreakers” would rescue the icebound ships by breaking the ice and creating a path for them to follow. Before any type of business arrangement today, it is now customary “break the ice” before beginning a project.
Joke-of-the-day
After Florida coach Steve Spurrior passes away and enters the Pearly Gates, God takes him on a tour. He shows Steve a little 2-bedroom house with a faded UF banner hanging from the front porch. "This is your home, Coach. Most people don't get their own house up here," God exclaims.
Little Steve looks at the house, then turns around and looks at the one sitting on the top of the hill. It's a huge two-story mansion with white marble columns and little patios under all of the windows. LSU flags line both sides of the sidewalk with a huge purple and gold LSU banner hanging between the marble columns.
"Thanks for the home, God, but let me ask you a question. I get this little 2 bedroom house with a faded Florida banner, and Nick Saban gets a mansion with new LSU banners and flags flying all over the place. Why is that?"
God looks at him seriously for a moment and then replies, "That's not Saban’s house, that's mine!!!!!"
Rules of Thumb:   
WATCHING YOUR BREATH
When you see your breath, it is below 45 F.
Yeah, It Really Happened
PORTLAND, Ore. (UPI) - An Oregon man didn't look a police horse in the mouth; he karate-kicked it in the thigh. Portland Police arrested Joseph Cruz and charged him with interfering with a law-enforcement animal after he allegedly attacked a police horse named Olin. Mounted Patrol Unit officers were patrolling near a Greyhound bus terminal when they stopped to speak to a group of people. While they were chatting, the 29-year-old allegedly ran up and attacked Olin, even though the animal outweighs him by about 1,000 pounds. Police say Cruz "yelled out a battle cry" and hit the horse "with a jumping, double kick to his right thigh," the Salem News reported. Neither Olin nor Cruz was hurt by the kick and it was unclear if the suspect was impaired by drugs or alcohol during the incident. Cruz also had a warrant out for his arrest.
Somewhat Useless Information   
Men always want to be a woman’s first love – women like to be a man’s last romance. ~Oscar Wilde
Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men. ~Mahatma Gandhi
I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.~Margaret Thatcher
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. ~Leonardo da Vinci
Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others. ~Niccolo Machiavelli
Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.~Napoleon Bonaparte
The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.~Franklin D. Roosevelt
Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth.~Chuck Norris
Men are only as good as their technical development allows them to be.~George Orwell
/\
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman, who developed many devices, such as the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.
Edison had been married twice and he taught his second wife Mina Miller Morse code so that they could communicate in secret by tapping into other’s hands in social events or when her family was around.
Check Your Calendar
Observances This Week:
7-14
Creative Maladjustment Week; Nude Recreation Weekend
13-19
Sports Cliché Week
Today Is  
International Nude Day 
International Town Criers Day 
Shark Awareness Day
/\
Bastille Day (France-1789)
                                                       
Today’s Events through History  
1853 - Commodore Perry requests trade relations with Japan
1967 - The Who begin a US tour opening for Herman's Hermits
1969 - The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation.
1978 - Allen Ginsburg completes "Plutonian Ode" - blocks trainload of fissile material headed for Rockwell's nuclear bomb trigger factory, Colorado
2002 - French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations.
Birthday’s Today                                                        
Polly Bergen, actress, singer, TV host is 84
Joe Keenan, screenwriter, television producer and novelist is 56
Jane Lynch, actress, game show host is 54
Remembered for being born today
1857-1937 – F. L. Maytag, inventor (washing machine)
1862-1945 - Florence Bascom, 1st American woman PhD
1865-1902 - Annie Jones, Virginia, bearded lady
1901-1980 - George Tobias, actor (Abner Kravitz-Bewitched)
1906-1990 - Tom Carvel, ice cream mogul (Carvels)
1910-2001 - William Hanna, animator (Hanna-Barbera) 
1912-1967 - Woodrow Wilson "Woodie" Guthrie, folk singer
1913-2006 - Gerald R Ford, [Leslie King], 41st VP/38th US President
1918-2007 - Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, director (Cries & Whispers)
1923-2013 - Dale Robertson, actor (Death Valley Days, Walter-Dynasty)
Historical Obits Today                                                           
Adlai Stevenson II, US amb to UN/Pres candidate, heart attack, 1965, @65
Meredith MacRae, actress, brain cancer, 2000, @56
Billy the Kid (William Bounty), American outlaw killed,1881, @23
Faisal II, King of Iraq (1939-58), assassinated, 1858, @23
Brain Teasers                         
1. What a certain spectator sport's spectators do: "tennis-see" (Tennessee)
2. Doing 2,000 pounds of laundry: "washing ton" (Washington)
3. What to buy if you're only slightly thirsty: "mini-soda" (Minnesota)
4. Mindful of a wooded valley: "dell-aware" (Delaware)
5. Bauxite that is missing: "ore gone" (Oregon)
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.